It’s so hot I think my brain is boiling. So today I’m going to leave this post to you, the people sitting in air-conditioned offices, complaining about how cold it is.
What would you like to know about social media, communications or public relations that, perhaps, you’ve always wanted to know, but been too afraid to ask.
* photo courtesy of Kelsey Sparkle Rakes
Hey, MJ! Thanks for opening up the space for questions, because I need your help (once again!).
Now that I have FB work friends and FB socializing friends and FB knew-them-back-in-HS-and-who- knows-if-they’d-be-real-friends-now (although I have my guess about some of them)… and, yes, I have assigned them to different groups: what next? How do I post the snarky comments for the people who won’t take offense separately from the promote-my-blog posts separately from the posts for extended family?
Many thanks!
@CvlKulow Join Google+ and have separate Circles. 🙂
Yes! Many questions!
#1 – What Jane said in her comment about FB.
#2 – What is Klout and why should I care?
#3 – I’m on Google+ now. Why is that important and, again, why should I care?
#4 – What is this livefyre commenting stuff you’ve got going on here? (For me, multiple steps, just to leave a comment.)
Looking forward to learning much from you, as always. Thank you!
Uh-oh, there’s another question! @jimduncan @CvlKulow
How does a business measure if its social media efforts are ‘worth’ it and how do you ‘show the value’ to people who just don’t ‘get it’?
I’ve gotten tremendous value from Twitter, growing my personal and professional network as an individual. Now in a position to advise a corporation on how to enter the Twitterverse, I ask:
1) How do you tweet as a company w/o looking like a commercial?
2) I talk about starting the conversation and building relationships, but how does that translate to customers and page views?
3) What Twitter accounts do you respect who do this well?
Thanks!
I’ve gotten tremendous value from Twitter, growing my personal and professional network. Now in a position to advise a company on how to enter the Twitterverse, I ask:
1) How do you tweet as a company or brand w/o sounding like a commercial?
2) I talk about starting conversation and growing relationship, but how does this translate to customers and page views?
3) Should an official Twitter account ever tweet about something off topic?
3) What Twitter accounts do you really respect who do this well?
— The most awesome Barb comes to mind, who put a smiling face on CHO for us.
Thanks!
@CvlKulow Here’s how to create lists on Facebook in five easy steps: http://wineguildcville.com/marijean/2010/10/15/how-to-create-lists-save-some-privacy-in-facebook-in-five-easy-steps/ The problem with this is managing who sees what, which you must do in your settings and by carefully choosing who sees what updates. It’s a pain.
As @jimduncan says, Google+ is the answer to this, in a way. It certainly makes the lists and updating snark options MUCH easier to manage with “circles.”
Another thought: creating a Page for your blog might be an idea, and culling the list of people you count as Facebook friends down to people who really are .. .
@DrewLawrence OK, Drew — there’s a LONG answer to these questions. Will respond shortly.
@Jen on the Edge 1. See my response to @CvlKulow below. 2. Klout is a Twitter measurement tool and unless you’re using Twitter for business, as I do, you may not care. 3. Google + may not be important to you, especially if you like Facebook and have no reason to have an additional social network. 4. Livefyre is awesome — it enables commenting to be a continued conversation. Set up an account and I think you will enjoy using it. It’s a WordPress plugin that makes commenting social.
I have two questions (for now):
1. Paper.li is in its infancy and has some growing to do in terms of user controls and how users are deploying it. What are your thoughts about its usefulness and how/if it fills a space that has been empty or, if not, fills an existing space in a unique way?
2. Do you think that the enforced brevity of the Social Media universe is helfpul, hurtful, neutral? Other thoughts?
(The second question is prompted by a disturbing conversation with a graduating student a couple of months ago.)
Cheers!
A
Having just gotten the hang of Facebook, does Google + mean I’ll have to start over? Will they coexist?
@Gail Hyder Wiley Heh. A question for the masses. I think it depends. Start over if you WANT to. I feel like Google + fills a gap for those who don’t want to use Facebook, but it splits the audience for those of us using these tools for marketing. I’m hoping (and believe) they will coexist or tools will emerge to manage them simultaneously. Thanks for commenting @Gail Hyder Wiley
@Marijean @Jen on the Edge @CvlKulow Not a surprise that I always seem to agree with pretty much everything MJ says, especially on these. And I’ll put my vote in for LIvefyre as well. I love it. It’s added a lot to my blog and has increased engagement.
@joemeade OK @joemeade I’ll try to keep this somewhat concise. 1. The best way is to keep a balance between the personal and professional, the tweets that just tweet and those that @ reply to someone else. Engaging is extremely important, so making sure that the links you share aren’t just your own. 2. Relationships beget customers. Pageviews mean quality content which attracts people, with whom relationships begin and can be nurtured. These become (hopefully) customers. It’s exponential, too — so, the more attracted, the more resulting customers. 3. Yes, please. Above all, any Twitter account that isn’t from the CDC or a news organization should engage people, and to do that you need to be interesting and relevant. So sometimes that means tweeting something that’s not about tacos (if that’s what you’re selling) but rather, about the weather. Or sports. 4. gini dietrich and ken mueller do this really well. beerrunva is doing a pretty good job as a local biz on Twitter as is @relayfoods National brands like @starbucks are good but eddiebauer might be a better example to follow. Yes, of course Barb bhutchinson is fantastic! I’d also watch cbs19weather and especially traviskoshko Hope all this helps and that you’ll be staying in touch!
How generous of you, MJ! Yes, I have one question — I believe Google+’s idea of being able to segregate people into different circles is great. But, I have one issue. I have several people (YOU come to mind) that I count as both friend and colleague. What if I want you in TWO (or even more) circles? Any idea if Google+ will allow that? (The answer seemed like “no” according to their demo). @Jen on the Edge since you are on Google+ now, perhaps you could chime in, as well. (My invitation to Google+ must have gotten lost in the mail. Hrmph. <g>)
@Alice 1. I do not use Paper.li however, I do seem to look at others’ compilations. I think it’s useful if the creator is focused on a niche that’s interesting to you — it has definitely inspired me to follow some new, interesting people and I think encourages new followers for the user as well. 2. I think it’s ultimately helpful in that it forces us to learn to communicate without excess. That being said, there’s bound to be a curve of much misunderstanding. 🙂 Would love to know more about what the graduating student said. Also, and perhaps related: did you know they’re no longer teaching cursive in elementary school? How will people sign their names?
@SuzanneHenry @Jen on the Edge Oh no — I definitely have people in more than one circle. In fact my circles overlap so much that I’m having trouble getting them organized!
@DrewLawrence Allrighty, Mr. Million Dollar question. You’re SO buying lunch. 🙂 Here’s the deal: a business needs to know where they are headed so, what are their BUSINESS goals. Is it how many tacos they sell per day? OK, good. Then they want to increase the percentage of tacos sold per day, right? By, say, 50% . . by the end of September. Now, apply communications goals to that business goal. If we’re going to sell 50% more tacos, we probably need to engage 2x as many people to get those dang tacos sold. So how are we going to do that? And that’s where all the tactics come in . . . (and why people pay me the big bucks).
I find it pretty easy to show the value when statistics are shared, and case studies are displayed; find a story that relates to your prospects’ business and watch the lightbulb go on.
@Marijean @Jen on the Edge
Oh, good. That means their demo needs some work, then.
@Marijean What a great response. Thank you for it. I will ponder these points, though it’s easy to see the truth in them at a glance. I’ll also start following @eddiebauer and most definitely keep in touch during my adventures. Thanks, Marijean.