You Like Me! You Really Like Me! Seven Ways To Boost Your Popularity Online.

So you thought you left high school far behind? All those cliques and crowds and cool kids? The fads, the fashion, the frenzy to be popular?

Well, guess what? It’s baaaack.

But as most of you well know, in the Web 2.0 era, it’s called Social Media. And just like in high school, how someone winds up as a popular kid on the social networking sites has been largely a mystery. Until now.

Today we’re de-mystifying the puzzling path to popularity online, starting with these 7 tips:

Smile
A recent study by British psychologists proved that smiling in your profile picture may add up to more friends. What the researchers found after conducting research on Facebook was that smiling students were surrounded by others who were also smiling in small “happiness clusters.” Those who were not smiling seem to be located more peripherally in the network. After performing statistical analysis, they determined that those who smile also tend to have more friends – on average one extra friend, which is good considering that people only tend to have six close friends. Those who smiled were also more likely to be at the center of the network when compared to those who don’t. Wanna boost your popularity? Show those pearlies!

Pick the right social network for you
The sheer number of social networking sites can be daunting. But like High School, that doesn’t mean you should join everything from Chamber Singers to Student Council to Goths R Us. Visit the sites you find interesting but don’t feel pressured to sign up. If you’re networking for business, you can actually hurt your company’s online reputation if you sign up, visit once or twice, and then never return. Especially in this economy — not keeping up with your profile may leave the impression that your business has closed (or you’ve been fired.) So choose your sites carefully — not even Sally Field could be ‘really, really’ liked everywhere.

It’s nice to be important. But it’s more important to be nice.
Okay, so it’s corny. But there’s a reason we all secretly nod right along with this old adage — it’s true. Being nice to the newbie who has just tweeted for the first time and is trying to grow his Twitter account; replying with a ‘Thanks for the follow’; or commenting with an @ response is one of the secrets of being one of the popular kids on Twitter. Making a practice of automatically Following the person who Followed you (unless someone appears to be an obvious spammer) is another way to be ‘really, really liked.’

Here’s another vintage truism: Don’t worry about being interesting. Be interested instead.

We live in a world of Me Media. Every post, every tweet, every comment is all about ME, ME, ME. This is why it is so refreshing online when someone steps outside their universe and pays attention to yours. Maybe they actually read your blog and leave an insightful comment. Maybe they pick up on something you tweeted and take the conversation offline, so it can go beyond 140 characters. Maybe they listen to your job woes — and send you a link from a job post that sounds just like you.

Make your online connection more powerful — meet in person.

At the recent WOMMA Summit in Vegas, Jason Anello, Ideologist at Yahoo, talked about the power of tieing online experiences to the real world, citing the value of tapping into all our senses, especially touch. ‘We’re not seeing each other anymore’ — and even our communications, like email, are missing inflection and emotion. So when we do connect in the real world, the online bond actually strengthens. It’s not always possible to actually see your buddy in Taipei or the Dalmatian Islands in the flesh. But if you do have the chance to tweet-up, meet-up or attend events with your online friends, go for it.

Learn the (underground) rules and play by them.

Each social networking site has its own ‘underground’ rules beyond the obvious FAQs. For example, some people won’t accept a Facebook friend request if they haven’t met the Requester in person. On Twitter, some users won’t return the Follow if the Tweeter hasn’t filled out a profile or posted relevant account information. If your Facebook friend or Linkedin connection request seems to be eternally pending, this may be a tactful way of declining. (Related to ‘I’m washing my hair that night’ or ‘my cousin’s in town that weekend’ during Prom season.) Keep in mind that many users divide their social networks into personal or business and prefer not to blend the two. Your Linkedin connection may not want to check out the youtube of your pre-schooler’s star turn as as SpongeBob or your Emo alter ego on MySpace Music.

Be real.
That’s the whole point of social networking. Be a real, expressive, honest to goodness person. Don’t just shoot links, post self-serving Status updates or in general, use social networks in a way that increases the already-ballooning bogus quotient. Authenticity is the new cool.

Does Spreading The Retail Gloom Help Us or Hurt Us?

I have very mixed feelings about an email I received from a friend early this evening.

On one hand, I appreciate the warning. I appreciate the sentiment about celebrating the holidays with family and friends, not bling and things.

But the business person in me can’t help but think that these email blasts only spread the gloom-and-doom that’s already keeping us out of the stores. Yes, we absolutely should slip the Visa cards into a drawer and head toward the mall bearing cash — a new study says 22.8% of us plan to, up from last year — or use our debit cards, like 41.5% plan to do. A return (even if possible) to the bloated excess of the boom-boom years doesn’t work either. But some of us believe firmly that innovation and new opportunities can emerge even in these highly unsettling times. These gloom and doom emails are a viral megaphone that threaten to to drown out our never-say-die American spirit.

Interestingly, the mood on the newer Social Media is much perkier. Tweeters tend to get het-up and pesky but try to share positives; bloggers get mad but share link love; Facebookers are tribal, joining groups, events, causes and status-donations. MySpacers are busy pitching their music while Ning’ers are simply passionate about their own thing. New Social Media is very different than the traditional old media world of email. Socialyzers are in-the-know junkies, wanting to be au courante 24/7. We feel our power (check my post on MotrinGate) and wield it deftly and swiftly. We’re passionately participating in this participatory media — not merely passing iffy information along as in the days of legendary email from Bill Gates, NPR, Disney, etc. If nothing else, Socialyzers want to believe we are in control; that crowdsourcing matters. After all, didn’t we just elect a new President? Traditional emailers are simply passing along the gloom-and-doom with scant hope of effecting change.

Hope and heart live on Social Media sites. Even in 140 characters life is bubbling up.

Here’s the email:

Wow, interesting times. I love gift cards but…maybe not this year.
Personally, it’s a good year to celebrate our family and friends.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
XXOO ~ Stores that informed the Security Exchange of closing plans between October 2008 and January 2009. PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

Circuit City stores… most recent (? how many)

Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide are to be shuttered

Lane Bryant,, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150 store
nationwide

Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January

Cache will close all stores

Talbots closing down all stores

J. Jill closing all stores

GAP closing 85 stores

Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January

Wickes Furniture closing down

Levitz closing down remaining stores

Bombay closing remaining stores

Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January.

Whitehall closing all stores

Piercing Pagoda closing all stores

Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.

Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
Guru’s Correction: I am thrilled to correct this — as Home Depot is one of my hang-outs. I’ve heard from them and this is very old news dating back to May.

Macys to close 9 stores after January

Linens and Things closing all stores

Movie Galley Closing all stores

Pacific Sunware closing stores

Pep Boys Closing 33 stores

Sprint/ Nextel closing 133 stores

JC Penney closing a number of stores after January

Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.

Wilson Leather closing down all stores

Sharper Image closing down all stores

K B Toys closing 356 stores

Loews to close down some stores

Dillard’s to close some stores.

Guru’s Note: I have not verified this information. It’s too depressing. I’d rather hang out at the Apple Store with the Nano Chromatix and drool over the juicy colors.

Here’s the update on store closings from Snopes.com.

Study Reveals 93% of Americans Expect Companies To Have A Social Media Presence.

It’s one of the first questions I get when I’m speaking at an event, no matter what topic’s on the program. Whether it’s mom marketing, green products, new trends, or travel/tourism, the question is always the same: Should my company have a social media presence?

Before this new social media study, I had a pat answer. You already have a social media presence online. Your customers are already talking about you. Tweaking your brand. Kvetching about your customer service. Tagging you. Whether you like it or not.

You’re simply not participating in the conversation. Yet. Then I usually wrap up my spiel with a plea to jump on board to join the party in progress.

But now I’ve got some powerful new ammunition on my side, thanks to the 2008 Business in Social Media Study, conducted by Cone. According to the research, if your company does not have a social media presence online, you are missing out on the 93% of Americans who believe you should, and the 85% of Americans who are expecting to interact with your company through social media.

This study should crush any remaining questions about whether corporate social media interaction is necessary. A solid 60% of Americans are now interacting with companies using social media –and one in four are interacting more than once a week.

Customer satisfaction, always at the top of every company’s To Do List, is also now proven to be higher for businesses with a social media presence. 56% of consumers feel a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they interact through social media.

This encouraging stat strongly jibes with one of the emerging themes from various Social Media Competitive Landscape research studies I’ve conducted for some of the major online players. As they say, ‘the Internet changed everything’ — and seldom is this more true than with customer care. When “Tom” posted his white T-shirted self on every new MySpace page and used the site’s pioneering social media tools to invite millions to IM, email and be his new bff, it made other customer care strategies feel stale and corporate. The majority of his MySpace friends likely have no idea that their own personal Go-To-Geek “Tom” is actually the gazillion dollar co-founder of the empire. Not since Steve Case’s weekly letter to AOL members has a Founder been so sociable. 

This is clearly promising news for brands looking to build or deepen relationships. Rather than view a company’s social media efforts as an intrusion, Americans are welcoming the open door to discussion.

More numbers from the Cone study reveal that Consumers believe:

• Companies should use social networks to solve their problems (43%).
• Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%) via social media.
• Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%) through social media.
• Companies should market to consumers (25%) using social media.

And lest you think that social media only attracts the collegiate Facebook crowd, the study also showed that the most lucrative higher-income households are expecting social media interaction with companies they do business with. Households with incomes of $75K+ believe that companies should seek to reach them via social media and two-thirds of the wealthiest households say they feel a stronger connection to brands they can interact with online.  This bodes very well for categories such as travel and leisure and technology.

What does this mean for your business?  Do you still need convincing?

Social media has rapidly gone from a Maybe to a Must-Have in your marketing plan. Your customers are expecting you to be present in social networking communities, to provide social networking features on your own sites,  to interact with, listen to and engage them in authentic and meaningful conversation. 

Are you going to say “no” to the 93% of consumers expecting you to join the conversation?

This study was conducted online September 11-12 2008 and surveyed 1,092 adults.

Thanks to Erika Preuss at Business Social Networking.”