Here it is, the keys to the blog-growth castle…

It’s not uber-networking, commenting on every high-traffic blog you can find, sucking up to big bloggers to get links, befriending social-medialites, installing plug-ins to get people to subscribe or thank them once they do or building your profile and family of friends.

Do those things help? Yes, but…

Only if you do one much more important thing really, really well. What’s that one thing?

Be insane.

• Insanely interesting
• Insanely entertaining
• Insanely informative
• Insanely useful
• Insanely provocative
• Insanely kind/compassionate
• Insanely friendly
• Insanely opinionated
• Insanely graphic
• Insanely therapeutic
• Insanely innovative
• Insanely creative
• Insanely uplifting
• Insanely funny
• Insanely, um…insane

Being any of these things on a “moderately,” “very” or “highly” level is not good enough. It’s got to be insane.

My highest traffic posts have been the ones that have been insanely something.

I can tell you before they ever go up if they are going to hit big or not. And, I am in heaven when I have the time to create them. As a blogger, it’s a gift to be able to give to your readers on this level. It’s a gift to be given a platform to share your voice with zest. It feels amazing. And people respond by reading, sharing, evangelizing.

Can you sustain posting at the insanely something level every time?

Doubtful, at least I know I can’t. But, the more I can be insanely something, the faster my blog grows. When I get too deep into other projects to be able to do the work needed to be insanely something, things slow down.

This, by the way, is why you’ve seen a number of top bloggers pulling back on their posting frequency, lately, and taking more time to make a smaller number of posts insanely something. In doing so, they’ve found no slow-down in the growth of their blogs. In fact, this approach often accelerates growth even of a more mature blog.

So, stop trying to put pretty flowers on the cake…

And start learning to bake a cake that’s so friggin’ good it’ll have your great aunt Tillie knocking over flower-girls to get the recipe.

Last week, the fabulous Shama Hyder wrote here first insanely something post at After The Launch. The thing that pushed it over the edge wasn’t the information, she usually provides great info, it was her emotion, for the first time on her blog, she let it rip, she added a bit of rant to her information. She got personal.

And, in doing so, she connected with her readers on a different level. Her comments for that post spiked dramatically, speaking to the power of emotion in getting your community of readers to participate in the conversation more (FYI - Shama just got proposed to and she said yes, everyone say woohoo!).

It really all comes back to Seth.

Stop asking how to promote your blog and spend more time being not just good, but butterflies in the belly remarkable, then just let a few of Malcom Gladwell’s sneezers know you’re there. Insane first, promote a distant second.

Funny thing is, I just realized…I wrote this post for me.

Time to get back on the insane horse.

Are you with me?

I literally passed out when the news came my way…

Since joining the blogging community, I’ve become privy to a growing feed of scandalous information about major players in the blogging arena. And, until now, I’ve kept my mouth shut, but this latest round of news is just too good to keep to myself.

So here goes…

1. Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble and Mike Arrington are secretly raising a love-child on a secluded island in Malaysia. Not wanting to muddy their gene pools, the trio paid to have an X chromosome that integrated the best aspects of each (Guy’s hair, Scoble’s dimples and Arrington’s height) spliced together, then cloned to create a single spawn designed to take over the world in about 15 years…when they are said to have plans to retire to that same island to live in harmony. PS – don’t tell their wives, remember, it’s a secret.

2. Tim Ferriss of The Four Hour Workweek fame is actually a mythical creature, with an animatron made of salt-water taffy, tequila, moon-dust and peach fuzz concocted to appear on his behalf in public. This explains the subdued vibe, faint aroma of sweetness and worms and phosphorous glow during interviews.

3. Trash-talking, beer swilling, mold-breaking, head-shaving, strip-blogger, Naomi Dunford, from Ittybiz is actually a man. This stunner was revealed in a recent PBS documentary that was supposed to feature her as the ultimate PC mommy-blogger. When asked to comment, Dunford’s husband Jamie responded, “hmmm, I guess my sister was right.” (I know, technically, she’s not an A-lister yet, but I was afraid she’d beat me up if I didn’t include her)

4. Xeni Jardin from Boing Boing is actually 80s rocker Billy Idol’s little sister. They made a bet when she was 6 that if he could write a song that would have college students swapping in the word “laid” and get them to chant it at keggers for 20 years, she’d have to wear his hair until she was 50. Guess who lost.

5. Copyblogger Brian Clark’s real name is Vin “The Texas Mule” Bonfiglio, legendary don of one of the most treacherous crime families in Texas. His blog is really a front for a variety of illegal activities, including the organized wearing of white after Labor Day, not watching football on Friday nights, voting Democrat and the selling and consumption of vegetarian ribs.

6. Dooce’s Heather Armstrong beat the piss out of Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb after last weeks interview on the Today Show. Horrified onlookers reportedly heard her muttering, “who’s your mommy-blogging daddy now,” while simultaneously twittering the attack. In the end her hair still looked fabulous and the crowd was decidedly on her side.

7. Ariana Huffington of Huffington Post fame admits she wishes she was Celebrity gossip blogger, Perez Hilton. “He just looks like he has so much more fun,” Huffington was overheard saying while ordering a bun-free lettuce sandwich at an In-N-Out in Venice, Ca.

[Editorial note: none of the above was true, it's called satire, that's right, satire, every once in a while, I just gotta let it out. S'all just good fun. But, if you'd love to be in future fake news posts, please don't hesitate to tell my why]

Time for another Friday afternoon best-of-the-web, where I filter out a bazillion things to bring you the coolest stuff I read and seen online this week. Enjoy…

• Family Guy Matrix Trailer - Epic, watch it and start your weekend with a smile
• Why leisure matters in a busy world - Interesting article about the importance of taking time off
• Twister bedsheets - No need for explanation here
• Become an expert with the power of deliberate practice - Steve Rubel applies greatness theory to the process of becoming an expert authority. Interesting read, especially for bloggers
• Why your loved ones want you to fail - Naomi reveals why those closest to you might not be your biggest supporters
• Are you talking to my generation? - James from MenWithPens writes a great column about writing to your readers
• How do I get a professionally designed blog? - Darren shares resources for blog design at all levels, from free to wordpress all-star.
• Understanding the value of ‘friends’ in social media websites - Maki shares his unique take on developing friends and followers across different social media hubs
• Research reveals new paths to productivity - Penelope shares 4 new ways to be more productive, not your standard getting things done list
• 10 misconceptions the self-employed deal with daily - Glen takes a look at the realities of working for yourself
• Women entrepreneurs just as successful, but less confident - Interesting research on women who start businesses
• Top 10 interesting facts about the brain - Very cool science-based facts about how the brain works
• Motherhood today: tougher challenges, less success - Two of every three women ages 50-64 say today’s mothers are doing a worse job as parents than mothers did 20 or 30 years ago
• The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart now America’s 4th ranked journalist - Interesting research behind blending of politics, journalism and humor
• One of the best intro’s in history - The Bloggess shares the story behind her riotous intro for Guy Kawasaki
• Cool pictures of all kinds of stuff people invented - Building on the Guy theme, the big K posts a ton of pictures of really cool/fun inventions and creations from the Maker Faire in San Mateo.
• Surprise findings about tech entrepreneurs - Tim Berry reveals highlights from new Kaufmann report, like twice as many US tech-entrepreneurs start companies in their 50s than their 20s.
• Breaking the glass - Seth shares a photo of a very cool thought-piece about taking life by the…
• Saying no - Chris Brogan write a compelling piece about the important of saying no to create more time for the stuff you really want to say yes to.
• Should you stop talking to prospects by phone? - Michel Fortin shares a provocative piece on eliminating phone calls for all but paying customers.
• The ultimate guide to a wildly sticky, successful and outstanding blog - Liz Strauss puts together a great compilation of tools, tips, techniques and articles.
• Thinking can ruin your life - interesting take on the paralysis of analysis
• Productivity vs ingenuity - Interesting take on getting things done versus getting things created.
• So, that should keep you guys busy over the weekend. Have fun!

I read. A lot!

Not just blogs. Books, magazines, cartoons, newsletters, I devour them. It’s the maven in me. And, I’ve shared a few reviews here, but I figure, it’s time to start doing it a bit more regularly. So, this is the first of my every other Wednesday drive-by book-review series (with a little effort, I might even be able to keep it going past today).

Why drive-by?

Because, I’m busy, you’re busy, so rather than listing out the table of contents and picking apart everything that was said, my purpose is more to highlight:

1. What the book is about,
2. What makes it different, and
3. Who needs to read it.

One other thing–I am not going to review books I didn’t like for two reasons.

One, I have a short attention span and can generally find better things to do than finish books that don’t grab me. Can’t write a review on a book half-read. And, two, why would you want to spend your time reading about something I am eventually going to tell you is not worth reading about? Seems a bit counterproductive to me.

Short and sweet. Let’s roll…

On tap today are two books (FYI - the links below are NOT affiliate links):

• Pro Blogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
• Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker guide to working smarter, faster, better by Gina Trapani

Pro Blogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income

What’s the book about? Blogging for bucks, plain and simple

What makes it different? No doubt, there is a lot of great information about starting, setting up and growing a blog, but what makes this book different from all others is it’s unique focus on blogging for income.

So, for example, when it talks about choosing a topic, the focus is not just on what you love, but on how to find and choose a niche that will allow you to position yourself to not only blog, but make money doing it. When it talks about the types of posts you can write, the focus is not only on what you are passionate about covering, but what readers most want to read and what is most likely to get passed around or go viral.

And, because it’s nearly impossible to monetize a blog, directly or indirectly, without traffic, it talks about marketing, from working relationships to social-media to link-bait. It has one of the most detailed marketing and promotion sections I’ve found in book format.

Who needs to read it? Anyone who is looking to create or grow an existing blog with the intent of eventually deriving income from it.

Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker guide to working smarter, faster, better

What’s the book about? Tapping technology to make your life easier.

What makes it different? This is Gina’s second book and what makes it so different than anything else ot there are two things. The information and the format.

Gina is the head-honcho, super-deluxe editor over at Lifehacker.com, a blog that churns out an insane volume of daily tips on everything from controlling your e-mail to getting fit for summer or screen-shotting your Mac (loved that one).

This book condenses down 116 of the most useful tech and productivy-oriented “hacks” into a single, convenient volume. Each item is a quick read, delivers precise instructions and, most importantly, solves a problem that’ll give you back yet another sliver of your life. It’s like a best of Lifehacker desk-reference.

A quick final word on the content. Part of what you are buying here is convenience. Could you visit the website and search for articles on the topics in the book? Sure. But, you’d likely pull up dozens of posts to wade through for each topic. Upgrade Your Life delivers a discrete set of high bang-for-the-buck hacks in a portable, convenient book format. So, I can throw it in my backpack and read it in bursts or keep it on my desktop and use it when needed. To me, the convenience and portability is worth the time and money.

Who needs to read it? Anyone who is interested in getting things done faster, easier and making more time to play.

So, that’s the end of my first set of drive-by book reviews, hope you enjoyed. If you have a book you’d like me to consider for review, please e-mail at jonathan [at] jonathanfields [dot] com. Please do not send me any unsolicited stuff, before talking with me.

So, what do you guys think? Have you read either book? Share your voice…

So, I’m hanging out with William Shatner at the Jet Blue terminal on Friday…

Well, actually, I am watching him in a mildly-creepy voyueristic kind of way as he saunters up to check in for his flight to Burbank.

My first thought is, “damn, his piece looks good.”

I’m losing my hair fast, so I am seriously tempted to ask where he bought his, but, then I remember…this is NY, we don’t do stuff like that. We’re just that cool.

But, I have to tell someone about my sighting, so I figure I’ll tweet about it. I crack open my mac, pop open Firefox, see Jet Blue’s free wi-fi terms of service page pop up, click on the button that says agree, then start to browse.

I then tweet…

JetBlue terminal. William Shatner waiting in pinstripe suite and shades to board flight to Burbank. Why’s he flying JetBlue? Free, maybe?

A few minutes later, I realize I can get a much better signal with my broadband card, so I make the switch (FYI–not much better), surf a few pages, then check my e-mail to find that…

Jet Blue is now following me on twitter.

What the?! I am instantly freaked out. My mind starts spinning. “Was there something in that terms of service page that let them track my browsing, follow me to twitter, then publicly seek to follow me on twitter?”

I’m over James T. William Denny Kirk Crane Shatner actor dude in a blink as I jump back on twitter to report,

Using JetBlue wifi to access twitter, 10 seconds later, I get a follow request from JetBlue on twitter. Half freaked out, half awed.

I think this is the end of it and vow never to use Jet Blue’s free wi-fi.

But, some 20-minutes later, the saga moves to the next phase

Oh, I should’ve told you, I had strep-throat, a uvula the size of a thumb and I was beginning to sweat enough to freak out everyone around me, so I bailed on the flight and drove home, where I did a quick check of my e-mail only to find…

An e-mail, not a DM, but an e-mail from JetBlue in response to my last message on twitter, reading:

Hi Jonathan,

don’t worry - we didn’t follow you on Twitter because we saw you on the WiFi (that thought scares even me!) - but because I saw your tweet about William Shatner - my intention was to see if I could DM to say something mildly silly about the idea that “well JetBlue IS on Priceline” or that he cold be flying because he likes the SciFi channel.

Sorry to startle (and Happy Jetting!

Morgan Johnston
Corporate Communications
JetBlue Airways

Okay, my first reaction…cool, so they’re not bugging my backpack.

Second reaction…mega jet co has some dude dedicated to monitoring and responding to what’s being said about JetBlue in the twittersphere.

That’s pretty damn cool.

Cool because they care. And cool because have a clue that something called twitter not only exists, but might be a useful way for them to participate in the conversation. Now, I needed to know more. So, I click onto JetBlue’s page on twitter and see Mr. Blue is following some 2,049 people…and 1,923 are following him back!

And, he’s having real conversations with many of them.

For crying out loud, doesn’t Jet Blue know not to get too close to the customers or else they might ask you for something and you might actually have to one day give it to them? I mean, didn’t they even crack open the stodgey old megacorp guide to optimizing returns while minimizing interaction?

This level of conversation from a multi-billion dollar company was just too much to stomach.

So, on Saturday afternoon, I e-mailed Mr. Morgan Johnston, Corporate Communications guy at Jet Blue.

Here’s what I asked him:

• What exactly do you do for JetBlue? Twitter only, do you help manage other communities?
• Why are you on twitter? What are you/JetBlue trying to accomplish?
• How did you know I mentioned JB on twitter? Have you developed a bot or other service to scan the mention of JB in real-time? Do you do it some other way?
• Are you the only one doing this or or there others?

And, in a reply that same afternoon, here’s what he shared:

I’m glad I didn’t spook you too much.

I’ll do what I can to answer your questions (although I don’t have access to all my links as I’m out and about at the moment) - let me know if you need more info.

I’m Manager of Corporate Communication, focusing on New Media uses for both internal and external communication. Because of existing proclivities toward web ’stuff’ one of my current roles is developing a social media presence for JetBlue utilizing tools and spaces our customers (and crewmembers) are already using and comfortable with.

Several of us were already Twitter users when we saw the potential for corporate interaction directly with customers. - not necessarily marketing - but a proper communication tool to talk with customers. We learned last February the value of a certain amount of transparency when we posted a video of our founding CEO on YouTube to address customers affected by the ice storm that swept through the Northeast. Our Twitter account is much the same thing; making ourselves available in an environment where are customers already live. -again not focused on marketing - but real interaction: less billboard - more information booth.

There’s also an added advantage in that the community allows for a more casual approach and conversation than traditional dissemination services… And MUCH more immediate interaction so long as you’re able to keep up.

We track Twitter mentions of our brand through various services from the internal “track” function on Twitter to external tools like tweetscan.com or quotably.com that are freely available to all users. Many allow near immediate notification of mentions. Though we’ve learned to be careful on when we approach a conversation we see occuring. There’s a very thin line between being helpful as a company - and being overbearing.

(Things like DMing users who’ve spotted celebs at our terminal isn’t very common - but I was feeling punchy and had a good joke worked out)

We’ve had several crewmembers using the JetBlue Twitter over the last year, but this latest iteration and voice was something I pushed for and currently run solo. Though the attitude is very much in keeping with many of our crewmembers, and our brand as a whole, so I don’t worry about loosing any authenticity should I decide to take a vacation and hand the reigns off to someone else on the team (as I type this, I’m sitting in Barnes & Noble watching my wife scan through travel books)

I hope this answers a few of your questions (and I hope you had a good trip!)

On the heels of just reading a number of articles on whether micro-blogging platforms like twitter have any “real” business use and Chris Brogan’s excellent article on managing a community, I really found JetBlue and Morgan’s efforts eye-opening.

So, what do you guys think?

Is JetBlue on the leading edge of customer service? Is this going too far? Have you heard of any other companies doing anything similar? Or, experienced something similar?

Share your voice?

[PS - Don't worry, last post about twitter for a while, just needed to get it all out of my system! ;-)]

It wasn’t so long ago…

You wanted to talk to someone down the hall, so, rather than tweeting, IMing or e-mailing, you got up off your butt, walked to their office and, stay with me, you actually stood in front of them and had a conversation. A real live, eyeball to eyeball, face to face, mannerism-twitching, body-language-revealing conversation.

God bless technology…

It’s made it so that we don’t have to move more than a mouse-click to share our message. All this has been great for productivity (not too great for stress and expectations) and allowed us to talk to people all over the world all day and night, even when they’re just down the hall.

But what about our asses?

Advancements in communications technology has slowly, but surely, removed the need to move our bodies beyond the occasional head-fake to scan one of the three monitors that keep us humming along at maximum productivity, but minimal exertion. Multiply out the effect over a period of years and we start to come up with some pretty frightening conclusions.

How fat is communication technology making us?

I began to do some calculations and here’s what I came up with:

E-mail: Over the last 4 years, I’ve sent 13,537 e-mails, that’s about 3,384 e-mails per year. Scanning the subject-lines, I’d estimate about 25% of those replaced conversations that’d would’ve been face to face, before e-mail (yes, there was a time where people didn’t e-mail).

That’s 846 conversations I had sitting in front of my screen, rather than getting up and walking somewhere. At 10-minutes per conversation, that’s 8,460 minutes I spent sitting in front of my computer or 141 hours a year.

Twitter/IM: Though I barely ever use IM, I’ve become a recent Twitter-addict. I tweeted about 400 times in the last month and, at 10 seconds each to compose, that’s 4,000 seconds a month times 12 months, that comes out to 48,000 seconds a year or about 13 hours. And, honesty almost all of those conversations would never have been had face to face.

So, between twitter and e-mail, I spend about an extra 154 hours a year in front of my screen, instead of having live conversations.

Now, here’e where it gets really interesting.

Recent studies have shown that the more screen time we have, the more weight we gain. At first, the theory was that we were replacing active-time with screen time and burning fewer calories. But, research now shows that not to be the case. Because, we tend to replace screen time with some other form of passive entertainment, like reading, so we’re not really burning more calories.

Then, why do we we get fatter with more screen time?

It seems the answer is screen-time eating habits. When we’re in front of a screen, we tend to eat less consciously, we eat more food as we graze for hours (witness the giant bag of chips that mysteriously vanishes during a heaving online session) and we consume foods that are worse for us

So, what’s the answer?

Well, these days, it’s unlikely that many of us will be pulling back from screen time, especially since more and more of it is being spent tapping communication technology that allows us to stay connected with our virtual friends.

A better approach might be to make a more conscious effort not to graze so much or to keep healthier, less caloric snacks around so that we can satisfy our screen-time grazing jones with baby carrots, rather than Red Bull and bonbons.

So, what do you guys think?

(If you liked this column, share it on twitter, using the tweet this link just below)

Picture this…

You’re walking down the street and the shop in the corner has a big glowing sign that says, “Marketing geniuses. We can pack any business with customers, leverage cutting-edge technology, make the world talk about you and get customers to run screaming to hand over their life-savings.”

Wow, nice promise. Global domination in a day.

Then, you peer in the window and see a dimly lit office, beat up furniture, a single person behind a desk, an IBM 386 on the desktop, a rotary phone, dust all over the place and the guy behind the desk kicked back reading a newspaper, drinking coffee and having a leisurely lunch at 2pm.

Mixed signals???

You bet. All the subtle cues, both what’s there and what’s not there, are screaming that the claims made in the window sign are more smoke and mirrors than guaranteed marketing magic.

• If they’re so good, why is there only one guy?
• Why is he having coffee and reading the paper in the middle of the afternoon?
• Why is the computer off and the phone not ringing?
• Why is his computer from the dark-ages?
• Where are the testimonials, reviews and clippings that line the windows of successful shops?
• Why have I never heard about them in marketing-circles?

Where’s the proof?

There’s an old saying in personal-development and even in business…fake it until you make it. And, there are times where that’s appropriate.

Problem is, there are other times where the substantial volume of direct, indirect and social proof strongly contradict your claims, undermine your credibility and, rather than bolstering your authority and appeal, make you look downright silly and untrustworthy. They reveal you as a fake.

I’ve been seeing this happen more and more in the world of blogging and social-media lately.

Don’t get me wrong, I still consider myself very much a newbie blogger and social-media user, but I DO know a thing or two about direct-marketing, PR, small business and the psychology of persuasion and sales.

And, it wouldn’t hurt for anyone who gets into online business, marketing or platform-building to learn a bit about a little topic called…

Social proof–the DNA of belief.

Social proof is the combined effect of the many indirect elements or circumstances that lead people, especially prospects, to believe that what you are saying is not total B.S. If you work it really well, social proof can even make people believe you’re worth MORE than the blah, blah, blah that appears in your materials. This is true for business-owners, pundits, professionals and, yes, even social-medialites and bloggers.

What are major types of social proof in the online/blogging world?

• RSS/Feedcount - how many subscribers do you have? Depending on your niche, this number can either support or shred claims of value and expertise. For example, ProBlogger.net posts and boasts more than 45,000 RSS subscribers. This makes you think, “if so many people subscribe, they must know something about blogging.”
• Traffic - If you’re traffic is huge, you are probably happy to disclose it, but, if not, people can still get a good beat on it by using the Alexa Toolbar and browser add-ons. For the first year, the popular bloggers’ blog, DoshDosh.com, did not post its RSS count, but it’s Alexa rank revealed a high level of traffic. And, traffic is social proof of perceived-value.
• Google Page Rank - Google assigns every indexed web page a relevance rank called Page Rank (PR). Does your PR validate your claims or popularity or expertise?
• Google organic search - Does your blog/website pull up near the top or on the front page of organic search results for your most important keywords?
• Comment volume & quality - how many comments do you get, how in-depth are they? Successful-blog.com’s Liz Strauss is legendary for posts that lead to hundreds of comments.
• Design - is your theme/design custom, attractive or is it either unattractive, unprofessional or one that everyone else uses, leaving it completely undifferentiated?
• Testimonials - Yes, if I say I am great, I am just being an idiot, but if a dozen others say it, it’s gospel. Remarkablogger.com’s Michael Martine features testimonials for his blog-consulting services right on the front page.
• Press/Media/Big Bloggers - These are like testimonials on steroids, if the press or other major bloggers say it, it simply must be true (or at least you’re important enough to be on their radar). So, when Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani says take a look or Guy Kawasaki says go play at Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist, people say, “wow, Guy and Gina approve and they’re pretty smart, busy people.”
• Content quality - Is your content high-value or rambling nonsense? Is your blog a go-to resource, like Brian Clark’s Copyblogger, Naomi Dunford’s IttyBiz.com, Anita Campbell’s SmalBizTrends.com or James Chartrand’s MenWithPens.ca? Your information doesn’t have to be long, it just has to deliver value, like Seth Godin’s short, yet insightful riffs. Enough value to get people talking, that’s where the social aspect comes in.
• Content/ad ratio - do you have substantially more content than advertising? This suggests you may be more interested in how much money you can take from the community than how much value you can add. It reads as spammy.
• Technorati rank/backlinks - What is your technorati rank, how many other sites have recently linked to yours and are they popular or not? These days, too, being listed in AllTop.com is emerging as in interesting source for social proof.
• Social media tags - Some bloggers place social media tags/buttons that show how many votes a particular article has received as a way to facilitate voting. Digg and Sphinn buttons that show vote counts are pretty common. This may help, during a post’s “hot period.” And, if it hits the frontpage or gets a ton of votes, the high vote-count can serve as social proof of popularity. But, if the article doesn’t make it or gets very few votes, it acts as negative social proof…take the tag down.
• Claim-specific validators - What other industry-specific factors might be used to prove value? For example, if you claim to be a social media expert, like Chris Brogan, Tamar Weinberg, Steve Rubel or Muhammad Saleem, how well-established is your presence and following on the major social media hubs? If you’re an SEO, do you rank well? if you teach tennis on your blog, have you ever won a match? Make sure the the claim-specific validators support your claims.

Some of these factors are easily quantified by tools and considered in a conscious way. Others compound to create a sense of credibility and importance on a subtler, more sub-conscious way. Regardless of the level of consideration…

Social proof can strongly bolster your reputation and perceived value.

The more the elements of social proof either sync with the claims you make or, even better, make the claims for you, the more effective it is as a tool for persuasion. In fact, it’s often equally, if not more effective when it comes to selling, because people want to work with people who are perceived to be respected and sought-after by others.

BUT, social media can also strongly lessen your appeal and, even worse, if the available social proof contradicts your claims, it can make you look like a newbie, a liar or, worse, a con-artist.

And, I’ve been seeing this very phenomenon increasingly in the world of blogging and social media. Everywhere I look, it seems people are launching blogs and websites, calling themselves social media consultants, experts or gurus, traffic and conversion masters and online-money-making mavens. But, then you start looking at the social proof and their claims fall apart.

I recently visited the blog of a social media consultant and found the following social proof warring with the person’s claims of expertise.

• The blog’s Alexa rank was over 1 million, showing very little traffic. This tells me either they are very new to the field or they don’t know how to drive traffic.
• There was an average of only 2 comments for every 5 posts and most were not comments that added significantly to the conversation. That shows an inability to effectively engage readers.
• The RSS Feedcount showed under 50 subscribers. Is that okay for a newish blogger? Sure. But, for a social media consultant, no way. It belies their ability to not only drive traffic, but offer enough value to inspire commitment or regular social ineraction.
• The design was a commonly used stock-theme. Alone, this is not a huge problem, but added to the mounting wave of social proof, it doesn’t look good.
• There were no testimonials, no media or press quotes and the Technorati rank was in the teens with fewer than 25 back-links.
• The content was short, which, if high-value, is fine. But, in this case, it was not. It was more about riffing on the day’s news, repeating what was being said on other more authoritative blogs and linking to other stories that had already gone popular on the major social media hubs or been in the news. And…
• The person’s followings at the major social-media hubs were not compelling.

So, here, were have someone trying to leverage a blog to position themselves as a social media expert, trying to fake it until they make it, but a mountain of social proof strongly contradicts any claim of expertise. What’s the big take-away?

Understand the importance of social-proof in the online world.

When it supports your efforts, leverage it. When it doesn’t, don’t. And, when it strongly contradicts claims you’d like to make, especially if the proof is something outside your immediate control…you’d be well-advised to reconsider making those claims until you’ve got the ability to put-up or shut-up.

So, what do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? What’d I leave out?

I am also especially interested in your thoughts on the intentional inclusion of on-blog social-proof devices, like RSS feed-counts.

Fire away gang…

And, hey why stop at commenting? Let’s get everyone talking about social proof. Spread the word on Twitter, just click the “Tweet This” link below and share this article with your followers.

This morning, I launched a few subtle changes to the blog design:

• Bye bye sumo-dude. I took down the little sumo guy on the top right side in the get updates box. The sumo dude was cute, but wasn’t really adding much beyond being a distraction. Almost nobody clicked on his image or listened to the audio message.
• Hello Twitter. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that is quickly becoming something akin to the blogging world’s after-party. It’s a place where anyone can sign up for a free account in seconds, start interacting with others and posting very short (140 character or less) messages or “tweets.” At first, I didn’t get it, but it’s quickly revealed itself as not only a wonderful source of community, but a great way to connect with people who are often hard to interact with by other means. Twitter provides layers of access.If you’re not on it, go join now. It’s totally free and the conversations are fast, furious and informative. I am spending a lot more time micro-blogging on Twitter and interacting with friends these days, sharing information and cool links and I wanted to integrate those conversations more closely into the blog. So:
  • I’ve added a link to my twitter profile where the sumo-dude used to be (top right), so you can click over to my twitter page and see what I am up to. In fact, please go there now. If you are not yet on Twitter, click on the Join Now button (it’ll only take a second and it’s FREE), then go back to my profile page and click on the “follow” link, send me a quick message that lets me know you came from here and I’ll follow you back.
  • Recent tweets appear on sidebar. I’ve added a box on the right column showing my recent few tweets (tweets are twitter messages that are 140 characters or less). And…
  • I’ve added a “Tweet this” link to the social media links below each post. So, if you like a post, just click that link and you can “tweet” the article onto your twitter page (it shrinks the link using tinyurl automatically).
• No more Ask Jonathan box. It’s not that I don’t want to know what’s on your mind. In fact, I really do, which is why I took down the Ask Jonathan form. Because, 99% of what was coming through was spam and, honestly, I don’t need yet another place to buy viagra, cialis, porn and invest in the business-opp of a lifetime. So, if you’d like to ask me a question to be answered on the blog, either ask it on twitter or just e-mail it to me at jonathan [at] jonathanfields [dot] com.

One last thing, I am wrapping up the book the I’ve been writing over the next few weeks. It’s a great love, but it also takes a huge chunk of time and energy. and, that’s led me to post fewer extensive, resource laden articles and sometimes post less frequently.

I’d rather post a bit less than post just for the sake of posting. The book will be done very soon and I’ll not not only be back to some more in-depth columns, but, as mentioned in an earlier post, I’ll be spinning certain subject areas into their own blog.

More announcements on that in May.

Are you kidding me?

First rule of business, 90% of the time, it’s not the best person who wins, it’s the one who calls back. If you want me to give you MY money, trust you with MY project or
allocate MY time, guess what…

YOU need to call ME. Not the other way around.

It’s not just that you are not being proactive when you ask me to call you, you are being unprofessional and disrespectful. Yes, even if the service you provide once retained is fabulous. I don’t know that. I haven’t hired you yet.

So, notice to anyone who wants my business (spelled m-o-n-e-y) or anyone who is trying to build their own business or practice - when you want something, prove it by taking on the burden and responsibility of going out and asking for it.

Chase people down, not the other way around.

Then, one day when you get so busy, people are begging for a slot in your schedule, kick back and hire others to pursue the quest and serve the clients…

while you vacation in Bali.

Are you with me on this, people?