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The Social Networker

Covering all things in the Social Software industry and networks


This blog has finally migrated to a new site!!October 26 2009
If you happen to see this update, then you are missing the new site, postings and features since you aren't using the Feedburner feed!  The new blog is located at:
http://blog.thesocialnetworker.com

All of the archives will be available here, forever.  So have no fear.  Searching will cover both sites also.  The podcast subscription will be redirected so no changes are required there either!

So head on over to the new site , sign up for the monthly newsletter and just say hello.




Live Blogging: Building and Managing an Online Community #smbfOctober 23 2009
There are four aspects they will cover in this session.  Ryan Boyles of IBM, Patrick O'Keefe of ifroggy and Laurie Smithwick of Kirtsy on the panel.
  • Roles - a challenge of who own what part.  How do you identify the community editor? What is the community site content?  Are there content experts?  Community managers help steer communities toward specific topics (Laurie).  Choosing the manager is based on quality and attitude - not quantity.
  • Community structure - guidelines, rules and what people will find at the site.  What is expected at the site itself?  Communities form in response to gaps in needs.  Communities need a seed of content to grow.
  • Community Participation and Cultivation - Love your readers. Even if you only have 3 readers.  How can you highlight people? Member of the month?  Interviews? Awards? Incentives?  Know that each community is unique and has different needs.  Talk to them to foster communication and collaboration.
  • Community Monetization - Monetize the traffic itself or indirect by selling product through the community.  Affiliate links, ads and more are direct.

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Commentary - one thing I noticed is that Ryan talked much about the community and being able to see everything without logging in.  I was curious what site he was talking about for quite a while.  Yes the for


Live Blogging: Business Blogging Best Practices #smbfOctober 23 2009
Today is the Social Media Business Forum down in Durham, NC.  There are 3 tracks (I am speaking in one) but I wanted to see this session.

Jeff Cohen, DJ Waldow (BlueSky) and Alison Bolen were the panelists.  All have business blogs and assist companies with business blogging.  The majority of the room have company blogs and many of them are the company bloggers.

If one of your approaches to blogging is answering questions people often ask, it becomes high search results since people are asking those questions.  A great way to build visibility to your blog.

Who should blog is the next topic that came up.  You learn the voice of who is writing.  Is the top CEO the best choice?  If they have a good voice.  Having PR write as someone else is often transparent.  If the person you want to write is not capable, don't cheat the readers.  Have someone else write it.  Someone that is passionate about the brand.  If someone leaves a comment, they would expect it from the person "writing" the blog.  Not the PR person ghost writing.





TheSocialGeeks Episode 22 - Jermaine Dupri interview at #bwe09October 19 2009
While at BlogWorldExpo, Wayne Sutton and myself had the chance to talk to Jermaine Dupri (music producer, rapper, founder of SoSoDef and more) about his movements into social media.  He provides some great insight how record companies, artists and himself can benefit with the use of social media.  I also dig into his branding and his blog, YouTube and Twitter work.

I personally have followed JD since his beginnings and watching the growth of a label, brand and, well, empire is amazing.  Finally getting a chance to ask about his understanding of how these changes in media relate to his philosophy on the future was met with very candid responses.  Exactly what I would expect.

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Live blogging: Blogging Superpanel Live Reviews of Your BlogOctober 17 2009
Now this is a scary, honest and eye opening session.  People in the audience stand up at the microphone, give their blog address and take some critique and helpful comments from some of the top people like CopyBlogger, Super Affiliate, John Chow and ProBlogger.

Here is comments on the blogs as they were critiqued:
  • expect two years before you see money return of your blog
  • don't take the small money now and give up the big money later
  • the more you tell the more you sell
  • get users to subscribe to newsletters and register
  • breaking the million page views a month mark helps get you into money, like $10k month to advertisers