The Buzz Bin

The Network Solutions sponsored Solutions Stars Video Conference (Oct. 29 at 1, don’t miss it!) features nine content themes:

This is the eighth of nine posts in nine days, offering thoughts on each section.

Rising Above the Noise

The increasingly crowded marketplace for eyeballs — the fractured online media environment — makes it very difficult for businesses to successfully market themselves online. There’s so much noise that folks have to rise above the average blog, the prototypical social network user to distinguish themselves to their stakeholders.

Our panelists discussed several ways to separate from the pack. Here are my top five, some from our bloggers, some from my own experiences.

1) Build value for the community with meaningful content and conversations. This is obvious. Like Chris Brogan, constantly serve your readership and deliver time in and time out. When you do that, folks keep coming back AND they inevitably start developing relationships with you.

2) Have an opinion. Most businesses feel they need to people please, that they need to be safe. Great voices on the Internet have an opinion and stand by it, even if some folks don’t like it. They stick by their guns in the face of controversy and other opinions (but if proven wrong factually own it), and they offer strong theories. Some are more diplomatic than others, but all offer value and make people think.

I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody – Bill Cosby

3) Be generous and give your spotlight to others. This is the generous web, and by highlighting other influential voices through links, comments interviews and social network bookmarking, you are helping their social media efforts to succeed. It’s a karmic inevitability that your will draw positive attention to yourself.

4) In addition to building value and shining a light on others, write/create great content. I still think participation on social networks precedes content creation success, but without great content the effort will fail. So while content may not be king anymore, it’s certainly royal.

5) Be you. Personality, genuine, transparent, authentic… Whatever, choose your word of choice. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. Your personality needs to come through so that people can identify with you.

I put this fifth and last for a reason. Most folks overemphasize this and underemphasize the prior four. That’s the social media expert’s mistake. You need to put your stakeholders before your ego.

In addition to the main site, please visit the Solutions Stars Video Conference event pages on Facebook and Upcoming:

• www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=33854706886
• upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1200021