Dec 4 2008

Jamming on Twitterville

December 4, 2008 – 6:50 pm

522764951_9f7dd97a15

Great titles say something, and that’s why I am excited about reading Shel Israel’s book-in-process, Twitterville. To me, the title captures the essence of what Twitter is, a social community that’s not quite a megatropolis like Facebook, yet maintains a larger presence, kind of like a small city nestled on the sea (Image: The Old City by Ronsho). 

Twitter definitely deserves all of the attention it gets, but at the same time is not  the ultra panacea that some say it is. It lacks many of the contact manager, full video, audio, full text and bookmarking capabilities of other networks. Acceptable interaction can be hard to find. It needs other tools like Tweetdeck to automatically repost (retweet) or group people. It’s just 140 characters, really. So when I hear about whole communication plans or even businesses being developed solely for Twitter, I get skeptical.

Yet at the same time, Twitter’s simplicity is what makes it great. It truly fosters a community, a large village with different cliques, different stories, and different conversations that vary by interest.  Cross pollination occurs by interest or professional commonality. And it can really do great things, and help people affect societal change.

"Twitter is the most intimate of social media platforms," said Shel in a written interview he gave for this post. "It lets people online behave more than they do in real life than anything that has preceded it."

gI_0_matt1 Isn’t that the truth, both good and bad?  I mean consider the whole Matt Bacak press release melodrama.  For those who are not familiar, Bacak issued a press release about his status as a top Twitterer due to Twitter Grader’s analysis of his profle. Bacak argued this makes his marketing prowess worthy of top dollars int he release. Given the suspect nature of Twitter Grader, he rightly caught a ton of grief about it. Bacak’s had a pretty smart recovery in his responses to folks today on Twitter.

The Bacak case did highlight how Twitter can really let individuals thrust themselves into the spotlight and build what some might consider to be undeserving greatness.  Or reap/create undeserving havoc. For example, in my opinion, the Motrin melodrama seemed a bit overwrought.

But like every village, there are good and bad folks; people who do great, and others who make mistakes. And there are great organizations in our community and others who don’t make the grade. It’s just another day in the life of Twitterville.

Shel added more insights into our funny little community and what to expect from his book:

Twitterville is a virtual place where the people you meet are real and the relationships you form are often quite valuable. The book gives a compelling argument for companies of all sizes to join in, particularly during these tough economic times.

Twitterville is a place where global businesses can set up very, local, personal shops at very low cost. It is simultaneously where people like Geoff Livingston can establish global reputations while remaining in relatively small organizations. Twitterville is comprised of global neighborhoods where geography is irrelevant and people organize around shared interests.

Ah yes, the first social media book that I’ve been excited to read in a long while… Twitterville. Looking forward to the late next year release (hopefully). 

What do you think of our little village (or Shel’s forthcoming book)?

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (9)

Buzz Meter: BigTweet

December 4, 2008 – 10:00 am

BigTweet is a free service used to ‘surf the web and post to Twitter.’ Developed by Scott Carter, the owner of Social.com, this new Twitter application is a bookmarklet offering more than just quick updates to your Twitter account.

To use BigTweet, all you need is your Twitter account login and password. Go to the BigTweet site and drag and drop the button (looks like the image) to your toolbar. All major browsers (Firefox, Internet clip_image002Explorer, Safari and even Google Chrome) support BigTweet. From there, you are ready to experience BigTweet. Click on the BigTweet button, now in your toolbar, whenever you’re surfing the web and want to share the site you’re on with your Twitter friends. The open window automatically shortens the URL of the site you’re visiting to be included in your tweet. Ever feel that 140 characters are not enough? BigTweet lets you choose between the normal 140 characters limit to double the size of 280 characters. You can make your tweets more exciting with over 60 different unicode characters to choose from:

clip_image004 clip_image006

A question you might ask: How secure is BigTweet? The Twitter application uses the secure https protocol during login and your password is always kept encrypted while on the BigTweet servers. You also have the option to keep yourself logged in. If you choose to uncheck the “Keep me logged in” box, your encrypted password is not stored when you close your browser.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 4 out of 4 Buzz Bees

clip_image007clip_image007clip_image007clip_image007

Positive: BigTweet goes above and beyond Twitter’s existing features with the different character limit choices (280 or 140) and the unicode characters. It’s a fun and simple tool.

Negative: The open window you use for posting does not go away after posting. You have to manually close it. It would be nice if it closed automatically. For Internet Explorer users, you can’t see the BigTweet bookmarklet unless you expand your Links Toolbar.

Conclusion: The drag and drop button reminds me of social|median’s “Clip it!” Applications or services that make it easier to surf and share what’s on the web seem to be the growing trend. I’m especially enjoying the unicode characters. BigTweet is a big hit in my book.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (4)
Dec 3 2008

The Art of Great Communications: Simplicity

December 3, 2008 – 12:49 pm

2274708568_9f28bbf55e

It occurs to me that whether it’s in person, using traditional tools, or here in the echo chamber (a.k.a. social media) that great communications remain difficult.  Why?  Because it’s not the toolset; it’s not the ability to be friendly; and it’s definitely not a personal brand. On the contrary, simplicity matters more (Image: the almost perfect circle by enggul).

This post assumes you understand the stakeholder and can give them value. It assumes you are using the right media forms to reach out. If you’re really good, you already have relationships in play. How do you get you through the noise?

Well, as we have learned repeatedly over the years.  Simplicity in communications. But as we most recently learned from the Heaths, simple is not easy. In fact it takes a concerted and consistent effort, regardless of the media form.

Here are six tips that I personally practice to make my outreach as effective as possible:

1) Outlines and frameworks:  Good strategic communications usually have forethought.  Creating outlines and frameworks to everything from blog posts and emails to major proposals and books forces you to structure your thoughts.

2) Take the time to communicate the obvious:  For example, with this post I just wanted to write the six tips. But without context and a thesis, the tips would have been random and probably would have seemed tactical. Just because the logic makes sense to you, doesn’t mean people have enough information to come to the same conclusion.

3) Thesis: Always start with a great intro that communicates your thesis. Get people’s interest right away. If it’s a longer communications, start subsections with section-specific thesis and intros.  Similarly, if it’s a complicated communication, repeat again with a conclusion. Again, it doesn’t matter whether this is for a speech or a white paper.

4) Brevity:  Speaking simply means concise dialogue. If you have a hard time with this, practice using Twitter.  One thing this social network (besides being part of a real community) will teach you is brevity. Take the time edit and cut the fat.

5) Great headlines: Blog posts, titles, section headlines, presentations, etc.  Try to make a snappy headline that communicates exactly what will be delivered.  This is a skill I learned from my Dad, who used to be managing editor of the Philadelphia Daily news and won two local Pulitzer awards for his headline writing.

6) Be real (or sub in personality or transparency or authenticity or…): The great lesson from social media: Make sure there’s some grit and real personality within your communications. Eloquent rhetoric means something, but it means a heck of a lot more when people can sense a persona with real experiences behind it.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (4)

Help Us Save Darfur

December 3, 2008 – 1:25 am

Originally published yesterday on the Social Media Club blog.

Special thanks to Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells for encouraging us to blog on the SMC site about some work we are performing on behalf of Save Darfur. This week marks the beginning of an aggressive campaign to take advantage of the administration change and use social media to encourage President-elect Obama to action and end the Darfur genocide.

The Save Darfur Coalition’s "Be A Voice For Darfur" postcard campaign seeks to ensure that Darfur is a top priority for the Obama Administration. Obama has already promised “unstinting resolve” to end the Darfur Genocide.   The effort, which aims for no less than 1 million postcards to be emailed, blogged and snail-mailed to President-elect Obama within his first 100 days in office. 

The hottest part is the unveiling of a petition application developed in conjunction with Facebook Causes. Other social media components include an influencer relations campaign, and a Darfur Blogger Toolkit with videos, photos, and other resources at http://www.addyourvoice.org/pages/blogger_toolkit.  And of course, there’s the mandatory Twitter hashtag: #voice4darfur .

darfur

 

The appalling genocide in Darfur continues – now in its sixth year and at the price of nearly half a million lives. Ironically, this December marks the 60th anniversary of the United Nations  Genocide Convention, and we are still dealing with this horrific issue.

The time to for action is now, and in a year when many of us are suffering financial hardship, we can still make a difference. Signing the petition, tweeting or writing blog posts  are great ways to help without expending a lot of cash. 

This is a great example of social media for social good.  But for it to work, you, the Social Media Club member needs to believe in the cause and do something about it. Help us end genocide, and spread the word to your friends online and with other local Social Media Club members

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (13)
Dec 2 2008

Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire!

December 2, 2008 – 11:10 am

2008blogsoffire3 Jason Falls posted on Drew McLellan’s The Marketing Minute blog regarding the importance of listening in social media. What makes this post particularly interesting is that it goes beyond describing how to listen using Google Alerts, Twitter, and RSS. Jason also offers examples from Comcast Cares, Dell Computers and others about how listening and then responding candidly is improving outcomes for companies.

Kami Huyse responds to criticism that social media is cult like. Kami says, “Unless you can call the printing press, radio or television a cult,” no it’s not cult like. Check out Kami’s post on Communication Overtones and see why Kami advises, “…Remember that the tools, while interesting and important, are never the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to be an effective communicator.”

Kevin Dugan provides details on a few Twitter tools for Strategic Public Relations readers. Tools Kevin details include a way to sort your followers and those you ignore, a Twitter news alert, a “personal Twitter assistant,” “an informal media database – in reverse,” and “an early alert system for media looking for sources.” For all the details on these tools check out Kevin’s post, and add a few of your own favorites.

Jason Little explains why the social media press release (SMR) is a more powerful marketing tool than the traditional text release. “What better way to market your company than through a concise press release that includes a 2-minute video or audio clip of the release?” asks Jason. Visit Q4Blog for SMR details and to see a great example.

Twitter has grown, but stayed much the same in 2008. That doesn’t mean that others aren’t leveraging Twitter’s success. According to Louis Gray, BigTweet, a cool new bookmarklet site that allows web content sharing on your Twitter account, is doing just that. Louis Says, “BigTweet’s bookmarklet means you can do it from anywhere, without leaving that page. The service’s added symbols and double the characters are also a plus.” Check out LouisGray.com for all the details on BigTweet.

Given that we’re recovering from a big Thanksgiving meal, it’s appropriate to reflect on what we’re thankful for. On his blog, Saad Kamal provides details on seven social media tools that he’s thankful for, because they make his life as a blogger easier. Some tools he highlights are Mint, Google Adsense and Wordpress. Visit Saad’s post for his full list and explanations, and let the community know what tools you’re thankful for.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Nelson | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (2)
Dec 1 2008

Social Means More than One

December 1, 2008 – 12:04 am
sheepmeadow.jpg

“Enough about me, what do you think about me?”

“You? You? I called about me, myself and I!”

Sounds like a pretty bad conversation. Yet, that’s often what you see when corporate types start promoting their wares in social channels or when “personal brands” deliver their cultivated messages to us (Sheep Meadow Image by Joe Schlabotnnik).

In its own right these types of chats limit the conversation to a very contrived one-dimensional activity. Or worse, just the same old marketing BS delivered to you in a new form. Heck, these efforts can be just flat-out anti-social.

Let’s look at some of the etymology at play here. The much overused word social has many definitions, including, “pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations.” Inevitably the words companionship and relations are involved in defining social. Going way back, social is derived from the Latin word socius, which means sharing, associated, or allied.

This should tell you truly social media — something that at LComm we simply define as the wide variety of two-way conversational media forms — involves more than one person or entity. Great social media from organizations and marketers engages the larger whole on topics that are more diverse than simple product discussions or contrived messaging.

By addressing the larger whole, good social media serves the community. Intelligent marketers understand that their stakeholders’ interests represent the heart of the conversation, thus their needs supersede a desire to talk about self, product, services or solutions. Even Star Trek’s Spock knew this when after sacrificing his life to save the Enterprise, he said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few… or the one.”

See video clip of this epic scene from Star Trek II.

Back to etymology. Community also has similar lessons to offer: “A social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.” Hmm, I wonder if personal brands, messages or sales pitches need apply to this shared activity.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (13)