The past few weeks I have been very quiet about what I am up to. Looks like the secret is about to be unleashed. The past couple years I have followed how social media has grown into a 800 pound gorilla. I have joined nearly every social media related site and complied what I like most about each one. Now the time has come for me to let everyone know what is on the horizon.  In the following weeks I will slowly introduce you to OurSocieties.

OurSocieties is a new social network and social news voting site that centers around the view that there are many niches that interconnect each of us.

Please be patient as we release each of our features over the following weeks as we are opening up in true beta format. But do tell me what you like and also dislike about social media as it will only help us grow. My goal is to be as transparent in the creating of OurSocieties as I can for the benefit of us all.

What I asking everyone that uses social media sites, if you were to launch your own site what would you want most?

When you have a minute, take the time to visit a new web development site at Fasiyanti

Yesterday I made my first post to Collective-Thoughts.com about how "Social Media Marketing is Similar to a Fishing Tournament."

Today I would like your opinion on what type of bait you would use to gain an edge in the social media sites?

As an example, a type of bait to catch snapper is using whole fresh sardines. But to really drive them up from the deep and get them in the mood for a feeding frenzy, we chop up frozen sardines and toss them out as chum. This creates more of a shotgun approach to attract many to the surface rather than just hoping one or two may swim by and gobble up my bait. The chum has two effects, one is the smell gets them in the mood to eat, the second is the excitement created as other fish as they try to compete with each other to eat what is left.

Let’s look at this from a social media marketers point of view. You can write one post about your niche topic once a week and post to your blog. That is the one bait at a time philosophy. It works but do you really want to wait for the results to come to you?

I would rather look at creating a master post about my niche product or service that is the lead post, then group several follow up posts across many other locations that relate to my master post. This will bring both backlinks to your main post for the search engine spiders to find and also drive traffic from other resources like RSS feed readers as well.

This post is an example of my chum created to drive interest to my post at Collective Thoughts. The post there is my induction post and I would like that one to be noticed by as many people as possible. As I was writing this Brian sent me a message that my post was also picked up at Search Engine Land too!

I will be posting more follow up posts across a network of blogs over the following week. If you have a bait that you use for social media marketing, post it in the comments either at Colletive-Thoughts.com or in the section below.

I have been invited to join an amazing group of social media minds. The name is Collective Thoughts, and we’ll be featuring some of the greatest social media minds, including:

Andy Beard
Brian Wallace (aka nowsourcing)
Glen Allsopp (aka viperchill)
Mark Laymon (aka aglobalwarming)
Marty Weintraub (aka aimclear)
Rose Sylvia (aka flyingrose)
Shana Albert (aka thenanny 612)
Tadeusz Szewczyk (aka tad chef)
Tim Nash

Come check it out, and while you’re there, subscribe to the feed!

Brian was the first to post his story 7 Ways to Own Social Media Before it Owns You and Shana followed with Webmaster, stop being so AntiSocial!! 

I am  looking forward to my review on how social media marketing is similar to a fishing tournament. Hope you have already subscribed to our MyBlogLog community as well.

Many social networks offer their users some type of online ice breaker to meet other people in their system. If you are an A-list blogger close this window NOW!

• Yahoo Mash has their Mash Pets. These widgets allow you to introduce yourself into the community without being annoyingly in your face.
• Facebook has SuperPoke, Zombies, and Vampires, they are always in your face and are getting to be very annoying, even more annoying when someone like me starts to use them.
• Digg Also jumped into the game recently with Shouts. Digg Shouts are the ultimate in annoying people. More than one or two a day and you will get blocked.

The ice breaker of choice for me has been using Facebooks’ SuperPoke to throw Toilet Paper. It reminds me of long ago nights sneaking about looking for the teachers house. Oops I did not say that did I?

Many of my subscribers I have targeted specifically by using social network ice breakers. I use these ice breakers to pick out key people in the SEO industry with the intent of them seeing me and subscribing to my blog. Once they I believe that they are getting to know me I will go farther and pick off one by one to become closer and enter their inner circles. Once I have reached these inner circles asking for an interview or other such favors will be that much easier.

How can you regurgitate the online ice breaking process to your benefit?

Lets start with Facebook. Have you targeted other bloggers in your niche? I am talking about your A-list bloggers. The A-list bloggers in your niche are people that dominate Google Blog Search every time they write a post. Now add them as your friends and find out exactly what they are reading and searching for online. Once you know what they like, submit something that you think will get their attention, but do not run out and email them. Use something simple like a basic poke. If they poke back great they now are starting to know you. If they do not poke back not all is lost.

You should have at least 50 friends in your friends list for the next step. On Monday morning you are going to start with the top ten people you really want to know. They would have already added you as a friend, so they should have at least looked at your profile. Now you want them to keep coming back and reading at what you are writing. Go threw your list and Poke another ten each day till you have completed your list. While using this technique, you should have a few people that respond. These are going to be your best allies to writing reviews of your work, keep in contact with them. Once every few days poke back throw a sheep, do something to keep them interested. Then just before your next big announcement, contact them and let them know that you would like them to be the first to review your content. Since they are getting comfortable with you, most will be more than willing to write a desirable review.

But now that I have wrote this, the SEO industry is going to be spoiled, go find a niche that pays well too. Tomorrow I need to start working on my next list of bloggers to target…

Their is one side effect from doing this. I have met several people that I am now very privileged to now call friends. If you do not like people… well you would not have read this anyway.

Now it’s time for me to open a new batch of Toilet Paper!!!

According to the Wall Street Journal article, Microsoft has now "Inked a Deal with Facebook!"

"We are pleased to take our Microsoft partnership to the next level," said Owen Van Natta, Facebook’s chief revenue officer, in a press release.

Microsoft agreed to invest $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook Inc. that values the social-networking site at $15 billion.

The deal signed today is an expansion of that agreement and focuses on international versions of the Facebook service, which Facebook is now starting to open. A deal with Microsoft would allow Facebook to shift some of the burden of selling international display ads to its larger partner. Microsoft in recent years has built up a large online advertising sales force and has invested in technologies to broker advertising over the Web.

By the end of this year, Asia will account for 35% of the world’s social networking users, with 28% of users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 25% in North America, and 12% in the Caribbean and Latin America, according to research firm Datamonitor Plc.

I am surprised that the amount is so low and that the percentage was only a 1.6% stake.

Will this close out other bids for a larger share hold from Google?

Everyday I receive more and more Shouts coming from my friends on Digg. StumbleUpon has its networks of voters too. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy reading nearly everything that I am sent, so don’t stop sending me posts to read. But is the line drawn between being a social media star that gets a vast majority of your posts to the top of the social news sites and a true social news whore just the tone in which you speak?

Just my thought of the day.

Over the past few days I have been asking others how they respond to their peers, when their peers have added a link to their post and now they have a trackback sitting there staring back at them. Most just place a thank you comment or email and go on to never look back. This disappoints me very much when they could do so much more.

If you are one of the many that do this, you are hindering what could be an even bigger asset. Links are a commodity online. We trade, borrow and beg for them. (But never buy them) Then when we get them we often do not look outside the box at how we can improve that link and help the person that gave us the link in the first place.

I have a urgent task for you that can not wait! Next time someone adds a link to your site. As soon as the trackback appears in your email or control panel, do your normal "thank you" like you normally would. Next I would like to see you go out and look at how you can add at least 5 new links into the page that is linking to you.

If you do this each time that you receive a trackback, you know that you are not only helping yourself with a quality link, but you are returning a favor that someone has done for you. But I also don’t want you to run out and tell them you did this either. That is just a secret between you and your blog.

If possible look for a quality link that your friend may not be able to acquire.

 Reputation Management

This weekend I was under the weather so I was not too active. But I wanted to let a few readers know I am still alive. So I created my 5 methods to Sphinn fame.

• First and foremost don’t talk about Danny Sullivan. It will get you nowhere. In fact, only talk about yourself.
• Second, whatever you do, do not post comments on other peoples posts. Especially Chris Winfield’s. Most Sphinn users do not like comments on their posts. I am sure that Lyndon does’t want your input either.
• The third thing you need to avoid doing is to return private messages. We are here to work, not make friends. So stop returning private messages to Marty. Just don’t send them.
• Fourth item that is just as important. You must vote without reading the post. Since you do not need to make a comment, there is no reason to even read the post. The title should give you enough information.
• The fifth "Fool Proof Plan" to Sphinn fame is to submit only your own posts. Again this is work. Do not help the other guy. They will not vote for you anyway.
• Finally the sixth thing is write another stupid "Sphinn How To" post. Yes, I said five, but I can’t count today.

Now that you are done reading this, Digg one of Tamar’s pages and tell her how much better Digg is today!

Are you still reading this? If you are still reading this let me know if the RSS subscription method is working. By adding me to your favorite RSS reader I can spam you with each and every post. 

PS: Ask Andy to Sphinn it for you after you already submitted it. It makes him blush!

 Reputation Management

There is a new game in town! If you have received your invite to Yahoo Mash you have seen all of the new Mash Pets. This has created a new game. When you follow threw with an action, like zap the Mash Pet, on Yahoo Mash it creates a link back to your profile. From what I have seen this is a great ice breaker to meet people who are also using Yahoo Mash. I do not recommend killing someones Mash Pet! They may retaliate and change your profile to something not so pretty. Just a warning…

There is a bonus to either feeding, zapping or petting a Yahoo Mash Pet. A backlink is created going to your profile. While adding backlinks to your profile the action also creates more weight to your profile for future profile building!

So how many Mash Pets can you zap in an hour?

Don’t yet have a Yahoo Mash invite? Why not? Just ask in a comment below and you will receive one in your email!

[evil grin] Today I was looking for more places to add a link! [/evil grin] When I came across Muhammad Saleem’s blog post "Yahoo has a new social network and i want to mash with you!"

Immediately I thought I hit a jackpot! More places to add my little links. I was right! It is a good place to add a link or five. But it is also a very simple social network that I am sure I will be using a lot in the near future. So far it is treating me well.

Mash appears to have many of the tools their other products have, so using it will be easy as always. It also looks like it has many Facebook features as well.

Will Aldrich quotes in his blog:

We just started inviting our friends outside Yahoo! to join us in testing
Mash: a new approach to online profiles. If you’ve used other online
profiles before you’ll feel at home in Mash. But there are some new twists
that make things a little interesting and, we think, a lot of fun.

1. You can make starter profiles for your friends. Think: “first round’s on
   me.”
2. You can leave your profile open to contributions by trusted friends.
3. You can customize your — or your friend’s — profile with modules from a growing gallery of apps.

Of course, there are extensive privacy controls in Mash and you set the
boundaries that you’re comfortable with.

I do not wish to keep you waiting any longer. So if you would like an invite from me, comment below and I will send you an invite ASAP!

I know you want one!!!