The Power of Social Media

I am fascinated by social media, by the way. It took me a long time to understand what the deal was. I tend to be a little slow to pick up on new things -- not because I dislike them, exactly, but because I like to watch and see how they work and how they're used before I adopt them.

So, because I'm late to the game, I'm still fascinated with the impact social media has on the internet market nowadays. The internet is a powerful tool, and we're entering a new age of independent creators dominating the successful market. (Or, at least, I think so.) And if you want to survive and thrive as an independent creator, you're going to have to be good at marketing yourself as well as your product.

Hence, social media.

Anyway. Most people I meet in real life consider social media to be a continuous stream of word-vomit, and to some extent (maybe a large extent), that's true. But if I examine my own reactions to social media, I know that watching someone else's "word-vomit" makes me feel I know the person better. It makes me more apt to look at them favorably, and to see them as a person instead of a faceless entity.

Companies can do this too, but a lot of them are, frankly, bad at it. I don't want an endless stream of advertisement in my twitter feed. If that's all you've got, I don't want to hear it. But if you have someone behind the keyboard talking to your customers, replying to comments, and making conversation, well I'm much more interested.

Case in point: @SockDreams. They do a minimal amount of advertising when there's a sale, or new products. But they also retweet their customers' comments about their socks, and often reply back to you with conversation. I feel that following them is worthwhile, because I can show my support for a small Portland-based sock company that I adore, and they don't pay me back with endless spam but instead kind words.

And from a business point of view, by getting most of their advertising through being a hub of word-of-mouth compliments and comments about their products, they're increasing the likelihood people will buy from them. It's one thing for a company to say, "We have awesome socks, come buy them!" And a completely different thing for a customer to say, without prompting, "These socks are awesome and I'm glad I bought them!" And, of course, the fact that it's on something as informal as Twitter, rather than a 'testimonials' page or something, helps make it feel more valid. SockDreams didn't manufacture these comments; they just manufacture a good product. The rest seemingly takes care of itself.

But! That's not actually why I started writing this post. Actually what prompted this post is a series of incidents lately with theft, and how Twitter brings the smackdown in a very real world way. You want to know the real power of social media? Observe:

1. A few months ago, Jess Fink (@jessfink) had her designs stolen (again) by Todd Goldman of David & Goliath, a t-shirt company with notoriously cute and quirky designs. In addition, someone on Etsy had traced her designs and was selling shirts on Etsy, while flagrantly acknowledging her theft. Through the power of twitter, the Etsy shop was taken down, and legal action is being brought against D&G. While this is not a particularly mind-blowing case, it's still fresh in my mind, because I loved D&G tees. But, thanks to this, I'll never be buying them again.

2. Cut to yesterday, when holy crap, Twitter exploded over Urban Outfitters thieving an independent creator's designs.

Huffington Post and Boing Boing picked it up. It spread on Twitter like wildfire. My tweets were retweeted hundreds of times. Twitter users alerted me that former “fans” were blowing up the Urban Outfitters Facebook page.

Messages of support for Stevie and her jewelry poured in. Lots of people seemed outraged that they weren’t being sued. Many people seemed downright shocked and hadn’t heard of their previous douchebaggery in ripping off indie artists.

As a result, the necklaces were pulled from stores and UO is suffering a bad PR backlash. If you want an example of how not to handle social media as a company, read what UO did (or didn't do) in that article. You have to put out fires fast nowadays.

3. Still not real-world enough for you? Linked in the comments for that article was an instance of someone using Twitter to get their stolen bike back.

Boulder was full of helpful information, so by the time I went to the police station @WendiTV told me he was known as Dready Dave, @eatullis thought she had seen him on the bike path with a different bike, @bikestohikes had seen him ON my bike at Baseline Liquor, @CDR16 let me know he had seen him multiple times on Pearl St. previously and @thecupboulder spotted him on the bike path under the bridge on 9th.

In a six hour window, Ellis's social network single-handedly identified the culprit and tracked him down. Ellis and company caught up with the thief, flagged down a police officer, and ... she has her bike back!

These instances may not be typical. But you can't tell me that it's not impressive. The internet is providing ways for "the little people" to be heard and speak with a distinctive and powerful voice against Big Companies. The thing is, Big Companies could get in on this too, if they could just do it right. But until their marketing and PR execs are from Generation X/Y, I think they're sinking in a mire.

While the huge, unwieldy beasts of Big Companies trundle along, in my opinion, the fleeter-footed Independent Creators will overtake them and, in the long run, maybe even completely surpass them -- in large part because of social media.

On Social Networking

2010 has been an interesting year for me. An interesting, wonderful year for me. For one, thanks to Brett and a handful of others, I've basically fallen into my dream career. (Yes, it's hard, no, it doesn't pay much, yadda yadda, it's still my dream career.) This year was the push I needed to give up the ghost and pursue comics full time. And I'll tell that story sometime, but I'm here today to talk about something else.

Another thing that happened this year is that my husband got a job. (Also I got married!) I have been watching him job hunt for just over two years, and it finally all paid off. Between these two things -- comics, and his job hunt -- I have learned something important:

It's all about networking.

It has never been clearer to me that it's not what you know but who you know. I know that in comics, it's the trumpet call of the industry: network, network, network. And in Ryan's field (electrical engineering), it's entirely the same. You put out the feelers and if you know someone, they can get your resume to the right eyes, and put in the right word. You meet, you greet, you make connections, and you maintain those connections.

If you're shy or quiet like I am, you know that making these connections is hard; maintaining them is even harder. The connections I made when I first started out are ones that have fallowed over time and it's hard to revitalize them, especially if they were tentative in the first place. I'm still working on that one. But I digress.

The way to make connections, it seems, is to get out there and get your name out. Make yourself a name, and put out work you can connect to it. I can tell you from experience, it's a lot easier to remember who someone is by their work than by their name. Demonstrate what you can do. This goes for both the art field where a portfolio, a sketch blog, or an ongoing comic can cover this part; but also engineering, where if you have a project going that you can show to potential employers, you become more than your resume. More than your name.

Especially now -- and yes, I'm playing the recession card -- when jobs are scarce and employers are getting an influx of resumes, it's more necessary than ever to be a cut above the rest. I've read a lot of advice on this, and there's been advice to start a blog in your industry (hello!), and to get involved in social media.

Social media is... interesting. More and more I find with the advent of the internet that the playing field has been leveled. I've watched two people who are celebrities to me geek out about meeting each other. I can tweet at someone I idolize and get a response. It's a definite reminder that people are all just people in this world, and celebrities are no different. But with the internet, anyone can become a celebrity. It's a very strange phenomenon!

It has been much easier for me to make and maintain contacts over Twitter than it has been in other methods. A service I initially thought useless and stupid has actually become one of my favorite pastimes, although I still can't adequately explain it to people who dislike or don't understand Twitter. "I don't know... it's like, you talk to people... and you talk about what you're thinking about or what you're doing... and stuff?" or "If you follow the right people, you get a bunch of great one-liners every day!" (I'm looking at you, @rstevens.)

In the limited time I've used Twitter -- and I am far from an expert, seriously -- I've picked up some ideas on how to use it.

• When you first start out, you're going to feel like you're tweeting into a void. That's okay.
• Find people you know, people you idolize, and people who share the same interests as you, and follow them.
• Enter conversation with these people. Twitter is not about talking to wall. Twitter is not about retweeting everyone else (though retweeting is a major part of the service). Twitter is about connection and communication. Conversation. So converse. If you don't get responses at first, that's fine. 
• Don't be a jerk. Don't get upset if no one replies. Don't harass anyone. Basically, be a decent human being. A decent patient human being.
• Hash tags (anything that looks like #this) are supposed to be used for "tagging" tweets with topics. However, at least half the time, they're also punchlines. I think most people use them both ways. (Hashtag punchlines are some of my favorite.)
• Everyone else is trying to get their work out there too. Even if you don't have many people following you, try to RT the things other people are trying to spread around about. Word of mouth only works if people keep talking about it! And someday, someone will return the favor!

So. Moving on.

More advice I've read: pick a handful of social networking services -- maybe two or three -- and stick to them. Don't spread yourself too thin. Update them as consistently as you can. My three main ones are DeviantArt, this Tumblr, and Twitter. I also use Facebook, but as I mostly use it for friends and family, it doesn't see much professional use. Yet. I'm working on that.

Getting into social networking is a daunting task. It feels like all these people already have it figured it out, and already have these circles, and you'll never make it in. It's okay. There's a circle of webcomic cartoonists that tweet back and forth and I often wish I could be "one of the crowd." But let me tell you: I'm also aware I'll be making my own crowd. Their crowd doesn't have contacts like @samanthamathis or @maskedretriever, two of my best friends and most illustrious industry friends. And someday, someone will want to be in mine. So it all evens out eventually. 

Basically, I guess what I'm saying, is get on the horse, and stay on. Don't get too discouraged. Social networking is daunting. Everyone I know who's good at social networking thinks it's daunting, so it's not just you. Just stick with it, and keep trying, and keep working.

And hey, I'll always be happy to talk to you on Twitter.

Some links about Twitter and "tweetiquette" that I've picked up over the last months:

Tweetiquette: or, How Douchenozzles Use Twitter
The Traditional Retweet: The Key to Conversation and Visibility
Dustin Harbin's Etiquette Pep Talk