Is This The Profile Of The New Social Networker
Social media is about people, and about interacting with those people.
I’m featuring some here…
Meet Charlie Robinson from Adelaide in South Australia.
Charlie is one of my favorite people on line, and I have run into her on a number of sites, most notably Facebook, Plurk and Twitter.
Bright, bubbly and engaging, she comes across as being very real, which is one reason she is so popular, and why her network has grown very quickly.
Charlie is different to the run of the mill social networker for another reason too though.
That reason is something that the present ‘A’ listers of social media might find quite stunning.
The fact is that if you want to network with this girl, you need to be just as real as she is, and that takes relationship…
Charlie has taken the bold step of weeding out members of her network who don’t engage with her.
As a result she has cut her network at Facebook to 400 members.
What does this mean at a time when the big names of the social networking world are boasting of huge numbers of followers on Twitter and FriendFeed?
To my mind it means that people are sick and tired of being treated like idiots, forced to consume every word these self styled gurus utter.
They can find stuff for themselves now, and the A Listers appear to be becoming more irrelevant as each day passes.
Fellow Share2Grow member Christine Taylor reminded me yesterday of a quote from a book by David L. Steward.
The book, Doing Business by the Good Book goes into how different industries have come and gone over the years.
The author mentions the trauma that the movie industry went through as the populararity of television grew during the 1950’s.
A quote in the book comes from an article that appeared in the Harvard Business Review in 1960.
That article, “Marketing Myopia” included this snippet, paraphrased by both Christine and I:
…buggy whip manufacturers went out of business because they failed to realize they were in the transportation industry, not the buggy whip industry. In other words, they didn’t adapt to change..
From: “Doing Business by the Good Book” by David L. Steward Published by Fine Communications
This post was in part inspired by Jim Kukral’s post The Death Of The A List!.
Whether the A List is dead or dying is a hot topic at present, and one that I will revisit tomorrow.
As you know I know Charlie reasonably well. Her last blog on interaction was particularly good advice. To bring value to this space one has to work it. Not only work it but be interactive in it. To stand on a box and preach without getting amongst the congregation is indeed dangerous. The principles of Web and Social Networking is merely a way to get into the audience whether it be for business or pleasure. The Social Network is quick to oust those who overstep the set of very broad guidelines that are acceptable practice.To sell ones message, product or service requires the same principles on line as they do off line. Identify the need to be satisfied and then satisfy it. The consumer will only ever buy the WIIFM. So how do you give them that. Well (lol) I think I am about to blog that one myself. The concept of becoming a Pied Piper that has a loyal following is dangerous, and to simply follow may see you off the cliff. There is no simple answer in providing service and interaction and listening to the client are the only successful ways I know and I do not seeing that change.
G'day Jim, Locally I buy meat from Peter, stationery from Virginia, have my accountancy done by Bronwyn and have my computer gear upgraded and maintained by Simon. These are all real life people that I deal with all the time, and even if sometimes their prices are a little more than their competitors, I deal there because of relationship! These people have proven themselves over time, and so I continue to deal with them! Why should things be different on line? Cheers
Hi Allan… thanks ever so much for this flattering post. There I was asking you to write for me (as an expert) and you not only wrote, you wrote ABOUT ME and on YOUR POST. So, of course I am going to send all my publicity your way as I think you're a darling for doing it. Very clever boy!! But I love the article. Spot on. I promote my friends to the hilt offline and I will on. It gives me great pleasure to see others do well. Succeed. Grow. Prosper. Flourish. And if there's a few compliments thrown in along the way – well that's just our nature hey. You are right that I have weeded friends… and will continue to weed (sitting at 400 again currently). I enjoy the encounters I make along the way when they mean something – what's the point otherwise? I enjoy a banter with my local morning coffee shop (will even accept the odd price hike once in a while because we're all in business making a buck). But I like real and I hate being taken for a ride. I also hate being "marketed to". Just ask an ex-boyfriend who owned his own advertising agency (now that was funny)!!! I did say "ex". <lol> xc
Well Charlie, I could hardly write about you on your own blog, now could I? I think that it is refreshing to see someone make a stand, and build quality relationships with people rather than giant lists of 'prospects'. Thanks for being totally real – it makes it so much easier to write about! Cheers!
For your first statement I need a Plurk emicon right now!! Maybe I'll just flick you off to my own: http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlierobinson1966/…“>tepid “>http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlierobinson1966/…tepid this argument, it needs to be recognised that I don't need to build a list. ____I fully understand those that do for a specific purpose or reason (marketing an event for example). I do feel though that people using FaceBook and a few other sites got a bit crazed and obsessed at building "numbers" rather than "relationships" for no particular purpose other than being able to say they have "x number" of friends… It's that that I have rejected.____I don't like being just a number on someone's list. So, yep. I'm a real person. Glad you're a friend too xc
The key thing that marketers on social networking sites don't realize is this – that rather than adding people to their lists, people are adding them to theirs. This in turn puts more responsibility on marketers to behave responsibly on these platforms, and to interact. Taken, you're not building a list! You are building a network of friends and asscoiates, which in the long run is more effective than a list can ever be… Cheers!