The TRUE Power Of Social Media

I won’t go on some long ramble unless someone shows some actual interest first. :slight_smile:

Story #1:
Several employees over at [Zappos] (over $1 billion dollars in sales of shoes last year) and more than likely [the CEO] now know and remember me through using a combination of [Akoha], [Twitter] and [YouTube].

Story #2:
I’m one degree away from [Russell Simmons] and a whole bunch of other people in the hip-hop industry because of a crappy video I put on YouTube. It’s a real connection too. If I had a good reason to show him something, he would see it (and will when I have that reason… :wink: ).

Story #3:
People in Milwaukee think I’m the [City of Milwaukee] on Twitter. That has proven to be useful. The Mayor’s Office is aware of my presence and they TREMBLE IN FEAR!!! (OK… Perhaps not quite yet. :wink: ).

I’m only trying to convey one message with these stories. For those of you who witnessed the BOOM in 1999/2000 there’s another wave to jump on right now and it’s the social media wave. Maybe two stories… It’s also not about how many views your videos get on YouTube or how many subscribers you have. It’s about how creative you are using the space.

Mark my words that I’m going to come back to Taiwan and DOMINATE there, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!

OK, I’m all done now. lol

Dude… Are you still on the youtube bandwagon?

I don’t know exactly the point of this thread.

You want us to start a Youtube account and start uploading ‘creative’ videos talking about our life and being zany?

You want us to subscribe to your youtube account?

I don’t get it…

Youtube is good for funny videos like cats that talk or people hurting themself, but the ‘blog’ style videos that I see are self obsessed wank, or emo kids reading bad poetry.

What gives?

I’m on a lot of bandwagons and yes. YouTube is one of them.

I guess you missed this part then:

I suppose I could have spelled it out more, but what I’m saying is for folks who are interested in technology (and I just realized I perhaps have thrown this in the wrong thread) there is something happening right now worth looking into which has the potential of large returns in the future.

That, and I’m a troll and like to get a rise out of people. lol

[quote=“pubba”]You want us to start a Youtube account and start uploading ‘creative’ videos talking about our life and being zany?

You want us to subscribe to your youtube account?[/quote]
No. The focus wasn’t suppose to be YouTube. The focus was about social media in general (I thought that would have been apparent from the title…) Anyhow, I don’t want YOU to do anything (why would I care about what you’re doing?) I’m merely exposing some “insider information” to a crowd of folks that I happen to like a lot. If only one person sees the point of the post and makes something awesome happen with it great. If no one does, nothing was lost.

Now to answer your question from another angle, what I’m recommending to do is start to explore some of the different “social media” tools out there. Yes, YouTube is a place where I spend time playing but, so things are abundantly clear, I give FUCK ALL whether you or anyone from this website subscribes or watches. There are FAR better ways to increase subscribers and views (and I use none of them, I give FUCK ALL if anyone subscribes or watches, although it’s nice that some do subscribe and like to watch :smiley:).

Anyhow, there are a lot of different social media tools out there to play with. Start learning them. There is fun to be had, money to be made, better “mouse traps” to be built, etc.

Here, I’ll spell it out. Anyone with with the skills to post on forumosa could figure out how to profit (money, knowledge, better life, etc.) from this wave of technologies going on. Because of what I’ve learned messing with this stuff I quit the last job I had in September of '08 (which sucked) and I haven’t needed to start working again since. Things weren’t always easy BUT…

Now I’m on pace to do fairly well from the time investments I made over the years. If there was someone on Forumosa that was interested in profiting from the Social Media stuff, I would gladly take the time to explain to them how it could be done so they could avoid many of the pitfalls I had.

That’s all YouTube is good for? Really? You’re either very ignorant or being negative on purpose.

There is money to be made and time to get on the boat before it sets sail. I’m willing to show people what I know about it and that may help guide them to another stream of income or perhaps another “job.”

I guess I put this in business because at the end of the day it’s about making money. I get $250-$350/month doing FUCK ALL right now. I make new videos because I like doing that, but there’s passive money coming from it.

I’ve gotten T-Shirts printed that people want to pay $ for and they will be available online in the next couple weeks.

I’m working with a local fellow that has created a “Mil-Town Hat” and I’ll be managing his online efforts for a cut of all the money he makes online.

I’m setting up Chinese classes which I’m going to be charging $50/month for and creating a component that will be available online for $25/month.

It’s all very exciting to me and I want to share.

I know Taiwan can be a big ol’ ball of negativity at times but…

Well, I hope that answered everything. Any more questions? :smiley: lol

Here’s a well timed blog post I just read (found via Twitter of course :wink: ).

[How Twitter Can Make You A Better (and Happier) Person - Tony H. (CEO@Zappos)]

He probably does a better job explaining things than I do. :wink:

Hey miltown, welcome back. :slight_smile: I believe in YOU and the possibility that YOUR diverse talents and well-developed techie social networking skills will open all sorts of doors for YOU in unexpected places. As my wrestling coach used to say, “luck is when preparation meets opportunity,” and you’re definitely doing the preparation.

But, that techie stuff doesn’t work for everyone; many of us have trouble with the TV remote control. Likewise with social networking; one has to have some natural talent/inclination in that direction. (I’ve never used twitter, but I was handing out and picking up business cards at a function last week; one never knows what it might lead to.)

AND, you sound slighly overly optimistic given the state of the global economic crisis. This shit will prevail for at least all of 2009, probably a good portion of 2010, and likely longer. Manufacturing down, sales down, expenditures down, layoffs up, cutbacks in hiring, promoting, compensation and spending, etc.

“the World Bank. . . predicted that the global economy would shrink in 2009 for the first time since World War II”

Sure, it makes more sense than ever to build ones skills, ones reputation, ones network, ones resume, and to throw out lines to see what happens – absolutely – but be prepared to wait a while for a nibble.

I don’t mean to put a damper on your enthusiasm. I agree with you 100%. Just saying, these are tough times and opportunities will arise less frequently than they would have in the past. But good luck. Jiayo. And have fun.

Hey MT!

Oh, I know it’s not for everyone, but it’s for SOMEONE. Perhaps this message might reach a someone who stumbles upon this thread. :wink:

And the I’m starting should (theoretically) thrive during the recession.

I still haven’t gotten business cards made… They seem so cumbersome.

I don’t know what everybody’s complaining about. Sure, there’s no jobs but that gives us more time to hang out on the Internet.

My google ad revenue has doubled to 23 cents per day this month. At this rate I should be able to pay half my monthly web hosting costs by 2011.

The old economy is imploding, sure, but that’s coz it’s old.

Here’s a bunch of random stuff I shot out while watching “The Apprentice” (I almost never watch TV). I hope it’s useful to someone.

I miss writing long random stuff “for no reason” on Forumosa. :laughing:

Economy slumping? I met with a buddy of mine who’s company did $400,000 in business last year and on path for $700,000 this year. All industries aren’t getting killed.

Marketing is shifting to all this “Social Media” stuff. All I’ve for the last year and a half is networking with people in the Milwaukee Marketing community. Traditional media is dying a slow but certain death.

If anyone wants to study up on making money online with “Black Hat” or “White Hat” SEO tricks, check out [BlackHatWorld]. (Charlie Phillips, if you’re actually TRYING to make money with Google adsense and can’t do better than 23 cents a day, you’re either an idiot or not trying).

Here’s a cool YouTube channel to subscribe to [TEDTalks]

Tear Down This Wall [Reprinted with permission from “The Big Moo” - Seth Godin]

Suppose that I had asked you, in the mid-1980s, what you thought it would take to bring down the Berlin Wall? What would you have said? I can imagine the answer. Perhaps another world war. Perhaps some kind of multilateral, long-term rapprochement between East and West Germany. At the very least, some kind of intervention costing many billions of dollars. Certainly that’s the kind of scenario that was envisioned by all of the world’s so-called experts on Eastern Europe. When it came to predicting the life-span of the Soviet Bloc, the CIA, State Department, and Pentagon did not think in terms of months or even years. They thought in terms of decades.

But what actually happened? In September 1989, a small group of dissidents in Leipzig, East Germany, held a protest rally and - for reasons no one quite understands - the local police did not shut it down. The next day, in the next town over, another group of dissidents held a protest of their own, and it was a little bigger this time because they were emboldened by what happened in Leipzig. The police in that town didn’t stop the protesters because, after seeing what happened in Leipzig, they thought that maybe they weren’t suppose to do anything. The day after that, there was still another protest in the next town over - a little bit bigger than the last, the police a little more passive - and on and on. All through East Germany, the protests got bigger and bigger and police grew more and more pasive until a million people gathered in the streets of East Berlin in October 1989 and tore down the Berlin Wall as the police sat and watched.

This was the biggest change any of us will probably ever see in our lifetime. [Not if things go my way. :smiley:] It took a month, it cost nothing, and it started with a handful of people in a town no one would ever have pegged as the birthplace of a revolution.

Remember that the next time someone says, “It can’t be done.”

Good to see some enthusiasm MTK. :slight_smile:

I’m not interested in blackhat methods. If I can’t make money by being a good boy, I’ll happily reconcile myself to living in poverty.

Don’t fuck with google or they will fuck you. Spammers and fakers (fakirs) suck. Everybody hates them no matter how rich they are.

Tricks will never beat content.

Hey Miltownkid - thanks for your reply. Reading mine again today and it did come across as negative. My apologies…

Now you are mentioning the $$ and I’m interested. I thought this was all just an ego thing… Or becoming an internet celebrity.

How do you make 3-400 USD a month doing this stuff? Can you share a bit more info regarding that? I’m going to go and read all the links you supplied - cheers.

Im actually a cartoonist/animator so maybe I could make a site of my toons, offer them as clip art or something?

Anyway - you have given me something to work on. Thanks bud :thumbsup:

Yeah, every now and then I hear that kind of claim. My answer is this: until you can corroborate your claim with official records, that’s all hot air.

I make $2000 a month doing fuck all. aka, the ‘office job’.

I second MK’s recommmendation to watch TED. Where else can you see some of the smartest and best-informed people in the world sharing what they know with large numbers of rich and powerful people who are paying lots and lots of money to hear it? Other than somehow scoring an invitation and coming up with the money?

Here’s a talk about the state of marketing today that puts things in perspective. The bottom line here is that traditional media does not get the message across to people, because there are so many messages that nobody is listening any more. The only way to effectively reach your target market is to find/create some channel that connects you directly to the people who are actually interested in what you have to offer.

The promise of social media, as far as I understand it, is that it’s supposed to create (or enable) communities of like-minded people who don’t want to see generic ads aimed at everyone, aka carpet bombing, but would actually be grateful to be informed about the latest offerings in the realm that they have congregated to share an interest in.

Case in point: I hate advertising, but the banners on this site are usually relevant to my life here in Taiwan, so suddenly I don’t mind so much.

As for ‘self-promotion’, all I can say is that the existence of my crappy site is enough to persuade various people that I am worthy of employment in capacities that I’m actually interested in filling. If I was any good at this stuff then I’d probably be rich and famous by now - although famous doesn’t mean being on TV, because currrently I’m the only person in Taiwan who isn’t on TV. That kind of media exposure is meaningless, because there’s so much of it. But a ‘following’ of people reading your blogs, twitters, newsletters, etc. is a network of people who will think of you when they need something that you can provide.

Or should I get a proper job instead? Huge long-established companies are going titsup left, right and centre. Governments are collapsing in frightening numbers. Safe investments are suddenly worthless. In the modern world, you’re on your own. Or rather, you’re only as strong as your network. There is no corporate or government safety net that you can truly rely on.

I am a believer in the social media as well. Just trying to figure out how to use it…

MTK - thanks for your info. Will need more :laughing:

And TED is super!

Elias

The more shit out there, the better, IMO. Makes it easier for the ‘traditional’. Are you talking about Tim Ferriss-ish (the archduke of popularising that shit) clicky advertising? Doesn’t really fall into the category of ‘right livelihood’, though, I’m sure.

kungfugrippe.com/post/48588149/better

Everyone assumes they ‘have product’, when really, they are just wasting internet paper.

300 usd/mth wouldn’t get anybody very far, 3000 usd/mth (10 times current), then you are talking, even then if it’s taking most of your time it’s stil a bad deal. It depends on time to setup, initial investment, if you are not a computer whizz who can do the programming/setup yourself or really into this stuff as a hobby it’s most likely a complete waste of your time! You’d be better off putting that time and money into education for 99% of folks. If the education is good you can take that anywhere in the world…check the background of the recent Presidents, even the owners of Facebook/Google/Microsoft…all came from Ivy league, that’s the way the world works…

I’ve nothing against social marketing and it can potentially be a powerful tool but to me there’s a huge amount of hype involved, the people who make the most are just 3-4 megacompanies such as google, yahoo, facebook etc. For instance there are a lot of dating and personal sites that are trying to establish social aspects to their sites, the investment to do this is high and the complexity of the programming increases fast but I feel that most of them will fail as they can’t generate critical mass, even most users of facebook tail off sharply in use after 1-2 mths. How many social networks can one person belong to? I’ve joined linkedin, it comes across as a bunch of self promoters looking for jobs/sales…

Like anything cheap and omnipresent it will get real crowded real fast and the efficacy fades, then you need to up your spend and investment to compete with the next guy unless you’ve got a real solid core product. As social marketing becomes more popular, BLOGS get more professional, expectations are higher. It’s the product 90%, marketing 10%. If your product is good enough the marketing is usually the easy bit to be honest.

Responses first…

Thanks! (said with enthusiasm of course :wink: .)

[quote=“Charlie Phillips”][quote=“miltownkid”]
If anyone wants to study up on making money online with “Black Hat” or
“White Hat”
SEO tricks[/quote]

I’m not interested in blackhat methods. If I can’t make money by being a good boy, I’ll happily reconcile myself to living in poverty.[/quote]
I did say Black or White hat methods. They cover both on the site (I’ve only briefly ran through it to see how good the content is, it’s good). I’m making my money being a “good ol’ boy.” You aren’t trying.

Right, I’m sure their friends and family absolutely hate them… :unamused:

I’m really not talking about the spammers anyhow. I’ve been studying different internet marketers who ARE NOT spamming (although once you sign up for their list they hit you with emails quite regularly, you can opt out at any time).

:laughing: You Seriously think that? Damn hippies. All the most subscribed YouTubers have used more tricks than content to get there (I’m just using YouTube as an example because I intimately understand it).

No problem. :slight_smile:

No no. I actually recommend AGAINST “internet celebrity.” Unless there’s some specific plan formed around it. My thing happened on accident.

I make my money with the advertisements that run next to my videos. I wouldn’t recommend trying to make money this way unless you REALLY like making videos (and it’s 250-350 right now :wink: ).

Asking questions is how it starts. :wink: I would explore a website like [elance] or [guru] if I had animation skills that I wanted to use. Or you could make a blog/videos sharing techniques (and at some point down the line create a downloadable ebook that you sell).

Your welcome. :slight_smile:

Yeah, every now and then I hear that kind of claim. My answer is this: until you can corroborate your claim with official records, that’s all hot air.[/quote]
I made a video calling you a FNG (Fucking New Guy) and showing you my adsense account, but fuck that. Fuck off if you think I’m full of hotair. $250 isn’t even worth bragging about… The reason I can do “fuck all” is because I have a handful of videos that went “viral” and make the lions share of the money each month.

Actually I think you can ONLY get invited to TED. :slight_smile:

Seth Godin is good shit. I’ve watched a few of his videos online and read 2 books now (the other being [“Tribes”] I highly recommend it).

[quote=“Elias”]I am a believer in the social media as well. Just trying to figure out how to use it…

MTK - thanks for your info. Will need more :laughing:[/quote]
I would gladly school you up on using social media with your business. I think it has the potential to be REALLY useful for you (once you can wrap your head around it). Get your hands on some of Seth Godin’s books (or just [check out his blog for free] :wink: ) he does a good job of explaining things.

I’m not sure what you mean here… “Tim-Ferriss-ish clicky advertising.” Popularizing what shit?

I love Merlin Mann and watched him present a few times online and honestly… I don’t really think you’re in a position to quote him in here. That would make you no better then those guys who are like “Dude! You can make millions online! Check out this link!” My point being, those dude know nothing about making millions online.

Merlin Mann has a good reason to be as cynical as he is. You do not (and if you do, why not link to your blog post sharing similar feelings).

You know what? Everyone DOES have “a product” (in this new webspace). Their product is their content and even if their content is interesting and relevant to only a handful of people websites like MySpace have figured out how to monetize this “product.”

SERIOUSLY!? If that’s the case you could be making MILLIONS by seeking out products that are “good enough” and running their marketing campaigns for them.

I’m going to add another post after this, but the focus of this thread wasn’t suppose to be so much about the $ as the power of social media. I think a lot of you are missing the point…

More hot air.

Miltownkid, you misread my post.

Good luck with your endeavours, whatever the hell they might be.