Tag: social media

November 7, 2011

Social Strategies for Uncommon Businesses

Finding the right path for your company in the world of social media isn’t as hard as you might think.

Some companies have a very clear, obvious path in social media. Starbucks and Coca Cola, for example, had massive existing communities of fans who flocked to their social media platforms with very little prodding. For other companies, especially those in industries that are more obscure and less high-profile to the public, their path can lie hidden from view like the lost city of Machu Picchu. But just like that lost city was found back in 1911, the path can indeed be discovered for any business, even those that the general public has never heard of.

Regardless of what company you work for, what industry you are in, or what product or service you sell, there are several steps that you can use to uncover your path to success in social communications. It just won’t end up being the same as the path someone else takes.

We may not all use social communications in the same way, and that’s part of the beauty of these new platforms. Social communications are what you make of them, and by trying to ‘copy’ what another is doing instead of finding your company’s own unique approach, you’re really missing out on the true power of these new tools. The real power comes from unlocking the special knowledge and skills that are inherent in your company, and using those to your advantage to give your community something they can’t get anywhere else.

In an email exchange with one of my Twitter friends, @pegfitzpatrick, we discussed how B2B companies who participate in essential, albeit somewhat less public-facing industries, could participate in social communications in a way that provides real ROI and competitive advantage.

To give you an idea of what I mean by ‘less public-facing’ industries: Peg is the Director of Marketing at a multinational company that produces a variety of chemicals used in the dry cleaning industry. I am the Marketing Manager at a company that produces paint finishing equipment for the automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing sectors. Neither of these is what you’d call a ‘high-profile’ public-facing industry, yet we’ve both seen significant beneficial impact from social communication activities.

There are a few simple steps that any company in any industry can use to build a thriving social media presence. Here they are:

1 – Identify what’s already happening out there: Before you begin, it’s wise to scan the landscape for any clues that already exist to determine how you should proceed. Using tools like Social Mention, you can scan the web for any mentions of keywords, brand names, or product names from your company or others in your industry. By determining where the conversations are happening, what people are saying, and who they’re saying it to, you can begin to figure out how you should be communicating with them, and where.

2 – Determine the inherent social value in your organization: There are three things that create an incentive to follow a company in social media. I like to call them the Three E’s:

   •   Education – ex: Teach them something new, helpful advice, tips & tricks, etc.
   •   Entertainment – ex: Make them laugh or think ‘WOW, that is cool!’
   •   Exclusives – ex: Give special offers they can’t get through any other channel.

If you’re able to provide all three, there will be no stopping you. But you need to provide at least one of them. Think about your company, think about the expertise your company has, think about the people in your company, the personality of your company, and the nature of your customers. Use these to determine which of these categories best suits your resources.

3 – Choose a small handful of channels first, then expand: Every social media channel uses a different format. Some are similar, but there are always differences. Based on where your existing communities are, and what kind of content your organization is best suited to sharing, choose the channel that best fits with these two factors. Once you’ve determined this primary channel, choose one or two ‘complementary’ channels that tie in to it. The idea is to keep things simple to avoid being spread too thin, but to also begin building communities in a variety of locations to connect with different kinds of influencers.

4 – Share as often as you can, but do it CONSISTENTLY: Your community will quickly become accustomed to the pace with which you share content. If you start posting blog posts every week, tweeting 20 times a day, and posting a new gallery of images to Facebook every few days, you have to make sure you have the resources to maintain that stream of content. It’s far better to start out at a walking pace and build up to a jog than it is to go full-speed out of the gate. This is a marathon, not a sprint. By being regular and consistent with your content, you develop a routine with your communities. If they know when to expect new stuff, they’ll check back far more regularly than if it’s inconsistent and hard to predict.

5 – Identify who possesses the social skill set in your organization: All too often, companies focus too much on the ‘what’ and the ‘where’ of social media and not enough on the ‘who’. Just like it is essential to identify who your community is, it is also necessary to identify the best person(s) inside your organization to interact with those communities. Social media success hinges on the personality of the people participating in it, so take a good long look at the people you have and figure out who the most ‘social’ among them is. Remember that this person will become the face of your brand in the social space, so choose someone who’s dedicated, professional, knowledgeable, and most importantly WANTS to do this. Their desire to connect with the community is just as important as their technical knowledge.

In summary, what you do should be determined by the nature of your company and the nature of your customers. Don’t try to copy someone elses approach. Every company has strength, and a personality that can be highlighted by social communications. it is that personality that helps you effectively build your community. The direction that you need to take is already set before you. You just need to travel down that path one step at a time.

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

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Jonathan on Google+

September 9, 2011

Social Media needs a Mantra, and this should be it.

by Jonathan Barrick

We’ve never seen a business environment like this before. How will your mind choose to approach it?

I started this day by listening to a playlist I hadn’t heard in a long time on the way to the office this morning. Two or three songs in to the mix, I heard something mind blowing. It was a song that’s been in my collection since its album was released in 2001. Ten years ago. Today, I heard it again and something clicked in my head. The entire song only has 7 lines, but that is enough to completely encompass what I believe it’s like to be in Marketing now that the world has embraced social media & communications.

The song is ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ by Daft Punk, released on the ‘Discovery’ album back in October 2001. Here are the lyrics that made me smile:

Work it harder.
Make it better.
Do it faster.
Makes us stronger.

More than ever
hour after hour
work is never over.

Read that a couple of times, then continue on to the rest of this article.

Let me break down what those words mean to me, line by line:

Work it harder. – We used to have a handful of channels. TV, Radio, Print, etc. Each had very set, defined rules that were dictated by the owners of each medium. We had to play ball by their rules, or go home. Now, you’ve got all those, plus Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora, Google+, and many more. The rules are no longer defined, and the way you approach them is in a constant state of flux. You have to work harder in the world of social media just to stay relevant.

Make it better. – I feel a bit silly in even trying to explain this one, as it should be pretty obvious. However, ‘better’ is a subjective term, and what’s better to one of us could be considered awful by the next. In my opinion, ‘better’ means meeting our promises every time. A quality product that does what we say it will. Customer service that responds when we say they will. Constantly finding ways to deliver more of what they want, and less of what they don’t.

Do it faster. – Immediate response is no longer optional. It’s essential. If you’re not catching every issue, every question, every problem immediately, you leave the door open for one of your caring, thoughtful, helpful competitors to do it for you. There is no time-delay in the world of social communications. You can’t hit the ‘bleep’ button before the message broadcasts to your audience. You have to be faster than you’ve ever been.

Makes us stronger. – We learn from others. From their successes, like Zappos and Starbucks, and from their failures, like Kenneth Cole and Chrysler. Social communications allows us to communicate to more awesome people than ever before. The communal library of knowledge that is now available to all of us is incomprehensible in scale. We have the ability to connect with the great people, and completely ignore the poisonous ones. By choosing to surround ourselves by awesome people, and shutting out those who prove to be toxic, we all get exponentially stronger.

More than ever, hour after hour, work is never over. – I combine the last three lines because they form one, thunderous message: SOCIAL MEDIA DOESN’T STOP. It doesn’t shut down at 5pm EST. It’s not confined within the pages of a magazine. It’s not crammed in to a primetime TV slot. It’s not a few days in Vegas at the convention center. It permeates everything we do now, and if you choose to only view it as a Mon-Fri, 9-5 activity, you’ll be left in the dust.

What does all of this ultimately mean? To me, it’s quite simple: The emergence of social communications has created a more challenging environment for Marketers. An environment that demands better products and services. An environment that requires immediate response to every query. An environment that enables the great people among us to become greater, and creates fossils of those who refuse to adapt and evolve. An environment that never stops changing.

Jonathan on Google+

September 8, 2011

Social Media ROI – A Book Review

by Jonathan Barrick

You can only go on for so long with a social communications program in a business before you absolutely need to quantify the results of your actions.

If not because your CEO or CFO is demanding it, then at least to prove to yourself that what you’re doing is actually accomplishing something. And by ‘something’, I don’t mean ‘making you feel good’. I mean some kind of tangible benefit that you wouldn’t otherwise have.

This topic is a divisive one in the world of social media. There are many who say that trying to calculate ROI of social activities is like trying to calculate the ROI of your best friend, or your mother. Others still cling to the classic ROI calculations of traditional media: impressions, clicks, views, etc. Neither of these approaches is going to get you very far in social media. The first approach simply ignores the fundamentals of being in business at all, and the second gives you a mountain of raw data with absolutely no context.

Say hello to Olivier Blanchard. AKA: @thebrandbuilder

He’s authored an unrelenting book that will not let you get away without realizing that the measures of Social Media go far beyond ‘Likes’ and ‘Follows’, and that YES, IT DOES have a measurable impact on the bottom line of a business. In this book, Blanchard leaves no area of social communications ROI untouched, and beautifully illustrates how every business function can benefit from these new channels, not just Marketing.

By taking a ‘company-wide’ approach instead of walling it up inside one particular business function, Blanchard shows how the returns a business can achieve as a result of social communications grow exponentially as it becomes more ingrained in to the entirety of the organization.

Social Media ROI isn’t a ‘preachy’ book. It’s overflowing with usable examples and gets right to the ‘meat’ of how to look at the effects of your actions. By the end of it, you will easily be able to say ‘By doing THIS, we hope to achieve THAT, and will measure it by looking at what happens to X, Y and Z’. The approaches outlined in this book will allow you to pull the data you need to show anyone in an organization how they can or have benefited from certain social media activities, whether it be your marketing intern or your CEO.

I’d highly recommend anyone involved in social communications to give this book a read. It will allow you to formulate cohesive approaches to measuring the effects of your actions, analyze the data you obtain, and present it in context to those people which it matters most. A great book!

Buy the book.

More from Olivier Blanchard.

NOTE: My copy of Social Media ROI was purchased, and this review was not solicited in any way.

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+

August 18, 2011

4 Simple Steps for Starting A Social Media Presence

by Jonathan Barrick

You have the key, and there’s gas in the tank. You just need to start it up.

YES – there are still businesses that haven’t yet made a move in to the world of social communications. It may be hard to believe, given the sheer volume of discussion about social media happening everywhere, but it’s true. For every socially-savvy business out there rocking the world of Twitter and being fascinating on Facebook, there are dozens more who are struggling to figure out what they should be doing, and where they should be doing it. There is a large portion of business owners who KNOW they need to be participating, and yet take one look at the vast array of social media tools available to them and think “Where do I possibly begin?!?”

It is for those people that it’s so crucial to provide simple, effective approaches to getting started in these communication channels so that they get off on the right path from the beginning.

Step 1 – Search for discussions

Social Media is all about generating conversation and interaction between your business and its communities. Rest assured, that no matter what product or service you may provide, someone somewhere is talking about you. You just need to search for them. Use search tools like SocialMention as a compass to point you in the right direction, and to get an idea about where the action is occurring. This tool will tell you on what sites the conversations are happening, and also an overview on whether they are typically happy, angry, or neutral about the topics of discussion. Once you’ve found where people are talking, proceed to Step 2.

Step 2 – Read the content

Now that you’ve found where the conversations are happening, whether it be on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, or somewhere else, the time has come to listen intently to every word. Before you can start posting your thoughts, it’s crucial to understand how these communities are talking to each other, and about you. Jumping right in with a ‘BIG SALE THIS WEEK!!’ message might be the worst possible thing you could do. You want to COMPLEMENT the conversations and CONTRIBUTE to them, not shout over them with slogans and your daily specials.

3 – Determine what value you bring

As mentioned in Step 2, in order to be well received by the community, you need to complement the discussions taking place, and contribute to them. How you do this depends entirely on what value you bring to these conversations. Most people follow brands and companies for one (or a combination) of three reasons:

Entertainment – Videos, photos, blog posts, links that amuse or impress, etc.
Education – Helpful tips, tricks, advice, troubleshooting, etc.
Exclusives – Deals, specials, or giveaways not available anywhere else.

If you can’t provide any of those, you’re not looking hard enough. The simplest way for most new businesses to contribute to the conversation without having to give discounts, or pretend to have a sense of humor (especially if your business doesn’t) is to be a helpful expert. Take the knowledge contained in your business and share it with your community.

4 – Share, and share, and then share some more

Once you’ve found the value you bring to your community, let it loose. Don’t hold it back, but give it freely and openly. Become the expert on your topic. Share the awesome photos you’ve accumulated over the years. Give your communities a special appreciation discount code. Every time you share, you generate value you didn’t have before. Every time you make them smile, you’re generating positive brand awareness. Every time you answer their question, you take away the opportunity for a competitor to do the same.

So there you have it. A simple 4-step approach that can be used for any company, anywhere to get a handle on how they can approach social communications. The real clincher to this strategy is Step 3 – Regardless of the channel you choose, you need to provide value. If you’re not giving your community something they wouldn’t otherwise have, in a format that makes them want to see it, all you’re doing is advertising to them. If they get the sense that this is what your social media content is all about, don’t be surprised if their fingers move to that ‘Unfollow’ button before you even have a chance to say ‘hello’.

The most important thing to keep in mind when participating in social communications is ‘Am I helping myself, or my community?’. The answer to this question is much easier to determine than you’d think. Just look at what you want out of the companies that you personally follow, and realize that your business’ community is no different. Keep that mindset, and you’re already on your way to social success.

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+

August 7, 2011

3 Essential Twitter Chats for Business

by Jonathan Barrick

Twitter Chats let you get info, insight, and real-time interaction with the brightest minds in the Social Media universe.

Twitter chats are an invaluable source of insight, discussion, and debate. If you’ve never participated in one, they can be quite overwhelming! The stream of tweets in a Twitter Chat is actually more like a class-5 rapid. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to actually read every single tweet that goes through on a certain hashtag, but for the most part, the real gems of discussion will undoubtedly appear more than once as they get retweeted or quoted, so the key topics are always easy to spot.

Twitter Chats typically recur on a weekly basis, same day, same time, and cater to a very wide variety of topics. There are chats for any subject of interest that you could possibly have, and I’d like to point out three key Twitter Chats that anyone in business can definitely benefit from. Here are the ones that are 100% worth a look:

#bizforum – The newest of these three, Bizforum has been operating for a couple of months so far, and the results have been (in my opinion) incredible. Bizforum takes the form of a Twitter debate, posing a topic to the group each week, which consists of 4 sub-topics discussed throughout the chat. Things can get heated, as the moderators encourage you to avoid the ‘It depends..’ point of view in favor of stating your opinion and your reasons why. It’s a rapid-fire learning experience that brings the best of both sides of an issue in to the limelight.

#bizforum recurs every Wednesday evening, 8pm EST

Moderated by @samfiorella and the team at @senseimarketing – more details here: http://socialroadmaps.blogspot.com/2011/05/bizforum-is-born.html

#brandchat – If you have any questions about branding, this is the chat that will answer them. Brandchat has been operating longer than I can remember, and has a substantial following including some of the greatest minds in the world of branding. Topics change each week, but the overarching subjects fall in to one of four categories that rotate each week including Small Business Brands, Personal Brands, etc. #brandchat is a great chat to get involved in if you’re working to build a brand of any type. The content that gets shared here is always top-notch.

#brandchat recurs every Wednesday morning at 11am EST
Moderated by @brandchat and the team over at http://brandchat.info

#blogchat – One of the longest running Twitter chats in existence, Blogchat is the brainchild of Mack Collier. It’s focus, of course, is Blogs and everything to do with them. In addition to simply providing solid tips and great advice for bloggers of all skill levels, Blogchat actually reviews blogs throughout the chat discussion that have been submitted by anyone who wants their blog looked at. This is an amazing opportunity to learn from the best, and get tips to take your blogging efforts to new heights. If you’re a veteran blogger, or a newbie, there is always something that you will learn here and be able to apply for immediate results on your blog.

#blogchat recurs every Sunday evening at 9pm EST
Moderated by @mackcollier – more details at http://mackcollier.com/social-media-library/what-is-blogchat/

I’d encourage anyone looking for a forum to throw around new ideas, get advice, tips, and help for anything related to business in the online space to check out any or all of these Twitter Chats. With the quality of discussion I’ve experienced personally, and the great ideas that present themselves every week, I’ve got the distinct feeling you won’t be disappointed!

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+

August 1, 2011

Why More Businesses Should Be Using Instagram

by Jonathan Barrick

An Instagram picture is worth way more than a thousand words. Why not let them speak for your business?

Instagram is a ridiculously easy to use photo sharing service. If you’re not familiar with the app, it essentially allows you to snap a photo using your iPhone camera (or choose one from your existing photo library), crop it, tilt-shift it (fancy word for ‘blur’), and ‘stylize’ it using a variety of pre-set photo filters. You can then publish your creation directly to your choice of sites including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and a few other social networks.

Before and After shots of a baseball diamond, taken with Instagram

Instagram has grown to over 7 million users in the short time it’s been in existence, and it continues to grow due to it’s simplicity, and how easy it is for anyone with an iPhone to become instantly artistic with any photo.

You might be wondering just what this might have to do with business. Well, images are a crucial piece of your business’ story. No matter the product, no matter the service, without pictures all you’re left with is a giant block of text that no one wants to read.

It’s been proven that photos and video are some of the most shared kinds of content on social networks, and it’s easy to understand why. We gravitate towards images naturally. it’s much easier and faster for us to process the message in a picture, and it’s also much easier to evoke emotion through images.

Picture frames, taken at a local art supply store, and Copper tubes, taken at Home Depot

One of the main reasons I’m suggesting using Instagram for your business photo sharing instead of, say, Flickr, is that Instagram allows you to give otherwise bland photos a bit of personality. It allows you to transform the ‘feel’ of a picture in order to convey the desired emotions. But, enough of the touchy-feely stuff. I’m sure you’d like to hear some examples of how businesses can use this service in the real-world.

Here are those examples:

Salons – Allows you to share stylized photos of hairstyles, manicure/pedicure nail art, makeup, and even shots of the salon itself. This will allow you to showcase your skills, as well as the decor and environment in your salon to reinforce your brand.
Automotive Collision Repair Shop – Great for showcasing custom paint jobs, or illustrating ‘Before’ and ‘After’ shots of mangled cars. Also would allow your customers a behind-the-scenes look at body repair, painting, and detailing. Convey the level of skill that is required to turn a wrecked car back in to a thing of beauty.
Coffee House – This one is easy. Pics of people laughing, chatting, working in your shop. Showcase your funky ‘latte foam art’ or displays of mugs and beans. Show your customers the kind of friendly environment they can expect when they walk in to your shop.

Pics taken at a local coffee shop with Instagram
Golf Course – If you don’t see the inherent beauty in a golf course, I don’t know what to tell you. You can post great shots of the landscaping, sunrises and sunsets over the greens, actions shots of golfers on the tee, and highlight tournaments and other events. Any kind of recreational business is a prime candidate for creative photo sharing.

This list could go on, and on, and on, but I think you get the point. It doesn’t matter what business you have, there is always SOMETHING artistic in it somewhere. Allowing other people to see what is already there can give them a completely different perspective on what it is you do. Something that is seemingly mundane and commonplace can instantly be given a totally different ‘feel’ through creative imaging. It never hurts to infuse your business with a little more personality, and Instagram makes it easy for anyone to do so.

*This entry was originally posted on Crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+

July 23, 2011

Measuring Online Influence – Ridiculously Subjective, Subjectively Ridiculous

Influential? Maybe. But influential about WHAT exactly?

Yes, once again we’re talking about the ultimate divisive topic: Measuring Online Influence. Now, up until just today you’d be very hard pressed to get me to agree that the commonly referenced ‘influence scores’ are anything but arbitrary numbers that depict nothing more than the level of activity observed across the social landscape.

However, my opinion of the logic behind the approach of various influence measurements is now in a state of flux, and it’s the result of the least likely (at least, from my point of view) person who would ever influence me about anything: Justin Bieber.

Personally, I think the ‘manufactured celebrity’ that is ‘the Biebs’ is ridiculous in all forms. And one would assume that his actual ‘influence’ would be negligible to anyone over the age of 15. However, influence is a very subjective term, and can really only be used when talking about influence over a particular topic or action. It needs to be placed in to context, or it just doesn’t make any sense.

Bieber has a perfect Klout score of 100, theoretically making him one of the most influential people online. But influential about what, exactly? What’s the context?

The context for this particular example? Instagram

Bieber posted his first Instagram photo (a shot of a Los Angeles freeway during rush hour) a couple of days ago, and within hours had gained over 1700 followers. Currenty, he sits at over 5300 followers, making him one of the most followed users on the photo sharing service.

According to this article:

http://musically.com/blog/2011/07/22/justin-bieber-joins-instagram-and-sparks-traffic-surge/

“Bieber was picking up 50 Instagram followers a minute in the hours after joining, with one comment every 10 seconds – unprecedented numbers for Instagram, which has seven million users.”

It’s also easy to rationalize that of the 11 million followers he has on Twitter, a portion of them likely ‘discovered’ Instagram as a result and proceeded to download the app and begin using it. He’s essentially increased the speed of adoption of Instagram among a certain demographic (ie: that of his followers).

So, we can safely assume the following course of events:

JB uses Instagram
JB gains thousands of followers on his Instagram account
Instagram gains users from his pool of followers on Twitter
Instagram’s user base increases as more of JB’s followers join
Perceived value of Instagram goes up incrementally as user base grows

It sounds completely ridiculous that one single user can drive such adoption of a photo sharing service, but the proof is there. Justin Bieber has influence over his followers to adopt a new social photo sharing service.

But as you can see, this is one very specific instance of how someone with ‘celebrity’ status can influence a large group of people to adopt a service that doesn’t cost anything to use, and has no barriers to adoption other than simply owning an iPhone. His influence over his followers in other areas is likely insignificant. For example, I don’t imagine he’s influencing people to vote for one particular party, or to choose a specific college, or to choose one brand of car over another.

In addition, the current influence measurement systems have no way to actually distinguish between a topic of actual influence, and one that just generates activity. The two are often mutually exclusive. For example, if you make a mention of ‘elephants’ in a funny tweet that gets spread around, and all of a sudden the current metric systems believe you’re influential about elephants. Hardly an accurate measure of your real online presence, however.
I think that when put in to context, a person’s Klout score, PeerIndex number, or TweetGrader level may actually have an accurate correlation. The problem is identifying that context, and determining if it was simply a one-shot instance, or realistically representative of that persons actual expertise.

What’s my point? Your Klout score or PeerIndex number is fun to see, but should NEVER be used as an actual measure of someones influential value. They simply measure activity, and at best, the likelihood that in a specific instance their endorsement may possibly encourage adoption of certain things. Bottom line: It’s just not possible to measure someone’s influence based solely on activity. There are far too many other factors that come in to play.

July 18, 2011

Reaching 200 Million Accounts: Twitter’s Explosive Growth [INFOGRAPHIC]

Reblogged from Mashable.com

The 200 millionth Tweep signed up for a Twitter account, and to commemorate the occasion we bring you this infographic tracing the history of the platform that led up to that mind-boggling number.

If that 200 millionth Twitterer figure impresses you, get a load of the biggest number on this infographic: 350 billion tweets delivered each day.

Even though Twitter started out with users feeling cramped within its 140-character confines and talking about what they had for breakfast, today it’s turned into an explosive dynamo that instantly brings you news from all over the world. In fact, some have even blamed/credited it with overthrowing governments.

The service has enjoyed spectacular growth over the past five years — its official fifth birthday was in March, but it first became available to the general public in July, 2006.

And now that Jerry Seinfeld has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, it reminds us that the little tweeting platform that was once about nothing, well, now it’s about something. Something big. One thing’s for sure: It’s changed the world.

Reaching 200 Million Accounts: Twitter’s Explosive Growth [INFOGRAPHIC]

June 17, 2011

Hunting for Engagement Opportunities on Twitter

Build it and they will come? Most of the time, it’s not that easy.

We can’t all be Starbucks or Disney. We can’t all gather a half-million Facebook fans in a week, or a hundred thousand Twitter followers in a month. It’s a simple fact that a large number of lesser-known companies live in industries where Social Media adoption is lagging behind, and those companies are going to have to work extra-hard to uncover the opportunities for engagement. However, if these companies look hard enough, they’ll find that there ARE people talking about their brands. There ARE people talking about their products. There ARE people who WILL engage with them. It just take a little hunting to find them.

Now, you’ll notice the title of this article is ‘Hunting for ENGAGEMENT’, not ‘Hunting for Sales’. This approach will NOT work if all you want to do is blast sales messages. Engagement and interaction is the key to being a superstar in social media communications. So, with that in mind, let us continue.

The first step, aside from starting to Tweet in the first place, is to scour Twitter for any mentions of your brand name, product types, competitors, industry organizations, and any other keywords that relate to your business. The easiest, most effective way to do this is to utilize the multitude of free alert services and advanced ‘Twitter’ search sites that exist. These can help you uncover any Tweet that gets posted on any number of topics with any combination of terms and keywords.

Some of the best tools I’ve found are:

Advanced Twitter Search – http://search.twitter.com/advanced
• Search Twitter using extremely detailed search criteria, including exact phrases, language, with links or without, positive or negative attitude, and more.

TweetAlarm – http://www.tweetalarm.com/
• Like Google Alerts, but for Twitter. Sends email reports to you of any mention of any number of keywords, and allows you to exclude Tweets from certain users (like yourself). Get real-time, daily, or weekly reports.

Who’s Talkin’ – http://www.whostalkin.com/
• Social Media search engine that examines multiple sources for any and all mentions of a specific keyword. Sources include Google Blog Search, Twitter, WordPress, and more.

SocialMention – http://www.socialmention.com/
• Similar to Who’s Talkin – Allows you to drill down further and look at comments, images, news, etc, and provides positive/negative sentiment indicators. Also provides detailed metrics on the mentions it finds.

Example of SocialMention search results:

Ok, so now you’ve found a handful of people talking about your product. What do you do next? It’s a very simple 3-step process:

1 – Follow them – This is essential to creating a sense of appreciation and goodwill to them, letting them know that you’re not just spamming. Also, adding them to a custom list would be a good thing as well.

2 – Respond to them – Not just an @ message with a canned ‘check us out!’ response, but an actual reply to their message. Did they post a link to a photo? Say it was cool, or better yet, RT it with a personal message. Did they have an issue with their product? Offer help on their specific problem. Don’t just say ‘call us at 1-800-BLA-BLAH.

3 – Follow-up – Do they respond back to you? Then respond back again. Always be the last one to respond. This way you always leave the ball in their court, and if they have any other desire to talk with you, they will.

The point is this: If your company exists in a very specific industry, or a very niche market, it may not be common knowledge among your customers that they can get help/knowledge/information through Social Media channels. They may only use it for personal reasons, oblivious to the fact that there is a wealth of knowledge and interaction that you can provide to them.

By actively finding THEM, instead of waiting for them to find YOU, you’re kick-starting your community in a very positive way. You’re letting them know that you’re listening, that you care about what they have to say, and that you really want to help.

June 8, 2011

5 Awesome Reasons & 5 Terrible Reasons to Give +K on Klout

There’s been a great deal of talk recently about how the current iterations of ‘influence’ measurement don’t really measure the actual influence that individuals have over their followers. What they were really doing is simply extrapolating the amount and type of social media activities that the individual engages in, and then repackage them as a superficial measure of influence. For a while though, it’s all we had to use as a yardstick to compare how we were performing in the world of social media communications.

Now, Klout has introduced the +K system, which allows users to manually apply ‘influence’ to individuals based on certain topics of interest. It’s a definite step in the right direction. Now, rather than simply be based on the raw numbers of tweets, followers, and mentions, someone can be marked as influential on a topic based on their CONTENT and the effects that they have on their audience. In my opinion, this is a far more reliable measure of how influential someone is.

Of course, there are loopholes and ways to game the system. The first one that I’ve seen rear its ugly head is people flat out asking their followers to give them +K points. Really? Doesn’t this completely defeat the purpose of the +K system? If your followers don’t take it upon themselves to give you +K on their own volition, perhaps you’re not as influential on your topic as you may think you are.

Image linked from: http://www.socialfresh.com

This got me thinking about what would really be a good reason to give someone a bump with +K. Should you just give them to your friends? Should you give them to the most popular users in hopes that they notice your action and return the favour? Possibly.

But maybe, just maybe, we should be selective in who we give influence points. After all, don’t the people we recommend provide insight in to who we are and what we’re all about? If someone said they are influenced by some loudmouth malcontent who just posts drivel and garbage, my opinion of them may decline a little bit. Who we look up to is indicative of how we strive to be, so in the long run excessive generosity with +K points could reflect poorly on you.

Here are what I believe are 5 great reasons to give someone +K:

Image linked from: http://cooleycooley.blogspot.com

1 – They fascinate you

If someone continually posts articles that you absolutely must read, they may be deserving of +K. If they have a lifestyle or philosophy that you admire, they may be deserving of +K.

2 – They make a difference

If someone you follow is generous in their community, helping everyone without thought of reward, they may be deserving of +K. If someone you follow is dedicated to a charitable cause, and advocates for those who cannot advocate for themselves, they may be deserving of +K.

3 – They give you advice that you use

If you ask a question, and they give you a solution that you can use, and it works, they may be deserving of +K. If you take an article they wrote and actually apply the concepts to your everyday life, they may be deserving of +K.

4 – They are tremendously successful

If they continually win at anything they do, sharing the stories of their success as they go, they may be deserving of +K. If their customers/clients continually win as a result of working with this person, they may be deserving of +K.

5 – They give you ideas you never conceived of

If they share a new idea or concept that stops you in your tracks and say ‘WOW’, they may be deserving of +K. If they constantly surprise you with solutions to problems never before considered, they may be deserving of +K.

Now, with any type of reward system, however simple it may be, there will always be those who use it in awful ways that make kittens cry. Here are five of those ways:

Image linked from: http://rob.nu

1 – Giving +K to people who are already ranked at the top of a topic

Does giving Barack Obama +K for politics do anything for anyone? Not really. Does giving Starbucks a +K about coffee make others go ‘OK, maybe I’ll try it’? If they haven’t tried it by now, very few things will push them to change.

2 – Giving +K to people because they are your friends

We all want our friends to succeed, but you wouldn’t recommend them for a job they’d be terrible at, so don’t do the same here. If they don’t ACTUALLY influence you on the topic in question, don’t say that they do just to be nice. Everyone has something they’re great at, so if you’re going to give them points, do it on their real topic of influence.

3 – Giving +K to people solely because they gave it to you

It’s a nice gesture, but just don’t. I didn’t give you the +K just to get some from you. I really felt you were influential on a topic so I gave you a bump. If you’re just being nice, then say thanks, or start reading my blog and give me your feedback. Your opinion and comments are far more valuable than a ‘gimme’ to my Klout score.

4 – Giving +K to people to farm for your own +K

As indicated above, there are those who like to reciprocate when given appreciation, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but in this instance it does more harm than good. If you purposely look for those individuals known for reciprocating and give them +K just to get more for yourself, you’re just gaming the system.

5 – Giving +K to gain popular Twitter followers

No secret: It’s hard to get the attention of some of the big Twitter personalities out there. Really, really hard. They get countless mentions and replies every day, so how do you break through the clutter? By doing something ‘extra’. Giving someone who is really popular a shot of +K could be the ‘nudge’ you need to get them to follow you back. If this is the only reason you’re doing it, then you’re flat-out doing it wrong. Do you really want to get followers by cheating? (Hint: Please say ‘no’.)

So there you have it. For the first time, measures of online influence can finally have some kind of ‘meat’ to them. But just like any other metric, they can easily be skewed to the advantage of unscrupulous individuals, rather than used for their intended purpose. I sincerely hope that the majority of users out there really make use of the +K system as the creators of it clearly intended: To place the power of real influence measurement in to the hands of the community. We finally have the ability to effectively gauge influence based on the effects of the content being produced. Let’s not ruin it, ok? Thanks!