Social Media Professor

Rob McNealy is an extraordinary networker. Fueled by his passion to connect with and help as many people as possible, he’s built a tribe of over 100K followers on Twitter. More importantly, he’s following over 100K back! Instead of a celebrity using social media as yet another “let’s talk about me” forum, he’s using Twitter to truly engage with more people than anyone would have imagined just a couple of years ago.

On this program of the Social Media Professor on BlogTalkRadio.com, we spoke with Rob about what it takes to build, keep, and manage such a high profile on Twitter. Rob also shares his thoughts on a couple of tools for people seeking to find others in areas of common interest.

Rob McNealy on Twitter and on the web.

 

 Social Media Professor with Rob McNealy: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The storyteller doesn’t have a message to convey and he isn’t seeking to persuade. Instead, the storyteller works to help his audience see themselves living the story—he’s a carrier of the experience. Adopting the mind of the storytelling will help you create engaging content fostering an “experience” of who you are by getting out of the story to let your audience in.

Twitter and Facebook friend Mari Smith has a helpful chapter in Dave Lakhani’s new book How to Sell When Nobody’s Buying. She presents an intriguing concept she calls “radical strategic visibility” which she defines as “being seen in all the right places by all the right people at all the right times.” She also gives 30 specific action steps you can take in implementing you own “radical strategic visibility” endeavor.

To see Mari’s video on how to use Facebook in just five minutes a day, visithttp://snipurl.com/facebook5min

Mari Smith on Twitter: http://twitter.com/marismith
Trey Pennington on Twitter:http://twitter.com/treypennington
Dave Lakhani on Twitter:http://twitter.com/davelakhani
Dave’s new book on Amazon:

ROI is all the rage when it comes to serious discussion about social media. Businesses want to know the bottom line, how much money is in it for me, anticipated results. Though their are suitable ROI measures for social media investment, author David Meerman Scott suggests an ROI focus is misguided. There is value in the spread of ideas, and social media is a great platform for spreading them.

David Meerman Scott and World Wide Rave on Amazon.com.

David Meerman Scott on Twitter.

Trey Pennington [on video above] on Twitter.

Olivier Blanchard (aka @thebrandbuilder on Twitter) gets down-and-dirty with social media to rip the superficial cover off social media hype. The “easy days” of being enthusiasts for the soft-side of marketing are over. Now it’s time to get down to real business. The evangelistic fervor behind “engagement” and “relationships” is falling on not only deaf ears, but increasingly agitated ears. 

True, relationship marketing has always taken longer than the pure transactional twist (arm-twist, that is). But, and it’s a big but, business leaders still just want their problems solved. Their big problem is “we need more people to part with their cash and send it our way.” Those who make the direct connection between social media involvement and actually reaching real business goals will be the “superstars” who get paid to help people. 

(in my view, Olivier is already a superstar, and not just for this video; he’ll help you cut through hype to make something good happen for your business)

Here’s a March 30, 2009 update to Brian’s famous conversation prism for social media.

The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas

Follow Brian Solis on Twitter for insight on using social media for effective public relations.

Congratulations to Ev and Biz for getting the official Oprah blessing. True, Oprah is the market maker. Also true that Ashton Kutcher has added Twitter to the list of things on the Internet made popular by Ashton. So, congratulations to Mr. K for beating CNN to the “million followers” mark.

Some have said “celebrities have now embraced social media,” meaning that because Ashton has garnered over a million followers, he has “embraced” social media. Please consider this, it seems that Ashton has embraced Twitter the same way an addict embraces a narcotic—he needs more of something for his own benefit, not for the benefit of others.

The glory of social media is not efficient self-promotion. It presents us with an opportunity to embrace our neighbor and to be more concerned for others than ourselves. Social media makes it efficient for us to share our good stuff with those around us. It makes it easy for us to listen, gives us the tools to aid understanding, and helps us facilitate our neighbors’ quests for significant.

One wonders if what Ashton Kutcher has done cheapens our neighbors instead.

One question I can’t shake lose is, Mr. Kutcher, if you really do want to embrace social media (which means embracing, philosophically, your fans, and being more concerned about them than for yourself), would you please consider setting a new record? Would you please be the first person to 1. FOLLOW 1,000,000 people and 2. send 1,000,000 @replies?

Now THAT would be remarkable.

Thanks to Bobby Rettew of Clemson University for setting up and hosting a panel discussion at Clemson University March 31, 2009 in McKissick Auditorium. The panelist were Olivier Blanchard, Steve Gonzalez, John Warner, Phil Yanov, and Trey Pennington. (links are to each person’s Twitter profile.)

Bored with the superficial greeting, “Hi. How are you?” I routinely ask people instead, “Hi, are you having fun?” The greeting usually makes people stop, smile, consider what they’re doing, and then say something like, “Yeah, I guess I am.” If they’re not having fun, then they usually say something that opens the door for a word of encouragement or an actual meaningful conversation.

And, being a fan of Charlie Tremendous Jones as a late teenager, I enjoy the thought “life is tremendous,” which I translate into my own words, “Life is fantastic.”

So, desiring that others both have fun and a fantastic day, I shortened my wish to “I hope you’re having a funtastic day!”

Which, by the way, I hope you are.