One way in which Madison has grown his business is through embracing the social web to engage his potential clients and fans to grow his personal brand and business. Take a peek at what it takes to thrive in a business world where every social interaction is a high stakes make-or-break deal and how social media helped build his brand.

R2i: How did you first get into reality TV?

Madison: I was approached by the production team 5 years ago…just 6 months after getting my real estate license. I was asked to participate in one of 6 episodes along with 11 other Realtors.  After the first season, they changed the format of the show, and I’ve been along for the ride ever since.

R2i: Obviously, social media gives your audience and fans a more intimate view into your world…how do you feel about that?

Madison: Well, overall I feel grateful that social has become such a widely used tool by the public because I have access and control over what personal messages and personal experiences I can choose to share or remark on…while still keeping certain aspects of my life private. I’ve also found that over the last 5 years of being on reality TV, spanning the emergence of social, that my fans feel they are satisfied with the access that social media provides into my life and don’t need to call my office.

R2i: You seem so grounded, how do you manage the separation between Madison the brand and Madison the person?

Madison: Most importantly, I take time to remember that the Madison on TV is still me…but it is only a piece of me. The true Madison is who I am inside and out on a day-to-day basis. When the cameras are on, and the fans reach out, and the opportunities are presented, I just remember that TV has opened these doors, and for that I’m grateful.

R2i: So, how many branded social profiles do you currently manage?

Madison: If you can believe it-6, comprised of a Twitter page, a Facebook fan page, a private Facebook page, a LinkedIn account, a YouTube channel, and a Spotify account.

R2i: Do you maintain your social profiles?

Madison: I basically manage them myself along with the help of my office staff. There are also applications like socialmadesimple that I utilize on occasion.

R2i: Social media has had a huge impact on increasing viewership on reality television. How has it affected your show “Million Dollar Listing?” You all seem to have a very active following.

Madison: We do have an active following, and Bravo has made social a huge part of their fan outreach; doing things such as creating personal blogs on their website, providing fans with personal stories and photos of their show’s stars. It’s also a great way for me to personally remind my fans of my entertainment ventures so that no one that’s connected to me is left out of the loop.

R2i: How has social media affected business for you?

Madison: Social media has put me ahead of the curve among other real estate agents. When you look at the big picture, I’m one of the youngest in my field.

R2i: Has it made it easier?

Madison: It allows prospects to find me much more easily…so that I can help them with their real estate needs.

R2i: What has been the best social media outreach you have experienced? Any great fan stories or awesome home sales?

Madison: It happens quite often…business comes through some channel of social media. For instance, today, someone I went to school with 10 years ago, reached out via twitter with a real estate need. I immediately responded and potentially have a new buyer…all before noon today! I do have die-hard fans that contact me through social, commenting on nearly everything I post. It makes me feel like I almost know them personally.

R2i: Any tips for other reality TV personalities when using social media?

Madison: If you are on reality TV, and you aren’t utilizing social, you are making a huge mistake.

R2i: 3 pieces of advice you would give to someone trying to break into the reality television world.

Madison: 1. Make sure you have your head on straight and your feet on the ground before you are willing to share your life with the world. 2. Each year, I go into each season with a positive message or purpose that I want to emanate. 3. Don’t do reality TV because you’re desperate for attention or financial gain. If these are your reasons, you’ll find that you are susceptible to doing things you will regret.

Questions? Feel free to contact me @saminj58 or email us at info@r2integrated.com.

Article first published as BravoTV’s Million Dollar Man Gets Social on Technorati.

One way we stay on top of available talent is by visiting college campuses. In early December, along with Kevin Schreiner, r2i’s Chief Software Architect, I went to Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), a top university for social analytics research and technical computer science curriculum. Their social analytics center has worked with a number of companies, including Tom’s of Maine, Microsoft and Yahoo, to develop a repository of unique data sets pertaining to user behavior in social information sharing.

This visit was a follow up to our participation in CMU’s Capstone project, a highly selective program that teams CMU’s Masters in IS, Marketing and Business Management students with outside organizations. As part of their graduation requirements and to give them “real world” experience, students complete a complex IS project for one of the partner corporate organizations. We were one of only six companies selected to take part in the fall 2011 event.

Our particular group of students –five wickedly smart and diverse engineers, marketers and business analysts — worked to develop Proof of Concepts for R2i Seemor & R2iSMASH™. Seemor is a social conversation aggregator and analytics engine aimed at the enterprise marketing team. R2iSMASH is a social media platform that drives brand engagement by aggregating conversations across social networking sites into one, highly interactive presentation window.

The objective for the Capstone project, as defined by r2i, was to have the students provide more insight and advanced analysis of social conversations focusing on the subject titles within a large data sample of online conversation source streams such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, forums and user generated comments (UGC). Results would aid users by recommending better ways to identify the conversations organizations should participate in as well as the authors with the greatest influences.

The task was challenging and the students worked all semester under r2i guidance. The culmination of their efforts was showcased to a packed room of fellow students, professors and advisors. We were led through a very technical and enlightening presentation and subsequent Q&A. In the end, the students, working with very large database sets and advanced language parsing algorithms, gained greater insight into the world of social analytics. R2i received a set of artifacts that included the data model, research results, an in depth analysis and recommendations for implementation.

R2i mixed recruitment with the Capstone project review, by leading a lunch session later that day with more than 30 graduate students from the Heinz School at CMU. We have hired CMU graduates in the past and on this trip we were looking for candidates for several full time and internship positions as well as talking with students about new technologies and development language methodologies and paradigms taking hold.

The two-way discussion was flowing, lively and very relevant. This group didn’t disappoint, responding with well-thought responses and questions. We left very impressed with the students we’d met and with many resumes to review for our open positions.

For more information about the Capstone project and r2i recruitment efforts, please contact us at info@r2integrated.com.

I should preface this blog by saying that I’m a full-blown social nerd. So, you can imagine my excitement when @LIVESTRONGCEO Doug Ulman sent 2 tweets out mentioning my handle @samiNJ58. I know- you can’t control your excitement for me, right? Neither could I…those two tweets had me shouting (well, tweeting) from the rooftop about my social shout out from one of cancers biggest butt-kicking social CEO’s.

While it was a quick trip, which did involve an interesting night watching mechanical bull riding, R2i Chief Technology Officer, Chris Chodnicki and I had time for a serious conversation and workshop with the more than 140 member organizations who share the common (and obviously amazing) goal of improving the survival rates and quality of life for young adults with cancer, about the importance of social media and community building in the non-profit and association sector.

Challenges Facing Non-Profits and Associations

As we are all painfully aware, the current economy has created a challenging landscape for traditional non-profits. The sheer number of individuals needing access to information and services has increased, while fundraising to support the organization’s mission has become harder to achieve. The infographic below demonstrates a number of the overall challenges faced by these organizations, which need more effective, efficient and cost-effective ways to connect with current and potential members and donors.

Chris and I talked with the LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance about how social media marketing can help organizations better engage, connect and understand their audiences and get people they need (influencers, evangelists and stakeholders) involved in their organization’s mission to help build greater awareness.

We were clear with our audience: it’s not enough to set up a Facebook page or a Twitter account and hope for the best… #FAIL. That’s not social media marketing, and it certainly doesn’t qualify as a social engagement strategy. We encouraged them to keep four things in mind when developing a true social media strategy:

So, “Why does true engagement matter?” It’s more than increasing numbers and capturing an extended following; it’s about the development of stronger and more loyal community dedicated to supporting your cause. The importance of yearlong community building affects all aspects of the goals non-profits and other like associations have: Driving membership, fundraising, dues, and cultivating relationships with donors and sponsors.

As a result, the expanding community becomes a more intense, organic extension of planned message outreach. Cultivating these relationships allows for more efficient and effective disseminating of information, the recruitment of new members, and the outreach for donations and dues, becomes a much more fluid and welcome process. Another added benefit: the organization’s maintenance of legacy relationships and sponsorships becomes more targeted and much less time-intensive. #WINNING.

Social Aggregation and Community Building

The LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance is one of a number of non-profits and associations, including the Ulman Cancer Fund and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (Maryland Chapter) that are simultaneously using the combination of their branded social platforms and the social web to extend their brand and expand its community. How are they doing this? Good question. One key is using R2ISMASH™.

R2ISMASH™, meet reader. Reader, meet R2ISMASH™. Now that we’re all friends, let’s explain. An R2ISMASH™, page is a completely customized social media platform that drives brand engagement by aggregating conversations across social networking sites into one, interactive window. Still with me?

This customized screen and page design aggregates real-time social content from your online branded properties and digital campaigns. So, combining live streaming video, tweets, posts, texts, photos, conversations and blogs delivers a dynamically changing gallery of content and conversation, attracts additional online audiences, builds community and further engages. Not to mention, it gives your community a single access point to relevant content and a seamless platform to engage with each other. Could it be any cooler? Click on the image below to view the live SMASH instance now.

R2i developed a SMASH instance for the Young Adult Alliance, designing a highly interactive portal, which inherently promotes social community sharing and interaction. Talk about a good old fashion cancer-bashing butt-whopping by the masses.

The LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance SMASH site, links 1.5 million LIVESTRONG Facebook followers and over 153,000 Twitter followers to an abundance of relevant content all in one place. Followers can read intimate stories and engage with people who share similar interests, which in turn, drives new additional conversations and community building. The news section of the LIVESTRONG SMASH includes links to the LIVESTRONG blog, where bloggers regularly engage with each other related to the Alliance mission.

Social Media Monitoring: Begin with a Social Audit

We also discussed the importance of social media monitoring in terms of analytics and analysis. Sure, it’s great to have a large following, but have you really assessed who you are talking to? Are you talking to yourself? Are half your Facebook fans family members of employees? If you don’t know your community, you better start investigating.  A Social Audit allows you to see who is engaging with your community and who isn’t. Some key benefits of an audit:

• Evangelists & stakeholders are promptly identified and rewarded; the engagement process becomes more efficient & effective on owned & un-owned properties.
• You are able to identify content that’s working & where it’s successful, allowing you to create more compelling socially shareable content and your reach and relevance is much more highly targeted.
• Most importantly, community engagement becomes organic on both sides: your community does the work for you by sharing stories with each other and engaging with each other, and your organization is able to quickly identify trending topics and the best times to engage.

While we didn’t have time to walk through a full-blown social media analytics strategy, we did leave the community with a high-level baseline benchmark to get them started. Click here to view the presentation and recommended metrics and tools to start your social media analytics benchmark.

We believe our meeting with the LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance will push individual members to see that with a better understanding and application of social aggregation, marketing and community building they can increase audience engagement. They’ll give more visitors access to highly inspiring content and resources, as well as a place to talk openly with each other and with the organizations.

And if they remembered nothing else, we left them with the following:

• Get your house in order: Do an audit & make sure you’ve got the basics covered
• Publish audience-centered content that is valuable, sharable & supports your mission
• Engage members & build relationships with influencers & brand advocates throughout the year

Questions? Feel free to contact Chris (@cchodnicki) or myself (@samiNJ58) to learn more about @R2integrated’s social media strategies and R2ISMASH™.

There are a few changes that have been made specifically to Facebook Pages, and then there are some overall changes in the design of Facebook that will implicitly impact any business on the social network.

Changes to Facebook Pages:

• Facebook users can now comment on content posted in Business pages without actually “liking” the page – meaning a user doesn’t have to be a fan of the brand to comment on the post.

• Pages no longer have to have 25 likes to set up a custom vanity URL/username. (Remember: once you set a custom URL you can never change it!)

• The character limit on status updates has been increased from 420 characters to 5,000 – meaning that Pages will be able to share more in depth information via Facebook when necessary.

• Facebook Insights (analytics) will be more in depth & useful than ever before, providing per-post metrics which businesses can export to Excel for further analysis.

• The new News Ticker will show real time interaction between user’s Facebook friends and brands (Facebook pages) on the home page of Facebook. This means that businesses need to work harder to keep fans interacting and engaging with their brand on Facebook.

• Apps now require SSL, meaning that if a business has created an app on Facebook (including Welcome Tabs), any images/videos must be hosted on a secure server or they won’t display properly.

• The new “Are talking about this” metric on all Facebook Pages shows both how many people have liked the page, as well as how many people are actually talking about the page. This really shows the difference between awareness (gaining likes) and engagement (interacting with Facebook users), stressing the importance of engaging with those who like a brand on Facebook.

• At the end of October, Facebook removed 2 tabs on Facebook Pages: Discussions and Reviews. You will be able to archive these, but no more new discussions or reviews will be published after they are removed.

Overall Changes to Facebook that will Affect Businesses

• App Integration – With the ultra-integration of Facebook applications, users will now become more embedded within a brand, making apps a seamless part of the Facebook experience. Take Spotify for example, a music app, which has been so integrated into Facebook that users can move from Facebook to Spotify and back without ever really leaving the Facebook website. When a user finds value in an application – and links that application with Facebook and the open graph – the opportunities are endless.

• Larger Photos – Now that photos are even larger and more prominent on user’s Timelines, businesses will want to make sure that the photos they post are high quality and share worthy.

With these new changes, Facebook is attempting to make their social networking site even more embedded in the daily lives of your customers. If things play out the way Zuckerberg hopes, Facebook usage will increase and become a true hub of all social interaction (think about the integration of apps and personal data). Imagine, businesses running their entire operations through Facebook – just as they would in an online or physical store. If a business has been trying to avoid investing real time and money into Facebook – these changes will force them to wake up and start paying attention. Ignoring Facebook will be like a business owner ignoring the customers walking into their store. Facebook users want to connect with brands – in meaningful, relevant ways.

R2integrated is aware of these changes and keeping an eye of the latest & greatest in Facebook pages. If you need help with your Facebook strategy, or just want to talk about the latest changes, give R2integrated a call.

R2i Boston Office President Andy Maddocks joined six other panelists who were tasked with defining and explaining what the word “influence” means in today’s socially networked world.  The panel, titled “Redefining Influence,” addressed how to identify who the real relevant influencers for your brand are, how to reach them and educate them effectively and then how to monitor and track their influence.

Below are experts from Maddocks’ panel discussion at IMS –

“I see it (influence) as the power that affects a person or course of events.  It operates in the big picture with any apparent or direct effort. Influence acts in the background.  The power of influence affects consumer behavior and the way we get it is through reach. Our reach evokes discussions and the influences that respond to those discussions drive engagement.  From that we can refine our efforts and do it better the next time.”

View the entire panel discussion below:

R2i wants to know: In this ever-increasing connected world, what does “influence” mean to you and how is it woven into your everyday life?

The phrase that captures the new Facebook is “Self-Expression.” Below are details about the changes Facebook is making.

Timeline

The timeline is a new feature of your Facebook profile, and will bring a new way to express yourself and your life. Personally, I think it’s awesome. It will take all of your information – your likes, statuses, pictures, videos, apps – and plot them on a literal timeline. You will even be able to go “back in time” and fill out old stuff, like baby pictures for when you were born. You will be able to make your new Facebook profile more-YOU.  Facebook is also bringing apps back on to profiles (but not like the old boxes model). Check out a live demo of the Facebook Timeline.

Ticker

Previously, when your friends liked something (either on or off Facebook using the social graph) it would show up in your news feed. Well, during the conference, Zuckerberg basically said that people were getting annoyed with all of their friend’s menial activity updates, and so now Facebook has moved all of the micro-stories to a box on the upper right-hand corner of your home page (newsfeed). The ticker is live already on most Facebook accounts.

New App Categories:

Previously, there were only two categories for apps: Games & Communication. Facebook is adding two new categories: Media & Lifestyle.

Media apps will include music, video and more. This is what the rumors about music/video integration have been about. In the new Facebook, you’ll be able to see your friend listening to a song on Spotify in your Ticker, and you’ll be able to click on it, and listen to that same song with them. It’s pretty sweet. It’s the same with Netflix and Hulu.

The second new category, Lifestyle, will include things like cooking, fitness, fashion and more. Anything and everything we are all interested in. And you’ll be able to connect with your friends on things you like – for example, if you like running, you can start logging your runs every day. You can move this app into your profile, and into your timeline automatically, and your friends will be able to see the runs you are going on (length, locations, etc.) and interact with you about that interest.

My favorite example of this is being able to get a “What I Ate Report” which shows on a timeline over a year everything you cooked/ate in a single place.

Apps are a very big and important part of the Facebook changes, and I’m not a developer, so I’m sure there is a lot that I’m leaving out. If you are interested in more details, read this Facebook developers blog.

Social Graph Updates:

The social graph is becoming more embedded and natural. Bear with me – I’m not too technical – but from what I understand, instead of just “liking” a song on an app like Spotify, you can now allow access to Facebook via Spotify, and Facebook will automatically add what you are listening to on your Facebook profile and feed. So that secret love for Miley Cyrus or Kenny G may be not-so-secret anymore – watch out!

What does this mean for YOU as a Facebook user?

In my opinion, this Facebook change is going to allow us to connect with our friends on a completely new level. We will all be so tuned in – automatically, naturally – to our friends overtime, that we’ll be able to start interacting with their information in new ways. It seems like the new Facebook is more like your life – filled with memories, music, videos, interests, interactions and more – all in one, consumable package organized by time. I’m very excited to see what opportunities and changes in social networking these changes will bring.

What could this mean for marketers and businesses using Facebook?

Business uses of Facebook were not mentioned in the announcement today, but with the ultra-integration of apps, and the new app categories, there are endless possibilities for businesses and marketers to take advantage of the new Facebook.

The new app structure (and social graph) seems to allow businesses (and apps) to interact and engage with consumers on a new level, and as a more natural part of everyday online interaction. If they begin integrating all the new information into targeted advertising, it will allow more targeted ads than ever before.  For example – what if Nike, Inc. could specifically target women in their 20s who are actively logging runs in a lifestyle app? The possibilities are endless.

For more opinions and articles that have been written about what these new Facebook changes could mean for business, I suggest reading “What F8 means for Advertisers” and “What the new Facebook changes mean for Businesses.”  

Are you ready to start playing with the new Facebook right now? Read these instructions on how to get the new Timeline feature before it’s released publicly.

Want more information? Or just want to connect with me? Follow me, Natasha Jarmick on Twitter and tweet any questions or comments you may have!

I was immediately transported back to the third grade playground of Somerset Elementary where Steve, a casual friend who, while, not the coolest kid by any stretch was nonetheless of good character and worthy of anyone’s friendship was being verbally bullied. I chose not to participate in the banter, but I also wasn’t willing to stick up for my friend against the sheer numbers of people stacked against him. That was in third grade and like most of you, I’ve learned to not care so much about what others think and to be more independent, to be my own man.

Or am I thinking about this the wrong way? Why, if my original opinion of that article was high, was I no longer willing to forward it on? Was the wisdom of the crowd a good thing in this instance or was there a negative mob mentality taking effect? I would love to see someone conduct a study that uses identical content, but changes the comments section from being positive, neutral and negative to see how that affects the perception readers have of the content. The study would ideally be repeated three times to cover three different types of content; pure factual content, content that is patently false and content that is pure opinion or conjecture to see how the existence of the three types of comments affect our perception. My hypothesis is that, sadly, we haven’t come very far from our old schoolyard peer influenced ways.

So what’s the implication for marketers, journalists and other content producers? Think hard before you enable commenting. Is your goal truly engagement?

Or is it more along the lines of awareness? What are the implications of an initial groundswell of negative comments and could you recover? Do you have the bandwidth to immediately respond to the comments and bring other thoughtful commentators into the discussion to balance any ‘haters’ who may otherwise overwhelm the comments section? Perhaps there’s a technology implication here. Is a single chronological thread of comments the best way to allow participation or would it be better to at least separate comments based on sentiment pro/con, for/against?

As I write this, the 4th of July is just a recent memory, and thoughts of liberty, freedom and independence still linger. I am a firm supporter of the ideals of government of, by and for the people, but as we dive deeper and deeper into the democratization of the web, the potential threats of giving your audience a soapbox must be carefully considered and balanced against the intended outcome of publishing your content.

Despite my own advice… I now open the floor for comments

r2i: Please describe the Ubergizmo mission. What differentiates Ubergizmo from it’s competitors?

Hubert: Put in a nutshell, we have created Ubergizmo to “share the gadget love”. This means sharing our passion for consumer technologies, but only because it’s cool in itself, but more importantly because it makes our lives better. Every site has a different take and we respect and enjoy many of them. However, Ubergizmo is different because although we’re geeks, we don’t “speak geek” and we think that tech blogging should be enjoyable and drama-free for all. Also, Eliane Fiolet and I have both worked in the tech industry where we built real products. It’s great to have been on both sides of the fence.

r2i: How would you describe the Ubergizmo community?

Eliane: Our community is geek at the core but also power users and regular consumers who are interested in the latest mobile and electronic devices, unlike other tech blog we have a higher percentage of women” according to a survey we get 22% female readers on the site and our Facebook fan page has 25% of women.

Hubert: Interestingly, most tech website are designed “for guys”: they are square and blue/gray. Ubergizmo’s design is gender neutral and cross-cultural. We have received props from every single continents from happy users.

r2i: What type of content is most popular with your community?

Hubert: The one type of content that gets the most positive user feedback is our in-depth reviews. We get incredible comments that praise our pragmatic approach to user reviews, such as:

“This has to be one of the best reviews I’ve ever read about any electronic product.”
“Excellent review. As others have pointed out, very balanced and very comprehensive, one of the best reviews I have read, on any product, period”
“Let me just say that this review is great.. the best I read so far.”
“The only other thing I wanted to say was that this article was probably one of the fairest reviews I have read in a long time. thanks for that”

Eliane: The Apple rumors get a lot of traction and articles with humorous, unexpected or weird stories are highly popular as well, examples:
Teenage girl in China said to sell virginity for iPhone 4
Ostrich pillow lets you sleep at your desk.
Google user’s account deleted: 7 years of digital life gone

r2i: What changes have you seen in the buying behavior of your readers in the last 12 months?

Eliane: More people are thinking of buying a high end Android Smartphone right now, this is a change that we have seen in the past 6 months, especially since Android devices got 4G and are more elegantly designed than two years before (hardware and software).

Hubert: Because our readers are so diverse, it’s hard to view them as one group. That said, I find readers to be much more savvy than let’s say 10 years ago. Even though they might not (or want to) be tech experts, they are better informed than before. I believe that people pay much more attention to usage models and “lifestyle” attributes than pure performance qualities of products.

r2i: What technology innovations will have the most impact on how consumers evaluate and purchase the products you cover?

Eliane: Reliable & fast connectivity, computing power and battery life are the 3 key features that consumers are looking at when buying a new mobile device. The “Smart Device” trend, started at CES 3 years ago with the connectivity of TVs will spread more. We project that Android will be in more devices than just smartphones and tablet, camera would be the next device to get the Google OS. With the emergence of the iPhone as the primary camera from which Flickr user are now uploading pictures online, passing the Nikon DSLR as #1 position, it is obvious that consumer cameras will have to be a lot smarter.

r2i: Do you see yourself as a blogger, website, or news organization?

Eliane: We have been invited on a regular basis to top industry press conferences since 2007, reporting tech news from the same room as leading traditional media outlets, so we can consider Ubergizmo as a media outlet that reports the tech news with a blog style. Our business model is not much different from traditional media outlets, and we probably share most of the advertisers.

Hubert: Beyond the terminology, we think that what matters is the added-value that we bring to our readers, whether it is in news curation, opinion, or product reviews – that is really what makes a real difference.

r2i: What is the biggest competitive challenge you face in the marketplace?

Eliane: As we do not belong to a huge media network as some of our competitors do, we have to be smarter when it comes to market ourselves. Consumer electronics news is a highly competitive space, very few blogs are profitable in this business (we are).

Hubert: To follow-up on Eliane’s idea, there are hundreds of millions who may like Ubergizmo, but they simply don’t know that we exist

r2i: What tips do you have for brand marketers who want to engage with your site and readers?

Hubert: Respect them. Smart companies understand that their customers are smart and know where to get the information. The old communication tricks don’t work anymore, and those who believe that a “good” marketing campaign can sell “just about anything” won’t be successful in the long run, if at all. Marketers must also have intellectual honesty and the ability to accept criticism (and react to it). Don’t tell our readers why your product is cool, tell them why it will make their life better.

Eliane: We have seen brands trying to influence readers in the comments in a phony way, we can always guess that the information they provide is not genuine and too marketing-oriented, I would suggest to communicate differently and provide information that is genuinely useful to our readers.