Posts tagged social media

I’ve just had a conversation about social media and it’s growth. We were specifically wondering about how companies can step into the space with confidence, now all the hype has died down - and colleagues have expectations and indeed expertise in these social communication channels.

Here’s my two bob’s worth…

For me social media offers the opportunity to engage in conversations with all sorts of people. I listen in, I ask questions, I offer opinions and I engage with friends, colleagues and clients all over the world.

Social media is a broad amplification of word of mouth communication. (I read that somewhere and I agree with it). As with all communication there’s some good and some damagingly bad and most of it in the middle is, well - ok really.

Back in the day we used wet straw and big old leaves to create smoke signals which our neighbours would need to interpret - I imagine often with hilarious results! These days we have more sophisticated ways to communicate and we are increasingly skilled at managing our communications and understanding the meanings. People are endlessly resourceful just look at the fast development of symbols to subvert the 140 character limitations of twitter for example. #tagging, bit.ly shortening of urls etc. and emoticons before that.

We create new words, gestures and symbols and new meanings spring from old symbols used differently - we are endlessly able to invent, create and share these.

Communication professionals need to keep up with the new channels, understand how their audiences are engaging with their brands, products and each other online and learn the new symbols and meanings ascribed to the conversations happening online.

One last thing - we do still tend to think about twitter when we talk about social media but there are hundreds and hundreds of social media applications out there including blogs, wikis, noticeboards, file sharing, bookmarking, niche microblogs and aggregating newsfeeds and on and on and on… many of which offer real benefit to our engagement strategies and our internal communication channels.

We need to take the opportunity to assess our communication and engagement strategies and policies, understand how our people want to engage with us and each other and provide the channels, training and governance to support them to do that in persuit of our business objectives.

 … love to hear the birdie go tweet tweet tweet!

(Here’s a more business focused post from late last year, it still holds true - while a lot of my online pals are in-bound marketing like good’uns - many small business owners are still a bit flumoxed by Twitter and unconvinced of how it might help them. If you are a fence sitter this post might encourage you to take another look.

Since writing it I’ve run a couple of sessions about Twitter and other online networks for groups of people feeling a bit bemused by the hype. It isn’t difficult to get started and more and more success stories are adding to the good news about the advantages of social networking for small businesses). 

My gosh there is so much twaddle about twitter online, it’s a wonder any sane person signs up at all.

Get past all the celebrity nonsense or the silliness talked about the possibility of building millions of dollars worth of business in a week and what have you got? People talking to people about the stuff they like or don’t like. It all depends on whether they fancy themselves as ‘love puppy’ sharers or net savvy debunkers on a mission to give us all a dose of their personal reality.

There’s a growing number of businesses that are using twitter and other social networks to create genuine interest in what they have to offer, simply by engaging their customers where they like to hang out.

Whatever they’re up to - the trick is to get the twitterati to like you! If they like you, they’ll tell others about you by retweeting your tweets and then maybe they’ll follow you some more and after a while, if you keep them interested, they’ll want to know even more about you. That’s when they’ll leave tweetlandia and come and find your blog or your website.

People like free stuff. They like it even more if it’s the really good free stuff. So all you have to do - is figure out what you have that is good and useful and that people will really like and start twittering about it.

If people like your stuff, they’ll tell other people about it and before you know it - they’ll all be wanting more of your really good stuff!

Hang on a minute - that’s like the old days - when word of mouth was king - and brands like Ben and Jerrys created a buzz by doing what they did best - really well. People liked it and told other people about it and soon thet got to show loads more people their good gear.

Can’t be that hard then? Here’s three things to figure out today, to get you started.

1. First off before you start, ask yourself what it is that you are really good at? Think about what you are really passionate about? Is it something you could give advice and help about online? That’s great. Your in bound marketing campaign can begin!

2. Figure out a good way to share this good stuff with your social network buddies for free! Don’t forget to invite them to find out more about you and your other good stuff.

3. And now you need to keep up the momentum. Make sure that if they do love your advice, your funky little art sketches or your wonderfully useful widgets, you’re ready to offer them more. Once you start this ‘make ‘em like me by giving them freebies’ malarky - you’ll need to keep it up, don’t worry it will pay off.

Experiment with this in a small way for a few weeks and notice how many more followers you pick up - and who they are. Come back and tell me how you got on, and what cute things you came up with to get retweeted.

I’m betting that your new friends will all be people interested inyour products and services too. Now you need to turn that new twitter follower into a customer.

Communication and marketing types call that lead conversion!

I was unexpectedly unable to attend #brrism4 tonight - thwarted by unseen forces I was obliged to remain at home this evening.

No matter, this evening this excellent social media network group were super organised, teched up, tricked out and ready to COMMUNICATE! Oh yes mate…

Read more …

Step 1: Visit LinkedIn.com and Click the Blue Twitter Button

Step 2: Allow LinkedIn to Connect to Your Twitter Account

Step 3: Make your Twitter account visible to everyone and decide if you would like some or all your Tweets sent to LinkedIn.

If you would only like a select few Tweets to be sent to your Linkedin,chose “Only Tweets that contain #in”. Now, only if you use the #in hashtag in your Tweet, it will go to LinkedIn. (Best option Linkedin types aren’t interested in your every tweet - this is your business profile, so just tweet Linkedin relevant content).

Step 4: Send a test tweet with hashtag #in.

Step 5: Check your LinkedIn profile to see if your status is your most recent Tweet.

By sending tweets to your LinkedIn status, your profile is more dynamic and you can frequently update your network about what you’re doing.

Step 6: Select the checkbox on LinkedIn.com to allow your LinkedIn Status to update your Twitter Account.

Now, whenever you update your LinkedIn Status, it will also update your Twitter Account.

What do you think? Will you link your accounts? Will you send all your Tweets to LinkedIn or only a few? Why?

article posted by Rebecca Corliss to inbound marketing blog and reproduced

In the spirit of recycling -and on the back of the linkedin/twitter link up announcements - here is a post I prepared much much earlier (7th October 2009) on the subject of social media machinery.

Busy busy …
I’ve been busy today, tidying up my online profile across a number of platforms. I always struggle with a collective noun for the blogs, microblogs, network profiles, share sites and bookmarking doodads that make up online activity. I’ve decided on platform for now - if you’ve got a better, more elegant word for it all, please leave a comment and let me know. I’ll start using it immediately.

While connecting my facebook public profile with my twitter and trying to find a ‘follow me’ widget I might like to sprinkle across my platforms, it struck me that I have gone about creating my online profile in a most haphazard way. Anyone following my digital footprint would be forgiven for thinking they were tracking a hopeless, digitally ambiguous, drunk. This magpie approach has been really useful for me. I’ve picked up on new opportunities as I’ve found them, had fun learning new things and grown in confidence and authority with some ‘new’ communication channels.

All of which has helped me offer sane and simple advice, when asked, on how to use the social media, emerging media channels available online to ‘make some noise’ or to research and engage with stakeholders. So before you link your twitter to your linkedin account and start weaving your profile together all over the internet, take a moment to do some joined up thinking about what is really going to work for you. Next page: Start with a stakeholder plan…

Read more …

Don’t dismiss Social Media

While social media flag wavers, stamp their feet in annoyance at the ‘slow to adopt’ businesses still staring at their feet and marketing departments, engage each other in worried, excited conversations about adding online channels to the marketing mix without the comfort of traditional metrics to hide behind – I’m wondering why the internal communication specialists aren’t chucking their hats into the ring.

One of the most exciting applications for the explosion of social media channels is surely the opportunity it gives organisations to engage in dialogue with their people.

Set aside for a moment the concerns any business has when approaching a new channel for communication, and discount too the hysterical accusations from the social media evangelists – that business is frightened of the power of the people, no they’re not – they’re waiting to see the hard evidence of ROI that supports changes in policy in any well governed organisation.

It’s all about | word of mouth

Mass communication channels that allow ‘real-time’ information exchange are a powerful and exciting tool for colleague engagement.  Look past the ‘noisiest’ of the channels like twitter, youtube and facebook and go in search of online tools that you can adapt and adopt for your business communication needs.  Your can start to explore the possibilities opening up for internal communications within the context of your existing strategy.

Better still, you can use the opportunity to engage with social media to review and clarify your company’s current corporate and product positioning as well as your mission and vision statements. Make sure everyone knows what your company stands for.

Here are 8 tips to help you embrace social media in your colleague engagment strategy:

# Tip 1. Get help! You’ll need input from across the organisation, HR, legal, IT and operations for starters and it’s a cinch your marketing and pr department will want to take a view too. Set up an informal lunch session to brainstorm social media, use it to find your experts, enthusiasts and champions.

# Tip 2. Engage with your stakeholders from the get-go.  You can use social media techniques to do that, run surveys – set up a wiki etc. Put together an editorial team of employees, assign activities and set a regular schedule to discuss and share their findings.

# Tip 3. Think outside the twitter, youtube, facebook box. Internal communications can be well served by forums, wikis, blogs and fileshare applications to promote collaboration. If you don’t know about crowd sourcing – find out about it now.

# Tip 4. Don’t panic. You need to approach social media channels in exactly the same way as any other channel. Understanding the limitations and best use for each type. Remember you will be setting up a new way to share information and receive feedback – social media channels are conversation channels, so levels of mediation and responsibility will need to be agreed and communicated to manage them well.

# Tip 5. Review your communication policies and consider strengthening them to cover social media usage. Many organisations lock out their colleagues from using facebook and twitter on work time. There are internal versions of these channels which may suit your organisation’s culture better.

# Tip 6. Social media channels can be a fantastic tool in support of organisational change. If you are looking to put greater power and responsibility into the hands of your colleagues then setting up internal social media ‘clones’ could support your communication strategy in support of cultural change.

# Tip 7 Don’t be a bore. Be honest, open and inclusive. Listen and respond to conversations and let them evolve. Ask questions and offer genuine, consistent information. Your objective is to create opportunities for conversation with your employees and offer them channels for genuine two way feedback.

# Tip 8 Establish clear objectives and metrics to keep the numbereenies happy. Remember, to measure a successful engagement programme it isn’t just about ROI.  Use engagement benchmarking techniques to measure the full impact of using social media to expand your word of mouth reach.

Turn up, Tune in or drop out …

Your people have already wandered off from the water cooler and found a more engaging way to spread the word. At the very least you need to find out where they are hanging out and what they’re saying.

If you’re really switched on, you’ll join the conversations and maybe even set up a place where you can encourage them to happen naturally.

Make a start today - review what you know about social media and decide to find out more. That much is free!

louise@copymojo.co.uk | www.copymojo.co.uk