social media mafia

Facebook Pages: Social Media Mafia

chrishambly — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:06:50 -0400

Things move rapidly in the big ole Internet and over this bank holiday weekend I checked out Facebook "pages" again and launched the Social Media Mafia "fan" page.

But we have the FB Group, don't we?

Yes, there is a Facebook group which we have used to date to recruit interested parties, but I've noticed that FB pages provide far more useful features, namely:

Facebook Statistics

180 page views on the first day is not mind-blowing by any stretch of the imagination but at least I know how many, as well as other countable features.

Export Facebook Statistics

Pretty neat, handy for dumping into some of your other data.

Facebook Social Advertisement

Note, you'll see another advert I used in the passed right after they launched the service, not a good click-thru rate, but the ad was merely text, and a bad one too.

(very handy for future events, and pulling new people in, don't you think?).

Facebook Targeting

This is an excellent feature, something many of us have used on other platforms for years. As an example for a Social Media Mafia event in Italy only why would I want to send an update to people in China?

Lastly of course this page is public and not stuck behind a "walled garden".

There are other bits 'n' bobs about Facebook Pages which make sense, though with this small example you can see the benefits are numerous and make the FB Group redundant on many levels.

So, now you should pop on over and become a fan right?

Reach An Audience With Email

chrishambly — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:55:35 -0400

I have a long history of publishing e-newsletters and an even greater belief in the reach-ability of them. When I consider some of my larger e-mail lists and the associated click-through statistics it becomes crystal clear that they work, period.

The thing is about email is that it is still one of the best communication technologies around for broadcasting news, your updates appear into peoples' in-box, there is no effort on the part of the target at all, and let's face it we are lazy, we forgot sites, we often can't be bothered to go chasing up the news.

Some say what about RSS feeds and feed readers? I say that the majority demographic there is for Geeks and Nerds, for people who are like me and work on the Internet. I also say that my sister and the girl next door are not that type of person, in fact the majority of Internet users are not feed readers, and it is the majority I am interested in typically, it is they I predominately wish to reach.

Newsletter systems can also bring about an important personal connection, or personalisation, unlike an RSS feed from let's say a Blog, which is just generic albeit with many Bloggers liking to use the term "YOU", to give a sense of connection. But you can go deeper than than, a newsletter sign-up form can contain personal data which can then be inserted into an authored newsletter, which gives the communication a far more personal flavour.

This personal touch is powerful, in my experience it has proven to aid considerably in building up credibility (which does take time), and it also aids in giving the reader a sense of inclusion, being part of the "club" if you will.

Some people do not like email targeting and selling, and I say to them they are fools basking in a non-existent demographic, in an minute fish-pond of supposed "friends". If you genuinely have something to sell you cannot expect people to come looking for it, you need to push it in front of their noses, and not just once, but repeatedly.

If you'd like to see how I use a few key personalisation matches try the following Social Media Mafia form, you'll be sent an email and asked to "opt-in" and then you'll receive the first instalment which is pre-written, but will contain some of your personal entries. Don't worry I'm not selling things on this particular list ;)

Get the Newsletter!
Email:
Name:
Country:
City:
Gender:
Url:
Mafia Nickname:

Dont You Like Meeting People

chrishambly — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:26:00 -0400

I’ve been hearing a lot of talk recently that some people think it is hard to meet people they chat with online, in the real world, or to use the correct term Face To face (f2f).

I disagree with this, providing you are yourself online and offline and make no disernable distinction between the two, if you do this may not work.

Here are some ways you can in fact get off your arse and meet people.

Join the Social Media Mafia, it has a presence in three places currently:

Facebook
LinkedIn
Website (you can’t sign up yet)

Using a social network create an event, a local event close to you and invite a handful of your online friends, if they live an extra long way away make the effort and travel an hour or so on the train, it will be worth it.
If you do not have friends in your social network who are local, search for them, actively seek out people in your geo area and make them friends.
When creating your event give it a theme, give it something everyone can relate to, a commonality if you will.
Document your event with blogs and pictures turn it into a “club”

Ok, so not everyone is a doer or a leader to organise such things, but if you are not that way inclined have a look around at some of the online tools, Upcoming is a great one for starters.

Break your comfort zone, everyone is a little shy, but by being that little bit bolder you will reap dividends and make lots of new friends, I know I have.

I used to be so shy.

Social Media Mafia “sit down” #1 Summary

chrishambly — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 09:00:37 -0500

The first Social Media Mafia “sit down” took place in the East End of London in a swanky Asian restaurant known as the Scarlet Dot, a term which pays homage to the Hindu Bindi.

The food was great and the company even better, where new people were introduced to new people who were introduced to new people. There was a healthy blend of geeks present from a very wide spectrum of careers, with of course a common theme of Social Media interest between us all.

Within 5 minutes of introductions business cards and deals were being struck, clearly people needed to meet people, but meet people with an endorsement, a kind of fast-tracking of talent, and that concept is one that I love which is part of the point of this new project.

The conversation was vibrant and I list here the main theme or points I extracted from the “sit down”.

1. Corporate Social Capital – this seems to be more related to large organisations, let’s say a University, for example, whereby the members of the organisation are engaging with Web2.0 technologies and conversing about the organisation itself. If you took a University as an example where there may be thousands of students using a Facebook Group or an organisation network there exists a large collection of Corporate Social Capital. How this capital is to be used/garnered/marketed or otherwise is a question still to be addressed. How can an organisation utilise such capital? And what type of talent is needed by an organisation to foster appropriate dialogue in that space?

2. Human Resource Privacy – it was noted that some HR departments are known to be checking out their employees online activities and in some cases actually holding them to court over it. The general consensus was that this is unacceptable and exactly what an employer does or does not do outside of the office is in fact not the business of the company. This is a tricky grey area considering that most companies do not have written policy on the topic as well as being ill-informed of the benefits of using such systems too.

3. Human Resource Talent Sourcing – this conversation was concerning the potential of Web.2.0 spaces for finding and recruiting talent. Personally I have found that I do get recruitment agencies asking me to help in sourcing talent, this is mainly a product of my LinkedIn presence. It was also discussed what other types of networks and methods are appropriate for finding talent, is an non-formal environment such as Facebook appropriate for example?

Concluding

Number three in my list above is something I would urge you to think about with some depth, because through our informal Social Media Mafia “sit down” we managed to secure two jobs for two talented people, and correspondingly two professionals can now move ahead with their projects, proof that these “sit downs” are far more than a couple of beers.

The next Social Media Mafia “sit down” is taking place 7pm in London on March 1st.
FB Event or Upcoming

You should try to get to it.

social media mafia

Facebook Pages: Social Media Mafia

Reach An Audience With Email

Get the Newsletter!

Dont You Like Meeting People

Social Media Mafia “sit down” #1 Summary