Social Media | Kyle Chowning

5 Keys to Building Forever-Followers—Chris Brogan Style

September 25, 2009 By Kyle 18 Comments

Yesterday, I had the spontaneous opportunity to attend the Author’s Way event and see social media “typist” Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) talk about his perspective and approach on all things social media. He also dived into the heart of his new book, Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust (Amazon link).

A lot was said over the course of four hours and I took about six pages of notes. However, there were five things that I walked away with that have brought a paradigm shift in my thinking of social media.

Prepare to have your mind changed:

1) The more things you can create and giveaway, the more you will get back in rewards
Seth Godin says that value comes in execution, not in your ideas. It’s a loud call to stop hording and start giving. Chris said that he posts 98% of his ideas and thoughts online. The other 2% are unique to his clients. Furthermore, he stated that 75% of his leads, ie: income, come from something he’s said online.

2) To increase your Twitter influence, be helpful
Chris suggested that you utilize a 12:1 tweet ratio; for every 12 times you retweet, promote, talk about, or push someone else, talk about yourself once. How do you do that? Http://search.twitter.com is the best place to get started. Identify your interest, find what people are saying about it and enter the conversation. In return you’ll create trust which gives you social capital which increases your value and influence.

3) Twitter is a business winning tool
This is for the naysayer business owners and CEO’s. Being active on Twitter is like sharing a meal, playing 18 holes or a face-to-face meeting. Not one of those functions will seal the deal by themselves, but when used together you’ll create a winning outcome. Chris gave the example of Frank, an employee at Comcast who started @comcastcares on Twitter. One year later, Frank now manages a team of ten people who are dedicated to servicing Comcast customers on Twitter alone. Personally, I’ve used this team on at least four times. On two of those occasions, we troubleshooted and scheduled an appointment via Twitter. I never had to call or email. Now that’s a way to keep my business.

4) Think like they do
It’s not good enough to throw your thoughts out there, you have to find out what people are saying, what words they are saying it with and look for those conversations. Chris brought up an example of a hosting company that wanted to find new clients online. Rather than searching for “hosting” or “web hosting” they looked for phrases like “server is down.” Whenever that phrase was used, the company would reply with an offer for three free months of web hosting. New clients came rolling in.

5) Winning is table stakes for the next game
This is a point that I felt like Chris couldn’t stress enough. The implications were multi-fold: A) Never start from nothing. B) Build off of and on previous successes. Why is this important? If you don’t connect with your followers on a personal level, they won’t care to follow you when you move on to the next game.

Finally, I’d like to leave you with some things he said that stood out and were helpful:

Why don’t kids use Twitter? They already have a social life.
Be everywhere—create and maintain bonds
If you sit still in business, you’ll get stuck in business
Structure yourself to always be in front of opportunities so you can give them away

There were so many other great things said. If you want to hear it all, I encourage you to buy the DVD and his book. Between the two, you’ll be set.

Thanks Chris for coming to Nashville. This was very helpful!

Did any of the above change your social media paradigm?

Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: authors way, blog hosting services, brogan, building, chowning, chris, chris brogan, comcast, followers, forever, keys, kyle, online social networking, real time web, social capital, social media, social media paradigm shifts, trust agents, twitter, web 2.0, world wide web

Five Blogs I Recommend

May 27, 2009 By Kyle 4 Comments

Lately, I’ve been uninspired to write here due to a variety of reasons. So rather than trying to come up with something creative, I thought I would take advantage of the Google Reader Trend statistics and share with you the top five blogs that I’ve been reading over the past 30 days.

If you’re a Google Reader user as well, you can access this same data by clicking on the “Trends” link in your navigation area.

Okay, here we go:

#1 Macworld – I am a Mac enthusiast and I find that Macworld offers one of the most comprehensive feeds for Mac related news, software and products. I read 25% of their posts.

#2 Advertising Age – Makes sense…I’m a marketing guy at heart and this is one of the ways that I stay tuned into what’s happening in my market. However, just tonight, I found Mediaweek which is a promising read as well. I read 25% of their posts.

#3 FlowerDust.net (Anne Jackson) – Anne’s blog is a new favorite. She is the author of Mad Church Disease, a book dedicated to helping those in ministry, vocational or volunteer, steer clear from burnout—which is a MAJOR problem. One of the reasons that I, and many others, enjoy reading her blog is that she is one of the most honest bloggers out there. Seriously, it stretches even me. Check it out. I read 100% of her posts.

#4 Nielsen Wire – I just recently found this blog. It’s written by the fine folks at Nielsen and it is FULL of great articles about what’s going on in our culture. Topics include, but aren’t limited to: TV, technology, trends, economy, and much more. Did you know that just over 1/3 of American’s have an HDTV and the average person watches 153 hours of TV a month? Yeah, that kind of stuff. It’s a must-read for me. I read 19% of their posts.

#5 Without Wax (Pete Wilson) – Pete is also a new favorite. He is the senior pastor at Cross Point church here in Nashville and is one of the more forward thinking pastors I know when it comes to how to use media, technology and the Bible, all in one blog post. He’s building a great community of thinkers, believers and activists at Cross Point and on his blog. I read 94% of his posts.

So there you have it. Five blogs that I read regularly that I think you might enjoy. Feel free to share with me some of your favs in the comment section. I’m always looking to expand my horizons.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: advertising age, anne jackson, cross point church, flowerdust, google reader, macworld, mad church disease, media week, Motiveight, nielsen wire, pete wilson, without wax

Let’s Punk’d Ashton Kutcher

April 17, 2009 By Kyle 2 Comments

This morning at 1:17am, I received a CNN Breaking News Alert,

– Ashton Kutcher is first to reach 1 million followers in Twitter contest with CNN.

As of 7:44am CST, Ashton (@aplusk) has 1,026,082 followers and growing.

Now Ashton is always Punk’ding people. What if we punk’d him?

Today is #followfriday on Twitter. Let’s make today #unfollowAshtonFriday Friday and see if we can get him to drop below 1M followers. What would Oprah, CNN, Larry King, even Ashton have to say about that?

Join me and #unfollowAshtonFriday now!

Here’s a copy and paste retweet:

RT Join me in Punk’ding Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and to get him below 1M followers TODAY! #unfollowAshtonFriday

Here we go…

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: aplusk, ashton kutcher, cnn breaking news, larry king, oprah, twitter, unfollowashton, unfollowashtonfriday

Are you a proactive or reactive social networker?

January 1, 2009 By Kyle 1 Comment

I’ve had plenty of conversations with people over the years about social networking (blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn etc). Based on those conversations, I find that there are many types of social network users, but for now, we’re going to concentrate on two: reactive and proactive.

Reactive social networkers experience life and then post about it. It becomes your next blog post, your next Twitter, a picture posted on Flickr or your next status update on Facebook. Simply stated, life happened and you want to tell people about it. The main benefit to this approach is that it gives you “presence” with your friends, family and colleagues. It asks and answers the question, “What am I doing?”

Proactive social networking is completely different. When you view each social network proactively, you have a baseline understanding that whether you like it or not, every Twitter, blog, picture posted, or comment left, is one step towards building your personal brand and reputation. Like the butterfly effect, each contribution builds upon another to create what people, especially those who only know you online, will know you by. The main benefit to this approach is that YOU determine how people know and judge you. It requires you think beyond “What am I doing?” but also about, “What do I want to be about? What am I interested in? What am I learning? Who am I learning from?” Proactive social networking asks and answers many questions, not just one.

When it comes down to it, your intentions, whether defined or not, is what drives your expectations for social network activity. For me, I choose to utilize these networks as a tool in which I can learn, engage, extend my “network” and inspire people to make their mark on this world. For many, and probably most people, it’s a tool in which you keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues. One is not right over another. It’s how you choose to use the tools.

Seth Godin says, “Many of us are taught to do our best and then let the world decide how to judge us. I think it’s better to do your best and decide how you want to be judged. And act that way.”

Do you agree?

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: facebook, linkedin, myspace, Personal Brand, presence, proactive social networking, reactive social networking, seth godin, twitter

Unintentional Mentors

September 29, 2008 By Kyle 7 Comments

Over the past few months I have become more deliberate in how I utilize social networking because I began to realize that there was something more to it than gaining “friends” and “followers.”

If you look at it from a different perspective, you’ll start to notice that these networks can become one of the best tools the web has to offer. In fact, for me, social networking has become an invaluable set of tools; each serving a very specific purpose. For example:

My Blog [ subscribe ] – I utilize this format to write out my thoughts on being a dad, husband, business owner and student of Christ.
Facebook – This service helps me find old friends, keep in touch with family, network with business contacts and have “presence” with all of the above.
LinkedIn often comes in handy. Why? If you can build a big enough network, you can find just about anybody. This is especially useful when you need the specific name of someone to aid in prospecting a client, asking a question or even submitting a complaint.
Twitter is my favorite. Of all the social networks out there, Twitter does for me what none of the others have done yet: it connects me with people in real time. Furthermore, I can honestly say that Twitter has done more to extend my “network” than any of the others, combined. And when I say “network,” I mean meeting new people I want to meet.

Through all of these social networks, I have discovered new people who are experiencing life in ways that I will never be able to. Because of my “friends” willingness to update their status’, post a blog, add pictures, or simply write a short note on my “wall,” I am given permission to watch what’s going on, see who they are interested in and peek into life, as they know and share it.

However, the biggest surprise I’ve found in social networking? Unintentional mentors. These are the “friends” that I assimilate clues, patterns, tips and nuggets of wisdom from, on a regular basis. They are people who model aspects of life I strive for, who lead the way in my entrepreneurial space and who have the perspective of God that I deeply desire.

If you’re like me and you recognize that there are life lesson and experience gaps in your thinking and worldviews, then you understand the paramount need to learn as much as you can. While my personal pursuit for a face to face mentor hasn’t been as successful as I would like it to be, believe it or not, social networking, specifically Twitter, is beginning to meet my needs.

Rather than leaving this theoretical, I’d like to introduce some fellow “friends” that you might be interested in:

Michael Hyatt [ Blog | Twitter ] is perhaps, the most inspiring and influential person I follow. In fact, I would say that I’ve learned more in the past six months from him, than anyone else in my social network.
Phil Cooke [ Blog ] says it like it is. He offers a great perspective on faith, culture and media that I enjoy reading. He inspires me to become more bold.
Cara Davis [ Blog | Twitter ] – This girl is the blogging queen. She simultaneously contributes to 5-6 blogs on a regular basis while working and being a mom of a toddler. She inspires me to stick with the day-to-day, even when it may not look like it’s making a difference.
Seth Godin [ Blog ] writes a blog post almost daily. Each entry offers a paradigm shift, if you’ll let it. This makes me want to write better.

There are scores of other people that I could mention that would fit the description of “inspiring,” but the people above are those that I don’t let a Twitter or a blog post go by without reading it. They, like the thousands of others, have something unique to offer.

Social networking can you be your “friend” and it can be one of the greatest tools you’ll ever use. Like everything else, it’s up to you to make the most out of it.

For those of you who are right there with me, who are your unintentional mentors? I’d like to add to my “friends.”

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: blogs, cara davis, facebook, linkedin, michael hyatt, phil cooke, seth godin, social networking, twitter

Twitterpated

May 11, 2008 By Kyle 2 Comments

If you’re one of the millions who have started, or already use Twitter, me too. I signed up a long time ago just to see what it was all about. Honestly, at the time, I didn’t get why I could or would be interested in knowing the fine-details of anybody, let alone strangers. Well, I’ve changed my tune.

Twitter Shirt from igadget.com – $20

In the past 30-days, I’ve embarked on a challenge to see how and, most importantly, why I should integrate Twitter into my everyday life. That’s an easy discussion to have in your head, but how do you explain the benefits to your employees, friends and often times, confused family members? After 30 days, here’s my top five reasons for using Twitter:

It makes me really think about what I’m doing RIGHT NOW. Over the past year, I’ve become a student of personal productivity. Twitter requires me to consider if what I’m doing is Twitter worthy. If it’s not, I question whether it’s really worth my time.
It gives me “presence” with friends, coworkers, family and vendors. While I won’t say that it creates or sustains these relationships, it provides opportunity to build on them. Why? I can feedback, direct message or simply be aware of what’s going on in peoples lives.
It’s a great way to stay up-to-date with family. I’ve not been successful in converting many family members over to Twitter (yet), however, I am finding some luck by recently starting a Twitter for my 10-month old, @savannahgrace. Grandparents will do anything to stay in touch with their grandchild.
It’s marketable. Let’s be honest, I own an marketing company that focuses on internet, new and social media. I have to know how to use it, why it works for some and if and how to make it work for my clients.
It’s fun. I’m enjoying my new Twitter community of friends: @kristychowning, @savannahgrace, @ashbylane, @ashbychick, @michaelhyatt, @shawnrstewart. Recently joined? Follow me.

The internet is growing exponentially everyday. New social media can either be seen as a distraction or a tool. It’s up to us to consider why we use it to determine what place it will have in our lives. The key: