Need more user-generated content? Ask for it!

November 1, 2008 in Community Building, social media | Tags: online communities, user generated content, Community Building | No comments

What do you do when you realize user-submissions are getting low, or your community members seem to be slacking in the photo uploading department? What about when the quality of blogs seems to be tanking and decent conversations are nowhere to be found?

You could complain about it, pour over last months stats and simply hope that things will get better, or drown your sorrows in a series of diet cokes or another beverage of your choice while staring at your monitor. Or, you can ramp up and move into overdrive.

As the community manager it is your job to engage users, so engage. Keep in mind that people love to talk about themselves and share their opinions. They also like to tell what they know, so why not ask them to do all three?

I’ll give you the beginning of several questions and you fill truth about enzyte in the blanks based on what’s happening in your community, what people are talking about or anything you find interesting.

What’s your favorite ____________?
What do you think of _________?
Have you seen the new movie, _________?
Do you plan to visit
How much money do you spend on _______?

And if it’s photos your after, be specific. The holiday’s are coming so ask for holiday photos.
Draw out the competitive spirit and ask for pictures of holiday decorations. Put on a contest if you want to get things moving quickly and offer a cool prize.

It can be tough when you depend on others to produce content, but if you make it worth their while and make sure they know how much you value the time they take to do it, things begin to look up fast. I’ve already got several ideas in the works and recently put on a contest called “November madness.” Anyone who picks the winners in the federal and state races will win a prize. People love prizes, so give them what they want.
What you’ll soon find is, it will ultimately get you what you want.

If only this fortune cookie had a Twitter account

October 31, 2008 in social media, twitter | Tags: Add new tag, social media, social networking, twitter | 2 comments

I love Chinese Food. I particularly enjoy reading the messages found inside the fortune cookies received at the end of each meal. Well, today I had an epiphany. As I sat there reflecting on the two short sentences I’d just read, I realized that it wasn’t enough.

I needed more. More detail, a greater explanation. I needed a LINK!

I wanted my fortune cookie to operate like Twitter. After all, the message was my fortune. My future was at stake. A quick blurb is nice, but where can I get additional details? Where the heck is the link? Are there any blogs out there about this topic? Do you not understand the concept of social media, Mr. Cookie? GIVE ME SOMETHING MORE! Be social.

I wonder if I should have tried to convert him. Maybe I should have tried typing this under-140-character blurb into my BlackBerry right there at the restaurant:” @Fortunecookie Tell me more about that second sentence. Is there a link?” An exercise in futility of course, but you see where I’m going with this.

Jacob Morgan wrote about this very thing in a guest post on Chris Brogan’s blog today. His message was about making sure your conversations don’t turn into broadcasts. A broadcast would be a one-way message. Did you read it @FortuneCookie? Maybe you should. I will gladly provide the link, which is more than I can say for you, buddy!

Social media makes all of us expect more. With so much instant information at our fingertips and a vast network of providers across numerous social media platforms, we don’t want for much in that department and it is clearly affecting my life.

I learned an interesting lesson about myself today: I can no longer read a simple text message on a fortune cookie without getting myself all riled up.

Thanks, Twitter. That’s just what I needed.

Stop flaunting and start sharing your social media savvy

October 30, 2008 in social media | Tags: blogging, conferences, facebook, Friendfeed, social media, teaching, twitter | 4 comments

There’s a fine line between the verb “flaunt” and it’s more docile and giving half-sister: the verb “share.” Some of us need to revisit that little fact.
By us, I mean the early adopters, the bold bloggers, the talented twitterers, frantic friendfeeder’s and facebooker’s, courageous community managers, die-hard digg’ers, excellent evangelists and super-sized social media saints!

Forgive me if you’re none of the above, but you get my drift and I’m betting that at least one of the above descriptions fits you to a tee!

I’ve written a few posts lately where I seemed to go on and on about the lack of social media knowledge that exists among specific industries and the resistance that we all deem futile. In many cases, it isn’t resistance at all. It’s simply a lack of understanding, coupled with preconceived notions of unreasonable time commitments and technological prowess, neither of which are requirements to get in the game.

I attended one conference where we were all discussing Social Media 3.0 just 24 hours after giving a presentation to a large group that didn’t even understand Social Media 0.5. I’m convinced there
are plenty more where they came from and I fear that we could be leaving behind the very people who need us most.

That conference changed me. It made me think very hard about my purpose and the more I think through it, I see an amazing opportunity to teach. As I reach out to those in my various networks who are much savvier than I am, my main goal is to extrapolate every piece of knowledge and wisdom they have to offer to better myself and increase my personal knowledge. I know that we all do. That’s the power of vast networks.
I ask you to turn the tables for a minute and think of all of the people who want to extrapolate your knowledge on the most basic level. Can you give it to them, and in a way they will understand?

If you are a leader of the pack, consider stepping down a notch or two and getting back to basics. Share yourself and what you know. The key word is share. There will be time to flaunt later and that vast network of yours will be waiting for you to do just that.
Remember, if you give a man to fish, he’ll eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish……