There’s this guy. He’s become very popular in the “social business” space. He annoys the crap out of me. He tweets nothing unique, mainly just quotes and platitudes of the type that are very retweetable. He writes nothing original, mainly just articles geared to appeal to the masses but without much actual substance.

He has a PR mission for the company he works for, to become known and by proxy make his company be perceived as a social business. He preaches authenticity and transparency but then has all of the employee Twitter accounts set to automatically tweet links to his posts and retweet him. The PR machine gets him onto the right lists, the right panels, the right interviews, the right blogs. They create progressive stunts to get attention.

Why does this bother me so much?

Am I jealous of that attention? I can honestly say “no” to that. What does bother me is that people buy it. Hook, line, and sinker.

It seems crazy to me that someone who has actually done very little for his company in regards to actual change, or even progressive thought for that matter, can become a leading voice for the movement of which I’m a part. It makes me feel like the things that actually matter to me, like the hard work of organizational transformation, are being belittled or devalued.

But here’s the thing. I tend to analyze the things that annoy me, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe I’m wrong about this “charlatan” view that I have.

First off, by all accounts he is a nice guy. People I know and trust seem to like him at least.

Second, there’s no question that this is an “inauthentic” approach, but maybe this is one of those situations where if you say something loud enough, and long enough, you begin to create change by the very fact that you then are forced to become the thing that you say you already are … or risk exposure? The whole “fake it till you make it” thing?

Is faking it OK?

Is there value in that? Am I being too harsh in my judgment of this guy and others like him? Sure, he seems more concerned about image than reality at the moment, but maybe that will help to create a better reality later on?

I’ll never be in love with this approach, and yes it will probably always annoy me when people value what I consider the “wrong” things in this profession. But that’s just life, and I can’t apply my own values to everyone else. It can’t be my mission to be the white knight out there trying to protect the masses from the snake oil. There are already plenty of those people out there and frankly I find them just as annoying. Let’s face it, even this post it can be taken as a form of condescension and elitism. “I’m smarter than you so let me warn you away from your own stupidity”.

The bottom line is that there are things that I wish didn’t work. There are things that make me question my own values and what I’m willing to sacrifice in the name of “success.”

Cognitive dissonance is a bitch, isn’t it? What are your thoughts on the subject?

Tell me the truth – is there such thing as a social media statistic that isn’t mind-blowing? The growth of major networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ has fundamentally changed the way we connect with our friends and brands in less than 10 years time. When I was in college, Facebook was a status symbol for students. Now, it’s one of the world’s biggest information highways. Join us to discover 60 of the most surprising stats we’ve encountered lately:

Facebook

1      Facebook has 1.11 billion active users worldwide. (Source: Facebook)

2      The best time to post on Facebook to earn shares is 1pm. (Source: Dan Zarrella)

3      The best time to post on Facebook to earn clicks is 3pm. (Source: Bit.ly)

4      Weekend Facebook posts get 32% more engagement. (Source: Argyle)

5      Facebook reaches 55% of the world’s global audience. (Source: ComScore)

6      Facebook accounts for approximately three in every four minutes spent on social networking sites. (Source: ComScore)

7      46% of consumers expect customer service through Facebook. (Source: eMarketer)

8      62% of consumers follow brands on Facebook for product news and information. (Source: eMarketer)

9      Only 23% of brands provide customer service through Facebook. (Source: eMarketer)

10   Questions tend to drive interaction up by 10 to 20 percent. (Source: Blitzlocal)

11   Organic impressions are down 33 percent because there is a constant flow of content. (Source: Blitzlocal)

12   More than 70 percent of the interaction occurs during the first hour that a post is made. (Source: Blitzlocal)

13   The ideal interaction being driven by posts is between 100 to 119 characters. (Source: Blitzlocal)

14   50% of US consumers who have liked a brand on Facebook say the brand’s social page is more useful than its website. (Source: Lab 42)

15   77% of US consumers who have liked a brand on Facebook say they have saved money as a result. (Source: Lab 42)

Twitter

16   400 million tweets are published per day. (Source: Twitter)

17   200 million individuals worldwide use Twitter at least once  month. (Source: Twitter)

18   The average Twitter user follows 6 brands. (Source: Twitter)

19   The best time to post on Twitter for retweets is 5pm. (Source: Dan Zarrella)

20   The optimal amount is 1-4 Tweets per hour. (Source: Dan Zarrella)

21   The best time to post on Twitter for clicks is 1-3pm. (Source: Bit.ly)

22   50 percent of Americans see, read or hear about a tweet every day. (Source: Twitter)

23   Twitter advertising typically has a 1-3% engagement rate. (Source: Twitter)

24   There is a 53% increase in intent to purchase from Twitter users who see promoted Tweets. (Source: Twitter)

LinkedIn

25   There are 200 million active LinkedIn members in 200 countries worldwide. (Source: LinkedIn)

26   87% of LinkedIn users trust the network as a source of information for purchase decisions. (Source: PunchMedia)

27   49% of LinkedIn users rely on the network for word-of-mouth brand recommendations. (Source: PunchMedia)

28   77% of LinkedIn members research branded products or services on the network.(Source: PunchMedia)

29   65% of journalists have found a source or information for an article on LinkedIn. (Source: PunchMedia)

30   2 people join LinkedIn every second. (Source: LinkedIn)

31   2.6 million brands worldwide have a LinkedIn company page. (Source: LinkedIn)

32   39% of LinkedIn users have paid premium accounts. (Source: Lab 42)

33   35% of LinkedIn users access the site daily. (Source: Lab42)

Google+

34   There are an estimated 343 million active users of Google+. (Source: Trendstream)

35   Google has beaten YouTube to become the world’s second-largest social media network. (Source: Trendstream)

36   The Google +1 button is used 5 billion times per day. (source: AllTwitter)

37   75% of the Fortune100 are now on Google+. (source: BrightEdge)

38   625,000 new users on Google+ every day. (source: AllTwitter)

39   Google+ users spend on average 12 minutes per day in the Google+. (source: Jeff Bullas)

40   30 percent of users who make a public post never make a second one. (source: Jeff Bullas)

41   At least 80 percent of Google+ users engage on a weekly basis. (source: Chris Brogan)

42   Google+ pages appear in search results for 30% of brand term searches for brands with G+ pages. (Source: BrightEdge)

43   42% of UK Google+ users own smartphones, and 61% own tablets. (Source: Harris Interactive)

44   41% of B2C marketers and 39% of B2B marketers are on Google+. (Source: Brafton)

45   43% of the Interbrand100 post more than three times weekly. (Source: Simply Measured)

Pinterest

46   80% of Pinterest users are women, and 50% have children. (Source: Wishpond)

47   The average visit to Pinterest lasts 1 hour, 17 minutes. (Source: Wishpond)

48   Pinterest referrals spend 70% more money than other social media referrals. (Source: Wishpond)

49   57% of Pinterest users interact with food-related content, the top category on the site. (Source: Wishpond)

50   Pinterest buyers spend more money, more often, and on more items than any of the other top 5 social media sites. (Source: ComScore)

51   U.S. consumers who use Pinterest follow an average of 9.3 retail companies on the site. (Source: Shop.org)

52   Pinterest pins with prices receive 36% more likes than those without. (Source: Shopify)

Instagram

53   Instagram has 100 million monthly active users. (Instagram)

54   40 million photos are posted per day. (Instagram)

55   There are 8,500 likes per second on Instagram. (Instagram)

56   Engagement on Instagram with the those top 100 brands has increased 35 percent, driven mostly by Nike, Adidas, and Gucci. (Simply Measured)

57   40 percent of brands’ photos are filtered. (Simply Measured)

58   Of the brands that use Instagram, 41 percent now post at least one photo per week.  (Simply Measured)

59   98 percent of Instagram photos posted by top brands are now shared to Facebook.  (Simply Measured)

60   28 percent of U.S. Internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 use Instagram. (Pew)

We MUST know – which of these stats did you find the most surprising?

image credit: vlado/freedigitalphotos.net

There’s been a lot of negative stuff in the press so far about how Yahoo is making a big blunder with its recent acquisition of Tumblr.

In this article, I’ll explain why I think they’re all wrong.

But first, let’s address the critics, who in general, seem to be focused on two main points:

1. Yahoo Sucks at Integrating Companies (See Flickr)

In 2005, photo sharing site Flickr was at the forefront of the social media revolution. But, as some critics have pointed out, Yahoo’s reign has brought with it a complete lack of innovation, and as a result the company failed to do anything interesting with the huge audience Flickr had.

All this is true – however, it happened under Yahoo’s previous management, before Marissa Mayer took over the helm. This is backwards-looking, not forwards-looking. Yahoo has vowed “not to Screw up [Tumblr]”, and I even expect to see stunning changes to Flickr in the near future as the company looks to re-invigorate its core products.

2. Yahoo Overpaid for Tumblr

According to Quantcast, Tumblr gets about 60 billion U.S. page views per year. Using current prices for ad inventory those page views will spin off $108 million per year if a net $1.79 RPM (revenue per thousand page views) is achieved – so Tumblr’s $1B price tag works out to be rougly 10x this year’s revenues, which is rich because it’s not clear what the monetization model is or how users will react to more ads on their blogs.

Now here’s why the critics are wrong (ha ha).

1. Display ads will not automatically ruin Tumblr.

Yes, it’s true that showing stupid ads for weird weight loss tricks and finding singles in your area could potentially destroy Tumblr, but who says that Tumblr needs to adopt the Facebook model of ad serving? Google showed that serving relevant ads at the right time not only make them boatloads of money, but also add value to the user experience.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer promises platform monetization will be done in a way that will follow the form and function of the platform “in a way that’s meaningful” for users and their expectations. She and Tumblr CEO, David Karp, share a mutual love of pop culture and both desire to deliver online ad content “to be as great as the content”.

2. Display ads are way undervalued.

A few months ago, WordStream did a study on average AdWords conversion rates, cost per actions, etc. Google asked us to unpublish the study results, however you can still see the data on third-party sites, like this one.

Basically what we found was that the average Cost-Per-Action for direct response marketing on the Google Display Network was lower than the average CPA for advertising on Google Search in certain industries, like Automotive and Travel.

You read that correctly – display ads were actually beating out search ad performance in certain verticals, when you took into consideration the entire purchase funnel including cost per click and post-click conversion rates.

What’s driving this monumental shift are two things:

• Ridiculously expensive CPC’s like $50+ for “auto insurance,” which makes search marketing pretty pricy in lucrative verticals. Advertisers are getting stretched to the limit here and what’s happening is that advertising budget is being shifted towards other options – stuff like display and mobile ads.
• Big advances in display ad targeting, like remarketing to deliver the right ad to right person at right time; this does wonders for advertiser ROI. We work with a bunch of vendors in the space including Google and display ad tech has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last year. I’m talking about stuff like:
  • Search Remarketing (Search Companion)
  • New Mobile Ad Formats for Display Ads
  • Remarketing Lists for Search (RSLA)
  • Etc.

And if Google can do this, all YHOO has to do is build-in better ad serving intelligence to increase CTR from the average 0.1% and improve post-click conversion rates by more than the industry average of around 4% which is already being done by Google Display Network.– if they build it, advertisers will pay for performance. Just achieving similar numbers could increase the average revenue per page view by 4x, and who says they can’t do better.

3. Mobile is Worth Way More than Desktop

Approximately half of Tumblr users access the site content via mobile. Wall Street is completely confused about the value of mobile. Conventional wisdom is that because companies like Facebook and Google have struggled to monetize mobile, that mobile is somehow less valuable.

Here at WordStream, we’re finding the opposite to be true: mobile clicks and calls are worth way more to advertisers. We’re seeing that:

• The time between “searching” and “taking action” (like buying or ordering something) is much shorter on mobile
• Calls from mobile devices are 4+ times more likely to convert to a sale than someone filling out a standard “contact-us” form

While historically, mobile CPC’s have lagged desktop CPC’s, we believe that within the next 12 months, this situation will be reversed.

So in summary – billions more eyeballs and better display ad targeting monetization and more valuable mobile clicks = huge value to advertisers = big bucks for YHOO and that perspective is why it makes sense that Yahoo would want to pay over $1B to acquire Tumblr.

The banking industry has a lot to teach us about how not to get stuck in a rut of perceived customer satisfaction.

According to a recent Gallup poll, “research shows that banks that only consider customer satisfaction — even extreme “top box” satisfaction — are leaving significant cross-selling and up-selling opportunities on the table.”

• Less than half (45%) of customers who are satisfied say they would consider their bank the next time they needed a product or service, however, that consideration skyrockets to 83% among customers who are both satisfied–and fully engaged.
• Customers who are fully engaged and satisfied are also more likely to say they will open new accounts, switch from another bank, increase balances, and add ancillary products than are those customers who are just satisfied.

Additionally an Ernst & Young Survey noted “understanding customer behavior, attitudes and requirements is more vital than ever for banks’ strategic thinking….banks need to reevaluate their assumptions and fundamentally change how they interact with their customers.”

HMS National, the Florida home warranty marketer, used Voice of Customer Insights to increase customer engagement and boosted renewal rates by over 50%. VoC learnings helped them develop more effective strategies for engaging customers throughout the customer lifecycle, starting at the moment of enrollment.

Another company which understands that engagement equals customer loyalty is Discover Card, which has led the credit card industry in customer brand loyalty for 17 consecutive years, according to an annual study by the independent research firm Brand Keys, Inc. The research found that emotional engagement is the dominant driver of purchase decisions and brand loyalty.

This is evident in Discover’s Cashback Connection page, which notes “for every reward there’s a story. We want to know what Cashback Bonus means to you.” This tactic humanizes a company benefit and ties it directly back to the consumers using it.

Three key factors for their success:

• Discover Card has created the highest levels of loyalty by leveraging real, emotional value.
• They provide an experience that lets consumers actively engage with the brand so that expectations are created, understood, and ultimately delivered.
• Discover Card uses the information gained through its strong customer relationships to develop product features that are directly consistent with consumers wants.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand how your customers define satisfaction and engagement, and develop processes and metrics to keep measuring these factors on an ongoing basis.
• Use voice of customer feedback from research, call centers, customer service interactions, sales reports, etc. to develop a holistic view of your customers needs…and use this information to drive continually improving customer experiences, communications, and offers.
• Establish personal and emotional connections with customers that are both authentic and differentiating.

The well-known social GPS app, Waze, has been making its way through the media in the last week as the two companies have been sizing each other up from afar. Each largest search tools, Google and Bing, has a map function; Facebook shouldn’t be without one either. Waze takes social travel, GPS directions and real-time road condition updates and mashes them into one easy app.

In all seriousness, if you haven’t checked out Waze, you at least need to visit their homepage and watch the “What’s New” clip.

Could this be the time that Facebook trumps Google?

The combination of both Facebook and Waze could give marketers access to not only knowing who your customer base is but more about them — analytics not previously available through Facebook check-ins. By offering common data like how many times a user has gotten gas at one particular station, the overall effectiveness of Facebook Analytics in response to organic and paid promotions will be more effectively pinpointed.

Google has yet to tie Google+ into their Maps function to create the same effective platform. That’s just it: Facebook could trump Google. In the race to own mobile marketing and mobile search, who would be winning if the deal went through?

The closest acquisition Google had that resembled anything close to this magnitude was Double Click, which tracks data and can draw a direct correlation to the overall effectiveness of ads through Google.

The effect of the $1 billion acquisition of Waze would show immediate benefit to B2C companies using social media as part of their marketing or advertising strategy. To put things into dollar perspective, Facebook acquired Instagram for the same price tag.

As a consumer though, how willing are you to log into your Facebook account on each website you visit? Sites that selectively limit access through Facebook gain great analytic insight but often lose the part of their interactive audience who isn’t willing to give up their personal information.

The latest stumbling block in the agreement is whether Waze R&D will stay in Israel or move to be US-based.

What are your thoughts on logging into your favorite GPS tool through Facebook? Do you see yourself using this type of feature?

For more on Facebook for business, take a look at our FREE tip sheet!

On May 6th, popular satirical news site the Onion became the latest victim in a series of Twitter account hacks by a group called the Syrian Electronic Army. Their regular tweets to farcical articles and funny videos were replaced with politically-tinged messages as well as “The Syrian Electronic Army Was Here.”

In recent weeks, the group has managed to hack NPR, the Associated Press, the Guardian and CBS, among others. So how have they been able to gain access to these social media accounts? The Onion’s tech team has explained in a blog post how it happened to them and offered 4 tips for social media security.

Three Simple Phishing Techniques

An example of the phishing email that fooled Onion employees. Screenshot by the Onion Inc. Tech Blog on Github.

Ultimately, the hackers used three different methods to phish the Google Apps accounts of Onion employees. They started off by sending phishing emails which used a link disguised as a Washington Post article to prompt employees to enter their Google Apps credentials (including passwords). This gained them access to the account of at least one employee who entered their information.

The second method involved sending further phishing emails from that one employee’s account. These emails gained more traction since they were sent by a staff member trusted by his or her peers.

The Syrian Electronic Army hacked the Onion’s Twitter account using three simple phishing techniques. Screenshot by Vice.

At this point the tech team found out that accounts had been compromised and sent an email to all employees asking that they change their passwords. The hackers then mimicked that security email and included a link to a phishing page disguised as a password reset, which at least two employees filled out. In total, 5 Google Apps accounts were compromised through the three phishing schemes.

With all of the credentials they gathered using these techniques, the Syrian Electronic Army was able to gain control of the Onion’s Twitter account and send out several Tweets. A company-wide password reset was ultimately used to resolve the issue.

4 Tips from the Onion’s tech team

The Onion’s tech team concluded that the hackers’ methods were very basic and could be prevented with a few simple security measures. The four measures they suggest are, word for word, as follows:

1. “Make sure that your users are educated, and that they are suspicious of all links that ask them to log in, regardless of the sender.”
2. “The email addresses for your twitter accounts should be on a system that is isolated from your organization’s normal email. This will make your Twitter accounts virtually invulnerable to phishing (providing that you’re using unique, strong passwords for every account).”
3. “All twitter activity should go through an app of some kind, such as HootSuite. Restricting password-based access to your accounts prevents a hacker from taking total ownership, which takes much longer to rectify.”
4. “If possible, have a way to reach out to all of your users outside of their organizational email. In the case of the Guardian hack, the SEA posted screenshots of multiple internal security emails, probably from a compromised email address that was overlooked.”

Click here to learn more about HootSuite Enterprise or request a demo.

Other Resources on Social Media Security:

A guide to HootSuite’s security features: http://socialbusiness.hootsuite.com/hootguide-social-media-security.html

HootSuite’s CEO Ryan Holmes provides tips on “How Not to Have Your Social Media Accounts Hacked”: http://blog.hootsuite.com/ryanholmes-linkedin-social-media-security/

Ryan Holmes’ “7 Ways to Hack-Proof Your Companies Social Media”: http://blog.hootsuite.com/7-ways-hack-proof-social-media/

Ryan Holmes on “How HootSuite Protects Your Social Network Identity” for Bloomberg West: http://blog.hootsuite.com/how-hootsuite-protects-your-social-network/

A HootSuite University Lecture Series on “How to Protect Your Brand Against Social Media Hackers”: http://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-security-webinar/

With so many individuals and companies competing for attention on social media, it can seem nearly impossible to make your voice heard above the crowd. However, compelling social media content is a quick way to earn attention and brand loyalty. So what can you do to take your social media strategy from “blah” to viral? Here are some tips:

• Behind the scenes info: Whether you sell frozen yogurt or cars, people love to get a behind the scenes peek of what goes on at your company’s office. This helps to put a face with the brand, and remind people that you’re not just a bunch of robots. Share pictures from funny moments that happen in your office, pictures of unique décor in the building, and other shots they may not see otherwise. If there are personalities related to your product (such as hosts for a TV show or a popular face in a commercial) then incorporate these individuals into the behind-the-scenes information.
• Humor: People love to get a quick laugh when they’re scrolling through Facebook or Twitter. When appropriate, feel free to post humorous content. This is probably not wise if you run a business where clients need to turn to you during serious times, but for more light-hearted work, this strategy is effective.
• Articles they’ll want to read: If you find a particularly insightful piece on a website, whether industry-specific or mainstream, share it with your followers so that they can check it out too.
• Questions: Social media users love to give their opinion, so questions and fill-in-the-blank statements are often popular. The questions don’t even have to relate completely to your organization. Individuals will enjoy submitting their own thoughts, as well as reading what others had to say. Ask a question that prompts a relatively succinct answer for the best results.
• Beautiful images: Beautiful images often inspire a share from fans and followers. Turn to sites like Pinterest for help in finding this content. The pictures can feature your product or can be unrelated, as long as they are something that your followers would find compelling.
• Relevant tips and tricks: Whether you’re a food-related business and want to share a recipe or a clothing store that knows the best way to wear this season’s stylish pieces, offer tips and suggestions on your social media platforms. Users will begin to turn to your company for this advice and insight, making you an indispensable resource.
• Use your audience to create content: Consumers get a thrill out of seeing their photos or tweets on their favorite brand’s social media platforms. Invite your audience to submit a picture of them holding your product, or ask them questions regarding your brand. Post the best responses on your Facebook and Twitter pages and it’s likely that these individuals will then share their brief encounter with fame on their own accounts.
• Connect with bloggers: Once regarded as irrelevant and pesky, many bloggers are becoming industry leaders and are an important resource. If there is a blogger who is particularly popular with your audience, team up with this individual. Perhaps he or she can do product reviews or offer advice. You can also link to recent blog posts that this person has written.
• Polls: A quick one-question poll gives consumers the ability to speak their mind in an interactive way, without having to commit too much time to a full-length survey. Show the results to them when they’re done voting.
• Stats: Provide users with a brief burst of information through quick facts and stats relating to your brand.

Though the blank status and “compose a tweet” boxes can feel intimidating, carefully thought out and useful content will help you to attract fans and followers.

The team at Grammar Chic specializes in a variety of professional writing and editing services. For more information about how we can help you, visit www.grammarchic.net or call 803-831-7444. We also invite you to follow us on Twitter @GrammarChicInc for the latest in writing and editing tips and to give a “like” to our Facebook page. Text GRAMMARCHIC to 22828 for a special offer.

After a number of “high profile incidents,” such as teenagers using Twitter to join forces against law enforcement officers, representatives decided to take action toward this growing trend. If passed, those who use social media, texting, or emails to organize a “mob attack” can receive a harsher sentence/punishment by the law. While, ultimately, sentencing is still up to the judge, Rep. Mitchell of Chicago, a key sponsor, said the change will allow law enforcement to stay on par with changing technology.

In other words, no one would see a technicality just because they communicated through the interweb.

What it Means?

If caught, this could mean a whole new world of jail time for tech-savvy mobsters … or teenagers with a tendency to plan out their misdemeanors online. It’s likely such interactions will be deleted, but with platforms such as Facebook’s, which keeps a copy of every message sent, it’s likely a set can still be located.

With social media sites’ permission, this could also mean tracking down illegal disturbances before they even take place. (Though there’s no word as to whether or not social media companies are on board.)

Criminals, beware. As new technologies are put into use, legislators are cracking down. Be sure to keep your social media profiles clean to avoid these upcoming punishments – or better yet, just nix the life of crime altogether.

How does it work?

Traverik, gives you an option to log in via Twitter or Facebook. So after authentication you land up on a screen that gives you three options – 1) Start a Trip, 2)Explore Destinations, and 3) Profile.

Start a trip: The feature starts working on two inputs i.e. where do you want to go for vacation and starting when, which is by providing the date and time. I opted for one of my favourite place that I have yet to visit – Kerala. The below screen grab gives you the hint of the visual plan that has been created for you.

As you can see from the above screen, the startup has picked up the itinerary depending upon previous experiences of travelers. You can always customize the plan that has been listed to you from selecting various options from Suggestions feature such as Outdoors, Food, Hotel, Shopping, etc. Along with this, you can find information about the places listed and mode of travel. In addition to this, you can plan with the help of a map so that you know exactly the entire route. The below screen grab gives you a quick look of the feature which allows you to search and add to the planner.

Once you are happy with the plan, you can invite friends to contribute on the plan or save it. The app also provides features like offline consulting and help from tour operators.

Explore Destinations: This is a feature for all those people who have leisure time, want to go for vacation but have no idea where to go. The visual feature lists customized itinerary of world renowned destinations. So if you click on any of the vacation destinations, you would be provided the similar features like you had while working around the Start a Trip feature. For example I clicked on Venice and it provided me the weather details, the detailed visual itinerary, option to edit the plan. In addition to this, the feature had provided itinerary based on popular themes, like if I am going with my wife then I have an itinerary that is customized for a romantic trip in Venice. A useful feature for a married man!

Profile: The personal profile has three features – 1) My Plans, 2) Change Password and 3) Logout. My Plans feature gives a snapshot of all the travel plans that could be clicked and edited. The other two features go by their name.

How cool is Traverik?

Traverik right now does the job. The flexible customization feature and features like integrating the map is a cool idea. In addition to this, customized Explore Destinations feature really does the job. The startup has covered almost all favourite tourist spots and showcased a great list of itinerary for users. The experience as a user on the site was a breeze too.

However, having a crowdsourced model is the biggest challenge to the startup. For example, I had searched for Ladakh but I couldn’t find the itinerary for the destination. Additionally, many places have half baked information. But having any other model wouldn’t be feasible for Traverik too. So the startup will really have to work through to fill in the missing pieces.

Nevertheless, next time if I am travelling to a new place I would love to give Traverik a try. How about you?

Check out this Vine product demo below from FoamCraft that Chris Theisen shared with us.

What makes this Vine so great?

1. It showcases something unique

Show off your products by giving your audience a quick look at what the product does, not what it is. How does that machine work? Shoot a Vine of it.

2. It uses the medium

By demonstrating that the plastic fork breaks on the foam, it gives a unique look at how strong that product really is and how strong that cutter must also be. Find a creative way to display what your product does.

3. It tells a complete story

Get to the bottom of it all and ask yourself, “What’s the one thing I want to show off?” and shoot that. It doesn’t have to be so detailed that it won’t fit into that six second time frame. Keep it simple and get to the point.

And now you’re ready to create a great product Demo in just six seconds! But wait! Don’t forget to plan out your Vine beforehand using our free micro-planning template.

Firstpost had cited TV news channel Times Now while stating that the Delhi Police had tracked these messaging services during their spot fixing probe that also had around 70 phones under surveillance. However, the business head at WhatsApp, Neeraj Arora dismissed these as rumours, since WhatsApp chat messages get saved on users’ devices.

Arora added that WhatsApp messages are encrypted and stored only until they are delivered; no chat history is stored on the servers. In fact, he also informed Firstpost that the Indian government or any Indian law enforcing agencies had not approached WhatsApp for any information regarding chat conversations.

Besides, a reporter from NDTV had also interviewed Delhi Police Chief Neeraj Kumar who then informed that they did not know to tap BBM messages as yet.

Just interviewed delhi police chief neeraj kumar who says they dont know how to tap bbm messages yet so- type away freely :)

— sunetra choudhury (@sunetrac) May 16, 2013

Mobile messaging services are always facing the brunt, whether it is a security threat or the need to censor private conversations, or even the spread of insider market tips. Last year, The Department of Telecom (DoT) had set a December 31 deadline for telecom companies to provide real time intercept facilities for Blackberry smartphones, citing Blackberry services as a security threat by agencies.

Following which the manufacturer, Research in Motion, came up with a solution that enables telecom operators to provide lawful access to its messaging services like Blackberry Messenger (BBM) and Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) email. However, this was not extended to the Blackberry Enterprise Server.

This year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI has found out that mobile messaging services like BBM and WhatsApp are being increasingly used to spread sensitive market related information to influence certain stocks. As much as it is difficult to intercept these messages in the encrypted form, the market regulator is finding ways to tackle it.

With the number of messaging apps on the rise, the ways in which these can be manipulated has also been growing. Keeping a track on encrypted messages during transmission seems a tough ask, at least for now.

Image courtesy: static.expressindia.com

Ok, maybe it’s not a pun in the biblical sense but I think it’s a pun nevertheless. If you don’t agree with me, that’s perfectly fine. And while I am not the world’s greatest speller – although I did come in 2nd place in the 6th grade spelling bee a few years back, the reason for my incorrect spelling of the word “mover” is due to the fact that I want to tell you about something called “muuver.”

As per their description on the crowdfunding site indiegogo.com, “muuver is a simple to use social app that let’s you share your hypes and gripes, kudos & complaints, likes, and dislikes – about ANYTHING. muuver then takes your hype or gripe about an item and adds it to the ‘item page’ where you can see everybody else’s posts who hyped or griped about that item.”

Now I am a self-admitted social media junkie and anytime I hear of something new on the social media landscape I am usually drawn to it for at the very least to learn more about it.

Such was the case with muuver. When I heard about it then read about it on indiegogo.com, I was intrigued and wanted to learn more.

So I tracked down the president of muuver, Paul Marek to learn more. I asked him the obvious questions of what exactly muuver is, how it works, do we really need another social media network and so on. But I started off  querying him on why crowdfunding as a way to raise capital vs. the VC route – which other type startups seem to prefer.

SO: Why crowdfunding and not the traditional venture capital route?

PM: I  decided to go the crowdfunding route after attempting to put together a few pitch decks. It was then I realized I was focusing too much on getting VC funding, and not worrying enough about getting the tool built for people to use so it could gain traction, so I stopped pursuing VCs. But there is one VC I’d really like to partner with – Vinod Khosla. I love his attitude about failure. I’d really like to partner with him and his group to leverage their wisdom and connections.

Anyway, this is the power to the people tool, and I think turning to the people is the answer. I think the people should help build the tool, not have it in the hands of any one financial interest. In fact, we have a muuvment on the site called the “Use the tool to build the tool” muuvment. Essentially, since muuver is a tool for people to leave their opinion, we want to get their opinions about ALL the important aspects of muuver, from simple app functionalities, to helping us create our privacy policy.

This has to be built by the people, for the people, from the ground up. Therefore, in keeping with the theme of muuver, crowdfunding was the only road we could take.

SO: What is muuver?

PM: That’s a complex answer, but at it’s essence, muuver is a tool that is designed to give power back to the people. It’s designed to instantly connect and assemble people who share common ideas into groups, and uses the power of the collective voice of the group to create what we call a “muuvment”.

It’s complex because muuver is essentially a mashup of Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Yelp, Klout and Wikipedia, which is a lot of functionality all rolled into one. But, we’ve actually made it extremely simple to use. In it’s simplest form, muuver is a place where you share your hypes, gripes, kudos, complaints, likes and dislikes… about anything. But then muuver automatically does a whole lot more from there.

Here’s an example of how it works:

Let’s say you want to post a gripe about CompanyXYZ. Posting a hype or a gripe is actually quite easy – you just use our ‘muuvtags’ instead of Twitter’s ‘hashtags’. To make a muuvtag, you put a PLUS sign in from of something you like, or a MINUS sign in front of something you dislike. If your item is more than one word, you just close the phrase with a plus or minus sign. So, to post your gripe you would post it like this “I had a really bad experience with -Company XYZ-.

The complexity grows from there, but muuver takes over and does the rest by adding your post to a page that only displays posts about that same item. So, your gripe about Company XYZ will get added to the “Company XYZ Item Page”, which displays everyone else’s post about Company XYZ. Company XYZ can then “Claim” that page and respond to people’s hypes and gripes in full transparency. This is where the power is. But the item page not only shows everyone’s post about the item with Company XYZ’s responses, it also shows a bunch of stats about the item like its overall +/- score, it lets you “watch” or follow the item, it displays the item’s popularity on muuver, shows total number of posts about the item, it’s total number of ‘voters’, and lots more that we’ll be revealing soon.

The +/- score is the most impactful stat though, because I think people don’t just want to see how many people “like” a company, service, or product – they want to see how many people DISLIKE it too. Seeing both is seeing the truth. But muuver does this with ANYTHING that people put into it, not just products or companies. The users create the items.

But it goes even further from there. Since everyone who has an opinion about Company XYZ is now all in one place, we can then put this focused group into action. From here users will have access to a set of tools called a “muuvement” that anyone can create and manage. Muuvments are exactly what it sounds like – a group of people focused on a particular cause or action. Our muuvment suite of online tools has everything you need to inspire and manage your group into action, including their own status feed, forums, event management systems and calendars, petitions, and a whole lot more.

SO: What do you say to people who say “oh great, another social media network?”

PM: This is the issue I’m most focused on. My entire effort is to ensure that muuver is not just “another social network”.

From a user standpoint, I feel that the old social sites each have critical elements missing that make them far less effective than they could be. Twitter has the character limitation, Facebook only has a Like button, StumbleUpon and Yelp are missing the deep  networking aspect, and generally speaking, these sites are mostly just social fluff – pretty pictures and breakfast menus.

Yes, people have figured out ways to create huge social changes using these limited tools, people are innovative. But these old social networks were not designed specifically as tools to create social change – muuver is.

We take all the best aspects from each of the old networks, to make one that answers the yearning that people have had since the internet began – using it to create change. We’re also eliminating user friction by allowing users access to muuver with any other major social account. And they can share their posts to any social account as well.

SO: What effect will muuver have on brands and businesses?

PM: From a business standpoint, I’m almost afraid to predict what kind of impact this will have. Companies will have to address issues that people raise in on muuver in full transparency, directly with the person having the issue. Companies won’t have a choice about getting on muuver – the users will put them here. WHEN companies get involved will be the issue for them. But it’ll work both ways… companies will get the full benefit of people’s hypes, kudos and likes as well.

SO: When will the site will go into Beta and when will it go live?

PM: Our crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo lasts for 60 days, which is mid July. We’re hoping to launch our Beta platform a few weeks later at the end of July – it’ll depend how our crowdfunding campaign goes. Some of the perks we’re offering in our crowdfund campaign give the contributor immediate access to our alpha platform, and we’ll be using those lucky people to start creating a nice data set that Beta users can then begin to interact with when we launch at the end of July. When a full public launch will take place after that will be up to the Beta users to vote on and decide.

***

Ok, so what do you think of all this?

Do you think this sounds like something you would be interested in?

Me? I honestly don’t know if muuver is something I will ultimately use or not. I will more than likely kick its proverbial tires when it goes live.

Image source: Google Images

The event to be held at JWT’s Mumbai office on the 22^nd of May 2013, will see the country’s top creative directors who will also choose the ‘All Star’ of the evening, after interacting with young creatives. The ‘Portfolio Night All-Star’ is an event where the most talented young creative from each Portfolio Night event is selected and flown to New York to compete at Portfolio Night All-Stars competition in New York City in August 2013. (News Source: BestMediaInfo).

JWT has embarked on a crowdsourcing journey for campaigning using social media along with print, radio, outdoor, etc. Advertising students were asked to share their thoughts on advertising using the hashtag #whatithinkaboutadvertising by the Twitter handle created for the event. The most creative of these were then turned into posters or films. This poster is a tweet sent in by a Twitter user.

This tweet-turned-video clip seeks to demystify the myth that advertising is quintessentially English. (It features the best in the industry – Prasoon Joshi, Executive Chairman & CEO at McCann Worldgroup India and President, South Asia)

There are many more posters and videos shared at the event’s Facebook page, trying to bust more advertising myths. Aspiring students have many misconceptions about the industry, hence resorting to social media as a platform to reach out to the youth is a cool approach for this campaign. But, the icing on the cake is the co-creation concept. Crowdsourcing from the community and then converting the best among them into posters and videos is a brilliant thing to do, what do you think?

The Facebook page with an appealing cover page, has been quite active in the last three days. The content that is being shared on the page ranges from updating fans about the 36th Border Personnel Meeting with China to sharing booklets on Welfare Schemes for soldiers. The page admin has also been updating visuals from the Yudh Abhyas – 2013, an Indo US Joint Exercise under the United Nations charter and the recruitment drive that is happening at Leimakhong, Imphal.

Along with the Facebook presence, the Twitter account of Indian Army has not only been active but growing its presence. With more than 15K followers on Twitter, the account has been updating the latest activities that are being carried out by the Indian Army jawans. The Twitter account is also cross posting some of the Facebook content which is good to update the community about its new presence on Facebook.

A positive and a very interesting move from the Indian Army since last year it had said “No” to social media. In January, 2012 the Indian Army had issued orders asking all personnel — both officers and other ranks — who had joined social networking sites like Facebook or Orkut earlier to immediately quit them, and also directed those who had not joined such sites not to do so in future. The decision was made by the Army on the grounds of security and internal threat. In fact, the decision was followed just after two days when a Naval Board of Inquiry (BoI) had recommended for action to be taken against four senior naval officers, who were in alleged possession of highly classified information and leaking them through social networking sites.

The army updating about the challenges the officers face, the efforts that they are putting to protect motherland and also using the medium to motivate youngsters to join the army and serve the nation is well served on social media. These initiatives can be more fruitful if brave soldiers come and share the experience and tell the youth why the country needs them.

The change in perception and the cautious move from Indian Army shows the intent to adopt new mediums of communication such as social media so to connect with the youth of the country.

IPL teams on Facebook

SunRisers Hyderabad had the biggest growth in terms of fans – 8% with the addition of more than 44K new fans taking up their final fans count to more than 539K. Chennai Super Kings followed up with a fan growth of more than 3% and the highest Engagement Score overall on Facebook.

Source: Unmetric

When it comes to engagement, CSK still leads the lot in terms of overall engagement, but Kings Xi Punjab seems to have gained lots of interactions thanks to a Killer innings by David Miller, which helped the KXIP team to more than double the engagement on their page in the last 2 days of the week. In terms of Interactions of fans per thousand, below are the top 5 engaging posts which garnered the maximum Fan participation sorted by the IPM metric:

In terms of Interactions per post, Chennai Super Kings lead the other teams owing to the high number of active fans they possess followed by Mumbai Indians.

Source: Unmetric

Content Strategy adopted on Facebook

Chennai Super Kings: The content from the CSK guys have been pretty consistently revolving around their team stars. From Sir Jadeja jokes to the tongue in cheek replies to the RCB on their Twitter page, fans seem to love their content. And then they also have the ‘Spot the Ball’ contest which is a bit old fashioned but is generating quite a response from the fans none-the-less.

Mumbai Indians: Sachin! Sachin! On Field and off field. The little master works like a charm even when he is not even playing. The fans, they just love him and his content, even more.

Delhi Daredevils: Nothing has been going right for Delhi this season on the field. On Facebook, their performance has been mediocre which again might be attributed to their lack of on field performance to boast about.

Kolkata Knight Riders: I am really disappointed with them. Despite being the current IPL holders and having an owner as popular as Shah Rukh Khan, their Facebook engagement is one of the weakest I have seen. The enthusiasm by the fans seem to be missing too. People are tweeting about SRK’s non entry in to Wankhede more rather than their team’s performances. Sums it up!

Kings XI Punjab: Miller has killed it for them on Social Media as well. The innings has been well appreciated by everyone online and yes that has actually translated for them to increase fan growth to nearly double in the last 2 days.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Gayle is their mainstay and DeVilliers and Kohli act as supplementary. In terms of new content and being interactive, the IPL team is taking their community seriously and taking some great strides.

Rajasthan Royals: Although not boasting of the fan size as much as the MI’s or the CSK’s. RR is doing a decent job in keeping up with updates. The Underdogs here as well.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: The Sunrisers did start off with a bang, but now somewhat are left behind in interactions. Time to come up with some innovative and fresh content.

Pune Warriors India: What to say about them. Horrid time in the IPL, Horrid Time on Facebook as well. Repetitive images about Match Day, A ‘War of the Bands’ contest nowhere related to the team and a non performing team. It’s just not their year!

IPL teams on Twitter

Sunrisers Hyderabad had the highest follower growth compared to all the other eight IPL teams at more than 11%. The handle seems to gain a good following in less than a year’s time as compared to others closing in on Pune Warriors at 91K followers.

KKR seems to have the best response time in week 5 replying to fans in less than 3 minutes on an average whereas SunRisers take longest time to reply with more than 6 hours per reply. Although in terms of volume, Delhi Daredevils has replied to most of the queries (61) at an average response of under 2 hours.

Source: Unmetric

In terms of hashtag conversations, Chennai Super Kings dominated the hashtag war with a reach of over 22 Million and more than 21K mentions of #CSK.

Chennai Super Kings lead most of the conversations in Week 5 with a Share of Voice of around 30%. Sunrisers Hyderabad had the least share of conversations in week 5 while Mumbai Indians came in second with 16%.

Source: BrandWatch

In terms of mentions of IPL Team’s twitter handles, Chennai Super Kings lead Week 5 with more than 1,500 mentions of @ChennaiIPL followed by @MIPaltan with 1,025 mentions. Surely, CSK and Mumbai Fans were seen to be the most active in week 5 with the #MIvsCSK generating the maximum buzz overall.

Source: BrandWatch

In terms of overall sentiment, Rajasthan Royals and CSK seem to have a positive sentiment ratio. Rajasthan Royals have been praised for their consistent performance even though with a lack of a larger than life superstar. Dravid and Rahane have been the driving forces for the positive conversations. CSK on the other hand have their own loyal fan following with Dhoni and Hussey driving the positive points across forums. David Miller’s blitzkrieg knock earned Kings XI Punjab a growth in their positive mentions while Gambhir had to bear the brunt of the incident between him and Dravid leading to some negative feedback for the already struggling Kolkata Knight Riders.

IPL teams on YouTube

In terms of YouTube growth, Royal Challengers Bangalore are right at the top having already gained more than 6 Million video views on their channel. In week 5, Chennai Super Kings lead in terms of average views per video followed by SunRisers and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Source: Unmetric

Chennai Super Kings again stand out to be the clear winner in terms of presence and engagement in all the three categories in Week 5 of the IPL. Delhi and Pune are lagging behind on and off the field. The below data sheet gives you a clear picture on how fans are performing on social media.

Which team do you follow in this edition’s IPL? Do let us know your thoughts in comments.

When compared to traditional venues such as television and radio ads, social marketing offers some unique advantages.

• Establish a relationship with your customers and create a network for your company.
• Consumers may join your network now and buy your product later.
• Design targeted campaigns for specific audiences.
• Create interactive ads which invite users to visit your company website, blog or other social media profiles. Increased interaction with your brand increases conversion and loyalty.
• Engage consumers to increase brand awareness.
• Consumers can advertise for you by sharing, liking and tweeting.
• When combined with an analytics service such as cloud marketing, you can receive real-time feedback on what is working and what is not and fine tune your campaign.

Engage Your Audience

In the 1990’s, the banner ad was introduced to digital marketing. They were successful in their day but have now become the radio or television ad of the internet. Consumers can simply “mute” banners and side bars and focus their attention on the content that interests them. That is why the future of advertising lies in engaging the audience.

Engaging content can take many forms including blog posts, articles, videos, photos, contests and giveaways. Here are some items to consider when creating content for social media:

• Consumers want to know details about the products. Some marketing cloud services include website management tools which will help you create an interactive experience for the customer including zooming in to see detail, changing views of the product or changing colors.
• Know who your target market is and what they want to hear. Customize your message for each social network where you advertise. Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Twitter have unique ecosystems and serve unique purposes for their communities.
• Again, analytics will be useful in obtaining data about the success rates of each initiative so you can effectively target your potential customers. Consider using a cloud marketing service to help you invest in the right advertising opportunities.

Creating Positive Brand Associations

Social network marketing has changed the advertising world. In the past, advertising was a one-way communication where the business told the consumer their product was the best. With social media, advertising now has as much to do with what the consumer says as what the business says. There is constant conversation between consumers about brands. This can be free advertising for the business if the consumer has positive brand associations. Consider some of these ideas for your next marketing campaign:

• Photos and videos of company events can give a face to your business and help consumers connect with your brand. Social media marketing is about creating a relationship with your customers.
• How-to videos are another simple way to increase brand awareness. Useful information is a form of engaging content and increased interactions with your brand will increase conversion.
• Contests, giveaways, and discounts are great ways to get consumers talking about your brand on social networks. Everyone loves free stuff and good deals, and they share them with their friends.

Keep it Simple

You can start simple. Creating a Facebook profile for your business is free and is an excellent starting point. After becoming a fan of a company’s Facebook page, 50% of consumers say they are more likely to buy the company’s products and 56% say they are more likely to recommend the brand to their friends. Make some friends on Facebook today and they will be your loyal customers later.

Image courtesy of Cheap photo stock

This article was written by Jared Jaureguy.

Still, here are three bursts related to communications, albeit each longer than 140 characters.

Twitter Looks to Accelerate News Traction

Much has been written on whether Twitter falls under the social media or news media category.

The debate misses the point.

One way or another, Twitter intends to be a channel for news stories, particularly breaking news. With this in mind, Twitter is raking the talent sand for someone to fill the newly created role of “Media – Head of News and Journalism Partnerships.”

The following objective in the job spec captures the thrust of the gig:

It’s very similar to what Facebook did a couple years ago, poaching Vadim Larusik from Mashable to cultivate relationships with journalists.

Deciding to Bring Dialogue on LinkedIn to a Screeching Halt

It’s not every day that the Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei sits down for a media interview (try roughly 9,100 days = 26 years X 365 days).

Conventional thinking would have had Zhengfei making his debut with a global media power like The Economist or The Wall Street Journal or Reuters.

Instead, he met with journalists in New Zealand, a clever move that meant Huawei gained the best of both worlds: “friendly” journalists with a news hook that would trigger worldwide syndication.

The global head of media relations for Huawei, Scott Sykes, posted the news on LinkedIn where I weighed in.

You can see Teresa Leung, a journalist from Computerworld Hong Kong, twice asked on Syke’s LinkedIn feed if Mr. Zhengfei plans to meet with HK-based journalists.

I think we can interpret the lack of response as a no.

Refusing to Apologize Can Have Psychological Benefits

Given the increasing use of the apology, this contrarian view in a study by Australian academics caught my attention:

Despite an understanding of the perception and consequences of apologies for their recipients, little is known about the consequences of interpersonal apologies, or their denial, for the offending actor. In two empirical studies, we examined the unexplored psychological consequences that follow from a harm-doer’s explicit refusal to apologize. Results showed that the act of refusing to apologize resulted in greater self-esteem than not refusing to apologize. Moreover, apology refusal also resulted in increased feelings of power/control and value integrity, both of which mediated the effect of refusal on self-esteem. These findings point to potential barriers to victim-offender reconciliation after an interpersonal harm, highlighting the need to better understand the psychology of harm-doers and their defensive behavior for self-focused motives.

There’s something amusing in there somewhere.

Everyone loves robots. I’m an eighties child and was brought up on a staple diet of C3PO & R2D2, Ed 209 & Robocop, Johnny5 and those less famous bin-shaped things that attack people with kitchen utensils in Doctor Who – “Derek” or something *sic.

One of the defining features movie/TV androids have is their voice. Everything from R2D2’s bleeps and pops, Ed 209’s “you have 5 seconds to comply” through to Derek’s death call of “EXTERMINATE” has been imprinted on our minds from a young age. We all merrily quote our favourite robotic movie soundbites to our friends in the pub and as light-hearted Facebook statuses to images of cats, as we know we are talking to humans (unless replicants are now a reality without me knowing).”

Social media was designed by humans for humans and, although we are existing within a digital realm, theoretically, attached to each end of the keyboard are humans with human brains and everything!

Automation within social media channels is not a new concept and scheduling software is widely available, but using them to their full potential is another matter.

BeedeeBeedeeBeedee. Where’s the human touch, Buck?

In a normal situation, I’m sure we’d all love to have a conversation with Twiki from Buck Rogers, but when we follow our favourite brands on Twitter being greeted by an automated news feed is hardly going to spark a wave of interaction. It’s like attempting to hold a conversation with the talking clock.

Now, there are obviously situations where automated feeds are appropriate, such as @BBCNews for example. However, if your social strategy is to drive traffic through to your website, engage with customers/clients and manage your brand awareness and reputation there are some tricks you need to employ to avoid your company’s online presence becoming akin to inviting the emotionless super computer “Big Blue” to a party.

Tone of voice on social media is a much discussed topic and Simon Jenkins covered this subject rather eloquently here >>. What I’d like to approach are the methods available to anyone starting out or managing an already established company’s social output to ensure the human touch remains.

Manual posting

If you are just starting out on your corporate social journey, manually managing your posts is a great way of keeping tabs on your burgeoning relationship with your socially inclined clientele. By all means post links to news articles that your followers would be interested in, but include your opinion of the story and maybe invite additional comments.

Scheduled posting

Software such as Sprout Social, Buffer and Hoot Suite are there to help you manage the frequency and timing of your tweets remotely, capitalising on the maximum reach of your following that may be active during out of office times. (For a comprehensive list of the best scheduling platforms currently available, Steve Masters has produced this handy list >>)

Sprout Social – Content scheduler

Advanced social media marketing tools

Not only do some of the platforms mentioned above allow you to schedule your tweets, they also provide you with the capacity to post on numerous social sites, manage multiple accounts and allow you to report comprehensively on how a particular campaign is running. Everything from your click-through rate (how many times a link was clicked) and social reach (how many people saw your post) to the geography and age demographic of your followers can be tracked.

100% automated feed? Danger Will Robinson, Danger!

Powerful stuff I’m sure you’ll agree. The problem is, with great power comes great responsibility. Welding tools such as these, it can be very easy to just schedule a load of news stories or automatically post a blog from your WordPress or equivalent site and set them free onto your social profiles – unfortunately, we humans can tell when the robot speaks. Mix it up a bit. Schedule some relevant news stories for publishing throughout the day but then follow them up with discussion points – be the David Dimbleby of your own social media Question Time. Don’t be afraid of directing a discussion point at influential industry commentators and spark up some conversations.

The most important concept to grasp when operating behind the guise of a company profile is to embrace the fact that a real person is managing it. Scheduling posts can help you reach more people but reactively talking to your followers using your own voice will keep people coming back.

Robocop may be Robocop on the exterior but he will always be Alex James Murphy underneath.

A couple of months ago without notice, all of the social media sharing counters on my primary website had reverted to zero. Just like that, thousands of shares that had accumulated over a period of nearly seven years had vanished.

Why is this significant?

Social sharing is what is known as “social proof.” It’s evidence that your site is active and worthy of the attention of new buyers that happen to be passing through.

Not knowing if this action was recoverable, I settled into the realization that I may have to simply move on and start fresh. While the problem was resolved, the incident got me thinking about what I would do if my entire online presence vanished – what then?

So, here is that plan.

It has lessons for businesses that are new to social media, as well as for the rest of us that can (and should) do more of what needs to be done to ensure the online relevance of our businesses in a digital world that is now driven by the customer.

#1 – Build Digital Content Marketing Assets

Your most valuable digital assets are your primary website, blog, and email newsletter.

These are the only true digital assets with which you have complete ownership and control. This means they are your lifelines – your ability to reach out to communities to accomplish whatever is necessary for your business – even if the entire social media universe goes to zero.

If you build these assets well, you will earn the trust and loyalty of your communities. This gives you the opportunity, among other things, to both fix problems and earn new business.

So, if you are missing even one piece of this three-legged stool that supports your business marketing, you should be taking the necessary steps to balance your approach.

#2 – Secure Your Marketing Assets

In addition to backing up your website, blog, and email list, you should be doing the same with all of your social networks.

While personal data is seldom compromised, the possibility always exists that any site on the web can be hacked.

This is why, in addition to backing-up my MacBook Pro daily to the cloud using Dropbox, I also backup with Time Machine to a hard drive.

Having at least two lines of defense is vital – because I know many businesses that had only one lifeline and it failed when they needed it most.

So, backup everything. In addition to your digital assets, you can easily download your LinkedIn connections to both your hard drive and Google Contacts – just scroll down to the bottom of “connections.” Also, you can easily save your Facebook friends and their contact information to Yahoo Contacts.

#3 – Organize Social Networks by Micro-Communities

Business will continue to be more personal. So, it is important to respect the culture and practices of every community, something that is not possible when you have thousands of connections, fans, or followers.

You can use Interest Lists on Facebook, Tags on LinkedIn, circles on Google+, and lists on Twitter.

If you are a local business, pay special attention to the local community group that Facebook sets up for you. First, if you do not use it very often it will “disappear.” Just click on the “more” button on the left sidebar of your newsfeed to get to it.

Also, you can adjust your local community settings to enlarge “local” from the default of a 10-mile radius, all the way up to 350 miles if your service area extends that far. Just click on the “Manage List” setting in the upper right.

#4 – Think of Your Business as a Media Company

Every business today is a media company that manages a business channel that collectively includes all of the aforementioned digital marketing assets and social networks, plus probably many others.

Your social marketing should not be random. Sure, in the early days we all went fishing on Twitter to see if we could catch a few new business opportunities, but those days are long gone.

As search capabilities become more personal, specific, and accurate, the businesses that are strategically aligned with the communities they serve will easily outdistance those that are taking a shotgun approach.

The stakes are going up.

Your business not only needs a solid social marketing offense, but also a well-planned defense to protect your hard work and ensure your business future.

#5 – Pick a Lane and Own It

Every major accomplishment in your life has been the result of doing one thing consistently well.

Consistency is not only a hallmark of professionals, it is a practice that will make your business memorable for the customers you serve.

Apply this to your small business marketing.

#1 – Choose one activity that will impact your business success.

#2 – Commit to consistently doing it well.

Consistent actions create expectations that attract buyers to your business. Doing this with your social media marketing engages them at an emotional level – and that is memorable.

Where would you be and what would you do if all of your social media went to zero?

Share your thoughts.

Photo Credit

My first thought was to tell her that, you know, one has to be client-centric, try to think what makes them tick, use permission marketing techniques…

And that was when I halted. Permission marketing… I’ve read, heard and spoken about it to others a gazillion times. I’ve used it as an overlay, or rather as the basic principle, in my marketing activities. But how is it implemented in social?

Well, many marketers believe that social marketing IS permission marketing by default. I mean, if following a company on Facebook or Twitter doesn’t equal explicit permission, then what does?

However, if you think about, it’s not that straightforward. There are certain things social marketers do nowadays that violate permission marketing principles, which leads to poor results (such as nobody wanting to engage with you).

Permission marketing vs interruption marketing

First off, how is permission marketing different from its opposite, interruption marketing?

Again, one may say that, when people like your Facebook page, they do expect to see updates from it in their feed, which makes your marketing efforts expected, highly personalized (maybe) and well-targeted (well, not always).

As you see, the deeper one looks into permission marketing basics, the more it becomes obvious that social offers a lot of room for deviation from these. Could it be that, on the one hand, following someone on Facebook means giving them a permission to talk to you, but, on the other hand, could this be just like subscribing to a TV channel with interrupting ads?

Why social is NOT ALWAYS permission marketing

Now, one important remark: permission marketing is gradual in nature.You approach a prospect step by step, getting permission after permission, until you are allowed to actually sell stuff to them.

A good analogy would be a person attempting to sell something in the street. If you just stop a passerby and tell them “buy a toaster from me”, they never will. However, if you ask “would you care for a free toast?” they might say yes, and then you could start pitching the toaster at some point.

So, in fact, it’s the gradual nature of permission marketing that makes its social incarnation prone to corruption. Turns out, there is a risk that your social campaign will deviate from permission marketing basics at some point, and your fan page will turn into a TV channel with advertising if you’re not attentive enough.

Even worse so, as Seth Godin says, at least on TV the time you spend talking about yourself is limited:

Some mistakes to watch out for

1. Calling something else “permission”

Some marketers hold it that, whenever one agrees to a site’s Terms and Conditions (which often means agreeing to share personal data for ad targeting), this gives them permission to target the user with personalized ads.

But do people really want to see ads, or did they just overlook the fine print?  Melissa Megginson wrote a great post not long ago saying that many people are actually “creeped out” by socially targeted ads. A survey mentioned in the article revealed that 68% of social network users were NOT OK with ads tailored to their needs.

I’m not trying to say that social ads don’t work – they do to an extent, or else no one would be buying them. It’s just that they are not necessarily part of permissions marketing, because people don’t really want ads – they want answers to their questions and solutions to their problems. If your ad happens to provide one, then you might be on the right track.

2. Getting permission by wrong means

Now, how do people get social followers? In fact, they do it in different ways. Depending on the methods you use to expand your fan base, those follows could be real permissions or not.

The ideal situation is when someone follows you because you made a specific offer/promise which you are going to keep.  For instance, when you promise to help users with their technical questions on your Twitter support page, this lets you get real permissions.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we see such methods of attracting new followers by poorly-targeted viral campaigns (for example, a plumbing equipment company encouraging users to like them on Facebook to unlock some scandalous footage featuring Justin Bieber), marketers buying followers wholesale, etc.

3. Not setting your priorities

Are you doing what you’re doing just because your competitors are doing it as well? In order to avoid spending too much time on unnecessary activities, it’s best to focus on platforms that drive real permissions (and sales).

For instance, Pinterest is still hot these days, but it could be just the wrong place for some online businesses to make money. Or it could be that you just have the wrong approach to it, as Olga Filonchuk says in “Kiss Your Pinterest Strategy Goodbye“.

You might be surprised to learn that Apple has neither a fully-functional Facebook page, nor a Twitter account. Technically, they do, but they never post anything there:

4. Using different permissions for one and the same purpose

Now, with email marketing it is easy to create and maintain different lists of customers who expect slightly (or totally) different things from you. How does one do this with social media?

In fact, many companies are doing it correctly, but not all. The right way to do it would be to use particular social media channels to deliver on particular promises. For example, many brands have a separate support account, separate product accounts, etc.

As an example, here is a twitter account we had created for SEO Olympics 2012:

5. Not even trying to be personal

Finally, another discrepancy I see in social media marketing is that some managers do not even try to interact with their followers as they would interact with people in real life. Permission marketing is all about replicating real-life conversation. If you don’t do that in social media – you waste your permission.

For example, asking people a question and not getting back to them when they answer it is unacceptable. Yet this is what Verizon did at least on one occasion:

Well, just to give them their due, Verizon do have a separate Twitter account for client support where they DO answer people’s questions, but still…

Conclusion

As you see, social marketing bundle does not necessarily come with permission marketing coupon inside. It is possible to make your SMM campaign adhere to permission marketing principles, but you won’t be doing permission marketing by default.

Know other ways permission marketing techniques can apply to social? Do let everyone know in comments!

1. Don’t lash out: Sometimes it’s hard to deal with constructive and/or blatantly harsh criticism from others, especially on such an open public space or forum like Facebook. However, as we learned from the recent and epic social media meltdown that Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro had on Facebook, it’s an excellent example of what no to do. Owners, Amy & Samy Bouzaglo lashed out on Facebook in response to some not-so-nice criticism after airing on Gordon Ramsay’s, Kitchen Nigtmares. Instead of say, swearing, ranting for hours, “yelling” in all caps, calling customers “stupid,” and then trying to cover it all up, responding quickly and calmly to a customer’s complaint, and trying to resolve it as soon as possible is simply the best thing you can do.

2. Don’t buy followers or fans: It may be tempting to make social media a numbers game. The more followers or “Likes” you have, the cooler, more trusted, desirable brand you must be, right? However, the point of social media isn’t to acquire a mass following, but to build relationships with legitimate potential and current customers. It’s all about quality over quantity – You may have 1 million followers, but if half of them don’t exist or don’t actually give a hoot about your brand, you may as well have none. Focus on increasing the quality of your content rather than increasing your numbers, and you’ll build a solid strategy and fan base.

3. Don’t create fakes comments: Who doesn’t want engagement and comments on posts, as well as a few good reviews on various sites? The problem is, they just can’t come from you – It boils down to dishonesty, and customers can easily see through it. Instead, include calls-to-actions in your social posts like, “Like this post if you agree,” and ask questions that’ll entice customers to respond. Need more reviews on your Yelp page? Encourage customers, and/or even give rewards or discounts to those who do write reviews, but honest ones!

4. Don’t be “Sir Spam-a-Lot”: Commenting on other social media or blog posts purely for the purpose of getting your own brand out there screams “spammer.” If you think your content is relevant, contact the owner of the post and propose a real linking or collaboration strategy. If you offer value with your content, you may develop a meaningful relationship – Win-win. Check out our post, How to Connect with Online Influencers – Dos & Don’ts for more advice on how to approach these relationships.

5. Don’t plagiarize: Simple and true, “stealing content” aka plagiarism, isn’t cool. Content marketing is all the rage these days, however, creating your own quality content is of the utmost importance. It’s A-okay to use other posts, websites, articles and studies as a source as reference in your own content, but they absolutely must be cited and attributed – no ifs, ands or buts about it. If you’re sharing third party content on social media, or in blog post, (even if you’re paraphrasing), the source must be cited, including a link. Not sure how to go about this correctly? Check out our post, Journalism 101 – What Bloggers Need to Know for all the details.

6. Don’t embellish: Whether it’s a promotion, a contest, the specifics of what your service or product can offer, or a reaction to a mistake, exaggerating or embellishing can be incredibly obvious to a large audience. In our Amy’s Baking Company example above, the Bouzaglos later tried to cover up their major social media meltdown by posting, “Obviously our Facebook, YELP, Twitter and Website have been hacked. We are working with the local authorities as well as the FBI computer crimes unit to ensure this does not happen again. We did not post those horrible things. Thank You Amy &Samy[.]” Lying to backpedal instead of apologizing and owning up to a mistake will only backfire. Honesty is the best policy.

Have a craving for more social media “what-not-to-dos”? Check out our post, Scary Social Media Faux Pas – Don’t Be That Guy. Have any other tips or scary faux pas that you’ve witnessed on social media lately? Spill it!

Serial Entrepreneur “I have adult ADHD and I just came off of a string of start-up failures.”

Thought Leader “I don’t have to make sense. I just have to say everything is outdated and have cool, spiky hair.”

Guru “I’m a know-it-all so sometimes I have trouble working with teams. I’m a consultant.”

Maven “I’m a know-it-all so sometimes I have trouble working with teams.  I’m a female consultant.”

Diva “I’m a know-it-all so sometimes I have trouble working with teams.  I’m a female consultant with long fingernails.”

Gamification “I thought my Twitter campaign would get people’s attention but it’s not so I’m going to try to make it less boring.”

Best Practices “Vague ideas experts give that will replace the ‘old’ ways of doing things which is always what everyone is currently doing.”
or

“Link building is so dead. Innovation is the future!”

and

“Keywords are a thing of the past. We have moved into the bleeding edge of synergistic paradigms.”

“Huh?”

“It doesn’t make sense to you because I’m a thought leader.”

Big data “That is so 1984.”  and “The price society has paid for free webmail.”

Hyper-localization “Your SEO budget is so small the only way I can get you a number one spot is if we use your address as keywords.”

or

“On second thought, let’s do paid search instead. Advertising is getting very savvy with all this stalking!”

Socialize It “We can put a facebook share icon next to it.”

Brand Ambassador “To get free advertising you have to have a product people have heard of.”

Infographic “That’s correct. It’s a chart with pictures. Yes, we could just use that PowerPoint slide.”

Engagement “Hey! Hey you guys! Look at this. What do you think? You there? Guys?”

Whether you work for a 60,000-employee company like SAP or a smaller 100-person organization, it’s key to be part of their social business to help extend and humanize the brand. If every SAP coworker engaged in one weekly social media action there would be an incredible brand-extending impact. For instance, by sharing a Business Innovation Blog post, updating a LinkedIn status with an SAP article, or liking a post on Facebook at least 312 million incremental impressions (assuming every coworker has only 100 followers) would be generated to help amplify and extend the brand; and that does not consider sharing, liking, commenting and retweets.

5 Steps To Start Being Social At Your Company

Here are five easy steps to start to use your social media power and network to help your company:

• Have A Goal. You wouldn’t go on a trip without a destination in mind, so, don’t start being social without an objective! I often hear, “I need to start Tweeting” or “I need to start doing social media for my work”. Statements such as those generate my immediate response of “Why?”. And the answer is usually some unclear explanation. Two simple goals for starting to “do social media” are: 1) Be an amplifier to extend the reach of your or your company’s message 2) Be a curator to deliver a mix of audience-relevant content to help address their needs or interest.

• Work On Your Social Profile’s Curbside Appeal. Smart Money Magazine indicated that consumers value a landscaped home up to 11.3 percent higher than its base price. The same concept applies to your social brand’s curbside appeal. Spruce up your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles to make sure your curbside appeal makes people want to ‘buy’ your brand. 94% of people only look at the first page of search results. LinkedIn ranks higher than all other profiles. However, if it is not complete, then your profile will not rank on the first page of search results. People will check you out after they find and engage with your social media messaging. So, make sure to you spruce up your profile to set the right impression for your credibility.

• Be A Stalker, Then A Talker. Look before you leap into the conversation. A great place to start looking and listening is to follow a selection of coworkers, clients, prospects, competition, media publications, thought leaders and company social media channels. Pay attention to the type of words, links and content that are shared and then use their messaging as your guide. The rule of thumb for social media content is that 1% create content, 9% modify content, and 90% read content. By being a part of the 10% of creators and curators, you can easily make a Jedi difference by amplifying and curating content to reach the 90% of the readers.

• First, Master A Few Social Channels. Research conducted by InSites Consulting shows the average person actively interacts with no more than five brands on social media. By becoming a “human extension” of your company, you can increase the reach of your company’s content through your social brand even if someone is not following your company. Do not try to boil the social media ocean. And, do not focus on only one social media channel. It’s a big place. First master LinkedIn, Twitter and Hootsuite and then move on to other channels. Twitter and LinkedIn are two relatively open platforms that will let you listen, engage and reach others who are not following you. Hootsuite is a client application that will help you manage your listening and messaging.

• Know The Rules Of Engagement. When in Tatooine, do as the Tatooinians do. When on Twitter, do as the (successful) Tweeters do, etc. etc. Understand the rules of engagement for each of your social media channels. Individuals have different engagement expectations of each social media channel. Once you start to use your own social media channels to get your messages and content distributed make sure to understand the best message tone, cadence, timing and overall styling to make the biggest impact. Sometimes you will need more than one tweet to make a difference, while other times one LinkedIn status update will do the trick of cutting through the clutter.

Do you have an interesting or successful way in which you have successfully amplified your company’s message with your personal social network? If so, please share below. Or, contact me directly at MarketingThink.com.

It’s time for your to embrace your social media force and start to take the steps to use your powers (and social media network) to help increase your company’s reach, engagement and conversion. And, if you are ever in doubt with what you can do or how to do it, just ask yourself, WWYD (what would Yoda do?) Or, just email me at moran.gerry@gmail.com. May the social media force be with you.

Let’s look at what happened to Kodak or more importantly what did not happen inside Kodak. When Steve Sasson, the Kodak engineer who invented the first digital camera in 1975, shared his idea with Kodak management:

But it was filmless photography, so management’s reaction was,’ that’s cute—but don’t tell anyone about it’.( source New York Times 2/May/2008)

So did the management fail to see the new trend or did the thought of cannibalizing their revenue streams blind them – perhaps both.

For the next 3 decades, the management was in denial about the emergence of this digital trend. While the founder of Kodak, George Eastman managed to embrace a new trend at the right time twice (once when he turned down profitable dry-plate business to move to film and then when he invested in color film even when their black and white business was doing well), the successive CEO’s managed to stay on the same old trend and failed consistently.

The next failure, in 1996, was its $500Mn project Advantix preview film and camera system (this was 10 years after developing its first mega pixel camera). The Advantix preview would allow the users to preview their shots and select the number of picture prints required and this was possible because it was a digital camera (Source Forbes 18/Jan/2012) . The major cause for failure was the introduction of film into a digital camera just because Kodak was in that business!! Would you really buy a digital camera and still pay for film and prints?

So what’s the root cause – Management stopped ‘listening’ thereby didn’t see the impact of the chinks in their armor then went on to refuse embracing the new trend, even worse, they spent millions of dollars on research to force fit an old trend (films) onto a new trend (digital) using Advantix preview. If Kodak had a two or multi-way communication mechanism ( like social networking today)set-up in 1970’s, 1980’s and marketing-employee relations and other stakeholders picked up on the pro and anti ‘digital trend’ views, and made a futurist decision perhaps Kodak would be bustling with growth today

To look at the issue, let’s draw an analogy between a company and a person. Companies tend to behave like people; in addition to other qualities successful companies and people tend to have a right balance between conviction and self-awareness. For an organisation to start a journey of building this balance, the following 3 aspects are critical

1.) Multi- way communication (social networking is just one platform) with all stakeholders (customers, employees, prospects, analysts, investors.) can be very helpful provided companies actively listen more and say less. Social media technology including employee collaboration tools can empower R&D, sales/marketing and other department members in order to make the wider internal community notice the importance of a new trend.

2.) Marketing/Employee relations to work 2 in a box to understand employees’ views on company’s products, services, new trends, challenges in addition to traditional employee relations work. Customer Experience is no longer a front line issue only; it has to be an enterprise wide philosophy.

3.) Management/Leadership culture that is keen to listen to the findings of Marketing and other departments. Conviction and Self-awareness need to go hand-in hand. Management with too much conviction and very little self-awareness will lead to a Kodak moment, too much self-awareness and very little conviction is a non-starter.

Back to the issue of whether social networking could have saved Kodak? Maybe, it would have created more awareness in order to embrace the new digital trend or a tleast generated some noise which would have received some more attention and over time the management would have become a bit more self-aware. Social networking can help with awareness; adoption has to come from within, where culture also plays a role. More so now than ever, for a company with competency and resources to be successful, management needs to get their employees behind their strategy and drive the company forward. This does not mean building a strategy in isolation and hard selling to the employees and customers to get their support or this does not mean trying to find a democratic strategy – this means continuously running programs to socialize ideas and to listen to the views, solutions that emerge and/or to listen and pick up new ideas and monetize them.

Today, leading companies evaluating/implementing various customer impact systems such as CEM (Customer Experience Management), Social CRM etc are backing it up with Big data analytics, In-memory computing and leveraging Cloud’s elasticity. Long term players are teaming-up with the right partners in order to stay relevant; the future is exciting provided you are equipped for it.

Would be keen to listen to your views and experience!

Social Media has been an evolving and overwhelming force over the past 6-7 years, taking over personal lives and forever changing the way people communicate. Social Media has connected people like nothing we have seen before! It has also become a major part of online marketing and business networking forcing itself on the business world. This has resulted in an overlap in individuals’ social worlds, blurring the line between personal and business communication.

For some people this blurring of the line is not only OK, but welcomed. While others struggle to find a way to keep a balance and to keep each world separate. How do you accomplish this task without making one of the two different social worlds suffer? The first step is figuring out your individual line.

Figuring out your line could be a difficult thing to do, and could also make you realize that you don’t mind the two worlds mixing on occasion. Most people will try to keep separate accounts, but will depend on reaching out to friends in the beginning to help create a fan base. But where does this end? Friends will support you up to a point before they start to ignore your posts / requests. This is the problem with social marketing. Social media was originally built for people to interact with their friends, and interests… and not to endlessly market to them. So then the big question becomes what is too much?

Another issue that many see is how your posting habits change from your personal world to the business world. Most of the posts you direct out within the business world are to make people aware of your product, industry, or about your company (things that people don’t care about all the time in your personal world). Compare that to your personal posts which will include candid remarks, pictures of friends and family, funny pictures or videos, etc. These are posts that should not cross over into both worlds, but they usually do (business to personal).

So what is the right balance? There are many guides, books, webinars, and companies out there that are meant to help you with your social media marketing. They show you how to engage your fans, what to post and how to keep them interested. They usually focus on not overwhelming your fans, and an overall social strategy, but nobody really talks about how to interact with your family and friends. Some will say that they are going to be 100% supportive and you don’t need to worry about it, but that is not the case.

So the answer I have found is that it depends… I know, great answer. It will come down to your knowledge / skills with social media as well as your knowledge / perception of your friends. I don’t think that there is a set balance or guide to how to proceed in this delicate area, but I believe it is a topic that should come up more and not have a simple answer. Below I have included a few tips that I hope will help you begin to see the line again.

1) Keep your friends aware of your business. If they are your friends they will be interested in what you are doing, but might not always be willing to participate so don’t beat them over the head with it. They may be able to provide some insight and even offer some suggestions that you haven’t thought of yourself.

2) Keep separate social media accounts. While your business accounts should have a personal touch that let people get to know you, over sharing of your personal life with your business life is never a good idea and may come back to bite you.

3) Your personal social media accounts should be spontaneous, while your business accounts need a plan.

4) Posting about your business via your personal account is OK to do every once in awhile. This is just to help them keep informed about your business without forcing them to take a bigger part.

5) Make sure to never force the conversation in any world, try to present yourself to people who have an interest in your field (not just any random person).

Where have you struggled to keep a balance between personal and business, and what have you done to overcome those challenges?

Image courtesy of MiiiSH, Flickr.