Below are a collection of Twitter blurbs I made in the month of August. I’ve decided to archive them here more or less in their original form. Some are @ Replies and some are broadcast statements. I’ve re-worded some of my Twitter blurbs and expanded on others.

markdavidson Reminder to myself: I’m going to start writing a personal blog expanding upon my ideas on how to build community, direct traffic, and develop online followings. 02:15 AM September 05, 2008

In the first section, I’m addressing the Pareto principle or 80–20 rule as it applies to what I’ve been finding on blogs for over a year now. I believe that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your knowledge. If the sum of all marketing knowledge is represented as a pie, the 80% that you are getting, will only yield 20% of your results. You aren’t getting the 20% of that pie that will yield you the 80% of your results. If you were getting that last 20% from the newsfeeds you subscribe to, you’d have a rockstar blog of your own. I also bring up the subject of hard work. Without action, there is no magic. Anything truly worth doing is going to be hard work and will most likely require overcoming some kind of fear or apprehension.

The best course of action is the right thing. The next best is the wrong thing. The worse course of action is to do nothing. The secret to success in all things is to do those things you don’t feel like doing because it’s hard work.

In the second section, I was blurbing about developing an awareness of what works and what doesn’t work. This is tied directly into the first section. If nobody is writing about the magical 20%, then how do you gain that knowledge? Through observation. That’s how. I don’t believe that success is random. I don’t believe that success comes easily. I believe that results can be measured and duplicated. Start developing your awareness of what works, what doesn’t work, and most importantly, why. Unless you understand the mechanics behind effective online marketing and internet communication, your results will be random and unpredictable. Ultimately you want to deploy strategies with laser-like precision.

In the third section, I throw out some random thoughts.

The fourth section I blurbed live from Gnomedex. At the time, I was watching the Ma.gnolia presentation. They were solely focused on the technology. I felt like they had missed the whole point. It’s not about the technology, it’s all about the people using the technology. This is a key difference between Ma.gnolia and Kwippy.com. One of my favorite things I’ve heard @lizstrauss say over and over is, “It’s not about us, it’s about them.” Liz treats her audience like family, your social networking platform should too.

It’s important that we are constantly mindful of our audience. The two key take-aways from Gnomedex for me were that we need to make the available tools easier to use and we need to find new ways to lower the barrier to entry. The less intimidating new media and social networks become, the broader our audience will be. This is essential moving forward. It’s not about the tools, it’s 100% about the people using the tools. It’s all about “them”.

Rockstar Blogs

August 09, 2008

All the rockstar blogs give you 80% of what you need to know. It’s that last 20% that will give you 80% of your results.

Here’s my advice. Don’t read what they write. Watch what they do instead. That’s how you’ll get the last 20% that you’re missing.

You can have all the tools. You can use all the tools. The “magic” is in what you do daily and how you tie everything together.

Oh and as long as I’m pontificating, the secret to success in all things is to do those things you don’t feel like doing because it’s hard.

That last 20% produces 80% of the results (percentages not to scale, objects seem closer than they appear).

I think that most of us are getting the 80% of the efforts that will lead to 20% of our results on most of the rock star blogs.

But the 20% that will lead to 80% of our results is not… and I completely understand why and wouldn’t do any differently.

BUT the 20% that leads to 80% of their results can be observed because it’s demonstrated. Also, there’s no other way to learn.

Place more emphasis on watching what people do and how they do it, rather than listening to what people say, right?

Thanks. It’s been a while since I’ve last done this. It’s like handing someone only 80% of a recipe and hoping it turns out.

I don’t know if it’s about teaching success so much as the 20% probably isn’t very compelling, easily explained, or marketable.

For example, Chris Pirillo is really smart, has been at this for over a decade, is 100% committed, and works 14+ hours a day.

Now what kind of an ebook would that make? lol. Nobody wants to read that! What sells the best is the promise of instant success!

I have yet to read an ebook or see a website with a warning label: “Hard work and lots of reading ahead. Marketing experience a plus.”

Awareness

August 09, 2008

Good PR is an amazingly powerful force. The skill to change people’s perceptions with words and images.

Everyone who has ever spoken to me offline knows that I have a methodology behind everything, keep metrics, and eliminate randomness.

They also know that I diagram successful sites and blogs. I analyze why things work and how. I analyze copy, the use of colors and images.

I don’t believe that success is random. I don’t believe that success comes easily. I believe that results can be measured and duplicated.

Exercise: Analyze every element on your 5 favorite sites or blogs. Particularly analyze what they are doing off-site and how. Diagram it.

How do those site/blogs use color and images? How are they branded? What is the frequency of their updates on site and off?

What tools do they use? View their page source. Analyze their keywords. Do they use anchors in their copy or deploy cognitive biases?

Analyze where your eyes are drawn. What grabs your attention? Does the copy create mental pictures in your mind’s eye or create an emotion?

What provokes an internal response? What motivates you to take some kind of action & why? Monitor your internal responses and write them down.

Good copy and marketing hits you on multiple levels. Some of it on a conscious level and some on a subconscious level. Develop an awareness.

What are your triggers? Identify them. Write them down. Observe. Experiment. Read. Take notes. Monitor. Test. Measure. Keep a journal.

Random Thoughts

August 12, 2008

Random Thought For the Moment: There are no shortcuts in life. Luck is short lived and squandered without preparation and hard work.

Internet communication media is dynamic, fluid, and viral. The tools have changed since BBS days but people remain the same.

I think social behavior, internet culture, and how people organize are pretty important concepts to understand for any “new media expert”.

Gnomedex

August 22, 2008

I don’t think the specific technology matters. What matters is how do we get non-tech people like my mom online and using these tools.

How do we reduce the number of steps needed to bookmark a site? The easier a tool is to use, the more popular it will be. Keep it simple.

This is a very basic concept that needs more emphasis. The best tools—for any task—help us to get a job done quickly and with ease.

One of the reasons why the telephone is so popular is because it doesn’t require instructions and is as easy to use as dialing 10 numbers.

What any web-technology company should strive for is making their tools as easy to use as dialing 10 numbers. Reduce the number of steps.

Twitter works so well because it doesn’t require anyone to learn something new. Technology is all about people. It’s not about the tools.