Category

Social Media

Nov 09
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Top 3 Questions asked at Social Media Speaking Gigs

By Communications, Social Media

I’ve been doing a lot of speaking about social media for the last several years but have done a number of larger presentations focused on specific industries in recent months. It’s interesting for me to consider the challenges of attracting specific and different audiences and building communities of and for different kinds of people.

No matter the audience, the same three questions come up:

  1. How do you do it all?
  2. What should we do first?
  3. How do we get more fans?
The answers:
  1. I don’t do everything; I focus my efforts on a few things, namely, blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and on producing quality content for speaking engagements and business building outreach in my community. I delegate when I can and I say no when I’m overburdened. I’ve limited my volunteer efforts significantly and rely on technology to help me manage my time for the rest. 
  2. First, you should make sure your infrastructure is sound, and by that I mean you have a quality website that works and provides you the ability to publish content (i.e. a blog). Once this is accomplished, then sharing across social platforms is the next, natural step. 
  3. How many fans do you really need? Concentrate on developing real relationships and providing valuable content and real, engaged, loyal fans will find and support you. 
If you have a group that would be interested in a fun, informative social media learning session, let me know.
Nov 07
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Social Media Success: Forget about the Numbers!

By Social Media

I’ve been working a lot with clients to develop plans, to track the analytics and success of campaigns, to measure our progress against goals and count the eyeballs viewing content and equating that to footsteps in the door or orders placed online.

But today, I want everyone to stop and forget about the numbers.

It’s so easy to get caught up in thinking about the traffic — the pageviews, the visits, the unique visitors — and forget, for a bit, anyway that these numbers represent people and relationships.

So whether your website sees 10 visits today or 10,000, instead of the numbers, think about what you’re giving to the people who are interested enough in you, your business, your products and services that they’ve come to visit, to read your content and to ask a question, leave a comment, click “like” or share your blog post with a friend. Who are these kind and generous souls behind these numbers? If you don’t know, today’s the day to find out.

Nov 04
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WTF Happened to my Klout Score?

By Social Media

Lately, the Twitterverse has been FREAKING OUT over dropping Klout scores. It IS kind of a rude shock to check in on Klout and suddenly discover your score has dropped 50 points orWTF? so. What’s even more confusing to some is the sudden jump in scores (not that they’re complaining), but WTF does this all mean?

Klout has been up front about the changes, publishing a blog post about re-configuring scores for “a more accurate, transparent score,”. Klout CEO Joe Fernandez shared the thinking behind the changed algorithm in a post the previous week.

A majority of users will see their Scores stay the same or go up but some users will see a drop. Some of our Scores here at the Klout HQ will drop (including mine) — our goal is accuracy above all else. We believe our users will be pleased with the improvements we’ve made.

This is a project that’s been under development for over three months, and, in many ways, over the three years since Klout started. We appreciate your trust and support and we can’t wait to hear what you think. We will let you know when this new model goes live next week and will continue to work to provide the deepest and most accurate insights into your influence possible.

I think the changes and the reasoning behind the are sound and that ultimately the score changes will even out and settle, providing a more accurate measure of influence for its users. The algorithm (in case this is all Greek to you) measures:

  • how many people you influence,
  • how much you influence them and
  • how influential they are.
    What do you think of Klout?

 

Oct 27
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How I Jumped into Charlottesville With Both Feet (or the story of a 50+ year old Twitterer)

By Social Media

Today’s guest post comes from Liz Finkelstein, a Twitter user and engaged community member. This is her story about she harnessed the power of a social network.

As I was getting ready to put my house in New York on the market so I would be able to move to the Charlottesville area, I suddenly felt panicky about the fact that I knew hardly

Liz Finkelstein, @emarieg on Twitter

anyone there. I had met a few of my new neighbors, but outside of that I knew nobody. This was a bit frightening for me. I had grown up and lived in the same five mile radius for almost all of my life. This move was going to be monumental, psychologically speaking.

Coincidentally, about this same time, I had been hearing a lot of talk about Twitter. It didn’t sound all that interesting to me, but there was SO much talk about it that I began to wonder what the big deal was. I began to poke around Twitter and started, as most folks do, following a couple of celebrities. It wasn’t all that interesting (the celebrities), but I found the vehicle of Twitter pretty fascinating. Trying to get your point across in 140 characters was a word game which appealed to me.

As the date of my move approached it suddenly dawned on me that I knew nobody in Charlottesville. I had spent the last 50 years in the same place and ran into folks that had known me since I was baby on a regular basis. Everyone was familiar to me. The cashiers at the supermarket, the tellers at the bank, the teachers and administrators at the schools, the families who had spent generations in the same locale. I was about to step into space without a net by moving 350 miles away. Whatever was I thinking?

And so, one night while I was reading my Twitter feed I played around with the search feature and found residents of C’ville who were chatting on Twitter. I followed the feeds for a bit and began to get to know the Twitterers. Well, I began to get a sense of their personalities, at least. And, I liked them! I gravitated toward the people with a great sense of humor and I uncovered an interesting range of individuals who were great writers and had a great sense of fun! I began to follow those who made me laugh and gradually began to interject myself into their conversations and daily comings and goings online.

A YEAR later, (selling my house in NY turned out to take SO much longer than I anticipated) I had grown quite fond of many of the people whose lives I read about on a daily basis in my Twitter feed and when I moved myself and my husband into our new home, not only did I have a house and view that was beyond my dreams, but I had stepped into a community that welcomed me with a smile as a friend instead of a stranger. Having spent so long chatting with me on Twitter made me a familiar soul and I didn’t need to start from “scratch” in making my way into the community. In my first months in town I had already had a group of people who smiled at me when they saw me approaching – and that makes a really big difference when you are new. Instead of feeling alone I felt like I was home.

I never anticipated how important Twitter would become in my life, but I am certainly glad I stumbled into it and explored. Hooray for Twitter!

 

Oct 26
Love0

12 Things to Do On LinkedIn Today, Instead of Sitting around Picking Your Nose

By Communications, Social Media

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I hate nose-pickers. If I see someone picking their nose in public, I will tweet about it, tell you where I am and what this person looks like. I am the Nose Picking Police. I don’t know why nose picking is so popular, but it clearly is. By the way; note to nose picking drivers everywhere — WE CAN SEE YOU. Here are 12 things to do today to further your career and improve your online profile using LinkedIn, instead of sitting around picking your nose.

  1. Upload your e-mail contacts from all sources.
  2. Get your profile to 100% by completing all of your information and adding a photo (of your face . . . and a recent shot.)
  3. Develop a keyword-rich professional headline — the headline is NOT your title but should be searchable phrases to attract people to you.
  4. Rename the default Website and Blog settings to personalized names including the name of your company and what it is that you do.
  5. Add your Twitter account and the Tweets application — follow your connections on Twitter.
  6. Write a recommendation for a colleague, partner or friend (and hope they return the favor).
  7. Google thyself — do you like what you see when your LinkedIn profile shows up in Google results?
  8. Delete connections you’ve accepted that are with people with whom you don’t truly have a business relationship.
  9. Add your skills to your profile.
  10. Join a group that interests you.
  11. Manage how often you get updates or notifications (I have it set up so I don’t get ANY notifications — preferring to log in to the site and see what’s new there.)
  12. Write updates regularly, sharing articles of interest, blog posts and upcoming events.

Look out nose pickers — I’m watching you.

More helpful LinkedIn advice.