Standard Podcast [17:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1666)

This podcast is a discussion about a guest blog post I recently wrote on Hubspot entitled: The Lines are Blurring between Social Networks…Let Them!

As we spend time on social networks, blogs, Twitter, YouTube, etc., the lines are blurring between them.

As I’m sure you know there are three types of social media destination sites

Content Publishing sites - Blogs, YouTube, Twitter
Content Sharing - DIGG, Reddit, Mashable, etc.
Networking - Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, etc.

But, most of these are starting to cross over into each other. For example, people show their updates on social networks. LinkedIn and Facebook both have a “what are you working on now?” status which you can update or you can link to your Twitter account.

The social media lines are blurring….

Is Facebook just a social networking site? What is Twitter?

Twitter is a communication tool as evidenced by how many companies and non profits are using it including Apple, Jet Blue Airways, Zappos, Tampa Bay Red Cross, ABC Action News, etc. The list of enterprise Twitter users is growing every day.

Twitter allows you to have a mini-profile similar to social networks. It’s a very brief profile, nonetheless it has a similar characteristic to a social network profile, just shorter.

What about YouTube? What is it? It’s part social networking and part content sharing. Any business can create a channel in YouTube. It’s free. Just open your channel account, select the type of account you want. I like the “guru” account type for subject matter expertise. You can aggragate video content from any source including your own and any other video in YouTube. If you sell “blue suede shoes” provide a link to Elvis singing “blue suede shoes” video.

If you aggregate interesting video content, promote it to your following in Twitter and to your Facebook friends. So, is YouTube content sharing or social networking? You decide…

If I share ten new videos with you and only one or two of them are actually my videos, you’ll still give me credit for all the relevant videos I sent to you (assuming I’m sending you relevant video content). In this example, I would be a source of good video content, even if I didn’t create all of the videos.

The social media lines are blurring…

As marketers we need to harness all the content and all the platforms that are relevant to our communities. The social web platforms overlap with each other, but that’s ok. Let them. We can use them all.

I predict that in Web 3.0 the lines will be less blurry. We’ll be able to create a common profile that travels with us from platform to platform. This movement is already in progress called OpenSocial led by Google but it’s not ready for prime time yet. Just stay tuned on that…

In the meantime let’s enjoy the fact we can use Twitter as a social networking tool and a communication tool. Ditto for other social web platforms.

One of my favorite examples is the Twitter stream. By using a hashmark with your Tweets, e.g., #rays for Tampa Bay Rays, you can communicate in a real time stream to anyone (anywhere) that wants to follow that stream. I just returned from my favorite Internet marketing conference - Pubcon. People around the world who didn’t attend the conference were following along the comments made by more than half the attendees using the #pubcon Twitter stream.

The BusinessWeek cover story in May 2005 was focused on blogs in business. In the follow up story May 2008 the article discussed all the social platforms and said “the new resume is 140 characters” in a reference to how Twitter is a communication tool.

As marketers we can use all the social web tools to engage our buyers, our community, listen to them and build relationships with them without concern over whether you’re in a blog, social networking site, a media outlet or wherever you may be online.

The market place is busy and crowded. And, the social web opens up doors for conversations. Just get engaged in the conversations even if the lines are blurred. Let them…

Bernie Borges
http://twitter.com/berniebay

Tags: internet marketing, social media, social networking, social web, Twitter

As social media continues evolve, grow, blossom and even mature among both personal users and businesses, the lines are beginning to blur among them.

Well known social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn are now being used in the same sentence as Twitter and Flickr.  Isn’t Twitter a micro-blogging tool?  Isn’t Flickr a photo content sharing tool?

What about YouTube?  Is YouTube a social networking site?

I don’t intend to give you a concrete answer to these questions.  Who am I to define these platforms? The user community is defining them.  But I will offer some offline comparisons to consider as you ponder this question.

If you belong to a health club, you joined it (presumably) to exercise.  On the surface, that is the purpose of a health club (or gym).  If you belong to a business organization such as a chamber or local business club, each of these organizations has a defined charter.  When you join any of these organizations mentioned here as examples, the premise of your membership is to participate in their charter.

Even if you joined any of the above for pure networking, you have to play by their rules.  You can’t go to your gym and hand out fliers and a business card in street clothes.  You’ll annoy so many patrons you’ll get kicked out. 

I have developed some very good relationships at my health club that carry into my personal and professional life.  I can say the same for a local non-profit business club I belong to (TBTF).  In both cases, my intent has been sincere.  I go to my healthclub to workout.  I go to TBTF functions to get involved, give of my time and talents and meet smart people.  Because both of these examples are local to me, I occasionally overlap.  I see people at my healthclub that belong to TBTF and vice versa.

The same can be said of social networking, even though the local aspect is much less a factor.  I know people in Facebook whom I also know in LinkedIn and Twitter, and vice versa.

So, what’s the benefit to this cross platform networking online?  I submit there are many benefits.  At a minimum I can meet other smart and interesting people through both platforms, and I really enjoy meeting smart people.

Since my profession is Internet marketing, and in particular we do search engine optimization (SEO) for our clients, another benefit is exposure to the content I produce.  Such exposure can result in content being shared among the network resulting in quality links.  Some content exposure can be incidental and some can be intentional. 

As I continue to network in the online social media world, I’m amazed at how the mutual benefits of social, networking and relationship building coincide with SEO value through the propagation of content and organic link building that occurs.

What’s your experience on social networks?  Which platforms do you use the most?  Which platforms mentioned here are social networking sites and which are (fill in the blank)?

Tags: Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, social networking, TBTF, Twitter, YouTube

Last week I gave an updated presentation on “What B2B Marketers Need to Know About Web 2.0.” The venue was TechSelect in Las Vegas (a private conference put on by TechData). The audience was VARs and Systems Integrators who purchase products through TechData. I presented once each on Friday and Saturday.

In both sessions I encountered many similar questions and concerns. Many people had limited knowledge of Web 2.0. Some attendees had profiles in LinkedIn, Facebook and a few in MySpace. Some were familiar with blogging, but surprisingly few. A few attendees had corporate blogs. Most were very interested in learning how to implement a blog strategy.

My advice to those interested in blogging was to start an internal blog first. Even for a small business that can include extensions of the company such as partners, suppliers, customers, etc. This is a relatively safe way to experience the dynamics of a blog. Beyond that, starting a public blog starts with studying the industry landscape to determine a sound blog strategy.

We also discussed micro blogging (Twitter), podcasting and social networking. There was very little awareness of Twitter, but we had interesting discussions around Twitter’s potential business applications.

There was particular interest in podcasting, especially as we discussed how technology buyers often rely on podcast content to help shape their opinions of products and services they consider before making a purchase decision.

We also discussed SEO at a very high level.  In particular we reviewed the growing importance of delivering content through social media platforms to help create links and to contribute to organic rankings. 

I provided up to the minute statistics on most of the topics mentioned above.  The two presentations were very interactive and were interesting and enjoyable for me to deliver.  Based on feedback I received it was informative for the attendees.

The full presentation can be accessed here.  I welcome comments.

Tags: Blogging, podcasting, SEO, social media, social networking, Twitter, Web 2.0