Getting Social Media Savvy

Social Media Strategy: Knowing When to Change Course

I know I haven't blogged for a few months but I've been busy determining what my future should be and restructuring my business life to accommodate some significant changes. A little background. In early 2007, I felt called to begin the process of preserving the art legacy of my father, Professor Emeritus Dana C. Chandler, Jr., a world-renowned and often controversial activist artist.* This is work I love because I grew up in my father's world with his work, colleagues and friends. My father was my first professional employer--I learned media relations strategy and audience development watching and then working for him.

But, the enterprise isn't yet profitable and, needing to make a living while preserving my father's legacy (a lifelong endeavor), I decided to return to past work, that is, journalism and media strategy. However, having taken a hiatus from journalism from 2005-2007 to develop spiritually, when I returned in September of 2008, I noticed that there had been a significant shift in the industry. I also realized that I had lost my fire for journalism--not media--just journalism and the massive changes in the business didn't stoke the dying flame.

So, when the economy tanked (something I predicted in a November 2004 article entitled, "Are You Ready for an Economic Downturn?), I had to revisit whether or not I wanted to expend so much energy in a business for which I'd lost my passion. Blogging about social media helped me decide that I did not.

Thus, recognizing that I wouldn't get passion back for the work and that the industry had changed in ways that would make the impossible (driven, in part, by social media), I made the difficult decision to terminate my journalism career once and for all. I will remain in media business as an arts and entertainment media relations and audience development strategist, in part because I truly enjoy the work and in part because it's more consistent with my work as an artist representative for my father.

What does that mean for this blog? Well, it means my blogging will change focus. I will launch a new blog focusing on how those in arts and entertainment can and do use social media to develop an audience for their organizations, events and individual careers as well as how public relations professionals can maximize social media for their clients and organizations. Many of the articles here will be reslanted to fit that new direction.

And, no, it won't be a celebrity blog, though, at some point, celebs may be interviewed for the blog. The focus will be social media as a business development tool for A&E professionals, organizations and public relations practitioners, especially independents.

Keep in mind that much of what A&E industry professionals do is transferable to business since fans are customers--they buy tickets, books, records, memberships, Mp3s, CDs, DVDs andother entertainment-related products and services. Moreover, public relations professionals, especially small shops, use social media for career and business development. So please don't think there will be nothing in the new blog for you. Just read and see.

The takeaway for you is that you've got to know when it's time to change direction whether personally or professionally or with your social media strategy. Be honest and make the shift. Otherwise, your personal, professional and social media success will reflect your new mindset and that may not be a positive for your personal, professional or business life, especially in economy that demands change from all of us.

Surviving this crisis still means leveraging new technology and social media to make you a valuable contributor to your organization and keep your business afloat, not putting it on the "back burner" until this crisis is over.So, stay tuned--my social media evolution continues!

(*Visit BAPsody in Blue, Inc. to learn more about my father and our enterprise.)

(c) 2009, Dahna M. Chandler, Fourth Estate Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not reprint or redistribute any content on this site without attribution to or permission of the author or creator. Please email me to request written permission to reprint my blog articles for commercial purposes, to request inclusion on my blog or if you have an article idea or question on using social media for career, professional, nonprofit fundraising and/or business advancement. Also, visit my website, The Savvy Publicist, LLC to learn more about my media relations and audience development strategy services.

Poll: What Kind of Social Media Business Networker Are You?

(c) 2008, Dahna M. Chandler, Fourth Estate Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not reprint or redistribute any content on this site without attribution to or permission of the author or creator. Please email meto request written permission to reprint my blog articles for commercial purposes, to request inclusion on my blog or if you have an article idea or question on using social media for career, professional, nonprofit fundraising and/or business advancement. Also, visit my websites, probusinessjournalist.comand ecopyandpress.com, to learn more about me and my writing services.

Social Media Strategy: Why Motrin is Feeling Some Pain of its Own

You've probably heard or read about the Motrin debacle. In an effort to promote its painkiller, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, McNeil-PPC, the makers of Motrin, created an online ad meant to depict the physical pain mothers who wear their babies in carriers of various types will find themselves in after carting their heavy load--er, their children?--about for long hours at a time. Instead the ad caused the Motrin makers some serious pain in the form of a thrashing by angry mothers in the blogosphere and Twitterverse. 

Original Motrin Ad (removed from Motrin site and
replaced by apology

This graphic-based, cutesy (not so much!) ad is supposed to represent the harried, new mom, who sacrifices her back, shoulders and neck for her little bundle of joy--or, as the ad almost begs, is it really a bundle of joy? After all, how can a mother in pain feel bonded to the source of pain? According to Motrin, poor mom that needs some attention, too. The ad almost encourages mothers to feel sorry for themselves.

Well, clearly, Motrin really blew it producing this ad without motherly input and enraged mothers of all ages all over the internet, became the source of video spoofs and created a veritable social (and traditional) media frenzy. I mean, the ad, in many mother's minds, made  babies a source of contempt and Motrin mom's lifesaver! Or was it babies are a fashion accessory that make women look like real mothers as they slung their little ones in wraps or whatever they're called as the pharma company, hardly a stranger to controversy as the subject of lawsuits for Motrin's side-affects, seemed to imply?

I don't know what McNeil-PPC was thinking--or maybe it wasn't--but whomever approved this ad got it really wrong and a whole world of women let them know--with the help of a number of men, who chimed in their support. The company's parent, Johnson & Johnson, makers of another popular painkiller, Tylenol, and numerous other household products, failed to understand the power of the groundswell and take advantage of the wisdom of the crowds by sourcing their ideas, using social media to determine how an ad like this might be received before they launched it online so confidently.

True enough, the ad didn't offend everyone and I got where they were going--albeit in a rather condescending manner. I mean, honestly, 23 years ago, my then 16-pound, 4-month-old son was too heavy for me to carry in a baby carrier but carrying him didn't make me feel sorry for myself and develop contempt for my beautiful baby! I didn't run to the medicine cabinet looking for Johnson & Johnson painkiller, either.

Rather than listening to their target market by, ahem, engaging them on a social media site like competitors, Unilever, creators of In the Motherhood, Johnson & Johnson execs (who apparently hadn't read my blog article, Social Media Marketing: How Social Media is Changing the Way Advertisers Conduct Campaigns before they posted this ad?) were forced to pull the ad and issue a somewhat snarky, "we hear ya, now!" apology on their Motrin site. In the nopology, they even promise to try to cleanse the internet of the offending ad! (Good luck! Haven't you read, Groundswell?? I mean, that book and Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die should be required reading by every corporate communications and advertising department!)

And do they really hear their customers? Well, only time (and probably a new head of advertising and PR) will tell. But, while Johnson & Johnson execs wait, they'll be taking a lot of their own pharmaceuticals to kill the pain caused by an unintended idea that's going to stick in mother's minds for a long time and cost the company millions in lost revenue dollars.

The take away for this blog's readers? Get social media savvy fast and listen to what your clients and customers are saying about you, your products and/or services. Use the wisdom of crowds to develop products, services and ideas for your online properties because, as I said in my recent Society of American Business Editors and Writers Talking Biz News blog article, Two best blogging practices for business journalists, the best content is now crowd-sourced. That's true of product and service development, too, as Motrin's makers learned. If your stakeholders don't get a role in R&D, the groundswell may become a minefield for you.

(c) 2008, Dahna M. Chandler, Fourth Estate Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not reprint or redistribute any content on this site without attribution to or permission of the author or creator. Please email meto request written permission to reprint my blog articles for commercial purposes, to request inclusion on my blog or if you have an article idea or question on using social media for career, professional, nonprofit fundraising and/or business advancement. Also, visit my websites, probusinessjournalist.comand ecopyandpress.com, to learn more about me and my writing services.

Social Media Security: Protect Yourself from Dangers Lurking on Social Media Sites

Like everyplace else online, there's a dark side to social media and last weekend, Mashable's article, How to: Install a Facebook Trojan made it clear that the dangers that lurk on the rest of the internet quickly are finding their way onto social media sites. In fact, there are a number of stories on the internet about Facebook phishing scams and I've listed a several below in reverse chronological order:

• Facebook falls victim to account hijacking scam, November 11, 2008 (the Nigerians are at it again!)
• How a Facebook scam leads to a Chinese email harvesting account--and back again, November 11, 2008
• Facebook IM Phishing Scam Found, October 16, 2008
• Fraudsters net fortune in Facebook scam, April 18, 2008

And, such scams are not unique to Facebook, either. If you replace "Facebook" with "Myspace" or any other major social networking site when searching for scams on Google, you get just as many stories. Since many of those who read this blog are relatively new to social media, they need to remember that the rules for password safety, connecting/friending/following, instant messaging, posting/tweeting, downloading apps and site authentication are the same on the social media networking sites as they are on the rest of the internet:

• Know whom you're friending, following or connecting to on these sites. Even if, like me, you're an open networker on sites like LinkedIn, do what I do; check the profiles of the people you're connecting to and make sure they are people with whom you want contact. Archive invitations you don't want to accept. Same rules follow on Facebook, Myspace, Friendster and other sites. Even on Twitter, you need to read profiles to make sure you're comfortable with being followed by or following tweeple. If you don't know them personally, they're as much a stranger online as they would be on the street.
• Make certain you don't click links to these sites in emails you get from strangers. You might get what looks like an authentic Myspace, Facebook or Twitter page but it might be a redirect page to a phishing site. Authenticate the sites creds just as you would if you were logging onto your bank account or eBay because doing otherwise could have just as dire consequences on a social networking site as a bank's or eBay.
• Don't download apps that make you uncomfortable or in which you're not interested in having access to your profile on Facebook or other sites. If someone sends you a request and aren't interested, click "Ignore" or the appropriate response on other social media sites.
• Unfriend, remove from connections, block or unfollow anyone whose posts you don't like, has become a nuisance, whom you've decided you don't want contact with after initially accepting it or who is harassing you on a social media site. I've had to do that on Facebook and Twitter and I've reported at least one person who harassed me on LinkedIn. Don't be afraid to take that step.
• Protect your passwords. Just like your bank would not do, most social networking site administrators or employees won't email you and ask for your password or login credentials. Make sure you read and understand the site's safety rules and tips to avoid scams.
• Don't post too much personal information about yourself on these sites. Putting any kind of physical address and phone number on the internet, even in supposedly "private" profiles can be a deadly "no no". You don't know who is actually seeing your information and anyone who really wants to find you may hack into your profile attempting to do so.
• Watch what you say/post on these sites (including comments on blogs). Like everything else online, it's there forever and it goes viral pretty fast. Of course, only post photos you'd want your grandmother to see on these sites and don't get into any online battles you don't want the entire human universe to read--otherwise, it might.
• Monitor and manage your online reputation carefully. Regularly search yourself and your company online to see what's being said about you and your company and how much of what you've posted online is appearing in search results. You'd be surprised. While it's hard to clean up your internet tracks, it's doable, as I show in my blog post, From College to Career Part 2: Cleaning Up Your Online Act Before Jobsearch.

Just follow the same rules of the rest of the information highway on social media sites and wherever you find yourself online and you'll be as safe as anyone can be on the world wide web.

(c) 2008, Dahna M. Chandler, Fourth Estate Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not reprint or redistribute any content on this site without attribution to or permission of the author or creator. Please email me to request written permission to reprint my blog articles for commercial purposes, to request inclusion on my blog or if you have an article idea or question on using social media for career, professional, nonprofit fundraising and/or business advancement. Also, visit my websites, probusinessjournalist.com and ecopyandpress.com, to learn more about me and my writing services.

Social Media Marketing: How Social Media is Changing the Way Advertisers Conduct Campaigns

Because today's consumers don't want to be sold anything, we want to buy what we consume, on our terms, based on our preferences and at our price, we ignore most television and internet ads. In fact, we are more likely than ever before to leverage the internet, especially social technology, to research and get information about specific products and services from other consumers. Another buyer's review, feedback or referral on Amazon.com, eBay, Angie's List, Epinions and Contractopia and on myriad blogs and forums trumps any ad, for most of us, any day.

But, as a business journalist who writes about profit-generating business activities, I wondered how the advertising media is changing the way it conducts campaigns so, I contacted the Advertising Research Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is "to improve the practice of advertising, marketing and media research in pursuit of more effective marketing and advertising communications". The organization's over 400 members include leading corporations, advertising/media firms, media outlets, research firms, associations and academic institutions--including social media giant, Facebook, one of its newest members. The organization doesn't represent any one stakeholder group but provides a nexus among all groups to create research that benefits all, according to Chief Research Officer and thought leader, Joel Rubinson, whom I interviewed for this piece.

I asked him how social media has changed the way marketers reach consumers with their messages. "The marketing mindset has changed," says Rubinson who left global market intelligence firm, Synovate, to take his position at the ARF. "Marketers no longer think they need to blast through people's heads with mass media without being a welcome part of people's lives." Consumers, he says, are in control of what messages they listen to as they watch television or messages they receive onnline and, using social technology, can exchange information and sentiments freely on brands, products and services with electronic friends.

"In addition to "business-to-business" and "business-to-consumer", you now have "consumer-to-consumer" communication that can produce quite an impact on a brand's image and reputation with other consumers," he explains. "So marketers are very sensitive and respectful of that."

In order to effectively confront this new social technology reality, advertisers have had to be creative and adapt their strategies to meet consumer demands for more interaction with their brands. Rubinson cites several examples, including Unilever, creator of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty Worldwide and Self-Esteem Fund, which also created its own branded social networking site for mothers.

"In The Motherhood" features an original online video comedy series, starring Jenny McCarthy, Leah Remeni and Chelsea Handler, that was created by these moms for other mothers. On the site, mothers can share everything from videos, ideas, recipes and photos to mothering challenges, while developing virtual relationships and connections to other mothers. "It's obviously a branded site but the environment is not controlled by the brands; it's controlled by the community that uses the site," Rubinson says of the MSN site Unilever's Sauve product line co-branded with Sprint and that features offers and ads from both.

"Marketing," says Rubinson, who maintains his own blog, "CRO-ing About Research", "should really be adding value to people's daily lives" and that, he says is what Unilever's social media site for mothers and Campaign for Real Beauty are all about. "People are spending hours a day or week on social media because they want to--because we're social beings who need to be connected," he continues, "and anything marketers can do to add value is great."

He gives the example of  "Second Life", a virtual world where individuals invent their own reality, as an example of where marketers are creating environments where they sell products found in supermarkets and generate profits doing so. "The entertainment value of those environments extends the brand experience and the feeling of connection that people have with the brand." Rubinson considers such marketing initiatives noble and believes digital media and social networking sites provide new environments that marketers can use to provide added value to consumers through social interactions while building brand relationships.

Finally, the ARF, itself, is maximizing social media sites to reach its own constituents. The nonprofit has a Facebook Group yet maintains its own social networking site on Ning called, Research Transformation, which creates social netoworking opportunities for its members while reinforcing the ARF's clarion call to consumer engagement through social media--"inspiring brand-consumer relationships by listening". They used Twitter to communicate among participants at its October 29, 2008 event, "Transforming Research."

Rubinson, who is passionate about his work with the ARF, enthuses, "The only way I know I'm the right track is that I'm able to energize members as I share research on the effectiveness of social media for reaching consumers and building brand relationships. And I feel that energy coming back at me from them, too."

(c) 2008, Dahna M. Chandler, eCopy and Press, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not reprint or redistribute any content on this site without attribution to or permission of the author or creator. Please email me or call me at 888-768-9229 to request written permission to reprint my blog articles for commercial purposes, to request inclusion on my blog or if you have an article idea or question on using social media for career, professional, nonprofit fundraising and/or business advancement. Also, visit my websites, probusinessjournalist.com and ecopyandpress.com, to learn more about me and my writing services.

Social Media and the U.S. Presidential Election: My Foray into Live Blogging

Election Day 2008 was not only an historic one for America, in which Barack Obama was elected the nation's first African American president, it was an historic night for me, too. Okay--maybe not nearly as monumentally historic as President-Elect Obama's win, but it was the first time in my social media history--which isn't nearly as long as this election season was--that I used live-blogging through Cover It Live. Though I promoted the event, was it a highly attended one? No--likely because people were more interested in the election returns and what they were up to than what I was doing online.

But it was a wildly successful learning experience and loads of fun for me and my co-producer, Michelle Price of A Third Mind. We learned a great deal about a new platform that allows individuals to produce a content-rich, real-time online experiences with events target specific audiences and purposes. Moreover, our experience was so positive, Michelle and I have committed to using this technology in the future for business applications like interactive webinars and online business meetings.

Preparation for the event was as fun and interesting as its execution. I was able embed video through YouTube and could have uploaded images, audio and my own advertising! I also had the option to upload pre-written text, which I did as well as invited panelists and additional co-producers. I wished, however, I could have uploaded video from other sites like Vimeo and Flickr and uploaded PDFs and other documents.

Even with its limitations, I had uploaded much of the content for an anticipated larger attendance than we had--and Michelle could see all of the content that I uploaded by logging into her own Cover It Live account and clicking on the event, to which I'd sent her an invitation to be a co-producer that she had to accept in order to see the event in her own account. However, when that attendance didn't immediately materialize, we had to create content on the fly to keep it interesting in case it picked up.

We were able to do so by searching for and uploading content without leaving the Cover It Live software; the software provides a search function for Google web, video and images through a "Tools" tab available during the event. Thus, Michelle, a quick and sharp researcher, provided much of the video content for the event while I monitored election returns both online and on television (flipping channels!) and posted them to the live blog as they came in. We talked to each other by phone and instant messaged each other using another program while using the live blogging program. Unfortunately, there is no live audio feature or instant messaging program within the Cover It Live software, at least that that we saw. Though we could have sent each other private messages, that seemed unwieldy to us.

One of our guests, Eric Pursh, actively participated by monitoring Twitter posts and other online content and posted what he found to the live blog after I allowed him permission to automatically post his comments. Other guests, who didn't have to provide their real names, were moderated and Michelle and I chose which comments to post.

Moreover, we were able to simulcast the live blog on my blog, Michelle's and, via a link, both our Facebook profiles! We uploaded and played videos, posted comments and links. There were  few participants with whom we engaged in a chat-style interaction.

Because Cover It Live allows producers to create polls, I had created several pre-event I'd intended to use during the event but, because there weren't enough participants, didn't use. I also had the ability to create quick polls during the event. Though it wasn't used during this live blog, that I can create that kind of content is interesting to me and I will use it in future live blog events.

In addition, I uploaded links to specific social media research and content including one to a chart on Social Media Usage by Presidential Candidate from Pew Internet & American Life Project, Spring, 2008 and Snapshot of Presidential Candidate Social Networking Stats: Nov 3, 2008 from blogger and Sr. Social Computing Analyst at Forrest Research, Jeremiah Owyang.

I'd intended these and several other links in conjunction with the polls I'd created but when we didn't use the polls, I was able to use Cover It Live's tools feature to search Google for and post other links that were more appropriate for the attendance at this event--again, without having to leave the event. Cover It Live provided a number of videos and other support that helped us quickly learn to use the software and it was pretty easy to figure out how to maximize its features during the event as well. Finally, since live blog events can be saved and viewed at a later time, you may see what we did by clicking on "Replay" on Cover It Live media file permanently embedded in my previous blog article.

And, in doing the research for and executing this event, I learned that just as social media technology may have led to a stunning landslide election win for the social media savvy President-Elect Barack Obama, it can be used to win you small business profits and career opportunities if you learn how to leverage it to your benefit.

(c) 2008, Dahna M. Chandler, eCopy and Press, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not reprint or redistribute any content on this site without attribution to or permission of the author or creator. Please email me or call me at 888-768-9229 to request written permission to reprint my blog articles for commercial purposes, to request inclusion on my blog or if you have an article idea or question on using social media for career, professional, nonprofit fundraising and/or business advancement. Also, visit my websites, probusinessjournalist.com and ecopyandpress.com, to learn more about me and my writing services.

Social Media and the U.S. Presidential Election: Election Day Live Blogging Event

As I said in my post, Social Media Tech: Is Live Blogging the Future of Blogging? I'm open to testing this new technology as part of my journey to social media sophistication. Accordingly, I'm inviting each of you to participate in my live blogging Election Night 2008 event and invite others to attend. As the returns come in, I'll live blog about how social media drove this election as I review, and potentially post, your comments on how you used social media to get news about the election or make your voting decision.

We won't be discussing the merits of the candidate you chose but I want this to be a participatory, interactive experience so your involvement is important. This will be a dialogue, not a monologue, though not every comment will be posted since I don't want a free for all that quickly gets off topic and becomes as divisive as politics seem to have today.

What I won't blog about at all is my own vote. This event will strictly be about how social media influenced and changed this election and, thereby, elections forever. Again, it won't be a debate about which candidate is better for America or a discussion about the flaws of the current administration or Congress, though I may raise some of the issues important to the campaign and how social media helped you define the issues important to you, to learn about them and, ultimately influenced your vote.

In that context, you'll see videos (including the funny ones we all forwarded from YouTube or posted on our social media profiles), photos and links. You'll hear audio and take polls. I'll ask you questions and post the best or most interesting answers. It'll be kind of like microblogging but more multimedia and stimulating, if not downright fun.

So, if you can break away from the election returns and want to share your interpretation of the exit polls and commentary, as well as your own links to appropriate commentary, videos, audio or images, join me at this live blogging event. It ought to be as interesting.

(c) 2008, Dahna M. Chandler, eCopy and Press, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not reprint or redistribute any content on this site without attribution to or permission of the author or creator. Please email me or call me at 888-768-9229 to request written permission to reprint my blog articles for commercial purposes, to request inclusion on my blog or if you have an article idea or question on using social media for career, professional, nonprofit fundraising and/or business advancement. Also, visit my websites, probusinessjournalist.com and ecopyandpress.com, to learn more about me and my writing services.

Social Media and the U.S. Presidential Election: Countdown to U.S. Election Day

As the countdown clock above shows, as of the time of this post, the most important presidential election in a generation, one that has been driven and defined by social media, is just over 48 hours away! What Americans decide with their vote that day may change the world. But what DOES the world think? Well, since posting my last Social Media and the U.S. Presidential Election post, I've gotten two more very interesting links to other sites where the world is expressing its preference with their virtual vote.

Check out what the rest of the world thinks on The Economist magazine's site and The World For  (and you can also join the Facebook Group of the same title.) Then, check back here Monday morning when I announce my own social media Election Day 2008 special event.

(Special thanks to Elizabeth Hughes and Seth Carnes (creator of "The World For") for sharing the links to these two other sites.)

(c) 2008, Dahna M. Chandler, eCopy and Press, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not reprint or redistribute any content on this site without attribution to or permission of the author or creator. Please email me or call me at 888-768-9229 to request written permission to reprint my blog articles for commercial purposes, to request inclusion on my blog or if you have an article idea or question on using social media for career, professional, nonprofit fundraising and/or business advancement. Also, visit my website, ecopyandpress.com, to learn more about me and my writing services.

Social Media Strategy: Can't Find A Social Networking Site That Meets Your Business or Professional Needs? Create One of Your Own

If you read my previous post on industry- and profession-specific social networks, you may have found or are already a member of a social networking site that satisfies your professional needs. But what if you haven't found a site specific to your needs or niche? Or what if you've become an expert with large following and need a platform more robust than the average social networking site, website and blog to manage your connections or fans?

"Then, you need to start your own online community," says Michelle Price of A Third Mind, a consultancy that builds social media networks for experts and thought leaders. A self-described "social media maverick", Price is a social media strategist, business coach and social connectivity expert (aka "business matchmaker"). She creates branded sites for her high-profile clients using social network development site, Ning. "When you build your primary network in somebody else's house, because you don't own or control it, you can be put out of that house," says Price of sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.

That can happen if you inadvertently violate the terms of service by inviting too many people to join our network, for example. She's seen people lose access to the large networks when that happens. "Therefore," she asserts, "you need your own house to network your network--to manage the community you've built on one of those other platforms."

"That way, you can build a referral-based business, your own economy around you to successfully navigate economic downturns or create a community around your own area of expertise and teach others what you've learned from within your community."

Price, who believes "connectivity is the new currency", is a master networker with over 20 years of instructional design experience. She has created her own Ning community, Social Networking Salon for Women Entrepreneurs, with "connectivity is the new currency" as its slogan. But, her passion for helping others build and maximize their social networks or "put them on steriods," she says, led her to helping clients develop their own social networks.

Using her book marketing background, she recently developed the Wake Up Girl!, the Ning community for book author and image consultant, Michelle Majors. The social network is based on Majors' self-published title, From Break Up to Wake UP: A 26-Step Guide to Finding Yourself After Losing Love! Price created The SingerLink on Ning, an online community that links singers worldwide, features renowned vocalists and includes exclusive content, interviews and sponsors.

Price also launched a Ning-based site for Vietnamese refugee, Seattle real estate mogul and philanthropist, Thach Nguyen, who recently appeared on the CBS Morning Show's Heroes segment to talk about his life and renting homes to otherwise homeless people in Seattle. His community, the Contribution Networking Party, is the virtual companion site for the quarterly event by the same name where others network with the express intent of being generous with their ideas, contacts and resources to help others achieve their dreams. She has other communities under development, too. 

Price is clear, though, that your own community isn't a substitute for a blog or website; it's in addition to those. "You want to have a home base, your own paid web- or blog-hosting account that you control where you maintain your own website or a blogsite." Blogs," she asserts, "have become the new website because people are using them like content management systems." But because neither websites nor blogs offer the true community of social networking sites, if you have or are developing an area of expertise or idea, like Majors, a community of followers based on a passion or endeavor, like Nguyen, or an interest for which no satisfactory community exists, develop your own social networking site.

There are number of social networking development sites and TechCrunch reviewed nine that provide free baseline services, including the popular social collaboration and networking site, CollectiveX and CrowdVine, which has a conferencing group feature. Another, SnappVille is an enterprise level provider and the platform on which MyRagan, profiled in my last blog article, is built. But, inspired in part by a FastCompany article on the service, Price chose Ning for her clients for its no-cost setup, ease of use and robust feature set. Ning also offers Network Creators a la carte premium monthly services that allow them to use their own domain names or control ads, among other features. 

"A Ning community is like your own Facebook and Myspace," states Price, "where each community member creates their own full-featured profile and invites their friends to join them, like those sites." Features like photo and video upload, forums, blogs and groups build community. 

And, if the Network Creator maximizes the power of exponential, where one community member invites two friends and they each invite two friends and so forth, "your community can experience viral growth in a short time," explains Price. Each member can mean 128 new members to your community.

But that depends, she adds, on how compelling your offer is, how passionate your connections are about your brand or expertise and how well-connected you already are as well as whether you take advantage of Ning's double viral loop capabilities by inviting members to your group yourself and allowing your members to invite their friends. Network Creators also may choose to invite members by invitation only but that reduces its viral growth.

Price concludes by citing the premise of Seth Godin's recent book release, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. "Anybody who has a community of people who are interested in their product, service or niche subject matter expertise and that wants to attach themselves to their brand should have their own community or tribe."

(c) 2008, Dahna M. Chandler, eCopy and Press, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not reprint or redistribute any content on this site without attribution to or permission of the author or creator. Please email me or call me at 888-768-9229 to request written permission to reprint my blog articles for commercial purposes, to request inclusion on my blog or if you have an article idea or question on using social media for career, professional, nonprofit fundraising and/or business advancement. Also, visit my website, ecopyandpress.com, to learn more about me and my writing services.

Social Media Networking: Industry- and Profession-Specific Social Networking Sites

You know about general social networking sites that professionals use like LinkedIn, Ryze, Spoke, Plaxo, Xing, Facebook and Ecademy and I'm on all of them. But, looking for social networking sites for journalists, writers, public relations professionals and visual artists, I posted a question on LinkedIn asking others what sites they were either members of or knew about that were industry- and profession-specific. I also did some research for profession and industry specific sites I didn't learn about on LI. While this list is by no means definitive, here are some of the sites I learned about:

• FohBoh--primarily for restaurant professionals, you'll find other hospitality industry professionals here, too.
• Fashion Industry Network--the membership of this Ning-based network is clear.
• MyRagan--this social network launched by Ragan.com, an online publication for communicators, is for PR professionals.
• PROpenMic--another Ning-based network for PR faculty, students and practitioners, this site has an education focus.
• Wired Journalists--this Ning-based 2,725 and growing member social network is for executives, students and faculty who are motivated "to help journalism grow into its new 21st century role.
• LawLink--as you've already guessed, it's social networking exclusively for attorneys. And, of course, since there are many lawyers, especially in Washington, DC Metro, Mashable tells the story of Lawyrs.net, which, apparently is invite only.
• MedicalMingle--this is the professional and social networking site for the health and medical field. But, if you only want to network with other physicians, you'll want to consider WebMD's 60,000 member PhysicianConnect or the 3100 member SocialMD, which has special features for med students, interns, residents and fellows. There are more sites for social networking doctors so do what doctors do well--research!
• Advogato--this site, with over 13,000 members, touts itself as the free software developers advocate.
• CEOnetworking on CEOWorldBiz--if you're corporate CXO or entrepreneur, you might find this site helpful. It claims to be the premier leadership site for such professionals and "Where business meets capital."
• deviantART--a site where some 8 million visual artists to meet, post, share, discuss and sell their artwork.
• Taltopia--if you're a performing artist, this a talent community where you can "claim your fame" by finding gigs and casting calls.
• AuthorZone--this is a robust community of book authors.

But, before you join another social networking site, know what your objectives are, research the site and see if, when you do a keyword search for specific industry terms, people with whom you want to be connected are among the results. Says Michelle Price, a social media strategist, business coach and social connectivity expert who creates social networking sites for some big name professional clients, "A business-development strategy for networking on industry-specific sites would include making sure to position yourself so you are seen as an expert in your area and being proactive about adding friends, initiating conversations and answering questions from others - you always want to put yourself in the position to be creating your social network by design vs. default."

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Have you created, do you belong to or are you aware of an industry- or profession-specific social networking site you think should be mentioned here? Post it in the comments below, with any other input you have about this article and these types of social networking sites, like your experiences with them.

(c) 2008, Dahna M. Chandler, eCopy and Press, LLC. All rights reserved. Do not reprint or redistribute any content on this site without attribution to or permission of the author or creator. Please email me or call me at 888-768-9229 to request written permission to reprint my blog articles for commercial purposes, to request inclusion on my blog or if you have an article idea or question on using social media for career, professional, nonprofit fundraising and/or business advancement. Also, visit my website, ecopyandpress.com, to learn more about me and my writing services.