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Crowdsurf Naked!

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Crowd surf Naked

Crowdsurfing naked means being honest and asking tough questions. Do you use crowdsurfing as a strategy?

What is the old adage, “Want to do it better? Do it naked!”  …no, probably not an old adage in any society.  But this could be a new motto for social media and crowdsurfing.  The idea behind crowdsurfing is that you are asking a wide audience their opinion about a topic or decision. Kim Kardashian blew Matt Lauer’s mind on her interview with the Today Show when she talked about crowdsurfing decisions from nail polish color to branding her perfume.

“[Twitter] is like the best focus group.” – Kim Kardashian

Kim is not wrong. Twitter as a giant focus group – thousands of people who are all interested in the same thing, from every demographic and around the world, all willing and able to give you feedback and comments. All you have to do is ask.

How do I crowdsurf?

Easy. All you do is ask a question and request feedback, e.g., “Tell me what you think; boxers or briefs?” If it is something you want a lot of feedback on, I would recommend tweeting throughout the day or week, let people know you are trying to get opinions and even ask your followers to help.  The longer you run your crowdsurf the more information you will get. Of course this is within reason; if all you tweet about is your question, you are likely to bore or annoy people. So keep it interesting and relevant and mix it up a little.

Do you need a big following?

Actually no. Having a good size following definitely helps in any crowdsurfing endeavor but is not essential. You can use crowdsurfing as a way to poll people and a way to grow your network as long as you use hashtags strategically.  If you are asking a question about sex, you might want to use the hashtag #sexquestion.

Does majority rule?

There is no law that says you have to do what your crowdsurf results tell you. Ultimately it is up to you. But since you did take the time to get pubic opinion, you might want to take the advice of the majority.

Crowdsurfing can be a highly valuable tool. People use it for getting viewpoints on simple things like where to eat, or complex issues like personal branding and business strategy. The key to successful crowdsurfing is to do it naked; do it honestly and be forthcoming.  If you are going to crowdsurf, be willing to go with the crowd.  Ask the tough questions and you will get better feedback if you are inquiring about something real.

When you crowdsurf, your fans and followers feel involved in what you are doing. It lends an air of authenticity to your social media and helps create an emotional investment between you and your followers, all of which creates loyalty.

Try integrating crowdsurfing into your online strategy. You might be surprised by how helpful your fans and followers really are!

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Adult Social Media: Rallying for Japan

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Stand for Japan

Friday Feature Photo: Ela Darling

Friday Feature Photo: The beautiful Ela Darling, a talented, sexy model and adult actress.

Today is the start for Stand for Japan an effort spearheaded by Sabrina from Deepsabrina.com. Sabrina is encouraging all models, webmasters, affiliates, producers, distributors, media and everyone in the adult industry to encourage their web traffic to go to the Stand for Japan Red Cross site and make a donation.

Sabrina added, “I would simply like to thank all those who adhered to Stand for Japan, showing an unselfish and unprecedented sensibility in this industry. It’s really refreshing to see that there are still people choosing solidarity over traffic and personal gain. Again, thank you very much!”

The devastation in Japan is beyond comprehension. While electricity and phone service have been hugely affected, leaving many survivors without either, the Internet has remained virtually unaffected. This makes social media not just an effective means of communication, but one of the only means.

The wreckage in the aftermath of this tragedy is horrendous – and the use of social media has been incredible. It is becoming the go-to technology for emergency and disaster relief, management, communication and recovery.

One of the most amazing features of social media is the ability for swift response. Whether it is communication about real-time events, sharing news or raising disaster relief funds, social media has immediate and worldwide impact on all aspects of emergency and disaster management.

Japanese porn stars Maria Ozawa, Sola Aoi, and Ai Sayama have been using their social media and their influence to drum up support for Japan and sharing how the devastation has effected them personally.

The social media effort is not limited to individuals and non-profits.  There have been a lot of tweets, updates and encouragement by adult industry folks to go and donate, spread awareness and build community. The adult industry has a lot of influence, and this tragic situation enables it to use that influence for a greater good.

Twitter

Twitter was the number 1 social network used for anything about the earthquake and tsunami. The Tweet-o-Meter, a website that tracks twitter usage per minute, has pretty much remained pegged at 1200 tweets per minute for usage in Tokyo since the disaster began.

Hashtags

Hashtags are a way to keyword-identify a tweet, so people who are following a topic can use that keyword to track the topic. According to Mashable, the most popular hashtags are #Japan, #JPQuake, #JapanQuake, #PrayForJapan, #Tsunami and #TsunamiCharity; real-time Tweet map; Save Japan (updates in Japanese); and the UN’s Must-Follow Twitterers

Twitter posted a blog, in Japanese and English, that details how you can help by using Twitter.

Facebook

Relief and resources pages popped up almost immediately on Facebook. Nearly every major relief non-profit is using their Facebook Fan Page to help raise money for Japan.

Japan Earthquake reports news and information about the disaster.

Solidarity with the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan 2011 is a Belgian page created to show support and communicate news about Japan.

Dog Bless You is a non-profit that assists with rescue operations. They are sending a team to Japan to use dogs in the human rescue effort. Explore.org is donating $1 for every Like the Dog Bless You page receives.

American Red-Cross has a page on Causes, a Facebook app that lets people donate to charities on Facebook.

Save the Children also has a page on Causes.

FarmVille, CityVille and FrontierVille, games on Facebook created by the company Zynga, have partnered with Save the Children’s Japan Earthquake Tsunami Emergency Fund to get their users to purchase virtual goods for the games as a way to donate to the fund. 100% of the proceeds from the purchase of sweet potatoes in CityVille, radishes in FarmVille or Kobe cows in FrontierVille will go towards Save the Children’s efforts to provide relief in the Pacific.

YouTube

Some of the most poignant imagery from Japan has come from videos posted on YouTube. Personal video accounts of the disaster are giving all of us an experience that communicates the immense impact of what has happened.

If you search YouTube for Japan Tsunami the video results will be overwhelming, from news to personal videos from around the world.

Maps

Tweet Map

Map enthusiast Virender Ajmani (@mibazaar) created a tweet map. This is a map that displays a new tweet every 5 seconds from Japan. The tweets are from within a 600 km radius of Tokyo, Japan and are tagged with either earthquake or japan or tsunami.

YouTube Map

Virender Ajmani also created a YouTube map that shows Geotagged videos from within an 800 km radius of Tokyo, Japan that are tagged “Earthquake/Tsunami”. Geotagged videos means that the video has been tagged, or identified, as being from a certain location.

Seismic Activity

Maplarge.com created a map that shows you the seismic activity and the size of the earthquakes that hit Japan.

Flickr

Photos from journalists and photographers to camera phones are streaming into Flickr tagged with Japan Earthquake, Japan Tsunami

Live Video

Live video has streamed from myriad sources around the world. Here are a few:

Google

Google has created Crisis Response and Japan Person Finder to help with the disaster. Crisis Response gives emergency information, including numbers for missing persons, and information for relief donations.

The Japan Person Finder is a page that lets you put in a report for a missing person or share information you might have on a missing person.

Text

The American Red Cross is taking text donations, like they did with Haiti. If you would like to donate to their Japan Earthquake Relief, just text REDCROSS to 90999. Each text provides $10 towards the Red Cross’ humanitarian efforts.

Other Resources

  • Blog RSS feed: Japan Earthquake is a blog feed that is streaming blog posts from major news sources, reporters and bloggers.
  • Internet Browser Toolbar: Tsunami news in your toolbar is a tool bar that normally streams internet radio, but now has a feature allowing your to stream news about the disaster in the toolbar of your internet browser.
  • Hellobar: The hello bar is a tool that allows you to add a bar to the top of your web page that displays a message. Look at the top of this page and you will see my Hellobar. The company is allowing people to sign-up (which has been previously limited) in order to have a support Japan Hellobar.
  • iTunes: Created a donation page making it easy to use your iTunes account to donate to the Red Cross.

There are resources and networks all over the Internet sharing information, connecting people, streaming news and images and bringing all of us closer to the realities of what happened in Japan. The ones I listed are just examples of what is available. The call to action from the social media community has been tremendous. Where we were just starting to get an idea of the effects of the earthquakes and tsunami, we were also just starting to get an idea of the effects of social media in relation to the disaster. It makes me proud to be a part of the community that is mobilizing rescue, communication, fundraising, information and a worldwide community effort to help our international neighbors.

Make sure you are getting out there and spreading the word, and please click the banner at the top of this post to make a donation to the Red Cross and give Japan some much-needed help.

Friday Feature Photo: Ela Darling This week’s Friday Feature Photo is the beautiful Ela Darling.  We met at the Adult Expo, and I was immediately captivated. Not only is she beautiful, but she is a lot of fun to talk to. We immediately started to tweet and I have been a fan ever since. Her website is great. She has an amazing photo gallery ranging from classic sexy, to period pieces, fetish and bondage. Her photos are creative and captivating. On her blog she shares pics, videos and radio interviews.

Make sure you visit her website: darlingela.com

and talk to her on Twitter @eladarling

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Facebook’s New Fan Page for Everyone!

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Facebook GirlsYesterday the new Fan Page dropped for all Facebook users. Many of us converted our Fan Pages in February when we were first given the option, and because of this we experienced the plusses and minuses of what the new page was about. In fact, we even started an online rally against some of the negatives of the Fan Page wall. Our cry to bring back chronological posts was a success. So the early adopters helped pave the way for the rollout.

Many people in the Adult Industry are leery of Facebook pages, and for good reason.  However, the new layout and functionality will actually make it easier for the Adult Industry to interact with people in a way that does not violate the Terms of Service. If you are using the new features of the Fan Page to interact with other pages and engage in discussions, you won’t be flagged – unless you are spamming. These new engagement opportunities are paving the way for Adult Industry sites to start using Facebook in ways that are actually beneficial.

  • Your Fan Page is visually more like a profile now. This will make it easier for people to
    Feature Photo Friday: PornoBobbie

    PornoBobbie is this week's Feature Friday Photo. He is an adult star, writer (and blogger) and connoisseur of life. This photo just inspires me to be naughty...and naked.

    engage with you, because familiarity breeds comfort.

  • You also have the ability to use Facebook as your Fan Page identity or brand. Now you can interact with other pages, post on their walls and comment on their posts. This will dramatically help with engagement and networking. Previously, you could only interact with people as your business or brand if you were on your own Fan Page.
  • The best part of the new functionality is notification. When someone comments on a post, you will receive an email (if your settings are set to do so) and you will see a notification alert just like you would if you were normally using Facebook. This is a great way to know when people are interacting, so you can respond. The notifications will also let you know when you have new fans. Now you can see your number of Likes increasing and you’ll know who recently Liked you. This is great for demographics and networking.

No doubt there will a lot of discussion about the new Fan Page as it is released for everyone. Stay tuned!

PornobobbiePornoBobbie is this week’s Feature Friday Photo.  Not only is Bobbie a sexy porn star but he is also a talented writer.  He posts frequently to his blog, The Life and Times in Pornolandia, which chronicles his adventures in the San Fernando Valley as a porn star and writer, and the general craziness of life.  Bobbie is another example of a porn star who can write!  He is funny, witty, provocative and alluring. He is also a great Twitter tweep.  Always good for an interesting tweet, I recommend you give him a shout. I also love this picture, he looks academic and devious. My favorite combination.

Read Bobbie’s blog at The Life and Times in Pornolandia

Follow PornoBobbie on Twitter @PornoBobbie

Talk to PornoBobbie on Black Book Buddies!

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Promote your porn on Twitter, promote your brand on LinkedIn.

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Veronica Vaughn LinkedIn Profile

Veronica Vaughn promotes herself as a business owner first and adult star second. Like Veronica, keep your social networks connected. Her LinkedIn is for networking but her linked Twitter account is for promotion.

LinkedIn is the largest business networking site.  It is where you go to post your resume, find jobs, meet people, make connections, create business alliances and have access to amazing business resources. This is not generally where you’d think of porn.  In fact, the public does not usually think of any adult star as being invested in business.  However,  the most successful porn stars have great business heads; that is why they are successful. .

LinkedIn has generally been the forbidden network in porn. Most people in the adult industry have not viewed LinkedIn as an adult friendly platform. This is true, it isn’t.  But it is not against people in the adult industry, it is against using the site as a promotion for porn.  In all fairness, it is against using the site as commercial promotion for any business.  The network is not actually about promoting business, it is about building business connections.

Much like Facebook, it is primarily a self monitoring community. If your profile is essentially spam, you risk being deleted. If you spam groups, your posts will be deleted and you may be removed from the group. If you are obviously engaging or promoting illegal activity, you will be deleted.  But if you are focusing on developing your business connections you will be fine.

LinkedIn is a place where adult stars can focus on the business side of their networking –  meeting producers, studios, agents, distributors, managers, etc.  LinkedIn groups are  your greatest resource.  There are groups for every possible topic. Interested in Social Media? Join the group Adult Social Media and keep on top of what is happening in social media in adult entertainment.

Join a group, read the discussion and then take part. The more you use the groups the more they will benefit you.  As you participate, you will meet people and expand your network.

Are you needing information? Ask the group.

Are you needing help? Ask the group.

Are you looking for business connections? Ask the group.

To network on LinkedIn you just need to position yourself as a business person.  Promote your porn on Twitter. Network your brand on LinkedIn.

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Social Media Floozy

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Social Media Whore

Are you a social media prude, whore or floozy?

When people start becoming involved in social media they are 1 of 2 things:

1. Prudes

2. Sluts

As with most things, moderation is actually better.  There’s also another option:

3. Floozy

The Prude

The social media prude is the person who barely sticks their toe in the water. They create one account, lurk, and hardly ever post.  Actually, that is the best case scenario.  The worst case is: they create one account, never log in and chalk up social media as a failure.

The prude is on social media because she thinks she has to be there.  She doesn’t like it or understand it and is not truly willing to give it a really good try. Her measly attempts will sour her to future social ventures.

The Slut

The social media slut decides they are going to jump head first into all forms of social media. They create accounts on every network they can find. They blast out messages to everyone, send auto-messages to every new follower, and try to talk to everyone.  Then they are completely overwhelmed and turn their back on all of it because it was too much.

The slut realizes the importance of social media.  She realizes it so much, that in order to utilize it she is convinced she has to access all of it. She spreads herself too thin and wears herself out, generally overextending herself. Because she is doing so much of it, chances are she’s doing none of it really well; she will get burnt out without seeing any real results and quickly abandon all her efforts.

The Floozy

The social media floozy is the one who does not get into all the networks, just a few of them.  She talks to a lot of people, but no more than she can handle.  She does social media because she likes it, not because she has to. The social media floozy understands her limits but is still very active and present.

The floozy will focus on the networks she has the most fun with, and those will be the ones she gets the most out of. Because she is not overextended she won’t get burnt out. She will be able to continue with her social media for the long haul and find success. Consider the virtues of the floozy, and embrace them!

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Facebook: censoring your wall, not your porn

Woman with her breasts covered by a bandeau top that says censored

This photo was taken at the 2004 Adult Expo, and featured in Life Magazine!

Since the release of the new Facebook Fan Page updates the glamour of the cool changes are wearing off and some of the problems are starting to come to light.  The biggest problem is the wall, which is no longer showing all your posts.  Facebook has added an algorithm to the wall that prioritizes posts by popularity.  Beyond that, it chooses which ones to show and which ones to hide.  Interestingly enough, this has nothing to do with content.  Porn on your wall? Sure, it is a problem for Facebook but not for the algorithm.

Page owners and fans are noticing that not all posts are showing up on the wall. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done about it.

There are 2 setting for viewing posts on your wall:

1. Everyone

Posts by everyone means that posts by you and by your fans will be displayed on the wall.

2. Fan Page

Post by Fan Page means that only posts made by the Fan Page admins will appear on the wall.  If your settings allow comments, fans will still be able to comment on your posts, they just won’t be able to make their own posts on your wall.

I generally encourage pages to show posts by everyone. Allowing your fans to participate on your page gives you more chances for engagement.  I’m not changing this recommendation. Although the new algorithm is affecting the effectiveness of this setting, it is not negating its effectiveness entirely.

The other problem with the algorithm is that your most recent posts may not be showing up on the wall. This means that timely updates are not as successful.  When you make a post it will still show up in the newsfeed as usual, but its presence on the wall is up to the algorithm.  This is a big source of frustration for pages that specialize in time sensitive updates.

The good news for the adult industry is that the algorithm does not seem to discriminate based on content.  So if your posts are not appearing on your wall, it is not because of the content.  Essentially you can post as much adult content as you want and the algorithm won’t care. Of course if your content is rated higher than PG-13 you are at risk of violating Facebook’s terms of service and having your account deleted.

So Facebook still has its own forms censorship, but they are not related to the shift in its algorithm.

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Does the New Facebook Fan Page Help Porn?

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Woman in red dress holding her head and screaming

Most of the changes are good. One change is bad. You'd better know which one!

Most of us have just gotten use to the last batch of changes on the profile. Now Facebook has just done a major overhaul on the Fan Page. Last Friday, Facebook announced they have made changes – not just to the layout, but to the functions of the Fan Pages as well.  Many people in the adult world have had a lot of challenges using Fan Pages, but many of us still use them.  This new functionality might help get the word out about your page without having to rely on advertising (which is basically impossible) or posts, which are not necessarily shared because of content.

  • Profile style layout

    The layouts now share the same style as the redesigned profile. This streamlines pages and profiles, making them easier for people to use, because they share similar features.

  • Posting as a Page

    You now have the option to post comments on other people’s pages and profiles as your professional page name. This is a big benefit for increasing engagement for your page.  As an adult page, you can now comment as your “brand” name on others’ posts or walls. This allows for increased visibility for your page while you interact more with your fan base. But you still have to be careful of being flagged for spam!

  • Photo Strip

    The photo strip we have become accustomed to seeing on our profiles is now on your page. Instead of the photos being the most recently tagged images of you, they are the five most recently uploaded photos. This can only be done by the admin, but if you post your pics carefully you can create a really nice photo strip that helps your branding.

  • Change your Category

    You can now change the category of your fan page. It used to be that once you picked a category for your page you were stuck with it. Maybe you set yourself up as entertainment, but now you want to switch to personality or to a brand. Now you can!

  • Featured Likes

    A page can now Like another page. These Likes are featured on the left side panel of your page. Beyond that, you can assign “Featured Likes”, meaning you can designate special pages you want to focus on. This is a fun way  to show favor to another page by giving them what amounts to prime passive advertising real estate on your page.

  • Featured Page Owner

    Just like Featured Likes, you can feature a page owner. This will also appear on the left side panel of your page. This is a great way to draw attention to a specific person.

  • Filtered Wall

    This is the big bad! Facebook is now filtering your wall posts. You have 2 choices. One is to only display the posts from your page, which will show chronologically. The other is to display all posts. Facebook is filtering the “everybody” setting by popularity. So, not all posts, tags or mentions will be displayed on your wall. Plus, to be even more frustrating, they are not being shown chronologically either. Posts from today might be directly above a post from last week, or a post from three weeks ago might be at the top of your wall!

That’s the overview of the latest changes. I will explore these a bit further and give some tips on how these can work to the advantage of your adult fan page! Stay tuned!

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Xbiz awards, no props to tweets

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Muscle Barbie dressed like a school girl writing on a chalk board

Friday Feature Photo: The beautiful, and very fit, Muscle Barbie

During Wednesday night’s Xbiz Award show, Twitter was flooded with pics and commentary from the red carpet.  Stars posted tweets ranging from getting ready for the event to comments on the happenings.  The next day’s tweets were even more overwhelming.  All the photos that were taken started flooding the twitterverse.  More comments and talk about the previous night’s activities were the trending topic for adult tweets. Though Twitter gave a nod to Xbiz, Xbiz did not give a nod to Twitter.

First thing Thursday morning the list of winners was posted. Those of us who were not yet in the know ran to the site to see who won awards.  Consummate tech geek that I am, I checked the tech section first.  I am curious to see who won best website and best web services, but I am more interested in the topics.  As the internet plays a deeper and more integral role in porn (reaffirmed by Pink Visual launching their cloud site), the categories for Web/Tech are becoming more significant.

Sadly, there was no category for social media. No category for Twitter. No category for innovative social media networks. Nada.  I am sure organizations like Adult Talent Registry would like a chance for recognition. What about twitter campaigns that companies like Adult Trading Card Company have launched? It is unusual to be on social media and not have heard their names.  Then you have the tweet aggregating powerhouse, Pornstar Tweets. And who is kidding who here, the porn stars would love a chance to get some recognition for their tweeting prowess!

So although the Xbiz awards did not recognize the social media muscle that the adult industry is flexing, efforts are not going unnoticed.

Congratulations to all the winners of real categories from Xbiz. Maybe I should create my own social media porn award. What do you think?

Feature Photo Friday: I met Wendy Rider, aka. Muscle Barbie, on Twitter.  I saw one of the pictures she posted and was blown away. Not only is she beautiful, but she is fabulously fit!   She is a WBFF Pro Figure competitor, Playboy model, International Fitness Model, and personal trainer. Yup, she is the whole package.  Her site is not only pictures and cam, you can get live fitness training from Ms. Muscle Barbie herself!

Check out her website: www.musclebarbie.com

Follow her on Twitter: @musclebarbie

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My, What a Sexy Twitter Voice You Have!

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Paris Hilton tied up in a microphone cord

Anyone can be sexy. What makes your voice unique in the Twitterverse?

Finding your voice is an important part of the social media process. It seems like this should be easy, especially if you are in the adult industry, but it is not. All you have to do is be sexy, right?  Maybe not.  Crafting your online personality is an important part of your branding.   Thousands of people in the Twitterverse are sexy, so how are you different? What makes you unique?

The crafting of your personality needs to be carefully based around your objective and your audience. Although you may have an idea of who you are online, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be what elicits the most responses from your audience, or drives the most click-throughs.

Are you a dom? Do your followers want to be bossed around? Are you a vixen? Do you need to be coy and illusive? Are you a Diva? Do you need to be strong and demanding?

You not only need to figure out who you want to be, but you need to figure out who your audience responds to strongly.  For some people, primarily talking to other porn stars works for them. Their fans want to see the behind-the-scenes of the porn life.  For most, this is not enough.  You have to actually talk to your fans and relate to them.

When I first start working with a client, I take a splatter approach to posting. I experiment with a variety of posts, with different tones and content. I do this to begin establishing what their audience will respond to. Your online followers are a unique group, thus you cannot base your communications on the success or failure of someone else.

If our online personalities are a product of our branding, they can also be extremely formative to the evolution of our branding. Pay attention to what your audience responds to, because if your goal is to reach them for sales, support or awareness, you need to know what approach and tone will engage them. Remember, you can’t just bat your eyes on Twitter and get people to do what you want, you have to offer substance and make that substance uniquely yours.

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