Social media professionals are a fascinating bunch. Sit with them and you’ll realize that there are at least 4-5 different disciplines represented. In my immediate circle, there are those with PR, Marketing, Tech and Software backgrounds, Web and SEO, wait, I’m not done..Journalism, Digital design, and I even know someone with a scientific background. Phew! That’s an awful lot of talent wrapped up into one type of marketing. Why are there so many distinct backgrounds in social media? Because social media is new (Twitter is only 5 years old!), meaning professionals have migrated from different backgrounds. But it isn’t just that – social media combination of skills (marketing, PR, web, technical) and philosophies which merge together to create the social media field.

That’s why no one “owns” social media

The awesome thing for me about having this diverse group of people around me is that they each bring a different insight to a challenge or a campaign. The tech guy is going to help me understand whether my dream of actually having

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someone live inside the computer can come true, while my web guy is up to date on all things SEO and programming, my science friend is going to remind me that before I do much else a process should be in place. My PR friends will strive to find ways to connect or create community and journalism friends are going to remind me about the need for great content and the digital design camp is going to say it won’t mean anything if it isn’t attractive to the eye. As for me, as a marketing professional, I bring the creative juice and the desire to track and measure the results. Several of us bring a multidisciplinary approach including agency or entrepreneurial elements, both of which are valuable insights.   If you could wrap us all up together you’d have the ideal social media professional. But “that person” doesn’t exist…even in the most brilliant of us. But there IS brilliance in each of us.

Its takes a village

Raising a successful social media campaign takes more than one person. And, it takes more than the social media professional, it takes commitment from the client as well. As soon as you start discussing social media within any organization, you realize that it will have significant touch points into other areas of your business besides marketing: it will involve Customer Service, PR, Marketing, your “Web Guy”. So it is with social media, its unlikely that any single person can do an entire campaign soup-to-nuts alone. And there’s no shame in asking for help, support and or assistance. As social media professionals we can support one another in a way that makes everything we do better. Collaboration is a sign of strength, not weakness and we can make each other and our clients even more successful. In fact, social media in itself IS collaboration.

So when you find your chief:

Despite that wide range of professional backgrounds, social media professionals tend to be very collaborative. We reach out to one another for advice and assistance. We pay one another for formal or informal brainstorming sessions. We watch, we listen, we read from one another. When you hire a social media professional, ask them: “what areas of social media do you collaborate with others on?” that will help you understand their strengths. You should be more concerned when the person you talk to says they do it all themselves. For a true social media campaign or launch, several skill sets WILL be required.  I have yet to meet a single person who can do it ALL on their own, in fact, the more I see collaboration, the more successful I see campaigns.

What do you think? If your a social media pro, do you collaborate much? If you are on the client side, how receptive are you to having your social media pro bring in others to support your campaign?

What’s needed for a successful social media campaign? That’s sort of like asking what it takes to create a success business. The truth is a successful social media endeavor requires hard work, time, commitment and a dash of good luck. But if your business is considering getting serious about social media with a social media professional, there are some things that you should know. The first of which is that no matter how fantastic your social media professional is, you’ll still be pivotal to the success of the campaign.  Here are 5 ways you can support the success of your social media campaign and your investment with a social media professional.

1) From the outset, determine if you have the man power for social media: social media is dynamic and fast paced. Communicating with your clients in this forum will require a willingness to be there when your clients are there too. If you decide to outsource your social media communication, you’ll still need manpower and here’s why: there will be times when a potential sale or compliment or complaint comes in through a social media outlet and having a process flow that is fast and internal is absolutely necessary. You’ll probably quickly get to the point where content creation becomes a topic. Who will create the content? Even if you outsource your content to a PR or video firm, you’ll still need to be involved with the topics and subjects.  The people in YOUR company understand the needs and views of your customers better than anyone else, why wouldn’t you want them to be involved.

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2) Open up: The more you empower your social media campaign, the more successful it will be. Open up to new ideas. If each new idea or suggestion is met with a “we can’t do that”, then not only are you tying the hands of your social media professional, you’re limiting your own success.  Make sure your executive team is on board and enthusiastic. Find an internal champion who wants to see a social campaign succeed.  Be ready to share some of the nitty gritty of your company’s inner workings with a social media professional and allow them to help you through the process. Whenever I hear “we tried hiring a social media consultant, but it just didn’t work” I often ask “why?” Because while social media consultants are not all equally successful, some clients aren’t either. Some come to the table ready and willing to create magic, some come with a skepticism that limits the possibility of success from the outset.

3) Tracking Sales: If you are looking to track your sales directly from social media, be ready to invest in some additional tools. Google Analytics is a good start, but it won’t be enough. If you utilize non-digital forms of marketing, then let your social media pro in on the details. Let them understand your marketing cycle so they can support your over all goal, not just the goal of social media.  There are tracking tools which will help you identify multiple digital touch points such as email and web and social. But if you really want to dig deep, you’ll want to integrate your CRM with social media. If you don’t have a CRM, then tracking that insight will be considerably harder and more time consuming, you’ll have to rely on causation rather than direct attribution. No social media professional can make you invest in these tools, but if you wish to skip them, then it isn’t the fault of your social media professional.

4) Be ready to integrate: You’ll quickly find that elements of social media include touch points including marketing, sales, PR, customer relations and more. Social media shouldn’t be treated as a silo, I always say, social media is the farm, not the silo. I say that because its the fertile ground where the sun, the rain, the tender care all take place to create magnificent fruit. But without all the elements together, the fruit isn’t as magnificent.  Make sure you’re willing and able to have those touch points involved in the discussion. An audit will quickly reveal the areas in which you can have an impact, but at the very least, its likely to include some changes to your website, integration with your email list,  some communication with your executive team and support from everyone involved.

5) “What Have You Done for Me Lately”: Social media isn’t really a sales tool, its a marketing tool. Social media helps you create a stronger emotional connection with your customers, but few customers place orders through social media (subject to change?) The effects of social media are likely to be exponential, but perhaps not immediate and potentially difficult to track (depending on your choices of tracking). Give your customers some time to start communicating with you on social media..and give them a reason to communicate with you. You’ll find that things come into play together, over time.

6) Be Flexible, Be Human: What worked for your competitor may or may not work for you. You might find that something that has worked in the past isn’t working now. Be prepared to try something new, in fact, always be thinking of what’s next. Social media is dynamic and so are social media users. They expect you to be interesting, inventive and informative. If you aren’t one of the three “I’s” on social media, then its time to think about how you can be. And don’t forget, at its heart, social media is about communication. Be human, let your customers be human. They’ll think more highly of you and that will pay dividends for years to come!

As if Twitter and Facebook don’t have businesses and users scrambling to keep up, a new type of site is cropping up that engages audiences through Question and Answer format. Naturally, each has a unique twist to it, but if you are a business, what should you be doing with these sites? For most of the sites I’m going to talk about (except LinkedIn), there really isn’t a ton of critical mass, BUT, and this “but” is bigger than my own “butt” businesses should pay attention to these sites. Here’s why:

These sites engender honest, uninterrupted conversation. And the conversation can be shared, easily tracked and followed. People can search for questions or conversations on a particular topic.  Plus, in the case of Quora and Namesake you can tell a lot about the person whose opinion you are reading without having to do a lot of homework. Call me lazy. Go ahead. But I appreciate a little “at a glance” info. Each site in its own way is attempting to create credibility for the author/writer, in particular areas. At some point, I’m sure that PeerIndex will be utilizing Namesake as they are Quora right now, to get a feel for the “human” aspect of a digital personality, including area’s of expertise and influence. If Namesake gets some media love and some critical mass, it has a role to play in the influence market as well.  Right now, neither site seems to be influencing SEO all that heavily, but if you know SEO better than me (and I only know enough to be dangerous), then please feel free to weigh in on my claim. Regardless, if these sites do get critical mass, I’d be surprised if they don’t jump into the SEO game more heavily.

Also, if your product is at ALL geared towards early adopters, techies or social media users, its time to jump on the bandwagon and watch these sites develop. The folks on them now are still early adopters and in the case of Quora, which was all the rage in Silicon Valley before the masses got their hands on it, there are some interesting and (offline and online) influential people using it already. Finally, like all sites, its nice to have an audience when you need or want one, so develop connections on these sites now. Sure, its dynamic, sure, it changes, but its good to have a presence before you need one.

I thought it would be worthy to address some of the opportunities I see for these sites as they relate to business.

Quora:

A brand search on Quora.

A media darling a couple of months back, Quora is at its most basic, a question and answer site. But as with many social tools, its much more sophisticated than “just” a question and answer site. One of the primary differences in Quora is that well written, thought-out (read: longer) answers are appreciated and encouraged by the audience. The culture tends to be more formal, think: boardroom not bar. Sloppy ideas and concepts only the reputation and “being human” isn’t about being a jacka**. This also isn’t really a “follow me I’ll follow you” culture. Find those whose opinions you really value and follow them.

Quora also has social integration: Twitter, Facebook and the ability to share questions and answers through those portals. If you blog using WordPress or Tumblr, you can also post questions and answers to your blog. Potentially interesting, if your asking questions that are of interest to the blog audience. Its worth noting that the Quora audience may be veeeery different from your blog audience.

As I mentioned, early on, Silicon Valley peeps embraced the site and at that time, the conversations could become quite philosophical and technical. That isn’t AS true about the site even since I started using it last fall sometime. But that doesn’t make it less relevant for a couple of purposes:

Product Development: If you have an idea in your head and you’d like to bounce it off some smart folks, this might be a good place to do it. The feedback is likely to be more critical and analytical and less the “great job” type, so put on your big boy pants and get ready for constructive criticism.There are some VC participants on Quora..if your idea is smart, you come off as credible and you get a little lucky, you might even find yourself with more than an idea: funding.

Research: From getting different perspectives on trends and tools to doing a little competitive analysis, Quora is a gold mine. I use it to spur my creative juices for blog post ideas. Usually after scanning some questions, I’ll have developed a topic worth writing about. If your company has a blog, this is a great tool. Also, questions are open to everyone so it won’t be just your followers answering. Also, you can ask Questions and tweet  your question or put it on Facebook. If your audience digs Quora, they’ll dig that.

Listening: Do a search on your company and key topics or key words, here regularly. It will be interesting to see the discussions that are occurring. If there are discussions about your Brand, Quora isn’t QUITE like Twitter where the users expect to hear back from a brand, but if you do decide to respond, do so point by point with your smartest answers and by the way: be transparent. This audience will sniff it out if you aren’t transparent and the conversation will die. What’s the point in being the conversation killer? Better to create some discussion than to alienate an audience.

Create Conversation: In Quora, if a topic hasn’t been created about your company or brand, its a good idea to start one before someone else does. In an open, user-based site like Quora, users can edit your business description. But if you give a factual, non-salesy description, users are less likely to edit. Along those lines, its a good idea to create some advocates early on who will follow your brand or company as a topic – that way as conversations emerge,  there are already key users of the site who can speak to the experience of using your product – hopefully in a good way.

Celebrity CEO: Depending on your business, this is a great place for a CEO to have a presence. Every time I suggest CEO involvement with social media, everyone bristles, but this is one spot your CEO can appreciate. Unlike LinkedIn, where your CEO is reluctant to jump in because its just too much information, the CEO can carefully craft an image on Quora, by asking and answering questions of peers. If your CEO is the face of your brand, then its probably a good idea for them to have a presence and dialouge on Quora. But before turning a CEO loose on the Quora community, make sure he “gets it” that not every single comment has to be a “message”.

Namesake:

This is a more conversational question-answer site. The questions range from smart to silly. Answers range from smart to stupid.  So far the culture here is more like your living room than a boardroom. Its casual,

Namesake Search for "Hashable"

friendly, fairly inclusive. None the less, its still very much an early adopter crowd. T One of the distinguishing features of Namesake is the ability for other to “endorse” you in areas of your expertise. You choose the categories, people will decide to independently verify your expertise. his site is definitely developed for the user, not necessarily for business; however, that’s not to say that there aren’t business uses:

Influencers: Yep. There’s that word again. But if you’re looking for people influential on a topic, this is an interesting place to start. Namesake doesn’t guarantee that the influencers have a huge audience, but it DOES suggest that others have been willing to vouch for this person’s expertise.  The primary shortfall to this is that not very many people are ON Namesake yet, so there are probably some very talented people who don’t have a ton of endorsements.  Also, this is one of those “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” social moment, so endorsements could become tricky. However, with up to 5 expertise choices, people can always vote for the one you added to be human. But, you can search for a skill and talent and find those who are the “top” experts and as Namesake gets critical mass, this could be an outstanding resource.

Listening: Again, its worth popping in now and then to see if there are conversations about your brand or product. You may or may choose not to participate, but you should at least know what the conversations are. Don’t forget to checkin and listen for key topics or key words relevant to your community or your business.

Create Conversation: I could easily see community managers participating here with enthusiasts of not just their brand, but things their enthusiastic enjoy too. By jumping into other conversations a community manager gives themselves and even more persona, provides awareness of the community to others without self promoting. This last part is really important. Self promotion is just icky. Be cool.

So where does LinkedIN fit into these sites?

I think LinkedIn continues to be relevant. WallStreet certainly gave it the thumbs up this week. From a business perspective, LinkedIn remains a strong employee recruiting tool. And as  the economy turns around, recruiting will once again rise. Businesses should still give themselves a company presence and representatives can and should still participate in groups and conversations. The problem with LinkedIn is that its gone from being a genuine resource to a breeding ground for self-promoters. Having watched LinkedIn devolve into “Link to my website” I think Quora and Namesake users may be protective of their space and weary of self promotion. There are still social media opportunities on LinkedIn, but lots has been written about that and I wanted to share with you some ways to utilize some emerging opportunities.

So – what say you? Are you using Quora or Namesake? Do you agree with my assessment of these conversation site’s role in business?

Once upon a time if you wanted to start a company you have two choices. Hit up your Dad for the cash or shlep down to the bank where you would sign a second on your only real asset: your house (IF you had one). You also had the choice to go see a “Uncle Vinnie” or someone similar who always seemed to have cash and the requisite thugs laying around. In the 80′s Venture Capitalism took the dreams of Silicon Valley and entrepreneurs and funded  them into cash making machines with little respect to the original ideals of the founder.  Conversely, it used to be if you wanted to publish a book, you had to know someone. Or spend years in Paris getting to know other artists who might connect you accordingly. Then came blogging. Suddenly, being a writer was a very democratic opportunity. If people loved your blog, you might just get a book deal. Today’s writers can say “no thanks” to publishing houses if they want..but the truth is that there is still more money to be made in having a book published than there is on running a blog.

Its not news that lots of businesses are integrating social media into their marketing, customer service and product development goals. But today, entrepreneurs and writers are making social media part of their business model. In otherwords, if it weren’t for social media, the business itself might not even exist. Over the last month, I’ve come across three such enterprises, two in my home of Hawaii and one mainland writer who is taking publishing into his own hands in a brilliant way. I wanted to introduce them to you to see if it got your own juices flowing.

Begfor.it

Taking the idea of winning on an online auction to the social level. If you want an item, you say so, then ask your friends to support your cause. Brilliant really, if you think about it. The site is still in beta, but there are products up there for the begging already. Its highly addictive and pretty smart. The site’s idea is pure social – forget about the money, if you have the most votes for the winning bid, your in like flyn! BUT, you gotta work for it. You can use whatever medium you’d like, writing, movie making or photos, but you have to prove to the audience that your worthy. And maybe, just MAYBE your creative pleading and begging will go viral too..ensuring you win the item and giving you your 15 minutes of fame in the process. Can’t you just see “Begfor.it” stars being created?

The site is entirely self-funded by its founder, Tim Parsons, so he himself isn’t afraid to do a little “begging” if you like the idea this soloprenuer has put up, you can donate to support the further development of the site.  (full disclosure: I’ve done a little consulting work with Tim and Begfor.it) Twitter: @begforit Hashtag: #begforit Facebook Page: Begforit

Henry Wood Detective Agency:

As a character and a story get fleshed out on a blog, the author, Brian Meeks continues to push his development of a character, a brand and his own social media prowess, by creating a Facebook profile for the business of the main character (Henry Wood).  It doesn’t hurt that Brian’s writing is as wicked as a whip and the main character, Henry is the sworn bachelor you hate to love. The Facebook page currently includes updates from the author on various processes, but it has the potential to be the brand portal for the Detective Agency. I have a feeling that the only think stopping this Facebook from being completely fleshed out are time limitations for an author whose breaking new ground by publishing his blog serial to Kindle, Ipad and maybe even an actual book. If you want to read the book, you can shoot Brian a tweet or ping him on his blog. He’ll send you a copy if you’ll agree to giving feedback (full disclosure: I’m on chapter 3). But the thing that really sets Brian apart from the rest of the publishing world is that he gets social media and he’s challenging the publishing world to play by HIS rules by creating demand for his writing and stories before he is officially “published” but what does that mean to a guy like Brian anyway who goes beyond the blog to publish in a self-made socially empowered way everyday.

Twitter: @ExtremelyAvg Facebook: Henry-Wood-Detective-Agency

Juicies:

Starting a company that manufacturers a product in a sustainable/green way is gutsy. Raising initial round of funding exclusively through social media and a website called KickStarter is really putting it on the line. But Juicies is taking risks and making social media an integral part of the start-up process.  The product is actually simple: colorful cords that work with your Apple products like Iphone and Ipad. Founder Laurens Laudowicz started by asking for $5000 to get samples made from one of only a couple manufactures in China who manufacture in a sustainable way. But Laurens was shocked to learn what the minimum quantity is for the initial order (10,000 feet!), so even though over 1000 donors have blown away his initial request of $5,000, he’s leaving it open for another two weeks. Those who donate to get the company started will get their very own Juicie when they are released and you’ll get the feel good vive is helping an entrepreneur break the mold, literally . After you donate what you think you can give, don’t forget to participate in the product development cycle, by voting for the color you think they should develop by using the #juicies hashtag on Twitter. As an homage to the 12 year old girl in me, I voted for piiiiiiiink and glitter..I also revealed that I still believe in Unicorns too. But, I don’t think I’ll be able to plug my Juicies into a Unicorn anytime soon..I’ll have to settle for one of my many Apple products.

One of the cool ways that Juicies is using social media, besides the pleas for investment is that through KickStarter, Facebook and Twitter, you can really follow the development of this product. Laurens is  totally transparent about his ideas and his challenges and he’s as real on the content sites as he is in person. What’s super smart about using Kickstarter, and asking people for their color ideas is the opportunity to create advocates for the brand before the product even exists. When the product does launch (and I personally think its a matter if “when”, not “if”) then over 1,000 people will be take to their social media outlets to talk about their Juicie product and how they helped start the company.#Luvit

What other businesses have you seen using social media as an integral part of the start-up process? I’d love to see and hear about more! If I get enough, maybe I’ll do another blog post on this topic, I really enjoyed digging into these companies and sharing them with you!

Today we’re keeping it simple with some tactical suggestions on using Twitter for business. It isn’t that this list is complete or even that it ever will be. I’ve just noticed that lots of businesses (large and small) aren’t implementing these easy tactics into the  Twitter social media presence. Without further adieu…

6 Easy Twitter DO’s for Business:

• Try as hard as you can to thank people who support you and RT your messages, especially when you are a business. Alot of businesses think that its not appropriate to “thank” people. That it appears too “folksy”. “Folksy. Riiiiight. Remember that guy or gal in high school who you though was cool/pretty/smart and when you told them so, they just brushed right past you without response? How did it make you feel? Like you’d never hand anyone a compliment again? Yah. Go ahead – make your advocates feel that way. At your own peril.   And, if you are too busy to respond to all your positive social media comments, then I’d say you need to expand your social media budget and add staff. Your customers are clearly on social media and want to engage with you there – you have a problem many companies would love to have.
• When you are discussing a link or a topic, go ahead and add the link again to the conversation – or at the very least, a #hashtag so people can keep up with the conversation. Besides being thoughtful, its also savvy.
• Resist the urge to hijack a trending topic or #hashtag. If you have something to say that’s relevant to the #hashtag or trending topic, by all means – say it and ride the wave. Be creative. Be savvy. Be human. Just don’t be spammy.
• Add to the conversation, don’t be the conversation-interrupting-blood-draining-dufus who interrupts the conversation with a commercial! Add to the conversation and you’re likely to get (the right) kind of attention. Soundbites are a major turn-off on social media – save it for your radio campaign.
• Assume that the person complaining is complaining so that they get resolution. If they didn’t care – they would just tell their friends, and their parents..and their auntie…they wouldn’t bother giving you a chance to respond. For more on turning complainers into BFF’s, read here.
• Be consistent. No fair jumping in and out of the conversation. Your advocates like it much better when they know you’re listening. If you are going to have a presence, make time for it everyday. Yes. Everyday. Recent studies show that Facebook postings made outside of business hours are more effective. Its easier than ever to have a presence without being tied to your computer 24/7 – take advantage of the little spaces in your day and schedule your outgoing information accordingly.

What recommendations do you have for businesses using Twitter?

Over the last year most of the social mediari have been obsessed with finding influencers for their clients (you). Several services have popped up to help companies cut through the millions of casual social media users and find those who supposedly have influence over others by way of their online authority. The most popular of these services is PeerIndex and Klout. Early on, Klout established itself as the “go-to-source” for online influence. Of course Klout’s algorithm is top secret, but it essentially weighs Twitter posting frequency+followers+mentions to develop a number on a scale of 1-100 (from what I can tell)

Klout is a great starting point, but I maintain that Klout misses several very important elements in its methodology. First and foremost, all influence is contextual. In other words, no matter HOW many followers I have on Twitter, I could never be consider an expert on aerospace engineering, and please trust me when I say, you would NOT want to sit in any plane that I designed. And to that point, a person’s Klout score is likely influenced by how popular their particular subject is on the social web, this can be good and bad. Further, Klout doesn’t (yet) help you really identify key influencers in specific topical areas (areospace engineers for example).  Finally – and this is the most entertaining of my examples (trust me), Klout can’t measure or weigh offline influence. While one might argue that offline influence should be reflected in online influence, let me give you an example where this falls short.

Allow me to enlighten you on Klout’s shortcomings with two examples.

Let’s start with MilSuckee. While I don’t know him personally, I’m just fine with that, to start with, his profile picture looks like a mug shot.  I am glad that there is a lot of internet space not to mention most of the continental US and Pacific Ocean between me and this guy. I don’t really want to meet him in a dark alley, even the friendly dark alley’s of Wisconsin (hey gotta give a shout-out to the state, it is where I was born.)

But it isn’t just his off-line persona that freaks me out. Oh, no. MilSuckee is into “owning” the F-bomb along with just about every other profanity in his Twitter stream. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been known to enjoy an F-bomb cocktail now and then, but, I am able to refrain from using it on Twitter, like, EVER. But, Milsuckee has LOTS of followers (to put it into perspective, 90% of Twitter users have less than 1,000 followers. This piece of work has 11,000+! Apparently, Milwaukee bashing is very popular, and thus, so is our character. Milsuckee is also very active  a Twitter (unemployment no doubt affords this opportunity) thus his Klout score is decently high and if he keeps up this pace, pretty soon, his Klout score will be higher than Chris Brogan. And you have to give Milsuckee credit for keeping it “real” and doing what the social media consultants are always begging their clients to be:  a human. I mean, his musings are definitely NOT bot generated, granted, his tweets might be 5th grade degenerative, but he’s a human. Whoot!  He even uses a real photo (presumably of himself) in his Twitter profile. He’s a regular best-practices poster child.

But does Miksuckee have any credibility? Is this an individual who you really want speaking for your brand? And does anyone really even care if this guy DOESN’T like your brand? How much influence can he really have? Sure, at first glance the Klout score might be intrigui

ng, but after 10 minutes of watching that stream, you’d probably abandon any relationship dreams.

But there is even more gray area to Klout than meets the eye.

Let’s compare this guy with another Twitter user, mcneilwilson, the Twitter presence of well known Hawaii-based agency, McNeil Wilson. But this isn’t just any local Hawaii company, its one with an outstanding reputation for its work with major brands both in the islands and around the country. Further, McNeil Wilson has won numerous awards and accolades for its work, in short, rheir off-line reputation is extraordinary. But, alas, their Klout score is a little..mmm..anemic. Why?! How could a company with such a stellar reputation not have a high Klout score? in the case of this particular company, they don’t have much of a Twitter following and they just aren’t THAT active and yes the stream is a little dry and maybe completely automated. So, their  Klout score suffers.

Now, let me ask you. All things being equal, who do you want talking about your company? EXACTLY. So, not only is offline influence still relevant, even to social media users, but the Klout score isn’t even the only measure of online influence. The other “beef” I have with Klout is that it doesn’t give any credit to those who actually create content and therefore have exponential influence ability outside of Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn.  AND it doesn’t really measure (that I know of) the ability of that influencer to create an action, such as clicking on a link.

So, dear business readers, when looking for influencials, use a Klout score as interesting baseline, but not as an absolute measurement tool.

Much like creating other types of business relationships, before you decide that your business should strike up a relationship with a social media influencer, be sure that the person’s reputation and relevance is on-par with your expectations – and for that, its likely you’ll have to do some good old fashioned homework. Never fear: Google and LinkedIn stand at your ready. (like my shameless links there?!).

Tell me: Have you ever had an experience where the Klout score didn’t tell the whole story?

PS: Don’t forget to join me @taracoomans, @rob and @tweetpea discuss Klout and its use for social media users and businesses at the Hawaii Social Media Summit. Moderated by @roxannedarling, our panel of professional Social Media Club members is sure to be an interesting discussion! If you can’t be there, follow #SMSHI.

Photo credit: BaronBrian

97 Million  people use Twitter.
640 Million on Facebook.
48.2 Million users on YouTube.

Ever ask yourself why they are there? Hold on. Before you answer – let me give you a hint: its a trick question.  Stop thinking like a marketer/business owner/blogger- extraordinare for a moment, and pause. Here’s the answer. The reason millions of people use these platforms is because they want to engage with PEOPLE.

Now hear this:  No one ever joined Facebook or Twitter so they could follow a brand or a company.  Now, adults (who make up the largest segment of social media users) accept brand presence as part of the social media experience, but here’s some bad news: According to a recent study by Forrester Research, just 6 percent of 12-17-year-olds who use the Web desire to be friends with a brand on Facebook. Yet, according to HubSpot, brands who connect via the social sphere see a direct impact on sales.

So – better get ahead of it and start developing your social media currency now. Now, you KNOW I am not suggesting that brands stay out of the social sphere, that is just not my style or honestly, my business. What I AM suggesting is that you brands and companies give serious consideration to what they have to OFFER the community and what motivates their community to be part of social media at all. Its all about “What’s in it for them”. Your currency is your social media VALUE. What do you have to offer? What you give your community, otherwise, seriously, why should they care?  So, here are a couple of steps to identifying your social media currency.

Where are your customers and why are they there? Its easy to say “I want a Facebook page” or “I’m opening a company Twitter account”, but is that really where you should start? Shouldn’t you begin by asking where your clients are? Maybe your clients are creative and visual so they like YouTube or Flickr better. When people start with the tools I just want to take a book out of my Kindergarten lessons, shove my fingers in my ear and start saying “Nah Nah Nah…I can’t hear you! I can’t hear you!” because unless you start by asking what social media tools your customers use and WHY they are there, that’s same response you’ll get from the community. Once you know where your customers are and WHY they are there, then you can start developing your tools.

What do you have to offer? Now, we get to the nitty gritty. What makes your company interesting to them? This is all about content.  Lots of businesses think that the only thing interesting to their “fans” are discounts or promotions. Wrong. That’s like saying the first time you meet someone you should buy them a bottle of wine. Friendships, real friendships don’t start at the wallet and neither do truly engaged fan-business relationships. People like to get to know a company, learn what’s important to the company, its helps the person get to know the company and feel more closely aligned with the company. Different established communities like different things, which is why activity on one social media portal might be different than activity on the other, by both people and companies. If you aren’t sure where to start, there is a great tool on Forrester Research designed by the Groundswell (affliate link)  folks that helps define your audience and how they typically interact. Granted, its a general tool, if for example, your audience are a specific subset, say Mom’s, you might know some other things about your audience and how they like to interact, but this is still a great place to start.While this information is not new, its still relevant, so go ahead and check it out.

How will customers interact with you? Now, if you used the Social Technographics tool from Groundswell, you’ve likely discovered that different people typically interact differently. It might frustrate you to know that LOTS of people are lurkers. People who like results don’t like digital lurkers, because they can’t be tracked. Here’s the rub – lots of people are lurkers, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have value to you. Think about it – when you go to a Facebook page or a blog, do you always comment? Probably not. I know I have a LOT of lurkers on my site. I also know THEY ARE WATCHING. Lurkers turn the tables a bit on marketers. They key is to create opportunities for those non lurkers to participate and maybe, just maybe, you’ll drag some of your lurkers out from the shadows. Its also important to note that if you don’t attempt to engage your audience, why would they ever interact with you? If all you do is push content, then that’s a pretty one-sided relationship don’t you think? Well, even if YOU don’t think so – your customers do.

By the way – I love the $2 bill as an example of social media currency. Think about it. People who have $2 bills know they are special. $2 bills are remarkable and interesting and people like to show them to their friends.  Shouldn’t YOUR currency strive to be all those things?

That’s it. That’s all you have to do to begin your social currency valuation.

After you check out the Social Technographics tool – I’d love to hear what you learned and what surprised you.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “The best way to accomplish a large goal is to break down into small manageable tasks.” The idea holds water, or soda or a Belvedere vodka if your like me.  Essentially its an idea  “catch phrase” born from the Kaizen approach. Maybe you are familiar with the Kaizen method to change. If you aren’t – hold on to your shorts boys and girls you about to get a quick 101. THEN, I’m going to tell you why its relevant to social media.

Both US’s and Japan’s employed this methodology during their respectively most challenging times. The Kaizen method evolved from management training created by the US government to ramp up American manufacturing for WW2 involvement. There was no time for large scale innovation, manufacturing plants at that time had to work with the tools and time frame they were given (sound familiar?) After the war, General MacArthur introduced this concept to the Japanese to help rebuild their country. The Japanese coined the term “Kaizen” which roughly means “improvement” or “change for the better.” The tenants of Kaizen’s small steps are asking small questions, visualizing small success and taking small actions. Essentially, the Kaizen method is the process of small steps equaling big change, by taking small steps, the process essentially ignores the brain mechanism which triggers fear. Fear is so often the reason we do nothing, isn’t it? By the way, in business-speak the term for “fear” is “concern.” Think about it, next time someone uses their sterny-serious face to describe their “concerns” replace that word with “fear” and just try and tell me it doesn’t work.   The reason I dig Kaizen is that for an ADD-Creative like myself, its truly  manageable way to implement ideas, processes and concepts.

How does Kaizen relate to social media?

Consider the fear most businesses (yours?) have when beginning a social media program. If we’re honest with ourselves, the only reason businesses today don’t employ social media already is because they are afraid. Afraid that they don’t know how to do it.  Afraid of the time it takes. Afraid of the technology. Afraid of what they will learn. Afraid of what will and won’t happen.  FEAR. Useless fear.

Kaizen encourages us to ask simple questions of ourselves, our employees and within the context of social media, I would add customers. Start by asking your employees simple questions about social media. Why don’t you start with “why should we do it?” and see what you get back. Then you could ask them “where should we have a social media presence?” Give every employee’s voice equal weight, no matter if they are your VP of marketing or the janitor. You never know where revolution will take place…huh, just like some where else: social media. Now start asking your customers simple questions: “what is one thing we could do better?” that’s it. One question. See what you get. Its likely to inspire you to take action, even if that action is small, you’ve just harnessed social media using Kaizen. Once you get in the habit of asking questions, you’ll see how exciting the answers can be – and how simple ideas can take a mediocre situation and make it amazing. YAY!! YAY!! You’d like that, wouldn’t you?!

Let’s begin with the smallest of steps for starting a successful social media program for your business.

1) If you don’t already: jump on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and create an account for yourself (not your business, not yet).

2) For all the social media platforms you created an account for, find 1 interesting person or business a day to follow. Could be a competitor. Could be a famous person you are interested in. Anything. Indulge your curiosity. Do this for a week.

3) Spend 30 seconds everyday checking into the account and seeing what’s new, seeing what others are saying or doing. Do this for a week.

Pat yourself on the back, you’ve just started the first step in the most important part of social media: listening.

Before going to step 4, ask yourself “what type information did I most like seeing from people?”

4) Now, with these accounts, continue to use them as your personal testing ground. Spend an additional 30 seconds interacting with the people and businesses you follow. You might send them a comment, “like” something they said, ask a business a question. Ask a guru a question. Share information you think is interesting. Could be anything, a business article, a picture of your dog. Anything. Imagine rather than restrain.

5) Now, spend 30 additional seconds a day thanking people for commenting on your tweets, or passing them on.

Congratulations, you have just started the second most important tenant of social media: engaging.

Now, ask yourself: “How did it feel when someone responded to my question? How did it feel when someone thanked me?”

You now have the basic tenants down of social media: everything you need to know about social media you learned in Kindergarten.

But the really interesting idea of the Kaizen approach with social media is how well it scales. The more time you spend on your small steps, the bigger your change will be. Social media works the exact same way, you get what you give and a thousand small actions lead to big effects. Social media is rarely about “viral” its usually more about the day to day. Its rarely about tens of thousands of followers, usually its more about the 100 or so who communicate with you regularly.  But with social media your day to day reaches ever increasing potential. The more you follow and repeat the above steps for your business, the more you expand upon them, the more success you will have.

Now get outta here and start asking small questions and start taking small actions! Have fun.

Its hard to keep up with all the books coming out about social media for business. There are so many layers to this topic that entire (worthy) books have been written on social media philosophy, content creation or audience engagement. With all the dynamics elements to creating a successful social media presence, its sometimes hard to know where to start or even what books are worth the time investment.

But WikiBrands by Mike Dover and Sean Moffit ties all the necessary components into a social media strategy together with some helpful tactics.  Where WikiBrands differs is that it incorporates all those key subjects and more while also discussing the often ignored role of the brand. Branding is particularly relevant for small and medium sized businesses or start-ups who are looking to start or increase their social media voice. While most the examples within the book are of enterprise-sized businesses, the mini-case studies of numerous different types of brands ranging from WD-40 to Lunapads (a feminine protection product) to the oft-cited Zappos, Wikibrands proves that no matter the product, engagement can happen with a strong and willing brand. Businesses of all sizes can learn something from these examples and by implementing the FLIRT model that is roadmap to Wikibrand success, even the smallest entrepreneur can create a place for themselves in social media.

But before we get started: what exactly is a Wikibrand? According to the authors:

Wikibrand(s): noun

A progressive set of organizations, products, service, ideas and causes that tap the powers of customer participation, social influence and collaboration to drive business value.

It seems like a simple enough description, but the devil is indeed in the details of a successful Wikibrand.  The book begins with some branding 101 and then provides examples of the benefits of Wikibranding. Now, here comes the beef: it transitions nicely from the philosophical to the action plan with a concise roadmap called FLIRT, an apropos acronym according to the authors since flirting is “pulse raising, human and engineered to impress.” The other reason this acronym works is that each section represented is not only in order of steps, but importance. Each element has its own chapter: Focus, Language and Content, Incentives & Motivations & Outreach, Rules Guidelines & Rituals, Tools. I particularly appreciated the process of the FLIRT model. By encouraging businesses to start out with their focus and strategy and then move through to the other elements, the authors Dover and Moffit support what so many marketers know, but what so many companies ignore in their rush to create a program.

But understanding how to begin your social media presence is the first phase, building community then analyzing and measure the community and Wikibrands includes those very important topics as well. The community development chapter may seem intimidating to smaller businesses, but the chapter is a worthy read still since it articulates some of the motivations that people have for being part of a community. Understanding the needs of humans, rather than computers is the essence of Wikibrand success. Wikibrands even spends a chapter on personal brand development. I did wish that Wikibrands spent more time on measurement, but the authors do articulate some common measurement mistakes and make recommendations for measuring success based on your goals rather than more common tactics.

As you move through the FLIRT model, you’ll have lots of statistics that are worthy of your next powerpoint presentation along with research that is hard to get your hands on. While the road map of FLIRT doesn’t go into specific tactics, its a good brainstorming exercise for any marketer. Frankly, Wikibrands should be required reading for any business or marketing professional considering or executing a social media presence. For consultants Wikibrands offers an organized way to help your clients navigate through the complex choices in social media. I plan on giving a copy to my clients.

Resources: Register here for a Webinar with the authors on March 31st, sponsored by Social Media Club

When you are at a party..and you look around, who do you want to talk to? The people who look interesting or the people who are sitting by themselves? Do you look at what people are wearing at this point and make a judgment about them? Whether we like it or not, the exterior says a lot about us and people make decisions about the exterior. Deep down, we know this, so we usually spend some time cultivating the exterior. When someone approaches us, we probably also have a our “party personality” front in center. This is our best foot forward, the person who laughs at other’s jokes, searches for things in common, is conscientious about the other’s feelings and listens; in part this makes us a good party guest.

For a company, the exterior and “party personality” are known as the brand. Years ago, the brand was a logo or an icon, maybe a character. Then later, the brand was a feeling that customers had when they thought of or used the product. Today the idea of brand has evolved. Its a combination of a company’s culture, the public’s perception and yes, the emotions the brand elicits from customers and potential customers. Brand =Company Identity. “Brand” is a single word for a complicated mix of elements that a company knowingly or unknowingly emits to its potential customers. Brand is also what sets you apart from the herd; distinguishes you in the mix of options customers have today. Most businesses would like to have control over that. Big companies spend millions on branding initiatives that include advertising, events, social media, and PR.

How important is the brand to small and medium sized businesses? Its equally as important to develop your brand. Don’t you want your customers to have a strong (positive) emotional reaction when they buy your product, visit your store or website? Wouldn’t you like to have customers come to you over your competitor because they trust you more? Because they just feel better buying your product?

But for the average small to medium business, millions of marketing expenditures for branding (as opposed to call to action) are not in the budget. Which is ironically, why so many businesses turn to social media; social media is perceived as free. Except its not. Social media should be part of your overall mix, but you shouldn’t consider it free. The TOOLS are free. But here’s what isn’t free:  time investment in developing a strong social media presence, in participating in conversations, in creating a strategy for your social media.

A well developed brand is extremely important in all kinds of marketing endeavors, but never is that more true than in interactive mediums like events and social media. The more evolved the brand, the easier it is to be consistent in voice, the easier it is to participate in conversations. The easier it will be to create live in-person experiences that your customers will enjoy.  Further, when the brand puts on its party hat and joins the conversation of social media and the engagement of event marketing it will need to do all the same things that the good party guest does. As important as listening is, you’ll still need to participate in the conversation. What WILL the brand say?

An extremely important part of a well developed brand is your story. What’s the history of the company? What makes it special?  If you think of a company’s story as the backbone to a brand, now you can begin to imagine what a brand might be for your company. When did it start? How did it start? Why? Who were the first employees and where are they now? What tools were necessary for the job then and how is that different (or not) from now? What’s the personality of your company and who is its driving force? What makes the company special – no, not what’s your value proposition, but what really makes your company stand out? More importantly, how do customers feel about your company and products? Are they passionate? Indifferent?

With a well developed brand, suddenly, many things become possible. There is suddenly lots to share and say about the company, while at the same time, sharing information that your customers might be interested in. A solid brand gives the business a voice, and identity.  Maybe your brand isn’t well developed (yet) but you want it to be. Social media is a great outlet for that (in most cases). With social media, you can identify your brand advocates. You can solidify the image of your company through conversation and information sharing.

So, before you start your social media program, give some thought to your brand. It will help you develop a more well-rounded, integrated and most importantly, successful social media campaign.