soulati.com

Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

Soulati-'TUDE!

I’ll Never Forget The Glory Days Of Twitter

By

ALT="future, past, sign, Soulati"It’s time to have a retirement party and bid the glory days of Twitter so long. It was a good run. We made a lot of connections, met peeps IRL, bantered, and did a bit of business. It was the first check-in in the morning and the last check-in late night. It’s where blog jacks launched, and ‘raderie was born. We survived a recession on Twitter, and together we kept the ROFLs and LMAOs and LOLs rolling in the stream.

The Twitter Glory Days

Twitter used to be the gathering place for anyone who was anyone. Actually, let me rephrase that — Twitter used to be the gathering place for anyone who was no one! Twitter made us someone. It built our personal brands and the frontrunners, self-professed Twitterholics like moi, lapped it up and enjoyed the ride. We all launched about 2009, and didn’t know what we were doing, so we did anything. In these archives, you’ll find a sheep video with Danny Brown and Dino Dogan. It’s a gem, a keeper, and only the old timers know of it! [Read more…]

Should Brand Influencers Feel Guilt?

By

Dino-Dogan-of-Triberr.jpg

Dino Dogan owns Triberr shirts in every color; psst, he also owns Triberr.

Professional bloggers toil day in and day out to develop a brand and solid content people want to read. My blogiversary is this month; we’ve been married four years, this blog and me.

In the life of a blogger, that’s nearly a lifetime. Along that journey, the word monetization pops up and there begins the need to get paid for these smarts.

Thanks to Triberr’s new direction offering bloggers an opportunity to join campaigns, write a few blog posts and get paid, we now have that option.
Bloggers apply, the application is reviewed, a blogger is selected, blog posts are written and published, and a fee is exchanged. Cool, eh?

So, why is there guilt associated with that?

Anyone else feel a twinge?

Dino Dogan said it best to me, “When bloggers rep for a brand, it’s not congruent with self perception.” What he means is we all have worked for free for so long that when the opportunity to get paid comes along there’s some concern about “Am I worthy? What will my community think?

I think he’s right…if I get paid to put up a post and have to add the disclaimer, “hey, this is a sponsored post!” there’s some discomfort about that, like I should feel badly I’ve been hired to write for a brand that needs help.

What I’m here to say and help each of us get over that hump of “am I worthy?” is this:

Bloggers work harder than anyone I know and we’ve done it FREE for years. For we who do it well, there are now opportunities to showcase smarts and do some really neat writing. For those who are feeling upset on the sidelines, jump in! There’s opportunity for all! For bloggers who don’t trust they’re worthy, carpe diem! This is finally where your hard work pays off!

Thanks, Dino and Dan!

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Triberr Is Blogger Treasure

By

Since the earliest days of Triberr, I have been on board. Triberr is one of the best and most-needed blog sharing tools around; in fact, there isn’t any other.

Bloggers can elect to join a tribe of nine bloggers or join multiples of tribes as I have. What happens to the tweet stream, though, when you’re in more than 25 tribes, like me, is chaos. Some of those tribes consist of 100+ members that connect me with 5 million folks? (Don’t think that’s really true, but OK.)

121217- Digging Into Triberr

121217- Digging Into Triberr (Photo credit: Rogier Noort)

Sound stupid? I agree, of course, but there is a method to my madness and insatiable thirst for knowledge and curiosity.

I have received several direct communications via Twitter and someone even filled out my WuFoo contact form that my tweet stream is too full of retweets. It has become annoying because of the quantity of content loading into my stream. I was asked to set up another Twitter account for retweets of Triberr content (which is totally impossible due to the RSS feed, branding and outreach). Others have said how boring it is to see the same tweet from a variety of bloggers (they’re obviously in the same tribe).

I understand all of the concerns from the folks who are not professional bloggers and who don’t realize the merits of Triberr.  I’m going to share why I continue to accept tribe invites and why I pay $10 monthly to Triberr so I can share more blog content faster. Besides, for any platform the likes of Triberr, they deserve my $120 annually to continue to innovate at the speed they have for the last three years.

Reasons Why Triberr Matters

  •  Founders. As I’ve joked with Dino Dogan, founder and front man of Triberr, the fledgling company is like Two Men and a Truck. They fly by the seat of their pants, but anytime you speak with Dino or Dan Cristo, the energy to innovate is palpable. I’m including a link here for my Soulati Media On The Street chat with Dino Dogan at Social Slam in April. Energy? Uh-huh.
  • Innovation. In the three years since the launch of Triberr, back when Dino and Danny Brown were gaming Klout with sheep (yes, that really happened), Triberr has launched about a dozen new tools to help bloggers automate shares. And, that word “automate?” In this case it’s not cuss.
  • Tribes. Being in multiple tribes means you comb for the cream of the crop.  You can mute bloggers not in your genre, and you can meet new bloggers publishing leading content. You can also launch and join an atomic tribe; one blogger with unlimited followers. I have learned so much from my peers on the ‘sphere, and the only way I can reasonably do that is via Triberr. I save productivity time being on one platform with ~500 bloggers at my fingertips on a given day.
  • Reader. Triberr has become my new reader. You see folks on the quest to find the next best Reader after the demise of Google’s and the migration to Feedly. Triberr works wonders for me; not sure I’m going to find any other blogger not already in a tribe I belong to. In fact, if I do, they get an invite to join my tribe.
  • Content. A newer feature called reblogging allows bloggers to republish content from another’s blog with the original author featured. This is one aspect of Triberr I don’t yet care for; when I read peoples’ blogs, I want to read their content primarily. If I see only reblogs happening 90% of the time, I’m discouraged visiting. For bloggers who want to post more frequently and don’t have time to post consistently, then re-blogging works; just not for me. I reserve the right to change my mind.
  • Reading. I love being able to read blogs from Triberr without going anywhere. I can quickly scan and see if the content is worthy of going to the blog and leaving deeper tracks. This has helped me be more share aware; there are so many who still say, “don’t share unless you read first.” That’s one issue for me being in so many tribes; I can’t read everything and have to trust the authors’ credibility which I’ve vetted already once they’re in my stream the first time.
  • Commenting. The new Triberr dashboard now allows easier reading of blog posts right on Triberr without having to go to a blog. What this means is not good for bloggers (because traffic isn’t recorded on the blog), but it is convenient for readers and tribe mates. An email comes alerting me that someone commented on my blog on Triberr. Comments are up 50% since the guys fixed all the glitches. I have seen some bloggers using the Triberr comment system along with another system like Google. Interesting.
  • Content Marketing. The best reason to use Triberr is to review the content and topics others are writing about and with what angle. It helps to know what’s new and trending and it also provides fodder for your own writing.  Topics can get pretty boring quickly when you see all the bloggers writing on Facebook hashtags and photos in comments, for example. That’s when I have to select one only and ignore the rest. It becomes an echo chamber and I know my Twitter followers don’t want that.
  • Shares. Shares are down with Triberr. Even with the ridiculous numbers of tribes I’m in, I have fewer shares of my blog content. Regardless, without Triberr (when it was down for an extended period), traffic is nearly zilch.

 When you add up all of the above, bloggers need Triberr. For those on the receiving end of the tweet stream for bloggers in massive numbers of tribes, patience is the virtue. It’s my responsibility to share my tribe mates content; in fact, if I don’t, they don’t share mine. So, I apologize to all of you not blogging and invite you into my tribe so you can experience what I’ve just shared.

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Soulati Media On The Street with @Triberr @DinoDogan

By

Dino Dogan owns Triberr shirts in every color; psst, he also owns Triberr.

There was a time when I kvetched and hollered about @ symbols in headlines of blogs. Now that I’m a name dropper and want everyone on the ‘sphere to know this post has video of the Kingpin himself, , founder of , I put a double whammy upstairs.

Call the headline police. I’ll wait.

This post comes to you straight from Knoxville, Tenn., site of the now infamous #SoSlam or Social Slam as it’s known. When I’m not having technical difficulties like this year, I can capture about 9 groovy unsuspecting peeps like I did last year (that’s because I had an iPhone 4S in hand).

Triberr is About Bloggers

Dino loves to talk about Gutenberg, founder of the printing press. Maybe he believes he’s a kindred spirit – you know how Johann changed the world as they knew it with his innovative creativity and launched the world of print journos? Well, I hasten a guess that Dino is bellying up to the bar to tip one with Johann in re his own creativity in creating a platform “for bloggers by bloggers.” Am I right, Dino?

Ever had Triberr go down (like it did recently) and did you notice what happened to your blog shares? Yep; nothing. That’s right; we’ve become spoiled with all the cool new gizmos and gadgets and features Triberr is creating for we bloggers. And, others are giving the Triberr team grief for pushing the envelope (see, that’s printed, too).

Without further silly ado…let me introduce Dino Dogan one of social blogging’s great up and comers.

Related articles

Triberr Means Business

By

If you’ve not heard or seen anything about Triberr, you’ve been asleep, or just not circling in my circles. The Triberr founders are doing a bang up, and I mean bang up, job marketing their start up. In a recent Skype conversation with Dino Dogan, he told me they’re working hard and getting tired, but the fun is just beginning.

If you’ve been asleep, let me help you with some archived conversations on a variety of blogs. Some love Triberr, some don’t; others flip-flop and go back and still others are on the fence. This post really has nothing to do with that.

What I want to do here is recognize and deliver kudos to Dan Cristo and Dino Dogan for their business acumen.

*They launched a start up that was ill defined in the beginning and confusing for some.

*They took precious time to hear their critics and make changes to their app.

*Everyone who blogs gets a comment from one or both of them; everyone.

*Everyone who tweets with #Triberr or @Triberr in the 140 gets a response from one or both of them.

*When you least expect it, Dino is engaging tweeps and making hilarious sheep video with @DannyBrown and beating the +K Klout game.

Dino and Dan are everywhere; they live and breathe their brand; they are personifying their brand, and they’re recruiting new tweeps to come on board and try their product. And, you know what? It’s working.

These two guys today deserve entrepreneur of the year awards for their business acumen; for the diligence in marketing and branding they’re showing; for their dedication to their business and interest in making it perfect; for their openness to listening and improving their product; for their endless nights to make the green lights glitter.

I have no idea how well Triberr will fare in the future, but it really doesn’t matter. With these two go-getters at the helm, there’s no doubt in my book it’s already a success. Congrats, Guys, for being the visionaries you are and having fun while doing it. (Hey, Dino? Put the sword away.)