Content sharing is no longer anonymous.

B2B marketers can’t ignore Facebook Likes. And we’re going to have to make some serious decisions about how to use the new social graph.

You may have not noticed, but as B2B marketers our network is our network is our network. No longer can we afford to separate our personal, private selves from our public, professional selves.

Think about it.

Freelancers have always intuitively known that work comes from your network of personal AND professional contacts who 1) Know what you do, 2) Trust you to do it, 3) Like working with you. It’s probably why every freelance designer I know has over 1000 Facebook friends. They’re not just extroverts, their livelihood depends on it.

Is it any different in the B2B world?

Now that we can see who is liking our content, whether it be in blogs, eBooks, or on Scribd. It’s in our best interest to 1) broaden our networks 2) blend our personal and private networks.

Oh sure, you have valid concerns about whether or not you want your customer to see your fraternity pictures. We’ll have to be careful. Yet, the need still remains.

Why B2B Should Care About Likes

There’s an ongoing debate about whether or not we should give away content or require some quid pro quo from our customers. On the one side you have David Meerman Scott and Seth Godin.

On the other side, you have every other marketer out there.

Scott and Godin argue that content should be a gift that doesn’t set up a transactional relationship. Rather, your content is an idea that, if good enough, will freely spread throughout the web.

Retorting from the other side are folks who have to show some results for their work. “We need to build a list and measure what we do, you can’t measure free content,” they say.

Until recently, I was torn. I want to be generous, but, man, I’ve got to show something.

Track B2B Content With Facebook Likes

Now that people are spreading Likes across the web we have the opportunity to give content away for free as well as track it. Thus making our broadening our personal networks all the more important.

Likebutton.me is an early to market tool that allows you to build a dashboard of your favorite sites and track who Liked your content. It uses the Facebook Activity feed plug in which you can get here.

As you can see in the image above that I can now see who in my network, Likes or has shared my work. Sure, it’s not perfect. Hey, it’s free. I can’t see everyone who made a like or share.

What it does tell me is that if my personal an private networks were bigger, I’d be able to get more information on about what my customers are reading.

Another benefit is that you can track what your customers think of your competition. Are they getting more likes than you? From your favorite customer? Why? How often?

We’re just in the early phases of tracking the social graph. Other tools like OneRiot are already starting to track Facebook Likes as well. I’m sure we’ll see a surge of new free and enterprise offers coming out the door daily.

In any event, you have to ask youself, “How badly do I want to be Liked?”

Image credit:

This just showed up in one of my alerts. I won’t provide a link, because that would be feeding the beast.

I know your blog posts are a long way from this. Is there something to be learned here, perhaps from the content farms like Demand Studios? They go a long way to provide structured content that is helpful. Is there a risk for something like the beautiful bot disaster below? Or is crowd-sourcing the solution?

Developing Internet Written Content Profit Device

by admin on May 3, 2010

The actual 1st factor which experts claim comes to mind with studying that saying web garden salad written content money device is probably a web dependent ATM or some thing with the types. However, with this situation it really is mentioning one thing various, but something that will secures in just its grasp the potential for unrestricted monetary benefits. It provides an chance for any one for taking total benefit on the most effective marketing plus marketing procedure on the world wide web to achieve their economic self-sufficiency.

Hugh MacLeod coined the term Global Microbrand.

Before that was Seth Godin’s, Purple Cow, a must read for anyone who hopes to sell anything online. I actually keep his lessons on Otaku in my wallet:

“Be irresistable to a tiny group of easily reached sneezers with Otaku.” Otaku is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests.

I tried out the model and created Weightnags (now defunct). After getting on the BBC radio because of it, I figured the model works. I’m still working out the kinks though. Haven’t made my pile just yet. Yeah, I’m a regular Thomas Edison.

Thing about niche marketing is that the SEO guys have latched on to it and turned it into hideous long copy landing pages that scream fraud to me. One or two of the big ones have gone to jail over their tactics. But, hey, apparently it does work. At a minimum, those guys get it. Very well. My bad for being too damn arrogant to try it.

Here are some folks who are purpling the hell out of their cows, but don’t look cheesy doing it.

1) Best Made Company
They make hand made axes. Pretty good ones, I hear.

In their own words:

The Axe is where it all begins, it is a perch from which a new and exciting world is being born, and in this sense Best Made Co. is more than just axes. We are in the business of putting our axes and our message into the hands of people that also want something more, people that want to join us on the adventure.

All our axes are made to order, designed, painted and polished individually in a small workshop environment in downtown New York City.

2) Fundepressors
Making the doctor’s visit fun again, they print images on tongue depressors. Yes, they use non-toxic ink.

In their own words:

FunDepressors are wooden tongue depressors printed with 10 child-pleasing designs in multiple vivid colors. FunDepressors eliminate the fear and anxiety many young patients associate with oral examinations and allow caregivers to conduct exams more quickly and with less patient resistance.

3) Fitdeck

I love anything you can put in a card deck and play with. I bought one of these when it was just the deck of cards. Now, it’s an empire.

In their own words:

FitDeck is a unique deck of 56 playing cards containing illustrations and instructions describing over 50 different exercises, stretches, and movements. These ‘no-equipment’ FitDecks contain exercises that require only your bodyweight to perform. ‘FitDeck Bodyweight’ is our flagship product in this popular series of ‘no-equipment’ FitDecks.

4) Crossfit

I’m surprised these guys aren’t on the deck tip, actually. Crossfit is a workout regime designed to get you stronger through diverse intense training. Military, Law Enforcement, First Responders and wild individualists love it.

In their own words,

CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.

Where have you seen a company seize a small niche and shake it into delight?

Image credit: heiwa4126

I sit here, patiently, awaiting my fate.

When will Evan Williams and Mark Zuckerberg come to pimp slap my free Facebook and Twitter accounts out of my digital hands? I don’t know. Maybe never. My knees knock in anticipation.

Here’s why I ask.

Just today I received notice from NING that they will be discontinuing their free networks. They also tell me that if I want to continue using NING I need to, you guessed it, start coughing up some money, Honey.

Hello!

We’re writing today to let you know about some new and exciting changes coming to Ning. In July, we’re doing two very important things:

1. We’ll be phasing out all free Ning Networks.

We want to provide a new level of innovation to Network Creators — and build all the valuable features Network Creators have asked us to. To get there, we need to focus 100% on paid Ning Networks. This phasing out of free services won’t happen until July, so you’ll have plenty of time to weigh your options. We’ll do our best to provide you with a migration path if you don’t wish to continue with Ning, but we’d love to have you come along for all of the exciting future developments.

Earlier in the year, I got a similar notice from Filtrbox:

Hi Talmadge,

You are recieving this email because you have an active Filtrbox Basic account. I’m writing to inform you that Filtrbox Basic will be discontinued as of March 31st, 2010. As you probably know Filtrbox was recently acquired by Jive Software, Inc., and as a result our priorities and focus are shifting to better support the G2 service and our integration with Jive’s market-leading SBS platform. We are putting all of our time and energy in our B2B offering, and as a result need to discontinue the consumer service.

Are we seeing the end of Freemium? I still don’t totally understand how a business is supposed to make money if doesn’t actually sell anything. Perhaps the last few years were really just long forms of marketing research where they built the product over time and got feedback until they finally made something that people ARE willing to pay for.

The side effect of software as a service and rapid prototyping is that consumers expect things to be free. There’s no written agreement that these services are going to be free forever and the providers have no obligation to do so.

Honestly, since I was getting the digital milk for free, these guys were just becoming account BACN for me anyway.

At yet, I feel a bit cheated, put off that my pusher would finally reclaim his due. I don’t rely on these two services in the least, but Facebook? Twitter? Oh yeah. Can I live without them, probably, but I bet your organization can’t after all the Social Media nails the Twitterati have been zinging home for the last few years.

Even if it’s not Facebook or Twitter. Is there a free service upon which you rely heavily? If so, you may be asked to pay up, sucka. Daddy needs a new IPO.

Image Credit: Phillie Casablanca

I have a few friends that are in the book industry – authors, publicists, and retail employees. The word on the street is that the book publishing industry has loads of problems. From archaic logistics chains to antiquated beliefs about publicity, authors are getting screwed.

But it looks like some authors are coming along (Okay, okay. This example came along in 2008). Gary A. Ballard produced his first Cyberpunk novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, as a series of 14 blog posts.

Brilliant!

Here’s why:
- It builds credibility and an online presence for the author.
- It builds an audience for the author (not just the book).
- It builds anticipation (word of mouth) for other forms of content, products or services.

And yet, the question of theft still abides. People (or bots) are going to scrape your stuff. If you give it all away then it’s not really theft is it? You’re giving a gift that spreads your presence across the web. Perhaps the better question is, “How do you make sure you make money?”

Some possible answers to the question:
- You sell something else – t-shirts, speaking gigs, stickers, comic books, special versions not available on the blog.
- You go multi-verse on their ass. Instead of just the book, you can create an entire multi-modal experience.
- You get real nichey with it, offline. Hell, Jack White of the White Stripes is selling vinyl records now. Vinyl. Do you even own a record player? There are people out there who do, and he’s serving them creatively.

Authors have incredible options for creating, promoting, and selling their own work now. Embrace them.

Image credit: Laughing Lion Design

Presented, without comment, The Shake Weight.

And the Shake Weight for men.

A test with the Hv40. Music by Peter Gabriel, Open.

And then in Vimeo for a player comparison.

swingsets from Talmadge Boyd on Vimeo.

And JW Player in .flv. Boo.