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Influencer. It’s almost become a buzzword similar to “guru” or “ninja.” But let’s not forget that the true meaning of “influencer,” isn’t a title, but rather someone that makes an impact on the digital space.

So what makes up an influencer? Users have a lot to do with it.

1. There’s no mathematical equation for influence, but if you take a look at the number of followers and those who they are following, they can tell you something. Those people with a high number of followers, but a low number for people they are following generally shows they have something important and engaging to say – and people take them seriously.
2. Regular updates about the topic they are an influencer of shows that they are legit. However, make sure you’re taking a look at the dates of content they are posting. Are they from previous months, years, etc? Many people time their posts to automatically populate on social media sites. When they run out of content, they start circulating old posts. This doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re talking about, but it could mean they aren’t as embedded in the topic as you think.
3. What they update is also very important. If the person claiming to be an influencer rarely posts any updates with unique content, take a look at their work and see if they are really just made up of follow-bots. Also note, that little term “unique content.” If it’s pointless cat articles found on Buzzfeed, and they aren’t specializing on what makes us nostalgic for the ‘90s, maybe question if they are really what they claim to be.
4. Credibility can be found in a number of ways: user generated praise, support and retweets from other thought leaders or influencers, or publication on news sites and books commenting on their specialty.
5. Twitter verification. That little blue check mark gives you an idea of whether the person is legitimate or not. Twitter does the influencer check for you, so if they have it, no need to check out steps 1-4.

If someone claims to be an influencer, they probably are a little behind the times. Good questions to ask yourself are: Do I care about what they are sharing? Is their content relevant and interesting?

If yes to both, stick around and feel free to be influenced.

Ten years ago, MySpace was founded and social media began taking over the web. What started off as a simple profile adding “friends” into your network, turned into a networking phenomenon that is growing exponentially a decade later.

How is social media changing your world?

1. Brands rely on consumers rather than advertising. You can share your likes and dislikes about brands, companies, restaurants, etc. and influence consumers on where to spend their money. Yelp is one of the most popular social media applications and user reviews, rather than advertising, bring in consumers.
2. Users can help you solve a problem. What do you do when your car needs new brakes? Ask your Twitter
   
   followers who is the best mechanic in your area? This is what we used to use the phonebook for: figuring out what company or person can solve our problems.
3. We learn news as it happens. Instead of waiting for a morning paper or the evening news, we are finding out what’s happening when it happens. Whether the death of a celebrity or the presidential election, we are kept up-to-date with what’s happening in our world. When I need my news, I go to Twitter or Facebook to get it.
4. Sharing ideas (and other things). Social media is all about sharing; whether it’s what you’re creating or what you’re eating, people will share it with the world. When was the last time you told someone what the color of your drink was? Oh yeah, last time you Instagrammed it.
5. We can reach out to anyone. It’s completely possible to have conversations with your favorite celebrities or CEOs. Thought leaders have hit the social media ground running and are often replying or answering inquiries from fans and followers. These people are no longer inaccessible. You can reach out to them as easy as sending a tweet.
6. We are always learning from each other. Even though there is plenty of fluff on the internet (really, how many more pictures of your cat do I need to see?) there is also a vast pool of knowledge we can glean from not only friends, but thought leaders and influencers as well. Sites like creativeLIVE that take online education and make it social are just one of the many ways people can learn and share new content and ideas.

What have you learned from social media? How has it affected your life or your traditional networking or media consumption?

There are countless opportunities for businesses on social media. The trick is, how do you best position you and your business to generate the best return on your investment of time and money? Many businesses already use e-mail marketing to contact their customers and potential leads, but could this be optimized too? Companies such as RocketReach can handle your e-mail marketing, using email finder tools to locate leads’ information and contact them using emails that look hand-crafted by your company. If you’re looking to explore social media more, however, the following are some ways for those in the insurance industry to use social media to their advantage:

Facebook

Facebook is a great way to reach out to people who are already familiar with your community and your business, and use them to help boost sales. By paying for targeted advertising, your unique ads can be tailored to only show up to people who live in the area and are friends of people who “like” your page. There are a variety of ways to tailor ads: by region, gender, age, and interests. This will help you get your advertising to the right people, and it won’t break the bank.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional network that is the most beneficial for insurance marketing. As an online networking platform, businesses can use traditional ideas of marketing and meeting new clients with the added benefit of being visible to a much larger group of potential clients. The more connections you make, your recognition increases, and it helps both online and in-person networking. You can use groups to share content and help market yourself as well, so find the industry groups that are best suited for your business and start connecting.

Twitter

Twitter is the online community that is great for sharing content in a concise and quick way. When used properly, it is a beneficial marketing channel that many small businesses and professionals use to share content, get to know each other, and have industry discussions. It’s important to remember that Twitter is a community, so while it helps with networking, it’s necessary to engage users with thoughtful conversation. This will help you get noticed among the thousands of small businesses vying for customers. Connecting with business influencers and industry leaders provides credibility and broadens your network of potential connections and clients.

Blogging

Creating content is the most important way to stand out on a digital platform. Content that is engaging, interesting and topical brings users to your website and helps them engage in your business. Blogs that are thoughtful and encourage debate are the ones users keep coming back to. By encouraging debate and conversation, you can reach out to those that are contributing, thus providing another networking opportunity. Whatever you blog about can be shared on all three social platforms, and the more you build up a community of interested and engaged individuals, the more your business grows.

Customer insight & testimonials

While social media tools help, it’s important to make sure your message is coming from more than just you. These tools allow you to reach out to previous clients and ask them to provide feedback and testimony to your services. Consumers are more apt to purchase a product from a peer referral than just hearing about it from the source. Facebook comments, Twitter replies, LinkedIn endorsements, and comments on your website can all be shared and marketed to potential consumers.

In October 2012, Twitter acquired the video sharing application Vine, and the short, six-second videos are becoming a popular way to share content on social media.

The iOS application (not yet on Android) lets iPhone and iPad users to record and embed videos to Twitter and share on other social media sites. Users can check out the best videos on the app by looking at the Editor’s Picks (generally awesome) and what’s Popular Now. But with only six seconds to showcase the content, what’s the best way to use Vine?

– Hashtag your videos to show up in “Explore.” When you login to Vine, there is an option to explore other videos submitted by users. Collections like “#favthings,” “#vineportraits,” and “#pets,” are searchable categorized by their tags, but users can search tags, much like Twitter, to find out what’s popular.

– Make sure you don’t mind sharing with the world. As there is no private option for Vine videos, they are viewable by anyone that has the Vine app, or views them on Facebook and Twitter.

– Most people take multiple shots by pressing on the screen to record. However, it’s possible to record all six seconds in one shot by swiping across the screen.

–  Embedding videos isn’t just limited to Twitter. Much like YouTube videos, you can pop your Vine into an iFrame just about anywhere. Check out a tutorial here.

– Some of the coolest videos are ones that use Vine for stop-motion animation. Use Vine to take quick, still videos and use it to tell a story. Some of the best ones use LEGO bricks – watch them here.

I’d love to see how you’re using Vine! Tweet me a video and I’ll post the best ones on my blog.

It’s that time of year again: SXSW (aka Geek Spring Break)—the time when all good social media types head to Austin, Texas, to actually interact in real life with people they usually only talk to via a keyboard. While they are there, they will pinky swear that they won’t go back next year because it’s been overrun by the big brands.

This year, I go there—as I always do—looking to meet people who are using social media to do new and amazing things online, discover exciting applications and tools that are out there, and catch up with old friends to learn what they have accomplished.

It will be different for me this time. I’ll be there as part of the PayPal team, which I’m very excited about. At SXSW I’ll be running the social media team on the ground for PayPal. What does that mean? Let me share some of the things PayPal will be doing there in list form, as people like lists.

–       PayPal will have a week-long Digital Lounge at SXSW. Everyone is invited to Pop! in and play at PayPal Exchange our PayPal Developer Lounge located on the third floor of the Convention Center. Enjoy a blue slurpee (#tweetyourtoungue) and create your own personalized SuperHero Sticker – there’s something for everyone! We’ll be there during SXSW’s Interactive week from March 8-12.

–       On March 9, there will be a PayPal party. Okay, I’ll just be having a fun time there (shhhh!) We’ll be hosting a Superhero surprise at Mohawk; along with exclusive live performances from Man Man and other local favorites you won’t forget.

–       The whole week we will be using Twitter to—oh, wait, I can’t tell you that. That one is a surprise…my bad! So you might want to follow the PayPal Twitter account for something really cool happening all week.

Are you headed to SXSW? If so, make sure to stop by the Digital Lounge and say “Hi!” If you do, you might be surprised and delighted.

Dear TheDavePeck.com,

First, I want to say I’m sorry. Really sorry… I’ve taken you for granted.  I would ask how you have been, but I know you haven’t been well. I haven’t visited you, posted, or even upgraded your widgets in more than a year. I know it’s not fair. You have done so much for me, and I just tossed you aside like a MySpace page.

I want you to know that what you have done for me is not all for naught. If it wasn’t for you, I would not have accomplished what I have in the past year.  Nor would I be where I am today. Let me share with you some of the amazing things that have been going on. I’ll do it in list form, because well….people like lists.

• I wrote a book. No, really, I did! Don’t tease me like my high school friends do. It’s called Think Before You Engage. And, yes, it’s a real book.  Well, no, that doesn’t mean it’s real. You’re right. But, look here.  I even have a real publisher. One that’s been around since 1807!

• I’ve worked with amazing companies such as Dash Office. Dash created an app that allows you to have The world’s fastest mobile experience.
  I’ve worked as well with incredible people such as Antonio Sabato, Jr. , C. Thomas  Howell and Matthew Lillard.   Then I had a fun time working with  Jessie Csincsak, Natalie Getz, and David Good.

So this brings me to where I am today. I am exactly where I want to be. I have the most incredible job as the Head of Social Media for PayPal.

(Let me know when the shock and awe has calmed down.)

Yes, it’s that PayPal. The site that’s changing the way people pay and helping anyone, anywhere, anytime send and receive money. It’s the dream job for any social media expert, guru, ninja, master, black belt, buzz term.  I’m working with amazing people, doing amazing things, and changing how commerce is done.

So, I hope you can understand that I have been really busy. It’s not an excuse. I get that. And, I want to turn this around. It’s my goal to publish to you more frequently. I can’t promise my posts will always be long and helpful, but I’ll do my best.

I look forward to spending more time with you and hope you do too.

Sincerely yours,

Dave “I won’t blogfade” Peck

5 kids, 4 sports, 3 play-dates, 2 parents and 1 dinner party.. for my wife and I, that was last Saturday. Heck, that is a typical weekend for us. This does not even include the other 6 days of the week. I won’ t begin to bore you with the events I forgot about, like one kids baseball practice. Keeping it all together is almost a full-time job. I find myself inputting the dates and times into my phone and making notes on what I need to have with me for that event.

And sometimes the things that are staring you right in the face are the ones that solve your problems.  Recently, I heard from Meshin, a company I worked for last year out of Palo Alto Research Center (think Xerox) .  Yes, they know about the 5 kids and my use of Evernote.   They are rolling out an iOS app that integrates all my calendars into one view and let’s me take notes from the event I am attending.  And trust me not all notes are equal.   Take one day in my life.  I go to a meeting where I have invited two new people who are clients.  Right from my iPad I open my calendar, take a note, save it at the end of the meeting and it is automatically tags all the names of the people so I can find it later, or I can get to it right from that calendar.   Later in the day I go to my son’s baseball game, which is in my calendar too.  I take a photo note with Evernote and save it to the game event.  I have the inside scoop so I know Evernote is just their first trick in making the calendar smarter.

It you want to check it out they are in private iOS beta at Meshin.  Plus I think they are giving away an iPad for the person who gets the most sign-ups ( no I can’t win since I used to work for them.

I plan on using Meshin Recall for the foreseeable, Interested in what you think might make your calendar smarter on you iPhone? Make sure to download it here.

I sucked at blogging for the past few months. There I said it. I have been so overwhelmed with writing a book and working with clients that I just let it slide. In addition, I found myself tweeting my thoughts, where I should have blogged them. One of those thoughts was how companies can use social media in their B2B efforts to improve communication. So, I took those thoughts and put them into list form, because people like lists. Comments suggest that my advice on how to find a unified communications provider that works for your business might have been helpful. So, I will try and dedicate more time in the future in order to offer further insight!

– Share lots of photos, and ask your fans to share photos on your different networks. Facebook’s photos are some of the most powerful tools out there.

-Be strategic and pay attention to signal vs. noise. There is nothing worse to a consumer than having businesses shout at them.

-Create content that can go mainstream (outside your industry bubble) and monitor which posts attract the most “Likes” and feedback.

-Share your industry’s articles and blog posts on your social networks.

-Write your updates/posts to have a call to action – give the user something to do after they are finished reading. Ask questions that do not have a simple answer like “Yes” or “No.”

-Use tagging strategically when you can. Try to engage businesses by their location and even language as well. Oh and don’t forget the mobile users.

-Make sure to let your company show its human side and show the diversity and uniqueness of your team.

-Share exclusive and simple behind-the-scenes information.

-Make it easy to share your calls to action and offer incentives.

-Note your post frequency and timing. Find out what time they do best.

-Know your audience well, and when you make a mistake, quickly own up, do right by your audience and fix the problem.

-Integrate your website broadly with Facebook Connect.

-Find the resources to respond to your fans’ questions and inquiries.

-Make sure to hold real-world events.

-Try to always respond to comments. Yes, even the negative ones.

-Find synergy with other organizations and entities, and then work together to promote each other’s content so that everyone benefits.

What are some of tips and tricks you use in your B2B marketing?

Dear America Online…I mean AOL,

This is one of those letters that I never thought I would write. I don’t mean this in a bad way. I actually shock myself when I say, “It is a good thing that I am writing this letter.” Let me back up and explain what this letter is all about.

As a young man growing up in the 1980s and becoming a young adult in the 1990s you, AOL, have touched and effected my life on many levels. If it was not for the hundreds of discs you mailed me, my college apartment in Chico would not have had any coasters for beers. If it was not for you, AOL, I would never had played the beer drinking game “AOL Card House.” When we couldn’t find playing cards, we built a house of AOL discs. If it was not for you, AOL, I never would have entered that chat room and met that 22-year-old Swedish fashion model, with whom I had adult conversations (I wonder if she ever received that cashier’s check I sent her for that investment?) And, I should go on record that if it were not for you, I would not be where I am today.

Truly, I mean it. It was with you that I first got online, found content, and became networked.

Then you and I, AOL, went our separate ways. You wanting me to just spend time with you and your own content, making me dial in. You tried to keep me trapped. I was not ready for a serious, committed relationship. I had to learn that another whole online world was out there… DSL, websites, content from other places. I had to end our relationship and go on without you. I had to find myself.

At this juncture of my life, though, something has happened. I didn’t really realize it until this past month. It seems we have started to reconnect. But I didn’t know it was you, AOL! Maybe it was the work you had done, the new style, the midlife changes you’ve made. The bottom line is this: you have changed. Maybe you’ve even grown up. Today, we have a new relationship!. Because people like lists, here’s my take on our new life together:

• You are going places and putting yourself out there. It seems you have an iPad application called Editions. I really like it, and I’m using it daily.
• You listen to me now. I emailed your Editions peeps and Sol L. responded to me directly. On a Saturday!
• You seem to communicate better. Sol L. actually emailed me to let me know Editions was back up.
• You care about my family and friends. It’s just not all about you anymore. I find myself reading my local San Carlos and Redwood City Patch. It seems Patch is owned by AOL.
• You take interest in what I like. You even own the Huffington Post now.

So, let me continue to be honest. I still make jokes at your expense when you’re not around. This said, I have a new respect for you. I just hope your attempt at trying to save our relationship is not just a little too late.

I want you to know that I’m willing to work on it…if you are.

Hugs,
Dave

Meet Antonio Sabato Jr… you may know him from such things as General Hospital, Melrose Place, Rizzoli & Isles, CSI:NY, Scrubs, Ugly Betty, My Antonio, Modeling and of course from his very active Twitter account.

Antonio was kind enough to take time out of his schedule to do an interview about his current projects and use of Social Media.

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