When I see a Holstein cow (the black and white kind), I think of chicken! That’s because of the ingenious branding and marketing efforts of Chick-fil-A. They’ve created a truly remarkable product, but the product is only the beginning of the story. Chick-fil-A has created a remarkable experience!

With the recent launch of their newest product, the spicy chicken sandwich, Chick-fil-A rolled out the red carpet for their loyal fans and followers. They don’t just sell chicken sandwiches to customers, they serve them “with pleasure” to what is rapidly becoming a brand-based family.

I sampled the spicy chicken sandwich way back in February. They were selling them in southern California as a test market and I was there for a conference. Upon returning to northwest Arkansas, I asked our local franchise operator about it and he bubbled with excitement as he touted the coming debut of the new menu item. It’s truly delicious, but it was Chick-fil-A’s efforts that caught my attention.

First, the Mass Marketing

Again… cows, selling chicken. It works.

The Relationship Marketing

Instead of calling this a “social media campaign” (because you will generally think in terms of tools like Twitter and Facebook), I’d term it a relationship campaign. Chick-fil-A was able to spread buzz about the upcoming product launch with some creative methods. Dan Cathy, CEO, wrote about it on his blog…

We actually invited people to our restaurants.

We helped them make reservations for their free Spicy Chicken Sandwich. We gave them white glove service in a completely unexpected way. We reminded them that whether we’re rolling out new recipes or opening new stores, the lifeblood of Chick-fil-A are the fans. And the fans deserve special treatment.

Reservations took more work than coupons. They cost more time and were more complicated than doing a mass marketing coupon campaign. But for us, the chance to have friends over for a celebration, the opportunity to have people feel waited on and important, was simply too important to pass up.

source: DanCathy.com

So from that short blip, notice the huge lessons in relationship marketing…

1. First, make a great product. (Otherwise, don’t bother.)
2. Get your people excited about it.
3. Work hard to get attention – your product is worth it, right?
4. Treat “customers” like family. Reward fans.
5. Serve. Meet needs. Don’t just hope for sales.

Chick-fil-A seems to nail every kind of media and every kind of marketing right on target every time. And it makes sense – they nailed the chicken sandwich pretty well!

I recently wrote an article for bloggers about whether or not we can afford to ignore Google Buzz. Since writing that article shortly after Buzz’s public release, I’ve really come to value certain aspects of it as a sharing platform.

When you “tweet” a link, you’re just throwing a link out there, but Buzz (along with Facebook as a sharing platform and a few others) allows you to do a little something extra – share it with a note. For example, in my screenshot above, Michael Hyatt wanted to share a Kindle-related article.

Michael had a couple of options for how to share it on Buzz, but one way is to use the Note in Reader browser bookmarklet. Not only is this easy, but there are also two things I really like about this kind of sharing. One is the personal branding – it’s shared by Michael with his photo there. Second is the note Michael made about it. Sharing a link is easy, but giving your opinion on it, or at least telling me why I should read, is far more powerful.

This is what content-sharing should really look like.

In my other role as Editor of Fuel Your Blogging, I’ve recently begun a new series of articles highlighting some companies that “get” blogging and use it well. Today I posted about Tyson Foods’ Hunger Relief Blog.

Showcase: Tyson Foods Hunger Relief Blog Makes a Difference

One of my passions is blogging and one of the roles I fill is as Editor of Fuel Your Blogging. I wanted to pass along to my eGrace Readers a few recent titles from there with a brief thought or two…

Don’t Waste Your Time on Blogging – A piece that is more positive than it sounds, urging bloggers to realize the value of every post and invest their time wisely. If you’re going to blog, make it worth the readers’ time.

Blogging Is All About the Money, Right? – This is a common perception – bloggers are simply out to get rich. I argue that what is more important than the money you make immediately is the influence you gain over time.

– If you’re not using Buzz yet, I recommend it. And I’d love it if you’d follow me on Buzz too.

And there are many more good articles there by other authors too. Check out Fuel Your Blogging for some great advice.

Recently, over at WeBlogBetter.com I’ve been talking about how people today (internet users) are living in a cloud. It used to be a web where we would go to end destinations called websites. But now, people consume the content of the internet on their own terms – rss feeds, email, social networks, cellular apps, etc.

I’ve posted several videos about this concept…

Get Your Content Into the Cloud

Infiltrating the Cloud In Which People Breathe

Decrease the Distance by Growing Your Network

Your Site Is Just a Launching Pad

And then I culminated the series with a lengthy list post I think you’ll find very helpful when it comes to growing your online presence…

67 Ways to Get Your Content Into the Cloud

Also, I wanted to let my eGrace blog readers know that I’ve launched a newsletter about blogging that I’d love it if you’d subscribe to…

The Inaugural Edition of Blog A Little Better This Week

My newest post at Fuel Your Blogging has just been posted, and it’s intended for those of us who have this annoying habit of starting a whole lot of things at the same time – especially blogs!

Tips for Managing Multiple Blogs

And in case you hadn’t noticed, I also launched a new blog for bloggers about blogging…

WeBlogBetter.com

After using Twitter for quite some time, I’ve just now started using the Favorite feature to catalog some of my favorite tweets. This allows me to see who has been interesting to me, and allows me to save these tweets for later reference as well. I thought I’d pass along this list of some recent favorites so you can see what it is I find valuable about the feature…

mediagrowthinc How Twitter Almost Killed Bob Barker http://bit.ly/12tSmk8 minutes ago from twitterfeed

SeraphimChris 24 Free Church Marketing Photoshop Files http://bit.ly/11okgp22 minutes ago from TweetDeck

phaoloo Protecting The Value Of Your Brand Name http://bit.ly/1agscF24 minutes ago from TweetDeck

vesselproject “Heaven offers nothing that a mercenary soul can desire.” -CS Lewisabout 1 hour ago from web

LeadToday Great leadership is by nature relational it is about influence, providing hope & removing obstacles.about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

DesiznTech RT @Designrfix: Inspiration Served, Beautiful Letterpress Business Cards | http://bit.ly/88Tc2about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

DesignerDepot Origami Style Logos: http://bit.ly/BXoT9about 1 hour ago from HootSuite

adamsconsulting How To: Eat Rice with Chopsticks http://bit.ly/3cCFqQabout 4 hours ago from web

RussAdams Bit.ly Is Now Bigger Than TinyURL http://bit.ly/Pf5nMabout 5 hours ago from bit.ly

Krftd Watercolor Inspirations: We look at 21 pieces of work that use watercolor effects http://bit.ly/1LkG8Uabout 9 hours ago from TweetDeck

robbmajor So @pattyman just mentioned a service called #Alice. Never go to the grocery store again? Holy crap! http://z.pe/kSCabout 12 hours ago from Nambu

JonMorrow How to Write Headlines: 5 Sure-Fire Sources for Inspiration | Copyblogger http://bit.ly/4paZF0about 12 hours ago from web

96robots 20 Creative Ways of Displaying Share Icons http://bit.ly/FKgRpabout 12 hours ago from web

DotSauce RT @problogdesign: 10 Ways to Customize and Personalize your WordPress Blog http://bit.ly/xF4GHabout 24 hours ago from web

IndusLogic 30 Examples of Brilliant Logo Design http://ow.ly/15O6q94:36 PM Sep 7th from HootSuite

bosscreative “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” – Red Adair4:36 PM Sep 7th from Facebook

phaoloo How to Create a Dark and Sleek Blog Design in Photoshop http://bit.ly/qubNt4:36 PM Sep 7th from twitterfeed

inspiredmag 39 Creative and Sometimes Controversial Examples of Playstation Advertising http://bit.ly/2udX9e4:34 PM Sep 7th from twitterfeed

mfinleydesigns RT @DesignNewz: Post: Design Inspiration: Coffee Makers and Their Different Styles http://bit.ly/12847C4:33 PM Sep 7th from TweetDeck

FocusLeadership Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. Samuel Coleridge

Catch all of my favorite tweets here.

I like Twitter. It’s kind of fun. But here’s something that annoys me…

That’s a little clip from TweetDeck and shall remain as anonymous as possible because I think the guy who wrote it is very nice, has a nice approach to the world around him, and is generally a good guy. Now with that disclaimer out of the way, let me tell you some reasons why this particular tweet (which represents a few others I’ve received) annoys me…

1. Notice the exclamation point at the end (“!”), hence giving some note of authority, like a life guard, or a security guard, or some other kind of Twitter-community-approved voice of the masses.

2. This is the very first response, reply, or conversation I’ve ever received from this particular person – where’s my positive+negative+positive sandwich? Where’s the “Hey, I’m Bob – I like you but…” intro? (No, the tweeter’s name is not Bob.)

3. Following someone is a choice. If I annoy you PLEASE unfollow me and spare me the emotional carnage of a critical tweet. I’d prefer it. Besides, as nice as you may be, my self-image really has zero to do with who follows or unfollows me, so by all means, unfollow me if I annoy you. I promise not to lose a moment’s sleep over it.

4. I’m kind of tired of all the rules… don’t overtweet… don’t undertweet… don’t tweet too many links… don’t just tweet words without links… don’t tell us what you’re doing… be more real and tell us what you’re doing… rules, rules, rules. I really like relationships better than rules.

5. Twitter isn’t email. It takes about 17 nanoseconds to scroll past a tweet – I think the government has actually spent billions testing this. So you don’t have to read it all.

6. Twitter is about what’s relevant in the world, or on the web, or in a niche. Don’t like my niche? Don’t care what I find relevant? Perfectly fine with me – again, that’s why there’s an unfollow button – and I won’t even be mad at you.

This is a rant. They’re rare in my little world. And it’s not a rant toward Bob… or Sally… or whoever left that tweet above (he/she really is nice)… it’s just a little personal annoyance of mine and I’m going to go on and have a really great day. And I’m still going to tweet a lot because I like to point out things that are relevant. For every negative tweet I’ve gotten, there are a hundred RT’s and thanks’ for the resources.

Now what? Here are some possible responses for you… Follow me, unfollow me, ignore this and go read something much more meaningful, or comment below if you so feel inclined to agree or disagree. Just watch the exclamation points.

No need to blow this post out of proportion – it’s not a “40 of the world’s best designers you absolutely must follow today!!” lists. Rather, it’s a simple listing of 22 designers or design-related entities I’ve followed recently that I find interesting. That’s all…

@pelfusion

@bkmacdaddy

@designwashere

@crazyleaf

@webdesignupdate

@DesignReviver

@tripwiremag

@psdvault

@EliteByDesign

@webofdesign

@VandelayDesign

@MoreTuts

@swissmiss

@digitalps

@kreativuse

@k4v3rn4

@megAlone

@aratoh

@dernilson

@emilygonsalves

@MediaMilitia

@wpbeginner

Let me say this loud and clear – I am not an expert on social media. Neither are most of the people who are charging high consulting fees and proclaiming themselves to be so – just read Rob Bowen’s excellent article on the subject and you’ll understand what I mean by that.

Social media is new. It’s developing. Companies are growing and failing daily in this arena. Nonetheless, there are some things I’ve observed having been active in social media for a year and a half now (longer than a few other “experts”). I know that freelancers, companies, and organizations are lining up for information on how to get involved – I talk with them quite often.

If your knowledge doesn’t really extend beyond email, here are some of what I would consider to be your “next steps…”

1. Don’t put all your eggs in the basket of social media. I start off with this one on purpose. People online like to talk about the “social media revolution” and that this is the “wave of the future.” True. Social media may kill newspapers after all, but the reality is, you probably still have a large customer base not on Twitter. Keep marketing in the ways that work – you can be a student of the future at the same time.

2. Visit the following four sites and complete the following five steps on each (where applicable)…

1. Twitter
2. LinkedIn
3. Facebook
4. Friendfeed

and the five steps…

1. Join. Pick the same username at every place, and make it match your brand if possible.
2. Set up your profile and don’t be arrogant. Be personal and touchable.
3. Link them together and link them back to your main site as much as possible.
4. Join groups (particularly LinkedIn and Facebook) that pertain to your niche and add some friends with similar interestes.
5. Observe for a minimum of one week. Don’t sell. Don’t link to anything. Watch. Listen. Learn.

3. Subscribe to feeds. It’s easier than it looks. Sign up for Google Reader. Then when you’re on a site that offers valuable information about your niche, look for the universal sign of an rss feed’s presence, the feed icon (see the image on the right). Click it and “subscribe” in Google Reader. Now every time you open Google Reader, that site’s new content will be waiting on you. It’s like email, but so much better. You don’t have to read it all and if you get in too deep, “mark all as read” and restore the sanity to your life.

4. Start giving. That doesn’t mean you have to give stuff away, it just means that you need to establish yourself as a giver, in general. Pass along helpful and meaningful information. Add value to the lives and livelihoods of others. Support people. Help people. Encourage people.

5. Build a community (aka, a tribe). After you’ve observed quietly, and after you’ve contributed something to others, then and only then do you have my permission (though I’m really not an expert…) to ask for anything. When you start asking for support, be reciprocal.

6. Explore the vast and wide-open space that is social media. In time, you’ll understand why I “share” Google reader items, “stumble upon” great links, bookmark resources in “delicious,” and pass along inspirational things via “Posterous.” But all of that will come in time.

7. Have fun. He who dies with the most friends on Facebook should have had more of an offline life… and yes, he still dies.

By the way, I could be dead wrong about all of this, but it’s what I did about two years ago. I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference… or something like that.

photo credit: wirralwater

Grace Smith has put together a really great blog post asking twenty Twitter users to share five random facts about themselves. What’s nice is that I communicate with quite a few of the people on the list almost daily, but now feel that I know them just a bit better. Great idea, Grace! Go check it out…

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Me

Disclaimer: Absolutely NONE of this foolish rubbish actually happened…

photo credit: Torley

So surely you heard about the social media meltdown today, right? If not, perhaps it was because your only source of news about the world around you (Twitter) was unavailable in a cruel, twisted catch-22! So what happened during the 2 hours that Twitter and Facebook were down? Here’s the scoop as I heard it straight from the whale’s mouth, who heard it from a friend of a follower of a fan…

First, there was looting and pillaging in the interwebs. The front windows of several ecommerce stores were broken out and virtual goods ransacked! Cheth Studios, owned by @cheth, had several precious icons stolen. It was absolute mayhem… or at least there was a strange silence heard ’round the world as @mayhemstudios was unable to tweet a single resource.

The stock market suffered violent, cliff-hanging, nail-biting dips and crashes due to the billions of dollars not made by @guykawasaki‘s ad-laden (but truly interesting) tweets. The madness settled in on @scobleizer thought it was his fault for paying a developer for a script to unfollow 106,000 people in a single day. He took on a strange green appearance and seemed as if to be transforming into the Hulk himself!

One family bought out the local IGA’s entire stock of canned pinto beans and panty hose, then sacrificed all of their pets in an effort to stockpile for the #twitpocalypse, round 2. @DrRus, @bobhallam, @ScottSCarver were interrogated by international criminal investigators for an alleged plot to “take over the world via Twitter.” No word on who the “rat” was that turned them in.

Hospitals filled to capacity and triage (sp?) centers were established in barricaded intersections to deal with the flood of marketers, MLM, and social media experts who were suffering from severe withdrawals of a salty, ham-like substance also known as, uh, spam. Meanwhile, FriendFeed was abuzz with conversations about its inherent superiority. That was precisely where @imjustcreative was overheard to simply observe about this whole debacle, “#kaboom.”

Oh, @aplusk surged further ahead of @cnnbrk… but still no one really cares.

I’m writing this post “in the moment.” That is, I want to articulate these things, but my own social media habits change with the wind, which is how I’ve stumbled onto these things to begin with. Many are already familiar to most people who will be reading my blog, but I wanted to share my own perspective on these things.

Twitter

What I Like…

• People… lots of them. It’s popular and growing every day.
• Simplicity… no games, just 140 characters as part of conversations.
• I discover what’s relevant to my world via people with whom I have something in common.
• Support… the other day four people on Twitter helped me fix a problem on our church’s web site in a matter of minutes.

What I Use…

• TweetDeck on the desktop. (I’ve also tried Seesmic, Destroy Twitter, and Twhirl but I always come back to TweetDeck.
• Tweetie is my favorite app for the iphone, but I like Twitterfon for replying to multiple people, SimplyTweet for better conversation views and integration with Posterous, and TweetDeck for the iphone but I like the web version better.

FriendFeed

What I Like…

• Aggregation of all of my online profiles into one feed.
• Real-time on the web interface.
• Likes and comments, which are in some ways, better than retweets on Twitter.
• The bookmarklet, which lets me add an image from whatever I’m sharing.
• Groups, so I can browse feeds by subject matter.
• Smooth and seemless Twitter integration – my FriendFeed posts get tweeted too. (I call FriendFeed my favorite Twitter app.)

What I Use…

• The web interface
• The FriendFeed notifier, which is downloadable under your settings.
• BuddyFeed on the iphone.

Delicious

What I Like…

• Easy bookmarking.
• Extensive tagging, which makes for quick searching later.
• The ability to see how many others have bookmarked a link and how they’ve tagged it.
• The clean and simple web interface.
• Easy RSS feeds.

What I Use…

• The bookmarklets are essential.
• The iphone app (couldn’t locate a web link).

Google Reader

What I Like…

• Easy! Simple. Clean. Ajaxified!
• List view or full view.
• Sharing option posts to Friendfeed, and in turn, to Twitter.

One tiny feature desperately needed and strangly missing is the ability to mark something as read in list view.

What I Use…

• The web interface.
• The mobile version is better than any feed-related app I’ve tried on the iphone.

Posterous

What I Like…

• Splits the difference between blogging and micro-blogging.
• Clean!
• Extremely easy to use on the web or by simply emailing anything (text, video, photos, etc.) to post@posterous.com.
• Excellent bookmarklet interface.
• Growing network of other users.
• Import all of your contents from Tumblr, WordPress, or just about any other platform.
• Use a custom domain.
• Post to other profiles automatically.
• Post only to selected profiles by emailing to flickr@posterous.com, twitter@posterous.com, etc.

What I Use…

• The web interface.
• The bookmarklet, which I’ve synced with Safari on my iphone to use on the go.

Others Worthy of Mention

For video, I use Vimeo to upload, transcode, store, and share clips easily. On this site and my personal blog I’ve installed Backtype as a means of pulling in comments from Twitter and other networks. So far, I’ve stuck with Flickr for photo storage and sharing. I like LinkedIn, but don’t spend much time there. And for music I enjoy Last.fm (iphone app available) and Blip.fm but Pandora (iphone app available) is my favorite.

The amazing thing about all of these tools is that combined, they make it seem as though I’m all over the web all the time. The reality is, I can pop in and out, check on things, see what’s happening, what’s new, or what’s inspirational, and then go about my life.

By the way, feel free to mention or promote another in the comments below. Profile links are welcome, spam is not.

photo credit: James Jordan

This is cool! My friend Pablo Aviles, a designer/developer from Costa Rica, took a lot of his friends made via Twitter and made a mug. Look close, I’m the green guy, third from the left on the very top row. What’s cool to me is that I recognize many of the faces/avatars because of the connections I’ve made around web development via Twitter. Sweet.

And if you haven’t already (assuming you’re on Twitter), you should definitely follow Pablo.

The internet began for information. It also exists for inspiration, community, and commerce. It’s called the net or the web because of the intricate connections created between people and organizations. The average person will consume more information in a month than would have been consumed in one’s lifetime a century ago. This opens up amazing possibilities to purposely and intentionally use its power for good. But the internet has its limits. Watch and see…

Shift: An Animated Essay from Heather Arment on Vimeo. First Discovered at the blog of John Saddington, aka human3rror.

I’m writing this article with the assumption that you’re already a bit familiar with Twitter. If so, then you’ve no doubt struggled with the question, “do I follow everyone back?” There are a range of opinions and mine has, admittedly, flip-flopped quite a bit over time, but I’ve finally settled in on a particular approach and wanted to make a case for it.

First, you need to understand that I worded the title of this post carefully. I’m a little annoyed at how strongly opinionated people can be about this issue. I’m not making a case against following everyone back. In fact, for brands, news organizations, and a few other uses, it’s probably more ideal to do so. It depends on your purpose for being on Twitter. Instead, here are some simple observations I’ve made in my own approach.

1. “Following” should mean something. It should say, “I find this person valuable to me personally.” Yes, everybody’s valuable, but are they valuable to your particular needs and interests? I’ve trimmed my list of people that I’m following, and while there are plenty more great folks I’d like to follow, I can honestly say that anybody on my list is worth your time.
2. Following everyone means enabling and encouraging abusers. As I went through my following list this last time, I found some people whose profiles and tweets were rather objectionable to me for a variety of reasons. Not only do I not want their tweets in my timeline, but I also don’t want their avatars in my friends list for others to see.
3. Following everyone pollutes the stream. One of the things I like about Twitter is the idea that relevance rises. Things that are interesting and important rise to the top, but if you’re following too many people, you’re looking for the relevance through muddy waters. I know there are tools that allow grouping of friends, but it seems redundant to have to select people to follow from among the people you follow.
4. Following everyone spreads your conversation thin. It’s tough to form a close network of helpful friends when you’re trying to communicate with so many.
5. Following isn’t necessary to the conversation. Sometimes I participate in a chat for web designers. I converse with all kinds of designers that I don’t follow, and who don’t follow me. Search and trending topics make this possible.
6. Follower counts give a false impression of genuine influence. As I searched through my following list, I noticed a couple of things. One is there would be page after page of people with whom I had no familiarity or history at all. We were in different niches altogether and it was obvious our mutual follow relationship was for no other purpose than to give each of us another number in our follower count. The other thing I noticed is that obvious spammers have managed to build up large numbers of followers in spite of breaking all the unwritten (and sometimes written) rules. Why? Because so many people follow everyone back. Follow enough and you’ll get a high count, whether you influence anyone or not.

Having said all of that, I suppose it only proper to address the issue of how I determine whom to follow, which is tough. I ask these kinds of questions: Do I know them? Have I conversed with them in a meaningful way? Is the content of their stream valuable to me and to others? Are they just hoping to sell me something? Are they tweeting about a niche I’m interested in? Beyond those kinds of questions, I take it a follower at a time.

Furthermore, when you break the addiction to the follower count and following back, you suddently realize that it’s perfectly okay to follow people of interest who will never follow you back. They aren’t snobs, they just have a different philosophy and approach. I follow quite a few people who may never follow me back. That’s perfectly okay, I can learn from them anyway.

I’m not a social media expert, per se (if you want one, there are about a million social media “experts” and “gurus” on Twitter you can follow), so I don’t have all the answers. I’m not an authority. I’m simply speaking about my own experience. And if I’ve unfollowed you, it wasn’t personal, I assure you. You’re welcome to unfollow me too, won’t hurt my feelings at all.

As far as the comments go, feel free to disagree and state your case, but be nice. I’m a firm but fair moderator. Honestly, I’m not losing any sleep over the debate. Oh, and if you’d like, you can follow me on Twitter.

My last post of 25 creatives to follow was a hit, and from the comments I learned of some others that I wanted to feature in another post, in addition to some more that I learn from often. Also, Someone pointed out that there were only a few ladies among the entire list, so I’m giving top spots and props in this post to some twomen (I made that twerm up).

I’ve tried to collect artists from various disciplines but most will be web and graphic designers. Enjoy.

@redheaddesign

@MadysonDesigns

@gracesmith

@creativecurio

@antonea

@KrisColvin

@katjrobertson

@iamtiff

@mistygirlph

@blellow

@bluewavemedia

@goffgrafix

@modbird

@abbyharenberg

@Mandy_Vavrinak

@thrivegraphics

@idesignstudios

And now for some creative dudes…

@iamkhayyam

@human3rror

@_enzo

@Farrhad

@patternhead

@chadengle

@robbmajor

@thedayafter

@mikeconaty

Those previous four were must includes in part because of the awesome work they do for other creatives via…

@dcth

@inspiks

@imjustcreative

@chriscoyier

@kristofcreative

@BCassidyDesign

@designosophy

@svgrob

@styletime

@benek

@BrandenSilva

@behoff

@deakaz

@snncore

@brianking

@davidairey

@cobaltcow

@brewern

Hey what do you know, I’m adding some more as I go, so it’s kind of 44+…

@straightalk

@delaneygates

If you got to the bottom of this list and were disappointed you weren’t on it, and you feel you ought to be, feel free to add your Twitter link in the profile (the whole thing, with the href and everything). I’ve had that feeling a time or two…, which reminds me, you can follow me personally as @brandonacox (my most active account), professionally as @egracecreative (fairly inactive), or even covertly as @creativecox (where I primarily observe the stream quietl

Social networking is fun, useful, and can even be profitable if you’re into that. Brands and businesses are catching on to the direction media and promotion is moving, so we’re really just scratching the surface of what is to come in forging online connections between people. But some stern warnings are needed for all who are venturing into the world of social networking. Personally, I utilize blogging, bookmarking, Facebook, Twitter, and a few other outlets for my inner expressive, connecting, and writing soul.

In all of my posting and interacting, there are some “isms” I’ve had to struggle with and lay to rest in order to maximize the personal benefits and enjoyments of social networking. I thought I’d share them – as kind of a warning label for you who are getting your feet wet as well…

Egotism

I see this one popping up in the form of “look how much money I can make,” and “look how many people read my blog.” Now don’t misunderstand. There’s nothing wrong with showing off a good reader count (you’ll see my counters in the sidebar), but be careful about how you see yourself. A little humility goes a long way. The reality is, 95% of the web sites currently online could disappear and the world would go on spinning. If you quit blogging today, not too many people would lose sleep.

Narcissism

Narcissism is a bit different than egotism in that with narcissism, you buy into the delusion that everybody is ultimately concerned with what happens in the world according to you. You become the center of your own universe. You suddenly begin to think that if you don’t tweet to the world that you’re in the shower, everyone will stop what they are doing to send out a rescue team. What stories can you tell that really make a difference? Those are the stories worth sharing with the web wide world.

Voyeurism

This is quickly becoming the age of the amateur investigative reporter. When somebody is going through a major problem in life, there is most likely some juicy bit of information (aka, gossip) about it online somewhere, so we dig. There’s nothing wrong with reading and browsing, but watch your heart. Are you concerned or just thrilled at the misfortune of others? Oh, and by the way, get back to your own life – fix things there before glorying in the tribulation of others.

Pessimism

News travels fast these days, and bad news travels faster and farther than good news. The internet provides a useful means of remaining informed, but sometimes the bad news can feel like the Niagara coming at you. Depression is at an all-time high, perhaps due at least in part, to our exposure to all the negative stuff of the world around us. Feed on the positive.

Isolationism

This is perhaps one of the more serious and common mistakes of those involved in social networking. It’s the impression we get that online relationships are the equivalent in quality to real relationships. I know I’m treading on sensitive ground here. I don’t mean to pick on you if this thought stings a bit, but you can absorb yourself so much into a digital life that you lose the face-to-face, touch-to-touch interactions you were really created for. We need to smile at people in ways that emoticons can never capture, which requires that we engage in real-life relationships, offline.

Perhaps you know of other “isms” that could be added, and they don’t have to end in “ism.” What have you struggled with? What would you warn others about?

There are different approaches to using Twitter. Some just tweet their status, others try to use it for spammy purposes. My own favorite people to follow are those who pass on resources, and not necessarily their own resources. They are the creative types who retweet often when they find a great and useful link. Here are some of the Twitter users I’ve had the most fun following because they provide resources for others. They are creative givers, mostly designers and branding specialists…

Cristian Vasile

Minervity (Richard Darell)

Cameron Olivier

Mayhem Studios (Calvin Lee)

Michael Nobbs

Randy Jaegers (Just An Anomaly)

Lawrence Anderson

Jeremy James

Graham Smith

Adelle Charles

Creattica

Chris Taylor

Zion Eye Media

Amelie Husson

Jeff Andrews

Andy Sowards

Jhay Gamba

DEF Graphics

Frank Da Silva

Jeff Fisher‘

Brian Cray

Josh Hemsley

Amit Singh

Ahmed Naguib

Krum Nay

Plus… (shameless self-promotion)

Brandon Cox

And as for the comments, feel free to nominate, even yourself, but remember that I moderate – I’ll glance at the profile to make sure the person is a resource-providing creative and not just someone who tweets, “I’m going to take a shower.”

Here’s a quick tip – be human. One thing I’ve learned from Twitter is that people follow people and they “unfollow” spam. In fact, spam is detested in the twittersphere about as badly as it is in the email world. When advising companies about the use of Twitter, I always recommend letting one of the heads of the company tweet personally rather than just giving “company news.” This allows you to offer something back to the community rather than just be a taker.

This is a pretty important lesson social media has to teach medium and large companies – be a face, be a voice, and talk back. What do Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, and Darren Rowse all have in common? They all love twitter and converse with their “followers.” This is also true of Karl Rove and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s even a tiny part of why Barack Obama won the hearts of the tech generation.

This post isn’t really all about Twitter (that post is coming next week). Instead, it’s a message about business, ministry, marketing, and people. People follow people. They don’t follow “company news,” “latest deals,” or press releases about new products. So how do you become human to your potential “followers” in today’s economy?

• Contribute – don’t be a taker.
• Have a face, not just a logo.
• Have a real name, like Bob, Tom, or Julio, not just “Gargantuan Enterprises, LLC.”
• Admit mistakes, answer criticism (sometimes), and be imperfect.
• Be a friend in the same way you’re a friend to your friends, if you really want new friends.
• Be careful about anything “automated” or “mass.” Think “personal response.”
• Use smileys. :-) and ;-) can make a somewhat argumentative statement more palatable. :-)

And the biggest lesson of all? Love people or get a job at a zoo. Here’s more about me. Want me to know about you and your message? Introduce yourself in the comments below – I promise to personally respond!