Social Media In Plain English

There are a lot of explanations about what Social Media is, and what isn't. In fact the growth of Social Media itself has enabled this to become one of the most popular and talked about topics of all time.

There is no real secret to using Social Media (beware of those selling them at "buy now" prices), it just comes down to what environment makes you comfortable, what tools we like to use and finding a "community", "tribe", "clan" or "gathering" that makes you welcome, safe and relevant. Once this has been achieved then you can engage, speak your mind, share your knowledge and learn from those who share in your passion, interests and opportunities.

Social Media has created a shift in the way we can conduct our business. The old outward marketing technique of broadcasting your message to the wind is no longer viable or affordable on most SME's working budget. We as consumers have too much distraction, too many TV channels, publications, radio stations and can flick from one to another at choice. In fact surveys of teens show that they are turning off the TV and turning more to their computers.

The internet is maturing beyond a tool for research to an integrated communications and entertainment portal thanks to better connectivity and cheaper and increasingly mobile hardware.

I found inspiration today through a NZ based website called Business Blogs, recommended to me by a friend, a great read and a good source of information written by everyday people like you and me.

And it was there I found this nice explanation of Social Media using an analogy of one of my favourite things, ice-cream.. Enjoy

Are you ready to start blogging yet? If not get reading some …

Are you considering writing a Blog? From a business perspective Blogs can be a goldmine if aligned correctly with your other communications and marketing initiatives. Easy to say, much harder to put into practice, first you have to ask yourself “why am I doing this and do I have something of value to say?" Social media commentators talk about the need of “establishing yourself as a thought leader”. This quite simply is demonstrating to your readers that you are an expert on a given topic and worth their time investment.

We can compare bloggers to traditional newspaper columnists because it’s the same principle. You attract readers because your opinion is some or all of the following; educational, thought provoking, inspirational, controversial, motivational or entertaining. If you don’t capture the attention of the readers first time they will move on, possibly to your direct competitor.

There’s plenty of theory and instruction by well seasoned professionals on how to write a great blog. Some basic concepts you have to consider include maintaining some consistency in your message, your writing style, publishing frequency and of course the topic. A great advantage with the self published Blog is you can inject some personality, be yourself. Always keep in mind you are representing your brand so don’t let that down by getting too personal or controversial and regretting it later. As with any form of publishing it is important to respect others and understand there are codes of conduct inclusive of civil laws and copyright that must be observed. Once you hit the publish button your private thoughts are in the public domain, and you may not only be answerable for what you say but accountable.

The more niche your area of expertise is the easier it is to gain a relevant “following”. Using social mediums like Twitter allows you to target “followers” or readers who have an interest in your area of knowledge and then point them to your blog or website. Any good marketing or communications initiative does require some advance thinking (Strategic Planning) so your time is invested effectively. I’ll be covering more on that at a later date

I read blogs to gain insight into what others are thinking and to alert me to new ideas or products. At last count I subscribe to about 15 Blogs using Google Reader. Technically Google Reader is a Web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds online or offline. In plain English it’s a tool for reading Blogs I select at a time that suits me without having to move from one site to another. There are lots of versions of these “RSS Readers” available so just pick one that suits you and subscribe to this or any other blog of your choice.

Here’s a couple of recommended thought leading bloggers to get you going if you have an interest in the Web 2.0 or Social Media environment.

Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/

Copyblogger http://www.copyblogger.com/

Chris Brogan http://www.chrisbrogan.com/

Web Strategy by Jerimiah Owyang http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/

Happy reading

Should you auto DM new followers on Twitter?

I am writing this because I don’t yet have definitive answers myself. Should I auto DM my new Twitter followers or not?

I have two accounts; there is me as a person @craignetworker, and me as a business @mondaymorningnz and I was considering using the auto DM for the latter to let people know we offer free webinars on the subject of webinars for business.

I have chosen not to auto DM to date because most of the social media gurus I follow and respect most say not to. In fact some go as far as saying that they will un-follow or remove anyone that engages in this practice.

Does this mean I haven’t got value from auto DM’s I’ve received? The answer to that is yes, I have got value, I have followed links that have caught my attention and have learnt and gained valuable information as a result. After all isn’t that the whole idea of marketing, using every opportunity to gain someone’s attention and promote you?

It does come down to what you are using Twitter for. Is it to establish trust and build relationships, or is it to create profile for your business or service.

If you want to engage in long term trusted relationships then I would suggest no to auto DM’s, they come across as insincere and impersonal, because they are. The other down side of this practice is they make the DM inbox ineffective for communication. I get so many I just delete them without reading anymore and tend to focus on my @replies.

If you are looking to promote your brand then give auto DM a try using a product like TweetLater. But one caveat I would put on this is be sure to offer something of real value otherwise it is just spam and time wasting for all concerned.

Please let me know if you have a tried and tested theory on this subject. I would love the hear from you.

Now you are on Twitter: What's next?

It amazes me how people seem to have such a love hate relationship with Twitter. I have spoken to some very tech savvy, web using, business folk who have flatly refused twitter as part of their marketing strategy. I suspect they will come around eventually.

The analogy I have taken to using lately is that Web 1.0 (or websites filled with static web pages) was a little like filling a library with books. Twitter (and it Web 2.0 cousins) is the equivalent of letting people into that same library and they are excitedly letting each other know what they are finding and where to look for it.

 It doesn’t surprise me too that so many people drop off after engaging with it – up to 40%. This from a business perspective should be a good thing as I would suspect that they are predominantly the time wasters who are just filling space with idle noise rather than contributing to any real thread of thought or conversation.  

I am experimenting with ways of using twitter for various clients, currently having the greatest impact on specialty subjects like wine presently.  More generalist areas such as business I am still unsure of the immediate benefit of Twitter as a tool. Having said that I have noticed increased traffic to our website and blog as a direct result of tweets – there I’ve just answered my own question.

It also has the benefit that randomness brings when the occasional news item or link flashes past that one picks up on. One thing that does rather alarm me is some people are using twitter to communicate. It still blows me away that people send emails and get twitchy if you haven’t replied within two minutes. I barely refer to the twitter DM’s (Direct Messages) any more as they are filled with impersonal auto responds from those I have chosen to follow.

 

As to where from here, we just need to catch up and find the right box for twitter to fit into, or at least wait until a better box is invented. A recent preview of the Google Wave platform managed to send chills of fear down my spine mingled with curious anticipation of the next generation of email meeting real time texting meeting Web 2.0 interactivity.  Now if only I could get this into 140 characters or less I would tweet it…

More reading about Google Wave here

10 Twitter tools for busy business people – and why.

My experience with Twitter so far has been predominantly positive. Initial misgivings have moved aside and I have now adopted a more focussed approach to the Twitter potential as a productive business tool. 

This potential has been realised by the discovery of some very useful tools that made twitter move from a random jumble of short messages to a massive network of valuable conversation. Twitter has been around for a few years now so if you haven’t engaged yet why bother, right? I would suggest you may want to reconsider.

I guess its a little like Neo’s discovery of the Matrix in the cult classic Wachowski brother trilogy. As Morpheus so eloquently put it” I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it. “ 

We can ignore Twitter as a passing fancy and hope it goes away, but somehow I think its here to stay. If you don’t use it there’s one thing that is for certain, your competition will be using it to their advantage.  

Here are ten suggested tools to get you started.

1: Twitter Search

http://search.twitter.com/

A start-up concept that was just last month acquired by Twitter. Use the advanced search features to drill down content by keyword, location, attitude (positive or negative) link content and more. 

Business use – target followers who have an interest in your industry, track conversations that have relevance to your business.

2: TweetDeck

http://www.tweetdeck.com

This is my desktop tweet management tool of choice. TweetDeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more. TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organised and up to date. Also a handy tool for shortening URL’s on the go. Download application for Free.

Business use – Keep track of direct messages and use the search function to track keywords that may have relevance to your business in breal time.

3: Tweetburner

http://tweetburner.com

Tweetburner allows you to track the website links you post on Twitter and find out how many times people clicked on the link. It does this by converting the link to a short URL and tracking how many times this URL was used to transport someone to the destination website.

Business use – Track your messages and know how effective they are.

4: Ping.fm

http://ping.fm

Post your tweets to over 40 social media sites with a single post

Business use – Save time and spread the word.

5: Twitpic

http://twitpic.com

Post photos on Twitter via your phone, and API or from their site.

Business use – A picture tells a thousand words.

6: Tweetstats

http://tweetstats.com

Get a visual graph of your tweet frequency, replies and other detail. For your, or someone else’s account. Nice additional feature is the “twitcloud” showing your most frequent words used in your tweet history.

Business use – Good tools for reporting against your strategy

7: Twist.Flaptor

http://twist.flaptor.com

This Twitter tool shows trends within the Twittersphere by graphing your keyword selection by the date. Just enter in words or concepts separated by a comma, for instance Hillary, Obama, and search. Each item is colour coded, and as you move across the graph, you’ll see numbered comparisons. On the home page you’ll find a list of things that are ‘hot now’ and things that were ‘hot before’. 

Business use – See what people are talking about.

8: Twitterlocal

http://twitterlocal.net

Desktop application that allows you to search tweets from  a specified location. E.g. within100km from your location.

Business use – Find out who is discussing what in your neighbourhood.

9: Twitterholic

http://twitterholic.com

See where you rank in the Twittersphere overall or by your selected region. Top 100 – Top 1000 – search your profile, or others.

Business use – Great tool for tracking your twitter growth strategy

10: VisibleTweets

http://visibletweets.com

This one is a bit of indulgence, after all even business should involve a bit of escapism and enjoyment on occasion.  Great visual tool to display your tweets via some very clever animation, choose letter by letter, rotation or clod.

Business use – This would be great for trade shows or in the waiting room of the office, memorising and attention getting way of displaying your tweets to a passive audience.

Follow us on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MondayMorningNZ/

Face to face has its place and webinars are great

The irony of my presentation last Friday was not lost on some of those present. I had travelled several hours in stormy weather to present to a group of business people on the subject of Webinars. "If this technology is so great why are you here" asked one attendee, "Why didn’t you just beam in over the Internet" he continued. From my perspective this was great dialogue because he had got the point of what made webinars so useful. 

Yes, I could have done just that, sent a link and been there at the appropriate time to display images and make my pitch over the speaker system. Having said that, and to use the comparison of the telephone, if there is no-one at the other end to pick up I’m not going to have a very productive phone conversation. My purpose of being there was to represent the value of webinars and our organisations services. The other reason I made the effort to be there so willingly in person was to re-establish some old relationships and cement some new ones.

 Over the ages new forms of communication have emerged to keep pace with technology and the needs of the few. Cave painting would have been a real conversation piece to several clans of cave people in 10,000BC; the pony express connected the elite in new frontiers, the telegraph made it possible to unite the affluent in expanding empires covering several continents. Commercial reality means modern technology is servicing the needs of not just the few but the many. Telephones, mobiles, skype and email are mainstream communication methods, yet have not, and should not replace the face to face meeting. 

Human interaction and relationships are built on more than just information exchange. There is a lot to be gained from looking into someone’s eye and shaking their hand. More evolved individuals will be able to sum you up quite accurately in that moment and know if they will do business with you into the future.

Having said that there is a great case for increased use of new technology, some, like the pony express are made redundant by newer more efficient information delivery. This is usually because its replacement is faster and safer, today’s highway robbers are called hackers and pirates are called, well pirates. Webinars will be replaced one day soon with 3D interactive holographic images simulating more efficiently the face to face experience, the technology exists today so don’t hold your breathe. Webinars or teleconferencing is affordable and relevant to our businesses now. Implementable without huge infrastructural costs they save time, money and reduce our environmental footprint. 

A cure for Mondayitus at last.

Do you suffer from Mondayitus and is there a cure for it? If the best answer you can come up with is Tuesday then you had better read on. If you get excited about the weekend and dread the start of the working week the great news is there is a very simple solution, and that doesn’t mean you have to start hating the weekend too. Like most conditions that are created via a state of mind the best cure is an adjustment to our thinking.  

What is it that makes you dread Monday? Hate your job, loosing control of your world, feel like you are going nowhere? The very reason you look forward to the weekend is you have made a plan, you’re off to visit friends, doing some gardening or spending some time with the kids.  It maybe in your head or a discussion with your partner but it’s still a plan. Have you done the same for the rest of the week?

Because you have no plan in place for the working week ahead you are achieving everything you have set out for yourself, nothing. Psychologically that’s the kiss of death for motivation and self esteem. You don’t have to be the business owner or CEO to have a business plan in place that you can use, call it a life plan, or even better an avoid Mondayitus plan.

To get started you need to keep this simple. One of the most effective tools for planning is a piece of paper and a pen. Use your diary or a note pad and make a to-do list. Have it prepared the night before and add to the next days list as new ideas or tasks come up. If you don’t achieve something on the list that day don’t beat yourself up, reprioritise it and move it to a day when it can be attended to. You will feel less stress, and importantly you can see what you are achieving and celebrate the milestones. Make big jobs a list on a separate page and break them down into bite sized junks then spread them across your to-do lists. 

This may sound a little ho-hum but it works. The challenge for you is to keep at it and make it a habit. You will be blown away by how much you get done and how much more in control you will feel. Leave me a comment if you have a similar or better system that works for you.