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'Web Science/Web 3.0&소셜미디어'에 해당되는 글 17건
- 2011/06/13 Social 101 Facebook2 (3)
- 2011/06/13 HOW TO: Use Social Media for Recruiting (3)
- 2011/03/31 7 things you need to know about location-based marketing
- 2011/03/24 8 Questions You Should Answer To Have A Successful Blog
- 2011/03/02 Is Quora the Next Big Social Media Site?
- 2011/02/28 5 Ways to Use Social Data to Grow Your Business
- 2011/02/25 Should You Use Radian6 for Social Media Monitoring?
- 2011/02/23 22 Hot New Social Media Tools Worth Exploring
- 2011/02/23 Sorry Charlie,There are No Short Cuts to Social Relationships
- 2011/02/22 12 Principles Of Social Media Marketing
HOW TO: Use Social Media for Recruiting
by 26 This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Finding the right candidate for a job is like finding a new apartment: timing, finances and quality all have to align just right. And somehow, the pool of options always seems to feel both prohibitively large and prohibitively limited at the same time.
So, in both types of searches, online tools have become invaluable. But while tweeting out a call for a good real estate agent is fairly straightforward, using social media for recruiting has nuances that, if overlooked, can render the process far less useful. Here are a few key pointers from experts in the field to remember when getting started.
1. Start Early
Simply tweeting out a link to a job posting might get you some viable candidates, but to really make sure you’re reaching your target audience, it’s important to cultivate your personality as an employer early on. “Social recruiting is about getting engaged and having conversations with people before they’re even thinking about you as an employer,” says Bruce Morton, CMO of Allegis Group Services, a company that provides human resources consulting. Morton also suggests that recruiters could “learn a lot from the consumer industry” in terms of marketing. In that analogy, your company is your brand, and the available job is just one of many products you have to offer. Keep that in mind when cultivating a social media presence for your brand that will eventually allow you to incorporate job announcements.
2. Know Your Audience
These days, it’s the rare holdout who has avoided creating a Facebook profile. But just because potential candidates have a presence on a given social network doesn’t mean that it’s the right site to use when targeting them. Debbie Fischer, human resources manager for advertising agency Campbell Mithun, found resounding success by using Twitter as a recruiting tool for summer interns. But, she cautioned that “you have to think about the types of roles you’re recruiting for,” because while college students can be open about their job hunt, more seasoned professionals may not feel comfortable publicly sharing that they are considering a career move. For those types of roles, Morton says that LinkedIn can be a good place to start, because, as he puts it, “what LinkedIn has done is given people the permission to put their resume online,” without fear of repercussions from current employers.
3. Get Creative
When you make the foray into social recruiting, you are entering a space in which both passive and active job seekers are already receiving a massive amount of information on a daily basis. So, to get the best results, your message has to stand out enough to make people take note. Additionally, presenting your job openings in a creative way allows companies to show more about their personalities as organizations, which in turn helps potential candidates get a feel for whether or not the culture is likely to be a good fit.
This year, Campbell Mithun hired for their “Lucky 13” internship program through a process that required those interested to apply by submitting 13 tweets over 13 days. Due to its novel use of social media, the campaign garnered press from national outlets like AdAge.com, as well as Mashable. Even a straightforward job description can spread like wildfire on social networks if it’s written in a way that sparks discussion, like this announcement from a Florida newspaper that readers found refreshing for its candid and witty tone. And if you have more resources, you might consider creating a short video, as corporations like Facebook have done, to present your material in a more engaging manner. Morton says that when seeking Generation Y talent, recruiters can’t assume that candidates will read a page of text, “but they’ll watch a video.”
4. Be Open in Return
Finding candidates through social channels means you’ll be asking them to share information with you via possibly public means. For the process to work, employers need to be willing to share information as well (while, of course, carefully and closely guarding any personal information they might have about their applicants). Morton says some employers express staunch resistance to putting jobs on Twitter, when in fact, the listings in question are all on Twitter through unofficial channels anyway. For Campbell Mithun, the finishing touch of a successful social media-driven hiring process was getting to showcase the talented, web-savvy young people they had selected. Kristine Olson, the agency’s Director of Corporate Communications, had a communications strategy in place that was designed, fittingly, to use social media channels to share the results of the campaign, noting that the HR team “had to be really open to allow us to publicize who we were hiring.”
Do you have any success stories about finding great candidates through social recruiting? Let us know in the comments.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, SchulteProductions
7 things you need to know about location-based marketing
Article Highlights:
- Find location opportunities that fit the audience you want to reach
- Go beyond pointless place check-ins and explore the game layer
- Get more out of what you're already doing with search and social media
Getting started in the location space
Yesterday was a big day. I unseated the long-time mayor of my neighborhood Starbucks on Foursquare and I earned the Florida pin on Gowalla by checking into Lakewood Ranch Main Street, a retail development near my house.
That I can get so many rewards for such little effort -- simply by sharing my location -- doesn't seem to cut into the fun. In the curious space where gaming meets tangible reality, these silly badges and mayorships go straight to my pleasure center. In fact, I've found myself going to great lengths to obtain them and then brag about them to my friends.
Get connected. Want to meet up with the companies that are leading location-based marketing into the future? Check out the exhibit hall at ad:tech San Francisco, April 11-13. Learn more.
Digital location-based marketing is the next big frontier in marketing. Not only does it offer the ability to reward and increase frequency of engagement with already-loyal customers, but it also allows consumers to discover new businesses and experiences.
While some marketers are faced with reluctant leadership that wants to stick with what's always worked, other companies find it hard to fight the temptation to adopt new location-based technologies that invite cheap experimentation. Whether you're a marketer who is trying to sell your company on experimenting with location-based marketing, or your company is already sold, here are seven things to consider when plotting your course to location-based marketing nirvana.
Why marketers should care
Location-based marketing might not be the right fit for every business or customer segment. It is more closely related to point-of-sale incentives than to massive brand advertising. But ironically, according to Borrell Associates, 97 percent of the spend on location-based marketing will come from multi-location retailers and businesses.
Mobile proximity-based advertising has been estimated at $200 million for 2010 with anticipated growth to $760 million in 2011, according to Borrell's 2010 proximity-based marketing study. Within five years, the study estimates that location-based marketing will be a $6 billion market. It's here, and it's growing quickly, so think of experimentation in this space as a way to stay ahead of the curve with regard to consumer marketing technologies.
There are plenty of ways to get your feet wet and understand the audience opportunity for your business without blowing an astronomic sum on custom app development.
Audience and point-of-purchase
Consider the audience for location-based services
Users of location-based services are "young and mobile" according to a 2010 survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. When asked, only 4 percent of all U.S. online adults report that they knowingly use location-based reporting services, with Twitter users twice as likely to use the services. On any given day, 1 percent of internet users are using these services.
- Location-based service users are twice as likely to access the internet from a mobile device. They are also twice as likely to be male.
- Internet users aged 18-24 are twice as likely to use location-based services than older online U.S. adult populations.
Whether or not this matches the audience target for your business, keep reading. Location-based service adoption -- and marketing spend -- is expected to skyrocket. Similar to the aging face of Facebook, there's a possibility that boomers could be the next big adoption curve.
Use point-of-purchase as a point of reference
Location-based marketing services vary in their approach, but currently most are more akin to point-of-purchase incentives and direct mail than they are to massive brand advertising (with customized gaming services like GoldRun being the exception). Location-based marketing services are the perfect combination of intention and location. They enable your message to connect with potential customers who are proximate to your business and want to buy, or do, or eat something right now.
Demographics and broader thinking
Focus on your target customers
Identify the activities that are important to your customers and that will facilitate true relationships and engagement. Based on this, build a location-based marketing program that reflects what people already love about your company.
When Maxim built out its GoldRun strategy, the company's agency knew what it was doing. The Maxim audience is also young, mobile, and male -- and the GoldRun approach was the perfect match for the same audience of young, mobile, and male thrill-seeking game lovers who are willing to go on the hunt for a hot virtual cover model.
Think beyond Foursquare or Gowalla
The top mobile services aren't location-based check-in apps. Top activities on mobile devices include accessing news and information, reading email, and -- most of all -- texting. Compared to the 4 percent of online U.S. adults who claim to use location-based check-in services, 68 percent of mobile device users use text messages, 40 percent access news and information, 31 percent use email on their mobile devices, and 21 percent of mobile users access search, according to the December 2010 comScore MobiLens report.
When you think about location-based mobile marketing, include local and national news apps, group texting services such as GroupMe and Fast Society. Also consider leveraging high-volume localized email marketing programs such as Groupon, Gilt City, Daily Candy, and LivingSocial as dimensions of your location-based marketing strategy. All of these programs except for Daily Candy have iPhone apps that offer localized push notifications.
And don't forget that search is still one of the world's most popular location-based activities. The Generations 2010 Pew Internet & American Life study shows search as the second most popular online activity -- spanning generations. Eighty-seven percent of all online adults search and should be the first consideration in fine-tuning your digital presence for geo-local mobile marketing. Google Search and Google Latitude are two of the top location-based marketing services. Ensure that you're optimized for Google Places and check that your local listings on other structured listing services are accurate.
Extending your efforts; gaming and AR
Leverage what you're already doing
After Google, Facebook Places has the largest customer footprint in digital location-based marketing. Twitter is a far third, but tends to be an audience of engaged influencers. The more than 500 million Facebook users either have checked in to a location on Facebook Places or have been exposed to check-in notices from friends in their Facebook news feed.
After Facebook Places, Foursquare is the biggest player in the check-in services game. Other players include Where, Gowalla, Google Latitude, Foursquare, GetGlue, DailyMile, and Waze. The last three of these are activity-oriented check-ins. If you are organizing or sponsoring an activity, be sure to add the activity to the list of locations on any or all of these apps. It can be as specific as the name of a conference at a specific hotel, or as vague as checking in to a movement like "bike to work day."
And don't forget geo-vertical search. Sites like Yelp, Urbanspoon, FindLaw, Avvo, RealSelf, Zillow, and Angie's List that offer specialized online search tools and niche apps in some cases also might rank high in Google. They aggregate ratings, reviews, and data on specific topics that have local or location-based dimensions, such as restaurants, physicians, lawyers, and real estate. Some of these services are data centered, some are rating and review based, but all are vertical searches that rely on geo-relevant searching.
Get to know the game layer and befriend augmented reality
Much of what makes location-based engagement possible are the rewards of participation, or the game layer. Consider creating custom badges and experiences that are attached to apps that offer engaged audiences. Brands can also toy with the magic of augmented reality (AR) by partnering with GoldRun, Layar, and Scvngr. These customized experiences provide an opportunity to engage users nationwide or even worldwide in a common activity.
In addition, location-based AR introduces digital elements into physical spaces (today via mobile devices) and offers a whole new way to interact with products, brands, causes, and ideas in relevant physical spaces.
Conclusion
Location-based marketing is a sandbox that is ripe for innovation and creative use. Get to understand the magic of the medium and what inspires your audience. Then, you'll be able to discover the location-based marketing tactics that resonate with your customers.
And don't forget to leverage what you're already doing with search, social networks, and localized email programs. Finally, consider testing your ideas on these existing platforms before you invest in an expensive custom app solution.
Sonia Meisenheimer is a digital marketing consultant.
On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet
Every so often someone at my small business forum brings up the subject of how to start a blog. Since I’ve been blogging a few years now and can hopefully refer to myself as a somewhat successful blogger, I thought I’d share a few tips I’ve learned along the way.
I’ll offer these tips as a series of questions you should be able to answer “yes” to. First though, I’d like to talk about how often you need to post as it’s one of the more common questions thats gets asked about blogging.
How Often do You Need to Post?
Your main focus with a blog should be to produce the best content you’re capable of producing or hire someone to create the best content they can produce. Quality will trump quantity. Unless your blog is a news blog you don’t need to publish every day or several times a day.
It’s hard to deny that posting more will bring more traffic. It generally will. However traffic alone does not a successful blog make. Presumably you’d like visitors that actually do something like read your post and subscribe.
Where quantity is concerned it’s more important to be consistent. Pick a schedule you can reasonably maintain and stick with it whether it’s once a week, twice a week or once every other week.
You can’t let too much time pass between posts or you risk losing your audience, but you really don’t have to publish every day.
More posts will be better only if your quality doesn’t suffer. Aim for publishing the best post you can and over time you can increase how often you publish. If your posts are good people will read them even if they don’t come every day. If your posts are bad it’s irrelevant how often you post.
Questions You Should Answer Yes To
I’m sure there are examples of successful bloggers that would answer “no” to any of the questions below. Truthfully there are no absolute rules you need to follow to be a successful blogger.
However most of us would do well to answer “yes” to each of these questions.
There are plenty of other things you should be doing, but I think you should start with the questions below and honestly be able to answer “yes” to all of them.
Are you passionate about your subject?
Maintaining a blog is not easy. It takes lot of work to come up with new ideas, turn those ideas into something others want to read, and promote your posts so others know they exist.
Blogging will be much easier if you feel passionate about your subject. All bloggers go through periods where writing a post is the last thing in the world they want to do or where the ideas aren’t flowing. Your passion can help sustain you during these times.
If you don’t feel passionate about your topic it will show in your writing. If you’re not interested in your posts why would you expect your readers to be interested in them?
Are others passionate about your subject?
It’s all well and good to be passionate about your subject, but are there others who are also passionate about it? Is there an audience for your subject?
Odds are unless your topic is so narrowly focused there will be people other than yourself interested in it, but you might want to ask around to make sure.
If there are a large number of other blogs on the topic then it’s probably safe to say others are interested in it. If there are no other blogs on the topic it could be an indication no one really cares about the subject.
You might have hit upon something no one else has considered before, but do make sure the audience for your topic is greater than one.
Are you following what goes on in your industry/topic?
Assuming there are people interested in your subject, there are likely others blogging about it. You should be following as many of these other blogs as you can.
They’ll help you know more about what’s going on and what sub-topics people are most interested in. They’ll help you generate ideas and provide a source for you to network and get the word out about your blog.
You don’t have to read every post on every blog about your topic, but you should at least glance at the post titles and get a feel for what others are talking about and also what they aren’t talking about.
Can you commit to a consistent schedule?
As I mentioned above you don’t have to post every day, but you do need to post consistently. Ideally you’ll post with a strategy in mind. If you only post once every few months there’s little reason for anyone to subscribe.
People subscribe to blogs less for what you’ve written and more for what they think you’ll write in the future. They subscribe because they don’t want to miss out on your next post.
When you show your blog is consistently active it gives people a reason to subscribe so they won’t miss what you write in the future. They know you’ll be around tomorrow.
Do you have something to say and can you say it in an interesting way?
While it’s important to know what others are saying about your topic, you can’t just repeat what everyone else is doing. You need to give people a reason to specifically read your blog.
Can you approach the topic in an original way or offer a unique perspective? Can you create content significantly better than others on the topic are creating? What is it that you bring to the topic? Can you develop a blogging voice?
You can’t bore your readers. You don’t need to be (insert your favorite author here), but you do need to find a way to make your blog interesting enough for your audience to stick around. You need to deliver content that’s entertaining, useful, informative, engaging, or generally interesting.
Do you have a thick skin?
No matter how wonderful your blog is there will be people telling you how awful it is. While criticism is important to listen to, you do need to be able to separate genuine criticism from those trying to get a reaction out of you.
Most blogs attract trolls at some point. It’s better to laugh them off than get mad and respond.
Genuine and honest critiques can also hurt sometimes so you need to be able to take in the advice offered and let your feelings about it go. Listen to critiques objectively and use them to make your blog better.
Remember though, that it’s your blog and ultimately you should decide how to make it better. You don’t have to change something just because one commenter suggests you do.
Would you read your blog if you didn’t write it?
This is one of the most important questions you need to ask yourself. I first heard the advice at either SEOmoz or CopyBlogger, though I can’t remember which. This questions pulls in most everything above.
If you weren’t the author of your blog would you read it? Would you subscribe to it? This isn’t an easy question to answer and you need to be brutally honest with yourself. You’ll need a thick skin to deal with your own critique.
A few years ago I asked myself this very question and had to honestly answer that I wouldn’t have read my own blog at the time.
I took a few months away and came back with a new direction and a greater focus. I spent the time away thinking about what I wanted to read in a blog and thought about why I read the ones I read.
It takes more work to create a blog I want to read, but today I can honestly say I would read this blog even if it wasn’t mine. If you don’t want to read your blog, it’s unlikely anyone else will want to read it either.
Is there a way to generate revenue from your topic?
This question naturally depends on the goals you have for your blog. You can certainly blog without any desire for making money. Your blog can be an outlet for your creativity or it can be a cathartic release or it can be any number of things that never involve money.
I’m assuming though, that part of the reason you’re blogging is a desire to help the bottom line of your business.
Assuming you do want your blog to contribute to your business, you have to think about how it will contribute to your business. There are a variety of ways you can do this.
- Promote the services you offer
- Sell your own products
- Sell other people’s products through affiliate links
- Sell advertising space
Ultimately you’ll sell your own products and/or services or the products and/or services of others or some combination of all of them. Each of the above has different strategies for success and each can be subdivided into more specific categories.
I’ll save those strategies and subcategories for another post. For now simply think about whether or not your subject will lend itself to helping you make money in some way.
That money doesn’t have to be direct revenue. Your blog can sell absolutely nothing and exist solely to provide credibility to potential clients. Your blog might exist mainly as a marketing tool to attract traffic that then is directed to other parts of your site where you do sell something.
The question you need to answer is does your blog somehow help your business in some way.
Summary
Creating and maintaining a successful blog can be one of the best ways to market your business or bring direct revenue to your business. However it isn’t easy.
You won’t have success just by installing WordPress and assuming everything will run on autopilot. It takes a lot of work and effort to stand out from everything else that already exists.
Before starting you should ask yourself the questions above and you should be able to answer yes to each and every one. Even more you should be able to prove to yourself that you can deliver on your “yes” answers. It’s not enough to just say yes.
Don’t be discouraged though if you find you can’t do some of these things as well as you thought at first. It might take you some time to truly figure out how your blog best fits strategically with your business or how to create posts that entertain your readers.
As long as you’re willing to keep at it and strive to to make your blog better, you can reach a level of success.
Perhaps the one question you most need to answer yes to is are you willing to keep working at it until you succeed?
TAG Successful Blog
Is Quora the Next Big Social Media Site?
Are you considering using Quora? Has all the buzz got you wondering if it’s worth it? Keep reading for my full review. When I first heard about Quora, the conversation went a little like this:
Jill: “Have you heard of Quora? It’s a question and answer site.”
Jack: “You mean like Yahoo Answers?”
Jill: “No, it’s full of experts who give you the best answers.”
Jack: “You mean like LinkedIn Answers?”
Jill: “No, the community votes for the best answer and they can hide irrelevant answers.”
There you have it. Quora is what happens if every Wikipedia article was turned into a Jeopardy question and then answered with the same Wikipedia article, although much less accurate, completely subjective and much more self-promoting
I’m not inviting Lewis Howes to this… He’s already on a better platform—LinkedIn.
Of course this was just my first impression of Quora. After some prodding and poking, I decided to check the place out for myself. Let’s see how close my initial thoughts were to reality.
What Is Quora?
Quora calls itself a “continuing collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone that uses it.” Which sounds great until you register and see the stream.
The truth is that Quora is organized more like a trunk full of toys that a group of five-year-olds continually use, edit and organize as they see fit.
Never fear, because unlike most children’s rooms, Quora has a great search function and gives really good information once you’ve narrowed down on a question.
The Benefits of Quora
In fact, despite my sarcasm, Quora has a number of fantastic opportunities for the social media ninja out there.
1. Quora is a great place to find content ideas.
Don’t know what to blog about? Find out what your audience wants to know about your industry, and blog about that! Quora can be a great market research tool for bloggers to make sure that their content is relevant to their actual audience, and not just a good idea to them.
2. Quora is a great place to find experts.
The one thing Quora has a lot of is experts. Every question has a democratically voted-on “Best Answer,” and by consequence, “Best Answerer.” Connecting with these people will give you tons of experts in an industry to pick the brain of or hobnob with. Which brings us to Quora’s next benefit.
3. Quora provides networking opportunity.
It’s tough being a “nobody” in any industry, but networking with the smartest and most popular of the bunch is a good way to increase your own visibility. Quora gives you the chance to connect with experts—not only on Quora, but also on the social network of the expert’s choice, depending on how many of their social networks they’ve connected to their profile.
4. Find joint venture opportunities on Quora.
The real benefit of Quora has nothing to do with questions and answers.
The real power is connecting with very smart people to do business together.
If I were to use Quora as a strategic resource, I would only connect with “Best Answerers” and try to do joint venture deals with them. They’re already ambitious, as they’re staking claim to a social network that’s only popular with die-hard social media users.
They’re investing time hoping that Quora works out, so they shouldn’t have an issue investing in a joint venture deal for the promise of a future benefit. And finally, it’s likely that they have, or are trying to grow, an audience for their expertise, so you can offer to showcase them to your audience in return for the same or another benefit.
The Disadvantages of Quora
It ain’t all sunflowers and origami Swans. As much as I’d like to end this article with all of the benefits of Quora, the truth is that there are some glaring holes in the platform, as there are with any new social platform. Let me bring you up to speed.
1. There is such a thing as a stupid question.
Your sixth-grade teacher was lying to you. If you’re a professional or a marketer looking to answer serious questions about your core industry to raise your exposure level, you’ll run into many questions like this one:
Stick to targeted searches, my friends.
2. Quora is the self-promotion capital of the world.
You knew this was coming. The point of your business is to make profit. You get profit from customers. And you get customers by being the best, or just positioning yourself as the best. Unfortunately this kind of member has cheapened the experience and potential of Quora. No one answers questions for the greater good of the question; everyone has an angle. Wikipedia had it right—keep it about the info. Quora isn’t there yet. Not even close.
3. Wait, have you heard of LinkedIn Answers?
I wasn’t joking earlier. Nothing about Quora screams unique.
LinkedIn Answers is more professional, it’s already tied to your professional profile and there are already 100 million users there. Now I’m all for competition, but the simple act of allowing users to vote answers up or down doesn’t make a new platform.
Maybe this point of view will make me change my mind:
Yeah. That’s the point… (see yellow box above)
Besides being completely wrong (Quora allows you to tie all aspects of your professional life into your profile), as a marketer, why wouldn’t you want something you say to be linked to you professionally? The only reason that I can think of is that you’re saying something you shouldn’t be saying, or you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Finally, a difference! On Quora, maturity and accountability are optional.
Final Thoughts
I know I sound negative, but think about this. There’s already a place where you can get answers from professionals, then look at their profile to connect with them for more information, and learn their life story. It’s called LinkedIn, and it’s pretty awesome. Apparently 100 million people agree.
Also, there’s already a place where we’ve decided to organize the world’s information so high-school and early college students don’t have to study nearly as hard as they tell their parents they are.
It’s called Wikipedia, and it already has a pretty awesome community that’s working on that whole “keeping the information awesome and reputable” thing. Add that to the fact that they already have a kind of voting system where inaccurate info just disappears. Oh, and they have to use footnotes too.
We need to end the habit of creating platforms that are simply the same as platform ‘x’ but with feature ‘y.’ It’s not worth the time or effort, nor is it particularly useful to anyone to uproot their presence or add another burden to their social media plate.
The only thing Quora introduces that makes it different from my previous two examples is ego and peer pressure. Now I can add my name and my brand to the knowledge that I’m giving the world. Now I can publicize that it was me who knew the most about industry X on Twitter, and every other social platform that we’ve been trying to take the ego out of for the past 2 years.
And after that, I can bring my swarm of Twitter followers to the platform to ensure that my answers are voted to the top, giving me the title of Smartest Question Answerer Ever, and possibly even acquire the Power of Grey Skull.
Quora is an adolescent version of two platforms that we already have mature versions of. What’s that saying? “When I was a child, I spoke as a child…”? Well ten years ago, I would have LOVED Quora, but hopefully, the social media industry is mature enough to realize we have the solutions we need to be successful, and not abandon them for something new and shiny for new-and-shiny’s sake.
5 Ways to Use Social Data to Grow Your Business
By Peter Wylie
Published January 27, 2011
Social media allows you to match data generated by social interactions with individual’s preferences and general interests. This creates useful profiles that give marketers insight into how to tailor future offers and products to their customer base.
In this article I’ll show you five ways to use the data generated by your social network profiles—and those of your competitors—to expand your reach and sales.
#1: Listening Data
Nearly every social media plan tells you to begin by “listening,” but what are you listening for? Monitoring news related to your local business environment and industry can give you a sense of the conversation around your products or services, but social listening allows you to expand this information and make it more relevant.
Specifically, you can gather data about the reactions to your products and campaigns as measured by interactions with messages on Facebook, retweets, mentions on Twitter and comments on your blog.
Measuring the volume, sentiment and relevance of these interactions—and tracking this data over time—will allow you to determine how new products, services and/or offers are received by your customers.
Here’s a view inside Gatorade’s mission control, where the brand reviews insights from social data to drive marketing improvements.
Tools like Google Alerts and HootSuite allow you to monitor basic volume of interactions. If the volume grows to the point where manual tracking is not feasible, there are a few paid products like Radian 6, Meltwater Buzz and Scout Labs that allow you to track data in a more automated fashion.
Some large-scale examples of using listening data for product development and service improvement include Dell’s new Social Media Listening Command Center and Gatorade’s Mission Control. How can you model your listening campaign on these examples?
#2: Benchmarking Data
In the past, it was difficult or even impossible for business owners to know how their efforts and branding stacked up against their competition, aside from observing the general performance of the competitors’ businesses and anecdotal information. Social media data allows you to understand your performance relative to your competitors, because so much of it is publicly accessible.
Once you gather the listening data based on your own company profiles, compare it to that of your competitors to gain perspective on your performance.
Observe the size of your communities relative to your competitors. Also, analyze the relative activity of those communities. Do your fans and followers post more or less frequently than your competitors?
Additionally, you can dig in to see who is following your competition and your own profiles, and compare to see who has more relevant community members for your industry.
Note the relative level of effort required to gain the number of interactions your competitors are driving. If you’re receiving either more or fewer interactions than your competitor, but posting with the same frequency, note the differences in your content and what is driving the disparity in results.
Be sure to account for competitors in each social channel on which you are active, and if possible, benchmark yourself against competitors that are active across multiple channels.
#3: Strategic Forecasting Data
RapLeaf, a social data company, provides insights on customer trends.
While market research groups provided one channel for companies to learn about the interests and perceptions of a few customers, companies like RapLeaf allow you to identify your customer base by revealing key insights and trends about what social networks your customers use, other popular websites for customers, relative location trends and relative demographic trends.
The use of social data allows you to hone your financial performance projections and product development, especially if you produce specific promotions for each social network, and can track revenue and profit from the activities on individual channels. Knowing this kind of information about your consumer base allows for more accurate targeting and the power to personalize campaigns.
#4: Real-time Tracking Data
Traditional advertising channels like radio, television and print were able to provide estimates of effectiveness through quantifying radio ratings, television viewership or magazine sales; however, these ads were effectively impossible to track with any real certainty. Social data allows marketers to view relevant and real-time trends including how campaigns are performing at given time and how alterations to campaigns affect results.
Tools like HootSuite provide real-time tracking of social data to drive business decisions.
Not only do these tracking mechanisms allow businesses to see how a campaign is performing, they allow them to view consumer data at a granular level, identify positive or negative trends and make instant modifications.
This ability, combined with the real-time tracing of consumer sentiment, can mitigate wasteful spending or funding for a campaign that isn’t working as planned.
#5: Reflection and Insight
No matter the level of preparedness a company has in listening, gauging relevance, forecasting and implementing, there’s still a degree of uncertainty in social media. The advantage of robust data tracking services is that you never find yourself guessing why something worked or what caused it not to work. Here is a great post on how to analyze Twitter performance, for instance.
Consumer feedback is usually statistically significant, mostly unsolicited and readily available for companies looking to reformulate their efforts. By understanding a campaign through the targets’ points of view and gaining the ability to quantify their evaluation process, social data can be an invaluable tool for marketers.
How will you use social data in 2011 to grow your business? Is there a particular suggestion that you’ve already implemented and can discuss? We’d love to hear what’s working for your business, so leave your comments in the box below.
Should You Use Radian6 for Social Media Monitoring?
By Nichole Kelly
Published February 24, 2011
If you’re looking for a social media monitoring tool, you’ve probably noticed that it’s quickly becoming a confusing landscape. For those who are new to social media and looking for tools to manage their presence, it’s difficult to know how to compare one vendor to the next. Here’s the skinny on where Radian6 fits into the picture.
Where does Radian6 fit into the social media measurement landscape?
Radian6 helps brands ensure that no post is missed.
We offer unequalled coverage of the social web and provide metrics to measure what is being said, and by whom. —David Alston, CMO Radian6.
Primarily, Radian6 is a monitoring tool. It can help you monitor brand mentions across the social landscape and the new Engagement Console offers you an end-to-end presence management tool.
Radian6 Dashboards
For consideration: Think about how much “noise” you have in your space. In order for monitoring to be actionable you want to keep in mind that for industries and brands that are targets for spammers it can take a considerable amount of work to filter and find the “meaningful” conversations. I experienced this problem myself, as CareOne and the entire debt relief industry are hounded by spammers and it required intervention from Radian6 to get it in line.
Tip: Many people start by putting in keywords that are used in SEO and paid search. To narrow your results, sort them by comment count. Because comments indicate more engagement, it’s more likely that the conversations are meaningful. Look for other words that are used frequently with your keywords and add them as modifiers to narrow your results to conversations, rather than spam bots.
The Engagement Console is a real-time social web client—more complete than Twitter.
What are Radian6’s greatest strengths?
“Radian6 offers users comprehensive coverage of discussions on the social web, covering hundreds of millions of blogs, comments, the public Facebook API and the full Twitter firehose. In addition to this coverage, Radian6 is scalable within an enterprise, allowing online comments to be assigned within the business, to customer service, sales, marketing and so forth. Radian6 also integrates with other enterprise applications like Salesforce.com and analytics like Webtrends, Omniture and Google Analytics.” —David Alston
You can scour more than 150 million public sites and sources including blogs and comments, forums, mainstream online news publications, public photos and videos.
In the landscape of monitoring tools, while competitors are on the rise, Radian6 has had a very comfortable and secure position in the market. I think this is because of two things. First, they entered the market early and got popular social media bloggers to test them out and recommend them. Second, they quickly gained popularity among enterprise organizations with big brand names as being the go-to choice.
For consideration: Radian6 is a very comprehensive tool that gives you a one-stop shop for engaging on your social channels. The workflow aspect is a key consideration for enterprise-level organizations. However, for smaller businesses or teams with one or two people it may be overkill. Additionally, their pricing model can get expensive quickly for larger teams. It starts at $1k+ per month.
Tip: Take advantage of the free tools out there for a while. See what you like best about them and see what they’re lacking. Create a list of absolute must-haves and nice-to-haves. When you’re looking at different providers you can use this checklist to make sure they have what you need. Anything they’re offering that isn’t on your absolute must-have or nice-to-have lists will likely end up being an unused feature.
If Radian6 is integrated with Salesforce, Webtrends, Omniture and Google Analytics, can they provide ROI data?
The short answer is no. Based on the integration David described to me, there’s no way to follow the conversation back to the revenue. The integration was mostly done from a customer service perspective.
“For Salesforce, it’s designed in such a way that, for example, if you find a customer service issue in Radian6, you can link the record of what you find in Radian6 back to the customer record. In terms of Google Analytics, Webtrends or Omniture, you can create an XML report of the 10 terms that get captured in Webtrends that you want to import into Radian6. You can then overlay the Webtrend data on those keywords with the information inside Radian6 and do kind of a pivot to sort by items like time on site.” —David Alston
For consideration: The level of conversion tracking was described by Alston as items like lead forms that are set up as goals within your web tracking software. In my experience, this type of conversion data is nice but unless it was an online sale it doesn’t attach to revenue.
Tip: While Radian6 doesn’t provide ROI data within its interface, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get to it through other channels. You may need to work with a consultant who can help you quickly identify where to connect the pieces to get to revenue.
What are Radian6’s biggest weaknesses?
There are a several things that I think Radian6 could do better.
Up-front Effort for Workflow Features
From a workflow perspective, it’s great to be able to assign tasks and tags to posts; however, to be effective, you need to create a system of tagging up front or you’ll end up with a large clean-up effort later. It was a great improvement when they released the Engagement Console which allows you to write macros. This cuts down significantly on the number of clicks it takes to assign a post and tag it. But it does take a lot of forethought and setup to get that working well.
David acknowledges that this can be a challenge.
“Because the Engagement Console was designed to optimize usage in a team environment, it requires users to think through the tagging, classification and macro systems they would like to use in advance. This takes an investment to create (we call it a “playbook”), but it’s definitely worth it once it has been set up. The latest addition of administrative functionality in the Engagement Console means a single super-user can help pull this all together for the team, thus saving more time.”
Two Interfaces
As a user you’ll find that there are two interfaces for you to use. The Engagement Console is where you manage your social media channels, tag posts, assign them and so on. I liken it to your HootSuite or TweetDeck interface on steroids. This is what you’ll likely use every day. Then you have the Radian6 dashboard which aggregates all of your stats into pretty little charts and you can get data based on specific timeframes.
I found it awkward that the Radian6 dashboard is web-based and the Engagement Console is a desktop app. I would have preferred to have them both as web apps.
No Smart Phone App
For those who manage their presence on the go, there’s one big missing piece of the puzzle. You can’t use Radian6 on a smart phone because there is no app. I asked David about this and he said to “stay tuned” but I’ve been hearing that for over a year now so I’m becoming a little skeptical on their ability to make it happen in the short-term. If I were at Radian6, this would be my top priority. For users, it creates a disconnect from presence management and forces us to use other tools on our phones.
I’d rather look for all of my stats on my smart phone, and using the Engagement Console means I have to get reporting in two locations, which is not my preference.
Pricing
There are three fees. One is a per-seat license. The second is a per–topic profile fee. A topic profile is where you tell it what data you want to pull in. If you want to separate data, there is only so much you can do within one topic profile. An agency managing multiple clients would need at least one topic profile per client and it’s the most expensive item on the list. The third fee is based upon the volume of posts that come into your topic profile.
While the initial volume range that comes with your topic profile is reasonably high, you’d be surprised at how quickly you can exceed it. You can use keyword refinement to bring this down. These are all monthly fees that make up your core price. While I think Radian6 is certainly the Cadillac in the space and their price indicates that, it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth the money.
Summary
Radian6 is a great platform that’s equipped with a lot of bells and whistles. From my perspective, it was clear the company is dedicated to continual innovation of the tools. To decide if it’s right for you, you’ll need to look at your list of absolute must-have and nice-to-have features and see if buying the “whole farm” makes sense for your organization. My feeling is that for most one- or two-person operations it may be a little overkill and pricey, but for corporate marketing teams I think it’s a reasonable choice.
Read these posts for more on measuring social media and its impact on brand awareness, looking to track social media metrics and 5 ways to use social data to grow your business.
What do you think? Are you a Radian6 user? If so, what would you add to the list of strengths? How about weaknesses? Did you switch from Radian6 to another tool? If so, which one did you pick and why? Please join the conversation and leave a comment in the box below.
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By Cindy King
Published February 22, 2011
Are you looking for the hottest new social media tools and services? We asked our team of Social Media Examiner writers to share their best new social media discoveries.
What follows is an amazing list of social media tools you’ve likely never heard of—covering a wide range of categories:
- Tools for pictures, video, audio and screen capture
- Tools to measure and track results
- Tools to manage content
- Blogging tools
- Twitter tools
- Other social media tools
Try them out. And be sure to report back here with your thoughts.
Tools for Pictures, Video, Audio and Screen Capture
#1: Cinches
Recommended by Denise Wakeman, online marketing advisor and founder of The Blog Squad.
“My favorite new tool is CinchCast.com. This simple tool can record audio, either via the web or phone (there are apps for iPhone and Android), so you can share audio messages with your followers. While audio tools like this are not new, this one seems to work the best and most consistently for me both on the web and my mobile app.
Cinches can be syndicated automatically to your Facebook status (not to pages, though) and to your Twitter stream. It’s simple to find and follow people from your social networks as well. Adding an image and description to the audio message is easy too and boosts visibility and encourages comments and sharing. Cinches can be shared by embedding the player in blog posts and posting links in status updates.
I’m using CinchCasts to repurpose a lot of content into audio: presentations (I record one tip from a PowerPoint and expand on it a bit), blog posts and articles. I also reverse the process and embed Cinch tips in blog posts to expand on the written text and create an experience that encourages my audience to stay longer on my blog.”
Learn more about Denise at Build a Better Blog and follow her on Twitter @DeniseWakeman.
CinchCasts was created by the folks at BlogTalkRadio.
#2: Screenr
Recommended by Tim Ware, owner of HyperArts Web Design, helping businesses build and promote their web presence.
“My favorite social media tool in the past half year has to be Screenr, an enormously useful online service to create screen-capture videos, with audio, easily and for free. Because much of what I do these days involves teaching people how to do things online, usually on Facebook, Screenr is the perfect tool for me. I can just say, “Wait a sec. I’ll send you a video.”
Creating an instructional video on Screenr is just about as easy as it gets, allowing you to record, pause (while you rearrange what’s on your screen) and then click “Done” and that’s it! With a few clicks, you can post the video plus comments to your Twitter account, or download the file as an MP4.”
Follow Tim on Twitter @hyperarts.
Create screen-capture videos quickly and easily with Screenr.
#3: DailyBooth
Recommended by Lewis Howes, the author of two books on LinkedIn and founder of Sports Executives Association and SportsNetworker.com.
“As an online/social media marketer, it’s easier to get more sales (or transactions) from potential customers if those individuals feel like they know, like and trust you. A great way to let them get to know you better is simply by letting them see you daily. A great way to do this is to record a video each day and post it to your networks. But who has the time to set up a camera, shoot a video, edit it, wait for it to upload and publish to your network each day? I know I don’t, as it’s hard enough getting a blog post out once a week!
Pictures solve this problem, and DailyBooth provides a fast-growing social networking site that allows you to easily upload and share pictures in seconds. DailyBooth.com is still under the radar for most, but the interaction for those on it is similar to the mad interaction Twitter users have, and it’s getting more and more additive as the days go by.”
Learn more about Lewis at LewisHowes.com and follow him @LewisHowes.
Be sure to check out DailyBooth. It could be the next big social media tool in the future.
#4: Skitch
Recommended by Clément Yeung, co-director of Easisell, a digital marketing and design company that helps small businesses achieve success online.
“I love Skitch because if you constantly need to communicate complex on-page issues to people, then Skitch helps you do it seamlessly from your desktop! Just a few clicks and you have a shareable link that you can send to anyone you like. It’s also free.”
Follow Clément on Twitter @ClementYeung.
Skitch is your online camera and pen. You can screengrab anything, add a note and share it quickly.
#5: Instagram
Recommended by Christine Gallagher, relationship marketing speaker, trainer and coach.
“Instagram, which is an addictive, free photo-sharing app for the iPhone.
It’s social and fun to share your pics with others and see theirs as well. You can also comment or like others’ photos, follow other users and see what they’ve posted lately. It’s super-simple to use and my favorite thing about it is that you can transform seemingly ho-hum pictures into unique little works of art with the assortment of filters available. Two thumbs way up.”
Learn more about Christine at Communicate Value and follow her on Twitter @christineg.
"Use Instagram to take pictures, add filters to make them look artsy or retro and then share them on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Flickr."
Tools to Measure and Track Results
#6: Argyle Social
Recommended by Jason Falls, principal of Social Media Explorer, a social media marketing consulting firm based in Louisville, KY.
“Because my primary use of social media is to share great content, I think the tool I’ve become most dependent upon in the last six months is Argyle Social. It’s a URL shortener that has an elegant suite of measures around it, a bookmarklet for easy use and the customization you would need to separate your shares on Twitter from those on Facebook to deliver different messages around the same content. Once they add LinkedIn and perhaps even Posterous or Tumblr to their publishing options, Argyle could become THE tool for folks who not only want to share, but also measure the impact of that sharing.
I know I’ve driven over 150,000 clicks to various content in the last six months. I can break those down and tell you exactly how many I drove to certain pieces of content, too. My own and other sites I found and shared with my networks. That’s pretty powerful information if one of your goals is to share or build trust. I can put numbers around that now.”
Learn more about Jason at SocialMediaExplorer.com and follow him on Twitter @JasonFalls.
Argyle Social helps you use social media strategically.
#7: TwentyFeet
Recommended by Mari Smith, social media speaker, trainer, thought leader and co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day.
“Here’s my fave new tool: TwentyFeet.com—aggregate all your stats in one place!
I love this simple social profile analytics platform with its easy setup, intuitive interface, daily stats emails and very low micro payments model. Credits are just $2.49 per account for an entire year, but users get one Facebook and one Twitter account free forever. You can monitor one or more accounts from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, bit.ly, Google Analytics, MySpace and more and see how your key performance indicators develop over time. Oh, and another reason I love TwentyFeet? Their logo is a giraffe (the tall blonde!), my favorite animal!”
Learn more about Mari at marismith.com and follow her on Twitter @MariSmith.
Check out TwentyFeet for a low-cost social media analytics tool.
#8: PostRank and PostRank Analytics
Recommended by Kristi Hines, an Internet marketing specialist with Vertical Measures.
“One of my favorite social media tools/resources is PostRank. You can gain an amazing amount of insight into what topics get the most engagement on a particular blog (such as Social Media Examiner) by finding it in their directory and using the Good, Great and Best filters to see what posts have the most comments and social shares. The best part is that researching another blog’s social sharing statistics is free, and it’s something you can look at for your own blog as well by making sure it’s listed on their site. If it’s not, just enter the URL in the search box, and they’ll email you as soon as it’s on their site. Then wait a week or two and start discovering what’s most loved by your readers.
If you’re interested in learning more about your own social engagement scoring, you can also sign up for their in-depth social analytics. It’s only $15 per month to analyze up to 5 sites with custom tracking on 10 additional pages within those sites. You can even connect your Google Analytics with PostRank and see how social engagement matches up with your conversion rates and goals.”
Learn more about Kristi at Kikolani and follow her on Twitter @Kikolani.
PostRank Analytics is also recommended by Jay Baer, a hype-free, tequila-loving social media strategist, speaker and coach.
“PostRank Analytics is my favorite tool because it solves a very real problem for bloggers, which is how to understand the full impact of a blog post. What’s more important, page views, comments, tweets, Facebook shares? PostRank Analytics tracks all of the actions related to each of your posts, and compiles a consolidated score that helps you understand what your audience wants from you and your blog. It’s like a psychic, if psychics also had fancy charts and graphs!”
Learn more about Jay at Convince & Convert and follow him on Twitter @JayBaer.
PostRank Analytics is an inexpensive tool with tons of value if you're looking to learn more about how to increase your blog's or website's social media engagement.
#9: Postling
Recommended by Jeff Korhan, professional speaker, consultant and columnist on new media and small business marketing.
“Postling is a tool that brings together multiple social media channels into one interface. What makes it invaluable for me are the email notifications I receive when comments are made on my professional Facebook page. To my knowledge, it’s the only social media tool with this capability. All of the comments are nicely presented in clean threads that maintain the continuity of the conversation, thereby allowing me to easily make timely comments, or schedule them for later.”
Learn more about Jeff at jeffkorhan.com and follow him on Twitter @JeffKorhan.
Postling is also recommended by Stephanie Sammons, the voice behind Smart Social Pro, a resource for professional practitioners to help them understand how to leverage the power of social media and blogging in their practices.
“A tool that can help you stay focused on relevant tracking and engagement is Postling. Postling is designed with the small business owner and professional in mind and can simplify your social media activities. It’s a clean and intuitive dashboard that offers management features to track, engage and publish to your relevant social media profiles, and even to your blog. (It plays nice with WordPress.)
Most importantly, Postling will send you a daily email update of all of your comments so that you know who’s engaging with you and what’s being shared or said about you. (It’s great to know you won’t miss anything.) The basic features are available with a free account. The paid account at $9.00/month allows for multiple accounts per social network, brands and users, providing instant email alerts and an analytics dashboard. And there’s also a premium version for power users at $49.00/month. Overall, Postling is well on its way to becoming a great tool for business owners and professionals!”
Follow Stephanie on Twitter @StephSammons.
Give Postling a try to manage your social media activities.
#10: Sysomos
Recommended by Nick Shin, online marketing strategist specializing in SEM, social media, and PPC.
“Sysomos, by far, has been my favorite social media tool. (Disclosure: I am the SEM and social media specialist at Marketwire and we acquired Sysomos in July.) Since then, I’ve been able to take advantage of what Sysomos has to offer. I use Sysomos to monitor our social media conversations on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, forums and blogs. The ease of use, robust features and convenience have cut my monitoring time in half. In addition, as the founder of #smmeasure social media measurement chat, I can tell you there’s a lot of concern about how to measure social media. The more I use Sysomos, the more it eliminates the need to keep ‘proving’ the value of social media because of the actionable insight you can get from its analytics. With all of my other responsibilities, any tool that will help me do the same job in less time is a win. I highly recommend getting a free demo.”
Learn more about Nick at Marketing Shindig and follow him on Twitter @shinng.
Check out Sysomos to monitor your social media activities.
#11: Inside View
Recommended by Jacob Morgan, principal of Chess Media Group, a social business consultancy focused on customer and employee engagement strategies.
“My favorite new tool that I started using within the past 6 months is Inside View (through a customized enterprise version of Salesforce).
Inside View (their Salesview product) allows you to make the “social sale” by extracting valuable company information about a person or prospect prior to making a sale. You can get market cap, the org structure, list of key employees and the social sites they belong to, relevant company news, addresses and phone numbers and more; all from your Salesforce “lead” view. You can then sync all of this information with your Salesforce account so that it actually fills in the information for you.”
Follow Jacob on Twitter @jacobm.
Inside View is truly a valuable tool that integrates social data with CRM data and is a must-have for anyone even remotely involved driving business for an organization.
Tools to Manage Content
#12: Trunk.ly
Recommended by Nathan Hangen, Internet marketing strategist and founder of Webrepreneur Media.
“Recently I was looking for a better bookmark solution, and I was getting so desperate that I was thinking of developing it myself. Tumblr was too big, and sites like Delicious and other social bookmarking services felt walled off. Then someone pointed me to Trunk.ly, which you feed with your Twitter and/or Facebook account, and I was hooked. Trunk.ly keeps a history of the links that you like or Tweet and makes them searchable and easy to share. If I was going to build a solution, this would be exactly what I built. It’s beautiful.”
Learn more about Nathan at nathanhangen.com and follow him on Twitter @nhangen.
Trunk.ly keeps track of all of the links you share on Twitter and Facebook.
#13: Storify
Recommended by Michael Brito, VP for Edelman Digital and has worked for HP, Yahoo! and Intel.
“My favorite tool is Storify which is fantastic to aggregate and curate content from around the web. It’s great for events, product launches, etc.”
Learn more about Michael at social media blog and follow him on Twitter @britopian.
Storify is a great social tool to tap into the power of stories.
#14: Posterous
Recommended by Jim Lodico, copywriter and marketing consultant specializing in creating powerful content and teaching businesses how to use blogs.
“I just started using Posterous and I really like the potential. It allows you to post to 20 or so social media channels all through email. Photos, video, blog posts, even podcasts can all be distributed throughout your network just by sending an email. I really like the simplicity and the ability to manage all your social media accounts at once.”
Learn more about Jim at jalcommunication.com and follow him on Twitter @jlcommunication.
Posterous offers an alternative to a traditional blog for publishing content online.
Blogging Tools
#15: Apture
Recommended by Ching Ya, author of Social @ Blogging Tracker.
“One of the new social media tools I found in the last 6 months is Apture. I was between installing it or Wibiya, but because I’ve decided to emphasize visitors’ sharing on Facebook and Twitter, I went for Apture instead. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made. The catchy, customizable drop-down bar on top of the site makes sharing easy and friendly. You can search for related content—not just posts, but videos and images to be linked to as well. Your visitors can even use it to search similar posts within your site. Highly recommended!”
Follow Ching Ya on Twitter @wchingya.
Apture adds a social dimension to your blog.
#16: OnlyWire
Recommended by Dino Dogan, blogger, writer, motorcyclist, dog trainer, singer/songwriter, martial artist and founder of DIY Blogger.
“OnlyWire can auto-submit your blog post to 42 top social network sites like Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon. By doing this, you build backlinks to your blog the quick and easy way. This doesn’t improve your page rank but it does improve your social rank so much that in one of my tests, this one technique alone took me from the page 14 on Google to page 4.”
Learn more about Dino at DIY Blogger and follow him @dino_dogan.
Use OnlyWire to build backlinks to your website or blog.
Twitter Tools
#17: FormuLists
Recommended by Elijah R. Young, lead strategist and owner of Social Talk Live.
“My favorite social media tool over the past 6 months has been FormuLists. FormuLists allows me to effortlessly keep up with my newest followers, my recent conversationalists and tons of other specifications that I can adjust in my settings to keep me on top of all of the new folks I meet in my Twitter timeline. Before FormuLists, I had to hope I remembered who I added to my lists, and work around crossover… It was just a mess. Now I can just focus on keeping up with conversations that matter to my followers, and pitching in when appropriate.”
Follow Elijah on Twitter @elijahryoung.
FormuLists is also recommended by Ann Smarty, an experienced blogger and SEO consultant at BlueGlass.com.
“The tool that I’ve just recently discovered and fallen in love with is FormuLists. I have a lot of followers and it’s been almost impossible for me to organize the following manually. The tool has quite a few very handy options.”
Learn more about Ann at MyBlogGuest.com and follow her on Twitter @myblogguest.
FormuLists manages your followers for you so you can focus on building your relationships.
#18: HashTracking
Recommended by Lori Taylor, a self-proclaimed “URL-junkie,” and an award-winning marketing veteran with 20 years experience turned social technologist by day and angel investor (Klout, Live Matrix, Pixsy) by night.
“My favorite new Twitter tool is HashTracking, which we use to track campaigns on Twitter. It takes group conversations and measures the influence and type of engagement level for each participant. The reason I’m in love with it is because the depth of data is incredible. Starting with the total number of people who participated in the group conversation, HashTracking chunks the participants into 4 buckets they call leaders, people who were engaged, just curious, and even identifies the wallflowers. We can get content to the most powerful hands who can truly give us the most reach on a specific topic, not just a broad category.”
Learn more about Lori at lorirtaylor.com and follow her on Twitter @lorirtaylor.
HashTracking is a great testing tool for all kinds of direct response metrics such as a top-ten list for impressions, number of tweets and follower count for each person using your hashtag (for free).
#19: Oneforty
Recommended by Ekaterina Walter, social media strategist at Intel.
“My favorite tool of the past 6 months is oneforty. Oneforty helps you discover thousands of tools that help you do more with your business, career or life using Twitter! This is essentially a directory of various Twitter apps that can help you do whatever you can possibly imagine on Twitter from helping manage your brand Twitter account to managing your followers to finding fun apps for your everyday life. I love their Toolkit feature which allows you to see what other industry leaders or even brands are using to manage their presence.”
Learn more about Ekaterina at ekaterinawalter.com and follow her on Twitter @ekaterina.
Oneforty also just introduced the Q&A section where the community of tweeps can share tips and tricks and help each other discover new cool ways to engage.
#20: TweetDeck for Chrome
Recommended by Corbett Barr who wants to help you attract as many visitors to your site as you need to make your business thrive.
“My favorite new social media tool is definitely TweetDeck for Google’s Chrome browser. I love it because I get all the awesome functionality of TweetDeck without having to run a separate application. I also love how it integrates multiple Twitter accounts into one combined column of @ replies and another for direct messages. It’s a huge time-saver for people who tweet a lot from different accounts.”
Learn more about Corbett at Think Traffic and follow him on Twitter @CorbettBarr.
Chrome users can also use TweetDeck to manage their Twitter accounts.
Other Social Media Tools
#21: LinkedIn Company Page
Recommended by Linda Coles, a sought-after speaker who also runs various workshops and seminars on how to use social media tools effectively and productively.
“I love the LinkedIn Company Page upgrade as you can upload three banner ads, add video to each product or service page and you’ve even got analytics to monitor what’s going on. It may well get as good as a FB business page but in a different environment.”
Learn more about Linda at Blue Banana and follow her on Twitter @bluebanana20.
LinkedIn Company Pages are a welcome addition for businesses on social media.
#22: Quora
Recommended by Lori Randall, online marketing strategist specializing in social media and WordPress sites. Follow Lori on Twitter @lori_randall.
“Quora, an online knowledge hub for mostly social media and technology, is a tall glass of water. People ask insightful questions and exchange substantive answers. I was starting to feel like I was in a social media desert of genuine thought because of all the noise and this has risen to quench my thirst for knowledge admirably.”
Quora has become a popular Q&A platform in a short time.
What Are Your Favorite Social Media Tools?
Have you used any of the social media tools mentioned above? Which ones are your favorites? Which other social media tools would you add to this list?
Sorry Charlie,There are No Short Cuts to Social Relationships
Web Science/Web 3.0&소셜미디어 2011/02/23 12:25Sorry Charlie, There are No Short Cuts to Social Relationships
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Social media is free, right? Simply register for 50 social media profile accounts, start tweeting, facebooking and linking and you’ll have tons of free leads, referrals and an instant community, right?
WRONG!
There is no short cut to social media.
Why you ask? It’s easy, to setup profiles, easy to get new friends, easy to get followers and grow your community. Sorry folks, social media is not free. It will consume your greatest asset which is time. In business we all know time is money. So no, social media is not free.
The next question I often hear from our new clients and other small business leaders is “OK, if it’s not free then, you know the fast way to get there, right?” Then they continue to explain that they know they’re behind and should have hopped on the social train sooner. They want me to help them find the shortcut to get there faster.
Yes, we know the ecosystem. We know the approaches to engage. We know how to help them create and nurture real relationships. We know how to create compelling and relevant content that supports their brand and will help them begin to build a community.
And yes, of course, we know the tools and technology. We can help them prioritize where to start based upon their business goals and objectives. We can help them tweak as they go forward.
Social Media is One Big Relationship Fueled by Conversation
It’s one big conversation made up of millions of conversations. Relationships are created and nurtured by connecting with real people via a conversation. Yes, business transactions happen on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Yes, sales funnels are filled with highly qualified leads if you put together the right pieces, infrastructure, strategies, tactics and sales funnel.
However everything in social media is based upon relationships. It’s based upon your ability to connect 1:1 with other people. It’s a personal decision who you want to be “friends” with. People will always buy from people. We buy from people we trust and brands we know.
Relationship Defined:
Relationship -noun
1. the quality or state of being related; connection
2. connection by blood, marriage, etc.; kinship
3. a particular instance of being related.
4. a continuing attachment or association between persons, firms, etc., specif., one between lovers
1:1 Connection Is a Requirement, Not an Option
There is no short cut to relationships. There is no magic auto-relationship tool you can test as a free 30-day trial. Yes, you can get all the free tools you want. You can create the best sales funnel in your market niche and then teach them all how to do the same and make a great living.
However, the one thing you can’t do is give them the magic tool to build a relationship. Relationships take time and investment by both parties. Relationships and conversations require two people to be engaged in such, not just one!
So the next time you hear a supposed “social media guru” or “sales funnel expert” offering you the fast short-cut route to the most leads you’ve ever had in your life… take a second look. Look underneath the covers. Look what’s really behind the black curtain before you fall hook, line and sinker to the next get rich quick scheme.
Websites no longer work in the model “build it and they will come!”
We have had numerous clients come to us who have been scammed. They are sitting on a website they spent thousands for yet it is doing not much more for their business than that old phone book they took straight to the dumpster that the local phone company dropped off.
We looked at acquiring a small agency last year that had a decent set of clients in the local area. However, when we looked behind the covers they had done nothing but built an online equivelant to the old phone books of yester-year. The poor clients were sold a bill of goods and had no platform to build a relationship and leverage the tools and tech of social media and online marketing. As you can imagine, we didn’t move forward as there was nothing to purchase. Half of their clients were broke and they had done nothing to help that matter. They fell into the trap that if they built the website, the people would come. They could then hop on social media for free and all would be great and positive including their ROI. Wrong! As we started reaching our to their clients we quickly learned they were far from happy. Any further investment would have delivered nothing but a negative ROI and terrible start to our business.
Business Platforms Not Websites Enable Success in Social Media
The best path to success in social media is to focus first on the people and objectives and second on the tools and technology. Then, next comes the development of a business platform that supports all of the above. A business platform is different than the websites of “yester-year” that I am still seeing many small agencies and clueless supposed social media consultants and gurus selling.
A business platform will support your business goals and objectives. If developed the right way a business platform will be the hub that will enable you to build relationships by communicating with real people. It will help you share information and leverage the content to bring people closer to you and your community. Business platforms are more integrated. They provide a platform for growth and sustainability.
Guess what! Business platforms don’t happen over night and can’t be built in a vacuum of a developers back office. If an agency or consultant wants to build you a website or business platform and doesn’t need to meet with you several times to discuss your business goals, objectives and audiences then RUN!
A solid business platform will bring together you, your clients, your partners and your friends by leveraging content, conversation, your website and the tools and technology of online marketing and social media. The goal is to create a sales funnel that will capture leads from multiple starting points.
The path to your business is not one way or a simple fork in the road. It’s more like a spaghetti maze that should be inspiring your audiences to connect with you regardless of their starting point. Regardless if they start at LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Quora the platform should make it easy for them to get to you. It should enable the easy nurturing of a relationship. A relationship that opens up doors for conversation and building trust!
Do Your Research!
If you know you are behind in the world of online marketing and social media, don’t fall for the short cut sales pitch. Do your research. Ask the hard questions. If you don’t know what to ask, do you research so you will.
You can not trust every Tom, Dick and Harry out there just because they have the Facebook, Twitter and RSS buttons on their website. Look beneath the covers. Do they have a platform for business and life? Ask them about their sales funnel. Confirm they have an email nurturing program and subscribe to it. What are they doing in their business to foster real relationships and be part of the conversation? If they are doing little for themselves, it’s almost a guarantee you’ll get no better.
Is their approach integrated or is it filled with silo’s that do little to build community and real relationships? Check out the engagement they are receiving and participating in on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Is their Twitter stream filled with nothing more than weekend parties, boyfriend chats and their own sales coupons? Or are they truly engaging and drawing the attention of their peers, clients, partners, thought leaders and influencers?
Bottom line, if you can’t see visual success an agency or consultant is achieving in social media then it is unlikely it exists. It’s also unlikely they’ll be able to do any better for your business even if it is on your dime.
Take the time to do the research and make decisions based upon both qualitative and quantitative data. Go with your gut but back it up by real ROI and results that are proven.
Enjoy the Journey!
Don’t get down and frustrated after you read this post. Instead put on your social backpack filled with resources, mentors and positive attitude. There are many useful resources you can leverage online to learn the tools and tips of social media.
Remember, anybody can teach you the technology. However, it is going to take a serious investment by you and your team to join the conversation and build relationships. Investing in people will bring great reward in both business and life. Invest in the lives and the businesses of the people you serve. The people of the businesses who you want to buy from you. Remember it’s the people who buy from people. Unless you connect authentically with the people, they’ll never trust nor buy from you!
Your Turn!
What path are you on? The path to success or the path to find a non-existent short cut? Are you taking the time you should be in your business to build real relationships? Are you taking the time to provide relevant content that inspires people to connect with you? If not, why not? Quit focusing on the tools and tech only. Start paying some attention to the art of engagement. The way in which you communicate and nurture real relationships with real people.
Social Media
12 Principles Of Social Media Marketing
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Social media marketing is changing the marketing landscape so fast that companies are struggling to adapt their strategies and tactics. What worked in 2001 or even last year is becoming less and less effective.
Planning to publish a PR article in six months with traditional print media could mean completely missing the marketing window of opportunity. Booking bus or outdoor advertising takes time you might not have and not be able to measure.
So what are some key elements you need to keep in mind to market on a social web?
1. Share
Think sharing. What do people want to share? Then publish and promote it. This starts with a shareable and compelling headline.
2. Go Real Time
Social media marketing involves publishing in real time, not next week or next month and topical posts and tweets will help you catch the trend and viral wave. It also means you need to respond in real time to complaints, issues and inquiries. The days of publishing 3 months or 6 months in advance are fast disappearing as the market may have changed in that time and people want their information now!
3. Educate – Don’t Sell
People no longer want to be “sold to”. Social marketing is about informing and solving peoples problems with answers and information, whether that be from your blog, links in your tweets or updates and information on Facebook.
4. Entertain – Don’t Market
We live in an information age that discards the bland and embraces the “WOW”. Facebook pages and updates that entertain, with competitions, humor or the unexpected are the links that will be shared.
5. Go Multichannel
Mono channel is not enough these days, whether that be email marketing or niche magazine advertiseming. You need to be on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs as a minimum. Social Media can provide you with the channels to be ubiquitous (everywhere) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
6. Give Information Away For Free
Free gets shared, it doesn’t mean that you give everything away but enough to build trust and spread your content to the global village so that when you do publish that ebook or hardcover they will buy it because they know you and love your unique content.
7. Think Multimedia
Text on its own doesn’t cut it anymore, you need to provide information in ways that meets different peoples expectations and wants. You need to provide content in different media. Gen Y loves video, Baby Boomers like email and text. Find out what type of media your audience wants and give it to them. The broadband high speed web is now a a multimedia experience.
8. Think Like a Publisher
The days of just sending emails with a special offer or a brochure to a letter box are fast disappearing. Consumers are now researching your company on the web with Google searches on the web and they are looking for online published informative content that provides answers and solutions. The types of online publications you should be planning are resources such as eBooks, Podcasts, video tutorials and PDF’s just to name a few.
9. Target Your Niche
Tribes and fans find you and share you to their community. On Twitter you need to follow leaders and people in your niche so that when you tweet they will retweet you to their followers who will have similar interests. Facebook marketing can target demographics including roles, interests and geography.
10. Show Your Passion
Remember social marketing involves passion as if you are not passionate and motivated about your niche it will show. You cannot fake passion and a passionate publisher will shine through and be shared.
11. Listen
Remember listen to your audience and they will tell you what they want, what solutions they need for their problems and then provide it. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blog comments will reveal a wealth of information about your target market.
12. Engage
After listening to your market you then are ready to start communicating in real time with messaging systems that they are comfortable with whether that be Twitter, Facebook or email.
Is there anything else I have missed? I look forward to your thoughts.
Image by toprankonlinemarketing
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/11/17/12-principles-of-social-media-marketing/
