5 Ways To Handle Twitter Political Wars

You want to know the fastest way to lose followers? Get involved with politics on Twitter when your account is not politically focused. Here are several alternatives to expressing your political views without catching collateral damage from the political battles going on right now.

5. Express Actual Debatable Beliefs

We all share a lot more in common than not, after all. The political battles play off of the slight variations in beliefs. Having certain values and beliefs are fine – after all, you do want to surround yourself with people who believe the same things. Just stay away from the extreme side of your partisanship. Twitter is about sharing, not dictating. It’s more of a bipartisan game than anything, so treat it as such.

4. Don’t Polarize Your Niche Further

Unless you’re aiming to recreate the Chic-Fil-A debacle, chances are your following is just fine where it’s at. There’s a time and place for proclaiming polarizing belief systems, but if you’re an extremist and that identity fits into your brand, your Twitter account should already represent that fact. Otherwise, there’s no need to scare off all of your followers that aren’t obsessed with Obama. If you’re a conservative you probably have liberal contacts in your network that contribute fantastic content and retweet you daily. Why risk annoying them unnecessarily? Picking up a political sword when out of context is about as bad as tweeting incessantly thirty times an hour, every hour – it’s straight up irritating.

3. Get Some Jokes

Tread lightly, but poke fun at both sides. Show you’re a human and not just defined by your party. It’s a good time to shed some light on your humanity anyway. Let people know you don’t take yourself overly serious. It’s also a great way to deal with certain followers that constantly post opposing views that get under your skin. If anything, it’ll help lighten up your own mood about them so you don’t ruin your own perception of that wonderfully opinionated person.

2. Post Pictures That Represent Your Views 

People are more likely to respond favorably to pictures than text. Words on a screen can be taken out of context, so your casual remark about Mitt’s smirk can be blown up in the mind of some very liberal follower who just sat through a debate pointing out to himself how much of a jerk Romney was the entire time. Boom. Unfollowed.

1. Share Alternatives That Aren’t Being Offered

Why settle with either full-on backing Romney and all he stands for or dedicating your soul to good ol’ boy Barack? Chances are you don’t realistically agree with every minute philosophy the individual has, so don’t project the impression that you do. When your twitter feed is blowing up with commentary on the debates, don’t just ignore it and start blasting out links to your photographic blog. Participate, but be original. Offer alternatives that aren’t already being thrown back and forth repeatedly.

We all know Romney’s “47%”er and that Biden laughs his way through topics of death. Don’t jump on the trains. Have opinions but be sociable; be original. Hell, I still think Ron Paul is the best President we’ll never have.

Be A Winner-Take-All Kind of Social Marketer

When you go to a book store and wander through the isles, casually looking for something to catch your eye, there’s a lot of hidden work going on behind the scenes. For one, the entire design of the book and title has been (or should have been) designed to scream the loudest and attract your attention. Lined up next to hundreds of other books, there’s a war being waged. Each book fighting for your attention. The same applies to your online marketing and branding persona.

It’s your inherent duty as a content provider to position your marketing system to fight the hardest and really go to bat for you. Competition is fierce because of how easy it is to get on the playing field. You’re not part of the elite until you earn it, no matter what field you’re in.

With current technology in mind, bars have been raised and standards have been set. If your goal is to push beyond the masses, you might want to consider these things:

1. Killer content wins every time. The first part of a great marketing scheme is having a product that deserves attention and will provide meaningful substance to the lives of others.

2.  It’s not just about networking, it’s about connecting. Without the warmth of personal interaction it’s important to bring as much humanity to the table as possible. Turn the heat up on those cold contacts and engage.

3. Write out the main objectives you have to focus on in order to truly succeed. Not just in your marketing but in your business/career. Whatever it is you stand for, you have to outline what you have to actively work on and practice in order to become the best at it. This goes for musicians, salespeople, artists, real estate agents, etc.

4. It’s not about what you do; it’s about how you do it. We’re living in a very transparent world full of people who are waiting to be captivated. We turn on the TV and watch shows about gold miners, pawn shop owners, and fisherman.

If huge audiences can be glued to their television every week to watch “Ice Road Truckers”, then you’ve got a pretty good shot at getting yourself and your brand known. Obsess over the details of how you do what you do – we’re all waiting for the next big intriguing thing anyway, might as well be you.

6 “One-Days” for Klout

Let’s talk about our popularity-contest obsessed society for a moment and how a neat social media tool called Klout is changing the way we perceive our fellow man.

As it stands, Klout is a visionary system for gauging everyones level of influence. Online. In fact, if you haven’t heard by now, bad Klout scores have already cost people jobs. It’s also probably helped a few seal the deal. So what happens if this keeps growing and evolving with our technology-infused world? Here are six potential “one-days” for that scenario.

6. Score Hierarchy and Elitism

Imagine what it would be like to live in a world not just comprised of the poor, middle and rich classes of actual wealthy but also of low and high influence classes. Where being Kloutworthy meant more opportunities and being able to make better connections.

5. Klout Becomes Power - Attractive Power

It’s no secret, power is attractive. As our organic reality fuses with virtual reality, a high score could represent power in a similar fashion that expensive cars, houses and other luxuries do. You want a headstart? Get cracking at it now and get that Klout score up before you lose a date over it.

4. Becomes More Important Than Your GPA

This may sound ludicrous. May sound far-fetched. But ignoring the recent rise of social online influence, securing jobs and building business relationships have been primarily driven by your people skills. Hell, the International Association of Administrative Professionals prominently states that interpersonal skills are the most important factor in career advancement. Perhaps you’ll land a job with a crummy klout score, but promotions? Maybe not so much.

3. Enables Better Networking

The old adage “birds of a feather flock together” goes well here. We become part of what we’re around on a daily basis, so if you want to jump up a few notches on the scale of influence, all you’ll have to do is find people with a higher score than yours. Provided you’re not prejudiced against before getting the chance. Essentially, the closer you are to a score of 100 the more people you’ll have fighting for your attention and time.

2. Give People +K In Real Time

Say you walk by a business store and go inside, meet the owner and have an exhilarating discussion about the industry. Thanks to high levels of online immersion and wearable computers, you’ll be able to add to his score right then and there. Which leads us to…

1. Your Score Becomes Measured Based On Real Life Interactions

Whether you’re participating in a charity event, giving an exceptional speech to a huge crowd, or networking with a client – thanks to the world of augmented reality created by new products like Google goggles and beyond, every social interaction you participate in will be evaluated in real-time. It could no longer just represent your “online influence” but your entire affect on the physical world around you.

That’s when things would start getting interesting, don’t you think?

The New Apple

Reblogged from In the maze:

by Merlin Hernandez

Also see article titled Apple and Samsung

Apple’s new blue ocean strategy appears to be less reliant on innovation and more on superior value creation through service delivery. In the face of intense competition, and similar products on the market before the company can achieve its full market projections, Apple has shifted its emphasis from value innovation as its principal differentiation strategy to heightened value-creation as a way of securing profit margins.

Read more… 197 more words

A look of clarity at how tech giant Apple is shifting gears.

3 Signs of the Rise of Biovertising

The simultaneously terrifying and awesome part about the age we’re living in? Biology and technology are merging.

Circa 2012, technology and business already go hand in hand. Wasn’t always the case but it’s certainly true today. The implication we’re dealing with is that biology and business will continue to overlap. Just as the internet revolutionized the advertising industry, so it will thrive and adapt through evolving biotechnology. Sparking a new age: of biovertising.

Here are three signs we’re approaching it sooner rather than later.

3. SixthSense Technology Is Already Old News

In 2009 a man by the name of Pranav Mistry created an open-source device called SixthSense. A wearable gestural interface system that allows the user to turn any surface into a computational interface, among a host of other things. In the video he even plays virtual pong on the floor of a subway train with another passenger. Taking pictures by making gestures with his hands then editing the picture file on a nearby wall. Knowing there were people making these kind of strides years ago is cool, but it’s old news when you consider…

2. Wearable Computers Are Everywhere

It’s almost impossible to think of a phone now without imagining the essence of a smartphone. Yet, not too long ago phones and computers were two very separate things. Actual Google Goggles are fast approaching the consumer market, which will overlay maps, information, reviews and a host of information virtually on the tangible world around us. The next reasonable progression would be contacts. After these stages, we’ll be creating an amalgam of computer-like devices that sync with our biological features. Skin implants and so forth.

1. Biotech Is Expanding Rapidly

Largely focused on pharmaceuticals and medical devices up until now, the funding behind this industry is going nowhere. It’s still a rocky business in and of itself but the advancements being made are incredible. The direction of biotechnology will lead it in the natural direction of enhancing the human experience through computational means also.

What does this mean for businesses and consumers?

Targeted advertising is already exploding thanks to the Internet Era. Facebook has done wonders for it by putting a social-tinged spin on it. It only makes sense, too. Provide custom individualized advertisements to specific demographics based on interests, industry, social circles and such, and you’ll yield a better return. From a business standpoint it’s spectacular. However, what happens when advertisers are able to specifically target you based upon genetic information available? Based upon your race, your DNA, and other information that will become increasingly accessible as biotechnology grows. Does it begin infringing upon privacy on whole new level? Here’s a better question:

Are you more scared or excited?

The most powerful and easiest negotiation tips ever!

Reblogged from actionsystems:

Of all the workshops I conduct, my favorite is negotiation.  Today I’ll tell you why, and give you some useful tips to save time and money in your personal life.

We’ll start with this simple premise.  When you study negotiation, there are generally three areas of focus, and I use the acronym TIP to help people remember them:  time, information and power. 

Read more… 531 more words

Excellent negotiation tips straight from industry expert, Greg LaMothe.

The 5 Win-Win’s of Google Plus

Remember when AskJeeves was actually a search engine contender with Google? Years back during the Wild Wild West age of the internet. Back before Twitter, Squidoo, Facebook and the MySpace face plant when you could go anywhere on the web without having the sense of an omniscient social presence connecting it all.

Well, fast forward a bit and boom, here we are. It’s 2012, Google is an internet/technology giant and micro-blogging has turned online communication into fast food-like exchanges. In short: it’s a wonderful time to be online, let alone alive.

Every aspect of business and sales – including how we negotiate – has been permanently altered by our technology. The best part? It’s only just begun. Social media is on the verge of becoming synonymous with the internet, and Google is one of the biggest driving forces behind this movement. From Google Earth, to Google Travel and Maps to the market dominating Android OS, there is no denying we are watching a potential empire steadily rising.

Google Plus’ initial launch didn’t sweep Facebook’s feet out from underneath them, but they may not have to. With the current Facebook IPO debacle and Zuckerberg’s philosophy that “nothing has to change” we might be witnessing another social media fallout. Despite Facebook’s attempts to control the way people interact online, they’re still approaching social media in a fashion that keeps it individualistic. You go to websites to participate. Or you choose not to.

Which brings us to why Google Plus is positioned to do some very exciting things. Things that could truly change the way we see the web in a way Facebook has yet to fully accomplish. For starters…

5.  It’s A Social Network Synced With a Powerful Search Engine

Search engines helped establish a solid frontier for online development. It’s how the world was able to effectively utilize the benefits of the web, so it’s advantageous to everyone for a social network to be integrated into the foundation of the internet experience.

4. Provides More Transparency

Not just social transparency. We’re talking full on saturation of business, consumers and products. It’s directly indexed by Google – so what better place to be if you’re a company?

3. Higher Levels of Engagement

Currently, Google reports that 80% of users engage on a weekly basis. Compare that to Twitter’s 50% and you see the advantage. Google is still a new platform so imagine that level of engagement rising. Imagine a world that may exist a few years from now where people have moved to this platform. Advertising possibilities skyrocket. The definition of social media begins to change as the web seems to meld together more and more.

2. Google Chrome+

Inevitably, Google Chrome the browser will merge with Google Plus the social network. In fact, at this point we will all be so immersed in Google it will be impossible to differentiate one service from another. Are we using a search engine, web browser, or social network? It will become harder and harder to tell.

1. Android Social

We’re entering the age of being online all the time. This is great news for a mobile operating system pioneer like Android, especially considering how open source it already is. Facebook reported that the vast majority of its traffic came from mobile devices, also, that levels of engagement were significantly higher from their mobile users.  Zuckerberg stated that their entire focus has shifted to mobile – and rightfully so. It’s too bad Google’s already in the best position to dominate the mobile internet. Driven by a purpose to push the boundaries of technological integration, once Google merges its social network with its browser and potentially the operating system itself, you’ll see an age of social media where the middle man appears to be gone. You won’t have to log in to a separate website to communicate and share your experiences with your contacts; you’ll just do that directly through the social-integrated web browser. The same browser that automatically uses the Google search function to assist you in navigating our new internet reality.