I've been getting a lot of requests for friends on various social networks lately. You probably have been too - there seems to be an explosion of interest lately, particularly on Twitter.Labels: facebook, LinkedIn, social networks, Twitter
Posted by Scott Monty at 10:24 PM
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At Ford, Scott heads up the social media function and holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. He is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company, from blogger relations to marketing support, customer service to internal communications and more, as social media is being integrated into many facets of Ford business.
Prior to joining Ford, Scott served as Consigliere for crayon and spent a number of years with PJA Advertising + Marketing, a boutique BtoB agency specializing in health sciences & high tech.
In addition to his professional responsibilities, Scott is an active blogger and podcaster. He writes about the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR at The Social Media Marketing Blog and also writes The Baker Street Blog and cohosts I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, two literary undertakings. Scott has been featured in hundreds of news and business publications in print and on the web, in nearly dozens of books, and on a variety of mainstream media, including NBC, NPR, CNN and The Wall Street Journal. Scott is a recognized thought leader in the social media industry and frequently speaks at industry events.
Scott received his Master's in Medical Science from Boston University's School of Medicine concurrently with his MBA from BU's Graduate School of Management. He lives in the greater Detroit area with his wife and two young sons, golfs all too infrequently, and has a hidden talent for voice over work.
Oh, and one last little-known fact: Scott coined the Oxford Dictionary of English-accepted term "tweetup."
You may download a headshot here, courtesy of Rosh Sillars; a PDF version of Scott's bio is here .
Scott speaks on social media at events, seminars and conferences around the world. His topic generally focuses on corporate use of social media, becoming an online spokesperson, and specifically on the progress that Ford has made in the recent past. If you're interested in booking Scott to speak at your event, please click here to submit a speaking request for Ford-related purposes or email me at speaking [AT] this site's URL (if you know what I mean) to send a general email request.. Scott's bio and headshot can be found in the "About Scott" tab above.
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Hi, I'm Scott. I'm the global head of social media for Ford Motor Company. This is my personal blog, where I share my perspectives on social media - the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the Web - for marketers, agencies, the enterprise and the individual. This blog contains my personal views. My bio is available here and my headshots can be found here.
Great to see your opinion or take on those groups in comparison to mine, the only dif. is I hold my facebook a little more private. Thanks for sharing.
www.mediameme.worpress.com since my personal blog will show up.
Facebook is to me what MySpace is to my daughter. It is a place where I have social contacts, some are family, many are friends and those that are business contacts are people that I would associate with on a social level outside of the office. I am definitely more animated and avoid business conversations in Facebook.
I use LinkedIn for professional networking and do not spend much time there but have a profile because it is a great way to stay in touch with colleagues that I maintain a professional relationship with and even some of those that I would hang out with in a social setting that may not be on Facebook.
Thanks for the blog post!
Scott, thanks for broadcasting this. I feel it's important for responsible personal branding, socializing, and connecting. While I feel the same about Facebook and LinkedIn, I like being more strict on Twitter (request-only). To not appear snobby I tried to explain myself in my limited-character-length Twitter profile page. Unfortunately, I think spam followers on Twitter will only increase because of its low time involvement for following & requesting.
A very relevant post. In fact, I was having a conversation with a young startup Muziboo.com. They face an interesting dilemma.
Should they encourage networks to be formed on their site using "Add as Friend" (like Facebook), "Fan"(like in Stumbleupon) or "Follow"(Twitter style)
Add as friend seeks reciprocation, while the other two do not. Fan/Follow elevate the status of the person being followed. Add as friend does not elevate status
I have hosted a poll on my blog to understand which option should a music based social network choose.
Hope you don't mind me sharing the link here, as I feel its relevant for readers of this post. Would love to hear your thoughts on the same
http://tinyurl.com/6dh534
Scott,
A couple of funny things:
1) Those are the three networks I use most as well, and
2) I have very similar attitudes towards all three
I don't think of any networks as exclusive private chats, but as ways to expand my circle. And I try to let people know I am honored to be included in their circle, rather than vice-versa.
The other thing-- you kept a three-ring binder of business cards? Nerd. I put business cards on my bicycle wheel spokes. Your Moo cards work really well, though their small size makes them hard to attach.
Scott-
Great post. My friends and readers have been struggling with the same types of things, so last week I put together a personal web 2.0 strategy post to help out. It serves as a complement to your post as it turns out. Hope it helps.
http://chrisbonney.typepad.com/chris_bonney/2008/04/whats-your-pers.html
You're so methodical about it, I love it! I wish I would have thought about that early on but I feel like I have reached a point of no return. I pretty much accept any friend requests on my social networks. I feel like it would take too much effort to clean it up and differentiate how I interact with who...
I am just starting out on all of this, but I will definitely keep this in mind.
This is something I've been grappling with. I'm a little tighter with my LinkedIn, Facebook, and even Twitter on the whole. I'm trying to avoid looking at a list of "friends" or contacts that I don't really recognize or feel any connection to. So I try to forge those connections by engaging people who indicate they want to be my friend. Turns out not everyone is interested in that though. I've written about this at some length. Let me link spam you with two germane posts:
http://is.gd/e2C
http://is.gd/e2D
Thanks for the comments and links to your own take on things. While I see many similarities as to how we deal with this, it's interesting to see how everyone has variations.
Bottom line: there is no right or wrong way to use these networks, as long as you're getting - and bringing value.
Scott -
I like your linkedin analogy and think biz cards is good way to talk about it. I use it similarly and will pretty much add most people who add me. I was using FB in a professional sense but realized it shows to much fun stuff and not sure its exactly a good fit as my professional persona. Therefore I have backed off FB promotion to use linkedin more but will still add folks who find me there.
Stephen
Scott,
I think a lot of native Facebook users are also facing another dilemma these days. Should they keep their profiles the way they were back in the days when Facebook was primarily used by the students and college staff? Or should they be more conservative the content they publish and allow other people to create about them. As Facebook is becoming more and more popular among professionals (which means, potential employers), Facebook natives find themselves worrying about their personal branding more than ever.
I tend to use facebook for friends and purely social gatherings, linkedin for professional organizations, and twitter for things smaller than a blog post. You didn't mention your blog. How do you view that? Purely as a professional outlet or more as a community around the things you're passionate about. I'm more of the latter.
These posts are interesting in an area that hasn't (or maybe won't) found formal uses for these connecting tools.
Take care,
Jay
This is a great topic of discussion.
I am liberal & add everyone everywhere. The primary reason is that appreciate when others add me back.
Twitter has become a place to get to know people on a personal level. Some great discussions take there & it's fun because they're impromptu & interactive (unlike those on blogs, pm's or mail).
Facebook is an awesome place for networking. New people generally connect with me there. I add people irregardless of their adding a note. But I've received some requests that were so warm & fuzzy.
LinkedIn didn't do much for me until I built out my resume when I began exploring new opportunities. It now holds my resume & references.
My network has been built thru Facebook & Twitter. They've been invaluable.
it's been a few months since you wrote this. any new social media networks in play? do you use squidoo at all? do you use twitter, facebook or linked in any differently than you did 3 months ago? good insights. thanks for the post.
tre - these are still the core of my social networks. I tried Squidoo a couple of years ago, but never found it of much use. I thought it required too much attention & updating (especially since I had a blog).
Would be interested to hear if you've got any that are working for you or worth checking out.
hey. thanks for responding to my comment :)
right now i'm using twitter to offer snippets of what my post that day hints at. but it's not a practical use of twitter (to me) simply b/c most i'm following use twitter to give there newsy tidbit 'i'm drinking this kinda latte' or 'i just read this' or a political view...while i think twitter has far better potential than i've used it (ie the simplicity of not having to open up your email and click on a new message and all that TIME :) kidding), i haven't mastered yet how. i need to try to find more to follow and observe how they use it. i'd like to use it to offer where my thoughts are, what i'm thinking about simply b/c my work is thought by thought..and i teach others to cultivate their living/being as moment to moment expressions of their thinking as well. longwinded way of saying i don't wanna just dump opinion out there ...beth kanter uses twitter really productively. she offers links to sites she respects, great causes, fundraises using it, etc. i admire her usage of social media....and of course others'.
facebook for me is right now my 'housewarming party' if you will. it's my 'homebase' internet presence socially....
i'm very new on linked in. i respect your thoughts on using it as more as a business networking device.
ultimately though, i'm actually looking for a program that blends all social media networks along with rss feeds that are incoming.....
let me the user decide if i want to read immediately someone's twitter, fb update, or linked in page....as well as gimme all my feeds.
that may seem a bit hefty, but i want it all upfront so that i can categorize it. working from home i've done that...you take calls that are social as you can and weed through the emails that you don't /can't get too right yet....meanwhile news is on or you're getting updates via twitter....
i want to find some kind of online presence that basically allows me to do all of this. (get feeds, updates, links, etc. and allows me to decide how to manage/comparmentalize it).
i know this is longwinded but i'll say this. i text and twitter far more now than i email. in fact email is becoming a rather pain unless i want to respond to someone's.
feel free to recommend a reader program (i use netnewswire w/ firefox right now) if you know of one that also has twitter and other updates right there.....
profy looked promising....haven't really done much w/ it since it didn't go live in the end....or maybe is now...but had a lot of kinks to work thru.
be well.....
Sounds like a job for one of the social network aggregators, like FriendFeed or Profilactic.