Zane Safrit

Shooting the Social Media Messenger

Back in the day...Kings AND Queens were known to kill the messenger if the message they carried was to the Royal Person's disliking.

Corporate brands may be our royalty today.  Because it seems we may have a similar situation today.

BusinessWeek had a post titled Beware Social Media Snake Oil.

It's well-written as you'd expect from an article at BusinessWeek. It starts with the pros of social media:

As millions of people flock to these online services to chat, flirt, swap photos, and network, companies have the chance to tune in to billions of digital conversations.

Starbucks (SBUX), Dell (DELL), and Ford Motor (F) have all testified to the magic social media can create.

Then it follows to the cons of social media:

But the same tools carry risks. Employees encouraged to tap social networking sites can fritter away hours, or worse. They can spill company secrets or harm corporate relationships by denigrating partners. What's more, with one misstep, one clumsy entrée, companies can quickly find themselves victims of the forces they were trying to master. Thousands of bloggers attacked Motrin last year because of an advertisement from the Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) brand they found demeaning to mothers.

It was interesting that the examples included were from only Fortune 500 companies as if their use of this tool gave it validity. But, then again, Fortune 500 remains our country's royalty in many respects with special privileges (affordable healthcare, tax breaks, anyone?)

But, that's not what I found most interesting.

The most interesting part of the paragraph warning readers of the perils in that bottle of elixir titled social media was its encouragement to shoot the social media messenger. Don't like the message being shared about your brand on twitter, facebook, blogs, etal? Shoot 'em. Shoot the social media tools.

Social media is merely the messenger. And a very effective messenger it is, too. In an instant, one clumsy entree from a brand that should know better, can create a global community of customer vigilantes more than willing to share how insulting is one clumsy entree from both a well-financed (at least financially) brand and its ad agency that consisted of ads and sites and messages that were not only truly clueless but amazingly insulting in both tone and message. ( And I'm not a mom and I found Motrin's ads patronizing to an astonishing, self-congratulatory,aren't we cool, degree.

But social media only carried the message inspired by the creation of that ...one clumsy entree. (That term...makes it sound like a pickle was mistakenly placed where the olives usually are on a Perkins buffet.)

Social media only carries a company's secrets that one of its stakeholders has been inspired, motivated, to share. The problem is not social media or its ease of use. The problem is why that stakeholder was motivated to share those secrets or why that stakeholder was a stakeholder when their loyalties were so clearly absent. Surely there were clues that should have been noticed by other stakeholders if they cared their brand.

Social media doesn't denigrate partners or their communities. Childish, churlish, petulant employees denigrate partners and their partners' communities.

Clumsy entrees, disloyal stakeholders, and pouty employees have always existed. And so have their decisions and their impact on brands, communities, careers, partners and vendors.

The difference now is that brands are being embarrassed publicly, globally.

And that means managers and supervisors, leaders and their ad agencies, are being embarrassed. A brand's patronizing attitude towards their customers can now be seen globally and discussed globally. Social media didn't make that Motrin condescend to its most fervent, connected, vocal customer group: moms. Motrin and its agency did that all by their lonesomes.

Social media did not insist the employee or agency of a major company headquartered in Memphis go out and dis the town of Memphis in a tweet. That employee, agency, did it on their own.

Likewise, the customers and fans of those Fortune 500 companies showcased as social media successes, used social media to share their experience. Neither did social media insist that supporters of democracy, human dignity share the stories of how Iranian authorities abused their own citizens who wanted...democracy and human dignity.

Social media didn't make them do it. But people were inspired to use social media to share their experiences and those of others.

The common principle here, overlooked by the article's author, is that social media is but the messenger. The message, its content, is inspired by brands and our experiences with those brands. Social media's use is inspired by our experiences.

Some brands provide positive experiences for their stakeholders. And those stakeholders use social media to share their positive experiences.

Some brand provide insulting, patronizing, experiences to their stakeholders. And those stakeholders share their experiences.

Brands (and traditional media): Don't shoot social media. It's only accelerating the spread of messages deliver or inspired by your actions, campaigns, customer service, employee policies, layoffs, motivations, leadership, vision, purpose and articles.

***********************************

Likewise social media didn't insist I write this critique of the article. The article amused, inspired, me to write it. At other times, BusinessWeek articles have inspired me to praise their content. Either way, I'm accelerating the spread of the conversation about their content. And we're all learning.

Highlights From My Conversation with Bob Kaden and Gerry Linda, co-authors of More Guerrilla Marketing

Thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses fail to ask the right question the right way to the right people for the right reason. And as a result they make less money.

Robert Kaden and Gerald Linda, co-authors with Jay Conrad Levinson, ofMore Guerrilla Marketing: Asking the right people, the right question, in the right way, and effectively using the answers to make more money joined me recently to talk about the state of marketing and marketing research, the wilful ignorance of marketing research by businesses of all sizes, their book, how it helps businesses of all sizes make more money by...asking the right questions to the right people in the right way for the right reason.

You can listen in streaming on-demand at this link.

Gentlemen. Thank you for being on the show. Erika Andersen, in her book Being Strategic, discusses the need for a reasonable aspiration or hoped-for goal. What was your reasonable aspiration or hoped-for goal with this book?

Gerry: We had a really simple idea that was an underlying driver with publishing the book. It related to the business owners being able to make better decisions based upon the wants and needs of their customers. Having this knowledge will help them to make better decisions every single time. That is the essence of marketing research – talking to your customers and prospects and getting advice from them about what you can do.

Bob: There is a lot of entrepreneurial ego out there where executives think they always know what the customer wants and needs, without ever asking them. I think this is one of the great downfalls of business and market researchers for not proving to their CEOs how important it is. They do not have all of the answers.

Bob: I can go back to 2006 when Guerilla Marketing was first written. I wrote it because I was bored and wanted to recap a long career in marketing research and wanted to understand what I went through for the many years being a research supplier. I wrote it because I had very specific ideas of how it should be planned, executed and processed through a company. About one year ago Gerry and I got together because the market research industry has changed quite a bit in the past four years. We thought it was time to update it-especially with social networking and the emotion of advertising. These things needed attention.

When will you know you reached your goal?

Bob: When CEOs no longer say that their eyes have glazed over when thinking about market research. Research has usually been a staff function and companies have not executed it effectively. They have been more reactive than proactive in using the data. Researchers have to be more proactive: data does suggest precise actions and process. It is not just a report.

Gerry: Book sales. Book sales are a good indication if we have met our goal. That would be one good clue. We're proselytizers. We want to get small business men and women to adopt marketing research as a fundamental way of operating their businesses.

Another way we will know is when the reviews come in. The book has just been introduced and we are starting to get the reviews, which are excellent thus far.

When we decided to update Bob's original book, not only did we want to capture the many changes that have taken place in the research industry in the past 4 years, but we wanted to add new sections and new ideas.

Many have a section called digging deeper. You can get another level of detail and sophistication.

Who should read your book?

Bob: Any businessperson, small or large, any entrepreneur or student. This book is written for any person what wants a practical non-tech book approach to why marketing research is important, how to better plan it and the better use of results.

The obvious target is small business because of the title. They tend not to have marketing research departments.

They can do a lot of this research themselves. We are trying to enforce the value of marketing research and any business can do this with just a bit of education. They can use their own sweat equity to do effective research and utilize the results and avoid paying a consultant to do this for you.

This is not a tradtional textbook. This is a very user friendly practical book!!

Gerry: Pragmatic, practical. It's a hands on book with lots of real world examples and experience, not a lot of theory. We tell them if you want to use vendors here's how to do it and save money.

Bob: This book lays out how to be proactive.

Define the term Guerrilla Marketing.

Bob: There are about 25 guerilla books. The term Guerrilla Marketing was developed by Jay Levinson in 1980.

It’s definition is “Achieving conventional goals such as profits, with unconventional methods, such as investing energy instead of money.” This means learning some of the basics about the task, whether it be PR or copywriting, learning some of the basics of the discipline or task at hand so you can do it yourself or at least buy services from the outside from a more educated perspective. It is a do-it -yourself strategy.

Who is a guerrilla marketer? How would we recognize them if we saw them on the street?

Gerry: Chances are pretty good that anyone you meet who works for small business ought to be. In the mid '80's Trout and Ries used the term. Guerrillas are the small guys. 90% of all businesses qualify.

They don't wear fatigues and they're not any more happy or not than the rest of us.

Bob: Wal-Mart to a great extent is a guerrilla marketer. They're in and out quickly. JetBlue, Amazon-started out as small companies and are all guerrillas. They did it through different tactics.

Large companies to a great extent start as guerrilla companies.

In your book, you talk about a strategic survey and a tactical survey. Which one comes first?

Bob: I don’t think there is any answer for that. A strategic study is a roadmap of the market...they are large expensive studies. A tactical study is a small study. Should I go with package A or Package B?

What you find with most guerrillas is that they have very specific questions to be answered. For example, are my customers happy? Will come be repeat customers? These tend to be small tactical studies. Guerrillas usually address these types of issues first and if they have success at understanding it, they move to larger scale strategic studies.

Larger companies may do one or two of these, strategic studies or roadmaps, every year. In a perfect world, you would start with a strategic study, what are the gaps, where are they and how can I extend my particular leverage.

Gerry: What we learned was if you do a strategic study, you will end up with some tactical insights and vice versa. They both feed the other.

Without marketing research, you will always be left throwing things on the wall and seeing if they stick?

Bob: I think that is correct. I don't know what else you do except go by your gut instinct.

Many entrepreneurs can start out with their own knowledge, but there is a point where they need to forego their personal instincts and ask for feedback from their customers and prospects.

You need to talk to customers. Your gut instincts aren't enough any more.

Gerry: When you start off really small, you know your customers, but as you grow you don’t have this option. It becomes a necessity to reach out and start a dialog.

I suppose that works at the beginning.

Market research is a form of insurance, the only insurance they can buy to prevent a life-threatening decision.

Why do small businesses need marketing research? They are close to their customers and employees and see what their needs are – and have that zig-zag streak of lightning from their intuition that .

Gerry: So you say. How do you know that? Are they really close to their customers and employees? Maybe they should do research and find out?

Do they feel the pulse of their market? They may have at one time, but not any more. How many customers can you actually stay in touch with and truly understand? Is it 10? Is it 20?

What if you have 3000 or 30, 000 customers – how do you know what all of them want? You need market research to be the eyes and ears.

It is inconceivable to me, to think that unless you have just a handful of customers and know each one personally, that you are actually in touch with your marketplace. And even then you may not be.

We have blinders on sometimes. We are only human. Customers may not want to tell us bad news about why they're leaving.

You may be doing business with someone currently because of convenience or price, not loyalty. You have no idea if they are really happy.

Bob: A number of questions we get now during these types of economic times. Market research is the first to go. It's cut at a disproportionate pace.

Everyone waits for sales. However, people are making decisions that go beyond price and it is important to think past this. There are many other elements aside from price during the buying process.

The companies that stay in touch with their customers today will be 12-24-36 months ahead when this economy turns around. They have a pulse on their clients and prospects. They know that it goes beyond just cutting their prices to maintain the market share. They will be ahead of the game when the economy changes.

Marketing and marketing research is so important especially in a down economy because when it ends, the companies that continue to conduct market research will be 24-36 months ahead of the companies that do not.

What are some other reasons that are more important? Or what are other reasons companies should not be cutting their market research during the recession?

Bob: We are always asked, what is the first study I should do? Our answer would be you need to know if your customers are satisfied. They need to be happy with all of the nuances in the way you serve them. This can be from any point of view- your product, your advertising, your service. You need to understand how you service them. Protect what you have.

Gerry: Repeat sales are not necessarily an indicator of a satisfied customer. Market research is vital.

All of these things are obvious. Why do so many companies fail to understand what you guys make so simple and clear to understand?

Bob: Because their eyes glaze over. They are in a mindset that research isn’t going to tell them anything they don’t already know. This is the lamest argument I have ever heard. The answer to it is if you knew it, why you weren’t acting on it. This is why most businesses fail.

Is there hope for the future?

Bob: I think what people are doing is asking for more direct accountability for their research dollars. They want a better understanding of the ROI. That is developing a different kind of research mind. I think it is a slow growth but it is happening.

Gerry: There are those who love the qualitative and others the quantitative results and processes. These are the two schools of thought. You don’t have to be a mathematician to work with the data and reports.

Bob: Companies want to trust that the research was done properly and they want a clear concise short report of action steps. They need to come up with consumer insights that will help the company set themselves apart from the competition. This is where research has to go...not just a provider of data any more, but a provider of insight.

It almost sounds like marketing researchers need to do market research on what their clients want at this point. What clients want now has changed so dramatically.

Bob: Good point. I think to a great extent they do, but they also need the support of a CEO or director of marketing to do that or somebody way up. Bottom up they'll be fighting this war forever. They need to get the support from the people at the top and take action, as a result of it, so we are not running in place. You have to have the support from the top.

Gerry: We interviewed many market researchers. My sense is that the larger providers and users is that they are pretty clear about what Bob just said, but the difficulty is training an entire generation to be able to fulfill this new set of demands. There is also another point of view of other US market researchers who have adopted the POV that what I want from my research dept is just the opposite of what we just spoke about.

" I don’t want insights, I don’t want speculation, I don't want analytical kinds of things. What I want is the best possible data. Clear data; unencumbered, statistically reliable data from the right people. Not tainted or influenced." Then it's the purview of the brand group to interpret the data. There are are still some companies who prefer their data this way.

We don't work that way. We do have opinions on what steps a company should take with the data we gather.

Bob: Some researchers just haven’t had the psychological tools to make those recommendations and are not embraced as people who can think and offer up action steps.

They may be able to present it in a fun meaningful, brilliant, entertaining way. People love it. Then they go away forever. Reseach isn’t just about getting that data in an entertaining way. It should be about consumer insight and what happens after the presentation.

How will the client use the data? How can they take that data and decide on actions. The researchers need to educate them on what is next – the execution and planning of the strategy.

Gerry: Let's go back. I'd like to bring us back to a discussion of why small businesses and guerrillas should be interested in market research right now given the state of the economy. What Bob and I tell people is the most important thing you do right now is to stay close to your customers. It's like dancing with the girl you brought to the party. Retain them.

Then up sell and cross sell.

Next is to get referrals from current customers.

Those are the three most important things we have to do in this economy.

We think marketing research is the best possible tool to stay close to your customers.

It needn't be expensive.

Quantitative research you have a statistically reliable sample.

Qualitative research you have a small number of interviews to get a feel of what is going on.

We recommend a 20-minute qualitative interviews with customers to see how things are going and how you can help. It is a structured survey-a written script of what you want to ask your customers, asking each the same kinds of questions, it's not word-for-word, and you would look at the answers from across 10 or so customers, seeing insight and patterns. This is a research gathering.

Bob: The book goes into all this. Any company can do this and should be doing this. It's not brain surgery. It takes a little reading and understanding. It takes a few hours of writing and practicing mock interviews.

Gerry: We tell clients they should be doing a thorough analysis of secondary information on their business, competition, and elements of the economy once per year. This is a good time to do that.

Secondary research is so easy because of the internet. This is a good time to do it. You would be amazed at how much information you can get on the internet. Included in this is to personally visit your key competitors. You will see the market through the eyes of your customer. You can learn a lot of valuable information from your competition.

Bob: This is all really simple stuff that any company can do and use inexpensively.

Gerry: Here's another one: Survey your employees. Formally gather information from them. They are in touch with your customers. Your company. This is inexpensive. They are on the front lines!!!

57:00

Bob: There are all kinds of ways in the book to ask the question, compile the data.

What are the three reasons our listeners should buy your book?

Bob: 1. To understand that by talking with your customers, you will make smarter decisions.

Gerry: 2. If you make smarter decisions, you will make more money.

Bob: 3. How to ask the right questions in order to make smarter decisions and avoid bad decisions.

Let’s say we talk again in one year, what will be the biggest change in marketing research?

Bob: My guess is it will be the social networks and how they will be more effectively used to gather more information.

We'll be talking about better understanding consumer emotions, not just the logic of why consumers make purchases.

And the last thing is how to integrate large amounts of information with attitude research or data mines.

What do you guys think about crowd sourcing and social media? What do you think about its effectiveness?

Gerry: It is fascinating. It is still in the domain of a sociological experiment. You have a problem and go out to the crowd and ask them to give you their solutions. I don’t think it qualifies as formal marketing research though. You don’t know all of the characteristics of the responding audience, their auspice, their motivators...theyre are issues with respect to compensation.

It is a wonderful experiment and may work for some entrepreneurial companies but right now I don’t think it is part of the standard mode of research. The jury's way, way, out on that.

Bob: There are two things I would point to. There was a recent article about Twitter and how it is effective about predicting whether a movie will be a hit. They can monitor the chatter about a particular movie.

If there is more talk, they can say that the movie will be more successful. If you are able to simply monitor chatter about a movie then you can say Hey, I have a hit on my hand and I can throw more marketing money at it. BUT it doesn’t give you a lot of “whys”. It only gives you what is going on. It doesn't give you a lot of insight into why it is going on.

Gerry: They can be used in addition to marketing research. They are not a substitute though. The internet is certainly changed the world of marketing, turned it on its head. But I think people err if they think that because the internet exists that classical marketing tools are no longer effective. The internet has made it more complicated, not less.

You cannot solely rely on the internet for your marketing needs.

Bob: I still don't know how Twitter is making money. I think within Twitter there will be keyword services they will sell. And you can get all the chatter around a keyword. But there's still the need to understand WHY there is that chatter, what it means.

Can you leave us with a parting thought, a story?

Gerry: It seems as though there was an old man, a young boy and a donkey who were on their way to town. The man was leading the donkey and the boy was riding it. They passed some of their neighbors and overheard some negative sounds. “Look how that poor old man has to walk and the healthy young boy rides.” The man and the boy looked at each other and thought about it for a second. They changed positions. They then passed by another set of neighbors, overhearing more negative talk. “Oh how mean. The adult is riding and the young child is forced to walk.” So they decided they would both walk. They soon passed some more neighbors and once again they heard some negative talk: “Oh look at them, what a foolish pair to be walking, there is a healthy animal to ride.” They thought about it and they both got on the donkey. They continued to walk and overheard, “Oh it is so cruel to make that poor animal carry such a heavy burden.” So they got off and picked up the donkey. They were crossing a bridge at the time and the donkey didn’t like being carried and started to squirm. It fell into the river below and was washed away.

The marketing strategy moral is: if you try to please all of the people, you can kiss your ass goodbye.

( Post-show observation. That last moral applies to life, too. )

Find them on the website:

Gerry Linda:

• Facebook

• Website

• Twitter

Bob Kaden

Website, Book

Website, Company

Thanks, guys!

Being There

( Did you see that movie? Being There? Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas. Great movie. See it if you haven’t.)

Being there may be social media’s greatest contribution to our ability to innovate our way out of this recession. And innovate our way out of our cubicles into a life of meaning, where work and home do blend, where ‘personal’ and ‘professional’ brands mesh smoothly, where our values align with and allow for us, individually and collectively, personally and professionally.

Hutch Carpenter, VP of Product at Spigit, tweeted this today.

He’s right.

Can you show me anything else that kills an idea faster than like lack of interest? This is not a rhetorical question. Can you? 

Passively or aggressively, an idea needs interest to grow. And it needs it...immediately, right from the start.

Beating a metaphor to death, you don’t plant a tree by just dropping it on top of the ground, do you? (Ok. Some may. ) You dig a hole, you throw some mulch or fertilizer, aka food, in that hole and you water it...and you do all this immediately.That is because you want it to grow. You want it to grow enough to do what's necessary to immediately provide it the attention and resources it needs to grow.

We all want ideas to grow. And up until recently, the means has been missing for being there when someone has an idea.

That has changed, will continue to change, now with social media. Social media’s instant reach, instant broadcast, globally, is a great first step in being able to give immediate attention to an idea. Any idea shared on social media like twitter or a blog or youtube or, maybe not facebook, a podcast or a wiki, is like the tree being planted on fertile soil, in a hole dug to proper depth, with proper food and watered properly. The follow-up conversations and collaborations made possible by social media, by its members around the globe, are like the water and mulch/fertilizer/food that grows this idea, sustains it, nurtures it.

(Ok, this is a riff, a rough draft.)

But, the bottomline is that now with social media’s tools and features we have a better chance of giving ideas the immediate attention they deserve, we deserve, our communities deserve. And any idea to improve this will find us all just...being there.

Thanks, Hutch.

Social media is a digital social lubricant

Steve MacGill, my friend and founder of Peersight Online, said earlier this year that social media is an accelerant for word-of-mouth. It speeds the spread of word-of-mouth. It’s a vehicle for our words and ideas, rants and raves, insights and sometimes TMI, too much information.

I liked that. He’s right. Social media is not word-of-mouth. It’s not even marketing, really. It’s really some resources, some tools, some cool features and colors, that merely serve our purpose. No ideas. Social media will spread that reality very quickly. Great ideas? Well...those will spread very fast with social media.

But, social media is more than an accelerant. It’s a digital social lubricant.

There’s a reason why social media’s more popular resource, Twitter, is referred to as a cocktail party that never ends. It is because social media functions the same as alcohol at social events.

It lowers our inhibitions. It’s relaxing. We’re more likely to relax our own barriers to communication and connection.

Common bonds can be found with greater ease.

It’s easy to access, very affordable.

There's a resource for everyone. Some people prefer beer, wine or mixed drinks or things that make me shiver when they're described. Some like blogs, twitter, facebook. Others like StumbleUpon, YouTube, podcasts or MySpace (shiiiiver).

And shoot, everyone’s doing it now. Even my oldest sister has sworn herself to beginning to use... email by possibly the end of this year. No, seriously. And that’s been a good first step for all of us, hasn’t it? 20 years ago, sure. But, the first step has to be taken sometime. I digress.

Like that other social lubricant, too much of a good thing is, well, too much. Consider these parallel behavior patterns when social media'ing too much:

Strangers become BFFs. And we sometimes remember their username the next day.

It makes for strange bedfellows. Consider tea parties and birthers. Honestly, any social media in their hands is equivalent to binge drinking.

We share too much information. Pictures and Facebook. What about the person suffering from depression whose photos of her celebrating at the beach were found on her facebook profile. Not a good decision for her disability claims. It was all made possible by the easy access to social media and not knowing when to say no.

Consider hecklers. Nothing fuels a heckler like too much alcohol. Ever been to a football game, college or NFL? Ever been to a Yankees’ game? Then you know. A side comment gets picked up, becomes a chant and then the fans start throwing things.

The social media version is twecklers*. These are people drunk with the power of being able to broadcast their ideas immediately to a global audience. They attend a presentation. They don’t like the content, the presenter, the AC, the chairs, the lights...whatever. And their side comment in the form of a tweet becomes a chant and then others are throwing digital versions. Ugly.

Confession: I’ve made these mistakes. ( Ok. I’ve never been to a Yankees’ game.) But, at college football games parents have taken their children away at crucial points in a close game or after a bad call or play, all the time glaring at me. (“What?!? F bombs aren’t apprapro at your dinner table? Whatever.” ) My family won’t sit near me at basketball games.

And, I’ve tweeted and blogged and commented when, perhaps, I could have waited a moment. Or forever.

With that in mind, here are a few tips to make use of the connective power of social media to add value to others and accelerate the spread of your ideas, build connections with those you share common bonds even after you’ve left the cocktail party and effectively collaborate on important projects.

• Don’t social media and drive.

• Know when to say no.

• Social media responsibly

• We’ve all annoyed others under the influence of social media. Don’t take it seriously.

• We’ve all delighted others under its influence. Don’t take that seriously, either.

• Have you ever seen yourself when you've been social media’ing too much? Is it pretty? No?

• Would you want to read your tweets? Maybe you should. I did and it changed my world. I think my followers quietly say thanks.

• Schedule your expressions for publication at a later date. That gives you time to reflect.

• Be prepared to regularly say “I’m sorry”. Do I need to explain here?

• Don’t blame social media. It wasn't the social media...

• Would you want your parents to see it? Because they will see it.

• Would you want...your children to see it? Oh yes, they will see it.
  

• Would you want your grandparents to see it? It is more and more likely that they will now.
  

• Would you want your siblings to see it? Note: I don't worry about my sister seeing it.

• And, would you want your boss to see it? Because they will.

All these can be condensed into one rule: just because we can, doesn't mean we should.

Now, let's go on in and enjoy the cocktail party. And, let's help each other if we see we're social media'ing too much.

* twecklers. See what I mean? You have to be drunk on social media to come up with the term twecklers for those who use twitter to heckle. Clever. But, you know, outside the cocktail party no one understands it.

The new rule of social media

Just because we can doesn't mean we should.

Just because we can:

• update our facebook page during a panel presentation
• check our email while a speaker's presenting
• chat, skype, tweet at anytime anywhere.
• stream media for our listening, watching, pleasure anywhere, anytime
• read and comment on blogs
• read and comment on community forums,
• comment anonymously
• all of these, anytime and anywhere

Doesn't mean we should.

Interestingly, this rule has applied always applied to ethics in business or personal life. Just because you have the power to x, doesn't mean you should.

Discretion is the better part of valor. So it is with social media.

Disclaimer: This may come across as preachy. I'm known to preach. In this case this is not a sermon. It's written more as a marker. I'm circling around less is more.

• Less noise, more silence.
• More silence, less distraction.
• More silence, less distraction...more meaning.

I don't have a ratio, a formula. I don't think there is one except that which works for each of us only today.

Tip of the hat to Samantha Rufo (blog and twitter) for the link to this article Social Media Challenges Social Rules. I'm not sure social media challenges our social rules as its freedom challenges our willingness to apply them.

6 Steps to Overcoming Writer's Block

You blog, you tweet, you podcast, you youtube...you encounter writer’s block. All of these social media resources turn us all into...writers. And writers face writer’s block eventually.

I’ve blogged almost daily for 4 and 1/2 years now. There are a few things I have found work to overcome writer’s block. Here they are:

Write: There’s only one way to overcome writer’s block and that’s to write. Bring up your word doc or bring up a sheet of paper and pen/pencil. Then write on it.

That act alone gets me out of my head. It stops the I don’t have anything to write. I’m not inspired...Can I have some cheese with this whine. Ok, I don’t say that last sentence; my wife does. Deservedly.

Now I’m looking at, in my case, the screen.

Now I start to write.

Write the keyword. Not sure what to write? Write the keyword. If the topic is innovation then write the... innovation.

Now, write the first thing that comes to mind. I write a few sentences. Now, usually, I am off to the races.

Gather your sources

To do that, I scan through my twitter lists and groups on Hootsuite.

I have gathered tweeters into either Twitter lists (big list) or HootSuite groups (filtered list). Each list/group is organized for the daily meme on my blog: healthcare, small business/leadership, social media/marketing/branding, innovation/collaboration, failure and its role in our success. That’s the memes Monday - Friday.

Each day I can scan that group for their links and conversations.

I favorite the tweets of interest. Favoriting, in either the Twitter or Hootsuite, works and feeds to both.

I also review my rss reads. I have them sorted by categories of interest: social media, small business, leadership, innovation. These are some of the daily memes for my blog posts.

Identify a common thread.

I always find 3-5 favorites around a common theme. It could be several perspectives with the same opinion. Or it could be same issue, differing opinions.

That begins to jog my brain. Either I see conflicting opinions, contradictory data or consistent data and conversation on that common theme.

Drill down.

Now I click on the links in these favorited tweets. That step is to gather more detailed information, supporting quotes, broaden my perspective and educate both myself and my readers. It definitely works for the first and I hope the second.

By now, I have the content I need and my brain and fingers are now engaged.

Some other steps and resources.

Caffeine: Tea, coffee, espresso, whatever. They are called stimulants. They stimulate. Sometimes a little mental stimulation from my favorite wonder-drug, caffeine, is all I need.

Aerobics: Same principle is at work here. The increased aerobic functioning is stimulating. Heart beats faster, pumps more blood, delivers more oxygen. And where is the biggest train station for the greatest amount of blood newly replenished with oxygen? The brain. Think about it. Or go for a run.

Deadlines: Deadlines push me out of the indulgence of obsessively word-smithing. And, I do write better, often, under pressure. Many people do.

Sleep: None of this works if we are chronically sleep-deprived. Do not pass go, do not waste time on anything else than this issue. Do this first. This is a systemic issue. The points above are tactical steps you can take to solve an immediate challenge. Sorta like having good tactics and a bad strategy. See the difference? No? Get some sleep.

I'm done.

Try these, some or all of them. Let me know if they work for you.

Got better ways to break writer's block? Share them in the comments. We all need all the help we can get. We all have great and wonderful ideas waiting to be expressed.

Photo credit: iStockPhoto, Joe Cicak.

4 Tips to Enter the Social Media Pool...Gently.

1. Find a resource you enjoy using.

2. Pick one or two and master them.

3. Make sure you create and define YOUR brand in the social media that you choose. Clearly communicate your spirit. Makes sure you are very clear.

4. Serve! Always be serving and giving. Be consistent and post regularly.

Deborah Shane, founder of Train with Shane and The Metropolis Radio Show, and I talked about social media, small business, entrepreneurs and more recently. You can listen in streaming on-demand at this link.

I asked her for three tips for those entering the social media pool. And following her own Tip #4, she's always serving and giving and she shared...4 tips.

Follow her on Twitter (her favorite social media tool) at DeborahShane.

Upcoming Radio Show Guest: David Zinger, founder of Employee Engagement community

David Zinger joins us Friday, November 6 at 9:30 AM, Central to talk about creating engaged employees. David is a leading expert on employee engagement and strength based leadership. David founded the Employee Engagement community on Ning and it has grown to over 1400 1600+ members whose common passion and expertise for creating engaged employees make it a lively and useful community. He is a management consultant with over 25 years of experience.

David was a previous guest on the show in 2008. You can listen in streaming on-demand mode at this link.

David was also such a delight, generated such positive reviews, that I asked if he'd come back to the show. Fortunately, he agreed.

We'll revisit the previous year to discuss the changes in field of employee engagement, what impact this economy has had on companies looking to create an engaged employee, what are the new tools and resources available, the Employee Engagement community and how David uses social media to further his purpose and how companies are using it to create engaged employees.

Here are the listening options:

LIVE:

1) Listen in streaming on-demand at this link.

2) Call in during the show at 646-915-9212. This also allows you to raise your hand using the touchpad on your phone to ask a question.

LATER:

1) Listen in streaming on-demand at this link.

In the meantime, get to know David, at these resources:

* Twitter

* His blog

* Employee Engagement community

This Guy Gets the Basics of Social Media ROI

I love this presentation from Oliver Blanchard. It made my morning.

Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi

View more presentations from Olivier Blanchard.

Why do I love this presentation? Why does it make my morning? Slide 10. It shows the boss and he lists 2 reasons why he should invest in something:

1. It will result in a cost reduction...

2. It will generate more revenues...

That's the basics of ROI for business: social media or not. An investment will generate either a cost reduction or more revenues.

As social media begins to grow up there, will be more talk about these 2 things, cost reductions and more revenues, and social media's role bringing those to the business.

Hat tips to the following blogs:

Adam Cohen

Social Fish

And, hat tip to Maddie Grant for her tweet.

3, just 3, Tools to Filter Twitter’s Noise.

Twitter. I love Twitter. So do millions of other folks. That’s its glory and its headache. Imagine a cocktail party with millions of people talking, shouting, celebrating, arguing, slamming, praising, wondering, breaking news, globally, locally...tweeting. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. What a glorious party! The fun that happens every day, hour, every instant. You can stop in any time. (Unlike Hotel California you can leave..) And join the party, add to its revelry.

And, you can stop in any time and waste any time. Idly ‘listening’ to the tweets pass by. Or, worse, missing the conversations from the people you want to hear from, want to join because you both add to your days.

What to do? How do you manage your time, this party, for your life and goals?

I asked that of Drew McLellan, Top Dog of McLellan Marketing Group when he was a recent guest on my radio show. Drew’s earned a reputation with his clients for savvy, smart, practical ie doable social media strategies that deliver tangible results.

I asked:

What kind of resources are you talking about with your clients as social media becomes more mainstream?

The most interesting trend that people are talking about is the volume of noise. It is no longer this fringe thing for tech heads. It is very mainstream. Today you can tweet questions to MSNBC. Many people participate so there is so much noise. What we talk to clients about is how to filter out the noise.

Twitter seems to be one of the places where the noise is so incredible. One of the tools we use a lot is Friend or Follow. This lets you see who is following you back. Another favorite is HootSuite – it lets you scan searches and schedule tweets. Another is ShareAholic which is a plug-in for your browser that is a better, quicker, easier way to share, e-mail, tweet, and bookmark stuff you care about online with friends, family, and co–workers. It is based on your usage.

3, just 3, resources to manage Twitter’s noise.

• Friend or Follow
• HootSuite (I use it, love it)
• ShareAholic

You can listen in streaming on-demand at this link to more of Drew’s thoughts on social media, its use and why it’s changed over the past year.

Follow Drew:

• Blog: Drew’s Marketing Minute
• Twitter: Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan: Highlights From Our Conversation

Drew McClellan, is the Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group. He's achieved that status for not only surviving the past 20 years in the advertising and marketing arena, but thriving in this arena. After working for several other agencies, including Young and Rubicam’s CMF&Z, Drew created McLellan Marketing Group in 1995. Considered a national branding expert, Drew is a highly sought after speaker and has given about a zillion presentations at national conferences, key note addresses, training for his peers in the profession, college students and even his daughter’s tenth grade class.

Drew and I discussed what's changed over this past year in social media and marketing and the Dodger's chances for World Series glory. (I'd say they are pretty good, based on the first game.)

You can listen in streaming on-demand at this link.

What are your clients saying to you these days about social media? What are you doing to help them?

We are seeing a fading skepticism that is being replaced with a little bit of fear with a “I’ve got to be there”. I am not sure which is worse – both, fear of using social media and fear of not using it, can put a company at great risk. Our stance has remained the same: first you need to decide if it is the right place for you to be because it isn’t the right place for everybody in the world. Every business does not need to have a social media strategy that involves actively creating content. If it is the place you need to be then you must create a strategy so you are not out there floundering.

What are you doing now with social media that has changed since last year?

It is interesting. One of the things that our clients are realizing is that social media is not a 2 sided coin; them and their customers. There is a third side, their employees. We are beginning to talk about both the risks and rewards of your employees using these social media tools, both on your behalf and personally and how the two worlds collide. There are examples out there of how employees have either tweeted or posted on Facebook that was really detrimental. We are spending time with companies to create in-house policies regarding social media. This is creating some very interesting conversation in terms of privacy of individuals or if we work for a company and we are speaking about our jobs, is it required that we friend them on Facebook? There are lots of interesting discussions about this. There are many real life scenarios out there that are causing businesses to pause about how they want to talk about social media with their employees.

Last year I remember you saying that many clients were shocked and dismayed about what customers were saying about them online and now it sounds like the clients are shocked about what their employees are saying about them online.

It even goes beyond that. It is a sticky situation. For example, if one of my employees took a client out to dinner and got absolutely toasted in front of the client, I would fire them. BUT, if an employee posts stories on FB about themselves being drunk, do I have the right to fire them if some of their friends are clients? The gray area is how do we have a private life anymore when we live it so publicly? And how it impacts the company and its reputation. The desire to listen and monitor is even bigger.

Social media just brings the community closer and there are repercussions.

The beauty of all of this is that it just reiterates the power of social media and the ability to magnify your voice. We need to be mindful of what we say or do because every word is out there for our 500 friends or 2000 followers and all of their friends.

What kind of resources are you talking about with your clients as you discuss this? Are they asking you to craft a social media policy for their employees to follow?

The most interesting trend that people are talking about is the volume of noise. It is no longer this fringe thing for tech heads. It is very mainstream. Today you can tweet questions to MSNBC. Many people participate so there is so much noise. What we talk to clients about is how to filter out the noise.

Twitter seems to be one of the places where the noise is so incredible. One of the tools we use a lot is Friend or Follow. This lets you see who is following you back. Another favorite is HootSuite – it lets you scan searches and schedule tweets. Another is ShareAholic which is a plug-in for your browser that is a better, quicker, easier way to share, e-mail, tweet, and bookmark stuff you care about online with friends, family, and co–workers. It is based on your usage.

When did you start using these applications?

I have been using HootSuite for quite awhile. I was looking for a way to manage Twitter. It is hard to keep a handle on the conversation. You don’t want to miss anything and HS lets you accurately track this. I have been using ShareAHolic for a couple of months. I was right on it and it is a great time saver.

Is there a social media resource or tool that has been lost in the shuffle this past year?

Social media tools can fade away from lack of use. The perfect example of that is MySpace. Today there are many dormant accounts from people who opened their accounts five years ago. I would say everybody but bands has migrated to Facebook.

Facebook is a place where their personal and professional life come gliding together. Your friends are split among business colleagues, high school friends and family. That is where the whole personal/ professional life thing gets gray. The reality is that it is happening in our lives as well. We tend to mix the two together and social media reflects that.

Last year we spoke about the good news about social media that is not just a fad. It is a powerful resource. Now you said many corporate brands are throwing money at Facebook and Twitter due to their fear of lack of involvement. Is this a good thing?

22:37

In some ways, I think yes we are out of the early adaptor phase and no we are not. social media is absolutely mainstream. At the consumer level, people are getting used to it, but I still think we are in the early adaptor stage and people are doing it, but doing it out of fear and not always properly. Without a strategy and the tools some people end up bailing on social media. How many are coming back?

It depends on their experience. If they felt unheard and that it didn’t pay off, we have to coax them back in and help them understand. Having some presence in social media, listening and monitoring what is being said are just basics now. You have to be doing at least that. Eventually most will come back. This doesn’t happen overnight. It is an evolution rather than a revolution. Companies need to be strategic first and then jump in. They can’t just slap something together.

Social media is growing and maturing. As it becomes mainstream, will it have the same impact?

I think we are at a point where with all of the noise level and craziness, the good ones stick. I think we will see that pretty soon social media will evolve into a stable usable platform. It still may take another five years for people to figure it out and truly understand the capacity and benefits.

Can you give us examples of brands that have used social media for the right way, for the right goals?

Grayco Baby: the company that makes things for babies. They recognize the mommy bloggers out there are a force to be reckoned with and more and more moms are going online to get information and resources. One of the things that made them successful was that for the first six months, they listened. They were very strategic about it. After listening, they created a blog. They married social media activity with offline activity. It is great to be Facebook friends with someone, but when you bring people together and they can share experiences it takes it to another level. Grayco Baby created events with parenting bloggers to create a community and asked the bloggers to teach them how to be good community members. They then launched a blog which is authored by a team of employees who are totally engaged with one another. They are driving thousands of people to their blog every month. They have really grown a nice community. Bloggers are a generous people and are happy share what they know in a respectful way. This is what Grayco Baby did and as a result it really brought a lot of fans to their site when they launched.

Another great example is The Best Western Hotel chain. (Best Western...?) They have launched the fan pages, have a video channel on You Tube for people to upload their vacations, and they have launched a couple of blogs. One of them is a travel blog. They are not writing about what they sell. They are writing about things that their audience cares about. It is not about a sales pitch. You have to write for your readers.

Being American we all like to see the fall. What, if any, big brands have stumbled with social media and what can we learn from them?

If you are launching social media tools, think of it as going to a cocktail party and you are going to everybody talking about yourself, and soon there is no one to talk to anymore. This is the attitude of a lot of corporate brands are bringing to social media. They also don’t think about their behavior from their audience’s perspective. The Motrin Mom's story is a great example. Motrin wanted to garner attention from moms. They did a YT Video with babies that were perceived to be fashion statements and the mommy bloggers had a fit about that. Motrin had to do a big apology and this bit them in rear end. They did not think about their audience. Most of the mistakes we made happen when we are self-centered.

Last year you shared four steps for starting a social media campaign. The first one was, ask yourself why you want to do this. The last three steps were about setting up and building a blog. Does the blog still remain the foundation for a social media campaign?

Yes! There are lots of ways to blog. We believe that the blog is still the crown jewel of your social media strategy because it is the one place you can really establish your expertise, share resources, educate, and build a community and connections. It is really like while it’s great to visit other people’s houses and party there, but if you really want someone to get to know you, you invite them into your house. Your blog becomes your social media home. As long as the content is strong and adds value to the audience, it will be successful. If I don’t think my readers will care about it, I won’t write about it. It has to reflect the very best that the readers want to read. The other reason blogs are the jewel of social media is due to the impact it has on Google and the search engines.

One of the key elements of social media is the ability to or to mandate to be quiet and to listen more. Use the tools and resources to learn about what people are saying; what they are interested in and priorities. Are brands getting more comfortable with the customer’s input with the creation of their brand? Are they learning to let go?

It all depends on the company. If the company’s culture is a collaborative one, then yes. This is another channel where they can learn about the customer and better serve them. For companies who hate it, then they may acknowledge that they have to do it, but are not crazy about it. Some companies are in the middle of these two. I think the bigger companies are embracing social media. It is sometimes a confidence issue. If you are a little local bookstore, you may not be sure you have anything to say, but when you are a large company, like Grayco, whose products are carried nationwide, it is a little easier. Small and medium size businesses really need to jump out there and use these tools, but listen first.

44:38

It is so important for these smaller companies to have a presence as it will give them credibility and the audience can connect even stronger.

Are you still finding that clients are shocked about what customers are saying about them, not always in the most glowing terms.

What they are shocked at is that this conversation is going on and they had no idea. One of the beautiful things about social media is that you can listen and join in the conversation with your customers. Get out there and join them. Interact. You can’t do that though if you don’t know where they are. Find them.

You talked about three tools to help manage the conversation on Twitter. What are some of the best tools to listen online in social media? Why are these best? If you could choose only one, which one would it be?

Sometimes simple is best. I would still go back to Google Alerts. Anytime anyone says anything about your search terms you will receive an email. Google scans the entire web and sends you a digest of the conversation. If you combine that with a Twitter search that you check every day, you will be able to listen to the entire dialog about your company and brand.

What about the new search engine from MicroSoft called Bing?

I think Microsoft is a great company, but there is always a catch. They just don’t seem to play well with others. I am wondering what the catch is. I think it is interesting, but I think it will be difficult to compete with Google.

Steve Farber, world expert on leadership and has written 3 books recently told me that you had created a series of events for SF and his clients and community in Des Moines. I think that was a fabulous thing that you did. What was the response and why did you do that?

When I read Steve’s first book, I immediately knew I had a kindred spirit out there. I have been a raving fan of his for many years. We had a client who was having a very prestigious event, 40 Under 40. This year was the tenth anniversary of this event-so there were 400 of these people that they were going to bring to lunch. The event just grew and he was so gracious with his time. The audience in Des Moines loved his energy and passion. It was a thrill for us to help coordinate that. He absolutely walks his talk. He lives it. Note: Here's Drew's blog post on his day with Steve Farber.

Give us one great piece of advice for social media and business.

Listen first and ask a lot of great questions. If you do that, people will gladly welcome you into their homes and inboxes.

Thanks, Drew!

You can follow Drew online here:

Blog: Drew's Marketing Minute

Twitter: DrewMcLellan

Personal Brands: Leveling Our Own Internal Playing Field

Social media is lauded as the ultimate playing field leveler for brands, big or small. The playing field leveled is the playing field of honesty and integrity. It is a big story, an interesting story.

But honesty and integrity are personal attributes. What’s more interesting is social media's role leveling our internal playing field of honesty and integrity. When social media levels the playing field for our personal/private and professional/public brands...things get interesting.

I read a steady stream of dialogue about the erosion of personal privacy in our digital media age. Coupled with this is the ever-growing blend of professional and personal personas. Each week is another example of an employee, contractor, consultant, CEO, political leader...sharing a heart-felt, personal and private opinion on x social media which is strikingly inconsistent with their professional and public roles.

The stories race through the blogosphere, twitterville, facebook communities. Tales of woe and tales of warning follow. Each new story makes the subject the poster-child of the instant for not recognizing the power of social media and the internet to expose our private lives, to overlap private with professional.

All the points are excellent. The warnings should be heeded.

But is the cause of concern the loss of privacy or the exposure of the inconsistencies in our lives? When an employee is paid to smile and promote a brand whose promises fall a few undotted i’s and uncrossed t’s short of honest and then chooses to bash that same brand on their facebook page...where is the failure of judgment? Where is the indiscretion? Sharing a few snarky threads on Facebook, etal or spending the day betraying one’s principles and personal integrity.

I can’t remember a single story saying maybe the indiscretion was in first compromising their principles at the job. Granted we all have choices to make and different standards upon which we make those choices. But at the point where you stand for a brand’s misrepresentations during the day (and take the paycheck) and then stand against them with your community (and take their applause) the issue isn’t exposing your private life to your public life. The issue is you expose your public life to your private community.

And the anger that arises seems to be the anger where the veil of a community’s illusions, delusions, are ripped unwillingly from our eyes. Maybe the more appropriate metaphor is that of a mirror. These examples scare us because we see our selves in them. And that view of ourselves isn’t so becoming. And, the social media mob turns on the exposed member and cries foul and banishes them into oblivion with the resulting deletion of their profiles.

As the line between fades between our personal and professional, private and public, lives, our own internal playing field of honesty and integrity will level. THAT’s when we’ll see real change, constructive change, sustainable change. Until then we’ll keep hearing the sounds, in the form of these stories, of these obstructions crashing down around us.

Radio Show Guest: Drew McLellan, Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group where he writes excellent posts on...well, marketing and social media and word-of-mouth and branding. Drew has not only survived 20 years in the advertising and marketing arena, he’s thrived in it. After working for several other agencies, including Young and Rubicam’s CMF&Z, Drew created McLellan Marketing Group in 1995. Over these years he's attained a reputation, well-deserved, as a national branding expert, highly sought after speaker with about a zillion presentations at national conferences, key note addresses, training for his peers in the profession, college students and even his daughter’s tenth grade class. Drew's offered his expertise to clients like Nabisco, IAMS pet foods, Kraft Foods, Meredith Publishing, John Deere, Iowa Health System, Make-A-Wish, University of Central Florida, SkiDoo and a wide array of others.

Drew also organized 2 editions of The Age of Conversation, a collaborative book project with a few hundred bloggers and proceeds for its sale going to charity.

Drew and I will discuss what's changed over this past year in social media and marketing and the Dodger's chances for World Series glory.

The show is Friday, October 2, at 9:30 AM, Central.

Join us in either of these ways:

LIVE

1. Call-in. Dial 646-915-9212
2. Live streaming at this link

ARCHIVED

1. Streaming on-demand at this link

BlogTalk Radio Guest: Steve Nipper, IP attorney and social media advocate

Stephen M. Nipper is a partner with the law firm of Dykas, Shaver & Nipper (www.dykaslaw.com) in Boise, Idaho.

Mr. Nipper’s practice covers a broad spectrum of intellectual property work, from prosecution to litigation. A significant portion of his work is handling US patent and trademark cases for foreign law firms and corporations. His main experience is in agriculture, the biological and chemical sciences, and mechanical arts.

Mr. Nipper is the author of The Invent Blog®,a technology blog covering news, technology tips, and other information relevant to attorneys (particularly patent and trademark attorneys), independent inventors and small businesses.

Steve offers an up-close and personal perspective on not only IP issues, but also on the use of social media to promote your business. Steve's been a successful, leading, early-adoptor for social media in general. And as an attorney, he's been leading his industry by example to embrace the power of social media to differentiate their firms in the marketplace.

I've known Steve for a number of years. He's smart, funny, wide-read, articulate, measured and a big fan of social media. I expect to learn, ok be schooled, more on the issues of IP in this age of digital media, a misplaced sense of entitlement to its content among its users and how IP protection can be managed in a way that benefits all of us.

The show is Wednesday, September 30, at 9:30 AM, Central. I hope you join us.

There are three ways to listen to the show.

LIVE, (9:30 AM - 10:30 AM, Central):

1. Listen in streaming on-demand at this link.
2. Call 646-915-9212 during the show.

LATER

1. Listen in streaming on-demand at this link.

After the show, I'll post excerpted highlights here at this blog. These are made possible by the fabulous work of Susan Poirier, owner of Ace Concierge.

Be sure to follow Steve on Twitter at Nipper.

Everything that can be counted

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. Albert Einstein.

Mr. Einstein was a brilliant man. Brilliant minds can hold two opposing thoughts in their mind at the same time. This is almost one of those thoughts.

It’s a fun thought.

It’s fun for barbecues and picnics and late night conversations at the after-hour events with business conferences.

I agree with Al.

But, I think it’s misleading and easily abused to spin the production of intangible, and meaningless, results in business into...tangible and meaningful.

Let’s take counting conversations with social media. Conversations with social media tools may not be countable; they may be countable. Friends and follows, clicks and comments, are countable.

But, unless they result in...sales, in revenues, in repeat purchases, in upsells and crosssells...in cash-flows, then their count or its lack is irrelevant to a business. Well, they're irrelevant unless a business is convincing others that this metric meaningful.

Everything may not be countable. But, ultimately, it will result in something meaningful and that something should be countable.

Quote from 37Signals blog.

istockphoto: abacus, by: Cimmerian

The 6 Biggest Mistakes Tracking Social Media's Impact

Gary Stein at Clickz shares his list of The 5 Biggest Mistakes Measuring Social Media.

Check them out. It's a good post, well-written.

But, it's written from the perspective of a social media agency. That doesn't discredit the post, the perspective, the author. That's not what I'm saying.

However, it's not the perspective of a business owner, founder, principal, CEO, CFO. Their perspective is...cash. And in particular, cash-flow.

I remain amazed at how so few social media agencies, marketing boutiques, branding agencies, whatever, talk about...cash and cash-flow. For their clients. And how their agency improves the cash-flow of their clients.

Now, maybe that oversight is the oversight of the client. Perhaps. But that oversight is short-lived among those organizations who continue to survive and thrive. The rest continue to overlook their cash-flows and soon have none and no cash to discuss. And no business to discuss, either.

Ultimately, you do two things in any organization, for-profit or not.

• You either increase cash-flows or you decrease your cash-flows.
• You either increase your cash reserves or you decrease them.
• You either retain control of your destiny or you relinquish control to lenders and investors.

And all metrics, results, tactics and strategies downstream into this metric. Otherwise, the organization no longer exists.

The advocates of social media too often overlook a grand opportunity for its advancement (and theirs). And that opportunity rests in connecting their metrics (conversations, clicks, follows, friends, whatever) with a key metric for their client: cash-flows.

Failing to even discuss, much less measure, social media's impact on a client's cash-flow not only is the 6th biggest mistake, it remains THE biggest mistake in measuring social media.

The FDA Wants to Regulate...Social Media?

Huh. Pharma Marketing Blog says Let's Respond to FDA's Questions Regarding Its Regulation of Social Media

According to his post, the FDA posted its request for hearings on the Promotion of Food and Drug Administration-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools. Given the buzz on social media, especially Twitter under the hashtag of #fdasm, they could...if they looked, see the power of social media.

But, they can’t, at least on Twitter. Someone else has the Twitter username FDA.

That may be the biggest problem for the FDA. They’re proposing regulations for a resource they do not use. How do you regulate what you do not use? That’s like Twitter changing Terms of Service when they use Twitter much, much, less than their members use Twitter.

Ok. It’s worse. At least those who provide us Twitter, use Twitter, somewhat.

Back to the FDA. A survey has been created by the FDA to gather responses from the public. You can participate in the survey offered by Pharma Marketing Network. (Sure, a wiki forum would have been more useful for gathering responses and creating a live-lab, social-media petri dish, to study the responses and the community of those interested in those responses. But, again, the FDA doesn’t use social media.)

My only response to the survey would be a letter:

Dear FDA,

Regulate drug and food research and production. Provide for its safety and proper use. Concentrate on that. That is your strength. (Ok, it could be with adequate mandates, funding and personnel. )

An open, transparent, conversation by the public with social media quickly exposes any untruths propagated by...anyone, a drug manufacturer, their PR agencies, the minions of either, doctors paid in some form by drug manufacturers, big pharma lobbyists, even members of Congress. But, they expose them only after damages are done to unsuspecting patients.

Your limited resources are best used to prevent that damage from happening.

Then we, the public, using social media tools like blogs and YouTube and Twitter and Facebook can talk about your successes, instead of your failures. We speak too often, too frequently, with too much damning data about the latter now.

Thank you,

Zane Safrit

Does Twitter eat its own bird food?

A vendor used this analogy of eating their own dog food in recent presentation. In demoing their service, he showed how they used their own service internally to grow their own service.

I liked that. I liked the analogy, too. Eating your own dog food. Do you trust your product with...your dog’s life, with your life?

What if a sales rep answered Are you kidding? when you asked them if they used their own product?

Now, what if Twitter employees answered much the same. You ask them: Do you eat your own bird food, ie., Do you tweet often or follow many others who use or develop your service. And they answer...Are you kidding?

ReadWriteWeb reveals this may be the case with twitter employees: How Twitter's Staff Uses Twitter (And Why It Could Cause Problems)

Their post uses the analogy of an electric utility and heavy appliances: What if you were someone who used a heavy duty washer and dryer in your home and found out that the electric company didn't employ people who regularly used any appliances bigger than a toaster - wouldn't you be a little concerned about the long term viability of your power supply?

Yes. In fact, I would. This utility would have no clue why and how I make the heaviest use of their service. They would make decisions based on the lack of that knowledge. They would be unable to help me use their service...better for my goals.

The irony here with Twitter is rich. Here’s a tool used by an increasing number of us, as individuals, and now corporate brands, to listen and converse, connect and support with each other. And those who provide this tool for us to use...don’t use it to connect with...each other, or us.

Well, not so much, it seems.&

The author of the post at ReadWriteWeb shared the reponse from Evan Williams, CEO for Twitter. That’s worth a read in itself. His response was reasonable, logical, and open about the challenge of managing inputs, conversations, with a community as evangelistic about conversations as is the twitter community. And at the same time, leading the company.

Oh, and making money, too.

Still, there’s great value in jumping into the twitter-stream, or jumping into the conversation with your customers, big and small. I found as CEO of a company just a weeeee-bit smaller than Twitter that a few moments in this conversation stream connected so much of what I saw or could see for our future. And that’s because it showed me exactly where we were right now.

As Twitter released a new terms of service, and likely will release new ones as it adds revenue-generating steps lik....(aaargh) advertising...now may be a good time to not only dip into the twitterstream, but even swim in it, paddle and tread water in it and imagine what an ad object would do for that experience.

We can do it for love, now

Life teaches us that motivations other than getting paid aren’t enough to add up to serious work.

And now we have to unlearn that lesson, because it is less true with each passing year. People  now have access to myriad tools that let them share writing, images, video - any form of expressive content, in fact - and use that sharing as an anchor for community and cooperation.

We are used to a world where little things happen for love and big things happen for money. Now, though, we can do big things for love. - Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody

Now, though, we can do big things for love.

How cool is that?

Next question: what big things can you, me, we do, now, for love?

Third question: if we knew we would succeed....what big things could we do, now, for love? 

* Photo: Istockphoto contributor Palto

Radio Show Guest Hightlights: Steven Groves, Chief Evangelist for SocialMediaBible.com

Steven Groves is Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist for TheSocialMediaBible.com as well as President of TSMB Media. I met him through the recommendation of Lon Safko, co-author of The Social Media Bible and a previous guest. Steven joined us to talk about his passion for social media, helping clients discover the power of social media and how he does that with TheSocialMediaBible.com and TSMB Media.

You can listen in streaming on-demand at this link.

Tell us a little bit about TheSocialMediaBible.com and TSMB Media. Why are they your business passions and why are you the chief evangelist for TheSocialMediaBible.com?

My dream in social medial started about 4 years ago when my friends and I put on a mini conference and we invited Robert Scoble and Chris Heuer, the founder of The Social Media Club. They came into town for the half day conference. Robert said there are five things you need to go explore in social media:

• Blogging
  
• making a list of 5 people you thought were important
  
• having lunch with them
  
• going into Second Life
• and a few others.

My take on it, to start with, what is the ROI? Why spend all this time networking- I just don’t get it. My journey has been all about social media and the ROI.

Scoble did a video interview of Lon Safko where he talked about a business model that he developed to create revenue from selling bits over the internet. It was very fascinating. I soon met Lon and we connected after the Social Media Bible came out. Lon and I soon created the social media services company to answer questions regarding Social Media and become a more deep seated part of the community.

Let’s start with the flashy stuff with social media. What’s the biggest, flashiest trend impacting social media today. Why? What are the factors driving this trend?

Three things come to mind:

1. Twitter of course is one of the hugest, main stream tools
2. Video
3. Social networks

The adoption rate of social networks is just astounding. When we consider there are over 250 million people on Facebook and over 70% of them are outside the US, it really is the technology that is making the planet smaller.

The flashiest thing was earlier this year with the race to one million followers by Ashton Kutcher and CNN. Then the adoption as Twitter as another media channel for stars and celebrities.

I am starting to see a larger push to video content and part of that is probably due to the capacities on increased quality and the expanse of potential applications. It adds another consumption channel to the social media model.

How do these three trends, Twitter, video, and social network affect social media for small business and what are three ways a business can benefit?

What is really happening with social media is for a business owner to now connect to their audience: customers/stakeholders, and find out what they really want. In the business model we are coming out of, it was what we thought they wanted. The social media model changed all this.

There is a conversation aspect of social media that we can talk to the customers and prospects, finding out what they want, and then write the business plan according to the current needs and trends of your audience.

1. Listen. Don’t think you know all of the answers.
2. After you listen, go out and interact
3. Validate your assumptions.

19:46

One of the reasons I wanted to talk with you is you’re a doer. You’ve been doing applied research in social media since...back in the day, 2005 or 2004. When did you find the power of social media? What sold you?

It came from starting to look at the early industries around social media. The real estate market had many questions about social media and how it would work for them. I ended up developing a model for social media and real estate agents. The people who had used Social Media came back with some very powerful success stories. Using social media gives the consumer a vast opportunity to research properties, locations, demographics, etc and this creates a much more informed buyer. It was remarkable. Having a social media presence allowed the realtors to show more of themselves. Share what you are doing in your business and your personal life. Engage and make it real. There is a huge ROI that now you can use this tactic to connect with your audience vs spending money on print media. The power of SEO that comes out naturally from social media is unmatchable.

Let’s talk about Second Life. You’re a big fan of 2nd Life. I tried it a few years ago and didn’t get it. What’s the appeal?

Second Life is a functional 3D social platform. I found a remarkable Social Media platform within-it is so powerful to feel as though you are connected to people all over the world. You can find us on there-just search social media and we usually come up first.

The big difference on Second Life as compared to other social media resources is the interaction:

Once you are in Second Life, you will see none of the avatars are computer controlled, they are human controlled. When those avatars are interacting, you see when people get distracted or go off and do other things. It is real time – live.

You know exactly how many people are where you are and you have the ability to interact with them.

31:32

What is a tangible result from your effort, from your community, from your site, from Second Life?

Part of my investment in time in Second Life is supporting the American Cancer Society. Last year, right on Second Life, they held the Relay for Life. They raised $275,000.00-real dollars. I get to connect with real people, doing real things. The ROI is amazing.

You wrote a great post titled The Trinity of Social Media. What is the trinity of social media? What are its three elements?

It is by far my most popular post. The Trinity of Social Media is a basic strategy for a business that isn’t going to hire someone to manage their Social Media.

The three components are:

1. Blog: it is rarely NOT included in Social Media. You talk about your principles, strategy behind your product and company, and your service. You will talk about all of the things that your customers/prospects would ever want to know about you and your company. They will get a sense of who you really are.
2. Micro-blog: could be Twitter. A lot of life happens between blog posts and a micro-blog allows you to create the social capital of business.
3. Social network: tailored to the audience that your product/service addresses. [Facebook, Ning, Second Life, all offer social networks around a product/service/topic/cause, etc. ]

We’re all busy. Some may not have time to develop all three right at the start. If you could only use one form of Social Media, which one would you recommend?

The blog!! People get a real sense of who you are and what you are about. It is the fundamental component that businesses under appreciate and it is the one that will get you the best results. Your customers will opt in for what they want to learn.

You and I and about billion others drink from the well of social media. But, why do so many still remain reluctant, hesitant outright fearful of social media’s use?

It is all about control. You and I have been raised in a generation where control is so important. There are things in life you can control, but in social media, you do not have that same control. People will say bad things in social media and it is how you respond...using transparency and an earnest desire, using no hidden agenda. Many agencies just can not accept this in their world. You must learn to embrace Social Media, accept that people may say bad things, but if you are doing the right thing, then you shouldn’t worry about it. You must just be authentic.

When they do get it and see the opportunity to get involved with Social Media, what is their reaction?

They do get a sense that the ability to connect with the consumer is so different from what they had before.<

Let’s talk about TSMB Media. Who is your standard client?

We have clients from all businesses, from startup, to medium size and large biz.

What forces a business into the recognition that they must have a conversation with their customer?

When you engage the audience, they do it with the thought, they think they will guide the conversation, but when they realize they can’t, the dialog takes on a life of its own. They soon realize they can direct the conversation, but never control it. This is when the light bulb comes on. They learn to listen more and learn to engage the customer.

What are the most common misconceptions you clear up with your clients about social media’s use?

1. You’re not in control of this conversation
2. You need to listen first.
3. You can’t be silent. You do need to participate – engage the consumer at every level

Your business passion helps people understand, embrace and use social media. Can you share with us, one story of a client that has applied your recommendations for a successful outcome?

The one that comes to mind is a real estate agent. We started them out on a blog, then Twitter and videos. They started in such a down market when there were so few prospects to increasing their business tremendously to selling about 25 houses per year. They engaged and participated.

What’s the three most important points we all should remember about social media?

1. You can’t control what's said.
2. You need to listen to it.
3. You need to engage/participate in the conversation with social media...after you've listened first.

Business people need to practice and know these things.

Where are you on the internet? How can our listeners stay in touch with you?

Steven Groves
Website
Twitter