Yes, ladies and gentlemen. I AM in the mood this week for Red Sox baseball. And my posts likely will get polluted with Red Sox “stuff” this week. Forgive me. If you think this is bad, read my Twitter feed during gametime. ;-)
Sweet Caroline, the Red Sox Nation national anthem. At Fenway.
Enjoy.
Stability has returned to Wall Street after Friday’s 300 point drop. Many industry experts credited unrest in Northern Iraq, surging Oil prices and uncertainty surrounding the 20th anniversary of the Black Monday October 1987 crash where the market lost over 22% of its value in a single day. Others, however speculated that the sudden downturn was the result of uncertainty surrounding the Red Sox ability to turn the ALCS around. Down 3-2 in Game 5, the series returned to Boston. However, the damage was done on Friday causing many to question the stability of the market and the Boston Red Sox.
Weekend trading showed an upsurge in the market however as Curt Schilling and Japanese pitching sensation Daisuke Matsuzaka, also referred to by Red Sox faithful as Dice-K, put the clampdown on the Cleveland Indians to win the American League Championship Series in dramatic fashion Sunday night. Shortly after the game was won at around midnight Boston time, the Tokyo stock exchange surged ahead on the back of their native son. American markets would soon follow.
Many people question the connection between professional sports and finances. Some would call it “irrational exuberance“. However, there is no doubt that with the World Series now a certainty for the Red Sox, markets have responded favorably. In 1987, the market responded negatively to the St. Louis Cardinals ending up 2 games down in the World Series to the Twins. The Market doesn’t like the Twins because it’s hard to tell what is a sell and what is a buy – they look too similar!
The World Series was won by the Philadelphia Athletics in 1929 but it took 10 days before the Great Depression would begin. This has been attributed to the fact that the market didn’t comprehend that Philadelphia would lose their team to Oakland eventually in advance of the “Summer of Love” when everyone moved to California.
All in all, the market has responded admirably to the win today with Tech sector stocks leading the way. An investor was overheard saying, “We gotta love these tech stocks! All the webheads were on Twitter last night talking about the Sox! Gotta go with the winner here!”
We’ll keep following this story and let you know any further developments.
Social media is all about conversation. Some people get that, some people don’t. Regardless, conversation is where it’s at if you want to have a transparent relationship with your readers, customers and community. Some people, by nature of the fact that they know how to control the conversation, are much more adept to have the magnetism necessary to succeed in the conversation.
Now when I say controlling the conversation, let me be clear. I don’t mean telling people what to talk about and being an arrogant twit in having that conversation. I mean, be transparent and honest. People love that because it makes you approachable. On Twitter, for instance, there are people who cause me to notice them even when they say something completely insignificant. Chris Brogan is one of those. Jason Calacanis is another.
These are folks who are outside of Twitter as well, and that is good. Meeting them at conferences, reading their blogs, following their trends makes for a global reputation that attracts people to them. When they speak, people listen. A great example of this was last week when the Yankees were on the brink of elimination by the Cleveland Indians.
There are an abnormal number of Red Sox fans on Twitter, myself included. While the Sox fans caused lots of commotion and beat our chests alot, Jason taunted us one time with, “Let’s go yankees! Clap clap… Clapclapclap! Bring the Sox :-)”.
There is nothing particularly significant about this Tweet. Another Yankee fan talking shit (they all do that!). What was significant about this Tweet was the engagement J-Cal commanded. I know I sat up and gave him a quick one-liner. Others playfully threatened to boycott Mahalo. Whatever the reaction, Calacanis commanded the conversation with one line. He caused reader engagement.
Do you cause readers to engage?
On Facebook, do you ask your friends questions that taunts them to engage? Do they engage? On Flickr, do you post photos that create conversation? Do you meet people at conferences, or simply attend as many sessions as you can? It’s one thing to listen. It’s another to engage.
For anyone going to Blog World Expo in Vegas next month (you are going, aren’t you?), you’ll be interested to know that there is now a BONUS day of sessions courtesy of b5media. You can see the BWE announcement here. We have a jam packed lineup of sessions and speakers too. I’ll be doing a panel with Brian Clark of Copyblogger on using Digg and other Social Media tools to drive huge traffic to your blog. Allen Stern of Centernetworks and Jeremy Wright are talking about thriving as a B-List blogger. Marshall Kirkpatrick, also known for his writing on Read/Write Web and previously Techcrunch and Tris Hussey from blognation will be talking about creating a powerblogging toolset.
b5media’s own WordPress ninjas Brian Layman and Mark Jaquith will talk about using WordPress to its fullest. Leora Zellman and Mary Jo Manzanares, two of our Channel Editors, will be dishing out survival tips for network bloggers. I’ll give the CE that mentions my name first on the panel $50 in cash. ;-)
Of course, there’s also Alex Hillman from Philadelphia’s Independent’s Hall (whom I had the pleasure of meeting at Podcamp Philly) and Jake McKee from Community Guy who will bring their experience to Creating Conversations. Finally, there’s a private session for b5′ers who want to join us at the end.
I’m really looking forward to BWE, and not because I’m flying Virgin America. This is going to be a fantastic chance to catch up with folks that I haven’t seen in awhile and meet folks I’ve yet had the chance to meet. Plus it’s Vegas and is by nature unbloggable. ;-) Kidding!
If you’re a full conference badge holder, you get access to this bonus day for free. You can also opt in and if you want to get into a session but can’t for some reason, just drop me an email and I’ll see what I can do.
This post is the Spanish-translated version of “The Golden Rule of Twitter Marketing“, published earlier on this blog. It was graciously translated by Twitter friend @cosmic_sailor. Gracias!
Usted conoce Twitter, correcto? Es la red social que trae a personas juntas en una conversación penetrante acerca de cualquier sucede en un momento dado. Como Mensaje Instantáneo o como Blogs. Pero en 140 caracteres o menos. Desde Blackberries y teléfonos celulares a applicaciones de la computadora y la red. Twitter es la manifestación de una nueva tendencia fresca de microcontent.
Yo adoro Twitter. Yo lo he estado utilizando desde febrero y mientras yo no fui el adoptador más temprano, yo fui un adoptador temprano. He visto Twitter surgir como el facto “atrás canal” en conferencias, el catalizador para el meetups improvisado y sÃ, como un dispositivo del marketing.
Cada vez mas, yo he mirado expendedores saltar en abordar el carro de Twitter, pero yo me pregunto cuántas personas realmente “lo consigue”. Vea, Twitter cultiva transparencia. Las mismas personas que dejan caer pepitas diarias de la penetración profunda en Twitter durante el dÃa, quizan Tweet acerca de tomar sus niños al paseo. Cada vez más, la gente pueden Tweet sobre sus ubicaciones como ellos toman roadtrips con órdenes especiales destinadas para tramar su ubicación en un mapa. Estas mismas personas en el próximo aliento explican por qué es que esta compañÃa o el polÃtico son el trato verdadero.
La energÃa de Twitter está en la autenticidad y la transparencia. He dicho a menudo que la marca de fábrica no es algo que se puede controlar por las compañÃas. La marca de fábrica es controlada por los clientes. La confianza es controlada por las compañÃas. Si los clientes no confÃan en a compañÃa, su marca de fábrica es inútil. Si confÃan en a compañÃa, esa compañÃa ha asegurado a vendedor para la vida. La confianza es construida por la autenticidad, por la transparencia. Es la cosa que permite que las compañÃas funcionen en el siglo XXI.
¿Asà que cómo trabaja Twitter para expendedores? Bien, para algunos expendedores, ellos son inconscientes a la transparencia. Por ejemplo usted siempre puede decir quién esta “en la conversación” y asà más transparente y confiable, por mirar la proporción de “Seguidores” a “Amigos”. Nunca confÃe nadie que tiene un número apreciablemente desproporcionadamente más alto de amigos a seguidores. Los amigos son definidos como personas que usted escucha. Los seguidores son ésos que escuchan a usted. La conversación de un solo sentido es nunca un gran catalizador para la comunicación ni transparencia.
Otros expendedores quizás sigaran mas gente y tendran muchos mas amigos que los siguen, pero si la totalidad de sus Tweets consiste en la promoción de sus productos, usted tiene una calle de sentido único. Otra vez, nunca confÃa calles de sentido único. Hay dragones en esas colinas.
Yo siempre encuentro obligando tremendamente los productos vÃa Twitter simplemente por entrar en la conversación con personas. Hay varias gente en Twitter que ha reconocido el poder de Twitter como un medio para la promoción, mas ellos comprometen sus seguidores en la conversación – a veces no relacionado a su producto. El asombrar dinámico aquà es la marca personal.
Cuando un ejemplo, NewMediaJim es un cámara de NBC. El no promueve realmente NBC en lo que él hace, mas todos estan enterados que NBC es su empleador y basado en ese conocimiento, es muy intuitivo leer sus Tweets acerca de sus varias excursiones en su vida de la carrera – entrevistas con gente, manejanadas a bases militares para encontrar con las gente militares que regresan de la guerra, etc. Esto obliga el contenido.
En la otra cara del juego de NBC esta el TodayShow, la fuente oficial de Twitter conectado a la exposición de la mañana de NBC. Aquà está un ejemplo de Twitter que vende ido malo. No hay conversación. No hay apelación de unir en la conversación de opf de comunidad. Es una oficina pública de relaciones que libera los comunicados de prensa sobre Twitter en 140 caracteres o menos.
Si tuve que detallar una Regla de Oro de Twitter, sera:
PÃe acerca de otros al menos tanto como usted PÃa acerca de usted mismo.
Cerciórese que sus esfuerzos del marketing en Twitter entran en la conversación. Asegure que usted promueva otra persona contento tanto si no más que usted promueve su propio. Cerciórese a personas saben quién usted es. Twitter es personal, asà que construye su marca personal. Sólo ayudará su negocio. ConfÃeme.