16 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- Introducing Social CRM Insider
- LinkedIn 101: A Critical Part of Your Inbound Marketing Strategy
- Why You May Want to Date Online
- Focus on “Real” Clients, Not Social Media Clients
- 5 Little Wishes to Revolutionize Social Media in 2012
- Social Media Strategy: Laying the Groundwork
- Capture More Inbound Marketing Leads From Twitter With Tweet Spinner
- Common Pitfalls to Social Media Campaigns
- Where Social Media Marketing Fits In Your 2012 Budget
- Tips for Building a Quality Twitter Following
- A Crisis of Social Media Crises: Don’t Be Stupid
- Google+: The Time is Now for Your Business
- Is Social Media a Waste of Time? [Infographic]
- Is Higher Ed Treating Social Media Like a Middle School Dance?
- Get Ready for State Regulation of Social Media
- The Top 10 Brands on Facebook and What You Can Learn from them to Grow your Fans [Plus Infographic]
| Introducing Social CRM Insider Posted: 20 Jan 2012 02:00 PM PST Over at Jugnoo, our goal is to help educate business owners on the social web, and really help them both understand and improve their visibilty on it. Part of our approach is to offer resources that will act as a go-to for news, best practices, tips and awareness for all the various parts that make up today's business scene. Recently, we launched the first salvo in this in the form of Social CRM Insider. A blog dedicated to the increasingly important area of customer relationship management in the social media space, Social CRM Insider will show why this is such a key part of any company's strategy, especially online. From the About Page: Every week, we'll share our insights, best practices, case studies and more on how to run an effective customer relationship program in the social media landscape, and build brand loyalty around your business in the process. We'll strip away the guesswork and provide you with real-world examples of who's doing it right, and how you can adapt these methods to your own business. And we'll do it in a way that you can understand – no industry jargon or buzzwords here. Social media has always been about the relationship to the sale for business owners and their customers. Consumers have known this for a while; now it's time for you to understand better too. To help us with our goal, we've employed awesome social media and business blogger Joey Strawn as our blogger-in-residence and, while I'm biased, he's already knocking the content out of the park, with a great amount of interest and feedback coming in. As I mentioned at the start, we're just beginning to ramp up our activities, and the Social CRM Insider is something we're really looking forward to grow as we help businesses understand this space we play in. I'd love for you to check the Social CRM Insider blog out when you have time, and if you have any kind of customer-centric needs for your own business, blog, store or more, you might just find it's the ideal new blog to subscribe to. Cheers!   |
| LinkedIn 101: A Critical Part of Your Inbound Marketing Strategy Posted: 20 Jan 2012 12:50 PM PST Using LinkedIn but need a refresher? Using it but not getting value? Heard of it but haven’t stuck your toe in the water? Here’s a primer for all of the above.
Is It Effective?
What Can LinkedIn Do For You?1. Build Your Brand 2. Promote Your Website & Its Content 4. Provide Valuable Information 5. Generate Leads Getting StartedHere's a quick overview of the basic elements you'll use as you jump into LinkedIn: 1. Profile 2. Contacts 3. Company Page 4. Groups 5. Answers 6. Search   |
| Why You May Want to Date Online Posted: 20 Jan 2012 12:25 PM PST It used to be the way to find a date was going out to the bars, being set up through mutual friends, meeting at the gym, or by merely holding onto the hope of running into a tall, dark and drop-dead gorgeous stranger in the produce section of your local grocery store. Thanks to the internet, we don't have to rely on such methods or deal our entire deck of dating cards to the gods of fate. Because of the phenomenon that is online dating, we are now provided with a massive platform for finding that special someone — and we can put the power of dating into our own hands. If you are a single who has ever considered the idea and are interested in the possibilities (and available matches!) waiting for you on the internet, be sure to check out the following overview of the benefits and statistics of online dating that just might sway you in the direction of the world wide web.
Why date online?With online dating you have the opportunity to broaden your horizons, sort through thousands of matches and increase your chances of meeting someone whom you wouldn't have met otherwise. Here are four reasons why former singles found success and are no longer requesting a table for one: Online dating saves you time. Online dating is convenient. Online dating saves you money. Through these websites, a venue is provided for you to get to know someone and decide if there's a possible match before breaking the bank to go out with them. Online dating allows you to define your wants/needs. This enables you to get straight to the point, hone in on real matches and easily determine if there is a connection with another person or not. How popular is online dating?Statistics from 2011 suggest that online dating is more than a fad and is here to stay. Online dating usage across the world: In India there are 15 million singles using dating sites, 40 million in the United States, and China claims a whopping 140 million online singles. The most popular dating sites: Match.com is home to 15 million members and eHarmony has 20 million. The dating industry's earnings: The online dating industry raked in over $1 billion dollars, and it is estimated that by 2013, online dating will reach a staggering $1.3 billion dollars in earnings. Online dating success: Of the online matches who meet in person, 33% turn into relationships with 17% of those relationships turning long-term (including marriage). By 2019, it is estimated that more than 50% of couples will have found their start through online dating.
And you?Did you find your lover online? Got any questions for me?   |
| Focus on “Real” Clients, Not Social Media Clients Posted: 20 Jan 2012 12:15 PM PST
Sadly, this is the way many company representatives feel. It is a consultant's dream job. I know I used to be a consultant. The consultant could show success by higher follower counts, establishing a presence on each platform and show the company owner that he is ready to go. The owner feels good about the work that has been done because he or she does not know what to even begin to look for with respect to success. The question, people need to ask is "How do I gain new clients using social media tools?" "Where are my current clients on these social media platforms?" " What should my expectations be with respect to measuring my success using social media – Contacts, Page Views, New Accounts, Increased Sales. mAiNTaIn yOuR fOcUs Asking these questions will keep you focused on the right track. It is too easy to get caught up in a love for the tools. Right now, and each day you need to ask yourself how can I gain more clients and continue to keep my current clients. Social media takes time and is only worthwhile if someone can effectively share more information about your company and the services and products it offers. You would not hand over the keys to your car to a stranger, why would you do the same with your marketing initiatives. Set your own course and direction and find people who will assist you in accomplishing your goals. Picture via Robert Couse-Baker   |
| 5 Little Wishes to Revolutionize Social Media in 2012 Posted: 20 Jan 2012 12:05 PM PST
These are all important. But somehow it feels like we fell short, sort of like we marched to the 50 yard line of the big game and stalled. Some companies kept running the same plays, hoping for different results. Others tried Hail Mary passes. After years of this, we still haven't revolutionized the way we communicate as companies and/or come close to reaching our potential with social media. As I've said before, we haven't reinvented anything; we've mainly shoehorned social media into our corporate communications/marketing framework. We're still doing everything the same, just in new channels, disguised as social media. (ex: "Give me 8 tweets this week" "Let's shoot for 3 blogs a week, and make sure they stay on message") Social media isn't a set of tactics, sewed together to be presented like a strategy. We need to go beyond the mechanics to truly understand how social media works — how it can help us connect with customers and other audiences. 2012 could be the year we finally break through this infancy stage and revolutionize business communications across the board. But a lot of work remains to be done. Here's a starting list of suggestions, my own wish list for companies and social media marketers: 1. Focus on our customers: What if we quit thinking just like marketers, and more like our audiences? What keeps them up at night? What drives them? What is their view of your company and services-and how can you leverage that and/or change it? This is why listening programs are so potent-skimp on them at your own risk. 2. Build "A-teams": Imagine being surrounded by power-hitters- subject matter experts who know their stuff and are encouraged by their companies to participate in social media-maybe its even part of their jobs. All we have to do is provide a little training and point them in the right direction. Sure, provide some editorial support, but let them do the real talking. Strive for true voices and authenticity. 3. Think outside the box: We need to think outside the box, way outside the box. Innovation is lacking with most of our programs. Are there other, more creative ways to be heard? (Look at what Coca-Cola did with its recent "honesty campaign" in Portugal). How would Steve Jobs, a scientist or an artist approach your issues? 4. Turn down noise:Personally, we need to turn down the noise. We're bombarded by noise and "news" every minute. Many of us try to keep up with every new program, every twitch of the social media universe. Never let a tweet go unanswered. We try to do too much, and find ourselves scattered too thinly to succeed.Instead, what if we were allowed to focus on a few core areas that we can understand, work with and have an impact–starting with where our audiences hang out (if that's Twitter, for example, start there). Set clear management expectations and tune out everything else. Then set up a clear schedule so we can batch our social media efforts, say 1 to 2 hrs a day of social activity in targeted channels. 5. Take risks: Speaking of the late Steve Jobs, what if we took a few more lessons from his amazing run at Apple? He was a creative genius who took huge eye-popping, but calculated risks going back to his high school days, when he was ready to borrow $50,000 to join with another partner to launch a company (it never happened but showed his true colors). His launching of the iPod, iPhone and iPad all represented sizable risks on several fronts (how long had companies tried and failed to get a tablet market off the ground?) Our company cultures need to embrace more of this kind of risk taking. Identify our super brains, give them some training and unleash them. If they stumble or cross the party line, well, too bad-that's what social media is about. Oh, and that's one last wish-companies that are tolerant. Social media can be messy at times. Mistakes will happen when humans are interacting in natural ways. Get over it. What would you like to see change in 2012 to drive social media to the next level in corporate America?   |
| Social Media Strategy: Laying the Groundwork Posted: 20 Jan 2012 09:30 AM PST This post is an excerpt from "The Ultimate Guide to Social When developing your social media strategy, some of the things that you will need to think about are: who is my audience, what do they care about, how do they behave online, what is our current marketing strategy, and how can social media fit in? The main reason why a business needs to ask itself these questions is: you need to create content that is valuable to people. This is the first step to being trusted. The type of content ranges from short form status updates to full blown 30 minute videos. What subjects are you going to create content for? If you are a start up business, you will need to do some experimentation, and over time you will find content that resonates with potential customers. If you are an established business, you should have enough data and historical knowledge to find out what your customers care about. After you conduct the preliminary research, you will be able to form a beginning social media strategy. We say 'beginning' because you will need to be nimble enough to change directions if your strategy doesn't pan out. Always have a backup plan. If your business goal is to increase leads by 25% month over month, you have to come up with a strategy to support this goal. One potential strategy is: Thought leadership through educational content and digital relationship building. Very simple. Now your job as a leader is to preach this strategy throughout the organization. It provides clarity and focus for the next phase of your social media marketing plan: Tactics. What are you doing to create a social media strategy? The Ultimate Guide to Social Media for Small Business   |
| Capture More Inbound Marketing Leads From Twitter With Tweet Spinner Posted: 20 Jan 2012 08:30 AM PST I don’t often endorse social media apps because they tend to come and go, but in the case of Tweet Spinner, I feel compelled to speak up. In the last 6 months alone, our company-wide Twitter reach has grown by more than 50%, but more importantly, during that period social media has grown to become the source of 10% of all sales leads, with about half of those coming from Twitter. Talk about your social media ROI! Much of the credit should go to our use of Tweet Spinner, a social media web app that allows you to find and manage targeted followers more effectively. Here’s the rundown. Finding and Following Targeted Followers Who Will Follow You BackThis is the biggest advantage of using Tweet Spinner (TS). What you can do is set up searches by keywords phrases or by mimicking the friends (reciprocal relationship) or followers of Twitter profiles you follow and respect. You can set up a daily schedule for TS to go out and farm these resources for likely candidates. You can set up filters that will limit results to certain friend/follower ratios, making it far more likely that they will follow you back. TS will present you with a list of candidates for each search, and you can elect to batch follow all of them or select individuals to follow or not. Try the Show/Edit Filters button for a comprehensive set of rules you can use to manage your Twitter account. The beauty of this approach is that you can quickly and automatically find people who are influencers in your industry, who are discussing relevant topics in Twitter every day and who are likely to follow you back, and so become potential leads. This helps to reduce the “noise” from irrelevant followers and focus on your core subject area and the people who are active every day. If you include a regular stream of valuable content (both yours and others’), you have an excellent chance of gaining highly qualified sales leads from Twitter. The “mimic” function is the killer app here. You can let social media influencers in your business do the work for you as they put together their targeted friend lists and you follow them. Sneaky? Perhaps. Effective? Definitely. Trimming the Waste ProductsNo doubt your Twitter account is brimming with lifeless zombies who either tricked you into following them and then immediately zapped you or are just plain worthless (nothing to say, asleep at the wheel). Ah, but how to get rid of these wastrels without spending hours in Twitter or deleting them all at once, which can make your account look overly automated and unattractive to new, relevant followers. Tweet Spinner is particularly adept at cleaning. The Follower Manager allows you to automatically find the zombie followers and purge them on a regular schedule. You can review recommend purges and make sure you’re not deleting people you intended to follow despite their lack of reciprocity. You can also find, review and follow people who have followed you and might deserve a follow-back. And don’t forget about those millions of Auto DM’s (Direct Messages) that keep accumulating. You can set up rules for detecting and automatically deleting spam, and you can archive DM’s for later searches and follow-ups. Other Cool StuffThere’s plenty more you can do to make your Twitter network more efficient and targeted. I wouldn’t mess with the DM Outbox. In principal, you can set up automatic direct messages, but these are widely considered spam, so someone might well purge you if you use them! You can also automate tweets via the Smart Tweets tab. I like SocialOomph or HootSuite better for this function because they allow you more flexibility and ease of use. In particular, I like SocialOomph because of it’s drip feed “reservoirs”. More about that in a coming post. That’s it for now. By way of disclaimer, I am not (nor is Kuno Creative) in any way affiliated with Tweet Spinner. We just like the product and how well it has helped to produce more sales leads from Twitter. Everyone in the company uses it now, and we are deploying it for clients as well. If that isn’t a ringing recommendation, I don’t know what is. Building Leads with TwitterPresented by Kyle Lacy, author of Twitter Marketing for Dummies and the Kuno Creative inbound marketing team.   |
| Common Pitfalls to Social Media Campaigns Posted: 20 Jan 2012 08:00 AM PST
Not leveraging your social media campaign –If you visit Groubal's customer sentiment index (http://www.groubalcsi.com/) you can search any number of brands to see how Groubal ranks them. In Brian Solis' book The End of Business As Usual, he lists that at the time of writing Time Warner was ranked 991/1000 for customer dissatisfaction. He goes on to describe a word cloud to "explore shared sentiment." This word cloud was overwhelmed with negative comments, even to the point of cussing. As of Dec. 6, 2011 the index for Time Warner's customer dissatisfaction has dropped dramatically. One can only assume that they have begun to leverage their social media campaign to deal directly with dissatisfied customers on their turf. In short, you can't simply have a mission statement or a website with a glowing description of your company. You must leverage your social media so that you address issues head on. Leaving your customers behind –Everybody knows that social media is the exciting new way to get customers. Especially in the B2B marketplace, social media is the hot button topic. The problem is, many social media campaigns over compensate for the connected consumer. They start pouring money into QR codes, Facebook pages, Twitter contests, etc. while ignoring that some, many, or even all of their customers aren't that advanced. Shifting your budget from traditional advertising to social media is a wise move. However, be sure to keep some old fashioned marketing pieces in place for consumers that haven't taken the social media leap. In fact, bucking the trend might be exactly what your brand needs to set itself apart. Not researching your customers –The word cloud presented by Brian Solis in his book is something you can and should do for your customer base. Take the information from your brand's Twitter following or Facebook fans and create a cloud to see what items are most common among them. A cloud created based on @Starbuck's followers found that dog owners were more common than cat owners. The greatest part of social media is a company's ability to find detailed information about their customer base. If you leverage a Facebook check-in for your website you can have access to your customer's birthday, age, location, and much more. By ignoring this information you are leaving precious sales on the table. Market research is one thing, having direct access to true consumers is something else entirely. Don't make the mistake of ignoring what is already in front you! Consistency in frequency is just as important as consistency in message –There are a lot of different types of social media participants. There are those that are on social media once a week, once a day, and those that seem to check their Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter every waking hour. Consider two companies: Company A – Has Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, FourSquare, etc. and updates all 10+ a day, replies to comments or tweets within 15 minutes, and is constantly seeking out new followers. Company B – Has all the profiles but sporadically updates; if they reply to messages it is a few days later, and they never actively pursue new followers. It might be easy to assume which one attracts more attention, but I believe the worst thing to do is jump between the two types of interaction. Why? There are consumers who will enjoy the sporadic updates of Company B and there are consumers that will love the active feed of Company A. The problem is that there are probably very few people out there that will enjoy both. These are just four of the common pitfalls in social media campaigns. As more and more companies shift their budgets to social media, we are likely to see even more. Have you made any of these mistakes? Is there another glaring example of a pitfall you have witnessed? Share it in the comments below.   |
| Where Social Media Marketing Fits In Your 2012 Budget Posted: 20 Jan 2012 07:30 AM PST Regardless of what marketers say about social media, the rubber hits the road at budget time when they have to put their money where their mouth is. For B2B marketers, social media marketing ranks seventh in terms of budget importance trailing old-fashioned postal direct mail according to 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report conducted by Marketing Sherpa and sponsored by Marketo. Where is social media in your B2B marketing budget? Before you write off social media as a consumer-only marketing strategy, here are 3 reasons many B2B marketers overlook the importance of social media in their 2012 budgets.
If you're a B2B who does NOT overlook social media, but has yet to effectively incorporate social into your marketing strategy, here are 5 suggestions to get you started with social leveraging existing marketing strategies. If implemented effectively, your social media marketing can enhance other areas of your marketing budget.
Social media should have a place in your B2B marketing plans and budget. While you may want to believe that social media is free, it requires support both human and financial as well as senior management buy-in. Further, social media marketing must be integrated into your overall strategy to maximize its effectiveness and ensure that it's cross-promoted and tracked appropriately. Where is social media marketing fit into your plans for 2012?   |
| Tips for Building a Quality Twitter Following Posted: 20 Jan 2012 06:30 AM PST I breached the 10,000-follower mark on Twitter yesterday. I marked this milestone quietly because I'm not big on numbers games and have been outspoken against counting success solely in terms of fans and followers. Nevertheless, I have to admit to taking some pride in this number because of the way I reached it. I have never played games to run up my follower count and I only tweet about stuff that interests me. The people who follow me have no incentive to do so other than to discover and learn from information I share. When I post a question to my followers, I nearly always get five to 10 quality responses. When I publish something, others help me promote it. That's the reward of a quality following. The Road to 10KMy philosophy of building a Twitter following has always been to provide interesting content about the Internet, digital media and publishing, with occasional excursions into my beloved Red Sox and New England Patriots. My goal is to find people who share my interests, not to run up my numbers. I only follow people who interest me or who have reached out to me via a personal tweet. I spend about 10 minutes a day checking my Twitter stream for spammers, product pitchers and others who don't interest me, and unfollow them. I attempt to respond to every tweet directed at me personally. When several people reference something I've said or retweet me, I try to acknowledge them through a #FollowFriday tweet. I'm not always successful, but I try. I never tweet about politics and rarely about personal minutiae like what I had for lunch. I am almost always positive. When I visit a new city, I try to tweet something nice about it. The only exception to the courtesy rule is when I've been treated poorly by a business or institution. I never criticize individuals by name, and when I disagree with someone, it is always in a respectful manner. I never forget that everything one says on Twitter is public. I make it easy to post tweets to interesting information I find. I use Dlvr.it to automatically post links to new entries on my blogs. My favorite bookmarking service is Diigo, and I have Dlvr.it set up to monitor my Diigo stream and automatically tweet anything tagged "share." I use a simple bit.ly link in my browser bar to quickly tweet stuff that I don't necessarily want to keep for posterity. Space permitting, I try to add a comment to any headline I tweet on the theory that my own perspective should add some value. I occasionally go to my Twitter stream and retweet messages from people I respect, just to show them that I'm paying attention. When I retweet, I try to insert a personal comment or thank-you, space permitting. That's about it. The secret to Twitter is to be a good citizen, show respect, and share what interests you. It's worked for me so far.   |
| A Crisis of Social Media Crises: Don’t Be Stupid Posted: 20 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST
The more I see, the more I'm convinced of that statement. Oh, I'm not talking about you, or me. It's "other people" that are stupid. Right? It seems that every time I turn around I'm hearing about another Marketing/PR crisis at some business. From Papa John's and Boners BBQ to AAA to Ocean Marketing. It just feels like we're seeing more and more of these stories, some of which were handled poorly, and others of which were handled well. And then there's this ad from a gym in Dubai, where the idea of losing wait is presented with an image from Auschwitz: What were they thinking? It seems that there is so much of this going on that Gini Dietrich has mused out loud as to whether or not we should continue shining a light on these bad examples. And there's even been talk of handing out a Moron of the Week/Month/Year award. Lately, she's done a great job of providing both good and bad case studies, as have some other bloggers. But are there really more public relations and branding crises happening? And are businesses warranted in being afraid of social media, and therefore avoiding it? I think there are a few things at work here, and as I've studied the situation, I have a few theories, and a few takeaways. First, for the most part, I don't think there is actually that much of an increase in these customer service crisis issues. Situations like FedEx and Papa Johns have always happened. The difference is that customers now have the means, or the "megaphone" to spread the word more widely and more rapidly. Previously the Papa Johns situation would have stayed very small and local, and probably would have been resolved locally. It might never have gone beyond the four walls of that particular restaurant, and the corporate higher ups never even would have known it had happened. Second, the presence of Social Media allows us to be stupid on a global level. If you take a look at the Boners BBQ website, it's clear that that small business has a culture problem. I would bet that this isn't the first time they've been at the center of controversy. But because the owner of the restaurant had a Facebook business page at his disposal, he had the ability to not just be stupid, but mega-stupid. While the number of horror stories might not be increasing, we're just hearing about more of them, and Social Media is facilitating that. So what does this mean for us as business owners and operators?Well, it's a whole new world and if we aren't paying attention, we're in trouble. 1. Social Media isn't going away – Stick your head in the sand all you want, but while you may not be using Social Media, your customers are. And more importantly, they WILL use Social Media to tell others of your failure. As a result, the only way to respond and address the issues is by being there yourself. If a situation blows up on Facebook, it needs to be addressed on Facebook. Sure, much of that might take place offline, but the public needs to see your response. That goes for any platform. 2. A local crisis is no longer local – As I mentioned before, most of these situations would have been handled at the local level pre-Social Media. But even for small local businesses, a tiny customer service problem can turn you into a case study of the worst sort on a global level. Though if you respond properly, you might become one of those good case studies. And if you run a local franchise as part of a national chain, you won't be able to hide your local problems. Corporate will find out, and they won't be pleased if they have a brand-wide PR crisis on their hands. 3. Customers don't compartmentalize – They paint with broad strokes. They throw the baby out with the bath water. Now think about what that means for your business. If the lowest paid guy at the cash register does something stupid, it might not stay as an issue with that employee. It's not an issue of "this guy at this store ticked me off". It's now an issue of "Papa Johns ticked me off". There's a big difference. Whether you are some guy making minimum wage at the lowest level of a major corporation or the CEO, the general public does not differentiate, especially when they are on the receiving end. If they've been wronged, or even feel they've been wronged, they have have been wronged by the entire brand. As I mentioned in a comment over at Spin Sucks recently: I think the one lesson we can break down is that when we talk from our end about breaking down the silos, we have to realize that on the consumer side that is happening as well. They don't see the silos, and they don't think in terms of PR, communication, sales. For the customer, it always comes down to customer service. And they will demand to be treated well. And this is why it's important that from the business side, the silos are torn down and everyone is on board and understands this. Every customer has a megaphone at their disposal and most aren't afraid to use it. And with all of these in mind, how do we respond?1. Understand the power of Social Media is word of mouth magnified – Have you ever heard someone talk about a small town saying that everyone knows everyone else's business? Well, that is happening online. Our "local" community is now global. Stories spread quickly. 2. Use the tools to your advantage – It's true that bad stories will spread fast, but good stories can spread fast as well. The FedEx case is a situation where a company responded to a very bad situation properly, and the power of the web helped curtail the damage. 3. Bring your A-game – Look at your entire business model: if you provide a great product with great service, both online and off, you will minimize the risks. Sure, there's always the chance for problems, but the fewer mistakes you make, the less chance there is of a customer taking you to task online. 4. Create a positive, service-centered corporate culture – I have no clue what the corporate culture at Papa Johns or FedEx is like, but I've looked at the Boners BBQ website and it's clear they have a culture problem. They were a crisis waiting to happen. My youngest son now works at the new Chick-Fil-A in town. At the young age of 16 he went through a rather intensive training and brought home a number of books and training manuals. As I looked through them, I was greatly impressed at how well they stressed excellence in both their products and customer service. They strive to create a positive corporate culture from the top down. Yes, there are those who fault them for their stances on a number of issues, but they are an incredibly well run company from top to bottom. Does this mean they won't have issues? No. But it does create an environment that is less prone to error. As Shelly Kramer wrote recently, your employees are your brand. 5. Use your head -Don't be stupid. Leave that to other people. Think before you speak, especially when using online social channels. 6. Have a social media policy in place -A solid social media policy that is couched in engagement and encouragement provides a great framework for how your employees behave online. 7. Have a crisis plan in place – You can never plan for every sort of crisis. Perhaps you'll never have to deal with one. But, as the Boy Scouts say: be prepared. Have a plan in place that will help you make wise decisions should a crisis come your way. This should include a chain of command as to who will respond, as well as contingencies for how you will respond, and how quickly. All of these are important. A crisis does not have to be the end of the world, and it doesn't have to create a permanent blemish on your record. How well you respond will dictate how the public reacts. Remember: people may be stupid, but you don't have to be one of them. Are you ready for a crisis? Is your corporate culture such that the risk of a crisis is minimal?   |
| Google+: The Time is Now for Your Business Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:30 AM PST
This week's announcement from Google unveiling their new Search Plus, which prominently features Google+ conversations in search results, has been called "Google's most radical transformation ever" and has even been analyzed by SEO experts as overly favoring Google+ conversations in search engine results. If you don't know what I'm talking about, click on those links and then repeat after me: The writing is on the wall. The time is now for Google+. The funny thing is that G+ still has only approximately 25% the number of users that Twitter has. In other words, if you haven't embraced Google Plus yet, it's not too late! I wanted to get some historical perspective before creating a post formally introducing Google+ to my readers, but now that I see a certain amount of maturity in the functionality and the user base its growing – not to mention this week's announcement – the time is now for your business to adopt and leverage the platform. A Google+ Overview Google+, or "G+", is Google's biggest push to be part of the social space. Ten million users managed to create accounts during its beta testing phase last July – a number which is now 60 million. Yes, it's another addition to the numerous social networks on the web, but there's one crucial thing that separates it from the rest: it's powered by the one of the largest internet technology companies in the planet. That means your G+ account is hooked onto of your Google tools, and yes, that means that posts, conversations, and topics that you've delegated for public consumption are searchable – and are rapidly being prioritized by Google. It's not a Facebook replica. In fact, it's far from it. G+ focuses on "Circles", a function that lets you drag-and-drop your contacts into literal circles that enable you to classify them into customizable groups. This makes it easier to share information to a certain audience, and gives you a more secure online social experience. With Circles, you can use "Hangouts" which facilitates group chats and video conferences for a maximum of ten persons. A new Hangout function called "Hangout On-Air" has recently been launched. It gives those on G+ the ability to create recordable instant webcasts. What's great about Hangouts is that it supports devices with Android 2.3 and above, with a provision for iOS coming soon. G+ integrates "Messenger" (formerly known as "Huddle") into its interface, which enables Android, Apple and other SMS devices to use instant messaging and photo sharing within Circles. Some other interesting G+ features are:
Since it seems to take the best of Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, and mixes them into a competitive and user-friendly interface, G+ definitely spells online fun on a personal level. That being said, the overwhelming majority of the conversations that I have witnessed have been serious and professional. What's more, business-minded individuals need not be worried about missing out on this new platform though, as Google has recently launched Google+ Pages. How and Why You Should Create a Google+ Page Even though it's a young platform, G+ has decided to cater to businesses only a few months after its launch. Google+ Pages is a feature that is similar to its Facebook counterpart, and definitely holds a lot of promise with regard to user-friendliness. In fact, this may actually be what G+ can leverage on; creating a G+ page is so easy, you'll need only a few minutes. The only thing you'll need is a Google account and a G+ profile before you can create your Page. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you get started:
That's it! You may now start posting, creating Circles, and even adding a G+ Badge on your website. There have been many critics who say that creating a Google+ Page isn't something that businesses should bother with, citing page administration issues, lack of facilities for promotions, and the inability to integrate with other platforms. Though these are indeed pressing issues that Google must immediately address, it's good to remember that G+ is a growing platform and you can expect that there will be many improvements to it in the coming months. One big advantage in having a G+ Page is that your business will undoubtedly have better chances of coming out as an organic search result with higher ranking than most, due to Google+'s integration with Google Search as we are seeing beging to manifest itself with Search Plus. Another G+ feature that is currently being tested is Direct Connect. Here's how it works: whenever a user adds a plus sign ("+") before a brand name on Google Search, the platform brings up the brand's G+ Page. Once it's publicly launched, Direct Connect will definitely be a great help with SEO, as the G+ link appears right under the search box, which is basically above other search engine results. Google+ Pages are very easy to navigate, share and add into personal circles, as long as you're logged on to your Google account. The interface is simple enough that you can see everything at one go, and adding or removing a page from a circle doesn't require you to dig deep into the system. A Few of the Many that have Taken the Google+ Plunge Once Google+ becomes more stable and packs more functions, it will indeed be a very formidable social platform. Many famous companies, brands and personalities seem to already know this, so in case you need a bit of inspiration, here are a few good Google+ pages you can look at:
Remember that G+ is a unique platform, so offer your audiences something that is equally unique. Don't just copy and paste the same posts from Facebook or Twitter. Instead, create content that will sync with what you have on your other social platforms for a well-rounded online presence. To sum things up, G+ is a place where you want your business to be, and despite some initial negative feedback, it would still be pretty good to be on it before everybody else adopts it (or grabs your brand name). After all, Google is behind this social fledgling, so be patient – things are definitely bound to get more exciting – and give reason for your business to spend more time on G+ – very soon! Have you created a page for your business? What have your initial impressions been?   |
| Is Social Media a Waste of Time? [Infographic] Posted: 20 Jan 2012 04:50 AM PST It was in 2005 that I noticed a trend that intrigued me and it was that teenagers were becoming obsessed with a social networking site called MySpace. I didn't create an account as it seemed a waste of time and I had more important things to do. In 2008 I was invited by a friend to join Facebook and on signing in I was impressed by its clever programming and functionality that allowed you to connect with old friends and colleagues from college at the click of a button. Over the next 12 months I observed that certain people became engrossed in Facebook and seemed to spend most of their waking hours updating their profile and uploading photos. In 2012 that has not changed. What has changed though is how it is used. Facebook is a place to play games like Farmville or Mafia wars. It is a website where you can now buy products and get specials. You can listen to music and upload videos. You can instant message and chat. The creation of Facebook "pages" for business to participate has allowed the whole Facebook ecosystem to evolve at an accelerated pace. Marketers have found it a vibrant place to engage and communicate with customers and it is socializing marketing. So is it too much of a time sink that takes us away from things that should be done? Does social media in fact leverage our time and reduce the tyranny of distance? Is Social Media a Waste of Time? If you take a closer look then the benefits seem to outweigh the disadvantages. Here are some of the upsides to social media
Do you think social media is waste of time? Why Social Media Isn't a Waste of Time
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| Is Higher Ed Treating Social Media Like a Middle School Dance? Posted: 20 Jan 2012 04:35 AM PST Do you remember going to school dances when you were in the eighth grade? How uncertain and weird and full of longing everything seemed? Maria Ogneva, Head of Community at Yammer, and someone all the boys probably wanted to take to school dances, once described social media as… "The largest cocktail party in the world, a room filled with people driven by one desire to communicate, share, digest and relate, while carrying on many independent conversations." Right now, higher education's relationship with social media is more middle school dance than glamorous cocktail party. We're awkwardly shuffling our feet on the dance floor, hoping the cool kids will notice us, occasionally trying too hard. But we're getting there. In the spirit of dorky eighth graders everywhere who grew up to become savvy higher ed communicators, here are some ideas to consider as we try to get the social media party going on the higher ed front. 1 – Forget about numbers and concentrate on making memories.It's easy to become obsessed with how many people "Like" your university's Facebook Page or follow your Twitter account. Numbers make us feel like we're in control, especially when our supervisors ask for evidence of why social media should be part of an integrated marketing plan. But without interesting conversations, entertainment, ideas and feedback, numbers are basically a bunch of people silently standing around, waiting for you to make your move. Like wallflowers at an eighth grade dance who eventually leave, or worse yet, wish they had never come. Don't get hung up on numbers; instead, try to keep things interesting and memorable with great content, so everyone has a good time they want to talk about later with their friends. 2 – Don't go overboard investing too much in something fleeting.Like adolescence, social media changes in a heartbeat, shifting from one thing to the next, and you've got to move swiftly and skillfully to truly take advantage of it. One minute, hormones are raging for one social media site or feature, then it's another. Many a higher ed marketer has suffered heartbreak from planning an overly complicated social media communications campaign that was so-so in execution and response, or built around a great concept that became irrelevant because of the social media site suddenly changing its features. Some of the coolest social media marketing ideas I've seen are simple, timely and common-sense awesome, like letting your alumni show their school spirit by giving them cool cover photos to use on their Facebook Timelines, or inviting your students to hashtag the campus on Twitter. These ideas are easy to execute, don't break the bank and last just long enough for people to jump on board and use them before the Next Big Thing happens, and everyone falls in love with something else. 3 – Don't censor … redirect the conversation.Remember the overly anxious teachers who patrolled the middle school dance floor, sometimes yanking someone off to the side for misbehaving? Don't be that teacher on your university's social media site. If you have someone who is doing something stupid or saying negative, critical or untrue things about your institution online, the best thing you can do is redirect the conversation, not censor it. Sometimes that means acknowledging a mistake and providing helpful resources and assistance, if the problem is clearly the university's responsibility. Sometimes that means ignoring someone who is misinformed and on a mission to attack your institution in a strange, ego-driven way. Sometimes that means sharing your Facebook Page's policy for content and reminding people what's okay and what's not. Ideally, it means having one of your constituents — a student, a parent, a loyal alum — chime in on your behalf and share their experiences. As Maria says, it's a conversation. 4 – In the end, integrated marketing is what counts.I think most higher ed communicators can agree that social media opens the door to amazing creativity and is here to say. But its shiny new toy status has faded, and it needs room and resources to grow up and be taken seriously. It can't be treated like a surefire gimmick or something your intern does. It should be part of a bigger picture, where its messaging and content resonate and are reiterated by a university's print, advertising and website efforts. Put your Facebook Page username in your email signature and in your press release "boiler plate." Get your media relations person to start using Twitter, where some of the most successful story pitches are happening for higher education. Share a URL to a well-written feature story from your alumni magazine on your Facebook Page, preferably through a bitly link you can measure. Think about all your outlets–print, digital, in-person pitch sessions with reporters and regents–and use them to your advantage. How else can Higher Ed effectively use social media? Share your thoughts in the comment area below.   |
| Get Ready for State Regulation of Social Media Posted: 19 Jan 2012 04:05 PM PST Although the author of this post is an attorney, nothing contained in this post should be considered legal advice. For legal questions, please consult with an attorney from your jurisdiction.
Though many investors think that all investment advisors are regulated by the SEC, the reality is that the SEC only regulates investment advisors who manage $25 million or more in client assets. For investment advisors managing less the $25 million in client assets, the responsibility of regulation is left to the securities regulator for the state where the adviser has its principal place of business. In July of 2011, the Massachusetts Division conducted a survey of investment advisers registered and doing business within the Commonwealth to “to determine the scope of investment advisers’ use of social media, and what, if any, record retention and supervisory procedures have been implemented or utilized by those advisers.” Seven-nine percent of the 576 investment advisers registered with the Division responded to the survey. Most State Investment Advisors Lack a Social Media Policy and Fail to Monitor Advisor Social Media Activity A report of the Division’s survey results revealed that sixty-eight percent of investment firms using social media failed to have written policies on employee use of social media and that fifty-seven percent failed to retain records of content shared on social networks. Based on the survey’s findings on the failings of self-regulation, namely, the absence of in-house guidelines, archiving and supervision, the Massachusetts Division decided that it needed to provide social media guidelines for the investment advisors it is charged with regulating. Massachusetts’ decision to issue social media guidelines raises the bar for other states that have yet to issue any guidelines. Because of Massachusetts’ leadership, another stretch of the ”Wild West” of social media may be soon coming to a close as other states, invariably, come to recognize that the absence of social media guidelines for a large swath of investment advisors in the social media space potentially puts at risk scores of family life savings and retirement funds. Establishing social media guidelines should help the vast majority of ethical advisors who may have shied away from social media participation due to the lack of guidelines. They should also help trigger earlier detection of unscrupulous advisor activity in the social media space. Massachusetts Securities Division Confronts the Realities and Detail of Social Media One of the most intractable, regulatory issues in social media for highly-regulated industries has been “What to do about the sharing of links?” In the pharmacuetical space, the requirement of “fair balance” and other considerations have placed serious constraints on link sharing. For the Massachuesetts Securities Division, however, this issue is not so intractable. Simply, the Division has warned advisors that the sharing of a link, or “retweet” in Twitter, “without context”, could well trigger impermissible “adoption” or “entanglement” — but the key point to observe is that by providing “context”, a violation might well be avoided. Though the message is still one of “proceed with caution”, it also demonstrates a real understanding of how social media works and how it can be used in a compliant fashion. Some Key Takeaways and Social Media Best Practices for Massachuesetts Investment Advisors
Over regulation? A model for other states to follow? What are your thoughts?   |
| The Top 10 Brands on Facebook and What You Can Learn from them to Grow your Fans [Plus Infographic] Posted: 19 Jan 2012 03:00 PM PST Facebook has become the online home for both people and business. It has become "the" social network . Who would have thought that the result of Mark Zuckerberg's broken heart in 2004 would would create a social network that is projected to reach 1 billion users in August 2012. That is nearly one in two of every Internet user on the planet. (Maybe we should have more dramatic events in our personal life to provide the fuel and passion to change the planet and our lives!) Should You Close Down your Website?Some businesses have even made Facebook their primary web asset and closed down their website. (not recommended as Facebook has been known to suspend "pages" with no notice and no apparent reason). Websites in the past were boring, text based, one way static platforms that didn't allow conversation or communication (except for the ubiquitous contact form). Many CEO's are still loath to participate but this is diminishing as they are earning the reputation of being "flat earthers". (remember Galileo who put forward the crazy notion of the world being round ) Facebook has changed the web dynamics and provides a ready to use multimedia platform and social network that communicates in real time with fans and customers. This provides instant feedback that is vital in a fast moving commercial world. The "Big" Facebook PagesSo which brands and entities are the top performers on Facebook and collected tens of millions of Facebook fans? Top Brands
Top Superstars and Entities
How can You Increase Your Facebook Fans?One of the best tips to increase your Facebook fans is to provide what is called "liquid content" which is content so contagious it cannot be controlled. This will make people visit and "like" your page. I have had some fun lately on Facebook posting, images, quotes, cartoons and comics that are fun and sometimes seemingly frivolous but what I have noticed is that the engagement level has increased dramatically (by more then 50%). This in turn drives your content further into the Facebook network and increases the likes through increased sharing. The other benefit is to improve your Facebook Edge Rank and consequently more fans see your Facebook page updates in their Timeline. The continuing evolution of a more visual web is what you should keep in mind when creating or posting content. Highly visual content performs much better than text or links in driving likes and shares and commments. (but don't forget to include deep linked content as it is your foundation) The celebrities have the resources to pursue best practice with designers and developers on tap, but what are some basic tips to assist you with your goal of increasing your Facebook fan base. 7 Tips to Increase your Facebook FansThese should provide you with some basic tips to get you started. 1. Define Your Target MarketYou need to know who you are talking to so that the words and content that you use are congruent with what they like. 2. Get the Tone RightYou need to act the same way your target market so as too gain their trust. Get to understand them 3. Identify which Types of Engagement are EffectiveHave some fun and don't be afraid to experiment. The reactions (or lack of) will be the guide for the engagement types you pursue. 4. Look at it as a Long-Term InvestmentYou are building an online asset and like investment in property or saving it will take time. So persist and be patient 5. Keep it Real, Relevant and RelaxedIt is important to be "you". If you are a blogger then the Facebook page is an extension of your personal brand. Don't force it 6. Create a Schedule for UpdatesThis doesn't have to be complex. Once a day used to be the rule of thumb but I have been experimenting with 2-3 updates a day and it seems to be working well. A large brand such as fashion will need to 7. Monitor and MeasureFacebook Insights is a great tool that provides measuremenst of elements such as Facevook Fan growth and even Virality of your content. So what success have you had increasing your fan count and what tactics have you tried? The Importance of a Facebook Fan Base
Image by voodooangel   |
In many ways, 2011 was a fulfilling one for social media marketers/managers. Many companies finally "get it"-they acknowledge that social media is real and it's not going away. The main social media platforms, led by Facebook, continued to grow. Twitter didn't explode. Google launched Google+. Social content became a very big deal for marketers, and so on.
Media for Small Business". Laying the groundwork for your strategy is the most important aspect of growing your social presence.
CMOs are drastically shifting their marketing budgets from traditional advertising to social media and content marketing—and with good reason. 
People are stupid.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past several months, you're undoubtedly familiar with Google+ and have hopefully opened an account on the newest social media platform. Even after trying out its interface, do you still find yourself asking what exactly it is or what you should be doing with it? Do you think that 
In a bold move, the 
![The Top 10 Brands on Facebook and What You Can Learn from them to Grow your Fans [Plus Infographic]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_szfd1n480JuQd3shI4hikZPAWtrOgIN-De6wDecwX5Wepl402DV-M6X8YxsqK880pq--brAPwlSB6VaNWytBEUibfF1cxv3bxX0NrsNtl0zK1Vow1jst-UPbEq94qE5FCY2vN9nn4FUS_yqcGJSlAo1Q5bGwVTSsj88rNOaee5xKQRWkZJoR1jCBiyOAjp461Ru7pVsljGSocdeGjZSOLvjG-BPprKWw1dwlcgjWIn6zKbQei0GVn4xBY6BN2j=s0-d "The Top 10 Brands on Facebook and What You Can Learn from them to Grow your Fans [Plus Infographic]")
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