Email Marketing vs Social Media Marketing
Posted: October 11, 2009 Filed under: Tactics, Tools | Tags: E-mail marketing, Electronic mailing list, Facebook, Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, twitter Leave a comment »by Sherry Heyl
On Friday I had the opportunity to speak to a packed room of artists anxious to learn how leverage social media to increase attendance and reach new audience members.
At one point during the presentation we compared email with social media. One attendee was willing to use some of her numbers as an example.
Her Facebook Fan Page has a few hundred fans as well as her Twitter account. Her tweets are often retweeted by a few media Twitter accounts, therefore potential views of her updates grows exponentially each time it gets retweeted.
However, even with exponential growth, her reach via the social media channels that she has been nurturing is not even close to the reach of her email list of over 15,000.
So is that a knock out hit for email?
Many organizations have spent a lot of time and effort to grow and nurture their email list over many years. Of course email will have a greater reach than the Twitter account or Fan Page that was set up this year. Does this mean we should just stick with what we already have significantly invested in?
Consider that Social Media is rapidly becoming part of the everyday routine for the majority of the population.
Some recent statistics show:
• 3 out of 4 Americans use social technology
• Visiting social networking sites is the 4th most popular online activity –actually ahead of personal email
• Time spent on social networks is growing at 3x the overall Internet rate, accounting for 10% of all Internet time
• Estimated 100,000,000 videos are viewed on Youtube per day • 13,000,000 articles are available on Wikipedia
• 3,600,000,000 photos has been received on Flickr since June 2009, that’s 1 photo per every two citizens of this planet
• 5,000,000,000 minutes spent on Facebook each day
• Total amount of time spent on Facebook increased by 566% between December 2007-December 2008
• Facebook’s greatest growth in global audience numbers has come from people aged 35-49
• 93% of social media users believe that a company should have a presence in social media
• 85% of social media users believe that a company should interact with its customers in social media
Resources: Nielsen, Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009 Forrester, The Growth of Social Technology Adoption, 2008 DiggitalBuzzBlog.com Wikipedia.com
So does the above statistics and accelerated trends mean we just throw out our email list and start focusing on our social media efforts?
You do not need to look at your marketing efforts as an either/or situation. The reality is many people still want to receive email newletters. However many people are also opting out of email newsletters in favor of RSS feeds from their favorite blogs, or to keep up with their favorite brands and organizations through Facebook, or to get real time updates via Twitter or SMS.
We are at a time where your audience wants to be able to choose what information they get and how they get it and they expect to have those options.
As communicators, we not only can leverage social media channels to provide those options to our audience, but we can also leverage our social media channels to increase viral word of mouth marketing and to get better insights into what people are interested in and responding to.
Here are five steps that will help you evolve your email marketing list to the growing world of social media.
- Let your email audience know that special discount codes are available via Twitter or on your Facebook Fan page.
- Highlight the hot topics on you social media sites on your email newsletters.
- Virtually introduce your email subscribers to your most engaged community members.
- Only provide an introduction to your stories via email. Provide a link to your blog were your audience can read and respond to the rest of the story.
- Social Media is still new to most people. Provide tips and tricks to your email audience about how to use Facebook and Twitter.
Have you seen or used other tips and tricks that blend email marketing with social media marketing? Please share.
The 3 Pillars of Social Media Marketing
Posted: September 6, 2009 Filed under: Insights, Tactics | Tags: Customer service, Facebook, Marketing, Relationship marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, twitter Leave a comment »by Sherry Heyl
This past week I faced an interesting challenge that has helped me to confirm my belief that social media will impact every industry and every department within every industry.
Social Media has changed the face of marketing, not by introducing new channels for messaging but by introducing new technical capabilities that have enabled the fusion of multiple customer facing disciplines, including;
Marketing+Sales = Relationship Marketing
Marketing+Customer Services = Customer Relationship Marketing
Marketing+Training = Educational Marketing
I consider these to be the 3 pillars of social media marketing because no matter your industry, these are the 3 disciplines that will impact your bottom line.
Last week I was contacted by the Reusable Industrial Packaging Association. They are hosting their annual conference in New Orleans and considering having a speaker to present how social media can help their business. Tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and such are now becoming mainstream words, but the exact “hows and whys” of these tools still tends to be a mystery to many people.
The people who will be attending this conference are executives of $5 – 40 million companies that are responsible for industrial reusable packaging such as oil drums. Now for several years I have been saying social media impacts EVERY industry and EVERY department within every industry. But I have to admit, this one stumped me for a moment.
The companies represented at the conference will be:
- B2B
- Have no or very little PR needs.
- Have no or very little reputation management concerns.
- Have no or very little concern about protecting their intellectual property.
- Are not necessarily trying to grow their client base.
So why would they need to consider looking at social media for their business?
The more questions I asked the more I learned about how their businesses are family owned and rely on their strong relationships with their clients.
Relationship Marketing
I also learned the importance of efficiency and how it is tied to customer service.
Customer Service Marketing
Beyond that I learned that to have a container not in use is kind of like having a hotel room or plane seat not in use; it is not generating money and potentially even costing money. To put these containers in use it is important to keep “just in time” information published about what is available and the costs and benefits of the containers that are available as well as be ready to respond to changing needs.
Educational Marketing
I explained that tools such as Twitter and Facebook may or may not be what these companies are looking for, but the capabilities of these tools definitely need to be taken in consideration. I explained that social software has the potential of revolutionizing industries such as theirs in much the same way the Just In Time technologies revolutionized similar industries over a decade ago. Together we began to explore the possibilities of illustrating how these companies can become more profitable by becoming more efficient and by communicating information in ways that help their clients become more profitable.
Once again I confirmed, at least to myself, that social media will impact every industry and every department within every industry. I will be delving in to understand the impacts more as I put my presentation together that I will be delivering to the Reusable Industrial Packaging Association annual conference in New Orleans.
How to Create Long Lasting Events
Posted: August 9, 2009 Filed under: Tactics | Tags: Business, Crowdvine, Georgia World Congress Center, Marketing, Social media, Social network service Leave a comment »by Sherry Heyl,
The past two days I had the opportunity to hang out in Birmingham, AL with the IAEE Southeast chapter for their 18th Annual Classic. I was invited to present a Social Networking 101 session.
For the presentation I decided to use case studies to show how by leveraging social media we have increased attendance, awareness, and valuable networking opportunities at events.
We discussed how we worked with the The Atlanta Children’s Shelter to launch their “Tell a Friend” Campaign to promote their first 5K. By developing targeted messages and creating distributable content we were able to get the word out through a variety of peer to peer channels.
For their first 5K the shelter had set the goal to raise $10K. They raised $26K! Today they have a complete social media program in place for every event on their calendar.
We also talked about how Crowdvine has brought so much value to the SoCon events by enabling the attendees to start networking long before the event and to continue networking long after the event. I am very proud of Tony Stubblebine, the creator of Crowdvine, who just posted a celebration to their 2nd birthday!
Finally, I introduced the group to the concept of an un-conference and the magic that happens when you invite the audience to be part of the show.
The next scheduled speaker for the event had an unfortunate delay at the airport, so to fill that time slot I led an impromptu Un-Conference session.
We re-capped the morning sessions which included some great negotiating tips from Claire Gould, such as slow down and read what is on the menus and of course in the contracts. Remember the economics of value, are you really getting the economic value for what you are receiving? Most importantly hold people accountable, if they only deliver 80% of what they promised then you should only pay 80%. Claire also shared with us some great images of the little things that can be done to wow your attendees. As Mark Zimmerman from the Georgia World Congress Center said, “something small can go a long way!”
We also reviewed some great marketing tips that was shared by Charles Allen of the CW Allen Group. He challenged us to look at our marketing messages and ask, can I say:
- “Well I would hope so.” Do you say things that your audience should expect from you already, such as reliable, experts, or promises to do your job?
- Anyone else can say that. Are you just marching to the same drumbeat of everyone else in your industry?
- I can cross out your name and add your competitor’s name and it still works. How is your organization different?
Charles gave s a great formula for creating our message.
- Interrupt (hit your audience hot buttons)
- Engage (promise to educate. Charles said we are in the age of Educational Marketing)
- Educate (Identify your audience’s important and relevant issues and be their guide to solutions)
- Offer (a low risk next step)
- Result (long term business relationship)
The above formula is all about knowing your audience, which can only happen when you listen to them. There is no better place to tap into their conversations than in social media. To launch your social media initiatives you should;
- Understand what your competitors are doing, what is working or not working for them and what you can do better.
- Understand what your audience is looking for and what their hot buttons are.
- Decide the best way to optimize your current communication efforts for social media.
Overall, the elements that go into creating events that make a long lasting impression is nothing new. What is new are the tools that we have today that enable us to be more relevant and add more value to these events. Those who leverage these tools will create mutual long lasting value for their attendees, exhibitors, and for themselves.
Get More from Your Online Interactions
Posted: August 2, 2009 Filed under: Tactics | Tags: Atlanta, Conversation, Customer, Customer service, Social media, Social network service, TripAdvisor Leave a comment »By Sherry Heyl
This past week I had several opportunities to be part of conversations with people who are making great strides in their social media efforts. However the main focus of their efforts have been to get their message to their audience. They sense there is something missing, benefits or opportunities they are not tapping into and that is why I was brought to the table.
There is a common theme I am hearing more and more which is that social media belongs in the realm of customer service. There are many case studies out there that show the damage a disgruntled customer can do to a brand through social media. More and more brands are monitoring social media sites to put out fires before they spread and a few are pro-actively reaching their customers to say thank you or offer additional information.
So what is missing?
Business Intelligence.
One of the companies I met with this week was struggling with getting their customer service group to participate in social media. The challenge that they face is one that is common across all companies I have met with; the belief the social media belongs in the marketing or communications department. The problem is that social media contains conversations, and those conversations span across all departments from sales leads, to customer service opportunities, to consumer generated ideas for new products and services to technical collaboration to influential discussions about financial projections and so on and so on. How can one department filter and appropriately respond to all of these conversations even in a reactionary way, much less work to be part of these conversations in a proactive way?
The answer is to encourage and guide each department to make involvement in social media part of their daily responsibility. Of course for those who feel they have enough on their plate already that may seem simply overwhelming, not to mention many people still do not see the point.
So how can an organization motivate their teams to join the online conversations? Show them the value.
For a customer service team who goes through the day responding to concerns and issues, answering the same questions over and over again, show them the value of being able to build a community where frequently answer questions are discussed in detail, challenge the community to provide suggestions and ideas that make the conversation multi-directional as opposed to the team always answering customer questions. Finally invite the customer service team to the executive table to share the insights they have gained from their interaction with the customers.
Featured Case Study: What Can You Do In Atlanta?
Visitors coming to Atlanta have many choices of where to get information about the city, from various sites like TripAdvisor and Travelocity to bloggers and peers they are connected to in social networks. However the authority of what to do in any city has traditionally been the Convention & Visitors Bureau.
If you call 1-800-ATLANTA you will be direct to an employee of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau whose job is to be able to give you the most informed advise on where to stay, where to dine, where to book your event and what to do in Atlanta.
The growth of social networking sites that address these questions proved to be an opportunity for the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau to better serve their residents and visitors. By training and encouraging their staff to participate in these communities they have increased their reach, added alternate perspectives to community conversations as well as been able to continuously keep their finger on the pulse of the city.
If active participation in social networks is designed to help your team do a better job and contribute to the overall direction of the company, more people would be willing make it part of their responsibilities and in the end everyone, from the customers, to the employees, to the owners of the company, will benefit.
Why Your Social Media Strategy Is Not Working
Posted: July 5, 2009 Filed under: Tactics | Tags: Business, Facebook, Internet Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Social media, Social network service, twitter Leave a comment »by Sherry Heyl
Over the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to launch a couple of social media initiatives that I will also be managing. That will make 4 social media initiatives I will be solely managing plus managing the consulting side of our business and my own personal and family time. This has forced me to be as efficient as possible with how I spend my time, to focus on the core objectives of each activity and to best leverage the tools that are available.
Because two of these initiatives have a rapid launch date and I have been put in complete control of all aspects of the social media program, I have been able to see things from a new angle and I have some new insights as to why many social media programs are not working.
1. It’s About Content Not Conversation.
I know, I know. This goes against everything you have ever read about social media. But think about it, all statistics show that more than 90% of your audience consumes content and less than 10% will contribute. This is like having a conversation with someone who listens but simply refuses to respond…not much of a conversation, huh? But the content is what is keeping them around, they are learning and thinking and will respond in their own way.
2. Personalization Is More Important Than Anything!
Four years ago when I started consulting on social media that #1 concern was reputation management. “What will they say about us?” Most organizations have come to realize that Pandora’s box has been opened and people have the ability to say anything they want to say. That makes for a very noisy web. The response I have seen is that more and more organizations are responding by simply adding to the noise. FAIL
The key to an effective social media program is to get the right message to the right people at the right time through the right channel. This is nothing new in the world of communications. What is new is that people have many channels to choose from. Not long ago the choices were print, a few channels on TV and a few channels on radio. Now the choices are unlimited from blogs to text to social networking sites to video sharing sites to Twitter. Our job is to make sure that our audience can get the message the way they want through the channel they choose to get it from. This is what we refer to as optimizing your communications for social media.
3. Social Media Should SAVE You And Your Audience Time.
If you are stressed about how much time social media takes, you are doing it ALL wrong. This past week I instructed my husband on a few techniques where he can efficiently get and share information with his team using social media. The speed of which he was able to get personalized articles delivered to him as opposed to searching through pages and pages of “old media” truly astounded him.
An effective social media program is about personalized channels and strategic data flow of relevant content. This creates value. Add in the ability for your audience to post their questions, insights, and reviews, what you get is conversation and community. The impact is enhanced business intelligence, more effective R&D, more successful marketing programs and increased customer satisfaction. If these are not the results your social media program is delivering, it is not working!
It’s Not the Tools, It’s the Movement
Posted: June 21, 2009 Filed under: Insights, Tactics, Tools | Tags: Facebook, twitter, YouTube Leave a comment »by Sherry Heyl
This week’s blog post was going to be a recap of a podcast I participated in with Michelle Batten. The podcast can be found here.
As I sat down to write this week’s blog I realized that it would be wrong for me to let this moment in history not go recognized, so I decided to change directions and reflect on what is happening in Iran.
I am not going to claim to know even a small percentage of what is going on in Iran, nor will I get into the politics of who should be doing what. But what I do realize is that this is an important footnote in history.
I call it a footnote because I do believe what we see happening right now is the beginning of a new movement, a new spirit of empowerment.
This is equivalent to the printing press. It has been said that Martin Luther’s act of rebellion was not the first act against the Church, but it became an important footnote in history because his act was furthered by the invention of the printing press.
When we look at our own Revolution in America we recognize that support came from the vast distribution of the great writings of our founding fathers.
Benjamin Franklin was a strong defender of the Freedom of Press. He wrote:
ON THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
by: Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
HILE free from Force the Press remains,And Learning Largesses bestows,
And keeps unlicens’d open House.
We to the Nation’s publick Mart
Our Works of Wit, and Schemes of Art,
And philosophic Goods, this Way,
Like Water carriage, cheap convey.
This Tree which Knowledge so affords,
Inquisitors with flaming swords
From Lay-Approach with Zeal defend,
Lest their own Paradise should end.
The Press from her fecundous Womb
Brought forth the Arts of Greece and Rome;
Her offspring, skill’d in Logic War,
Truth’s Banner wav’d in open Air;
The Monster Superstition fled,
And hid in Shades in Gorgon Head;
And awless Pow’r, the long kept Field,
By Reason quell’d, was forc’d to yield.
This Nurse of Arts, and Freedom’s Fence,
To chain, is Treason against Sense:
And Liberty, thy thousand Tongues
None silence who design no Wrongs;
For those who use the Gag’s Restraint,
First Rob, before they stop Complaint
Without going into the debate of “Old Media” vs “New Media” what we are witnessing today is that the business of media has restricted our access to a free press. Whether it is political favoritism, pressure from advertisers or the need to stay between the established lines as a means to not look biased, or to not cause trouble – our media is no longer free.
I love the work that most of our reporters are doing and I respect their art and talent and most of all their bravery to get the story to the world, but as we have seen the past few days, there are limits to what they can do.
Those limits exist because there are still those who feel they are in control of the message, much like the Church was in control of the message before the printing press.
Today, we witness people taking control of the message, using “new” media to tell their stories. What amazes me most is the tireless efforts of developers around the world working to help people in Iran to get past the media blocks.
The tools, such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are there to empower this movement, but the movement is the spirit within the people.
Perhaps Twitter will be a footnote in this moment in history just like the printing press is a footnote in the history led by Martin Luther. The Printing Press became a footnote because of what it enabled which grew and changed all of humanity. Just like the printing press, what Twitter has enabled is just a spark, a lesson, of what we as humans are able to overcome and how much we can achieve through the freedom to communicate.
Content Distribution for the Evolving Web
Posted: May 31, 2009 Filed under: Tactics Leave a comment »by Sherry Heyl,
Friday I ‘Pinged’ an observation;
When I ‘ping‘ a thought or observation it is posted as a status update on my personal Twitter page, on Facebook, LinkedIN, Plaxo, MySpace, and Google Talk. Ping.fm actually will update over 40 networks at one time.
I started using ping.fm when it was still in closed beta (meaning only people with an invitation code could use it). Initially I was not sure of it’s value. One thing I realized is that with ping.fm I can only update my status, I can’t listen to the other conversations happening, I can not respond to what it going on in the community or see who has responded to me. It is simply a tool to broadcast my thoughts throughout my communities.
My other concern was something that my friend Justin Rubner expressed yesterday in response to my update on Facebook;
I thought about that for a couple of hours. It was truly a concern I had when I first started using ping.fm, but that concern faded after one specific post a couple of years ago.
I had just started using Ping.fm and I was not sure if I should have added LinkedIN to the networks that I update with my personal information. Afterall, people expect LinkedIN to be strictly business, right?
That day I posted;
A very random post indeed. I received three times more responses, casual conversational responses, from my LinkedIN network than I did from any other network. That day I realized that the expectations from LinkedIN were changing and that since we are dealing with people and communities that are constantly evolving, we can never make assumptions about what content is expected or appreciated in the various networks. We actually have to get into the communities and participate to see what works.
For two plus years now I have used ping.fm to update all of my networks and I am often surprised to see which updates gets a reaction from each network. I have also started seeing a new trend which is going to affect how I measure the influence of a blog. When I post a link to my blog on my networks I am noticing that the responses are coming in a variety of forms, not just links to my blog or comments on my blog. People are responding to my blog posts on the status updates that mentioned the blog post.
Back to Justin’s concern about linking all of your updates together, which is a concern that I still share.
The other responses that I received from Friday’s update helped me see what is happening when it comes to content distribution. Many of the responses express appreciation for my observation and commented that they simply stop following such a person on twitter or block their updates in Facebook. I thought for a few hours about this. I have over 1000 people in my LinkedIN network, my personal policy is that I pretty much keep that network open to anyone who wants to connect with me, I prefer to keep Facebook limited to people I actually know, and on my personal Twitter I only follow people who I would hang out with on a casual basis. However not everyone that I would hang out with on a casual basis is on Twitter, many are connected to me on Facebook and several people I know are not on Facebook yet. So if I limit my updates to specific networks I would miss connecting with people I still want to connect with.
My response to Justin was;
Control of what content is consumed and where it is consumed is now in the hands of the consumer. We each have the power to customize our networks. If you follow my updates on Twitter you can block my updates in Facebook.
For those who develop communities this is important to note, you must give the power of personalization to your community members. If you are a content producer you must make sure your content is in various places at one time as well as is distributable so that your fans (and critics) can share your content within their chosen networks.
Social Media Etiquette
Posted: March 29, 2009 Filed under: Tactics Leave a comment »by Sherry Heyl
I was seeking inspiration for today’s blog post and Stacy Williams suggested that I write about Social Media Etiquette.
That is a topic that comes up often, and I never have real exact answers or any playbook that I use with the exception that social media etiquette is similar to regular ol’ business etiquette.
Basically we introduce ourselves to people we want to meet. We speak socially as well as explore where some synergies might occur. We share information of interests and as we get to know each other we might ask and or offer to introduce each other to people they “should know.”
Obviously spam is just plain wrong. This past week there was a spammer in my Ning communities writing on everyone’s wall that she just learned about these fabulous ringtones. That is outright spam. But so were the times when people were using google to search out blog posts about enterprise 2.0 so that they could post a comment to pitch their software. I let it slide on the first post they commented on but when the same comment hit a second post within the same day I had to politely ask them to not spam my site.
What other social media etiquette rules are broken too often?
Kristin Colier mentioned that
I don’t like to be followed in one tweet – and attempt to be sold something in the next… I mean – if you’ve got a great product – I might want to buy it once I see what you have to say… but … at least (as the old saying goes) buy me a drink first. (or a Dwink).
Justin Rubner says
Devoting too much of your Facebook account to marketing and too much of your Twitter account to mindless chatter.
I agree with both insights.
I also came across Greg Verdin’s blog expressing his frustration that people’s Facebook status updates are simply feeds from their Twitter account, and therefore are often without context.
That made me question about the technology that people use to make managing social networks easier to manage – such as automatic responses.
That also got me to thinking about non-responses. Many people have been surprised when I have mentioned to them that not only is it OK to comment after someone comments on your blog, but that you should comment.
Social Media has allowed us to have a dialog with each other on a mass scale without the limits of geography or time. But we still have many other limits that we have to keep in mind as we engage in online conversations.
When someone is speaking to me in person, I can make eye contact, smile, nod my head, and provide many other visual cues that let the other person know that I am listening. Online the only way a person knows you are listening is if you respond to their comments.
We also need to consider our “tone” or choice of words more carefully online. When we are commenting on other people’s blogs or on the walls of their social networks, we have to remember we are virtually coming into their space. We must be respectful. We also need to realize what we say is transparent for many people to read and interpret in many different ways, so we need to think about how our words might come across to many people. Words such as “you” can come across as accusatory, inside jokes that you and a friend share can come across as slander, and so forth.
Finally, one that came up for me recently is that we need to respect which communication tools people prefer to use. Some people really do want to keep their Facbeook profile just for close friends and family and should not feel obligated to allow co-workers and peers into their circle of friends. Believe it or not, not everyone is a huge fan of twitter and constantly connected. With so many communication channels available, we need to start asking the questions how would you like me to connect with you and what is your preferred method for communication?
These are only a few of the learning curves that we are facing as many personalities and cultures clash on the social world wide web. I would love to hear what you have encountered, what you find frustrating and/or questionable.
Also, here are a few other links I found with some helpful information;
The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook
The 11 Rules of Social Media Etiquette
Etiquette in the Age of Social Media
The Many Ways We Use Social Media
Posted: February 22, 2009 Filed under: Tactics Leave a comment »by Sherry Heyl
As more and more people join sites such as Facebook and Twitter, or begin to follow blogs or find that Wikipedia is their primary reference, there seems to be more questions about social media than answers.
This past week I sat at a meeting where everyone in the room was on either LinkedIN or Facebook and everyone in the room agreed that social media was the best way to reach their audience. The challenge was coming to an agreement of what the best approach would be.
I sat and observed as everyone expressed what they felt would be the best approach, from LinkedIN groups to Facebook groups to blogs and branded networks. The disconnect that I witnessed was that everyone was focused on a traditional top down approach. The goal was to decide what the organization wanted to do and then push the strategy down to the people they were trying to reach. The challenge with that approach is that there are no real established rules, no standardized approaches for how people use Social Media.
- There are the early adopters, the people who jumped on Twitter in 2007 and created a community, uncovered uses for the tools and developed add-on applications to enhance the tool. These are people who are on to something new by the time the rest of us figured out that this was something called Twitter.
- There are the casual users who have figured out that they can re-connect with old high school friends on Facebook and maintain their rolodex on LinkedIN but have not really integrated social media tools in their world of business.
- There are the strategic hunters who are actively using social media to find business opportunities and to stay connected with what is going on.
- There are the “project managers” who use social media for specific projects, whether it is to promote a brand or to collaborate with a team and share information.
Many people use social media for more than one of the reasons listed above and they uses different tools, networks, and communities for different purposes.
The very next day I was at a business lunch and the question came up about best practices of “friending” people on each network. Many people see Facebook as the place where they can “hang out” with friends and family and are trying to keep work relationships out of that network circle, so if your organization is trying to promote an event simply in Facebook you will not be able to reach the people who have chosen to keep their network circle closed. Many people are on LinkedIN but for lack of real training on these networks, do not know how to do much more than set up a profile and make connections, so there are stumbling blocks to reach your audience there.
The top down approach to a social media strategy can only work if you are truly able to mandate and manage which networks people will be on and how to use them. In the meeting I spoke about how social media needs to be a bottom up approach. We need to find where people are and then go to where they are. The challenge with that approach, though, is as mentioned above, people have different reasons for being in their various networks and different levels of engagement in each network.
As I explained the situation to my husband he identified that the best approach is neither top down or bottom up, it needs to be a center-out approach. We need to establish our goals and purpose and then reach out (or syndicate content) to the various networks throughout the Universe of Social Media.
What really strikes me is that no matter what we are trying to do with social media, we really need to remember that we are trying to reach individuals, not masses of people, and we are trying to develop a relationship with each individual based on trust, respect, and value. As our attention becomes more and more scattered and fragmented throughout online networks the only way to truly reach people is to not worry so much about where our message should be, but to make sure our communications efforts become more personal/individualized as well as more focused on adding value to the lives of each individual.
Nurturing Your Network(s)
Posted: January 25, 2009 Filed under: Tactics Leave a comment »by Sherry Heyl,
The most common question I hear in regards to social media is “how can a person manage all the social networks that they feel they need to be a part of?”
I have two answers. The first answer is technical. It has to do with the 2 things I call “the math equation you have to learn to go any further in Social Media; Syndication and Tagging.”
Syndication is how information is pushed or fed to another site. The most common example is subscribing to an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed which would be fed into an RSS reader such as Google Reader or Bloglines. This allows the subscriber to receive feeds from various sites into one place.
Most sites have RSS. Even Facebook status updates have an RSS feed. This means that you can pull all the information you want to keep up with into one place. Beyond that there are sites such as Friendfeed.com and Plaxo Pulse which allows you to subscribe to all your “friends” various networks in one place.
Tags are how content is organized on the web. Many sites allow you to subscribe to updates from a specific tag or category. This enables the subscriber to filter just the type of information they want to subscribe to.
However there is a lot more to consider than just how technology can assist in organizing all of your networks. Before you join a network – or ten, and try to figure out how to organize it all, you need to know why you are in those networks in the first place. Who are you trying to connect with and why?
Recently I am getting lots of questions about Twitter. More and more people are joining Twitter, but they do not know why. They are asking me why should they be on Twitter, what value will they get from it? My standard answer, not just for Twitter, but for all social media tools, is it depends on what you want to get from Twitter. Once you know what you are trying to get from a tool or network, then you will know which tool or network will be the most effective, you will know who you want to connect with, and you will know how to get value from your relationships. For example many PR people are finding Twitter a useful tool to stay in contact with the media. Many others use Twitter to stay connected with friends and family scattered throughout the country or world. Others use Twitter to stay up to date on the latest innovations and trends in their industry. But the reality is, most heavy Twitter users rely on Twitter for all of the above.
The thing about online social networks is they have become an extension to our offline social networks. If we stop and think about our offline relationships we can see how many relationships we have cross many different networks. We may play a sport with someone we work with or someone in our spiritual center. Our kids my play with the son or daughter of someone that happens to be a client. Our old high school friend may have just landed a job at a company that is a hot prospect. The reality is our offline relationships have very few boundaries, so it is a curious thing to try to impose such boundaries within our online networks.
The other fascinating challenge of online social networks is trying to decide “what to say.” Back to the Twitter example, a network that allows you 140 characters to make your point. How can a relationship be nurtured in only 140 characters, and the question asked more often, why do I care about the random bite sized thoughts and activities of others?
In our offline worlds we all have many different personas that we exhibit at various points during the day. We are all multi-diminsional and that is what makes us so captivating. The bite sized information feeds keeps the conversations going, allowing people in your network to see the various sides of your personality, to find the areas where there are common interests, and to respond, in their own bite sized information, to you. So, it is important that your online persona is just as multi-faceted and personalized as your offline persona.
But who will care? Again, this goes back to why are you there? You can be on LinkedIN and Plaxo for business, but it will still be OK to have a few friends and family connect to you there as well. You can be on Facebook re-connecting with old friends and staying connected with new friends, but it is perfectily fine to have a few clients connected to you there as well. Imagine how you can strengthen the bond you have with your clients as you learn the little details about them such as their hobbies, interests, favorite music, and so forth. Twitter is much more interesting when you are following your friends but can also keep you ahead of the curve when you need to follow trends or to know where the right place is at the right time.
Finally, no one should feel obligated to stay connected to each network all of the time. You do need to learn what you can do in each community and you do need to spend some time nurturing you networks, but once you have established your presence, you can step away if needed. Recently I confessed to a peer that I am rarely on Twitter anymore. When I need it, I know how to leverage it but right now I do not need to be in Twitter. I explained that just like we do not carry a hammer around with us all of the time, we only have a hammer when we need to use it, we do not need to keep up with every network online. However the trick is knowing the right tool or network to be in at the right time in the right way and with the right relationships.
This is a great post, Sherry.
Moderating a blog, I’ve found it very difficult when someone comments with the best intentions, but is clueless in terms of decorum. Often when this happens, it’s the folks who stumble across a post and their gut reaction is to take offense.
It’s a shame because I invite constructive criticism! However, more often than not these folks end up looking like trolls, ruining what should be a perfectly good critique.
The key, I think, is to (a) write with your brain and not with your heart, and (b) look around the given community and absorb the culture, lingo, expectations, etc.
Posted by: Lain | March 30, 2009 at 09:36 AM
Thanks Lain,
You are exactly right! Yesterday I read a post that hit a personal nerve for me and I almost went on the attacked. I took a moment to think about what I REALLY wanted to express and completely re-wrote my comment and think that I was able to get my point across vs just venting.
It is easier said than done – but in a world where our worlds live on and on – it is much better to pause for a moment before hitting “post.”
Posted by: Sherry Heyl | March 30, 2009 at 02:31 PM
Nice post Sherry. One thing, a personal major pet peeve of mine, is commenting on blogs and stories anonymously. Especially when those comments are negative in nature. We all ought to develop ROEs for this, and require that our posters put their real names in. Once this happens, social media will have more credibility.
Posted by: justin | March 30, 2009 at 03:25 PM
Thanks Justin. And thank you for answering my question on Facebook yesterday.
I am not sure how I feel about the anonymous posting. I think we are still dealing with generational and cultural differences that make people uncomfortable with participating online. For example, someone with Diabetes may want to participate on a support site anonymously because they do not want HR or their boss knowing about their medical condition and they have a right to keep that private as well as to be able to participate online. At the same time a troll can participate under a false identify.
So – I am not sure.
Posted by: Sherry Heyl | March 30, 2009 at 03:55 PM
I’m glad you wrote that blog Sherry. You touched on a topic that I feel strongly about and I was glad to see you supported my point of view: “Some people really do want to keep their Facbeook profile just for close friends and family and should not feel obligated to allow co-workers and peers into their circle of friends.”
I believe strongly that we have the right to control who sees our info and how small or large we want our circle. And because an employer (or in my case former employer) is nosey that doesn’t mean they should be granted access to my social networking contacts and statuses.
thanks,
Jane
Posted by: Jane Shirley | March 31, 2009 at 09:22 AM
You know Jane,
Sometimes Social Media just makes it “transparent” when relationships and overall expectations are not a match.
Posted by: Sherry Heyl | March 31, 2009 at 10:22 AM
Good point Sherry. I agree to a point. But the Internet should not be a place to hide behind fake handles. There are exceptions, of course. But if someone is going to slash and burn somebody, they ought to have the courage to identify themselves. My view is if you wouldn’t say something in person, you shouldn’t say it online. Message boards and other social media have gotten so nasty of late, and downright libelous. Social media should not be exempt from common courtesy and honesty.
Posted by: justin | March 31, 2009 at 11:01 AM
Indeed
Posted by: Sherry Heyl | March 31, 2009 at 01:24 PM