HOW TO Build Influence in Social Media

 

by Rick Bakas
reposted from Bakas Media

One of the best perks of my job is getting to speak at conferences all over the country (and soon the world) about social media and how it applies to business—more specifically how it applies to the wine and food industry.  Over the past two years I’ve been able to speak at conferences like TWTRCON DC, #140conf in LA, SMASH in SF, TWTRCON SF, Unified in Sacramento and various other social media events.  My shtick usually has to do with branding, or “social branding”.

Each time I go to one of these, I come away thinking the same thing—out of all the important strategies to focus on in social media, building influence might be #1.  The social media conferences are a great place to hear the latest case studies from thought leaders, and they’re a great place to hob nob with new friends in the lobby.  Moreover, social media conferences are a good place to determine who is building influence online and offline.

It’s Not About Followers

When I sit down to coach someone on social media, we don’t talk about how to use Twitter or how to set up a Facebook page, we talk about how to position their brand (personal or corporate) for online synergy.  I’m not as concerned with which tools someone uses, I just want them to use the social tools they feel comfortable with to build influence.  We begin to translate influence to ROI over time.

Number of followers have very little to do with influence.  A better barometer is klout.com and your klout score.  Klout uses granular data from your online interactions to determine how engaged your online audience is.  The more engaged your audience, the more of their attention you can capture.  That’s really what building influence is about…it’s not just social currency, it’s attention currency.  Klout will help you determine where your brand is strong and where it needs attention.  The whole of your Klout score is a sum of the parts of ALL the things you do on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube (coming soon).  Your Klout score starts at zero and goes up from there, it’s not like grades in school.  The higher the score, the more you are able to capture attention.  And in the world of social media, attention span comes at a premium.  Where attention goes, money follows.

 

The Importance of Reach

In my book, Quick Bites, I have a chapter about building influence using this formula:



Getting back to the idea of number of followers.  While it’s true the number isn’t important, it is important to know your reach.  Klout tells you your ‘true reach’ or the size of your engaged audience.  The reach is multiplied by a mix of brand positioning, subject expertise and trust.  Since my background is brand management from eight years at NIKE, I fully geek out on getting a brand positioned correctly.  I’m amazed at how many personal and corporate brands I see online that aren’t positioned correctly because they use different avatars on different social sites.  The question people ask me the most is, “what’s the most important tip in Quick Bites?”  Answer: be consistent.  For brands online, be consistent with the image you use for the avatar.  An avatar is your online “logo”.  Use the same one everywhere like a NIKE swoosh.

Expertise comes through online conversation.  I suggest a brand “own” five subjects or less.  For me, everyone knows I’m going to talk online about wine, food, bacon or social media geekery.  There’s a level of expectation.  Because my audience knows what I’m going to talk about, and I do it they trust me.  I’ve delivered what was expected.  A brand can be defined as a promise to deliver.   Trust is earned through consistently delivering on what’s anticipated, that’s why quality content is king.

In the wine industry, patience is part of the business.  Waiting for grapes to grow on the vine, then age in the barrel can take years before the product is actually enjoyed.  When the bottle is opened, the vintage might be from 15 year ago, but when the wine delivers on the promise and expectation, that’s a quality brand experience.  Patience is also part of the online business.  It takes time for the influence formula to show results, but consistent application of that formula over time will help a brand grow their online influence.

 

3 Flavors of Social Media Execution in a B2B Corporate Environment

by Marc Hausman

re-posted from Social Media Today

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare, Digg, Reddit…I love them all.  Yet, their value has been overstated.

These social networks are merely another channel to address the market, in many ways comparable to traditional forms of communication such direct mail, trade shows and events.

Now consider Web 2.0 offerings like BeFunky, PixxMe, Go!animate and Apture.  While they’re certainly cool, they are merely tools designed to dress up staid content.

It is encouraging that the adoption of social media in corporate environments has marched on at an accelerating pace.  However, executive buy-in and budget commitment has been dampened by the curious fascination that social practitioners have with online communities and tools, rather than the strategies and applications necessary to produce a measurable ROI.

During the past four years, Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) has designed, executed and evaluated nearly 40 social media campaigns for the world’s largest, fastest growing and most successful technology companies.  Our clients have included global brands such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems, EMC, Sun Microsystems, British Telecom, NeuStar, Monster and BearingPoint, as well as emerging vendors like Merchant Link, Cimcor, ePok and govWin.

While the practice and influence of social media can be applied across the organization, our experience teaches us there are primarily three high-value viable applications of social in a B2B environment.

Social Media for Public Relations
It’s no secret there has been a sustained shift in influence from traditional sources of credibility like trade publishers, market research firms and conferences to the conversations and debate that define social networks.  However, interest from and coverage by journalists and analysts still delivers much-needed awareness and third-party validation.

Plus, bloggers and social media power users now flex their influence with daily commentary, staking claim to their place in the public relations landscape.

Participation in online communities can deliver a direct channel to these high-value influencers, helping PR professionals cultivate relationships, present story ideas and participate in the news gathering process.

The practice and importance of public relations remains constant.  Social now overshadows the phone and Email as the preferred means of communication.

Social Media for Corporate Positioning
Canvas corporate sites on the Web and it’s apparent that most marketing departments are getting hip to audience demand for a Facebook fan page, LinkedIn profile and Twitter feed.  In fact, in some instances a company’s presence in an online community can eclipse the relevance of its own corporate Web site.

A defined strategy and appropriate benchmarks for success in areas such as market awareness and positioning are a must for an organization to experience a positive return from this corporate-driven social presence.

Equally important, corporations have begun to recognize that a lack of participation in popular online communities can be damaging.  Key audiences such as customers, partners and investors may stand perplexed and, in some instances, question the viability of an organization that fails to sport a Facebook logo on its Web site.

Social Media for Sales
Referred to at Strategic as the “last mile,” the ability to appropriately tap into online communities for lead generation, cultivation of prospect relationships and deal capture delivers the most meaningful ROI in a B2B environment.

Consider that a social network is merely a collection of individuals who have organized around a shared theme or topic of interest.  Participants in this community also self-identify, sharing with other members information about their professional responsibilities and areas of interest.

Plus, everyone in a social environment leaves a digital footprint -- who they follow, the discussions they participate in and the comments they provide.  All of this intelligence informs the astute marketer about what this individual deems important.

By publishing thought leadership content that enhances the value of participation for community members, a corporation can attract a loyal and engaged following.  It’s then a matter of presenting opportunities for those followers to choose to strike up a more intimate conversation.

When integrated with a socially-trained sales team, these conversations can be assessed, vetted and evaluated for their business potential.

The end result:  social media becomes a driver of high-value sales activity and opportunity.  The awareness, credibility and search engine optimization (SEO) resulting from participation in social networks becomes merely an unintended benefit.

How to Become a Foursquare Power User

Reposted from Mashable
from Waggener Edstrom Worldwide's Digital Influencers Series

When Foursquare was starting up a little more than a year and a half ago, only a handful of people were checking in. It was pretty easy to hold down a healthy number of mayorships just by being one of the few people using the game. Today, it’s a different story.

Foursquare registered its four millionth member this past week. As the network has grown in popularity, it has evolved from a location-based game to a social media staple that has shown potential in civic engagement, education, and non-profits. It has also become much harder to beat out the competition for coveted mayorships and badge counts.

When IBM employee Eric Andersen took over the mayorship of a popular Boston ice cream shop, for instance, he had to stop in two to three times every week for ice cream or spiced butterscotch lattes (a Boston Globe reporter dubbed the not-so-painful battle the bloodless revolution). The mayor who ousted him checks in about 35 times every 60 days.

“One way to think of it is, for nearly every venue, whether it be a bar, a coffee shop, a laundromat, or a park, there is probably someone who owns a smartphone who is there almost daily,” Andersen says. “So as Foursquare adoption increases, mayorship battles will heat up as regular patrons of every location suddenly begin to adopt their new virtual status.”

When you find yourself in such a battle — or just want to get the most out of playing the game — you can rely on these five tips from Foursquare’s most accomplished players.

1. Make Foursquare a Habit 

 “I don’t know if I really have a strategy, but playing Foursquare has definitely changed my habits,” says Chris Preiss, who has checked into Foursquare more than 5,800 times, the third-most times of anyone on Foursquare according to Osnapz.com. “If I am in a mayorship battle, I will frequent that place a little more often. Or if there is a location that I know will help me earn a badge, I will go there.”

Adding Foursquare to your habits is a common theme among Foursquare champions. It seems obvious, but most people still don’t naturally check in when they arrive somewhere. Remembering to do so is a huge advantage, especially if you have a job like Preiss’s. His company provides CO2 to bars and restaurants, so he’s often in new places that he might not otherwise even know about.

2. Pick a Strategy

Gathering mayorships, badges, and checkins requires different and often conflicting strategies.
“In the past, many badges had clearly defined rules, and you could check venues’ tags to determine if a checkin there would help towards the badge,” explains Andersen, who currently has the second most number of checkins on Foursquare. “Now, most of the newer badges can’t easily be obtained by a concrete set of checkins. There are some sites like aboutfoursquare.com that can help guide you though – but these strategies typically involve checking in to new and different places, whereas something like [becoming] mayor involves going to the same place every day.”

In order to truly excel in a Foursquare power user category, it can be beneficial to define your strategy. Chris Radzinski decided to focus his efforts on badges.

“I am not a fan of going for mayorships — if you notice my account does not have many,” he says. “In terms of Foursquare, getting badges doesn’t really affect any other user specifically. But if I went around and had a thousand mayorships, some users would be irritated and would actually be affected.”

Radzinski is currently the Foursquare record holder with 131 badges. Those who wish to focus on badges, he says, should focus on the limited time badges first.

“Unlike mayorships, which can be taken, not everyone can say they have certain badges after they are inactive,” he says.

Preiss is less targeted. “For the most part, I just check in where I am and let the chips fall where they may,” he says. “Earning a badge unexpectedly can be more fun than working for one.”

3. Know the Rules and Decide What is Cheating

All checkins are not created equal. If you’re planning on being competitive, it’s important to know the rules.
“Many don’t realize that only checkins in the last 60 days count towards mayorship, or that only one checkin a day counts towards mayorship,” Andersen says. “Multiple checkins a day to a place aren’t necessarily mistakes, but someone might be doing it thinking it will help them become mayor more quickly.”

There are, of course, ways to bend the rules. You can check in on the mobile Foursquare website without actually being in a location, you can check in to a location as you pass it without ever actually going to it, and you can decide not to “share with friends” in order to unabashedly check in multiple times per visit to one location.

“I don’t really see the value in doing this more than a few times a day,” Andersen says about checking in off the grid. “You lose nearly all of Foursquare’s social benefits when you aren’t actually sharing anything with friends other than the fact that you’re accumulating points.”

Some people also consider employees who check in to their own business’s Foursquare page to be cheating.
But, as Preiss points out, “There aren’t really rules to the game, so cheating is kind of a touchy thing.”
Preiss says he considers checking in to places that he hasn’t actually visited to be cheating. He doesn’t do it, but, he says, “Foursquare hasn’t done anything to end this practice, so if they don’t have a problem with it, why should I?”

Foursquare has, in fact, made an attempt to stop rewarding armchair mayors. It continues to permit people to check in wherever they are, but, as Foursquare puts it, “We’re never going to NOT let you check-in –- you can checkin wherever you want, whenever you want — the idea is simply to not award points, mayorships, badges or venue specials if it looks like you didn’t really earn them.”

Before you get competitive, it’s good to set some boundaries for what you will count as fair play. Foursquare pride isn’t as much fun when accompanied by cheater guilt.

4. Use Twitter

Radzinski says Twitter gives him a competitive edge. “Following the right people is crucial because many of the badges are only valid for a few days if it is event based, and the news hits Twitter faster than anything,” he says.

These are some online resources the power users we interviewed recommended:

• @aboutfoursquare: “Lots of updates on new badges and brands that are part of Foursquare,” says Preiss.
• @4squareTips: Great for tips, how-tos, and swarm alerts
• @mattersofgrey: General Internet news, but often reports on Foursquare. Great for badge lists.
• @foursquare: Get Foursquare news directly from Foursquare
• @getOsnapz: The Twitter feed of social media leader board site Osnapz.com.
• @4squarebadges: Outlines the best strategies for earning specific badges.
• @foursquarehelp: Get a guaranteed response to every Foursquare support issue.
• Andersen keeps a Twitter list of “Foursquare gurus” that collectively span anything you would want to know about the platform.

5. Stay Social

Foursquare is intended to be a game. It can get competitive, but it should still be fun. Even the power users say the most important parts of the game are the social aspects.

“As a social person who works in a very social industry, it’s nice for friends to be able to see where and what is going on,” says Radzinski, who works as a general manager at a Cleveland Heights restaurant. “I can’t even tell you how many times someone has stopped at a place I am or texted to see how long I am staying at a bar or restaurant because they saw me checked in. The badges are just icing on the cake.”

Preiss says that the badges he’s most proud of are not those that were hardest to win, but those that remind him of good times. One of them he won at a friend’s birthday party while visiting New York. Another is the Jet Setter Badge, which he is proud of because it shows his passion for traveling.

What are your tips for becoming a Foursquare power user? Add them in the comments below.

How Much Are Social Media Shares Worth?

by Jennifer Van Grove

reposted from Mashable

Popular event ticketing site Eventbrite used its in-house social analytics tools to study the effects Facebook shares, tweets and other social sharing behaviors have on ticket purchases.

Looking at data from the past 12 weeks in aggregate, Evenbrite found that each social media share equates to $1.78 in ticket sales, with Facebook shares proving to be the most lucrative. As such, Eventbrite believes social commerce — or transactions driven through sharing on social platforms — to be the next big trend in online commerce.

Eventbrite’s data is especially telling; here’s the breakdown: one share on Facebook equals $2.52, a share on Twitter equals $0.43, a share on LinkedIn equals $0.90, and a share through e-mail equals $2.34 in sales. The easy takeaway is that Facebook shares are almost six times more effective than tweets and three times more rewarding than LinkedIn shares.

The report also details, “For Eventbrite, Facebook is now the #1 referring site for traffic to the company’s site, surpassing Google. Each Facebook share drives 11 visits back to Eventbrite.com.”

Eventbrite’s data and social commerce findings are, of course, by all means singular to its ticket-selling business and recognized brand name. For most businesses, individual shares will not convert to as high of sales.

Still, Web services with online commerce components could learn a thing or two from the startup’s social integrations — Eventbrite excels at making it ridiculously simple for event organizers and RSVP’d guests to share events via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or e-mail.

The Most Influential Consumers Online are on Twitter

By Brian Solis
Reposted from @briansolis


Twitter is a human seismograph and it represents a transformative channel where everyday people possess the ability to affect actions. The cloud of collective consciousness that houses our thoughts, experiences, and conversations is also a data trove for experts to measure and mine serendipitous and organized behavior and events.

Twitter is less of a social network in its design and operation and more of a series of interconnected social nicheworks. It brings together disparately connected personalities linked through friendship, admiration, education, and context. Here individuals align around people they know, would like to know, and bound by the topics, themes, and connections that attract them. This highly contextualized network, or as Twitter refers to it, an Interest Graph, offers individuals an organized, indexible, and searchable stream where they express sentiment, share observations and information, and also directly and indirectly communicate with one another.

For marketers, Twitter represents so much more than a real-time focus group. While the activity of its users is available for interpretation and analysis, the information contained in certain tweets published by notable individuals possess the capacity to influence agendas and resulting activities. And even in aggregate, everyday users define the direction of the stream and ultimately impact the subjects of their conversations.
Any organization impacted by outside activity must dedicate focus and resources to monitoring and analyzing activity, the extent to which it shapes perception today, and how to share and steer activity to benefit stakeholders online and in the real world.

A recent study by ExactTarget and CoTweet surveyed 1,500 consumers to identify top motivations for following brands on Twitter. As a result, we can glean insight into the expectations of elusive and prized consumers when interacting with brands online.

The ExactTarget and CoTweet study reveals an important part of the social ecosystem that demonstrates why businesses need to consider not just a 360 approach, but a socialized approach. Of the consumers surveyed, 72% publish blog posts at least monthly, 70% comment on blogs, and 61% write at least one product review monthly. The social consumer is vocal and they’re connected.  Considering now that audiences are shifting from content consumers to curators and creators, our market is now defined by audiences with audiences with audiences. Individuals maintain active and expanding social graphs and as they grow, the network effect only escalates.

In April 2010, Performics and ROI Research found that 33% of Twitter users share opinions about companies or products at least once per week. More so, 32% make recommendations while 30% seek guidance and direction.

Wait. What?
- 33% talk brands 1x per week
- 32% make recommendations
- 30% seed advice

Among other interesting stats, 20% of consumers follow a brand in order to interact with the company, which is much greater than those who subscribe to email newsletters or those who “like” brands on Facebook in order to remain connected. In fact, nine out of the ten stated that the most common reasons to follow a brand on Twitter involved the ability to obtain direct information from a company.

In other studies, upwards of 80% of Twitter users stated that for those deserving brands, following equated to referrals. Of those who followed brands, 51% did so because they were an existing customer and 44% expected discounts or promotions.

One of the more interesting data points to emerge was that men were more than twice as likely than women to follow brands on Twitter, 29% compared to 13%. This stat requires deeper analysis as it, on the surface, rivals two primary research pillars in my current work, 1) More women than men account for the overall Twitter population and 2) Women, in aggregate, are more influential than men on Twitter.

If you were to take one thing away from this research, it’s this…Twitter users are the most influential social consumers online today. This revelation is constant across many published research reports. Not only are they influential, they put their money where their Tweet is.

While money doesn’t grow on trees, it does however, grow on Tweets. 

The original post can be found here. 

The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media

By: Scott Stratten

reposted from Fast Company

In this excerpt from his new book UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging. author Scott Stratten shows the profane acts users of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn commit. How many are you guilty of?

Social Media is so new that most people are making it up as they go,1 but most people seem to make the same mistakes. Or dare I say sins. . . . We look at the biggest players online for business--Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn--but the same concepts can be applied to any social media site.

Greed

Greed is quite a popular sin. Twitter by default is a self-centered tool. It's about us. But it's 100 times better if used as a conversational tool versus a dictation. I see people using Twitter as a glorified RSS feed for their blog or an ad-puker. So absent of personality, I wonder why they even try. Yes, they are in business, but if they believe that business is built on relationships, they need to make building them their business.

This sin holds a special place for the people who only retweet compliments about themselves. I was talking to a colleague of mine and she was asking how I have built such a large amount of followers. I mentioned that I get retweeted a lot and I retweet others. Her reply was "I retweet others all the time!" When I checked out her page, the only time she ever retweeted anyone was if it was a compliment about her or a #FollowFriday2 mention with her in it. You may as well tweet while looking in a mirror telling yourself you're good enough, you're smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like you.

Facebook is in a world of its own. Posting on someone's wall with a seven-line signature, mass-inviting people to every event (even if the event is local and the person is not even in the same country), to tagging people in articles that they are not even mentioned in just to get them to read it. There is a special vein in my forehead that you can clearly see when these things occur.

Someone didn't become your friend on Facebook to give you business or to allow you to use his or her wall as a billboard. Even the term "friend" means a relationship, and you are not building one when you invite me to your Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) event in San Diego and I live in Toronto. Instead, use Facebook to engage, and to comment on people's posts and status updates and to share links with them that they may like, not ones you have written to promote yourself but ones you have found that may help them.

LinkedIn falls under the same issues that Facebook does. The group's function has so much great potential because the site is fully business-oriented, yet the majority of the groups and posts that I have seen during my research were either outright spam or drive-by articles. Drive-by articles are those that are posted in multiple groups and sites, which are mostly a thinly veiled pitch for the author's services. Some gurus also teach this method, but you will notice that the original authors are never around when someone has a follow-up question. I hope that the LinkedIn discussion groups become just that, groups that have great discussion.

Gluttony

Get followers fast!!!! Most people on Twitter have seen tweets like this or thought of using a site that helps kick-start things for you. Seems innocent, right? Let's just have a look-see at this logic. Imagine a guy just followed you. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy that a new person is along for the Twitter journey with you, makes up for your lack of popularity in high school, and the day is getting better. Then you go to his profile and you see a bunch of tweets that say:

"I have found a way to get thousands of followers fast and automated!! Go to this site!"

How does that make you feel now? Still warm and fuzzy? Still getting tingles? Didn't think so. When you tweet out "follower system" tweets it says one thing: You're in it for the numbers. I'll bet the 3 cents I still have after my latest trip to Vegas that one of the next tweets will be about an "amazing business." Everything you tweet is an extension of your biz and your brand. If you want to scream about "getting thousands of followers," be my guest, but the funniest part about the above tweet? The actual guy has 149 followers. Seriously.

On Facebook, gluttony takes a different turn for me. While actually writing this book a service provider that I am "friends" with sent me an invite to a Facebook event called "Freedom from the Fat Trap!!!" Really? One of two things happened here. She either sent the invitation, which wasn't even for her own event, to her entire friend list or specifically chose to invite me to the event. I am going to go ahead and guess that it is the former and that I also do not have to tell you how badly somebody could take this. It is about as bad as inviting somebody to an event called "You're Ugly and Here Is How You Can Look a Little Less Ugly." Remember that everything you do impacts your business image, including inviting people to fat camp.

Sloth

Twitter is a conversation. It's truly what I love about it. But imagine having a conversation in person with someone where that person takes an hour to reply to you, face-to-face. How awkward would that be: "Hey, how's business?" and they blankly stare off for an hour, then reply "Good thanks!" That's how it feels if someone takes a week to reply to a tweet. I once had someone who took 79 days to reply to a question that I asked her on Twitter. Seventy-nine days! If it takes you longer to reply than it would to walk over a handwritten reply to my home, you're doing it wrong. I know, not everyone is a tweetaholic like me, and not everyone can devote a good chunk of their day to Twitter. So if you have a limited amount of resources or time, let's say five hours a week, it's better to spend 45 minutes a day for the entire week, than five hours once a week. Consistency breeds familiarity, which creates relationships.

Here we can combine Facebook and LinkedIn; if you are not going to be responsive on either site then you probably shouldn't have a presence. There is a difference between being present and having a presence. You need to be active and responsive to people's requests, whether that is accepting people as contacts on LinkedIn or as friends on Facebook. I was guilty of this last year on LinkedIn when I recently went back to ramp things up and realized I had connection requests from eight months ago. How do you think it made those people feel?

Envy

Ya, I'm kind of a big deal on Twitter in my own mind, which at the end of the day means nothing to the majority of the world, but every day I get DMs3 asking me to change my picture to add a "cause" or tweet about this or that. I'm all for causes, I'm a big charity guy, but mostly I'm a fan of choice. Meaning it's your choice to support anything you want but every once in a while people try to get others, through guilt, to change their avatar. When everyone changed their Twitter profile pictures to a shade of green to support some cause I got asked daily why I hadn't changed mine yet. My answer to them? It's none of your damn business why. My lack of participation in your cause does not infer lack of support, just like changing my avatar does not make me a better person by default. Same goes for people who think you should be obligated to follow them back if they follow you. Things on Twitter, just like most things in life, are choices. We should follow people based on interest, not out of courtesy.

Same goes for causes and groups on Facebook. You will see a popular cause of the month go around with plenty of invitations that you will usually ignore. Recently I had the pleasure of choosing to not join a cause just to be reinvited back multiple times by the same person. I admire their dedication, but despise their persistence that has turned to annoyance.

One of LinkedIn's greatest functions is the endorsement, where people can give testimonials about your skills at a particular job. The system allows you to request endorsements from anyone in your contact list. This is okay if they actually worked with you or were customers; however, I frequently am requested to give endorsements for people who I barely know anything about; or they write in the request "if you endorse me then I will endorse you." Which negates the very point of the system.

Wrath

One of the worst things about social media is the reactionary nature of it. Especially on Twitter, most of us don't think before tweeting and for the most part it's okay because most tweets are harmless, boring, and innocent by nature. But once in a while we react or lash out above our better judgment. It takes a thousand tweets to build a reputation and one to change it all. Twitter feels intimate sometimes, like you're on an episode of Friends, having a conversation with a few, except there are thousands "lurking" around. It's like having a harem of stalkers, without the creepiness.4

Being the object of someone's wrath is also common. For a full explanation on how to deal with trolls check out the section about them later in the book. But in a nutshell: Don't feed them. They aren't owed a reply, your time, or your emotions. You're better than that.

Wrath can be even worse when it is cloaked in the disguise of being helpful. This is usually done by the spelling freaks or grammar police. I admit that I do not always proofread what I tweet--I barely proofread a blog post and then usually only after I have posted it. Posting on my public comments and implying that I am a moron because I spelled something wrong isn't in anybody's best interest. It makes me feel stupid and it makes you look bad. I was taught back in my human resource days that there was one rule: Praise in public and reprimand in private. So I would say praise in public and assist in private. If I asked for help or feedback in a public forum, then fire away, but if the spell check is unsolicited, drop me a note privately. It is actually appreciated and makes you look even better. But beware of those who ask for feedback in public as well--they are usually looking for praise.

Lust

Social media sites are filled with humans. And when you throw a bunch of humans into an environment, a few things are sure to be present: 20 percent of people will have bad breath, 30 percent will wonder how their hair looks, 60 percent like peanut butter and cheese sandwiches but are scared to say something (or maybe I'm the only one), and 100 percent will have hormones. 5 It happens. We can pretend they don't exist, but they're always there. It's one of the reasons to have a flattering picture as part of your social media profile; it catches the eye. The problem is when people turn creepy or obnoxious (and by people I mean guys). I'm truly blessed to know many incredible women on Twitter who are not only brilliant in business but attractive as well. The stories they tell me about direct messages or replies they get from some men make me shake my head. Seriously, folks, I'm not sure what book told you the line "Your lips look tasty" works, but it makes me picture Silence of the Lambs, and not for the cool stuff. Every tweet, every DM, represents your company, and more specifically you as a person.

It is even worse on Facebook, where the laid-back attitude can make you look even worse. People post pictures of their vacations on the beach only to have them ruined by some guy making a comment that totally ruins the entire thing. And I repeat that you are always marketing your business--every comment, every post, is an extension of your brand.

Pride

You know what? Screw it. I have no problem with your being proud of something. I mean true pride. Something you accomplished, your kids, whatever. Scream it from the top of the mountains, good for you. Just do it in moderation. Don't just talk about yourself, spread pride of others, too. Retweet, comment, and share their accomplishments. One sin out of seven ain't so bad.

HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Page

by Susan Payton
Reposted from Mashable



So you paid attention to what everyone is saying and you created a Facebook Page for your business. You’ve got your press release links, photos and videos…but no one seems to care. What are you supposed to do now?

You’re on the right track, so congratulate yourself. A lot of small business owners don’t even bother to create a page — they’re simply not “on” Facebook.

But it’s all about where your customers and future customers hang out. And with people spending more than 700 billion minutes per month on this social networking site, it seems pretty apparent that your business needs to be hanging out there too.

Let’s review your Page. Go ahead, pull it up. Your Facebook Page should contain all or most of these:

• Links to your blog posts
• Links to related articles (whether they’re yours or not)
• Videos
• Photos
• Discussions

This type of content is key in getting people to “Like” your page, and contributes to its overall success. And how do we define success? By getting people to interact and leave comments on your Facebook Page, as well as travel from the page to your company’s website and, of course, buying your product.

Facebook Pages Need Attention

If you neglect your Facebook Pages, they will die. If you use Facebook, you’ve probably stumbled upon a company’s page with no conversations going on and no recent posts. I’m guessing you didn’t click “Like” on that page. An unattended Facebook Page leaves a negative impression of the company — don’t let yours fall by the wayside.

The more you pay attention to your Page, the more positive results you’ll see. Cathy Nguyen, President of LeatherandBags.com, has seen great results from her Facebook Page, but admits she could do more.

“Although I have a Facebook Page, I’m not utilizing it to its fullest potential because of time. I try to update when I can and should probably try to engage more often,” said Nguyen. “Utilizing Twitter, blogs and e-mails has worked, but then again, I’m not doing it frequently.”

People are used to passive marketing. In the old days, you could pay a magazine or billboard company to create an ad for you. Then you sat back and waited for sales to hopefully pour in. But those days are gone. Whether it’s you or someone else at your company, you need to dedicate someone to social media strategy.

Creating a Facebook Strategy

Maybe we put the cart before the horse in creating the Page without a clear-cut plan. That’s OK. Let’s develop a plan together. First, decide why you want a Facebook Page. Is it because everyone else is doing it? Or because you understand the value in connecting with customers who spend time socializing on Facebook?

Write down five goals for your Facebook Page. They might be:

• Create awareness of our brand on Facebook
• Get 10,000 “Likes” by year-end
• Have at least 5 comments or shared items each week
• Make Facebook one of the top 3 referrers of traffic to our site
• Get 2,000 entries to our Facebook contest

Once you have these goals, break down the tasks required to achieve them. If you want 10,000 people to click “Like” on your page, you’re going to have to expand your contacts through your profile. Post your page link on Twitter, your blog, your e-mail and everywhere else. If you want interaction, you need to post insightful and thought-provoking questions and comments. Decide how regularly you need to post (I suggest at least 3 days a week).

Now determine who will handle these tasks. It might be one person or several. If it’s you, post the tasks to your calendar so you don’t forget to do them. In time, updating your Page will become second nature.
 
Ginger Anderson, who handles the Facebook Page for Scripps Health in San Diego says that when she started handling the page, all it did was push health news. Now the Page offers a mix of news, useful articles and videos that frequently get comments and questions from the 900 plus San Diegans who follow the brand.

“Our intention is to build relationships within the San Diego community (specifically with current patients and employees) and position Scripps as a trusted leader in healthcare,” said Anderson. “We receive the most comments on the posts that are general and applicable to a wider audience as opposed to disease-specific. We try to balance serious health news with fun, general health and wellness related content along with stuff about San Diego life (again, making sure it’s not always about us).”

Practical Tips

Just updating your Page won’t make it fabulous — that will take a little work from you. Here are a few tips to make your page more searchable and appealing.

Title: Some say the title is the most important part, so make sure your title is descriptive of your business and unique on Facebook.

FBML: Facebook Markup Language helps you create a custom landing page for your Facebook presence. If you want to promote a special event or direct attention to a particular product, this is a great way to do it. Don’t run screaming when I say that this code can make your page better. It’s not complicated, but if you don’t want to deal with it, hire someone to help.

Photos and Videos: Don’t underestimate the power of photos and videos. Even if you don’t sell products, you can still add photos to spice up your page. If you’re a dog groomer, take “Before and After” photos of those precious pet makeovers. A realtor can add photos of the houses on the market. A services firm can post pictures from the office to help visitors feel more connected to the staff.

For videos, why not shoot a tutorial on getting the most out of your products? An office tour? There are applications you can install within Facebook that will let you pull photos from places like Flickr. This can save you the trouble of uploading them in two places.

Questions: The jury’s still out on Facebook Questions, a recent addition to the site. But by asking questions through your Page, you can start discussions that will spread beyond just the people who follow your business.

Once you’ve put together your strategy and have worked on it a bit, give it three months. Then analyze your results and decide: Is Facebook helping your business?

HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Offline Networking Events

by Mollie Vandor
Reposted from Mashable

If you work on the Web, chances are a good chunk of your day is devoted to developing relationships online. You talk to people on Twitter, follow them on Foursquare, share photos with them on Facebook, swap music on MySpace and let them know what you’re working on via LinkedIn. Of course, contrary to the stereotype, that doesn’t mean we techies spend every day in keyboard-covered caves.

In fact, from conferences to networking events, there are plenty of opportunities to turn those online connections into real world relationships. The web can actually make maintaining all those real world relationships even easier, especially if you know how to optimize your networking – both online and offline. Luckily for the would-be social media social butterfly, there are a few simple tips that can help you do just that.

Make The Most Of Meet & Greets

First of all, you have to find the right events. Join Meetup groups around your interests, do a targeted ticket search on Eventbrite, use the Mashable events calendar to find conferences and panels in your part of the world, or join a niche networking group like Social Media Club, Girls in Tech, Women in Technology International or 140 Character Conference.

Once you’re actually at an event, focus on putting a face to your name – your username, that is. Since a lot of people will probably know you solely by your avatar and handle, they may not immediately put two and two together when they meet you in real life. The simple solution to this is to make sure you keep your business cards up to date with your most recent usernames. Make sure you also include those usernames on the nametags you wear at networking events.

It’s also good to make plans with the people you want to meet before the event actually arrives. Doing so will avoid you standing in line while the person you want to talk to is mobbed by other would-be networkers. If you approach them in advance, and make plans to meet, you’ll feel much better about cutting through the crowds to find them. Plus, you’ll save yourself precious minutes of intro-time and be able to jump straight into conversation.

If you want people to come to you, then don’t be shy. Tell your followers, friends and fans where you’re going to be and what you’re going to be wearing. When you get to an event, scope out a particular corner or table and send your location out as a status update. Don’t just check-in on your favorite location-based sharing service, use it to find other people that are at a particular event, and to contact them while you’re there. That way, the people that follow you on the web will be able to find you out in the world, which can be valuable when you want to be found.

Follow Up

Whether you leave every event buried under buckets of business cards, or you have one great conversation and make a single, solid connection, there’s no reason not to follow up afterwards. How do you follow up without coming across as a social media stalker?

I like to start on Twitter – it’s a completely open forum, so people tend to be more welcoming when it comes to making connections with folks they might not know so well. Use services like Twiangulate to find connections you have in common, or to see if your new contact might have other connections you’d like to communicate with. Similarly, you can use a person’s Twitter lists to see what their interests are, and who else is in their network. By the same token, try making some Twitter lists yourself. It could come in handy when someone new is researching you.

LinkedIn, and other professional networking sites like Xing and Jigsaw, are also a natural fit for following up with a new friend you met while networking. Unlike social networks like MySpace and Facebook, where everyone has different policies about the balance of personal and professional contacts they want to maintain, these sites are purely professional. Use services like LinkedIn’s Shared Connections to see who you may have in common with the new person you’ve just met networking, or who that person might know that you’d also like to connect with.

Of course, there is nothing better than a good, old-fashioned thank you email. Just make sure you keep it short and sweet, and remember to include where you met and a quick tidbit of what you talked about.

Stay Organized

Speaking of entering your contacts, if you’re out and about in the offline world, you’re bound to collect boatloads of contact information.

You could always bypass the business card entirely by using a service like Bump on your Android() or iPhone, which allows you to literally send your contact info to another mobile device by touching them together. You can also set up a more traditional vCard that you can exchange via email. And, there are plenty of apps you can use to manage these virtual business cards from your mobile device, so you’ll never have to actually exchange paper cards again – which is better for the environment, and probably better for your organizational sanity too.

If you’re set on standard paper cards, you can also invest in a card scanner – either a traditional external machine or a mobile app, depending on which one will better fit into your lifestyle. Or you could use a card scanning service like CloudContacts.

Once you’ve got your contacts scanned and saved, keep them with you at all times with services like Google Sync for iPhone or Always in Sync for Android. Both systems will let you automatically sync your Google contacts with your mobile device, meaning you can manage your contacts in the Google cloud for free and take them with you wherever you go.

Twitter Reveals 11 New Facts on its Traffic and Usage

By Jeff Bullas

reposted from jeffbullas's blog

Twitter has kept its traffic and usage statistics close to its chest for quite a while now much to many peoples frustration.

The fact that it didn’t release many twitter facts, figures and statistics led quite a few commentators to debate that Twitter was in fact starting to stumble and its demise was near.

The figures released at at the “Chirp” conference have in fact revealed an astonishing level of continuing growth that will have many pundits putting away the obituary preparatory notes in the bottom draw.

I use a twitter tool (bit.ly) that enables me to measure what percentage of tweeters are clicking on twitter links from my blog from each country and what I have found happening is that subscribers from countries outside of the USA were starting to really get on board the Twitter train and and this has only happened in the last few months. In February (only 2 months ago) the USA was generating well over 50% of the the clicks, today in mid April the number from the United States has dropped to only 38%. This indicates that the rest of the world is starting to Tweet. So the official figures revealed in the last couple of days have indeed confirmed that this is indeed the case.

The other fact I find elevated beyond expectation is the total number of users at 105 million, 12 months ago that number was 8 million.. that is a growth rate of over 1300% . The other number that stands out is the 180 million unique visitors a month. So here are some numbers for those of you that have a facts and figures fetish.

1.Twitter has 105,779,710 registered users

2.300,000 new users sign up per day

3.Approximately 60% of them are coming from outside the U.S

4.Twitter receives 180 million unique visitors per month

5.75% of Twitter traffic comes from third-party applications

6.60% of all tweets come from third-party apps

7.Since the new Blackberry application was launched, it has accounted for 7 to 8% of new sign

8.There are 600 million search queries on Twitter per day

9.There are over 100,000 Twitter applications

10.Twitter gets 3 billion requests a day through its API

11.37% of active Twitter users use their phone to tweet

The other statistic to watch is the use of Twitter on mobile which comes in at a headline rate of 37%, which is a trend that all marketers should keep in mind as they develop strategies for reaching out to to clients on the Web, don’t dismiss the mobile market .. it is getting serious.

So do these facts and figures surprise you?

How to Create A Killer Company Blog

by Kristin Dziadul
reposted from Social Media Today


Are you blogging but not sure why?  Not seeing business impact from creating blog posts?  Wondering how and why to blog for your company?

With a few quick yet critical fixes, you can turn your not-so-hot blog into a killer blog that will generate tons of traffic.

First, some considerations:
1. Decide on a two-column or a three-column layout. Two-column layouts are the best and most functional since they are clean and easily organized. With three columns, it can easily get cluttered with information overload. However, if organized right, it can be highly effective (Dell does a good job of this.)

2. Decide how many bloggers you will appoint for your company. The more bloggers there are, the less time each has to spend writing, you can have an eclectic set of posts, and the voice of the company can be spelled out from various people, not just a singular blogger.

3. Decide if you are comfortable editing the blog’s template, or if you need to involve the IT department of your company in the blog management.

4. Decide if you want to host the blog on your own website or on a separate site. Either way is fine; this is more of a personal choice of what platform you feel most comfortable using.

5. Ensure that your company has the appropriate amount of time and staff to make an effective blog. Blogging does involve a good amount of time and creativity, so ensure you have those readily available before starting.

6. Consider employing brand evangelists from outside of your company to blog for you. Coach them on your blog’s tools and the style of your blog posts, and have them write from an outsider’s viewpoint to vary the opinions and give more credibility by having evangelists support the brand.

7. Set up comment moderations on your blog and put the commenting policy on the site so readers know how their comments will be managed.

Now onto the blog details:
1. Create captivating, eye-catching titles. Making some of your blog posts ‘guides to doing something’, using numbers (1-10), or even putting an interesting fact in the title will capture attention quickly.

2. Unique, interesting pictures or videos: Once someone clicks on your blog link, a creative picture or video will immediately capture the reader’s attention and invite them to find out the story behind the picture. For example, a past post of mine “A Guide to Getting Seen Online Using SEO” has a picture of a large eye. Readers may wonder what the eye has to do with the post, and read on.

3. Incredible content. If you can create value to customers, write about new information, captivate them with your writing style, and be seen as an expert in your field, you can almost guarantee your blog will become popular and revisited. The only reason a person will share or come back to your site is if they find great value in reading what you have to say, so ensure you are proving readers with relevant and very informative posts.

4. Blog on a consistent basis so readers come to expect your posts. If they subscribe to you on their RSS and hardly see any new posts from you, they will likely unsubscribe. However, if you give them a reason to come back (one being consistent posts) they will be more likely to visit and read.

5. Keep your blog focused on a particular niche industry or topic so users know what to come to your blog for. If you write about random topics not focused around anything in particular, they may not know when or why to go to your blog. However, if you focus on ‘how-to guides’, industry trends, or on particular product markets, people will know exactly why they should read your blog.

6. Don’t just sell your product/service/brand in all your posts. Instead, focus on valuable information that the customers and prospects could use when making a purchase decision (i.e. if selling security software, blog about issues or advancements in the software industry, or top fraud schemes to watch out for).

7. Invite comments and comment back. By leaving your posts open-ended, unfinished, or with a question at the end, readers are encouraged to process your information and comment. If you receive a negative comment, don’t just delete it. In fact, deleting it may be one of the worst things you can do. Instead, take the time to address the issue in the appropriate manner; this will leave a positive impression on others. Also, when commenting back to comments, address the person by their name (if they post with their name), as this adds for personalization.

8. Make it easily accessible to subscribe via an RSS feed.

9. Optimize your SEO.

10. Promote on social media sites in a friendly way. This will allow friends, fans, and followers to read about what you are thinking and doing, and they can converse with you on social sites about it. They may even share your links on social media, which is a huge plus. Keep track of your blog’s analytics to see where the most visits to your site are coming from to determine which areas to focus on.

Takeaways:
Search engines love blogs, so you should not have a problem getting your blog seen. However, even though it may be highly searchable, you still need to create incredible content, blog on a consistent basis, and make it interesting and captivating to keep readers coming back.