13 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- Attacking The Blogosphere From The Perspective Of A Psych Fanatic
- The Secret Sauce to Making Your Facebook Page Mmmm Mmmm Good
- The New Way To IPO
- Why Social Media Makes Me Feel Stupid
- Facebook Adds ‘Listen With’ Feature
- Google Hits the Accelerator with New Social Search Features
- Google Search Plus Your World: ‘Beautiful Journey’ Or Trainwreck In The Making?
- 5 Tips to Decipher Social Sentiment
- The Revised Social Media Effect [Infographic]
- Social Media: What’s Nice and What’s Naughty?
- Unfollowed on Twitter: Feelings and Phobias
- Facebook IPO: 6X Bigger Than Google’s! [INFOGRAPHIC]
- Social Media Case Studies in Loyalty and Acquisition
| Attacking The Blogosphere From The Perspective Of A Psych Fanatic Posted: 13 Jan 2012 03:00 PM PST All of us have individual traits that set us apart from other people. For instance. Some people spend a lot of time reacting to the accidents that take place in their lives while others immediately find the lesson and drive on. There are, however, some common threads in what effective bloggers do that leaves a trace. That's been my study over the last few years. Are you a Life Hacker?I'm not really a life hacker, but more of a mind hacker. My mission has been to dissect the minds of effective bloggers and improve my own mental performance, blogging approach and blogging capacities. I want to talk to you about how you can get into the minds of some of your favorite bloggers and incorporate their approach into yours, and even integrate the two, for the purposes of becoming more successful and effective as a blogger yourself. Success Leaves a TraceSuccess, defined in this context means gaining an audience, commanding influence, demanding an awareness in the blogosphere and consistently growing. A perfect example: Nicholas Cardot from Sitesketch 101 reached 4,000 Rss subscribers and 13,000 Twitter followers in less than two years. Nick has effectively dominated the blogosphere in a short period of time, commanding awareness and building a solid community. Give a Shit as a Business StrategyThe broadcast message is no longer the default, "giving a shit" as a core business strategy is taking over. A blogger that epitomizes this concept is Carol Roth. She's a very savvy business strategist and the author of a recent best seller, The Entrepreneur Equation. Carol really helps you to critically think about your engagement in the world of entrepreneurship, from a practical standpoint. I highly suggest becoming a daily reader of her Unsolicited Business Advice blog. Your mission, should you decide to accept itZero in on the methods of approach that make people as precise and effective as they are. Find your experts and start studying. Your mission is not to replicate exactly what the experts are doing, but more to understand their approach so that you can integrate it into yours. Reinventing the wheel is a lot harder than it looks and sometimes not worth the headache. I'm engaged in helping people change the way they operate in business, from a functional and social media standpoint. I get more resistance than I get cooperation. The great news is, you don't need to take it that far. Allow yourself to understand the approach of an expert and incorporate parts of it into yours. Change it around, add some critical components, tinker a bit and measure your results. You can always recalibrate after your inevitable feedback gets served up to your face like a giant dish of unwanted pumpkin pie at a Thanksgiving dinner. Who is Your MasterTrying to please everyone is the fastest way to fail. Since I've stopped trying to tailor my messages for everyone, it has helped me to both gain targeted readership on my blog, and to maximize productivity as a result of minimizing time spent trying to please everybody. People that break through, do so by doing the unthinkable. The world is designed for conformity, not creativity. One of the most dominating contributors I've found in the success of the great bloggers is the ability to stand outside of conventional understandings and dare to be different. I know, when people see something different, they label it different and start freaking out. They're like cave people discovering something new about the planet for the first time. They'll grunt, behave oddly, poke at it and run away. People just fear change. It's really that simple. Here's a great mind hack for this: replace the word different with new. Anything different brought into the world is going to challenge people's traditional way of doing things. It may even make them lash out but there is no change without the new. Be new and hold people's attention. Does this mean you should always try to challenge traditional ways of doing things? Absolutely not. Some things are best left alone and are working quite fine but if you have a better way to do something, speak up about it. Don't be a wimp. The Bottom LineThe bottom line is that authority bloggers are authority bloggers for a reason. Anyone who becomes particularly adept in something thinks differently and is engaging differently. Your job is to learn those critical components, integrate them into your operation and continue to evolve your processes, every single day. And remember. Be New! People are addicted to new. That is one advantage that you have over established, old bloggers.
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| The Secret Sauce to Making Your Facebook Page Mmmm Mmmm Good Posted: 13 Jan 2012 01:30 PM PST Today's post is brought to us by the Hall of Famer, Bruce Sallan. Contact me for your Guest Post Invitation. Why do some Facebook Pages sing and others sound like American Idol rejects? The only thing that will give you an edge is your distinct voice, your showmanship, and that elusive 'It' thing. Finding your 'It" means being creative, taking risks, understanding your voice, brand, and own niche. In real estate, they say there are three necessary ingredients: Location, Location, and Location. In Social Media there are also three ingredients: the 3 P's: Passion, Persistence, and Personality. We'll come back to those later. The Sauce of it AllSo you have a Facebook Page and wanna know how to come up with useful stuff to post day in and day out? Just do what TV execs have been doing for years, create a framework, and run the same weekly shows in their designated slots complete with reruns and all! Everything is a show. Today, YOU are competing with millions who also think they're a star, millions who tweet, Facebook, podcast, blog, and otherwise want their 15 minutes of fame. Back in my day…I come from showbiz where I spent nearly a quarter-century selling ideas for television. The people I pitched to had seen and heard it all. Their attention span is shorter than Danny Devito. Once I brought a baby black leopard to a pitch. Another time I brought two wrestlers, dressed in full regalia, to the pitch and left the Senior VP of programming at ABC in a headlock with the parting words, "If you buy it, they'll let you go." Trust me, I got noticed. My Devilishly Good LooksSo, when I started my A Dad's Point-of-View Facebook Page, I knew I couldn't rely on my devilishly good looks, incredible humor, and biting sarcasm alone! I decided to do theme days! TV Execs call certain hit TV shows, "appointment television" and my aim was to make A Dad's Point-of-View Page appointment viewing for my audience. Music MondayWhat are theme days? Well, let's start with the first theme I used for A Dad's Point-of-View Facebook Page, #MusicMonday. I love music. I know a lot about music…heck, I taught a college course Music and Films of the 50's and 60's back in the day! So what if music wasn't spot on as it relates to dads and parenting. Everyone loves music so I post twice every Monday, once in the a.m. and once in the p.m., some cool YouTube with a favorite artist of mine who has a birthday or significant event happening around that day. The above is a recent example. Eclectic? You bet. Unexpected? Naturally! Wednesday WordsTwitter has Wordless Wednesdays so I turned it on it's head and made Wednesdays, #WednesdayWords. It allows me to post great parenting quotes from great people and the material is endless. Again, once in the a.m. and once in the p.m. Friday FunniesIf you don't SSP (Shamelessly Self-Promote) you're just not getting it. So, Friday's became #FridayFunnies and one of the two posts – yes, one in the a.m. and one in the p.m. – is my own Because I Said So comic strip! But enough about me. Let's help someone out, okay? BTW, what do you think of me? If I Was TriberrIt's easy doing this for myself. How do you actually do it for someone else? Let's take Triberr as our practice Facebook page and give it a facelift…get it? Face- lift, like Face-Book? Oh, nevermind… Editor's note: I've asked Bruce to do use Triberr Facebook page as a working model; for both selfish and practical reasons. We (Triberr) don't do any of this and Bruce can show us how he would revamp it. This is what he came up with. -Dino Manaba MondayBecause Monday is the return to the workweek, the posts each Monday would reflect getting back in the groove. Tips to use Triberr best. How to start off the week. Getting ramped up. Coffee drinks. Etc. Posts will be once in the a.m. and once in the p.m. Note: Manaba means, "Return to war" in Navajo. Tuesday TribesEach Tuesday, Triberr would feature a new tribe and give it's name, Chief, and other information. Two each Tuesday. War Council WednesdayUsing war terminology, the two Wednesday posts for WCW will be about building your brand, fighting the competition, winning! Tiva ThursdayI don't care that this doesn't relate at all, the two posts on Tiva Thursday would be great dance music and videos. Just to get you over the hump. Tiva means, "Dance" in Hopi. Funny IS FridayStealing from myself, Friday's two posts would be humor, cartoons, jokes, funny videos. Again, who cares that it isn't right on brand/topic, it's fun and they'll come back for the fun. Saturday SquawsSince Triberr is an equal opportunity offender, I mean supporter, each Saturday Triberr would feature a powerful, incredible woman in some form or another (from the Triberr tribes). Sunday Peace PipeSunday is about making the world a better place and the post on Sunday will focus on that. All Together Now Post once in the a.m. and once in the p.m. If the audience isn't making the Page appointment viewing, at least they will always know what will be there when they want it. You Forgot the 3 Ps?Oh, you want to know about the 3 P's? It's simple.
Don't be afraid to express yourself, be outrageous, have fun, and otherwise engage with all your heart and soul. So, what will you do to make YOUR Page mmmm mmmm good?   |
| Posted: 13 Jan 2012 12:28 PM PST In my role at Jive Software, I’m responsible for the head-spinning job of doing social media marketing for the social business leader. In other words, up until recently, my parents had no idea what I did for a living. But that all changed when I helped market Jive’s IPO.
The core philosophy of our social program at Jive is to Engage Employees, Engage Customers, and Engage the Social Web in order to help accomplish real business objectives. This mantra came to life as we reached a major corporate milestone. I’m always preaching that we should “Jive on Jive,” so I wanted to share with you a brief case study of how we used our own products to accomplish a New Way to IPO. Engage Employees.
Engage Customers
Engage The Social Web.
Obviously, this social effort required the help of all-stars throughout the company including executives, the internal and external community managers, designers and developers, marketers, etc. And as an end-user of Jive since 2007, this was an extremely special day for me personally. I was thrilled to be able to showcase the power of Jive during an awesome event. Comment below with your questions and feedback!   |
| Why Social Media Makes Me Feel Stupid Posted: 13 Jan 2012 12:00 PM PST
To which Izzard retorts, "Then again, the Dutch speak about 6 languages and are also always high." This segment of his show was always amusing to me, but now that I am in the online world, it actually resonates a lot more. Over my year or so doing this blogging tweeting Facebooking thing, I've encountered tons of people for whom English is not their first language, and yet they write exceedingly awesome blog posts in English, predominantly tweet in English, predominantly update their Facebook pages in English, and converse in English at conferences. Now, I, on the other hand, cannot return this favor in the least. For a very brief time I could speak decent Hebrew. For a semi-brief time I was semi-fluent in Spanish. Never did get a grasp on that whole Subjunctive tense though. And now that's all gone pretty much. I didn't feel I "needed" to take a foreign language in college, so I did not. I really regret that now. "But everyone speaks English" I think that this is symptomatic of a really serious problem us Americans have with the world at large, and let's face it…when you're advised to pretend you're Canadian so the rest of the world likes you better, you've gotta be getting that message. America is a powerful country, but we are also one of the youngest countries in the world…still. And even if it's true that English is the "language to know" (which I don't happen to think is true), why is not a priority for Americans to learn how to talk in other languages? Why is not expected that I should be able to talk to someone in French, German, Spanish, or Italian? At least a little bit. At least past "Hello" and "Thank you." Why is it just a one-way street? It's not just about language Of course, just looking at the linguistic angle of this is not adequate. I'm encountering people from all sorts of cultures that I have no familiarity with whatsoever. I am entirely clueless as to what life is like in Malaysia or the Philippines or Australia or Norway. I have no idea how those cultures differ from my own, and thus I have no idea how what I might say innocently could be misconstrued as deeply offensive. I have no real understanding of faiths that have not directly touched my life. If we are really engaging in social media, isn't this stuff pretty important? If you have the chance to engage with the entire world, why limit your perspective to just those things with which you are familiar? Maybe it's just me Maybe this is more a personal failure on my part. Maybe other Americans don't have these problems. But I do most certainly feel that it is a failure on my part at the very least. The more I am exposed to people who can talk, at any given time, in 3-4 different languages, the more I feel that my role as a citizen of the new world is not being fulfilled properly and adequately. That really bothers me. What do you think? If you're not from America originally, do you find Americans generally ignorant of your country and culture? If you are native to America, do you feel as troubled as me about our inability to converse as readily with different people speaking in different tongues? I'd love to hear your thoughts! Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fatguyinalittlecoat/5310405113/ via Creative Commons   |
| Facebook Adds ‘Listen With’ Feature Posted: 13 Jan 2012 11:40 AM PST
'Listen with' allows you to listen to the music your Facebook friends are listening to at the same time due to Spotify and Rdio integration. Users can look for a music note in the chat sidebar to find someone who is listening to music, hover over that person's name, and then click the 'listen with' option that pops up. You'll continue to hear what they're listening to until you deselect the feature. I think it's kind of a cool addition to Facebook but I also think it's kind of weird. I mean, what if you want to listen to your Phantom of the Opera soundtrack in peace without some Facebook "friend" creepin' up on your songs? My guess is you have the option to turn off this feature, just like with most other updates, but only time will tell! I haven't seen it on my Facebook account yet, but when I do, my friends can count on me listening in on their songs because I am definitely the creepin’ type.   |
| Google Hits the Accelerator with New Social Search Features Posted: 13 Jan 2012 11:25 AM PST With news in the tech World just picking up after the Christmas lull, Google has announced some fairly far reaching news which confirms what a lot of tech commentators have been speculating on over the last few months. Today Google announced on its blog "Search, plus Your World" which is a new set features aimed at social search and the user. Typically the average web user will get search results based on the many billions of pages, images, videos and other media Google now offer through its search engine, today Google is making changes that will offer the following: Personal Results – these will allow the user to locate information, including Google+ posts, photos and media that the user owns or that has been shared with the user, this will be a private search result that only the user will be able to see. Profiles in Search – This could be a controversial new offering if proper thought has not gone in to privacy aspect (let's see what happens) – simply it will allow the user to search on Google for profiles of Google users (public profiles presumably) to find people close to you or who may be of interest. People and Pages – This will allow users to find Google Profiles and Google+ Pages related to their interests or their specific search. This new feature will really help Google+ users looking to find people and pages of interest and should help the site gain further traction even further. I wonder whether we see a whole new game of Google+ Pages optimisation? So what is Google doing? well as many have speculated, 2012 will be the year where Search and Social truly combine and these changes look to be another steroid injection in the Google+ arm which is now seriously gaining momentum. Google wants to make search "social" and by allowing users to find things that are personal to them and making it easier to share they are hoping that adding this sort of functionality to their search will help them stay ahead in the search business. If these are changes that are going to be rolling out across Googles platform then we can assume that they are now heavily committed to Google+ and social search. There are still a lot of people out there that dismiss Google+ as a viable social network, but as an avid user myself I find it offers far more interaction than both Facebook and Twitter. The weapon that Google still has in its armoury is Android, with millions of mobile handsets around the World being run on Googles own mobile operating system I wonder how long it will before both Google+ and todays new search features are rolled out over-the-air to this massive user base and we suddenly find we are all connected even more closely. 2012 is shaping up to be a very exciting year in tech! To read more about Googles announcement take a look at their blog post here.   |
| Google Search Plus Your World: ‘Beautiful Journey’ Or Trainwreck In The Making? Posted: 13 Jan 2012 09:40 AM PST At first, I thought it was just a hokey blog post title. But it appears that Google has actually launched a feature called "Search plus Your World" – and with this feature, they claim, "a beautiful journey begins." (Gag me, right?) And what is this feature, you ask? Oh, you hadn't heard? Perhaps "feature" downplays the import. It's really the next iteration of search – another step towards integrating social data into the results. According to Google, the changes encompass:
Though it looks like Search plus Your World will be the default, you can turn it off: We're also introducing a prominent new toggle on the upper right of the results page where you can see what your search results look like without personal content. With a single click, you can see an unpersonalized view of search results. So, what does it all mean? Let's take a look. Danny Sullivan Calls Search Plus Your World Google's 'Most Radical Transformation Ever'You can depend on deep coverage of Google news from Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land, and he delivered as usual this week with a couple of posts that explain the changes and offer some analysis. He explains that personalized results and social results have been united into one algorithm. Here's what personalized results now include, according to Sullivan: To summarize, personalized results include:
The last line is the most radical change, that private content will now be visible in what seems to be a search across the entire web. In other words, you can see private photos (such as those in your own or your friends' Picasa albums) by performing a search in Google. The obvious problem here is that so far the expanded (or narrowed?) search results only include private data from Google products like Google+ and Picasa – not those larger and more established stores of data like Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. But they hope to obtain access to those data stores in the Here's Sullivan again (highlighting mine throughout): "Facebook and Twitter and other services, basically, their terms of service don't allow us to crawl them deeply and store things. Google+ is the only [network] that provides such a persistent service," Singhal told me. "Of course, going forward, if others were willing to change, we'd look at designing things to see how it would work." Perhaps Search Plus Your World will prove the carrot or stick that Google's been after for years to get Facebook to share its data with Google. If the new feature takes off, searchers may wonder why they can't find privately shared information from their Facebook friends easily on Google. In a follow-up post, he shows some real-life examples of the new results. Even when signed out, Google is returning Google+ profiles in the SERP (favored, naturally, over Twitter and Facebook profiles). This means Google+ continues to be of huge importance to search marketers. It also presents two potential problems: 1) legal complications and 2) quality problems ("Google's job as a search engine is to direct searchers to the most relevant information on the web, not just to information that Google may have an interest in."). In another followup, he calls this feature “favoritism,” in a way that’s fundamentally different from previous vertical search results. What Else Are People Saying About Search Plus Your World?Greg Sterling notes that the effects on local search results are limited so far. Jason Kincaid at TechCrunch thinks this is going to get (much) bigger: It's starting small, with Google+ and Picasa integration. But over time we'll likely see results from Google Docs, Gmail, Contacts, Music, Voice, Wallet, and so on. You'll go to Google.com, type in whatever it is you're looking for, and you'll see both your own content alongside web results. It'll be an Omnibox for everything, and if it figures out a way to incorporate third-party data as well (be it through partnerships or APIs), it could be very powerful. Dan Worth at V3 reports that Twitter has criticized the update, saying in an official statement: "We’re concerned that, as a result of Google’s changes, finding [real-time] information will be much harder for everyone. We think that’s bad for people, publishers, news organizations and Twitter users." David Angotti at Search Engine Journal writes: Although Twitter is attempting to convince web users that Google's new search feature will make it more difficult to find information that is shared on Twitter, the update has done nothing to change accessibility to Twitter. However, the expiration of the real-time search agreement in July of last year DID affect both visibility and accessibility for web users. Google reps also found Twitter's claims strange since "they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer." Patrick Altoft finds the results "pretty mind blowing." He also points out that the changes will have "a major impact on PPC": A search for "cars" brings up the Google+ results for Ferrari & BMW above the PPC ads on the right hand side of the page. For BMW & Ferrari where PPC is mainly a brand play I'm sure they would much prefer to have their logo and a long snippet of text rather than a PPC ad, especially when it's totally free. Lee Odden calls this "a change as significant as Universal Search in 2007." He also offers some SEO tips for marketers, writing that: One of the key Google+ takeaways for marketers is that the more people who have added your personal or business Google+ page to their circles, the greater the likelihood that your content or activity will appear in their search results. In the way that bots crawling and indexing web pages was the price of admission into the Google index, now it's sharing and interaction amongst your Google+ network that is necessary (along with relevant content – same as it is with web pages). The Bad & the UglyFarhad Manjoo at Slate goes so far as to say that Google "just broke its search engine": I just searched for "Mitt Romney New Hampshire," and among my results were a handful of posts and images that my friends and colleagues shared via Google+. Regular readers know that I consider Google+ a wasteland and that I've left it for dead. On the other hand, I'm constantly on Twitter and Facebook—but my search for Romney turned up nothing that had been shared by people on those sites. Meanwhile, as Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan points out, if you search for "Facebook," Google now suggests that you follow Mark Zuckerberg's fallow Google+ page. Zuckerberg's most active online outpost is on Facebook. If Google doesn't tell you about the Facebook CEO's Facebook page, it's broken. Matt Cutts shares a story in which he searches for "werewolf" (a game) and gets back a picture of himself playing it. He calls this a "pure, magic moment." Maybe for him, because he knows he's the only one who would be getting this result. But what if your mom suddenly sees a picture of herself in the search results? Don't you think she might panic and assume that everyone is going to see that same picture? So far, I'm not seeing these "personal results" in my SERPs – but I don't have a public Picasa album, and I recently deleted my Google+ profile (I wasn't getting any value out of it, and I didn't like that it was changing my experience with other Google products, like Gmail). Overall, I think this new version of search could be quite amazing – if it grows to include personal data from non-Google sources. If not, I see Google backing itself further and further into a corner of irrelevance. People may want personal data in their search results – it remains to be seen – but if they do, they'll want data from the sources they actually use. And today, that's not Google+. More Web Marketing HighlightsWant "infinite blog post ideas"? Andrew Hanelly says get off the Facebook and do some work. Then you can write about the awesome work you're doing (as well as your fascinating failures). Matt McGee takes a closer look at just how much damage Google has done by reducing access to organic keyword referral data in the past few months. Ready to tackle PPC with new vigor in 2012? Jeff Allen has 145 suggestions for you. Lee Dimilo shares five persuasive ad copy headline templates, including the fear-based headline and the list headline. Have you heard about SOPA? It's just a Mexican casserole. Sonia Simone at Copyblogger explains why it matters. Text messaging is in decline in some countries. Does that mean the era of texting may soon come to a close? You've probably heard that women don't get raises and promotions as often as men because they don't ask for them. (I know I've heard it, time and time again.) Recent research suggests this isn't the case – women do ask, but still don't get the same rewards. Have a great weekend, folks.   |
| 5 Tips to Decipher Social Sentiment Posted: 13 Jan 2012 08:30 AM PST
This has been an interest of mine long before social media monitoring came on the scene. The Knight Digital Media Center offers great perspective on the idea of distilling sentiment from user comments left on blogs or mainstream news sites. We've all seen them: those nasty, sometimes hateful reactions and commentaries. All contain some truth or insight. It's up to the reader to determine what that is. Social media shouldn't be any different. I hope to start a dialog with this blog post, because after all, that's where sentiment begins to break down, right before the conversation begins. Tip #1 – Forget about automated scoringIt's bunk. Extremely few of the social media monitoring (SMM) tools on the market do this idea any justice. Most, on average, seem stuck in the 60-70% accuracy range through Boolean keyword matching. Others promise closer to 80-90%, but these often require natural language processing (NLP) technology that doesn't yet exist in most SMM products. Pick any tool you might use to score sentiment. Look at a recent range of verbatims in that tool. How many scores are just plain wrong? Consider these tools as directional aids for evaluating your social content, no matter its source. How many offer the ability to override the automated score? What about Net Promoter Score (NPS)? In 2011, a hot topic started to coalesce around creating a "social NPS." It doesn't exist. At least not yet. Social sentiment and NPS are two very different things with very different parameters. Social sentiment scores are ostensibly based on very organic responses to some stimulus (earned and unearned), but in reality are tainted by certain influences. I see a correlation to what a brand says and how consumers respond. NPS is a very controlled means to measure customer satisfaction. The Dachis Group's Social Performance Monitor is the closest I've seen in creating a best-of-breed program to automate such a score while Jeremiah Owyang advocates enhancing NPS with social. In any case, automated scoring runs the risk of precluding a marketer from truly understanding what's behind a sentiment, what the consumer might be thinking, and what the consumer isn't saying. Tip #2 – Leverage sentiment as an "early indicator"Social content is great for surfacing ideas that you might not be thinking of, nor being aware are out there. Use existing sentiment engines to identify and develop trending models for any topic of interest. These could be product reviews (good and bad), support issues, feature requests, competitor insights, and so. Use sentiment as a directional sign post to take the temperature of any given environment. Tip #3 – Engage with all sentiment typesWe all feel the need to react to bad situations, whether an emergency situation or a PR crisis. If someone out there is critical of us, we want to defend ourselves. That's human nature. What's uncomfortable is engaging with unfavorable sentiment. That should be job #1 for social media managers, PR departments and thought-leaders. Dig into why folks are responding as they are. Embrace your detractors. "Pig Pile Syndrome" Tip #4 – Don't look at sentiment in a vacuumConsider what stimuli are contributing to sentiment. Can you correlate sentiment trends with other activity? Is that activity causing sentiment? If you see a spike in sentiment-based activity, what's driving that commentary? Did you announce a product? Issue a press release? Did a disgruntled employee post a YouTube video? Did an unhappy customer? These are but a few questions to ask yourself. I often see three waves of activity in response to major topics as they propagate across the social web. The first is reaction. Whatever the topic, folks will react and often their followers will react to those reactions. The second is blame. Once reaction trends are established, folks will join the conversation (often ill informed) issuing blame. The third is analysis. Everyone loves to be a Monday morning quarterback. Sentiment swirls around these waves. Pay attention to the drivers and understand the meaning behind them. Tip #5 – Use caution in defining sentiment as a key metricNot only is sentiment a very subjective matter, the review of sentiment is also so. If you choose to consider sentiment as a business driver, set clear expectations around what you'll learn from it. It's not enough to report on positive versus negative mentions. At the minimum, juxtapose sentiment over time with social activity over time. Conceptually, these two measures should increase or decrease somewhat proportionally. Annotate spikes or outliers or anything else that can provide context to the meaning of sentiment. Haters and brand advocates alike can disproportionately skew results. Above all else, know what's being said about you and who the primary voices are who might be influencing conversations. Will we see improve sentiment technology in 2012? We'll see. This remains a hurdle for most SMM vendors. Vendors traditionally in the customer voice space will fare well here. Big data companies are exploring the idea as they develop solutions to analyze social content. I predict some strategic partnerships and perhaps and acquisition or two amongst these categories in the coming year. Are you looking for an advanced sentiment engine? I'll admit gaps in my own awareness here, but Attensity and Visible are top of mind. Consider how any solution fits your needs and goals.   |
| The Revised Social Media Effect [Infographic] Posted: 13 Jan 2012 08:15 AM PST So many marketing professionals are already trying to redefine social media for the coming year. Will Facebook and Twitter maintain their clout or will smaller start-ups sneak up from behind? Is it time to pull a "Myspace" on Foursquare and LinkedIn? Something to ponder over the weekend. Thanks to Josef Ohlsson Collentine for sourcing this infographic.   |
| Social Media: What’s Nice and What’s Naughty? Posted: 13 Jan 2012 06:50 AM PST The fast-moving world of social media means that often we can barely keep up with the latest changes – let alone work out what rules we should apply to them. Every retailer knows that a social commerce branch on their business tree is essential in the 21stcentury, but many shy away from getting stuck in and reaping the benefits because they're unsure about the rules of engagement, including how to safeguard their employees online, and protect their brand. If that's you, worry no more. All you need are clear guidelines for your business– read on to find out our top ten tips for creating your own:
Tweak as appropriate for your own internal documentation, structure and strategy. We recommend holding an introduction seminar or meeting to outline the guidelines and give people the opportunity to ask any questions. Social media isn't something to be afraid of; with the right guidelines you'll have nothing to worry about, so get stuck in. Good luck!   |
| Unfollowed on Twitter: Feelings and Phobias Posted: 13 Jan 2012 06:30 AM PST In the process of researching and reviewing Twitter unfollower tracking tools, I discovered that being unfollowed arouses a good deal of passion, reflection, and conflict. I'm sure the issue would make a fascinating psychological study. To a sensitive soul, a Twitter unfollow can be a devastating blow. As Jamie Hahn writes, "Getting unfollowed on Twitter hurts. Even after almost a year in the Twitterverse, I still feel the sharp sting of rejection each time my follower count drops." Similarly, Jeannie Moon writes, "It is like middle school with all the cliques and royalty and the unexplained dumpings. I like to think I'm past it, but I do wonder what I did wrong when I'm unfollowed. Still insecure after all these years." As Girl on the Contrary notes, "There is something so inherently hostile about unfriending or unfollowing someone that people tend to react extremely." Some see the reaction to being unfollowed as a new form of hypersensitivity ushered in by social media. Stacey Nerdin in "How I Feel About Being Unfriended or Unfollowed,” writes: "Unfriended. Unfollowed. Unsubscribed. Do these words strike sadness, insecurity, or offense in your heart? My feeling: THEY SHOULDN'T. I think social media has really skewed our ideas of friendships, relationships, and our feelings of self worth." Also contemplating what she sees as uncomfortable new complexities brought on by social media, Girl on the Contrary describes her love/hate relationship with social media and laments, "I long for a simpler time when it was easy to stop being someone's friend. You just ignored their calls and texts. Done. It was swell. But now, on top of ignoring their calls and texts, you have to unfollow or defriend them.” Some people simply shrug off being unfollowed. Says Glen, "I do not take it personally if someone chooses to not follow or like me on social media platforms." Likewise, says John Bolyard, "If someone unfollows me it just means they are looking for information not related to my tweets. Nothing personal." Very adult and reasonable attitudes. (Are they in denial?) Others are not so sanguine, however, and for those who see being unfollowed as an affront, how to deal with unfollowers is a charged issue. Eye-for-an-eye retaliation often is deemed an appropriate response. Among those who see it this way is Loralee Choate, who writes, "I have a policy…if you don't follow me, I don't follow you. Plain and simple." Scary Mommy Jill Smokler in her Twitter etiquette guide also takes a hard-line, tit-for-tat view on unfollowers: "Have you ever been followed by someone only to follow them back to be unfollowed? How rude is that? Two can play that game, so consider yourself dumped." Moving beyond feelings of inadequacy, shame, and retribution is another common theme. Under the guise of coming out of the unfollowed closet, Liz Strauss explores her feelings and ultimately looks to transcend them, writing that: “I don't 'get' all the reasons people have for why they follow and unfollow folks. I suspect that some are as irrational as the reasons we buy things, sell things, and marry the people we do. Contrary to urban legend I don't know anyone who's died of 'unfollow embarrassment.' " A very mature perspective. How about you? Been unfollowed? (Does a woodchuck chuck wood?) How do you feel about it?   |
| Facebook IPO: 6X Bigger Than Google’s! [INFOGRAPHIC] Posted: 13 Jan 2012 06:22 AM PST The comparisons to Google have been many and varied over the past year. Facebook is the newest online sensation, of course, so the tendency to measure it against Google is natural. What's interesting is that, despite the size, presence and reach of Google, Facebook is starting to appear bigger in many ways (disclosure: I think it's generally an illusion). If the rumors are true, Facebook's IPO will raise six times the capital Google's did: $10 bn versus $1.67 bn. It's $100 bn valuation would be larger than that of Disney ($61 bn) and Amazon ($88.3 bn), according to a ZDNet report. Do you want to get a sense of just how astounding the Facebook IPO is expected to be? Check out the infographic below, from Accounting Degree Online. Click here for FREE email alerts from Inside IPO >> Source: ZDNet Photo: Accounting Degree Online   |
| Social Media Case Studies in Loyalty and Acquisition Posted: 12 Jan 2012 03:30 PM PST Introduction Extole helps brands engage, interact and reach their goals by harnessing the full power of social media. Four brands from different verticals each had objectives which had to be reached with social media. By using Extole's Social Recommendation Platform (SRP) each brand was able to meet and exceed their expectations. The common factor with each brand was an existing customer database and the necessity to leverage the power of social media as a retention tool to identify and reward good customers. What is also seen is the affectivity of tapping into an existing user base in order to increase customer acquisition. Below are the results taken from the published case studies: The Brands
SendGrid With the objective of developing a word of mouth referral program which utilized both social media and their existing email sending technology, SendGrid turned to Extole. One huge factor was the ability to completely outsource the new referral technology aspect of the development, completely to Extole. This meant that internal development resources would not be diverted away from existing projects and would continue to be focused on their core product. The Program The program that was developed for SendGrid contained a simple offer for existing customers which could be shared socially. Additionally, it took Extole just weeks to complete the project. The offer was made to existing customers to share referral links. This meant that when any of their referred friends became new paying customers of SendGrid, they would receive $20 cash and the referred customer would also receive a 25% discount on their first three months of service. By giving the existing customer a gift and the new customer a discount, a "Captive Offer" had been created. A real, tangible bonus for both the referrer and the referee. The share could be made using email, Facebook or Twitter. Result SendGrid achieved a 111% return on investment after the first six months of running the newly implemented referral program. Based on the results to date, a 353% return on investment has been projected for the first year of the program. Summary It is very important for brands, especially brands that have access to internal development technology, to understand and realize their own limitations. Outsourcing to experts is often a difficult decision to make. In the short term it may seem like an expensive solution. However, in the long term it saves more money trying to undertake a task where no internal expertise is present. This was an acquisition strategy in which every new customer was referred by an existing customer. Therefore, not only were new customers successfully signed up, but existing customers felt good receiving a bonus to refer a service that they were already content with. Roku Roku specializes in streaming entertainment devices for television. With over one million units already sold, they wanted a way to tap into their existing and large user database. They turned to Extole to figure out the dynamics, logistics and the implementation needed to turn their existing customers into a source of acquisition and become 'word of mouth' brand ambassadors. The Program Extole built a solution for Roku that was completely brand customized to match Roku's look and feel. However, under the hood was a tried and tested solution that had already shown great success with other brands. Therefore, based on the existing Roku referral program, Roku was able to leverage the addition of Extole's SRM. Result Postive return on investment from the moment the program was launched. Referral based sales increased 30% and the number of monthly referrals is now around 10,000 per month. Summary This example shows that any existing effort can always be optimized to produce better results. Folica Folica, a well-known retailer of health and beauty products, noticed that they had many referrals to their website, but had no way of tracking and identifying these referrals. The importance of identifying the source meant that Folica could replicate whatever they appeared to be doing 'organically' and focus their effort to increase the number of referred users. The Program By engaging their customers and encouraging them to share the secrets of great hair, created buzz around the brand. Customers were able to share via Facebook, Twitter, email and personalized urls. Once again, there was reward for both the referrer and the referee. Each party would receive $10. Result After 30 days of running the new Social Referral Program 6,000 brand advocates were identified. The average number of shares per advocate was four. 21,000 shares had been generated via Facebook, Twitter and email and a 16% conversion rate was driven by the program. Summary Successful brands will be recommended by happy customers. But identifying these customers and rewarding them accordingly will encourage them to continue to recommend your brand. There is no better recommendation than 'word of mouth' recommendation. J. Hilburn Similar to Folica, J. Hilburn is a retail brand which was receiving many referrals from existing satisfied customers. An apparel brand for men, J. Hilburn wanted to identify their most valuable customers and reward them for their 'word of mouth' recommendations. They also wanted to learn about the social behavior of their customers. The Program By offering customers $50 for each friend referred and encouraging the advocates to share the offer using social media, identified and rewarded brand advocates. It also achieved the brand's goal of getting an insight into the social behavior of its customers. Any referred customer who spent over $100 received a $50 discount on their purchase. Once again, a two sided offer for the referrer and the referee. Result After 45 days of running the new program, 1,000 customers had made referrals. Averaging 12 shares per advocate, the referral program produced 10,000 social shares via Facebook, Twitter and email. The bottom line result was 600 transactions which created over $250,000 in sales. Overall Summary It is quite clear that commerce on Facebook has not yet blown up in quite the way predicted by Mark Zuckerberg. However, it is clear that social media is highly affective for retaining and rewarding an existing customer user base. In the bid to generate real sales within the Facebook environment, there is currently no leader in the field. However, by taking a step back and constantly analyzing the psychology of the social consumer, brands will begin to understand that more transactions will begin to occur within Facebook, but only as a result of a brand initiated action.   |
One of my most favorite stand-up comedians is Eddie Izzard. He is deliciously irreverent while also emanating a sense of real intelligence, which is a combination I am particularly fond of. In his perhaps most famous show, Dress to Kill, Izzard talks about the European melting pot. He notes that when the European Union came together, the British were rather…slow to take part. Part of the problem was that the British simply didn't want to learn everyone else's language. They didn't feel they should have to be able to speak French, German, Italian, and all other languages just to conduct business. Izzard quotes an imaginary British person saying, "There's no way a person can hold more than 2 languages in their head at a time!"
Have you heard about Facebook's latest update? Their 'Listen with' feature has already been popping up in many users' accounts and will be rolling out to the rest in the next few weeks.
Sentiment is a funny topic. Why is it so important and why do we rely on tools to tell us what it is and what it means? Why are we content to assign a positive or negative score to something, but resist the idea of understanding the ideas presented within the comments themselves?
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