EURSSSocialMedia

Emoticons for brands: The dos and don'ts

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:53:59 GMT

Are you a serial emoticon user?

I’ve been known to include a smiley face or two in my tweets and Facebook posts. It’s a sign of humor, a signal to my recipients that I may be stating something a little tongue in cheek.

Emoticons have become part of the online lexicon. Whether it’s on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, you name it, emoticons show up in some way, shape, or form. As more people have used emoticons online, the trend has spilled over into business communications.

We’ve all seen it—an email or note from a colleague with a smiley face at the end. But does that mean it’s acceptable, or should be?

That depends. Let me lay out a few scenarios and when I think it is and isn’t appropriate in business.

Appropriate uses

Scenario 1: I’m sending a private message on Facebook to a partner I work with closely on a project. I want to share a funny anecdote as part of the note and include a smiley face.

Scenario 2: I write a tweet that is lighthearted and pokes fun at a mainstream trend for a fun-loving client I work with; it includes a smiley face with a wink at the end.

Scenario 3: I’m sending a text to a business colleague I know well, asking him about a potential partner I’m considering. I add a quick joke at the tail end of the note with a smiley face.

In my view, appropriate uses fall into two big camps: When you’re emailing/texting/private-messaging someone you know very well in business, or when it makes sense for a playful brand or company you represent.

Inappropriate uses

Scenario 1: You’re sending an email to your manager discussing client work and you throw a smiley face in as you make a joke about the client.

Scenario 2: You’re writing a short article for your company’s intranet, and you decide to insert a smiley face in the post to convey some humor, even though it’s a serious topic.

Scenario 3: You’re penning a short email to your client wishing a great Memorial Day weekend, and you add a smiley face to the end simply out of habit.

In general, I would probably refrain from using the emoticons anytime you’re communicating with your manager or boss, communicating with your client (unless you know them very well), or communicating with a mass audience, internally or externally, about a serious topic. The same goes for a brand that is generally more serious in its tone.

So, what do you think? When is it appropriate or inappropriate to use emoticons in work situations?

Arik Hanson is principal of ACH Communications. A version of this article originally ran on his blog, Communications Conversations.

5 questions brands should ask before using any social media tool

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:52:40 GMT

I’ve often heard this question from clients: Should we be on (insert shiny, new social media platform here)? My instinct is to say yes, because we want to expand our scope of work with them, and we’re always looking to be innovative. But being a good social media partner requires much more in-depth analysis.

When I was overseeing content strategy and execution for my clients, we would generally work on a POV for each new platform that would come into play. We did this for Pinterest, Instagram, and Vine (among others) over the last few years. Part of that POV was assessing which brands would be a good fit for the platform.

That doesn’t mean the client would automatically sign on for that platform, but it was incumbent upon us to make sure we at least made the recommendation (sometimes over and over and over).

Here are five key questions:

1. Are people using this platform to talk about your brand, your industry, or your competition?

This is easy enough on platforms that use hashtags. I can search #Starbucks on Instagram, for example, and see that nearly 1.9 million photos bear that hashtag. If I’m managing the brand’s social media presence, this tells me that there are 1.9 million potential conversations and pieces of user-generated content out there. This is definitely the right move for that brand to be using that platform (and Starbucks is using it—quite effectively as it turns out).

Part of your research on new platforms should be to assess not just who is talking about your brand but how they’re talking about your brand. If people are actively complaining or bringing up customer service issues on this platform, your strategy will differ from what you’ll do if people are raving about you.

When it comes to your competition, just because they jump off a cliff doesn’t mean you should follow—unless they’re jumping off a cliff into a crystal clear pool of water filled with your current and potential customers.

2. Does this platform align with your demographic?

Maybe people aren’t talking about your brand (or perhaps they’re talking about you sparingly). That certainly shouldn’t preclude you from entering into that platform—especially if it’s used by a demographic that you’re looking to target.

For instance, if you’re looking to reach influential, educated, millennial women, Pinterest is a platform you should strongly consider. Instagram might not be your best bet if that’s the only group you’re looking to target.

3. Is there an opportunity to tell your brand’s story in a new/unique way on this platform?

Brands that are using Vine in an interesting ways—Lowe’s, Smart Car USA, General Electric (sometimes)—are using the platform to tell a good brand story that goes beyond “buy this.”

When Smart Car wanted to show how easy it is to charge its new electric version, a six-second video was the perfect way to do it:

Lowe’s went beyond providing DIY tips in text to show their users how to do things like unscrewing a stripped screw:

If your team can find a way to use a new platform in an interesting fashion, that’s half the battle. So often brands will launch their presence in a new platform, and it’s just a dud.

4. Do you have the resources to maintain a robust presence on this platform?

The days of launching a social media presence to cover an event or product launch are over. Unless you’re going to commit your brand to building and maintaining a robust presence on a platform, don’t do it. It’s up to each individual brand to decide what “robust” means for them, but launching an event-specific account and then shutting it down no longer makes sense.

5. Does this platform logically fit in with your existing digital ecosystem?

Consider the rest of your digital presence, and whether this new platform logically integrates or if it would be on an island. If you can’t fit your always-on and campaign strategies into this platform, it’s probably worth waiting until you jump into it.

These questions certainly aren’t exhaustive, but they can at least get the conversation started. Remember: Any foray into a new platform will require your team to perform a risk assessment and understand any potential pitfalls. Your legal team will want to get involved (and will likely work tirelessly to quash your dreams, as they are wont to do).

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12 quotations to guide your online strategy

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:46:59 GMT

Social media doesn't need to be hard if you stay as authentic online as you are off, and concentrate on building a relationship with your fans and followers.

People like to be with those they know, like, and trust. With that in mind, I thought I would share a few quotations from thought leaders around the world and suggest how we can apply them to our online strategy.

They are not all well known for their digital acumen, but certainly are well known for either their business knowledge or thought-provoking ability. Enjoy.

1. "It's not the strongest that survive, nor the most intelligent but those most responsive to change." — Charles Darwin

Make sure you keep up with the times and adapt as you go, or you may find your brand is becoming extinct.

2. "You are what you share." — Charles Leadbeater

People can see what you share publicly; are you proud?

3. "The question isn't, 'What do we want to know about people?' It's, 'What do people want to tell about themselves?'" — Mark Zuckerberg

Are you happy to share your innermost secrets or just top-line stuff?

4. "Just be nice, take genuine interest in the people you meet, and keep in touch with people you like. This will create a group of people who are invested in helping you because they know you and appreciate you." — Guy Kawasaki

Self explanatory: Be genuine.

5. "Social media demands a lot of us on top of our already demanding lives. So let's disconnect as we need to and renew our interest and ourselves." — Simon Mainwaring

Don't be afraid to unplug and regenerate.

6. "Facebook Fan Pages are email newsletters with smaller pictures." — Jay Baer

Think of your Facebook page as a rolling newsletter.

7. "Every company is its own TV station, magazine, and newspaper." — Jay Baer

We all have the option to publish; are you doing so?

8. "'Build it, and they will come' only works in the movies. Social media is a 'build it, nurture it, engage them, and they may come and stay.'" — Seth Godin

Give them a reason to hang around.

9. "How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?" — Seth Godin

You have the platforms; now use them like no one else.

10."You are your Rolodex: Breadth counts. Collect freaks." — Tom Peters

You never know who is connected to who that you meet that could be beneficial to you.

11. "If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends."-Jeff Bezos

The internet gives it scale, so be aware of your brand's actions and decisions at all levels.

12. "It's not the small that get eaten; it's the slow that get beaten." — Linda Coles (me)

Get on and start now; your competitors may be already ahead.

So which relationship building or social media quotations have you heard that resonated with you and should be added to this list?

Linda Coles, author of "Learn marketing with social media in 7 days" (Wiley), is a speaker and trainer on building relationships. She lives in New Zealand. You can get a free sample of a chapter of her book by registering for her newsletter. A version of this article first appeared on LinkedInToday.

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Watch: A Facebook update in real life

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:53:36 GMT

Every time Facebook updates, it seems like you have to completely relearn its functionality—especially for brand managers.

But what if the type of updates that happen with Facebook happened in other facets of your life, as well?

That was the inspiration for this sketch from L.A.-based sketch comedy group Extremely Decent:

3 reasons to find a new PR/social media agency

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:52:53 GMT

The writing is on the wall, as they say. When something’s not right with your PR firm, the problem isn’t always easy to pinpoint, but eventually it becomes glaring—if you know where to look.

Here are three signs you should start looking for a new PR and social media agency:

First, if you firm is complacent—and doesn’t enthusiastically embrace opportunities to help you achieve your communications and business objectives—then it’s time to find a new PR partner. Energy and effort are huge in our business, and opportunities must be pursued and capitalized on when they are available.

If creative thinking is met with a sour response, or high-profile media opportunities are not seized aggressively, then you should sail your ship in other waters.

Second, if your PR firm isn’t yet developing content for a variety of media channels, then it’s time to move on. Our communications category has evolved—that’s clear—and content creation is king. It’s the whole royal family, to be honest.

Clients should be able to rely on one agency to help best penetrate traditional media and social media—and having an in-house creative services team is crucial to keep the content marketing engine firing.

Finally, despite the evolution in the category and the number of significant changes the PR business has endured over the years, it’s still about executing a communications program that helps drive business. So, look for another PR and social media agency partner if your current group is not directly supporting your business objectives.

There must be a correlation between a smart, strategic plan and measureable results that have directly contributed to helping the business succeed. Be certain your agency knows what has to be accomplished, develops a strategic plan for generating results, and executes well. Or look for another agency partner.

I’m highlighting a few of the obvious reasons to find a new PR firm—but what else do you think I could add to this list?

Scott Signore is the principal and CEO of Matter Communications. A version of this article first appeared on the company’s blog.

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9 bogus claims by social media swindlers

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:46:12 GMT

Have you ever wondered whether you're following the right advice about social media?

You've implemented a social media strategy that you found online. Or you purchased a product from someone who calls himself or herself an expert, but you don't get the promised results. You receive one or two "likes" or new followers a day, as well as a few comments on your blog posts. You get frustrated and wonder what you're doing wrong.

"99.5 percent of the people that walk around and say they are a social media expert or guru are clowns. We are going to live through a devastating social media bubble." — Gary Vaynerchuk

Maybe you've crossed paths with a social media expert who wasn't trustworthy. Before you knew it, you spent every waking hour on social media with no results, only frustration.

What can you do? You can use the following as a guide to help you spot red flags early on.

1. "The more you post, the more people will 'like' and follow you."

Quality is what matters, not quantity.

Sharing information that isn't helpful to your community is a waste of time for everyone. Just because you share a wealth of information doesn't mean others will like or follow you; repin, stumble, etc. your posts. Answer and ask questions. Share information that adds value and is useful.

"Social media is not about the exploitation of technology but service to community." — Simon Mainwaring

2. "You can measure social media ROI."

This isn't completely true or false. Facebook, Twitter, and other networks provide you with statistics for the week, month, and year, but how can you accurately measure your ROI?

For example, let's say you're at a nonprofit and post a campaign on Facebook for your upcoming fundraiser, and you notice that the campaign has reached 20,000+ people and has been shared more than 400 times, there's a good chance that you'll raise more funds this year compared with last year.

But how do you measure your ROI?

You look at the number of times people have commented, liked, and shared your campaign.

You talk to people at your fundraiser and ask them, "How did you hear about our fundraiser?" They'll either say, "I like your Facebook page and follow you on Twitter and saw your post about today's fundraiser," or, "I saw your post on a friend's Facebook page."

By surveying people, you could measure your ROI from social media.

If you post a Facebook ad, you could use the site's Conversion Measurement tool to assist you with tracking the behavior of customers who click on your ads.

For example, if a customer clicks on your ad, is taken to your website, and buys something or signs up, you'd have proof that your Facebook ad was effective. There's your ROI.

3. "You must use social media for your business!"

Your website is your home base, and online networks are more like vacation homes. You visit them throughout the year, but they're not your permanent residence.

If you invest most of your time on social media and neglect your website, you've made a huge mistake. Why? Any major online network—from Twitter to Facebook, from Pinterest to Google+, and others—could go away today. What happens to all the content and media you've uploaded to that vanishing social media site? It goes away, too.

4. "If you build it, they will come."

This worked in the 1989 movie, "Field of Dreams"-but that had a script.

If you join Twitter, Facebook, etc. and spend hours trying to build a social media community, there is no guarantee that your target audience will show up. It takes more than tweeting and posting to Facebook. You must build a trusting relationship with your target audience by giving them valuable information. Slowly begin marketing your products and services, but be careful about overselling.

5. "The more blog comments you have the better."

Conversions, not blog comments, pay the bills.

If you're in the personal development business, you'll get more comments than someone in the light bulb business. Different industries have different needs. Your customers may simply consume content rather than share or comment on it. Don't worry about the number of comments your blog gets. Focus on providing exceptional service and attracting new customers.

6. "You need thousands, if not millions, of 'likes' and follows, and over 500 contacts (LinkedIn)."

Looking at someone's LinkedIn profile and seeing their 500+ contacts could make you feel defeated. Go to their fan page, and you might see they have over 20,000 fans. Head over to Twitter, and they could have over 5,000 followers. It's enough to depress you.

Kick your depression to the curb, because in this instance, size does not matter, quality does. You have no idea whether contacts, followers, and "likes" represent high quality. They could be just for show. Heck, they could have been bought. Stop focusing on size, and focus on high-quality leads, "likes," followers, and contacts.

7. "Got a new business? Build your brand on social media."

If you're starting a business, you need to build your brand before jumping onto social media.

Why?

If you don't know what your brand is, how can you translate it to social media? You can't. You should build your brand before you join any social networks. Social media is a tool to spread the message about your brand. Once you figure out what it is, start using social media to connect with your target audience.

8. "Social media replaces 'old' marketing techniques."

Why throw out all your hard work on marketing that has paid off and continues to pay off in the form of new business and satisfied customers?

Social media is a tool, an extension of your current marketing strategy or system. Use it in conjunction with press releases, direct mail, blogs, email marketing, brochures, white papers, etc.

Remember the phrase, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Heed the warning. If you get rid of proven marketing systems and focus solely on social media, your business could suffer.

9. "You'll get a ton of referrals and opportunities from social media."

There's no guarantee that you'll receive referrals or other business opportunities because you use social media.

For example, if you're a Web designer, followers will want to know what sets you apart from other Web designers. Do your websites get your customers more conversions? Write a case study comparing a client's old Web design to the one you designed, and point out what you changed and how your redesign gets your client results.

You have to be vigilant and protect yourself and your money and time by knowing who the real social media experts are. Research people, and get to know them. Ask questions.

RELATED: Should we embrace the social media fake?

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17 email etiquette tips

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:45:31 GMT

I've heard David Grossman speak and found him to be a great resource for all things related to internal communications and employee engagement.

He recently shared some great email tips to help you be more productive.

In the spirit of using email better, and helping others use email better, below are his tips—with my thoughts about them—that anyone can implement:

1. Keep your message simple and clear. Edit unnecessary words to focus your recipient on what's most important. Short sentences and bullet points make your message easier to read on a computer screen and smartphone. It's estimated that people read more than 40 percent of email on a smartphone.

2. Answer all questions and be proactive. Avoid wasting time with back-and-forth emails. Answer all the questions someone poses to you, and proactively answer the questions your recipient will likely ask next.

3. Respond quickly. Email is built for speed. Respond within 24 hours. If it will take longer to respond, let the sender know you received his or her email and are working on a response. You will build trust among your friends and business associates, and amaze your clients and prospects.

4. Use polite greetings and closings. "Please" and "thank you" go a long way to convey a positive tone.

5. Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation. Be professional and show you care. Always use spell check and proofread your emails.

6. Do not use all caps. Did you mistake the meaning of that statement because "not" wasn't in caps? No? Neither will your recipient.

7. Don't use special formatting, backgrounds, colored text, or emoticons. Many feel they're unprofessional.

8. Double check for correct email addresses and attachments. Avoid being embarrassed or disseminating proprietary information.

9. Be clear in the subject line. Briefly explain the content of your message to prevent people from ignoring your emails.

10. Never send an email when you're upset. Step away from your computer and consider how to best resolve the issue.

11. Don't hide behind email. It feels so easy to avoid difficult conversations by sending an email, but research shows conflicts escalate more quickly and last longer over email.

12. Don't be afraid to pick up the phone. Email is not always the right vehicle. You should never give bad news over email. It's best to address complex information in a face-to-face conversation; nuance is often missed over email.

13. Use the Cc field as an FYI. The Cc field means "this is for your information," and you are not expected to take action. Cc your manager when you want him or her to know you took action.

14. Use the Bcc field for large groups of recipients. Don't advertise people's email addresses.

15. Only use "reply all" when appropriate. If everyone on the chain doesn't need to see your response, why fill up their inboxes?

16. Take care when you send large files. Check with your recipient in advance to see how she would like to receive the file.

17. Avoid sarcasm or tongue-in-cheek humor. Email doesn't convey the meaning behind these types of statements.

Which of these email tips could make a significant difference for you and those you email?

Tom Smith is director of operations and integrated marketing at Anua. He blogs at CTSmithIII's Blog, where a version of this article originally appeared. It first ran on PR Daily in June 2012.

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Should we embrace the social media faker?

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:52:56 GMT

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 quotes and platitudes that are very retweetable. He writes nothing original—mainly articles geared to appeal to the masses but without much substance.

He has a PR mission for the company he works for: to become known and, by proxy, to help his company become perceived as a social business. He preaches authenticity and transparency but then has all 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 with regard 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 that the things that actually matter to me, like the hard work of organizational transformation, are being belittled or devalued.

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 times when if you say something loud enough and long enough you are then forced to become the thing you say you 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?

Matt Ridings is a co-founder and CEO of Sidera Works, a marketing and organizational development consulting practice. A version of this story first appeared on Mark Schafer's blog, {grow}.

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3 best practices of SEO for PR

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:49:59 GMT

If helping our clients to be more visible is the heartbeat of public relations, then learning to integrate basic SEO skills into the work we do is essential to keeping that heartbeat strong. SEO is a must-know skill in PR.

Every senior-level PR and content marketing professional should have a solid understanding of how SEO works and how it applies to their own work.

For an agency or company, SEO should be part of the standard writing and proofing processes as content is filtering through production, and it should be integrated into the learning culture of the organization. It should also start the content creation process, not be wrapped in at the end.

If the organization is large enough to have SEO staffers, partnering with them can identify a surprising similarity in goals and effort. Starting cross-departmental conversations and working together on joint goals can also make both departments extremely successful.

Learning SEO for PR doesn’t have to be time consuming or intimidating; it can simply be the addition of a few new skills and tweaks to your normal processes.

For the May #PRprochat on Twitter, we were lucky enough to have Ken McGaffin as our guest; he is a former CMO of WordTracker and an expert in SEO.

Here are some fabulous takeaways that came out of the chat with Ken:

• It’s hard to do everything—so understand first, then use SEO to do the technical stuff.
• Good content is essential for SEO, but good content on its own is not enough to rank well.
• To get your message heard online, you have to have a blend of content marketing, SEO, and social media.
• PR pros should recognize the skills you already have are important for SEO.

Keyword research for PR

It pays to invest time in researching keywords, rather than going on assumptions. Something as simple as a verb tense can mean a search volume difference of literally thousands of hits. It also identifies language choices that you may not think of. One example McGaffin shared is that airlines insist on using “low-cost fares” when customers are actually searching “cheap flights.”

This is one that I come across frequently: Clients refuse to use the word “cheap” because they feel it denigrates their product or service, when the reality is that customers look for “cheap.” One of our roles as PR pros is walking that delicate balance between what the clients want versus what drives results. Sometimes it’s just not easy.

Link-building for PR

“The biggest contribution that PR pros can make to SEO is encouraging editorial links. It not only allows people to click through but also boosts SEO,” McGaffin adds. “Sometimes an editorial piece contains a link, sometimes it doesn’t. Often that’s just because no one asked for a link.”

What does this mean? When you write a guest blog or a byline article that is being placed online, make sure that you include links back to your brand’s website. For added value, make the hyperlink relevant to the story and/or the bio.

For example, the author’s name can easily be a link back to the “About Us” page bio, or his/her title can link back to the company home page. Links at the end of the article can loop back to a post on the company blog that expands on the same topic. The more relevant the link, the better.

Blogger outreach

Securing guest posts for your client or employer is an essential component of digital PR. It helps you to join the conversation without waiting for media to publish something about you. (See the April #PRprochat transcript with guest @MackCollier for great stuff on this very topic.)

They are a powerful way to help your client be visible, find a targeted audience and show expertise. It also builds social proof of that expertise, since most blog posts are shared across Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google Plus. With a little luck, each share tags your brand or the author.

According to McGaffin, finding lots of relevant blogs is an SEO skill, but building relationships and winning links are PR skills. Don’t worry about Penguin, Panda, and all the other SEO changes. Simply create great content, and get it linked.

“The pillars of good SEO are great content, link building, social and PR…. Getting all of them right creates fantastic results.”

Carrie Morgan is a 20-plus year public relations veteran based in Phoenix, specializing in digital PR. A version of this story first appeared on the Rock The Status Quo blog.

Astronaut sings David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ from … space

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:49:02 GMT

Social media is now all the rage “in a most peculiar” place: outer space.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has been aboard the International Space Station for five months now. As a sendoff, he recorded a very impressive music video of himself covering David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”

The result is every bit as fantastic as you would think:

The video has been viewed more than 1 million times in 24 hours. It even got the attention of Bowie himself:

CHRIS HADFIELD SINGS SPACE ODDITY IN SPACE!“Hallo Spaceboy...”Commander Chris Hadfield, currently on... fb.me/24sZNW5ly
— David Bowie Official (@DavidBowieReal) May 12, 2013

Hadfield has gained some notoriety for his use of Twitter and YouTube during his time in outer space. His photos and commentary are well worth a look and a follow.

And the Bowie cover isn’t his first foray into space singing. He also hosted a singalong with Canadian schoolchildren earlier this month.

In case you’re wondering whether Hadfield will cry when he has to leave the station, take a look at this video:

Perhaps he’ll cry, but the tears won’t fall.

8 steps to ‘tool-agnostic’ social media strategy

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:48:34 GMT

It’s tough to boil down a social media strategy into easily digestible pieces. As we’ve seen in our strategy work, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for social media content strategy.

That said, everyone needs a jumping-off point. Enter Jay Baer’s “tool-agnostic” approach to social media strategy. He breaks down his method into eight parts:

1. Build an ark
2. Listen and compare
3. What’s the point?
4. Select success metrics
5. Analyze your audiences
6. What’s your one thing?
7. How will you be human?
8 Create a channel plan

It’s not exactly comprehensive, but if you’re a newbie to the process, it’s certainly a great place to start. Learn more about how Baer suggests approaching each of these steps in the infographic below:

(via Convince & Convert)

11 ways to make your Twitter chats a major force

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:46:03 GMT

Next week, New York Times columnist Melinda Emerson, known to many as @smallbizlady, will host the 200^th #smallbizchat on Twitter.

Those weekly, hourlong chats are a force to be reckoned with, garnering around 1.2 million impressions each Wednesday evening.

They didn't start that way, of course. Emerson launched her chats in April 2009, after five months of being on Twitter and noticing PR consultant Sarah Evans' #journchat and seeing the degree of people's involvement. Emerson then started her own peer-to-peer mentoring program for small-business owners.

How did Emerson grow her chat to what it is today? She offered 11 hints to aspiring chat hosts:

1. Be aware of time.

"I made my chat only one hour and picked a time in the evening so it wouldn't be during people's work day," Emerson says.

That doesn't mean chats have to be in the evening hours, however. It just depends on the audience, she says. Small-business owners don't have a lot of time during the day, but people in other fields might.

Whoever your audience is, be sure you start on time.

"I'm really serious about my show starting and stopping on time," Emerson says. "I want to maximize the value of people's participation."

She says people looking to start chats should see what other chats are out there and when they happen. You don't want to go head to head with a chat that might appeal to the same audience. Also, Emerson says you've got to pace your chat. Don't make it go so fast that people can't keep up.

2. Have a structure.

Emerson is a former TV producer, so she made her chat into something akin to a TV talk show. It has commercial breaks and a script.

"I kind of formulated it in a way so that I could control it and to have a way to make sure that the guest experts were providing valuable information," she says.

About 90 percent of the content in the chats is pre-written, Emerson says. She and the guest will copy and paste their pre-determined questions and answers into Twitter. However, they do take some live questions from the audience. Emerson says she stays on the phone with her guests to decide which comments or questions to address.

3. Vet your guests.

Don't take people on Twitter at their word if they claim to be an expert, Emerson says.

"We got burned a couple times in the early days. We had people tell us they were this, then we'd get them on the show and they were answering ridiculously to questions."

So now, Emerson asks all her potential guests to send her their books or other credentials. She checks the answers that guests provide to her questions beforehand to make sure they aren't too promotional. She also schedules guests two months in advance so all that can be cleared up in plenty of time.

4. Have a following before you start.

"You wouldn't want to get on Twitter with 50 followers and start a chat," Emerson says. "You've got to do your work up front. You've got to do what I call friend-raising."

Those friends can't just be anybody, either. You've got to be a part of the community you want to involve in your chat topics.

Emerson says chat hosts should have somewhere in the area of 1,000 followers before they try to get a chat going.

5. Pick the right hashtag.

Emerson's hashtag, #smallbizchat came from the keywords people use to look up small-business information on Twitter.

"In my case, people search for 'smallbiz' every day," she says. "Because of that, because 'smallbiz' is in my name and the name of my chat, people find me."

6. Use a monitoring tool.

Emerson uses TweetGrid's search dashboard to keep up with chats as they happen.

"To watch a chat from actual Twitter is really kind of hard," she says. "Hundreds of people come to #smallbizchat every week. It's hard to manage that from a regular Twitter account."

7. Don't expect everyone to participate.

About a quarter of the people who visit #smallbizchat don't say anything, Emerson estimates.

8. Archive your chats.

Emerson always posts transcripts of her chats to her blog the next day, just in case someone missed one and needs to catch up. She uses a program called TweetReports to pull the transcript each week so she can blog it, as well as getting an idea of who's participating.

"We also have sponsors for #smallbizchat, so we have to keep track of our records and our reach," she says.

9. Promote and remind.

Even four years after the chats started, new people find them every week, Emerson says, so she'll tweet multiple times on the day of the chat just how to participate and how to become a guest. Those are the two most-asked questions, she says.

Emerson also announces the guest schedule a week in advance so people can catch the guests who pique their interest.

10. Have a face.

Big brands that try to hold Twitter chats on their own come off as inauthentic, Emerson says. They need a visible, knowledgeable person—internal or external—to host them, or perhaps they should sponsor existing chats.

"They can't do it alone," she says."If you want to do a mom-blogger chat, you've got to go to the queen mom blogger."

11. Stick with it.

"We have been relentlessly consistent with #smallbizchat," Emerson says. "That has made all the difference to my brand and my business."

That change won't happen in a day, she warns.

"It took about 18 to 24 months before we were able to really monetize it," she says. "You're going to pay your dues."

Matt Wilson is a staff writer for Ragan.com.

(Image via)

3 essential elements of a viral video

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:57:34 GMT

While there's no guarantee your next video will go viral, you can increase your chances by making sure it has the right content, context and conversation.

Gil Wolchok, executive vice president at Synaptic Digital, expanded on each of these three points in a recent interview with our own Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications and publisher of PR Daily.

Plus, learn why Wolchok his colleagues prefer the term “shareable” rather than “viral" when referring to their clients' videos.

Watch:

'Likes' don't save lives, says UNICEF Sweden

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:56:57 GMT

There's been a lot of talk on and around social media in the past few years about "slacktivism," the practice of helping social causes through "liking" a Facebook page, changing a Twitter icon, or sharing a photo on Pinterest.

Some professional activists have praised so-called slacktivists for drawing attention to big issues facing the world, but UNICEF's Sweden branch started a campaign last month that asserts slacktivism is no cure-all.

The "Likes don't save lives" campaign boldly states, through YouTube videos and print advertising, that it takes donations, not just social-media gestures, to vaccinate children against preventable diseases and help orphans get out of poverty.

Though UNICEF Sweden didn't share whether the campaign has actually led to increased donations, copious media coverage of the campaign and nearly 42,000 views of the video would suggest the campaign is getting a lot of attention.

Ongoing debate

UNICEF Sweden and its advertising agency, Forsman and Bodenfors, felt compelled to step into the big slacktivism discussion, said the organization's director of communications, Petra Hallebrant. Based on some research the organization did in conjunction with the market research institute YouGov, there seemed to be some misconceptions among Swedes about the good a "like" does.

"One in five thinks that a 'like' on Facebook is a good way of supporting an organization," she says. "Two in three have 'liked' something on Facebook without caring about the message or issue. One in seven thinks that 'liking' an organization on Facebook is as good as donating money."

The campaign is intended to clear up those misconceptions, as well as bring in extra money for UNICEF Sweden. Hallebrant says she hopes the campaign will drive people with good intentions to rethink the role of social media in creating social good. Maybe if they do, they'll get more involved in other ways.

Getting out the message

The campaign is made up of TV advertisements, PR outreach, radio commercials, and, of course, social media outreach through UNICEF Sweden's Facebook page.

Hallebrant says the organization has been careful not to bash Facebook, nor its fans who use it, through Facebook. It doesn't have anything against "likes"—the UNICEF Sweden page has gotten the thumbs-up more than 183,000 times—but that can't be the whole process of supporting a nonprofit organization.

"Social media is a very good tool to get attention to a specific topic immediately, to spread the word, and for advocacy purposes," she says. "It could be a good first step to get involved, but it cannot stop there. 'Likes' don't save children's lives. We need money to buy vaccines, for instance."

The organization's English-language "Likes don't save lives" YouTube video (there are two others in Swedish that have a somewhat different tone) makes its point with a hard, satirical edge, however. It features an orphaned 10-year-old boy standing in a disheveled room, worrying about whether he'll get sick, as his mother did.

"Today, UNICEF Sweden has 177,000 'likes' on Facebook," he says in subtitled Urdu. "Maybe they will reach 200,000 by summer. Then we should be all right."

Results

Again, UNICEF Sweden didn't offer donation figures, but Hallebrant says most of the comments the organization has received in response to the campaign have been positive. A few small nonprofit organizations have said "likes" are more important for than they are for UNICEF, for outreach purposes.

The campaign's English YouTube video has netted 30-plus comments, in an array of languages. Some are jokes about "liking" the video, pointing out the irony of using social media to assert that social media isn't a cure-all. Others ask about how to donate, or how much of UNICEF's donations are actually put toward work in the field.

Hallebrant was quick to point out the campaign is limited to Sweden, though it's garnering quite a bit of worldwide attention.

On a post to the blog The Verge about the campaign—one of many posts bringing attention to it—commenters engaged in a healthy debate about how to help charity organizations through donations and through social media.

"Good on UNICEF," one commenter wrote. "I'm tired of all these 'Like this to _______' posts."

Matt Wilson is a staff writer for Ragan.com.

(Image via)

The best social media tools of 2013 (so far)

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:45:01 GMT

It's been a while since I've cobbled together a look at some of the newer social media tools making an impact.

The aim is to highlight hidden gems that can ease your online life, as opposed to talking about mainstream tools that get big chunks of air time.

Some similar posts from the past can be found here.

Enough reminiscing—let's take a look at the new tools, sites, and Web and mobile apps worth having on your radar:

1. Dominder.com. Do you own a lot of domain names? Then you'll love Dominder.com (just like Biscuit the Cat).

As the name suggests, it is a reminder service for your domain names, which means you'll never miss those important re-registration dates. The interface is really clean, too—definitely one for your toolkit.

2. WooBox.com. This has become a big favorite at my workplace. WooBox.com is a Facebook brand page app service that provides a host of free and paid apps, ranging from Instagram tabs to competition solutions.

If you manage Facebook pages and want to add apps of all kinds, this is a great resource. A similar site worth considering is shortstack.com.

3. Tagboard.com. If hashtags are a big part of your social media presence, then Tagboard is for you.

Tagboard tracks hashtags across all major platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Vine, G+) so you can see where the tags are being used. You can create your own tagboard, giving you an aggregated look at all activity, which you can then share along the line (see an example below).

4. Feedspot.com. Feedspot is pitched as a new RSS reader; it enables you to pick and follow blogs based on your interests, and then it makes suggestions based on your activity. Feedspot also allows you to import your Google Reader subscriptions. Happy days.

5. Piktochart.com. This one is billed as an infographic and presentation tool for non-designers.

If you are responsible for creating compelling visual content this will come in handy. As with most design-based tools, you have free access to a portion its capabilities, but you'll have to pay if you want all the bells and whistles.

6. LiveTweetApp.com. A live-tweet wall tool for events and conferences.

7. Picozu.com. An online drawing and photo-retouching application.

8. Zeen.com. Another image-generation tool that enables you to create shareable, poster-style pieces of content.

9. Youtube.videodeck.net. This is essentially tweetdeck for YouTube; it enables you to follow your favorite subscriptions and content with a dashboard-style experience.

10. RockMelt Mobile (download via app store). RockMelt launched to great fanfare a couple of years ago as a social Web browser but has evolved significantly to become one of the best mobile-based social discovery apps.

This story first appeared on the CommsCorner.com.