Erik Qualman's Blog, page 686

Please, Just Be Different

I'm a relatively new entrepreneur. I started a consulting company and I've been reading as many books and articles as I can on successful consulting, presenting, social media, etc. I've learned an incredible amount of information in a very short amount of time. (Reading a book while exercising on the cross trainer is amazingly productive). In doing this research, one thing stands out above everything else.

Growing up as boy in New Jersey I never quite fit in. I was different. I could never put my finger on it. As I grew older I embraced it. I did a lot of things differently. For a while I had long hair and earrings (not the norm in the early 90s). When I graduated from college, I didn't go on any interviews or move into corporate America. Instead, I moved to Jackson Hole, WY to "live a little". It wasn't until two years after earning a degree from Florida State that I actually got a job for the local cellular phone company (in sales no less). I'm a typical "last born" child and have always gone my own way. And, it's proved to be extremely rewarding in my life.

As I enter entrepreneurial world, I'm confident this same mentality will serve me well. Why? I'm finding out that in the social media consulting business so many people seem to be doing the same thing. Many consulting t company websites have the same "call to action" such as offering a newsletter or downloaded freebie. Many of blogs I see provide the proverbial "Top 10 secrets to…" or "5 Things you need to know…" etc. Even many of the Power Point presentations I've seen seem to be completely unoriginal, filled with bullets points that are read verbatim, and carbon copies of other presentations that are filled with numbers, small font and lots of graphs.

I believe that in almost any business it takes focus and discipline to "keep it simple". It takes courage to be different and buck conventional wisdom. I think it takes a concentrated effort to be unique. It's often times easier to do what everyone else is doing. If they're doing it, it must work right? Maybe it is. However, the best thing I've learned so far is to "just be different dang it". Take a risk, try new things and do things differently than everybody else. Offer a different kind of call to action. Give a customer a different kind of experience than what they expect. Offer a different kind of solution for your client. I think the secret is offering a different "experience" to your customer or client. It's not the transaction, the product or the offering as much as it is the "experience" they have in working with you.

Here are some of my favorite examples of companies who bucked the trends:

• FedEx redefined the "snail mail" business model

• Deer Park made selling water in a bottle an incredibly profitable business

• Chic File focused on doing one thing and one thing only. Really, really good chicken sandwiches. Oh, and by the way, they are the only fast food restaurant that is closed on Sundays

Be real. Be genuine. Be transparent. If everyone is going left, go right and have fun doing so. Most of all, regardless of your profession, please, just be different!

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More Than You Would Like, Less Than You Think

Recently I was speaking on a panel for gamification and social media, and was asked how much time and effort should be invested into these efforts. The answer of course depends,  but in my opinion I believe it can be summed up this way: "More than you'd like, less than you'd think"

Social media is not free. It is also not a panacea for all your business woes. It takes an investment in time, energy and creativity. I think too many people throw up a twitter page because they are "supposed to" and then leave it to waste away, ultimately doing more harm than good. Moral of the story? Don't engage until you are ready. People have such short attention spans and there is so much content out there, that the second you are branded as "out of date", you lose your opportunity to maintain relevance.

The panel featured some experts in marketing, public relations and loyalty space, and they all offered some great insights which I thought I would share.

Question: "Will adding gaming elements to my Facebook presence improve fan engagement?"

Answer: Does playing spin the bottle liven up a party?

Question: " Do I need a huge budget to increase engagement on my fan page or website?"

Answer: No. You do need to invest time and creativity. You don't need to have a game like Zelda to be effective. Weight Watchers is a great example of points and competition for something we do everyday, and it has been quite effective.

Question: "In my Social Media efforts, is it as simple as just offering rewards and points, or is there more to it?"

Answer: Contrary to what we might think, you don't want to just throw up a bunch of coupons to attract a bunch of attention. By doing so you risk damaging your brand. You never want to train your audience to only show up when it's cheaper. Stick to unexpected rewards and goodies like Zappos (Often times they upgrade your purchase to overnight delivery for a pleasant surprise the next morning).  Consider competition as well. People are wired to compete. Leader boards, point systems and a spotlight on "loyal fans" can really get things going. Consider platforms for Facebook and Twitter that have these features. Host contests, have fun, surprise your fans. Give them a reason to engage. Let them compete and earn the top spot as "number one fan". And of course…be consistent!

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Too Early For Businesses To Join Google+

[image error]Google+ has launched to much excitement, and few are as pumped about it as businesses and nonprofits.  Finally, they can be a part of the social media wave rather than catching up to their customers.  But is it too early?

I say yes, and trust me it is not easy to say that.  As the Director of Marketing and a social media nerd, I am having to sit on my hands to stop myself from creating a Google+ account for GiveForward.  But as someone who has dealt with the ups and downs of running a business's social media, I can tell you now, patience is a virtue.

Lets start with looking at why Google doesn't want businesses on the site just yet. Google has come out and said they aren't ready for organizational profiles and are even saying their policy team will "actively work with profile owners to shut down non-user profiles".

To entice organizations to hold off Google is promising an experience that is unique to businesses and includes deep analytics and connection to products like AdWords.  In fact, they have even provided a spreadsheet where "non-user entities" can apply to be a part of an experiment to test out Google+ with businesses.

But my hesitations are about more than just the limitations of the experience that Google+ currently provides.  My concern is what happens when a group starts with a user profile and later tries to shift to an organizational profile.

This exact problem is something that a number of organizations ran into during the growth of Facebook, and many are still figuring it out today.   Businesses are trying to figure out how to shift their "friends" into "likes" and are losing users in the process.  Another issue is if a company needs to change the name on their Facebook page.  You can't do it, instead you have[image error] to create a new page with the name you want and again, migrate all of your users to the new page, running the risk of losing people.

While I am pumped about Google+ and am having fun with my own user profile, I've seen enough businesses struggle with getting their social media profiles sorted out that I believe jumping into Google+ will just cause undue stress and frustration when the business pages emerge and everyone has to shift to take advantage of the new functionality.

The pros of joining don't outweigh the cons just yet, so for now, my recommendation is wait for the Google+ business profiles.  In the meantime why not join Google+ with a personal profile and learn it as a user so you can have a great plan in place to reach users when you can kick off you organization's page?

Recommended book: What Would Google Do?

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Twitter: Only 1% Think Casey Anthony Innocent

The world witnessed a sensational court trial the last 36 days, only that this time around the action was more outside the court room than inside it. The Casey Anthony case is perhaps the most followed, discussed and debated trial in the history of the United States, only next to the O.J Simpson case (vs. The State Of California). Unlike previous trials, the interest of the social media and the massive outpour that followed the verdict made this unique. TIME magazine went on to describe the case as 'The Social Media trial of the Century!"

34,000 tweets immediately follow verdict

On 5th July, Tuesday afternoon when the jury announced the not-guilty verdict, the euphoria reached new heights with an astounding 34,000 Tweets popping up in an hour and 'notguilty' appearing 20,000 times. It was not  just the attorneys'

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Casey Anthony became a Twitter sensation

arguments, witness testimony and evidence that drew interest, but they wanted to know about Anthony's close, how she was acting, when she cried and other details – and they wanted them now. "Social media is a high-efficiency gossip factory," said Dan Gillmor, director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University.

"Social media is a high-efficiency gossip factory," – Dan Gillmor

Although O.J Simpson case had a broader coverage, it wasnt propelled by the social media explosion. Just after the verdict in Casey Anthony case was announced the "Net Usage Index for News" from Akamai showed that traffic to news sites surged from about 2 million page views a minute to 3.3 million, with most of the visits coming from the United States. Mashable reported that between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., one million viewers were watching CNN.com/live, an astounding 30 times higher than the previous month's average.

Video Breaks CNN's All-Time Top 10 List

CNN logged 12 million page views during the same time frame and the story became CNN's tenth most-popular video stream of all time. ABC News also saw traffic soar around the same time, with the number of visitors to the site increasing by five times the previous month's average. Between the hours of 12 p.m. and 4 p.m., ABC says 1.2 million videos were watched on ABCNews.com, three times more than the average in the previous month.

325,283 Twitter posts on Tuesday around Anthony Trial

There is also strong outpour of disbelief, frustration and disappointment over the verdict on the social network. CrimsonHexagon a social media analytics firm said there were 325,283 Twitter posts on Tuesday about the Casey Anthony trial—most from around the time of the verdict. There was an overwhelming agreement among Twitter users about the outcome.*

According to data from NM Incite, 64 percent of people on Twitter disagreed with the "not guilty" verdict, while only 1% agreed (35% were neutral).**

In between all the drama , we hope that the soul of sweet little Caylee Anthony rests in peace.

**adage.com

*wikipedia.com

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QR Codes Provide Immediate Information Delivery

What do we as a human race all have in common? Each one of us likes to get our information immediately. We want to waste no time. We want it NOW…better yet- yesterday.  You are probably even reading this and thinking "I hope she gets to her point soon."

Launched in Japan, QR codes (Quick Response) codes do just that. Even the name is shortened to spit it out faster. QR codes are popping up everywhere: on business cards, boarding passes, flyers, etc. These little black and white maze-like barcodes are your gateway to more information on a particular business, website or product.

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QR codes are quiet similar to standard barcodes you see on various product packages but pack more of a punch. While typical barcodes are one dimensional and are maxed out at 20 numbers, QR codes are 2D and hold thousands of characters of information.

When you scan a QR code using a smart phone, you can instantly retrieve information from the web, email or even instant messengers. According to Socialmediaexplorer.com, 51% of Americans will own a smart phone this year. Denso Wave (a branch of Toyota and creator of the QR code) could not have had better timing. People crave immediate information and with a quick scan of a QR code- you've got it!

You can also share information using QR codes. With the app known as "Likify" (likify.net), you can create a QR code which will link to the "like" feature on a Facebook page. Perfect for a small (or even large!) company looking to promote its business.

Companies around the globe are jumping at the chance to use QR codes. Scanning them can provide coupons for a product, directions to the business, an opportunity to provide feedback and even suggestions for related products or services.

With QR codes being so easy for users and businesses alike, there's not telling how popular they will become! Have you used a QR code recently either personally or for business?

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Zuckerberg Most Popular on Google+

Google has recently been rolling out it's rival to Facebook,  Google+.  They had to be a bit disheartened to learn that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has the most followers:

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg: 29,543
Google co-founder Larry Page: 19,878
Google co-founder Sergey Brin: 15,646

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Zuckerberg's Google + Profile

As of yet Zuckerberg hasn't been actively posting, rather he's simply doing some competitive research. Most features can be replicated in a few weeks should Facebook decide to do so.

 

 

Great story by FoxNews.com found here: http://bre.ad/04cytv

Recommended book: The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World

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Social Media Videos 2011

You watched and I listened. Thanks for all the supporters out there – it keeps me going! Hundreds of thousands of you LOVED the new music ("Baba Yetu") I used for Social Media Revolution 3; thanks! While others were a bit more nostalgic and wanted a version with Fatboy Slim's "Right Here, Right Now." Well, because of social media we can have our cake and eat it to! Thanks for all the feedback and support, please find a long and short version of Social Media Revolution 3 below with Fatboy Slim as the music.

Social Media Revolution 3 Video [Fatboy Slim Long Version]

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Social Media Revolution 3 Video [Fatboy Slim Short Version]

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Want the book on Socialnomics? http://bre.ad/02vk5r

 

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Social Media Newsfeed Will Find You

A wildfire that ignited on June 12 near the small town of Raton, New Mexico caused more than 200 evacuations and consumed more than 27,000 acres had area residents turning to popular social media sites for updates.
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Photo By: Max Bryson- A view of Goat Hill during the first night of the Raton Track Fire

As the fire continued to consume more vegetation and mountainous landscapes, social media became the "go-to" place for news.

One gentleman in Germany expressed his concern about the fire in this post:

"I just look at the pics of the fire and wow… breathtaking and heart breaking. Just think of how many of us from Raton, how much time we have spent at the lake or the State Park. How beautiful it is [was] and now destroyed in a matter of days. So many memories of that place. I hold it close."

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Photo By: Marty Mayfield- Lake Maloya, one of the main attractions of Sugarite Canyon State Park, encountered major devastation as the fire consumed vegetation and campground structures.

As the winds fueled the fire in the direction of Bartlett Mesa, many concerns went out to the residents of that area.

Once evacuated, one resident was able post this update:

"We have a horrible fire in Raton. We had to evacuate today, and are staying with family. We took our dogs, but had to leave the rest of the animals on the hill. [llamas, goats, donkeys, horses, etc.] We got a few things and our truck to town, too. We just got back from town and have been watching the fire. It is right by our property, but it has not burned."

Once the fire continued to spread west, these residents were allowed one quick escorted trip up the mountain to their residence. They found everything still intact and all the animals were accounted for–except for one goat, Chester. As the fire raged, all the animals scattered leaving Chester wandering by himself. A firefighter found him and took him to the local vet. As luck would have it, the vet saw the resident's Facebook post and was able to call and inform the owner Chester was fine.

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Photo By: Marty Mayfield- Aerial photo of farm animals, minus Chester the goat

 

Additionally, the trending hashtags of #NMFire, #NMFireinfo, and #Track on Twitter helped organize updates of the Raton Track Fire between several other statewide fires burning simultaneously (Arizona Wallow Fire, Colorado Duckett Fire, etc.) Many people utilized these hashtags for real time reporting from their smartphones to stay current with the latest information from the State Forestry department.

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Numerous other stories such as this emerged from the fire, but the power of social media once again continues to help those in need during a major catastrophe.

Instances such as this prove social media will continue to evolve and become the #1 source of information, connectivity, and news.

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Photo By: Marty Mayfield

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How Much is Enough?

In what has become to be known as the quintessential Wall Street film, aptly titled 'Wall Street', the legendary character Gordon Gekko responds to the question of how much money is enough by saying 'It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses.'

In the sequel to 'Wall Street', a main character, Jake, asks a similar question to the head of a major Wall Street bank. He poses the question – 'what is your number?' – referring to the idea that everyone on Wall St has an amount of money in their mind that would be 'enough'. The bank president responds 'more'.

I am learning to a greater extent each day that this sardonically quipped line by the character played by Josh Brolin, is quite befitting in the realm of social media as well.

How many friends, followers or connections are enough? It seems only 'more'.

I suppose this is not much of a revelation, as it is intuitively understood that we as beings are inherently dissatisfied with our position – or maybe that's just me?

We want the Mercedes-Benz until we get it and then need a Porsche, the Porsche then gives way to the Maserati – all the while our true desire just may be a bigger penis.

I have about 85 followers on Twitter currently. I would say at least 50 of these people could care less about what I have to tweet, but continue following me because I follow back. Yes, essentially my Twitter integrity is for sale and it goes for the price of a single follow.

It wasn't always this way. I swear. For a while I was only following those I felt were worthy of following. Those days are long gone.

I started to notice that by not following back, I was unable to grow my following – validating my belief that very few of my followers take note of my tweets, click links, or view me as anything more than a number on their stats board.

So why then am I so excited to get a new follower on Twitter? There is a real argument to be made that these followers harbor very little value in helping me to achieve my ultimate goal of engagement with my website. None the less, I am somehow pleased, even ecstatic when @ShopWomensProducts or @BuyUsedCars begins following me. Add a tally to my list. Now let's go for more.

When Zuckerberg and his Facebook Empire think 'more', they're thinking in terms of a greater percentage of the entire population of the world – why stop at 10%? For me, 'more' is a single digit game. I hope for 2 or 3 followers in a day, maybe 5 if I'm lucky. However, the notion of never being satisfied is universal – for big and small companies. The whole idea of the 'more' figure is that it is limitless.

In this limitless pursuit, moral boundaries can often times be blurred or bent. It is commonly known that twitter followers can be easily bought from a number of companies who advertise their services openly on the Twitter network itself. Should I feel cheated to find out a company or individual is buying its followers?

In financial parlance, this would definitely bring about questions of moral hazard. Moral hazard is defined by Investopedia as 'the risk that a party to a transaction has not entered into the contract in good faith, has provided misleading information about its assets, liabilities or credit capacity, or has an incentive to take unusual risks in a desperate attempt to earn a profit before the contract settles.'

In this light then, I should certainly feel cheated, having entered into a 'relationship' on twitter with a company that is not acting in good faith. I am not sure if a company buying followers is taking an unusual risk in an attempt to earn a profit, but they are certainly involved in a desperate attempt of some sort.

That's all for not though and whatever other companies are doing has very little bearing on my own twitter success or lack there of.

In theory, I should find solace in the humility of a tweet well done; in sharing content that has a hint of value draped between the hash tags and '@' signs. I should understand that I am neither winning nor losing the Twitter race.

In reality though, like the most of us, I am numbers watcher who is always hoping for more. So if you take one thing from this rant, please know – I follow back. @updates_shmish

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Top 5 Social Media Tools Companies Use

We all know the three most popular social media apps in our toolkit are: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. But what else are companies using to have an edge and be more efficient and productive in their social media efforts? How are they actually Tweeting? How are they monitoring? Here are five tools that were found to be popular and widely used among brands and businesses!
A. Cotweet

What's awesome: Web-based social media engagement, management and reporting solution that helps companies of all sizes engage, track and analyze conversations about their brands across the most popular and influential social communities today, Twitter and Facebook.

Not so awesome: There can be issues with lag time in Tweets being posted and there is a lack of autofill of Twitter names for tagging in tweets and hashtags.

 Companies that use it: Whole foods

Price: Standard for $600 or $1500/month for the Enterprise Edition (unlimited users, unlimited accounts). This is what I've read through other sources. The website does not tell exact prices unless you consult a sales agent.

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B. Radian6

What's awesome: A social media engagement tool that also lets you to find out who the top influencers are for your product/service category along with tracking conversations and engagement impact on your brand.
Not so awesome: The CRM capability would be great to have and thanks to their new integration with Salesforce, it is possible now via the integration.
Companies that use it: Dominos
Price: Radian6 dashboard pricing starts at $600 per month. They also offer a 50% discount for registered and qualified charitable organizations. Contact Sales for more info. 
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C. Tweetdeck
What's awesome: Ability to listen, monitor, respond, and engage efficiently and effectively on your social platforms from one dashboard or on the go.
Not so awesome: Lacking Google Analytics integration and the ability to save draft tweets to schedule for later.
Companies that use it: NBC
Price: Free.
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D. Seesmic
What's awesome: You can monitor mentions with ease by utilizing one dashboard for all your social platforms. Cool perk? Integration with Evernote and other nifty apps!
Not so awesome: Lacking theme support and push notification features for smartphone app.
Companies that use it: Samsung
Price: Free
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E. Klout


What's awesome: Determine your "influence" and compare/contrast with others in order to see how far your brand reaches and how your social networks like Twitter and Facebook impact that influence or target larger influencers in your target market to spread the word. Cool integration with Google Reader for blog influence too!
Not so awesome: Measuring of ROI regarding perk program for influencers appears difficult
Companies that use it: Audi
Price: Free
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