I am also seeing similarities with the way two unrelated people with a similar MBTI will communicate on social media.

So if you could be so kind as to take a few minutes to answer, I am interested to see the results and will publish them when I think I have enough of a meaningful sample size.

You either need to know your Myers-Briggs Personality type (e.g ESTJ or INFP) or you can take a quick test here.

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It applies to so many other industries as well – where the social media evangelists have been singing the praises for so long… and yes, we are all convinced, but it all comes unstuck when you are busy, need training, or don’t use your website. There will also be some talk on making yourself *too* available (which often has detrimental effects in other areas of your life).

It is my first “proper” Conference speaking gig – hopefully the first of many! I am humbled by the fact that I ave been asked to speak alongside people like Lisa Baker, Jenny Lindell and Laurel Papworth. With such a high calibre audience of people who speak for a living… I am nervous but honoured and hopefully can provide people with some practical tips to manage their online presence in a more efficient, targeted and beneficial way.

I am also planning on having some meetings in Sydney for some very exciting projects I am working on and I hope to tell you about them very soon

In early 2007, I was talking up Twitter, Facebook and Flickr before I had even really embraced them myself. I had a Twitter account myself, of course, but it was pretty inactive, and I distinctly remember telling @lisaloeb4real about this new “group SMS” type feature. I thought that, knowing Lisa, she would love the ability to just SMS from the airport, or backstage, or whilst eating the world’s greatest donut. So there she was, tweeting away, and in fact, I think she was one of the very early “celebrity” adopters of these new social media tools.

I attended a Conference in late 2008, and after seeing it’s true potential, I was hooked. I finally understood (sort of) what a hashtag is. What it meant to “RT”. And it appears, that, to date, at least 80 million people, including a bunch of fairly inane celebrities, enjoy it too.

But, after attending the Media140 Conference yesterday, I have a feeling that there has been a whole industry of people who, despite selling “social media consulting” somewhere in their services, are still in the idea of talking up social media and it’s potential without fully embracing it – or even using it appropriately.

I had the opportunity to meet quite a few people who work in various aspects of Health care. Some get it and some don’t. It was actually very interesting what came out of these discussions, because the common theme at the Conference was the idea of how “the BRAND” is affected, how companies can “CONTROL” negative information on the internet, and I daren’t count how many times the words “engage”, “citizen journalist”, “social media policy” and other buzzwords cropped up from the speakers. There was so much talk about top-down internet communities that it actually made me wonder if people really understood the power of social media at all.

The precise point is that you cannot control negative messaging. But what social media does is provide you with the tools to try and intervene at the word-of-mouth level and make it better. This, without buzzwords, is what is so great about Twitter.

But a big part of Twitter is not so much the bottom line stuff… because that can have mixed results… and by continually focusing on mere dollars and cents, you miss the entire point.

Twitter is more than just dollars per tweet.

Twitter in particular has intangible benefits in so many other ways that make “branding” and “bottom line” seem, honestly, so trivial that hearing those words from “experts” made me feel a little nauseous.

We heard from the HR Rep telling us about how they are policing and monitoring the social media activities (and by implication, disciplining) their staff online. NOT about how they create communities, or improve morale, or that they add a third dimension to the inevitable death of the faceless corporation that hide behind PR & Lawyers. Instead, it was about risks, and controls, and potential client losses.

People are afraid of Twitter when they needn’t be. And in all honesty? I think way too much emphasis is placed this arbitrary line between employee/business owner and human being. And instead of corporations speaking in really great buzzwords, like “humanising your corporation” – how about the idea of the generic “consumer” finally having a face. And a VOICE.

The conduit for community

I had a chat to a couple of people who, after hearing all of the speakers, still weren’t entirely sure on how Twitter, or Facebook, or social networking in general, applied to their organisation. For those who are in service delivery organisations like Mental Health and Community Services, the temptation is to make Twitter a means of broadcasting out to the “80 million people on Twitter”.

I’ll tell you now, that there are not 80 million people on Twitter. There is a potential audience of 80 million, sure. But people tout this figure off like it is some big huge deal when you know what? It means NOTHING to most businesses. Especially seeing as there is so much bad advice about using Twitter in the first place – the chances of people reading your message by accident, is, frankly, overstated.

I read an article in 2008, in reference to the music industry, about how all you need to make a decent living, is 1000 True Fans (and arguably, no crippling record label contract ), but this applies, figuratively, in so many ways to other businesses as well.

The strength of Twitter is in the building of micro communities. The Perth Twitter community is a good example of people who have found each other, through various means, over time, and a community has been built that is not just an audience, but a support network.

For me, during the day, Twitter is my chatterbox with other people who work in Home Offices. For others, it is a stress release from their day jobs. For others, it is just having a laugh, sharing a joke. I am also part of a few other networks, but to simplify, I know that at any time of day, someone in my community will be around to talk to.

This is the power of “Twitter for business”. We don’t talk about business much and when it does come up, it is understated and fairly innocuous (much like a social occasion where people ask what you do and leave it at that… you don’t launch into an Amway sales pitch on first meeting….do you…?)

When people can find a community, they can also find a support network, a counsellor, a group of people who understand. This has massive implications for service delivery, or health organisations that are on the ball, to start having discussions with your clients. Build a community of people who have a shared experience and let that community organically grow.

How about a discussion for parents of children with cancer or other chronic illness? How about a support group for those who battle Bipolar disorder or Schizophrenia? How about asking your clients what they want from you? Despite buzzwords like “engagement”, it is more than just talking one on one with your clients, customers, etc. It’s about allowing a community to build organically alongside your traditional means. In the health industry, these support networks can quite literally be a lifesaver, for people who may feel isolated.

Twitter is as much about shared experience as it is about access to information.

Stop talking and start LISTENING

Noone wants to be talked at. If you’re anything like me, you have emails, tweets, Facebook messages, radio ads, billboards, TV, internet banner ads and limitless numbers of people trying to sell you limitless amounts of stuff you don’t want or need. I for one am saturated. I am immune to corporate messaging. Most people are. But if you stop, and listen to what your clients actually want, you’ll be surprised that all they are trying to tell you is that they want to connect, in a meaningful way, not with a 2 dimensional CORPORATION, but with 3 dimensional people. People who understand. People who are flawed. People who might accidentally drunktweet and make bad mistakes sometimes. People who make them laugh one time and can have a deep & meaningful conversation another. All social media is… is people trying to connect.

If you can filter out the wanky PR buzzwords, and the talking up of social media from the “experts”, and the “OMG JOURNALISM IS DEAD AND I MUST FIND ANOTHER WAY TO SHOVE MY PRESS RELEASES DOWN PEOPLES THROATS”, and start actively listening, reflecting on what you are hearing, and embracing the incredible humanity and compassion that you see on Twitter every day, you have a small chance of being ahead of the curve. The “Corporation”, as we know it, is dying a slow, painful death. They’re fighting it by trying to control social media, control their employees (or the employees of other companies they work with), but, it’s a futile battle.

And try to write in Haiku. They’re fun.

Big, big things for us in 2010 – in particular, going from 1 designer/developer/everything to a fully fledged business with staff.

We have a Yellow Pages ad, a Google campaign and a whole heap of exciting new clients already booked for the first half of this year. I plan on writing more content that is of benefit to our clients and engaging a bit more with this woefully neglected blog (the cobbler’s children etc etc).

I, personally, am very excited about the future for linkartist, and I hope that all of our current and future clients have a WONDERFUL 2010.

Onwards and upwards!

The important point that I tried to make is that whilst there is no one right way to use social media, there is one wrong way. Don’t try and sell stuff straight away:

Web designer Tea Brennan, or “tealou”, said the best results came for people who used twitter informally.

“The common theme is to make friends first, have fun second, sell third,” she said. “It really is about long-term strategies and networking and not one-way advertising, this is a common mistake people make and it’s the fastest way to fail.”

She likens twitter to being at a party or other social occasion.

“You don’t just outright sell at a party, and you shouldn’t do that on twitter either,” she said. “Be helpful to people when they need it, but don’t get in their face either.

“I also tweet about what I am working on and have even written about my frustrations/emotions as a sole trader … I make it so that people think of me as an option when they hear someone needs a designer. It works for my circumstances.”

Tea’s profile proclaims her to be: “The third-worst mother on the internet. Web designer. 30th most influential Tweep in Perth. Apparently. Funny sometimes too.” And she posts comments which range from colourful social commentary to her children’s socks.

“I advise my clients to be as ‘warts and all’ as they are comfortable with,” she said.

“For me, nothing is off-limits, but you need to find your own limits … the approach that I would use for a political party might be different to say, my business, or an accounting firm.”

The immediate, knee-jerk reaction for companies that don’t understand how the internet has changed, is to cut back on their web marketing expenditure… but things are very different from how they were in the dot-com bust in the late 90′s.

Yeah yeah, I know, I can hear the cries of skepticism coming now. Of course a web design company wants you to update your website. Of course we want to get you to think about your online strategy, because then we make money! Well, let’s put that little conflict of interest aside for just one moment, and let me give you a few reasons why now is the best time to start thinking about your online presence.

1. You need to work harder to attract customers.

In boom time, you don’t really need anything other than to simply be available and have the right price. Heck, you don’t even need to be very good! A little bit of cheap marketing is all you ever needed – you can get away with a standard template or a cheaply designed site – and, because of the nature of the economy, business is still good.

In luxury areas such as portrait photography or novelty/entertainment products in particular, in boom time, it is good enough to just grab a template that looks the same as everyone elses, have the date free, and still get the work.

You simply don’t need to try because the work comes to you.

In a downturn, it’s not as easy as it was. People are less likely to invest in the business that doesn’t market well. They aren’t simply going to go with the “guy that’s available”, because there will be 10, 20, 30 guys available that can do the job. There is simply less work to go around and the reality is that you now have to compete and find a point of difference in which to promote your business. This can mean investing in SEO services, it can mean a redesign of your site to attract customers, it can be to hire a User Interaction expert to assess why you aren’t getting the sales you need from your website. You will need to work harder to get the same amount of customers. Which means, you need to invest more in your marketing.

2. You need to do this in the most cost effective way possible.

How much does it cost for a display ad in the Yellow Pages? How much does it cost for radio advertising? How much does it cost to advertise in the paper? Do you see these as necessary investments in your business? How much do you spend on your camera & computers? How much do you spend on conferences & networking events? How much do you spend on pens & coffee mugs with your logo on it?

My bet? Lots.

So why is your web presence, a 24/7, international shopfront & advertisement for your business, such a low priority? Why is a custom, high quality website such a low priority? Why is it not a fixed expense, like all the other essentials to running a business? A great website will still cost you a fraction of all of the other marketing expenses and the payoffs can be substantial. If you take your store online, you can automate certain aspects and increase your sales.

There are many markets in which you can’t find a decent website for a single business. Particularly in trades and retail, it really wouldn’t take much to have the best website in your industry, or be #1 on Google for it. These are low-cost, high result investments.

So while other businesses are nickel-and-diming and focusing on this week’s Community News ad (that noone reads anymore), you could be getting serious about the web and being #1 in your industry on Google.

3. You need to make it easier for people to find you and buy from you.

When the sales are coming in, there is no time to think about the number of people that might leave your site without making a purchase, or those that have been looking on search engines and haven’t found you. But, when the sales stop or slow down, you need to consider getting the services of professionals that can assess your site and make it better.

That means reviewing your content (perhaps with a professional Copywriter), reviewing your Search Engine Rankings (with an SEO Expert, reviewing your design (with a professional web designer)… all of these services have measurable results – in fact most of these things can make a dramatic difference to your online presence.

4. You need to be more tech-savvy (or perceived to be) than your competitors.

So many people, including business owners, are intimidated by computers and the web. If you can find a partner that will help you figure it all out and get it right – even if you don’t quite understand yourself – you are on your way to being a leader in your industry at best, and at worst, a head above your competitors.

5. Websites are no longer a luxury or an afterthought.

The businesses that embrace the internet and prioritise their internet marketing will, without a doubt, be more equipped to survive a recession than a business that doesn’t. This does not simply mean putting up a web page that was designed by your well-intentioned but unskilled nephew – but getting serious about attracting customers and working with a team of people who know how to work on the internet.

Spending 3, or 5, or 10 thousand dollars is no small ask – I get that. But in business, there are certain fixed costs that need to be paid, regardless of how you feel about them. To spend $10-15k on a Yellow Pages print ad, for limited space for a limited time, is becoming less and less beneficial in the majority of industries. Why not cut the ad to half a page, build a better website and refer to the site on your ad? This is how it will work – where the print advertising refers to the online presence, and not the other way around.

Far too many businesses view their websites as an afterthought – and I personally go out of my way to hire those companies that appear to value their web presence, because I like to have as much information as I can without having to call during business hours. More and more people are like me, and in a recession, prioritising your web presence can make a difference.

So, with all that said, if you’d like a quote on a new website, contact us and we’ll customise a quote for your particular circumstances.

I refuse to compete in the hundred-dollar market and here’s why. First of all, the only reason that Bludomain and BigFolio can sell websites can sell a Flash website for a ridiculously low price is because they are selling on volume. A Flash site with a content management system will cost you at least $15,000 – often much more. But the template guys spread their costs over a hundred people instead of one. Of course, the downside to this is that 99 (or even more!) other people have an identical website!

With a template site, you may get the benefit of a cheap website, but what is the real cost of that? I have browsed many, many, many photographer’s websites, and if you put yourself in the "browsing photographers" position, as most brides are, you’ll notice that they all start to look the same.

In a highly saturated market, a good stand-out web presence can make all the difference. Custom sites will instantly stand out from competitors (from a web browsing point of view)… simply because templates are so common!

My clients have noticed a significant jump in enquiries and bookings, just from having a site that is different from 90% of the other photographer’s sites. Part of it is in the SEO, but I think a big part of it, anecdotally speaking, is that if a bride is surfing through 15 (or 30 if shes particularly obsessive ) sites, 95% of which are bludomain sites… I guess that it has a homogenising effect in terms of the experience of the website.

And you are naive if you think that people don’t switch off if they see the same thing over and over, even if the images are different.

Websites are not just a directory of business, but are also an experience, that invoke emotional reactions. They are more like television advertising than, say, the Yellow Pages…and people wholly expect to pay for TV Advertising because it brings results. I guess if I can use an analogy with Yellow Pages listings, its like the difference between having the standard 2 line Yellow pages listing, versus the display advertising with your custom graphics and your look and feel. The display ads will always cost more (often a lot more than you think you can afford), but you get more, and the majority of the time, you get better results.

You ultimately get what you pay for with web design. And when someone next tells a photographer that they can go to istockphoto.com and get a great photo for much less, hopefully that photographer will know how web designers feel about template sites.

I just upgraded this blog to use 2.5 before unleashing it on my unsuspecting clients, and from my very brief look through the dashboard and admin interface, my immediate impression is that this could well and truly take WordPress into the full-blown-CMS realm once and for all. A few designers (like me) have already been doing it for some time, obviously, but the UI of the admin panel has improved, there is an integrated image gallery, and the promise of a better WYSIWYG editor (Can we post youtube yet without hacks??)…well… what a great development this is.

As I move into the premium theme development market, I am hoping to create templates that will fully harness the power of WordPress as a CMS, and cater for specific industries.

First up is a photography blog that utilises the built in media gallery. I am excited about this

The beauty of this app is that it allows you to queue posts, draft posts and edit everything offline.

I am terrible lately at updating my blog, mostly because the mental effort (shyeah, I know…) required to open my browser, be online, save drafts, etc, becomes too cumbersome. Yeah, my life is so hard.

Anyway, check it out!