Interesting, isn’t it?

Social media can be such a fantastic place – full of thoughtful, intelligent people.  Fun people. So thoughtful, fun and intelligent that its easy to imagine the whole world is cheering you on. Its easy to imagine that the social sphere or your blog are simply just an adult playground of cool people.  THEN it happens: SLAM BAM a snarky comment or worse, an outright attack. Suddenly, the social sphere doesn’t seem so warm and fuzzy.

I’ve been watching closely as over the last couple of weeks two incidents on different blogs have caused an outright fury in the blogosphere, dividing a typically supportive group (bloggers) on different sides of the fence. What’s interesting is in both cases, first by Gini Deitrich on her blog Spin Sucks and then by Neicole Crepeau on Danny Brown’s blog, both bloggers handled the fury with grace and elegance. I really admire them both. Watching the implosion over the last few weeks has really given me pause to think on a couple of different elements: 1) manners 2) leadership 3) stay’n classy.

So if you’re a blogger or any kind of social media participant, whether for a corporate space or for yourself, what can you learn from these two ladies?

First Rule of Fight Club is Not To Talk About Fight Club

First thing to understand about blogging and social media in general is that it is the ultimate in free speech, while we don’t like to talk about the downside of free speech, there are definitely a few. It isn’t worth giving up the benefits of free speech for the alternative and so it is with blogging and social media. We don’t spend a lot of time TALKING about it, but that’s because the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

But, one thing we’ve all got to understand is that once in a while people will disagree with us and we can not control the level of vitriol with which they do it. We can only control our own responses.

The second thing to understand is that criticism probably means more to you than the person who gave it, but if we take the critism and learn from it, then ultimately, we’re better writers, communicators and (most importantly) people.

Finally, when we go out on a limb, people are probably going to disagree with us and we’ve got to be OK with that fact.

Now with those understandings under our belts, what about those three things: 1) manners 2) leadership 3)stay’n classy.

Leadership: Much can be learned about leadership -  on both sides of the coin. You might be surprised to learn that those you thought were leaders aren’t really leaders at all…and that you may be a better leader than you thought.

• True leaders don’t resort to personal attacks. They don’t have to. Their ideas and actions speak for them, they don’t need to make anyone else seem smaller in an effort to seem bigger.
• True leaders find ways to support others, even when it doesn’t directly benefit them.
• True leaders can accept criticism, learn from it and get on with their day. Leaders can learn from it or decide its irrelevant, but they rarely let it keep them awake at night..UNLESS the opportunity presents itself to make them better professionals or people and then they REALLY go to town.
• True leaders stand tall. If you believe you were right – stick to it and agree to disagree. Don’t be bullied into submission just because the bully is someone who has a larger following, a book, or whatever.   It might be hard, but that blog post too shall pass.
• True leaders know: at the end of the day, there really is only one person you answer to, and that’s you.
• True leaders go out on a limb sometimes. They go cutting edge. They have opinions.
• True leaders accept the opinions of others with grace..even when the opinion differs from their own.

Manners: If your going to comment in social media or write a blog, go ahead and set some ground rules of engagement for yourself.

• If you believe you were wrong, say so and thank the person for making their point and opening your eyes.
• No name calling, OK? Just be a grown up…or at least a kindergartener, which is where I personally first learned not to call someone a mean or demeaning name.
• Say thanks to everyone – even those you disagree with.
• Have a sense of humor. Don’t take everything personally and learn that its OK to laugh at yourself.

Stay’n Classy: Sometimes, Mom was right. Just admit it.

• You don’t need to respond gun’s a’blazing. Even when someone attacks you personally, don’t be lulled into their game. You can defend your point in an intelligent way.
• Don’t over react.  As scary as it feels to be at the receiving end of a firestorm, take a deep breath before you respond.
• Its OK to moderate. When its your blog, its OK to ask people to calm down or explain that this blog has gone down a rabbit hole you never saw coming.
• Assume the best of people. Assume someone is having a bad day. Assume they didn’t mean it the way it sounded. Assume they didn’t know you’re feelings would be hurt.

I can’t even claim that this list is complete or even final. One thing that Neicole and Gini did so right was follow their inner guts. It isn’t always easy, but they did so with grace and elegance, I think they set the bar for dealing with blog firestorms. Kudos to you both!

So, have you ever had a comment or blog post blow up on you? What lessons did you learn and what would you do differently? Oh, and if you disagree with this post..go ahead and say so!

photo: creative commons by rob_moody

When your building content, you’ve got to remember not to be blinded by the demographics. Sort of.

To explain: last we I talked about how you shouldn’t be too blinded by demographics in social media, because, people like to talk to other people, not marketers.

What to Consider When Building Content

Guess what? The same is true of content. If you’re building content you should build it to attract the kind of people you want to do business with. I don’t mean the demographics of the audience, I mean the characteristics. Consider what inspires your ideal audience. What brings them into your world and shows that you can relate to them?  One of the readers of last week’s post, Gwen, made a salient point:  she wants to work with other women owned businesses, so she is supportive of women businesses in her sharing and tweeting. Not exclusively, but its definitely a focus.  But what Gwen does very, very well is communicate in a tone that’s likely to attract professional women, she is supportive, positive and warm in her tweets and engagements. Women are likely to be attracted to that type of communication so she naturally attracts more of the type of business she wants with that tone.

Dress for the customer you want

But again, it isn’t about demographics, its about attracting the type of business you want.  Communicate to your potential clients in the same way they communicate with their peers. Its the same philosophy of dressing for the job you want. Its one thing to know who your audience IS, its another thing to know who you want your audience to BE. Dress for the audience you want.  And that’s what we need to think about in our communication with our audience. If you aren’t sure what I mean by that, take a step back, start a listening campaign. Start watching what your ideal customers talk about, what they share and who they share it with. Start tracking your clicks on your posts – which of your posts created action? Which were reshared? You’ll learn a lot from your audience if you dig a little deeper.

When you create content, think about what your ideal customers would like to see and in what format they’d like to see it. By content, I don’t just mean blog posts, and Tweets and Facebook updates, I mean all content. Content can be expensive to make, so make it worth your while.  Consider companies who are creating inforgraphics. They know that infographics are easy to read quickly and easy to share: perfect for our attention-deficit social media community. But other companies create white papers, they are trying to attract decision-makers who have the time and budgets to dig into info deeper. Using video is extremely powerful, when you consider who will be viewing the content (I’m still not clear on who this Bollywood-Planned Parenthood video was trying to say and to whom), but a video that speaks to your audience in a way that they can relate? Powerful stuff. Me? I create blog posts that conversational in tone, occasionally take a risk and encourage some creative thought-I like people who can appreciate that tone, I work well with them.

And that’s really the point. When you stake your ground and create a strong voice, you may not attract everyone..but you will attract those people who you wish to attract and work with. At the end of the day, its more important to find the people who have the characteristics of people you work well with.

What are the characteristics of your ideal clients?

Photo Credit (Creative Commons) http://www.flickr.com/photos/uggboy/

So every once in a while…I think I have a fabulous idea for a blog post. I mean the kind of idea that wakes you up at night!  One that everyone will appreciate and want to discuss. Last week I had one and I wrote a post about it. That post last week was easily the least engaging post I’ve ever written earning me yet another badge of lessons learned. I mean, it was crickets. Nothing. We had a small amount of discussion on Twitter around the hashtag #sociallyspeaking, but even that was pretty weak.

Does this make that idea and that post a failure? Hardly. Nope. Not in my book.

Every single post is a learning lesson for me. And whether your blog is like mine or a corporate blog, you can learn from the experience of a blog post with no excitement. Excitement to me, by the way, is measured largely in conversation around the post. Regardless, you have to learn from the experience and move on. No matter what kind of marketing you do, you have to listen, engage, measure, repeat. In my case of course the only sound I heard was crickets, but that didn’t stop me from measuring and repeating and it lead me to THIS blog post to help you look at some of the things you can consider when you have a bomb of a blog post.

Know your audience: A failed blog post will likely tell you something about what your audience does and doesn’t want from you. Maybe they don’t care about a particular topic. Or maybe they don’t feel its up to them to write your blog post for you.  Maybe your audience expects solutions, not questions. Maybe they didn’t like the tone of the post or it just wasn’t human enough. Or maybe it wasn’t “you” enough…when you take a risk, you’re audience will tell you right away what they think..even if they don’t tell you what they think.

Timing: Let’s face it. Sometimes you post a blog on the exact wrong day. You know, like the day Google+ was announced (and they didn’t warn you). That wasn’t the case with my particular post, but you should consider where everyone’s attention might be before hitting “publish”.  Again, if you know your audience and you’re up to speed about what’s important to them, maybe you shift your editorial calendar on days you know they’ll be distracted. But it isn’t just about timing your post, its about timing the communication around the post. I’ve been experimenting with the timing on my tweets and Facebook and Google+ Profiles. I won’t say that I’ve got it down to a science, but I’ve definitely learned a few things about timing from you. Some days just work better than others.

Pictures: I like to use a picture with my blog post because I think it pulls people in. Sometimes though, I choose a picture that I think really sums it up and its so weird people read the article just to understand why I chose that photo. Sometimes I choose a picture that’s really..well…B-O-R-I-N-G. Pictures are meant to engage and they do a good job at it. Pick carefully and smartly…and really, stay away from power point slides and logos. Just say’n-lesson learned.

Too technical or too long: I’ve done it. I’ll admit it, written blog posts that were 1,000 words or more. And you know what you guys usually say to that? “Pass.” Let’s face it, you don’t have a ton of time to read blog posts throughout the day – and neither does YOUR audience. Stick to the KISS principle and your audience will appreciate: Keep It Simple Stupid.

The conversation took place elsewhere: Sometimes, instead of commenting on a blog post, people will choose to engage on another outpost, Facebook or Twitter for example. While this might disappoint those wishing to drive traffic to the blog or website, the truth is, you go where the conversation is happening and be glad there is one! The audiences on your Facebook, Twitter and G+ are different. They’ll react differently to different topics. Track what topics are hot on what platform and expand upon it in that platform. Use it as an opportunity to really engage the community who engages you – give them something they want to talk about in the place they want to talk about it.

In the end, its important to remember..if you don’t try something, you’ll never learn. And blogging is very forgiving. If you have a blog post that doesn’t generate comments, you move on to the next post. You live another day.

So, bloggers…do you agree with my lessons learned?

Creative Commons photo by Amaury Henderick

Let’s say you have a new product. It’s brilliance. Sheer brilliance. You begin to build and allow your imagination to take you to that World-Wide Cruise you’ve always dreamed of taking. What you have here will surely be the next big thing..people will talk about it more than they talk about the Ipad.

Before you start planning your vacation, start thinking about your marketing plan; specifically, your social media marketing plan. I know. Your idea rocks, you won’t need a plan. Its going viral, baby. And while it probably should, the cold hard truth is that even brilliant ideas sometimes need a bump that creates the energy that gets people talking.

Mashable just released a new list of the 5 successful social media campaigns. Here’s what they all have in common: a “thing”. But there is something else they all have in common, most of the campaigns supported their use of social media with other types of marketing. Which highlights the fact that best laid marketing plans are integrated. In some cases it was advertising, in some cases it was promotional partnerships.

While your budget may not enable you to make the next Mashable list, you can still learn some lessons from the leaders. One way to create a bump is to identify your “thing”. What makes you special? Why should people care?  Your “thing” is not a “Feature” its not a “Benefit” your “thing” creates an emotional reaction out of people that causes people to take action (share, buy, talk)?.  The “thing” is not your product.  The thing is about your “thing” is that it might not be about your product at all. Your “thing” might make your customers a star or let their true nature stand out. Your “thing” might infuriate, inspire, scare or amaze them. Your “thing” might make people laugh or cry. Whatever your “thing” is its designed to get people talking, which means its unique…which means you might have to take a risk.

In each of these 5 campaigns they all have something in common:

1. The “thing” touches on a human emotion and increases the likelihood for action (talking, sharing, etc.)
2. Content is King: each of these campaigns had ongoing content over a period of time, designed to keep the conversation going. Content varies from Tweets to videos to other media like songs.
3. Very often, the campaign is supported with advertising or events.
4. Empowerment: each of the campaigns maintained a conversational tone, which meant each and every tweet did not go through legal, communications and HR approval.

• Edge - So Irritating Campaign: What do random acts of kindness have to do with shaving gel? In the case of Edge shaving gel the “thing” is to be less irritating by providing random acts of kindness to people who use the hashtag #soirritating. This campaign’s social element is exclusively done through Twitter, but they also partnered with somecards, known for their snarky and sardonic e-cards to promote the idea. Getting people to engage and discuss shaving cream is a tough task, but Edge felt is was a success, they increased their followers and engagement.
• ToyStory3 – By fleshing out the persona’s of the various characters in ToyStory 3, Disney broadened its reach to many different types of people (adults). Their “thing” touched on childhood experiences of all people and created a universal appeal. One of the standout elements of this campaign is the collaborative nature of the campaign. Disney paired up with different partners to extend the reach and give the campaign extra legs. Like Disney, you might have a “thing” that someone else can benefit from, maybe its your own icon’s persona. Look for creative ways to engage other businesses by asking them “how could you benefit” and giving your partner an opportunity to have some skin in the game, increases your potential visibility.

• The Old Spice Guy: Over 50 million YouTube views say this “thing” was successful. And if you have any doubt, ask yourself “before the Old Spice Guy – when did I last talk about Old Spice?” But the thing that really got people talking ABOUT the Old Spice guy wasn’t just the videos and commercials, it was the fact that the thing Old Spice Guy answered people’s questions and had fun with the audience in the social sphere. Old Spice committed fully to the project and today, a year later, they still appear to be reaping the rewards. Even the parody’s of the “Old Spice Guy”, which admittedly had different objectives,  considered their response campaigns a success. The Old Spice campaign shows what you can do when you actually interact with your fans, followers and viewers and fully commit to a project.

• Internships.com: WOW. Talk about risk taking. Partnering with Charlie Sheen right on the heels of his very public melt down might take more courage than most businesses have. But, in terms of sheen sheer numbers, it worked. The “thing” here is the firestorm surrounding Charlie Sheen on social media. What’s interesting is that this is the one exclusively social media campaign. No other outside marketing support was created. Kudos for acting fast, not as many kudos for ignoring the obvious question: now what?
• Reunited Again: Barbie and Ken: Again, some interesting risk taking here: Barbie and Ken’s actual users are children unlikely to have social media accounts, but those who buy Barbie and Ken dolls just might. Mattel didn’t ask its audience to contribute, it just created the personas behind Barbie and Ken in a social media way. The “thing” here, much like ToyStory3 is nostalgia. Integrating with Match.com was brilliant – and probably a nice coup for Match.com But perhaps the most brilliant element of this campaign is that its ongoing, leaving Mattel open for future partnerships, including (love this) Foursquare integration.

• Ford & Doug: a “match” made in heaven: Perhaps the biggest reason this is even mentioned is because of its risk-taking nature. Ford made a sock named “Doug” its “thing”. Doug’s tweets don’t appear to have to go through the Ford marketing/PR approval process. Doug seems to say what he wants when he wants.  Doug has roughly 1500 followers, but Ford calls it a success. I think this is a great example of taking the long road of social media success and not making fans and followers the #1 metric.

Ok. Let’s say you’ve taken a deep breath, a little risk and identified your “thing”.

Giving birth to your “thing” isn’t enough, you’ve got to give it air. Much like a fire can’t spread without some oxygen, your “thing” won’t spread unless you give it the social oxygen it needs.

Once you’ve identified the “thing” that’s going to get people to take action, begin to consider how you can use this thing in advertising, PR and events. Imagine how your thing interactive?  Once you’ve answered these questions – begin implementing…and be prepared. To wait. Very few over night successes are truly overnight. Stay committed and be prepared to make slight changes to your plan based on its results.  Creating a social media “thing” is a lot like raising a child – you’ve got to give it a chance to live and grow and allow it to have a life of its own. Be patient and loving with your “thing”, nurture it. Give it time to return the love back to you!

Do you see any other similarities in these 5 social media marketing campaigns? Do you think any of them can apply to your business?

Having thousands of social media friends is fun, but honestly, doesn’t it get a little hard to keep track of it all?  Not only that, but let’s face it, there are some people, whether they be clients, friends or business associates with whom we are closer and may meet off-line. And then, there are those with whom we are developing a relationship. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could track your interactions with others whether it be real life, email or a social connection on Twitter?

Enter: Hashable. I’ve been using Hashable for about 6 weeks now. It was released in all its glory at 2011 SXSW. The idea behind Hashable is to allow you to track the depth of your interactions with others. This can be a particularly useful tool for small businesses and individual brands who are having lots of conversations in many different forums. Essentially the idea is that by using predefined hashtags within a tweet or email, you’ll be able to track the depth of relationships. The beauty lies in the fact that it isn’t limited to online engagements. Hashtags like  #coffeewith exist to enable users to give their off-line life authority in identifying the depth of a relationship. Also, if you’d like to track other types of engagement, you can easily add your own hashtags by cc’ing Hashable in email or a Tweet. Hashable suggests that using it can be basically be a CRM program for small businesses. I’m not sure I’d go THAT far yet, but it is a useful tool that shows even more promise.

How COULD small businesses be using Hashable? I see several opportunities:

Tracking Influencer Conversations: If you are working on creating a relationship with an influencer, using Hashable to track each of your engagements whether they be through email or Twitter is a great way to see the relationship develop.

Bloggers: I have a custom hashtag of #blogconvo for those who are actively commenting on my blog. Its a great way for me to track those who are consistently commenting on my blog and lets me see at a glance when its someone’s first time.

Events: Creating and urging those at an event to use a particular Hashtag (as we do now), but including Hashable on the tweet is a great way to see participants of an event. In fact, hopefully, it’ll be easier for events and brands to register Hashtags at Hashable so they can use Hashable in a larger, more scaleable way.

Community Managers: Much in the way that tracking influencer relationships is easy on Hashable, so it is for Community Managers to see their most active Twitter followers and those who engage.

Customer Service: Companies who use Twitter for customer service can go back and see their engagements over the last 30 days or so and touch base with those people again to create a feel good touch point.

Overall, I really dig Hashable. I think its smart and fun and insanely simple. But here’s my official “Likes” and “Mehs”

Like:

The overall concept: Its a great idea to track the depth of your relationships and see them at a glance.

Great interface and easy to use. Particularly if you are using a pre-identified hashtag, it couldn’t be easier to track your Twitter conversations.

Ability to track offline meetings: Yes! What can I say! Hopefully we all have vibrant off-line lives.

Inner Circle: The inner circle group is that group of people who you allow to see your interactions and also you see theirs, even when it has nothing to do with you. Great for identifying potential synergies.

Great Iphone App: To make it easier to use on-the-go the Iphone app roooocks! I also love that from the app you can send “send a business card” with someone you’ve #justmet

Meh:

Email integration only works with webmail: Not necessarily business friendly. Plus, I have to cc: hashable on my actual email if I am using a unique hashtag. Its one thing to cc: Hashable on a Tweet that is already public. Its quite another to cc: Hashable on an email. As I am not a techie, I don’t know the solution, but I don’t see myself doing this. Ever.

I don’t really “get” how to use it with Facebook: I’m not a huge fan of using hashtags on Facebook. I think its alienating to the Facebook audience who may or may not “get” hashtags. Plus, it doesn’t work with Facebook Pages, which is very important for businesses. Surely there is a Hashable Facebook app in development. Right?

Make it easier to register Hashtags: it would be great if you could register a Hashtag for public or private use. More public hashtags would eliminate the need to cc: @hashable on Twitter – which takes up valuable character space. And for brands and business, the ability to reserve a hashtag could be invaluable..and something even worth paying for?!

Sometime hard to remember to use in real life: I have so many apps I use when I am out and about, sometimes its hard to remember to do it when I am with someone. But Hashable lets you do it later, so they’ve got that covered.

So what do you think? Have you been using Hashable? Do you like it? Will you try it now?

More about Hashable:

Business Week Article April 29, 2011

Mashable Topic: Hashable

Photo Credit: Creative Commons Crazytales562

Remember when LinkedIn started “Recommendations”? Recommendations had and have powerful implications. In fact, rather than check a person’s references, many recruiters just review recommendations as a PRE-QUALIFIER for potential jobs. One reason Recommendations on LinkedIn hold some influence is that its often easy to see the source of a recommendation particularly if the two people concerned shared a common employer, which gives context and weight to a recommendation. This works especially well for those looking for a job and recruiters. For independent consultants, or small business LinkedIn is still useful, but in different ways.

But “Recommendations” can be challenging. I clearly remember the first time that I was asked to give someone a “Recommendation” for whom I wasn’t comfortable giving one. It was awkward and difficult, not only because I liked the person, but I didn’t feel as though I could write a professional recommendation for a variety of reasons. But even that many years ago before Twitter, I was aware of the “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” nature of social media. However, I had to draw the line and I felt like I’d be doing a disservice to others I’d written recommendations for if I wrote one that wasn’t completely honest. None the less, it was an uncomfortable situation.

Move forward to today: If we’re using social media to its fullest potential, we can create and sustain engaged and relevant relationships online. To have relationships, it usually helps to have manners.  For example, I’ve written  that I am proponent of following those who follow you on Twitter.  I really see very little reason NOT TO.  I don’t necessarily feel that way about Facebook, although I’ve been pretty liberal in my own case.  But I know people who just aren’t comfortable blending the professional and the personal and that’s OK  too. But I’ve written many, many posts here about the “manners” of social media, I usually say that “everything you need to know about social media you learned in Kindergarten.” I stand by those posts and the fact that we can all benefit by raising the bar on social media manners. But it IS a fine line between manners and “social media climbing” and let me be clear: I believe that if you don’t feel comfortable writing an endorsement/recommendation for someone, you shouldn’t. If you don’t feel like following a particular person for whatever reason, that too remains your right. However, there is an undeniable culture of “backscratching” on social media platforms.

But the recent emergence of “endorsement” type sites including Namesake and Connect.me, I’ve become challenged and conflicted.  I’ve been participating in these sites quite a bit over the last couple of weeks. I’ve given and received a variety of endorsements. Most of my endorsements have been from those who either have worked with me or can at least speak to my reputation; and I’ve returned the favor for those for whom I can say the same. In other words, the endorsements have been genuine. Yet, I have this sinking feeling that as these sites grow, there will be an inevitable flow of “social media climbers”. When this happens  “Endorsements” will be more about how many a person has versus the quality of said endorsements or even who gave the endorsements.  Interestingly, in this interview last fall, the founders of Namesake say they want to become the Linked in for the “Self Employed”  presumably to help the self employed connect with one another and to give further credibility to self employed people who may or may not use LinkedIn (because they aren’t searching for a “job”). This would suggest that endorsements would become an integral (and protected) part of the network.  They also said that they want to “build out the expertise graph” as opposed to the social graph. There is definitely room for this model, in fact, I personally dig it.  But Namesake’s recent blog post on the topic about differentiations of Namesake vs. other social platforms (Quora, LinkedIn, Twitter) says essentially that their purpose is to create topic based conversations in real time, with those you may or may not know. This is slightly different from being the “LinkedIn of the Self Employed” So, have they changed direction or lost focus? I don’t know. Right now, according to the participants in a Namesake conversation I started on this topic, there are a number of values to endorsements, including being able to search in a particular topic and “weight” a person’s opinion on a subject based on their expertise. But won’t it be fun to search on conversations when certain topics become over run with “experts”, not to mention the fact that the categories are filled with misspelling and duplicates. And to what of the quality vs. quantity of endorsements?

From a professional branding standpoint, if this is to be a site that helps small business owners connect with one another, and help potential clients evaluate potential vendors, then how do we VALUE the endorsements others have? How do we sift through the endorsements people received as a “back scratch” as opposed to the genuine endorsements by those who know?  Users on Namesake are just starting to address this challenge.  I agree with the sentiment that there should be weighting involved in valuation of endorsements on a site like Namesake, but I’m thinking the weighting should be tied to some kind of social graph that (attempts) to verify the strength of the relationship.  Particularly as the site grows and there is an inherent threat to the quality of endorsements. But Namesake is a (relatively) new website, so if technology and social media have taught us anything, its only a matter of (short) time before it changes and/or evolves.

Connect.me is actually still in beta, so we don’t fully know how they plan to utilize or empower their users with the endorsements that they are actively and currently giving.  To date, they haven’t been exactly transparent about their business model or intentions to either the media or those who have signed up. Their blog is geared toward the technical side of their business, rather than engaging potential users and community. They aren’t really off and running on the transparency or social side of things in my book. However, what I do like about Connect.me is that endorsers can choose their OWN descriptions of a person and they can include professional and personal attributes, so if you don’t know a person’s work authority, but you DO think they have particular individual characteristics (generosity, responsibility, etc.)  you can say that as opposed to being forced to endorse someone on a category you may or may not feel comfortable endorsing. Again, however, its a very open concept and how we will address the “back scratching” urge to create value in the endorsements? We have yet to see.

For me,  it comes down to this: for these sites and others like them that are sure to follow,  either the site communities or the sites themselves will have to develop ways to create or maintain value for endorsements. Because collecting endorsements just for the sake of having endorsements is as valuable as collecting Twitter followers for the sake of increasing your numbers. Ultimately, these actions devalue the potential and power of the idea behind the very idea of influence. Endorsement sites are ultimately another way to help social media users navigate the waters by identifying influencers; they work differently than Klout and Peer Index, and thus provide different types of information. Ultimately, having several different resources to identify influencers is good for the socially networked world, so long as there is value in the endorsements.

Do you agree with my concerns about these sites? Are the endorsements valuable for you to receive, give or in helping you navigate the particular site offering endorsements?

(Picture Credit : Maria Reyes-McDavis)

So you want to start a blog? Or someone said you should so your considering it. Blogs for business are an outstanding tool for business, they can build community, be the backbone of your social media program, and drive traffic to your website, just for starters. But where do you start? Well, its an often overlooked question. Its so easy to think that because their are millions of blogs (and if you check out Technorati you’ll see that I am write right.) While we’re on the topic of Technorati, before you start following any of my 5 handy suggestions, you should check out Technorati and see what others are writing on the topics you plan to cover. You’ll probably get both inspiration and that sick feeling in your stomach that there is a lot of junk out there. Welcome to blogging, the place where you try to suck less.

But the business of blogging is just that, a business. You want to give careful consideration to your goals and efforts. Here are 5 tips for businesses thinking of blogging.

1. Define your goal.

There I said it. I know, so many of you hate me for always hounding on this, but if you don’t set your goal, how will you know if its working?  Blogging is at once a task master and a generous soul, so tap into the generous part before you get to know the task master. Determine what the benefits to blogging will be. Are you trying to create community? Are you hoping to help along your SEO efforts? Define it. Then live it. Then measure it.You can use Google Analytics, PostRank or even (GASP!) your own set of metrics. By the way, “sucking less” is not a measurable metric, get your own.   As the famous Greek philosopher, Nike once said, “Just Do It”.

2. Why should your customers care?

Don’t make me gag by posting press release after press release on your blog. NOW HEAR THIS: No one wants to read your overly edited, specifically written to attract media attention, 1 page maximum dribble. Press releases are for journalists, blogs are for people.  What people expect from a blog is the ability to get to know the insides of a company, to hear a single voice, to get information or insight that they wouldn’t normally get. Give them what they want: Education. Entertainment. Exclusive Insight. Speaking of sucking less, don’t be afraid to take some risks and suck a little. Step out on a limb and you’ll be surprised what you learn. Seriously, the blogosphere is different, you are allowed and even encouraged to experiment and be creative. Just like when you were in Kindergarten.  And, remember, ASK YOUR CUSTOMERS for their insight and participation, people like feeling part of the process. It may take time, but you must continue to invite others to be part of your blog.

3. Commit.

If your going to blog, make a commitment to it, in the best of circumstances, you’ll have an audience and they will miss your blog posts when you skip them. Be disciplined: develop an editorial calendar, leave room for newsy items that your company should be commenting on. Blog regularly 1-3X minimum per week. This is the blogger as task-master part. If you can’t think of what to blog about, get inspiration from the news, industry occurrences, message boards and other communities where your customers are hanging out. Let your talented employees be your bloggers – ask for volunteers to start. Think beyond the marketing team. If your going to be blogging 1-3X or more a week, you have room for a monthly CEO post, a weekly janitor’s post and an interns ramblings. Have fun with it and so will your customers.

4. Speaking of Writers..What IS your company’s voice?

Different writers can have different voices, that’s a fact, but there should be a thread of similarity in them all. Your voice is your tone, your goal, your corporate idiosyncrasies and more all wrapped into one. Spend some time developing your voice and allow your voice to develop.  All your writers so know what their goals are before they start and they should all be writing consistently with that goal. Maybe the janitor regularly posts his great ideas  – and asks readers to vote on them. Maybe the intern gives the inside scoop on how new products make it to the customer.

5. Make each post remarkable and SEO friendly.

Give some thought to each post, don’t just whip one up the night before. Write it. Edit it. Be ruthless. The more time you give yourself to write and edit the better the post will be. Remarkable content isn’t easy to produce and don’t expect every brilliant blog post to go viral, but just because it doesn’t go viral doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be brilliant  And remember, you can (and SHOULD use key words in your blog post) but don’t be a tool and write a blog post for Google, write it for your audience, use real language. Be Akamai about your key words. If your following #3, then you’re probably using your key words regularly enough anyway. I’ve heard stories of companies that stopped thinking of themselves as a “(insert industry here) company” and begun to think of themselves as a content generation company.

Bonus Tip: Use your words and your pictures.

Don’t shy away from pictures or video or even vlogging. Audiences have no shortage of media to consume, pictures and video help tell the story. Plus, let’s face it, it adds character…you know, the character that’s part of your voice (mentioned in #4). And be smart about using pictures, don’t forget to name them appropriately..and with key words. Photos especially are great SEO tools…so allow your photos to be your Google’s Marilyn Monroe, while your writing is the classy Jackie O. Got it? Good.

SO Mr/Ms/Mrs Reader , quit lurking and tell me: What would you add to my list of 5? What have you learned from blogging?

Once upon a time, there was a business named Alice. Alice had lots of marketing avenues to explore, and one day, while Alice was pondering her next marketing move, she saw a White Rabbit. The White Rabbit was talking to her, but much of it was non-nonsensical, Alice was intrigued, so she began to follow the talking White Rabbit, until she found herself falling into an endless, cavernous rabbit hole, when she finally stopped falling, she found herself in another world.Wonderland, also known as Social Media.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about how social media compares to Alice in Wonderland. If you’re up for a journey – join me on the exploration of Alice, the business, in the Wonderland of Social Media and what we can learn from Alice’s experience.

The elusive White Rabbit..telling you EXACTLY what he thinks.

The White Rabbit:

In our story, the White Rabbit is the elusive and often confusing customer; yet the White Rabbit is the key to much of our story. Alice followed the White Rabbit into the rabbit hole without knowing where she would land or whether the White Rabbit wanted her there.Further, she wasn’t even sure it was a rabbit!

The Moral of the Story:

Before you follow the White Rabbit, talk with him some more. Yes, your customers are PROBABLY using social media platforms everyday, but before you follow them into the rabbit hole, find out which platforms they are using and how.  Determine who you’ll be talking to in social media; current customers, potential customers, people who don’t know you? Once you know WHO, then you can decide HOW (platform) and WHY (content) you’ll be conversing with them. Be prepared to test the market, and don’t be afraid to fail. Even when you fail, you’ll learn something: just like Alice in Wonderland.

Be Prepared to LISTEN to the White Rabbit: The White Rabbit isn’t all jibberish, in fact, if you listen closely and ask some questions, your White Rabbit customer will tell you exactly what they think and feel. Unlike the White Rabbit, your customers are NEVER late, in fact, they are right on time. While the White Rabbit can sometimes be perceived as rude, this is often because he feels threatened. If your customers are rude to you in the social sphere, as why.

Would you eat or drink these?

Eat Me/Drink Me:

Alice finds herself in a room. There is a cake that implores her “EAT ME” and a small bottle that instructs her to “DRINK ME”. Alice does both. When she eats the cake, she grows so huge that her head hits the ceiling. When she drinks the elixir in the bottle, she grows too small.

The Morals of the Story:

Be prepared for unintended results and stay flexible and dynamic within your social media program.  EAT ME and DRINK ME have similar if opposite effects (that Lewis Carroll guy was a wiley one), much like the cake and the elixir (hence forth known as the kool aid). In Alice in Wonderland, Alice learns the effects of shrinking and growing over and over, its a regular ground-hog day experience. Instead of rushing into it, learn to embrace measured, strategic social media maturity rather than explosive growth.

Tactics vs. Strategy: Simply following directions (EAT ME/DRINK ME) means you are employing tactics in Wonderland (Social Media), but you haven’t mapped out your plan. Strategies are created with tactical ingredients. Don’t drink the kool aid until you know the ingredients – got it?

The EAT ME Conundrum: Occasionally, a company who is jumping into social media will get lucky and land in the viral vortex. Viral is good. But without a strategy, there’s no second chapter and you won’t be prepared to capitalize on the opportunities of getting lucky right off the bat. Getting too big before your ready is in many ways worse than starting small.

The DRINK ME Reality:  More often than not though, businesses feel frustrated by how small they feel when they drink the social media kool-aid and aren’t flooded with fans and followers. Building up your social media presence will almost definitely take time. Allow yourself time to grow.

"We're ALL mad here"..indeed.

The Cheshire Cat:

Truly a character this one. All smiles and teeth and gums with no body to show for it..until he wants you to see him, yet he seems practically omniscient.

The Moral of the Story: The Cheshire Cat is like a social media program without human characteristics, except a cheesy smile. Who can trust that crazy cat? That’s how PEOPLE view MARKETERS. Let your community see the whole Alice, even with your idiosyncrasies (how DO you keep your hair perfect on this grand adventure?). Tell your story. As your community learns to trust YOU, they’ll see that you’re real and no Cheshire Cat, this will make relationships easier to develop. Real is better. The real real, not the real you’re used to polishing, brushing and over airbrushing…leave that “real” in the advertising world where it belongs.

The Mad Hatter Tea Party:

Alice stumbles upon a tea party hosted by the Mad Hatter and a range of other curious characters. All of the characters are very sure of themselves and quiz Alice with nonsensical riddles. Alice gets frustrated and leaves, saying it was the stupidest tea part she’d ever attended.

The Moral of the Story:

The Tea Party Culture

The Tea Party Culture: No, I am not talking about the political movement – I am talking about the distinctive styles with which social media uses communicate; this can be abbreviations, shortened links or simply expectations. The social media sphere is a culture onto its own, with mores and expectations, moreover, each platforms users have unique expectations and communication styles. These communication styles make perfect sense to the users, but if you’re new to the social media sphere, it can seem baffling and create the very frustration Alice experienced. Before stomping off from the “stupidest tea party ever”, be sure to ask yourself if you are making the most of the communities in which are participating; for that matter, ask yourself what you are CONTRIBUTING that is of value.

The Mad Hatter: This guy has a tea party all day, every day because its perpetually tea time in his non-time world. Confused? Yep. But the Mad Hatter is sort of like lots of so-called social media experts who are experts because it is the thing to be. These same people were mortgage brokers 8 years ago. Ask your social media consultant to speaker YOUR language and help you interpret the social media’s language. And, ask your social media expert to be a professional, not just the one wearing the biggest hat.

I'll take the heads off EVERYONE in Wonderland

The Queen of Hearts:

The Queen of Hearts likes croquet, but only played her way: with hedge hogs and flamingos.Quick to solve problems through her favorite order: “Off with their heads!”

The Moral of the Story:

Slow to change and stuck in her ways, the Queen of Hearts represents those who are unwilling or unable to rule Wonderland without screaming “off with their heads!”. When social media platforms or communities don’t behave the way marketers expect or want, its easy to call it quits. Instead, this should represent Alice’s opportunity to consider her presence in Wonderland and the curious White Rabbits that she’s reaching.  Ironically, the Queen of Hearts has a hard time actually executing the Cheshire Cat because she can’t find the body, only the head. Alot of marketing is this way – its hard to make heads or tails of it – but social media is a continuum and if your real and strategic, you’ll be able to find both the head AND the tail.

Sometimes the Queen of Hearts is an angry customer, taking out their frustrations in the social media sphere. When the Queen is venting, sometimes you have to address it, sometimes you don’t. But what ever you choose, remember, the Queen isn’t likely to stop screaming unless you give her a head, or at least a nod.

So – what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with this comparison?

Fine-tune Karma for businesses: one of my key phrases about successful social media is “Everything you need to know about social media you learned in Kindergarten”, and what I really talking about is using social media in a way that means you help others. While you see many personal brands doing this, few corporate accounts are really doing this. For example, you often see corporate accounts/brands with thousands of followers, who follow only a few people. Some view this as a status symbol – I view it as a missed opportunity and also poor Karma. First of all, listening is more than just watching for key words, if you really want to get to know your customers or clients, listen to what they are talking about when they AREN’T talking about your brand. Its the most amazing corporate research a company can do – and yet, so few embrace this idea. But its more than that – if the only thing you deliver through your corporate social networking accounts are discounts and promos, are those people really your brand advocates or are they opportunists? This year, in 2011, I vow to really hammer home delivering value to followers in social media…even when its (gasp) altruistic of the company to do so.

Beyond Follower Numbers: I have to credit another blogger, David Armano for really making me think about this. Focusing on helping others build social media programs that have serious growth potential is going to be my goal for my customers in 2011. I want to help them find ways to create campaigns and programs that put the power back to the people – their customers – and give the customers the voice they crave while at the same time allowing them to build on their personal interaction in social media. Building more programs that are scalable only makes sense and takes social media to the next level; that’s where I want my customers to be in 2011: growing.

Tell the story better: I started getting into social media because I love the stories of people, of companies, of the collective “us”. I write stories on my “other” blog, but this year, I vow to bring my passion for writing stories to this blog and the other projects that I work on.  In some cases this year, with a focus on delivering ROI, I admit, I sometimes lost the story. No more. I vow to develop the story of a company from day one, I vow to demand that my clients participate in the conversation and vow that the story we tell will be interesting and exciting…even if my client is selling trash bags.

Write more: Part of my commitment to this blog to “share what I know”. Over the last year, several people have told me that after reading my blog, they have been inspired to start a social media program. Talk about satisfying. That’s why I write this blog. My sometimes, I don’t write as often as I like, I try to write at least 1X a week and its usually closer to 3X a month, so next year, my goal will be to follow my own advice and create a more structured editorial calendar to write 2X a week with the goal of getting twice as many into social media.

Social media is the farm, not the silo: if you read this blog regularly, you’ve heard this mantra too – but STILL, lots of companies aren’t integrating social media the way that they could with their PR and marketing, customer service and sales. As part of the “scalable” program, I’m going to really develop programs with my clients that help them integrate the power of social media into all their divisions, regardless of their objectives. Who wants to help me create an infographic on this?

Show more personality in social media:  I envy those who grew up in social media and think nothing of sharing their deepest darkest thoughts in the social media sphere. I guess I am still a little old-school and I typically present a “face” that is purely professional, even in social media. But, that doesn’t show much personality, and you know what I’ve got in spades? Yep, you guessed, it personality. I’ve even been called “a piece of work” and I’m proud of it. I don’t share enough of my personality in social media – that’s going to stop. You’ll start to see more of “me” – don’t be afraid, it won’t hurt – in my social media conversations.

What are your social media resolutions for 2011? Even if its something basic – tell me what it is! And then, lets stay in touch over the year and see how we’re doing.

More and more people are jumping into social media. As a practitioner and social media advocate, I think its great. The more people in social media,the better it becomes. Sort of. I mean, we’re now to the point where social media users are being inundated by the mundane.

The challenge for most businesses though is what to Tweet, Facebook, LinkedIn? Depending on your business it could be advice, business news or promotions. It might even be all three. Regardless of who your audience is, you must always remember to create value for your audience.

The important thing to remember is to take the time to identify who you are speaking to and develop your brand “voice”. Your social media strategy can include things like YouTube and Blogs which will invite interaction with your clients, but they should still be relevant and worth watching. More than one company has created a commercial and tossed it up on YouTube then wondered why it didn’t go viral.  Remember, its not social if no one’s reading or watching. To get readers and viewers, you have to capture their attention and make it useful. And if you want it to go viral, well, you’ll need to do more than make it relevant, you need edgy, funny, insightful..you get the picture.

When your getting ready to develop a social media campaign or begin a blog, ask yourself: “would I read this?” If the answer is no, its time to reconsider or retool. This includes your Facebook, Twitter, Blog, LinkedIn, any tool your using as part of your social campaign.

Here’s what I recommend you do before you get started with your campaign:

1) Before starting a social media campaign, create an editorial calendar for at least 3 months. Not only will doing this help you define your topics, audience and frequency of writing, tweeting, etc. It will save you time and allow you to “work ahead” so you aren’t writing blog posts at the last minute, trying to come up with a topic. It also forces you to be strategic about your conversations.

2) Use Google Alerts to find topics to write about, tweet about, begin discussions about that are relevant to your audience. As far as I am concerned, Google Alerts is one of the most undervalued free tools out there. You can search the internet and blogs for whatever you’d like (my guess is that social will be there soon too) for keywords or phrases. By the way, you should also set this up for your company to see what people are saying about it.

3) Find a “voice” that suits your brand. Then find someone who can implement the voice. Give it some personality and interest. Your voice doesn’t have to be one person, it just has to be consistent. Will your position be one of a resource? An industry leader?  Will you be doing customer service on your social media tools? Regardless of your voice, remember to “always be human” that means letting your social media be transparent and giving it some personality.

4) Make it engaging: Whenever you write, be sure to include your audience. Ask them for their opinions, their ideas, their thoughts. When they DO comment, be sure to respond. Incorporate “social media” karma, when someone refers to your page, your tweet or anything else, be sure to engage them and thank them.

Please share, what do YOU do to keep your content engaging and relevant to your readers, viewers, followers or fans?