Pre-Branding and the Twitter Lists

I chose the name Little Miss Social Media when I had a particularly inspiring conversation with my husband. Since I locked myself into this brand, I have struggled with it. People can misinterpret my choice of handle as someone who promotes myself as a "Social Media Expert/Guru/Sherpa". However, that is NOT it at all - I chose the handle when my husband commented to me that my enthusiasm for social media made him call me "Little Miss Social Media" in conversation. I loved the ring to it, the memorability of it and the throw back to the "Little Miss" books I read growing up. I had a temporary thought-loss of the problems I could bring on myself with a brand so deeply steeped in a Social Media-oriented name. (Hello, analysts predict 250,000 social media sites will be live by the end of 2010 - this is the stuff that prohibits anyone from appropriately claiming "Social Media Guru" status.)

With all the potential for misconception known (and occasionally thrown in my face by someone who had a little too much snark juice for supper), I am sticking with my brand. I'm never going to get the handle "Jayna" since that was picked up in 2007 and she's still using it. People in Boston know Little Miss and the folks that really matter know I'm not trying to write the next post claiming I'm the Boston Big-Dog.

However, I'm finding myself on lists in good company thanks to my name. It leaves no question when someone sees my handle...I'm a big fan of the Social Media. And that has me on lists as a "thought leader" and in the company with amazing people who I look at as inspiration. I kind of dig it. I'm still not convinced lists are too much more than vanity. I find my lists include a lot of overlap, the 'foodie' doesn't constantly discuss food (well some of them do). I am also "all you need to know about Boston" on someone's list....since I'm the only one on it.

Lists are fun, and thanks to my twitter handle, I get to share space on lists with the real thought leaders like Chris Brogan (Hi Chris! He's 'listens' for his name a lot...I learned that trick from him), C.C. Chapman (we share a few lists such as the Bentley Alumni list, and that list with Brogan and me), the inimitable GaryVee and a number of other awesome people who are local, smart and fun to know. Now that we're on these lists, I wonder just what the creators and followers are doing with them.

Anyone care to sound off?

Do We REALLY Want a 'Dislike' Button or the "Old Version" of Facebook?

I use my Facebook page for personal connections. I do have a few professional contacts on there, but for the most part I use it to show off my family photos, keep in touch with long lost friends and feed my addiction to Farmville. Due to the varied professions of my friends on Facebook, I'm finding they too have opinions about what they want from their user experiences. And when you think about it - the Marketing and Social Media professionals are NOT the dominant user group on Facebook, they are one of the many. The teachers, nurses, finance, operations, construction and business services (a sampling of my friends' careers) folks are just as engaged with this tool as we are.

I see my friends indicating 'support' for two different causes on facebook. Usually they flock to the "We want to old Facebook" groups and fan pages any time Facebook makes a change to their user interface. They also really want a dislike button. While I can understand their hesitation over the changes Facebook makes, I do think Facebook's slower roll out of new features is helping them adjust to the new functionality of the site with less pain. I don't think they consider the necessity of the changes...would you really want the facebook you had when you started using it...especially with the other social tools evolving and expanding. I am sure they wouldn't be satisfied with the first ever version of Facebook. They don't realize the changes they are making to Facebook helps them become savvier users of internet technologies. They just like the comfort of what they know and change can be frustrating. I always see my friends adjust to the new features and before you know it, the current facebook version IS their 'old' facebook.

As for the "Dislike" button, I know most people would use this to show support when a friend puts up posts such as: "I have a cold" or "I got laid off!" But what about the faux friends? Some people would be so crass as to put up the "dislike" flag when someone puts up news like "I'm having a baby" or "I got my dream job". Or, bringing my Farmville addiction into this, part of the benefit of playing the game is to allow it to post updates to my friends so they can get coins in the games. It would be a bummer if every time I posted something for my co-players (about 10% of my Facebook friends) and someone who didn't play the game put up "dislike". It would be mortifying if I put up pictures of my beloved family and someone decided to 'dislike'.

I know you can argue for the reverse, but the term "Like" is generally positive. It's got a good connotation in general which gives us the positivity/warm fuzzies/happy vibe. If we get the dislike, it allows negativity to seep in and could cause a lot more drama on Facebook. The absence of this option keeps us civil and, this is probably the reason why we only have the option to "like" things on facebook. And I LIKE that just fine.