There’s actually some good information here (basically, stop Tweeting about yourself and start being more interested in other things and other people), but it’s in picture form…isn’t your brain tired right now from the loooooong week anyway? Enjoy

Yeah, kind of a no-brainer. I guess people MIGHT engage in a conversation, but … it’s probably not going to lead to anything.

I blog about Social Media all the time since that’s my job, but I don’t really Tweet about it all that much. Get busy interacting instead of talking about the process.

I dunno about this one…I do like sharing what I’m hearing at a conference, especially since some of my followers aren’t attendees for various reasons. Posting about what’s going on means if they have a question, they can ask me. I can see the logic, but I’ll probably still Tweet from conferences.

Yeah, this is pretty self-serving, right? Unless, of course, Twitter’s paying you to talk about how great they are. People pretty much get that it’s here and not going anywhere – a few tips here and there for the nOObs, maybe, but time to move on to other things.

Unless you’re a trainer or a gym owner, I would think.

Unless you own a shelter, a animal hospital, or any other sort of animal services company.

I get these from time to time, and all I can think is, “May I have some of whatever you’re having so I can understand what you’re saying?” …

Unless it serves a purpose of some kind other than narcissism – like promoting a site, or event, or sharing with the people you went to said event with. But pic after pic of just your face and your outfits, unless you’re a model or fashion designer … yeah. I kind of feel the same way about Tweeting your location – what, you WANT stalkers?

Self-destruction is sad to watch, but it’s like a train wreck…you can’t look away. It’s the American condition, unfortunately. I’m all for sharing thoughts and comments about how you feel about the world, but constant self-commentary (like RTing when people list you on a FollowFriday list instead of just thanking them, or RTing when someone says something nice about you) is pretty much masturbatory.

You have what you have. People can see how many you have if they look at your profile. Increase your followers organically, and you won’t have to tweet/ask/brag about the follower count thing.

Have a good weekend, and here’s to hoping there’s more real interaction next week!

So, what are some key things to keep in mind so that your time spent on Twitter/Facebook/Myspace/YouTube/etc doesn’t feel wasted? Here are some tips that might help you keep things streamlined and keep your online signal to noise ratio high:

1. Be caring. It’s not always about you – oftentimes, it’s about them. Share news, tips, quotes; bring up topics that you know will start conversations, even if it has nothing to do with your product. Letting the person on the other side know that you care about what’s happening in their world shows that you care about them – and they’re likely to reciprocate.
2. Be useful. You know the sound of one hand clapping? Conversations are the same way – you can’t really be successful if you’re just throwing posts up one after the other without engaging your audience. If they have questions, answer them. Even if they don’t, offer suggestions and solutions. Share what you know, and they’ll depend on you for the information/product/service.
3. Social Media has to be part of a larger multimedia strategy. It’s publicity, public relations, marketing, advertising, customer relations, research and development and operations all rolled into one. If you’re not considering it as a serious part of your business strategy, you’ll fail.
4. Establish goals. Social Media Marketing isn’t something you just fall into. If you don’t have specific goals and campaigns included in your strategy, you’ll just be a babbling noise in the background that gets tuned out. Establish goals, then establish campaigns, strategies and tactics to reach that goal.
5. Be SOCIAL. It’s “social” media, not “selling” media. Refer back to #1 and #2, but overall, be engaging. It’s about your daily life – it’s a microblog, after all. Show what you like, dislike, care about, worry about, scratch your head about, and generally find interesting to you. You’ll find that others share your feelings – or not, and will share that with you as well. Including your message in amongst the conversation is the best way to get people to listen. Engage them first.
6. Go off-campus once in a while. Social networks are online first and foremost, but you must include some IRL interaction as well to cement your place in social media. There’s a reason why TweetUps are so popular – make sure that people are still able to connect with those they’ve met online to further create that sense of camaraderie – and loyalty to your product as a result.

Just remember:

• • Social media have the capability to reach a significantly large number of audiences through the wide networks.
  • Social network can reach any part of the world where there is internet service.
  • Social networks are available to anyone at very low cost.
  • Social networks can have recent news updates with lesser time lag compared to traditional media.
  • Social media directory helps access the desired information to a pertinent subject directly.

If you’re using Social Media for your business, don’t treat it like kid’s play – because someone out there isn’t, and will make your attempts to be heard and sold futile.

A Google Page Rank score is given to every single web page online. Google goes through and looks at the entire content of the site to determine where in its ranking it wants to place a particular site. Google isn’t the only one – every single search engine operates this way. But how is the ranking determined?

Obviously, with the millions of websites out there, there isn’t a team of humans working through each site – if that were the case, nothing would ever be current. Like all other search engines, Google uses an algorithm to look at keywords, back links, traffic and content, as well as basic layout structure (especially for landing pages) – too many redirects and advertising spaces automatically signal a spam site and doesn’t rank on Google – at least not on any main ranking page.

Most of this is achieved by clever SEO tactics, which can be utilized either on your own or through an SEO expert. However, Social Media can also affect Google rankings, because one of the other factors that Google uses in its algorithm is pretty obvious – popularity and demand.

Social Networks, such as Twitter, are microblogs in nature. They chronicle the posts and interactions between an account and other accounts. Each microblog post contains content – each needing to be indexed by Google. Increasing the visibility of your company, your blog, your product via Social Media will inevitably also increase your search engine ranking – if done correctly and as part of a larger marketing plan.

I know it sounds simple. It can be – if you can create your own marketing strategy and know what keywords you want to be ranked for. If not, there are consultants that can provide strategies as well as handle your Social Media Marketing for you, in the industry that you are targeting.

If you do decide you want to head out on your own, I’ll be posting some tips on how to use social media properly tomorrow. Stay tuned…

The video on the right sidebar has been the same “Basics of Social Media” for about a year now, so it was high time I changed it with something less SocialMedia101 and more SocialMedia201. Please check that out —->

Also, one of the most common questions I get asked is “What’s the ROI of Social Media?” I presented a personal case study back in August 2009. In addition to that personal experience, I present to you this video – produced by Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics:

• Twitter now has 106 million registered users.
• 300,000 users register on Twitter everyday.
• It has 180 million unique visitors.
• Twitter apps account for 75% of traffic to Twitter.com (there is a great list of submissions for apps here)
• The total number of API request daily is close to 3 billion.
• There are total 55 million tweets posted everyday.
• The Twitter search engine gets 600 million queries a day which is expected to increase to 1 billion by next month.
• 100,000 new users registered in three days when Twitter launched the BlackBerry app.

In addition, eMarketer.com recently published a usage vs spending report on Twitter users. The graph to the right illustrates that Twitter users do use the social network to make spending decisions: the purchased amounts don’t seem like much, but if you consider that’s a per-person, per-purchase amount, it’s not bad at all.

You might also want to use the information to formulate your own price points, knowing that most people spend in the $43-$75 range on average.

So don’t discount Twitter usage in terms of purchasing decisions. So often, people tend to think that Twitter is really just for socializing; reports like this show that it’s most definitely becoming a viable hub for ecommerce.

The merger makes available a comprehensive public relations and social media marketing firm for all aspects of the adult entertainment industry not limited to companies but to individual talent as well.

“We wanted to take our strengths and make something that was available to anyone in the industry, not just the studios,” says Hourglass8 Media president Kelly Shibari. “The NaughtyTweetNetwork has a well-established place in social media for talent whereas Hourglass8’s strength has been primarily in the B2B market. With so much business being done online between companies, talent and fans, it only made sense to collaborate and offer something truly comprehensive.”

The NaughtyTweetNetwork’s family of sites include the immensely popular PornStarTweet as well as its satellite sites AltGirlTweet, WebGirlTweet and PornExecTweet, amongst others. Hourglass8 Media specializes in social media marketing consults for the adult industry; Shibari has spoken at numerous adult and mainstream conferences on the power of social media for marketing purposes.

“Social Media is serious, sophisticated business now”, cites Alyss Heart of the NaughtyTweetNetwork, “gone are the days of having some intern build a page and hope traffic rolls in — if your business isn’t investing in Social Media and related tools you will be left in the dust. Kelly has a unique perspective on the business that will prove amazing to our clients. We’re building a company that can help companies, studios, brands, established stars and would-be’s regardless of budget — more importantly we’ve got the tools, knowledge as well as consumer and industry attention to kick-start any campaign like no other company.”

The combined companies have already completed and will be launching a series of new sites in the NaughtyTweetNetwork in the near future to further enable their ability to penetrate market segments.

“For some time we have been looking for ways to extend our business, the overall impact of the NaughtyTweetNetwork, while maintaining our high level of excitement for Social Media. At the recent XBiz Summer Forum 2010 it became clear that Kelly Shibari would be the perfect addition to our team. She is the first addition; Kelly will join us in discussions with other leaders in the Adult Entertainment Social Media field as we continue to expand and offer more services in this continually challenging environment”, said Pete Housley of the NaughtyTweetNetwork. “It’s time to break old stereotypes and molds — to re-invent the Adult Entertainment business. We’re assembling the team to make that a reality for companies and individual stars alike to grow their brands and increase revenues.”

NaughtyPR has programs available for both corporate as well as individual clients and will incorporate facets previously offered by both companies in the past, as well as new marketing vehicles that utilize real-time interactions between consumers and the industry.

For more information or to contact NaughtyPR visit their website at NaughtyPR.com.

But why? Isn’t social media just a place for kids to chat with each other, or adults to reconnect with former classmates (and stalk ex-lovers, and find new ones)?

Not quite.

Here’s a quick list of reasons why social media marketing, social networking, and blogging is beneficial, and more and more becoming crucial:

• It’s free, and you can start today. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Myspace, and a plethora of other social networking sites are all free to use as long as you have an internet connection (and if you’re reading this, then obviously you have that part covered). Blogs are relatively free – you could, for instance, use any of the established blog sites such as Blogger or Blogspot, but remember, you’re going to do better if you get your own domain name and host it yourself (I’ll explain this in a bit). So there’s the cost of buying a domain and hosting it, but we’re talking numbers like $7 a year for the domain and $5 a month for hosting. Like I said, it’s free to relatively free.
• Immediate results. I’m not talking immediate results as far as SEO is concerned (that takes a little time depending on things such as frequency of posts and chosen keywords, etc). I mean you get real-time results and reactions from your consumer/customer base. You release a DVD, or a new product, or even a commercial or trailer for it, and post it on your social networks — that will yield you an immediate return as far as customer reaction, potential interest in purchase, and possible changes you might want to make before release. It’s free research and development as well as customer service if you do it yourself.
• People don’t browse IRL any more. That is, in real life. As Hubspot recently said, “Surveys indicate 90% or more of people begin their purchasing process in search engines.” Just think back to the last time you considered buying something. Did you use a search engine to see where it’s sold, customer reviews, and/or where it might be available cheaper? Social network posts and blogs, done correctly, hit the search engines in such a way that your product is what people will find when doing their searches online. If you’re not there, or not on the first page or two of a search engine, the likelihood that your product is found (and purchased) is dramatically lessened. Do you really want to wait until someone finds an open afternoon to go browsing in a brick and mortar store to come across your product?
• Old media is going out the door. People who have spent enough time online, either through search engines, social networks, or even email, understand what spam looks and sounds like. We’ve gotten accustomed to not answering the phone when it’s clear it’s a telemarketer, and Do Not Call lists are a normal thing these days. Telemarketing, direct mail and email lists are all passe and go directly into the junk mail folder and ignored via filters. Television ads are skipped over in DVR and print ads are tossed in the recycling. So why bother implementing (and wasting money on) those methods? New media – that is, inbound marketing – gets the attention of the buyer before you even reach them, and gets them to come to you. From there, making sure they stick around is that name of the game – which can be done via blogs and social media.
• “First Mover Advantage”. It’s like any business – it’s all about being there first. If you haven’t established yourself as the expert on a certain product, you’re forever going to be working twice as hard to prove that you’re better than the other guy. All you’ll be seen as is as a copycat product. Get there first, online, and get the message out as best you can to as many people as you can, and interact with them properly, and get as far a headstart as possible, and you’ll be the one that customers come to first before looking at the followers.

The CNBC “documentary” last year was no different. The documentary tried to show the industry but fell flat on so many different levels; it advertised itself as a documentary entitled “Porn: Business of Pleasure” and that “nothing is off limits”, but in reality only showcased a biased view of what happens on adult shoots. It was a view of the industry from an outsider that only touched on marketing and technology but instead spent the majority of airtime following pornstars around on shoots as well as a fluff piece about going back to Jesse Jane’s hometown. I suppose the “documentary” was trying to show middle America that “pornstars are regular people,” but I think it could have been done better by also including webmasters and studio personnel other than execs.

Every once in a while, though, you come across a show that seems to be less judgmental about how the industry is – at least online. The following Tech In Twenty podcast is the reason why I agreed to go on their show – it’s smart, savvy, doesn’t throw a bunch of assumptions around disguised as fact, and concentrates on exactly what they SAY they’re going to discuss. It’s nice to hear a show that doesn’t talk about the obvious about the industry (OMG, there are naked guys and girls in porn?!?!? LOL) and instead talks about the INDUSTRY.