BufferPin ItThere are some things in life and business that don’t need a long introduction or fancy brand story before cutting to the chase. This blog post is one of them. This week I received an email from a self proclaimed “social media expert.” I’ve been subscribed to her email list for quite some time. [...]
A new network, tool or feature launches on a social network and we all flock to it. Business leaders attend social media class after social media class searching for the social media “guru” who will once and for all be able to show them the magic answer to social media ROI. I don’t think I [...]
When was the last time a big national brand made you feel special via the social waves? Are we starting to lose the hope we once had in social media of humanizing brands? The hope of the brand coming out from behind the logo and showing they care and want to connect with real people? The possibility of them actually demonstrating their brand promise via social media versus just plaster the words on their Facebook page?
Are some brands falling prey to traditional mass marketing methods that are simply masked with a coat of new paint in red and marked with a K+ and called social media? Are some fooling themselves into thinking they are engaging by leveraging only automated tweets, retweets, and direct messages?
I am a geek at heart, a lover of data, analytics, measurement, and ability to provide and measure real return on investment. When Klout launched I was one of their first fans. It was exciting to see something that could possibly help us finally begin to start measuring and justifying the hours we spent on the social networks.
If you have been any part of the active social ecosystem the past few weeks it’s hard to miss the noise about the Klout algorithm changes and the backlash that followed.
When building an online persona and brand usually we start with the most basic aspects including over arching brand, logo, colors, core messages etc. All of these are foundational to success. We develop our plan, develop our platform, create and launch our brand presence, integrate social with our business goals and start the social media engagement. However, after a few months goes by we realize nobody is buying from us. Nobody is opting in to our email lists. What has happened? Why don’t they want to further engage with our brand? Do they not trust us? Do they not think that we could bring them value?
Social media is not a band-aid for a broken business. Focusing only on Twitter followers, Facebook likes and influence metrics is unlikely to help you meet your business goals.
Integrating social media within the DNA of your business is the only route to success. Does it take more time? Yes. Does it take more work? Yes. Is the end result better? Hopefully yes.
We all know the story, the problems, the laughter, the tears, and even the drama of becoming a social business. Those that have attempted, are working toward or have succeeded know it’s about much more than a tweet or a Facebook page. We must get in the head of our communities, audience, partners, and more. We must learn how we can best connect the dots of technology and conversation. It’s both art and science. It’s both communication and function.
So we’re kicking off a fun experiment. This is the first in a series of an interactive social business video series where you get to be the director!
The interactive video series is titled “The Days of Our Social Biz!”
If you have been online Twitter or Facebook this week it would be hard to miss the chatter on Klout and their new algorithm. We are not social puppets. We must refuse to behave like puppets for any score. We are not defined as a human being by our Klout or any other score. What you do in the lives of others offline is what matters. Social media is simply a way for us to impact business and lives. It’s how we use it and what we use it for that will determine our influence. Our influence in reality is not measured by +Ks, topic lists or other.
Wrong game, right field or right game, wrong field? Many businesses are showing up to the game but they’re on the wrong field. They also have the wrong attire and mindset. It’s not about a quick win or dunk in the basket with 500 likes and a Klout score of 70. It’s about building relationships, fostering a community, inspiring people to connect with your brand by helping them achieve their goals and objectives.
Dear new social network getting ready to launch,
This message is to the new social network who has made, is making or will make plans to take over Facebook and the rest of the social media world as we know it.
Every week there seems to be a new social network popping up. I am not saying new networks are bad. I love innovation. However, I will boldly state that their marketing and social network takeover strategies and messages are not working.
A new social networking platform, UNTHINK was unveiled yesterday. It is yet another platform where the founders are claiming to be the Facebook killer, the best thing since sliced bread and Myspace.
I believe we are over complicating the world of social media. We get caught up in tweets, posts, follows, influence scores, analytics and the list goes on.
It doesn’t have to be so hard. Does the newbie really need to watch us debate for weeks about if Facebook or Google+ is going to win when they are simply coming to us for help in getting online in the first place?
Random acts of marketing (RAMs) will melt the positive in your business checking account, return on investment and brand equity like an ice cube on a hot day on hot cement. RAMS are a leading cause for failure in business, marketing and of course social media.
Integration may seem like a lot of work up front. When I talk about integration with clients I often get that raised eyebrow look and know they want to say “what is she talking about, we don’t have time to think further than tomorrow… we’ll never get integrated… she just wants to complicate the project so she can charge us more!” This couldn’t be further from the truth!
Influence is in the eye & heart of the beholder.
Can influence truly be 100% measured via any tool? My belief and answer to this question is no. Some of the peeps who influence me the most are the ones who make me think.
Yes we can measure what action is taken on the web that may or may not be a result of being influenced by an individual. We can measure if someone inspired us to click, like, opt-in. However, we can’t measure if we truly read, understand, relate or think.
There is definitely no shortage of social data, metrics, measurement strategies, analytics, influence scores, listening platforms, reputation management approaches and experts ready to take your credit card to help you figure it all out.
I have received several tweets and messages recently asking me for tips to help people raise their Klout score.
If you are focused on trying to raise your Klout or other influence score I have only one answer for you… you are measuring the wrong metric!
I didn’t realize when I started this series that I would end up writing the book I always wanted to write with this title. I do think this will end up being a never ending blog series. My only fear is that I may not remember how to count as I high as I may need to in Roman numerals. Oh my, what would my elementary school teacher think?
In Part I we discussed the top 10 reasons WHY social media is about people.
In Part II we discussed the importance of focusing on the people when planning and setting priorities for social media.
In this post (Part III) I am going to cover (okay, rant) about why you must do more than realize it’s about the people. We are going to discuss why you must get in the head of the people. You must understand them!
Many organizations claim to “be social.” They claim they have social media integrated with sales, marketing, and even customer service. They may even tout that their customer service teams are using Twitter to communicate and help customers.
The real question is this… are they providing social lip service or social customer service?
For those of us who love the study of human behavior, social media provides a 24/7 real time research lab. Millions of people spend hours a day on social networks. As individuals, business leaders, students, CEOs, research analysts, marketers, and recruiters we all have different objectives both personally and professionally.
Social media offers the opportunity to join groups of people, to create communities where people come together. We come together for a cause, to solve a problem. We join tweet hands to share content and knowledge, to increase the depth and reach of voice or simply connect with human beings.
What would you do if for free 600 million people would share their life with you? Everything? And you could capture it in a data base to monetize?
What if you could learn what they like and don’t like. What they eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and who they ate it with.
What if they told you who all their friends are and what they ate as well?
Can you imagine the data and what can be learned about people, their preferences and behavior if you could pull off a free life time survey with 600 million people!?
So you tweet into a Tweet chat, a Facebook LinkedIn group or page, Quora stream, Empire Avenue community or blog comment discussion with good intentions. So what is it? Why do you have difficulties “gelling” with these online groups? Your offline relationships are “just fine.” You simply wish people would spend more time “offline” living “real life.”
How many times have you heard these remarks? “Yes, we are on Twitter. We hired an intern. He/she tweets links to our blog” or “yes, we are on Facebook. We have a website with the Facebook logo on it that links to our Facebook business page.”
At the core everything about social media is about the people.
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