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7 Steps to Successful Twitter Interviews | Social Media Examiner [del.icio.us]

logicemotion — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:41:26 +0000

Toolkits: Social Technologies Listed

logicemotion — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:54:27 +0000

I'm really liking the simplicity and usefulness of the Toolkits feature recently launched over at Oneforty. From the perspective of a creator, it's a simple way to create a visual list of some of the tools you use, categorize them and make them sharable. From the perspective of a content consumer, it's an interesting way to browse through selections and connect the dots for yourself. If three or four people you know and trust are using the same tool—it's likely you're going to want to check it out. I created one called "The Social Business Toolkit". Have a look and compare it with others.

Getting The Basics Right

logicemotion — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 13:55:02 +0000

This post isn't about Foursquare or the latest social buzzword bingo, so I assume it will go largely unread and that's a shame. I'm on month four at my new gig with Edelman Digital. My job is to consult with multiple clients across global social initiatives, support staff across various regions, grow business, and I've also been tasked with ensuring that our own Web presence becomes the industry standard.

Employee Engagement
As I recommend with so many clients, to be successful with any social initiative (a non-automated program that involves engagement between live human beings) often requires changes in areas such as staffing. So the numbers in this chart which I'm fairly proud of are only possible because we chose to create the role of a "community manager" and were fortunate enough to find the perfect candidate to fill that role. The lesson here? Bootstrapping only takes you so far.

Corporate Culture
A number not on the chart but essential is that we've had 30 contributors in 30 days. Not simply one anointed "company voice", but 30 individuals ranging from new employees to veterans who feel empowered to speak and engage with the support of the company. To be fair, being a communications firm means this is in our heritage, but it's still not easy to execute against regardless of any industry.

ROI
At this point you may be asking, "do these numbers matter"? Well, they are metrics—and metrics are signs to be analyzed. But, from a business perspective we work in an industry where attracting the best talent for what we do is critical. The traffic and increase in applicants in the careers section is a good thing. Also, new business leads have been coming in through the site. That's probably the easiest way to cut through the clutter of "is this worth the effort" and also a positive sign.

Well, it's only been a month and I'm proud of these metrics and more importantly the team who powers the results. I'm really happy to see something like this become a contagious effort (with more people raising their hands to contribute). It's only one aspect of my job, but it's also one of the more enjoyable ones. These are the basics—putting in the right infrastructure, getting the strategy right, building things, creating momentum, changing how things work gradually over time and moving forward. It's not as sexy as the latest technology, but it's closer to real life.

Interactions, Engagement & Ecosystems

logicemotion — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 22:57:50 +0000

A "media" model composed of paid, owned and earned efforts is nothing new—however it’s useful to think about this landscape in tandem with the different ways we interact and engage which are enabled through technology. There are essentially three forms of digital engagement which can often overlap (engagement in a single initiative can include all three types) but each form can tend to dominate the experience. It’s important to remember that the type of engagement is contextual to what a participant wants to accomplish.

Types of engagement:

Interactive
This type of engagement is, as its name suggests highly interactive by nature, though what’s worth noting is that there is no social component to it. The primary interaction exists between a person and technology or human to computer. Examples of interactive engagement could be an ATM, or an e-commerce experience or microsites. It can also be a game, video, or any other experience where users engage a system or interact with content. The key distinction is that interactive excludes social interactions between participants.

Social
Social engagement requires the interactions between live human beings (not machines) and/or groups with each other. Most common forms of social engagement can occur on off domain networks such as Facebook and Twitter but can also occur on domain such as corporate blogs or by using the integration of off domain services. The key differentiator for social engagement is that it goes beyond human to computer interaction as described in interactive engagement and usually involves social behavior such as “friending” or human to human direct engagement.

Mobile
Mobile engagement happens exclusively on mobile device as opposed non-mobile device such as a desktop computer. It also takes into context the user behavior of individual(s) who are in mobile situations such as traveling or moving from point A to B. Context in mobile behavior is critical as user activity is influenced by the actual state of being mobile. It’s also worth noting that “mobile” itself may gradually be re-defined over time with devices such at the iPad which blend stationary and mobile behaviors as well as geolocation platforms such as Foursquare which makes mobile activity hyper-local.

Where engagement happens:

Engagement can happen either on domain or off domain and initiatives which include any form of media or content can fall into the following categories:

Paid
Paid efforts always require some type of monetary exchange in order to have initiatives placed on properties whether they be traditional outlets such as display advertising or non traditional outlets such as blogs or advertising within off domain such as Facebook. Paid placement in search initiatives also falls into the category of paid as long as results are tied to non organic or paid searches.

Owned
Owned media typically does not require monetary compensation and can occur on both on and off domain properties that the organization has control over (Facebook pages are off domain, where Websites are on domain but both are owned). Owned properties offer organizations the most control as they can decide what media to promote although off domain properties must be monitored closely as they often support social engagement which cannot be controlled but moderated.

Earned
Earned media nearly always takes place on off domain properties such as forums, blogs, social networks and also mainstream publications. Media is typically earned through word of mouth or unpaid but highly visible results in both search engines and social media referrals. Earned media can also be amplified through outreach initiatives. The core distinction for media which is earned is the absence of overt payment to the property owner for the results.

What This All Means
As stated in the beginning of this piece—much of this should not be new, however it does present new opportunities and challenges for organizations looking to stay in lock step with their customers, consumers and employees. The media ecosystem must be purposefully orchestrated and appear seamless to the individual and groups you are hoping to reach. From a technological perspective, this means potentially adding systems equipped with workflows such as Social Talk or Awareness which allow you to better manage your entire social ecosystem. From a people process, this could mean training and staffing differently. But from the perspective of the people who you want to activate—it simply means that you are relevant to their digital lifestyle. This translates to the the following: we must better understand how people want to engage (IE their motivations and behaviors). For example, the context behind when they want to act "socially" or be left alone and when they are “on the move” vs. stationary. Also, each form of media is its own micro ecosystem within a broader macro media ecosystem—Facebook’s latest addition of community pages could potentially create micro-ecosystems within the broader Facebook environment.

Having intimate knowledge of how these ecosystems thrive (or not) will help us figure out how they can work best together. In other words, get ready to go both wide and deep as you plan digital initiatives. The future of communications will require organizations to be effective both in engaging participants via micro formats while taking a step back and managing media and interactions across the macro (all social, interactive and mobile touch points)—and that’s just on the digital front. The bigger picture? Integration between the digital and real world because this is where it all comes together.

Love a Local Business – Intuit [del.icio.us]

logicemotion — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:10:50 +0000

Really smart initiative from Intuit which combines local business, a competition and gives back.

BlackBerry – Super Apps [del.icio.us]

logicemotion — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:48:08 +0000

Getting Social With eBay

logicemotion — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:39:42 +0000

Originally posted on Edelman Digital

Last week Edelman hosted a strategy session with our clients and partners at eBay and I had the opportunity to pull two of eBay’s social media leads aside for a quick chat. Richard Brewer-Hay has been with the company just over two years and has already brought a face to many of eBay’s social initiatives through his eBay Ink blog as well as his consistent engagement with eBay users in forums and nearly every community imaginable. Julie Haddon, a former Twitter employee who recently returned to eBay after working there from 2003-2006, has moved back to the iconic brand in a global social media strategy role.

While eBay already has a presence on social touchpoints such as Twitter, Youtube and Facebook, the day was focused on looking at how the brand can dial up engagement with buyers, sellers and employees in a meaningful and scalable way. We’re very excited to be a part of this as eBay boasts some of the most engaged users on the planet and this makes for fertile ground. Have a listen to what Julie and Richard have to say and think about how it applies to your own organization.

Getting Social With eBay

logicemotion — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:39:42 +0000

Fantasy Social Media

logicemotion — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:58:38 +0000

Flickr photo by Kodiak

We're treating social media like Fantasy Football, Baseball etc. Except even those feel more like the real thing. Here are some social media fantasies vs. what I believe are the realities.

Fantasy: Social media shouldn't live in a silo, so we are adding these responsibilities to your existing job.
Reality: Day jobs will always win and moonlighting only makes you tired.

Fantasy: Let's use latest social platform X
Reality: They don't actually use latest social platform X, but they've read about it on a blog.

Fantasy: People love coupons!
Reality: People do love coupons! And they love you only as long as you give them freebies.

Fantasy: It's all just media.
Reality: It's actually about interactions—and media needs to work in tandem with those.

Fantasy: People need to be educated.
Reality: Online, people educate themselves.

Fantasy: It's another place where we can tell our story.
Reality: Participants care more about their story than they do yours. Stop deleting their comments.

Fantasy: They will tell friends!
Reality: Getting someone to tell a friend about you requires being remarkable. Are you?

My reality check for the day. But I'm not giving up—sorry.

Fantasy Social Media

logicemotion — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:58:38 +0000