Social media conversations are no different from going to a party in real life.

In the same way that you look for good conversations at a party, people seek the same thing online.

In the same way you avoid people who dominate the conversation at the party, the same thing happens online.

In the same way you remember the meaningful encounters at the party, the same thing happens online.

In the same way you stop paying attention to the people who only talk about themselves at the party, the same thing happens online.

If you have ever been to a party, you already know the rules for social media. You'll either be someone people enjoy talking to, or someone people avoid. Maybe it's time to look through your Tweets and Facebook profile as if you're on the outside looking in. I just did. I think I'm doing all right on Twitter, but I need to do better on Facebook.

I'm going to assume this video is legitimate and if so it's that much more tragic. I'm not sure if the lesson here is to really think more carefully about where you put the bride and groom in an outdoor wedding, or if it's to pick a more coordinated best man. Either way, this was a wedding nobody would forget.

In January, 2007, I posted my first video of the week on this blog. Over the last two and a half years I've posted a video each Friday. It's turned into quite an archive as I look back over it.

How It Started
At first I just wanted a recurring feature on the blog. There were too many good videos out there that just needed to be shared so it seemed like a good fit. In time, I realized the weekly video was sometimes the only thing people were paying attention to on this blog. That wasn't what I wanted ideally, but I'd take it.

After about a year I started getting feedback that some readers looked forward to it. That was both a nice surprise and quite affirming, but some people wonder why I do this at all.  This is supposed to be a blog about social media marketing. Not only that, this is the official website for MicroExplosion Media. So why post a video each week has almost nothing to do with social media?

Why I Still Do It
The reason I post a video of the week is to earn attention. Blogs (and other social media tools) only work as a marketing platform when they receive attention. They are good for short-term attention, but they're great for long-term attention. I believe that if you do something people find valuable long enough, you'll earn their attention. That's why I do it. I want to earn your attention next Friday and the Friday after that.

I follow the EIEIO plan for creating content. That means I want to entertain, inspire, educate, inform, or outrage readers with each post. Most of my social media related posts lean more toward the educate and inform side. Occasionally they get into the inspirational or outrage sides. They don't often seem to cross into the entertainment area so that's another reason I like the videos of the week. It just seems to me that if I can have a little fun each Friday with a funny video, I'll be able to contribute to that aspect for readers as well.

It's part fun and part strategy, but it's all to get your attention time and time again.

I have been seeing a lot of posts and articles about the role of technology, social media, and Twitter in particular, in the Iran election demonstrations. One of the most interesting perspectives I've seen contends that the old Iranian social and political system simply doesn't know how to deal with the social media.

They have no category for it.

They don't know how to control it.

They don't understand how it works or why it flourishes.

And this isn't just a technology thing either. The Iranian government has only now begun to see the mobilization, expression, collaboration, and informational sharing aspects of social media. The technology allows that to happen, but the emerging online culture is the soil where these technologies take root.

This isn't so different from some companies in the United States today. I've heard several CEOs in the last few weeks talk about how they limit employee access to sites like YouTube and Facebook. They think by blocking the technology they are protecting what would otherwise be wasted productivity. They don't have employees demonstrating in the break room or riots around the water cooler, but revolution is happening all around them...without them. They have an old business and marketing mindset that doesn't know how to deal with social media.

They have no category for it.

They don't know how to control it.

They don't understand how it works or why it flourishes.

Why Social Media Works

• Social media works because it connects like-minded people more easily than ever.
• Social media works because everyone who wants to have a voice gets to use it.
• Social media works because it doesn't force people to pay attention to the things that don't interest them.

Why Social Media Works In Business
All of this can apply to your business. You can connect with like-minded people (meaning the people who are interested in what you do, sell, stand for, promote, etc.) more easily than ever.

Your employees can have a voice to connect with these people if you'll trust them (and guide them) to do so.

Your current and future customers will appreciate that you didn't interrupt their lives with marketing tactics that don't work, and instead you sought to earn their attention with interesting content and conversations.

That's how social media works and how it can work for your company. Don't keep on marketing your business the way the old regime did. If it's still working for you, great, keep it up. If not, it's probably time for a revolution.

It's amazing what college kids will do to pass the time. These guys from Olivet Nazarene University took their ping pong ball shooting skills to entirely new places.

[HT to the Connect 3on3 blog for the video.]

Back in April I wrote a post that turned out to be the most commented blog post I've ever written. It was about five kinds of people I identified on Twitter that I want to avoid turning into. I also want to encourage other people not to fall into one of these five categories.

A few weeks ago Nathan and I talked about this on an episode of The New Mediology podcast. You can listen there online or check it out on iTunes.

If you want a good laugh (in a sad but true kind of way) check out TweetingToHard.com. You'll find a few of the five kinds of people to avoid on Twitter there.

I've noticed an unfortunate trend among some people on Twitter. They retweet compliments, as in someone Tweets something nice about them and they in turn RT (retweet) that person's original complimentary tweet.

It looks like this:

First, Joe_Niceguy tweets:
@Bill_Needslove sure did a great job on that project for us. He's the man!

Then a few minutes later Bill_Needslove tweets:
RT @Joe_Niceguy: @Bill_Needslove sure did a great job on that project for us. He's the man!

Who thinks this is a good idea?

We don't do this offline. It's not as if you meet someone in the store and the first thing you say is, "Joe says my company is awesome. He thinks we're a great value and have first rate customer service." You wouldn't do that face-to-face, so why would you do it on Twitter? That just doesn't make sense.

If someone says something nice about you on Twitter just thank them and trust that people will see it. When you RT of a compliment undermines the sentiment entirely. Just say thanks and move along.

[HT to Dan Miller who showed me the above image last week. Shirt available here.]

I'm a big fan of stop motion video and this is a creative senior project from a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Well done. Here's the "making of" video too. I just hope Post-It doesn't rip off his idea like they did with another guy a year ago.

Today I observed an organizational tipping point for social media. I was meeting with the Chief Operations Officer of a company I've been working with a few months now and we were at a strategic social media crossroads. He had a key decision to make.

On the one hand they have been very successful doing things the way they've always been done. They don't have to change today. They have controlled everything from customer interactions and sales leads to which employees are permitted to access YouTube and Facebook (which until recently was almost nobody).

On the other hand they can dive fully into social media where the lines of professionalism and personal life are blurry, where trust and authenticity are key, and where sales and marketing involve conversation and earning attention rather than demanding it.

The COO admits that he doesn't fully understand all the implications of  social media, but he's smart enough to know that it's something to investigate. That's why they called me a few months ago. Now he's convinced they need to move forward, but the organization doesn't fit with this new stuff. As the fog lifted today he saw clearly that they're at a crossroads. Would they keep on doing what they've always done or take the other path?

The Internal Evangelist Tips It
For a few minutes I wasn't sure which way he was going to decide but then the COO invited the internal social media evangelist into the meeting. The social media evangelist isn't a high ranking manager or director. He's just a well respected guy who works there and knows about social media and has started using it on his own. He's even seen it pay off for him several times. He's been leading by example and taking every opportunity to talk about the need for change when given the chance. He was the difference today. Without him in that meeting, I'm not so sure the COO would have chosen this path.

Why the Internal Evangelist Is Gold
So here's why I'm writing this: almost every organization I know of has at least one social media evangelist right now. In many cases it's not a vice president, director, or even a manager. It's usually someone down in the ranks who sees the opportunity for change and has already started doing small things under the radar. These people are gold.

They're gold because when a CEO, COO, VP, or some other executive type comes to that crossroads, they'll call the internal evangelist in. It's the moment the evangelist has been hoping for and it's exactly what the company needs. It's what the company has really been paying the person for all along and they didn't even know it.

Internal social media evangelists are all over the place.

Becky is one. She even had a blogger take notice of her efforts this week.

Ray is too. He has a social media success story that's becoming legendary within the company (and is quietly empowering and encouraging fellow employees too.)

Chris had one of those crossroads meetings a few months ago. Now the company is enthusiastically doing things they didn't support even six months ago.

If you're the social media evangelist in your company, be encouraged. The day will come when you'll get the call or the email to attend the crossroads meeting. It may be sooner than you think. Be ready. They've never needed you more.

I like Twitter. I joined Twitter in early 2007, quit using it after a few weeks, and then wrote about getting interested again. I'm glad to see the recognition it's getting from traditional media today. I'm glad to see the conversations that arise as a result. I'm thrilled at the way Twitter and other social media pushes on a lot of assumptions about doing business. These are all good things.

There is, however, one thing that irks me about Twitter. Actually, it's more like I'm irked by something that's happened as a result of Twitter. It's the decline of well developed ideas on blogs because social media energy is being spent on Twitter rather than on blogs.

I've heard a lot of conversations from casual bloggers to A-list bloggers talk about how they blog less because they have Twitter now. On more than one occasion I've heard them say they feel like Twitter replaces their urge to create good content. I get that. I can see how that happened. I also don't think this is a good thing.

Why Twitter Won't Replace Blogs (Even If It Kills Them)
One of the things I like about blogs is the opportunity for someone to flesh out an entire idea. I think this benefits both the blogger and the reader. The blogger learns a lot about what he/she thinks as they write the post and the reader gets the benefit of gaining someone's perspective. For the blogger, the very acts of the writing and thinking processes and taking the time to bring a complete idea to fruition is like mental exercise. It's hard at first but you get better at it the more you do it.

Twitter doesn't do that. It doesn't give a writer the space to really flesh out an idea. It doesn't force you to think too much. You don't have to be clear. It doesn't give a reader anything for them to grasp onto beyond a single thought that likely requires more explanation. Twitter wasn't meant to do that. On Twitter you're a faint voice among thousands when you try to use it as a user-generated content platform. Twitter is excellent at conversation, personal engagement, and cultural trends, but it stinks at well-developed ideas. Unfortunately some good bloggers are choosing to allow Twitter to replace their blogging.  Please don't do this if you're a blogger. You'll regret it.

The Benefits of Blogging on the Blogger
I personally can attest to the individual benefits of blogging on my own professional thinking and development. I fully believe I'm able to articulate many of the things I get paid to talk about today because of blogging. I can't imagine what I might be lacking without blogging. Seth Godin and Tom Peters seem to agree.

The bottom line is this: Don't drop Twitter or blogging. Just recognize where each is strong and weak. In the same way a blog doesn't connect you like Twitter does, Twitter doen't allow you the benefits of blogging. Blogging is a great marketing tool because it allows people to recognize whether you know what you're talking about or not. They interview you without you ever knowing it. They make decisions about whether to hire you, use your product, visit your restaurant, or request your services. Twitter almost never works like that. You need both. Just be sure you understand their roles, strengths, and functions.

Sometimes it just takes someone to lead.

More on this guy here, here, here, and finally here via traditional media.

I was in a meeting recently when a marketing professional was discussing her struggle with some aspects of social media marketing because it just didn't feel like it fit into any existing business paradigm she could identify. She was noting that good social media marketing for businesses is casual, personal, and doesn't seem to really attempt a hard sell. On the other hand, there are cases of people getting a little too personal in social media that it's had professional ramifications for them and their company. She rightly discerned that really good social media marketing that connects with the right people is somewhere in the middle of that but it was hard for her to reconcile what the middle feels like with her traditional marketing mindset.

The answer? Get prosonal.

Getting prosonal is the middle. It's professional and personal. It's prosonal.

It's blurring the lines because business is done by people and people connect with people they feel like they know. It's not getting too personal in professional settings, but it's enough to connect with the people you're hoping to reach.

Getting prosonal is not new. It's been around as long as there's been business.

The town butcher knew how to get prosonal.

The waitress at the diner knew how to get prosonal.

Your favorite teacher in school knew how to get prosonal.

Your favorite restaurant knows how to get prosonal.

The voice of social media for business is prosonal. If you're too professional you are a self-serving, spammy, it's-all-about-my-product kind of a marketer.

If you're too personal then you're a distracting, too-much-information, too-much-drama, too-much-you kind of a marketer.

The middle is easy to find. Just be a real person. Real people have many roles in life. People understand that. A CEO may be a father, brother, son, husband, hobbyist, sports fan, and friend. That's a lot of prosonal-worthy material.

The bottom line: When in doubt in social media for your business, get prosonal.