The 140 Characters Conference: New York City (#140conf) was taking place April 20-21, 2010 at the 92nd Street Y. This event was shaping up to being the largest worldwide gathering of people interested in the effects of the real-time Internet on both business and “we” the people.  I was there for this 2-day conference.  As a blogger, I have brought you some of the most exciting moments from this conference.  The following clips feature Gary Vaynerchuk, Donny Deutch, Ivanka Trump & Jeffrey Hayzlett.

1. Gary Vaynerchuk

2. Donny Deutsch

3. Jeffrey Hayzlett’s Interview with Ivanka Trump

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Recently I came across an article called “Share Well with Others: How to Get Social Content to Go Viral” on Search Engine Land. The article talks about the 7 motives why people share online content via social media.  The 7 motives are: self-expression, affinity, validation, prurience, status achievement, altruism, and self-serving interest.  It makes me think the reasons why I use social media and the examples how I am using my own blog to share information.  Here I listed the top 4 reasons why I chose to become a blogger.

1. Share how-to articles

How-to materials are what tends to go viral fast on the Internet because of its educational connotation. How-to articles on WebStudio13 include the following:

How to Grow Your Twitter Followers – 5 Ways That Work for Me

How To Create The Tipping Point With Social Media

6 Tips On How Small Business Owners Can Use Social Media

2. Help others by providing motivational content

Self-development is a crucial element for everybody’s success. It’s important to identify what motivates us in our daily activities so we can achieve our highest productivity by adding those crucial elements. Here are a few posts I’ve written to motivate my readers:

13 Most Inspiring YouTube Videos of All-Time

5 Ways You Can Motivate Others Via Social Media

3 Great Motivatonal Videos You Must See!

3. Filter useful information so my readers won’t feel overwhelmed

According to Clay Shirky, “it’s not information overload, it’s filter failure.” Information is easy to find nowadays. It means if you don’t filter out the irrelevant noises, you will get overwhelmed and frustrated.   Part of my job as a blogger is to sort through the cluster and find relevant and organized information for our readers.  Examples include the following:

Top 30 LinkedIn Groups for Media & Marketing Professionals

40 Best Social Media Bloggers to Add to Your Twitter List

13 Greatest Twitter Apps You Should Be Using

4. Provide first hand reviews for trendy products, services, etc…

I am a staunch fan of Amazon.com. I think most reviews written on Amazon.com are relevant and accurate.  The same applies to IMDB.com.  I never went to theater to watch a movie without having checked them out first on IMDB.com.  The user-generated content on these sites particularly help me make a decision on whether or not to buy a book, or go rent a DVD.  I apply the same concepts to my blog, meaning I usually write up reviews for any popular products and services I’ve used or even movies I’ve seen. Examples include:

Avatar: Raising the Bar for the Film Industry

7 Reasons Why I Switched to Google Chrome from Firefox

7 Reasons Why Google Wave Is Going To Be Awesome

If you are a blogger but haven’t found your passion, hope this post helps you identify what’s important in your life so you can take your blogging career to the next level.

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Yesterday we covered the first 5 reasons why social media can benefit entrepreneurs.  Click here to check it out. For most entrepreneurs, social media can provide emotional support, create an interactive environment, help foster meaningful relationships, facilitate the community building process, and provide more monetization options. Without further ado, let’s wrap up this series by introducing the last 5 reasons in this post.

6. Social media eliminates the “middlemen” once and for all for entrepreneurs

In the old media world, small businesses must have an “agency” to do almost everything.  To publish a book, you needed a book publishing firm.  To do PR, you needed a PR firm.  You got the idea.  With social media, you can now reach your users directly. Entrepreneurs can self publish their books using sites like Lulu. With sites like Twitter and Facebook, businesses can do their own PR and marketing.  David Meerman Scott calls this shift as the New Rules of PR and Marketing.

7. Social media helps entrepreneurs become more efficient and productive

Social media brings productivity and efficiency to entrepreneurs.  With the right time management skills, tools like Gmail, Twitter, and blogs let businesses accomplish more in short amount of time. To master the productivity skills, here is an article you must read – “30 Tips: The Productivity Guide of Social Media.”

8. Social media lets entrepreneurs find and pursue their passion

Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It is probably one of the greatest books ever written about social media.  The book persuades you to pursue your dreams and find your passion.  For entrepreneurs, there should be no more excuses for not doing something they are passionate about in the 21st century.  To learn more on how to cash in on your passion with social media, read this article.

9. Social media creates more “linchpin” opportunities for entrepreneurs

In Seth Godin’s latest book “Linchpin,” the sound of becoming indispensable rings clear and loud. For entrepreneurs, being defined as “indispensable” by their customers means “standing out.” Correct implementation of social media tools makes you stand out even more. Would you like to become an indispensable blogger, Twitterer, or wine guy? In every field, entrepreneurs have a chance now to become the “linchpin” via social media.

10. Social media helps entrepreneurs develop their personal brands

Personal branding is a hot topic in the new digital age.  Entrepreneurs need to have a brand that’s recognizable, preferable, and indispensable deemed by their customers.  There are different ways you can achieve this goal with the assist of social media.  Please read this article (“5 Ways You Can Make Your Brand Indispensable Via Social Media”) to get more tips.

 
To sum it up, social media and entrepreneurship should be combined to create more efficiency, more brand equity, more linchpin opportunities, and more relationships with your customers.  You can leave your comments below if you want to.

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Today, I got to brainstorm for more strategies about how social media can benefit entrepreneurs. Over the past year, social media has played a significant role in the businesses I am involved with, such as blogging and networking.  So what’s the fuzz about social media that really makes it indispensable for modern entrepreneurs? I understand there is a lot of hype surrounding social media nowadays.  In this post, I’d like to list the first 5 logical reasons why I consider social media as an essential tool for most businesses, no matter you’re in B2C or B2B sector.  Let’s get right to the points.

1. Social media provides emotional support for entrepreneurs

There were times I got frustrated with my business not moving forward.  But I refused to be defeated by emotions.  These are the 13 most inspiring video clips from YouTube that I put together a while ago. I’ve seen them over and over again in the past.  They really helped me turn my frustration into courage and strength.  (I highly recommend you to check out the above link)

2. Social media is the interactive tool that connects entrepreneurs

I like to use the LinkedIn group example here.  Similar to Meetup groups, LinkedIn lets business people plug in corresponding groups based on their interests.  For example, if you are an entrepreneur, a must-join group is Dharmesh Shah’s On Startups – The Community For Entrepreneurs.  Entrepreneurs in that same group can share articles and post discussions that provide valuable information about entrepreneurship, business development, etc.  Here is the recommended reading if you are interested in learning more about LinkedIn groups: 30 Top LinkedIn Groups for Entrepreneurs, eMarketers, and Social Media Enthusiasts.

3. Social media offers a channel to for entrepreneurs build relationships

Tools like Twitter can help business owners establish relationships with their suppliers, customers, and prospects.  I’ve written an article about how to use Twitter to build relationships, check it out – “15 Tips to Help You Build Relationships on Twitter”.

4. Social media helps entrepreneurs build communities

If you’ve read the book “Tribes” by Seth Godin, chances are you already understand the importance of having and leading a community. Social media tools like Facebook help you accomplish that. You can start a Facebook page for your business today and start counting your fans tomorrow.  The more fans you have, the more social proof your business gets.  Check out the NY Entrepreneurs Business Network fan page here.

5. Social media creates monetization opportunities for entrepreneurs

We all know that starting a business is hard. For beginning entrepreneurs, correctly using social media to position themselves means more options to monetize.  On my blog, I currently integrate Google Adsense, Amazon Associates, Chitika eMiniMalls and sell affiliate products.  Of course my ultimate goal is to have and sell my own product, something that truly belongs to me.  But at the beginning, every bit of other income sources helps.  This philosophy should apply to entrepreneurship in any other endeavor.

Please stay put and wait for our 2nd post in a series that will detail the last 5 reasons why social media can benefit entrepreneurs. Make sure you subscribe to our RSS so you get updated once it gets published. (Update: Part II is now available here.)

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Having built a 4,200 member NYC Meetup group over the past 10 months, I am convinced that social media can be a major and effective tool when properly used to promote and market your business.  But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should pitch your followers on Twitter everyday.  I’ve put together a guide book elaborating the dos and don’ts when it comes to building a community.  Tonight, I am glad to present my ideas to a group of marketing professionals from the NYC “How To” Marketing Meetup Group.  Just for a sneak peek, here are a few key slides I’ve created using Apple’s Keynote.

 

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I was reading an article from Problogger today about the problem many small business owners encounter when they try to blog.  The fact is some business owners don’t even write emails well, not to mention blogging. Our blog post here will examine 6 methods social media can benefit small business owners.  Remember, social media is only a tool.  Whether or not it’s effective depends on how you use it and what you use it for.  We will focus on the “How” and “What” aspects in this blog post.

 

1. Use social media for networking purposes

Networking enables small business owners to know more people, increasing the possibilities of finding clients or strategic partners.  Social media sites such as LinkedIn.com offer endless opportunities for business owners in a niche industry to mingle and network.  Correctly filling out your profile is crucial if you want to be identified by valuable contacts that you’d like to network with.  A great and impressive profile tends to make you popular within a group setting.  Let’s say you want to join a LinkedIn group with a focus on networking, you can join Manhattan Local Networkers Group on LinkedIn.

2. Use social media for relationship building purposes

The competition for small business owners is fierce, intense, and cruel.  Eventually, it boils down to relationships.  Your clients and partners are willing to do business with you because they trust you.  How do you gain their trust and build real relationships?  There are two separate posts I’ve written which discuss the key of relationships building:

15 Tips to Help You Build Relationships on Twitter

How to Become A Trust Agent in A Digital Market?

3. Use social media to get leads

It’s almost a cliche to emphasize the importance of leads.  Believe it or not, social media can help you get the job done more efficiently.  If you are on Twitter and happen to follow Mashable, you have probably seen, for numerous times, that Mashable offers a Kindle or whatever gadgets as incentives for their readers to join the Mashable Facebook fan page. That said, incentives are effective when used to get leads.  Have you seen someone offering a free PDF book just to get their readers opt in their mailing list?  You can also build a list by putting an opt-in box or pop-up window on your blog.

4. Use social media to better understand your own industry

We are in an information age. Learning how to filter the correct information through while not getting overwhelmed is a skill to learn.  Microblogging site Twitter is the tool that I use to get my daily dose of information.  I am following Internet titans such as Leo Laporte, TechCrunch, Problogger, etc. So I can get firsthand information from them once it becomes available.  I have also learned so much about social media industry by following links on Twitter.

5. Use social media to do customer services

This is a no-brainer.  Companies such as Whole Foods Market and Media Temple are best known for the superior customer service they offer.  This is reflected by their speedy response to their Twitter customers.  I have had firsthand experiences with both companies and I am very satisfied with the results. In essence, small businesses should know how to treat customers kind and well with social media.

6. Use social media to expand your influence

While you can be social as a business owner, the real rare commodity is the ability to lead. There is almost a direct correlation between a company’s expansion and its influence in its industry.  Needless to say, correctly using social media to become more influential can help any small business succeed in the long run.  Social media tools help you foster communities and tribes where you can lead with influence!

 
If you are a small business owner, don’t forget to leave your opinions below on how you use social media to grow your own business.

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Recently, I started doing more research about tech startups and the factors which made them successful.  Not surprisingly, I realized for each successful Web 2.0 company, there is either a great corporate culture or an appealing concept attached to it.  While doing my research, I’ve stumbled upon the following three video clips.  They are, in turn, featuring Tony Hsieh, the Zappos CEO, Evan Williams, the Twitter co-founder, and Dennis Crowley, the Foursquare co-founder.  Each talk is filled with passion.  Enjoy!

1. Tony Hsieh on the Zappos culture

Zappos.com is an online shoe and clothing shop.  Founded in 1999, Zappos has grown to be the biggest online shoe store. The company grossed over $800 million in merchandise sales in 2007.  The company was then acquired by Amazon.com for a reported $1.2 billion.  In the video, Tony talked about the value a good company culture could create.  For Zappos, customer service always comes the first.  I, personally, found the Pizza story described by Tony was a great example to showcase the company culture at Zappos.  Therefore, this is a great case study here.

 

2.  Evan Williams on listening to Twitter users

Today marks Twitter’s 4th birthday. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sent his first Tweet on Mar. 21, 2006. Twitter has been growing wildly in the past 4 years.  Last month, Twitter hit 50 million tweets per day. What’s the secret behind Twitter’s success? Perhaps we should revisit Evan Williams’ TED talk, where he discussed a simple idea, which is that people like to share with their friends and family about what they are doing.  Without a good idea, a tech startup is hard to reach the tipping point.

 

3. Dennis Crowley on what’s the concept behind Foursquare

You’ve probably heard of Foursquare by far.  Foursquare is a location-based social networking website, software for mobile devices, and game. Users “check-in” at venues using text messaging or a device specific application. They are then awarded points and sometimes “badges.” In a very uplifting style, Dennis Crowley presents his view on how we can make the world just a little more fun by adding game elements in our daily activities. The game elements, along with the fact that Foursquare is location-based and real time, have made Foursquare grow exponentially after its launching in Mar. 2009.

 
Do you have the next startup ideas?  Share your comments below.

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I just had my birthday on March 13, which was last Saturday.  Being an Internet entrepreneur for well over a year, I’ve seen the potent power that Internet has compared to anything else on the planet.  As someone who is writing about social media everyday, I feel it’s encouraging to take a bet on what’s going to happen this year on the Web.  After all, I believe it’s worthwhile to look into the future.  Hey, believe it or not, these are the biggest Web trends you’ll hear from anyone else too.  Check them out!

 

1. Geolocation is going to be huge!

The SXSW conference in Austin, Texas has indicated this trend.  Geolocation is the future.  Two main players, Foursquare and Gowalla, are “in a dead heat in the location war.” Don’t believe me?  Read this TechCrunch article.

2. Everything will eventually go real time!

Sites like Friendfeed, Twitter, and Google have all gone real time in the past.  Bottom line is people like real time interactions.  Expect to see more sites implementing this strategy.

3. Google has more surprises for you!

Ever wondered how big Google will become, or what’s the next thing it will do.  I wrote an article in the past summarizing the remarkable things Google has done (review it).  Be prepared to see the next big thing Google may surprise you with.  Click here to view the current products in Google family.

4. Tech will be a hot global topic!

The USA is in the forefront of this entire tech trend as of now.  But there will be many other counties catching on.  For example, I’ve talked to powerful people in the tech industry who want to move the entire Twitter phenomenon to China.  It’s challenging given the government regulations there. But I also see it happening!  Let’s see how it plays out this year.

5. There will be more tech startups!

Seems like more people are experimenting new tech startups in hope of creating the second Facebook or Twitter.  Social media is the future.  If you could secure funding from VCs or angel investors, better to do it yourself than waiting for somebody else to steal your idea!

6. More Internet/tech entrepreneurs are arising!

21st century is an era where people worship freedom and adore creativity.  Most importantly, you can now start an Internet business at a minimal cost as long as you have a good idea and marketing plan.  In general, you will see more full time bloggers and podcasters rising on the horizon and being part of this movement!

7. New York is not quite Silicon Valley yet, but we definitely feel the vibe here!

Have you read the NY Times article 2 weeks ago talking about the NY Tech industry? Check it out if you missed it.  The latest massively successful tech startup in New York is this company called Foursquare.  I would predict tech to be a bigger component for everybody living in the city this year.  And we are here to make it happen!

 
You may have different opinions about my 7 predictions.  Make sure you leave your comments and let us know what you think!

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As an entrepreneur, I have had the opportunities to absorb many valuable lessons in the past two years,. Out of all of them, what appears to be most important to me is the need to create a long-term brand.  Your customers don’t buy from you because you ask them to; your clients don’t come to you because you’ve got the nicest office.  The reason they are willing to put their money in your hands is because of your brand equity!  And you are responsible for building your own brand.  Needless to say, now is a better time than ever before when it comes to building sustainable brands.  Social media tools can be properly used to supplement your brand building strategies and speed up the process. Here are my 5 tips to help you build a truly indispensable brand via social media.

1. Corporate blog

A blog can be used to make important corporate announcements or even answer customers’ questions. Don’t sell yourself short by not having one, especially considering most types of blog software are free, such as Wordpress.

2. Twitter account

Twitter is a great way to show how responsible your companies are when it comes to customer service.  Recently, I just switched to Media Temple to be the new host for my blog.  Although they charge $20/month, I do not have a single regret just because they usually get back to me on Twitter within 10 minutes for all my concerns and questions. And their representatives are very friendly and knowledgeable on the phone.

3. Facebook page

We’ve covered many Facebook-related topics previously. Having a huge amount of following for whatever Facebook page you set up is just great social proof of how popular your personal or business brand is.  If you doubt it, just look at Kevin Rose’s fan page on Facebook.  How can you not feel shocked by that number?  In 2008, Rose was named for “top 25 most influential people on the web” by both Time Magazine and BusinessWeek.

4. Picture sharing

Does your company have a Flickr or Picasa account?  If not, seriously, create one.  A picture is worth a thousand words.  Flickr and Picasa are both wonderful tools to build a community. More importantly, visual proof can strengthen a brand faster than most other tools.

5. Video sharing

When it comes to video blogging, one person that’ll definitely come into our minds is Gary Vaynerchuk.  The guy built a million-dollar wine business within a few years with a camera and a computer. But it’s not really his wine business that matters.  Instead, it’s Gary Vee, his personal brand.  As I was writing this paragraph, I Googled “Gary Vee.” What showed up on the search page was the real time tweets from people attending the SXSW in Austin, Texas.  It turns out that Gary was giving a keynote at the exact moment I searched for his name.  I was reading those tweets for about 15 minutes.  On average, people are tweeting every 3 seconds during his keynote.  Yes, the “Gary Vee” brand has passed the tipping point and now it’s truly gone viral.  But you get my point: use all the video sharing sites properly and you will be amazed by their tremendous power!

 
Last but not least, let me wrap this up by citing one of Gary’s keynote messages: “We are in a ‘Thank You’ economy. And customer service always comes the first for any businesses!” Social media can give it a big boost in your brand building effort.

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I came across a very good video today. It’s Randy Pausch’s lecture on time management. I thought it might be a good idea to relate this to what I’ve been doing recently with social media to improve efficiency.  As we all know that we can use Web 2.0 tools to drastically boost our daily productivity, it’s also a well known fact that overdoing it can be a huge time waster.  For instance, numerous studies and researches have been done to find out how many hours a typical person spends on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.  It’s not uncommon that it takes you an entire weekend just to catch up with your friends on Facebook, check LinkedIn messages, or upload and tag photos on Flickr.  So what can we do to streamline our daily activities without unnecessarily investing a big chunk of our time on social media sites?  Here are the solutions: my 5 simple tips to streamline your daily activities with new media tools.

1. Turn off your email notifier.  Right now, I only check my emails once every 3 hours.  For example, if I check my first email at 6 am in the morning, then it goes like this: 9 am (2nd time), 12 pm (3rd time), so on and so forth.

2. Content needs to be distributed.  Instead of going to different websites/blogs myself to find new articles or posts, I now only follow those authors and bloggers on Twitter, and check their Twitter updates every hour or so. This turns out to be much more productive for me!

3. Since I am present on multiple social networks, I currently use sites like Ping.fm to post messages on different sites simultaneously, although Posterous would also do the trick.

4. I used to be obsessed with checking my site traffic and Google analytics.  This behavior ended up getting me distracted from the core daily tasks I set up for myself.  Even worse, it kills efficiency. Right now, I only do it once at the end of each day. This allows me to thoroughly compare my current traffic graph to the previous ones. Also it gives me time to think more about how to adjust my strategies to get more traffic in the future.

5. I started to use Google Voice at the beginning of the year. As a result, I filtered out a lot of unwanted calls. Sometimes, when there are pressing tasks, I just simply turn off my cell phone and check my email inbox for missed calls.  This is an effective way to improve my efficiency.

It’s not my intention to overburden our readers with numbers.  That’s why I only listed 5 simple pointers here.  Essentially, we all need to have great self-disciplines in order to succeed at each of these.  If we don’t have a daily goal or we lack time management skills, it’s going to be tough to implement these techniques.  But you can start this process by watching Randy Pausch’s lecture on time management.  I promise, it’ll help!

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