Socialholic

Over on another blog post, the rather fab @ellisgraphics, made an interesting couple of comments.

Do you really think that cheap flattery, mixed with even cheaper psychology (reverse or not) will get me to click your links? Sometimes I think that the whole social media world are going to disappear up an infinity loop connected to their rear orifices! – ever so slightly tongue-in-cheek, so-to-speak =)

..and a follow up of…

I feel I must follow up my last post [least it be taken in the wrong way] by saying “tell me more!” Having read your post on LinkedIn [ http://linkd.in/btFZfr ], I am intrigued as to how we can use collective influence to the good…

Now, it was a fair comment because, in my original blog post (and that over on LinkedIn) I did try to get people to click on my voting link for Fast Company’s The Influence Project.  I think I made it pretty clear what was going on and, on the LinkedIn one, I also gave the vanilla URL of The Influence Project that you could click without voting for me.

The LinkedIn article read as follows:

The Influence Project and… well… combined influence!

Yesterday, I blogged about the Influence Project. For those of you who don’t know, the idea is that FastCompany is trying to measure people’s influence online.

Now, at this point, I could trick you in to supporting me but I’ll be honest instead! I’ll add two links below

1 – http://www.fastcompany.com is the magazine that’s running the Project; and
2 – http://bit.ly/blzQpw – is the link that adds to my influence. I hope to win points from you for honesty!

Feel free to click one! I can only add one link at the bottom of this article and I need to tell you that although it looks otherwise, it is my personal link (the one that supports me) and not the vanilla one! (I would have added both if I could!)

The thing that makes this interesting is that it does have the potential to measure influence. If you click my link, I’ve (to some extent) influenced you to do that. If, however, you click the other one, you hate me and must live with that burning on your conscience!

I think we do not make enough of things like this as a group. We have the potential to cross support each other to show to the outside world the strength of social media in the area and the things we do well. We already have great things in and around Devon like #Tags and LikeMinds and, if we helped each other with things like the Influence Project, then we’d be able to show our combined clout better.

I spend quite a bit of my time sharing links and voting for people but, in a way, it is quite disperate and uncoordinated. I have had great support for two years in the Tweetie awards but it is the lack of coordination and shared resource that I think we could address here.

As a first step, click one of the links (mine, mine!) and join the Influence Project. And add your user name here so we can support you too!

My suggestion is that we invite those of you who are up for things that require votes or clicks to tell people here. I don’t know why it is but I have spoken with some of you before (no names) and there is some kind of … I don’t know quite what to call it but there is something holding people back from posting.

We’re a social network and we a shared resource, a support team for each other. So let’s make the most of that!

Now, there was a reason for posting that over on LinkedIn and, in particular, in the Social Media Devon and #TAGs group.  It was posted in there because, whilst I have seen, originated and participated in a number of cause and charity ‘collective influence’ groups, I have yet to see a really good business one (especially in the UK) – and I want to do something about it.

I would genuinely love to see Social Media Devon and #TAGs use its combined muscle to turn into a business ‘collective influence’ group – to the benefit of all its members and, more broadly, to show the power and widespread influence of businesses in the South West.  The first example, the one that I have used on LinkedIn, is The Influence Project.  The reason is, quite selfishly, that I’m in it and someone needs to start the idea somewhere.

I do not think that the concept is a massively difficult one.  I am doing something (The Influence Project) and need the help of others.  The South Devon Media/#TAGS group has a common interest with me, we (its members) pretty much all know each other and so, I am asking them to use their influence to help me.  Why should they?  Well, that’s a good question!

But, if social media is built on anything, it is based on sharing and helping – combining power and influence.  The very simple concept of Stronger Together.

A lot of the work that I do in social media is with charities and it is about culture. The more advice I give to businesses about this, the more I realise that it’s exactly the same issue! Different cultures (national and regional) use social media in different ways.  For example, I have seen a number of examples of such cooperation mechanisms in the US – many more than I see in the UK.  I believe a lot of that has to do with a reticence to be seen to ask for help in the UK.  Maybe it is a lack of confidence that we have in ourselves, maybe it is the idea that asking for help is a sign of weakness.

I do not believe either of those should stop us.  Having friends who work together is something special and something that should be encouraged and celebrated.  In the charity field, I am immensely proud of all those who have answer the call to arms of Team2Quid.  But why can’t we replicate that in the business field?  When my friends and acquaintances get nominated for things online, I am very happy for them and I will do my bit to help – provided I find out about them.

And there’s the rub – often I don’t find out about them until it’s too late. So, the purpose of the LinkedIn article was a call to arms and a ‘look, I’m not embarrassed to ask and nor should you be’.  Indeed, I’ll even go so far as to say that you should click http://bit.ly/vote4jmb and vote for me!  And sign up yourself and tell us so that we can vote for you too.

In an ideal world, we will soon have more discussion here and on the LinkedIn group with people asking for help and support for what they are doing. If we can get over the cultural reticence, it will be to our benefit and, if we can, I’ll answer the call. Will you?

After having confessed to not really understanding the Influence Project (yes, a split infinitive – I know, let it go!), I think I now do!

The idea put forward by FastCompany is to use your influence to measure your influence. Or to put it another way, is your tribe of followers full of passive, sausage-roll sucking, remote control hoggers or are they a glamorous, intellectual powerful, lean, mean fighting machine?

If they’re all gorgeous and clever and witty, getting them to click your link will be no problem at all. Indeed, some of them will even have the foresight to share your link – http://bit.ly/blzQpw – on their social networks or even click the link and sign up themselves. This will show (I didn’t use the word ‘prove’ there on purpose) that you are engaged with your tribe and they with you and that you help each other out.

Anyway, that’s the theory.

So, to those of you who have clicked the link, thank you! For those who haven’t, what are you waiting for? And for those of you who are intrigued as to where you stand in the interconnectedness of the web, click this and sign up. Now I’ve thought about it, it is actually quite clever – what better way to measure influence than to attempt to influence the result?

I should warn you, the site is a tad slow (something to consider next year, please organisers!) but it is an interesting experiement and one worth taking part in.

And, if you do sign up, don’t forget to post below and we can get a bit of mutual support going! Click on here to support me!

The Influence Project by Fast Company aims to identify the most influential people online.  It is at least partially accurate as my link shows that I’m not that influential!  However, does this actually measure influence or something else?  I’m unsure but can’t work out why!

Discuss below and help me work out what it is actually measuring – if anything!  Feel free to post your own linky too!

I need a bit of help with something. I have to give a presentation tomorrow on crowdsourcing and I thought it would make sense to crowdsource it!

So, if you have examples of where crowdsourcing has been used, either case studies from other people or your own experience, and graphics about crowdsourcing, I’d be realllly grateful if you could send them across.  It’ll be quite a short presentation but, once it’s done (and assuming it’s any good!), I’ll put something up on Slideshare.

Completely unrelated, this is my first blog post using Disqus as the comment engine – so give that a go and let me know if it’s any good.  I quite likey but that might just be me! … Oooh, a crowdsourced Disqus test!

Ta lovelies!

Socialholic x

OK.

So I had a crazy idea.

I’d find a sponsor for my 10,000th tweet.

Right now, I’m at Like Minds 2010. As I arrived, I was unable to use my Twitter feed. Annoying.

But I knew that my friend and co-host, Kate Day, was going to be there. So I went down to the green room to find her. She wasn’t there.

Other people were but Kate wasn’t.

And I chatted with them.

The subject of charity and the Socialholic Experiment came up.

And some bloke who I have never met before said, ‘I’ll do it. I’ll give you £100 for your 10,000th tweet’.

He was serious too.

And I write this blog post just after having left him. And I am slightly shaking.

The man who has generously sponsored that tweet is Malcolm Scovil and he is from LeapAnywhere. I have only just met him but I can tell you that the man is lovely. A proper nice bloke. Generous and brilliantly supportive.

And amazing.

I would ask you to follow @leapanywhere on Twitter and go and look at their website at www.leapanywhere.com

I’ve still not seen Kate.

But social media has worked again and it has worked in an amazing way.

People connecting with people for the purpose of good.

THANK YOU, MALCOLM!

(I promise that I will blog more when I’ve calmed down a bit!)

*breathe* *breathe*

But I did tell you so!

The excellent @phillprice over on the Twitter, recently posted:

In a new episode of @jamesmb ‘I told you so’, rumours are starting about home insurance not paying out if you use foursquare or equivalent..

And I did tell you so. What amazes me is that so many people are getting worked up about it.

When you take out home insurance, you answer a lot of questions about the security of your house. The reason for that is so that the insurance company can work out what the risk is of someone getting in and wandering off with your prestine Des O’Connor vinyl collection.

It goes without saying that the insurance company does not need to ask ‘if you go on holiday, do you put an advert in your local paper saying that the property will be vacant and the dates of the vacant period?’. The reason that it goes without saying is that you would have to be barking to do that (although we’ve already established that you have a prestine collection of Des O’Connor records so…).

How about a different question. How about ‘if you go on holiday, do you put an advert on broadcast media telling anybody in the world that your property is vacant?’

Welcome to the world of social media.

Elsewhere on this site, I have shown how the power of social media can be harnessed to get a message around the world in a matter of minutes. The #charitysm experiment showed that it was possible. Equally, the Socialholic Experiment shows how social media can be harnessed for good.

So, it goes without saying that it can also be harnessed for bad.

Across all my networks, a few thousand people ‘follow’ my posts. I have met a large number of them but I have also not met a large number of them. Statistically, it is possible that one of them is a bit light fingered (not you, dear reader. I didn’t mean you. I meant the one that’s ransacking your house as you read this).

Even if they weren’t, a huge amount of my (and your) content is available not just within private networks but also public ones. That ‘Coooooolio! I’ve just landed in Magaloooooof and am ‘avin it laaaaarge’ tweet might as well read ‘you’ve got a few days to empty my house of all my belongings – please leave the Des O’Connor collection’.

This isn’t just a FourSquare problem (although clearly services like FourSquare mean that our theiving bretherin don’t need to wade through a load of tweets and status updates that have nothing to do with our whereabouts). It is a social media problem and, more than that, it is a user problem.

You wouldn’t tweet your PIN number, so why tweet your holiday plans?

Personally, I avoid FourSquare and Brightkite simply because it is far too easy for the content to be used for bad – and I really don’t want to post ‘Brilliant! I’ve just become Mayor of Robbed House’. I also avoid geolocation social media services for the same reason.

The message has to be a simple one, if you are mug enough to tell the world that you have left your home empty for an extended period of time, expect to be robbed and don’t expect the insurance to pay out.

Oh what a comedy nightmare!

As you may know, I set up a social media charity experiment a little while ago. And, so as to raise funds (for Shelterbox) and awareness, I thought it might be an idea to offer up my 10,000th tweet to a business to sponsor. The idea is that for a nominal amount (thinking £100) a business can be part of a year long experiment to show the power of social media.

However, and here’s the big old flaw [thanks for correcting the spelling, Annie! ] in the plan, I came up with the 10,000th tweet sponsorship idea when I was on about 9,980 – so I had only 20 tweets to publicise it.

As it is, I am now on 9,998! So, I have had to stop tweeting temporarily because if I accidentally tweet, that’s 10,000 gone – I have a one tweet buffer.

It’s been a couple of days now and it is the run up to #LikeMinds on Friday. I feel utterly out of the loop and slightly trapped.

So I need your help to rescue me!

Please could you tweet the following:

Want to know why @jamesmb hasn’t tweeted for a while? Go to http://bit.ly/axpqaz and see why he’s trapped! Pls RT!

Oh and if you know anyone who would like to rescue me from this self-inflicted trap, please pass them my way! :/

Hopefully I’ll be back on Twitter soon!

James x

OK, I’ll be honest. When I set this up a couple of days ago, I thought that, if all went well, the message would spread and over the course of a year, we’d get enough for a Shelterbox.

Two days in, and we’re a third of the way there. But who knows what will happen in the next 363 days? We could still not make it – so there is no room for complacency.

What is vital, if the Experiment is to work, is that we keep the message out there. This is about showing what social media can achieve.

So, please, please, please keep the retweets going. And also the Facebook status updates and LinkedIn messages and the rest.

This is your Experiment and what we achieve belongs to you.

Please point people towards the JustGiving site at http://www.justgiving.com/socialholic and also to the original article on here at http://www.socialholic.co.uk/?p=202.

Vote for the Kilt (or not!)

Last year, I was lucky enough to be asked to speak at LikeMinds. I wore a kilt. The rest is history.

If you are going to LikeMinds this year (or if you’re not!) and you want to see the kilt again, go to http://www.justgiving.com/socialholic and donate a pound or two. Say whether I should wear the kilt or not and I will.

Buy My 10,000th Tweet

If you’re a company or individual who wants to support the Experiment, make an offer for my 10,000th Tweet. You’ve not got long – I think I have about 40 left – but if you make an offer that I accept, I will tweet whatever you want for the 10,000th Tweet.

Spread the word

We know that within our social media circles, we have a number of writers, reporters, broadcasters and other media professionals. PLEASE, we need your help to spread this as widely as possible. Contact me via Twitter or this site.

Something else

If you’ve got something that you’d do to help spread the word and raise the money for this Experiment, get in touch and I’ll do what I can to help.

THANK YOU

Thank you to everyone who has done something to help this so far either by spreading the word, giving money or pledging to do those things in the coming days and weeks.

You are amazing!

James x
Socialholic

Over the past year, I’ve done a lot of work on social media and it already looks like I’ll be doing a lot more in 2010.

I like social media and the power that it puts into people’s hands. The potential to spread messages and promote causes and campaigns is huge. A lot of the work that I have done in social media has revolved around causes and campaigns – often charity ones.

We all put a lot in to our networks, adding value to our social group. It can come in the form of communications, stories, chat, photos, audio, shared links… anything really. We also share a lot of unspoken common values – it’s what brings us together.

Anyway, I got to thinking and I thought that it would be great if we could harness all this great energy for a good cause.

Although I’ve called the page The Socialholic Experiment, it belongs to you. You are the ones who can make this work – on my own, it will fail.

The Experiment is a simple one – let’s see how much we can raise for ShelterBox. We will use social media – Twitter, Facebook, Buzz and the rest – to spread the word. Between us, we know literally thousands of people. Each box costs £490. If we can harness our networks to give a pound and spread the word, we’ll easily be able to reach the goal.

If my theories of social networks and shared values are correct, we’ll get a box.

If not? Well, we’ll have done some good and had fun trying.

One year, one goal, one box.

Or maybe more.

Be part of it. Please spread the word!

www.justgiving.com/socialholic

Thank you!

James x
Socialholic