Playing Nice in Social Media

August 11, 2011 By 2 Comments

I guess I’m still fairly new (in the grand scheme of things) to the world of social media, but one rule has resonated with me from the beginning:

“Don’t be a dick.”

I forget who exactly decided this was a golden rule of social media, but I applaud them and try to remember that at all times. While sometimes being a dick is so easy and tempting, taking the high road pays off way more often than not. Before I get all high and mighty, and go into a boy scout-esque ramble about playing nice, I have to mention that I understand where the assholes are coming from…

People get annoyed by even their closest friends – its obvious that people are going to be annoyed on a semi-frequent basis by the thousands of tweets, status updates, and blogs that fly around on a minute to minute basis. Trust me, I want to just shut people up all the time, but restraint is a wonderful trait to carry – I guess it’s the PR side of me talking there.

Now back to my point –too often, I see social media heads trying to bring down others in the space for the simplest of things. They’re going beyond the point of being contrary to create conversation or a solid discussion and to a place that does neither. Being an asshole because you feel that you’re smarter or have a great point, doesn’t get you or anyone else anywhere. It creates enemies, burn bridges, and usually kills any potential for a mild-mannered, objective conversation.

I love debating people and think that there needs to be more of it – we need to find a middle ground… but I see that this is hard to come by. On one hand, there’s too much, “Wow, this post is the greatest thing I’ve ever read” or “I love it!” and on the other hand, there’s too much “You’re wrong” negativity.

In these environments, there needs to be a level-headed voice of reason to bring what is being shared into an atmosphere of conversation and debate. Otherwise, we have our communities looking like the fiasco that is Washington, D.C. (the government, not the city).

If you are being dick or questioning others just because you have nothing better to do, stop it… Its like the girl in high school who just walked around saying, “I’ll just say whatever I’m thinking to your face and not care, that’s how awesome I am.” Guess what? Even her friends hated her.

It doesn’t help anyone’s cause, nor makes you seem smarter than the next person. If anything, those who take the high road come out looking much better than anyone else.

For what its worth… Look at those who are thriving in social media – they’re engaging and start conversation through thoughtful questioning. 99% of the time they are NOT being a dick… so why should you be?

Bio: Harrison Kratz is a Social Entrepreneur and the founder of the global social good campaign, Tweet Drive as well as several other social media driven ventures. Feel free to connect with him on Twitter, @KratzPR!

 

Filed Under: Engage, Guest Bloggers, Listening Tagged With: , , , ,

The 3 most important things I learned at the 140 conference NYC

June 16, 2011 By 6 Comments

I had such a good time at the NYC 140 conference.  Most of you reading this didn’t get the chance to come out to this amazing event.  In fact, if it weren’t for a real-time contest by the event organizer and host Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver) I never would’ve been able to be at this event that explores the state of the real-time web.  Did you catch that?    Real-time contest that got me to a real-time conference?

I’ve discovered something extraordinary about the nature of conferences because of this experience.

  1. You don’t have to be a great speaker to get onto a stage
  2. Speakers are just ONE component
  3. Expand the conversation, don’t just preach to the choir

I’d like to briefly examine each of these learnings.

You don’t have to be a great speaker to get onto a stage

This is not meant to be disrespectful, and I don’t intend to call anyone out.  My purpose here is simply to say that there is opportunity for anyone with a good idea to get on a stage and talk to people.  This is a HUGE opportunity and one you would be wise to be prepared for.

I recommend getting a speaking coach if you aren’t comfortable with public speaking or engaging with the audience.  Some people lack passion or exhuberance in their delivery, if you aren’t excited, why should I be?   You have the possibility of a captive audience but with all of the devices (iPhone, iPad, laptops, etc.) they are also easily distracted, so you need to capture them early.  Some speakers even requested that the audience close their laptops or put down their phones.

If you aren’t a great speaker, work on it.

Speakers are just ONE component

If you went to the 140 conference (#140conf) and JUST listened to the speakers, you probably had a pretty good time.  You may have learned a few things.  Some presentations really touched you while others, quite frankly you could live without.  With 140 speakers you’re bound to have a few that miss the mark.

However…

If you were to attend the 140 conference and spend 25-60% of your time out in the “shmoozing” area, not only will you enjoy yourself, but you will make some real life connections with some extraordinary people; and isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?  You can read a book or a blog or watch the recorded 140 conference on UStream, but you only get so many chances in life to talk face-to-face with people who you would only recognize because of their Twitter profile picture.

The real path to #winning at these conferences, is to get the F- out there and meet some awesome people.  Connect.  Engage.  Learn. Grow. Network.  Help one another.

Expand the conversation, don’t just preach to the choir

For god’s sake people understand your audience.  No one at 140 needs to be told that social media is important.  This is our industry, this is our passion.  If we didn’t already buy-in, then what the F- are we doing at the 140 conference?!?!

Too many speakers got up and gave the same old self-congratulatory, “social media is important” song and dance.  It’s not the I disagree, obviously.  It’s that we get that, so what’s next?  ”What’s next” is the reason we’re here.  We’ve read the blogs, we’ve read the books and we all think Gary V is the fucking man!  What’s next?

What’s next is to expand our minds, show us something we’ve never seen before.

The Detroit Medical Center guy, was amazing.  I had never seen a medical center using social media in that way, it was fascinating AND touching.

Christopher Penn rocked it!  He used specific, well-known superheros  to illustrate a point and then showcase a bigger narrative about helping people.  It was compelling.

When the audience walks away you want them screaming “yeah!” rather than groaning “I get it already.”  The key to do that is to open their minds and give them something profound, or at the very least actionable to take back with them.

My #140conf shout outs

I’ve said my peace, I hope it resonates with you.  Now it’s time to give some shout-outs.

First to my Philly crew:  Gloria, Amy, Braden, Harrison, Peter and new friends, Katya and Amanda, I love you guys and had such a freaking blast hanging out with you.

To the amazing people that I got to meet in real life that I only previously knew from Twitter: Jim Long, Christopher Penn and Ted Rubin.

Thanks to Bruce Sallan and Google Instant, I now have a new book to read.

Shout out to so many other people who I met, that number in the hundreds, and would take me all week to name individually, thank you, it was a blast!

Thanks to the Roger Smith Hotel.  You are crushing it.

And finally, thanks to Jeff Pulver for putting on a kick ass 140 conference and running a competition so that I could actually afford to be there.  Thank you Jeff, sincerely.

Filed Under: All Posts, Best Of, Engage, Listening, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Do you even know your community?

March 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Just because Social Media is HOT right now, doesn’t mean that you need to do anything and everything.  It doesn’t mean you need to jump into the deep end without your floaties.

Where is my audience?

Where's Waldo

The first thing you should probably do, is find your audience.  Your audience is your target market, the people you want to reach, or simply stated new business opportunities.  Where do they spend time online, what sort of content would they find valuable, what keywords are THEY searching for?  The answer to these questions will vary by industry. The legal profession will see far less activity on Foursquare than a restaurant would.  A musician will likely get a better shot at reaching their audience on MySpace or Facebook than on LinkedIn.  As in real estate the key is location, location, location; it’s important to know where to focus your efforts.

Understand the community

The next thing you should do, once you’ve established where you are going to participate, is understand the community you are joining.  This will help you plan accordingly and set your expectations for results.

Look at some statistics about the site to give you a general idea of how people use it.  Only about 8% of America is on Twitter, and of that group 90% of the activity is from 22.5% of the users.  On an average day, only 2% of Americans use Twitter.  This is not to discourage you from using Twitter.  I love Twitter and think everyone should join and use it in whatever way that works for them, however, understanding its actual usage should help to set your expectations.

Twitter is a network based around interests and a public dialogue.  This is unique from Facebook which grew as a network based on personal connection; old college friends, co-workers and others pre-existing relationships.

Here’s some more info on Twitter:

8% Of Americans Use Twitter And More Stats You Need To See

8% Of Americans Use Twitter And More Stats You Need To See

Compare those stats with Facebook and you’ll see why it’s important to understand the site you are joining.  Nearly half of all Americans (42.3%) are on Facebook and that number is likely to keep growing.  Globally, Facebook has over 500 million users. That means that if it were a country it’d officially be the 3rd largest in the world.  Additionally, Facebook recently surpassed Google as the #1 destination on that web, as determined by time-on-site.  As of January 2010 Americans were spending more than 7 hours per month on Facebook.
Facebook Users Average 7 hrs a Month in January as Digital Universe Expands | Nielsen Wire

So what’s the point?

The point is, not all Social Media is created equally and “that’s what makes the world go ’round.”  Before you let your boss tell you we need a _____ account.  Do your homework and determine if your audience is actually there, or if you have the resources to handle the newest addition to the marketing family.  It might boggle your mind to know that Facebook users and Twitter users have different thresholds for volume of content because it’s baked into the format of the technology.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Blogs are the BIG five of Social Media and its a great place to start, but those sites are not the beginning and end of Social Media.  In some cases it may be smarter for you to join a niche social network. Maybe you are a CEO looking to get started in social networking and you want to converse with your peers.  Twitter might be a good start but think about finding a private Ning network or you could even join CEO Intronet.

My point is that you should do your homework or get a tutor.  Social Media participation does not equate social media success, especially if you are playing in the wrong network.

Filed Under: Listening, Marketing, Work Smarter, Not Harder Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Warning Labels: It’s not “just another channel…”

February 4, 2011 By 1 Comment

Numerous skeptics and cynics want to reduce Social Media sites to “just another channel.”  They will say things like”don’t buy into the hype,” “it’s no big deal” and “it’s just a passing fad.”

I’ll agree with “don’t buy into the hype.”  Forget the hype.  Sit down and think about how social media is different. Understand why it’s different.  Take the time to dig deeper than “we NEED a Facebook Fan Page.”  Get to the point where you understand why you should have any of these sites.

Anyone that calls it “just another channel” or “a passing fad,” pays no respect to the unique opportunities that Social Media provides and have overwhelmingly missed the point.

The Old School Lens

The people who perceive Twitter, Facebook YouTube and the rest as “just another” are looking at it through an old school lens.  They look at these sites as broadcast channels.  To them, Facebook is a place to post ads, coupons and the newest product line, company announcements and other one way communications.

These old school marketers are exceptionally interested in numbers: “how many followers do we have, we need to get more fans.” These old school marketers have been trained in the art of direct mail and email marketing and cold calling.  They expect a certain percentage to respond or take action. That is their metric.  If they beat the industry average of 1% response, they are satisfied.  And that, is the difference.

Customers are not just numbers

Push Channel

The new era of marketing does not play these games with numbers.  We (new marketers) would rather not annoy and bombard the other 99% to get that 1%.  The new approach is to find that 1% that is interested and engage with them, create a better and more personal experience. We see that as an approach that will create the potential to activate that 1% to influence some of that other 99%.

We recognize that never before have the customers been a greater marketing force than the company.  The customer has ALWAYS been a part of the marketing of a company, they were simply less empowered.

The changing face of Word of Mouth

Prior to blogs, Facebook like buttons, Disqus commenting systems and Twitter, the only form of negative press that mattered was print journalism, radio and television.  Word of mouth was important but it wasn’t a readily accessible conversation that could be tapped into by anyone with an internet connection.  Back then, the audience was simply an audience.  But as Brian Solis pointed out just yesterday, now audiences have audiences.

Each person now represents a possible node in a massive information and interest network that can spread not just locally, not just nationally, but globally.  Our social graphs are accessible and interconnected.  Information can spread like brush fire and is often publicly viewable.

One false step and word will spread, see Kenneth Cole.  Do something right and the same thing can happen, see @Comcastcares case studies.  How you interact with your customers is more important than ever.

The key word is SOCIAL

Social Media is the default term that we all use to describe these new tools.  Sure it feels a little played out, I’m partly guilty of overusing it but it’s the moniker we have all apparently agreed to use to talk about this subject.  What I find interesting is that the old school marketers and other cynics miss, or mis-use, a crucial part of that term: “Social.”  The word social implies a different relationship.

Why do so many people follow celebrities on Twitter?  Because they want to feel like they have a direct line.  It’s personal.  I can send a message to Shaquille O’Neal, he might answer it.

As a business if you aren’t using these channels to directly connect with your customer then you have missed the point entirely.  It’s not to say that there is no place for broadcast in Social Media, there definitely is.  The X Factor in the biggest success stories is the involvement, engagement and communication directly with fans, followers, customers and leads.

So the next time you hear the skeptic, the cynic or the old school marketer dismiss Social Media think about yourself.  Think about whether YOU like to be “just a number” in a game of percentages.

Think who you trust more, a generic e-blast or a friend of yours that endorses a product or service?

Filed Under: All Posts, Engage, Listening, Marketing, Measurement and Analytics, Social Business, Strategy, The Customer Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Power to Spread Awareness, The Smarts to be Accessible

January 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Social Media is many things

  • A way to connect people without the constraints of location or time.
  • A tool for discovering new people with similar interests
  • An overused buzz word  <—guilty as charged, I used it daily.

Companies and individuals are still figuring out how to use these tools.  We’re all still isolating the value.  One thing that we can all seem to agree upon is the amazing power that social sites have to spread awareness.

So how can a company use social media sites to spread awareness?  Well, rather than get granular in this discussion, let’s just consider a very black and white example.

Two Companies, Two Approaches to the Social Web

We have two companies in competition:
Company A, an open-source software service company
Company B, an open-source software service company

Company A

Company A has a website, some email addresses and a phone number for customer service and sales.  Its “contact us” page has a form, an email address (info@companyA.com) and a phone number.  Company A relies on current customers to tell others about their services and product.

Every once in a while Company A will attend trade shows and put up a billboard along the highway.  They’ve even been known to place print advertisements in targeted magazines.  They don’t have a single Twitter account.  No Facebook presence.  No YouTube videos.  And the CEO has recently been quoted as saying “what’s a Linked In?”  The company’s CTO still isn’t sold on this whole “social media thing.”

Company B

Company B has everything Company A has but has also embraced the social web.  Not only do they have phone numbers for sales and customer service but also Twitter accounts.  The sales team uses Twitter and Twitter search to isolate relevant conversations about software issues by individuals who have self-identified as CIOs or CTOs at various large companies.

The company also regularly puts together slideshow presentations about their various services, including case studies across various industries.  These presentations are uploaded to Slideshare.net and shared by the sales teams on their Twitter accounts and #hashtag’d for easy discovery.  Those slideshare presentations are also showcased on employee LinkedIn profiles.

The support department uploads a screencasts to Youtube once per month.  These screencasts provide software troubleshooting to frequently encountered issues.  These videos are also shared across various Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

Some Obvious but Rhetorical Questions

Which of these two companies is easier to find and contact?

Which of these two companies will be found when people run a search on a social website?

Which of these two companies has lower support costs?

Which of these two companies has a deeper sales pipeline?

Which of these two companies has more marketing materials?

The World of Company B

You are perfectly free to continue being Company A.  You can speculate that Twitter will be ancient history in 2 years, you can convince yourself that YouTube has no business value and that blogging is a waste of company time.  You may be right.  Twitter might not last forever, but it doesn’t change the fact that there is opportunity there NOW.

Cynicism about these channels isn’t going to do much good though once you realize that companies like Company B are the ones who are going to, and are currently succeeding by using these tools.  By the time you get around to the realization that being accessible and creating content would help your business you may find yourself out…out of business.

This economy is based on competition.  So how do you stack up?  Are you company A or company B?

I help build company B.

Need help?

Filed Under: All Posts, Listening, The Customer Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Social Media: The Changing Nature of Influence

January 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Yesterday, Saturday, I gave a presentation to the National Black MBA Association about how Social Media has changed our behavior as a society. The question isn’t “should we participate in social media,” but rather “how should we participate in social media.”

Included is the video of the talk.

Filed Under: All Posts, Listening, Marketing, Measurement and Analytics, Video Posts

Mind The Gap – Beware of Social Media Disconnect

January 15, 2011 By 2 Comments

Social Media, when used efficiently, can take your business to places you never thought possible. From my perspective, there seems to be a huge gap between companies and their Social Media / Email Marketing teams. Let me tell you a personal story…

Excitement: My New Camera and Memory Card

I recently acquired a new camera ( Sony Nex 5 ). It’s been fantastic, but that’s not really the point here. I knew immediately that I would also be purchasing an EyeFi 8GB card to compliment my new cam. The EyeFi, for those that don’t know, is an SD card that has a built in wireless chip that uploads your images for you automatically, without even taking the card out of the camera or plugging anything in. Pretty amazing stuff!

I had been using my old card, but was really excited when the new one arrived.

Running into Trouble

Upon running the configuration, I realized something wasn’t right. I couldn’t get the card to connect to my network and I began troubleshooting. Reboot the router, add more DHCP address space, format the card and try again; you name it, I tried it.

After exhausting all other options, I decided to bring the camera and card to my office. I figured I could set up the card there and at least I’d know it was my router having issues. Same story though, as I was unable to get it working there as well.

It was time to call support and figure out my next options. Support took me through all the normal troubleshooting procedures, pull this, do this, format that. I humored them as I know they have steps they are required to put me through. By the end of the call (Over 1 hour) we were no where closer to finding an answer. The tech suspected it may be that I wasn’t using their SD reader, and that it might be a power issue on the built in Macbook Pro reader. He asked if I could call from home later that evening, which I obliged.

When I called in later that evening, I was able to get a hold of the tech I spoke to previously. Within 1 minute of getting on the phone he said he knew exactly what the problem was. Turns out there was some sort of hardware change on the latest run of the X2 cards and that this change had broken the firmware. I was advised that I would need to wait for a fix and that there was no work around possible. I inquired how long they’ve known about this issue and if there was an ETR, to which he replied. “The engineering department has been working on it for about a week and a half, and there is no ETR”.

Obviously this pissed me off, as this card’s whole selling point is it’s wireless feature and I was left without it. I basically had a way overpriced SD card.

A Missed Opportunity

On a whim, I decided to ask if they would be providing any compensation to the users affected by this issue. I was told unfortunately no, and that there was nothing anyone could do or offer.

To me this is a major missed opportunity as a company.

How is their best response to tell me it’s broken, and they’ll fix it when they fix it. Deal with it! Barely even an apology.

Obviously I don’t expect them to send me out a bunch of free EyeFi cards simply because mine is out of service right now, however, when you realize that EyeFi makes a portion of it’s revenue selling an online photo storage service, you see they have no idea how to turn the tables on a negative situation like this.

If I were in charge

First thing I would have done, as a decision maker at EyeFi, would have been to implement a program where anyone affected by this issue be offered a 6 month free subscription to our photo service.

With one gesture you instantly apologize for an issue. Beyond that, this could potentially draw in a new subscription customer. Some of those affected people are going to use the service, and after 6 months of photos are within that service, they aren’t going to want to pull them out and relocate them, so what’s left to do? Renew your subscription!!

Sadly, I’m not running the show at EyeFi, and this issue will either get swept under the carpet, or be a huge bruise to the arm of the company and provide them with no real upside.

Now comes the kicker.

The next day (1/11/11) at 8:00 on the dot, I received an email from EyeFi.

I could barely believe my eyes. I just received an email from EyeFi asking me how my first week with EyeFi went.

Were they serious?
Could there really be this big of a communication gap within the company?

Industry Observations

Working in Social Media, I see things like this all the time. Whether it’s product announcements that go live in Twitter, that have recently been halted and pulled from line lists, or leaks of confidential information, makes no difference. The reason is always the same, lack of communication.

If you are taking steps to make Social Media a part of your business / marketing plan, then you need to adopt it whole heartily. Other departments need to be made aware of campaigns going on that may be affected, or affect things they are working on. If there is an issue that is going to cause in influx of customer service complaints, don’t you think it’s a good idea to prepare your customer service team? The same goes for Social Media.

Hopefully this article will prevent your company from leaving a bad taste in one of your customer’s mouths. Encourage open communication between departments, don’t keep secrets from your employees and between teams!

Filed Under: All Posts, Guest Bloggers, Listening, Marketing, Social Business, The Customer Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A call for new case studies

January 11, 2011 By 1 Comment

So you spent last year trying to convince your management team that “social media is where it’s at.”  You made some strong points.  You got a few people on Twitter, maybe someone is running your facebook page and that blog is still “on its way.”  How do you kick everything into high gear?  With case studies of course!

Let me guess which ones you’ve cited:

Dell – use of Twitter for sales

Zappos – use of Twitter

Comcast – Twitter – customer service

Ford – Fiesta launch, engagement, etc.

Blendtec – ‘Will it Blend’ You Tube series

This year let’s move past the obvious ones that we’ve been using for nearly two years now.  The aforementioned case studies are awesome.  Many of them can and should be referenced again at some point, but for now, let’s get some new ones.  We need small businesses, and mediums sized businesses and companies with names you’ve never heard of.

Let’s get more case studies, let’s get more people tracking results, let’s get more companies helping us build the case.  I for one will be tracking the results with our clients.

And just for fun, if you’ve got some other really good social media case studies, please post a link to them in the comments.

Filed Under: All Posts, Engage, Listening, Marketing, Measurement and Analytics, Social Business, Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Why Economics matters in Social Media

December 22, 2010 By 1 Comment

I was not a star student in my Economics classes at Drexel.  I got through those three classes with slightly above a B average.  Even though I struggled, I found the concepts fascinating and to this day I still believe that my  economics classes were the most valuable of my entire MBA.

When people hear “economics” they often think “economy” which makes them think “money.”  While money is absolutely a large piece of a nation’s economy and therefore covered in the study of economics, money is not synonymous with economics.

Economics is a social science that studies the creation, production, distribution and flow of resources, goods and services throughout societies.  Within this broad category there is a notion that resources tend to be finite, thus scarce.  Much of the study and practice of economics deals with understanding, and creating data models to create the best scenarios in light of this scarcity of resources.  These theories help to shape policies for nations, towns and businesses based upon comparative advantage and numerous other economic concepts.

Examples in my Economics classes would be how world governments engage in trade agreements, how tariffs (taxes) affect overall welfare and the principles of supply and demand.

How Economics relates to Social Media

I’ve been reading Brian Solis‘ book Engage and it has been fascinating on so many levels.  Today I came across a concept in the book that struck me as being truly profound.
In Chapter 13 I saw two words that blew my mind:  “Attention Economics.”

What an amazing concept!  I’d never even considered it.  Within the concept of finite resources, I’d never considered that our attention is a resource, and it is scarce.

Universal Human Examples of Scarcity

With the pull of everyday life, your career, your family, the need to eat, sleep and go to the bathroom, there is only so much time and attention that WE have.

No matter how fast you read or how good your filters are, there is more information than you can consume. So we focus on the most important..our own personal “hotlists.”  This is a scarcity of attention and time.

Even if you eat 3 meals a day at a restaurant, you probably still won’t ever eat at every restaurant in your town, or city.  Even if you happen to eat at every single restaurant, what are the chances that you’ve tried every single dish.  So we focus on the restaurants that we’ve been to, that we know we like, where people know our name.  This is a scarcity of attention, time and money.

Even if you watch 24 hours of television a day, you can’t possibly consume the amount of content that is out there.  So we pick the shows that we like, we DVR them and we talk about them with friends. This is a scarcity of attention and time.

The river of content and experiences continually rushes faster than we could ever keep up with.  Content in today’s world is being created at unprecedented levels, and the rate is constantly increasing.

If we accept that attention is scarce…

…then it is of the utmost importance that you find a way to capture a piece of that attention before someone/something else does.  If you are a company trying to utilize Twitter as part of your communications strategy and you are posting one tweet everyday then you look like a drop of water…

water drop

in a rushing river…

My Twitter stream shows hundreds of people and even more when we add in lists and multiple accounts.  My Facebook wall is full.  My YouTube subscriptions are overflowing.  I am NOT alone.

If we accept that attention is scarce then we have a better sense of how we must operate to capture that attention.  If we treat each fan or follower as if the attention that they pay us is a gift, we will behave differently and share accordingly.

It is our job if we are going to devote time and resources to it to not just push more noise out into the internet ether, but instead provide good reasons for people to take notice of what we’re doing.

Are you filtered in or filtered out?

Blacklists and Whitelists are becoming two of the more important concepts in our digital lives.  This is how I manage my email, my Twitter, my Facebook.  As the volume of information increases, we do as we have always done, we revert to those sources that are most important or most connected and engaged.

When your Facebook network gets too big you create a friend list for your best friends and family so that you don’t miss their updates.

When your RSS reader begins to burst at the seams, you create a folder of your favorite sources.

This happens on Twitter, YouTube and in the physical world, if you have one night to go out with another couple, you go with the couple whose company you enjoy the most.

When you crafted your strategy for this new digital world, did you think of it as a place where your generic marketing messages went to float around?  Did you see it as a place to be ignored like so many other pushy and impersonal “marketers?”

Or were you one of the minority that saw the true opportunity to connect with real people, provide real value and have real conversations?  Were you one of the few that saw the real opportunity in being able to cut through the noise and deliver value worthy of being put “on the list?”

Do you even know what your customers want?

Don’t miss your opportunity

You often only get one chance to make a first impression.  This is true in life, online or offline.

Take the time to formulate a strategy for social media.  Take the time to listen to what your customers would find valuable. Don’t just treat this as “just another channel” and disregard the naysayers.

Consider your customers’ time and attention as scarce and appreciate it if they give it to you.

Filed Under: All Posts, Listening, Marketing, The Customer Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Something remarkable could happen

December 7, 2010 By 1 Comment

If your CEO isn’t on Twitter, there’s little chance I’ll retweet that interesting or profound quote that he or she said. If your CEO isn’t on Twitter, he or she cant retweet about the fundraiser I’m promoting and how will I find out about the cause he or she is promoting? If your CEO isn’t on Twitter I don’t have a chance to provide direct feedback, praise or criticism. If your CEO isn’t on Twitter, I can’t directly inquire about strategic partnerships. If your CEO isn’t on Twitter, I can’t reach out directly to him or her to invite them to a speaking engagement. If your CEO isn’t on Twitter, your company does seem as accessible. And finally… If your CEO isn’t on Twitter, there’s no chance that I can Tweet about a crisis I’m having, get a tweet back with a request for an email about the problem, followed by a call from Paris direct to my cell phone with a solution. That happened yesterday when Phil Libin, the CEO of Evernote, solved a problem of mine from Paris. It was Midnight there and he happened to be checking his tweets.  Now I’m sure this isn’t par for the course.  CEO’s don’t have endless time in the day to deal with each individual problem.  My lost note was a time sensitive issue that I needed help with immediately and Phil Libin was the first to answer me. How do you think I feel about Evernote right now?  I was a fan of the product before but you can bet the bank that I’m a customer for life. I may have had a problem, but not only was it fixed, it was fixed by the CEO.  He could’ve passed me off but he handled it himself.  That is extraordinary and worth recognition. Why should your CEO be on Twitter? Because something remarkable could happen.

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