As in, many people ask the question, “what is the ROI of social media?”  It’s like saying “What’s the ROI of a newspaper?” or “What’s the ROI of a TV?”  Social media is a channel, not an activity. You can’t measure a channel, you have to measure the activity which you perform on that channel.

Now, I’m not here to argue the semantics of it, rather I’d like to make the point that social media is a channel of communication.  Communication has, and always will, form the foundation of how a business connects with and tells an audience about its services.  So let’s just forget about whether ‘social media has an ROI’ and start talking about strategies that you can use to measure the effectiveness of communications (or content) that is passed through the social media channel.

To help shed some light on how to effectively measure the ROI of social media marketing, I am going to redefine ROI for you in this blog.  Note, that effective measurement of any marketing channel requires careful pllaning and thoughtful analysis, so don’t expect a quick fix solution in this post.  That being said, I have provided a framework for approach that I hope will help you be a better marketer for your own business or your clients’.

I break it down into 3 steps:

Step 1: (R) Role Definition

Step 2: (O) Objective-Based Content 

Step 3: (I) Interpret Results

STEP 1: (R) Role Definition

Know Your Role

The biggest reason businesses struggle to measure the effectiveness of social media marketing, is because they rarely define what their goals are and the role it will play in connecting with their audience and ultimately accomplishing business objectives.

Duane “The Rock” Johnson, puts it well in his famous WWF quote,  ”Know Your Role…or Shut Your Mouth.” Each channel of communication plays a different role in your marketing mix and these roles all work together to deliver integrated marketing communications.

The specific role that social media will play can be very different depending on the industry and maturity of your business.  For example, if you are a new brand, the first thing you are going to want to do is generate awareness and trust.  This must come before trying to sell on social. Thus, indicators of success should focus more on number of people reached and how they engaged versus straight up sales or conversions.

I generally look at 4 different roles that social media marketing can play in accomplishing business/marketing objectives:

1. Drive Trust & Awareness (I want more people to know and trust my brand)

2. Entice & Educate  (I want my audience to better understand the benefits of my products/services)

3. Convert & Sell (I want to get more leads and sales)

4. Delight & Care (I want to get more repeat customers & referrals)

Think about your business and prioritize the above roles for social media marketing.  While you will likely shift between all 4 roles, normally, numbers 1, 2 and 4 are the best places to focus.  If you do those right, then 3 will come.  

Not all marketing activities (regardless of the channel) should be done with a direct intent of sales.  Your audience will have varying levels of openess to messaging, depending on their familiarity with your category and brand (for more on audience readiness see our Infographic: From Brand Stranger to Brand Lover). That being said, at the end of the day it is all about sales, so conversion and sales MUST be measured as a part of your total marketing efforts. And if sales ain’t happening, then there is a problem somewhere.  

STEP 2: (O) Objective-Based Content

Shoot With Purpose

If you know what you are trying to accomplish, developing social content to support that objective becomes much easier. It allows you to create content with purpose, instead of aimlessly posting and wasting a lot of valuable time and resources.

In the blockbuster hit The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence captures the attention of the gamemakers by firing an arrow straight under their noses into an apple, balanced delicately in the mouth of a pig (watch the movie if you’re not sure what I’m talking about).  This scene demonstrates two ideas that we can learn from when creating content for social media:

1) Shoot your arrow (content) with a goal in mind, which in this case was to skewer an apple.

2) Get your audience’s attention by doing something different than everyone else, otherwise you will just blend in.

When developing social content, I create groups of content that align to the objectives set out in step 1.  For help creating social content groups, download our Social Media Strategy Blueprint, which includes several useful templates for planning social media marketing. By grouping content together you can measure broader trends, versus the impact of just a single post. I recommend grouping posts as follows:

1. Social Content that Drives Trust & Awareness

Low Branding. No Sell.

This type of content is all about reaching a higher proportion of your targeted audience.  This content often takes the form of what I call “Puppy & Baby” content.  This is social content that is very visually engaging, highly shareable with no sell associated with it.  Remember, it must tie back to your brand somehow, so you can’t just post a video of a cat chasing a ball and be pumped about getting lots of engagement.

Red Bull is one of the best at this type of content with its seemingly unending flow of awesome action sport photos and videos. Red Bull dramatically increases brand reach and engagement through this content.

2. Social Content that Educates & Entices

Medium/High Branding. Medium Sell.

The second type of content is focused on educating your audience about your products/services and their benefits, ultimately enticing them to learn more and consider purchase.  If your brand has a highly visual product or service then this is much easier to communicate than if you are in a less-than-exciting visual industry.  This doesn’t mean you can’t do it, if you don’t have a product/service that people might really enjoy looking at, it just means you need to get more creative with providing value in other ways, which might include high-level education, tips and lifestyle benefits.

Marriott Hotels & Resorts does a fantastic job of communicating its product to its fans on Facebook by frequently posting social content that allows fans to experience a taste of the Marriott experience.  This includes everything from photos of sunsets, pools, hotel suites and gourmet dishes from the restaurant.

3. Social Content that Converts & Closes

Medium/High Branding. High Sell.

The third type of content is most easily understood by most as it is when you hit home the ‘sell’ for your product/service.  This includes direct calls to action our announcements about specials and promotions.

Starbucks does a great job sprinkling promotional posts amongst its social media posts.

4. Social Content that Cares & Delights

Varied Branding. Varied Sell.

The final type of social content is the least defined as it is the most conversational. This type of content can include everything from answering questions to reaching out to new prospects or providing special offers and gifts to current customers.

Many big brands have decided to dedicate entire social media channels to this type of content. One of the most popular is Best Buy, with its @Twelpforce Twitter handle that answers customer service questions 24/7.

STEP 3: (I) Interpret Results

Listen in the right language

There is no shortage of data on the internet, which has led to countless lengthy reports from agencies and consultants that are often, well, useless. They are long and might look impressive but they are just numbers that, if not interpreted properly, mean nothing.

In the less-than-blockbuster movie, The Interpretor, Nicole Kidman plays a multi-lingual interpretor who overhears a terrorist plot because of her ability to ‘listen in the right language.’ To most people, the words she heard would have meant nothing, but in this case it lead to action that eventually foiled the terrorist threat.

A similar principle can be applied to data interpretation, in that you have to understand the context in which the data is being presented and what the ultimate goals are in order to properley interepret it. And most importantly, the data interpretation needs to lead to action instead of simply, ‘that’s nice.’

Always focus first on what the goal of the activity is instead of the numbers themselves.  This will allow you track progress versus these goals.  For example, if you have created content with the primary goal of increasing brand reach and awareness, then focus on ‘reach and awareness’ as the primary metric.  This doesn’t mean don’t look at other metrics, such as conversions and sales, but focus on the intent of the content.

I suggest splitting up your measurement into four buckets. For each of the social content groups from step 2, evaluate using the following core metrics. Depending on the business and social platforms actual metrics will vary.

1. Reach - Potential Eyeballs.

The total number of people who potentially saw your message. Note, that this is a passive metric and doesn’t necessarily mean that people took in the message. Depending on your objectives though, brand impressions can be very powerful.

Metrics: Organic reach, paid reach, viral reach, followers, page likes

2. Engagement – People taking a second look

The total active engagements in your content. This metric provides great insight into whether your content invokes endorsement or action to learn more.

Metrics: Engaged users, likes, shares, people talking about, mentions, retweets, repins, comments, favourites, views, clicks, visits, page views

3. Conversion – People exchanging information or $$

This is normally the metric that you want to drive towards as it pays most people’s bills.  It can also provide the most weight because it shows the highest level of engagement and openess to brand messaging.   It should be noted that, depending on the brand, conversion or purchase metrics can have highly variable significance.

Metrics: Purchase, Offers downloaded (eBooks, whitepaper, etc), Coupon downloads, Reservations, Registrations, App Download, Social Connects, Subscribers

4. Caring & Sentiment – What are people saying about you?

This is the loosest of all metrics, but is critical to measure, especially if you have a far reaching brand.  This metric can also provide insight into the behaviour and needs of your audience, so don’t ignore it!

Metrics: Positive/negative/neutral sentiment, questions answered/resolved, types of questions asked

So, now what?

All of these tips are great, but it all takes time and a fair amout of work.  If you don’t have the proper resources to analyze social media activity, then it isn’t going to be useful.  I suggest assiging someone in your organization (likely part of the marketing team) to head up the analytics of your online marketing activity and ensure appropriate accountability.  There are also many consultatants and agencies that can help alleviate this load for you (we would of course be happy to help, as well).

Apart from people, you will also want to think about software solutions that can help you out. For example, Hootsuite Enterprise provides tagging functionality which allows you to tag and group all outgoing posts so that you can analyze them in groups within a custom report.

Social media marketing measurement is a constantly evolving field and that is what makes it so exciting! How do you measure your social media marketing activity?  What do you think of my approach?  I’d love to carry on the conversation in the comments.

Understanding the ever changing world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can sometimes seem impossible, especially with the constant updates being made by Google and the many, so-called SEO experts out there that preach complicated, technical messages.

Thankfully, ContentVerse.com put together 10 simple tips on how to create content that will get ranked and found.  The most important of these tips, in my humble opinion, is to write for humans and optimize for robots.  Search engines are far too advanced too fool using fancy techinical tricks. So please, just stop trying.

The MOST important thing you can remember is to write engaging and valuable content for your target audience.  That’s it. If you don’t invest in this first, then every other activity you do will be a waste and not get you anywhere near the the results you are likely looking for.

So, start with awesome, focused content that your audience will love and share and then worry about all of the smaller, more tactical SEO tips.  The reality is that there are never-ending tweaks you can do with SEO, but if you don’t have a quality piece of stone (great content), that you can chisel, then you are just wasting your time.

What do you think?  What are the most important things to remember to get ranked?

I have been doing a lot of work with clients lately on social media analytics and using several different tools to do so.  Thus, I thought it would be worth passing on some of my latest thoughts as it relates to leveraging different social media analytics platforms and actually making them useful for your business.

First off, I have had experience with many of the major social media anlaytics platforms (including Radian6/Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Sysomos, Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Google Analytics and others).  I actually really love most of the platforms and they all are exceptional… at something.

So what is the silver bullet for social media measurement?  Sorry to get your hopes up, but there isn’t one.  Regardless of what a sales rep might tell you, there just is no silver bullet for social media measurement.

Here are six reasons why:

1. Social media platforms change VERY fast

In order to stay competitive, web/mobile apps and platforms need to iterate constantly, sometimes as short as every couple weeks! How can analytics apps possibly keep up with all the constant changes across all of the platforms? The reality is, they can’t. As a result, the social media measurement platforms will almost always be missing that newly released stat that you really want and you will end up logging in and grabbing it manually. Trust me, you will.

2.  New social media platforms pop-up frequently

It seems like almost every week there is another new platform announced.  How many social media measurement platforms do you think include new micro video blogging app Vine in their standard reports or the latest rendition of MySpace?  Marketers are using these platforms and finding success, but they are not using the most popular measurement tools to prove it. Again, they are likely pulling this data manually.

3.  The boss is picky

Depending on the preferences of whoever is at the helm of a company, the requirements for measurement can vary dramatically. Some CEOs and managers might love to see each and every interaction on one single network, while others might prefer a broad survey of several different platforms.  While some analytics platforms provide great flexibility in reporting, it isn’t enough for many of the most demanding of business leaders.

4. Different industries have wildly different needs

Depending on the industry, different social media platforms are more relevant.  For example, my agency (Tent Social), does a lot of work in the destination & hospitality industry where social review sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp and Opentable are enormously important.  Compare this to a CPG company like Coke where these sites have zero relevance. Given the dramatic difference in approach to analyzing data for a big CPG versus a hotel or restaurant, you can see how it would be difficult to have a one size fits all solution.

5. Technical infrastructure is almost always underdeveloped

At the end of the day, the most important metrics are sales metrics and systems for measuring this data are even more fragmented than that for social media. This is because the final conversion often happens in a location completely removed from the online marketing experience. As a result it is often near impossible to connect the technical back-end of actual sales data with that of the marketing activity that drove people there. There are some exceptions to this, of course, especially for highly developed online retailers.  But for the vast majority of businesses, that operate as a combination of online and off, this is a major barrier to effective measurement.

6. Data is useless without interpretation

It seems like every new web app has some sort of social data component baked into it and they will preach that it gives you all the analytics you need.  But what none of these companies sell is ‘intrepretation’ of the data.  That is,  there isn’t an analyst, brand manager or consultant that comes with the download to help users make sense of the massive amount of data. To derive actionable metrics from social media and online marketing activities I can guarantee you that you will need to cherry pick data points from several different locations.  From there, the data will need to be interpreted, analyzed and checked for biases before decisions can actually be made based on it.  This is not something a web app will ever be able to provide ‘in-the-box’. 

The intent of this post is not necessarily to plug the use of an agency or consultant alongside your analytics (although I would be happy to help you, if you like),  I am more writing it as a caution to those who are signing up for different social media analytics platforms, expecting it will give you everything you need to measure the success of your efforts all in one spot.

Which platform or combination of social media measurement platforms do you use? I would love to carry on this discussion in the comments.

Business travel is not how it used to be.  Gone are the days of bottomless expense accounts and endless entertainment when away on business.  There has been a marked shift towards value and referrals versus high-spending and luxury.

Wakefield Research conducted a very concise study for Embassy Suites Hotels regarding the state of business travel in 2013.  See infographic below.

As usual, here are my three key take aways for you:

1. Value is most important for 1 in 2 people and this is only the beginning 

I predict we will see a dramatic rise in success of budget and mid-range hotels for business travel over the coming years.  This will take the form of certain chains taking a very focused approach to reach a targeted group of business people.

For example, if a mid range is close to a large convention centre, it would be worth it for that property to save costs by eliminating many of the services that the convention centre itself offers. As a result it can drive down prices and focus on providing the core value amenities.

Another specialized property that I predict will excel will be budget meeting facilities as part of a hotel.  These would be booked as easily as a hotel room and will complement the rise in workshifting (working from wherever you are).  This will replace the need for large conference spaces and high expenses and will facilitate small groups to come together and collaborate and a reasonable cost.

2. Social media is used by pretty much everyone, so integrate it 

Social media is not longer a trend. It is a way of living and doing business.  Social media MUST be integrated into a hotels larger business strategy.  Since it plays such a critical role in the planning process, hoteliers can not afford to silo this activity off to a single marketing co-ordinator.

Usage of social media is only going to grow over the next few years as ‘social’ becomes seeamless with all other marketing and service experiences. Need help integrating social into your business? At Tent Social we provide specialized solutions in social media for the destination & travel industries.  Click here for a free consultation. 

3.  Low price plus awesome reviews (value) is king

I know for myself personally, I would never book a hotel without it having top ratings.  This is particularly important for budget and midrange hotels, as you can often end up in a dive if you are not paying a lot of money.

Budget and midrange hotels can no longer hide behind a cheap rate and the new age of travelers look at more than just price.  They look at price + rating. Contary to days of old, many properties are doing a great job of balancing a low price with a great rating.  So, for those that manage a hotel that has a low rating, it is only a matter of time before your rooms are completely empty becauase of the guys across the street that have the same price, but a better rating.

Hoteliers should definitely focus on the big review sites, including TripAdvisor, but also acknowledge that other social platforms are playing an increasaingly important role in the selection and review process. While it may not be as formalized (yet), there are thousands of comments and reviews being made on a daily basis about hotels through Facebook updates, check-ins and tweets.

One final note on value & WIFI

Hotels should NEVER charge for wifi. Not only does this annoy guests, it limits the ability for you to capture check-ins and live social data from guests.

Business travelers count on exceptional internet connections.  This doesn’t mean just having a connection, this means having an ultra fast connection.  For big hotels and resorts, they can balance the bandwidth problem by offering free wi-fi in the lobby and password protected access for guests in their rooms.

What do you think? Which hotels do you think are doing VALUE really well?

Here’s a quick run-down of the OLD and the NEW for reference:

The New Cover Photo Rules (full rules here):

All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your Page will be able to see your cover. Covers can’t be deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines. Covers may not include images with more than 20% text.

The Old Cover Photo Rules (along with edits):

Covers may not include:

1.  images with more than 20% text;
2. REMOVED: price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it on socialmusic.com”;
3. REMOVED: contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section;
4. REMOVED: references to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features; or
5. REMOVED: calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”

As a result, there have been countless marketers proclaiming their excitement about how they are pumped about the easing of rules and the potential to move back to advertising promotions and featuring calls to actions on their cover photos (like in the days of Facebook landing pages, where big arrows with the word LIKE were very popular).  

Dear Facebook marketers, I beg you, please don’t revert to those days.  Please. This loosening in restriction is NOT an opportunity for you to have arrows and % off plastered all over your cover photo.  Don’t abuse this change, rather take advantage of it in new and interesting ways.

Here’s why:

1. You will look like a used car dealership

Have you ever compared the advertising used out front of the Apple store with that of a used car dearlership?  If you haven’t, I’ve taken the liberty to illustrate below.

Apple Store (Image Source: apple.com)

Used Car Dealership (Image source: motortrend.com)

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.  Your Facebook page is still the front door to the major social media presence of most brands so don’t degrade your brand by over-selling in social. Yes, you might get more click thrus into a landing page, but this might be at the expense of your brand equity.

That being said, if you’d like to be a ‘used car salesman’ on Facebook and that is your image, then go for it.

2. You are going in the opposite direction of the new visual web

Take note of the direction that every social media platform is moving.  It is towards more visual and less text. Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIN, Google+ and Facebook have redesigned to make visuals more important (see below new Google+ and Pinterest profiles).  And this does not mean visuals with arrows and LIKE ME written all over them. Don’t resist this trend by trying to communicate too much in your cover photo (or in social posts, in general).

Furthermore, social platforms are much more sophisticated than they used to be, so premium, engaging brand experiences are becoming easier to create. Pictures speak a 1000 words right?  So put up a picture that does that, instead of bombarding them with cheesy marketing messages.

Pinterest Design: Just got even more visual

Google+ Design: Just got even more visual

3. You are missing out on NEW creative opportunities

This easing in the rules from Facebook should provide you with great new opportunities for you to craft very insightful messages for you audience, whether there is text included or not.

This will become particularly important as Facebook has started placing more prominence on the cover photo as it is showed in the newsfeed of friends of fans who like the page (see below).  This gives you much more real estate in other people’s newsfeeds to communicate a message. It is almost as if the cover photo will become the, sort of, social packaging of your brand.  So think carefully about how you would package your brand.  You want to make it intrusive and engaging, while also being true to your brand.

So, take this opportunity to break through versus other brands out there on Facebook. Don’t sucomb to the status quo – be different.  I’m not saying don’t create call to actions on your cover photo or advertise promotions, I’m simply saying do so in a way that is reflective of your brand.  With each new update that comes on Facebook, there is an opportunity to leverage it in a new and engaging way, so take this approach instead of being the sleazy salesperson.

I look forward to seeing some awesome work!

What do you think?  Does the update open up new opportunities for marketers?

Facebook Cover Photo Image Source: Mari Smith Facebook

Facebook has rapidly become the go-to social network for any consumer brand looking to engage with its audience on social media.  Hotels & resorts, in particular, have a unique opportunity as it relates to engaging with their guests on social media, since for the most part, they have very strong visual content to share and guests have a lot of experiences to share in return.

While looking at Facebook alone is not the key to the social media puzzle, it can provide an interesting barometer to who is investing and being active and who is not.  That’s why we at Tent Social have put together ‘The Top 20 Hotels & Resorts on Facebook’ Infographic.

For ease of analysis and reading, we have organized it according to total likes as well as ‘people talking about.’  

The summary of the results are as follows:

Top Luxury & Midrange Hotels & Resorts on Facebook

Leading the pack for Luxury Hotels are Marriott, Hilton and Shangri-La while Best Western, Holiday Inn and Courtyard by Marriott top the list for mid-range hotels.

Top Individual Hotels & Resorts on Facebook

When looking at individual properties, those with casinos are particularly popular with Aria Resort & Casino, MGM Grand Las Vegas and Atlantis Resort landing in the top 3.

Highest & Lowest Engagement on Facebook

Award for highest ‘people talking about’ goes to Shangri-la with 27% of total fans engaging with the page.  Lowest engagement goes to the Renaissance Hotel at 0.2%.

It should be noted that these numbers are not necessarily indicative of succesful communities, as those hotels currently spending money on a Facebook Ad campaign will have significantly higher ‘people talking about’, during a given period, than those that are not. This can change very quickly and is likely the key driver of the 27% engagement rate for Shangri-La.

At the end of the day, ‘Fan count’ can only take you so far, with the true indicator of success being those communities that are driving actual connection and conversion.  This is driven not by an ad spend, but by great compelling content and organizations/people who truly listen to their guests in the long term.

Which hotel/resort do you think is doing well on Facebook?

The Top Hotels & Resorts on Facebook Infographic

I’m not going to talk about my perspective on the launch, or whether I think they will ultimately succeed or not, rather I’d like to comment on the continued missed perception in the industry as news sites and blogs slave over comparisons of tech specs and neglect comparison of one of the most important specs of all – ‘Brand Love/Connection’.

Take for example, the following spec comparison of the three leaders in mobile phone penetration.  When you line them up head to head, things look pretty even.  None of them stand out really versus the others.  In other words, from an actually tech functionality point of view, you are getting basically the same phone. Thus they should all have even splits of the market, right?  Wrong.

Have you ever compared the tech specs of a Mac versus a PC, especially when you layer in price?  Apple pretty much always loses on these comparisons. The only place, in recent history, where Apple has pulled ahead is with its new retina-display.  But even for that, it is ridiculously expensive.

I’m not going to get into a numbers game in this post. I have one point to make and that is in a market where the technology has become somewhat of a commodity,  tiny differences in processor speed and ram are not going to make the difference.

THE most important factor for Blackberry right now is if it can recapture the hearts and imaginations of the consumers and business people that were loyal in the past and those who might consider them in the future.   Apple and Samsung are on entirely different ends of the spectrum when it comes to brand equity and personal connection with a brand.  Samsung has been working hard to change that, and they are arguably doing a good job at it, but they still lag far behind Apple.

I believe that in its new iteration, Blackberry has the tech legs to stand on right now (after previous disasters with the plabook and torch) to give it another go in the industry.

The question is, can they create a sense of love for the Blackberry brand itself?  This will define its success in the future.  What do you think?

I don’t know about you, but the images that are conjured up when I think ‘Command Center’ either involve GI JOE or NASA. And last time I checked, I wasn’t in the business of battling cobra commander or launching spaceships.

The idea behind these new facilities within organizations is good, but in some ways they are inherently anti-social in the manner in which they are currently being promoted and used by companies such as DELL and Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Salesforce has a good run down of social media ‘command’ centers in different companies here). Read on for two big issues with these centers and one reason why they are so critical for success.

‘Command’ is the wrong word to use in social media

Social Media at its core is all about listening, engaging and connecting with your audience in a more 1-to-1, personal manner versus a top-down approach often exhibited through traditional advertising.  My issue isn’t with the centers themselves, rather it is that the word ‘command’ could even make it through the corporate approval process and land on the wall of this highly public room.  If an organization believes that it is ‘commanding’ its social media presence, it doesn’t actually understand social media.

Dictionary.com does a better job at illustrating this point than I can:

All of the top 5 definitions from dictionary.com, include the idea of one party having authority over another.  If a business/brand tries to show any sort of authority over its customers, they won’t be customers for long.  I get the intent behind the name, that it is a place for a team to ‘command’ the operations of social media in the organization, but just call it something different.

I am really surprised that a companies, such as DELL and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, have embraced this language.  Gatorade and Cisco get it as they removed ‘command’ from the title and simply called them social media listenting centers.  This makes a lot more sense to me and demonstrates empathy versus dictatorship.

From here on in, I’m going to call them social media listenting & engagement centers as I think this captures the activity that is actually taking place in these spaces.

They are Physical, not Mobile.

Apart from knitpicking about wording, a centralized Social Media Listening & Engagement Centre poses another issue, which is that of tying your social media communications to a single physical location.

Social media does not obey rules of time and space, in that activity can happen at any time in any location around the globe.  Tying all of your social media activity to one place, requiring people be IN a physical room to manage the activity, is counter to the direction that technology is going, as mobile continues to become a more dominant force in everyone’s lives.

Mobile is quickly becoming the preferred means for most people to interact on social media platforms.  This allows instantaenous, location-based engagement, any time of the day. The last thing you want is to have to return to a physical location in order to properly respond or engage with your customers, or to only be ‘ON’ when someone is managing the center.

Note, I am NOT against having a physical location (as they have their own beneifts as you will see below), merely they should not be the only solution.  Mobile social media management MUST be included as a component of the plan if an organization wants its efforts to be sustainable and effective.

Why Big Companies Still Need Them

Arguably the biggest barrier to planning and executing social media activity effectively is gaining complete organizational buy-in and support.  Social Media can NOT be a silo’d activity within an organization.  It simply won’t work and is impossible to manage.  If creating a physical space in your organization for a Social Media Engagment & Listening Center accomplishes the single task of raising awareness and organizational buy-in, into social media activity in general, then it is worth it.

For small to mid sized companies, or those that are already running on all cylinders with social media, a fancy room with shiney monitors is simply not necessary. In fact it is a massive waste of money and does more to feed the ego of the executive who came up with the idea than to actually contribute to actionable, measurable results.

My Prediction

These physical spaces are needed now to gain organizational buy-in, but will disappear in a few years as organizations realize they don’t need a room equipped to launch space ships and battle cobra commander to manage social… they need a team of dedicated people with the right mobile tools and training to do the job, in real-time, wherever they are.

What do you think? Does your organization have a Social Media Listenting & Engagement Center?

Facebook recently launched ‘Graph Search’, which on the surface seems simple, but it is in fact a massive opportunity for businesses in the long term.  To sum it up, Facebook has essentially updated the platform so that it operates in way that is similar to other platforms that have robust search functionality (ex: Google, Gmail, Wikipedia, OSX).  I won’t dive in to how it actually works here (check out Mashable for a good run down), rather I will focus on the implications that it has for your hotel or resort.

Which, from my perspective, are huge.

The following are three things you can start doing NOW to ensure your hotel or resort takes full advantage of Facebook Graph Search as it is rolled out. *Note: Facebook Graph Search is rolling out in a relative basic form to start, but I am confident that it will evolve very quickly.

1. Encourage Guests to Create Social Content About Your Hotel/Resort

Facebook Graph Search will primarily feature activity (likes, comments, connection, check-ins, photos) from friends within people’s networks.  Posting photos and checking-in is already something that many guests have a strong desire to do, so enable them to do so.  If you still think charging extra for wi-fi is a good idea, think again.  Enabling access to the internet and social networks within your hotel 24/7, free of charge, creates an ‘always on’ media network with your property as the star.

Content that is shared in realtime from your hotel/resort, instead of uploaded later has significant advantages in that it will most likely be geo-tagged automatically and will feature the name of your property in the post, without the guest having to do anything.  Other easy tips include, encouraging guests to share content on Facebook at any special events that you might have. Depending on the event, this can be subtly and tactfully done. Make sharing of photos and experiences at your property as easy as possible. Period.

2. Post a lot of Visual & Educational Content On Your Facebook Page

If you are not already doing this, now is the time to drastically accelerate visual content creation (photos primarily) so that Facebook graph search picks your business up.  While simply posting photos won’t likely cause your property to rank high in Facebook Graph Search, the key will be to encourage  fans and guests to engage with posts that you create.  When it comes to business searches on Facebook, I’m willing to bet that content that has high engagement will be favoured and will ultimately create greater visibility for your business.

The hotel/resort industry continues to be in an advantageous position here because there is normally a lot of very compelling and interesting visual content to post about your  community. Stay focused on posts that will 1) drive high engagement and 2) that highlight features and unique benefits of your property.  This doesn’t mean stop posting content focused on conversion, just be aware that this type of content is not likely to perform well in Graph Search in the long term.

Another advantage that will come from posting photos with strong engagement, will be that it will create permanent social connections that will ripple across people’s networks.  If someone comments on a post you make, it will be indexed by Facebook and then if anyone in the commenter’s network searches something in relation to that post, your post or profile will likely show up. Whereas Facebook posts previously had a very short lifespan,  Graph Search will enable your content to live on indefinitely, much in the same way Google currently indexes blogs that see traffic for years after.

3. Tag and Name Everything!

Just as with Google and other search engines, Facebook will only know what it is your posting if you tell them (for the most part).  As previously mentioned, geo-tagging often occurs automatically if content is being created at a particular location.  But in many cases this still does not actually occur.  If your content is not tagged, named and socially connected, it will not show up in search when you want it to.

Get in the habit of naming every photo that you post.  This is especially important if you are creating an album.  I know it can take some time, but instead of simply having the same description for the entire album, name each photo.  The name can be very simple, but it should be descriptive of what is in the photo and tagged for location as well.

A great way to amplify the social strength of the post is to tag people that are featured in the photo.  If they are employees at your organization, ask them if they mind tagging themselves in the photo as this will provide reach across each of their own networks in the future.  If guests are featured in the photos, it is a good practice to set up a system that allows you to show these photos so that they can choose to tag themselves, if desired (or remove themselves if there is a privacy issue).

As an example, think of the current practice on many cruise ships where photos are taken throughout the week and then featured in a particular room in the ship where they can be purchased at very high margins.  I know this seems like a tough thing to cut, but trust me, it will be gone soon anyway – people will NOT continue to pay for this. Consider replacing this with monitors where people can see themselves on a Facebook album.  Encourage them to tag themselves to share across their networks.  This is the best and most efficient marketing you can buy. Best of all, now with Facebook Graph Search, it will live on indefinitely… instead of at the bottom of a sandy suitcase.

What do you think? Are you excited about the opportunities that Facebook Graph Search will open up for your business?

Hotels and resorts have a phenomenal opportunity with social media, as it allows them to transport past and future guests to their property on a daily basis.  This makes a particularly strong impact with guests who see photos posted, such as their favourite sunsets or poolside views from their last vacation spot. It conjurs up strong positive emotions and transports them away from their current, sometimes more stressful environment.  It is for this reason, we at TentSocial, love managing social media for this industry.  The opportunities are extremely rich and we are really only seeing the tip of the iceberg of what is possible!

So who is leading the pack with social media in the hotel and resort industry? When it comes to Facebook, the biggest platform in social media,  Marriott Hotels & Resorts and Best Western have been neck and neck from a purely fan count point of view. Don’t be fooled though, Likes should not be the core indicator of a successful Facebook community. Social media communities need to be measured, based on reach, engagement and ultimately conversion towards business goals. While I can’t speak to the business results being driven by the following properties, I can take a look at their overall reach (fan base) along with general levels of engagement in the community.

For simplicity sake, the following list breaks down the top 5 in order according to total likes. Note: This list compares the hotel & resort industry broadly rather than comparing luxury, mid-range and budget versus others in the same class.

1. Marriott Hotels & Resorts

Marriott has thousands of people engaging on each post as they feature beautiful photos of their hotels and resorts from around the world.  If you are looking for content ideas for your hotel page, drop into this page.

2. Best Western

While Best Western may have hundreds of thousands of fans, its content and engagement doesn’t even compare to that of Marriott.  Best Western has not embraced the new visual nature of social media, with the majority of posts being about trivia and promotions.

3. Hilton Hotels & Resorts

Hilton takes advantage of strong visual content while it takes its fans on a journey around the globe to its many diverse properties.  Hilton receives very strong engagement with the majority of its posts, often garnering thousands of likes and hundreds of shares for a single post!

4. Aria Resort & Casino

Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas is the only single property brand in the top 5, which is really an outstanding achievement when comparing to chains with 100s of locations around the globe. Aria focuses its content on experiences in the hotel and casino, including shows and cuisine.

5. Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn rounds out the top 5, with some great visual content along with everything from beautiful lobbies to suites and poolside mojitos. Engagement in the community is moderate though, when compared with Marriott and Hilton.

2013 is sure to be a very exciting year as it relates to social media and the hotel industry as properties from around the globe take off the training wheels and really ramp up their activity to connect more deeply with their audience.

Do you work with a hotel or resort and are looking for a little help?  Click here to contact us for a free specialized social media consultation for hotels & resorts.

What if you walked into McDonald’s and asked a question to one of the employees and instead of answering it, they stared at you blankly, ignoring your question completely. Or what if you walked into WalMart and asked a customer service representative where the electronics section was and they, again, just stared at you blankly until it got so awkward that you just walked away, feeling confused and lost. This is how many brands are acting on social media.  They have opened themselves up for business online, but are simply ignoring the people that pay their salary every month.

Customer Service Investigator (CSI) has put together an alarming infographic that outlines how many of the biggest brands in the world simply don’t respond on social media (below).

What have been your experiences with brands on social media?  Did the company respond to you? If so, how long did they take? What do you think is the biggest reason brands are holding back when it comes to Social Media Customer Service?

Social media has truly become a daily part of most people’s lives, with usage patterns changing dramatically over the past few years. The editors of the Socially Aware Blog put together a great infographic outlining how social media is currently being used today (see below).  See my top 4 takeways below, along with where things are going to go in 2013.

1.  Time spent on new entrant Pinterest is almost 5x of that spent on Twitter  

Where it will go in 2013:  Time spent on Pinterest will only continue to grow as user base increases and it becomes the go-to place for visual inspiration. I predict time spent will at least double to 3 hours per month as people find it easier to cram in more ‘visual’ engagement versus reading.

2. Time spent on Facebook is 135x that spent on Google+

Where it will go in 2013:  While I don’t expect people to check-in to Google+ anywhere near as much as Facebook, the definition of time spent on Google+ will be blurry since any one who uses Google Apps (Gmail, Maps, Google Search, etc) or Android will be sort of always checked-in with the social layer being seamlessly integrated into their experience.  So, don’t expect Google+ to be a destination like Facebook is in 2013, rather think of it as something you are going to see a lot of as an amplification of activities you already do online.

3. 100% of Ad Age top 100 advertisers have established Facebook pages for brands

Where it will go in 2013:  Well, you can’t go much past 100% as it relates to the top 100 advertisers, but what this signals is that we have moved past the early adopter phase for social media marketing. In 2013, we will see a massive tipping point in exceptional activations within social media by businesses – versus simply being present.  Now that businesses are more comfortable with social media as a valid marketing platform, we will also see a much more strategic approach and more comfort as it relates to total integration into the business.  (**We still have a long way to go though!)

4. 61% surf the web while watching TV

Where it will go in 2013: This is a biggie. The big transition that will happen over the next year is that rather than surfing websites completely unrelated to the programs they are watching, we will see a big shift to integration between activity on the tablet/laptop/phone and the activity on the TV.  Lines will blur significantly between what is a TV and what is not.  People will become increasingly comfortable with doing ‘internet-like’ tasks on the TV (Photos, Email, Social Networking, Skype) while they will also become more comfortable doing ‘TV-like’ activities on their mobile device or laptop (watching TV programs, netflix, hulu etc). This will continue to occur until the term TV may need to be redefined all together .  While I don’t think it will go to that length in 2013, it will make some huge steps towards this.

Where do you think social media will go in 2013?  Leave your thoughts in the comments.

It seems we can’t go more than a few days without hearing about the next big thing in social media.  From Pinterest to Path, it is amazing that new networks continue to launch and actually thrive.  Some have said that the infrastructure has been laid down with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and that there will likely not be many new entrants.  I disagree.  While I don’t think the big guys are going anywhere soon, I do think that there will be a swarm of niche networks that gain huge popularity very quickly.

The rebirth of MySpace will be one of these.

Watch the new teaser video.

The new Myspace from Myspace on Vimeo.

I’ve never been a MySpace loyalist.  I simply had an account and followed a few bands and indy artists and never got too engaged. I’m very intrigued though by what myspace is up to with its redesign.  There are 3 reasons this relaunch will draw people in.

1. A Platform of Artistic Self-expression

The myspace website indicates they are rebuilding the site from the groud up and saying,

“…we’re staying true to our roots in one important way – empowering people to express themselves however they want.”  

This idea of artistic self-expression will be the key to the platform’s future success. The social web is in a transition phase from the excitment of purely being able to connect with others in a seamless manner (which Facebook pioneered) to the future, which will be actual artistic expression across the social web in a manner much more creative than simply status updates.  This social media self expression will actually allow people to be ‘socially artistic’ on the web versus the relatively one-dimensional expression that currently occurs across Twitter and Facebook. Pinterest’s success is proof of the early signs of this phenomenon. 

2. Visually Stunning

Myspace has taken the familiar ‘stream’ concept we are all so familiar with and made it look much better.  Big bold photos, combined with massive font overlay looks very fresh and appealing versus what often is a cluttered experience in the Facebook stream.  Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest have all been driving towards more visually appealing newsfeeds recently, but MySpace has pushed the visual experience to a whole new level.

3. Stay Niche

The new myspace will not appeal to everyone.  And that is why it will be a success.  There will be those that feel no reason to add yet another network into their ever growing mix.  But the ‘creatives’ of the the world – those who have a passion for the arts, whether it be music, design, film, dance will not be able to get enough of the new myspace (*my prediction).

I never, ever thought I’d be writing such a pro-myspace post.  In fact, I thought it was dead long ago  - but if the actual user experience is anything like the teaser video, we might just be seeing the re-entrance of a major player on the social scene.

What do you think? Can myspace ever regain shades of its old glory?

HubSpot 3 was anounced by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah during HubSpot’s annual marketing conference INBOUND 2012 (get the lowdown on Inbound 2012 here).  The upgrade includes a complete overhaul to the platform and most notably enables many of the platform’s applications to more effecitively ‘speak’ to eachother. Think Apple’s iPhone and how all the native apps are connected to the 3rd party ones (ie: camera is connected to the twitter app, phone is connected to the maps app etc).

What this has allowed for HubSpot to do is to create true relevance and context around marketing, whether that be segmenting a list based on the pages they visited or creating call-to-actions that only people that visit the site through social media will see. Here’s the full skinny on the upgrades and what you need to know about them:

1. Your Contacts Meet Facebook Timeline

From my perspective, the most exciting part about HubSpot 3 is the new contacts database. Each lead that enters your database is stock full of so much relevant information that these contacts go from static visits to truly dynamic, living leads.  So what’s the big deal?  Well, first off the interface has been placed in a Facebook’ish timeline type layout.  This intuitive layout, makes it easy to scroll through the lifeline of your contacts, noting everything from interactions you’ve had with them on twitter to how many times they’ve opened your emails.  Whether you are simply trying to understand what is engaging for your contacts or perparing for an upcoming sales call – this information is vital.

2. New Lead Nurturing that gets Smarter as you Go

The old ‘Lead Nurture’ system has been replaced with ‘Workflows’, which allow you to much more effectivley connect campaigns, segmented lists with the specific information from particular contacts.  Of most interest perhaps is that the workflows are ‘smart’ and update lists and communications based on particular events and interactions you have with different contacts.  I know this sounds confusing, but essentially what it is doing is allowing a whole new world of custom and contextual communication with prospects.  This is good for everybody -

3. Big League Email

It seems HubSpot has decided to give mega email clients like MailChimp and Constant Contact a run for their money with a completely overhauled email application, complete with templates and a nifty little preview window.  Reality is, there is nothing phenomenally new here – the most exciting part of it is that it will speak seamlessly to your already existing contacts database whereas if you use a 3rd party client (ie: Mailchimp or Constant Contact), then you would have to connect the dots manually.

4. Calls To Action that your customers care about

Do you ever feel like you wish you could show some visitors one offer and others another? This is especially useful for those that are serving relatively niche industries.  For example, if you own a real estate practice in Toronto and have a special promotional piece of content called ‘The Toronto Guide to Hot Real Estate’, you wouldn’t want to show that necessarily to all international visitors to your site.  But imagine you could show that offer ONLY to people who have identified themselves as being from the Greater Toronto Area?  Liklihood of click through and submission would go through the roof, I promise. HubSpot 3 allows you to do just that with Smart Call to Actions, that will change depending on the contact that is viewing them.  Pretty cool, if you ask me.

5. Landing Page Builder Designed to Generate more Leads

I’m not going to say much about the landing page creator, other than that it is great for one reason.  It is a website page builder that helps you set up a web page to serve one function – lead capture.  It walks you through it in such a simple way, that even if you know nothing about inbound marketing methodology, you should have no problem with this (as long as you’ve got some good design in your back pocket).

6. Segment Using Social

There is so much chatter happening on social media – wouldn’t it be great if we could actually tap into the chatter and then create an offer or connection that is relevant to what people are actually saying and/or doing?  Yup – you guessed it HubSpot 3 lets you do it.

7. Auto-Input Smart Fields

Nothing really to write home about, but this is one of those little things that make a big difference for heavy hitting content marketers.  No one wants to re-enter the same information everytime they interact with your site.  HubSpot has cleaned this up from 8+ fields down to 1 or 2.

7. Lead Tracking On-the-Go

I LOVE this.  As a practicing online markter, the HubSpot iPhone App has just become my best friends.  Marketing doesn’t sleep, take a break or go out for coffee,  so luckily now if I happen to be out for coffee – I can quickly and efficiently check on vists, leads and customers, complete with notifications as they come in along with the source of that contact. Again – I LOVE it. Thanks HS.

Energy, motivation and a true unjaded perspective on marketing and business. That sums up the vibe at Hubspot’s recent conference that brought 2,800 inbound marketers from around the world to rally together, accelerating the new content marketing movement. Taking place at the Hynes Convention Centre, just across the river from HubSpot’s head office, attendees were dazzled with inspirational keynotes and practical breakouts from the industry’s best and brightest. Amongst the key notes, included challenging thoughts from best-selling author, David Meerman Scott, striking stats and comedy from Rand Fishkin, calm and soothing perspective on introverts from Susan Cain and endless inspiration and obscenity from Gary Vaynercuk – all tied together with a big fat product announcement from Hubspot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah (oh — did I mention Cyndi Lauper did a show? Yes — Cyndi Lauper). While there was an endless wealth of knoewledge shared at Inbound 2012, I’d like to disseminate it down into 5 key strategic notes from the 5 key notes, plus one more closing thought from Cyndi Lauper. In summary, these points are:

1. Lose the campaign – via @dmscott
2. Forget most of the things you think you know – via @randfish
3. Equip your team with the right tools – via @bhalligan @dharmesh
4. Inspire your team with the freedom of creativity – via @susancain
5. Really, really, truly care – via @garyvee

1.Lose the campaign

Best selling author, David Meerman Scott,kicked off the keynotes with a compelling talk, starting off looking at where we were before Inbound Marketing – stating that we used to have to Buy, Beg or Bug – which I think is a great way to sum up Outbound Marketing.  Following that, he brought the audience through 4 types of content including, Broad & Horizontal, Specific & Deep, Location Based and perhaps the most interesting, Real-Time Content.  Marketers need to stop thinking in terms of campaigns and start thinking in terms of ongoing continuous conversations rather than short outbursts that come and go.  Those that take advantage of what is happening right NOW, will be worlds ahead of those that don’t. This ‘campaign’ mentality will be a very difficult one to shake as most agency’s are accustomed to and set-up in a way to execute in short bursts, versus ongoing continuous activity. The client and agency that can learn to work togther for the long term will ultimately be the teams driving significant business results in the future.

1 of 4 types of content – real time content #Inbound12 @dmscott twitter.com/tentsocial/sta… — Jeff Berezny (@tentsocial) August 28, 2012

2. Forget most of the things you think you know

CEO of seoMOZ, Rand Fishkin entertained and challenged the audience with insightful biases of SEO.  Kicking it off talking about how women who search for men on online dating sites select, in general, drastically ‘less’ good looking men than men do women. This is NOT because women don’t like ‘hot’ men – rather it is because of a selection bias that is eliminating many of the good looking dudes.  This bias is that most women search ONLY for men that are above 5’9″!  YES – there are good looking men under 5’9″ – and women are unknowingly preventing themselves from even having the chance with these men.

How does this apply to SEO? Often we assume search results are a cause and effect due to certain very speciic criteria, when in fact we are misinterpreting the causal nature of the data. In a world where there is never-ending data, we need to use that data to remove irrational biases.  Some examples of this from Rand’s talk included:

Make your website just a ‘little’ bit faster and your traffic will massively benefit.#inbound12 @randfish — Jeff Berezny (@tentsocial) August 28, 2012

Irrational biases in SEO @randfish #Inbound12 : Search Engines Only prefer text (many forms of content work very well) — Connection Model (@ConnectionModel) August 28, 2012

Text-link-text better than link-text-text or text-text-link when tweeting@randfish#inbound12 — Jeff Berezny (@tentsocial) August 28, 2012

3. Equip your team with the right tools

Co-founders of HubSpot, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah started day two off with a bang, with the unveiling of HubSpot 3.  From a technical point of view, pretty much everything has been upgraded. But not only have things been tweaked they’ve been made ‘magical’ as Dharmesh put it.  This ‘magical’ element was that of context. Now with HubSpot 3, all of the applications are MUCH better at talking to each other, with perhaps the most exciting element being the updated contacts application that shows every interaction that has occurred with a particular lead, including on social, email page views, all nicely packaged in a Facebook-ish timeline.  This provides context for the marketer to better understand prospects. To push the idea of ‘context’ even further, marketers can now customize the Call To Actions that users see on the site, depending on their past experience.  Ultimately, this should facilitate giving visitors more of what they might actually want versus overly intrusive advertising. Learn more about HubSpot 3 and its roll out here.

Hubspot3 launches at #Inbound12 twitter.com/tentsocial/sta… — Jeff Berezny (@tentsocial) August 29, 2012

4. Inspire your team with the freedom of creativity

Author Susan Cain, mixed things up on Day Two with a talk that dove into the inner sanctum of what makes introverts tick.  While the concept of introverts and how society is not structured in a way to help them succeed is a fascinating one-  this was perhaps the least compelling and relevant of all the key notes. That being said, one very relevant point should still be drawn from it.  That is, give people space to create. In a world with far too many tools, and as good as HubSpot 3 might be- I am personally worried about the proliferation of mindless marketing.  A marketing that is too much based on science and data and not enough on insight and art.  While Sarah didn’t really dive into this specifically, I think it is crucial that we provide our teams, whether they be introverts or extroverts– the space to create.  Marketing is an exciting collision between art and science and PLEASE don’t forget that there is not (and never will be) a tried and true formula for rock solid creative ideas.

5. Really, really, truly care

Finally, the one and only GaryVee took the audience by storm with his usual energetic and obscene spiel. Gary stressed the importance of truly caring for your customers and that those that can figure out how to scale effort, will be the ones that truly succeed from both a business and personal point of view.  Gary toted that we need to stop thinking only with our heads and start to bring a little bit more heart into it. Before any of these tools and data were around, business owners had no choice but to care ridiculously for their customers.  Social media has allowed the world to go full circle, exposing every business for who they really are. So you have no choice but to be transparent and real.

There are too many people running businesses with their heads, not their hearts. #inbound12@garyvee — Jeff Berezny (@tentsocial) August 30, 2012

6. Have fun… that’s all they really wannnnnnt

While Cyndi Lauper wasn’t a keynote per se, business owners, marketing managers and employees alike, should take a page out of her book.  Regardless if you are a girl, boy, man or woman…. just have fun.  It is easy to get caught up in the day to day grind, but if you’re not having fun along the way, then why are you doing it?

*JB personal sidebar – I made a promise to myself in highschool that I would ALWAYS leave the dance floor if ‘girls just wanna have fun’ ever came on, because I never, ever wanted to be that guy that was jumping up and down singing this. Go girl power – but… the line has to be drawn somewhere).

In short, Inbound 2012 was a phenomenal succcess and is what I think to be only the tip of the iceberg in what will is turing into a true movement in new marketing and media.  Hang on to your seats, because this is only the beginning.

Massive exodus you say? That might be a little harsh – but there is a bit of a storm brewing and if a combination of factors line-up, we could well see Facebook dethroned.  I’ve described these 3 factors as ‘straws’ that if all piled together could ultimately break the Facebook (Camel’s) back.

Straw #1: Ridiculously complicated messaging control & privacy

As owner of social media agency, I consider myself to have a better understanding of Facebook than the average person.  That being said, when I tried to update my personal privacy settings to create unique messaging groups (like in Google+) – I fumbled around for ages before figuring out how to do it.  Even after I did, I still wasn’t sure if I actually did it correctly! Furthermore, now that I’ve set groups for close close friends/family and acquaintances – the only thing that Facebook has put on the screen to remind of that is a little ‘gear’ icon (see below).

The following is a snapshot of how Google+ approaches messaging control. I don’t think they do it perfectly either, but the point is that you should know, without a doubt, where every post you send out goes. There should be NO confusion.  It shouldn’t just be ‘possible’ to control, it should be mindless! While this ultimately won’t make people leave the platform, it could certainly lead to less usage and engagement.

Straw #2: Social Cam and frictionless sharing

I’m pretty sure there isn’t a person on Facebook these days who hasn’t felt duped by the latest news apps.  Firstly, the majority of articles/videos that trend in apps like Yahoo! News and Social Cam have images of scantally clad women,  disgusting zits being popped or toilet humour.  Naturally, this leads to people clicking on them.

They are then faced with a ridiculously confusing screen that talks to you about this app having access to different parts of your profile (again, our friend the ‘gear’ appears).  Most click it because they just want to read the article or view the video, not read through this jargon.  Little do they know that they are now agreeing to broadcasting their activity to everyone else in their network.  Don’t get me wrong, I think there are some definite benefits to frictionless sharing, but I would imagine that there are very few people on Facebook who wants their 300-500 friends to know that they just watched a video called “I heart bOObies.”   This confusion and invasion of privacy could be just what it takes to push people away from Facebook, especially if they don’t know how to turn it off.

Straw #3: Over-advertising clutter

Finally, a pure over-barrage of advertising within Facebook could be another contributor to its decline.  Amongst the 3 ‘Straws’ that could break Facebook’s back – this is the least likely, as people have become very accustomed to being surrounded by advertising. Whether that be walking in a downtown urban centres such as Times Square, reading magazines or watching TV.  While people learn to ignore ads, it has never been something that will drive people completely away from a platform, as long as they are still getting value from it.  That being said, if ads and promoted posts hit a critical mass in our newsfeeds, it will ultimately diminish the usefulness of looking at the newsfeed, eventually leading to less use of the platform itself.

Facebook is certainly not going anywhere soon and I’m confident that it will continue to be the leading social platform for years to come.  What will happen though, is a gradual chipping away of members and a slow migration of users to more intimate networks.  If you don’t believe me, download the latest PATH iOS update and tell me it doesn’t feel like you’re really sharing with your friends again, instead of broadcasting through a sea of spam.

Luckily, we live in a social age and a good chunk of the knowledge can be passed on .  While there was a wealth of golden social nuggets shared on the day, here are four that I’ve pulled out as the highlights.  These can be summed up as, first get your tools right (AmberMac), take control of your message (Sergeant Tim Burrows), tell your customer story – not your business story (DannyBrown)  and always do it with hustle and heart (Gary Vaynerchuk).

1. ‘FILL BLANK BOX’ - @ambermac

Amber Mac kicked off the day, taking the crowd through 7 Steps to Success: Social Media for Entrepreneurs.  Her most notable point was perhaps her emphasis on choosing the right tools.  The web is littered with tools, some good, some bad and some might be good for you but not for others.  Of the utmost importance though is ensuring your house is order, also known as – YOUR WEBSITE. Remember that thing? The thing that got forgotten after all these shiny social objects started distracting your attention.   Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, may all come and go – but you own your website and if you don’t spend time on it, it’s like opening up a brick-and-mortar shop and never staffing it or sweeping the floors.  It’s embarrassing… and it won’t result in $$$.

Once you’ve chosen the tools though to complement your website, a lot can be done by simply ‘filling the blank box’ as Amber Mac put it.  A lot of businesses and people are just plain lazy and expect the tools to do the job for them – well, just because someone gave me a paint brush doesn’t mean I can paint the Mona Lisa.  So, don’t just get the tools – ‘fill the blank box.’ And to push it a little further, don’t just ‘fill the blank box’ – fill the blank box with heart and effort (see more on the importance of effort below when I summarize @garyvee’s talk).

3. Use the right tools. And fill the box on Facebook. @ambermac #somix2012 twitter.com/tentsocial/sta…

— Jeff Berezny (@tentsocial) July 26, 2012

2. Take back control of the message - Tim Burrows (@t_burrows)

Sergeant Tim Burrows of the Toronto Police Services, began his talk with describing his job as “marketing the unmarketable.” How do you market the police services? With such a fragmented market and dozens of different stakeholder groups, how do you create a message that effectively delivers on the objectives of the service?  Sound familiar?  I’m sure it does for many businesses as they’ve tried to tackle the different stakeholder groups involved in their own business – especially in highly regulated industries or the public sector. Burrows highlighted how Hollywood has taken control and distorted the image of the police with everything from quasi-realty show COPS to the ultra-unrealistic CSI.  What social media has allowed the police service to do though, is to take back control of their message.  Kick out the media middle man and speak straight to its audience.  Any business can learn a lot from this concept.  You are in control of your message, so act in a way that is interesting for your most important audience (your customers) – instead of stale, corporate crap in a press-release.

@carrieburrows @t_burrows lots of laughs, the surprise hit speaker of #SoMix2012 — amber mac (@ambermac) July 26, 2012

“I used to be a policeman, now I tweet and post” @t_burrows #SoMix2012 — Jeff Berezny (@tentsocial) July 26, 2012

3. Your business is NOT the story – @DannyBrown 

Danny Brown had the tough mid-afternoon shift, but managed to light up the stage with his delightful scottish charm. While Danny had many great things to say, I’m only going to highlight one here.   Which is, as much as you think everyone wants to hear you talk about your business all the time – you’re wrong.  People are generally selfish and are for the most part interested in things that they have a stake in.  This doesn’t mean you can’t promote your business – but in Danny Brown‘s words “Your business is not the story.”  The ‘story’ is how your customers experience your business/industry, what it enables them to do and how it makes them feel.  So next time you think a press release posted on all your social channels is a social media strategy – think again.  You’re not speaking to the media, you’re speaking to your customers.  And just as Sergeant Tim Burrows has taken control of this within the Toronto Police Services, take control of this within your business as well.

Your business is not the Story- great lead off @dannybrown #somix2012 twitter.com/tentsocial/sta… — Jeff Berezny (@tentsocial) July 26, 2012

4. Scale the unscalable - @GaryVee

Not surprisingly, Gary Vaynerchuk took the entire room by storm with his electrifying energy and his raw and gritty perspective on the business world today. While I could likely write a whole post about just Gary’s talk (and I likely will… subscribe on the right), there is one point I want to draw out here, which is – “the most limited supply in the world is effort.’This idea was the foundation of his talk that focused on ‘scaling the unscalable’.  Meaning, ‘effort’ is not very  scalable.  But, the businesses that figure out how to do this will win in the long term (watch GaryVee say this in his own words below)

Customers, fans, clients will never, ever get tired of effort and this effort needs to come from the ‘heart’ not the ‘head.’  If you lead with the heart, you will without fail find a way to genuinely connect with your audience, it may cost you in the short-term but it is guaranteed to drive returns in the long run (for both you personally and your business).   As soon as you start thinking too much with your head – platforms, media, messages can be ruined.

In short, the day was a massive success and as much as each presenter had different topics they covered, it all laddered back to a similar theme that can be summed up as:

Choose the right tools and Fill in the box… with your message (not the media’s)…  and create a story that is about your customer,  not about your business… and do it with an endless supply of ‘effort’.

See you at #SoMix2013 and stay social. – Jeff B.

@tentsocial that sucked lol

— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) July 26, 2012

One last treat for the road— will this be @Garyvee’s next book?

Jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, jab, Right Hook! @garyvee next book? #SoMix2012

— Jeff Berezny (@tentsocial) July 26, 2012