Social Media Week 2011: Facebook Comes Of Age

As Social Media Week 2011 wraps up, one thing is clear. The three year-old event has secured the title of “Best Newcomer” on the conference circuit in the eyes of many. And this year  Digital Influence jumped at the chance to host events in several hub cities including London, San Francisco and New York. Since February marks Facebook’s seventh birthday, what better way to celebrate in NYC than to host an interactive workshop with partner and Facebook powerhouse Buddy Media? Entitled “It’s 2011…How’s Your Facebook Strategy Doing?” this session brought together the industry’s top branding and platform development experts to share their experiences working with Facebook. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times; color: #1738f5} span.s1 {text-decoration: underline}

http://www.flickr.com/photos/buddymedia/sets/72157626021434744/

The workshop kicked off with best-in-class case studies from Ford and Starwood Hotels. 360 Digital Influence’s Karen Untereker showcased how Ford became the first automotive manufacturer to unveil a vehicle over 24 hours on Facebook. How? A successful mix of posting photo teasers, serving up fresh content every 30 minutes and hosting live chats with its experts drove lasting fan engagement and positive word of mouth for the new Ford Explorer. Alyssa Waxenberg of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide shared tactics that have led to the phenomenal growth of Starwood’s official presence on Facebook - more than 1,000 of its properties now have their own distinct Facebook Pages. Some of her tips for success? Senior-level support, tracking and responding to fan queries around the clock via a global network and adjusting the in-person Starwood experience, based on feedback shared on Facebook. See her full presentation here. A workshop on Facebook would not be complete without hearing the facts straight from the world’s most popular website itself - Sarah Personette, US Head of Agency Relations at Facebook, presented a “State of the Union” address to the audience in Ogilvy’s Theater. She showed how every brand needs a customer-centric strategy, whether its using Facebook to deliver customer service or crowd-source around product development. The fact is the web is reorganizing around people, and so businesses are reorganizing around people. Some of the new Facebook-by-numbers:

• More than half of Facebook’s 600+ million users return to the site daily
• In the US, that percentage is even higher: 70% of the 125 million US Facebook users return to the site every day
• France has 22 million active users, with 65 percent returning daily; the UK has 29 million active users, and Canada has 19 million active users

The event culminated in a panel featuring Pepper Evans Roukas of American Express; Beth Colleton of NBC Green Is Universal; Michael Lazerow, Buddy Media and Julio Fernandez, Global Strategies International. The discussion centered around sharing Facebook experiences and providing practical tips covering topics from fan acquisition and engagement to driving compelling, current content, measurement and effective advertising. The panel ended with a look ahead to the next 12 months on the platform;  mobile functionality and advanced measurement were the top of the panelist’s visions for the future. Could not attend? See TechCrunch’s report here and Sarah’s presentation. And join our panel debate by telling us what YOU think the next 12 months hold for Facebook? What will we be discussing with our panelists at SMW 2012?

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Facebook Pages Upgrade is a Boon for Marketers

Facebook is making a big push over the next few weeks to get all fan pages over to their new layout. You can choose to do it now or wait for it to be forced upon you in March, but don’t wait. This upgrade is huge for marketers. Here’s why.

Many businesses have Facebook Fan Pages which is great if you have lots of followers coming to you. But when you went outside of your page and left comments on others, those comments linked up to your profile not your page. Until now.

The new page update has a very powerful toggle in the right sidebar that allows you to surf Facebook as your personal profile or as your page.  That means that, like blog commenting, you can now leave comments all over Facebook that lead back to your business (page) instead of back to you.

Conversely, you can switch from page persona to personal and respond to comments on your page as yourself and not as the admin. That means you can put a human face on a business which is always a good thing.

This is also helpful if you have multiple people monitoring a page as it allows each one to comment personally instead of having it all lumped under one icon as it was before.

Other components of the upgrade include the removal of tabs. Now the navigation is in the left sidebar where you expect it to be and the overall design is more modern.

The one downside to the upgrade is the line of photos that now take up the top of a page. While photos may be the bread and butter of a personal profile, they’re less important on business pages but you’re stuck with them (or does someone know a way to turn them off.) They do give the pages a more colorful, dynamic look, but they pull from the wall posts as well as the photo albums so careful moderation is in order. Individual photos can be removed by clicking the x when you roll over them.

Overall, this is an excellent update for marketers and long over due. The ability to be able to move around Facebook with your page as your persona is big for everyone but especially for those who handle a variety of pages on behalf of clients.

One word of warning. Make sure you pay attention to which logon you’re using (personal or page) before you post to avoid any embarrassing mix-ups.

Have you converted? What do you think of the new Facebook page upgrade?

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Groupon Cries Uncle and Pulls Ads

Groupon is trying to close the book on a very interesting week if you are into reputation management.

To summarize:

• Groupon runs ads on Super Bowl that appear to make light of certain social causes
• There is a public “outcry” regarding the ads
• Battle lines are drawn but most people think the ads are a mistake at best and an incredibly stupid move at worst
• Groupon gets more free press than anyone if you don’t mind your brand being associated with the words insensitive, arrogant, pompous etc etc (along with an occasional ‘brilliant’ to be fair)
• Top ad agency Crispin Porter takes shots as well for creating the ads
• Groupon CEO Andrew Mason posts his view on the situation on the Groupon blog and gets more heat for the post’s attitude and lack of a real apology for the ads
• More free press from traditional media and bloggers that at least mention the Groupon brand. Once again it depends on what you read if the associated words describing the company are naughty or nice
• CEO Mason tries to put a final nail on the situation with a post that again falls short of an apology and has the air of “You people just don’t get it do you?” although a bit less so than the first post.

Here is what he said

ONE LAST POST ON THE SUPER BOWL

Five days have passed since the Super Bowl, and one thing is clear – our ads offended a lot of people. Tuesday I posted an explanation, but as many of you have pointed out, if an ad requires an explanation, that means it didn’t work.

We hate that we offended people, and we’re very sorry that we did – it’s the last thing we wanted. We’ve listened to your feedback, and since we don’t see the point in continuing to anger people, we’re pulling the ads (a few may run again tomorrow – pulling ads immediately is sometimes impossible). We will run something less polarizing instead. We thought we were poking fun at ourselves, but clearly the execution was off and the joke didn’t come through. I personally take responsibility; although we worked with a professional ad agency, in the end, it was my decision to run the ads.

To the charities (for which we expect to net over $500,000) and others that have spoken out on our behalf, we appreciate your support.

To those who were offended, I feel terrible that we made you feel bad. While we’ve always been a little quirky, we certainly aren’t trying to be the kind of company that builds its brand on creating controversy – we think the quality of our product is a much stronger message.

Thanks for taking the time to read,

Andrew

So this draws to a close a memorable week for the high profile company, to say the least. Honestly, I don’t know what the end result was because I seriously doubt that many people cancelled the daily e-mail updates they receive from Groupon. People like to throw a fit but in this day and age no one needs to know whether you actually did anything about it.

Personally, I unsubscribed more because I was a bit creeped out by Joe Hall’s apparent ESP capabilities (Check out his post here at MP the day BEFORE the Super Bowl. Until then I never thought about what it would look like to unsubscribe from Groupon. Weird, Joe. Weird.).

Does this mean that I won’t go back? Not at all and I admit that. I have the same short memory that most have when it comes to stuff like this.

What will trail Groupon on this one is the rehashing of the event around next year’s Super Bowl. Now, Groupon may have lucked out on this one because the way it looks right now, even the big game’s fate is in jeopardy. Wouldn’t that just be Groupon’s luck to have this happen like that.

So Pilgrims, in the end what is your assessment of the ‘Groupongate’? Was this a major brand damaging event or was it much ado about nothing? Maybe it’s somewhere in between. I say that no one wants to be a reputation management case study for how not to do it. The bigger lesson may be that even in the online space the truth of “this too shall pass” is bigger than a blunder like this.

Your thoughts?

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Report Highlights Need for Online Talent Now

In a young industry such as social media, defining talent and experience is a dicey proposition at best. The age of the space will vary greatly depending on who you speak with but the maturation has truly escalated in the past 5 years or so (feel free to debate that if you wish ).

So it’s little surprise that the rapid expansion of the space has created a need for talent and experience both of which can be seen as being in short supply. That is unless you really believe that everyone who calls themselves a social media / digital marketing expert, guru, maven or ninja or whatever actually is one.

The Society of Digital Agencies has outlined this need for talent in their report the 2011 Digital Marketing Outlook. Check out the chart below.

Did you know that one of the most cost effective ways to either find the right digital marketing opportunity for you or to find that ‘perfect fit’ for your company’s Internet marketing and social media talent needs is right here at Marketing Pilgrim.

List your openings for just $27 for a 30-day period with Marketing Pilgrim to reach the Internet marketing industry’s influencers and, most importantly, the talent that is looking to work for you today.

LIST YOUR JOB OPENINGS WITH MARKETING PILGRIM TODAY!

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comScore Lists Top 10 Digital Media Trends of 2010

It’s time for the comScore, U.S. Digital Year in Review report 2010! I know you’ve been waiting breathlessly for this, preparing for the moment when you can put these marketing secrets into action and ramp up your sales 200%!

Well, here’s the real secret. There are no secrets. We’ve seen these trends coming right at us for the past year and then some. Still, a little validation is always helpful, so let’s see what made the list of the Top 10 Digital Media Trends of 2010.

E-commerce is back, but is morphing:

The report states that US e-commerce grew 10% to $142.5 billion. A big chunk of that went to online only sites such as Amazon, but many brick and mortar stores with an online component saw sales skyrocket this past holiday season.

Digital couponing comes alive:

This is what comScore calls the “morphing” part. Group buying and flash sales sites have made the art of the deal less of an art. Couponing is no longer just for the mom trying to make ends meet. Everyone wants a deal on everything and it’s driving sales like never before.

Facebook now leading the mindshare battle:

“Three out of every 10 internet sessions includes a Facebook visit, and Facebook accounts now accounts for 10% of all pageviews in the US.” It’s not going away any time soon, so you better learn to make it work.

Web-based email is waning:

The days where we were excited by the prospect of a free email address are over. Our society is on the move, so texting and social media updates — both of which can easily be handled with a phone — are the preferred means of communication, particularly among teens.

The Search battle gets bigger and wages on:

comScore says the search market is up 12%. Google gets more than 2 out of every 3 searches and Yahoo! is still coming on strong. With all search engines working to refine their results, eliminate spam and make responses more relevant, search is going to continue to climb.

Display ad growth continues, and more big brands join in:

Display is up 23%, says comScore, more than a trillion of those impressions coming at you from Facebook. We’re not just talking banner ads here. The big boys have found ways to make ads talk and interact with consumers in ways we’ve never seen before. We hit a record 4.9 trillion display impressions in 2010. What will 2011 bring?

Video adoption continues to climb, and online TV is now mainstream:
Video ad market takes shape, but still pales in comparison to TV:

We’ll combine these two and say three cheers for online video. It’s kind of the little engine that could, plugging along making small strides and slowly changing the way we view moving images. TV networks don’t have to worry about losing their sponsors to the web anytime soon, but we’ve definitely become more open about accepting ads on our favorite funny web shows.

Mobile market getting ‘smarter’:
Android vs. iPhone battle heats up:

Here’s another pair of trends that you should be thinking about. 25% of all mobile phones are now smartphones and that number is growing fast. With the shift came the ability to market to a captive audience using video, music, downloads and interactive features. People not only understand what you mean when you say “apps,” but they’re scooping them up like pennies from heaven.

And it doesn’t matter if Android or iPhone wins the race, either way, it’s good news for marketers. There are people who have their phones tethered to their body 24/7 which means you can reach them with your message at exactly the right time and in the right place. (Thanks GPS!)

Summary

Looking at these trends as a whole you can see that they’re all about doing things faster and smarter. Why rearrange your schedule around your favorite TV shows when you can watch them online anytime you want. Need lunch in a hurry? Let Foursquare help you find a place nearby and get a digital coupon so you don’t pay full price.

Do you have a marketing plan that fits in with these trends? If not, it’s time to get to work.

You can download the whole U.S. Digital Year in Review Report when you click here.

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Ken and Barbie Get Social

The internet is all a twitter today about a brand new social media marketing push from toy manufacturer Mattel. The campaign is all about how Ken plans to woo Barbie back into his life by Valentine’s Day and it’s pretty brilliant.

The entire event revolves around a website where people can vote if Barbie should take Ken back. The simplistic website has huge buttons sending people to Ken and Barbies’ Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare page, there’s even a YouTube video where Ken uses Match.com to see if he and Barbie are compatible. Not enough? They’re also running a reality show on Hulu called The Genuine Ken and not coincidentally they’re about to release a new “Sweet Talking Ken Doll” who looks like a cross between Justin Bieber and the kids from Twilight.

Everything is so tongue-in-cheek, it’s obviously aimed more at adults than kids. Ken’s Twitter includes a mix of marketing messages:

Today’s goal: Try out the #NikeTrainingClub app that everybody is raving about. I’m always curious when fitness and technology meet.

And creepy Barbie stalker statements:

I want my doll’s heart back, and I need your help getting it!

Sprinkled throughout are references to Esquire Magazine, the Lakers, Match.com and the Super Bowl. And here’s a favorite:

Weekend Ken-fession: when I watched the ball drop on New Years, all I could think of was how much I missed @BarbieStyle.

Okay, is that dirty or is it just me?

Let’s look at the numbers. Ken’s Twitter has nearly 7,000 followers and 34,000 people liked his Facebook page. That’s a lot of people following and responding to an entity they know isn’t real. Why not? The fact that he’s a doll turns the whole thing into a giant role play game.

Barbie and Ken aren’t the first fictional characters to join the social network. @mmsgreen is the official Twitter of the Green M&M, Flo the annoying Progressive sales lady has her own Facebook page, and we’re all familiar with the Old Spice Man. What all of these accounts have in common is that they’re humorous and often pop culture related. They promote the brand without actually hawking the product and that’s why people like, follow and share them regularly.

A week ago, Ken Carson was a washed up, surfer doll without a future. Now, thanks to a social media push, he’s a hot commodity appearing in USA Today, The Toronto Sun and even on TV. Hey, Barbie! Maybe you should give this guy a second look.

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Social Silo-Busting

Silos have long been bemoaned as preventing the optimization of everything from enterprise resource planning to cohesive customer experience.  If Phase 1 of corporate social media development is scattered maverick experimentation and Phase 2 is creating integrated strategy, chances are Phase 3 is likely defining silo-based roles & responsibilities.  For example, Corp Comm could own Facebook, Consumer Marketing owns Twitter,  Care runs branded communities, and Recruiting runs LinkedIn (although we often see platform ownership split by business unit focus in marketing as well) .  There is a very real reason for doing this.  Clear ownership assures great responsiveness and allow for organizations to get appropriate social staffing and funding approved.  It is also true that the different social platforms have different audiences and dynamics (what & how you share) that are likely more appropriate for one part of your org than another.  It is safe to assume that this is not going away…so let’s make it work.

Whenever you get to the point of splitting platform responsibility between different departments, you run the risk of creating a new set of silos.  6 months in, you may find your boss praising what you’re doing in LinkedIn and questioning the way Facebook is being run.  You may read something posted on Twitter and realize it would have been perfect for you to capture video around for the YouTube & Facebook audience if only you’d known!  Here are 5 suggestions to systematize collaboration and prevent those silo walls from re-growing around you:

1) Group Governance- If you are not installing a hierarchical leader over your distributed channel plan, we do recommend that governance over decisions like adding channels, brand voice, changing policies, or cross-platform initiatives be discussed at a cross functional steering committee.  This can successfully be done in a somewhat informal manner or highly formal group with a charter, etc.  But the discussion that these decisions will spark can create trust and shared understanding among the partners.  It is likely that your friends from legal and HR should be a part of this as well.

2) Share Measurement - As a platform manager, it is easy to dive a mile deep on your own metrics and have only a glancing understanding of anyone else’s.  Because metrics are guideposts to measure progress on a strategy, they are a great way to re-ground your colleagues in exactly the role your platform plays in your company’s success.  A monthly measurement snapshot that you put together with the rest of your council is a great way to share learnings, troubleshoot issues, and will create a great artifact to be circulated around the company or management team.

3) Collaborative Content Planning- Managing a social platform means taming the beast’s insatiable hunger for content.  Content is gold and chances are, it is often appropriate across multiple channels.  By sharing conversation calendars - not just at the top of every month but as news happens and circumstances change will be the ultimate show of respect for your colleagues and the customer experience and will futher support the trust you are building.

4) Fight Social Silos with Internal Social Media - Beth Kanter wrote a great post on how silos impact non-profit social media where she expresses the social media mandate to be able to “Work Wikily“.  You may not be able to change your whole organization, but sharing your planning docs and measurement documents on a wiki, discussing ad hoc opportunities on Yammer, or even using a shared document platform to edit the next version of your employee policess help bake collaboration into your working group.

5) Evolve Together - The plan that you created in 2009 or 2010 may no longer be working or at the very least may have room for optimization.  Instead of firing suggestions over the wall, institutionalize evolution around your plan.  Quarterly meetings of your working group that are either offsite ot at least lengthier will help you review progress and ask the tough questions about what needs to change and when.  Going through that process together can foster strategic discussion and veer away from channel analysis or criticism becoming a land grab.

Go forth and bust those silos for the good of your customer and your own career!  If you have other tools that you  hae seen successfully work, please add in the comments.

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Since Everyone Else is Yammering On About Groupon ……..

I’m going to keep this post simple.

We are looking at the whole Groupon / Tibet / Insensitivity / Non-Apology / You Just Don’t Get Us, back and forth that is taking up some online space after their Super Bowl ads from Sunday’s big game.

From a pure reputation management perspective chime in with a comment whether you think the whole Groupon ‘thing’ is

1. Harmful to Groupon’s reputation
2. A reputation ‘non-issue’
3. Much ado about nothing
4. One for the advertising and reputation Hall of Fame of Blunders
5. Something else not mentioned

Use our space to voice your opinion because there are many of them and they have been all over the map. My take is that while I was offended by the Tibet ad (and honestly it takes a bit of doing to offend me) I don’t know if this will ultimately hurt Groupon because people have short memories and they want to get deals. Couple that with the fact that it’s mostly the marketing industry that is in a tizzy about this (which, granted, is full of influencers) and this will blow over and just be a minor case study on how to handle (or not handle) these things.

If you are interested Groupon CEO, Andrew Mason has posted a response on the Groupon blog. Notice I didn’t say apology. Let’s just call it a re-positioning of sorts.

Thanks for helping us put this to rest for the rest of the world so we can all move on.

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CMO’s View Traffic and Conversions Among Top Measures of Social Media Success

Some may already be saying “Well, what else would you use as a measure of social media success?” but it appears that the C-suite marketers are getting on board as well.

The early stages of determining social media success have been dominated by questionable metrics such as number of followers and other variables that are considered soft measurements. Some information provided in January from Bazaarvoice and The CMO Club via eMarketer tells the story of C-level marketers applying the same hard measurements to social media as they have been moving to in all other areas of marketing, mainly conversions and revenue generation.

The jump made from 2010 to 2011 as to the importance of conversions is dramatic. It is bigger than revenue generation likely because it is still quite difficult to tie revenue directly to social media since there are many influences in the eventual purchase of an item beyond just social media.

Other data from the study shows that despite the seeming ‘unsexiness’ of blogging and community building (as compared to social media plays like Facebook and Twitter) they are the techniques that generate the most ROI in the eyes of these high level marketers.

As the C suite starts to get on board with more definitive or finite measures of social media success how will that change the use of the mediums? Are the days of simply acquiring followers / fans / likes as a measure of success gone for good? According to these findings, not completely and they will likely never just become completely irrelevant.

What will happen, however, is that over time the C suite will continue to identify those success metrics that will make their jobs easier and hopefully change a disturbing metric that they live with every day: the average life span of a CMO is somewhere between 22 and 24 months.

Ouch. Now that’s finite.

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Medical Monday: Do Baby Boomers Use Social Media?

This past weekend I went with my family to my great-Aunt’s 96^th birthday.  The whole family met in Long Island, coming in from other parts of the island, New York City and as far away as Connecticut.  As we were leaving, I thanked her 60+-year-old daughter for inviting us, and that’s when she uttered the phrase that left me thinking all weekend - she said “I’ll post the photos on Facebook.”

Had my 30-somethings friends said that, I wouldn’t have batted an eye, but since when were my baby boomer-generation family members actively using social media (nonetheless Facebook)? I began to wonder, do boomers actively use social media?

Some quick research made me began to realize, that they are, and the number of boomers turning to social media is increasing. A recent article in Advertising Age reported use of social network sites such as Facebook in the 50+ demographic grew 88% between 2009 and 2010 (to a total of 47%). Of those age 65+, use doubled to 26% making them the fastest growing segment. [i]

And with the first wave of the generation hitting the retirement age in the next year, I began to wonder, are boomers using social media to talk about healthcare?  Is this an effective place for marketing healthcare products to boomers?

A search online brought another conclusion. I found anecdotal evidence of boomers sharing their experience with products and disease categories online (especially among those they live with daily such as arthritis).[ii] What was interesting was the number of boomer-aged caregivers turning online for information, experience and support who are taking care of their own older parents.

I realized that a lot of younger boomers have the dual role of being both patient AND caregiver, making them an even more appealing target audience.  They are actively looking for information for two members of the older generation.  This made it no surprise to learn that boomers who are caring for aging parents are even more heavily reliant on sites like Facebook than boomers in general.ⁱ

So what have I learned from this exercise?  I’ve learned when looking to reach boomers, don’t rule social media out. My new mantra: have faith in social media, but always do your research.

---

[i] Advertising Age, November 23, 2010

[ii] Note, every disease category is different and we recommend tailored listening work be done in the appropriate treatment category before engaging in a social media campaign

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Attentionomics: Captivating Attention in the Age of Content Decay

This posts covers a new Edelman Digital Insights package we're releasing today on "Attentionomics." You can find the deck below and on Slideshare.

The essence of this deck is that attention is linked with economic value creation. However, with infinite content options (space) yet finite attention (time) and personalized social algorithms curating it all for us, it's going to be increasingly challenging to stand out.

Let's  consider Twitter, for example. They are seeing a staggering 110 million tweets per day. And the volume is growing. But therein lies the challenge. Each tweet decays almost as soon as it is released. Some 92% of all retweets (and 97% of replies) are within the first 60 minutes according to Sysomos.

The situation in some ways is worse on Facebook where a highly personalized algorithm called EdgeRank curates our feed based on personal affinities, content formats and timeliness. There's not just one Facebook but 500M Facebooks. And, according to Vitrue, the majority of us participate at top and bottom of the hour. This means that anything you post to your Facebook page needs to create a social surge well before then.

So how do you make this work in your favor? Simple, businesses must obey the laws of attentionomics (e.g.) time and space. In the deck above you will find two sets of solutions. 

The first set of solutions covers space. It explains how to scale their surface area via digital embassies by...

• Hand-crafting your content for each embassy
• Activating employees as thought leaders
• Tightly integrating owned and social assets

The second section covers time and how to make it your ally through "dayparted engagement." The action steps here include:

• Practicing mindfulness with bifocal awareness (different than, but related to monitoring)
• Optimizing for the best times to engage
• Testing, planning and measuring

If you're an Edelman client you will also get access to specific tools and techniques, but I will share one with you today. Check out Timely, a brand new tool from Flowtown that helps you optimize your tweets and track their performance. It's a good start and they are planning to add some Pro services soon that I hope will elevate this into a must-use tool.

As always, we are eager to hear your feedback on this important topic.

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Is Your Low Social IQ Dooming Your Blog?

What’s wrong with my blog?

That’s a very frustrating question that many bloggers ask.

You’re passionate about your topic and you provide great advice to solve reader’s problems. You wrap up your posts with interesting questions, inviting readers to share their opinions in the comments. You offer clear calls to action. 

Unfortunately, no one seems to be listening. 

Post after post reveals no more than a handful of comments (and half of those are your own replies). Your subscriber numbers have flatlined. And forget fan mail, that showing up seems as likely as finding a tall glass of water in the desert. 

I hate to be the one to tell you, but the problem might not be your blog. The problem might be you.

Why bloggers need good people skills

Considering you don’t share the same room, or perhaps even the same continent with your readers, the vital need for interpersonal skills on your blog may be a bit puzzling. 

But as Jon Morrow points out, “Those traffic figures in your analytics account aren’t just numbers, they’re people.”

And people with high social intelligence are magnetic.

Have you ever noticed how popular bloggers have a knack for writing about their readers’ hopes and frustrations? Popular blogs sound like they were written just for you. The comments are filled with statements like, “This is just what I needed to hear,” or “Wow, I could have written those same words.”

Successful bloggers build the confidence of their readers, not just themselves. They create rapport by making readers feel valued, one person at a time. 

Good writing alone won’t drive people to subscribe, leave thoughtful comments, or share your material. Social intelligence is the currency of the blogosphere. In fact, it’s the key to good business too.

And the best part? It can be learned.

Sizing up your social IQ

In his book, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Success, Karl Albrecht highlights the five dimensions of social intelligence. The trick is understanding how to translate those often nonverbal dynamics into the text-based world of blogging. 

1. Situational Awareness Having situational awareness means you understand the social context of situations and respond appropriately. People missing this skill take phone calls in the middle of meetings or blast their car stereo while returning home late at night. They’re not purposely rude, just oblivious to the wants (and reactions) of others. In the online world, this is the equivalent of committing the blogging sin of boorishness.

Need help developing better situational awareness? Check out LaVonne Ellis and David Crandall’s Customer Love e-book.

2. Presence Presence is the ability to project confidence and self-respect, and as a blogger, it derives primarily from your voice. If you’re used to writing term papers or corporate vision statements, finding your writing voice can be tricky. When you get it right, it’s an extremely powerful way to build connections with readers.

3. Authenticity The blogosphere likes to talk about the importance of authenticity, but what is it really?  Albrecht calls it the “opposite of being phony.” Seth Godin describes authenticity as ”doing what you promise, not being who you are.” Many associate authenticity with revealing the person behind the ideas, like Corbett Barr’s blog post “33 Things I Never Told You.” For bloggers, authenticity is probably somewhere in between ideology and action. The point is to be genuine: express opinions you believe in, endorse products you use, and network with people you actually like.

4. Clarity How well you present ideas and influence others comes, in part, from your clarity. It’s a balance between knowing enough to be specific and having enough distance to speak directly. The classic advice is to explain a topic like you were speaking to your grandmother. This is particularly relevant for bloggers, who often assume their audience is social media savvy instead of the “average Grandma Minnie.”

5. Empathy Empathy involves understanding the experiences and motivations of another person. Looking for a topic that has viral potential? Want to invoke an emotional reaction to your post? Empathy is the cornerstone of social intelligence.

Creating the complete social intelligence package

The best way to improve your social IQ is to spend some quality time alone. After all, if you don’t understand your own motivations, how can you hope to predict the fears and desires of your readers? 

You’ll be surprised how hard this is.

I recently left a 20-year career in science. As I was evaluating new career options, I wrote down all the jobs I’d considered as a kid, before (I thought) society had imposed its expectations on me.

I’d always dreamed of becoming an actor. But the more I thought about it, I realized my interest in acting was more an interest in fame. I wasn’t actually very interested in joining a local theater company.

Many writers use journaling as an effective way to explore the undercurrent of their emotions. 

What’s the first thing you worry about when you wake up in the morning? If the doctor gave you three months to live, what would you do with the time? Why aren’t you doing that now? What makes you cry tears of joy? Why aren’t you doing that? 

This isn’t just advice for those woo-woo, self-help bloggers either.

Social media junkies are scared they’ll sell their soul to get 5,000 friends on Facebook and still won’t have anyone to call when they have a bad accident on the interstate. New tech users worry they’ll drop their iPhone on the subway platform and will never, ever re-create their contacts list.

That little voice whispering insecurities in your ear all day long? He’s a blogger’s best friend.

Listen to your insecurities carefully, then find a way around them. This will likely bring up more insecurities. Find a way around those too. 

Write about the solutions you find, with all the social intelligence you can muster.

You’ll not only be a better blogger, you’ll be a better person.

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A Second Look: 6 Types of Twitter Tools That Come in Handy

Tweet

We go over so many tools here are Blogging Tips that many of them are often forgotten as they’re buried deeper into the archives.

I thought it would be nice to go over a few Twitter tools that are useful and definitely worth a second look. If you’re an avid Twitter user, it’s a good idea to use a tool from each of these categories to help with productivity, build your brand and get the most out of Twitter. Since this list only includes past posts from Blogging Tips, it will not address any new tools (which I’m sure there are many of) that may exist in each category; so feel free to add those additional tools in the comments!

Schedule Your Tweets

If you don’t have much time to spend on Twitter yet still want to appear active, 3 of the tools listed on 5 Ways to Schedule Your Tweets (2 are no longer available) can help you schedule future tweets. Scheduling tweets is also great for promoting a product or service. You can schedule 1-2 tweets per day for a certain amount of time, but just be sure to change up the wording as much as possible for each tweets. Twitvance is also a great tool for scheduling unlimited tweets.

Clean Out Your Followers

If you are following over 200 or even 100 people on Twitter, it’s just impossible to manually clean out your followers (ie. inactive users, spammers, etc). You’d have to go to the page of each user and then look at their tweets to see when the last one was posted and then check out what type of content their posting. No one has time for that! Luckily, there are lots of tools out there to help you clean out your followers. None of the tools listed on 4 Twitter Account Cleaners are still around, but the tools listed on Four More Twitter Account Cleaners along with Refollow are sure to come in handy.

Sift Through The Junk

Let’s face it, the amount of spam and shameless promotion on Twitter is getting out of hand. There is so much that it is often hard to find anything useful in your Twitter stream. After using one of the Twitter cleaners above it shouldn’t be so much of a problem, but just in case here are a few tools to help you filter through the junk and find the tweets that matter: Cascaad, TidyTweet and Filttr.

Shorten Your URLs

Most Twitter tools come with an integrated URL shortener, but surprisingly Twitter.com does not have that feature (yet). So if you are in need of a short URL or want to tool to help you condense URLs while browsing check out 9 Short URL Services and 8 URL Shorteners for Quickly Sharing Links.

Keep Up via Alerts

If you’re an extremely busy person, keeping up with Twitter can be impossible and hiring help is just out of the question for most. Having to login each day and look through thousands of tweets can be a pain and many users just give up from frustration. If you’re looking for a more convenient way to keep up with Twitter, then opting to receive alerts is a good idea. With TwitterAlerts you can receive notifications by SMS, email or IM for an unlimited number of keywords. If you want to keep up with specific users instead, I find that IFTTT handles that job quite well.

Backup Your Tweets

Lastly, you want to be sure that you are backing up your tweets on a regular basis. There is nothing worse than building up a Twitter account for a year or two and then losing it all (trust me, I know). Plus, there’s always something weird going on at Twitter and users often complain about missing tweets. You can save yourself the hassle by using one of these 10 Twitter Backup Tools for Preserving Tweets (plus 8 bonus options at the end). You know what they say, it’s better to be safe than sorry; make sure you’re safe!

(image source)

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