Maximizing Social Media at Your Event

If you are a professional association with members around the country or world, it’s likely that your annual or regional meetings won’t be attended by all members.  Rather than leave a big chunk of your constituency in the dark, social media can be a great tool to amplify conference content to members, and beyond.

Having just helped with a live event, I wanted to share some items to consider before activating social media at your event:

Listen: What are people saying beforehand?  What are the issues that your followers in social media want to hear most about?

Plan: What is going to be your steady drumbeat of content?  Will you provide live updates from sessions?  Will you offer interviews with speakers and member attendees? What exclusive opportunity will you offer your key influencers?  What behind-the-scenes experience can you provide?

Engage:  What social platforms will you be using? Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter? Who will be your social media “crew” to engage online and ensure all relevant content is covered?

Amplify:  How will you spread the word so event participants (both on and off line) are aware of the social networking taking place? Signage at the event? Advertising? Pre-event communications? External newsletters? Twitter hashtags? If your organization does not have a relevant hashtag, establish one beforehand and make sure people know about it and use it to help with online search results and to aggregate associated content. Also, ensure you link your various social platforms together to maximize content promotion.

If you are able to answer all of the questions above, you are probably ready to get started! If not, take some time to think through before jumping in.

A final note about technology: Ensure you plan for proper technology and resources. If you’re using flipcams, be sure to have enough memory cards and a video editor onsite. If you’re live Tweeting, be sure that reporters have a mobile device to Tweet from. iPads can be a great tool for members to take notes, Tweet, view video, etc., and can be raffled off to participants at the event.

Related Articles

• Win a Ticket to Social Media Success Summit 2010
• We want your help for a location-based social networking cage match!
• Register Now for Social Media Marketing 2010
• Rich folks tend to have diverse social networks
• How Google Approaches Social Media As A Team Sport

Twitter Launches Promoted Accounts

“Promoted” seems to be Twitters favorite word as they graduate from Promoted Tweets to Promoted Trends to the newest item, Promoted Accounts.

Promoted Accounts will appear in the Suggested For You space in your Twitter sidebar.  The algorithm is set to compare your followers with the followers of people you follow, then suggest an applicable Promoted Account that you aren’t already following.

Who’s on first, What’s on second and I Don’t Know is definitely on third. Twitter simplifies it with this example:

“A lot of people who follow several gaming-related accounts also follow @xbox. If someone follows gaming-related accounts, but not @xbox, Twitter may recommend @xbox to that person.”

Promoted Accounts will only appear if they fit into your Tweet pattern. Right now, they only have a few Promoted Accounts in the mix, so chances are you won’t see one in your side bar right away but Twitter expects that to change soon.

It will be very interesting to see the stats on click throughs in the future. I’m assuming Twitter will shout about them, if the program is a success.  But human nature being what it is, it seems like people would be inclined to not follow a suggestion because it is being delivered as a form of advertising.

What do you think? Is the “Promoted” label likely to have any influence at all over your decision to follow a suggested account?

Related Articles

• Twitter Sponsored Tweets: The Impact for Marketers
• Register Now for Social Media Marketing 2010
• How do You “Subscribe” to a Site?
• Essential Tools Featuring Randa Clay
• Social Media Marketing Tips for Facebook — SEM Synergy Extras

Want a Vegas Upgrade? Get Klout

The world is full of leader and followers and no where is this more evident than in social media. For marketers, connecting with one leader, that one influential voice in a given niche, is worth a 1,000 followers. That’s where Klout comes in. Kout was originally imagined as another internet badge of honor that you could wave in the faces of your friends. Founders Joe Fernandez and Binh Tran soon found that the system was a gold mine for marketers looking to locate the whales in a sea of little fish.

Klout uses a complex ranking system that rates a person’s worth in the social media world. It looks at not only how many followers you have, but who they are and what content you and they post, click on, retweet, etc. Originally the system was devoted mostly to Twitter use, but they’ve now added Facebook data and according to an article in AdAge, YouTube, Linkedin, MySpace and Digg aren’t far behind. The more data, the merrier, right?

Now, what do you do with that data? We already know that marketers can use it to target influencers but how about a more practical application. Says AdAge, the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is working on ”The Klout Klub,” which “will allow high-ranking influencers to experience Palms’ impressive set of amenities in hopes that these influencers will want to communicate their positive experience to their followers.”

The Klout data shows up when a reservation agent accesses a person’s account and in the future, it will be the deciding factor on who gets the Kingpin Suite or free tickets to a show. And you thought updating your Facebook page was a waste of time!

The downside here is that it’s a putting our eggs in one basket deal. Says AdAge,

“Klout is like having just one credit monitoring company. You might do spectacularly good or have a terrible ranking but the validity of the ranking system itself has yet to be proven until you have another service to compare it to.”

Which brings up a scary, big brotherish, point. Suppose my bank decides to use Klout scores to determine the interest on a mortgage loan. Andy’s got it made in the Klout shade, but I’m in big trouble. (Apparently, I’m not as influential as I thought I was.)

Come to think of it, the whole idea of ranking people by Klout then offering rewards to the top of the list smacks of high school, doesn’t it? Want to sit with me at lunch? Hang on while I check your Klout, then we’ll talk.

Related Articles

• We want your help for a location-based social networking cage match!
• What do you want to know?
• How Google Approaches Social Media As A Team Sport
• A Social Network to Grow On [The Mossberg Solution]
• Register Now for Social Media Marketing 2010

BlogWorld & New Media Expo is Coming, Are You Going?

This time of year is one of my favorite times because I get so excited to see all of my blogging friends at BlogWorld & New Media Expo. I have been lucky enough to have attended every single BlogWorld that there has been. I went to my first on in 2007 and am going to be speaking at this one on Friday October 15, at 2:45pm. My session is called Content You Care About. I happen to be on at the very same time as the owner of this blog, Zac Johnson, is on the Make Money Super Panel. I really would have liked to have seen him speak especially since he came and saw my panel at Affiliate Summit and has let me ramble on here on this blog offering help where I can.

In one of my earliest posts on Blogging Tips.com I asked the question Should you Attend a Social Media Conference? At that time I mentioned that I had put in proposals to a number of conferences that I planned to attend. Well, my proposals were accepted at all of them and the response has been incredible. Blogging and Social Media conferences are amazing ways to make contacts, friendships and business ventures. But you have to do a lot of work to make it happen for you, so here are my essential tips for having a successful conference attendance.

Talk to Everybody – Seriously, you never know who you are going to meet and if you don’t talk to everyone you are going to miss out on so many opportunities. MY most recent conference was at Modern Media Man in Atlanta. I was tired and figured that I would head back to the hotel when I saw one of my friends talking to a representative from Mattel. At the time I hadn’t been doing very much with my Dad blog, Read to Me, Dad. and wondered if I had much to offer in the way of working with Mattel, but I do love toys and so I got introduced and struck up a great conversation. This leads me to my next tip.

Ask for What You Want – I don’t mean that you have to be a swag whore and try to get something for nothing but you do need to put yourself and your intentions out there. I knew that I wanted to work with a major brand like Mattel and so I asked if they were looking for Dad bloggers who did reviews. I also asked if I could be one of those bloggers. A relationship started right then and there.

Give it Your Best – While at Modern Media Man I spent a lot of time with major sponsor Chevrolet. They had cars on hand to take on test drives. I saw people taking the test drives and collecting their iTunes gift cards, essentially taking but not giving anything back tot he advertiser. I quickly got out my camera and snapped a ton of photos of the staff and the cars and then took one of my video cameras and gave it to the company rep who took me on test drives of the Silverado, Camaro and Convertible Corvette. I asked them to interview me about my thoughts on their cars at the same time as they showed me the great features of each car. I was able to give them content from my experiences in their vehicles. I then put the videos together and posted them so that as an advertiser they got something for all the money they spent to support the show.

Follow Up – It is so essential to follow up on your connections right away. I really wish that GMail had a feature where you could schedule when you send your e-mails because I would have written every follow up message that same night that I met someone and they were fresh in my mind, but send it a couple of days after the conference so that they had time to catch up on the work they missed while at the conferences. Either way, follow up is so crucial because it means that you are serious and should be taken seriously.

Have Fun – Conferences aren’t all about work, going out and having a great time is also key. Go out to the parties, have meals with your new friends, don’t eat alone, or spend all your time working in your room, there is time for that but the one on one time that you get with other conference attendees is priceless. Have fun and who knows you might meet your next business partner, friend or more.

Related Articles

• Win a Ticket to Social Media Success Summit 2010
• Register Now for Social Media Marketing 2010
• Yahoo Snaps Up Associated Content for $90 Million to Compete With AOL and Demand Media
• Blog Tools of Chris Cree
• How Google Approaches Social Media As A Team Sport

What’s A Marketer to Do? Android Making Advances

It’s hard enough being a marketer these days with all of the options and all of the things that you are supposed to already know. By the way, you are an expert in traditional offline media, all forms of online new media, all digital out of home options, every aspect of social media including all geo-location options, paid search and search engine optimization, right? If not, you are certainly a slacker and should not be part of the new world order of marketing .

Now add to the mix the real mobile landscape that is shaping up. At this time last year it is doubtful that the many would have anticipated the following chart from Nielsen (if you claim you did then congrats, you are obviously better than the rest of us). So far in 2010 Android is the leading mobile OS among recent US smartphone acquirers.

So Android is real and it is gaining speed. For all of you Android and Apple fanboys and girls this is not to say which is better or worse. It’s just to say that it is. So relax if you feel like your platform of choice is being attacked in any way. It’s not. What is apparent though is that RIM is in trouble while Apple and Android devices are likely to run the roost before too long. Here is a picture of the overall marketshare pattern for this year.

How does this impact marketers? Well, it certainly doesn’t make it any easier. If the pattern indicated by the charts above continues then it will be critical that marketers looking to reach the most of their market will not be able to choose between Apple and Android for app development. They will need to do both. It’s that simple. The bigger question is what to do about BlackBerry but we’ll save that for another time.

What are you doing when it comes to app development for your mobile strategy? Are you leaning one way or the other or are you diving into both the Android and Apple pools at the same time?

Strategies developed today will definitely need to remain flexible because until Apple breaks the chains of AT&T the Android market will continue to flourish. Remember I am not saying which is better. I’m just sayin’.

Related Articles

• An Advanced Degree at the School of WOM
• Want a Vegas Upgrade? Get Klout
• Ads Drop Dot-Com URLs in Favor of "Facebook Us"
• It’s Time Elevate Your Internet Money Game
• Opportunities for Brands in Social Games

Twitter Executive Moves For Strength

Twitter has named a new CEO, former COO Dick Costolo, to replace Evan Williams who will now be able to concentrate on the Twitter product set. This move is one that indicates more than ever that Twitter is getting more serious about itself as a business as well as a service.

The Twitter blog post by Williams states

The challenges of growing an organization so quickly are numerous. Growing big is not success, in itself. Success to us means meeting our potential as a profitable company that can retain its culture and user focus while having a positive impact on the world. This is no small task. I frequently reflect on the type of focus that is required from everyone at Twitter to get us there.

This led to a realization as we launched the new Twitter. I am most satisfied while pushing product direction. Building things is my passion, and I’ve never been more excited or optimistic about what we have to build.

This is why I have decided to ask our COO, Dick Costolo, to become Twitter’s CEO. Starting today, I’ll be completely focused on product strategy.

Honestly, even though this is the equivalent of a press release (meaning it could be read with a cynic’s eye) it’s hard to argue the logic. In fact, it looks so “grown up” that one wonders if Twitter really is an Internet company after all.

MG Siegler interviewed Costolo and Williams and it seems like the roll out of the new Twitter was the green light for the change

“New Twitter was definitely a trigger for this,” Williams told me. “Conveniently, I took over the CEO role just about two years ago — and brought Dick in just about a year ago. I’ve always thought of myself as more of a product guy, and New Twitter seems to work out well,” he continued. “New Twitter was a moment of clarity for all of us here,” Costolo added. “[With this change] Ev can once again focus on product.“

So what will be in store as Twitter now has the talent aligned so that they can do what they do best as their main job? It’s difficult to predict but it is looking more and more like Twitter is ready to start making the kind of money that many debated they would ever get to.

I wonder if other Internet companies will follow Twitter’s lead to do the right thing even if it means giving up a few letters after someone’s name.

Related Articles

• Twitter Sponsored Tweets: The Impact for Marketers
• Register Now for Social Media Marketing 2010
• Oracle’s Larry Ellison Weighs In On CEO Blogging
• Social Media Marketing Tips for Facebook — SEM Synergy Extras
• Accel Keeps Its Wallet Open: Lookout Grabs $11 Million in Funding and Adds Execs

Forty Percent of Groupon Merchants Say Never Again

Last month, we reported on a story of a Portland Cafe owner who claims she lost thousands of dollars doing business with popular deal site Groupon. Some people sided with her, others said she mishandled the situation and Groupon said her story wasn’t typical. But is it?

The folks at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University wanted to find out, so they did a small study to see if merchants were generally happy with their Groupon experience. The study, which was reported on by The Wall Street Journal and other sources polled 150 merchants who had placed deals with Groupon.

66% of the respondents said that they did make a profit on the deal but 40% said they wouldn’t do it again. Groupon’s CEO says that number is a tad high. In a recent blog post, CEO Mason said that 97% merchants are interested in being featured again.

Sound like folks are just telling him what he wants to hear or he’s really not in touch with reality, let alone his client base. What the study found was that it was employee satisfaction, not customer satisfaction that shifted the tide from success to “never again.”

Poor tips, too many customers, angry customers (due to lack of product or wait time) are all potential side effects of a Groupon deal. The author of the study, Utpal Dholakia said it was almost a given:

“Because the Groupon customer base is made up of deal-seekers and bargain shoppers, they might not tip as well as an average customer or be willing to purchase beyond the deal.”

This led to the finding that restaurants had the hardest time with Groupon deals, where service business such as spas and salons fared better. The 32% that said they didn’t make a profit from the program reported that customers rarely bought more than the coupon deal and few returned to the business at a later date.

Despite dismal numbers on the merchant end, group deal sites keep popping up and businesses keep making deals. It smacks of a desperate attempt to jump on the trend-wagon and less of a well-thought out marketing move and that is the real crux of the problem.

What do you think of these numbers? Do you think Groupon’s satisfaction and return rate is closer to Mason’s 97% or 60% as the survey says?

Related Articles

• The Case for Converging Your Personal/Professional Networks
• Farmville Creator Not Leaving Facebook After All
• A Social Network to Grow On [The Mossberg Solution]
• Facebook Remorse: Posting Online Could Cost You Your Job
• Are Facebook Like Buttons Wrong or Right For Your Site?