But Internet Guru always seemed arrogant. I've worked in Internet startups, I've worked on huge web platforms, but calling myself Internet Guru just seemed pretentious. Tessa Horehled's blog post How To Identify A New Media Douchebag just made it worse, because she was right. I definitely don't know it all, and Guru made it seem like I did.

So I talked to the wife about this. To paraphrase her response "Ummm, you are a geek. Call yourself an Internet Geek."

Now I don't feel like a prick when handing out my shiny new business cards.

While we have done plenty of video podcasts before, this is going to be an experiment from the ground up. The whole site will be perpetually under construction as we try out new tools and new ways of doing media distribution. Live streaming and BackNoise will be integrated so we can connect directly to viewers.

It will all be fun!

Leave us some feedback on what you think.

Awesome badges. Whoever designed them did a great job.

Chris Brogan has a post about doing things for free and how you should charge for certain services.

Offering free services can definitely be tricky. Honestly, the only time you should do it is if it isn’t going to offer you headaches. Its ok that Twitter is free, each new user doesn’t require any additional work for Twitter (ok, a million additional users might cause the fail whale, but thats a different problem).

Providing free services when it requires time and labor, especially for a one person shop or a small business, can be an exercise in futility. If you are giving free classes to a whole bunch of people, great. One person vs 10 people in a class situation probably doesn’t matter.

From my own experience, when you offer something from free, clients the world. If you are doing pro bono work for a client, it is critical to clearly define what services you will be providing for free. At least if you don’t want your hair going white! Treat the client just like a paying client. If you have a development or process cycle, do it with the free clients as well.

Don’t sell yourself short.

Enjoy.

Television networks have depended on Nielsen ratings for a long time. Nielsen breaks down how many people are watching what show and demographics of the viewers. Nielsen has been collecting data since 1950. Similarly, radio stations, newspapers, and other print media can provide detailed breakdowns of listeners and readership. Advertisers can get similar data from popular websites who are looking to sell space on their sites.

The old model is about broadcasting to hopefully the right people and getting them interested in products. That doesn’t work with social media. Its all about relationships. Building relationship, cultivating relationships, interacting with clients, potential clients.

The onus falls on the marketer to start creating organic growth.

So how?

Sean Carton, over at Clickz, has a great article called A Social Media Strategy Checklist. Its a great starting point for everyone, especially for folks wondering what the right questions are. To kick off any social media strategy, these questions need to be answered:

1. What are we trying to accomplish?
2. Why social media?
3. What kind of social media will help us best achieve our goals?
4. Are we prepared to let go of control of our brand, at least a little?
5. What will we do to encourage participation?
6. Who will maintain our social media presence?
7. Do we have the resources to keep this up, or will this be a short campaign?
8. How does engaging use rs via social media integrate into our overall marketing/communications strategy?
9. How do we measure success? What constitutes failure?
10. What will we do less of if we’re spending resources on social media?

The question of what resources to dedicate to social media (#7 above) is interesting. Attending New Media Atlanta conference recently, Newell-Rubbermaid was involved in a panel discussion. An audience member asked what kind of resources Rubbermaid puts towards social media. The response: 50% of one full-time employee and 2 interns. Rubbermaid has a market cap of $4.2B. Its hard to believe such a well known brand, whose bottom-line is tied to consumer confidence in its brand, would not provide more resources to its public face. Still, Rubbermaid clearly understands the value of their online presence and social media and has plans for expansion.

The panel also discussed ROI (part of #9 above). The usual metrics of measuring views, followers, comments, or subscribers don’t apply well if the product is purchased from retailers. Rubbermaid said the only form of marketing they could successfully measure was of the in-store variety. Chris Brogan, who was the keynote for the New Media Atlanta conference, said the only ROI that mattered was specific dollar amounts. Show spending X amounts of dollars on social media will lead to Y dollars in savings.

It is important to remember that having concrete answers for all the above questions may not be possible. Knowing why and how are basic questions and can’t be pushed to the back burner. Without answers to them, no viable strategy can be created. The ROI question is tricky and there is no consensus, but Brogan’s assertion that providing a dollar value can be a good starting point.