Social Media is all about conversation and listening really.

While blogs, twitter, facebook, flick and all form media, the conversation and listening are what make the various forms of media “social”.

Which brings us to a few first things to think about while creating a consistent social presence -
1. what is my goal? Why do I want a presence online?

Once you have an answer to 1, you will have an answer to the next few questions -

2. What do I want to listen for? (words, topics, terms )
3. Who do I want to converse with ? (people, communities)

And once you know the answers to 1, 2 and 3, you can actually start with creating a strategy and mapping out tactics to reach the goals. And that will involve -

4. What platforms do I want to create a presence on ? (where is my community? my consumers?)
5. How will I tie them up?

And finally, once all the above questions are answered, you might be able to finally answer -

6. How do I monetize?
7. How do all of these result in true $? The ROI ?

The order of these questions is really important. Focus on one before the other and you will have it all mixed up.

Thoughts??

Posted via web from thinkmaya’s posterous

Attended a super cool and fun panel at MRMSeattle .

It consisted of Brandon Pierce from Facebook, Josh Mattison from Federated Media, Torrey Lincoln from LinkedIn and Wade Rockett from Weber Shandwick. HollyBrown from MRM did a great job with the event. Here is a quick recap of the event and my takeaways –

First a little story about my experiment here – Twitter is many things to me,. Most of all, it is a storytelling tool and a note-taking tool. I LOVE tweeting valuable notes at events I attend because it leads to such awesome conversations with people. However, I also figured that I need to capture these on my blog so they could live longer – and live in context.

SO, I am trying this little experiment – Taking pictures of my Tweets on my Iphone and compiling it into a Whrrl Story. Then, including it on my blog for anyone to see if they like. Let me know what you think about it. I will call them Twee-shups

You can look a the tweet stream above for notes and comments, but some takeaways –

1. Facebook is great to get conversations going WITH brands. And for brands to watch sentiments of people (fan pages).

Choosing and finding your influencer is really hard. But well worth it.
All social media platforms are different. If you are present on them, you better engage. If not, just stay out of the platform. Not engaging is worse that not existing.

photo credit: HikingArtist.com

Good for me that I eat, sleep, walk and talk strategy. I do not enjoy the sleepless nights but I am grateful that I still see the strategy plan in as I get more and more invested – emotionally especially with my start-up.

No matter how cool I think my startup is, it is always important to ask the questions over and over again. Every day, every single day.

So what is unique about YOUR business? And why will people care about it? Let us TALK!

I was at SocComm. And I picked a bunch of what I call Social Media realities and want to share with you. I follow up each reality with a thought on where the money is in relation to that reality. If you choose one of these ways to monetize Social Media then remember to use the “TRUTH” in your USP(unique selling proposition) somehow. And then, when you get all rich, come back and share some with me and donate some to children’s charities or animal shelters

Do not forget to subscribe to the Geekdance feed for a follow up post on the Monetizing Framework.

1.To make real connections you have to be vulnerable - Jeff Pulver

This is one basic truth. The most important one, I think. Connections online or in real life work only if they are real. And real connections are formed when we give a part of ourselves to the relationship – whether it be helping others, sharing our lives or being vulnerable. Connections are all about trust. And there is no trust developed between two people without sharing and giving. You can fake it for a day but building lasting sustainable relationships online or offline is about being yourself and being vulnerable.

The MONEY? Can you find ways to let people be vulnerable and feel comfortable? Can you create communities for sharing? Can you act as a liaison between a product and the market and find ways to establish trust between them? Can you create the next twitter that will let people all over the world connect and form real connections? If you can do one of these you got yourself a business model

Jeff Pulver does this well. With live-tagging, his breakfast sessions and conferences such as this one, he brings together people and lets them open up, interact and be vulnerable.

2. ABC – Always Be Connecting – Chris Brogan

I cannot seem to connect in order to connect because of a strong belief that I need to believe in everything I do to be able to do it. And until I heard Chis Brogan talk, my head and heart were in disagreement about “always connecting”. Watching Chris Brogan, I learned that we should be connecting all the time because the connections are what define his space. Because we are the medium. By connecting all the time, we are keeping the medium alive. Adding value by participating in the fabric of social communications.

The MONEY? Can you get people to connect? Can you do what it takes to join the links? When there are 10 people in the room, how do you get them to talk? Can you teach people the secret to connect ALL the time. And how do you sustain those connections? How do you make it ongoing?  Not easy, but that is exactly why there is the money in the space.

3. We all have vested interests and social media allows us to promote them to each other. We all have our own truths. – Fred Wilson

ME: I think twitter is so widely successful because most people are there for business – to connect and to promote themselves. We all have our own truths and anyone who is setting out to prove that there is one universal truth is just wasting his/her time. I think it is time for all of us to say what Fred said and move on about our business. It is good to remember though that while we all have our truths, the best way to promote ourselves and our own truths is by helping others promote their truths. I know this sounds like an inspiration blog stuff – but I confuse my blogs sometimes.

The MONEY? – Can you let people share their truth and feel valued? Facebook added newsfeeds(to make money) and since then I have discovered some real activists amongst my connections there. Fred Wilson talked about Boxee(he has a stake in it). He says we don’t care about channels anymore – which is true. Do I care if a program I like is on NBC or ABC ? Not really (unless I have a stake in those companies myself). I have to agree with Fred when he says what really matters to me is what other people I connect with are watching/reading/liking. So if you can help people share their truth, you are in business. I do hope I can do this with Memetales. So far it seems to be working well. I am excited and guess what – my truth has morphed into the truths of the people in the Memetales Community. Their cause becomes mine. I am loving it.I hope it works

4. Not everyone is just sharing and caring. @JeffJarvis makes $ selling books; @Garyvee makes $ selling wine …(but) Wealth  is more than just money. Attention and Intention are great wealth engines – Shelley Pamer

If we want to monetize on what is out there today, we have to focus on what creates “value”. Always be very aware of what “value” means to YOUR target market. Can you help people create value of some sorts. Don’t focus on just money. explore any value you can deliver (pretty much the premise of this post). If you deliver here, you can create you own space.

The MONEY - Are you a blogger and can you help bloggers write? Are you a teacher and can you help teachers teach in a new space (online for example)? Did you start your business and can you help small businesses take off? If you can help people focus on their passion by taking the hard work out of figuring out what they find hard (what is not their focus), then you have some ways to make money. People want to focus on their passions, so see how you can do that.

5. Life is a beta. Make mistakes – make them well. - Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis called life a beta. So true. So so true. Don’t wait for the day you feel perfect and ready. You will never start making money that way. You will never start doing what you love. It is time to play along and make mistakes. The web lets us do that. It is time to take advantage of that.

The MONEY? This truth can make you money by saving you LOTS of it. Making mistakes does not make money directly, but it creates a great path towards making money. It is also a wonderful way to save money. I have been an open business at Memetales from day 1. If you have a question and I have the answer – I tell you. This approach has been wonderful and it has started working in the other direction too. If people in the community have an idea then they speak up. I have been getting some awesome ideas for Memetales from the community. And I really would not get such ideas even if I paid big bucks for it. And will I make mistakes along the way? I hope to apologize when I do and move on. I am a real person just like anyone else, right?

6. Making a human connection, at the end of the day, that’s what social is all- Kenny Miller, EVP, MTV Networks Global Digital Media

There is nothing more to say, is there? Kenny Miller said it well. When I stayed home after I quit my job and moved cross country, I started an inspiration blog. To put down everything in my head. But what ended up happenning was real connections.

The MONEY? -Real connections give you a wonderful opportunity to better you social proof because of the trust element due to the human connections. Word of mouth works wonders to build a strong brand – especially when your business is taking off or you are in trouble. You can certainly make a LOT of money if you can teach someone or a company how to make a :”human connection” as opposed to a “connection solely for maketing purposes”. Can companies and brands do that? And how? In a world where people primarily communicate over virtual channels, how do we figure out how to make a human connection?

7. Be passionate about helping/community.  – Katja Presnal on the panel by  Lindsay Maines, Katja Presnal, Audrey McClelland, Beth Feldman

Katja is such a great example of success doing what you love. She is what she called a perfect example of “promotion through anti-promotion”. I call this “pull” vs “push”. You do not promote yourself – instead you project yourself as a helpful person involved in community and truly connect people and do it long enough and people will start thinking of you as a connector. It is hard work wither way – so you might as well promote yourself by helping others rather than just markeing yourself directly.

The MONEY? - I don’t have to say anything here. There are enough and more people that have done this and proven that the money will follow. Choose who you want to help and go for it. Help them for free while you have a steady stream of income and very soon you will quit your full time job because people  will want to pay for your help.

8. If you are not doing what you are passionate about, you are an idiot -Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Library TV

GaryVee truly rocks. When he talks, you cannot NOT listen. Although there were parts fo his talk that I would have not agreed with, there was no point challenging him – he was passionate and he was speaking his truth. And I have to say – if you watch Gary speak live, you will realize, even if you are doing something you trulyl love, that there is more of yourself that you can give to what you are doing. This guy shook me up.

The MONEY? - There are 2 parts to the story – do what you love but be smart about it. Doing what you love is great but you will not make the money unless you create value and tell your buyer (either explicitly or implicitly) why they should buy from you and not anyone else. Be smart about executing it and find a partner with a business head .

9. Fans (People) crave authentic interaction- Laura Roeder

Laura is a gentle soul. She drew our attention towards the fact that it does not matter if you are a celebrity or a normal person. Everyone craves authentic interaction. This is no great secret.

The MONEY? The target for this service is the “rich and famous”. If you (or somebody) is already in business and making money figure out how you can be authentic in your interactons and grow your business – at evry touch point – on your blog, in your advertising material, in every email and in every conversation. Teach the stars, the heroes, the celebrities how to maintain an authentic channels for interaction and help them share their wealth with you

10. Listen to your employees. There is a marketplace of ideas within the company. – Peter Hirschberg, co-founder + Chairman,The Conversation Group

This is so true. Just like Shelly Palmer brought our attention to the fact that not all wealth = money, not all satisfaction comes from money. A big part of the satisfaction in life comes from getting feedback, appreciation and being concerned. So when you have a problem in your organization and you think you cannot fix it without bringing the next big consultant and paying him big bucks, think again. We have incredibly talented people who are passionate in our own organizations. Think of what you can give them if you cannot give money. Yes, money goes a long way but money alone does nothing. A little money and a LOT of something can produce big results. Talk to your employees and community. Let them come up with the ideas to fix problems.

The MONEY? – With this attitude built into your orgnizational management from day 1, you are all set to make smart financial decisions all along. You will save money and build an organization with a higher collectuve satsfaction. And the company will belong to the commuity – and believe me, you do not want it any other way!

What are your thoughts? Questions?

Put your thoughts in the comments or @thinkmaya on twitter and we can talk about how YOU can make money in the social media space

photo credit: udono

I just discovered a couple of possible competitors a little while back. And then I panicked. And then I took a few minutes to think. And then I smiled. I lifted the covers below the rug of competition and I saw opportunity … lessons, warnings, questions and answers. And then I thought to myself – “It is about getting under the rug on competition and then rising above it” – I need to make the effort to pull that rug up in the first place and look for the fun stuff hidden between the dust ….

Here is the story -

I did a LOT of research before starting my work on Memetales. I was so excited that there was nothing online similar to what Memetales was going to offer! The idea was born from very unique circumstances – my need to express, my children’s needs for picture book and the need to help my sister (an artist) make some money and differentiate herself. It would be silly of me to expect nobody would already be present or see the potential in this space, but I certainly believed I saw a real need and a real solution.  With time, more solid research, feedback and such, I am getting mote certain about this need, but I am also noticing other players around me ….

A couple of weeks back, I was on Facebook, trying to find people/groups that would fit my target market. I put a post in one of the groups and left. The next day, I saw a post above mine, by a gentleman who is proposing to do something very similar to what Memetales is. And in some ways, he was doing a better job explaining.marketing himself. My heart sank – and thanks to my other organs – it just bounced right there – back to place …I sat quiet for a couple of minutes and then something changed  – and it was my perspective. As I read what all he had to say in his defense, I was thinking to myself – “Wow, I would not get such a good and relevant lesson defendng my business even if I paid for it !”.

Competition isn’t always a good thing but there is ALWAYS more than one good thing we can take away from competition. Let me list a few good things that I tool away :

• Presence of just a few other players in a field affirms that there is a game to be played: This is rather good information for me! It affirms that change is coming and perhaps the market is getting ready for my idea …. it is better to have a few people playing in the field than nobody at all! Print on Demand, acceptance of the self-publishing model, the ease with which kids interact with technology are a few things that are the factors today that make Memetales possible – and it seems that a few other people are seeing that too.

• There is space for everyone and more: The business arena is an open field – everyone plays and everyone should play. If I want to stay and continue to play I have to figure out  a way to do it. And that is a challenge. And challenges are good – really good at this point. I am sure that businesses that are challenged early on do better on the long run.

• An opportunity for differentiation : With the challenge is an opportunity – to be better and to be different. If I had nobody to compare myself with, it would be really hard to analyze some things. To me, another company doing something somewhat similar is like readily available market research for me.

• Forces a stronger brand/community: Competition scares me and forces me to rethink what the Memetales brand means and what the Memetales community means.

• Learn from their mistakes and learn from others – the good and bad – what to  do and what not.

• If there is really a reason to hurry up, competition will make you hurry up. Sometimes, timing can mean a lot – the timing of a release, the timing of a feature and so on. Competition is a good timing system if you keep your eyes and ears open for cues and news.

The main thing for me to remember about my startup is that the more companies that enter this field, the better. E-books are just about starting to be accepted by readers and publishers alike. Children today interact seamlessly with computers, cell phones etc. Self publishing is more popular than ever. The way I see it, more players entering this space will only help this movement towards e-books and books in multiple formats. It is all a good thing for me.

Once I have understood all of this, my job is now to figure out how to get into this space and raise the barriers of entry – so more people cannot make it in. Hopefully, I will buy enough time to get rooted in the space and start spinning my cycle of innovation. For now, I have stopped worrying about competition and am focusing on creating the ecosystem for just the right number of players here .

Any ideas? I would LOVE to hear them!
photo credit: lumaxart

On December 1st, 2008, the DOW plunged 680 points and recession was declared. The truth is that the real recession started a year ago – December of 2007. These are not the greatest times economically – so what should entrepreneurs do in times such as this? This is a quick post pulling some resources from around the web talking about this. I will also talk about how the conditions are affecting me, my decisions and my experience with being an entrepreneur.

The most popular post in the subject of starting your company during a recession is this post by Paul Graham (a partner at ycombinator). Paul Graham mostly talks about how starting your company during these bad times might not be such a bad idea after all. Here are some of the main points from his essay:

• If we’ve learned one thing from funding so many startups, it’s that they succeed or fail based on the qualities of the founders. The economy has some effect, certainly, but as a predictor of success it’s rounding error compared to the founders
• So if you want to improve your chances, you should think far more about who you can recruit as a cofounder than the state of the economy

• Fortunately the way to make a startup recession-proof is to do exactly what you should do anyway: run it as cheaply as possible.

• Another advantage of bad times is that there’s less competition. Technology trains leave the station at regular intervals. If everyone else is cowering in a corner, you may have a whole car to yourself.

Kevin Rose (founder of Digg.com) refers to this essay and talks about his views on the matter. Here is a video post by Kevin Rose on why NOW is a good time for a start-up. Some of the main takeaways from his talk -

• All major start-ups started almost 4 years ago – not during the height of web 2.0.“When” a strat-up started seems to be irrelevant.

• When things are great, many more start-ups appear. The fight for money was tougher as well.

• Additional rounds for funding will be very hard unless you have extremely large revenue

• Scrappy start-ups are good. If you have a job, keep your job  

• Use elance. Be smart with money 

• Don’t buy servers and such. Take baby steps. 

• Invest in steps 

• Do activities that cost less.

Paul Graham posted another article recently about how startups might not need VC funding after all. He says – “I originally wrote this at the request of a company producing a report about entrepreneurship. Unfortunately after reading it they decided it was too controversial to include”. I found this article thought provoking and encouraging actually. A few points from his essay (cut and paste) -

• And because Internet startups have become so cheap to run, the threshold of profitability can be trivially low. Which means many Internet startups don’t need VC-scale investments anymore. For many startups, VC funding has, in the language of VCs, gone from a must-have to a nice-to-have.
• As long as VCs were writing checks, founders were never forced to explore the limits of how little they needed them.
• If founders decide VCs aren’t worth the trouble, that could be bad for VCs. When the economy bounces back in a few years and they’re ready to write checks again, they may find that founders have moved on.

Why is MemeTales a perfect fit for this economy?

I am going ahead with my start-up for various reasons including -

It seems to be the right time for me. I am inspired and I have the energy. In fact, this seems to be the best time for me to work on my idea!

Memetales is truly cool because it will offer great choices at a very affordable price point.  I think my start-up will do better in a money conscious economy – where people are trying to get more from less. The books on Memetales will cost lesser than the incredibly expensive picture books in the market today.

People are trying to cash-in through their creativity and Memetales is a great way to do that. Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles spend a good amount of time entertaining kids, teaching them values through little lessons, activities and stories. Why not share these with the world and make some money from it? When it comes down to it, Memetales will potentially make more money per book for the author than the average 3rd party publisher published books.

All in all – it is great for the writer/artist as well as the customer. It is an over all win-win. I am passionate about teh fact that a service such as Memetales will give so many talented people around the world a chance to showcase their talents AND make some money while they do that.

What precautions should an entrepreneur be taking?

• It is very important that your service be able to generate revenues. If you are not sure how you will monetize your start-up, don’t start. Have a good idea about the business model before you go ahead with it.
• Frugal is good. Make it a life style. Question every spending decision. Challenge yourself to be creative. By doing that, you will be building “financial smarts” into the fabric of your company. Adopt the Kaizen philosophy. Look at Toyota – in good times they do great and in bad times they do good.
• Get a good sense of what your skills are and get help for things that you cannot do yourself. Work with freelancers.
• Start slow and get continuous feedback. This is not a time to spend big and look “cool”. Do not spend unless you have to. Scale only when you need to scale.
• Always think in terms of what money is going in an what is coming out. Make sure you have a solid way of monetizing your start-up. And do not spend on the next cycle until you see what is coming out financially from your last cycle of investment.
• Be helpful. Help others and they will help you. Work on authentic relationships.
• Network. Network. Network. But remember “networking for the sake of networking” rarely works. Let your passion drive – always.
• Continue to learn. All the time. Ths is great strategy in a good or bad economy.

If you are thinking of a startup, I say go ahead and do it. Do your best to recession proof it.There is a neat research paper called Innovation Strategies for Global Recession that talks about what you can do to ride along and survive the recession.

What are YOUR thoughts on this matter? Are you working on yout start-up? What precautions are you taking?
photo credit: stuartpilbrow

If you are a parent/author/writer or illustrator and would like to participate in the beta for Memetales, send me an email at m@thinkmaya.com or fill the contact form.