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?

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?

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.

Well, its official. If you thought that 2010 was a big year for digital marketing, you were right. The recent release of ComScore’s Digital Year in Review provides detailed information on search and advertising. The report is quite detailed and as you consider your marketing strategies for 2011 (provided you haven’t already done so), the report is full of tidbits that can help you make decisions. Most importantly, what the report says to marketers is INTEGRATE. Use different mediums and tools to support your objectives, don’t allow your campaigns or departments or objectives be funneled into a single silo. Let the mediums talk to each other and make friends with one another. Let your customers make friends with one another too.

While the report doesn’t directly address much about social media, it does make a case for some strategic choices that may impact your social media campaigns. Let’s look at some key points that may effect your marketing choices in 2011.

Facebook & Twitter Uses Change

Users in the 55+ demographic increased their usage of Facebook and Twitter. I expect that as the economy improves and people begin to feel more secure about retirement, we’ll see these numbers increase. While this crowd is hardly the “early adopters” crowd, if you are marketing to boomers or anyone in retirement age, this data suggests that increasing your visibility on social networks is increasingly important.

Meanwhile users in the coveted 35-54 demographic decreased on both Facebook and Twitter, but only slightly and in practically statistically insignificant numbers. This will be worth keeping an eye on over 2011, but hardly suggests that there is a mass exodus in this age group. I suspect that much of this is due to the hoopla earlier in 2010 about privacy concerns. This age range is not a group used to unknowningly sharing data with marketers. This does however, suggest that if your marketing to this group, you’ll need to be more creative and more present to catch their attentions, also you’ll need to make trust a primary component in your marketing strategies on both Facebook & Twitter.

It wasn’t too long ago that the myth that “only young people are on Twitter” was debunked but now it appears as though they really are embracing Twitter, they now make up 47% of Twitter users). In fact, the 18-34 demo is increasing its usage of both Facebook and Twitter. I believe this is due to increased usage by both celebrities and job postings online. Further, the importance of personal branding is increasing for all young persons, not to mention the fact that this group is extremely open and transparent and social media’s inherent “openness” culture isn’t frightening to them.  Also, its easier and easier to see only what you want to see in Twitter, so this age group can use the tool more specifically, rather than be inundated with information not of relevance to them. As this group moves into the 35+ age group, they will likely continue to use social outlets like Facebook & Twitter, particularly since its what they “grew up with”.

Finally, and most interesting is the difference between Twitter and Facebook users in the 2-17 age range. Despite the fact that Facebook requires its users to be 13, they saw a 1.2% jump  in this age group, while Twitter saw a 8% decline. At least some of this is driven by the fact that some of Facebook’s users really are younger than 13. ComScore suggests that the reason for decline in this area is increased reliance on mobile communication such as texting and if you’ve ever seen a 15 year old send a 30-word text in less than 5 seconds, this won’t be a surprise to you.

Mobile Content

And speaking of mobile use, according to ComScore 2010 was the first year when 3G/4G penetration crossed the 50% threshold in November 2010; its no surprise then that digital content usage increased, in fact, by December 2010 nearly 47% of mobile subscribers were digitally connected (using browsers or downloading content, including apps), but the most used feature was text messaging. Marketers take note, services like TextMyFans allow you to integrate your social media with this increasing trend.

Mobile apps aren’t going away – people love their ease of use. For productivity tools in particular, people are increasingly willing to pay for apps. If you utilize the app world, be very clear on your objectives and make sure that it integrates with the rest of your long-term branding objectives. The good news for small business is that app creation is likely to get more affordable, but that also means there will be increased “noise”  in the space, think very carefully about how you will promote your app to its intended users; it still isn’t a build it and they will come environment.

If there is any area that illustrates that importance of integration, its mobile. Social media, search and apps all need integration. With the increasing bandwidth of smart phones, marketers need to be sure they are crossing over and meeting their customers at the time and location where they are.

Video

Speaking of larger bandwidths, 20% of users used mobile to capture video. Video will continue to rise in importance. As you consider this trend, as yourself what about your company is interesting to others? Behind the scenes experiences both humanize a company and take advantage of the fact that we like to consume video and its getting easier to do. You can add Vlogging to your company’s blog when its appropriate and valuable. In 2011, I’d love to see more small businesses embrace video as a medium, because I think consumers are asking for it. Of course, the content has to be compelling and interesting…but that’s another (or every) blog post.

Resources: Download the entire ComScore Digital Year in Review here.

Social media and events have so much in common: they bring people together, they have the potential to inspire and most importantly, both have story-telling potential. Really these two forms of marketing are long-lost cousins.

A recent study by Ad-ology shows some surprising (to me) results: event marketers specifically, exhibition managers, aren’t utilizing social media to its full potential, although its showing promise, I’m still surprised at the reliance of traditional media.  I’ve noticed this too in conferences I’ve been or registered for. I still get direct mail for a conference I last went to over 5 years ago (talk about barrel scraping), yet the conferences that I show the most interest in, aren’t aware of it yet, even through I tweet, blog and generally promote topics relevant to the conference, because I am not on their mailing list. Event marketers state that email is one of its most effective tools; not surprising, but what IS surprising is that they don’t appear to be integrating their email activities with their social media activities.

Event marketers are using social media, but not to its fullest potential. The Ad-ology findings show that:

Before an event takes place, the top online promotional activities include email marketing (39%), online advertising (45%) and Google ad words (36%). During the event, the strategy shifts and marketers use online games (43%) and SMS mobility. Looking to extend impact, marketers then turn to audio downloads or podcasts (40%) following the event.

This group of marketers indicates that social media is best employed as a strategy to extend the reach of marketing efforts (49%) and engage the target audience (25%). Far fewer, 9%, use the format to generate leads.

As far as pre-event marketing, I find this interesting since social media is a rich place to mine for event attendees, depending on the event. But most industries have an influential group of people using social media; listening and engaging will reveal these people quickly.  Apparently some event marketers are still scoffing at the “I’m BIG on Twitter” crowd, but event marketers are really missing the opportunity to create evangelists for their brand by not engaging these folks. Identifying influencials and bloggers are also a potentially key component for event marketers. Find people who have an audience and invite them to be involved and watch how they endorse the event and therefore, bring others along. Also really surprising to me is that the relationship between sponsorship and social media just doesn’t seem to be taking off.

When it comes to adding value for sponsors. I can think of plenty of ways to add value for a sponsor through social media, in particular Twitter and Influencials like bloggers (again) but event marketers apparently aren’t there yet. Sponsor shout-outs before the event are a no-brainer, but having them host tweet chats or other interactive pre-event conversations (about a relevant topic-be careful that this isn’t approached as one long commercial) on Facebook are great ways to raise the profile of sponsors. The use of hashtags during the event can create a fun, interactive campaign for sponsors and attendees alike.

Post event opportunities abound:  extending the reach of an event is definitely important and downloads and podcasts are great tools for that (still less than half employ this technique, again, why create content if you don’t want others to see it?!)  but why not hold tweet chats in the weeks following your event with your speakers and give attendees one last chance to engage? What about asking your attendees through social media outlets for feedback or recommendations for next year? Since engagement is the goal with both events and social media, be looking for ways to involve them both.

Finally, as with all social media programs, event marketers really need to be thinking of ways to integrate social media into all their pre, during and post event efforts.

Look how far social media has come! Our baby is growing up! Here are my predictions for trends that will matter in 2011.

Listening: Now hear this (ironic, right?!): Listening is the first rule of social media. No matter where you are in your social media strategy, listening should be your top priority. This means watching what your current and potential customer are saying. What are they talking about? What’s important to them?

All friends and fans are not created equal: According to the Forrester Technographics profiling tool MOST consumers are lurkers in the social media sphere. So don’t feel back if you have hundreds of “fans” but few comments. The key is to identify the INFLUENCERS.  Few actually create their own content. But, content creators have a higher chance of being a key influencer. Identifying key influencers and creating relationships with them will be an increasingly important step. But as I reference in my article about bloggers, this will become an increasingly delicate relationship as bloggers gain more authority and command more respect. All power social media experts will be approached at one point or another, who and how they work with the brand will largely be determined by how they are approached.

ROI Metrics worth tracking: Sentiment, Klout, Impact: As social media continues to mature, the demand for ROI will increase. While these metrics will be different than traditional marketing metrics, they will continue to be relevant in their own right. Its easy to say that the only way to measure social influence is by tracking conversions, but this doesn’t tell the whole story. Again, social media is about relationships, the key measurement metrics measure more deeply how effective your relationships are and help you better understand what you can do in the future with your social media programs.  Some metrics that are available for tracking have more relevance than others.

Sentiment: What are people saying about you? Is it positive, negative or neutral. Contrary to popular belief, whether you choose to listen or not, people are saying things about you. And, if they are saying negative things, then you have a real opportunity!

Klout: This is the measurement of the ability you have to influence others to take action. Not only does it take into account the number of followers, but more importantly the likelihood that these users are engaged and will either share or take action based on your postings. This is perhaps the most important social media measurement and helps identify influencers in the social media sphere.

Impact: Slightly different from Klout in that it also takes into account your generosity towards others along with unique references to your brand and/or Twitter handle.

Social media marketing isn’t a silo, its a farm: I often say this: social media doesn’t work in a vaccum. Don’t expect that social media alone is enough to create engagement.  Don’t expect that simply by throwing up a Facebook page, you’ll receive thousands of fans. You’ll want your PR people, Advertising people, Email Marketing people, and social media people all working together. No doubt this will require effort and commitment. While some integration is easy (i.e.: using Facebook OpenGraph to integrate with your email and blog) other times it will require more strategy and planning (i.e. creating an editorial calendar for your blog that supports current PR initiatives). Marketing initiatives are designed to drive new customers should be reflected on the landing page of your Facebook page. Email programs to existing customers should be reflected in Facebook postings. YouTube videos that are designed to raise brand awareness should have a component that allows current customers to share their experiences. Creating an ad campaign around social media (ala Old Spice) took the collective will and brainpower of more than just an ad agency. Any way you look at it, your team should be just that, a team. A team that respects one another, that brings out the best in one another and supports one another’s initiatives.

Using Social Media as a Customer Service Tool: Two big brands really set the bar for this: Zappos and ComCast both use Twitter to very effectively communicate with customers. Both have received accolades and kudos from marketers and more importantly, customers for their willingness to respond to their customers in the medium of their choosing. But you don’t have to be a gigantic company to follow their lead, in fact, increasingly, customers will expect you to follow their lead. Get listening. Get empowering your staff. Get going.

Social Phone Apps: Ignore smart phone apps at your peril. Now that Apple doesn’t have the corner on smart phones, more and more people have them. Even Blackberries have apps. But you don’t necessarily have to create an app (it might not be the best tool for you), but you should be aware of those which are and start thinking like your customer – what would YOU wish you could do with your company/product/service while your waiting for a bus?

Tweet Chats: Still under utilized, but headed in the right direction. Associations, nonprofits, events, B2b and even some B2C products can all benefit from regular TweetChats. The key will be creating interesting topics, inviting experts (and hopefully influencers) to participate.

Distinguishing What Tools Work Best for What Strategy: Not every social media tool is right for you. Or, are they? Begin by analyzing your objectives then identify the tool that works right for you. The tools will likely be based on where your current (or potential) customers are already, what level they like to engage and what you hope to gain from communicating with them.

Hey Man, Where ARE You?: From Yelp to FourSquare to Gowalla and Facebook Places all have unique elements that appeal to different people. And they are growing both in usage and engagement. Get to understanding these tools and you’ll see that they aren’t just for retail and restaurant outlets anymore.

No one cares about your Press Release: Corporate blogging is about creating content that is important and relevant to your readers/customers/potential customers. If your using your blog simply to post press releases, you’re really missing an opportunity. If you MUST post press releases on your blog, make them relevant to the reader, not the press. Create a separate section for press releases. Your blog is a reflection of your corporate culture and your customers. Make it interesting, intriguing and relevant. If you can’t think of how to make content your customers would find interesting, its time to go back to Rule #1: Listening.

Ommmm. Release. Breathe: allow your fans to express themselves honestly. Release control.  It takes guts to not intervene on every blog post, discussion board, Facebook posting and Tweet, but learn to understand the difference. If you are lucky enough to have a Facebook where people engage and interact with your brand – then let them! When your fans start to feel as though the page is “theirs” then you’ve reached a pinnacle of engagement and your over-hyped, over-marketing messaging will only serve to turn them off.

I was reading an interesting article today about digital advertising. Essentially, the article supposes that the reason that TV and radio still get larger budgets than digital is the ability to tell a story.

Telling a story is the most important aspect of branding. Give people something to relate to. Its true, you can’t tell a story in a banner ad.

But you CAN tell a story in an engaging cross-platform way using social media. From Facebook to YouTube to even Twitter, stories are told every single day. Big stories. Mundane stories. Social media IS story telling. At its heart, that’s ALL it is.

A good story invites engagement. Engagement that TV doesn’t offer. Interconnectivity that radio can’t provide.

If you aren’t telling a story through social media, ask yourself why not? Better yet, let’s talk about here, together. What’s your story? How are you using social media to tell it?

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?

Now that Facebook CEO has recapitulated his “Transparency is the default” stance on the world’s largest social media site (with more members than there are US residents), will the discussion about privacy die down?

Unfortunately, probably not. All social media sites will now be scrutinized with the same lense that Facebook was. Twitter who just launched its new in-house advertising team is likely to see this discussion resurface as advertisers demand more insight from Twitter as well. Start watching for your Twitter profile to change.

The Facebook changes were a triumph of the free market, after weeks of pressure, Facebook finally realized that its advertisers (who are its paying customers) wouldn’t be happy if users (who pay nothing) left in droves. But this is an important turning point in the evolution of social media and indeed the internet. Whose responsibility is it to protect user privacy? Do we agree with Zuckerberg that they backbone of the internet and in particular, is transparency and openness or are we not quite there yet? Most importantly, do we  think this is something the government should be involved in or would we prefer to continue to use our collective (and much faster) power as users? Or should social media companies adopt their own set of ethics by which all users who choose to participate can readily read?  Ethics being a “do no evil”-type mantra, a philosophy by which the company agrees to abide, not because its forced to via the law, but because they think its the right thing to do for everyone involved. An ethics agreement should look significantly different from the User Agreement most people skim when agreeing to use a social media site, an application or even software.

Further, the space between what is ethical and what is legal in this country continues to occupy a gray sinkhole in our collective imaginations. Advertisers will continue to push the envelope for more personalized, relevant ads. Arguably, there is even a benefit to users for relevant ads. But by drafting an ethical behavior models and practices, social media shows the its users that it isn’t afraid to be transparent about its motives.  Instead of the government getting involved with creating complicated, loophole-ridden legislation, social media companies who are proactive will head off government intervention that has almost never benefited delivery systems of advertising.

Perhaps this idea is Utopian, but not too long ago, the idea of Facebook was too. Maybe Zuckerberg has a point, maybe transparency should be more prevalent, but in return, maybe social media could follow the lead of “Do no evil” Google and change the face of corporate America and in fact, ensuring trust and therefore a more open community for both users, companies and advertisers.

What do you think the next step for social media should be? Should the government be stepping in? Should the free market continue its swift justice? Should social media companies adopt an ethics code?

More commentary on social media privacy from Mashable’s CEO Cashmore

Geolocation is the “site” of a big “turf” war forcing marketers and techies and users to take sides.
The two apex companies in this segment right now: Gowalla and Foursquare are taking shots and keeping their developers up all night. Both of these games have users embracing games/applications with increasing enthusiasm. Meanwhile techies and marketers are twitterpated with the possibilities. For marketers, the opportunity for trackable partnerships is endless, from coupons and promotions to custom partnerships with either company. Small business promotions can be remarkably affordable.  Further, (since Gowalla released version 1.2 last fall) both of the games are social, both with friends and other social applications like Twitter and Facebook.  From a techie perspective, the expansion opportunities are endless and with open API’s on both, expect to see lots of applications. Unlike other social applications both have a concept whose use within retail and restaurant space is immediate and obvious.

The skirmish between the two companies has been fairly visible, both from the corporate and end user camps. The basic premise of both is the same and both companies have been around since 2009 when they launched at the proudly geeky SXSWi (South by Southwest Interactive). Both entice their user to check-in on the application where ever the user happens to be by offering status rewards and even coupons. Using GPS, the applications pinpoint within relative accuracy where you are and confirm that you are actually “checking in” from the right location. Digital and coupon rewards are offered for various reasons including frequent check-ins to encourage users to continue playing.   While they are similar, they offer distinct experiences for the end user, which is important to businesses looking to take advantage of these unique traffic driving applications.
Foursquare, the current popular favorite, gives “badges” (graphic images) to represent achievements such as most check-ins or first check-in. Foursquare rewards regular visits by identifying the most frequent visitors as the “Mayor”, then they take it to the next level by making you “Super Mayor” if you are the “Mayor” of 10 or more locations. New this year are promotions and badges which can be “unlocked” after a certain number of visits to the location, making marketers jump with joy. From the techie perspective, Foursquare recently had to adjust its programming to prevent users from cheating their location and cheating their badges. Some users don’t like the “Mayor” concept, because it creates “ugly” competition, but marketer (those paying for services) will continue to appreciate this feature.
In addition to awarding “pins” for achievements, Gowalla adds an additional “gaming” elements and gives the player “items” which can be traded and exchanged with friends. Dropping off items at locations has endless promotional and gaming possibilities and users seem to like the “collection” aspect of the game. “Trips” are another uniquely Gowalla component, trips are comprised of a series of locations that share something in common. It could be a pub crawl or visits to certain locations within say, a zoo as  they’ve done with the zoo in Fort Worth, TX. Gowalla’s latest update included letting users update photos of the location. National Geographic and the Washington Post announced branded “trips”with Gowalla just this week. Custom “items” can be created and dropped off at locations for users to pick up, giving marketers tingles.
But while the two companies are fighting for supremacy, the solidarity among users seems to be gelling. Let’s not forget that both of these companies make money by offering promotions and what essentially amounts to digital couponing for businesses large and small, so its more than bragging rights at stake here. Foursquare seems to be winning over the masses with over 400,000 users and corporations such as Starbucks (with a specialized badge) and Zagat and while Gowalla has bagged the Travel Channel with “Food Wars” pins and announced in January that it was approaching 100,000 users. Up until recently, Gowalla could have been considered a technical darling with a more graphically pleasing and friendlier interface, but its recent API snafus may change that.
As usual, the choice of which to partner with isn’t as easy as it sounds. From a marketing partnership, the number of users might seem to make Foursquare the no-brainer, but Gowalla seems to be returning to its gaming roots with an emphasis on adventure with its National Geograhic partnership. So it may well be like many other social media tools, the tool of choice, may depend on your type of business. Restaurants and retail may gravitate towards Foursquare while services and adventure related companies may find Gowalla the better partner.  The question of who else will get into the geolocation market (Twitter? Facebook? Google?) remains prescient and relevant to those looking down the line at the future of this unique marketing tool.
No doubt as soon as this article is launched, there will be changes in the geolocation clash.

What do YOU think? Are you a user? A marketer? A techie? Which do you prefer and why?