Social Media (who are you and the process that follows the campaign trail).

My response to a recent post (the original post is under my response).

I think this is a good *simple* description, but is lacking in some of the definition. Indeed if you want to leverage technology or social media you need to be able to understand ethnography and personas -(feel free to reference my post on personas: http://is.gd/s6B). There is certainly SO much more to making a Good or even GREAT campaign to connect with your users.

 I love that we are referencing the innovators like the first people to come in on the Mayflower (great touch). I personally love Joseph Jaffe's references in his book (consumers, prosumers and innovators)--Once you read his descriptions they make sooo much sense, but he doesn't believe in using personas (which isn't quite right either).

Once you know who your group is the next KEY ingredient to any successful campaign is understanding the persona. What are their likes, nuances, hobbies, style interests and how does the female side relate to the male side of the personas. This is key because if they both like extreme sports, but are different in every other aspect you know your connecting factor. They are adreniline junkys who probably know what REI is, Burton and a few other big names but beyond that one sews and is girly while they guy is the complete opposite sports loving pilot. So you connect them through what they love most. Search for those adrenile factors in keywords. Find images, compare ideas and then if you have information to leverage you do it. From photos on streams, to sweet wreckage videos, to fan pages of the latest gear all linking together and back to your site or blog or maybe neither depending on what the goal is. Really the next step AFTER personas and PRIOR to implementation is knowing the CLIENTS goals. How do they want to connect to their fans, consumers, or other business affiliates in the case of b2b. Knowing all of that will help you leverage the right sites and even determine similar STYLES of sites, but only leverage the ones that really fit your audience.


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Social Media Early Adopters: Pioneers, Settlers, and Colonists

June 06th, 2008 | Category: Web Theory

I've seen the social media community run from tool to technology quicker than you can say "shiny object". I've seen us run from blogs > Facebook > Twitter > Pownce > Jaiku > Justin TV > Ustream > Digg > Delicious > Upcoming > Flickr > YouTube > SecondLife > Widgets > Utterz > Zooomr > Friendfeed > Plurk > and who knows what's next.

Go to Techcrunch to see lists and lists of more products, in our industry, the barriers to entry require just a few thousand (ask Guy Kawasaki) to build and launch an application. Sadly, only some of these tools we end up adopting for the long run, in most cases, we end up wasting our time.

The key to adopting the right social media tools is to first figure out which persona you are. Next, you need to identify which persona your friends are, lastly understand how you can best observe, and learn from others.

Pioneers
Obsessed and enamored with the technology, this individual is always adopting the latest social technologies. This individual is fickle with tools, won't establish loyalty to websites, may move when they see colonists adopt the tool.

Example: Often experimenting with products in their beta stage, this person will quickly move on to the next tool as fast as adopting the second.

Settlers
These second generation adopters look for key market or network indicators before adopting a new technology. This person is less enamored with the new technology, and more interested in the value that it provides.

Example: They may trial tools after seeing several people in their network mention or trial the tool, and may adopt after a beta or trial period is over.

Colonists
Colonists are the mainstream adopters, they are often our parents, non-techies, and the everyday people we meet. They adopt these tools due not because of an internal desire to stay cutting edge, but often because several people around them make it an attractive destination and the they see the utility to the communication. They are not late adopters.

Example:
Joins Facebook because colleagues, family, and friends are using it.

You can tell who the early adopters are on this video, pioneers sit in line, settlers come talk, but will by that week, colonists wait a few weeks/months/

So in the comments, answer the following:

1) Identify which persona you are
2) Identify two or more of your peers are the other roles.

I'll start, read my first comment:

(Written on a plane flying out to Cambridge from SF)