Effective today, I am starting a new social media experiment for the month of April.

For purposes of my business networking and marketing strategy, I am active on four basic social networking sites on a regular basis: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

So, for the month of April, I will only engage with one network at a time…one each week of the month.

The critical lesson I am hoping to learn here?

I worry every day that I am spread too thin… Is splitting time and focus on each of the four networks negatively affecting the impact of the entire network? Will I emerge from April with a decision to eliminate one or more of these networks?

TWO DISCLOSURES: One, I will be monitoring all four key networks in case someone reaches out to me there. So, if a client or prospect directly messages me on one of these networks, I will respond (sorry, but I am not going to ignore a client). And two, when I publish content to the blog, I will distribute it to all four networks, as I’ve done for years.

THE CRITICAL ACTION: The real value, however, in social media, is engaging and conversing with real people. So, in this experiment, I will ONLY engage and interact, talk about stuff, and share content on ONE NETWORK AT A TIME.

Here is order of engagement:

Week 1: LinkedIn
Week 2: Twitter
Week 3: Facebook
Week 4: Google+
[note: this order was established using the "eeney, meeney, miney, mo" strategy]

WHAT I HOPE TO LEARN:

1. To see if increased focus on ONE network dramatically improves the conversation there.

2. Increases connection.

3. Drives significant more traffic from that specific network than usual.

4. At the end of the month, will I decide to eliminate one of these from my ongoing time investment?

5. Will I get better at using the specific apps for each network on the iPhone?

6. What will I learn more about each specific network?

We’ll see.

Look to hear back from me on May 1st. Will be sharing what I learn.

P.S. My apologies in advance if I am less responsive this month. I am not ignoring you, I might just be focusing on a different social network…

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Drawing by Hugh Macleod.

Pinterest is getting a of buzz lately. I finally wrote about it Saturday.

From my unscientific observations, I’ve noticed two basic camps: Those that are claiming it is going to be second only to Facebook and a critical platform for business. And those crapping on it as a waste of time and that you’ll likely go to jail for using it.

[if you don't know what I am talking about, then you are likely in neither camp]

To be frank, this phenomenon occurs when any new social network with some juice happens on the scene. It is becoming a tiresome process. But like our political system, that’s all we know, so it will likely stick around for a while.

This process, and how people react, annoys me. Why? Well, I am always tired of seeing people talk about something, instead of “doing” something about something. I’ve classified these into two camps myself: Winners. And Losers.

LOSERS

1. Losers complain that the new social network is going to take up too much time. “Oh, I don’t have enough time for Twitter and Facebook as it stands, how am I ever going to have time for something new?” My answer? You suck at time management, and need to learn how to use the platforms properly in the first place.

2. Losers complain about functionality. Oh, this pisses me off. First of all, most platforms are FREE. So, until they start charging, I’d stop with the incessant fussing. If you don’t like it, get off your lazy butt and create a social network that you think is perfect. Here is a hint: you can generally mold these platforms into tools designed to serve your purposes. You just aren’t trying.

3. Losers say “my target business audience can’t be found there, so it is NOT worth my time.” Kiss my grits. It is a new social network, so most EVERYONE isn’t exposed to it yet. This statement is code for two things: One, you are lazy. And two, you just don’t want to invest the time to find your audience. When users of a social network number in the millions? There are prospects to be found.

4. Use the platform to spam. Listen kiddo, a new social network is NOT a new platform for you to blast me with your content one-way. Social networks are, well, social. They are designed for conversation and interaction. I mean, every time, the same damn people. As soon as they join, I get hit with their same crap posted on EVERY OTHER network they are a part of.

5. Losers join every new network without giving it any thought. [Especially if, you know, they are a self-proclaimed social media guru.] They immediately join the new network, follow 1,200 people right away (of which they know 47 of them), and start mass bombing. They follow the same people, are followed by the same people, and do EXACTLY the same thing on all networks. [I mean, really, feeding your Twitter stream to LinkedIn. You have a head. Use it.] Losers then complain that social media isn’t driving revenue or meaningful traffic to their site.

WINNERS

1. Winners take a quick look at a new platform, dive in, and check it out. They experiment. They test. And they make a quick judgement about whether it will move the needle for their brand and their business. And, they do this without a lot of fanfare. If they seem to be talking about it, they are not. You see, what you are really seeing is them communicating with real people. This is called conversation. This is how most successful people build their business.

2. Winners use the tools as designed, perhaps make some helpful recommendations, but most importantly, they seek to read and learn how best to utilize the new platform. Losers go straight to their blog and bitch about it…

3. Winners find ways to integrate the new social network (if they deem it worthy) into their existing mix. They understand that each network is different, and serves different purposes, and find the right combination of message and strategy to exact benefit.

4. Winners understand it is a social network, and treat it that way. They see the networking value, not the BROADCASTING value.

5. And some winners decide the new network isn’t for them, and they quietly move on. But you don’t hear about it, because they are busy doing. Or, they are busy learning about yet another new tool that will be used to kick your business ass.

What are you?

###

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[drawing by hugh macleod]

###

I promised myself that I wasn’t going to join the thousands of others writing their Pinterest blog post.

And I do not intend to spend this whole article trying to convince you. And yes, I did write an article not long ago about why I wasn’t going to join the Pinterest fray.

click to enlarge

But I’ve been on the network for about two weeks [you can find me here], as of this writing. And I merely wanted to share with you a few quick observations. And these, in my humble opinion, should inspire you to consider at least exploring Pinterest.

1. After two weeks, it is already driving traffic to my blog. Just four days ago, it ranked as the 23rd best referral source. This morning, it ranked 13th. And, again, this is after just two weeks.

2. More importantly, the bounce rate for visitors referred by Pinterest is MUCH lower than the site average.

3. And even more significant, in my opinion, the average time on site for visitors referred by Pinterest is ELEVEN MINUTES! This goes without saying, but this is WAY higher than the site average.

Three immediate comments:

1. With items 2 and 3, the point is, at least at this point, Pinterest is driving meaningful traffic to my site!

2. These same measurements NEVER occurred when I first joined Google+.

3. I do expect these numbers to normalize over time, but for now, it is very exciting to observe.

As I promised, this isn’t an article meant to teach you how to use Pinterest. But I thought these numbers were worth reporting…in case you had doubts about investing time here.

Full disclosure…I did finally join Pinterest because I had a client that I thought could benefit from the platform. And after two weeks of experimenting, I think this will become a meaningful tool for my client…and all small businesses.

Pinterest is proving to be a great platform to tell your story, and promote your brand promise.

That is, of course, if you use it correctly…

###

[join my merry band of intrepid marketers and learn more about integrating social media into your organization]

Yes, that is the smokin' hot Jake Ryan...

Yes. Tis true. I am not on Pinterest.

Based on what I am observing on my Twitter, Facebook and Google+ streams, I believe I am the only one who has NOT opened an account.

Funny thing is, the Sun still came up this morning.

The world is still turning.

Look, I am not dissing Pinterest. From everything I’ve heard, it sounds like a wicked cool tool.

But hey, I have a business to run. Clients to serve. A book to write. Radio shows to edit and produce. I am a busy guy.

I don’t have time to look at collections of baseball diamonds, glassware, wedding images, cute shmutzy animal pics. Man, I wish I did, but I just don’t.

I am not suggesting there isn’t a business application for Pinterest. If there is any marketing utility to sharing some sort of visual portfolio, then Pinterest might be a cool app for you. And you are an idiot to not check it out and explore it.

But not me.

At least yet.

Why do we act like teenagers succumbing to cliquey pure pressure to simply HAVE TO sign up for the newest thing?

And you know, my simple message here is to say this:

You aren’t a loser if you too aren’t on Pinterest yet. In fact, most of us still suck at effectively utilizing Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Facebook to grow our business, much less new shiny objects like Pinterest.

Why don’t you figure out first how to move the needle with Twitter before you rush to the front of the line and sign-up for the latest toy? Where you are very likely connecting with the same damn people you are connecting with on every other social network…

I remember a guy mocking me because I hadn’t signed up for Quora yet. Well, I did. And I admit, it was a cool space. Very helpful. And I haven’t been there since October.

Focus your time where it moves the needle. And serves clients.

Then, and only then, can Toddy come out to play…

P.S. When I grabbed the screen shot of the Pinterest home page to share on this post, I saw the Jake Ryan image. So, honestly, I may reconsider and get on Pinterest right away. Jake is so damn cute…

###

[isn't it time to join a cool family of intrepid marketers? i say yes]

Thrilled to be working with Social Media Today and crew on a new online video series, SalesChaosTV. Here is our first episode, first published here:

As we ramp up, the team plans to bring you one new episode each week. The goal: to stir up some conversation and debate around common, everyday issues around sales, marketing, business strategy and social media. However, we intend to be extreme, unconventional, in-your-face, contrarian… In other words, to make you think and act differently about this subject matter.

In fact, you are welcome to email questions and subjects you want us to cover here.

Todd and Dan

[Editor's note: I will, as often as I remember, publish the SalesChaosTV videos here on Intrepid. But, they will be published first, and exclusively, on the Social Media Today family of sites. Stay tuned here to see the freshest new content...]

Yeah, yeah, I know that social proof is important. Someone is more likely to retweet something that already has a bunch of retweets, verses an article with a big, fat zero.

But I think the whole thing is hooey.

No, not that I believe that concept is wrong. I just think the idea of it, and our desire to capitalize on it, makes us do stupid things.

But first, some stats to give some perspective:

The world population might reach 7 BILLION in calendar 2011.

There are over 165 MILLION public blogs in 2011, according to Wikipedia…although it seems more than that.

Over 750 MILLION people on Facebook… give or take a few million.

Around 200 MILLION people on Twitter, according to someone on Twitter.

Already 25 MILLION people on Google+, which just launched a few months ago.

So when I do a quick scan of Seth Godin’s blog, which is arguably the BEST business and marketing blog on the planet, and the best posts show only 900+ retweets…

[disclaimer: I only reviewed the last three to four dozen posts on Seth's site...]

…there are a lot of people on the earth NOT retweeting his content.

So, the purpose here is to beg you…

Please, please, please don’t get hung up on how many retweets, shares, likes, etc. that you and your content receive from your audience.

Remember. Almost 7 BILLION people on the planet. And the best blogger doesn’t normally get over 1,000 retweets.

Get over yourself.

All that matters is that your content speaks to the small audience it is really intended for.

I saw a promotion on LinkedIn recently. “Get your blog post seen by ONE MILLION people…. in less than 10 minutes.”

Seriously.

Really?

Hey look…if getting ONE MILLION hits to your blog matters, subscribe to this service. If getting nearly 1,000 retweets helps you feel like you matter in the universe…

Do it.

But I have got to say…that promotion felt way schwarmy to me. Didn’t seem honest. And more importantly, it didn’t seem realistic to me.

I have a wee small blog. Geared towards a very small audience of both potential customers and informing current customers. Yeah, I would love 1,000 true fans. But I will be happy if I achieve 100.

And honestly…that makes me feel good. Because what I say matters to those people. And that makes for a good day.

Now, my two businesses are growing. Intrepid is a one-man shop. There is only so much work I can achieve, on behalf of my clients, on a given day. Dreamland is a three-man shop. There is only so much work the three of us can achieve on a given day.

I couldn’t possibly handle the workload if ONE MILLION people came to my blog in ten minutes, and a small percentage of them wanted to do business…

I guess I am saying that while lots of traffic, lots of subscriptions, lots of comments and lots of retweets would be nice, not having that isn’t negatively impacting my business. I have more than enough prospects, thank you very much.

But just what does trying to maximize social proof make us do? Well, a few examples:

1. We offer programs to people promising ONE MILLION blog hits in ten minutes.

2. We use the social web to blast content one-way instead of using it to engage with real people one-on-one.

3. We stuff our content with relevant – and mostly irrelevant – keywords to overtly influence the search engines, diluting the message to the people who need it most.

4. We ask people to retweet, who don’t really want to retweet.

5. We obsess over stats – instead of engaging with people, or doing real work.

6. We worry more about building giant counts of subscribers, followers, connections…than worrying about mindfully connecting with a few people that matter.

Hey look, I get it. If your goal is to sell ONE MILLION copies of a book, sure, you need a larger audience. For me? I am looking for a handful of GREAT clients to do some meaningful work. The goals are different.

But let’s be honest. Most of us aren’t trying to sell ONE MILLION copies of our book. We are trying to run a small enterprise, earn a comfortable living, and enjoy and be challenged by the work that we do.

Most of us won’t die if a recent blog post doesn’t get very many retweets. I used to worry about it. A lot. I used to endlessly refresh the browser to see if people were retweeting my latest post.

Thankfully, I realized it was a waste of time. And in the end, it didn’t matter to my business. So now, I enjoy my interaction with the few people that matter. I try to write meaningful content that serves that small, important, and relevant audience.

And that’s still resulting in growing my two businesses.

That’s what matters.

What do you think?

###

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[cartoon by hugh macleod]

Do You Believe?

As you might have heard, Google+ has launched over the past week. You can find me here.

Clients are beginning to ask me is it worth it? My answer is yes. If you believe.

If you believe that the social web moves the needle for your business. If you believe that conversation and relationships are what drive sales. If you believe that interacting with human beings – using social platforms – move people to action.

Most don’t believe.

In fact, a majority of small business people still need to be convinced of the value of blogging. Of Twitter. Of using Facebook for business. Of podcasting. Heck, some still need to believe that LinkedIn can drive business opportunity.

So my recommendation is this: if you are still futzin’ around with and learning the value of blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc…it probably isn’t worth your time diving into Google+. Yet.

How will I use Google+? I will use it as a better way to keep in touch with close friends. I will use it as a way to deepen relationships with people I want to get to know better. And of course, I will use it for prospecting…both for new business and to recruit guests for all my radio shows.

Google+ does two things that change the game, in my opinion. One, they have a feature called Hangouts, where you can have a group video chat with up to ten people. Think of the collaborative opportunities with that… Two-way skyping is so 2010. Ten-way collaboration, learning, sharing…now that’s social, and that’s powerful…

And two, you can very easily group your connections into small, organized groups, called Circles.

Why does Circles matter? On Twitter, for instance, when I share a news article, my entire following of 5,100+ sees it. On Circles, if I only want my close friends to see something, I can opt for that. If I build a circle for prospects, which I’ve done, then I can choose to only share content with my prospects.

Circles makes it very easy to target specific content with a specific audience. You can do this on Facebook, but it isn’t easy and it is very cumbersome. And you can’t do it on Twitter.

For me, I will be very strict in who I let into my Google+ world. I am only connecting with people I know, and very specific people that I want to get to know. I am NOT blindly following anyone who wants to connect. My Twitter and Facebook worlds are too big. With Google+, I will closely monitor who I let into my little world.

So, Google+ is a game changer, in my opinion. But don’t join in just to half-ass it. If you believe that social connection matters, if building and cultivating human relationships matter, Google+ might be the best social network yet.

But don’t engage anywhere on the social web until you believe…

###

[Todd Schnick is a marketing strategist, helping entrepreneurs become intrepid marketers...]
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What I am about to report, is nothing you haven’t heard before. But the story bears repeating again. Because you just never know where business opportunities will come from.

My old high school...

I got a lead on a new consulting gig yesterday…

…from a guy I haven’t seen in 24 years.

Yes, from a guy in my senior class in high school. He and I connected on Facebook a few years back. And just yesterday, he connected with me on LinkedIn when he reached out to see if I was interested in exploring the gig.

Now, I don’t know if this will go anywhere. It might not.

But isn’t that just exciting? He and I weren’t the closest of friends in high school. We didn’t hang out on weekends and such. But we sat together often. And had fun messin’ around in class from time to time.

So, as I said, nothing profound to report here with this post.

This is just a story, happening in real time, for all the people who tell me that social media isn’t a place to market your business, especially Facebook.

And to be honest, I don’t really “market” my business on Facebook, I just promote my content when I publish something.

So over time, this guy just happened to learn enough about what I do for a living to inquire.

In fact, the real lesson here is to spend more time on Facebook cultivating relationships with people such as my old friend. Imagine if we all used the tools the way they are designed, and actually dialog with people.

That’s the lesson for me. I engage with people more than the average fellow, but not enough. And trust me, I will adjust my strategy a bit…

You should too.

And you should also remember, there is value in every friend, connection, and follower. Even one you haven’t seen in 24 years.

If you just engage…

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[pic found here]

One of several pieces I Twitpicked...

Just got back from the Decatur Arts Festival. It was a lovely event, but very frustrating.

Observed a ton of missed opportunities for these amazing artists to build a community around their art. Here are a few thoughts:

1. When I checked in at Foursquare, there was a respectable amount of attendees also checking-in. But no artist set up their own “location” and offered a special – such as a free post card print of their art. More importantly, no artist sent me a tweet inviting me to come by.

2. Too many artists refused to let me take photographs of their art and twitpick them to my network. What a wasted opportunity to spread the word about their art. [I will be writing more about this]

Are you sharing your great works?

3. We stopped in many booths and became seriously interested in a particular piece. Viewing it carefully and discussing what room it might go in. Now, most artists offered to ship it, or give us a discount if we bought it on site. But that’s it. Not seriously intending to buy anything that day, we would say something like “we’ll think about it and get back to you.”

Here is where Twitter strategy comes into play. If I am the artist, and I hear a potential customer utter those words, I ask for their email address and/or their Twitter handle. I record the potential customer’s name, and take a quick photograph of the art they were interested in. And do three things:

From an artist who didn't want me to photograph his stuff. Don't tell him!

a. Send me an email – or a Tweet with a picture of the piece – a couple hours later reminding me the piece is still available and perhaps offering an incentive.

b. Send a follow-up email or Tweet a few days later, again with the attached picture, and seeing if any interest remains.

c. Ask permission to add me to a mailing list to see future work. Since I was interested in one of their pieces, certainly I might like something new down the road…

NONE of this happened yesterday. And we probably ventured into 36 booths…

In fact, most booths we ventured into, the artist was sitting in a chair, reading and/or relaxing. So don’t give me the “I didn’t have time to connect with real people interested-in-art who made a special trip to leave home, drive all the way there, and walk around viewing art on an incredibly hot day” excuse.

24 hours later, and still no contact from my Foursquare check-in or any of the several tweets (including images) I sent around on Twitter.

What a missed opportunity. What are your thoughts? And how can you use this simple approach in your business?

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An Example...

But the latest reason you should be using an RSS reader?

You can now subscribe to the RSS feed on Facebook Fan pages. So, yeah, all those pages you’ve liked? You can now more easily keep an eye on the actual pages you care about.

All you have to do is click on the Subscribe Via RSS button on the left sidebar on a Facebook Fan page. You then will be prompted to put the feed into the RSS reader of your choice.

Probably like you, I “like” too many pages, and it is virtually impossible to follow any of them. But now? I can go to the few pages I want to monitor, subscribe to the feed, and see what content they are publishing on those pages, such as for my client’s pages, or that of a prospect…

This action just made Facebook more important to me…

Here is a quick reminder of a few other important uses of your RSS reader:

1. An obvious way to manage all the blogs you follow. Your RSS reader aggregates all that blog content into one place. You can now much more easily follow hundreds of blogs at any given time. You can quickly glance at post content to determine if it worth a deeper read, and you are notified when a blog publishes new content. Secret: this is how you monitor hundreds of blogs. Most don’t update but a few times a month…

2. Twitter Search. Monitoring key word searches on Twitter, such as your name, your company, your target market is the best way to keep an eye on what people are saying about you. When you set up a Twitter Search query, you can have the results fed into your RSS reader. Having all this content go to one place makes it easier to monitor.

3. LinkedIn Status. You can have the status updates of all your LinkedIn connections fed into your RSS reader. This is a great way to view a daily snapshot of what your friends and business connections on LinkedIn are doing, saying, and connecting with, again, all in one place.

4. Google Alerts. Most of us are familiar with using Google Alerts to send web mentions of you and your company. But most people have those results sent to them via email. I did too at one point, until it clogged up my inbox. You can have those query results fed into your RSS reader.

5. News. Honestly, this is how I get my news. I subscribe to the RSS feed of the news sources I want, and have those results fed into my RSS reader. Thus, all my news is gathered in one place. My RSS reader enables me to quickly scan the headlines, and select a specific news article if it interests me…

What others ways do you use your RSS reader?

And yes, using those six methods as I do, I get a TON of content fed into my reader every day. But, I promise, you will get the hang of how to move and sort quickly through all that content and find those valuable nuggets of information that are worth your time. Having all that content sent to my RSS reader is an amazing time saver for me, yet keeps me easily plugged in to all the content my network produces on a daily basis.

Let me know what you think.

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