As many people do, I use Twitter primarily as a tool to connect with other people. Now for the most part, I’d always had some so-called unwritten rules about my Twitter usage. The main one was that time spent on Twitter during ‘business hours’ was mainly for business usage, while time spent ‘after hours’, or on the weekend, I would give myself leeway to use Twitter more as a chat facilitator to talk about pretty much whatever I wanted.
But I noticed that clients and companies that contacted me about work would, on occasion, reference my tweets made during my ‘personal’ time. Nothing shocking, it might be someone saying they didn’t realize I was a Bama fan, or that they also liked Flash Forward, but it made me realize that the people that are following the content I create on Twitter, and on any social site, don’t understand my unwritten rules. They are basically approaching the content I create (and the content we all create), as a channel.
And I think this is an important point for us to remember. I’m constantly having people that work in this space ask me who they should be following. If I tell them to follow Jason, and Jason has one INCREDIBLY profound business tweet once every 2 weeks, my friends might not stick with Jason’s tweets, and might begin to question my judgment in recommending them.
Yes, the very name ’social media’ implies that interaction is going to take place. But we have to remember that so many people simply want to consume content, not interact with it. To these people, they look at us as being content channels, and nothing more.
Am I saying that we should change how we use social media in order to placate others? Absolutely not, but I am saying that I do think we should be aware of the content we are creating, and how it is being received, and by who. If you’re primarily using your blog as a tool to get more sales, but also like a good political rant every once in a while, you have to consider that your potential customer might not like your rant about how much their political party of choice is dead wrong.
So for now, I am using Twitter more for business, and less overall. How are you using Twitter and other sites? Is one for business, the other for personal, or do you mix the two? How do you manage different sites being used in different ways?

Related posts:

1. Why Dismissing Twitter as “Babble” is Foolish
2. Do You Know the Social Media ‘Rules’?
3. Keeping Your Twitter Community Healthy

And Amanda was about to leave a tweet that would set in motion a chain of events that would make her the most popular topic on Twitter, that would net her over $11,000.00 in two hours, and make her a case study for how quickly ideas spread via social media channels.
The infamous tweet that started it all was left at 9:15 pm. She stated simply: “i hereby call THE LOSERS OF FRIDAY NIGHT ON THEIR COMPUTERS to ORDER, motherf*cker.”
Brilliance.
What happened next was completely unexpected. But before I jump into the story, I should clarify that Amanda is Amanda Palmer, an indie musician that has leveraged Twitter as a platform to engage and delight her fans and followers, which now number over 45,000.
So it should come as no surprise that the above tweet became a rallying cry for her fans and followers on Twitter to join in the spontaneous festivities. Fans quickly chimed in that they TOO were losers AND at home alone on their computers on that Friday night (Amanda clarified that ‘losers on their iPhones DON’T COUNT. you have to be at home, sitting on your ass, pref. in sweatpants’).
Then they decided they needed a hashtag, so #LOFNOTC was quickly created. A list of demands for the government was quickly agreed upon, such as ‘No taxes on coffee, or vodka’. And of course ‘Everyone gets a pony’ (Because everyone wants a pony).
Someone said that the #LOFNOTC needed a logo, so Amanda quickly scribbled down the logo below, and shared it with her Twitter followers. Someone tweeted that if that logo was on a t-shirt that they’d buy it. Immediately others agree, make that t-shirt, and they’d buy it.
Amanda, stunned that this is happening, puts in a hurried call to her webmaster. She informs him that her one silly tweet has now led to the #LOFNOTC hashtag being the most popular term on Twitter (in the course of an hour). She also tells him that she made a crack about making t-shirts, and now her fans were begged her to sell them to them. So her webmaster quickly threw up a site so her fans could buy the t-shirt with the logo for #LOFNOTC that Amanda had just created.
They sold over 200 in an hour at $25 a pop. Amanda recapped the night’s events on her blog the next morning, and they sold another 200 t-shirts. All because of one silly tweet.

This did NOT happen because Amanda is a rockstar. This was not planned, it was spontaneous. It happened because Amanda created something and invited her fans to help her mold that creation and share in the ownership of the finished product.
To share in the ownership. To us this is ‘Look what Amanda did’, but to every one of the #LOFNOTC that answered Amanda’s call, it was ‘Look what WE did’.
‘We’ usually beats ‘me’ when it comes to social media. THAT is ultimately why this worked. How is your company moving from ‘me’ to ‘we’ with your social media efforts?

Related posts:

1. Has Twitter Become Broadcast Media?
2. Twitter Does Not Have an Out of Office Feature
3. Social Media is Making Extroverts of Us All

What I’m noticing, and surprisingly this comes from the so-called ‘experts’ as well, is that many people can be decidedly anti-social in the way they use social media. I’ve seen company representatives get snippy and angry if they are challenged even mildly in blog comments. People on Twitter that speak in statements, that actually discourages interaction. Of course there’s always no shortage of people that promote themselves and their companies, but never anyone else.
I guess the lesson here is, the best hammer in the world won’t make you a better carpenter, if you don’t know how to use it.
Here’s some ways I’ve learned to be more social with social media:
1 – Promote other people. All it does is make others more likely to promote you, and want to interact with you. Can seem completely counter intuitive to companies that want to use social media to ‘get their message out there’, but it works. Every morning I spend 1-2 hours reading feeds and links to interesting articles. These get RTed like crazy on Twitter, and what happens when I link to one of my posts? That’s right, it gets RTed even more because more people are following me because I promote interesting articles and posts.
2 – Watch your language. I don’t mean what you say, but HOW you say it. How you interact with others greatly determines if and how they will respond. If you speak in statements, that shuts down communication. It comes across to others as ‘I am right, there’s no need to discuss this further’. If your tone is ‘here’s what I think’, then that invites others to share their opinions.
3 – Show people that you value their opinions. Just as I was writing this post, I noticed this tweet flash up from Chris Brogan. He said ‘Your responses were better than my idea. Thank you.’ Great example of empowering people to interact with you. From my experience, the room is ALWAYS smarter than I am, so anything I can do to encourage interaction with everyone else, means I am going to learn something.

4 – Show people that you care. Here’s a Twitter-tip. I now follow well over 3,000 people, and I honestly can only interact regularly with a fraction of that number. So there’s a lot of people I follow that I rarely, if ever, tweet with. But I want to let these people know that I appreciate them and am paying attention to them. One thing I do is if I see someone I rarely tweet with mention that they got a new job, or a new car, or got married, etc, I will send them a quick tweet congratulating them. Doesn’t take 5 secs, but it quickly let’s them know that I’m watching and care enough to congratulate them.
5 – Say ‘thank you’ early and often. It matters. This isn’t rocket science, it’s social media.
What do you think? Are you seeing the same things I am, are you noticing how people use social media in some unsocial ways? Do you have more tips you can share on being social with social media? What works for you?

Related posts:

1. Broadcasting with ‘Social’ Media
2. Social Media @Work: Home Depot and the Hurricanes
3. Has Twitter Become Broadcast Media?

I’ve blogged about this several times before, but one of the key elements of building a vibrant community is to JOIN that community. And by that I don’t mean that simply using Twitter, as @biz, @ev and @jack do. But I mean interacting with community members and LISTENING to them.
A year ago, we were wondering why Twitter was constantly having outages, without ever reaching out to its community to let us know when, what or why. Then this week, Twitter suddenly announces that it’s made a change in the tweets you get from people you are following. Previously, if you followed someone’s tweets, you saw ALL of their tweets.
But earlier this week, Twitter changed the settings so that if someone you were following left a reply to someone else that you are NOT following, then you didn’t see that tweet (from the person you WERE following). Of course, this move was immediately and overwhelming blasted by the Twitter community.
And Twitter heard the backlash, and updated their blog with a post Weds morning entitled ” Whoa, Feedback!,” where Biz implies that Twitter was apparently taken aback at the criticism that this move received.
To me, this is pretty scary. First, it’s scary that Twitter would make such a huge change in the site’s basic functionality without asking its users. And second, it’s scary that the reaction seemed to have surprised Twitter. This tells me that they are disconnected from the Twitter userbase, and what they really want from the site.
It’s tough to have a vibrant community when you keep them at an arm’s distance. My advice to Twitter today is the same as it was a year ago; don’t take your community for granted, or they might just stop being your community.

Related posts:

1. Keeping Your Twitter Community Healthy
2. Twitter, Can We Talk?
3. Brands On Twitter

In this interview, Sandy gives us her take on the importance of social media for businesses, and some background on some of the topics she’ll be covering during her session at the B2B Forum in Boston.

Q – At the Marketing Profs B2B Forum, you’ll be leading a session entitled Marketing 2.0: Integrating Social Media Into Your Marketing Mix. How important is it for a company to consider integrating social media into their existing marketing plan, or should they try to make social media separate from the company’s other communication efforts?
A – I believe firmly that social media represents a new set of marketing tools. By integrating the Web 2.0 technologies into a marketing plan, you strengthen the plan overall to drive business. If you isolate your social media team, you will not see the results that you need. In fact, I think just as strong compelling value propositions are core to all marketing, social techniques and the use of Web 2.0 technology should be core to all integrated marketing going forward. (You can learn more about a formal methodology I recommend by visiting the site for my recent book, The New Language of Marketing 2.0.)
For example, if you run in-person events today to drive your business, you can add in a Twitter drive to the event to increase registrations. You can generate customer loyalty — or fans — by having them tell their stories on blogs, or post pictures on Flickr. You can even use web 2.0 to help follow-up on the leads with enurturing or form an online community to supplement your in-person customer boards. The point is that in the magic is in the marketing mix. Not the tools!
Q – You work at a very large company. What special considerations do you think a large company faces in trying to use social media, that a small business for example, might not have to worry about?
A – Well, I think everything is a trade-off. There are some advantages that the small companies have and some that the big companies have. Since I work for a large company, I am envious at times at how fast a small company can experiment. This area is changing so rapidly and so many new tools are being added daily, that I think that being able to change on a dime is crucial or to add in a new tool without having to get tons of signoffs could make the different in a first-mover advantage. But large companies have more resources. And that comes with an advantage as well.
However, the bottom line is I think the primary difference here is not in big or small. But the difference is in how close you are to your customers. The hair stylist I go to just recently used Facebook to increase the purchase of one of his services by 500%. Why? Because he used social media tools with his traditional customer retention methods. He understands what his customers are looking for and could add value. This is similar as to when IBM really listens to its customers and develops its next product by learning not only from its current customers, and focus groups, but by dialoguing in the blogs on product requirements and betas. The bottom line is do you know your goals and your differentiation well enough to use the tools appropriately?

Q – As you know, many companies are interested in learning more about social media. What do you think are some of the common misconceptions these companies have about social media?
A – Great question! I think there are a few! First, some companies believe that social media is a magic elixir. They don’t realize that social media is just another set of tools to add to the marketing toolbox.
Second, some companies focus on the coolness of social media. They get enamored with the tools themselves, and don’t focus on what they are trying to do — drive business!
And finally I think that companies don’t realize that this is brand new. It is not what they studied in college and is bigger than marketing. It encompasses the business. Social technologies should be part of your market intelligence, your strategic delivery, your development cycle, your customer support, your marketing and your sales. It is a cultural change in how we create business.

Q – One of the biggest concerns about using social media, is finding a way to get measurable results. For the company that’s wanting to find the ROI of their social media efforts, what should they be looking to track to tell if their social media initiatives are effective?
A – We are all already in the practice of tracking the effectiveness of all the elements of our marketing mix. So it is a great thing to measure the value of social media. I love what Dell did with its Twitter channel by using a special discount code to enable it to track the value. At IBM we add in Web 2.0 elements and measure the effectiveness — whether driving new opportunities or progressing current opportunity — over time. That said, think about the value of a relationship — it is hard to measure that personal relationship just as it is in measuring the online one !
Now even as I write this, IBM and MIT did try to estimate the value of the online connection. IBM Research and MIT’s Sloan School of Management found that the average e-mail contact was worth $948 in revenue. To unearth that and other data, they used math formulas to analyze the email traffic, address book and buddy lists of 2600 IBM consultants over a year!
However, you can’t measure everything and just because you can measure something doesn’t mean that it is the right thing to be watching!

Q – Is social media right for every business?
A – I think that this question is the wrong one. The right one is — what is your overall goal for your company and its business model? What is your compelling value proposition that truly sets you apart?
Then you can decide which social media tools to add to your overall company strategy and execution.
* * * * *
Are you coming to the MarketingProfs B2B Forum? The early bird discount ends next Friday, May 15: Time is running out to save $150 off your registration, so don’t wait! Plus, anyone who registers by May 15 will be entered into a drawing to win two free nights at The Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel – a $500 value! (Good for conference dates only.)
Today at NOON EST: Get a *free* sneak peek at the B2B Forum in a lively session from speakers Jason Baer, Founder & President, Convince & Convert; Lauren Goldstein, VP of Strategic Planning, Babcock & Jenkins; Maria Villar, Managing Partner, Business Data Leadership and Former, Vice President, Enterprise Business Information, IBM; and Karen Breen Vogel, CEO/President, ClearGauge; moderated by our own Roy Young.
Register here.

Related posts:

1. “Social Media Is Not Just About Marketing” Or 3 Things I’ve Learned From IBM’s Sandy Carter
2. Value Drives Social Media Success
3. Still Questioning The Value In Social Media

My advice to her is the same I will give to you. If you see negative comments on a blog/site, especially those based on inaccurate information, you need to address those comments. In this case, the negative comments seemed to be originating from the article’s implication that this company did not provide health insurance to its employees.
Prior to my friend Allison commenting, the post had 6 comments, all of which were either critical, or downright negative toward Hardwood Artisians. Allison did exactly what you should do if your company is coming under fire. She kept her cool, politely thanked the commenters for their feedback, and set the record straight about how the company handled providing health insurance to its employees. And she also did something else that’s very important; she invited commenters to continue to leave her feedback.

Hi, I’m the Director of Marketing for Hardwood Artisans.
Thanks to all the commenters for all the interest in Hardwood Artisans. I do have one quick correction, no fault of Tom’s. We’ve had health insurance available through the company since August of 2007. Employees can elect to take advantage of the company plan, but some have their own plans or get insurance through their spouses. Personally, I have the company plan.
If anyone would like more information or has more feedback, feel free to email me at alison@hardwoodartisans.com or post here. I’m always happy to answer questions.
Alison Heath

When Allison left that comment, the entire tone of the conversation changed. Prior to Allison’s comment, 6 comments were left to the post about Hardwood Artisians, all of them were negative. After Allison’s comment, 11 other people commented, and ten of them were positive. Most even came to the defense of HA, and one commenter added: “Still, if nothing else, my hat is off to Alison for being willing to step into the lion’s den to answer questions”
As I told Allison, as soon as she joined the conversation and encouraged interaction, the tone of the dialogue changed from people throwing negative comments AT the company, to the commenters talking WITH Allison. And then Allison later blogged about the article on HA’s own blog.
What can you learn from how Allison handled this situation?

1 – If someone is leaving negative comments about your company, respond.
2 – Be thankful and polite. Nothing escalates a negative comment into a full-bore flamewar faster than an ‘Oh yeah?!?’ reply from the company.
3 – If commenters are jumping to the wrong conclusion about your company, kindly correct them with the proper information.
4 – Thank them for their feedback, and encourage them to provide more. Leave your email address so they can contact you off the blog, if they choose.
If you are thankful and respectful toward commenters, even those that are attacking your company, the end result will almost always be a positive experience. Allison’s experience isn’t the exception, it’s the norm.

Related posts:

1. Ignore ‘em or Embrace ‘em? How to Handle Negative Blog Comments
2. How to Handle Negative Comments
3. Got Comments? How to Get More Interaction on Your Blog

Think for a moment about the examples of companies targeting ‘influencers’ via social media. Recently there was the ‘Pepsi 25′ program that was rolled out to myself and 24 other people in front of Pepsi’s new branding and logo. Around Christmas, there was the KMart sponsored post that Chris Brogan and a few other ‘influencers’ in the social media space participated in. And a few months ago, HP targeted top tech blogs in a laptop giveaway.
While we can think of many recent examples of companies reaching out to ‘influencers’ via social media and blogger ‘outreach’ programs, why are companies stopping there? Why aren’t companies using social media to target the RIGHT influencers?
Can you name a few recent examples of companies using social media to embrace, empower, and excite their customer evangelists?
Go ahead, I’ll wait. It isn’t easy to think of any good examples, is it? But it SHOULD be! Companies reaching out to their most passionate customers via social media SHOULD be a no-brainer. These are people that WANT to promote your company and that actively are DOING so! So why in the world wouldn’t more companies want to find their blogging/twittering/facebooking evangelists and reach out to them?
When I received my empty cans from Pepsi showing the history of the company’s branding, I honestly wasn’t overly impressed. I mean on one hand I appreciated the effort that Pepsi went to in sending these materials to me. Obviously they send the cans and promotional materials to myself and 24 other people because they thought we were ‘influential’ in the social media space, and that we would blog/twitter/podcast about this promotion, and hopefully in a favorable light.
Now the problem for me is, I know I’m not influential to Pepsi drinkers, cause I don’t drink Pepsi (Dr Pepper here. Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper, too?). But as I was shaking my head at all this fuss in trying to reach me because someone deemed me ‘influential’, I noticed a letter that came with the cans. It informed me that this was the new branding for Pepsi, and that I was one of 25 people in the world to be seeing the company’s new branding and new logo.
Think about that for a moment. Here, Pepsi had just spent a lot of money to put their new branding into the hands of…a Dr Pepper lover. But what if a true Pepsi evangelist had gotten that letter telling them that they were one of the first 25 people in the WORLD to see the new branding for a product that they loved and evangelized to others? It would have been an early Christmas for them. If they were active in social media, they would have broken their necks to get to their blog/twitter account/facebook profile ASAP and let the WORLD know what just had happened. Every person that they come in contact with would know imediately what the new Pepsi branding looked like, and they would likely be hearing about “OMG THIS IS SO COOL!!!!”
Because that’s what happens when you empower your fans to sing your praises. This is where companies should be investing their time if they want to reach ‘influential’ people. Focus on your most passionate customers that are active in social media, and reach out to them immediately. ‘Influential’ is fine, but influential and passionate about your company is what you want.

Related posts:

1. BuzzLogic Maps Social Media Influencers
2. Quick Tips for Reaching Influencers
3. For Social Media, Reach Is Found in the Long Tail!

Recently GaryVee had a bit of a crisis situation on his hands. He has a site called Cork’d, which is a community site for wine lovers. The site was hacked, and worst of all, set up to re-direct to a porn site. And to make matters worse, Tech Crunch, arguably the most influential tech website on the planet, picked up on this and ran a post on it. Yikes!
Now let’s step back for a second and realize what has happened. One of Gary’s sites has been hacked, and not only hacked, but set to re-direct to a porn site. At this point, this is on the verge of becoming a full-blown disaster, but what Gary does next is the blueprint for how a company should handle an online crisis situation by using social media.
First, Gary understands that Tech Crunch is a massively influential and well-trafficked tech site, so he reads it daily. As a result, he saw the post about Cork’d getting hacked soon after it was published on Tech Crunch.
Second, he immediately set out to create a plan on dealing with this crisis. He left a response to the Tech Crunch post, but also left his response as a video comment. This allowed Gary to quickly address the situation, explain what had happened, why it happened, and that he was at fault. Tech Crunch readers immediately came to his defense and praised his response.
By quickly replying to the story, and in an honest and transparent tone, Gary immediately turned a potentially very negative situation into a positive experience. His response dictated the end result, as it always does in social media.
Gary also posted an excellent video recapping the day’s events, how he handled the situation, and what he learned. If you are interested in learning how social media can be used as a crisis management tool, this video is a must-view:

Key takeaways:

1 – Monitor social media channels. Gary was alerted to the problem with Cork’d because he reads Tech Crunch on a daily basis. He understands the power that Tech Crunch has in covering a space that’s important to his business.

2 – Use social media channels to respond. Gary immediately responded at the focal point, directly in the comments of the Tech Crunch story. He didn’t respond a day later because a reporter emailed him asking for a comment on the ‘Cork’d gets hacked Tech Crunch story’, he knew about the story shortly after it was posted, and addressed it quickly.
3 – Admit your mistakes. Gary admitted that the hack was partly because he hadn’t been paying as much attention to Cork’d as he wanted to. He came off to others as being someone that was humble and apologetic. When you are wrong, it’s best if YOU say it before everyone else does.
4 – Use social media to solve the problem. Because Gary is active on Twitter, he has a network of tens of thousands of friends that were willing to help him solve his problem. Gary reached out to them, and they quickly responded with help. Also notice that he was criticized by one user for not offering to pay, and another offered to solve his problem and added that his money was ‘no good’. Tara Hunt (@MissRogue), another ‘power’ Twitter user, also came to Gary’s defense.
5 – Build your Ark BEFORE it rains. Gary could lean on his community to help him through this crisis because he HAD a community. He had built up equity with these people for the past couple of years, and they were ready and willing to help him out.
One final thought. Notice that Tech Crunch went back and edited their original post to first add a link to Gary’s video comment, then to add the video above, which Gary posted on his website. Thanks to Gary being proactive, the very point where the crisis began, became a channel for Gary to not only diffuse the situation, but to build more equity by making a quick and proper response.
What did YOU learn from how Gary handled this?

Related posts:

1. Ten Basic Steps To an Easy AND Effective Crisis Plan
2. Wanna Learn About Social Media?
3. Most B2B Marketers Have No Crisis Plan in Place

Today, companies and individuals are rushing to this space, and it’s exciting to see. And as people discover this space, they are looking for people to give them guidance. Which is often where the trouble starts, because it’s where people start hearing about social media’s ‘rules’. They start hearing about the ‘right’ way to blog, or the ‘correct’ way to use Twitter.
What they are really hearing is someone take the way that THEY use these tools, and offer them as being the ONLY way to use these tools.
Here’s my rule: Don’t listen to these people.
I’ve left over 13,000 tweets on Twitter, and have been using it for almost 2 years. I can give you plenty of advice on how *I* use Twitter effectively. But is MY way the best for YOU? Maybe, maybe not. And for the record, the way I use Twitter has changed about 10 times in those 2 years, and continues to evolve.
In the aftermath of Dell Hell, the blogosphere insisting that Dell had to start blogging. Many of the ‘A-Lister’ bloggers called for Dell to launch a blog, and finally in 2006, they did. And many of those same bloggers that all but demanded that Dell start blogging, immediately slammed the company when their first blog launched. Dell had followed the ‘rules’, they had listened to bloggers, and bloggers immediately slapped them on the wrist for doing so. My friend Beth Harte blogged about how Motrin and Chris Brogan also ran into problems because they apparently violated the ‘rules’ of social media.
This worries me because I see new people flocking to Twitter in droves. And not just new people, but people that work for companies and agenices. People that are likely coming to Twitter in great part to learn more about social media. I fear these people will follow the ‘power’ users, and think that how they use Twitter is the ‘right’ way. Or that there is a ‘right’ way to blog.
Don’t confuse guidelines with rules. The great thing about social media is that the space is evolving and we are all learning together. Find your own path, then when you reach your destination, you can help teach the rest of us what you learned along the way.

Related posts:

1. Social Media Requires Time, Not Money
2. Broadcasting with ‘Social’ Media
3. No Patience for the ROI of Social Media Discussion

We’ve all heard that there’s two sides to every story. But when it comes to social media, I think we can add a third side to the story. For example, companies that blog are often worried about how to handle a negative or abrasive comment from a reader.
But while the blogger has to consider how to respond to negative or attacking comment, they also have to consider that the blog’s other readers are watching to see how they handle the situation. When the smoke clears, the blogger might have their version of the exchange, the commenter has their version, and the readers see how both parties reacted, and come up with their own account of the exchange. This is why it’s so important for companies (and individuals) to keep their cool and respond sensibly to potential disagreements.
A more obvious example is Twitter. I will often see someone I am following arguing with someone else. But if I’m not following the person they are arguing with, I can only see one side of the conversation. So my opinion of the exchange is only based on seeing one-half of a conversation. Companies, as well as individuals need to keep in mind how others are viewing their interactions online.
Remember that when you are online, you may be directly communicating with one person, but you are indirectly communicating with everyone else.

Related posts:

1. How to Start Being Successful in Social Media
2. Social Networking: Changing Conversation, Not Friendship
3. Is This the Day the Conversation Died?