1. Social Media in Real Life
http://bit.ly/LongLunchPDX_SMIRL
Melissa Lion melissalion@melissalion.com
Michelle Anderson mediaChick@iheartmedia.com
What is Social Media?
Media is the delivery method of broadcasting a message.
Mass Media, also known as Traditional or Industrial Media, includes newspapers, televisions, and radio. It is
typically expensive to produce on a large scale and requires specialized production knowledge. Monopolies and
confidentiality agreements are the norm. Information is guarded.
Social media, also known as Web 2.0 or New Media, is the method of delivering content online through the use of
such things as blogs, wikis, widgets, and social networking sites. Producing content using social media that can
be seen by potentially hundreds of thousands of people is free, or nearly free. Collaboration and transparency is
encouraged. Information is shared.
Other benefits to using social media
• Instant feedback
• Uber-economical word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing
• Content management system
• International scope
• Experts within reach
• Branding
• Electronic fan clubhouse
• Opportunity for backlinks and traffic (which drives up search rankings)
• Transparency
o Easy to see what everyone else is doing
o Easy to see what everyone else is saying about you
LINKS:
http://bit.ly/WhatIsSocialMedia
Wikipedia Web 2.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
Wikipedia Web 1.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_1.0
Build a Web Presence, One Post at a Time
Join the conversation five times a week.
But how to come up with the content? The good news is the content is around you all the time.
Location, Location, Location
All real people live somewhere. They go to work. They go "out on the town." They live in cities or neighborhoods,
or out on the range. But we all exist somewhere concrete and tangible.
People search by location too.
Use your location
• Your About Me sections must have your location: City and state
• No metaphorical locations: "Up in the clouds..."
Use your location for content
• If you're stuck for content one day, take a picture of the day outside. Is it raining? Sunny? Are your tulips
up? No need for text, just give the image a simple title and post it.
• What's different in your location today?
1
Long Lunch PDX
All Rights Reserved

2. LINKS:
Kathleen McDade: Portland-specific blogroll www.technoearthmama.com
Here in Malibu: Purely location-based blog www.laobserved.com/malibu
OurPDX: Location-based group author blog
Who are you?
About me section
• Picture of you
• Way to contact you
• Location
• Links to other networking sites to which you belong
Avatars
• Again, a picture of your face
• Use the same avatar for everything (or something similar so people can figure out it's you)
• Don't change it too often, but change it occasionally
Taking a picture of yourself
• Use a cellphone
• Take the picture from above
• Use natural sunlight
• Smile!
You are playing a character on the internet
• What is that character?
• Think about who you want to be and be that person
This character will upset people
• Trolls exist, and will find you. Do not feed them and they will go away
• Your friends will become upset about something you've written
• Your web presence will get you into trouble
• How does your character respond?
Some ideas for how to respond to upset people on the internet
• Ignore it
• Send a private email to the upset party
• Go with your gut -- if you think something you write will upset someone, ask before posting, or don't write
it at all
• Suffer the consequences and know that every day you will gain readers and lose readers
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ANONYMOUS
• IP Addresses are easily traced
• If you're blogging about your job, count on being fired
• Blogs are traced by user name and email address
• Comments left on blogs come with an IP Address
Writing exercises:
1. Spend ten minutes and write down all of the characteristics you want to have on the internet, even if you
feel you don't possess them right now. What is your character description?
2. Add one specific, concrete, unexpected detail to your About Me section.
You Are the Community You Create
Your community is ripe for content, and deserves attention and nurturing.
2
Long Lunch PDX
All Rights Reserved

3. Who populates your presence?
Your friends and followers
• Add people you actually know or people with whom you could have an actual conversation
• Don't just add people because they are on the same social networking site as you
• Add too many people and your authenticity is toast. You become a "bot," or friend collector.
• Try to keep the followers and following numbers balanced, tipped a bit more heavily in the followers
section
• Do not add friend collectors (makes you guilty by association)
• Be discerning about the company you keep
Begin adding people after you've created some specific, genuine content, have an avatar and a specific location
in your About Me section.
Your audience
• Address everyone occasionally
• Ask a question of your audience
• Picture your audience reading your post
Commenters
• Read your commenters' blogs or check their profiles
• Respond on your blog to another person's blog post. Link to that other blog in your post.
• Use an @reply, but not too many, because people don't want to read too many exclusive conversations
Become a commenter yourself
• Write on a Facebook wall, comment on a picture in Flickr
• Use the same tone the author is using. If it's a family-type blog, keep the comments PG
• Remember that people often have family and children tuning into their social media presence
Writing about your real life community
• Ask before you write, and ask what name they'd like to go by
• Make sure all of the people you portray have contrast (because without contrast, the people in your world
lose authenticity too)
Blogrolls are a partial list of your community
• They are not reciprocal, as soon as they are you lose authenticity ("Pay for Play")
• Make sure the links work
• Cull your blogroll monthly -- remove 10%
Writing exercises:
1. Write a post and ask your audience what they think. Write a post about the things you love about your
city. Ask your readers, "What are some things you love about your city?"
2. Make a comment on a new person's blog. Not, simply, "I agree." But write a specific, concrete response
addressing something specific they've written.
3. Trim 10% of your followers
LINKS:
Surviving Myself: A huge blog, and the blogger responds to all 50 comments every single day.
survivingmyselfblog.com
Back Away from the Bullhorn
Social Media is about conversation. It's about getting to know people. The only way to get to know someone is to
have a conversation. For the first time in the history of media, the audience is expecting to join the conversation.
Social media is like a dinner party. You ought to be prepared to present yourself well, make some small talk, be
introduced to others and remember names before you start dancing on the tabletops with a lampshade on your
3
Long Lunch PDX
All Rights Reserved

4. head.
Beginning a conversation
• Comment on a blog
• @reply to an interesting tweet
• Comment on a Facebook status
• Meet some bloggers in real life
• Give another blog a shout out in your post
If you must broadcast, do it in the form of a conversation
• New post: link
• I just added a button, does it look weird: link
• Love this video: link to a youtube video that you actually do love and did not make on your own
• Loving this book right now (link) anyone else read it?
Remember to listen to what people say back to you.
Listen.
Listen.
Before leaving a comment, remember that the Internet is as permanent as it is temporal. Make sure everything
you say is something you want attached to your name forever.
Writing exercise:
1. Read several blogs. Read them the next day. And the next. On the fourth day, leave an informed
comment.
It Was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times
Real people have bad days. The occasional conflict is expected. Your audience is, for the most part, rooting for
you. Share your bad day occasionally, and not only will you be more real, but there are people unknown to you
now who can help solve problems that contributed to your bad day.
Real people have good days too.
Real people have contrast in their lives.
It is this roller coaster that, ultimately, is the content of our story on the web.
The post begins when something is different.
Handling contrast in your posts
• Remember no one in the story should be worse than you
• Exaggeration is your friend
• Self-deprecation will win you many admirers
• When good things happen, be grateful
• Say your thank you's
• Take a picture of your smiling face
Writing exercise:
1. Write 200 words about the thing that is different today.
Revisions: You never get a second chance to make a first impression
There are no good writers, only good revisers.
Tips for revision
4
Long Lunch PDX
All Rights Reserved

5. • Read everything out loud before hitting submit
• Preview your blog posts
• If you always have the same grammar error, go to your browser's edit button and -> Select "find in this
page" -> type in that common grammar misstep -> and then correct all of your mistakes
• Make sure your site looks current. When in doubt, use a blogging platform as a content management
system. No need to post everyday. Have one page with your information, but it will look much prettier.
• Before adding friends, be sure your About Me is current and you've generated some content for the site
• Go with your gut! If it feels bad to press publish, then don't do it
• Deleting is your friend
The Cultures of Social Networks: Media Ecology
Every month, thousands of new easy-to-use social media tools are released into the Wild World Wide Web.
These simple (and typically free) online applications help even the most non-technical person create and share
content, find content, and manage content.
There is a community of real people who use social networking sites, and each social networking site has their
own culture and set of rules. Some rules are stated explicitly: terms of service, user conduct agreements. Some
rules are unwritten. You learn these unwritten rules by paying attention to and joining in on the conversation.
• Flickr, PhotoBucket (photo sharing)
• Twitter, Plurk (microblogging)
• YouTube, Vimeo (video syndication)
• Facebook, MySpace (social networking)
• Delicious, StumbleUpon (social bookmarking)
• Ning, CrowdVine (create-your-own social networking)
• LinkedIn, Plaxo (business networking)
• Upcoming, Calagator (event directories)
• DeviantArt, Etsy (social networking for artisans)
Blogging Software: Choosing a Home for Your Content and Community
When deciding which blogging software to use, the first question to ask yourself is whether you want to host your
blog or have that done for you. The second question is which blogging software to use.
There are several free blog-hosted sites:
• WordPress.com
• Blogger.com
• Vox.com
• LiveJournal.com
• TypePad.com
There are also several free self-hosted blogging software choices:
• WordPress.org
• Drupal.com
• Joomla.com
Self-hosting a blog means paying for space to hold your Web site on a server on the Internet. It requires
uploading and installing blogging software, and although installation can be quite easy you do not need to spend
any money to have a blog.
Don't worry too much about picking the "right" blogging software while you're learning how to blog. Blog data is
often portable, and some sort of "export" button can be found in virtually all blogging software dashboards.
LINK:
http://bit.ly/BloggingPlatforms
5
Long Lunch PDX
All Rights Reserved

6. Using Web Feeds
How do we know when there's new content to see on our favorite blogs? By subscribing to their Web feed! The
most common type of Web feed is called RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary). RSS is a type
file that allows anyone to opt-in to being alerted to new updates without visiting the site. Another type of Web feed
is called Atom.
Subscribing to a feed requires two things: the web feed (which is a file your computer reads) and a place to keep
the content the feeds send you, called a feed reader. You'll need a feed reader before you can subscribe to blogs.
Some popular feed readers are Google.com, Newsgator.com and NetVibes.com.
To start the subscription process, look for the orange icon in your Web browser window's address bar. This same
icon might be spotted in several places throughout a blog, which is a very good way to remind readers that if they
like your content, they should subscribe to you.
Next, click on the subscription feed link and select your feed reader. Presto! You're subscribed!
Insider Info: Those social media icons you see in blogs that allow for sharing and subscribing to content? They're
also called "chicklets." Weird, huh?
Checking for updated information is a thing of the past if a Web site is feed enabled. This is where blogs really
shine, when compared with traditional, static Web 1.0 sites, because when posts go up your feed subscribers will
know right away, simply by logging into their feed reader.
• Feed readers: Google.com, Newsgator.com, NetVibes.com
• Web feed file formats: rss, atom, xml, opml, sms
• Tracking subscribers and clicks
LINK:
http://bit.ly/UsingRSSFeeds
Keywords and Tags - Finding like-minded folks
Using good labels to describe your content is how people find you on the Internet. Label your content by using
keywords and tags.
When people use a search engine and type in some words to describe what they're looking for, they are using
keywords. These keywords are the common words used in your content, which tells the search engine what your
post is about. (For instance, if you're writing about pies, and you use the word "pie" in your post fifteen times, the
Internet will assume your post is about pies.)
Tags are the extra labels you add to your content to describe what it is. You can add tags when you post content,
and others can add them when they use social bookmarking (Delicious.com) and blog ranking (Technorati.com)
sites.
Hashtags are Twitter-specific. When you tweet (post an entry that's 140 characters or less) and use the pound
sign (#) before any letters, the system creates a tag for it. For instance, #mmmpie
(http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23mmmpie) and #twiterdipity (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=
%23twitterdipity) are two hashtags created in tweets.
Categories are containers for your tags.
• Locale-specific blog promotion sites (ignoregon.com/)
• Feed directories (Bloglines.com)
• Attend meetups (Upcoming.org, calagator.com)
• Link to other people's content and to original sources (backlinks)
• Social bookmarks (StumbleUpon)
• Blogrolls: check out the link collection of the blogs you respect and study them, too
• Who's visiting your blog? (statcounter.com, googleanalytics.com, blogpatrol.com)
6
Long Lunch PDX
All Rights Reserved

7. Insider Info: There is an online community of folks who love to tag things. Folksonomy is what it's called, and you
can find out more on Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy)
LINKS:
http://bit.ly/FindingLikeMindedFolks
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Helping like-minded folks find YOU
How do search engines work? When words (called keywords) are typed in a search box and a search is initiated,
the search engine brings back the highest ranking Web pages that feature the keywords entered. This ranking is
based on a number of different factors, and each search engine will return different results because each has its
own way of figuring out what is popular on the Internet.
So while there is no "sure thing" way to get a blog post first page ranking for a particular keyword or keyword
phrase, here are some basic things to remember when planning your blog post and configuring your blog for
optimal search engine "friendliness":
• You should chose keywords you are targeting before you start to write. Choose 2-4 single words, or 2 or 3
word phrases to start. Get your keywords by:
o deciding what the main subject of your post is.
o using a keyword suggestion tool for ideas (such as freekeywords.wordtracker.com).
o checking out the keywords other blogs similar to your topic (using google.com/sktool).
• Your post title should be between 60-65 words and include your chosen keywords.
• The first couple of sentences of your post are critical and should contain your keywords, also. Because
they appear along with your blog post in search results, these sentences must convince the reader to
click on your post instead of the others.
• Tag your posts in your blog. Use your keywords, plus any other relevant words. (Don't get crazy, but
choose several.)
• If using WordPress for your blog, categorize your posts and put the categories in your sidebar. This works
like an archive of similar-topic post entries, with the added bonus of having WordPress tag them for
search engines to see. (Note, at this time Blogger doesn't use categories.)
• Use social bookmarking to bookmark your keyword-rich posts and tag them there, too. (Also helps to get
friends using social bookmarking to do the same.)
Who's Visiting Your Blog?
It's a good idea to pay attention to who is visiting your blog, and there are plenty of applications to choose from.
Most blog tracking software tracks visits, return visits, what city the visitors live in, how long they looked at your
blog, where they came from, and what post they looked at, etc. You can also see what keywords (if any) were
used in a search engine that led a visitor to visit your blog or a particular blog post. (This is helpful in deciding
what to write on your blog in the future, because you already know it brings your blog traffic.)
Here are some free tracking applications:
• statcounter.com
• blogpatrol.com
• google.com/analytics
Get Help Online and Off in Portland, Oregon
• Beer and Blog (motto: bloggers helping bloggers over beer) portland.beerandblog.com
• Portland WordPress Users Group pdxwp.com
Shiny Playthings in Social Media
• Custom widgets (Widgetbox.com, iWidgets.com KickApps.com)
• Social media Web site widgets (blog platform-generated, MyBlogLog.com)
• URL shorteners (cli.gs, bit.ly)
7
Long Lunch PDX
All Rights Reserved

8. LINK:
http://bit.ly/ShinyPlaythingsinSM
8
Long Lunch PDX
All Rights Reserved