Within the turmoil created from the ever changing the social spaces are making online more people in business seemed to forget how social networking now works. 

As a reminder, here is a Cheat Sheet for people in business to use if they want to develop more business deals online.

Rules for Business Social Networking:

1. Be social!
2. Repeat Rule #1  

There definitely has been a change in developing business through online social networking.  Getting in someone’s face during a social event trying to pitch  a deal does not work Offline, why would anyone think it would work Online.  That offline fast-pitch mentality seems to be growing online and all it is doing is running good people out of the social spaces.  A person can get away from the sales pitch offline, but online it seems there is no getting away from those who just post none stop promotions.  The clog up the streams to a point all is becoming Spam.

These people who are leaving the social spaces out of disgusted are consumers for a large number of industries.  When someone runs others out of the social space it hurts all the rest of the businesses and business people who understand how social networking really works.  Something really should be done to educate these people on how social networking and the social media used online has changed.

Not of the new ways of social networking for business has much to do with SEO or black hat internet marketing.  It has everything to do with being SOCIAL!

Not too many of the big box social media firms will agree being social for business development works but gathering up hordes of followers, friends or contacts is so 2009 and as the studies are showing that method does not work as well as putting a social face on the brand.

In an effort to help stop this madness here is what is developing out to be the real things a business..of any size… needs to do if they are after being successful in the social space online.  If you are in business this should be your outline to change.

The Social  Network Matrix for Online Business Development:

• Have a Plan that places being Social first and less emphasis on selling
• Dedicate an individual or group of individuals to reach out to the consumers in a social manor
• Place focus on being personable
• Show the face of the person speaking for the brand, not the logo.
• Post compelling content that is not a sale pitch
• Push interest to the business websites where a compelling design does the business’ selling
• Post links to the company blog
• Build a quality community of people who have been won over by the business’ social efforts
• Personally invite people to a ‘HangOut’ (video chats on Google+)
• Show a diverse interest in other things than the business’ product or service
• Be part of the community not a town crier
• Be witty, humor and fun going
• Find a social space that offers expanded reach outside of the social platform and then make it the business’ Social Home
• Be Patient

Try these out and don’t forget..Be Social!  Let me know how I can help.

Since it launched last summer Google Plus has been somewhat of a mystery to many people.  What confuses them the most is not Google Plus as a whole or how it works, but finding out that the game of social networking has changed.  I take it from the many people placing me in their G+ circle that most of them did not get that memo about the change.  There are still millions out there who still feel developing fake popularity is part of social networking.  Boy, are they in for a rude awakening.

As little as a few months ago achieving fakedom was the drive for most people in the social spaces.  It was the primary part of the game many played to develop a large community of anything that generates a social profile.  The feeling most people had was the need to be popular.  This feeling was also mixed by their need, or in some cases their requirement, to have a large base of Things to broadcast to their promotions.  Their feeling of worthiness in the social space was based on the number of people they had in their Following.  If someone had few followers they were marked as a loser, millions of followers they were a Rock Star.

At the beginning of last year this act in futility was starting to fall a part as people started finally seeing that nobody in their very large community was listening.  Report after report was coming in from everywhere that people were just fed up with the constant pounding of self promoters and spam and just walked off leaving millions of inactive profiles.  Even the celebrities of the social spaces who were getting hundreds of comments to each of their posts were seeing it not accomplishing their goal or being fulfilling to their personal or professional needs.  A dark shadow was falling over the entire social networking arena all because the lack of trust was building in the core base of people using the social spaces.  Most had given up that there were actually any real people left to interact with.

Google Antis Up

So in walks Google, the master of the internet, the lord of supreme knowledge and senior of all internet icons, to pull up a chair to the table where the high stakes game of Social Platforms and anteed up to play by laying on the table their crown jewel..Google Plus.  Pokerface is not how I would describe Facebook’s and Twitter’s reaction to Google stepping into their little high stakes money game.  I envision the expression would be more of a look of them feeling nauseated knowing the big dog finally has entered the playground.  This move Google made less than a year ago the game of social networking changed.

The game of gathering up thousands of people to fulfill whatever need also stopped.  The rules of quantity over quality changed and all of this came at the perfect time.

G+ started off a little rocky and made changes to allow people use fake names that will probably bite them in the butt, but over all the game of social networking on G+ is much more real.  Yes, you can still go into G+ and start accumulating hundreds of people to put in your circle.  What that will get you is nowhere because those people in the circle can’t see anything you do until they put you in their circle.  Are they going to put someone who has thousands of followers in their circle?  Well that is where the game has changed.

Lesser is Cooler

More than likely a person with any intelligence is going to see quickly someone who all of the sudden entered G+ with several thousands people is probably up to something..mostly no good.  The game now is who to put in your circle since who you put in your circle is who you want to see what they offer.  What you have to offer is what is going to get people to want to put you into their circle.  If you have nothing to offer, look like you have nothing to offer or giving off any smell that you having nothing to offer you are not going to be put into anyone circle other than those who also having nothing of value to offer.

Google Plus offers up a real simple game now and it being accepted by more and more professionals, businesses as well as the regular social butterflies.  Yes, G+ has a way to go to get things ironed out so it is more visually appealing and easier to use, but the concept is outstanding.  The game is not really a game anymore.  It is the direction Social Networking is heading which will at the same time change how social media will be used.

It’s all about social now people.  Google holds a solid hand and is set to be a spoiler for the social spaces who are still playing the numbers game.  When you get social, you get real.

Let me know how I can help.

It has been over eight months now since Google launched it’s social network… Google Plus.  I am glad I was amongst the few who were invited in to be part of the first wave of people to use the platform.   I can say without a doubt..I have seen it all and Google is onto something with Google Plus.

A lot of what I saw at the beginning of G+ reminded me of the other pre-launch review groups I was in. I was in the beta review for Twitter, I was allowed into Facebook before it was open to the public.  So, Yes..I have seen it all..over and over and over. 

For the past half year I have averaged 10 hours a day seven days a week on the G+ platform.  Maybe saying I have seen it all is an understatement.

WHY?

The question I am asked most by those who do not use G+, or don’t like it, is…WHY?  Yes, that is a big question if you look at all the ways it can be used.

Why do you waste your time? 

Why are you not on Facebook with the rest of the Real World? 

Why are you bothering using G+ when the masses have not accepted it as a social network?

Does it get old to hear these questions asked over and over?  Yes! However, validating the answers I give to the questions keeps me digging in to testing the Google Plus platform to make sure I am  NOT wasting my time and lessening my professional image.  So far, all the testing substantiates my investment in my time spent.

Fullfilling Interactions

I am just blown away with how much more supportive the G+ community is and how fast I was able to organically grow my community.  I will also add, I have not played any games to accumulate the community.

I am unlike many others who feel they need to validate their existence as the most popular person on the face of the planet by gathering up anything and anyone to be in their community.  Matter of fact, I have flushed my Circles on G+ three times now to get to the number of real people I have in my circles today.

I have tested several times on several platforms to see if in fact having a trillion people in my circles produced anything of value and it did not.

Testing

Just like the tests I have done on Facebook and Twitter, having a large number of people in my following (at one point over 10k) required me to spend a large amount of time adjusting the platform settings to keep the knuckleheads of the world out of my streams.  This is also the same results many of the businesses report finding.

Since the end of last year I have built, what I am finding to be, a very robust G+ community of Real People who know the benefits of social networking and have come to G+ to get away from the relentless pounding of irrelevant posts.  The lack of interaction with anyone in those other social spaces has also been brought up as why many people give up on other communities.

At first I was startled with the high volume of  interaction amongst the users of G+.  It was strange to be able to post a question in a social space and actually get an answer.  That rarely happened on Facebook or Twitter any of the test I preformed.

It also is refreshing to hear from people contacting me on G+ who actually are interested in discussing doing business. It also was exciting to know they found me through their Google Search.

Paralleling Results

Of course my review of G+ went along with parallel testing of the other social spaces.  I would post the exact content in G+, Facebook and Twitter both under my name and several test accounts I created (yes, I am not the only one who uses trumped up accounts to do testing of content. Why do you think FB and Twitter have so many users?) to make sure the responses were not made out of people personally knowing me.

The results clearly showed the interaction, quality of remarks and responses weighed heavily in G+ favor on all accounts.

I have used all of the social spaces in many different ways.  Over the years I have had thousands of Friends on Facebook, even more Followers on Twitter.  I played the Social Butterfly, the Linkster, the Quoter, the Video maven, the Blogging machine and many other characters.  I use this same method of testing in my offline efforts as well to see how people react to different personalities.

Social World

As you see, I have actually spent the time to find out what works and what does not.  Yes, that is a lot of time socializing, but it has paid off.  The world of social networking is finally stepping out of the fog of lackluster internet marketing and into becoming what it was intended to be..Social.

I understand many other people feel they are getting positive results using other less social methods of social media.  Many marketers don’t care about the social space or people in it, they just want the people in them to buy.  Many more businesses and individual still want to hang on to the thought that if they have tens of thousands of users connected to their account they will get at least one sale.  To all that I can only wonder how much more productive everyone would be if they were just more sociable to fewer person, places and things.

I also understand many businesses and business people don’t have or want to spend the time I spend online to get the results I get.  I hear them loud and clear and is why while I am in the process between projects and writing another book I took the time to test what works in hopes what I find will prove to businesses and business people they need to be more social.  They need to find the time it takes to adjust to the change in the way business is being done today.

More Social World

The world of social networking is full of different people with different attitudes and who have different missions in life.  Many people feel more secure when they think tens of thousands of people are listening to them.  The tests are showing it takes a lot of energy to maintain a large volume of friends, followers or users.  Wouldn’t it be easier to know everyone in your reach and know they care about what you say or offer?

Google has been sitting back for sometime now looking at how the ‘Bookers’ and ‘Tweeters’ are going after making a lot of noise just to be seen.  I like how Google has walked softly into the social space carrying a big stick and without a multimillion dollar trumped-up extravaganza launch at SXSW snuck in an opened a social space that is as solid as they come.

So my question back to those who still feel wearing rose colored glasses while wailing away their time on Facebook and Twitter is going to stop those sites from bleeding to death is….would I spend this much time and effort to test out G+ if there was not something productive with this platform?  I think you know the answer to that.

Let me know how I can help.

It seems I have been around the world with this issue with businesses only being interested in managing one Social Network.  As I can see their logic in how the economy is forcing them to quit using the shotgun effect of marketing online I have to wonder if there ever will be a single social network.

I am sure as more and more businesses start evaluating where they are getting the most sales from they will quickly jump to the conclusion they only need to be in that one space. I am sure many in the Digital Strategy industry will disagree with them on focusing on just one space.

However, I see in the near future businesses who advertise heavily on a social network to start pulling out of less productive social spaces because that space is not working and/or they are finding another one is working better. This move of revenue from one site to another will eventually level out the playing field in the social spaces.  This move to a more productive online environment could very quickly sift out to there really only being one place to go to find value these businesses are demanding.

In reality..these social networks..Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter and the multitudes of others..are only out for the money, not the people in the network. They are going to go where the money goes or change to keep the money.

Which network will it be the site of preference?  Can we tell today?  What do the social spaces have to do to keep the businesses who write them the big checks each month? How will the people in the special spaces react?

All these questions are being asked. I wonder if the social networks are listening? I would say they better be.

I have always been very concerned with how open online social networking can be and have been vocal on how using location based social platforms like Foursquare send out more info to more people than most people realize.

In a recent article posted in the Dallas Morning News: Leave Facebook at Home, the Dallas police warn people on posting in their social spaces information about them being on vacation.

I agree. Since the criminal element is now becoming even more tech savvy and social friendly than ever before and more reports are coming out on how what someone posts in their social network..Face, Twitter and others…was how the criminal used to find out someone was not at home or locating their whereabouts.

There have been reports from all over the world on how Foursquare has served as a radar system for burglars and muggers.  It simply is amazing how so many people completely disregard their personal safety in an effort to gain influence or win a prize.

The world has changed in so many ways.  Now you can’t go on vacation and enjoy it with friends afar without worrying who else is enjoying your absence.

Let’s be safe out there over Spring Break and let me know how I can help.

Have you ever done a Google Search for the phrase..What is social networking?  Really?!?!  Have you? 

Of course you are going to get the site whatissocianetworking.com…duh!  But really if you look further there is not very many attempts to define what social networking really is…or is not!  Outside of me trying of course.

I have been around the block a few times with social networking having created three social networks over the past ten years.  Two online and one offline.  I think I have a pretty good handle on what social networking is and really now have a firm grip on what it is not.  But, for this blog I thought I would just make a brief statement on what Social Networking is with a focus towards the online environment.

Social Networking really is what it says it is…social …networking.   Meaning people…not places or things…socializing in a group…not by themselves or as singularity.  Pretty simple isn’t it?

Now I am sure here would be where a classic Rant on asking why people are not using the social spaces for social networking, but I would rather spend these last few words expanding on what social networking really is in an effort to maybe be of more help to those who see being non-social as being social.

In the daily review I make of the social spaces, that are really social spaces, I am seeing more and more people who obviously do not know how to socialize.  I have concluded in many cases the lack of socialization for many is not because they do not know how to social but is purely driven by global economic temptation of selling or marketing to perceived large numbers of people captured in one place.  This temptation is overwhelming to most.  I see all kinds of attempts to commercialize the space where social media should be used instead. 

I see more unsocial behavior leading me to strongly believe there are a very large number of people split up into two groups..Those who don’t care to be social and those who do not know how to be social online, which is more than likely reflective of them also not knowing how to be social offline.  This results in there being just a dribble of relevant social content being seen over the steady stream of non-social content.

It is clear more and more people are attempting to redefine social media to drop the social and just be commercial media.  

How To Be Social Online

For those who are tired of reading, the bottomline to being social, in any environment, is in the conversation.   No matter how bad the grammar maybe or how misspelled the words are, the conversation…not a sales pitch..with someone is being social.  Now..for clarity..better grammar and spelling and communicating in the person’s native language makes for a Better Conversation. 

And, for those who are still with me..if the conversation is done effectively, and a number of them held over a long period of time, it Will lead to the opportunity to talk shop, aka, do business!

Let’s get social people. Showing others who you really are is what the consumers want to know, not who you represent or what you have to sell.  Let me know how I can help.