Social media consultant and author of the blog, The Viral Garden, Mack Collier, offered us his thoughts on social networking, viral marketing and blogging. Driven by the ‘community first’ approach to blogging and social media, Mack helps companies learn how to engage in social media.

A frequent contributor to the website Marketing Profs, as well as the marketing blog Daily Fix, Mack has spoken about social media strategies to small and large companies such as Dell and Microsoft. He has also been referenced in publications and websites such as The Washington Post, CNET and The Boston Globe.

BB: What’s your favorite social network and why?

MC: Honestly, I don’t spend a lot of time with the sites that most people think of as ’social networks.’ If I had to pick one, I’d probably say LinkedIn, because I get some value from the Q&A section. I learn a lot, and I can see the networking value as well. But right now I get more of both from Twitter and Plurk.

BB: What’s more important for viral marketing: Social networks or blogs?

MC: I think it depends on where your network is, and where the people you want to reach are. And really, the spreading of ideas via either could be greatly enhanced by another platform, such as Twitter. Twitter still trumps anything I’ve seen in the social space as far as how quickly ideas can spread.

BB: How will the dust settle on the increasingly competitive microblog marketplace (Twitter, Plurk, etc.)?

MC: Twitter will still remain the dominant player in the microblogging space. This is why I laugh at the ‘Twitter vs. Plurk’ silliness, because Plurk’s emergence actually helps Twitter, IMO. Plurk has taken the 140-char microblogging format backbone that Twitter uses, and they’ve added their own quirky format and functionality. This opens the door for future competitors to do the same thing, bringing their own unique look and appeal to the microblogging space. But I think that because Plurk stuck with the (more or less) 140-char limit, that actually helps solidify that as being the key determinant of what a microblog is. And that helps give credibility to Twitter, since it was the first dominant player in the space.

I think Twitter’s userbase will continue to expand rapidly, and it could have close to mainstream appeal in the next couple of years. Plurk IMO is too quirky to appeal to the masses, but it will enjoy a very devoted niche following. Unless it really does take off with teens, as the founders were hoping for. But I still think that Plurk adding threaded conversations is huge, and will affect the microblogging space from this point forward.

BB: What is the most important aspect of creating a viral campaign?

MC: There HAS to be some sort of value built-in to your ad/video/whatever that the person can quickly and easily see. It can be something funny, something informative, something that makes me happy, whatever. But I have to see the value in it immediately, and I need to have a mechanism in place that makes it easy for me to quickly share that value with others.

BB: Where do you seek inspiration for your blog posts?

MC: Mainly by simply interacting with other people on blogs, Plurk, or Twitter. I also try to regularly scan my feeds, but what I’ve started doing is using Twitter to share interesting posts that I’ll come across. Recently, many of my post ideas have come from conversations I’ve had on Plurk, or via email from someone I’ve met on Plurk. Did I mention that I like Plurk?

BB: Do you anticipate all of this new media going the way of Prodigy and Compuserve?

MC: It’s funny that you ask that, because I was on both Prodigy and Compuserve, and loved both! And what I loved about both sites was how they let me connect with other people. So we’ve just been tweaking and changing how we connect with people online for the last 20 years. I used message boards on Prodigy, then message boards and chat rooms on Compuserve. Now it’s blogs, Twitter and Plurk. As I keep saying, don’t focus on the tools, but rather the connections that the tools make possible. We continue to gravitate toward tools that allow us to have more beneficial and valuable connections. But it all comes back to interacting and connecting with other people. That’s a basic human desire that isn’t going anywhere, and neither are the tools that allow us to connect and communicate.

BB: What’s next for Mack Collier?

MC: I’ve got a couple of logs on the fire that I can’t talk about yet ;) Right now I am just busy as usual with social media consulting work. Starting in September, I’ll be speaking at several Fall events, including Small Business Marketing Unleashed in Ohio in September, and Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer in Oct in Arizona. Really looking forward to these and the others as I love connecting with people that are curious about this space, and it’s always great to catch up with friends. Hope to see you again soon as well!