This week was a big community management discussion thanks to the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day on January 23. But we celebrate community management every day given its impact and important role in our enterprise social media strategy.

As with past weeks, we’re highlighting the people who are engaging in social media, creating a human connection with our community (or creating helpful content for them), and embodying a key element of our “Radian6-ness.”

This week we highlight two more Community Managers.

Genevieve Coates, Community Manager

If you’ve met Genevieve, then you know her theme song should be: “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile.” Gen tends to always be smiling, laughing or chuckling at something even when no one else has told a joke. She does have a serious side when it comes to the things she’s most passionate about, mainly her work at Radian6. Starting out on the Professional Services team for Radian6, Gen’s passion for reports, analytics and product development grew. Now as part of the Community Management team, she enjoys helping her colleagues and sharing a few smiles along the way.

In her spare time, Gen spends time in her new house reading, watching sci-fi and singing at the top of her lungs to every Broadway tune in existence. Most recently, she’s been spending her time writing down all of her own observations about life on her personal blog.

Rhiannon Cassin, Marketing & Community, UK

Rhiannon is one of the original and longest standing employees of Radian6 in the UK. She initially joined 6Consulting Ltd (the UK Radian6 partner) in September 2009. Throughout her time with the business, she has performed a variety of roles within the marketing and customer support teams.

Following the Radian6 acquisition of 6Consulting Ltd in March 2011, Rhiannon took responsibility for engaging with the Radian6 UK community and can be found most days responding to tweets and posts on behalf of @Radian6_UK.

Her experience in different teams and with the platform enables Rhiannon to offer expert help to the extended Radian6 community through the Engagement Console. With a background in media, Rhiannon has helped to develop and maintain the Radian6 community in the UK.

Rhiannon is passionate about listening to UK customer platform experiences and responding to their needs, as well as maintaining a good relationship between the platform users in the UK and the Account Executives through social media community management.

What’s your tip for successfully working with a social media community?

Gen: Social is no different than how we work together in every day life. If you really want to succeed in social, it’s to your best advantage to not look at your engagements as a means to an end but as a unique opportunity to get to know your customers and community in a way never possible before. Just spending some time talking and sharing ideas with the people that know your brand the best can give you endless amounts of ideas and information that you can use to improve not only your brand but your products and services.

Rhiannon: Being open, transparent and professional in the social media community has helped develop trust and respect for Radian6 in the UK. Radian6 users know they can tweet and post about the platform and get a quick and honest, but not rushed and panicked, response. Always being thankful to those who have taken the time to engage in the community and share blog posts and positive conversation is a great way to generate lasting connections with other social media users.

You can reach our team at community@radian6.com, or click on Rhiannon’s or Gen’s name for their Twitter handles. To learn more about Community Manager Appreciation Day, read our blog posts here.

In the same way a novel or memoir draws a reader in, there are certain qualities about social media that make it memorable and engaging. This inspired me to come up with 25 ways social media is like a good book:

1. They offer an escape

2. Both tell a story

3. Both have a cast of characters

4. They can cause sleepless nights

5. They can be enjoyed repeatedly

6. They are easily shared

7. They inspire conversation

8. They are open to interpretation

9. Both evoke emotion

10. Both can be controversial

11. They bring people together

12. They influence change

13. They can make us feel less alone

14. They are archived

15. They can be translated into any language

16. They can be long-winded or short and sweet

17. Both benefit from a good title

18. Both can have multiple authors

19. They should be reviewed before publishing

20. They should be well researched

21. They can be educational

22. They are portable

23. They encourage word of mouth

24. They can cover any topic

25. They can leave you wanting more

While books and social media can speak to each of us for different reasons, the above qualities are universally shared. Use these points as inspiration when approaching your own social media strategy and you might find yourself with a best seller!

What other similarities can you add to this list? Feel free to share your thoughts. While you’re at it, see our latest ebook for great ways to use social media in 2012.

The State of the Union address Tuesday evening brought a large amount of social media conversations to Twitter and many other social channels. We’ve looked at this data over the past few weeks revolving around the 2012 Election primaries and decided that digging in to the conversations around the State of the Union would be another interesting topic to cover.

Some of you may remember the work we did in 2011 around the Twitter Townhall with the Whitehouse which hit home the fact that the United States is definitely a social nation. Looking back at that report and comparing it to what we saw during the State of Union mentions over the past day, here are some interesting facts we found.

•  Female gender in the conversations was 6% higher during the State of the Union
• The top age bracket was constant at 25 – 34 year old for both events
• @barackobama & @whithouse were the top 2 retweeted usernames for both events
• In event time frame, The State of the Union created approximately 7 times more social mentions (Approx. 518,000 to 70,000 social mentions)

If you are interested in learning more about the findings we had, you can download the full State of the Union report here.

TD offers a wide range of financial products and services to approximately 20.5 million customers worldwide. With such a large global presence and strong commitment to customer service,  TD has embraced social media as a new way to connect and engage with their customers. While some organizations in the financial service industry have been shy to reach out to customers on social media, the team at TD did their homework, prepared a great strategy for online engagement, and went to work successfully interacting on the social web.

The team at TD believes in being there for their customers, and are pleased to offer extended hours at many of their branches, including weekends and evenings. They also offer customer service on the phone and now on Twitter, blogs and Facebook. For TD it makes perfect sense that they would expand their customer service to the social media channels that their customers like to use. It means they can provide help when other channels of communication that are not available – such as the power outage during Hurricane Irene this past summer. During this situation, TD provided support to their customers via Twitter to share up-to-date information about branch hours and ATM availability.

Take a look at this case study to learn more about TD’s social customer service offerings.

Tell us what you think – would you like to see your bank taking a more active role in social media?

Using social media takes some good common sense. It does not have to be convoluted or complicated. Since your social media presence can make or break your business, here’s 13 things everyone must know.

• You don’t have to have it all figured out to get started.
• Pick your name wisely, it’s your brand.
• Be consistent across social networks. (With your name, logos and branding.)
• People WILL judge you by your profile picture.
• Even MySpace isn’t MySpace anymore. Everything changes, learn to adapt.
• Slow and steady wins the race.
• What you share on the Internet, lives forever. Ever, ever, ever…
• Don’t create and abandon. Start with one social media presence and build on it.
• Ask lots of questions. It’s a great way to learn, meet people and build a community.
• Unfriending is much harder than friending.
• You are what you tweet, facebook, +1, etc.
• What you get out of your social networks depends on what you put into them.
• Social media isn’t free. You’re investing your time and that’s a valuable commodity.

The bottom line is that social media should be taken as seriously as you would any other business endeavor. Would you start a business without a business plan? I sure hope not, so don’t treat using social media any differently.

What advice do you have for businesses diving into social networks? What do you wish someone told you about social media? What would you add to this list? 

So you’ve noticed your blog posts are shared well across social media channels, but you’ve also seen a lack of quality blog comments. And you want an increase. An increase in blog comments shows you’ve hit upon a topic your audience finds interesting. Encouraging a more active comments section on your company’s blog has several benefits:

• Furthers your own knowledge of that topic
• Challenges you to think about other aspects of the topic you may have missed
• Gives you great ideas for follow-up posts and new content.

Here are 3 things you should start doing to better encourage your audience to actively comment on your company’s blog posts.

Ask Questions

The Radian6 Community Team asks questions at the end of each new post. Encourage your audience to share their views in the comment section.  Are there things you may have missed? Are there specific examples that may have floated under your radar? Are you completely out to lunch on the topic at hand?  Let your audience know you’re not writing AT them, but writing TO them. You want their feedback, not just their eyes and page views. Keep your questions in line with the post’s subject and don’t allow for a simple yes or no reply (e.g. “Did you enjoy this post?”).

Model the Behaviour You Wish to Encourage

Take the time to practice what you preach. Part of my own daily routine is to find the interesting healthcare articles of the day and take time to offer a comment. I try to further discussion, offer other examples, link to other examples (never our own content), or even simply affirm some of the better points being made. Again, people like to see that they’ve engaged not only your eyeballs, but your brain as well. It only takes a few minutes to leave a comment on someone else’s post. You’d be surprised how many people would be happy to reciprocate.

Respond to Your Audience

This may seem obvious to some but it bears mentioning. This doesn’t mean every single post deserves a response, but it sure doesn’t hurt to try.  A quick reply, even if it’s just to thank someone for their thoughts, can make all the difference.  Your audience will be far more likely to return if they know they are being heard.  And if you’re really ambitious, maybe pose even more questions at the end of your reply, potentially keeping the conversation going, and gaining even more insights from your audience.  The hidden benefit here? An active comments section can easily prompt more people to pass along your post, noting to their followers the great discussion taking place on your blog.

Topical, controversial issues of the day and subjects with a very broad audience will generate plenty of chatter.  Using the above tactics should improve the overall discussion around your latest blog post regardless of its subject or target audience.

In what other ways can active commenting be encouraged? Have you found a guaranteed trick to more comment generation for your own blog?  Are you taking the time to comment at some of your OWN favorite blogs?  Tell us all about in the comments section.  No really, please do.

Jason Boies is a member of the Radian6 Community Engagement Team.  His focus is on the worlds of healthcare & pharmaceuticals.  Get a prescription for health & pharma themed tweets by following him on Twitter at @JasonBoies.  Read other blog posts from Jason here.

“My kids, if I ever accidentally have some, will not go to school. They will start twitter accounts and learn from the people.”– Paul Bissonette, Phoenix Coyotes

It’s tweets like these that have made Phoenix Coyotes’ enforcer Paul Bissonette generate a healthy following on social media. And there is something to be said about how athletes engage on social media.

Most sports fans know their favorite athlete’s height, weight, jersey number and noteworthy statistics. But that trend is changing as more and more athletes dive into social media and fans around the world subscribe to their every tweet.

Just like in business and other industries, professional sports organizations are seeing the vast promotional potential of social media. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White has even announced that he would dish out $240,000 towards improving his fighter’s followings. How’s that for incentive? Paid to socialize, sign me up.

So what is it about social media engagement that fans really enjoy?

Accessibility: Fans want to gain access and connect with athletes. Social media has made that a possibility. Whether it is a brief exchange about last night’s game, insights into fitness regimens or injury updates, all of these provide something meaningful to the fans. People connect with athletes through social media to learn more than they would get from the radio and television. Takeaway: Be accessible to your following. Make them feel special.

Be Human: The public sometimes forgets that athletes have significant others, children, and even a life outside the game. Interacting with fans via social media shows a human side that online communities desperately want to see. My personal favorite is Paul Bissonette, the professional hockey player mentioned above who has amassed a following of 211,686, despite only tallying 5 career NHL goals. If you’re looking for personality, he’s your man. Takeaway: Crack a joke, admit you were wrong, or thank your social followers for pointing something out. Show you are human.

Insight: Just like someone who works in law, business or education, athletes have a significant level of insight about the sport they play and can build their community up by educating their audience. Takeaway: Whether you work for a sports related brand or not, share your knowledge so the rest of us can take it in.

Relationships: Social media gives athletes and their fans a chance to connect and deepen relationships. Your audience is constantly evaluating the strength of their relationship with you so take the time to show them you value their support. Takeaway: Show them love and it will come back 5-fold in long-term support.

Regardless of who you are or what you do, make your audience feel valued.  Give them access, show your personality, and provide any insight you might have. You can manage the relationships by consistently WOWing your audience. For Bissonette, that is providing humor and insight that fans don’t expect to get from professional athletes.

To learn more check out the top 100 tips to live by via @darrenrovell. Can you think of any other methods to engage with your following? Share below!

With so much social media data flowing past our eyes every day, many companies use hashtags to try to understand their own small piece of the conversation. A hashtag is a word or phrase (with no spaces) preceded by a pound or hash sign (#). When added to tweets, this connects the conversations around a single topic. It is a functional bit of text and when you click on a hashtag in most Twitter clients, it brings up a search result of tweets with that hashtag. It can help companies watch the spread and reach of their ideas. Sometimes you see them around newsworthy topics (#jan25), companies (#radian6) or even events (#bwela).

The Good of Hashtags

Adding hashtags to tweets makes the most sense for online and offline events where you can share the hashtag with participants. Some of the best uses of hashtags are offline events because it creates an online connection of people who are in the same physical space. See our analysis of Blogworld Expo LA, based on their hashtag #bwela. If you are conducting a webinar and you want to know how many people share your ideas with their followers, encourage them to use a hashtag. You can capture these tweets in a tool like Radian6 and look at the volume of hashtag mentions, dig deeper into the conversations to understand what topics were most talked about, as well as who was talking.

Reviewing all this data lets you set conversation goals around the event. If you want to grow the attendance at future events, increasing the volume and presence of the current event draws attention to your events. A simple way to increase hashtag use is to include it on slides. Sample tweets also drive hashtag use. The data lets you see what resonated with participants. You can find influencers in the data, and see how engaged they were with the event. This can include new and known influencers. You can use your understanding of what caused people to tweet to improve for next time and reach your goals.

The Versus of Hashtags

Hashtags are used by a subset of participants talking about a topic. When tracking conversations and looking at data that supports your company initiatives, make sure you include terms besides the hashtags to get a complete picture of the social chatter. This is especially true when looking at consumer-driven events.

To social media veterans, hashtags are a natural part of how they tweet. Have you even been at an event where someone asks what the hashtag is? Less savvy presenters fumble to come up with something. If it is not something that has been pre-planned, you may not be prepared to track it. Or you may not know if it has been used for another event or ongoing conversation. It is always a good idea to plan a hashtag for any event, even if you don’t think your audience is the type to use it.

Many companies use hashtags on every tweet they put out. No matter what the tweet is about. This doesn’t create the brand awareness that they think. While straight retweets will pick up their hashtag, when they look at the data of usage, they will find that their #companytag is used almost exclusively in their tweets. This offers very little value. Hashtags that are about ideas are more likely to spread. If you encourage people to talk about a topic in your industry ask them to use a specific hashtag. This will let you promote something for the community, but also capture volume, preferred topics and Twitter users.

The Evil of Hashtags

Hashtags are open and public conversations, like most of the social web, that anyone can join. If a spammer or unscrupulous marketer sees a popular hashtag, they will start using it to promote their “offers.” In a study by Argyle Social, it was determined that hashtag stuffing doesn’t help a message spread or drive clicks.

If you are searching and tracking hashtags from a particularly large topic, like #socialmedia or the #superbowl, to find people and conversation topics, you are going to have to wade through a tremendous volume of hashtags mentions, as well as lots of irrelevant tweets. You definitely need to be prepared to do some heavy lifting, either with people or technology, but you should approach these efforts with more specific objectives and terms to make it a more manageable process.

Have you used hashtags to aggregate conversations around your online or offline events? What are some of your biggest challenges around digging into the data of hashtags? Learn more about measuring data in this month’s ebook.

Why do Community Managers rock? On Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD) we asked this question and got answers ranging  from culture-keepers to smiles to those with grace under pressure.

@radian6 The good ones understand the audience and listen. Can’t stress that enough.

— Jason Mollica (@JasMollica) January 23, 2012

@radian6 Because they’re the coolest people I know. It takes a certain personality, and its a great personality to be around.

— Joe Amodio (@Jmodio) January 23, 2012

@radian6 I love that a CM’s answer to “did you hear about/see that…” is always “yes” before the Q is even complete #aheadofthegame #CMAD

— Abady Alzahrani (@AbadyA) January 23, 2012

@radian6 Thanks for sharing the post! Why do you think CM’s rock? Am 1, hence rockage. Huge in Estonia. We r glue that holds it all 2gether.

— Joy Schoeph Helfrich (@iScreamSocMedia) January 23, 2012

Correction: @radian6 #Community Managersgreet you (w/ a warm, inviting personality), guides & keepsconversations rolling. #CMAD ; )

— Coretta(@CorettaJackson) January 23, 2012

@radian6 Community managers rock because you need people, not press releases these days.

— Patrick Hussey (@PatrickRiot) January 23, 2012

@radian6Community managers can help a brand/company be proactive about issues & communications instead of reactive#CMAD

— Vanessa Penagos (@VanessaMP) January 23, 2012

@radian6 Because we’re engagers, innovators, communicators…and we do it with a smile! #CMAD

— Tab Bourguignon (@tab_b) January 23, 2012

@radian6 ’cause our job is the combination between tech and humanism. Understanding humans as a sport to give them information through tech.

— Liza Durón (@TedeFrambuesa) January 23, 2012

@radian6 – Comm Managers are the ‘Culture-Keepers’ of their communities – the only currency that matters in OCs #CMD

— Colm Shalvey (@cshalvey) January 23, 2012

@radian6 Community Managers rock b/c they get to be at the front of the action, share feedback & make things happen on the fly! #CMAD

— Caitlin Madden (@caitm) January 23, 2012

@radian6 Community Managers bring a face to a company and a more personable attitude to every community they work with. #CMAD

— Kim White (@WhiteKim) January 23, 2012

Amazing knack for controlling the uncontrollable > RT @radian6 We’d love to hear from you! Why do you think community managers rock? #CMAD

— Charlie Isaacs (@charlieisaacs) January 23, 2012

@radian6 You’re welcome! A lot of brands have yet to learn that good people are the back-bone of any #SocialMedia strategy!

— Lisa Maynard-Atem (@STYLISA) January 23, 2012

@radian6 They are out there putting out fires on a daily basis and representing your org’s brand.

— Ese(@emerhi) January 23, 2012

@radian6 ComunityManagers needs 2 be celebrated everyday cause they have all entire weight of the brands!! #CMAD

— LetsKalk (@LetsKalk) January 23, 2012

@radian6 @eric_andersen Community Managers rock b/c they personify grace under pressure, delivered with a smile #cmad

— Greg Meyer (@grmeyer) January 23, 2012

@radian6 @grmeyer oh that’s easy – they make the community feel appreciated, which is quite a challenge!

— Eric Andersen (@eric_andersen) January 23, 2012

Don’t see yours on here or have another reason to add? Feel free to share it in the comments section! We would love to hear what you think. If you’re interested in #CMAD, here are some more posts around on the topic.

Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD) was much more than a happy lovefest for community managers everywhere. Yes, hugs, cake-eating and high-fiving was the norm. But it was also a day for thousands of conversations, loads of engagement and the creation and sharing of mounds of content. Let’s take a look at the stats.

How We’ve Grown

Community Manager Appreciation Day started three years ago by Jeremiah Owyang and in the past three years, the social media conversation has grown significantly.

On January 25, 2010 there were 535 social mentions. By the next year, January 24, 2011, conversations increased to 3,721. This year brought in 11,104 conversations.

For all three years, Twitter was the place to be to talk about Community Manager Appreciation Day.

Who’s Doing the Talking 

The 25-34 year old age bracket dominated the conversation, followed by 35-44.

 When it came to the male to female ratio, it was split.

Major cities held the share of conversation. New York (my hometown) was the top spot for Community Manager Appreciation Day conversations followed by San Francisco and then London.

What conversations did you share and uncover during Community Manager Appreciation Day? If you’re interested in the topic, here are some more posts around it.