Tag Archives: social media

brand, Generate, Relationship

Social Media – The Importance of Being Ernest

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I came across a really interesting interview today with Reputation management expert Andy Beal which summed up simply how to make the most of online social media. I do not think I could say it better. It has so many benefits establishing a social media policy.

“When a company creates an interactive online profile, it’s effectively telling its stakeholders -customers, investors, employees, etc- that it cares about the community and wants to be a part of the conversation. When an online reputation crisis hits, companies that have an social media profile are more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt and more likely to be able to respond quickly, within that channel.

I advise my clients to look for the “centres of influence.” Where are their stakeholders hanging-out online? When you understand the types of social media your stakeholders are using -maybe they prefer blogs over forums -you’ll increase your chances of successfully engaging them.”

Social media channels that you may find useful for establishing a thriving social network, depending on your market and your niche, include:

FaceBook

MySpace

Twitter

Plurk

FriendFeed

Linkedkin

What networks would you add to this? Which ones do you enjoy the most?

ideas, Quality, Relationship

Best Practices for Commenting – Say What You Mean

epicfailToo often we come across badly informed opinions or just sloppy writing in what we are reading on the Internet. The most obvious choice is to move on quickly to our next destination/blog post.

But what if we were to say exactly what we  are thinking?

For example that a blog post is incorrect or badly written and cite the relevant sources to back up our information. A critical comment can be ten times as valuable as a general “oh this is interesting” or not commenting at all when you think it is poor.

Comments  speak volumes about us all in a positive way be them positive or negative in meaning.

Below is a slightly adapted take on what I wrote to a group that  I am member of that discusses social media.

There is a balance to be struck in my view. Obviously I do not expect anyone to push something that they do not like or agree with. With commenting you can always express that point of view you if  you think it is not very good etc. Hence why I prefer comments rather than social bookmarking. (digg, delicious,  Stumble Upon)

Social bookmarking is a one way action but it fundamentally express the middle road. In the sense you can not vote downwards. Maybe blogs should implement that sort of tool. If we are voting and it is not having any noticeable effect on our thoughts than maybe it is better to make a comment.

Honest criticism and voting does give a meaning to what we are doing in this medium.

If one is too busy  to do it, than does it really matter if you read it all?

I also run a company, study law and have a Son. If  I am going to do something, I am going to make sure it has an effect.

SMO

The Rise and Fall of Facebook

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With the current changes in the layout of Facebook last week. Which has caused consternation in the community. I was going to write my own post about it, but than I came across this article written by Jason Lee Miller.

Which raised the same issues that  I was thinking about. The crux of the problem is that not enough people are clicking on the advertisements on their profile page. Running Facebook is not cheap. One can only hazard a guess at the number of transactions that our carried out daily on their servers, but I would put it in the hundred million for sure.

Everybody was having a good old time on FaceBook. Posting links to their new website, project, photographs etc. Of course they  thought it was all free. Well it looks like the free lunch is over. I would personal start clicking  on the advertisements but I do not think that would solve the problem, unless one brought what was on offer.

So what are the other options? Paid subscription service might work… May be we really have started to see the decline of the social network advertising model. Facebook are unique in that both Linkedkin and Xing offer paid subscriptions model. Of the two only Linkedkin is making any money. In fact Linkedkin is the only cash postive social media site that I know off.

Below is excerpt from the blog post by Jason available here here

“What do you do?

Do you:

A.    Don’t fix something that’s not broken. And by not broken, it means that meteoric growth over the past year led your site to trounce MySpace and every sensitive person on the site is relatively happy in their social networking habitat.
B.    Ignore that a growing number of people seem to like an incomprehensible platform much like a feature you already offer. Remember that you have 175 million and growing members, and that Twitter does not, and show that you have plenty of confidence in your product. After all Google didn’t just become a portal because some people didn’t get the spare interface.
C.    A and B, and focus on Job 1, which is figure out a way to monetize so that you can rejoin the Masters of the Universe at Davos next year.
D.    None of the above. Instead, hold a press conference. Announce you’re making the website more democratic if that’s what everybody wants and call for a vote. While everybody’s busy voting on that, change everything.

If you picked D, congratulations, you’re thinking like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.”

Ask a Question, Generate, work connexions

Answer: What Can Social Media Do For Me As A Director?

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This is the last blog in a series of questions that I asked back in August here:

You can choose to ignore social media, many people do. Old networks are still in place. If you are university professor or an expert in a particular field than why bother. If you have more than enough work too, you could argue that you have no need. While it is true very few deals are closed on the internet. There is one problem, with more and more people using the internet for locating information. They may well ask the queastion, where are you?

The world is changing and ways of doing business are changing too. Already we are starting to see the disappearance of regular telephone lines as more and more information gets assimilate into internet protocols. Media is is not the same anymore, TV and Newspapers are all seeking to do more business online. One thing is clear while the message may be the same, the medium is different.

Social media is quicker, more intense, and direct. Like any company that trains and prepares it staff there are advantages to be had. You can choose to ignore and ban the use of Social Media in the work place or you can train your staff in how to make the best use of it.

Some ideas worth considering are:

Ask your staff what sites they use/like? – These could be the places where you should be advertising, or maybe have an online presence.

Encourage participation after having set guidelines –Your Company is as good as its employees, if they interact online than it can be used as effectively as free publicity.

Encourage employees to share their experiences – Gives insight into the company.

Managers as bloggers – Open up a different form of communication in managing departments. Want to find out more. Here is the fictional account of what Social Media manager does, read it here:

Here is a good example of how social media has helped one business in the travel industry Mark Hayward sums up his answer to how social media has helped business by the following below:

How do I think social media can help (really) small businesses? Pretty much the same way social media can assist large business and mega-corporations:

  • promotion
  • networking
  • branding
  • as catalyst for collaboration

What other ones would you include here?

Consultancy, E-Commerce, ideas, money, work

Wall Street Just Does Not understand Social Media

Kick off your shoes and throw your ties away, forgot rock and roll social media is where it is at.

“oleil-Media Metrics analyst Laura Martin cut her rating on Google to “Hold” from “Buy” and slashed her price target to $350 from $580…saying the company’s practice of giving 10 percent of profits to charity and giving employees one day a week to work on pet projects should end amid the current economic climate.”

We do rate the best Pilgrim Marketing is on our resource list on www.Wcx.me and it is not for nothing. This is a great discovery blog post about Social media right here.

Ask a Question

Answer: What can Social Media do for my company?

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The short answer is anything that you want and there are not any other media forms that you can say that of in this day and age where companies are considering hiring a social media manager. To look after conversations within and outside the company, you know are starting to hit home. Most multi national companies? invest serious amounts of money into influencing conversations online. As an example Dell employs a number of people to keep tabs on what is happening in their forums and related ones on the internet.

Social media is subtle though. You cannot write big headlines saying:- buy this computer at half price, it is much more about managing the relationship in a world where traditional advertising is losing it impact. How and why? We have seen so much advertising before that we just do not buy it. It is about being genuine. So people form relationships with people who have the time. That is expensive. Time is money. That is social media. I am not suggesting that companies try to sell one to one on the internet. But they do need to think about how they a can influence the conversation. An example of this is a ferry company in the Isle of Man who runs a blog written by its MD. At first glance this might seem like a step in the right direction. But there are already mutterings in private and public places online and “off” about the fact that this is corporate gloss, unless he truly engages people in two way conversation. They will talk and complain about him elsewhere, in their own private forums and communications (email).

So what is the point?

People are going to talk about your company weather you want them to or not and in the future those conversation are going to take place more and more on the internet

What can you do?

Participate.

It is better to have that conversation on your website where you can influence it.

Allowing for user and customer interaction on your site will reduce the threat it may pose.

Manage you social media profile by hiring a expert or a third party.

What are your thoughts?

Ask a Question, business

Answer: What is The Biggest Growing Age Group In Social Media?

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Part of a Series from here: http://blog.wcx.me/2008/08/some-questions-about-social-and-business-media

I am lucky with this post, that my friend Sherrilynne over at www.Strivepr.com pointed me in the direction of this article. The article really says it all. While it is possible that one my think that social media’s biggest growing group is the twenty something’s or even the teens. The reality is that it is middle aged man. What a surprise Facebook for woman, Twitter for men. Surly something is wrong here Ed? What are your thoughts?

Article link here: