February 6, 2012
The Radian6 platform can play an integral role for B2B companies, from tracking point of need conversations taking place on social media to generating sales leads.
Watch this video and learn about some of the elements unique to B2B social media and B2B sales.
February 3, 2012
Over the past few weeks, you’ve met our social media-loving team of community managers. They engage in social media, create a human connection with our community (or create helpful content for them), and embody a key element of our “Radian6-ness.” Of course, we continue to celebrate community management every day given its impact and important role in our enterprise social media strategy.
But we’re not done yet. Here are three more members of our community management team.
Heather MacLean, Senior Community ManagerWorking with the Community Engagement Specialists team, Heather brings extensive marketing and public relations experience from both private and public sector organizations. Heather has worked in social media for close to a decade and was the driving force behind Canada’s first electric utility embarking upon their social media journey.
Prior to the world of social media, Heather designed and executed the marketing and communications plan for Canada’s first Airline Travel Bank™. For her efforts, Heather was nominated and a finalist for Canada’s Top 40 Under 40. In addition to the utilities/energy and aviation industries, Heather has worked in the IT, e-learning, aerospace/defense, tourism and news media industries.
Addicted to learning, Heather is working on her third degree in her spare time, loves spending time with family and friends and her Collie, Seven. Heather’s other passions include the advocacy of literacy as the foundation for community.
Jenn Seeley, Community Engagement Specialist, Resident Travel Industry WatchtowerJenn has been traveling since she was a little girl. From family vacations at Disney World to educational visits around Europe, she’s happiest when she’s on the go. Take offs and landings never get old. It’s no surprise that she loves her job as a Community Engagement Specialist with Radian6, focusing on travel, tourism, leisure and entertainment.
Originally from the tiny home of the longest covered bridge in the world, Jenn loves any opportunity to connect with people in faraway places. It’s no wonder she loves social media (and is slightly addicted to Twitter).
In her free time, Jenn enjoys watercolor painting, playing the trumpet and pretending she can knit.
Trish Forant, Community ManagerTrish joined the company in February of last year and is coming up on her one year anniversary. Prior to joining Radian6, she worked as a consultant, helping non-profits and small businesses create their social media strategies, as an IT Instructor for ExecuTrain and as an Internet Specialist at Carnival Cruise Lines. If you’ve been on the social media scene for some time, you may know her best as @Dayngr, the founder, president and social media presence behind eMailOurMilitary.com, a charitable organization she created to support military service members through email and new media.
When she’s not engaging on behalf of Radian6, you can find Trish blogging about her life in sunny South Florida, being a mom to the Dayngrous Duo and her eldest son who recently became a Marine. As an active philanthropist, she’s passionate about using new media for good and is a founding member of Mom Bloggers for Social Good.
Heather: The main thing to remember is that you are working with people. People like to be listened to, valued, respected and know that if they have a question, they can seek answers. Working in social media is no different. It is all about people.
Jenn: The travel industry is very mature in social media compared to other vertical markets. One might think this makes my job easier, but in fact it becomes more difficult to really find the best conversations to jump into, and it’s easy to be overwhelmed. My advice? Be patient, find the conversations that are the most interesting and do your best to be helpful. Sharing is caring!
Trish: Be yourself, let your personality shine though and be as social as possible. In many ways, working with your community across social platforms is like working at the counter of the small town general store, but on a much larger scale. Get to know people by name, let them get to know you and treat them with the same respect you’d want them to treat you.
You can reach our team at community@radian6.com, or click on Heather’s, Jenn’s or Trish’s name for their Twitter handles.
February 3, 2012
Every month we write an ebook or two to help you bring your organization to social media maturity. We’ve selected the 10 ebooks from our library that our community has found most useful.
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30 Ideas for your 2012 Social Media Plan
Looking for fresh ideas to add to your 2012 Social Media Plan? We’ve sifted through our most-shared posts from 2011 and compressed them into 30 Ideas.You’ll learn how to integrate social throughout your entire business, train your employees, find the content sweet spots, listen for business intelligence, delight your fans, handle your detractors, and measure your growing influence. |
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Strategically Social: 5 Keys to Becoming a Social Business
This ebook by Brent Leary highlights how companies can leverage social tools and channels to listen to and engage customers in a variety of ways. It’s more important than ever before to engage customers where they are. Coordinating all the interactions and conversations with transactional data, calls for a more integrated, systematic approach. Even the smallest of companies can leverage social and mobile technologies to create opportunities and more meaningfully connect with customers. |
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Social Media for B2B: It’s Not as Different as You Think
Social media has seemed out of reach for many B2B organizations but that just isn’t true. Social media for B2B organizations can be used to increase awareness, capture customer feedback, generate leads, research target markets, and monitor competition. Social media in its purest form is communication, and communication keeps business moving, no matter how it’s facilitated. |
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Four Steps to Integrating Social Media Into Successful Campaigns
Social media is making an impact on consumers’ purchasing decisions, so what does that mean for your business? And what does the future hold for your campaign efforts? This ebook looks at the changing landscape resulting from social media, how to create a new campaign that incorporates social right from the start, and how these changes will benefit your business.Are you ready to create new, impactful campaigns that reach social consumers? Read on! |
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Defining and Measuring Influence
Influence is more than a social media buzzword; it’s a powerful means of getting your community to speak up on your behalf, and learning how to identify and measure influence is the key to making the most of the phenomenon. This ebook gives you an in-depth look at the definition of influence, how influence morphs in the online space, how to measure it, and how to work the process of influencer identification and outreach into your current social media processes. |
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Training Your Company for Social Media
Unsure of how to prepare your team to tackle social media? Wonder why training everyone in social media use is so important? Looking to learn which steps you need to take to build and execute a social media training program? Look no further, your answers are right here. |
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The Future of Analytics
Dig into where measurement stands when it comes to social media. What is the future of social media analytics? Why is it so important, and how can you start making it an important part of your business objectives? This ebook will explain to you why social media analytics is so important and how you can benefit from it. |
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Social Media Etiquette – Minding Your Manners on the Social Web
Need insights on what is acceptable behavior in social spaces like Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and Forums? Curious as to what benefits you will reap by displaying proper social etiquette, or what approaches you should definitely steer clear of? And if you’ve ever wondered if there’s a difference between personal and professional etiquette, we’ll just say one thing – yes, there is. |
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Four Steps to Creating Content for a Social Media Community
Ready for your content to spread throughout social media? This month’s ebook, Four Steps to Creating Content for a Social Media Community, combines content, strategy and community to showcase the steps, best practices and tactical approaches to making meaningful and sharable content. This will enable you to build and enhance relationships and empower your community to converse and share your content. Ultimately, this content experience could turn prospects into customers that stick around.
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Getting the Competitive Edge with Social Media
This ebook will show you how social media intelligence gathering can help you make definitive, today-based decisions about where your company is heading, and how to best directly compete in your marketplace. It will also lay out step by step ways you can analyze and use this information to find out what others in your marketplace are up to and illustrates how to take an honest look at how YOU are doing in relation to your competitors. |
When you’re done reading, please let us know what tips and tricks you found useful — and what new ebooks you’re hungry to see.
February 2, 2012
Recruit your organization’s next top employee while reducing your staffing and HR costs using social listening with Radian6′s Engagement Console.
Watch this video and find out how to accomplish all this while engaging directly with your target demographic.
January 31, 2012
Google+ Hangout with President Obama
Regardless of where you stand politically, last night’s Google+ Hangout with President Barack Obama highlights some important aspects of social media engagement.
The Google+ hangout was diverse with two wives, a group of students, a war veteran, a small business owner and others. President Obama listened and communicated with these Americans and others while effectively leveraging a platform that was comfortable for them and a vast majority of his audience. How do we know this? Before the hangout, a total of 228,094 people submitted 133,184 questions and cast 1,630,369 votes on the White House YouTube channel. This was a successful example of knowing where your audience spends their time. Here are four lessons you can apply to your social strategy:
Be innovative. While Obama has incorporated townhall meetings on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn during his presidential campaigns, this marked the first ever Google+ Hangout with a President. Talk about catering to your audience and encouraging dialogue. You too can be innovative if you know your audience and find a way to connect with them.
Engage your advocators and face your detractors. Obama faced the difficult questions about the economy, foreign aid, homelessness and unemployment rates head on. While some Google+ Hangout attendees had voted for him, others had not. Challenging questions are inevitable, especially in social media, and your community is judging you based on your ability to handle such questions. Think of this as an opportunity to turn your detractors into brand advocates and to further confirm the decisions of ambassadors. Honest, sincere and transparent answers go a long way.
Use multiple platforms. If you’re going to host multiple parties, you’d better mix up the venues. In this case, the White House effectively utilized several social media channels. People could submit a question on YouTube, watch on Google+, or follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #askobama. The next time your business wants to engage with your community be sure to know when and where to host the party (or parties!).
Understand public relations 101. Never turn down an opportunity to sway public opinion. It is important to use every conversation as an opportunity to improve your image, even if that means laughing at an impersonator.
It can be challenging for a brand to be knowledgeable, educational and laugh at the same time. Social media takes practice and requires companies to take chances. Find the right balance and your community will grow and reward you in return. What did you think of the first ever Google+ Hangout? I’d love to hear your thoughts! If you missed the hangout, watch it here.
January 31, 2012
People are increasingly expressing their brand wants and needs online. Radian6′s platform connects organizations with these conversations and produces fantastic results, from shedding positive light on your brand to generating sales leads.
Watch this video and find out how your business can meet clients at their point of need.
January 31, 2012
As a small or medium business (SMB), your to-do list is likely overflowing with #1 priorities. When it comes to social media, it’s no different. You likely want to make an impact in social media and understand its transformational opportunities.
So here’s a checklist to bookmark (heck, even print it out and hang it on your wall!) to check off your progress in transforming your business with social media. It comes from our latest free ebook, How To Transform your Small Business with Social Media.
No matter where your small or medium business is in your social media journey, you can always start with some simple steps, such as actively listening, and as time progresses, grow your strategy. Before you know it, you’ll be engaging with your own community!
Where are you in the small business social media process? Do you have any additional items to add to this checklist? For more information and a complete guide to social media for small businesses, check out this ebook, How to Transform your Small Business with Social Media.
January 30, 2012
Industry events are a perfect opportunity to engage in conversation, build relationships, and get new eyeballs on your content. Why? Because they do half your work for you: getting people to talk and think about topics on which you’re an expert. All you have to do is glide into that slipstream of reduced resistance.
Let me share a still-warm Radian6 example with some ideas you should steal.
Last Monday, January 23, was Community Manager Appreciation Day, an annual event started by Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) in 2010. The event has caught on quickly; this year it garnered over 11,000 social media mentions.
Most of our users are community managers, so we decided to run a full-court press. We published 9 blog posts by 9 different team members that day including:
Each team member also tweeted why community managers rock, under the #CMAD hashtag and we asked our community to do the same. That also turned into a blog post the following day.
The results? Our blog traffic jumped 50%. Our community team processed triple the normal Twitter and Facebook mentions. Most of our team members enjoyed a significant increase in followers.
Event organizer Jeremiah Owyang retweeted plenty of our content, thanked us for a great job, and asked if we could run a report and publish it on #CMAD mentions — which we did the next day.
Best of all, we gave a public pat on the back to seven community managers we love working with, and our user base enjoyed a level of appreciation they really deserve all year long.
Here are 7 things we learned that you should apply when your next industry event rolls along.
January 27, 2012
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 ManagerIf 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, UKRhiannon 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.
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.
January 24, 2012
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.
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.
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.
January 24, 2012
If you work in marketing or public relations for a financial services company, chances are you’ve come across some pretty discouraging roadblocks while trying to put together a social media strategy for your organization.
The regulations around social communication in the financial industry have been a deterrent for many companies, but they don’t need to be. It is possible to be active in social media and compliant.
From attending conferences and engaging actively in the finance community within the social space, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to many lovely PR and marketing folks in the financial services industry. These are ambitious, smart and forward-thinking men and women that understand the benefits of social media. However, making a case for social media within their organizations has proven to be challenging on account of the hefty regulations.
Here’s a few reasons why financial services companies are hesitant to get social. And here’s how they can get over their fears of compliance and jump in – carefully.
But you can control what you say. Create a strong, clear social media policy and build a roster of social media rockstars that are fully trained on your policy and guidelines, and dive in. If your employees are fully trained in your policies and aware of what they can and cannot share, then they’re equipped with the right tools to start engaging in your community. Your customers are already out there discussing your company, your products and your competitors, so get out there and use these social platforms to build brand advocates through efficient customer service and engagement.
Okay, measuring the ROI in social media for any industry is tough, but if you have a clear strategy and objective in place, you’ll empower your company with the right tools to measure your success and connect the dots back to your organization’s bottom line. Concentrate on measuring the development of new relationships, customer service volume, and don’t forget that just simply listening to your community will give you insight into your community’s needs and wants just as much as your expensive market research program.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been doing all my banking online for years now. Online and mobile banking has become a way of life, and customers are actively seeking out customer service from their banks, credit card companies and insurance companies through social media channels. Your competitors are already out there fostering long-lasting relationships with their customers by listening to their community and proactively engaging, so build your share of voice and gain a competitive edge by tapping in to the social web. Wells Fargo has been effectively and efficiently using their twitter feed as a channel for customer service and financial tips, and by doing so has generated an impressive amount of exposure within the financial services industry.
Of course, financial services marketers are always going to have less creative freedom to institute innovative new social media driven marketing, public relations and customer service initiatives. But how about taking on a new perspective? Think about what you can do with social media instead of focusing on what you can’t do. The glass is half full.
What are your financial institutions reasons for not being active in social media? Do you have any suggestions for other financial services marketers to make a case for social media in their organization?
January 23, 2012
Flickr photo credit: wwarby http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/
All community managers make the world a better place by giving their companies a human voice, resonating their customer opinions and feedback, embodying empathy, stimulating meaningful discussion, gracefully admitting when their company has made a mistake, taking pride in helping others, and eagerly solving difficult problems… among many other things. Being a community manager for any company isn’t always easy, but as Robyn Tippins of ReadWriteWeb puts it, “Community Management is the hardest job you’ll ever love.”
Today we’re acknowledging all of you who take customer service to the next level by representing your companies on Facebook, in forums, on blogs and beyond.
In addition, I’d like to give my very own high-five to all the community managers who work at agencies. You extra rule.
Here’s why:
Community managers who work for agencies are chameleons (hat tip to @TDJaxTim of Dalton Agency for putting it this way). They do all of the above, but for multiple clients across multiple industries – sometimes all within a given day. An agency community manager masters the ins and outs of each client’s industry and company, and then replicates that knowledge online through engagement with client customers and prospects. Agency community managers have to stay up to date on more industry news, and be able to toggle between their different communities at a moment’s notice. On top of all that, agency community managers may have to jump through additional hoops to get to the information their community needs since they’re external to the company itself.
Radian6 appreciates all that you’ve done to not only transform your clients into social enterprises, but educate and guide them all along the journey. Thank you for being nimble, for working long hours, and for bringing our industry forward (en masse).
If you work at an agency, go give your social media and community managers a big pat on the back. They deserve it!
Throughout today, Radian6 supported Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Check this blog post and Twitter (@radian6) for more content around this day.
January 23, 2012
Financial services is a tough industry for implementing social media on account of the intimidating regulations, and community managers in Finserv compliantly strategize and work around these regulations on a daily basis in order to give their financial organization a warm, valuable voice. This provides efficient customer service, creating and sharing helpful content for their customers and community, and generally provides a friendly face to their company’s name.
On behalf of Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD), here’s a few Finserv community manager rockstars that truly deserve a pat on the back.
He’s Mazars Group’s in-house social media expert. When he’s not managing Mazars’ social media actions and engaging with the community, he’s busy providing internal training sessions on using social media and developing unique and innovative social strategies.
Veronica is undoubtedly a community ambassador for SunTrust Bank. If you’ve ever been on a community thread discussing banking, chances are you’ve run into Veronica. She actively participates in community conversations while reading community threads and ensuring questions are answered, stimulating existing topics, and starting new industry-related discussions.
Dawn from Webster Bank not only spearheads the development and execution of Webster’s social media strategy, but she is also educating Webster executives on how to use social networking effectively for business results. She engages directly with customers, and she’s consistently finding and creating new content to help Webster’s customers, which of course, increases positive sentiment and buzz around the bank.
These are a just a few of the financial industry’s talented and innovative individuals that respond to customers online – provide excellent customer service, engage with industry influencers, manage groups and forums, and most importantly – develop and foster long-lasting relationships with individuals within your community that will, without a doubt, create brand ambassadors.
Throughout today, Radian6 is supporting Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Check this blog post and Twitter (@radian6) for more content around this day.
January 23, 2012
On this Community Manager Appreciation Day, I wanted to take stock of all the different kinds of community managers I interact with day to day and the things they do to serve their communities and the companies.
Everyday I check in on the Twitter handles from the major television networks that are promoting their programs. Some keep it high level and tweet out promotional information and behind the scenes photos to keep social buzz alive. Some like Syfy’s official Twitter account, which is administered by Chris Engler, one of Syfy’s chief executives, take to their account to answer questions from their community directly.
In the world of publishing there are a number of publishers that make use of community managers. Penguin Books is consistently interacting with their community to promote their books and authors and give back to their community through contests. Of course, there are community managers for book review blogs that aren’t attached to a publisher but help direct people to their favorite titles. These community managers gain the trust of their followers and help foster online communities for book lovers out of a passion for the written word.
When it comes to media and journalism, the best community managers are often the journalists and reporters themselves although they may be unaware of this fact or even deny it. The reporters who take to Twitter help drive their stories and promote themselves but in so doing they provide their followers with information straight from the source. In New Brunswick, two of the best journalistic community managers (although they’d likely dispute this compliment and refer to themselves as participants) are the CBC’s Jacques Poitras and Dan McHardie. These two journalists consistently interact with their followers and when not reporting, take part in the general conversations related to New Brunswick news and politics.
Finally, the heavy hitters of community managers in this industry are most definitely those men and women who man the corporate accounts in the telecommunications industry. These are the people in the trenches; knee-deep in customer questions, complaints and, of course, the occasional praise. These people live and breath brand advocacy and customer service.
So with that, a very happy Community Manager Appreciation Day from myself and the Community Team here at Radian6!!
Throughout today, Radian6 is supporting Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Check this blog post and Twitter (@radian6) for more content around this day.
January 23, 2012
As many other community managers can attest, I love searching the social media landscape for conversations, ideas and insights about community management in order to learn new ways to enhance my job. Well, scour no more because on behalf of Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD), we made that task easy. Here’s a list of our most useful blog posts, ebooks and webinars for community managers. We’ve packaged it up and call it the Community Manager Resource Pack.
What helpful content do you have to share for fellow community managers? Do you think community managers rock and if so, why?
Throughout today, Radian6 is supporting Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Check this blog post and Twitter (@radian6) for more content around this day.
January 23, 2012
Companies are spending significant amounts of time and money to build their enterprise social media strategies. If you’re reading this, you might be working for one of them. You might be hiring consultants, going to conferences and creating internal policies and councils. You might be approaching cautiously. Or maybe you’ve jumped in feet first.
But no matter what you do, your social media efforts will fail if you don’t have the right people to put them into practice.
For many companies, the people on the social media front lines are community managers. A job title that didn’t exist a few years ago, “community manager” applies to the people who respond to customers online, engage with influencers, manage groups and forums, and share with and learn from the extended networks of people who surround a brand and its activities.
It takes a unique set of skills and attributes to make a great community manager. Customer focus. Solid communication skills. Imagination. The ability to think clearly and act decisively. Compassion. Empathy. A sense of humor. A sense of adventure. A rebellious streak. Incurable “shiny object syndrome.” And a near-compulsive need to know what’s going on out there at all times. (Raise your hand if you’ve ever excused yourself from a family gathering to sneak a quick look at your smartphone.)
Some of the best community managers I’ve met have come from customer service backgrounds, others from PR and marketing and marketing communications and some from journalism. Some of those folks have found themselves at times feeling their skills were undervalued. When times are tough, departments like marcom are often one of the first targets for cuts. I’ve experienced that personally. Twice.
But with the speed of social media bringing an unprecedented immediacy to crisis response, customer communication, sales and marketing and brand stewardship, the folks with that eclectic combination of soft and hard skills are ideally qualified to bring value to companies of all sizes.
Spend all the money you want on advertising, on customer satisfaction surveys, on focus groups—your community managers are the people making your brand every day. They create your reputation anew with every interaction. And when things turn bleak, they have the power to turn hate into love. I’ve seen it happen, and that’s something I could never say about a press release or an annual report.
Take the time today to thank the people who manage your company’s community, whatever community might mean for you. If you haven’t already, one day you will look back and wonder how you ever got along without them.
And on a personal note, since today is Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD), I’d like to thank the community managers I work with—the finest team of online communicators I’ve ever met. I learned about Radian6 long before I came to work here not because of the platform, not because of the functionality, but because of the community team, the content they create and the way they represent the company online and in person. They embody what we call our “Radian6-ness” and share it with the world.
To the Radian6 Community Team: Thank you. We couldn’t do it without you.
Throughout today, Radian6 is supporting Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Check back at this blog and on Twitter (@radian6) for more content around this day. Also, tweet to @radian6 why you think community managers rock! Don’t forget to use the #CMAD hashtag.
January 16, 2012
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association held their 69th Annual Golden Globes ceremony last night and it was, as always, a star-studded affair. The broadcast, which is beamed into homes in one hundred and ninety-nine countries around the world, also generated over one million social media mentions on Sunday, January 15, 2012.
Here’s how it played out:
One of the bigger topics of conversation going into the Golden Globes ceremony was speculation related to returning host and British comedian Ricky Gervais. Gervais stirred up a lot of controversy at the 2011 Golden Globes, taking direct aim at a number of high profile celebrities. His performance was disliked by many of the celebrities and at the time it was thought that he likely wouldn’t be asked back to host. Of course, Gervais was asked to return as host, his third year now, and the social web weighed in.
There were a total of 34,855 mentions of Gervais within conversations directly related to the Golden Globes on Sunday, January 15. Watching the broadcast, it was clear that many of the celebrities in the audience were cringing at his wisecracks and some looked visibly annoyed, however, he got a resoundingly positive review from those who weighed in on social. Using automated sentiment, 65.2% of social mentions were positive while only 34.6% were negative.
The next big award show is, of course, the Oscars. With the Golden Globes generating over one million mentions do you expect the Oscars to surpass this, be roughly equal, or come in under the Globes?
January 12, 2012
Do you pass the mom test?
Social media is still relatively new to many marketers, but it has definitely changed the way companies communicate with their prospects and customers. While there is always some stigma to telling people that they are using social media wrong, the following tactics will not win you friends or influence people. And your prospects and customers won’t like it either.
Remember that social media takes place in full view of the public, so by following some of these questionable activities, you can risk alienating followers.
It is fine to send @replies on Twitter to potentially interested people, but make sure you send something of value. If you send a link only, with no context, people won’t click the link. There is plenty of spam on social media platforms, so don’t get lumped in with the spammers.
If you discover people that you think might be interested in your products or services and you send them an @reply on Twitter, try to vary or personalize the message a bit. Many people will click over to your Twitter profile page before following or engaging back, and they won’t respond if they see an entire page of the exact same tweet to multiple people.
Social media as a marketing and engagement channel needs to be targeted from a time stand point, as well as targeting the right audience with the right message. Share at various times of day to determine the best ones to share your content. Consider a global audience too. Posting content at times when your primary audience is asleep will not generate any traction for your messages.
It is called social media because people and companies are expected to be social. Follow basic rules of conversation and be polite, including introducing yourself or your company. Contacting someone on a social platform with an offer when there is no established relationship is sure-fire way to get no response.
Every social media platform has way too many updates for every one of your followers to see, click, read and take action on all of them. So many in fact, that the number of updates per second has even increased since I started typing this sentence. It is important to build followings that are much larger than your targeted audience, because most won’t see your posts. And this doesn’t even take into account things like Facebook algorithms, where that platform doesn’t even show all updates to your fans. Don’t count on any more than a small percentage of fans and followers seeing any individual message.
There has been plenty of healthy debate about whether it is okay to sell on social media platforms. While surveyed consumers have said that they follow brands to get discounts and special offers, hard sales would get tiresome. Companies need to provide value to their followers and fans in exchange for their attention. If all you do is pitch your products and offer deals, people will tune you out and label you forever as a fast-talking, snake oil salesman.
Social media is not one big hug where everyone stands around the campfire singing songs, but you are still better off focusing on the positive aspects of what you can provide. Negativity may succeed in politics, but if you spend all your time bad mouthing your competitors on your social media, you risk two results. The first is loss of your followers attention, but the second is driving potential customers to your competitors. Do you want them to ask the question, “Hmm, they spend so much time trying to knock these guys down, let me go see what they are all about?”
A blog can be many things, including a place to share company news. Nobody really wants to read a press release on a company blog. I am surprised at the number of companies who still do this. There is a place for press releases, and it’s called a newsroom. And there are even lots of examples of innovative newsrooms, but a blog is about sharing company thought leadership, providing valuable educational content to readers, and improving search results by answering questions customers and prospects are asking in their search engines. A press release doesn’t do any of that, and you won’t gain any readership of your company blog by posting them on it.
Many people prefer getting their company updates on social platforms, rather than via email, but the majority of business communications are still happenin’ in the inbox. It will change as more digital natives enter the workforce, but it hasn’t yet. If you don’t support your remarkable and educational content by also sharing it with prospects by email, you are missing a huge opportunity to gain their attention.
There is a great sense of online propriety that is really appropriate for business social media and that’s the mom test. Sometimes when trying to be too creative or too cute, you cross the line in a way that is not appropriate for your customers. There be may some industries where there is no line, but for most of us, if you are sharing things online that you wouldn’t share with your mom, it won’t connect with your prospects and customers.
What are some other sure-fire ways to fail with social media? But if you looking for ways to succeed and present your business in the best possible light, follow some of these basics of social media etiquette. And make your mom proud too.
January 12, 2012
Comedian and Filmmaker Mark Malkoff
Mark Malkoff is a clever, gut-busting social media savvy comedian and filmmaker based out of New York City. Mark modestly describes himself as, “just a wacky guy making videos about my crazy stunts.” However, his resume includes YouTube videos teetering on the one million-view mark with goals to drink coffee at all 171 NYC Starbucks locations in less than 24 hours, living in a New Jersey IKEA store for an entire week, and camping out on an AirTran airplane. Through all of this, Mark has tapped into the incredible resource of social media as a way to gain awareness and interest in his creative and bizarre ideas.
Through social media, Mark has received international exposure including winning a Guinness World Record for most scheduled flights in thirty days, hosting the live red carpet for the Streamy Awards in L.A., and gaining media attention from Jay Leno and Anderson Cooper.
Not only has Mark managed to indirectly promote the brands (IKEA, AirTran, Starbucks, etc.), but he has also been successful at creating awareness of his own personal brand – Mark Malkoff.
I met with Mark to discuss how he has uniquely and successfully used social media to generate success. Here are a few tricks up this comedian’s sleeve:
For Mark, the key to success is authenticity. He genuinely enjoys what he does, and that is reflected through his posts and engagement on Twitter and Facebook.
Mark creates concepts that are headlines in themselves such as, “Mark Moves Into IKEA.” He is creating simple, humorous content that is easily shareable.
Unlike some “certified” tweeters with 30,000 followers – Mark follows back. Not only does this gesture show us that he’s a pretty nice guy, but when someone who has 30,000 followers on Twitter starts following you, you wanna know what they’re all about.
Mark’s videos are all very simple concepts that are short and clever. The headline tells viewers exactly what they’re going to see and the ideas spark the, “what happens when…” curiosity in all of us. However, Mark’s biggest advantage in promoting his personal brand through social media is his naturally friendly and sociable nature. It’s evident in every one of his tweets and Facebook posts. Thank you Mark for your time and we look forward to more great videos.
What do you think is most important to keep in mind when promoting your personal brand through social media? Do you think it’s different from promoting a corporate brand? Most importantly, have you created a funny video? We’d love to see the links! 
January 9, 2012
Our passions can provide us with lessons to apply to other areas of our lives, especially when it comes to social media. When I’m not immersed in my job here at Radian6, I love following the latest food news, collecting recipes (Hello Pinterest!), and testing out new dishes in the kitchen. Here are some social media takeaways inspired by my love of cooking.
Any new cook needs to learn the basics of the kitchen, ranging from using different tools and utensils to knowing the appropriate temperature to simmer or sear. When beginning your social media journey, familiarize yourself with the various social media platforms, how they function, and what makes each of them unique and helpful for your concoction.
Recipes provide the starting point to build out that perfect dish, from ingredients to the finished product. Your social media strategy is no different. Determine and clearly define what your goals are, the tools and resources you will need, and how you will measure your efforts.
Switching out ingredients, adjusting amounts, or adding extra spice are all great ways to put a personal stamp on a dish. These principals can be easily incorporated into your social media strategy. Experiment with different approaches and content to see what resonates most with your community. Most importantly, stay true to who you are as a brand and let your personality shine.
Chefs always keep the needs of their guests in mind. If Sue has a peanut allergy and Paul doesn’t like seafood, Pad Thai is off the menu. Listen to what your online community is interested in and asking about. By giving them what they need, you will have a much more satisfied and healthy community than simply serving up what you think they want.
With some exceptions, meals are best enjoyed in the company of others. The same is true for your social media strategy. Reciprocate and be proactive with your engagement on a daily basis. Say a simple, “thank you,” for a compliment, share a funny photo or video, or ask a question on a topic of interest.
I’ve had too many failures in the kitchen to count. As you develop and perfect your own social media strategy, you will inevitably run up against walls and potential crises. You may get burned. Be prepared with a crisis management plan so you can act quickly to resolve the situation and identify key takeaways for your strategy moving forward. The kitchen is always there waiting for the next great recipe so get ready to jump back in!
These are just a few takeaways inspired by one of my passions. What social media lessons can your own passions teach you? Feel free to share your thoughts!
January 9, 2012
With the growth in companies making social media a priority in all facets of their business, the growing amount of questions of how, what, where, when and why throughout the social realm are stronger than before. As you likely know, social media starts with listening: find out what is being said by your community. If you are looking to make an impact in 2012, enhancing the way you are listening to social conversations could be the ticket.
Look into a paid monitoring system or at least add more free tools to your arsenal so that all the angles are covered.
Figure out where your community is active whether that’s Twitter, Blogs, Facebook or other media types. Then take this knowledge and allocate your resources appropriately to make sure you’re making the most out of your time.
Don’t just decide on your monitoring hours, take it one step further and decide how you will deal with all the mentions that happen outside of your monitoring hours. Make sure you have the right amount of staff to deal with the volume of social posts.
You may already be listening for your brand mentions, but if you’d like to go further with it in 2012, listen to your competitor and industry mentions as well. Think outside your brand to find more conversations and information from your community.
While there are tons of arguments for why brands should listen, decide your own reasons in 2012. It’s not about doing what everyone else is doing, but rather tying it back to realistic business use cases that are important to your organization.
No matter what listening methods you put in place this year, make sure that you take the time to thoroughly think them through. Those methods are important to your organization as a whole.
To find out more about making an impact with listening in 2012, see chapter two of this month’s ebook.
January 3, 2012
Put the hats and noisemakers in the closet and pull out the blogs, Twitter chats and Facebook walls. 2012 is here and it’s time to talk social media. But we’ve got good news. It will be easier this time around. We’ve got the new eBook, 30 Ideas for your 2012 Social Media Plan, a concoction of compiled content that brings forth the most useful and popular topics of 2011. This will gear you up for great social strategy in 2012 so you can go beyond the grab-bag of tactics and craft a smart, integrated plan.
With this arsenal of 2011 content in hand, we’ve pulled out 30 social media ideas for your 2012 plan. Here they are.
If you apply these ideas — whether you’re just starting out, honing in on the craft or looking to excel forward — 2012 could be your best year yet.
Interested in learning more about some of these ideas? Check out the eBook where there are details on each and every one. And feel free to share your thoughts here!
December 30, 2011
This week we’ve shared the crowdsourced results of the question, “What is the biggest social media disrupter of 2011?” Here’s the final installment with more great opinions, ideas and even insights for 2012.
I haven’t written about this much, but I think Google+ will eventually be a big disrupter. For what it’s worth, I’ve posted 15,000 times on Twitter and have 6,500 followers. I’ve posted about 50 times on Google+, yet I seem to have over 3,000 followers, and not as much Twitter duplication as I would have thought. So, something is bubbling up there. Yes, it’s about as much fun as a spreadsheet, but you can’t ignore its tight integration with the rest of the Google suite of apps. It’s also a much more natural place for businesses to stake out a social space (I don’t want a lot of brands and products mucking up my Facebook page) and Google is but an algorithm tweak away from making the +1 a more integral component to social scoring and its importance to search rankings. If that happens, there might just be a Google+ “lock-in” for businesses, or a DOJ case, or both.
My biggest disrupter of 2011 is the decline of GroupOn and the clones. It seemed at one point that GroupOn, LivingSocial and the like would take over the world, but social media is much more than social coupons, and building a business is much more than 50% off promotions. Plus the barrier to entry is relatively low (sales force + email list). Social commerce, when it’s mature, will be about group purchasing of real products at very good, but reasonable discounts. And social media marketing will continue to be about finding ways to help your fans market for you.
Here’s the disrupter that isn’t a disrupter on the surface: social media ROI. We’ve gone from almost no discussion and search of it to it reaching a fever pitch this year. The increased discussion on the topic means that we’ve left the niche audience crowd and now even the most insulated of executives is demanding not only social participation, but real results.
The social customer has certainly disrupted business. The recent issue with Netflix and Bank Of America proves that the social customer has not only gained influence, but they are forcing business to change the way they operate, communicate and innovate. The difference between Netflix and BofA is pretty simple. BofA listened to the community and decided NOT to increase their prices for debit card usage. Netflix is sticking to their guns despite losing over 800,000 customers and their stock price declining and declining and declining…
In 2011 Netflix was the ultimate distrupter. Not for the mistakes they made, but instead for making the hard choice to double down on video stream at the expense of alienating customers in the short-term. Netflix still hasn’t recovered, but they would have died an even slower and more painful death without the risk of disrupting the entire video content market.
For me, the biggest social disrupter of 2011 was subscription music services like Spotify and MOG (the service I use). As someone who, at one point, was buying several CDs a week and then, later, continuously scouring the web for obscure mp3s, a service that allows me to listen to (almost) anything I want, whenever I want, and even download it to my phone for offline listening was a dream come true. It makes buying CDs, or even tracks from iTunes, seem primitive. When my 12-year old told me the other day he wanted to buy a CD, my first response was, “Why?” The fact that I can give friends immediate access to my playlists and preferences is a social bonus.
Instagram burst onto the scene in October 2010, and over the course of the next twelve months it redefined much of the way that we understand social content sharing. It provided not just a vivid glimpse into the lives of participants, but also an outlet for true artistic expression in which everyone, from novice to expert, could easily grasp and participate. It’s a model to which all social content efforts should pay attention, because it shows us that when we make it easy to express yourself, the Forrester Social Technographics Ladder is turned upside down and we can get widespread participation, rather than just inspiring an elite few.
Forget Twitter and Facebook, this year we saw how BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) enabled members of a crowd to separate and come together like a school of fish without becoming disconnected. Influence is a hot topic for social media tool and measurement pundits, but we are only now rediscovering crowd influence and what it means to start and maintain a revolution in this digital world. We have to step up our game to listen across all channels online and offline and map these conversations to our organizations and the right responder.
Thanks to all our contributors! We’ve also received some great disrupters from our community. Keep it coming and share your ideas here.
December 28, 2011
As I shared in yesterday’s post, I asked a bunch of smart folks what they thought were the biggest social media disrupters of 2011. Here are more answers, still all over the map, and still helping to define the social media zeitgeist of 2011. Consider these answers as hints of where we’re going in 2012. Away we go to installment number two.
2012 will bring us the tipping point for a more ‘human’ way of communicating. Instant Voice Recognition (IVR) tools such as Apple’s Siri, and visual storytelling apps such as Instagram and Path, will all bring change to the way brands and consumers use social media. As mobile becomes more actionable and utilitarian, we will see text-based communication give way to technologies such as these.
To me the social disrupter of the year is “+1million.” Two years ago I remember commenting on a year end post about how amazing it was to see the growth in the number of people mentioning ‘social media’ in their Linkedin profile. I think the number had gotten up to 35,000 or so at that point. I just checked it again and it looks like it’s now over 1 million. It truly warms my heart to see this level of awareness and to see the term used in the context of a role within so many enterprises. Because amazingly, it was only four short years ago that if you asked to speak to the person in charge of social media that they would have no idea where to send you or even what you were talking about.
One of the most sound decisions I made this year was mitigating my losses to only $1.20 to watch “Friends with Benefits.” Yes, my nomination for 2011 disrupter is a vending machine. But a vending machine that provides me with a more friendly customer experience than I ever received from my neighborhood Blockbuster (which, btw, is now a Supercuts). Redbox excels on two of my favorite of the four P’s – price and place. In the last two years, it has more than doubled the number of kiosks to 33,300, and will soon offer streaming. Blockbuster has dropped from 3,300 locations to 1,500. Never underestimate a strategy based on low price, convenience and robots.
My #1 social behavior faux pas was Reed Hastings (Netflix) business model communications. A few errors make this my #1: First, bad decision to change the business model that 23 million U.S. Subscribers love and use. I understand the internal business reasons and vision that Reed has shared in past about Netflix does not equal DVDs, but instead entertainment delivered via the net. Second, not reading the tea leaves when first announcing price increases and breaking business into two pieces (no excuse for not monitoring web mentions, comments, sentiment). The web is your immediate market research. Third, an apology that is hollow is not much of an apology. I remain a Netflix subscriber because the company did not split into two services, but I still am raw about Netflix. Does a company have a right to change its business model? Yes, but they also have to live with the consequences: 800,000 subscribers jumped ship and believe it will be harder to grow business when their market cap dropped 77% (2011: high of $305/share to $71/share Dec 20 close). What can Netflix learn for future; consider grandfathering existing customers that enjoy and pay for your services. Remember apologizing is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of humanity. We like to spend our money with humans: people who are real, like me. Only by apologizing can you expect forgiveness.
How do these disrupters affect you and your brand? How do you forsee them playing out in 2012? Share your thoughts and disrupters here and stay tuned for installment number three this week!
December 27, 2011
Every year is a big year in social media. Upheaval is the status quo. I thought it would be fun to ask a bunch of smart folks what they thought were the biggest social media “disrupters” of 2011. I intentionally kept the question vague. As you’ll see, I got answers that are all over the map, but all help define the social media zeitgeist of 2011 and contain hints of where we’re going in 2012. Here’s the first installment (of three to be shared throughout the week), in no particular order.
(Note: Some of these folks wear ten different hats and have five different jobs and wrote a book and host a podcast and speak and consult, and one may or may not hold the record for consuming the world’s largest pancake. I’ve gone with the simplest descriptor that makes sense.)
Spotify launched with as much fanfare as a new tech product can in the US. And it showed us what Facebook’s actions could really do. Want the world to know you are listening to the Pokemon soundtrack? No problem. Want to show your boss how much work you are doing by creating and publishing a new music playlist while at work? They’ve got you covered. And if you really hated forgetting about all those amazing 80′s songs you never listen to anymore, don’t worry; if your friends are anything like mine, they will flood your Facebook stream with these wonderful tunes.
The biggest disrupter of 2011 has been the Occupy movement, and specifically UC Davis and the pepper spray. A jarring realization that the US as a police state appears to be on the rise, and that social has played a huge part in communicating the experiences people are having during this time.
The biggest social “disrupter” in 2011 for me is Instagram. (Insta-rupt?) Why: You’ve no doubt seen the news that Instagram is the fastest-growing mobile-social network in… well, the history of mobile-social networks! But what’s most interesting to me (and a key reason for its appeal and growth, I’m convinced) is less about its mobile-first Social-Location-Mobile (SoLoMo) characteristics, but because of the way that stories are part of the fabric of Instagram. In other words, it’s not about SoLoMo… it’s about SoLoMo-Sto’.
Instagram, at its core, allows you to tell stories visually, with a simplicity and immediacy mobile users expect. But at the same time, it adds another layer of elegance and artfulness, and that’s what makes its stories so appealing, and (for me) why it breaks new ground.
The number one social disrupter in 2011 was the use of social channels, particularly Facebook, to propagate the revolutionary activity of Arab Spring. But make no mistake about one thing. The hype around this was ridiculous, crediting Facebook for its success. That is NOT the case. The value of Facebook was that it was able to provide the means to communicate to not only others in the struggles but also the world and was able to capture the support of the world. But it was the people of the varying Arab nations who were responsible for the government changes. Not Facebook. Too many people credited Facebook for it. Again, a channel used to support social change, not to create it.
You can’t talk about disrupters over the past year without looking at the train disaster in China and the impact citizen outrage, expressed over Chinese microblogging site Weibo, had on the government’s response. Officials figured they’d effectively inhibited any backlash by burying the train — reportedly with bodies still aboard. But this and other dimensions of the crisis were openly discussed by an angry public, leading authorities to address the crash more openly than they normally would. Now, China is going to require real names for Weibo accounts, but how long will it take for people to figure out a way around that — or a different system to use? Organizations can take a lesson from this: social media has intensified the notion that information routes around obstacles, and deliberate opacity in the face of a public event just isn’t an option any more.
What do you see as some of the top social media disrupters of 2011? Keep an eye on our blog for more opinions and thoughts throughout the week.
December 21, 2011
This month, we’ve provided you with lots of content around social media campaigns, from how-to’s on exceeding your campaign goals to connecting with the social consumer. With 2011 almost at a close, we wanted to end things on a reflective note. Here are four lessons for brands when it comes to social media campaigns, inspired by some real world examples from the past year.
1. If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
Brands are always trying to push boundaries when it comes to their social media campaigns, but if your fans like what you’re doing, don’t feel like you need to change it up for the sake of doing something new. Old Spice first hit gold in 2010 with its “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign, featuring Isaiah Mustafa aka The Old Spice Guy, which inspired this series of personalized video responses to fan tweets. Fast forward to 2011 and we saw The Old Spice Guy and Fabio duke it out in the Mano a Mano campaign. While the premise was different, the format was the same, and fans loved it.
2. Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously
We tend to like those who can take a joke and poke fun at themselves, and brands can apply that same personality in their social media efforts. Miracle Whip is showing it has a sense of humour with its ongoing “Are You Miracle Whip?” campaign on YouTube in which celebrities and everyday people alike proclaim their love or hate of the famous sandwich spread. Viewers can have their say by clicking to love or hate Miracle Whip and leave their own comments, with the vote tallies displayed directly on the brand’s YouTube page. By keeping the campaign tongue-in-cheek, Miracle Whip strikes the right tone with both its fans and detractors.
3. Leverage Your Fans’ Creativity
Consumers are creating branded content all the time, giving brands an opportunity to leverage this creativity for their social media campaigns. Two fans of Natural Light were inspired to make it the first beer in space, and when the brand found out, it threw its support behind their endeavour, even polling its Facebook fans to name the spacecraft. Natty Light also asked if it could film the project, resulting in this YouTube video. The campaign created a lot of buzz for the brand and provided them with some great content, all a result of the ingenuity and efforts of two of its fans.
4. Champion a Cause
People feel good supporting a worthy cause, and social media campaigns that incorporate the issues brands are passionate about are a great way to catch the attention of fans. One example is Pizza Hut’s recent partnership with Zynga for the World Hunger Relief Campaign. The campaign drew on the existing popularity of games such FarmVille and CityVille by introducing exclusive items players could purchase for $5, with the proceeds going toward the World Food Programme. The reward gave players extra incentive to participate, raising awareness of word hunger and encouraging positive word of mouth about Pizza Hut and Zynga.
We hope the above examples have provided you with ample inspiration for your social media campaigns in 2012. If you need more ideas on creating a successful campaign strategy, be sure to check out our December eBook.
Do you have any other words of advice for brands looking to create a successful social media campaign? What other social media campaigns stood out for you in 2011 and why? Feel free to share your thoughts below!
Zoë Geddes-Soltess is a Community Engagement Specialist at Radian6, with a focus on Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail. You can follow her on Twitter at @zodot. Check out some of her other Radian6 posts here.
December 21, 2011
Today’s world has become more connected and more accessible then ever before. Long gone are the days when distance made communications a challenge or struggle. We now live in a world where millions of people carry the Internet in their pocket and staying in touch is as simple as the click of a button. And with this privilege comes the power and the responsibility to help create positive change. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) believes that by working together we can help to eliminate poverty and end hunger, that if we all take one action, we can be a force for change. From this idea their campaign “Take One Action Against Poverty” was born.
The team at the UNDP saw the power and opportunity that social media offered their organization; it was a chance to reach citizens in the over 177 countries and territories. It was a chance to engage citizens, mobilize their supporters and volunteers, and take real steps towards change. Take One Action is a simple concept: if each person were to take one action against poverty, against hunger, against suffering, we could help make a dramatic difference in the lives of so many. The goal was to document these efforts and share them across various social media channels, the hope was that these images would inspire and motivate others.
The results have been remarkable – watch as Silke Von Brockhausen, Social Media Manager for the UNDP, explains the project and how they are using Radian6 to help track their efforts and engage with their supporters around the globe.
And with that, I would like to wish everyone a very happy holidays and as we look towards 2012, consider what is possible for the coming year – what are you capable of achieving this year? What will your one action be?
December 21, 2011
Their goals are to end world poverty and hunger worldwide and to achieve the millennium development goals. Silke Von Brockhausen, Social Media Manager at the United Nations Development Program, talks about how they are using the Radian6 platform in their social campaigns.
December 14, 2011
Nathan Bricklin @socialbrick (Wells Fargo) using his tweets to illustrate collaboration and employee community engagement – photo courtesy of @JoyceMSullivan
The Business Development Institute’s Financial Services Social Communications conference at the City University of New York on November 16 housed some excellent takeaways for financial services organizations looking to embark on social media. Here are my top words of wisdom from the conference.
Key Takeaways
The keynote case study, @YourService, presented by Frank Eliason, SVP of Social Media at Citibank, kicked off the conference with an encouraging bang. Eliason showed us how Citibank uses social media to connect the dots from customer service to PR and marketing. His presentation was full of social media soaked inspirational mandates to live and work by, from, “Trust is built with human interaction,” to, “Social media is the power of stories.”
Gregory Weiss, Assistant VP of Social Media at New York Life gave an informative presentation on how New York Life has emerged as a leader in the space amongst its peers. They’re promoting interaction and engagement around New York Life and the insurance industry through the use of social media. This insurance company takes a groundbreaking approach to customer service and marketing through their social media channels by leveraging its brand heritage, employees, and agents to achieve short-term wins with long-term benefits. And on the topic of compliance – according Weiss, “Social media is a gift for lawyers and compliance folks because it’s trackable [engagement].”
Sarah Carter, VP of Marketing for Actiance, discussed how Financial institutions are increasingly using enterprise unified communications and collaboration platforms, social software, and real-time tools despite the regulations of the finance industry. In her presentation, Enabling Social in Financial Services, Sarah gave a breakdown of the security and compliance issues financial services companies are facing, and how leading organizations are overcoming them. According to Carter, an important element for implementing a successful corporate social policy is to, “Understand and manage the fallibility of human beings.”
Wells Fargo’s SVP and Head of Social Strategy, Nathan Bricklin’s presentation, Internal Collaboration, provided examples of the various ways Wells Fargo has established internal collaboration on social communications. In an innovative manor, he used his tweets as PowerPoint slides. Bricklin discussed the importance of working hard on developing and maintaining social relationships, “Successful engagement is not about plugging in tools and expecting stuff to magically appear.”
Eric Rehl, VP of eBusiness at Robert W. Baird & Co., showed his experiences and findings from a social media pilot, which allows Financial Advisors at Baird to use Twitter and Facebook for business-related communications and marketing. Rehl explained his takeaways and lessons learned from the pilot, “You need a plan; education is key, training [your social media team] is critical for success, provide best practices, and content is king.”
Robert W. Baird and Co.’s Eric Rehl left us with an important statement and a thought-provoking question to consider: Social media is a, “means to an end.” You will only achieve your specific, measurable objectives if you have a plan. Where are you going?
Learn more about social media for the financial services industry here.
December 8, 2011
Before I came on-board at Radian6, I spearheaded a unique holiday campaign for eMail Our Military (eMOM) that used social media to support U.S. troops. eMOM’s “Holiday Love Project” had been using traditional methods like email marketing and radio advertising since its inception in 2001, but our organization didn’t exceed its campaign goals until we brought social media into the mix in 2008.
The goals were lofty but we decided to go big or go home. We wanted to increase brand awareness, get registrations up and raise $2500.00 in sponsored care packages. As a small organization, eMOM had never aimed that high before, but we had a thriving online community so we gave it a shot!
How did social media make a difference? Social media gave eMOM the ability to have real-time communication with their community. As individuals and businesses showed their support, we were able to thank these sponsors immediately through our blog, Facebook page and Twitter account. We were able to discuss our daily progress, collaborate on ideas, bond with our community and share stories around our holiday campaign. It was an experience like no other we had before!
Social media also gave our organization the opportunity to receive instant feedback and a chance to implement change at will. For example, when our troop supporters wanted to know if their mail had made it to the office, or what our outgoing care packages to service members would look like, we grabbed our digital cameras, snapped pictures and posted them to the eMOM Flickr account. In addition, we shared the photos and the stories that went along with them across our organization’s social media outposts. This gave our community a way to keep up with what we were doing as it was unfolding and what was going on behind the scenes in our office. Social media gave the eMOM community a way to share their thoughts and opinions on the campaign, directly and immediately with us and it made them feel like they were truly a part of our project. You can use crowd sourcing to tap into your community as well.
eMOM made it easy for their community to come together and support their campaign. We created buttons and banners that could be shared on websites, blogs and across other social networks. We used widgets that could track the progress of our holiday campaign and we encouraged our community to grab the code and share it. For those who couldn’t contribute financially, we provided alternatives to give everyone a chance to participate in some way. Through social networks like Facebook and Twitter, we were able to connect with like-minded individuals and reach a broader audience. Social media helped us rally our troop supporters and create a buzz that had an amazing ripple effect.
Like many grassroots, charitable organizations, eMOM was operating on a shoe-string budget. We also relied on a handful of unpaid, but very dedicated volunteers. Because of this, social media was a great option. It allowed us to launch our holiday campaign for a fraction of what it once cost, and harness the power of the social web. By adding social to our campaign, eMail Our Military was able to efficiently and cost-effectively exceed its project goals.
Learn more about making successful social campaigns in our latest eBook, “Four Steps to Integrating Social Media Into Successful Campaigns.”
Have you been a part of an organization that’s successfully implemented social media into its campaigns? Are you including social media as a part of your projects? Tweet us at @radian6 or leave a comment below.
December 6, 2011
Social media campaigns can be tasty, effectively filling, and a mouth-watering opportunity. In many ways, they’re like bacon. Often referred to as “meat’s candy” or the “gateway meat for vegetarians,” bacon is truly unique. You can cure it, it cooks in itself and can work its way into everything from sandwiches and salads to martinis and desserts. Moreover, the process of making bacon, much like the strategic development of a social media campaign, is an intensive craft that requires skill and dedication.
It is with these similarities that I was inspired to cook up these 30 ways social media campaigns are like bacon.
No matter how you cook it, make sure your social media campaigns are crispy and fresh. Whether you mix it into an existing recipe or make it the main ingredient of your dish, both bacon and social media campaigns can be a way to yield better-tasting results.
How will you cook up your next strategic campaign recipe? What other comparisons would you attribute to social media campaigns? Share your thoughts here!
To learn more about social media campaigns, check out our latest eBook, Four Steps to Integrating Social Media into Successful Campaigns.
December 5, 2011
Crowdsourcing — tapping into your community for ideas — has been around for centuries before social media, but not every organization is listening.
During college, I spent my summers doing hard manual labor in a greenhouse. All you need to know about this company is that the lock on their employee suggestion box had rusted shut.
By only pretending to listen, they did more than insult their employees. They missed a great chance to make their business better. Are you making the same mistake?
Your community cares about your product — maybe more than you do. After all, you’re being paid to sell it, but they’ve bought and used it. How might their passion and intelligence inspire you?
Crowdsourcing needn’t be a multi-million dollar formal process. At its heart are 4 easy steps.
Many brands never think to ask what their community wants.
Before ING Direct Canada launched THRiVE Chequing in March, CEO Peter Aceto posted a YouTube video inviting clients to preview the product and send him their feedback. 22,000 fans responded with valuable ideas.
Here are some open-ended questions you can pose on Facebook or Twitter right after your finish reading this blog post:
This is not a fake engagement exercise to drive web traffic. Value the feedback.
My Starbucks Idea documents each idea Starbucks receives — including 27,159 for Coffee & Espresso Drinks alone. Visitors can watch the leaderboard or search for ideas. An Ideas in Action section notes whether submissions are Under Review, Reviewed, In the Works, or Launched. (Launched: “Tall Reusable Cold Cup Tumblers!!”).
Starbucks also has prominent bios for Cindy and Sally, team members who listen for ideas and ask questions. Clearly, Cindy and Sally are listening carefully, and Starbucks is better for it.
By all means follow Starbucks’ example and let your community vote up the best ideas. If an idea gets yawns from your biggest fans, it won’t sell well in the store.
Reserve final judgment for yourself — and state that up front. The mob doesn’t always know best, and it’s susceptible to pranksters and demagogues.
Your community’s ideas can be brand-new products (like Fluevog’s Open Source Footwear), or improvements to existing product. ING DIRECT, for example, gathered many valuable suggestions for THRiVE Chequing, including increasing the number of free cheques to 50 and allowing hundreds of bill payees.
Don’t blow this chance to show how much you appreciate your fans. This is not the time to be cheap. It might involve writing a check — but appreciation and recognition may mean more to your fans.
The LEGO Cuusoo Beta program will bring fan’s designs into production if they receive over 10,000 pledges of support from the community. Winners receive a royalty payment for every set sold — and the thrill of seeing their idea on store shelves.
Social media has a way of ensuring unusual, lavish rewards get noticed — inspiring even more fans who care enough about your brand to share their ideas.
We’d love to hear your stories. How are you listening for your community’s ideas — or how you plan to do so? Tweet us at @radian6 or leave a comment below.
December 5, 2011
Including social media in your campaign is becoming less and less of an option and more and more of a necessity. What we all need to remember is that since social media enables two-way communication and immediate response from your community, you need to make sure that you have an engagement plan ready to go. Social campaigns cannot just be planned to be one sided. You’ll need to take the time to think about the possible reactions your community can have to your campaign and be ready to response to each situation. This can mean building out a playbook for response for every different campaign. Take a look at a campaign we run multiple times a day, the pushing of our content.
This looks at an easily repeatable action of out-posting blog content, but can be used on a much larger scale. The important thing it shows is the strategic thinking behind every possible response. By taking the time to build out such a model, you’ll be able to have the right resources ready to make sure that the engagement around your campaign stays active and that you are able to pull back all that positive and negative feedback to make meaningful action items for your next campaign.
Let’s look at the graphic again but this time, let’s walk through it step by step asking ourselves the types of questions for successful engagement.
Brand Step 1 – Outpost
Where will you be positing? Who will handle the out posting? What type of message are you trying to convey?
Community Step 1 – First Response
Will you monitor for general shares? Will you monitor for feedback and for people who are extremely positive? Will you monitor for negative concerns?
Brand Step 2 – 1st Engagement
Will you respond from a corporate channel or personal voice? Will you say thank you to all those who share? Will you respond to negative feedback?
C0mmunity Step 2 – Follow Up Response
Do you want to track their feedback? Do you want encourage large discussions? How will you share this information internally?
Brand Step 3 – 2nd Engagement
When will you take conversations to a more private space? When will you choose to end the conversations? Do you want to have long discussions? When will you not respond?
No matter how long your engagement goes as far as steps are concerned, it’s important to be prepared at any stage to answer any questions, receive any feedback (good or bad) and to move all this information through to your campaign reporting. By being prepared you’ll make the most of what social media campaigns can offer you in community engagement.
How do you prepare for the community feedback to one of your campaigns? Would you be prepared if the feedback was negative? Do you have a list of resources for follow up questions? How are you tracking this engagement?
If you are looking to learn more about how social media campaigns can help with two way communication with your Community, check out Chapter 1 of this month’s eBook. If you’re a Radian6 user and looking for a way to track this engagement, gain an understanding of Workflow functionality in this post.
November 30, 2011
“Service with a smile,” has long been the mantra of corporate leaders and sales people. Successful businesses add depth and value to their organization by delivering a solid product or service pleasantly. But that limits the beneficiaries to your current client base. “Social media with a smile,” allows your brand to share its passion for its solid product or service (pleasantly) with clients and non-clients alike.
Looking back, I know exactly why my Dad was so passionate about the Rotary Club he belonged to – he met some of his best clients there! Now, that was not his focus for participating. His primary focus was to genuinely be of value and to offer support to the community and to the charities that were important to him. As a result of his earnest efforts, his ideal audience and prospects would seek him out, anticipating the same level of earnest and professional commitment to their needs.
It was “old school” social media. Now with “new social media” the business itself can have a voice and is able to inject its personality and energy to their corporate identity. The brand can now leverage social platforms to genuinely engage prospects, clients, and peers in a broader conversation.
How do you create engaging content that will attract your ideal audience and showcase your business’ passion? Ask yourself the following questions:
That’s where the value is; talk about that.
To be able to build and grow your business successfully, you need to interact with your community. Remember “Service 101”. Smile. Be helpful. Add value. The more value you deliver to your community, the more likely it is that your community will be attracted to working with you, to seek you out for products and services.
We used this exact tact recently for a client of ours, with great results. We worked closely with the client to launch a new brand and a new product offering.
The value of this social media strategy became apparent within 4 months. Monitoring their site traffic revealed an important trend, visitors who came to their website by way of the brand, established through social media, were more engaged, stayed on their site longer and converted to buyers more frequently. By giving their brand a voice, and adding value to the conversation, they were able to attract new clients and achieve a very successful ROI.
Still not convinced? Check out this white paper just published by comScore. They worked with Starbucks, Bing, and Southwest Airlines to understand the power of “like”. The numbers are impressive and really support the conversation of being a voice of value.
Utilizing Social Media isn’t hard. Everyone in business and sales is already involved in social media on some level; it’s just new tools. So flash that social media smile and generate some brand buzz!
I’d like to know: What’s the strength of your brand’s voice? How do you bring value to your social media community? What are your “old school” social media techniques?
Guest blogger, Kathy Hokunson, has two decades of experience in sales, account development, client retention and marketing. She is the Vice President of Sales at Site-Seeker and under her direction, the New England territory has become one of Site-Seeker’s strongest, and most promising markets. She was one of the earliest adopters of the business uses of social media, spending her career making the bottom line case for Internet marketing, including social media. Called “The Queen of Business Social Media” in Southern New England, Kathy has worked with numerous clients and was awarded Platinum Club status as a top 10 new business producers and client retention expert.
November 29, 2011
Social media has been helping travelers solve customer service issues, get questions answered quickly, and even interact with their favorite travel brands. It is no surprise that many people on the move pull out their mobile devices and seek recommendations while vacationing or traveling for business. Whether asking directly via Twitter, or searching out reviews on apps such as Yelp, today’s travel consumer is looking for that social connection that links them to the experience they are about to have.
For today’s #traveltuesday post, I thought it was fitting to reach out via Twitter and ask for recommendations of my own. As a result, I’ll share three specific thoughts with you. First, let me set it up.
The idea began a week ago as I was preparing for another trip to Las Vegas. (Thanks to Melanie for the suggestion!) I was going to tweet to my followers requesting suggestions of what to do while in Vegas. I knew that someone would be listening. Or would they?
#1: For the Traveler
I kept the tweets fairly simple:
Perhaps I should have used more or different hashtags to be more effective. Although I did get 15 unique suggestions in all, it would have been helpful to be more specific in my requests. Try specifying what you are looking for. Are you asking about the best places to shop? Maybe you are hungry for a certain dish (or beverage)? Of course, it is also possible you are simply in need of lip balm and blister bandages, so turning to social media to find a local pharmacy is also a good plan.
#2: For the Recommendation-Maker
Thankfully, my friends and followers who shared great (and goofy) ideas with me today were not simply doing a Google search on my behalf. When your friends ask for a recommendation, they aren’t asking you to answer for the sake of answering. They genuinely want to hear your experiences. Social media has allowed us to share personal stories. Let your friend run the search engines themselves, and give them your honest recommendation. I got great suggestions from people who either tried something and loved it, or heard of something fun and knew they would like it and felt I may too.
Both @kchipphoto and @j_barrak sent me wandering off to Paris. I had Crepes Suzette at La Creperie earlier in the day…
… and then back for a trip up the half-scale Eiffel Tower at night. The views of the Vegas Strip from the 541 foot tall tower were breathtaking!
Goofy colleagues got in on the action, too! Mark suggested I get married - or have my picture taken with Elvis at the very least. And Mel is big on #halfface pictures and seeing how she has always wanted to see the incredible fountain show at the Bellagio, that was her request.
(The Bellagio picture is also almost a #silhouetting shot, which is another one of our silly community team memes.)
I wish I could have made it to Fremont Street or taken a ride on the roller coaster at New York New York. I also missed out on going to The Chandelier Bar today, although I have seen it before and it IS impressive. All in all, I had great success from my Recommendation-Maker followers. Thank you!
#3: For the Travel Service Provider
Today, I was surprised at the lack of response from random local companies just actively listening for average people seeking fun things to do while in Las Vegas. Without using any direct mentions of brands via Twitter, I did not experience engagement of any kind from anyone who may hope to make a buck off me. This tells me that there are still many opportunities for social media monitoring and targeted listening on the Vegas Strip. Had a helicopter tour company suggested I check them out, or a bar tweeted me recommending their specialty up-all-night-writing-a-blog cocktail, I might have been intrigued enough to listen, share the recommendation and then write about it here. The last time I visited Vegas, I had several interesting companies pick up on my upcoming visit and pitch their product or service to me.
Because you never know who you are engaging with, it is possible that many opportunities to reach a broader audience are missed. A simple place to start would be to listen for commonly used words – such as ‘Vegas’. If you’re a travel company of any type, and are not already looking for ways that you can converse about what you offer just by monitoring keywords, drop your questions in the comment box below.
All in all
I had a great day in Vegas. I took many pictures not shared here, and even visited a few places not suggested via social media, like the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, and Hash House a Go Go for a gigantic breakfast. I think I will watch out for the next few days to see who is asking for recommendations just like I did in the hope that I can offer my experiences to a random stranger. Social media makes travel fun!
What about you? As a traveler, have you sought recommendations via social media for travel tips and ideas? Have you dished out your own advice to friends and followers in need? Or, if you are a travel service provider, is targeted listening and engaging part of your social media strategy?
Jenn Seeley is a Community Engagement Specialist who uses social media for recommendations on sights to see while traveling with Radian6. Tell her why you love social media for travel insight by tweeting @Jenn_Seeley.
November 28, 2011
House Party makes it easy to have a party in your own home and get exclusive access to awesome products for you and your friends. Their parties are sponsored by the brands consumers love, such as PlayStation, McDonald’s, Kraft Food and Ford. By hosting, you and your guests get to try their products and receive an incredible Party Pack chock full of goodies. And with the use of social media, all you have to do is provide feedback to House Party on the products you had a chance to try.
The team at House Party has been keeping very busy; their clients see the value and benefits of having customers try their products and share that experience with friends and families. And now with the power of social media, party hosts are now able to share their feedback with their social media followers as well. Twitter has given House Party that chance to connect with party hosts, potential hosts and fans. And by using Radian6, the team at House Party is able to organize these conversations, engage with followers, gain additional insight and findings that have proved invaluable for their clients.
Check out our latest case study on how House Party is using Radian6 and social media.
Sarah Carver is Public Relations Manager at Radian6. She is always inspired by great customer stories. Find her on Twitter at @sarahcarver12.
November 18, 2011
Students are utilizing social media for various reasons, but most often they are using these sites to find information and make connections. In this webinar recorded November 17th, Chase Fritchle explains how Devry University is using social media to make lasting connections with their students.
For more information and resources about social media monitoring and engagement visit our Higher Education area.
November 16, 2011
Being somewhat new to the travel & tourism industry in social media, I have made many industry friends, gleaned great insight from the shared knowledge and have taken a virtual trip around the world and back. Much of my networking takes place via social media as it is my job, after all, to engage with the wonderful travel distribution people and keep my finger on the social pulse as it relates to this massive industry.
Many of my new-found friends have been asking me: “Will you be at PhoCusWright?” “Not this year”, I tell them. So I decided to attend virtually, thanks to @PhoCusWright reaching out to me via Twitter and sharing the online ticket to attend. In fact, I’m one of approximately 1000 people currently streaming Center Stage on top of the record breaking 1400 attendees.
Kicking off Center Stage today was Philip C. Wolf, founder & chairman of PhoCusWright, Inc. After a brief and compelling slide show of notable newsworthy events gone by, ranging from natural disasters to social media milestones (think Twitter turning 5 and Facebook hitting 800 million users), a moment of silence was observed for the victims of 9/11 just over 10 years ago.
Be strategically correct – not politically correct
Wolf shared the story of Genghis Khan and his hawk. Eventually arriving on the importance of controlling your temper and realizing that “the only way to grow is by stealing market share”, Wolf explained that travel is not growing in North America or Asia. “Execute on vision”, like the hawk.
The 6 Tenets of Travel Unleashed
Revealing the theme of this year’s PhoCusWright conference, ‘Travel Unleashed’, Wolf shared the six tenets of Travel Unleashed:
Travel is unleashed and being turned inside out daily. When Wolf stated that ‘the past is an increasingly poor predictor of the future’, I’m curious as to how the attendees allowed that to resonate. With ever-changing technologies, social media taking a larger role than ever in travel, and mobile being one of the largest focuses ever in travel history, how are the professionals in the travel distribution vertical embracing this enlightenment?
I’m looking forward to hearing the vision and insight regarding how to strategically steal market share, but I have two basic thoughts of my own using social media:
Surely the PhoCusWright conference is going to give me much more to think about. I’m looking forward to the exciting line-up of presentations and executive interviews this evening and again tomorrow. Watch this space for more thoughts, and please toss your thoughts in the comment section below. Together, we can enjoy that tasty buzz that Wolf sensed, as he closed off his opening remarks.
Jenn Seeley enjoys all things #travel. Follow her on twitter @jenn_seeley and join in on the #PhoCusWright conversation whether you’re attending or not!
November 14, 2011
I am always excited to learn about our customers’ social media successes and achievements with our platform. I had the pleasure of spending last week visiting some of our customers to learn more about what they are doing in the social media space, and chatting with them about the opportunities that exist in social media across different industries.
Over the coming weeks, I will be sharing stories, videos and photos from these visits, but in the mean time, here is a sneak peek at some of the innovative things our customers are doing.
Omnigon Communications is a creative team of experts helping their clients transform the way viewers interact and engage with traditional sporting events and major television events like the recent Charlie Sheen Roast.
Kim White from Omnigon Communications
Comcast is leading the way in social customer service. The Comcast Cares team is a truly dedicated group that believes in putting their customers first. I got the chance to sit and talk to them about how social media is changing the way they engage with customers and how they have seen customers become friends.
Kip Wetzel from Comcast
The United Nations Development Programme is using social media to make a real difference in communities all around the world. One of their latest projects, “One Action against Poverty”, is helping citizens across the globe in the fight against poverty, and social media has given these citizens, and the UN, the power to share their efforts and inspire others.
Sebastian Majewski from the UNDP
And my last stop found me in the “sweetest place on earth,” Hershey, PA. It was a great visit with Hershey’s; they are connecting and engaging, sharing ideas, recipes and lots of delicious candy with their customers. They are working to ensure that their customers’ voices are heard throughout the organization and the benefits of social listening and engagement are apparent.
Hershey's Chocolate World
Stay tuned as we share how these customers are using Radian6 to make an impact on their organizations and their industries.
November 11, 2011
Compliance in social media communications was a hot topic at the FINRA 2011 Advertising Regulation Conference.
The two-day event, held at the trendy Renaissance Hotel in the heart of downtown Washington D.C, was bustling with 400 registered attendees including securities representatives, compliance officers, lawyers and marketing folks from brokerage firms and branch offices all over the United States. They were there to take in the informative seminars on FINRA’s advertising regulations.
The two days were jam packed with concurrent sessions covering advertising, compliance, sales practices, and my favorite, social media.
Key Takeaways
1. Advertising Regulation officer, Justice Zormelo, eloquently, and with a speckling of humor, touched on serious compliance issues in the Nuts & Bolts of Advertising Regulation seminar and identified the regulations that apply to social media. Some highlights:
2. In the Compliance Considerations for Social Media session, the panel was asked, “What is the biggest hurdle that Financial Services companies need to overcome to participate in social media?” The panelists agreed it was archiving the conversations on the social web.
Financial Services companies can easily extend and modify their company’s policy for advertising and public appearances to their social media policy, as a starting point.
Regulations shouldn’t hold your organization back. FINRA makes it simple to be compliantly social by identifying the regulations for social media and providing guidelines. We need to get out there, and engage with our Financial Services community, but as Zormelo so wisely phrased it, “Compliance is the cure to exposure.”
How does your financial services social media policy adhere to FINRA regulations as well as support your big picture marketing initiatives? Learn more about social media for financial services here.
Julie Meredith is a Community Engagement Specialist at Radian6. Her focus is social strategy as it relates to finance, but she also blogs about beer and films. You can follow her on Twitter at @julie_meredith.
November 8, 2011
Jenn Seeley at Disney Parks Canada
Social media is changing the way people travel, and more importantly the way relationships are developed as a result. Whether you’re ready to embrace it or not, the ship is already sailing. Technology and the internet have made this vast planet easier to navigate as social media helps fuel the lust for travel.
Just last week, I was in beautiful Montreal for the CAA Vision Travel Conference. Although the keynote presentations were largely unique, the idea and importance of relationships carried on throughout. Just how does the travel industry connect with passengers and form long lasting relationships? Let’s journey through a few thoughts together.
Travel Romanticized
Whether laughing with the WestJet flight attendant, touring with Contiki, or running through a Disney Park with abandon, the love for travel has not changed. The method in expressing and sharing that love has, however, evolved. The world’s largest industry continues to tug at heartstrings and seduce people into that next trip.
Your guests fall in love with the idea of travel before even beginning that overwhelming search for the right travel agency, booking engine or inspiration. Among social media users, 52% admit to being inspired in their travel choices by photos posted by friends on Facebook. (see more cool stats in this fancy infographic by tripl.com)
Exhilarating Rush
From research, seeking out the right travel agent for the job, booking and planning an itinerary and finally packing the bags, your passengers/guests/new found friends are typically pumped and excited to be on their way. Adventure seekers and sun worshipers alike have the opportunity to fall for a destination, a site, an attraction, a freshly fluffed pillow, a sunset, or a single moment. But will that lust-turned-love return the good feeling and have a forever soul mate?
Passionate Connections
Typically, the fountain in your courtyard or the characters in costume do not go home with your guests, but your brand can remain with customers via social channels. Social is about making connections and forming a lasting relationship. In fact, “social needs to be embedded in everything you do,” according to our very own David Alston, and I could not agree more.
Did you know that, 72% of social network users are checking in on a daily basis while on the move, at your resort, in line at your ticket counter or checking out of your hotel? If you aren’t connecting with them, forming legitimate friendships with them and feeling confident that they’ll choose to dance with you again when the next slow song plays on the radio, then another travel brand just like you is taking advantage of a new relationship left un-nurtured.
Jeff Walker of CAA National talked about the ‘antidotal voice of the member’ and how members are a credible voice. Targeted listening and strategic engaging across social media channels will allow you to help keep the love of your travel brand burning. If your guests are talking about their vacation, sharing pictures in social spaces and engaging with their friends, you should be vying for better-than-BFF status, and giggling excitedly with your customers as they recall the sights in Africa on an AmaWaterways riverboat cruise.
The love song that woos your next passenger and delights your next guest resonates on social media channels and without targeted social media monitoring and listening, you may miss opportunities for relationships with your guests that will have them coming back for more.
What changes have you made to be more intimate and connected with your passengers & guests via social media? What changes do you see in the horizon?
Jenn Seeley is pretty happy to have hung out with the CAA, WestJet, Disney Parks Canada, Contiki and AmaWaterways folks she recently met. Here’s to lasting social media friendships!
** interesting fact to note: 97% of Canadians are familiar with the CAA brand, but not all are aware of the fullness of the travel services they offer.
November 8, 2011
Companies that are new to social media monitoring and engagement frequently wonder where to begin. This can even be a bigger challenge if nobody is talking about your company or brand.
Here are 100 examples, divided into 10 categories, of things that you can listen to and monitor for across the social web.
November 7, 2011
As we saw with Relish Gourmet Burgers, small businesses are cooking up success with social media. And Mabel’s Labels Inc., a small, innovative label-making business out of Canada, has a successful social media recipe of their own.
Julie Cole is co-founder of Mabel’s Labels. She started the company over eight years ago with her three business partners. All were Moms that felt that the market was lacking personalized, durable and cute labels for the stuff kids lose. So where does social media come into play? Today, Julie shares her insights on creating a small business social media strategy that’s as sticky as the labels she produces.
Thanks so much for your time today, Julie. We’re excited to learn about your approach to social. How do you use social media for your small business? Customer service? Brand awareness? Relationship and community building?
All of the above. In the early days of social media, we did a lot of blogger outreach. Very few companies understood the power of bloggers the way we did. We recognized that by reaching the blogging community with our products, they would then reach out to their communities. Word of mouth has always been our most powerful marketing tool at Mabel’s Labels, and social media brought WOM online, allowing us to expand our reach. Now social media allows us to interact with our 33, 000+ Facebook Fans regularly, respond to a customer on Twitter and share information through our WOM brand ambassador program, Buzzmamas™. We are proud of our customer experience at Mabel’s Labels and where our customers choose to seek assistance is where we will help them out. If we can help our busy customer in 140 characters and eliminate the need for them to take the time to call or write an email, we will and often do.
From blogger outreach to customer service. You certainly find an array of ways to tap into the social web. But how is it helping enhance your business?
Our market demographic is online – they are there to shop, to work and to access social networks. It makes sense for us to be in that space. Social media has broken down any barriers between customer and business owner. Most of our customers feel as though they know us, and people are more likely to support the brands they feel connected to. Our customers shape what products we come out with next so the feedback we receive by listening and asking questions on Facebook or Twitter is invaluable. Every tidbit we receive is written down and put into our “Great Idea Box” at the office and the process is photographed then uploaded to Twitter (when applicable and time permitting)! Blogging about my life raising six kids and running a business opens up the doors of my life to our customers, which leads to them opening their doors, and friendships and sales being made.
Adding that human element and personality can enable consumers to relate to your brand. Do you have examples of how you relate to consumers?
Julie Cole, Co-Founder of Mabel's Labels
Last year the television show “Glee”, ran an episode all about Madonna and the cast were wearing “WWMD” – “What Would Madonna Do” wristbands. Of course everyone was on Twitter loving the wristbands and wishing they were available for sale. Before the episode was over we had limited edition “WWMD” labels designed, and spread the word that evening to our social networks that if you placed an order with “WWMD” in the comments you would receive a set of the limited edition labels for free. From a branding point, many people who received the labels now think of “What Would Mabel Do” as opposed to the original intent of “What Would Madonna Do”. Our ability to act and deliver within the hour the show aired is what really drove the promotion and impressed our Gleek customers. It was light-hearted, simple and we still receive the odd request for “WWMD” labels a year and a half later! In fact, we shipped out a set to a customer who wanted them for her new computer last week!
Another recent example would be our BlogHer ’11 Contest, or more accurately “non-contest” where we had well over 1200 entries, largely through online word of mouth. We knew exactly what sort of entry process would appeal to bloggers, most of whom are busy moms like ourselves, because we have more than a superficial or token involvement in the blogosphere.
Many small businesses want to get started in social media but don’t know how. What advice do you have for them?
I often tell people that this is no time for toe-dipping – people are out there talking about your product, industry, or profession and if you want to be a part of that conversation, you need to get on board with social media. Although it can seem daunting at first, explore one social media avenue at a time. Start with Facebook, then go on to Twitter, etc. If you are feeling shy out there in the social media world, start off just by reading and lurking. Soon you’ll feel comfortable enough to jump in. The only other advice would be to make sure you use the social media tools if you put yourself in that space. There is no point in being there and not responding or engaging with the people in the space with you.
What’s next for Mabel’s Labels in the world of social media?
At Mabel’s Labels we always have our finger on the pulse. Our Social Media Coordinator has a clear understanding of what is happening and how things are evolving. We continue to discover new ways to engage in social media in meaningful ways that create community and foster good business practices.
Thanks so much for your time, Julie. You have a great story and we appreciate you sharing it with our community!
How does your small business utilize social media? How has social benefited you? Share your thoughts here, ask questions and perhaps Julie will jump in and respond! Also, follow Mabel’s Labels on Twitter for their latest social media programs.
Amanda Nelson is a Community Content Manager at Radian6. She is an avid blogger, content curator and border collie fanatic. Find her on Twitter at @mileigh13.
November 4, 2011
One of the questions I’m asked most often is, “What do we do if our customers aren’t on social media?” It’s a valid question. Why spend time developing a social media monitoring, engagement or marketing strategy if you don’t think there’s anything to monitor or anyone to engage with? In other words, if a tweet falls in the forest and there’s no one there to receive it, does it make an impact?
First of all, with around 800 million people on Facebook and more than 120 million on LinkedIn, you can be fairly certain that your customers are there. Finding them becomes the challenge, and one that social media monitoring tools can overcome. But let’s approach this a different way.
What if you could help your customers become more social?
How much time do you spend thinking about the relevance of social media to your business? What about, wondering what tools to use and what networks to try? Your customers are thinking the same things, and asking the same questions. The very fact that you’re reading this blog post means you’ve begun your social media journey, and someone can benefit from what you’ve learned, even if you’re just getting started.
I have a friend named John Doyle, who works for Alure Home Improvements on Long Island, New York. Alure has a great social media story, thanks in part to their work rebuilding homes for deserving families as part of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. John has learned a lot about how social media supports Alure’s business objectives through hands-on, real-world trial and error. And now he speaks to groups of folks all around Long Island about social media and how it can work for them. I imagine John becomes the first Facebook or Twitter connection for a lot of the people he helps. And when it comes time for those people to remodel their bathroom or their kitchen, who do you think will come to mind? (I’ve heard this referred to as the “baby bird” theory, which makes sense, but brings to mind a little more worm imagery than I’m completely comfortable with.)
Even if you don’t think of yourself as a social media expert, you can share what you learn with your customers and community. It’s easy to start a blog on WordPress.com, or a site like Tumblr or Posterous. Then let your customers know about it through your regular channels, like your email newsletter or website. Heck, you could even tell them in person.
You don’t have to sound like an expert. “We’ve started this blog to share what we’re learning in social media. We hope you’ll share the journey with us, let us know what questions you’re trying to answer, and what’s working for you.”
You don’t have to answer every question. You can share the questions you’re asking and the goals you want to achieve. Then when you answer them, you’ll have even more to share. Most of the successful social media bloggers I know started that way, and have built their networks by sharing what they’ve learned.
Your customers already know you. They like you. They trust you. They’re all wondering about this social media stuff, and they would love for you to help them figure it out. And they will thank you for it.
In what ways are you empowering customers to be more social? How else can you deepen customer relationships?
David B. Thomas is Director of Community and Social Strategy at Radian6. He’s also a dad, a home cook, a music nerd and tech geek, and co-author of The Executive’s Guide to Enterprise Social Media Strategy: How Social Networks Are Radically Transforming Your Business. Follow him on Twitter at @davidbthomas.
November 1, 2011
Radian6 had an opportunity to sit down and discuss social media monitoring and engagement for small business with one of our small business customers, Relish Gourmet Burgers from Atlantic Canada.
October 21, 2011
Frontier Airlines is currently in its 18th year of operation, they have more then 5,500 employees and they operate more then 500 daily flights from Denver International Airport, Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport and Kansas City International Airport. Frontier flies to more than 80 destinations in the US, Mexico and Costa Rica. With that number of daily flights, it means that Frontier has thousands of customers depending on them each day.
Find out about how Frontier Airlines and Marco Toscano are using social media to reach out and connect with their customers in this webinar recorded October 20, 2011.
October 21, 2011
Social media is changing how Frontier Airlines conducts business. With thousands of guests flying Frontier daily, the airline is very aware of the power of the social web and has kindly shared with us their successes.
Maybe you missed the great webinar conversation with Marco Toscano from Frontier Airlines, or maybe you enjoyed it so much you’ve returned to view it again. (Marco is the Senior Manager of Social Media at Frontier. Basically, he’s responsible for designing and implementing their overall social strategy). Regardless of what brought you here, let’s share the highlights!
Using social media for customer service inquiries, sharing great experiences and delivering messaging that is shared through other media channels, Marco explains that being present and active in social media has delivered great value for Frontier Airlines.
Surprise & Delight
Being an airline it is difficult to avoid customer service requests, and customer service is something that Frontier Airlines is doing very well via social media – Twitter and Facebook in particular. In fact, customer service goes beyond waiting for a customer to reach out for help as Frontier is actively listening for potential opportunities to help before a guest asks. When passengers simply tweet to friends about a delayed flight (not directing their comments to the airline), Frontier steps in gracefully and lends a hand by engaging. “Surprise & delight your guests,” says Marco.
Part of their bigger social strategy includes identifying ways they can extend traditional campaigns such as TV commercials and seat sales via social media. This is especially useful when you know your target audience and you’re comfortable within your community. The number of ‘likes’ or ‘followers’ one has does not speak to the grandness of a social media community. Using quality over quantity, Frontier Airlines is confident that their shared messaging is reaching the right people as they build authentic online relationships with their guests.
Speaking of relationships with guests, one very great example of Frontier’s customer service via social media can be found in this case study. I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t read it yet, but basically mix horrible weather, unfortunate damage and delayed guests. Typically this spells disaster, but not so for Frontier!
Ignore it or join in
Regardless of your industry, your community is not identical to that of another brand. Even if both brands are airlines, for example. Marco challenged us to, “Jump in and interact.” Don’t be afraid to act. Customers. Guests. Passengers. However you choose to refer to the people in your community, they want to be heard and feel part of something authentic.
Want to watch the whole webinar? You can check it out here.
And one last thing, we’d love to hear your thoughts, comments and feedback! Take a stab at these questions if you need inspiration to get started:
How can you extend your existing campaigns using social media? Do you think there’s a perfect playbook or strategy for like-minded industries? Why or why not? Have you experienced something similar to Frontier Airlines from either side of the social media desk?
Jenn Seeley is a Community Engagement Specialist in the Travel, Transport & Leisure space. She books her flights online and loves engaging with the airlines and hotels she’s a guest at. Say hi to her on Twitter @jenn_seeley
October 13, 2011
In this webinar recorded October 12th, Becky Carroll, author of Understanding The Hidden Power of the Social Customers, describes four keys to growing business from existing customers using the power of social media monitoring and engagement.
August 1, 2011
Social media is about listening and engaging with your consumer base, whether that’s in a business to business or business to consumer sense, to learn ways that you can improve pretty much every aspect of your business. We spend our days listening to each other, engaging, building relationships and can get lost in a sea of replies, DMs, posts, likes, views and countless other metrics and terms that roll off all of tongues easier than the ABC’s. How many of us out there know what all of these metrics we talk about every day can add up to? Honestly ask yourself, how many of those 3 letter acronyms like ROI, ROE and KPI could you define in clear, concise way AND explain why they are important or even what they do at the end of the day? A few stumped faces? Well that’s okay!
There are some great industry experts out there who are helping to lead the way in this space and let’s face it numbers and analysis aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but one thing that we all do need to work together on understanding is their value overall. By working together as a community to help explore this analytics space a little more, it will mean that we’ll be able to put value behind our engagements, working towards things like the cost savings of online support or how much does tweeting a customer bring to a company in direct sales?
This month we are going to tackle this topic of analytics and measurement. The reason that our ebook for the month is titled “The Future of Analytics” is because while we will touch on the building blocks of social media measurement and analysis, we also want to challenge everyone out there to go beyond what we currently know and accept about analytics in our space. We need to start not just talking about what these metrics give us, but as a community talk about how we’re building these metrics, what works & what doesn’t and touch on the big issue of Standardization across our industry so we can move further down the path of defining our industry through the numbers.
So whether you are a social media analyst, community manager or just interested in knowing more about all the metrics you hear talked about throughout your day, join us this month as we start to dig deeper into the ROI, ROE, KPI, and all the other 3 letter acronyms we can find, to talk about the why, the how and the future of social media analytics.
What stumps you when it comes “Analytics”? What have you been or trying to track within your company? What would you love to be able to show in hard fast numbers?
December 10, 2010
We’ve bundled all the sage social media advice from 2010 into nine major takeaways. These rules encompass social media application from the beginning stages of listening and information processing, to the more advanced stages of community engagement. And we’ve organized the rules into the categories of “Listening”, “Measurement”, and “Engagement” for easy browsing and reference.
November 24, 2010
If you work in the social media space you will be well aware that much of the conversation in recent years has revolved around Return on Investment (ROI). The initial excitement and novelty of corporate social media has worn off and the need to prove success and measure impact has moved front and centre. While those that manage online communities agree that measuring social media is essential, the metrics used track and report on ROI will differ amongst peers. We were particularly interested in understanding, through the use of a Poll, what metrics specifically were most important to those in the industry?
Engagement
When asked whether Sentiment, Leads, Sales, Reach or Engagement was most important, the majority answered with Engagement followed by Leads/Sales. This is an encouraging result because striking a balance can be difficult. While quantitative measurements such as leads and sales derived from social media are important, value should also be placed on soft metrics like engagement levels and popularity of content because ultimately they work in tandem.
Answers will greatly depend on who you speak to and where along the social media journey they might be as the emphasis on any one of these metrics will change over time. In most cases the beginning of a social media strategy is marked by a predominant view to engage online and foster a community. Following on, as the community develops, the focus will tend to shift to tracking social media leads through to conversion or customer retention. This can be a daunting task but with the right social media and CRM tools in place it is achievable.
What Matters to Me?
So how do you assess which one of these metrics, amongst others, you should pay most attention to? Generally, this will depend on a number of factors but first and foremost this will be reliant on your goals and intention. If social media use within an organisation is centred on providing quick and effective customer service then sentiment and engagement might demand a primary focus. Alternatively however, if a community is already present and they are discussing your industry or services as a matter of course then sales and leads might be more relevant.
In the end, for a comprehensive view on corporate social media there needs to be a balance of all four metrics listed in our poll as well as other metrics as they apply to the business. Undeniably all of these tie in closely together and influence each other. Ultimately, focusing on only one would be to the detriment of any social media strategy. Moreover, by placing equal value on these returns you will find that the social media stakeholders are present throughout the business, not just in marketing, PR or customer services. Connecting the business is the key to becoming a social business which can ultimately deliver ROI across departments and be recognised throughout the organisation.
What metrics do you use to track your social media success?
October 15, 2010
So you’ve looked at social media, you know there’s value, and now you want to get your business involved. Where do you start and how do you do it?
Listen – Engage – Measure
If you’re thinking of getting your business involved in social media make sure you have a plan. In most cases your plan will include three key dimensions; Listening, Engaging and Measuring.
In the first instance your initial listening or buzz monitoring initiatives will be pivotal in clarifying how your business will benefit and what value you will add when engaging. In addition to this, having an understanding of current conversations will help you to create clear-cut goals which will ultimately feed into how and why you engage online as well as how you will go about measuring your success.
Listening 2.0
There is always a lot of chatter surrounding why companies should listen, but how does it actually create value. This is where engagement comes in and where listening goes beyond simply tracking a campaign, sentiment or ReTweets. Make engagement a natural part of the process as it will allow you to:
1. Understand industry discussion and be a leader in your space.
Knowing how your competitors are engaging and what your customers, prospects or supporters want will help you reach out online to the right person at the right time and in the right place. Beyond the online space, managing buzz effectively can not only help feed into your social media strategy, but can also have enterprise-wide repercussions, helping you to understand your product, your customers needs and the way your brand is received, with much more clarity
2. Engage at a point where you can create value.
This might mean helping your customers with problems, being a thought leader and contributing to the industry discussion while sharing content from others that might be of value. Demonstrate the fact that you are listening and paying attention but be more than just reactive and stay ahead of the curve.
Trial and Error
If you listen first you’re already a step ahead. However, you’re not always going to get it right. As with any new idea, product or initiative you will learn from your mistakes and develop your social media strategy on an on-going basis. Social media is constantly evolving, at a fast pace, so cut yourself some slack and do it better next time.
Shout About Your Achievements
Ensuring that your social media presence is paying off is much more than just getting the reporting right for your superiors. The metrics will help but it’s really about company buy-in, from the new intern to the COO but this is only going to happen if you’ve got a story to tell. Make sure that you shout about your achievements across the organisation, differentiate yourself from your competitors and be an ambassador for your team, your business or your industry. By using the numbers and KPIs to your advantage you will make the most out your social media engagement and even eventually find your niche within this space.
October 8, 2010
Thinking of following in the footsteps of some of the world’s most successful companies by implementing a social media strategy? One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to being social so we’ve taken the time to draw up a few pointers that should help you along the way.
1. How will you listen?
Listening is an integral part of any conversation and plays a crucial role in ensuring your social media strategy succeeds, but how can you listen effectively if all your customers are talking at once? After all, a large company or brand could have hundreds of mentions every hour.
Monitoring is imperative for all organisations in order to identify and respond to feedback. For a small organisation, hiring a media analyst to trawl the web might be sufficient, but larger organisations may need to use a tool in order to gather all of the conversations about them in one place. This makes it easier to know where to engage. Using a social media monitoring platform can help ensure that you are always abreast of conversation and inform your engagement strategy appropriately. (more…)
September 2, 2010
Engagement is a scary concept for some companies. The fears are plentiful and range from basic questions about how to get started, to the more advanced questions about how to continue your engagement during a crisis. It’s all well and good to talk about dipping your toes into the engagement pond, but what about those companies that aren’t there yet? How can they start overcoming their engagement fears and prepare to take those first steps?
Every solid strategy starts with research and engagement strategies are no different. Start by taking a long hard look at your own company. Some questions you may want to ask are:
Make a list of questions you’ve been asked, or fears you’ve heard expressed, and make sure your research provides the answers you need.
Look for examples from other companies in your industry and active around the web to see what their engagement looks like. Does there seem to be a consistent focus? How many of your competitors are actively engaging online? Are there any patterns you can see with how they’re going about it?
Look outside your own company and try to find examples to support or add to your research. Does this help calm any fears or address any questions on your list?
Chances are that once you really start digging down, a lot of questions will answer themselves. Other fears or questions may need to be talked about internally before they can be understood and overcome.
Once you’ve done your research, start creating your plan. Some questions you may answer here include:
A lot of fear seems to come from the fact that companies either don’t know what to say, or they don’t want to try and boil the ocean. A comprehensive plan can help in a number of ways, including putting some boundaries around what you’re trying to achieve and who/what needs to be involved.
By now, you’ve looked inside your company and outside at the wider online world to evaluate where some of your engagement boundaries exist. You’ve taken your findings and turned them into a plan that can be handed to someone for action and maintained as the industry changes and your company grows. The next step is to take that plan and put it in front of the people that matter. Who needs to sign off on your plan before you can start putting it into practice? What sort of oversight is needed once you start engaging?
Communication is key! Put your plan in front of everyone that needs to see it, from the people that will be doing the engaging, to the higher-ups that will be keeping an eye on progress and company goals.
Don’t forget about your legal team! Ask them to review your plan to identify if your engagement strategies open the company up to any risk. If so, how can you work together to mitigate those risks? Instead of viewing your legal team as a force stopping you from getting out there and engaging online, view them as an ally. Their job is to protect the company, so instead of asking “Can we do this?”, a better approach may be to ask “How can we do this, and what do we need to keep in mind?”
Along the way, incorporate the feedback you get from your colleagues and superiors. It’s fine if things change, but just be sure to go back and make sure that the changes don’t have a domino effect and raise other red flags.
At the end, you should end up with a well-researched and actionable plan, as well as a potential list of fears or questions for you to go back and answer. This is an iterative process, so don’t get discouraged if you have to go back to the drawing board a few times. This is all about preparation and setting the proper expectations. Jay Baer says it best:
“The graveyard of digital marketing is littered with the bones and business cards of those that dove in head-first with high expectations, no strategy, and no plan for testing and optimization of results.”
For some companies, researching and putting together a thorough plan, then socializing and getting approval for the plan might be all it takes to start wading in the engagement pond. For others, the exercise can reveal some very real forces stopping you from ever taking that first dip. Either way, the research and preparation is a necessary precursor to execution, and measurement and open communication about questions, fears and expectations upfront can only help when the time is right to start jumping in.
What engagement fears have you heard? How did you end up overcoming them? Share your stories in the comments!
September 1, 2010
Here’s the truth:
If social media presence is all or part of your professional role, your online presence is going to be intertwined. It can be tricky to balance the two when you’re “on the job”, answering customer inquiries, being present in the community, participating and creating content.
Balance is possible, but it will always be a little imperfect. You’ll have to make choices and judgment calls about what to say and how to say it, and sometimes, that might mean saying nothing at all. Here, let’s discuss a few guidelines for keeping your personal and professional presence online in harmony.
When you’re a professional in social media, you’ll figure out where your customers and community are, and where they’re reaching out to you online. If it’s a forum or Twitter or blogs, you’ll need to have a profile in those networks where you can keep the door open for questions or outreach, and where you can respond and engage in a professional manner.
Sometimes, you can use a single profile if you’re willing to keep some filters on, and maintain an even keel. That might mean keeping the sharp political or religious conversations to yourself, or exercising good diplomacy. It’s a choice. Because if all of your personal and professional stuff is piled into one, they reflect on one another. That’s just reality.
You’ll have to decide where and when you’ll keep the doors open for people to follow or friend you on a professional basis, and where you’re able to keep your networks more closed for personal purposes. Maybe your answer is to have separate profiles on Twitter, and keep your professional interactions on Facebook to your Page instead of your profile. But whatever combination you choose, you have to balance being available and accessible to your community, and finding homes for personal discussions or interests that you might not want to mix with work.
It might sound like I’m suggesting you never mix personal and professional, and that’s not it at all. In fact, it’s okay to not always talk about work. The people that interact with you professionally often appreciate seeing the human side of you. As we’ve well learned from social media discussions, the Official Corporate Voice isn’t very welcoming or friendly. And you want your customers and community to feel welcome and at home when they talk with you.
So, share your victory at last night’s Ultimate Frisbee game (our Radian6 team rocks, by the way). Share the picture of the dog or the kid if you’re comfortable with that. Talk a bit about music you like, or what you did on your summer vacation. A blend of personal and work-related stuff can help you feel more approachable, friendly, and “one of the gang” to your customers. That helps build trust, which is definitely what you want.
The trick is really in the stuff that’s either super personal, or potentially really polarizing to your community. You’ll have to make your own judgment call about which of your personal interests, beliefs, experiences, or opinions are better suited to more closed audiences. Each company will have different tolerances, each individual will have different comfort levels. And your customers just want to know that when the chips are down, you can shift into professional mode and help meet their needs.
It’s like email: if you’re not sure, don’t send it. Better to err on the side of caution if your job involves a public online presence. After all, people are paying attention.
Is that hard sometimes? Sure. If I’ve got a vehement opinion on a topic, or someone says something I find patently offensive, it’s so difficult not to pop off and say what I think.( After all, if you know me, you know that I’m one to speak my mind.) If I’m having a hard day, it can be tempting to dump it all out onto Twitter in search of support.
Things like selective Facebook lists (groups where you can post an update just to that selection of friends or family members) can help. Or a private Posterous where you can let it all hang out. Building selective filters outside the realm of your “on duty” places online can make it a little easier.
But here’s the difficult truth: If you’re working online (and we all are, more and more, in some way or another), your personal actions and behaviors will impact your professional presence and reputation, and vice versa. So we’ve each got to decide what facets we want to be part of that multi-dimensional online presence, and which might be expressed elsewhere.
In a professional social media job, you’re often the front lines. The face of the company, the first person people think of to go to when they need a hand or attention or a question answered. If you pursued this line of work, that’s probably part of what drew you.
If you’re not in social media as a profession but if it’s part of your communication set – like customer service, let’s say – you’ll still need to be present, available, friendly, findable. You want people to come to you every bit as much as you’d want them to feel free to email you or pick up the phone and call. That’s what your customers are looking for; a human being that they can virtually tap on the shoulder and know that they’ll get a welcoming response.
It’s the online equivalent of a common office dynamic. When someone walks up to your desk, do you sigh in exasperation for being interrupted, or do you turn around, say a warm hello, and ask how you can help? Are you the person they’re always afraid to come up to, or is your presence always a comfortable, open one?
There’s no doubt that this isn’t nearly as clear cut as we’d all like it to be. We’d love to have a set of “do this, don’t do that” guidelines that guarantee that we’re engaging and interacting in the best way possible. But there’s no such thing.
What’s interesting about the public nature of engagement is that it puts our judgment skills on display in a way they haven’t been before. Using good judgment was something that we’ve always had to do, but we haven’t had to do it on a public, visible stage. And now we do.
But if we want businesses to evolve and become more human, we individuals have to contribute to that equation through our own decisions and actions. It’s a give and a get, and as tricky as the change might be sometimes, it’s all part and parcel to this new world of communication we’re building.
I’m on board. I’m learning every day, and my future online personal and professional self will undoubtedly be shaped along the way.
What challenges do you have balancing personal and professional when you engage online? What questions can we answer, or what input can we provide? Looking forward to hearing from you in the comments.
August 26, 2010
There’s a lot of debate about how and where interns should be involved in a company’s social media presence. Everyone seems to agree that interns shouldn’t be on the front lines of engagement, nor should they be directing the company’s social strategies. The questions are now “Where does an intern fit in?”, and “How can I involve them in engagement, if not on the front lines?”
For teens that want to drive, drivers education is a mandatory class that they must take before they’re allowed to get their permit. Drivers ed prepares potential drivers by giving them a guided tour of driving. What are the rules (both on the books and off) that they must follow? How should they learn to drive? What are some important things to keep in mind as they work toward getting their license?
In many ways, an internship resembles drivers education.
An internship:
The moment a teen gets their learners permit is where the rubber starts to hit the road – literally. The teen is responsible for driving the car, but only under the direct supervision of an approved parent or guardian. For many teens, the year that they spend learning to drive is a lesson in calculated freedom. They can make their own decisions, but any misstep is swiftly corrected. Nothing goes unseen.
Businesses can learn from this concept. The purpose of an internship isn’t to fill your intern’s time with coffee runs and copying duties. Instead, an internship should always aim to teach the intern how to work as an adult, encouraging progress and delivering praise where praise is due, but also keeping a close watch on their duties and behaviors while at work to help correct any mistakes as they happen.
Scott Westerman wrote a thought-provoking post about interns and social media, and some of his key points are included below.
- Define what you need
- Hire with care
- Fully train them before turning them loose
- Include them
- Coach them
- Celebrate them
- Fight for them
An internship is an opportunity for both the company and the intern to learn. Instead of placing an intern in charge of your outreach and engagement full stop, treat the internship as a learners permit.
In lieu of direct engagement, interns can learn how social media works by becoming involved with other areas within an organization during the course of their internship.
Much of what happens to teens when they get their graduated license goes unnoticed by their parents. They test the limits of the rules and are sometimes met with severe consequences. Others understand the dangers of the road and become responsible drivers from the beginning.
A good internship includes measured amounts of freedom with a large amount of oversight. The companies that hire interns into positions like this gain new perspectives, an employee who is eager to please, and a student who wants to learn. Direct engagement on behalf of a brand isn’t required, and the company and the intern can benefit greatly even if the intern remains off the front lines.
What’s your take on The Great Intern Debate? How do you involve your interns with your social media activities? Are they involved on the front lines?
August 24, 2010
At what point in a relationship, do you move beyond the chit chat about the weather and traffic and begin a mutually beneficial two-way dialog? Dialog builds as trust develops in a relationship. Just as in offline communication, trust and conversation must be built up over time. Just because an organization creates a presence on social networks, does not guarantee engagement will commence or that it will occur in the outposts established by your organization. If you build it, there is no guarantee people will come. Engagement begins with an invite.
Your organization is built of many unique individuals. All have personalities and skills that keep your organization humming. As you build an engagement strategy, are you making sure you these people are noticed, so they may help facilitate the relationships you seek? Who is telling your story? A faceless narrator does not invite engagement.
As Katie stated last week, storytelling and engagement do go hand-in-hand. Take a page from a storyteller, and build your organization’s personas as you would characters in a novel. No need to fictionalize your avatars…just look within your organization for those who are not flat and lifeless, but stir our souls to respond. Authors are told to write from life; take the same advice and harness the talents of your real-life workforce to embody the three dimensional character you need to succeed in online engagement.
A one or two dimensional character is simple and does not require or warrant explanation. These characters are not identified as individual people with thoughts or emotions. These characters fall flat because they lack human connection. They are predictable, isolated and lack creditability.
Avoid being the stereotypical organization online with your company logo avatar and legalese lingo. A stereotype is never a three dimensional character. Seek out those in your organization who draw others into their circle
