Missing The "Social" In Social Media

Many organizations and companies that I work with are really great at creating content, which is such an important step for sharing info in social networking channels.

 

The problem is that they are missing taking the really powerful step of socializing that content. Many really don't know how, or are afraid of what that socializing will unleash on their organization. 

• Do they have the resources?
• Will they be able to realistically meet the demand for direct communication?
• How will they handle negative comments?
• How will they prove the value of social media to their boss?
• How will they make it fit into their already busy day?

It is these questions and many more that I start to answer in the following presentation that I put together for the College Sports Information Directors of America's Annual Conference today.

 

A few of the examples have a sports bent to meet the needs of that group. It also contains a reference to the B.E.E.S. Social Media Strategy post from earlier this week.

 

The "Social" In Social Media

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Building Buzz with Social Media Using Swarming and BEES

Many companies now have developed a number of social media properties. Even the skeptical seem to have at least a blogspot blog, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel (if they have anything even remotely visual) and of course the requisite Twitter account - though some are just reserved with no profile picture to ensure no one hijacks the name.

 

With the "land rush" last week for unique URLS on on Facebook, most of the pages have 1,001 fans, just enough to qualify them to get their name before someone squats on the best names.

 

If they are really cool cats they might even have a Flickr photosharing account and a FriendFeed. Perhaps they even have a Ning community with a handful of passionate people leading the way.

 

In other words, most are "dipping their toe" in social media but very few have figured out how to best manage these tools to encourage buzz and build community around a brand,

 

Swarming as a Strategy

 

I am not criticizing these companies, but am trying to help a number of them make sense of all of the opportunities.

 

One way to look at social media is as a beehive. The analogy has many hooks that work when you are looking at it from a communication perspective. European honeybees swarm when they are building a new nest or hive. In the same way, companies will need to learn how to swarm to build their social media presence. It has some components that I have fit into the mnemonic of B.E.E.S.

 

B

BUILD. This is the step most companies have taken, they have built a number of social media properties, but they aren't working together very well. Someone might broadcast their blog content through their Facebook or Twitter account but they aren't building in hooks that go beyond broadcasting. In a beehive nothing is wasted. Everyone has a role and lives that out. In the wild world of social media, you can't control what others do, but you can build out content that is interesting to others. This is the important building of a "hive" or a distributed place that your brand calls home across social media tools.

 

E

EAVESDROP. This goes far beyond merely listening, or monitoring, though these are a part of this step. This is listening with a purpose to determine what kinds of content are most resonant in each social media community. This is like the communication that bees instinctively use to build a functioning hive or nest and which can be brought to bear in social situations. Each community has a distinct culture, to be effective, one has to learn this culture and speak in its own language.

 

E

ECHO. Once you know what is resonating to the community then companies should provide content that fits, or echos, what the community finds interesting. This is often been pejoratively called the "echo chamber" by some, but this echoing (ie., Retweeting on Twitter, linkining on blogs, tagging or sharing in Facebook) is how things are virally shared in social networks. Also, echoing is important on all of your social networks. Companies should make sure all of their social properties echo each other. I don't mean that the same content should be on all of the pages, but instead that people can easily get from one property to another and that they support each other.

 

S

SOCIALIZE. Finally, the content must be socialized and not simply broadcast. Of all of the blogs and profiles I have looked at, my biggest concern is that there is a lack of great interaction. This is a difficult issues because true interaction takes time and energy. Things like auto Direct Messaging and automatically following on Twitter make it easy to pretend as if you are engaging, but it doesn't fool anyone. Additionally, services like Ping.fm can be abused. Companies that have made an investment and have hired or appointed someone to handle their social media outreach have done much better than those who are trying to wing it.

 

Together, these approaches allow the conditions or environment that can precipitate a swarm. or a buzz, around a brand or organization.

 

These are just my first thoughts pulled together in a useful mnemonic but I am very interested in hearing your thoughts. Everyone is figuring out this new shifting landscape, but it is clear to me that it's no longer enough just to get an account in one of the popular social media networks and "participate."

 

What do you think?

 

Photo from Shutterstock

Media Profile: Brian Bolter, Fox 5 News Washington, D.C.

 

In true broadcast media form, Brian Bolter answered my Media Profile questions with a video. Bolter is the anchor of The Edge for WTTG Fox 5 in the Washington D.C. area.

 

As a former resident of Washington D.C., I follow a lot of people from the area on Twitter. Brian's reporting using Twitter. Brian's real-time incorporation of tweets into his newscast caught my attention a few months ago. He was on my short list to interview as I started this series.

 

 

My purpose for these interviews are twofold;

 

1) to take a look at how traditional media outlets are using social media tools to enhance their reporting and to investigate the idea that these new tools and work flows will revolutionize journalism]

 

2) to get tips for communicators interacting with journalists in these forums and formulate best practices.

 

Some highlights from Brian's interview:

Using Social Media in Broadcast Journalism

 

• With time lacking, use social media as a way to get out in the public and get to know your viewers, make "appearances"
• Twitter is the real-time web and allows for instant feedback from viewers, get a quick read on sentiment or opinion about a story
• Use Twitter for crowd sourcing and eyewitness accounts, but back those up with reporting to independently verify events
• Used for news gathering such as crime in progress, weather events, and story ideas
• Brian goes for a very genuine feel to his news reporting on air and in social networks. The station doesn't just feed out news on the Twitter channel, they also respond

Best Practices for Working with Broadcast Journalists Online

 

• The "faces" of the news are often not the right person to pitch, Brian prefers to talk with "real people"
• Brian says that the people who take pitched at the station are still old school and still pick up the phone (see contact info below)
• Don't pitch journalists on their personal Twitter and Facebook pages, but in the case of Brian, feel free to interact
• Be a real person, be genuine, share versus pitching. Engage in genuine interaction
• Do not send auto direct messages from Twitter
• Do not come on too strong or expect coverage

That said, please do take the time to watch the video, there are some nuances that I didn't catch in the write up and what Brian says is very interesting. He posted his video on his Vimeo site, where he has a series of Me Right Now videos that give a flavor for how authentic Brian really is. He understands that his personal and professional life intersect as a public persona and he lets his fans in the door. He has really blended social and traditional media to create a news hybrid that is more weighty and personal.

 

 

Social Media Video Interview from Brian Bolter on Vimeo.

 

Contacting Brian and Fox5:

 

Facebook: MyFox5

Twitter: @Fox5NewsEdge

Telephone:

MAIN: 202.244.5151
NEWSROOM:202.895.3000
NEWSROOM FAX:202.895.3133

Cool Tools: BuzzStream is Contact Management for Social Media

As a social media and public relations consultant, I spend a lot of time online researching various blogs and publications within vertical interest areas. One of the things that I have found frustrating is manually keeping multiple lists of contacts and notes about each contact.

 

There are some extremely expensive tools. like Salesforce, and other CRM programs like ACT, which are cheaper but don't really address the needs of people looking to build relationships over time rather than sell stuff. Vocus has a built-in CRM-type management, but that is more aimed at sending out messages to a list, and it's pricey. There are many others as well, but  BuzzStream seems different.

 

The Austin-based company was started by Paul May and Jeremy Bencken. Paul serves and the CEO and is a start-up junkie, with most of the last fifteen years either starting or working on early stage startups. Jeremy Bencken serves as chairman and is a software engineer, product manager and entrepreneur.

 

I asked Jeremy what the inspiration for BuzzStream was:

 

The inspiration for this came from the pain I had as an entrepreneur doing my own PR...What I realized after a while was that the key to success was doing very targeted, personalized outreach.  However, I couldn’t find any tools that helped me manage my growing list of influencer relationships.  The tools on the market were very expensive, but worse, they were all about spray-and-pray pitching, which was a big problem for me… My approach to finding journalists and bloggers was to monitor the news, find people writing about my area, and then reach out and start building a relationship.  Then, when I had something newsworthy to talk about, I could just build on my existing relationship. 

 

Bingo! This is exactly the way that I approach public relations, and the fact that the BuzzStream is geared toward this is very interesting to me.

Some of BuzzStream's Features I Like

• Bookmarklets to capture data on the fly, in seconds
• Auto Scan of blog/page to look for contact info and auto populate a new contact, then you add what only human eyes can see
• Built-in Twitter search captures your conversations with contacts
• Ability to add tags and sort your contact list by tag
• Ability to import and export data (upcoming)
• Metrics recorded for each media outlet or blog are PageRank, Compete Traffic, Technorati Rank, Yahoo Inbound Links and Site Age.
• By putting a BuzzStream e-mail into your BCC field, the system will add the content of the email to your contact

Jeremy says they plan to add a number of other "mind blowing" features in the near term.

 

Certainly what I have seen so far is intriguing. Enough so that I started right away to think of features I would love to see. When I start doing this I know that I am falling in love with an application. Here are just a few of my ideas and thoughts:

 

Features I Would Like to See

 

Ability to add more than one Twitter account. I would like to be able to track conversations between myself and contacts, as well as between members of the team and these same contacts. Also, the ability to add more than one Twitter account per contact. Some have more than one Twitter account.

 

Ability to Group Backlinks by Client or Project. You can add as many Web sites as you would like (don't know if their is an upward limit) but they are all in one place, would be nice to group by client.

 

Ability to Delete Notes. Some of my contacts are also friends and may send me unrelated Tweets. It would be ideal to be able to delete notes, where Tweets are stored, on a case-by-case basis.

 

Ability to Send Tweets from Software. I think sending Tweets from the program would be helpful for workflow. The fact that you can send a tweet from anywhere you normally would and it gets picked up is cool, but when you are in the program looking up contacts, it would be very good if you could send directly then pick up responses in your tool of choice.

 

Link Building Pet Peeve. I realize some people go out to make agreements to trade links but as someone who is interested in earned media I find this practice abhorrent. BuzzStream allows you to organize these contacts as well, complete with a drop down menu that includes "link agreement" as a status. To each his own. I would call it something like, "agreed to publish." But this is nitpicky.

 

What It Will Cost

 

But what does it cost, you might ask? I asked too and here is what Jeremy said:

 

Our pricing is yet to be determined, but we priced the Link Building product at free, $50/mo for personal edition, $250/mo for company edition, and agency edition is individually tailored.  One of my goals was to create a product that I myself would have been able to afford as a bootstrap entrepreneur, so that’s our general orientation.

 

For now you can try it for free and BuzzStream was so kind as to supply Communication Ovetones with 75 BuzzStream Beta invites to check out the new application.  If you DO sign up, please let me know what your thoughts are on the new offering her or on Twitter @kamichat.

 

 

 

Mashable did a great job of showing you some screen captures, so be sure to go and take a look at them.

Don't Worry: How to Solve Any Problem

 

 

If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying? - Shantideva

 

One of the things I have learned in life is that worry never solves a problem and only serves to keep you up at night.

 

While I KNOW this, I often have to remind myself. Just last night I woke up around 3 a.m. and started to worry about a business problem. I had to tell myself to stop worrying. I quickly generated a few ideas about how to solve the problem and then easily fell back to sleep.

 

One of my old bosses did me a favor when he told me to never come to him with a problem unless I had a proposed solution. It was a great lesson.

 

Instead of worrying, why not spend that time generating alternatives? When you start to worry about something professional or personal, take out a notepad and start writing down possible solutions, even seemingly crazy ones.

 

Even if most of your ideas won't work, one of them might be the solution to your problem - or lead you to a solution.

 

Also, make a list of people with whom you can share your problem and then call, e-mail or "tweet" them and ask for their ideas about how to solve your problem.

 

Recently, a friend of mine who was reviewing the next steps for her career asked me to do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis about her job performance. What a great idea!

 

Ask your friends to do the same for you and you might be surprised with what they offer.

 

Use adversity as a way to grow and in a few years you will look back and see it as a pivotal turning point.

 

How does this have anything to do with PR and communication, you might ask? It has EVERYTHING to do with it. What is communication if not a series of problems to be solved with innovative ideas?

 

How do you stop worrying? Would love to hear your story.

 

Photo provided by Shutterstock

5 Best Practices to Maximize Your Participation in a Twitter Chat

 

 

It seems that there is a Twitter chat for everything these days. The problem, of course, is that the Twitter platform is terrible for having a coherent exchange of ideas. However, once you get used to it, you often get a lot out of the chats. If nothing else you meet some great new contacts on Twitter. But you still may be wondering how to participate in a Twitter chat. (If you are a pro skip to the 5 Best Practices).

 

In order to participate you need a Twitter account and some kind of search program to keep up with the action. I usually add a search column in my TweetDeck program with the hashtag to keep up. You can also use the Twitter Search function - just enter the hashtag as a search term.

What is a hashtag you ask? A hashtag is some text that is preceded by the pound sigh (#hashtag) appended onto the end of the Twitter message that allows a group of people, who aren’t necessarily following each other, to engage in a conversation.

 

A nifty service called “What the Hashtag” has definitions of many of the hashtags that are in common use. You can also check out a recap and transcript of the most recent chat about SEO and blogs as an example of what goes on in these things.

 

Here are some of my favorite chats:

 

BLOGCHAT: On Sunday nights at 8-9 CT there is #blogchat with @MackCollier, author of the Viral Garden blog

 

HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION: or if you are into health care you can chat with #hcsm with @danamlewis also on Sunday nights from 8-9 CT

 

JOURNCHAT: Monday nights is #journchat from 8-10CT with @PRsarahevans, author of a blog by the same name, PRSarahEvans

 

PR 2.0 CHAT: On Wednesday nights is #pr20chat with @BethHarte from 7-8 CT, she is author of the Harte of Marketing blog

5 Twitter Chat Best Practices

1. Relevance: Only use the hashtag on posts that directly pertain to the topic set out by the moderator. If you start a side conversation with someone in the chat drop the hashtag
2. Spam Free: Do not flog thy wares or ask people to support you in a competition during the chat, this is bad form
3. Links: Feel free to share links to your own posts if they directly pertain to the topic at hand, but be judicious in how many you give
4. More Links: Link to other’s work and make recommendations to others in the chat to follow people that have expertise in the area being discussed, they might even show up to participate if you call them out
5. Retweet Sparingly: Only Retweet, or resend posts that would be of broad interest to your followers. Be sure to add enough context to these Retweets so as not to be confusing to those not participating in the chat

Share Your Best Practices and Tools

 

Now it is your turn, share your tips for participating in a chat. Here are some questions to get started.

 

· What tools and techniques do you use when you participate in a chat?

· What are your favorite chats?

· What would you add or change about the Twitter Best Practices?

 

Image provided by Shutterstock.com

Remembrance: Memorial Day 2009