RT:  Great post by Remarkablogger Michael Martine outlining the top twitter faux pas made by marketers, summed up in the following paragraph.  The advice may seem like common sense but is a great reminder of why the word social appears in the wikipedia entry for twitter.

“If I could distill these five points down to one main message it would
be this: act like a normal person as much as you possibly can.
Providing value to your followers instead of sales pitches is the best
marketing you can engage in on Twitter (or in any social media
environment).”

Tags: Advertising/Marketing, Consumer-Generated Media (CGM), Social Media Best Practice // Add Comment »

Looking for tips on how to make Twitter work for your business? Here’s a quick fifty ideas from Chris Brogan’s blog. The tips are broken down into categories such as: first steps, what to tweet, and the Twitter-positive arguments to the most common Twitter cons you’ll come across. The post is a great primer for someone who’s itching to join the conversation and is looking for what to do to get started.   Now go get twittering….
More from Chris Brogan

Tags: Social Media Best Practice // Add Comment »

Start experimenting with these ideas for social media marketing, and you’ll start to understand Web 2.0. Now take it a step further and listen to the conversation with analytical tools, determine your brand’s sentiment, find the insights and create authentic conversations with your topic mavens, then you’ll be several steps closer to using social media for your own purposes. If you want to reach even more definable goals, then Collective Intellect would be happy to help.

Read on for a topical best practice for social media marketing within the following reposting of the “fifty ways for marketers to use social media” from Chris Brogan. Jeremy Owyang went another step further and segmented the list into 5 groups. Catch that one here.

Idea #47, ” Spread good ideas far. Reblog them. Bookmark them. Vote them up at social sites. Be a good citizen.” Well, we’re doing our part. Read the full post here.

From Chris Brogan:

50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing

1. Add social bookmark links to your most important web pages and/or blog posts to improve sharing.
2. Build blogs and teach conversational marketing and business relationship building techniques.
3. For every video project purchased, ensure there’s an embeddable web version for improved sharing.
4. Learn how tagging and other metadata improve your ability to search and measure the spread of information.
5. Create informational podcasts about a product’s overall space, not just the product.
6. Build community platforms around real communities of shared interest.
7. Help companies participate in existing social networks, and build relationships on their turf.
8. Check out Twitter as a way to show a company’s personality. (Don’t fabricate this).
9. Couple your email newsletter content with additional website content on a blog for improved commenting.
10. Build sentiment measurements, and listen to the larger web for how people are talking about your customer.
11. Learn which bloggers might care about your customer. Learn how to measure their influence.
12. Download the Social Media Press Release (pdf) and at least see what parts you want to take into your traditional press releases.
13. Try out a short series of audio podcasts or video podcasts as content marketing and see how they draw.
14. Build conversation maps for your customers using Technorati.com , Google Blogsearch, Summize, and FriendFeed.
15. Experiment with Flickr and/or YouTube groups to build media for specific events. (Marvel Comics raised my impression of this with their Hulk statue Flickr group).
16. Recommend that your staff start personal blogs on their personal interests, and learn first hand what it feels like, including managing comments, wanting promotion, etc.
17. Map out an integrated project that incorporates a blog, use of commercial social networks, and a face-to-face event to build leads and drive awareness of a product.
18. Start a community group on Facebook or Ning or MySpace or LinkedIn around the space where your customer does business. Example: what Jeremiah Owyang did for Hitachi Data Systems.
19. Experiment with the value of live video like uStream.tv and Mogulus, or Qik on a cell phone.
20. Attend a conference dealing with social media like New Media Expo, BlogWorld Expo, New Marketing Summit (disclosure: I run this one with CrossTech), and dozens and dozens more. (Email me for a calendar).
21. Collect case studies of social media success. Tag them “socialmediacasestudy” in del.icio.us.
22. Interview current social media practitioners. Look for bridges between your methods and theirs.
23. Explore distribution. Can you reach more potential buyers/users/customers on social networks.
24. Don’t forget early social sites like Yahoogroups and Craigslist. They still work remarkably well.
25. Search Summize.com for as much data as you can find in Twitter on your product, your competitors, your space.
26. Practice delivering quality content on your blogs, such that customers feel educated / equipped / informed.
27. Consider the value of hiring a community manager. Could this role improve customer service? Improve customer retention? Promote through word of mouth?
28. Turn your blog into a mobile blog site with Mofuse. Free.
29. Learn what other free tools might work for community building, like MyBlogLog.
30. Ensure you offer the basics on your site, like an email alternative to an RSS subscription. In fact, the more ways you can spread and distribute your content, the better.
31. Investigate whether your product sells better by recommendation versus education, and use either wikis and widgets to help recommend, or videos and podcasts for education.
32. Make WebsiteGrader.com your first stop for understanding the technical quality of a website.
33. Make Compete.com your next stop for understanding a site’s traffic. Then, mash it against competitors’ sites.
34. Learn how not to ask for 40 pieces of demographic data when giving something away for free. Instead, collect little bits over time. Gently.
35. Remember that the people on social networks are all people, have likely been there a while, might know each other, and know that you’re new. Tread gently into new territories. Don’t NOT go. Just go gently.
36. Help customers and prospects connect with you simply on your various networks. Consider a Lijit Wijit or other aggregator widget.
37. Voting mechanisms like those used on Digg.com show your customers you care about which information is useful to them.
38. Track your inbound links and when they come from blogs, be sure to comment on a few posts and build a relationship with the blogger.
39. Find a bunch of bloggers and podcasters whose work you admire, and ask them for opinions on your social media projects. See if you can give them a free sneak peek at something, or some other “you’re special” reward for their time and effort (if it’s material, ask them to disclose it).
40. Learn all you can about how NOT to pitch bloggers. Excellent resource: Susan Getgood.
41. Try out shooting video interviews and video press releases and other bits of video to build more personable relationships. Don’t throw out text, but try adding video.
42. Explore several viewpoints about social media marketing.
43. Women are adding lots of value to social media. Get to know the ones making a difference. (And check out BlogHer as an event to explore).
44. Experiment with different lengths and forms of video. Is entertaining and funny but brief better than longer but more informative? Don’t stop with one attempt. And try more than one hosting platform to test out features.
45. Work with practitioners and media makers to see how they can use their skills to solve your problems. Don’t be afraid to set up pilot programs, instead of diving in head first.
46. People power social media. Learn to believe in the value of people. Sounds hippie, but it’s the key.
47. Spread good ideas far. Reblog them. Bookmark them. Vote them up at social sites. Be a good citizen.
48. Don’t be afraid to fail. Be ready to apologize. Admit when you’ve made a mistake.
49. Re-examine who in the organization might benefit from your social media efforts. Help equip them to learn from your project.
50. Use the same tools you’re trying out externally for internal uses, if that makes sense, and learn about how this technology empowers your business collaboration, too. “

Tags: Social Media Analytics, Social Media Best Practice, Social Media Insights, Social Media Monitoring // Add Comment »

Collective Intellect recently moved into a new facility with 10,000 more feet of space from their previous headquarters just down the street.

We are now stationed on two floors with the developers taking the ground floor and sales/operations on the second floor. There is some good karma with the space as Google had purchased SketchUp from here.

“After Google purchased SketchUp, the operation outgrew the space. The landlord negotiated a new lease with social media analysis firm Collective Intellect, which expanded its operations.”

Boulder County Business Report

Just outside our front doors is the heart of town and ever-lively Pearl Street Mall which runs between 11th and 15th streets.

The office is open without the need for cubicles as there are numerous free conferences rooms for client/sales calls within close reach of every-one’s desk. It is the perfect space for a social media company since conversation can flow easily across the floor without formality.

Our Address is: 1433 Pearl Street, Ste. 200 Boulder CO 80302.

Tags: Consumer-Generated Media (CGM), On Our Radar, Public Relations, Social Media Analytics, Social Media Best Practice // Add Comment »

Just like the semantic web I think Twitter would benefit tremendously from introducing a micro markup language that monitoring tools could use to pick up data more accurately. It’s a fairly hard problem to parse blogs and tag them with semantic and qualitative data. Now think about shrinking that text down to 140 characters and you really don’t have a hell of a lot to work with. If we introduce an abbreviated name-value system inside our tweets we can convey a ton of rich information that will be easier to get the message across to the companies and services that anger and overjoy us, events we’re attending, observations we make, etc. It’s time to take the next step with Twitter.

I think it would be simplest to put an abbreviated 2 letter type code at the start of the message with a sentiment symbol next (+ = good, - = bad, / = neutral), and the subject that you will be talking about. For instance I just got back from a trip to Minneapolis. My flight was delayed again (probably my fourth flight in a row on United that was delayed).

I twittered the following: “RV-UAL another trip, another flight delay on United”. In the first 6 characters I know that this is a review of United Airlines and it is negative. Simple, brief, easy for both humans and machines to parse and interpret.

The codes I’m thinking of are:
OB = observation
EV = Event
RV = Review

If it’s an event, perhaps the standard could be to create the event in facebook and snurl it for the event subject. what are some others? Let me know what you think!

Tags: Social Media Best Practice, Social Media Organization // 1 Comment »

With over a hundred million blogs and hundreds of millions of users of social networks and readers of social media, the internet is becoming the central location for marketing efforts to influence customers purchasing decisions. Integrating offline and online campaigns are a must in order to achieve optimal reach and conversion opportunities. There are more options to touch the customer today than ever before, and the media and reach combinations can be staggering. The primary purpose of marketing is the same: conversion. The methods to reach people are practically unlimited. And the game has completely changed. Instead of broadcasting it’s now called engagement. At the AdTech conference this week in San Francisco, engagement is all the buzz. So where to begin, what comes next, and how do you measure the effectiveness? Let’s start with the landscape of channels to push a message.

In the traditional offline arena we have the standbys of television, radio, billboards, press releases, print and direct mail. We can expand this well known arena to incorporate web banner ads to draw a circle around the arena of broadcast advertising.

Social media marketing makes up the rest of the picture and is less understood. This area includes blogs, wikis, podcasts, video blogs and webcasts, social network profiles, twitter/text and widgets.

All of these forms of media are intended to do one thing: create a call to action for a customer that moves them through the path of awareness to consideration to preference to purchase. Social media includes both earned and paid components, the more earned media achieved results in lower costs and, theoretically, higher conversions. Conversion is the point at which a customer takes the action to purchase product. Conversion is now largely based on conversation. Social media forms a conversation between buyers, prospects, and producers in all of their permutations. Social media levels the message playing field. Any one of these people could become a key influencer of thousands or perhaps even millions of people around purchasing decisions. One bad experience with an influencer can wreak havoc on a brand. It is time for companies to come out of their shell, find their advocates and detractors, throw out the polls and (dare I contribute to the hype) ENGAGE.

Tags: Blog Analysis, Social Media Best Practice // Add Comment »

Blogularity: the popularity of a topic in the blogosphere vs. similar topics. This could be a company vs. other companies in the industry, a product vs. competitive products, people vs. other people in comparative situations (like elections and contests).

see also: Blogular as in “that’s totally blogular dude”

Tags: Social Media Best Practice // 1 Comment »

BL Ochman’s post yesterday, besides being typically cheeky, is so right. It’s refreshing to see an “A list” blogger like BL makes this assessment. I’d think many regular bloggers will appreciate this post. Ultimately, blogger popularity won’t help you determine who is most influential.

Tags: Social Media Best Practice // 2 Comments »

One of the questions that inevitably comes up when talking to customers about social media marketing is “How does Collective Intellect determines who the influencers are in social media?” This is a great question, because unlike traditional media — where you have existing criteria — circulation, source credibility, advertising rates based on impressions — social media influence is dynamic, not static. If you take away the top 3% of bloggers — the “A” list, if you will — what a marketer is typically left with is really difficult to figure out. Depending on what you’re tracking, there may be lots of posts from different bloggers, and heavy discussion on certain message boards and forums, plus video post sites such as YouTube might garner high interest in your area. The question is, which posts, which conversations in social media are the most important to you right now?

There may be lots of results associated with a keyword you search on in Google, or any of the low-priced keyword-based tools, but which results are the most important? Time-based search gets you just that — the most recent information. Certainly valuable, but how do you know of those recent conversations, which hold the most weight, which will spread the farthest, where will you get, so to speak, the most bang for your buck?

The question to ask is not who has the largest audience. The question should be: who — right now (today, this week, this month) — has the widest influence within the area I hope to impact?

So, if you’re interested in issues around dog food (to use a favorite topic of DK) what matters is finding the influence communities that have the greatest opportunity to impact current discussions around dogs, and more specifically dog food. Finding influencers in a general pets area might be helpful to a degree, but the more laser-focused you can get, the more relevant you are. This means what you are looking for are those social media content creators and commmunities where the content is really high value.

What do you think? I have some successful examples of this idea in action that, hopefully soon, I will be able to blog about.

My main point: Social media is a moving target — what today is an influential source or community might lose that status by next week or next month. Waiting for a quarterly report from market research may not be the best approach when pulling together campaigns.

Tags: Blog Analysis, Social Media Best Practice, Social Media Monitoring // 1 Comment »

Last week’s Society for New Communications Research Symposium apparently discussed the findings of a study they put together on social media influencer research. The most interesting piece to me is that PR professionals struggle to find effective metrics for deciding who are the most influential players. I will be interested to read the full study when its out.

New Influencer Study Initial Findings Shared At Society for New Communications Research Symposium

Adoption Strong but Companies Struggle to Identify Influentials

Boston, MA – December 6, 2007 – As more companies adopt social media, they struggle to find effective metrics for deciding who are the most influential players. This is among the initial findings of a study, “New Media, New Influencers and Implications for the PR Profession,” presented today at the Society for New Communications Research Symposium in Boston, MA. (www.sncr.org/symposium). The study was funded by the Institute for Public Relations and Wieck Media (www.wieck.com).

Nearly 300 public relations, corporate and marketing communications professionals experienced in social media participated in a survey focused on how influence patterns are changing and how communications professionals are addressing those changes. In addition, several case studies have been collected.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that social media tools are becoming more valuable to their activities as more customers and influencers use them. Twenty-seven percent reported that social media is a core element of their communications strategy. Only 3 percent stated that social media has little or no value to their communications initiatives. Respondents believe that social media is most effective for the following sectors: arts, entertainment and recreation; communications; computer hardware; and education.

“Blogs, podcasts, and social networks are changing the way we think about media and influence,” said Jen McClure, executive director of the Society. “We wanted to learn what criteria communications professionals use to define new influencers; how social media is being used to communicate with these influentials; and how to measure the effects of such efforts. The ultimate goal of the study is to offer a set of recommendations to the PR profession.”

Respondents reported that the most effective tools for their social media initiatives are currently:

• Blogs
• Online video
• Social networks

The top three criteria for determining the relevance and potential influence of a blogger or podcaster are:

1. Quality of content on the blog or podcast
2. Relevance of content to the company or brand
3. Search engine rankings

Surprising to the researchers was the fact that criteria that measured online engagement for blogs and podcasts were among the least important to the respondents.

However, for online communities and social networks, the top three criteria for evaluating influence do reflect the importance of online engagement:

1. Participation level
2. Frequency of posting by the community member
3. Name recognition of the individual

Fifty-one percent of respondents are formally measuring the effects of their social media initiatives. The metrics they value most are enhancement of relationships with key audiences, enhancement of reputation, customer awareness of program and comments/posts relevant to organization/products. Close to the bottom of the list was traditional media coverage.

“The respondents are admittedly power users, but their thinking on new media and influencers will be instructive to all communications professionals,” said McClure.

Detailed results of the study will be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of New Communications Research and a full report will be made available via the Society and the Institute for Public Relations in early 2008.

Tags: Public Relations, Social Media Best Practice // Add Comment »