Are social media sites REALLY like being at a party?

1 replies
Heya

Perry Belcher posted an interesting video on his blog about how being on social media sites kind of being like at a party:


YouTube - Social Media Marketing | Perry Belcher


I have very, very limited experience with social media sites (to say the least) and I have a couple of questions.

These questions might seem a bit naive or basic to some folks, but I'm going to go ahead and ask all the same because I think they're important insofar as they're connected to a bigger element of online business than simply whether or not to take part in the social media chatter...


#1. Aren't you only allowed ONE account at each of the social networking sites?

I'm pretty sure that's the case.

Is it?

And I'm also pretty sure that an absolute boatload of people selling stuff on the web use multiple accounts.

Or am I wrong about that?


Now, the reason I'm asking is because in Perry's video he talks about visiting social media sites and connecting with like-minded people and directing them (in a kind of "By the way...you should drop by some time" manner) to your blog, which he says is a little bit like your home.

That is, just like a real party, you meet someone you like and you give them your number and invite them round to your home some time for a beer or a barbecue or whatever.

And on this blog you have stuff all about you and stuff that is obviously of relevance and use and interest to these like-minded people you meet.

The stuff that YOU want to write about. And different sections that deal with different things that you're interested in--because we're not just these uni-faceted things (but more on this later: VERY important).

Watch the video if you haven't already and you'll see what I mean.

So the question about only having a single account is where it starts to overlap with other, broader business questions...


#2. Is it foolish to interconnect my online interests?

What I mean is this:

-- I have a lot of experience and expertise in a particular professional area. I'm in the process of building a solid long-term business model for this site which, ideally, I can take offline and then franchise or license.


-- I'm doing some "niche-marketing" as a way of getting out of the ratrace and freeing up my time to concentrate on the bigger project. This "niche-marketing" site is a "publisher-model" site, (hopefully what becomes) an authority site which links out to other, smaller niche-projects (ebooks, membership sites, forums, interview of the month, etc.) on various topics.

I only have a couple of these sites up at the moment and they actually do happen to be things that I have a genuine interest in and knowledge about, but they aren't really making me any money. There are a million reasons for this and it's not necessarily the niche itself. With some work on the offer and the copy and so on, there's no reason I can't get it bringing in some decent cashola while providing genuinely good information to people.

Or it could be that I've picked a couple of dud topics based on interest and the old "passion" line that I've been fed so many times now that it makes me want to puke (but that's a rant for another day! LOL! ) and that these niches are simply not buying markets. Who knows? I'm still testing and tweaking things and haven't given up on those sites.

But I'd like to branch out into other subjects that have a mass audience and start producing content in those niches, too. Not just any old dross churned out by a plagiarising ghost writer in Bangalore and slapped into an ebook on my site.

But stuff that's perhaps ghost-written by a reputable writer and then...

[well, I won't lay out my business model here for that venture. It's not really relevant to the post. The point is that I would like to expand my "hub" site to capture more of the bigger, broader, "money" markets while providing good quality products to those markets which will help them achieve whatever it is they want to achieve in exchange for their hard-earned.]


This is my little "back-up plan" business. If my idea in my professional field doesn't pan out or goes down the toilet, then I've got this (relatively simple maintenance) one ticking away in the background that I can either live on for a while as I get started on some other venture or sell at some later date.


-- And finally, I've also started a little newsletter about what I've learnt and am in the process of learning about earning some dollars online. About the lessons I've learnt the hard way and things (and people) to avoid and so on. I have no desire to ever be "a presence" in IM. And I'm not trying to make buckets of money by telling to people how to make money when I'm still a bit of a newbie myself; every affiliate link also has a "naked" link to show my recommendation is because I believe in it, not just because I can make some money off it. So I'm not trying to retire any time soon by building a big old IM list. It's simply there to try and help out. I write some stuff occasionally that I think might be useful and add it to the autoresponder. There are some affiliate links, but it's primarily to try and share stuff and help.

So what? What's the point here?

Well, the point is that if I use Perry's model of having a central "Home Blog" and I have areas of that site about different aspects of me (that is, pointing to these three different "elements of me"), then everyone knows everything that I'm into.

And this is what I'd like some advice on from people who've been doing business online for a long time. I'm less interested in people who sell to the IM crowd and have established themselves as an expert in IM. Why? Because you're selling to people who don't really care that much about the other things you do (although more on that in a minute). If you sell me a book about [insert IM thing] and you also sell ebooks about Dog Training, what do I care?

But I'm concerned that the other way round may not be the case. That people who are interested in, um, let's say my area of expertise is Fluid Dynamics... these folks may not like the idea that I'm also selling an ebook online about Dog Training, even if an expert has written it and it's good information and Dog Training-buffs rave about it and so on. They may not like my little "Publishing House" project, even though it's a perfectly legitimate (and I don't mean "legal") interest of mine in which I'm providing good information to people about other topics. I'm actually not eating, sleeping, and breathing Fluid Dynamics 24/7! But they may not care.

And they may not like the idea that I have a newsletter for people who want to do some affiliate marketing, quit their job, and then set up their own thing (doing whatever they love) online and then offline.

This sort of interconnection might, I worry, undermine my credibility.

The analogy that comes to mind is when some popstar turns to acting. Or vice versa.

There is absolutely no reason why someone can't be both a actor and a great musician.

But people seem to slam them. Even the good ones.

It's as if you can only be ONE thing to people.

And if I want to set myself up as the expert Fluid Dynamics Go-To Guy, then the other stuff could very well undermine all my work in establishing "expert status" in that field/niche.

That's my concern.


------------------------------------

So what I'd rather do is have THREE profiles on social networking sites: one for my building my professional expertise and "presence", one for my "publisher-model, hub site" with its niche-marketing products, and one for whatever (minimal) paddling about I care to do in this (IM) niche.

And three different "Home" sites to refer people to ("By the way..." style) when I meet them at the social media site "parties".

But... if I can only have a single profile on these sites, what can I do?

Yeah, sure, the short answer is: "Sod the rules, just make three profiles!"

But I'm really, really not interested in doing black hat or even grey hat things. I'm not interested in doing things for a quick buck that are going to catch up with me sooner or later and lead to me possibly losing everything (depending on how black it is, obviously (which having three profiles is not, I know). Or whether things considered grey now migrate over time to the black list without my knowing).


I'm really not interested in the gimmicks and the gaming of systems and all the energy that's required to cover your tracks and keep one step ahead and all that kind of malarkey.

I'd rather just do it the right way and play by the rules.




And what of the interconnectedness thing?

Is it a dumb idea?

There are two possible dumbness aspects to it:

a. I've heard the gurus talk about never wanting to "reveal" the niche markets that they're into lest every newbie in IM swarm to those sites and swipe all their hard work, thereby taking a piece of their market share pie.

(What's interesting here is the way they'll tell you on some other teleseminar that if you don't have an "abundance mentality" and if you have a "fear or loss mentality", then you'll never get anywhere. Hmmm....)

WILL people come in and "swipe" your hard work? Can't they just buy some tool that'll allow them to steal all your Adwords campaigns, including all the longtail keywords you spent days researching and then optimising pages for anyway? (Although I guess the point is that they don't know who to target if you keep all your niche-marketing separate from your IM-marketing.)

I'm confused about this one.


b. What do you make of the point I raised regarding customers to my niche-sites being put of by "discovering" I also run an IM newsletter, and customers of my professional services being even MORE put off by my having a "publishing house" style site AND an IM newsletter?


This post is absurdly long (as always), but if you've read this far and you have any thoughts, I'd be greatly appreciative.

Thanks,
TheNightOwl
#centralized #media #party #sites #social #social bookmarking #social media marketing
  • Profile picture of the author TheNightOwl
    ** bump **

    (I checked the rules. It doesn't seem against them to bump. If it is, then please add that to the rules page, Allen.)

    I know this forum is busy. In 24hrs this was knocked to page 4 because no one had responded.

    Are these not legitimate questions? Do people just not know the answers? Am I the only concerned about this?


    Look forward to hearing your replies...

    TheNightOwl
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