Increase Your Twitter Followers Dramatically with TweetBig

TweetBig is a new “brilliant” Twitter management tool that helps you to drastically increase your followers and build your network. The beauty of TweetBig is that is can do most tasks automatically, which is a huge timesaver. The sneaky thing about TweetBig though is when signing up, you don’t realize that there is a fee for the service until the end. It runs you through the entire process of setting up your account, and then won’t let you actually begin using the service until you pay the $4.95 7-day trial fee.

For the purpose of this review, I really wanted to fully test out the service so I decided to pay the small fee. After the 7-day trial, you can cancel or pay $17.95 per month to keep the service going. So, if you’re not a heavy Twitter user then it may not be worthwhile for you to use this service. There are definitely many free tools out there that can do almost all of what TweetBig does — even though you may have to use more than one service to match the features. Besides the surprise fee though, the service is pretty useful and very easy to setup.

First you’ll need to connect your Twitter account via OAuth.

Next you’ll set up the Piggy Back feature. Here you can “add (up to 15) competitors or users in a similar niche as you and TweetBig will analyze who follows them and identify the best users to follow.” You should choose people similar to what interests you; this will ensure that you get relevant user suggestions. TweetBig will then check regularly for new users to follow. They will also determine which of those users are the best quality and will most likely follow you back. From there (after paying) you’ll be able to mark which users you’d like to follow (see picture below).

Next you’ll set up the Keyword Gather feature. This step is pretty much like the Piggy Back feature (above), except you’ll enter keywords and phrases that interest you. Once again, TweetBig will then go and find people using and talking about those keywords and phrases. They will then show you the best, most qualified users that are most likely to follow you back. From there (after paying) you’ll be able to mark which users you’d like to follow (see picture below).

Lastly it walks you through the Follow Timebomb feature. This is a simple feature that you can choose to turn on or off. “When turned on TweetBig will wait the specified number of days for a user to follow you back, if they don’t they’ll be unfollowed.” If you are someone that doesn’t care if people follow you back or not, it’s best to simply leave this feature off — though this is one of the top techniques used by many in order to increase followers.

Once you pay for the trial, you can then access your account in full. You’ll be able to pause the service and turn it back on whenever you like. You will also be able to turn on the Auto Follow Back tool which will automatically follow back any user who follows you; by default this feature will be off. There is also a Tweet Scheduler that lets you schedule tweets to be posted at a later time. The scheduler also includes a URL shortener.

As far as the users that are picked out for you under Keyword Gather and Piggy Back, you can set TweetBig to automatically follow them or you can choose to do it automatically. I find that the listed users under Keyword Gather are not very detailed (as you can see in the picture above). It doesn’t tell you how many followers a user has or what the percentage is that they will follow you back (like the Piggy Back area). Also, for both areas there is no way to totally remove a user or show that you’re not interested in following them.

Then there’s the Red Carpet feature which will constantly monitor your followers and show you who has the most influence and biggest following. It takes a while for them to go through your users and show something here; after a few hours I still have nothing there. Lastly, there is a new feature that will be coming soon. Christopher, from TweetBig, let me know that the feature will let users add RSS feeds to their account which can then be automatically posted to Twitter whenever the RSS feed is updated.

Given the long review, you can see that TweetBig is definitely beneficial for those really wanting to give their following a boost. It’s just a matter of whether you think the fee is worth it or not. Christopher also let me know that “some users are able to get around 1-2k (relevant) new followers monthly” using the service; that’s pretty impressive.

What do you think? Is TweetBig worth your money? Let us know in the comments.

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Cup of Joe: Is Social Media Making Us Stupid?

So, about a month ago I started creating some content for a side project of mine. The plan was to do a very in-depth study on the major players in a niche industry and see how they are doing on the internet. The goal was to study each corporation’s branding, their SEO efforts, and traffic to their web properties. I took about four weeks to do case studies on each corporation.

After I collected my data I wrote up an analysis on each in each area. I then made corresponding charts that showed my findings in a clear and easy to understand format. After it was all finished I put it all together and sat back to marvel at my work! I thought, this piece of content is sure to go viral.

So, with out further ado, I went ahead and started seeding the content to my favorite social media gateways. I shared it with my friends and pushed it hard through niche networks and groups. And then I started to monitor my traffic. At first I got a pretty good spike from the initial push, but quickly saw my numbers come to a standstill. I went back and checked my server stats to make sure I wasn’t having technical problems and everything looked ok. So I went back to the networks and niche groups that I originally used to push the content and found the problem.

No body was sharing it.

Ok a few folks shared it. But by and large this amazing piece of content was sitting in cyberspace like a dead duck. I couldn’t figure it out. Why didn’t anyone digg, stumble, or retweet my post? I used the same seeding strategy that has helped me push numerous pieces of content much further. And then it finally dawned on me. My post wasn’t going anywhere because it actually made people think, it wasn’t sexy, and it didn’t “entertain” anyone.

Have you noticed the recent surge in popularity of infographics? I mean whats with those? Are we to busy to read, or just to lazy? Whats with the constant retweeting of “Top 10 List”? Have we forgotten how to read text when not in bullet form? Why is it that longer blog posts tend to get less comments than the shorter ones? Has Twitter damaged our attention span that badly?

So this is just one man’s opinion, but it seems that if you want to get people to spread content in social media, you better dumb it down first. So my real question to all of you is:

Is social media making us stupid? Or are stupid people attracted to social media? I am awaiting your answers in the comments, that is if you actually read this whole post!

[photo credit]

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Facebook Adds Browser for Fan Pages

A few posts ago, I wrote a piece about how Facebook ads are more effective when they contain a picture. Facebook is taking this idea to heart with a newly released browser page that emphasizes photos over text for fan pages.

The browser is divided into categories such as Movies, TV, Sports, Politicians and Brands. When you click on a topic, you’re presented with a page of icons with a line of text underneath. Clicking the picture will set your phasers on “Like”, clicking the link will take you to the fan page for a look around.

The upside here is that photos are much more compelling than a long list of links. Categorizing works as a suggestive sell figuring if you like the TV show Bones, you’ll probably like Castle.

In addition, the sidebar shows you a list of your friends ranked by how many fan pages you share. This is kind of fun and I was surprised to see who of my friends ranked highest for shared interests. It wasn’t who I thought it would be.

On the marketing end, there’s a lot of good here. The biggest favor is the fact that Facebook has a tab for Brands. That took some guts to put up there because even though the TV shows, Movies and Musicians are all trying to sell their product, it’s not as blatant an advertisement as a branded fan page. It’s kind of like TV Guide listing the commercials as well as the shows.

What I don’t know is how the system is choosing which fan pages to show and in what order. It’s not the same for everyone. I checked with a variety of logins, so it’s not by popularity. It’s probably based on an algorithm that pairs my current interests with similar pages.

The other thing I can’t figure out is how you’re supposed to find the browse page if you don’t have the link. Maybe once they’ve tested this thing they’ll make it a clear button somewhere but at the moment, I don’t see it.

To access the new Facebook Browser Page click: http://www.facebook.com/pages/browser.php

What do you think of the new page? Useful tool or just another place to waste some time?

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Retailers Seeing Social Media Value

Retailers have been using social media to their benefit. It seems, however, as if they took this path not because they could lure more people to them but because that’s where the people were already. Not exactly cutting edge thinking (since reacting to a situation rather than creating a need is less desirable) but it is what it is.

eMarketer reports on a study conducted by the Aberdeen Group that gives some insight into retailers and their use of social media. First, a look at why they are there in the first place.

I’m not sure why this seems backwards but it does to me. The way that the industry reports the evolution of social media in the retail space, it would seem as if innovators were creating great places for social networkers to go and share their ‘find’. It looks like the other way around though according to these findings since retailers had to react to the changing habits of customers and follow them to where they were going.

Less than ideal but that’s the way it happens more often than not in business: react to the change rather than create the new need and inspire the change.

As for social media KPIs (key performance indicators) there is a mix of the qualitative and quantitative elements although true conversion (a sale) isn’t on the list.

So what conclusions can we draw from these findings? Hard to tell since not every retailer has the same profile with regard to their own internal structure and capabilities around social media and just how social media savvy their customers are.

One thing for sure though is that retailers can be led around on a leash by their customers, which is a dangerous place to be because the customer doesn’t always have the retailers best interest in mind.

Your thoughts?

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5 Simple Yet Useful Firefox Addons for Social Networking Users

Firefox is one of the three browsers I use on a regular basis, and it’s the only one I use on both my Mac and PC. One of the main reasons I usually open it up is to use one of my favorite addons (aka extensions) that is not available on either Chrome or Safari; then there are other times when things just seem to work better in Firefox. In any case, if you’re a Firefox and a social networking user, then here are five simple yet useful Firefox addons that may come in handy for you. It’s hard to pick just five when there are hundreds to choose from; so feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments.

Thumbnail Zoom

This addon will automatically enlarge pictures that you scroll your mouse over on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Amazon, Picasa, Flickr, LinkedIn and Hi5. You may have heard of a similar addon that works just for Facebook, but this one gives you a larger variety of social networks to work with. Additionally, “each site can be enabled or disabled using the status bar menu and the addon settings dialog.”

Dropico

This addon lets you easily share Web photos on Facebook, Picasa, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr and Photobucket. This is done by simply right clicking the photo and selecting the “Save to Dropico” option. You can also use the Dropico Media Manager sidebar to drag photos from any social network and drop them directly into Gmail, Yahoo Mail, WordPress and more. You will need to have a Dropico account to use both options.

Qwisk

This Web tool has been covered on Blogging Tips before, and also has a very useful Firefox addon. With it you can toggle the sidebar on any web page and see what your friends are sharing on Qwisk, Twitter and Facebook. It also adds two buttons to your Firefox toolbar: one for sharing the current page you’re browsing on Twitter and the other for sharing the current page on Facebook. Lastly, you can drag images from the Web and drop them to share on Twitter, Facebook and Qwisk.

Hootlet

If you are a user of HootSuite then this addon will be very handy for you. The Hootlet lets you share the current page you’re viewing on any account you have linked to your HootSuite account. Once installed you can click the toolbar button anytime to shorten a link, add your own text and then share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ping.fm, MySpace and/or Foursquare. You can also add an image or file, schedule the message or save it as a draft. A similar, more advanced addon like this is Yoolink.

Amplify

Well we’ve got photo and link sharing covered, but what about full Web content? Well, Amplify is great for that! First, you’ll need an account which is easy since you can login with your Facebook or Twitter account. From the toolbar button you’ll then be able to clip content from any Web page or just share the URL. You can then share the content or URL on any of the accounts you have linked to your Amplify account. Currently Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, Posterous, Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, Ping.fm, Plurk, FriendFeed, Diigo, Delicious, Clipmarks and Bit.ly are supported.

Which social networking addon is your favorite?

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Insights from Ogilvy 360 DI Gov 2.0 Exchange Panelists

What is Gov 2.0? What are some of the trends and opportunities in this space? What are some of the exciting break throughs? How can an organization benefit from it? Why should I care?

On Monday September 27th, Ogilvy 360 DI will be bringing together some of the preeminent thought leaders in this space to discuss these very questions. The event which will focus on how social media tools are shaping government, the 2010 elections and issue campaigns is standing room only. Nearly two hundred people have registered on Eventbrite. Seating will be on a first come first serve basis.

This week I had the honor of interviewing a couple of the panelists that will be featured during next week’s Ogilvy 360 DI Gov 2.0 Exchange. Their responses were candid and compelling; and provided a sneak peek at the conversation and themes we will tackle on Monday.

Ogilvy 360 DI: What do you see as the vision of Gov 2.0 and why is it relevant?

A: MICAH SIFRY, Co-founder and Editor, Personal Democracy Forum

At Personal Democracy Forum, we prefer the term “We-government,” the co-creating of new forms of collaboration and service that use technology, public data and the social web to address vital issues and solve public problems, that enables us to do more with less. It’s neither Right nor Left, not small government or big government, but effective do-it-ourselves-government.

This is relevant for obvious reasons. In many ways the old ideologies have run out of steam. Laissez-faire capitalism has been badly discredited by the financial meltdown (and Enron and accounting scandals before that); big government liberalism, where wise technocrats supposedly engineer good public policy on behalf of the public, has also run out steam, captured by special interest groups that block innovation.

Meanwhile we are living in a paradoxical moment of political gridlock and technological transformation. Every day that ordinary citizens watch their elected leaders struggle and mostly fail to get anything done in the face of organized blocking minorities, makes the public feel more powerless. But at the same time, every day a new tech innovation puts more power literally in our own hands. In such a moment, should we be surprised that the single biggest Twitter burst seen around any national event was not for President Obama’s State of the Union speech this past winter, but for the unveiling of the iPad, a few days later?

People are looking for new answers, and a lot of innovation is starting to emerge from the edges, where civic hackers are inventing new ways of combining public data with community engagement. That is the promise of We-government. Not e-government, where the authorities use the web to provide the public with information and services delivered from above, but where we reinvent government as a platform connecting all of us around the issues and needs that matter in our own lives most.

Ogilvy 360 DI: In your opinion, what are some of “the success stories” that exist in the Gov 2.0 space?

A: ALEXANDER HOWARD, Gov 2.0 Correspondent, O’Reilly Media

Alex Howard

First, given recent assessments and what I view as a general consensus by close observers, we’re in open government’s beta period. There are definitely both risks and rewards to the use of Web 2.0 by federal agencies.

While U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra has hailed 2010 as the year of participatory platforms, they are still relatively early in their development. As is the case everywhere open government is in beta, the question of whether crowdsourcing national challenges at Challenge.gov leads to better solutions will remain outstanding for months time to come. While Challenge.gov may be the most visible platform, the first US CTO is thinking big in terms of using technology to meet the policy goals of the Obama administration. The re-launch of the Federal Register is definitely a success story. Other case studies include the Department of Health and Human Services, where CTO Todd Park is working on making community health information as useful as weather data. Open health data from Health and Human Services is driving more than 20 new apps. As Tim O’Reilly observed in his post on NHIN Connect and open healthcare records, “there’s some fresh thinking going on here, influenced by the best practices of open standards and rapid Internet development.”

The reboot of FCC.gov and rollout of APIs and developer engagement holds some promise. The launch of the Civic Commons code-sharing initiative could be a big deal to state and city governments. The progress of bringing open government to courts bears close watching. And if you’re tracking the technology that will make government better, it’s clear that network visualization and the mining of open data sets will have major utility for fraud detection and reduction. Abroad, the growth of government 2.0 in Australia and development of open government in Britain are key examples, particularly Data.gov.uk.

If you review the Gov 2.0 activity in summer 2010, however, you can see that the steady progress in this space. As we look ahead to the next Congress and the second half of the Obama administration’s term, it’s clear that open government is a mindset as much as a technology challenge. Taking on open government challenges at California scale is hard enough; making that transition at the federal level will be even harder.

Come join us on Monday, September 27th as we continue the conversation with these two luminaries and their fellow panelists Mark Murray, deputy political director for NBC News; Ari Melber, correspondent and blogger for the Nation magazine and Politico; and Gwynne Kostin, Director at the Center for New Media and Citizen Engagement at the GSA. To learn more about the event, read Rachel Caggiano’s post and if you have not yet, RSVP on the Eventbrite. 

Photos courtesy of Micah Sifry @ personaldemocracy.com and Alex Howard @ oreilly.com

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LinkedIn Reels In Review Site Talent

The online space and its obsession with reviews have been mostly relegated to the B2C space. LinkedIn, which is the networking / social media place for ‘professionals’ (whatever that means) is seeing that their audience needs some review help as well. It makes sense. If you want someone’s opinion about a restaurant then why not seek it out for an accountant?

LinkedIn has purchased the start up ChoiceVendor as reported by Bloomberg Businessweek.

ChoiceVendor, a San Francisco startup founded in 2008 by two former Google (GOOG) employees, provides customer reviews about accountants, call centers, payroll services, and other vendors. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed in a LinkedIn statement on Sept. 23.

It appears as if LinkedIn is following the practice of many of its users in the recruiting industry by looking to acquire talent as much as acquiring new products to offer.

“You’ll continue to see us do acquisitions for talent,” Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn CEO said in an interview with Businessweek.com. “Our top operating priority is building a world-class team.”

The talent, in this case, are the two founders of the company who are former Google guys.

With ChoiceVendor, LinkedIn gets co-founders Yan-David Erlich, a former product manager at Google and the creator of instant-messaging service Social.im, and Rama Ranganath, a former engineer at Google and Microsoft.

LinkedIn continues to grow in an almost stealth manner because of its status as being a networking tool for the professional community. With revenues estimated at $228 million for 2010 and a valuation estimated at $1.87 billion by Global Silicon Valley Partners, it looks like stealth works just fine.

So where will this lead for LinkedIn? An IPO is not out of the question for sure.

Adding talent and technology tools that appeal to business customers may help LinkedIn win favor with Wall Street should it decide to hold an initial public offering. “The better we execute, the more options we’re going to have ahead of us, and IPO would be one of those options,” said Weiner, a former executive of Yahoo!

Are you a LinkedIn user? How do you utilize the service? Would formalized reviews be a good addition? Tell us in the comments section. Thanks.

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The Responsible Blogger’s Guide to Dealing with Big Brother

“What should I be doing better with my blog?”

That’s one helluva question, isn’t it? As someone who blogs to support a thriving business, I think about that question every day.

There are a lot of answers, many of which involve sexy topics like traffic, subscribers, and getting one zillion followers on Twitter.

But when’s the last time you sat down and answered the question above with:

“I should be paying more attention to blogging ethics.”

Not so sexy.

But as bloggers, we have to face facts about the world we live in. It feels like an anonymous platform where we can do and say whatever we want. But 2010 has a lot in common with 1984, and Big Brother comes in some forms that George Orwell never dreamed of.

You need to be aware of one very important fact that many seem to forget:

You can’t unGoogle anything

When you launch your words into the blogosphere and social media universe, you’re laying a digital footprint in concrete. That concrete is the Internet Elephant, and it never forgets.

Old versions of your site are cached. Facebook privacy blunders have ugly real-world consequences. And the Library of Congress is even planning on archiving our tweets. It feels like you can’t be held accountable for your rash words, but you can.

Here are some tips on blogging ethics that will help keep your reputation clean. Especially if you’re going to make blogging a part of your business, you need to protect your interests.

Your comments policy

The bottom line is, it’s your blog and you have ultimate control over what gets posted in your comments section and what doesn’t make the cut.

Please realize that whatever policy you decide on, not everyone is going to agree with you. I personally have a “post all comments” policy, except in instances of spam or blatant self-promoting garbage that adds nothing to the conversation. I also hold all comments that include links from first-time commenters for moderation (legitimate commenters are then white-listed).

Some blogs allow trash talk, some don’t. Some allow profanity, some don’t. Every blogger needs to figure out what to do with the trolls. It’s your blog and your call.

It’s always smart to make your comments policy clear. My developer is working right now on coding my site so my comments policy shows up in a cool style below each post.

If you become known for deleting comments just because the reader isn’t a fawning yes-man, your credibility and authority will suffer. On the other hand, letting the trolls run free or allowing spam to trash up your comments won’t do your reputation any favors either.

Proper accreditation

If you use photos in your blog posts, use legitimate sources for images. (Assuming, of course, you’re not using your own images or photos.)

Photos purchased from stock photo houses usually don’t require photo credit, although a few do. On the other hand, images you get under a Creative Commons license do have various requirements, usually at minimum a credit to the image owner.

This should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Don’t steal other people’s images or words and put them on your blog. That content doesn’t belong to you. It’s unethical and scummy.

When you love a blog post so much that you want to send it to your readers, it is not okay to copy the post and paste it into your own blog or newsletter (even with accreditation) unless you get permission from the blogger.

A better way to show your adoration is to select a handful of quotes (I prefer to stick with no more than 50-100 words) from the post and then provide a link back to the original post, with credit to the author.

Understanding libel

Ohhhhh — legalese! (The recovering attorney in Brian Clark will love this one.)

Some bloggers make a hobby of calling people out for what they consider to be inappropriate practices, stupid decisions, or the like. Other bloggers are just plain malicious.

If you’re going to go down this road, get your ducks in a row first. Read up on what constitutes libel. You owe it to yourself. What you might consider “free speech” could get you into trouble, as the line between opinion and malicious intent can be a very fine one.

Make sure you have a liability insurance policy in place (this is a must). If you’re a member of The Author’s Guild, they offer Media Liability Insurance. You can also contact your insurance agent for a general business policy, but make sure it also covers libel and slander.

You are not invisible

Some people imagine that the internet lets them don a Cloak of Invisibility that bestows permission to do whatever the hell they want.

It’s simply not true. You are responsible for your words on the web (and in life) no matter where you leave them or how anonymous you think you’re being.

I don’t accept anonymous comments on my blog (including commenters who give fake email addresses) and here’s why: it shows me you’re not willing to be held accountable for your words.

If you’re running a blog, there are some pretty cool tools you can use to verify identity or lend at least some level of “real world” status to a commenter you might hold in question.

• Email address verification tools: Did you know you can check any email address to see if it’s valid? Yep. And it’s free and easy. I use this one on a regular basis, but a simple web search for “verify email address” can point you towards others.
• IP address verification: Most comment systems (Disqus, InstenseDebate, and WordPress’s built-in system) display the IP address of every commenter to the moderator. I use WhoIs to verify IP addresses (I had to do this just last week for an unfortunate situation). If you continuously receive spam comments or inappropriate comments from a particular commenter, you can block an entire IP address from your blog. If you need help with this, just ping your comments system or hit up the WordPress Codex for tips on combating spam and unwanted comments. Disqus and IntenseDebate have built-in blacklist features.

The best thing I can do here is to put just a bit of healthy fear into you.

You’re not invincible, you’re not invisible, and you have a responsibility to both yourself and your audience.

While you might have been looking for a more entertaining post on ethics (given my propensity for, ahem, colorful language), putting your thoughts out there on the web is serious stuff.

As I said, nothing can be unGoogled. It’s not like a late-night TP-ing of your least favorite junior high school science teacher’s house. Drive-bys don’t work online.

Strong ethical guidelines can keep your brand and keep your blog shop clean. If there are other best practices I’ve missed, lob them into the comments section below. While we don’t want to go all George Orwell, you have to remember that 1984 still applies in 2010 … and beyond (and it’s not such a bad thing).

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Earned Media or Cash Register Ringing? Social Media Says Cha-ching!

Do you think that a bad economy can’t make just about anybody consider anything for a buck? Well, new research shows that the pristine and highly moral world of the bloggers are more for sale than ever before. Of course, I am being just a bit facetious because basically at heart the blogging world is pure and strictly here for the greater good. Rats! There I go again. Maybe there needs to be some research to settle this issue?

Fortunately, eMarketer and IZEA has done that and it appears as if the idea of “earned media” sounds much better as theory rather than reality. Are you really surprised?

Social media advertising company IZEA surveyed Twitter users, blog writers and other social media publishers about their openness to sponsorship of their social content. More than half said they had already monetized their activities, and almost a third more wanted to. Overall, 71.3% had been offered some kind of incentive, like cash, free products or coupons, for a blog post or tweet promoting a brand.

Asked about the idea of being paid for content, it sounded good for about 89% of the bloggers surveyed. Apparently, the economy has taken its toll on accepted payment methods because social media content generators are not so much interested in barters or coupons, they want to be paid the old fashioned way: cash. (I personally like gold bars but I am different for sure).

The most startling part of this research is as follows

In December 2009, the US Federal Trade Commission released new guidelines designed to protect readers of social media content from undisclosed sponsorships, but according to the IZEA survey more than a third of PR, social media and marketing professionals have not heard of the rules at all. Only 29.9% said they had read and understood them.

So what happened to the idealism of the world of social media? It went the way of just about every ideal that makes everyone sound so great when talking about it. Where is that? It ran headlong into reality where people have to make a living.

So how do you feel about the apparent blogger for hire social media world we really exist in? Is it OK or is it ‘not the way it is supposed to be’?

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What’s in a Twitter Name?

Afro-Cheez and Neko-do had their fifteen minutes of fame last week when the Miami Herald ran their Twitter “quotes” as part of their newspaper’s coverage of the anniversary of 9/11.

Understandably, some of the Herald’s actual reporters (Remember reporters? Like Clark Kent, only without the bulky camera) objected and said so in a letter they posted in the newsroom. Their objection was two fold, partly they objected to the idea of displacing actual reporting with inane comments from Twitter. Second, they brought up the fact that the Twitter attributes made the relevancy and quality of the “quotes” even worse because they aren’t real names.

I gotta say that I’m with them on this. Having made my living as a reporter in a variety of mediums over the last nineteen years, I cringe at the way social media has crept in as acceptable journalism.

But, bringing this back to marketing (look at the masthead), let’s overlook the question of journalistic integrity and focus on the name. What’s in a name? A lot. I don’t care if Afro-Cheez makes the most profound statement I’ve ever read, I’m not buying it. The trouble is that many of us settled into social media as a lark some time ago and now find that we’re doing business on these same channels. That works for those who used their real name or a variation but for those who went with a cute, slightly suggestive, handle – not so much.

Beyond the embarrassment of a silly name, there’s the confusion factor. I know of several people I do business with whose Twitter names always leave me lost for a moment wondering if I’ve got the right person.

If you’re using Twitter to conduct business and your handle doesn’t include any part of yours or your company’s name, bite the bullet now and change it. Maybe someone has already claimed your name, fine, then come close but neither you nor the Miami Herald should be associated with Twitter names that sound like a stripper or new snack food.

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Ping: Social Music Purchasing or Social Music Discovery?

iTunes Ping

iTunes Ping, or Ping, launched this September to so much fanfare that I was reminded of last year’s Google Wave launch. However, like Google Wave iTunes Ping is an interesting concept that is proving difficult to execute.

Ping, not to be confused with the social network manager Ping.fm, is a software-based music oriented social networking service that is deployed and operated by Apple, and allows users to follow and interact with friends and artists. Ping was released as part of iTunes 10 and can only be used on the music player. The service launched in 23 countries and has gained over 1 million members so far.

When Apple chief executive Steve Jobs announced Ping he explained the service as “sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes…[except that] it is not Facebook. It is not Twitter. It is something else we’ve come up with. It’s all about music.” This is definitely true, and Ping’s list of features includes the ability to see follow friends and artists to see what music they like and what concerts they are going to. Users can also post reviews of music, the songs they’ve purchased, and see custom song and album charts based on their own networks. Artists can also post videos and photos for fans to enjoy as well. According to Apple’s Ping announcement, Ping is based around the idea of social music discovery. Social music discovery is great, and I loving using tools that facilitate it, however I’m not too sure that that’s actually what Ping does.

There are already great tools that can be used for social music discovery: Pandora, Grooveshark, Last.fm, MySpace Music, and Slacker, just to name a few. And, while Ping does attempt to meld some of the best aspects of each into its Ping offering, Ping is really more about buying music and driving sales than sharing or enjoying music itself, although the two ideas are not mutually exclusive. The thinking seems to be that since each piece of music you share is connected to the iTunes library, when one of your followers sees your shared song they will click the button right next to it to buy what you’ve promoted. The same idea goes for Ping’s concert section. Now, these aren’t bad ideas, and they could help drive sales for more relatively unknown bands in the future (assuming they have a Ping artist page in the first place, but we’ll talk about that in a moment), but this whole set up isn’t necessarily about discovering new music, or about sharing that music for a few reasons.

First of all, the songs listed in Ping are iTunes samples and not full songs, making it difficult for users to fully explore artists’ music. Secondly, Ping assumes that the people in your social network know great new music that you haven’t heard of. Since Ping doesn’t suggest artists or individuals for you to follow based on your current iTunes library and relies on you to follow people based on their name or email address (you can also find people to follow on an artists’ page), you’re looking mostly to your own contacts (at least at first) for suggestions. This is fine, but not everyone’s friends have great taste in music. A third problem is that even if your network does have great taste in music, many of your network’s favorite artists may not be listed on Ping. Right now mostly mainstream artists are listed, with very few independent acts being represented on the social network. This may change in the future since Apple is in the process of inviting artists to Ping via their iTunes distributors, but this also brings up a fourth problem – Ping’s closed system. To have an “artists” page in Ping you must be invited by Apple. This is a problem since even though all artists are verified it makes it much more difficult to involve smaller acts into the network. Additionally, since artists are the only ones that may post pictures and videos to connect with their fans, this works to exclude newer and smaller artists from that part of the process. Aside from the artist aspect, Ping is only available on iTunes and not online, so you must have that program running while using it. Ping is closed off from other social networking applications like Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr, as well. Ping is an island in the social networking sea and is only as good as its users’ participation – which is fine, as long as there is actual participation. However, Ping doesn’t exist in a number of countries yet, effectively sectioning off the kind of music users can be exposed to.

Now, while all of these problems are detrimental to an effective music-focused social networking experience on Ping, they are problems that can be fixed with time and effort. While I don’t think that Ping will necessarily overtake the previously mentioned leaders in the space, all who generally focus very well on the music itself, I do think that Ping can carve a niche for itself as a purveyor of a unique purchase-focused social music network, and at least give the other applications a run for their money. Time will tell how Ping handles its challenges and in which direction it will grow. I know that I’m excited to see how it ends up working out.

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A Picture on Friday Morning is Worth a Thousand Words

If you want to connect with the fans on your Facebook page, post on Friday morning and use a picture. Those are the three elements that scored highest for fan engagement in the new study by Virtue. With Anatomy of a Facebook Post, the social media management company studied the effects of day, time and inclusion of video or images when posting on Facebook.

The least startling news is that adding an image ups engagement 54% over text posts and 22% over video posts. From there, the stats are broken down into two segments, CPG (Consumer Package Goods) and QSR (Quick Serve Restaurants).

When looking strictly at package goods, Thursday scored slightly higher for engagement and Wednesday bombed. Apparently that drop off is due to the fact that everyone is out to lunch. The study found that restaurants were a hit when they dropped coupons on Wednesdays. 156% more effective than a Saturday and 147% more effective than a Tuesday. Now those are stats worth paying attention to if you’re selling lunch to office workers. And speaking of lunch, in general, posts that show up before noon are 65% more effective unless you’re a QSR. Here there was a slight advantage to posting after noon. 12%, says the study. Logic tells me that even though the study defined afternoon as everything between 12:01 pm and midnight, it’s likely that the small boost comes from people looking for a place to do lunch, and maybe pick up dinner on the way home. Logically, not many people would check Facebook for a deal before heading out to breakfast, so there is a symmetry to all of this.

If you want the nuisances, download the free report from Virtue. If you’re a big picture kinda guy, then take away this, unless you’re a quick serve restaurant, plan on putting all of your actionable Facebook posts up in the morning on Friday and don’t forget to include a pretty picture.

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3,000 New Facebook Fans is Music to Their Ears

MySpace used to be, and possibly still is, the number one social media site for indie musicians but music consultant Madalyn Sklar is quick to point out that “Facebook rocks” for indie artists for one simple reason, their fans are on Facebook already.

A recent guest post on AllFacebook.com outlined a simple Facebook strategy for bands looking to make the leap and there’s info here everyone can use, even if you’re selling vitamins instead of songs. Author Peter Tanham suggests that for less than the cost of a night out on the town for you and your mates (band or otherwise), you can get 1,000 Facebook fans using Facebook ads. And these aren’t any old fans, these are people who are engaged and interested in the product. Is that worth staying in next Friday night?

The most important takeaway from Tanham’s plan is the landing page. Many people run a Facebook ad that connects to their wall. A big mistake. The purpose of the ad is to get fans, that means they have to be encouraged to click the “like” button at every possible turn. The best way to do this is to offer an incentive to click. For musicians, the ability to download a free song is a given, but other businesses use coupons, a free ebook, even free samples – which brings us to another important point – collect email addresses.

Collecting email addresses is as old school as it gets when it comes to internet marketing but with the rise in social media, we’ve lost that step in favor of friending and following. But remember that an opt-in email sent directly to a potential customer is still a highly effective means of making a sale. Tanham recommends placing an email widget on the Facebook landing page that offers an even greater incentive in return for “signing up for the mailing list.” The incentive here might be multiple songs, a larger discount, a promise of monthly free items or free shipping with a purchase.

Now, for the price of a Facebook ad (which is much cheaper than running a Google ad), you’ve acquired 1,000 new fans and 300 email addresses for your mailing list. If even a small percentage of those people convert, then it’s money well spent. In addition, the majority of those potential customers will be around a month from now or six months from now so you can pitch your holiday specials long after your Facebook ad has expired.

In his AllFacebook article, Tanham also gives a number of suggestions for creating a better Facebook ad. He admits that it’s very much a case of trial and error at the start. Once you find which ads are converting, those are the ones that you continue while you drop off the slow movers. Facebook rewards popular ads by lowering the cost-per-click. And don’t forget to ask folks to “like” your ad. People are more likely to do so if it’s specifically written in to the ad copy.

Putting his Facebook ad money where his mouth is, Tanham posted his results for three campaigns. He was able to show an increase of 3,000 fans for around $250, which works out to 8 cents per fan. Targeted, engaged fans many of whom also left an email address behind. If a musician (or company) can’t recoup at least half that amount of money in sales from 3,000 potential customers, then maybe their product isn’t as good as their campaign.

Have you run a successful Facebook campaign? Don’t keep it to yourself, share it with the class.

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Gov 2.0 and Responsible Data Use

The rise of the internet over the last fifteen years has resulted in remarkable new possibilities for government and citizen engagement. Leaders inside and outside government are using social media tools to realize the principles of participation, collaboration, transparency and efficiency to address the challenges facing our country. This movement, often called Gov 2.0., is explored each year at a two day event I attended called the Gov 2.0 Summit.

Jules Polonetsky, Co-chair and Director of the Future of Privacy Forum, led a session titled “the Future of Privacy” and he shared a particularly interesting point of view on responsible data practices. Throughout the Summit, there was disagreement regarding the use of data; some demanded privacy while others advocated openness and easy distribution. Jules, however, had a more unique perspective: citizens will be more comfortable with their data being shared as long as there is an obvious and relevant purpose that benefits that citizen — what he calls “featurizing data use.”

In a pre-Summit interview, Jules poses a major challenge for government,

“How can we featurize data use so that Americans, and so citizens and anyone who is web searching, doesn’t feel trapped by the government, doesn’t feel analyzed, but feels hey, I’m in charge of what’s going on here. If that is what Gov 2.0 means, Web 2.0 could be the solution and Gov 2.0 could really drive privacy solutions by giving people some insight, some value, some understanding by making data use a valuable feature.”

But what does all this actually mean? Jules presented an example (though not specific to government) that brought this concept to life. Think back to when Facebook’s newsfeed was first released. Days after the feature debuted in 2006, hundreds of thousands of Facebook users created groups protesting the newsfeed because they felt it was displaying their information without permission. However, once users realized there was something in it for them, and it was obvious, they became comfortable with Facebook sharing their data. Now, four years later, users love the newsfeed — after all, how could we not love a tool that makes Facebook-stalking easier?

In order to responsibly share data online, there needs to be a clear and obvious benefit to the user. Do you agree with this standpoint or do you think data should be shared even without a clear user benefit?

On September 27, 2010 from 8:00 am - 10:00 am, Ogilvy will be hosting our very own Gov 2.0 event: How Social Media Tools are Shaping Government, the 2010 Elections and Issue Campaigns. Want to learn more? Read Rachel’s Caggiano’s post. Alternatively (or in addition to), you can visit this link for more information and to RSVP. If you didn’t have the opportunity to go to the Gov 2.0 Summit (hosted by Tim O’Reilly and TechWeb), you can still watch many of the sessions on Tim O’Reilly’s gov 2.0 Summit YouTube video channel. My colleague, Kelly Ferraro, also wrote a (riveting) post on the Summit so be sure to check it out here.

Photo courtesy of Alex Howard @ gov20.govfresh.com

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Hardcore Twitter Flaw, Leads to Unwelcomed Pop-ups

When Twitter decided to force me to view suggest Twitter users to follow, I finally bailed on the web interface and switched to Hootsuite.com.

Even the lure of a redesigned Twitter.com wasn’t enough to tempt me back. Now I’m glad I switched, because there’s a nasty bug in Twitter’s new interface that allows malicious pop-ups:

Hopefully Twitter will shut down this loophole as soon as possible – disallowing users to post the onMouseOver JavaScript code, and protecting users whose browsing may be at risk.

Some users are also seemingly deliberately exploiting the loophole to create tweets that contain blocks of colour (known as “rainbow tweets”). Because these messages can hide their true content they might prove too hard for some users to resist clicking on them.

Most people appear to be having fun with it, but some are having the kind of fun that’s a little more hardcore. Take Sarah Brown, wife of the former British Prime Minister, her account has been “infected” with a pop-up to:

Yeah, not good.

Hopefully Twitter is working on a fix, but in the meantime the best advice is to use a third-party Twitter app.

UPDATE: Twitter says the bug has been patched. Keep your wits about you though, just in case!

UPDATE 2: A longer explanation from Twitter.

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Groupon Gone Wrong: One Customer’s Sad Tale

You rarely hear people complaining about having too much business, but when that business arrives in the form of 1,000 Groupon Coupons it can be a huge headache for everyone involved.

Jessie Burke runs a small cafe in Portland and she decided to try the group deal service in hopes of getting some new customers. What she got was an endless stream of people who came for the deal and probably never returned after that.

In a recent blog post that has gone more viral than the author had hoped, Burke says that working with Groupon was the biggest business mistake she’s ever made. She takes full responsibility for her choices but still outed the company for two policies which may or may not be true.

The coupon deal was $13 worth of food for $6. What a bargain. According to Burke, the Groupon sales rep said that on deals under $10, Groupon gets 100% of the profit and the client gets the advertising. Huh? She and the sales rep came to a 50/50 agreement but the real problem came in the fact that there was no cap on the deal. To her surprise, more than 1,000 deals were sold (wow) putting her well into the hole after deducting her costs. $8,000 in the hole, says Burke.

BusinessInsider published a letter of response written by Groupon CEO Andrew Mason that states that the company does indeed have caps for deals. And because they’ve experienced this problem before, they have a set of materials to help train customers before they set up a Groupon deal.

Since the complaint made it around the web, people have commented on Burke’s post saying they’ve had similar experiences, like a spa that couldn’t handle the number of people they had to book, but many blame her for making a bad deal.

One comment suggests that losing money is part of promotion and that’s an interesting thought. I always assumed that companies took a financial hit when setting up a Groupon coupon and chalked it up to advertising costs. The idea that Gap makes a profit even when offering 50% off is bothersome. On the other hand, I also assumed that there was a cap on these deals. A cap makes sense from both a financial and marketing standpoint. The financial reason is obvious, but from a marketing standpoint, limiting a deal makes it more urgent and interesting. Only 10 left! Don’t wait.

In Burke’s defense, I wouldn’t expect 1,000 people to buy a deal for a local cafe, either. And I am surprised by the high commission that Groupon takes off the top. Gotta wonder how flexible that is because it sounds like a little pushback might have earner her a better deal.

What I take away from all of this is that you’ve got to fight for everything. Upon reading both sides of the story, it seems that she could have said you get 25% and we cap the deal at 500. That, or I walk away. Groupon doesn’t lose anything on that deal, so I imagine they would have taken her up on the offer.

Does Groupon ever publish a Groupon coupon for Groupon — 50% off commission on all deals over $10. But hurry, this offer is only good if you call within the next ten minutes.

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Medical Monday: How Content Marketing Helps Sanofi-Aventis Reach Physicians

Almost all the major pharmaceutical companies are using Twitter now (or about to start) and there are Facebook pages and sponsorship deals with social networking sites tailored to doctors or surgeons. Most of these efforts are commonly described as social media because they are all forms of social communication.

Sometimes the most anti-social efforts online, however, are actually the ones that use the principles of social media best. Reading a book or a magazine is typically an anti-social activity, for example. Not because it makes you less personable, but because it is an activity you do by yourself generally with little interaction with others. Activities that are not inherently social are easy to underestimate in this time of an overly socialized Internet.

When you consider the target audience of physicians and medical professionals, you could make the argument that they have even less time to indulge this socialization need. Why can’t technology and social media be used to support this type of online interaction as well? This seems to be the premise behind a site from Sanofi-Aventis called iPractice that is getting quite a bit of attention from those who talk about social media efforts in the healthcare space.

It is a portal of information for healthcare providers about everything from effectively running their own practice to getting CME credit by taking courses directly online. The site features content from both Medscape and Sermo (two of the largest information providers) and integrates the ability for medical professionals to speak directly with the pharma brand’s people about their drugs directly.

The site aggregates useful content, integrates products without feeling too “salesy” and it offers an easy way for their customers to get in touch with them regarding their products for any reason. Like many new efforts in the pharma space - competitors and industry watchers are paying attention to this site to see if it may be a model worth considering. The significance, though, is not that this is just another social media example to be added to a list or passed around internally. What Sanofi-Aventis gets right is their focus on offering content that is useful and serves a need. At its heart, it is content marketing supported by social media - and this is the real lesson worth taking from iPractice.

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SMB’s, Social Media and Reality Often At Odds

Being a slow news day (thus far at least), I started to look around and a report from July of this year from Network Solutions and some partners caught my eye. It was used to make a point over at Small Business Trends about SMB’s (small and medium business) and social media (a point which is much different than the one here so go check it out). When you take a little deeper dive into the findings it looks like the SMB group as a whole is saying what it says a lot when it comes to the latest and greatest business practices: We aren’t getting it like you think we are.

This is not to say that SMB’s are not using social media. That’s not the case at all. What appears to be all over the map are expectations and what happens when SMB’s, social media and reality intersect. Look at the chart below, which puts marketing barely into the “very important” category AND tells us that it’s not performing well.

That kind of response in a poor economy is reasonable since businesses are hurting no matter what is being tried to pick up the pace. What is interesting though is that marketing is not the top of the food chain for SMB’s – getting money to PAY for marketing is! It doesn’t get any clearer moving forward either.

What’s baffling are the details about using social media for this elusive group that makes up most of the businesses in the US. They always want to play but can’t seem to get over the hump when it come to Internet marketing as a whole.

For instance, if social media is the “wave of the future” why are the responses showing no growth or even some reduction in social media offerings like blogs?

But then in fine SMB tradition, they like to talk a great game and their expectations of social media ‘success’ have increased! Incongruent for sure but this is important to understand about the SMB. They love to talk about stuff but when it gets to doing it the walk rarely lives up to the talk. There is plenty of optimism as always but optimism without action is fantasy.

Here may be the real reason why SMB’s seem to have put the brakes on a bit with regard to social media. It’s not all unicorns and rainbows like the industry likes to portray.

This is another part of reality that the SMB hates to recognize. Oftentimes social media criticisms are very personal because the SMB is a person or that person is the face of the company. The “everything is roses” approach by social media consultants to this group usually neglects the potential risks and downsides. The cold hard facts are that social media takes time and money despite the industry push to present it as free and easy. Oh and it can sting a bit as well if someone wants to take an online swipe at an SMB.

So the world of SMB’s, Internet marketing and social media continues to be a puzzle wrapped in an enigma. It’s hard to pin down. Maybe it’s just time to stop trying to draw broad generalizations about a group that is as diverse as any on the planet. Each SMB has their own signature and fingerprint even within the same vertical but we still try to tell them “This will work because it’s cool, it’s current and everyone is doing it successfully!” That’s just not true.

The reality is that not all SMB’s are suited for the Internet in general and social media specifically. Some are perfectly suited for it but they may not be the majority of SMB’s when it is all said and done.

So what is your take on the SMB and social media? How do you see this huge market that proves to be so elusive? What are the biggest opportunities and / or barriers that exist for this group?

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