Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff

People may think I’m nuts, but Google+ is going to be the lever that begins prying Google away from total domination of much of our online lives.

What follows is, of course, conjecture, but one thing I’ve learned over the years is that I don’t trust my instincts often enough, so here goes….

They’ve Shot Themselves Over Search, Of All Things

By using Google+ to manipulate their own search results, Google abandons the very core of their business culture – serving up unfiltered, “best” results as they attempt to organize the world’s information.

By telling Google employees who push back to get on the train or get out, they undo their organization’s credibility from the top down. A cushy work environment in Mountain View is just lipstick on a pig if your business doesn’t deliver on its promises.

I don’t know where it’s going to come from (Microsoft’s Bing search engine is not nimble enough, although I’d be happy to be proven wrong) but there will be a challenger to Google that will come out of nowhere and capture those who want to go back to basics.

FocusOnTheUser.org is one example of how that movement has already begun, with their “Don’t Be Evil” alternative search button tool. Tellingly, it was created by some engineers from Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Privacy – Google Is All UP In Your Business

The privacy issues with Google are even more significant than Facebook’s.

At least with Facebook, you can just get the heck off of it, or at a minimum take draconian measures with your settings.

Google is everywhere – our email, our videos, our maps, our photos, our search habits and our Android phones – and you cannot opt out of their creepy data mining.

I’ve been told that many people don’t understand the implications of this, and/or don’t care about privacy issues. Fine, but Congress and the FTC do care.  Someone’s going to move on Google; either the consumer public or regulators or both.

Not Another Social Network!

Google+ is essentially another Facebook with some cool bells & whistles (I do like the G+ video Hangouts) but despite apparently roaring user numbers that don’t add up, I sense that in terms of true mass adoption, the regular Joe Bag o’ Donuts guy/gal is not jumping on Google+ like they are getting onto Facebook.

People go where the people are who they want to connect with;  I saw this in microcosm in 2008/2009 when Plurk failed as an alternative to Twitter.  The Geekerati said that Plurk was so much better organized, easier to use, etc. etc. but the fact is, everyone already HAD networks on Twitter and when they didn’t move over en masse to Plurk, people went back to where the people were.

Does anyone out there really want one more blasted digital thing to manage?  Even a lot of techie types are feeling rather overwhelmed, and many others in the mass market are still figuring out Facebook, are puzzled by blogs and find email challenging.

Not Another Social Network! Except Maybe Pinterest

In contrast to the “no THERE there” that is Google+, I’ve been watching the recent explosion over digital bulletin boards on Pinterest. No one wants another thing to manage, unless they really like the thing, and they like this one.

Fans of Pinterest are truly crazy about it. My own line of work, tourism and hospitality, is diving into Pinterest. I can’t remember when I’ve seen such rapid adoption and wild enthusiasm, albeit still mostly among a more tech-savvy crowd than the mass market.

May I remind you of the popularity of scrapbooking?  The hordes of people who’ve jumped onto Facebook worldwide (it just knocked Google’s Orkut off as the number one social network for Brazil) are perfectly capable of figuring out how to transfer their scrapbooking skills and enjoyment to something like Pinterest.

On the other hand, I can’t see any of them lining up to laboriously sort their friends into Circles on Google+.  Actually, it wouldn’t be that laborious, because no one’s really ON Google+!

Tech journalist Omar Gallaga compared Pinterest and Google+ on his Digital Savant blog, saying:

“Despite the growth of Google+, I have yet to hear a single person say she loves it. The people I see posting more often there are marketers, photographers, social media experts and a handful of media people like me sharing the same kinds of links and jokes they also post to Twitter and Facebook. Google+ otherwise feels like a weirdly active ghost town….”

My geek crowd is saying that they love the visual organizing, inspiration and connections on Pinterest, but most see Google+ as a somewhat bothersome “I have to do it because it’s Google” chore.

A privacy-invading chore is not a recipe for mass adoption.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

We’ve been here before with AOL and Yahoo! and other behemoths who are now pygmies. No one stays on top forever.

Google has self-immolated their corporate values by embracing search manipulation and calling it “social.”  Update: Farhad Manjoo on Slate – “Google just broke its search engine.”

They’ve created something that is mostly a marketing obligation for many, a chance to write a quick how-to book for others and a genuine place of enjoyment for specific niches like photographers, who do seem to like G+.

That’s not much of an endorsement for what will be yet another Google failure at building a social network, and will also lead to the beginning of the end because it is not part of the business culture or values that made their company great.

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A quick thought for everyone hearing about how social media ….

—->  ”Is great for contests where people will get their friends to vote for _____.”

—->  ”Incentivizes ‘influencers’ who get their networks to do _____.” (actual sentence)

—->  ”Is powerful because people will leverage their connections to _____.”

All I ask is that folks think about the implications of manipulating customers/visitors/guests to manipulate their friends, families and networks.

My friends are not your marketing fodder.

Be careful when you mess with what people care about a lot more than they care about your brand.

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Thought for the day….

As many of you know, I’ve been dealing with the nasty WordPress Pharma hack here on Sheila’s Guide (don’t worry, it’s safe for your computer or mobile device to be here; the hack only messes with this blog’s search engine results.)

After running after it for weeks and weeks, I’ve called in some more help, but this is not keeping me up at night. At all. I mean, I DO care and it IS embarrassing to have pharmaceutical results come up as the title of my Speaker page, but I’m not frantic.

Why?

Because my analytics data shows me the multiple ways that people find my content other than search engines.

There are lots from people coming to the homepage URL directly, through referral links, Twitter traffic is big for me, occasionally StumbleUpon (especially Stumbles on the recent press trip “exclusive” guest post,) there’s Facebook of course, LinkedIn spikes sometimes, the blog URL is in my email signature/on my business cards/in every online profile I fill out, and then there are my loyal RSS and email subscribers.

This blog doesn’t have a huge subscriber list, but the important thing is that they care enough to have my posts come to their email IN box, which for most people is a busy, crowded place with a lot of things demanding attention. It is nice to be welcomed there, so yesterday I went over and took a look at my email and RSS subscriber data in Feedburner, just to gaze delightedly at the names of the people who support me like that.

I even sent a quick follow-up personal note to several who were listed as “Unverified” – they’d signed up to get my posts, but never completed the final confirmation of their email subscription. Sure, it was only a few people, but every single one of them means something to me and I want to retain them as readers.

Their interest has staying power in a way that random drop-ins from search engines does not.

Until the hacking mess, I’d never truly appreciated in my gut how important it is to vary the means by which people find your content. Search engine optimization (SEO) is important, of course, but the Google basket is not the only place for your eggs.

How many different ways do people find your content?

Have you thought about how you can best nurture and grow those channels?

Please leave a reply in the comments below – and thank you!

*** Credit for post title goes to the old Timex watch ad – “Takes a licking but keeps on ticking.”

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12 years ago today, my son was born.

The amniocentesis said one thing – girl – and the ultrasound said another – boy. Yes, the 99.4% accurate amnio was wrong, so we really didn’t know what was coming.

I’m not into “pink” or “blue” when it comes to clothing, decorating or life choices, and we had names picked out either way, but we were, um, MILDLY curious.

He’s a handful, but he’s the sweetest thing, and he adores his sister Nancy.

Happy Birthday, son.

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Used to be, you had to outsource things like brochures, ad designs and websites because no one in the office had the design or technical expertise to build such things.

They probably still don’t, so brochures, ad designs and websites are still outsourced. You pay a lot for those services, but that’s OK if you’re getting your money’s worth.

Social media tools, on the other hand, are free (they take time, but not money.)  They are a way to connect with people and tell compelling stories about your destination, to entice visitors and put “heads in beds and napkins in laps.”

You’re all over that heads/napkins thing, right? It’s your J-O-B job.

Who is best in your office at connecting with visitors and telling stories?

Why do you pay someone else outside your office to do that?

YOU are the expert….and now you have the most powerful worldwide communications tools ever invented for you to go do your thing.

If you need a little help with tool mechanics, that’s why Becky McCray and I do social media training for tourism pros, but YOU are still the expert.

Don’t be afraid – revel in it.  You are what @SeattleMaven calls a “virtual concierge” for your town, and you’re better at it than almost anyone you could hire.

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There is a fascinating discussion going on right now regarding roles, authenticity and marketing on the social Web.

It’s being shouted and whispered, and no matter what anyone says (including big mouth me) no one has the “correct” answer yet, if indeed there is a “correct” answer to be had.

Warning – in this post I’m going to use the term “blogger” to mean, “A person who creates original, unique content on the social Web.”   I am well aware that not every digitally-savvy person has an active, vibrant blog (maybe they only rock Twitter or Facebook or YouTube or some other platform) but the term “blogger” seems to have become accepted terminology for someone who knows how to communicate on the Web and builds/sustains some sort of community there.

Okay, here’s the question

At what point does an independent blogger who interacts with brands lose some element of his or her “authenticity?”

To be blunt, at what point is a blogger simply another node helping a company do marketing and outreach?

Again, I do not yet fully know the answer to this question for myself, much less for the rest of the planet (so put down those pitchforks, brothers and sisters.)  What I do know after finishing up this year’s South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) tech conference is that businesses and brands want what bloggers already have, and they want it badly.

They want blogger authenticity; what pioneering political woman Shirley Chisholm called being “Unbought and Unbossed.”

Why?

Because business-as-usual advertising and marketing is seen as inauthentic (or at least, all about rah-rah good news and therefore not the whole truth) so people are turning to the “digital back fence” – word of mouth from their friends online, because it is seen as unbought, unbossed and authentic.  In other words:  the truth.

There’s a PR/marketing term for getting talked about in a positive sense without having to pay for it:  earned media.  It means that your product or service is so good that it earns your business free publicity. People will talk about it of their own volition, which is seen as more authentic than paying them to say good things, i.e. paid media or advertising.

What is the best way to, well, earn this “earned media?”  One of the current answers seems to be to connect with digital influencers and bloggers at events like SXSWi.

From Jay Baer’s excellent post 13 observations from South by Southwest (SXSW) we have this snippet:

“There was also a lot of talk (especially among the big brands) on operationalizing social media, and creating true best practices for how to thrive in a real-time world where every customer is a reporter.”

Um, “operationalize?”

Yes, that basically means to take social media seriously and use it to drive sales and increase business, while measuring your Return on Investment (ROI) from those efforts.

Congrats, blogger, you are now part of a marketing plan; a node to drive sales and increase business for a brand.

Nerds As Nodes

I’m not saying whether this state of affairs is good or bad, only that it is what it is, and we’d better continue to acknowledge and talk about it.

There has been a power shift.

Brands have money, but bloggers hold most of the marbles.  Yes, you, blogger – the one trying to figure out how to pay your electricity bill – you hold most of the marbles in the new balance of power.

Brands want access to what you’ve worked so hard to build at 3 a.m. in your T-shirt and sweatpants:  authentic influence and community.

The question is, how many marbles do you trade with brands in order to pay the bills?  Is there a way to make money legitimately without you or your community feeling that they’ve bought your voice?

You’d better be thinking about these issues.  When you’re comfortable with the answers, go for it, but please do take the time to think, and I mean till your head hurts.

Or, don’t think about it. Fine. Take any and all goods/offers and run all the way to the bank, but don’t be surprised if you wake up one day with a pile of freebies and toys and a reputation (that you can’t shed) as a shill.

Respect what you’ve built online and always, always guard it fiercely.

Ask the brand and ask yourself the uncomfortable questions before unwittingly finding yourself in the Fire Swamp battling Rodents of Unusual Size.

Brands Are Not the Booger Man

Brands and businesses, please know that I understand your position, too.

You have products and services that you’re proud of and you want your business to grow, because it’s a good business, right?

I’m in the same position;  as a trainer and consultant myself, I have no problem telling our Tourism Currents clients that outreach to bloggers can be an integral part of their destination marketing – we call it “finding your online champions.”  I myself have been the target of such outreach efforts by tourism organizations, and they resulted in a few blogger press trips where I did a lot of thinking about my own comfort level as a “node.”   :)

Here’s my takeaway for brands….if a blogger is excessively accommodating, you’ve just been had.

Guard your brand’s reputation fiercely, too, because you’ve worked hard and you don’t need to toss it all away on “buzz” and “viral” crapola from a greedy digital snakeoil salesperson.  They can take their marbles and go home, in that situation.

I do not know all the answers, but I know enough to ask questions. Thanks for listening, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

The Austin American-Statesman launched the Texas Social Media Awards last year, and I’m humbled to tell you that the 2010 award winners were just announced and I’m one of the awardees.

Thanks very much to the judges on the Statesman staff and to those who supported my nomination.

It is truly an honor to be recognized in such a constantly-changing space and with so many other fine people.

From the paper’s article about the Awards:

“In the year since the awards were first held, social media sites increasingly have become a part of daily life. ‘We’ve gone from people who were early adopters and having fun with the technology to people using it for business and nonprofits in ways I’ve never even thought of before,’ says American-Statesman social media editor Robert Quigley.”

I sincerely hope that my work in the social Web is helpful to the tourism and travel communities.

Take a gander at the list of awardees to appreciate the variety of folks, and allow me to give a special shout-out to a few of them….

1. Michelle Greer – last year’s overall winner and one of this year’s judges. A tireless advocate of using tech for worthy causes and an expert on cloud computing with Rackspace.
2. Jennifer Navarrete – A good friend and occasional business colleague, Jennifer is the driving force behind much of San Antonio’s tech scene, plus she’s a dynamite podcaster at (among other shows) Tech in Twenty.
3. Dara Quackenbush – Dara is a PR professor at Texas State, and I love watching how she brings her students into modern PR, done right. Here’s her class blog where they practice what they learn.
4. Jenn Dearing Davis and Hayes Davis – They tweet and tell us about good deals, on CheapTweet. They appreciate all of us on a budget. They are super-nice. Drawbacks = none.
5. Mando Rayo – He investigates the local taco scene, then blogs about it on Taco Journalism.  He told me that my best local taco joint is Juarez Mexican Bakery, and when Mando tells me where to go, I go. I eat. I’m happy.
6. Hugh MacLeod – He draws quirky cartoons at Gaping Void. He does marketing for a South African winery from his location in Alpine, Texas; hey, it’s the Web so it makes sense to me.

I’m thrilled to be in such company, and thanks again for your support.

After watching this incredible video of musician Bobby McFerrin using his body, some humming and audience feedback to demonstrate the pentatonic scale at a science conference, I wondered….

How often are organizations willing to open their minds to new people who can teach everyone new ways to look at things?

It is scary to stretch your brain, but that’s when the “Oh, wow!” moments happen.

Is your organization hiring the same old, same old?

That’s perhaps why it is stuck doing the same old, same old.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

When should you continue to be part of a team, and when should you strike out on your own?

At what point do you start to question whether your individual efforts for the benefit of a team are not worth the benefit to you, personally?

When should you take a gimlet-eyed view of your output vs input and ask, “What’s in it for me?”

Confidence in your own talents and abilities is critical.

When you’re less confident in your abilities, you’ll do anything for a team because you figure it’s not possible to make it on your own.  It’s learning time.

As you gain confidence, it’s normal to begin (even almost unconsciously) measuring the value of what you’re providing and comparing it to the value of what your team brings to you.

I am at that point.

I’m not sure that I like being here.

I’m thinking about it.

I’m grateful for mentors and friends like Liz and Becky and events like SOBCon, so I don’t have to think alone.

I’ve blogged (and still blog) for lots of other sites, using several different platforms and themes, but ironically, I’ve never started a blog of my own from the ground up.

Today, it’s time to do that.

I want a space to write about the topics that I don’t already cover in my family travel, cultural travel, motorsports or on other Web 2.0/social media sites.

I want to write about helping people find “the good stuff.”  I’m your guide to quality information, destinations and thoughts, wherever I find them.  If I’m going to be a know-it-all, I might as well be a helpful one.

Thanks for listening.