The Art And Power Of Being Human On Social Media Plus More On Content Curation And Co-Opting

by | Feb 2, 2015 | Podcast, Ralph and Carol Lynn | 33 comments

The Art And Power Of Being Human On Social Media Plus More On Content Curation And Co-Opting
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Show Notes

It’s Freduary! No, we didn’t forget the spellchecker. While the rest of the world goes about their business this February, we here at the Web.Search.Social Marketing Podcast are going to be celebrating Freduary.

What’s Freduary?

Well, it’s an entire month dedicated to all things SuperFred. And if you don’t know what a SuperFred is – or I should say who a SuperFred is, then you’ll have to listen in and join the army.

With special thanks to SuperFred Colleen Conger for kicking us off. It was her brilliant idea and we just ran with it. You’ll find all her links below and I encourage you to connect with her because she’s smart, fun, kind and has a sense of humor that will surprise and delight you.

There are also some additional notes below about some of the things we discussed that took on a life of their own after the mics were turned off. We may come back to some of them in our next episodes but we wanted to keep you in the loop in the meantime.

Welcome to Freduary! Send your messages and tweets tagged with #superfred and we’ll be sure to connect!

In This Episode We Talk About

  • What Freduary is, who SuperFreds are and why we’re celebrating
  • Why we decided that content curation isn’t a marketing tactic for us and isn’t one that we recommend to our clients or audience
  • What we DO recommend instead
  • What it means to be an “influencer” and why it may not be what you think
  • How to connect with people online and build an audience of superfans even if you’re just starting out and don’t feel like you know anyone
  • What we think of a new tool that lets you place a popup with a call to action on websites that don’t belong to you
  • What it takes be “be awesome” online and why it matters
  • Plus we add “pixel alchemist” and “elixir of goodness” to our vocabularies, tell a story of meeting our very own “online celebrity” for the first time and make the global, exclusive announcement of the title and release date of the first episode of Alisa Meredith’s new podcast!

Links & Resources

SuperFreds

If you message or tweet them, add the hashtag #superfred so they know you’re part of the army!

Other Stuff

More Other Stuff

We always remind you that you can find us on iTunes at websearchsocial.com/itunes but now we’ve made it easier to find us on Stitcher, too. Visit websearchsocial.com/stitcher to listen there!

And while you’re there, we’d love an honest rating and review. You, our SuperFreds have kept us going, provided inspiration and pointed out the places where we could improve. Keep it coming, we appreciate you!

Where To Listen

iTunes

Stitcher

Libsyn

Podcast RSS

Subscribe below to be notified whenever we publish new content and to stay in the loop on some new podcasts and other fun stuff that’s coming up.

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Carol Lynn Rivera

Carol Lynn Rivera

I'm a business owner, content creator, podcaster and marketer. In 1999 I founded Rahvalor Interactive, a web and creative services production studio, with my husband and business partner Ralph. In 2011 we created Web.Search.Social, a consulting and marketing service line for small businesses. We also cohost the Web.Search.Social Podcast where we challenge the status quo of marketing and the Carbon Based Business Units podcast where we talk about the human side of being an entrepreneur. On any given day I wear the hat of project manager, consultant, social media manager and content marketer. My true passion is writing and in my spare time I'm busy planning my early retirement to Barcelona as a famous and wealthy novelist.
Carol Lynn Rivera

@carollynnrivera

Carol Lynn Rivera

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  • Fun and Fab Freduary! Offering up my poetic slant on today’s episode in fulfilling the duties of my on-staff position. (The pay is great, by the way! No one has ever paid me this much to write poetry.) 😉

    “An Empire of Bubbles and More Curation Troubles”

    It’s Freduary, folks, not February
    Heard Tammie Rampley’s a tramp
    Time to celebrate the superfreds
    And pick a content curation camp

    On-staff titled superfreds
    Are paid a salary of zero
    Alisa’s brand new podcast
    Features the super heroes

    Web.Search.Social is an empire
    Hello Kitty bag is in the making
    Chocolate, six-packs, and pixels
    Are right here just for the taking

    Jello, wine, Oreos, and beer
    Bubbles and bubbles of fans
    Brooke will be in the studio
    Sniply Buster is cool, man!

    Be awesome and audit yourself
    Be consistent in your branding
    Get started in co-opting content
    In hell is where you’ll be landing

    Curation sparks a raucous
    The snark is sadly pathetic
    Show me the money, please
    And shove the hollow rhetoric!

    Imagining Pixel Alchemist, Colleen Conger, sitting on a throne of gold (made of gobs of glistening pixels) 🙂

    • That is awesome..

      • Thanks a bunch, Tammie. I’m going to assume you have a wonderfully healthy sense of humor. 😉

    • I think you should be WSS’s SuperFred Poet Laureate.

      • You’re late to the party and awards ceremony, Alisa. I’ve been holding that esteemed title for months. LOL!

        • Ha! Well, I heard you were the SuperFred Poet, but I think the “Laureate” is an important distinction. It may also come with a raise.

          • It most definitely IS an important distinction! One that Carol Lynn and Ralph have already made. My title here is “Poet Laureate” Now about that raise … 😉

          • My apologies. Either “someone” left it off this time, or I was multitasking and missed it. Not that I ever do that.

          • Multitasking is bad for your health. 😉

    • Applause for the first official Freduary poem from, yes, the OFFICIAL Poet Laureate! I’m afraid we’re not marketing you well enough, Melanie, if Alisa wasn’t yet aware of your most esteemed title. Have to get on that!

      I also notice a trend there…. every other line seems to be about food. Hm. And none of it says “kale” or “carrots”.

      I think Colleen needs to get on that design – the pixel alchemist on a throne of golden pixels. I’m sure she could do something with that!

      • I’m CERTAIN Colleen could do something with that. (It was a subliminal hint) LOL

        Yeah, “food”. A poet (and a marketing agency) just can’t rhyme or roll without it.

        I must admit I was surprised Alisa isn’t in tune (in a podcast kinda way) with the titled superfreds here. Could be she’s preoccupied and super busy whipping up her own podcast. 😉

        • Could be. BUT, I’m never too busy to be a SuperFred.

          • That’s the spirit! And the same goes for me. Never too busy to be a SuperFred. 🙂

            Hope your Tuesday is thistle-free!

  • Great show.. and NOT just because you mentioned me so many times… (big cheesy grin inserted here) Official title… I feel so special… What is a girl to do???

    First off , let me say, Colleen, I will be waiting for you to send me that coupon for the free mansion. I do believe it was her that mentioned it.

    Ralph, poor ralph. I am so sorry that I fed your addiction. But, seriously, what is wrong with these people?

    On the topic of influencers, the only thing worse, to me, is an expert. Who exactly decides that you are an expert? Do you get to claim that title? With the world and thing ever changing how can anyone be an expert at anything? I don’t ever want to know so much about something that I have to lord it over other people.

    Thanks again for having me aboard…

    • Can’t wait to find out your SuperFred title, Tammie! I’m sure it’s going to be super special. 🙂

      • I cannot wait either… Official Title.. I will be known for something other than being my kids mom… Finally..

        • OH, I know the feeling! Suffice to say I’m a single mom with four daughters. For about a quarter of a century or so, I wasn’t sure I still owned my birth name. LOL!

          Seemed like everyone on the planet thought my name was “Ashley’s Mom” or “Morgan’s Mom” or “Jamie’s Mom” or “Briana’s Mom”. 😉

    • I’m guessing that no matter how much you know about any subject, you will never feel compelled to lord it over anyone! Oh, and no, you don’t get to claim that title. Someone else has to call you that first. 😉

    • It was great thanks in part of course to Colleen…. who thought up the brilliant idea and then helped us kick it off! Glad you enjoyed it.

      I’m on board with the “expert” thing. I’m pretty sure I have “discussed” this topic (vehemently) somewhere on this blog before 🙂

  • Colleen, I LOVE your answer about influencers. I could not agree more, but I couldn’t have worded it that well. 🙂 Thanks so much Ralph and Carol Lynn for the amazing shout out. My next big goal – get on staff with a SuperFred title.

    • Spoke too soon. Looks like I’m the SuperFred Therapist! Yay!

      • Just so therapy sessions with you feel more like a party with a six-pack. 😉

    • We will have to make it official, but yes Alisa, you have been mentioned more than once around here as the official therapist!

  • Carol Lynn, don’t get apoplectic! I also downloaded snip.ly when I saw it — and I never in a million years thought it might be used for evil purposes. So even tho I think *I* could use it without being evil, I can see how others might take it to a dark place. So I’ve cancelled and deleted my snip.ly account.

    • Maybe my brain just automatically goes to the dark side but when I read/watched what it could do all I could think of is all those “curators” running around putting their ads on my site. You know, because they’re working hard to drive traffic to my site! I feel like unless you are partnered up with someone and you both share this concept, it could be a really big branding issue. I mean, that floating ad thing was big and pretty obtrusive – and almost impossible to differentiate from the actual site. I’ve seen some good uses (people using it on their own site actually) and plenty more where it was not so good. Not intentionally deceptive but still, I wonder how many content creators want other people placing offers/links on their sites.

  • She’s curated some of our stuff too. I remember her announcing the whole roundup thing. And that is the only thing I know about her! If that’s her business model and it’s working, good for her. (I mean that…. I realize the potential for that to sound sarcastic in writing!) I’ll have to look to see what she’s doing. That’s definitely a unique scenario

  • The pricing for all online programs/courses/products MUST end in a ‘7’: Worth $497, sold for $197. Worth $997, sold for $497. Worth $1997, sold for $997. And bonuses (as in your example) that add up to $1 Billion and 97.

    And I’m tempted to buy every single one of them, especially those Jeff Walker-modeled three part videos. It’s a war of emotional attrition, especially when every one of my influencer email newsletters are inter-promoting.

    • Lucky number 7, huh? I used to buy them just to be able to understand them and see what’s really going on but at some point I wasted enough money and gave up. I guess they don’t provide NO value but in my experience they are usually such basic things that you could learn for free if you read a little bit more, but someone commoditized it and made it sound important and very, very cheap. For the super beginners who want a “what to do” kick in the rear, I suppose there are some actually useful products out there. It’s too bad that people can’t sell them without the gimmicks.