Found an interesting article here, called The 11 Rules of Social Media Etiquette at the Digital Labz Web site, and thought that I really should share it.

With social media, or any platform, it’s super important to know the etiquette. Kind of like the saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do…” same thing applies with social media. You learn about culture and etiquette from participating, but this site is a good primer.

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Truly, no man is an island, but some times the best thing that you can do is as much as you can by yourself. Of course, the sacrifice is that you’re not going to grow as much as you’d like as quickly as you’d like, and you’re doing it alone. However, I would say that sometimes that’s a fair trade off because growth comes with its own sacrifice.

As you grow you’re forced to add more people, more productive ways of doing things, and managing all the perspectives that those new additions bring. Of course, thinking about doing something small-scale only is contrary to the American way, but often times, bigger isn’t better, it’s just more complex and cumbersome.

What’s the happy medium? I would say that the happy medium is doing as much as you can by yourself, and then bringing people in on an as-needed basis, preferably short-term if that can be arranged. This is something that I’ve had to learn the hard way, through experience, both in my corporate work and my creative work.

A quick example: Let’s say you’re the leader of a band, and the group gigs very actively with most of the group making their living from music. One day you have to take a leave for some kind of surgery, that’s going to leave you recovering for awhile unable to go on stage or do lengthy van rides in the back of a Ford Econoline. Your band will feel that it’s your responsibility to get them paying work or to pay them something to maintain their open schedule while you’re out of commission. Sadly, you have to make a choice, cut them loose and try to regroup once you come back to things or pay them something to keep their schedules open, or even try to use your connections to find them work. I’ve done both, but fortunately, I’ve always had small groups.

And I’ve always had a small groups precisely because of this conundrum. You want to have loyal players, and employees, but loyalty is a two-way street.

So again, no man is an island, but the more you can do by yourself the more successful you’ll be simply because you’ll be able to focus more on the work and less on the management of the thing that started with your idea.

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For entrepreneur’s, small business owners, and self-starters of any kind I would say that you should get started using social media. In fact, this should have been the first post in the Social Media Take Away series, but hey I’m improvising and making things up as I go here…

What is social media?

Social media is any web tools that allows groups to generate content and engage in peer-to-peer conversations and exchange of content (examples are YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc…)

Social media is particularly valuable for entrepreneur’s, small business owners, and self-starters in-general, I’m thinking artists – painters, musicians and the like, because it gives them low cost, high value, far reaching exposure for whatever they’re doing. As I write more about the social media value, I’ll cover some of these. For starters, I would say see this post on Twitter or items tagged with social media on this blog. Though, I’ll be covering stuff more in-depth, and high level, alike as I develop this feature of the blog.

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If you’re an entrepreneur of any kind, it’s likely you’ve already started, but maybe you’re just not aware of it. Here are few signs of whether you’re an entrepreneur and don’t know it:

• Do you work harder than most for quality and value when others around you would prefer to maintain the status quo?
• Do you feel like you care more about the work, customer, and/or employer than those around you?
• Do you do your best work simply because you couldn’t imagine doing it any other way?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions then surely you’re an entrepreneur.

It’s easy to think that an entrepreneur is a business owner or the like, but really entrepreneurship is the just the willingness to do something and take responsibility for it. And actually, the definition for leadership isn’t much different, which is why entrepreneurship and leadership go hand in hand. The entrepreneur takes responsibility for their life, career, etc… and goes for it. There’s no need to begin at some distant point in the future, as I’ve said, you’re likely already doing it; make a conscious decision to start where you’re at.

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I found the PR News Digital PR Next Practices Summit to be highly informative. It was a good chance to brush up on theories of social media in application, but it was also good to see some different things that people were doing. For me, though, there were a couple really great stand out presentations. The first one that really stuck out for me was:

Social Media Relations: Getting Positive Coverage in the Conversational Age, which featured the folks below, with their names being links to their respective presentations. This one was great:

Johna Burke (@gojohnab)
Vice President
BurrellesLuce

Julie Crabill (@julzie)
VP, Consumer Lifestyle Practices
Shift Communications

Monte Lutz (montelutz)
SVP of Digital Public Affiars
Edelman

The next one that I thought was really great, and I would say, possibly the best one, because the presenter, Paula Berg, was a great presenter, with a lot of enthusiasm and a real sense of humor about what she’s doing, was YouTube and Other Video Tactics to Advance Your PR:

Paula Berg (@PaulaBerg)
Manager of Emerging Media
Southwest Airlines

Here are some highlights from PR News Digital PR Next Practices Summit as posted on Twitter by attendees:

@montelutz #prnsummit – reporters are setting up spam filters for phrases like “great story idea” to weed out bad pitches –> @gojohnab

@gojohnab #prnsummit @julzie SM release preso old releases no longer applicable too much marketing speak not enough community and conversation

@cericwright @julzie says your brand belongs to the community at large #prnsummit

@montelutz “your brand’s already been hijacked. it doesn’t belong to you. it belongs to the community” #prnsummit ht @julzie

@nduhoski Check out Microsoft, Cisco, Ford for good social media newsroom site examples. #prnsummit

@nduhoski Google is as much a reputation engine as it is a search engine. #prnsummit

@nduhoski RT @DenverPRguy Your brand has been hijacked already. Its not owned by you but by the community. Be part of the community’s convo #prnsummit

@nduhoski When it comes to SM Best Practices: Beg, Borrow & Steal, then give back, credit. #prnsummit

@FlightpathNY Coke did not start their facebook page, even now they co-manage it with fans of the brand #prnsummit

@Rat_Race Lots of talk about engaging employees as brand advocates. Wonder how a work life balance fits in… Is there a balance? #prnsummit

@julzie @paullyoung “hits: how idiots track success” #prnsummit

@DenverPRguy Social Media users are 83% more likely to be brand loyal than non-users (from Paull Young, Converseon at #prnsummit)

@FlightpathNY Relationships with community members is the most critcal element & the most difficult to measure. Transparency remains paramount #prnsummit

@kdpaine RT @DenverPRguy: Relationships are what makes SM successful. UR measurement plan should track what those relationships look like. #prnsummit

@paullyoung says that the most powerful analytics tool is the human brain, use common sense #prnsummit

@mtkiefer @leeodden “if content can be searched on, it can be optimized” #prnsummit

@MerrittPR Incorperate links within online content and don’t have link read: click here but rather imbed within content of release or copy #prnsummit

@DenverPRguy Amen. “One of the biggest dangers of social media is not getting involved.” #prnsummit

@gojohnab Good #CEO ’s recognize smart people no matter what level in the organization and will engage when appropriate #prnsummit

@gojohnab: #prnsummit Matthias Preschern: Content is king. Participate by linking in vs. Trying to build communities on your own

@MerrittPR Why does the blogosphere matter? B/c 71% of all journos read blogs for content #prnsummit

@MerrittPR Engage the blogosphere BEFORE, during and after a crisis! #prnsummit

@DallasLawrence Great comment by Southwest at #prnsummit – no link between quality of video and views. In other words, content and authenticity rules

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So what’s gone well today?
Pretty much everything.

• I had a great car ride to Detroit Metro airport, traversing Michigan in the fall with the colors at full brilliance… awesome!
• There were no waits at the airport
• Security was smooth
• I had a great and smooth flight into LaGuardia
• I had an awesome cab ride that had me singing Bobby Humphrey’s Harlem River Drive, as I sat in the cab driving on Harlem River Drive – Nice!
• Filled my belly with some authentic New York style pizza, a first, and I’m still not convinced that’s it’s better that Chicago style, or more specifically, DeLuca’s the Lansing original, though that’s sure to draw up on some controversy.

But all this is an aside, because I’ve come to New York City to attend the PR News Digital PR Next Practices Summit. Basically, this is a chance to get informed, and fill in some knowledge gaps on a variety of digital PR, electronic communications, and SEO/SEM stuff that I think will be of value to my employer, me, and my readers.

If you read this, and you’re attending, say, “hey,” if you see me….

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It used to be that you would find special niche businesses with an exceptional online presence. This was especially true with record labels, niche book publishers, used book sellers, such as Powell’s and a variety of other businesses that found great growth opportunity through the interconnectedness of the Web when they couldn’t find sustainable means in their respective locale. However, things have begun to shift in recent years as energy and sustainability issues have become more and more of an issue.

Scientists, universities, and businesses alike are all investigating sustainable means for producing energy and/or just making less expensive and less environmentally toxic means of transport. However, on all accounts we’re a long way from the energy silver bullet. What’s happened because of this is that local has become the new exotic. As we move towards this emphasis on local goods and services, including locally grown food, locally made goods, local entertainment, stay-cations and the like, small business is faced with huge opportunity on the Web.

Historically only a precious small percentage of small, local, businesses have bothered with the most basic Web presence. The thing is as more and more folks are using iPhones, Blackberries, Twitter, Facebook, and Google to find family restaurants rather than national franchises, and small boutiques over big-box stores, or just trying to find something unique and different in their locale they’re turning to the Web. More and more, I’m telling small business owners and would-be small business owners to get their company online before you worry about the Yellow Pages and the like. Even a basic, professionally done Web presence is better than no Web presence at all, especially if you’re doing something truly local and truly unique to your community.

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Heard an interesting interview on WUOM (Michigan Public Radio) this morning with Daniel Okrent (I think, still looking for a link to the story on WUOM’s site). He’s written the cover story for Time, this week, called Detroit: The Death — and Possible Life — of a Great City, which is part of Time’s year-long look and visit to Detroit documented here.

I really enjoyed this story because I’m a sucker for anything about Detroit, especially since I’m living 100 miles away now in East Lansing, and because it’s where my life and family roots are. Anyway, Okrent talked about Detroit and an economic concept called creative destruction that I hadn’t heard of before. Basically, it’s when something new grows out of the old, at the expense of what came before it.

I’ve thought for a long time that this is what will happen here in Michigan, generally, but Okrent was talking specifically about Detroit. As manufacturing, specifically automotive and auto-related production, goes away we’ll have to find new ways to move forward; creating new businesses and business models out of what we have available to us here in the state.

Along these same lines I heard an interesting story yesterday on Michigan Public Radio’s The Environment Report, called Seeing Abandoned Buildings Through a New Lens. This story talked about how some communities are re-purposing closed “big box” stores; a story that’s analogous to what we’ll have to do in Michigan to turn things around.

I’m glad this conversation is happening, and I’m glad that Michigan Public Radio is doing such an excellent job in covering what’s going in Michigan. Nice work.

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Some of my regular readers may have noticed that the site has been changing over the last month or so. This really started with the merging of the Digital Imperative blog and my music/design site. I wanted to bring my career workinline with my creative and artistic work here at mattborghi .com. Since then I’ve been reading some of your comments, emails and past posts (of which this is post #90) and thinking about the editorial direction and content overall of The Digital Imperative. This week it became clear to me that while I might talk about Google, Twitter or Yahoo, or Web and Digital Strategy or communications, as well as posting videos or Mp3s of recent work at the core of my message is that of entrepreneurship. Whether you’re a corporate entrepreneur working inside the walls of a Fortune 500 company, the small business owner who’s reach is much more local than global or a Do-It-Yourself artist trying to gain a broader audience for your work — Entrepreneurship is an attitude.

It took me talking to a trusted colleague this week for that to become clear to me. We spent a good amount of time talking about what it means to be a small business and a small business owner. Entrepreneurship encompasses a series of soft skills, including ambition, persistence, organization, attitude and most importantly a belief in one’s self, but there are many other words that describe what an entrepreneur or entrepreneurship is.

I plan to spend more time talking about entrepreneurship and what it means to be an entrepreneur. Keeping in mind that my definition of an entrepreneur is looser than most. I define an entrepreneur as someone who works to put something together and is willing to take the risk for it.  This goes together with the newly-crafted editorial statement that I crafted for this site: The best investment you can make is in yourself.

So that’s the plan, and the direction I plan on taking with things. I’ll still be talking about social media, Web strategy, communications and the like because of course it’s absolutely the entrepreneurial spirit that drives one to undertake these things, especially as best practices are being written as we go. As always, I welcome your feedback, and look forward to the continued conversation.

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Living in Michigan, with the highest unemployment rate in the country, we’re definitely experiencing some dark days. Every day, I’m grateful to have a job and skills to maintain employment especially as 1 in 4 of the people you meet don’t have a job, and haven’t had one for six months or more. Surely, this is as close to experiencing the Great Depression, that my grand parents told me about as a child, that I hope to come. However, amidst the despair there are signs of hope, and a lot of that hope resides with small business owners. Small businesses drive the economy, and it’s with that in mind that I wanted to share this interesting article on the small business equivalent of “open” business with this interesting CNN Money article called, Love a Local Business, Buy a Share…

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