Pet Peeves About Linkedin and Twitter

What some people do on both Linkedin and Twitter sometimes greatly irritate me. I wonder if they irritate a lot of other people too. 


Before I complain about Linkedin, let me complain about Twitter. I've complained before about Twitter here (60% of all Twitter users quit using Twitter within the first 30 days), here (about Twitter manipulating the "Trending" numbers) and here. Now, the most recent thing that irritates me about Twitter is all the junk mail and hard sell pitches; or should I call them "Hard Sell Tweets"? 

I got 1,000s of followers!

Way too many people are posting (in a dishonest and sneaky way) about something that  takes you to a site that asks that you sign up or buy something. 


The most absurd (and by far the most irritating) are the ones that say, "Get 1000's of new Twitter followers." Then when you look at that person's Twitter profile, you see that they only have two-hundred followers or so.


How can they say, "I got 1000's of new followers" etc., etc., blah, blah... When they only have a few hundred? At the link, it tells you that it costs, for example, $500 dollars for 200 "new friends." I thought only rock stars and people like that had paid friends (read: entourage). Why in the world would anyone want to pay for "friends"? What good is it to follow someone who you have zero interest in excepting to add a "1" to the numbers of followers you have?


If I have lots of followers, does that make me popular?


Anyway, that's a dishonest sales tactic, no?


That takes me to my next target; Linkedin. And speaking about dishonest sales tactics; twice in the last 3 weeks, I have been asked by someone to allow them into my network (or whatever it is called) only to have them soon reveal their true purpose: They aren't interested in connecting; they are interested in selling me something.


One girl wants to write a book on Japan and asked me to help out. At first I was flattered, then I realized that she didn't even bother to find out who I was and what I have done here in this country. All she wanted was somebody - anybody - to write something about Japan. What a load of BS.


I kind of felt like the last girl at the bar who gets taken home by a drunk guy who gets her in bed and the next morning wonders how she got into his apartment...


Please excuse my childish vanity here while I blow off steam... There are very few foreigners in Japan who have been here longer than I have. I only know of two. One guy is named Roger Marshall and the other guy is Bruce Jackson. Both gentlemen are the most upstanding - and outstanding - guys you could ever want to meet. I've been here since 1984 (the first time was 1979). Both these guys have been here since the 1970's! Plus, they are true Japanophiles: They speaks the language and understand - as best as any of us can - what the hell is going on here. 


I think that a guy like Roger or Bruce, if I wanted to approach them for sales, at least deserves enough respect from me that I do my due diligence and find out all I can about them before I bother them. Maybe I am conceited, but I hope some young sales person would offer me the same consideration.


Hell, it doesn't have to be Japan, either. Most good salesmen would do their homework before pitching...


So, I wasn't happy when I realized that this dumb girl hadn't even bothered to find out who I was before she asked for my help.


The next guy was from an investment company. He claimed that he wanted to connect... Then, within an hour, he was trying to sell me a sales meeting.


Once again, I gathered that he had no idea who I was or what I have done here in this country. He also claimed that "It would only take 20 minutes of my time to show me how I could make more money from my investments"!? Oh really? I'm over 53 years old and someone can come into my office, shake my hand, sit down and yak for a minute and tell me everything I need to know about taxes and investments? Wow! That's amazing. I wonder why people bother to go to university for 4 years or bother getting a license to become a financial advisor?


Of course, I told this guy, "No!" 


The next time I want to go and feel abused by a salesman I'll go back to the USA and look at used cars, thank you.


I have a good piece of advice for any sales person; before you bother to even make a sales pitch, at least take 10 minutes to try to find out some background information on the people or company that you are approaching.   


If I wanted to have people approaching me for sales like this (like Amway did in the early 1980's) then I would have joined the Mormon church.


One more event like this and I will "un-friend" a lot of people or cancel my Twitter or Linkedin account. Actually, I don't need either. If someone really wanted to get a hold of me, they could.


Just Google; "Mike" and "Tokyo" and there I am. 


Is it just me or are there others who feel the same way; why have Twitter and Linkedin become so much like a dumpy singles bar?

Does Social Media Need Old Media to be Effective? No! Here's Proof!....

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

There sure is a lot of boring stuff on Social Media these days. I was just checking out Linkedin where they had a topic of "What are for you the most common mistakes in social media marketing approach?" (sic)

It said:

What are for you most the common mistakes in social media marketing approach?

Either from client's side or agencies' side, what are the obvious reason why social media strategies you have seen were not working?

For me , some are:
- lack of time investment,
- Boring / irrelevant content,
- lack of clear objectives,
- Being inactive,
- Do not react when sollicitate
- ...
What are yours?

(sic)

I didn't correct his post. That's how poorly it was written. I'm assuming that he's missing one of the reasons that his SMM is doing poorly is because his spelling, diction and grammar are wretched... 

Besides that, these good people are mainly talking about pick, Twitter and Facebook (Mixi is only in Japan). Some of the good folks actually did write intelligent comments and I usually don't write comments on these things, but this time I made an exception. I responded:

 I think everyone is missing two huge points that I see all the time and that I do believe will be, say, Twitter's undoing within 3 years (besides 60% of all Twitter users dropping off within the first 30 days).

1) Boring writers make boring content. Get motivated, creative and funny or interesting writers. Quit forcing office clerks to do SMM (I see that all the time). If the writer is not motivated what makes anyone think the readers will enjoy the writing?

2) Quit sending out motivational and sales stuff all the time... I'd say that at least 1/2 of the junk I get on Twitter is the same as Direct Mail. Who needs it?


Another guy (obviously an old hand at advertising and marketing) wrote:


I see the market and clients every day, and the thing I can tell you is that a B to C company investing all its marketing budget and ressources in social media has 99% chances failing. (sic)


This might be true, but rather than trying to convince you or me, I gather he is trying to convince himself... This would also explain why his Social Media Marketing efforts fail. He doesn't "get it." 


He goes on to write:


This for one simple reason, their are rules and processes in marketing and nobody will want to connect and engage with a brand you don't know.
For this reason , I am convinced that SM works ONLY when being integrated inside a marketing plan, together with media placement, PR, promo, direct marketing and CRM. (sic)


Notice that there is not single fact or piece of evidence that he inserts into his claims. What a load of nonsense. What "rules"? What "processes"? 


(I can imagine that his retort to my skepticism would be "Because I know. I've been in this business a long time!" Just as the captain of the Titanic, Edward Smith, was a thirty-two year veteran when they hit that ice-berg!)


I bet this is the kind of crap he tells his clients. What's he doing on a Linkedin Social Media site besides posing as a SMM expert I don't know. Besides that, like I said, I hope this guy doesn't write copy. It's terrible. 


Besides his being wrong and just throwing out opinions. He obviously doesn't know or comprehend how to use Social Media well... I suspect that, from being in a dusty old advertising company desk for so long, that he's so used to taking client money and going out to "do" lunch while on the client's dollar that he thinks he can do things the old way; think for a while (or tell someone else to do the thinking) and order someone else to do the Social Media part (I explained above why that's a bad idea) and sit around like always.


Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. 


I didn't blast the guy (like he deserved), but added this as my last word:


One more thing that I think is missing - and I don't agree that a big bucks mass media plan is necessary - I've done it without one.

Notes: We increased airline passengers to and from Japan for a Chinese airlines by over 270% between October 2009 and April 2010. We also increased tourism to Croatia by 300% in three years (don't forget this was during a seriously down market - airlines lost billions in 2009) all by the internet only - with minimal mass media support (we certainly did not spend one cent on mass media!).

It seems that too many good folks are trying to do the SMM the lazy way... You do SMM to keep costs down, but SMM is, perhaps not labor intensive, but it is certainly effort intensive.

Besides SMM you need to do a Word-press blog for the client that includes SNS (Use Ruby on Rails to build - dirt cheap) and gives away killer content, has contests and prizes, and motivates people to return everyday!

Being lazy and throwing money away at the old media then doing a few Twitters doesn't cut it anymore. (which is actually why I say Twitter is in serious trouble!)

Make a killer blog for the client (perhaps using a persona like Helga of Volkswagen - Look her up on Google). The blogs needs video (suggest U-Stream recorded to YouTube), SNS, chat, free information, excellent and compelling writing, and free giveaways all the time.

That motivates people!

Then your SMM directs people to the blog, not to some boring corporate site that is nothing more than an online company brochure (that is structured like web 1.0) .

This is effective. This s the new way. It is not easy and lazy people who think that throwing money or half-butt efforts at it need not apply.


Like I've said many times before, it seems that a lot of these people who claim to be experts at Social Media actually do not "do" Social Media. If you ever get anyone who claims to be an expert, first off ask for their URL's


Hint: If they do not blog - and do not actively blog at least three times a week - I'd say it's a 99% chance that they are blowing smoke in your face. Don't fall for it. 


Smart Social media marketers will have a rundown of what they do (excepting for invitation members only sites) as the signature of their e-mails. Here's mine:


Mike in Tokyo Rogers
e-mail: mike.rogers@universal-vision.jp 
Blog: http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.com/

Lew Rockwell: http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers-arch.html
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mikeintokyo2004
Pick: http://naver.jp/mikeintokyorogers
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikeintokyo2004

Facebook: www.facebook.com/MikeinTokyoRogers
Linkedin: http://jp.linkedin.com/in/mikeintokyorogers

Look for these kinds of things when investigating a potential company to help you with marketing. Be leery of companies, big or small, who claim to be experts at Social Media. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding.


Some of my readers know I will be on vacation from tomorrow, but nevertheless the BLOG calls! Tomorrow, I will place diagrams and information tomorrow morning for all of you who have mailed about bit differentiations between Japanese Katakana and Japanese Kanji versus English pertaining to my recent blog.


But, just for a teaser. Consider:


Word (translation).......................................Bit count


イギリス (England)...................................8 bits
England.......................................................7 bits
旅行 (Travel)...............................................4 bits
Travel...........................................................6 bits


Data on the Internet consist of bits. It is the way data is stored. This is important to know if you want to run a successful business in Japan.


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Keywords:
blog, Social Media, Mixi, Google, Helga, SMM, Mike Rogers, Social Media Services, China, Croatia, England, Travel, bit, bit count, Japan,  Japanese Kanji, Modern Marketing Japan, social media marketing, promo, Japanese Katakana, PR, Twitter, marketing plan, Facebook, Linkedin, airlines, YouTube, U-Stream, e-mail, Lew Rockwell, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, chat, Marketing Japan, web, web 1.0, Volkswagen, Ruby on Rails, Placement, Word Press, mass media, free information, direct marketing,

Marketing Japan: Internet Versus FM Radio? A Cost Comparison....

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Last night I had the "pleasure" of co-hosting a radio show called "Bam!" on 76.1 InterFM. InterFM is one of Tokyo's 5 major FM stations. It is the flagship of a network of FM stations in Japan called the "Mega-Net" (of which one of the big network stations went bankrupt about two months ago!).

With Taro Furukawa on 76.1 InterFM Bam!

Being on the show was a fairly pleasurable experience for the most part but the loss of "excitement" for working in FM radio was palpable in the air amongst the staff. The thrill of FM radio was lost on me long ago...(Actually, the station wants me to be on this particular  show regularly and has had my photo on their web page for nearly a year, even though I haven't been there in a long time.)

Why haven't I been going to the radio station? Let me explain just one of the many reasons why....

Things in FM radio today in Japan are nothing like they were twenty-five, twenty, even ten years ago. I suspect the same is true everywhere. Even as recently as ten years ago being on the radio was exciting and there was the glam and glitz of "Hollywood" in the air.... Now? It seems like it is just a job to most people at the station.

Things aren't what they used to be... Although they never were...

I gather that the attitude of the radio station staff was just like that of a clerk at a government office or a manual laborer assembling nuts and bolts or attaching grommets at a factory. There was no passion. No buzz of excitement in the air. It seemed to me that everyone just consider this "another job."

People who think this way and have no passion for their work should find a job that they like or, most certainly, they should not be in any sort of creative endeavor.

I know how FM radio was over 30 years ago as I have hosted, produced, directed, cleaned toilets, served coffee and been a "go-fer" for radio shows and radio stations since I was a university student... In Japan, I am a very old-timer in this business.

During the program last night, I tried to pay attention to the commercials that they aired during the show and was surprised to hear that there were very few. Oh sure they had things that sounded like commercials, but, for the most part, they were "spots" about other programs.

Spots about other programs do not earn a station any money. Zero. Zip. Nada.

But I did hear, I think, two "real" commercials the entire two hour live show... One was for car insurance and the other one? Well, I can't really say that I understood what that was a commercial for... They were either selling milk or hiring drivers! I didn't catch it very well.

That's the problem with radio. If you missed it the first time, it's gone... you can't scroll back.

During the commercial for insurance, I wondered (again) why anyone would pay money for a 15 second commercial that runs at, say, exactly 10 pm and runs for exactly 15 seconds then disappears into oblivion? I mean, who hears these commercials? How much do they cost? How do they measure results?

InterFM broadcasts to an area of 35 million homes in Tokyo... Conservative estimates are 65 million people. So they have a huge potential pool of listeners. But how many are actually listening?

I suspect not many.

I have some anecdotal evidence that I can share concerning numbers of listeners....

In the past, I helped organized promotional campaigns for InterFM before whereby an airlines would, say, provide 3 pairs round-trip tickets to Macau with two nights free stay at a 5 star hotel... Basically the vacations were all expenses paid... The cash value for one pair of tickets with hotel was about (¥340,000) $3,600.

The commercials for the contest ran at least six times a day everyday for a week. That makes six 15 second commercials at 1.5 minutes a day multiplied by five days. That is a total of 7.5 minutes. (This 7.5 minutes will be an important point later in this article so keep this in mind!)

In a city of 65 million people, and only 5 FM stations, guess how many people signed up for the contest? 5,000? 50,000? 100,000? 200,000 people?

Nope. 82 people. Eighty two! Eight. Two. Oh! 8-2-oh as in "Oh my God! What a fricking disaster that campaign was!"

Of course there were more than 82 names who "signed up" for the contest. There were about 318 names in total (still lame!). But, I say 82 people (about) because everyone who signed up also signed up their spouses and their parents and in-laws... Some people even signed up their children. Heck, for all I know, some people could have signed up their dogs and cats. We could judge the fact that one person signed up their entire family by seeing on the sign up list the same family names of 4, 5, 6 people in a row.

So 82 is, pardon my French, "peis poor."

OK. Forget the poor results. Let's look at cost.

A campaign like this would normally cost about ¥5,000,000 (about $60,000) - heavily discounted it would cost about $17,000. And InterFM is one of the cheaper rated stations...

$17,000 dollars is a heck of a lot of money to pay for 7.5 minutes of airtime...

Now, think about it; why in the world would any sponsor pay ¥1,500,000 (about $17,000) for a week long campaign like this? I figure it is because the person who is in-charge of the money at a sponsor company is ancient and doesn't understand the Internet and still has some idea that FM radio is cool because "the kids like it." This person would have to be ancient because that would explain their poor eyesight. (As I know from experience, when you get older, your eyes get real bad!) I mean that these people would have to be ancient because ancient people are the only ones to have poor enough eyesight not to notice the white earplugs every second person on the subway is wearing.

(Hint: There is no FM reception in the subway and those white things in everyone's ears are earplugs for Apple iPods and iPhones!)

How much better that advertising money would be spent on creating a contest web page and using SNS and Social media like YouTube, Twitter, U-Stream, Pick, Facebook, Linkedin, blogs, Mixi, video blogs, vlogs, SEO that catches Google and Yahoo! to drive folks to your contest and company, product or service 24/7!

Heck, for what a sponsor spends on a week long campaign on the radio - where it is questionable if anyone hears it - they can get metrics and measure exactly the numbers of web page hits and what the effects of a Tweet or a YouTube has on their "bounce"....

Then they measure and tweak as they go along.

For $17,000, a sponsor could run a killer Internet campaign and probably run it for 3 ~ 6 months 24/7 before they run out of money....  

Now, I ask you, how would you spend the $17,000? Would you opt for the 3 ~ 6 months 24/7 Internet campaign or the 7.5 minutes campaign on FM radio?

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Keywords:
Apple, FM Radio, Social Media, Macau, Japan, Google, InterFM, Tweet, Linkedin, Blogs, video-blogs, Pick, Twitter, U-Stream, Tokyo, FM station, Barter, Mega-net, Facebook, YouTube, SEO, SNS, Yahoo!, Tokyo, Taro Furukawa

Marketing Japan: Mish Shedlock's Blog (a Great Place to Study Blogging!)

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

I've mentioned before that if you blog, you'll need to blog at least three times a week in order to get great results on a Google or Yahoo search... Now, with Google Caffeine, I think the game has changed and you'll need to blog, video blog, YouTube, U-Stream, Mixi, Pick, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin - whew! - any Social Media or SNS that you are doing at least 5 times a week (better to do 7 days a week) in order to get great results...

From Mike "Mish" Shedlock's Blog: Sunday Funnies

I suppose that this also means that you'll need to cut down doing so many different Social Media services and just concentrate on a few. Like David Meerman Scott says in his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR (I'm paraphrasing),

"Social media sites are like parties around town. It's impossible to go to every party; to go to every conversation. So just pick a few and have good conversations there." 

He's right.

I'm thinking that I am not going to join anymore Social Media sites anymore. I'm just sticking with Mixi, Facebook, Pick and Twitter. Throw in Youtube and U-Stream along with my regular writing on Lew Rockwell and the writing on this blog and I'ver got enough conversations going on... In fact, too many. Maybe I should cut down.

Hmmmm/

Anyhow, I'd like to point you to a guy who has a blog that I think is just great. His name is Mike Shedlock but he calls himself "Mish." This makes him have a unique name that I always want; Mish Shedlock. Secondly, he updates new material on his blog everyday. See his blog here.

How does he do it? Check it out! He writes his own material but he also copy and pastes material he finds and comments on it.

In this way, he can keep the Google search engine happy, get great results on Google search and Yahoo search and have a very popular blog. I suggest you check it out.

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Keywords: Google, Yahoo, SNS, Yahoo search, David Meerman Scott, Youtube, Google caffeine, Mixi, Twitter, Linkedin, Lew Rockwell, Mish Shedlock, Mike Rogers, Mish, Social Media, U-Stream, Facebook, blog, video blog, Google search engine, great results on Google search, New Rules of Marketing and PR, 

Google Announces Google Caffeine! Amazing Search Speed and Results!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Last month Google announced their newest web search index and it's called Caffeine and it is just fantastic! If you write or blog as often as you should, then you are always looking for ways to brush up what you do to give your readers information that they want as quickly as you can...

After all that's what the Internet is good at and what Google is excellent at!

Whether you are using any sort of Social Media for marketing, business or pleasure, Google's new Caffeine is just like what it is called, "A wake up jolt!"

Take heed all bloggers, video bloggers, U-Stream or Youtube users, Facebook, Mixi, Linkedin, Pick or Twitter users because when you upload any sort for information to your SNS site or on the Internet in general, Google Caffeine is tracking you and allowing the people who are looking for your information to find you quickly and easily.  

Recently, I had been wondering how it was possible when I had an article published on, say www.lewrockwell.com, that a Google search who show my article in the results within 2 hours of publishing, but that's exactly the super-high speed performance that Google Caffeine offers. It is simply incredible.

From Google's press release about Google Caffeine:

Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale. In fact, every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second. Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day. You would need 625,000 of the largest iPods to store that much information; if these were stacked end-to-end they would go for more than 40 miles.

Wow! That's a fair share of information processing in the blink of an eye, I'd say.

This makes it critical for those of you who are blogging to effectively use your keywords and tags so that a search on Google using Google Caffeine can find you. It also makes it even more important for folks who are video blogging or using Youtube or U-stream to make sure that they input the correct information on the description of their videos and tag them as much as possible...

Of course, then, it also stands to reason that when you do upload a new blog or vlog, then you will announce it on you SNS network (Facebook, Mixi, Twitter, or Pick) and those, too, will be analyzed by Google Caffeine and get you even better results for your efforts.

Hats off to Google for Google Caffeine. Just how does Google keep this torrid pace of great ideas and products up?

I think Yahoo is in trouble even though Yahoo Japan is doing pretty well.

By the way, just as a side note, I spoke to George Williams on the telephone this morning and he mentioned something to me that I thought was very interesting and a sign of  the times. He said, "You know, it used to be that young people were interested in working at companies like Sony or a big record label. Not anymore. Young people today are only interested in two companies; Apple or Google."

Absolutely. And with products coming out like iPad and Google Caffeine who can blame them?

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Keywords:  

Google, Twitter, Yahoo Japan, Linkedin, iPad, Mixi, Yahoo, video bloggers, bloggers, Social Media, Google Caffeine, Google's new Caffeine, Youtube, Mixi, Twitter, U-Stream, Facebook, Business, Sony, Apple, Pick, Google, SNS, blog

The Collapse of Old Media and Antique Ratings Systems.

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

It's a recurring theme in many of my blogs; the old order is quickly collapsing right in front of our faces; TV and radio are dying.

Viewership and listenership of TV and radio are sliding down a steep slope and there's no recovering. Of course, think about it; anyone who has the time, in this day and age, to sit for 3 or 4 hours a day, everyday, in front of the TV must either be;

a) Jobless
b) Poor
c) Inactive
d) Lazy

Hate to be so rough sounding but I can't think of any sponsors who want to advertise or market to people who are inactive, lazy or have no money.

Most terrestrial TV & radio stations are both heading the way of the Short-Wave or Ham radios. The Internet is allowing for totally new ways for entertainment to be delivered to a targeted audience. Why would sponsors waste huge budgets on TV advertising that advertises to EVERYBODY when they can target their select group?

They won't. That's why old media is dying a slow death. Read more about that here and here in two articles I wrote about the Long Tail.

What a waste of a life. People who fear death, 

yet don't know what to do with themselves on a slow Sunday.

George Williams and a few few friends and I will be launching a new online concert series starting September in Japan. That's about all the details I can give right now because everything is still Top Secret.

This online concert series has come about because Japanese artists and musicians have gotten fed up with the old order and major record labels telling them what they can and cannot do. It also comes about because artists have seen with their own eyes what the Internet and Social Media can do for them.

From SNS services such as Mixi to Facebook and Linkedin, there are many artists in this country just now plugging in and finding out that they don't need a major label to tell them what to do and how to think. Twitter and Pick are also doing very well in this country even though it doesn't really seem that many artists have plugged into how it can help them to become independent.

Five nights a week George Williams has Japan's top artists on his U-Stream, and now, he's starting to place recorded versions of those shows on YouTube. Throw on top of that his blog that's about to begin (including blogging and video blogs) then you have a guy, in the music industry, who is showing these musicians first-hand just how simple this can all be.

The online concert series is all a part of this simplicity and freedom. One of the famous artists, Koji Kurumatani, who is an important partner in this online concert project told me that musicians are sick and tired of the old order.

He also mentioned that he (and I gathered a bunch of his other friend musicians) had come to the conclusion that it was absurd to sign with a major label as today's top selling albums on the Oricon Chart (Japan's version of the Billboard Charts) sells about 30,000 copies.

Koji said,  "If an artist signs with a major and only gets a 2-5% royalty with a major label, then they only sell a few thousand copies, then why bother? It would be much more profitable and fun to do it completely Indie."

Of course, Koji is 100% correct.

To prove that this collapse of the old order is not happening just in Japan, here's an article from the Washington Post that talks about TV getting the worst ratings in history last week.

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans avoided television in historic levels over the past week.

CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox together had the smallest number of prime-time viewers last week in two decades of record-keeping, the Nielsen Co. said. Given the dominance of the big broadcasters before then, you'd probably have to go back to the early days of television to find such a collective shrug.

The first week of July tends to be among the slowest weeks of the year in television, anyway, with families more engaged in barbecues and fireworks. The problem was magnified this year because July Fourthcame on Sunday, largely knocking out one of a typical week's biggest viewing nights.

Together, the four networks averaged 18.9 million viewers last week, Nielsen said. During the season, "American Idol" alone usually gets a bigger audience than that.

I'm sure that this sort of article will be coming out less and less in the near future. Why?

Because every week will be worse than the last one for TV, radio, magazines and old media. And this sort of story is becoming old hat really quickly.

The only place that will shine from here on out is the Internet.  The revolution is being televised - not by what TV is showing, but by what they don't show.  

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Keywords:
Facebook, Internet, Twitter,  George Williams, Mike Rogers, U-Stream, market, Billboard, Fox, Japan, TV, blogs, SNS, CBS, Nielsen, terrestrial TV, Mixi, ABC, Blogging, video blogs, targeted audience, NBC, Linkedin, YouTube, magazines, Pick, American Idol, musicians, radio stations, Japanese, advertise, music industry, Oricon, old media, Koji Kurumatani, audience, Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Marketing Japan: Six Basic Rules for Effective Internet Blogging and Intelligent Social Media in Japan and Beyond...

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Here are the first six rules that absolutely should be followed if you wish to build up a good following for your blog or other Internet activities. Do these today (they're easy and free) and you will be way ahead of the game immediately.

1) Think about your name and use a unique and effective name every time try not to deviate! I use Mike in Tokyo Rogers which makes me much more unique than Mike Rogers, of which there must be millions of and I know that there are a few who are famous. One is an athlete, a politician from Michigan, one is an actor, one is a musician and another is a K-1 fighter. Try to use your online name in your e-mail address to make it easier to find you. Anytime you see my name on the Internet is is Mike in Tokyo Rogers. 

2) Take a real photo of yourself to use as your avatar and use the same one everywhere possible.

3) Create online bio's using this name and avatar everywhere you frequent on the Internet: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Youtube, Myspace, Mixi, Pick, Linkedin, U-Stream, and on your video blogs and vlogs, etc.

4) Comment on other people's blogs and, this way, people will begin to see your name and avatar and bio. It helps you to build a reputation and a brand and image. This is not just good business, it is smart and intelligent marketing.

5) Always add keywords to any and all blogs you write for the Internet.

6) Whenever you upload a new blog, vlog, U-Stream or Youtube, make sure that you announce it on your other Social Media Marketing tools. For example, announce new blogs at least 2 -3 times within the next 24 hours of putting them online. That way you can drive people to you.

Do these six tips religiously and you will be way ahead of 99% of the others. Now that's smart marketing!

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Keywords: U-Stream, Pick, Internet, smart marketing, Marketing Japan, Social Media, marketing, Youtube, intelligent, Japan, Intelligent Social Media, blog, Yahoo, vlog, video blog, Facebook, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, unique name, effective, avatar, Google, Twitter, Social Media Marketing, Mixi, Linkedin, Pick