CityMama™

Triberr: Inauthentic meets un-fluential

Have you noticed that people you follow on Twitter are suddenly filling their streams with a steady supply of retweeted links that you know they can't possibly have read?

If you look at where those RTs are coming from, chances are, they are coming from Triberr, a beta, invite-only social media company.

Triberr wants you to join "tribes" to expand your social media reach. The purpose of these tribes is to share each other's links thereby gaining new "eyeballs" (followers/readers) for your content. By joining tribes and sharing links (most seem to be using the automated setting, but you can select manual sharing) you then target your followers who would theoretically click on the links Tweeted by you, their "trusted friend," because you are endorsing that content.

Except that isn't what I've seen. What I've seen is tribe members filling their Twitter streams with links they haven't read so that they can spam all their followers who are then guaranteed NEVER to read those links. Triberr members don't explain why they are retweeting the links, in fact, they completely step out of the engagement process althogether and put themselves in jeopardy of annoying followers into unfollowing them. Great way to build community, right?

I took my thoughts about Triberr to Facebook and Twitter over the weekend and quickly learned that I wasn't the only one annoyed by this concept. Here is just some of the feedback I received:

@mommasgonecity I couldn't figure out WHY all of my friends were posting links incessantly. And then I realized that it was @triberr

@veepveep  I found myself unfriending people using Triberr because I was seeing the same copy paste giveaway post four times!

@jencrutch I've unfollowed a few and had frank discussions w/ others who are using it but I don't want to quit them. Hate it.

@corrinrenee Word. RT @citymama: Please stop with the @triberr. I am not reading your RTs. Build relationships, don't spam.

@CountessMo Word. It's killing Twitter. RT @citymama: Please stop with the @triberr. I am not reading your RTs. Build relationships, don't spam.

@mommyniri I tried it for a while but felt like I was spamming my followers

But the best three-word summary of Triberr came from my Facebook pal Scott who deemed it:

Inauthentic meets un-fluential.

A thousand times, yes! Not only is spamming Twitter followers with links you haven't read "inauthentic, but automating the process immediately makes you "un-fluential."

I've seen people retweeting links in languages I know they don't understand. I've seen people retweeting links that I don't think they'd support if they read them. I've seen 10, 20, 30 tweets in a row that are nothing but links from folks who used to post interesting content—that's why I followed them in the first place. Triberr could have written the playbook on how NOT to build community in social media.

In the midst of our Twitter discussion, Dino Dogan, one of the founders of Triberr, chimed in with this tweet:

Recommendation. Tribe up with ppl who you'd RT even if they didn't RT

That is the problem right there, Dino.  And I let him know:

@dino_dogan that's not how I "do" social media. I don't RT at will. I RT things ive actually read+ usu comment as to why.

His response:

Triberr is not for everyone.

No. No, it is not. And it shouldn't be for anyone who values the "social" in social media.

There is no short cut to building your social media community, and there shouldn't be. Relationships matter, in fact, they come first. And they take time to cultivate. You have to enjoy networking. You have to build trust. You have to actually LIKE being social. You can't fake it, and so far that is what Triberr is in danger of creating: tribes full of fake, inauthentic people, who are doing it wrong.

At least we know where to find them.

Read also:

Angie from A Whole Lot of Nothing "On Why I'm Leaving Triberr"

Cecily of MomCrunch who writes why social media should not be automated

Selfish Mom on "How To Lose Friends And Stop Influencing People With Triberr" (see Dino Dogan's comments there)

Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2010: My interview

My friend Jill Asher, formerly of Silicon Valley Moms Blog and now of Technorati, asked if I she could interview me for their annual State of the Blogosphere project, and of course I said yes, especially when she told me about the topics.

In about 30 minutes we talked about:

• Progression of blogs and technologies.
• Importance of Twitter and Facebook for instant connection and breaking news.
• Asking the question: do companies even want to be "social"?
• Companies targeting "women of color" in social media campaigns.
• Community and writing on collaborative blogs.
• How to handle "blog trolls" and negative comments: thoughtful and respectful disagreements.
• Food Blogging and especially how I see more moms embracing food blogging as a positive change in the state of the food blogosphere
• Monetizing content:  Have realistic expectations.
• Blogging as a gateway for other opportunities.
• Defining reach and influence.  

My interview is here.

Kudos to Technorati for kicking off the project with women! Including women of color! And a Canadian! I'm in amazing company. Please watch and listen to what these smart women had to say:

Charlene Li

Ciaran Blumenfeld

Catherine Connors

Please let me know what you think!

Social media, women, community, and fitness (Yes, you CAN Tweet your way to a smaller ass)

Recently, Holly Buchanan wrote an excellent commentary reminding marketers that men trust "authority," but women trust "common experience." Men value "credibility" and women value "connections." I've been thinking about this a lot lately not just because it's my job, but because it really hits home on a personal level.

I am one of those women who values common experience and connections. I am a serial researcher, constantly polling my online and IRL networks for their opinions on everything from the best cell phone to best running socks. If a trusted friend recommends a product or service, I will take a look and perhaps buy. If someone I don't know tells me what's good or what to buy, I'm instantly distrustful.

I have also always been one of those people who needed to exercise to lose and then maintain my weight. Having kids threw a huge wrench in to my former, pre-kid, 4-5-times-per-week fitness schedule, and it took me seven years to figure out how to work it back into my daily life. (Or maybe it took me seven years to not be tired enough to workout for an hour.)

Last fall, I made a huge lifestyle change. I started using C25K to help me reach my goal of running a 5K.  Then a few months later, I joined Weight Watchers. My husband was my biggest motivator (and cheerleader) because he started working out and went paleo and the pounds vanished. He looks amazing.

Now, if he had told me that I needed to lose weight, the rebel in me probably would have shrugged it off. (There's that whole "authority" thing...) Not to mention the fact that I would have felt hurt, frustrated, and just plain mad at myself. But he didn't. Ever. He just started working on his personal health goals to great success and quietly led by example.

It just so happened that his "get healthy" kick coincided with a noisy and powerful fitness revolution that was playing out in social media. It seemed like finally social networking and mobile tools were available to track workouts and Twitter and Facebook provided the venues whereby folks could tell all their friends about it. And, to Buchanan's point, the friends I saw talking about it were almost all women.

Why Twitter Parties Don't Suck

I've written about why Twitter parties don't suck over on The Cleverist, the new Clever Girls Collective blog.  It's the blog attached to our social media marketing agency, and where I'll spend some time talking about social media trends, providing commentary, and in general, highlighting the projects we're working on. If you are into such things, please join us there!

Blogalicious '09: Wish I could just bottle up this feeling and take it with me everywhere

I've been busy for the past couple of weeks getting ready to attend the Blogalicious Conference in Atlanta. My company, Clever Girls Collective, was an official sponsor and hosted one of the parties which was such a blast! (More on that in another post!)

Swag bags in the Clever Girls Suite--We match the swank decor!

When I first heard about Blogalicious, I knew I wanted to attend, but to be able to be there as a partner--to help to support the efforts of Justices Jones, Fergie and Ny--was a distinct honor. Their vision became a reality last weekend and every aspect of the conference, down to the very last detail, was a reflection of their grace, wisdom, community-building skills, and, most importantly, welcoming and generous spirit.

Panel session on social media basics

I made new friends that I can't wait to see again.

My soul was filled by seeing old friends and being able to just bask in their presence without feeling hurried or rushed or interrupted.

I saw incredible beauty. Everywhere.

I shared smiles that I will remember for a long, long time.

I had inspiring conversations with so many women that my brain hasn't stopped spinning long enough yet for me to process (and act upon) everything I heard.

I delivered opening remarks about where we've come since 2007 when a marketer famously told me regarding reaching out to women of color, "We just don't know what to do with you" to an audience empowered to foment change. (The take-away after this weekend: Look out, marketers.)

I witnessed the generosity and camaraderie that make small women's conferences so great and can't stop thinking that niche conferences are the way to go.

For a weekend, I was immersed in a world that felt right and real and like home and I can't wait for next year.

Hammer Pants Dance: A&E is latest "big corporation" to take flash mobs mainstream

Have you seen this?

Chances are you have or will soon. It's a video of flash mob descending on a retail store in L.A.  Someone cues "U Can't Touch This," and suddenly, Hammer-panted dancers appear out of nowhere to perform a seemingly spontaneous routine amidst people buying t-shirts and jeans.

The difference between this flash mob dance and others, is that this appearance was carefully crafted by A&E to promote a new TV reality show about MC Hammer called Hammertime! (T-Mobile did a similar thing with their "Life's for Sharing" campaign, creating a huge dance party in Liverpool station, and that effort was clearly labeled a commercial.)

A&E is also being completely transparent about the whole thing on their site and on YouTube. A link to the show is in the video descriptor. However another "random" flash mob in gold pants descended on Santa Monica Blvd a month earlier to do a "spontaneous" dance to the same song in the same gold pants and there is no mention of an A&E show in that descriptor. It does make one wonder, doesn't it?

As someone who creates social media programs for a living, I am still processing this campaign. On the one hand, having a flash mob dancing to MC Hammer seems like a no-brainer marketing program to promote a new Hammer-inspired TV show.  On the other hand, the subversive in me feels like it takes away from the spontaneity and sense of happiness and whimsy that are usually associated with flash mobs. (Did you see the way that customer ducked in opening segment, like she thought the store was being robbed?) And flash mobs aren't usually promoting anything except fun.

At the end of the day, though, here I am talking about it. Twitter is talking about it. Long-time Twitter power-user Hammer himself even chimed in with his Tweet this morning. He wrote:

Hammer pants! Viral marketing done well http://bit.ly/MgZHn (via @PerezHilton)

People are talking. And isn't that the point? I consider this a viral marketing success, but (if I am being nit-picky and I often am) at the cost of making what was once a free-spirited and exuberant phenomenon a little more, well, sell-out-ish. I never thought I'd one to defend the original intent and integrity of the flash mob phenomena, but if Britney decides to hire me to promote her next reality TV show, maybe I'll change my mind.

(Cuz I know you know all the dance moves to "Hit Me Baby One More Time.")

Scraping content and passing it off as "community building" [How to do social media wrong]

I got an email today from Candace aka @mamanista letting me know that a good portion of my post about developmental milestones was on a site called Trigeia.com.  In her email she wrote (reprinted with permission):

I discovered that my content was on their site when their Twitter feed (which also lacks original content) was spitting out my posts minutes after I posted them.

I asked some legitimate questions about their business model. They evaded, were rude, and then removed my content.

I popped over to take a peek and sure enough, there was my post (amidst other scraped posts) with a "submitted by Trigeia" byline, no mention of CityMama, and a "read more" that linked to my original post. 

I sent them an email asking them to remove the content (and another when it wasn't removed right away) and heard nothing, so I jumped onto to Twitter to ask if anyone else had gotten their content scraped by Trigeia.

Dear (Insert Social Networking Site Name Here),

I am confused.

I understand that the characteristics of a Web 2.0 company are social networking components paired with user-generated content, and that's all great and everything, but why can't there be some standardization up in this mofo?

Haven't we learned anything from our friends at the ISO?

Why do I have to waste valuable brain processing time trying to figure out the difference between a wall, a note, and a journal.  Is the word "post" too obscure? What is wrong with the word post? Is it not descriptive enough in and of itself? Is that why we need to be told that we're "composing" a post? Why can't you all just call it a post already!

I spend most of my day in a heightened state of alert panic trying to keep track of early and late pick-ups and thinking I am going to forget to pick up one of my children from school. I don't have room in my brain to decipher Web 2.0 double-speak.

And don't even get me started on how counter-intuitive flickr is to use.  Why do I always select 14 different links just to try and batch edit my photos? Am I that lame? Maybe. If I could remember the difference between a collection and a set (aren't they the same frickin' thing?) then maybe I'd love you more, flickr.

Finally, no I do not want to invite all my friends to participate in your site. Please don't do sneaky things Iike trying to get at my email contacts when I'm not looking.  As if I didn't have enough to apologize to my friends for (starting with not returning phone calls) now I have to apologize for spamming their inboxes? If your site isn't awesome enough that people want to sign up for it in droves that's not my problem. Stop using me to get at my friends, Web 2.0! I'm not your girlfriend!

I sure hope Web 3.0 gets it right.

Love and other indoor sports,
Stefania

Things I Love: My recommendations at ThisNext

This folks at ThisNext asked me to share some of my favorite things and they created a snazzy recommendation list for me. Here are my faves they are looking a lot prettier than just the URLs I supplied them with.  I've gone in and added more favorites (and the cute little stickers), so I know it's not hard to do. If you like stuff—and you like to recommend things to friends and family(I love hearing recommendations as much as giving them) you'll have fun playing around with ThisNext.

Warning: Highly Addictive!