The Historian

First let me tell you about Xomba. It is a web site where you can make money online by writing articles or posting bookmarks to web site. You earn a 50/50 share of the money made through Google Adsense, but you have to have an account with Adsense.

Here are my thoughts on how Xomba can increase its the number of users and thus increase its profits.

1.) Better Integration with Social Media Sites

Like most site these days Xomba has all the buttons to help users and visitors link to various social media sites, however it does not allow its writers to integrate their accounts in to their profiles on the Xomba site so that when an author makes a post it is automatically posted to their twitter, facebook status or other social sites. This simple addition will instantly increase the exposure for the writer as well as Xomba. Additionally if Xomba were to add its own URL shortener it could show click through statistics for the writers.

2.) Help Users Maximize Their Profit Potential While Using Xomba

Xomba was created to allow users to easily earn money on things they post. This brings in people with little or no experience in writing and even the use of keywords and other way of self promoting online. Xomba can add weekly, bi-weekly and Posts, Podcast and Webinars to help their users learn to be better at what they do. They can even leverage their top users to assist in these by doing interviews and having them make additional posts on being better at Xomba.

3.) Promote their “Best of the Best” and Featured Writers

The front page of the site shows Xomba Features, these are articles that seems to have received a fair bit of votes over the past few hours , however it does not mention the author and there doesn’t appear to be any place that truly promotes individual writers. Perhaps this could be integrated with the little used “Contests”. And maybe featured writers could up for special weekly, monthly and yearly awards? Who wouldn’t want to win a “Xombie of the Year” award?

Xomba also has a twitter account (@xomba) that is currently updated a few times a day. This feed could be used to instantly promote articles that get a “Featured” status and to point out writers that are really contributing to the Xomba Community. And speaking of community…

4.) Add Real Forums and Build a Community

Admittedly Xomba says it has “forums”, but really they have a feedback and suggestion tool that they are calling forums. Add some real forums and allow your users to build their own Zombie community. These forums can be used to distill ideas, collaborate and to assist new Xombites in getting familiar with Xomba. This alone can help with retention of those users who sign-up but then never make more than one or two posts. Create a “Welcome Team” and have them contact new users to see if they need help.

5.) Catch the Details

There are some things on the site that I just don’t understand and I was unable to find any info on them.

1. What are the “Points” for?
2. How does one get into the Hall of Fame?
3. Who is in the Community Think Tank and how do I contribute.
4. Contests, where are they?

And finally, and this is me being nit-picky, can someone please fix the broken image on the main Help page? 

Full disclosure: Xomba, a local Jacksonville startup, is looking to hire an Online PR Associate. I’ve tossed my hat in to the ring but wanted to go one step further and offer some of my thoughts on increasing the user base for the company.

Forrester’s five year forecast of B2B interactive marketing spending has gone live on the Forrester site. So, where do the B2B marketers plan to invest?

That is a 490% Increase in Social Media Spend by 2014 alone. Michael Greene even went so far as to list Social Media as one of the “few universal truths for B2B marketers”.

B2B marketers can’t ignore social media.

Consumer-focused marketers have been relatively fast out of the gate in adopting social marketing, but I believe that it’s B2B marketers who will ultimately gain the most from social technologies. B2B marketers have always understood the need to develop deeper relationships with customers, and while traditional sales and client service operations aren’t going to disappear, social media has emerged as key platform for informing decision makers during the sales process and engaging and supporting existing clients.

B2B Interactive Spend Will Double By 2014 – Forrester Research

As of today, I am officially job hunting… So, in an effort to find a great job as a Community Manager/Social Media guy, I’m hosting a crazy three-day blog, web site promotion event and social media party on my blog, my Facebook Fan page and my Twitter account. What’s truly unique about this event is that I plan to check out every link posted on my page, comment and share the link as I deem appropriate. Everybody may participate. It’s not necessary to have a blog or other website.

Historian’s Social Media Party

Hey companies, If you’d like to donate a door prize such as an products, T-shirts or anything else, please connect with me as quickly as possible by calling +1 (310) 574-2843 and leaving a voice mail.

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions:

1. How do I register for this event?
   Visit the event page Historian’s Social Media Party and click on Attending. If you’re not a Facebook member, join Facebook first.
2. I don’t want to use Facebook, now what?
   Post a comment here, or send me a message via twitter just use #SocMeParty so I know it is about this.
3. In what ways can I participate?
   You can post a link to your blog or website with a brief non-hypey introduction. You can network (see below) with other people and check out their links. You can even be a fly on the wall (no pun intended) and just chill.
4. What if I don’t have a blog or other website?
   Post a link to your Facebook page or profile, to your Twitter profile, LinkedIn profile, call me and leave a voice mail +1 (310) 574-2843, etc.
5. When does this event take place?
   From Feb 15-17 according to the date wherever you are.
6. Do I have to be awake and online for 72 hours?
   Nope.
7. What am I not permitted to promote?
   No porn or hate content. No predominantly religious content. Gaming stuff is a huge plus!
8. How many links may I post during the event?
   One…  with an exception…
9. What if you don’t get to me?
   If I don’t get around to acknowledging your post within seven days, you may post a new link or re-post the old one.
10. Can I network with other participants?
    You are encouraged to network, but please do so in a professional manner to avoid being forced to play “Strawberry Shortcake: Musical Match-Ups” with a broken controller.
11. When will you be hosting another event like this one?
    I don’t know. It depends on how this one goes. If I get a great job, you can expect something like this at my new position. If not, I will hire bouncers and make it a rave with a $5 cover instead.
12. What happens if I don’t attend this one?
    You’ll have to live with a guilty conscience for all eternity.
13. This bullet point intentionally left blank.
    It’s number 13 and people are superstitious…
14. Do I need to bring anything to the party?
    No, but you can help promote this event.
15. How can I help promote this event?
    You can link to this article, share it on FB, tweet it, Stumble it, Digg it, or print copies and mail them to all your friends, family and colleagues.
16. What if I don’t think you deserve this shameless self-promotion?
    I’ve got kids and bills, work with me here.
17. What if you haven’t answered my question?
    I just pretend to be perfect, post it below and I will try and answer.

* Note that I reserve the right to modify the rules and conditions of this event arbitrarily and capriciously with or without prior or subsequent notice. I will also remove posts and comments as I see fit.

Don’t hesitate to connect, leave a comment, or offer me a job.

I want to thank Larry Brauner of http://online-social-networking.com/ for the idea for this event.

In the chaos of bring a major expansion I sometimes get one or two people who ask, "How do you do it?", "How to you stay calm when it seems like chaos?" and "I don’t know how you don’t just lose it sometimes".

I rarely talk about my spiritual beliefs. I’m just one of those people that feels like it is a very personal thing and I don’t want to seem like I’m forcing what I think on others. That said, it is at the core of my ability to weather the storms of the players.

At about nineteen I came across a copy of "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman. Little did I know then the impact that it would have on my life. The title of this post, applies to a main character in the book, which I encourage you to read. No, I’m not going to review it here, but only touch on one aspect of its greater message: "Accept emotions completely, let your feelings be; just don’t let them run your life".

I do get angry with people. Sometimes very angry, but I try to not let it run me. In fact I try to maintain a good sense of humor. I also try very hard to understand their perspective.

So are they really mad at me? At the root of all their complaints they want the same thing we do: "A game that works well and is fun to play". Yes, they typically have a very specific thing that is most important to them, but honestly, all the complaints boil down to that one truth.

And in that, we are on the same side.

What is Community Management? If you haven’t heard, it is the rising start in the web world. Even if it is under the guise of "Social Media Guru" it still breaks down to working with a community around something, and these days… that "something" can be just about anything.

No matter what your community is about, your role will include communicating to them and gathering information from them. The first rule of good communication is to "shut the hell up and listen". In order to do that you will need to make yourself available. These means being active within the community via blogs, forums, social websites, instant messaging or even plain old email.

Enter your community and start watching the flow of conversations. See what they like, don’t like and how they react to positive and negative information from their fellows. This will give you a better understanding of how to communicate to them in a way that they will respond to and promote an environment of collaboration. Additionally you should become very knowledgeable about the focus of your community, assuming you are not already a pro. The community will expect you to know as much as possible about this focal point. Sometimes the sheer amount of information can seem overwhelming and at the very least you should be willing to say "I don’t know, but I will find out", just be sure you do find out. You can also learn a great deal from the community itself. They are the best knowledge base for you and they will often have fine details on things that even your company might not. It is this knowledge base that will turn into a mother lode of useful information for you.

Once you feel comfortable, introduce yourself and join the conversation. I will cover that in my next post with my 2nd Rule of Community Management: Be the Middle Man