I caught up with the director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project Lee Rainie after his presentation at the University of Minnesota Social Networks Research and Creative Collaborative. Rainie’s presentation was entitled the The Rise of Networked Individuals .

The lighting was poor in this interview, but the content timely and perhaps a bit of a conversation starter here. The questions are these, as the networked individual takes root in our new economy, do we begin to see interdependance among each other or do we break off into packs of networks? In the early adopter phase of the social web there was a sense of creating something new, contributing to something greater. As the adoption curve progresses, there is ample information to create what Rainie refers to as a culture of amateur experts who are now in competition selling their expertise and services. This is an information imbalance that can put significant pressure on companies, agencies and individuals. An imbalance where you may believe you give more than are getting back or taking more than you are giving. Interesting in that this is a similar situation that impacts personal relationships.

My perspective for many industries is for companies and individuals to give their way through this imbalance. Be as generous as you possibly can because technology and access to information are a breeding ground of new competition.

Networked individualism also has a stealthy side. As you look at an individual who is networked, you get the perspective of a single person reach out to hundreds even thousands of others. The less visible network, is the one where individuals combine for the gain of the group as a whole and individual benefit. For example the way wolves assemble in packs to hunt their prey. The network of the like-minded, the network of the ad hoc project team, are other ways individuals gain access to business, achieve their individual goals and create some of the scale that was once the exclusive domain of large companies.

Rainie posits that the following big forces are pushing/pulling us toward networked individualism

1. Affluence and affordable technology
2. Changes in family composition, roles, responsibilities
3. Expanding consumer options
4. Income and wealth volatility
5. Job security and longevity
6. Rise of free agency and freelancing
7. Employer changes pushing workers towards management of retirement and health care
8. Rise of DIY politics and religion

Do you believe social media is making us interdependent or highlights that we are independent entities?

Time 25:36

The topic of social media among marketers and PR professionals is awash with business and non profit examples, case studies, and the ever available blog post on the latest shinny new object. In this podcast we take a break from the immediate urgent and important concerns of our close circle to focus on the long-term implications of social media. Those things that we avoid talking about because they have little material gain, they deal with part of the population that we avoid, or the mere raising of the issue makes you a “social party pooper”. At the risk of being unfollowed and defriended, we’ll talk about issues of the digital divide being created, the lack of understanding being created by like-minded filters, and the little idiosyncrasies being created by new social norms (this includes multitasking at meetings, taking a call in the middle of an in-person conversation, and increasing custom of taking pictures of your food)

Our guest on this episode of the Marketing Edge podcast is educational researcher Christine Greenhow, who currently serves as the research collaborative chair of the Social Networks Research and Collaborative at the University of Minnesota. The collaborative is an interdisciplinary look at the uses of social media in society. Greenhow is joined by several other academic colleagues including, Susan Walker Associate Professor of Family, Youth and Community in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Minnesota, Joan Hughes is an Associate Professor of Instructional Technology at the University of Texas at Austin, and Loren Terveen is Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Minnesota, among others.

The work of the collaborative is focused on adoption of social media, how networks are forming and how all populations are using or not using social media. The collaborative’s work and events are available at www.socialnetresearch.org

I have the good fortune of being on Greenhow’s mailing list which delivered me an invitation to a presentation last week by Lee Rainie the director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project on the rise of the Social Networked Individual.

According to Rainie a recent Pew study showed 53% of online adults use social networks and 73% of online teems use them. Slides from Rainie’s presentation highlight the growing use of social networks and the questions of raised by potential isolation from a broader body of information and contacts, the golden age of the amateur expert, and the state of partial attention created by the increase of information inputs in our daily lives.

Are We Addicted to Social Networks

Social networks may not be as mysterious as all this discussion warrants. Some suggest we get a little shot of dopamaine with every text ping or Twitter mention, yooohooo, that explains it.

We are becoming addicted to our social networks which is a self-feeding circle. You stroke it and it stokes you back. A far reaching documentary on our digital behavior and a must-see is the PBS Frontline show called Digital Nation

Things to Think About But You Usually Don’t

• Digital divide because of economic access or privacy concerns
• Topical isolation filtering the broader culture out
• Altruistic facade the ultimate in giving to get
• Displacement of supply and demand economics by an abundance of information

Now that you have a forum to talk about these issues, which gives you the greatest concern about the future adoption of social media?

I attended a Tweet up last week in Wichita, KS on our way down to South by Southwest. We talked about the integration of social media in mobile devices, including downloadable applications, using the mobile web to check online e-tailer prices while at a home town merchant, or making social streams from Twitter, Facebook and other networks part of your mobile home page as the Motorola DEVOUR with MOTOBLUR. An interesting take from a couple of folks was that local merchants can monitor the web for the lowest prices online for similar products that they carry in the local store, then be active with the local community online and those merchants will be able to charge the premium while building customer and community loyalty.

Another issue the Wichita covered was about how consumers are being marketers for brands. After all that’s the attraction of social media for many big brands, have customers do with credibility what marketers have tried for years.
Wichita Tweet Up Mobile Apps and SxSw

Wichita, KS Tweet Up, March 12 from Albert Maruggi on Vimeo.

We raised the case of TGIF’s Friday’s integrated campaign to get 500,000 fans in the month of September for their number one fan/spokesperson Woody on Facebook. If you became a fan everyone would benefit with a free Jack Daniels burger. Woody quickly met his goal of 500,000 fans by mid-September, presenting a problem of what to do with the remaining two weeks, and the ad buy. After the grumbling began online they doubled Woody’s free burger allotment to 1 million.

Tom Shaw writer of the Marketing Executive blog estimates that if 50% of the 500,000 fans bring one person who buys a meal and a drink, it will generate up to $5 million in sales.

We put the question of marketing to your network and the Woody’s example to the Wichita group and the feedback was mixed. Some bought into the idea, if they liked a product they would share it with their network, others took a case by case approach, perhaps sharing with only a portion of their fan/friend/follower base, while others shrugged it off as part of the new dynamic of social media. Give a listen to the video. Apologies for some of the side conversation going on in the background.

We met at the Donut Whole, a fantastic place with outrageous donut flavors like bacon maple and chocolate cheese cake. I’m told by one of the employees that one of the secrets is the fresh spices purchased from a local importer. The donuts are worth the trip even from Minneapolis!

Special thanks to Cindy Kelly @wichitacindy for helping organize the Tweet up. I’ll donate a food item to a St. Paul, MN food charity for every comment we get on this blog.

Coverage of the road trip and South by Southwest was supported by Verizon Wireless.

This is not a plug or some third party affiliate cheer. I’m not one for the making money on the Internet crowd because those that scream that the loudest are old century thinkers in a new century world. Boo Hiss.

I just signed up for The Third Tribe at the early adopter rate because I view many of the individuals behind the program as rethinking the role of economics in an information society. My first peak under the members’ hood on The Third Tribe does reveal some aspects of making money online. Affiliate marketing is part of this I realize and perhaps I need to have a different perspective on it. However, the greater value of the information, seminars and forums of The Third Tribe is the new perspective of how economics are changing. It’s the hands on version of the Free Economy with substance, innovation, and creativity. In fact, in the first audio conversation, Sonia Simone and Johnny B Truant take on the “Internet Hawkers” and the world of make believe money. That’s the kind of candor that I enjoy about the substantive people on The Third Tribe and many of the other people I follow on Twitter et. al.

Other contributors to The Third Tribe I respect for their work, Darren Rowse of Problogger, Brian Clark of Copyblogger, and Hugh MacLeod among others which is another reason I want to see what’s going on in this Tribe. Their views about how communities are formed, how new tools are helping companies become social and not just use social tactics, and how value is established in a world with instant access to information and millions of content contributors instead of dozens of information gate keepers.

I also became a member because some of these ideas may have application to clients. It might not be applicable to me, but from what I’m listening to now regarding SEO and search tactics, this is something anyone in the consulting business needs to be aware of to address client challenges. It’s also another network of function experts to potentially be a member of an ad hoc project team.

Lastly, it’s a monthly pricing model that you can cancel at anytime. Today’s the last day for the “early adopters” pricing, $27/month. The way I look at it, the producers of The Third Tribe including Chris Brogan have given the community, our community, years of free information, this is a maturing of our value economy where we acknowledge valuable information with a form of currency beyond the Retweet.

Time 37:29

Make no excuses, only make decisions. That’s the quote I’ve come up with as a result of talking to our Marketing Edge Podcast guest Laura Fitton. Fitton is known to many by Pistachio, the name of her consulting firm and what she uses on Twitter. Fitton was in a pressure situation, mother of two young toddlers, going through a divorce, yet the desire to pursue her passion was so strong, and the network of innovators in social media was so supportive, that Fitton’s passion became a reality.

This podcast will cover two areas, the first is about how social media is providing a channel for entrepreneurial innovation. There are plenty of low cost or free tools to test your ideas, build a digital presence, and connect with networks that can be supportive. Fitton proves this statement and we chat about the tactics and principles of other social media business pioneers Liz Strauss and Gary Vaynerchuk who have been beacons for many in this the social media era. Vaynerchuk is also a passionate Jets fan so he is excited at least for another week. Go Jets.

The key bullets on pursuing your passion that I have identified are:

• Persistence
• Timing
• Vision
• Network

At first for Fitton, that passionate reality was a consulting practice focused on Twitter for business, today it has grown into a community platform for Twitter applications. You can participate in it at www.oneforty.com a community that supports, discovers, and exchanges information about Twitter applications. OK, the short description is, Oneforty, a Twitter app store and here is my Twitter App profile so far.

It’s a great resource for corporate marketers, social media and PR decision makers to quickly identify applications that may be a solution for your challenges. It’s also great for anyone, on Twitter or not, to explore the concept of real time, mobile information. The website lets you see what people are using Twitter for, stupid or not. Remember, beauty and stupidity are in the eye of the beholder. Oneforty incorporates crowd sourcing of those using Twitter apps and supports the Twitter application developer community.

Oneforty is developer friendly. Starting January 12 developers will be able to sell their applications on Oneforty and Oneforty will pick up the PayPal fee for donations made through the Oneforty site, and the developer will get the full donation. This is one way Oneforty demonstrates their support for the Twitter developer community.

Give this Marketing Edge Podcast a listen for inspiration to pursue your passion or discover the latest Twitter applications. Is there a passion you are hiding? Shine a light on it this year.

Time 16:43

About 15 years ago at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium, I saw a guy wearing a T-shirt with the following slogan – It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You – Right there and then I thought “That’s it, that’s marketing.”

All the other words on this blog help address that single slogan. Chuck Hester, communications director of iContact, a large email solutions provider, and nationally recognized Linkedin expert is the guest on this Marketing Edge podcast Hester is as good as it gets about living the slogan It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You. He has more than 6000 contacts on LinkedIn, and they all know him.

Hester lives and breathes the principles of social networking, among them:

1. Giving to the community
2. Introducing people
3. Proactively listening to others (Chuck will never eat alone at any of the hundreds of conferences and meetings he attends)
4. Always willing to help

This simple philosophy, the Pay it Forward philosophy, helps him in all aspects of his life. Yes that includes business relationships, leads and contacts. Is there a quantifiable return on this investment? Sure there is, and those that are really good with numbers can fascinate themselves with all kinds of formulas and algorithms to achieve their desired result. Hester prefers to focus on the relationships, when you do that, everything falls into place.

It’s a wonderful story not just appropriate during Christmas. In this episode of the Marketing Edge podcast on social media, Hester highlights the Pay It Forward approach in social media and in the physical world. His LinkedIn profile is his window to others and visa versa, He created a physical world networking format called LinkedIn Live which celebrated its first anniversary in 2008. We recorded this conversation this summer.

Hester is working on a book due out in the first quarter of 2009,about his philosophy for using LinkedIn. Keep an eye out for the Pay it Forward Chronicles (working Title) We’ll have Hester back when the book is out.

What Are Your Thoughts? Send us your thoughts on how you use LinkedIn or how you get others to Know You. Every comment on the blog or voice mails left on our comment line 206-600-6887 will provide a food item to a local St. Paul, MN food shelf.

On Monday, December 29 drop by the office of Provident Partners to celebrate my 50th birthday, from 12:30pm – 2:30pm at 790 Cleveland Avenue South, Suite 221 St. Paul, MN – hope to see our twin cities listeners if you have time.

Time 23:42

It’s nutty, plenty of companies are running around trying to figure out social media. The answer and examples are right under your nose. It dawned on me while watching Jeff Pulver go through his networking techniques at a recent social media breakfast in Minneapolis.

This conversation shows companies how to approach social media from a perspective that many sales people have practiced in their professional communities for decades, one relationship at a time. I use sales only to get the attention here of many marketers, sales people and decision makers because these days there is a premium on getting sales, but as my colleagues know, social media goes well beyond a sale.

Pulver, employs interesting networking techniques during his sessions that would do any Rotary member proud. I use the Rotary example because this is an organization tied to both a business networking group that also has a history of giving back to its local community, a critical concept of social media.

Using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and others to promote his events, and tapping that group to invite others who are not using social media. Pulver creates a meeting of the digital and physical worlds.


Jeff Pulver @ SMBMSP from Albert Maruggi on Vimeo.

Years ago Pulver wrote “the more digital we become the more need for face-to-face meetings.” His perspective is grounded in good old fashion interpersonal communications and you may say borrow from the work of sociologist Henri Tajfel who is noted for his work in social identity and minimal groups experiments.

It is the kind activity that is at the heart of every good salesperson, every productive chamber of commerce, and every professional association worth their salt to their members. It is about people and their willingness to participate with each other.

People who are neck deep in social media tend to get a little over the top about technology, and new applications, mashups etc, etc, etc, and can loose the essence of what all these tools are supposed to do, make it easier to meet other people, period. It is a foundation to share stories, pass on interesting information that will help people do something, like find the right product, get better healthcare, enjoy a new restaurant, improve their job performance, and the list is endless.

Pulver’s sessions are a must for both social media geek and the person that still carries around a Day Runner paper planner. Both have more in common than you might think.

Apologies for the long headline, but that quote from Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation at Procter & Gamble Co, will go down as one of the greatest business quotes of all time. He said it in a recent speech where he questioned whether marketers have a place in social media. He doesn’t even like the words social media!

I admire McConnell for his position and longevity at Procter & Gamble, one of the most successful companies in the world. So I hope he doesn’t mind if I take his quote and place it in a slightly different medium just for the irony of it. P & G made an entire category of deriving money from real estate dedicated to men and women breaking up, the soap opera. GL baby, Guiding Light and its super couple Reva and Josh, known in web circles as Jeva If there is a way to monetize the continuing saga of emotional discovery, P&G can find it.

More Movement Than Market

Here I go again with this movement idea, but McConnell’s perspective supports this concept, social networks are more a movement of communities, than a marketplace for your stuff. A movement to connect, a movement to share, a movement to change – albeit in many of these movements there may be occasion to purchase something, and surely everyone in these movements is a consumer of something. I contend, and perhaps if I’m interpreting his words correctly that McConnell may agree, that social networks are a unique breed of communication. He is quoted in Ad Age “I think when we call it ‘consumer-generated media,’ we’re being predatory,” he said. “Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

His words underscore what many in social media (ok networks) have said, for a company to be in the social space it requires a cultural change at the corporate level. To benefit from social networks is to be a part of it, not an intrusion in it. The prerequisite of admission is to be truthful, candor helps, to give in the spirit of community growth not corporate gain, and to recognize that being social is a two-way communication. So be prepared to change a few things based on what you hear. P&G’s main rival, Unilever produced one of the text book examples of social media at its finest, Dove Evolution

Given his perspective then, it makes sense that when Comcastcares on Twitter aka Frank Eliason, responds to a customer, it is from an empathic user who may have suffered the same frustrations.

Is Business Week reporter Steven Baker active on social media (podcasting, blogging, & twitter) because he doesn’t have enough press releases to read? No, it’s because he is curious what he may be missing, excited about the new answers he’ll get on his blog that, had it not been for these relationship creating channels, he would have never known, and I would have probably not been quoted in Business Week.

Is Guy Kawasaki blown away by Twitter just to sell books? No, and while people do learn of his books on social channels like Twitter, they come to know him through by interacting with him. That’s what blows him away about Twitter. I know this from listening to him on a teleseminar yesterday, that I learned about from social media. Imagine that.

Coincidently, a few weeks ago, I was involved in a Twitter conversation with Kawasaki and a couple of other folks. It was about the economy, plus I had a surgery that week so it was an anxious time which must have been evident in my posts. Kawasaki sent a direct message to cheer me up (thanks Guy). There is a person that need not reach out at all. His physical world circle of friends must have been large enough to keep him busy, entertained, and enlightened. You see, but there is always more, more ideas, more debate, more risks, failures, and successes. That is the joy that is social whatever the noun you give it, technology makes being social that much easier. Is there money in that? Well, I did buy Kawasaki’s book Reality Check.

OK, I’ll admit it, I’m a freak for RVs. All kinds, Class A, Class C, even conversion vans have a soft spot in my heart. Maybe it’s because of the feeling of freedom I get on the open road, or the sheer comfort of some of these beautiful home away from home on wheels.

Today I spent sometime with total strangers, yet they were as friendly as my next door neighbors. A couple of my kids and I went to the Family Motor Coach Association www.FMCA.com convention held in St. Paul, MN at the state fairgrounds. There were thousands of homes, I mean vehicles, er, OK both in the parking lot. As quick as it took us to find a parking spot we also found new friends, a family from Pennsylvania, then another gentleman from Oregon and more and more from all over the country.

It struck me as we walked up and down the rows of motor coaches counting the different license plates, that we were standing in the middle of a very large, very diverse social network.

What are the some of the elements of a successful social network,

1. 1) similar interests
2. 2) some what complex or shall I say comprehensive information topics which stimulate knowledge sharing and interaction
3. 3) individual experiences that provide value to the greater group
4. 4) ample amount of potential user generated content

It’s all here at the FMCA conference. They have workshops from navigation to needlepoint, from microwave cooking to maintenance on generators. Yup, it’s a smorgasbord of information, ideas, people and stories.

Given all these ingredients it is a natural for RV social networks to flourish online. RV.net - the official blog of the open road is a winner, RV Travel.com , and RV There Yet has a great mash up with Google maps and a variety of RV location needs including, campgrounds, RV dumps, and Starbucks, (there will be less of those around).

Yet, I believe there is plenty of room for more RV social networks, perhaps built around the sub networks present in the RV community by either geography or motorcoach brand. There are also so many events, and rallies as the community calls them, that user generated content is a natural.

The beauty of this community is their love of meeting others. I had the pleasure of speaking with John Breisch, President of the Penn Coachmen, a group of motorhome enthusiasts in eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey. You can hear the joy in his voice of being a part of this “on the go” community that’s also happy spending a few days just sitting still and visiting. A conversation about the RV community with John Breisch One way to find dynamic social networks, look for people that enjoy people.

Time 13:37

I spoke on a panel last week at the Bulldog Reporter Media Relations Summit in San Francisco. This trip was a great exchange of ideas with many early adopters and PR and marketing practitioners. This podcast we’ll highlight two ah ha moments with two leaders in social media, Gina Bianchini, CEO and co-founder of Ning, and Robert Scoble world renown blogger and managing director of Fast Company TV.

During a keynote session at the conference with Robert Scoble, I realized how new social media is for the majority of communication professionals. He asked how many people are familiar with Twitter and about 20 percent of the room of 600 (that might be generous) raised their hand. Then, on the fly he connected to the web, and took the audience on a journey of relationship building and technology that demonstrated how time and distance simply no longer matter in how individuals communicate. He highlighted Twitter, Tweetscan,(if memory serves me right) FriendFeed, Twittervision, and QIK.

After his keynote and panel, Scoble and I spent time talking about information overload and how to avoid that overwhelmed feeling people get when they see Twitter for the first time. His response surprised me because it wasn’t a technology solution. He uses a tactic called attention management with attribution to Linda Stone This is clearly different than time management and Scoble in our interview takes it to a logical conclusion about focusing on what’s important to you.

Test One

I applied this logic to how companies should evaluate Twitter as a communication tool and determined that the first place to undertake that evaluation is not Twitter at all but Tweetscan. This “google-like” search engine for Twitter posts will give a snapshot of whether the keywords important to your company are also important to any of the million plus users of Twitter. My suggestion, do 10 separate searches of keywords that are relevant to you, your company, profession, or industry.

For example, a search for Kimberly Clark revealed several tweets among them a blog post about CIO Ramon Baez, a representative from Mom Central tweeted that she was meeting with Kimberly Clark marketing folks in Appleton Wisconsin, links to a news release about the Boys and Girls clubs of America and Kimberly Clark, a tweet about drug testing for an employee candidate, and last but not least, this post – Llega info del Programa “Comienzos Compartidos” que realizan Kimberly Clark Argentina y la Fundación Leer, en San Luis y Quilmes. Twitter has a million people around the world so the post in Spanish was made by this Twitter user http://twitter.com/rseonline – I don’t speak Spanish so the translation is up to you.

My point is, searching Tweetscan before you going into Twitter allows you to focus on what is important to you before jumping into the raging river of Twitter. Once you know what is in the water, it makes the ride more productive.
.

Test Two

I also traveled south from San Francisco to Palo Alto and the home of the social network company Ning. Ning is a web-based platform people, organizations, and companies use to build social networks that can be public (open to anyone on the web) or private (only accessible to those you invite). There I had a delightful conversation with CEO and co-founder Gina Bianchini about the value of a social network. This discussion was enlightening because Gina peeled away the current fashionable lexicon of “social media” and Web 2.0, to describe the core value of people communicating on a network.

In this case, the issue is creating a place, (specifically a Ning based website) where a group of people focused on, and responsible for, an objective can share ideas. It’s just a place to get things done and in most cases improve, which is the result of sharing ideas. Those ideas can come in the form of words, audio, video, images, dialogue, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. All of these formats can be shared on Ning.

As you’ll hear in Gina’s comments in this podcast, Ning found tremendous benefit in a forum called Ning Network Creators which is comprised of many customers using Ning’s platform to create sites that facilitate communication among group members. It’s kind of like communicators talking about how better to communicate, yeah that works for me. To get to these Ning based sites you’ll need to register with Ning in a simple form, well worth the tour of social networks. There are about 250,000 networks on Ning now and growing.

My observation here and in dealing with many company executives is that perhaps the word social, as in social network, throws off corporate executives as to the business value of such networks. I mean social may inadvertently imply to them not business. My suggestion, lose the term social, and build a quick “business communication website” for a focused project, say a sales meeting, product launch or customer feedback forum over a specific time period. Get a small group of team members to buy in to the concept and use the platform.

Using this space created at no cost on Ning will allow you to test the waters of social networking. If that is a bit too ambitious, then here’s the next best thing, explore this type of forum in the Provident Partners Sandbox. It is a private network, private meaning I have to invite you to join so that only listeners of the Marketing Edge podcast or readers of this blog are in the Sandbox. We created it as a place to ask any questions you like, upload videos, images, post blogs, just come on in and experiment. It will give you a first hand look at a business communication platform with little effort. Then your imagination will lead you to the ways this type of communication platform can be applied in your own world of business or “social” objectives. Just email me at marketingedge@providentpartners.net with Sandbox in the subject line.

Upcoming Events

Take a look at the NewComm Forum conference agenda. It’s a comprehensive three days where you can get detailed answers to our questions about all types of social media, as well as integrating into a mix of other marketing tactics. This conference covers a spectrum of uses in the corporate, profit, and government arenas.

Marketing Edge Book Drawing

The book we are giving away in May will be The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott. Send me an email to marketingedge@providentpartners.net with New Rules in the subject line.