Name: Jason, aka "Jason Small"
Web Site: http://www.socialmediaandthebigw.com
Bio: Social Media and The Big W is the place where news, talent, testing, resources, and love for the social media, and web community in general intersect to provide meaningful information for the global social media market. Jason Small is a social media strategist and digital marketer with SEO, website design and development expertise and working with Revolution Digital to service several major brands in various industries including entertainment, pharma and other industries. For more information on Revolution Digital, please visit: www.RevolutionDigital.com DISCLAIMER: This blog is maintained independently of Revolution Digital, and the views and opinions expressed by the author, or guest authors, do not necessarily state or reflect the opinion of Revolution Digital.
Posts by Jason Small:
Google vs Facebook
August 9th, 2010
Google vs Facebook
In March of 2010, Facebook surpassed Google as the number 1 online destination in the United States. The final ‘nail in the coffin’ so to speak, demonstrating that Google could no longer dismiss the competitive rise of the rival. Though Google has made some attempts along the way to create potential communities that could compete, seemingly with a lack of urgency and dedication of resources, now everyone is looking for the release of ‘Google.me‘ – could this be a ‘last stand’ for the search engine giant?
Probably not, but there is no doubt that the longer it takes Google to figure out how to translate it’s ’search engine/link driven democracy’ into a social ‘voting/like button driven democracy’ the more ground it stands to lose. Facebook has the competitive advantage, having the retrospective of how search engines operate (algorithms, links, etc) but the reverse isn’t true, since there has never been a social community with the size and force of Facebook. Leaving Google scrambling for strategic opportunities.
The bottom line is that further democratizing the web through the organic power of social interaction is much more efficient, effective, and powerful than links and algorithms. After all, we haven’t yet created fully functional artificial intelligence, so how can algorithms beat the opinions and actions of the dynamic masses clicking the ‘like’ button and voting for the most interesting, useful, and meaningful content?
Good luck Google.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Social Media Influence: The Power of Group Buying
July 27th, 2010
Group Buying Power
Beyond these tools, there are other platforms that help to leverage the social media ‘concept’ by, for instance, focusing group buying power. The best example of this is Groupon. Groupon, featured on multiple national news outlets, has been an incredible boost for many small businesses – and the potential for major brands may be just around the corner. The basic is idea is that your business offers a special, but requires a minimum threshold of buyers to activate the special. If the minimum isn’t met within a certain time frame, the deal is off – and the business pays nothing, the consumers pay nothing. But, if the minimum is met, all consumers make the required purchase and Groupon sends a check the same day to the business. In other words, offer a special and if everyone buys – you win, and Groupon only takes a percentage of the resulting transactions. Otherwise, it costs you nothing.
Here is the video, explaining how it works:
Learn How Groupon Works! from The Point on Vimeo.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Social Media and Search
July 19th, 2010
Social Media and Search
When Twitter integrated into the search engines, things became more ‘real time’ results oriented for those seeking up-to-the-minute information. Google started to include Twitter content in search engine results pages.
Facebook is obviously positioning towards dominating Google, and vice versa. Facebook isn’t quite as ‘real time’ as Twitter in regards to the instantaneous spread and sharing of information. Please note, I am not saying it isn’t as capable, it’s just that Twitter’s 140 character limit has made it the ‘fastest’ way to get to the point and therefore generally creates a faster distribution of information.
Foursquare wants to be part of this picture – but how? Well, quite simply, dynamic maps. Imagine if you could see people (in or out of your social network) in real-time congregating at specific locations: bars, clubs, sporting events. That would be a powerful way to figure out what people are actually doing – and more importantly
where they are doing it.
As the social media picture continues to evolve, search engines will figure out better ways to leverage the incredibly semantic and real-time data available into more relevant results for users. Of course, that’s only if the social media companies themselves don’t create their own search engine platforms (Facebook) and keep other major search engines (Google) scrambling for a competitive answer (Orkut hasn’t work so well yet, Google, but not a bad effort).
Do you believe social media’s ultimate result will be better search?
Popularity: 6% [?]
The Value of a Facebook Fan: All Facebook Fans Are Not Created Equal
July 6th, 2010
How much is a Facebook fan worth?
But for those major brands spending big bucks to generate fans via marketing dollars, are these funny and sometimes clever fan pages generating a less expensive way to drive fanning?
By fanning the page, users had the name of the fan page show up in their wall feed and found some enjoyment out of it. Generally, after viewing many of these myself, this was the extent of their participation. They simply liked the idea of the phrase or name of the fan page, and ‘liked’ the page to have it show in their status.
Here are a few examples:
“I wish I could make it through a full tube of Chapstick before I lose it”
“Pretending to text while walking pass someone u don”t want to speak to”
“I hate it when you’re with MC Hammer and he doesn’t let you touch anything.”
“choking on your drink when someone says something funny”
Are all of these fans being generated in a way that leave major brands scratching their heads? After all, these brands spend a lot of money to reach and generate new fans. And here we have all kinds of fan pages created by all different types of people, with numbers that meet or exceed some major brands.
At first glance, it might appear that these fan page creators a ‘genius’ in their own right. That they have unlocked a ’secret’ that other marketers haven’t, and that secret is equivalent to the money spent for major brands to generate fanning. But this is not true, for all of the following reasons.
All fans are not created equal. A ‘fan’ who happens to see a funny title or fan page name, and decides to ‘like’ it, does so in a much different state of mind with a different set of expectations. He or she thinks it’s funny, and knows that some of his or her friends will likely see the name or title of the fan page appear on their profile wall. And that is literally the extent of the expectations for the majority of users. Now, consider that a fan generated through a promotion, facebook ad, or other activity used by major brands to recruit fans has a much different set of expectations. These fans are much more ‘durable’ in the sense that they are ‘liking’ the particular fan page with a specific set of expectations in mind, that likely exceed the ‘title or name’ showing up in their wall feed. Thus, they are more likely to hold increased value for the brand as extended participants.
So, two fan pages held side by side – one created by a major brand, and the other created by a ‘rogue’ creator do not hold the same value even if both have the same amount of fans, or a reasonably similar amount. If you look at the interactions from the fans, you will see a difference in the ‘type’ of interactions and the ‘value’ that the users put in their comments and actions.
Here is one example for you to view and judge for yourself:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/ChapStick?ref=ts
‘Official’ brand page.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/I-wish-I-could-make-it-through-a-full-tube-of-Chapstick-before-I-lose-it/340639390740?ref=ts
‘Rogue’ fan page not affiliated with the official brand.
View the ‘types’ of comments along with the perceived value of those comments, and judge for yourself.
It seems that Facebook will have to sort out how to handle the trend. Now, they have a large and growing group of fan pages being used for what seems to be an unintended purpose – which could ‘water down’ the overall perceived value of fan pages. Yet, there is something justifiably permissible in that the users, in large numbers, feel that something in the viral nature of humor and how fan pages are shared, fits together. It might be wise for Facebook to consider this further and find a way to elevate the use of this learning and improve the platform appropriately.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Facebook and Search Engine Optimization: Google Beware
June 25th, 2010
Facebook and SEO
In my recent article in March, as Facebook surpassed Google as the number one online destination in the U.S., I mentioned that defining ROI in social media has been difficult and therefore many brands have stayed on the sidelines – perhaps this will open up the doors further for brands, as search engine results and the associated traffic are a measurable component and relevant when speaking about ROI. Some important notes to consider about this new development, according to the All Facebook article, is that you must include Facebook’s Open Graph in your website for it to translate into search results on the Facebook platform. In other words, by installing Open Graph on your website users who search for content in the ’search’ field on Facebook will be more likely to see your website. Here is the quote from Facebook, via All Facebook’s article: “all Open Graph-enabled web pages will show up in search when a user likes them”.”
Back in November, Google has released a social search featured – obviously recognizing that search engine results that can be drawn from your personal social circle are more likely to be trusted. In other words, if you search for a product, restaurant, or other information and someone in your social circle has already posted something related to your search in a Tweet, or in another social media network – your search results would show the ‘friend’ in your social circle and what they posted about the topic/place/product. Now, you have a personal connection with the information and more reason to trust it. Read more about Google’s Social Search.
So the competition heats up as Facebook starts to integrate search engine results in their Facebook platform, and Google tries to integrate social network results in their search engine.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Social Media and Trust: Coca-Cola could have an advantage of 650 million people
May 6th, 2010
Coca-Cola Fan Page Stats
Considering a recent article in AdAge about what social media will look like in 2012 it seems logical that we are going to now experience the full merging of information on the web and our trusted social connections. We have already seen search engines indexing real-time social media results, but how much more powerful do those results become when the social media results are pulled from your own social circle of trusted friends? Aren’t you more likely to trust a website/brand/product that your friend John used, rather than search engine results that you never heard of and no one in your social circle has had experience using? It makes complete sense – so much so, that it will become the way of the future.
This is extraordinary news for brands looking for further market affirmations that they have been on the right track – building Facebook Fan Pages with millions of followers, and engaging consumers in social causes.
Why? Think about how much further ahead Coca-Cola will be when they have 5 million+ consumer connections in social media. Consider what will happen when friends of those 5 million+ consumers search for related terms to soda/beverages online: they will see Coca-Cola in the search results. How significant is the reach of those 5 million+ consumers? Consider that the average Facebook user has 130 friends, therefore:
5,000,000 consumer connections x 130 friends avg = potential reach of 650,000,000
To connect the final dots, this means that potentially 650,000,000 could see Coca-Cola in their trusted search results as social media and information on the web become further enveloped to provide users more trusted and credible results.
How do you see social media in 2 years? 5 years?
Popularity: 3% [?]
‘Become a Fan’ changing, Facebook Fan Pages will say ‘Like’
April 20th, 2010Facebook was supposed to roll out the change from ‘Become a Fan’ to ‘Like’ today. According to Christopher Heine, of Clickz.com, Facebook had communicated that their research pointed towards a higher level of comfort for Facebook users when ‘liking’ versus ‘becoming a fan.’
Facebook also communicated that advertisers should now use “Find us on Facebook” or “Like us on Facebook” instead of “Become a Fan.” Many advertisers plan so far in advance, that it’s likely many will still use “Become a Fan” for the near term due to ‘already-approved’ campaigns and signage. Facebook also says that Fan Pages will still be called “Fan Pages.”
Facebook Fan Page Changes
No doubt there will be some confusion in the Facebook-sphere for users who didn’t ‘get the memo’ and will only slowly figure out the change. However, Facebook did put a notice on the platform for users and subsequent FAQ’s to help with questions about the new “like button” for Facebook Fan Pages. (scroll down to “Liking a Page” at this link: http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=profileconnections)
Do you think the change from “Become a Fan” to “Like” will make a difference? Good or bad?
UPDATE: It appears as though Facebook didn’t make the universal switch over today, despite initial indications. Look for the change to come through very soon though, Facebook already has notices on the platform about the change, so it will be coming through shortly.
Popularity: 20% [?]
LinkedIn: More Relevant Than Ever
April 2nd, 2010
LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman, started the professional social networking site in 2003. The ultra-connected Hoffman was a founding board member and executive vice president at PayPal and also put his money into multiple investments, including Facebook, so his mind and money kept finding it’s way into the right place, and years ahead of the curve.
The professional-networking and resume site was not nearly as dynamic as MySpace (in it’s heyday) and Facebook. Members of our staff recall a few years ago when LinkedIn really seemed to show up in everyone’s inbox – whatever LinkedIn did to race through the professional community, had started to work. But, as Facebook rose the threat of users bringing their resumes to the Facebook Platform seemed plausible. LinkedIn needed to make some changes to keep it’s relevancy and unique selling point.
It did. After gathering some key staff, including former Yahoo executive Jeff Weiner as CEO, LinkedIn put development on hold and went back to fix the ‘motor’ so-to-speak. It updated servers for faster page loading, and enhanced algorithms making recommendations and site features much more relevant and useful to users. Now, they have made a home in the minds of recruiters and professionals looking to network and share information with some of the best business talent working today.
LinkedIn has worked to incorporate features such as Twitter, and blogs – bringing all of the ‘intellectual’ content that comes with it. Back in December, Social Media and The Big W noted that LinkedIn had opened their platform to developers for the first time on November 23rd, 2009. On December 28th, 2009, LinkedIn’s iPhone App was released – a huge upgrade. The app was much cleaner, more useful, and even had a great feature called ‘in-person’ allowing you to connect via smart-phones simply by standing next to one-another and enabling the feature.
Smart profile-optimization techniques for users include: adding keywords to their resumes for recruiters and other businesses to find, incorporating blogs and Twitter, and gathering recommendations. Whether employed, or unemployed, LinkedIn users can find the connections useful for new business and for employment opportunities. Finding connections to potential new business (clients) gives companies a ‘foot-in-the-door’ – it’s a reason for the ‘cold-contact’ to give you a little more consideration than they would if you had no connection whatsoever, and this could be the difference between hearing what you have to say, and never getting a return call. This presents LinkedIn not only as an ‘employment networking opportunity’ but also a strong business development tool.
LinkedIn has also been very strict with networking, using technology that allows for introductions, and connections using ‘qualifier’ notes. In other words, if you want to connect with someone new – LinkedIn wants to tell them how you know them. If you don’t know them, you have the option to be introduced through common connections. If you abuse connections, whereby you try to connect to a ton of people that don’t know you without an introduction, you could find yourself penalized in several ways. This keeps contacts and connections highly-relevant, to all users, and minimizes distractions that could be created from abusers of the platform.
Have you used LinkedIn to get a job? Have you used it for new business? What has your experience been?
Popularity: 8% [?]
Facebook Races Past Google, Brands Risk Becoming Irrelevant
March 25th, 2010
Facebook vs Google
What does this mean? It means the rise of SMO (Social Media Optimization) and the continued competition between search engines and social media as a primary destination. It’s obvious that both social media, and search capability are important – who will be the first to find the perfect blend of the two technologies, making it seamless for users to find relevant, trustworthy information online through friends and resources? Well, one thing is for sure, brands that have continued to stand at the sidelines may find themselves completely irrelevant by the time they figure out what is happening.
Consider that a websites purpose is to engage your users online, and search engines provide the gateway into your website (along with advertising) rolling out the red carpet for your visitors in the way that your brand wants to be perceived.
Now, ‘what if’ you had consumers creating websites for your brand and sharing them with other consumers – and talking about your brand at the same time? All while you stand by and watch the conversation continue, without any ability to contribute to what is being said? Welcome to the continued evolution of marketing and consumer engagement. The longer you wait to establish a presence, the harder your entry will be into the space. Many brands are already finding that ‘rogue groups’ are forming for consumers to hold conversations and exchange information.
Those that have already entered the space, meaning Facebook, Twitter, and other top social sites, will find themselves with a foothold and the ability to credibly engage their consumers in conversations as a meaningful participant (provided they understand the medium). Aligning with ’cause-related’ partners, and genuinely offering help to rectify consumer complaints and issues in this space will breed trust, and loyalty. The ‘gray’ area of ROI in social media has prevented many brands from coming into the space, the problem is that this ‘renaissance’ isn’t necessarily about the ‘profit’ of getting into social media – but more so the consequences of not getting into social media for major brands. And, no doubt, as more applications are created and more technological advances occur there will be an increased ability for brands to subsequently profit (ecommerce has already entered into the Facebook platform) in a measurable way from the space. But for now, it’s the forthcoming consequences that will create ‘case-studies’ for brands that remain on the sideline. Missing the benefits, and more importantly, missing the change in ’status-quo’ taking place.
What stories have you seen or read, that may demonstrate the above? Do you disagree?
Popularity: 10% [?]
How Geo-location in Social Media and Mobile Advertising Will Change Everything
March 21st, 2010
Phony Evolution
Why does all of this matter? Because if you connect the dots – the picture that is forming signals further evolution in the current renaissance of all things social, advertising, and technology.
Here’s why…
Back in December, Social Media and the Big W predicted that this would be the year of ‘geo-location.’ What is geo-location? It is the ability of mobile-users to report to others their physical location using their mobile devices. It can be in the form of two iPhone users with an application like ‘Where r u?’ that lets one user ask the other to share their current location, which then pops-up a ‘pin’ on a Google Map to show where they are. It can also be in the form of ‘Foursquare’ – which is a social community that you join for free, where you may find some of your other online friends, and use the Foursquare application on your mobile phone to ‘tag’ locations. First, you go to a business or location like, for instance, Starbucks. (who just became one of the first major brands to start testing the waters with a Foursquare promotion in Starbucks) Then, you open the Foursquare application on your mobile phone and it will look at your physical location and tell you what places nearby have been ‘tagged’ or ‘created.’ You can ‘create’ a new location, if no one else has yet, or ‘check in’ if the location already exists. If you are the most frequent person to ‘check in’ – you become the ‘mayor’ for that location and this is why businesses are starting to catch-on by rewarding the ‘mayor’ with free incentives. This drives more ‘check-ins’ and therefore more business, as users compete to become the ‘mayor’ and receive the perks that go along with it. That’s geo-location, and one example of how it applies – not to mention, as ‘The Big W’ mentioned in a recent blog post, that Facebook is taking the wraps off of it’s location-sharing feature at the f8 conference.
Now, realizing that the geo-location social applications will create an exponential rise in usage from mobile devices, couple the above ‘geo-location’ developments with the opportunity created for advertisers – here comes AdMob. (In 2008, Google CEO Eric Schmidt appeared on CNBC’s Mad Money and gave his prediction that mobile ad revenues would eventually outstrip conventional web advertising, based upon a a shift in mobile platform usage and technology) All of these new users are now discovering the advantages of using their mobile devices for location-sharing (friends and family, as well as discounts at businesses and other rewards), increased real-time communication in social media (Facebook applications), and multi-media sharing (MMS) without opening up the computer. All of these ‘eyeballs’ are coming for all of the aforementioned reasons, and those that were betting on it, like AdMob, will reap the rewards.
Consider that, according to the International Telecommunication Union we have 4.6 billion wireless subscribers globally. That means that cell phones out-number total desktop and laptops by almost 5x’s. What’s more, how many of us walk around with our laptops while we are running around in the car or walking? Not many. But how many of us carry our mobile devices? This means advertisers can offer real-time highly-specific offers to users based on location – and now you could find yourself walking by a store and receive a real-time offer on your smartphone that is just to good to bypass…now your feet come through the front door – and so does your wallet. (or purse)
Do a little research and you will also find that online (web-based) conversion rates are traditionally less than 1 percent – but mobile advertising conversion rates reportedly average between 5 and 7 percent. Which one would you use?
How do you feel about mobile-advertising, and what experiences can you share?
Popularity: 100% [?]
Twitter Growth: 140 Employees and 70,000+ Apps
March 3rd, 2010
The recent newsletter from Biz Stone, also offers a ‘tip of the hat’ to the humanity and ’cause-related’ application of Twitter in projects like helping Haiti through Twitter as in Hope140 and Fledgling, a project geared towards bringing books to poor regions of the world.
Watch for more explosive growth this year, as developers will now lift the platform to perform/apply in ways that could amaze everyone and truly show the power of the medium.
Not sure what apps are available? Check out our article about a credible resource to find great Twitter applications. What ideas would you like to see applied to Twitter, by developers?
Popularity: 1% [?]
Big Facebook Fan Page Changes Coming: Designers/Developers Take Notice
January 27th, 2010
Fan Page Changes
Basically, it boils down to three major changes for Facebook Fan Page administrators:
1. Facebook is getting rid of the “Boxes” tab
2. Facebook is removing the ability to use iFrames on Fan Pages (Developers – take notice!)
3. Facebook is shrinking the maximum Fan Page width from 760 pixels wide to 520 pixels wide
Not sure what this means for your Fan Page? For major brands across the board – this will likely impact their Fan Page executions. Many brands have customized tabs using large graphics, and some have built applications operating in iFrames. They will need to get their creative departments to create resized-graphics that will fit the new width, and they will have to figure out how to work around not using iFrames. The FBML (Facebook Markup Language) will help many developers solve this issue, but Facebook also offers the following solution:
If you currently use an iFrame in your page and must preserve the content of one or more of your iFrames: Create a wrapper application that lives on a canvas page. This application can have iFrames since it sits on a canvas page. Have this light weight application include the image of what you want to display, with an “Activate” button. Link the “Activate” button to the canvas page wrapper application. More information here: http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Fb:iframe
The boxes tab is used on many small business Fan Pages, as well as major brands. Therefore, check your fan page and see if you have a tab called “Boxes” – it will be going away with this change.
Facebook has indicated the timing is for the end of February sometime, but would not specify a date.
Don’t forget to check your Fan Page against the above changes! It is likely Facebook will follow up with more details to the greater community as the changes approach.
Popularity: 14% [?]
10 Strategic Social Media Approaches and Best Social Media Practices
January 17th, 2010
Social Media Best Practices
Cause related initiatives build momentum as users pass along information in order to support the core cause. Brand affinity, as a measured component of the program, is secondary to the audience and therefore becomes more ‘acceptable’ as shared content. This opens the gate for users to share freely among friends in their social network, expanding the reach and effectiveness of the campaign. In short, the ‘cause’ makes the association with the ‘brand’ acceptable to participants. They don’t mind a Hewlit Packard logo if it means classrooms will be getting much needed books and materials, as in this excellent social media campaign by HP.
2. Always listen.
Listen to what your fans and users are talking about. You may not always like what you are hearing, but this is the evolution of the connection between brands/businesses and consumers. Think of it as having access to a focus group of generally positive consumers. If they aren’t positive, find out why and explore how to address it. If you aren’t sure how to address it – ask.
Okay, some legal department staff members are reading this and laughing, “Ya, we are a worldwide brand with 2 million fans on Facebook and you want us to ask them how to fix something?” Yes. Who better to tell you? Look at the difference in consumer response when you compare companies that address issues, and those that deny they even exist. AT&T is finally making some efforts to address consumer complaints about service failures, after months (and longer) of making excuses. One way they are addressing such a large problem is by releasing an app called “Mark the Spot” allowing users to mark the location where service problems occur.
Listen to your consumers. It is an opportunity.
3. Encourage the conversation.
Show your listeners you can be a part of the conversation without getting in the way. Ask relevant questions to things they care about – even if it may sometimes by out of your industry. Michelin publishes guides that review restaurants – while tires cannot be perpetually relevant, these guides often generate a growing amount of press, and now that is translating into Michelin’s social media.
4. When possible, let your fans respond to negative comments.
A consumer defending your product is much more powerful and acceptable, than a direct communication from a company to a consumer. This immediately activates a ‘David and Goliath’ perspective in the minds of some media-watchers, and even if you are right – it won’t matter because you are the 800-pound gorilla.
5. Evolve.
Change is the innovator of progress – even if all you are able to do is creatively ‘refresh’ your social media presence with new graphics treatments – do so. It keeps away the ‘stale’ appearance of a static brand. Coca-Cola’s Facebook Fan Page does a great job of refresh their Facebook Fan Page Custom Landing Tab on a regular basis.
6. Admit mistakes.
When you make a mistake, even as a brand, use it as an opportunity to respond and leverage the attention to demonstrate your willingness to do better for your consumers and make things right. It won’t make everyone happy – you can’t. But it will help a great deal, and can actually produce more loyal-consumers. Jet Blue’s social media customer service and responses to past PR emergencies are great examples.
7. Help social media influencers discover themselves.
Why not ask your community for brand-loyal people to step forward and offer their influence? Find a tactful way to audit their influence – perhaps by their geographic location, or personal network. But be very careful with this activity, as you may receive interest from a few that wouldn’t convert into worthwhile ambassadors – but you still have to treat them all like the valuable assets they are. Otherwise, you could turn a positive ambassador into a sour consumer.
8. Consolidate your fan base.
Look for loosely organized or pre-existing groups that may have already been created, if you have a large brand. It is perfectly possible (we have done it for some of our clients) to launch a community (i.e. Facebook Fan Page) with thousands or even tens-of-thousands of fans from day one. We recommend sending the organizers of those groups a gift, and requesting the migration of the entire group into your official brand community.
9. Recognize that this is not interruption marketing.
For the few people who haven’t heard the message yet: don’t speak to your audience like they are watching TV and you have 30 seconds to sell them. Social media communication is a conversation. Try to remember how you feel when a salesman knocks on your door – these users have let your brand or business into their personal network, and therefore opened the potential for you to communicate with their friends. This means you went from no direct relationship with the consumer, to an opt-in channel of communication – they are giving you a chance to show why they should keep in touch. Don’t give them a reason to disconnect, give them more reasons to engage with others in your group or social community.
10. Derive social media insights.
Many frustrated marketers complain that there are no social media ROI measurement tools and that social media is not nearly as powerful as all the hype surrounding it. Social media is largely derivative – in other words, if you don’t ask or engage – no one will talk. It’s like having the phone number of a great business contact and never dialing because you are too afraid to call. Call. Sometimes the answer will be ‘no,’ and sometimes it will be ‘maybe.’ Sometimes it will even be ‘yes’ – but it is common sense that it is networking that builds businesses and sales. Try throwing your phone away and not communicating. Then try to land a job after 6 months. You become irrelevant if you don’t engage. You now have the opportunity to stop listening to what a marketing team ‘thinks’ your consumers want – and can instead ask the consumers directly. Social media is largely derivative, and if you aren’t intelligently deriving insights through engagement and conversation, than you are missing the golden opportunity at your fingertips.
What other great strategies and best practices can you contribute?
Popularity: 6% [?]
What is your Social Media Alert and Response Team Emergency Plan? Get a SMART EP.
January 10th, 2010Are you prepared?
Social Media Alert and Response Team, an acronym that describes an immediate emergency plan involving a key group of decision-makers within your company or organization, that can respond to a potentially disastrous conversation chain or thread of negative consumer feedback starting to gain momentum within your social media presence.
Social Media Alert and Response Team
In social media, often the speed of the response can be more important than the content of the response. In other words, if you take 3 days to respond to a negative thread or potentially harmful chain of conversation – you can not only miss the boat but truly ignite a fire that could grow exponentially by taking so long to address the issue. The delay could consequently cost you the short window you have to resolve any potential issues.
So, how do you prepare to respond?
1. First, recognize that this will require key decision-makers within your organization.
Large companies, for instance pharmaceutical corporations, have a very established and methodical chain of process in order to command levels of approvals. This has served to protect them from legal action when making specific claims to their products and dealing with the unavoidable small percentage of users that may have bad reactions to specific products. In short, the larger your company, the more important a SMART EP is to your company to expedite urgent approvals in a clutch situation.
Determine who is involved in your standard social media exchanges and responses. This may start with an agency, if your social media is outsourced. Here is one possible example of a social media approval process:
Agency (posts messages/interactions) -> eMarketing (oversees online marketing initiatives) -> Brand (central decision-making for all things marketing) -> Legal (trademark, copyright, and other protective oversight)
In each of these divisions, there can be several levels of approval and structured management. However, when activating a SMART EP only one decision-maker in each division should be recognized and consulted in order to process the response quickly and efficiently. It should be understood that this individual will, to the best of his or her ability given the set of circumstances, approve and refine the recommended response as best he or she can. It is pivotal that the company or organization recognize that the balance of speed versus fully approved dialogue at this stage is monumentally in favor of the agile response. A slightly off-target response at this point is exponentially more powerful than a completely on-target response 3 days later. The decision-makers shoulder the burden of the “best available response” given the time-constraints and resources available.
2. Second, establish a criteria for using this chain of command to recognize when it should be activated.
Not every negative conversation is an emergency. Not every negative conversation is a black-eye, instead, most can be properly addressed and leveraged as an opportunity to demonstrate good-will from the company or organization. View most of the negative conversations as an opportunity to change minds. Even if the naysayer is completely unmoved by your outreach, most readers will recognize your efforts and if they are appropriate and reasonable – the results mean that you win over more potential consumer good-will.
Since the SMART EP chain of command is an exercise requiring some risks, it should be reserved for the appropriate circumstances. Abusing the chain could affect the sensibility of all involved and eventually result in a less-efficient process.
So how do you recognize when to activate the chain? This is different for every industry, and relies on several factors including but not limited to:
A. Demographics (younger demographics may respond faster, and require more SMART EP activity)
B. Size of SM presence (For instance, if you have a Facebook Fan Page community of 500K – you will need to be more proactive in order to maintain control. It is fairly common to have responses to a posting on a Fan Page of 100K+ average around 30-60 in just the first two hours of commenting. Smaller communities can be controlled a bit easier, since the response times will likely be slower among users.)
3. Third, set a specific time-table for each decision-maker to provide their individual input. The time table should be absolute, and when the time has expired – the decision-maker must respond to the best of their available knowledge.
This is critical to keep the circuit wired, between decision-makers and actively responding to the event. Without this critical component, the process chain can stall and the next part of the approval sequence can’t begin. Here is how to address the timing of the process:
A. Set a maximum duration for the entire process. This will again, vary, based upon the size of your social community and other factors. But for this example, let’s set an expectation of 4 hours assuming you are operating a Facebook Fan Page and the size of your community is approximately 100K. This is also assuming that your community is only moderately active, and you average 15-60 user comments per day even when not engaging your users.
B. Divide the maximum duration as-appropriate considering the number of decision-makers (departments) involved in the process (obviously, the fewer, the better).
C. Expect further reaction and engagement after your response has been posted, and consider a phone conference or meeting between the decision-makers to gauge the level of further response and action necessary. Your first response is the most important, and can reset (in a positive direction) the public’s perception. You may find that after your initial response, the SMART EP counsel can now allow the conversation to progress on it’s own or designate a special liaison to address the smaller issues that could ripple from the conversation thread. But overall, the initial response should set the expectations and appropriate response guidelines for your team, and your audience. In other words, once everyone agrees on how to address the conversation/issues, it should be relatively obvious how further responses should be positioned in regards to this issue/conversation thread and you could designate a single liaison to conduct these responses expeditiously.
There are plenty of examples of poor responses and poor response times, that snowballed into PR nightmares in Social Media. Spend a little time in Google and you will see examples that include Domino’s social media disaster and the Hyatts social media disaster, although this social media snowball was a little different in how it developed. There are also excellent examples of social media responses – such as Jet Blue’s excellent social media response (http://www.clickz.com/3625106). You can’t choose when a social media nightmare could develop, but you can prepare and make sure you execute a proper response. This potentially saves resources, and revenue, as well as a lot of time.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Where in the world is your social community?
January 4th, 2010At a recent social media conference held by the Business Development Institute in New York City, McDonalds presented their own insights on the lessons learned from social media initiatives that they have engaged in. One of the first, and most basic steps, is to determine which social communities to engage since different regions of the world are drawn to different social communities. As you can see by this great world social media map, global users have different loyalties depending on their region. Social Media WorldWide
For any global corporation, like McDonald’s, the first challenge is to make sure they they are speaking on the right social media platform for each country or region they are engaging. In the United States, it is Twitter and Facebook, but across the globe there are many challengers gaining steam.
For smaller corporations and businesses, it is a good idea to even consider second-tier communities – not just the headliners like Facebook. Why? Because these other communities can often maintain an active and reasonably large community of potential consumers – and some of these communities are aggressively offering advertising incentives and cross-promotional opportunities to get the attention of potential advertisers.
For instance, we were recently approached by “Tagged” regarding advertising in their social community for a major brand, for which we currently operate a Fan Page community of 100K+ users. The company representative, in his own words, stated that “Tagged is the third largest social community in the world that you have never heard of.” He was also very open to assisting in cross-promotion for the current Facebook Fan Page presence to create a win/win scenario that would increase reach across both platforms. This is just one example of how these sub-communities can help smaller businesses and corporations leverage reach and advertising dollars. But buyer beware: make sure, of course, that your target demo is drawn to these specific communities.
If you are willing to devote time and effort into some worthwhile research, you may find that you can reach a comparably large target in a community other than Facebook – where your advertising dollars can go farther.
Here is a list of 38 social communities that you may or may not have heard of:
bebo.com – Countries: United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand
blackplanet.com – Countries: United States, Canada, Nigeria, India, Germany
tagged.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Mexico
imeem.com – Countries: United States, Thailand, Philippines, South Korea, Japan
hi5.com – Countries: Mexico, Thailand, Portugal, Peru, United States
orkut.com – Countries: India, Brazil, United States, Japan, Pakistan
ning.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy
buzznet.com – Countries: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, France
multiply.com – Countries: Indonesia, United States, Philippines, Thailand, India
cyworld.com – Countries: South Korea, United States, Japan, Canada, Thailand
netlog.com – Countries: Italy, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Turkey
livejournal.com – Countries: Russia, United States, Ukraine, China, Singapore
ikihow.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia
squidoo.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada
flixster.com – Countries: United States, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Mexico
sonico.com – Countries: Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela
xanga.com – Countries: Hong Kong, United States, India, United Kingdom, Singapore
skyrock.com – Countries: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Algeria, Morocco
cafemom.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany
fastpitchnetworking.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Australia, Pakistan
propeller.com – Countries: United States, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, United Kingdom
fotolog.com – Countries: Argentina, Spain, Chile, Mexico, Brazil
current.com – Countries: United States, India, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Italy
revver.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey
care2.com – Countries: United States, India, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia
ryze.com – Countries: India, United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Pakistan
mixx.com – Countries: India, United States, Pakistan, Indonesia, United Kingdom
badoo.com – Countries: Italy, Spain, France, Mexico, Venezuela
tribe.net – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany
broadcaster.com – Countries: China, United States, India, South Korea, United Kingdom
xing.com – Countries: Germany, Austria, Turkey, Switzerland, United States
grono.net – Countries: Poland, China, United Kingdom
sphinn.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada
viddler.com – Countries: United States, United Kingdom, India, Italy, Germany
slashdot.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada
newsvine.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Pakistan, Germany
thisnext.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, China, Canada
dealigg.com – Countries: United States, India, China, Indonesia
Have you seen any other social communities that you can share?
Popularity: 2% [?]
