An interview with Web Smith

by: Nicole Hughes

Our team loves social media. We love talking about it, blogging about it and promoting it. But the majority of people, and especially garage gyms, aren’t using twitter effectively in their communities. Most people don’t understand Twitter, they don’t think it’s relevant to their gym or they seem to be stuck on exactly what to tweet about.

Twitter was created in 2006 by Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey and has seen it’s fare share of transformations in it’s brief but explosive history. It was originally created in a “day long brainstorming meeting” with the intention of taking SMS (short code messaging) and combining it with a way to create social groups. Twitter was born with a single tweet in ’06 “just setting up my twttr“. In 2007 the blooming company reached a tipping point at Austin’s South by Southwest Interactive Festival win they won an award in the blog category; naturally, they thanked SXSW in 140 characters. Shortly after the festival, MTV’s moon man chimed in – and twitter was well on their way.

In 2009 businesses were becoming aware of the power of social media, or as the authors of the Social Media Bible, Lon Safko & David Brake, call it – a disruptive technology. Companies were realizing that social media had the ability to connect their company directly to its audience or community so that they could better engage one another. So why are more businesses not using the platform? Safko & Brake believe that social media “will remain a mystery to many until it becomes commonplace, in the same way a toaster and microwave are common to your kitchen. People felt the same way about railroads, the telephone, automobiles and airplanes. They were disruptive technologies too. Most people tend to avoid even fear what they don’t understand.”

In an effort to better understand why & how 140 characters can help the success of entrepreneurs and athletes in the fitness industry I set up a meeting with Web Smith, also known as @CrossFitChron & the man behind @SICFITdotcom.

As I waited for Web in a crowded Starbucks in Austin, Texas I glanced around the cozy coffee shop. Billie Holiday was playing overhead, an early nod to the changing of seasons, streaming from the barista’s choice on Pandora no doubt. The two patrons waiting in line scrolled on their iphones, and 6 out of 12 tables held a lap top, one table had an ipad and everyone in the coffee shop carried a smart phone. In all fairness I had my macbook open, connected to Garage Gym Blueprint’s Facebook Page while I tweeted my extreme satisfaction with Starbucks decision to “turn on” free Wi-Fi (finally!). Web walked in wearing his most recent SICFIT hoodie with his ipad in one hand and blackberry in the other. We immediatley dove into social media Q & A and the future of marketing.

Tell me about your background in technology and online media

I went to school for business & management information systems. That was in my secondary education, before that I was into math and coding. That background mixed with business and technology gave me the Web 2.0 mindset.

Do you remember your very 1st introduction to Twitter?

Wow – I think it was Jeremy Thiel’s twitter account on his blog nearly 2 years ago. I thought “that’s pretty cool, I wonder if I can do that to my blog.” At the time I didn’t really know how to use it. I focused too much on myself and not providing useful information to other people. But as I learned more about the platform it grew pretty fast. I ran into Gary V, saw that Zach Even-Esh used it and enriched my education quite a bit.

What do you say to people that think Twitter is a game or purely a social platform?

I think this is a huge misconception. First off I understand that ‘Twitter’ is a silly name, and most people’s introduction to Twitter was “What are you doing right now”. People would tweet “I’m eating a sandwich”. In the beginning people saw twitter as a status update. Now, twitter is transitioning to people sharing important information and content.

How important is it that Garage Gym owners, coaches & trainers use platforms like twitter to promote their brand or themselves?

I think of it like this – your gym and you are being talked about anyway so why not engage these people? Twitter is a new means of communication and it’s catchy so people are flocking to it. If you’re not keen to that information than you’re sort of being left behind. And it’s a great tool for businesses to promote themselves and for brands to be built.

In this business where garage gyms are becoming a dime a dozen you want to establish yourself above the noise. You want to show why your different or why your better, and right now there’s no better way to do that than to constantly promote and engage people.

Are we at the point where having a blog and a website isn’t enough to establish your online presence?

I know it’s not enough. There’s a guy who contacted me last week to work with him and his number one complaint is “you can’t find me on the internet unless you put in specific key words.” No one is going to go to your blog unless they’re pointed to it. As the internet becomes more and more dense, unless there is a red flag somewhere saying ‘Hey check this out’ it’s less likely you’re going to be seen. In the online world twitter, facebook and other platforms like it are those red flags that can call attention to your business.

Pictured above: From Web Smith’s Blog displaying the top 50 cities on the social index

What do you tell people who “get it”, they understand the importance of twitter for their business, but they don’t know what to tweet about

?

I spoke to CrossFit Central coaches last week about social media and online presence. I gave them a list of 5 things they should do daily

• Link to important content that will help your clients or the people around you
• Link to content that will educate or to something you think is valuable
• Mention a client – meaning asking them over twitter How are you feeling? How was that workout for you?
• Mention a mentor, someone that you don’t know if they’ll respond to you but if they did respond to you it would be a huge benefit to your professional education. Whether it’s Gary Vaynerchuk or Zach Even-Esh or Mark Twight or OPT.
• The last thing to do is to link to your blog because by then you have set a path, and your followers are more likely to follow the path to your blog as a resource

I asked these coaches to try this for two weeks, every day, and see what happens. Coach Glassman said in a CrossFit Journal article that the people who make it in this business aren’t the ones that are the best trainers. The people who make it in this business are the ones who are building relationships. These social media platforms are another level of communicating with your clients and cultivating those relationships. Establishing relationships and fortifying relationships – that’s what makes people successful.

How do you differentiate tweeting as a business and tweeting as yourself?

A business is an inanimate object – meaning you don’t speak from the first person. Your not going to tweet ‘What are you doing right now?’ or ‘I’m on my way to coach’ when you’re tweeting as your business. Your going to speak from a collective voice – I’ll tweet things like “This is what we see” or ‘This is what we’re doing” it’s representative of a group of people. If you go to SICFITdotcom’s twitter page you’re going to see who the twitter page is representing. Whereas @CrossFitChron is a little bit more personal, I’ll tweet out pictures of my daughter, things I would never do from a company’s website.

Web Smith at work with SICFIT

Do you have recommendations for people to follow on Twitter?

From a business perspective I like to follow companies like Vayner Media , Jet Blue and the NHL. What I like about following these businesses is that I can watch how big brands interact with their clients & community. What it shows is that there’s no company and no brand too big to care about every single person. I think that this is the decade of customer service. The people who go above and beyond are going to do well.

Web Smith currently runs CrossFit Chronicles: The Web Smith Family and The Web Smith Blog. Web is a contributor to the Garage Gym Blueprint website, The Blueprint affiliate training and is a social media consultant. You can find him tweeting from @CrossFitChron