I have been a Reddit lurker for 5 months now and certainly been enjoying the variety of posts I read there which ranges from narwhals to political articles that I cannot care about since I am not from the U.S. of A. Nevertheless, I find these posts really entertaining.

Yesterday, something really interesting came up that is worth talking about -

What can be the cause of the possible downfall of Reddit and other online communities?

I believe it is  some kind of hard truth – marketers want to move fast in their promotions. They lack the patience to build the connections needed and with the onset of social media, positions such as social media managers, experts, and consultants bloom like mushrooms. After all, it’s a rule to go where to money is.

For social media “people”, there is also a rule and that is to go where the audience is. Where is the audience? They are in enormous communities or sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter and my favorite – Reddit.

Back to the question though.  Some possible causes of Reddit downfall (which is also applicable to other online communities):

Power users can be seen as people like Naruto and Sasuke. Too haxxxed!

Image source: Alan

1. The Abuse by Power Users

A power user is a user of a personal computer who has the ability to use advanced features of programs which are beyond the abilities of “normal” users.

~Wikipedia

On Reddit, a moderator named Saydrah had received the bashing of the Redditors. One member discovered that she had been “gaming” and using Reddit to her client’s advantage. This becomes a concern since Reddit is all about a community of like-minded individuals who share content from all around the web that they find interesting.  Users then get to upvote or downvote these links to their liking which then, if good enough, reaches the frontpage of Reddit – the seat of traffic.

If a power user finds a way to cheat this system then it defeats the purpose of the community.

2. Breaking a User’s Trust

Trust is like a condom; if you break it, you are screwed.

~Me

You have determined that your audience are users of communities like reddit. Now what?

If you are just a normal user, you add friends, submit content, upvote, downvote, and most of all READ AND CLICK! Here’s the thing though – once you gain some kind of popularity as a redditor, aside from the badges and karma, you get trust.

Yes, trust is also an online currency. And truth is even if communities like Reddit are like eyeball farms, trust is hard to gain. All the more harder to regain if you break such trust.

For Saydrah, it will be hard for her to regain that trust. She might have to create another username which is something really easy to do. But what about the lost trust? Well, let’s just say she will be needing another 2 years and 20 badges to earn it all back.

3. Conversion Into “Just Another Media Outlet”

If people can simply get a site to move up the frontpage then it’s viral traffic to the submitter and this really spawns the issue with spammers and abusers. Do not convert your site to be just another venue for ads and spam. The users deserve more than that because they are there for the community and sense of belonging and ownership.

Remember that you are offering something that answers these users problem and that is a site to read top stories without being bombarded by ads.

Clients of Saydrah may be not be overjoyed to know that her involvement with Reddit has come to an end but really, she has learned lots from this experience I assume. That is: Do not treat a community of users as a mere eyeball source. Communities DO NOT want to be marketed to.

4. Closing Your Ears to the Buzz

The users want YOUR verdict – What will you do to an abuser? How will you end a contest? How do you deal with a crowdsourced, nominated name that is not so beautiful like Mister Splashy Pants?

They are right. They might not be paying to use your site and your service but the time the spend on your site is your achievement. To monetize that you have advertisers and merchandise. It will be enough to listen or risk losing these members.

So the best thing you can come up might be to ban Saydrah. Remove badges and karma, will you do that?

Use Pip.io and totally define control on who sees your posts through a beautifully created UI.

Robert Scoble had recently interviewed Leo Shimizu, the CEO of a new social networking site called Pip.io.

I have decided to give the site a try and see if it’s the same ol’ same ol’, you know, social networking site.

Upon registration, you will receive a welcome email – yes they do that too.

Using Pip.io is going to change the way you communicate with your friends and family on the web! You can share conversations, photos and files, instant message, video chat, and much more – all in real time!

And you will be redirected to a really cutesy panoramic view which reminds me of logging in an online game.

A few minutes into the app and you can tell what to do first – setup your profile of course. It immediately sets my location.

So based on what I understood from the UI, I uploaded an avatar and proceeded to install applications. They have Facebook, News Reader , Twitter and Youtube. Not much.

I was able to add up Facebook and Twitter but was hesitating in adding up News Reader. I already have my Google Reader for that and can’t imagine adding up all my RSS feeds one by one. Maybe there’s an RSS feed for Google Reader? That is still have to know.

I stopped there since the next few things I saw were feeds from my Facebook and Twitter. For Facebook, it was actually limited to commenting on stream updates and I cannot LIKE which is what I usually do.

For the rooms at the sidebar, I have not put it to use since I am not sure if I will be enjoying that. I clicked on what I can within the application and I can say that I felt so lonely. Maybe because I didn’t import my contacts to search for those who have profiles but I doubt anyone has one.

Scoble was able to mention about privacy but I have not been able to put it to test since I do not know where to test as all of these were based on quick observations from someone interested but doesn’t know where to go next.

Again, I felt lonely using the app as I cannot explore and see other people’s profiles and I did not know where to go next as there were no quick tips or walkthroughs.

I’m pretty sure you have been in that weird state – realizing no one noticed the stuff you post on Facebook.

You found a cool article. You got a cool thing on your mind. Posted it.  Waited for a like or a comment. ***Crickets chirping*** No one notices and you move on with your social media life. Then suddenly, the same link, status update, video, article gets viral — numerous likes (okay, just 3) and 10 comments.

How would you feel? No really…

Or rather you should ask yourself,  how should I post so it gets viral… so it gets noticed. Here are some quick Facebook newbie thoughts on getting your own updates noticed.

3 Easy Tips On Getting Your Updates Noticed

1. Tag like crazy

Go on. It works. Tag them friends. Spam them. Do this: Use the @ feature. Limit is just 6 though but don’t fret. There’s always a blank status update box to do it again!

2. SHOUT LIKE IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD!!! THAT’S RIGHT!! CAPS AND EXCLAMATIONS!!!!!!!!11

Feel it!

There’s nothing wrong with being honest. It’s your page and your status update. There more sincere you are with your update, the more it attracts comments.

Insincere updates are those that people stay away from.. like quotes from Isaac Newton or questions about a lousy TV show. No scratch that. You can ask questions about a lousy TV Show but just use this tip — write in caps and use words like OMG! WTF! LOLOLOLOL!!

3. LIKE your own posted update

It’s psychology.

If no one starts poking into your stuff, no one else will. People are stalkers by nature and they want to poke their nose and know where the crowd is.

So why not gather a crowd. Start with you and yourself. Go ahead. Like it!

If these do not work, let me know. Let’s make another way for them to notice our interestingly uninteresting updates.

Meh.

Translation: “The Most Annoying Type of Facebook Users”

Facebook going mainstream here in the Philippines is certainly something to buzz about. It has taken over Friendster as the main social networking site in less than a year. And requests for “view me” has now become “add me” – a minuscule proof that Facebook is in – Friendster is out… or that’s what I think.

A local TV episode attempts to feature what’s “IN”, which is none other than Facebook, but what I believe it should at least be well-researched. Then again, I ended up watching an episode which is just a rip-off of an online article.

Last night, I sat down with Goldilocks fudge brownies on the lap after turning on the TV tuned in to QTV’s Ang Pinaka – a countdown on anything and everything under the sun. “Ah – so this was what my YM-mate meant with his status message referring to QTVs Facebook episode” was what I thought. “This is interesting but it better be well-documented.”

They had an episode titled -  “The Top Ten – Ang Pinaka Pasaway na Facebook User” which translates to (forgive my translation, I am not keen to Tagalog since I’m so Bisaya).

“The Top Ten Most Annoying Type of Facebook Users”

October 18, 2009
Get the lowdown on the biggest, the baddest, the coolest, and the best in the country’s favorite weekly countdown, Ang Pinaka! This week we’re counting down the Top Ten Ang Pinaka: Pasaway na Facebook Users.

Facebook is like a big online party where you connect with friends and other cool, interesting people. On the other hand, there are those Facebook junkies who effortlessly get into your nerves just by posting some of the most irritating status updates in that 160-character window. Who are these pesky Facebook pasaways who change status updates almost every hour? Are you one of them?

Joining our host, Rovilson Fernandez are guest panelistas: TV Host, Valerie Tan, Philippine Daily Inquirer Lifestyle Super Section columnist, James Gabrillo, and TV Host/DJ, Andi Manzano.

Find out the Top 10 Ang Pinaka: Pasaway na Facebook Users this Sunday, 6:00 PM on Q Channel 11.

Based on CNN’s article?

This was generally based on CNN’s own list of  The 12 most annoying types of Facebookers.

1. The Let-Me-Tell-You-Every-Detail-of-My-Day Bore
2. The Self-Promoter
3. The Friend-Padder
4. The Town Crier
5. The TMIer
6. The Bad Grammarian
7. The Sympathy-Baiter
8. The Lurker
9. The Crank
10. The Paparazzo
11. The Obscurist
12. The Chronic Inviter

Except that in their episode they dropped two – The Town Crier and The Lurker.

But I found it slightly disturbing that even their article at WMN.ph is also based on CNN’s article, just twisted a bit (rewritten?). I mean, cmown, media people. If your episodes are simple based on online articles then I might as well just browse and read the article for a good 5 minutes than spend 30 on your episode.

Where’s originality??

From WMN

From CNN

On the 160-character window?

No. Facebook does not have just a 160 character window. This is true for SMS updates but not from the website itself. From “What’s the maximum length of a Facebook status update?” – it says that a Facebook status update is limited to 420 characters (including spaces). On reddit it says, depending on which alphabet the subscriber has configured in the handset, this leads to the maximum individual Short Message sizes of 160 7-bit characters, 140 8-bit characters, or 70 16-bit characters (including spaces).

On Self-promoters

Social channels like Facebook is not only a venue for staying connected with friends and family but recently, it is also a venue for brands, companies and individuals to promote themselves hence the onset of self-promoters.

On TMI-ers

With their recommendation of letting people who share too much info use Twitter instead, I don’t think that’s nice. People use Facebook because their friends are there. And besides, it’s their page and their little input box of “What’s in your mind?”. They can update any status they want to.

On Friend-Padding

Yes, nobody has that much friends but if you  are a marketer, you know the benefits of such target amount of friends on your list.

Last note

If you do not want these kinds of friends on your list, why do you subscribe to their feeds? There’s always the HIDE option.

On youtube, I found just one excerpt of the episode.

..because this freelancer was a gamer and a frustrated poet too.

An Unsent Letter to that Gamer I Loved

I stopped by that corner of that darkly painted street
And walked towards the café where you and I used to meet.
Three steps from the doorway, I paused and breathed a sigh.
Found myself just staring like shaken passerby.

For that night was the last night that only I did know.
So I stood across that lonely street where strangers come and go.
Rehearsing and repeating the words I want to say
Except this time I savored them like I savor creamy sundae.

And as you said: “…be there by eight”, I saw you walking there
In yellow shirt and tattered shorts and curly, unkempt hair.
The deities hummed their godly tunes as you whistled a jazz beat.
You skipped towards the café where you and I used to meet.

As you got inside that dreaded place, oblivious of my stares,
I whispered these, my “goodbye” piece to the cold December air –

We both know well and we could say that it is a mistake
That broken knees and broken hearts heal quickly when they break.
I may have fought my battles but you have your own wars too.
I braved the waves of destiny. You conquered Travian S2.
Craft of war and Ancient defenses…
Societies, Towns, and Rising forces…
Farms and Cities all on queue
Plus all the other silly games, the old ones and the new.
Please never think I didn’t care because I loved you too.
But now, your time I give to you – So long, farewell, adieu.

Social media – a venue for getting the message out for a good  cause.  A proof of this?

Tropical storm Ondoy has just exited the country – storm signals lifted, flights resume. But the relief operations of the National Disaster Coordinating Council has just started. And the tech savvy Filipinos did their part in sharing the information on how to help their fellow countrymen… through social media, of course.

To anyone who wants to help out these victims of the flood due to the storm, please scroll to the bottom of the post to see details.

Facebook

Fan pages got setup. Hey, who doesn’t want to be a fan of a storm that left 53 dead and 20-ish others missing?

Status updates are bombarded with messages for donations to help the victims.

Twitter

With Philippines as a trending topic as of this hour, tweets for donations come pouring in.

Even @ddlovato is calling out to other people to help.

Flickr

Images of the locales struggling through the floods.

YouTube

Videos of the Ondoy’s aftermath got shared most.

Donating through SMS (Philippines):

Donate to the Red Cross Rescue and Relief Operations.

Text: Red AMOUNT to 2899 (Globe) or 4483 (Smart).

The AMOUNT can be 10, 25, 50 or 100.

Donating through American Red Cross:

Friends in the US may help Typhoon Ondoy victims (flood in Manila) via the American Red Cross…. Call 1-800-435-7669
for those in the Philippines who want to donate:

http://www.redcross.org.ph/Site/PNRC/wtd.aspx

social media alphabet

Image From LikeCool.com

A Social Media Assistant’s Random Thoughts on Social Media

Today I sorted through my sent emails for my quest to be a social media assistant. Most have been explanations of what I can do for clients and their businesses. This task made me realize there isn’t alot of marketers who know social media that MUCH.

I do not claim to be a guru or an expert because I am not. I am a lover of social media.

On interviews, it turns out their openings are really about SEO and SEM with only the blog as the “real”  SM task. Do online marketers really know what social media is? Is it really just cutesy extension or branch of their SEO efforts?

They have taken on all kinds of gimmick to strike to the hearts of their tribe and followers – sent out mass emails, launched hundreds of campaigns, spent hundreds on their quest for a page one on Google, a handful of opt-ins and a pinch of sales.

But have you really covered all the necessary channels to reach the millions all around the globe?

Here is my little alphabet about social media:

S – share

Here lies the power of social media – the ability to share. Customers tend to share a lot of information on the net – links, videos, images. If you have these multimedia available about you and your products, you are making it easy to market and have your presence available.

O – open

Search is power. Google is power. Having your business out in the open with SM gives you an opportunity that others missed. You may a few hundreds of people reached through your email marketing campaign, but think of the millions you can reach through the net.

C – content

Customers don’t want to hear news about just you and your products anymore. They want to hear what you think about the industry you are in – the value you bring into their lives. Maybe toot your own horn sometimes but overall you must be a content provider, the go-to persona, of your industry in this medium.

I – interact

Gone are the days of push marketing. Customers are smarter nowadays. They use these channels to be able to immediately interact with you. Email server down? Phone out of reach? Try to tweet!

A – aggregate

Keeping a close eye on your competitor? Try aggregating and clue in on their latest gimmicks, news, promos and maybe it will give you a hint on what to do next with your own business.

L – loyalty

As a social media user myself across networks and sites, the thought of businesses listening to what I have to say is overwhelming. My ranting about GoDaddy lead to a GoDaddy CS to help me out with my concern. Weeks later I found myself purchasing domains over again. Moral? Customer loyalty rakes in trust and believe me, it rakes in dollars too.

M – mix

Mix photos, videos, text, audio. Facebook lets you do this easily and the more you share, the more customers know you and makes you 3D. Whether is be as a topic starter or getting a point across, the ability to mix these is something that you cannot do on an FHM magazine.

E – engage

To be authentic gains you more listeners than a bot, of course. SM users are smart people. They can immediately detect fake accounts and know when interactions are not authentic. Just like walking into a party with a fake smile, they know when your engagement with them in this medium is real or driven by lust for cash.

D – distribute

You have an interesting thought to share. You mass update your favorite social sites. Are these the right ones for you? SM is not a one-size-fits-all thing. It has to be customized and researched. What networks work for this business may not be the same as what works for yours. Distribute your social media content in the right networks to the right niche.

I – integrate

Integrate social media into your website, your email campaign and you will see the returns far greater. In a rush to convert leads to customers, most marketers focus on what currently works. If it’s not broken, why fix it? Again, it is lost opportunity.

A – accelerate

Start your social media campaigns and accelerate returns. Coupled with SEO and SEM, adding a dash of social media can never be a wrong move. What you will be doing is increasing the range of your reach to potential customers in your niche and hey, it is better than actually cold-calling or sending unsolicited email or messages. The opposite of what SM does.

Know your customers and make them feel relevant. In return, expect loyalty and mention and close a sale or two. I am learning social media too but overwhelmed does not mean uninformed.

The internet is a powerful tool for anyone eager to learn. How about cashing in on your prospects eagerness to learn about you?

just like traditional media vs social media

Image From Wikidpedia

“Superman and Spider-Man both throw a punch at each other in mid-air over the skies of New York City, but both easily dodge the other’s attack.”

Long ago branding strategies revolve around leveraging traditional media – television, radio, newspapers – to implement push marketing to get the message out. Internet and mobile tools have now shifted the strategies and called in a whole new threat to “old media” through interactive, niche-targeted, pull marketing strategy through social media.

With this current move, it is fun to imagine the differences of the two strategies, social vs traditional,  like a battle between two super heroes – Spiderman vs Superman.

Meet SPIDER “social media” MAN

Social media is the online content created by people who uses highly accessible technologies such as the internet. The use of internet as means of communication has become a trend these days and businessmen as well as advertisers are now taking advantage of it.

The principles surrounding the concept of social media revolves around creating relationships between one self and others through means of online social networking sites wherein one can easily advertise the product or services that others need. Some of these sites include Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. Others create their own website and promote their website by using backlinks that point back to their website. It is what we call to as the trendy way of marketing and advertising the products you want to sell.

..and SUPER “traditional media” MAN

There are a lot of difference between the traditional way of marketing and the trendy way that is social media. Social media can reach almost everyone around the globe through internet opposite to traditional marketing and advertising which limits the location of both categories. Industrial media or traditional marketing has permanence meanwhile social media has versatility. When magazines and ads are printed and distributed, changes can not be made but for social media, changes can be made almost in a second through editing or commenting. The time which industrial media to advertise and market their products would usually take days or weeks to promote thoroughly and effectively but for social media, we are just counting hours or minutes.

“Superman and Spider-Man congratulate each other on a job well done.”

Implementing campaigns in just traditional media has limited reach. Imagine the lost opportunity in reaching out to millions of internet users in different parts of the globe. But taking your campaign to only the internet limits the tested opportunities of reaching out to the internet-less consumers.

The formula today is traditional media + social media. Will social media currently just tagged as a “fad” with campaigns yet to be determined and tested, will we be seeing the formula as TOMORROW = SOCIAL MEDIA?

But really the bottom line, it’s no contest.. for now.

“Soon thereafter, Clark and Lois go on a double-date with Peter and Mary Jane. As the two couples leave, they all walk arm-in-arm together into the sunset.”

try social media coffee

If you find yourself immersed in the internet, you would soon realize that social media marketing is making its foot hold in the marketing industry. Many are wondering if they should leverage this for their business. We say, yes to a hundred percent.

“Marketing without social media is like a morning without coffee.”

And just like caffeine in a rainy Monday morning, it would certainly help if you have a cup of social media on top of your SEO campaigns and blogging. Why? Here are just some reasons that could convince entrepreneurs like you to take on social media:

1. Communication Platform
Since you are using the internet as means of communication, you may have buyers from the other side of the world and still have endless possibilities on who you deliver your services to. People around the world rely on social networking sites to communicate with people from around the world. With this, you can grab its full potential of not only having local clients but also those from different parts of the world. Using social media gives you access to different needs of different clients to which you can build your business on.

2. Trust Building
Trust is another essential element in this kind of marketing. Reputation is built through recommendations and comments from customers who are satisfied with the product you are selling. Through the comments you receive on your website, you are able to see which product or services rendered gives satisfaction to your customer thereby enabling you to determine that you have done a good job which in the end builds trust to your customers.

3. Cheaper Alternative
Let’s admit it. Social sites and networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – are basically.. yes, FREE! Nothing could be better for an internet marketer than a platform for getting “it” out there that costs nothing. All you need is to create free accounts without dropping a penny. But time is the currency in social media not money. Though you need money to begin with, there is little need of it since time is necessary for your business to grow.

4. Leveled Playing Field
Social media levels the playing field between small time businessmen, new entrepreneurs, and the big companies. With elements such as the internet, hard work, and time as the keys to being successful, businessmen and new entrepreneurs can challenge big companies through massive amounts of time in building their reputation. All have the same weapons; it is up to the players how they intend to use it to their advantage.

Give this marketing strategy a try and see the results in no time. All you need to invest is an ample amount of time, a little bit of hard work, and a touch of your skills and talent. And if this sounds a little too overwhelming, try a social media assistant.

Image by sesame ellis

A Social Media Assistant is someone who works with you to get your business on the move and out there for the customers the way you want it to be. They could be anyone qualified enough to do the job efficiently and effectively. These assistants can work from the comforts of their own office or home and usually contacts you via email or instant messengers. Usually, social media assistants carry out orders you are supposed to do but can not due to several reasons. These reasons involve:

• Time – a key element to social media. A lot of businessmen do not have the time on building the website they need to make it profitable, so most businessmen turn to social media assistants to make one. Another thing about time is that most businessmen are more focused on how to maximize the field to their advantage and this would usually take their time, thus, assistants are hired to take on other matters and leave all important ones to them.
• Skills – there are skills that only social media assistants have and most businessmen tap into these assistants to make full use of their skills and talents thus, promoting their business as well. The more businessmen invest on social media assistants’ skills, the more likely they acquire good results.

social media assistant

Image by EyeZFoto

Coining social media assistants as mere “assistants” is really an understatement of the word. There are a lot of roles that a social media assistant fit in to. Here are just some of them:

• Creating your social media accounts. Time for business people is for brainstorming and for creative thinking. Spending time creating social media accounts in sites can be a daunting and manual task that you would prefer delegating it to a social media assistant. After all,
• Maintaining your social media accounts. If you created social media accounts to promote your product or service, then you can hire an assistant to maintain them for you. They can also maintain the accounts, update statuses and manually add friends or followers (prospects!).
• Writing articles and press releases. You can task your social media assistants to write articles imbedding links to your websites on key parts of the article. Press releases can also do wonders if you have a new product that needs promotion. This is a sure way in promoting traffic into your website.
• Email Marketing and Ads posting. Other than writing articles and maintaining the website, assistants can also promote it through generating email and sending it to clients as well as posting visible ads.

A Social media assistant can do wonders to your online business. Qualifications need not be extravagant as long as they can keep up with you and the tasks you wish to be done in a matter of time.