Definition of Social Media

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I’m putting the finishing touches on a presentation I’m giving tomorrow to a group of local entrepreneurs. The subject is Blogging and Social Media in Your Business.

As I was putting it together I discovered that there still isn’t a definition of social media that really hits the mark out there yet. Robert Scoble started a big discussion about the term over a year ago. That post has over 100 comments with all kinds of opinions on the subject.

Wikipedia is often the go-to reference source online these days, and it happens to be a social media site itself. However the Wikipedia definition comes of sounding a bit lofty and I get the feeling that when the average person reads through those two sentences walks away thinking, “Great. But what does that mean?”

Most of the rest of the definitions out there seem to be by marketing types who get fixated on the various tools and technology. The best definition I found was by Isabel Walcott Hilborn. But hers is still missing a piece of the puzzle from my perspective.

Social Media Definition

Here is what I came up with.

Social Media

Communication formats publishing user generated content that allow some level of user interaction.

It is the ability for users to interact with one another over and above their ability to generate content that really makes a media form “social” in my book. And that component has so far been missing from the definitions floating around out there.

Social media seems to pretty much be confined to the internet at this point. I’m not convinced that will necessarily always be the case. It is entirely possible that some new form of technology might be created that allow social media in other realms.

What are your thoughts on social media?

Is that a workable definition or does it still need more work?

Value in Getting Away

Note: This post is part of a group writing project for HighCallingBlogs.com for this month sponsored by Laity Lodge and which we’re hosting here at SuccessCREEations, Inc. The topic is Retreat! Retreat! Retreat! While the main drawing has already happened you can still participate in the writing project until the end of the month and get a discount on selected retreats for you and your readers.

Connectivity Culture

We live in a culture that is continuously connected. I’m as connected as anyone because of what I do here at SuccessCREEations, Inc.

Between blogging, a bunch of email addresses, four instant messaging accounts, Skype, 300+ feeds in my feed reader, and all the various social media sites I’m active on it can be a never ending stream of information.

And it’s getting worse, or better, depending on your viewpoint. With services like Twitter that can follow you around on your cell phone it is easier than ever to keep yourself wired in.

Out of the Vacation Habit

I grew up in a family where most all vacation time was spent going to visit family, usually over holidays. Most of you would probably agree that visiting family often isn’t really a vacation at all. Sometimes it can be even more stressful than every day life!

Gorgeous is from a family that had more healthy vacation habits. But unfortunately in our marriage we’d fallen into my way of doing things what with parental failing health issues and all.

In the ten years of our marriage we can only remember one real vacation where we weren’t visiting family or attending a conference or some such. Read more

But is Twitter Useful?

One of the people that Gorgeous and I connected with in Chicago this past weekend was Christine Kane. It probably didn’t hurt that the three of us were all seated in close proximity to a very wild and obnoxious three year old on the same flight into Chicago. That got diverted to Columbus for more fuel after holding too long for bad weather.

But that’s a story for another time.

I also had the pleasure of sitting at the same table as Christine at the conference. As speakers like Chris Brogan, Liz Strauss, and Terry Starbucker were talking about the people in the room who were using Twitter to communicate with one another (and with folks half a world away) during the conference, Christine would ask the rest of us questions on the side.

They ranged from the basic to the technical, for example…

• What’s the point? to interact with others
• Why would you bother? because I like people
• Can everyone see what I tweet @ someone? Oh, yeah
• How does the direct message thing work? “d your_friends_twittername” and they’ll get a private message

Read more

Down to Business at SOBCon08

Gorgeous and I spent this past weekend at SOBCon in Chicago. It was a tremendous weekend for the both of us.

This years event kept some of the best parts of SOBCon07 and yet was quite different in at least one key element, that of focus. Last year SOBCon was all about community with a little bit of marketing thrown in.

All About Business

This time around SOBCon was all about business. Sure there were several bloggers in the room whose focus was not on making money with their blogs. But having just made the break from corporate life to the entrepreneur world this year, Gorgeous and I were definately focused on business while we were in Chicago.

And we weren’t disappointed.

Still Made Connections

Just like last year we made new connections which will likely produce valuable exchanges to help mutually propel our various businesses forward.

It is interesting to me that the people I made strongest connection with were not the same folks that I set out to get to know. Because I set out with that intentionality I still met the people and started the relationships that may potentially be catalysts for growth in my business. Those connections were just with unexpected people is all. Read more

Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!

Have you ever felt the need to get away from it all?

Have you ever had to chose whether to take some time away or keep pressing on?

Which way did you decide to go?

What happened as a result?

HighCallingBlogs Group Writing Project

This month we’re hosting the HighCallingBlogs Group Writing project here at SuccessCREEations, Inc.

We’re going to take the next few weeks to share some of we learned learned from a time when we decided to get away for a while, or from a time when we decided not to get away (but maybe we thought we should have).

Win Your Own Retreat

Laity Lodge is sponsoring the Group Writing Project this month. That means they are doing 3 things for those who decide to enter a blog post.

• 50% OFF FOR YOU - selected retreats for any participant in this group writing project. (You don’t have to be a member of HighCallingBlogs.com, but we hope you’ll consider it.)
• 25% OFF FOR YOUR READERS – Anyone who reads your blog can register for 25% off. When they call to register, they need to ask for “the HighCallingBlogs.com discount.”
• A FREE RETREAT - On Friday, May 9, at noon Central Time, we’re going to put the names of this Group Writing Project’s participants in a hat and draw one out. The winner gets a free retreat for a married couple or an individual. Marcus will announce the winners that afternoon

How to Enter

To enter for your chance to win, or to just participate in the writing project you need to do three things:

1. Write up a blog post on the importance of retreat
2. Link to the sponsor, Laity Lodge
3. And also link to this post so I know to include your post in the list of submissions that will be accumulating right here.

We’ll also post a link to your post over at HighCallingBlogs.com!

Update: Mark pulled a winner for the free retreat! Check out the video to see who one. But just because the winner has been chosen doesn’t mean that the project is over because we can all still be winners. Remember you can still get 50% off of selected retreats just for submitting your blog post to this group writing project and your readers can still get 25% off. So if you’re like me and haven’t submitted a post yet, there’s still time to be included. Keep writing!

Read more

Brand New Design

If you are a feed subscriber you might not know. But we’ve just launched the redesigned SuccessCREEations, Inc. website. There are still some bugs to work out yet and now I’m in the same boat that my clients often find themselves, a new website just begging to be filled with content.

Upgrading WordPress

The first thing I did was to bring the back end up to date with the latest version of WordPress. SuccessCREEations, Inc. had long been in that classic situation where, “the cobbler’s kids got no shoes.” There was so much work to do for clients and their sites that our own site was, ahem, a few versions back.

I gotta say that the completely redesigned WordPress 2.5 dashboard is very nice to work with. It is different, for sure, and takes a bit of getting used to.

But it took far less time to adjust than I expected, especially considering that I’ve been using WordPress for going on three years now. In fact, after spending less than a day with the new version I went back to the old version and was already forgetting where things were in the old menus.

The new dashboard design is that much better.

Screen Shots

The most obvious change is of course the new look. For you feed readers, here’s a screen shot of the new design.
I had developed the new SuccessCREEations, Inc. logo a while back with the idea of using it as a starting point for a new look to the site. I pulled the gold in the compass rose points and the blue/purple from the logo and used those colors as the starting point. Read more

Yahoo Shine - Social Media Made for Women?

Yahoo! recently launched a new social media portal called Shine aimed squarely at women. It’s a potentially brilliant move if it’s executed well. Women tend to be naturally more into the whole “social” aspect of social media than men on average. Even so, with a few notable exceptions, blogging and social media have been dominated by men to date.

However done poorly it could end up as nothing more than a footnote on the way to Yahoo! being bought out by a larger company such as Microsoft.

Promoting the Launch

To promote the launch of the site Yahoo hosted invitation-only events in Atlanta, Boston & Chicago. I’ve spoken with two ladies who were at the promotion events in different cities.

They said Yahoo wants Shine to accomplish three things.

1. Provide timely information for women
2. Have a place for women to comment
3. Offer a platform for women to have their own blogs

Ultimately Yahoo would like to see an even distribution of content on the site from three different sources: Shine staff writers, members blogging on the site, and articles written for other Yahoo sites. As far as the topics of that content, here’s what the site’s About Us page says.

So what you won’t find on Shine: Advice on how to please your man and diets that urge you to “lose 10 pounds fast!” What you will find on Shine: Why buying an expensive “It Bag” is a waste of money; how to make a meal in 30 minutes; how to make a face mask out of last night’s 30-minute meal (okay not really but you get the idea), how to de-stress at your desk; sharp, opinionated takes on the news; and finally, that you aren’t alone in your “Dancing with the Stars” obsession. We get it.

So the question is how are they doing? Read more

Contributing to The Age of Conversation: Why Don’t People Get It?

About a year ago Drew McLellan and 100 other bloggers collaborated on a groundbreaking book called The Age of Conversation. With such a distinguished contributer list and all the proceeds of the book benefiting Variety - the Children’s Charity it was a fabulous project.

If you’d like to get an insight on how some of the thought leaders in social media are engaging in conversation during the course of their businesses grab yourself a copy of the book. You’ll be helping a good cause while you’re at it.

Head Down

While all this was going on last year I was up to my eyeballs in SOBCon07 preparations. Between that and general life craziness I didn’t even catch wind of the project until it went to publication. I was head down focused on my business.

Perhaps that was a good thing because I was pretty stretched out at the time. Adding one more thing might have pushed me over the edge!
Read more

Your Reading Stack Meme

Got tagged by Director Tom with the Page 123 meme. He tagged me via Twitter, which is a new twist.

The point of this meme is to take whatever book you are reading right now and share sentences 6-8 on page 123. Here it goes.

Right now I’m reading Who Are You Really, and What Do You Want? by Shad Helmstetter.

Gorgeous and I had a chance to meet the author a couple years back in Nashville. Actually Gorgeous had lunch with him, if I remember right. He even signed her copy of the book, which is the one I’m reading at the moment.

Anyway, here’s what is on page 123:

Tagging Others

What good is a meme if you don’t share it?

I’m sure some of y’all have been tagged with this already.
That’s OK. You should be onto a different book by now anyway.

• April Groves
• Robert Hruzek
• Marcus Goodyear
• Agent Sully
• Dann Lewis

Sandra Yancey Speaks at Savannah eWomenNetwork Event

Sandra Yancey the CEO and Founder of eWomenNetwork came to Savannah this week to speak at the local eWomenNetwork chapter’s monthly Accelerated Networking Event.

Her talk was fabulous and I’ve got to say that Sandra Yancey is a tremendously good public speaker. She had the whole room captivated for the entire time she spoke and the audience was silent for the entire time. Getting a room full of 80 women to be quiet for a few minutes can be an accomplishment but Sandra spoke for nearly an hour and a half! The time had passed so quickly while she spoke that it felt like less than half that time to me.

Starting a New Business

Sandra spoke about some of the struggles it takes to get a business off the ground and running profitably. She shared how close to failure she’d been at the beginning of her business and how she was able to acquire the skills and knowledge she needed adapt her business turn it into a successfully growing venture.

As Sandra Yancey spoke she filled her talk with stories and anecdotes ranging from her own personal experiences to relating the classic children’s story of The Little Engine That Could.

Most Valuable Asset

Sandra shared what she thought was the single most valuable asset in her business career, and it wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t capital reserves, marketing savvy, or the ability to come up with earth shaking new ideas. Read more

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