Socialmedialand

Archive for April, 2009

This is a topic that has come up in my own work recently:

In any given social media account; who are you?

It seems like a silly question but if you think about it, it’s critical. If you’re the person with the responsibility to be the personal voice of a company or brand, then who are you really? Are you still John Smith, a PR rep at XYZ corp, or are you XYZ corp, or are you some fictional manifestation of XYZ corp?

I read an interesting take about personalities on Twitter by Shea Beck last week and some musings by popular industry bloggers, like Jeremiah Owyang, regarding the level of personal content in their tweets. It all got me thinking about online identity in greater detail.

[Note: while most of the inspiration for this post comes from Twitter and the account setup on that network, keep in mind that it can apply anywhere: branded Facebook fan pages, brand accounts on popular forums, corporate blogs, anywhere where you are talking in a personal capacity on behalf of a brand or on behalf of your personal brand.]

There are several models for the branded online personality:

- Person first, brand second. This would be an account where the avatar is the actual person, the name includes the person’s name and then the bio or second half of the user name is the brand.

- Brand first, person second. In this case the avatar would be the logo, the profile name is the brand and somewhere in the bio it mentions who the actual person is that is responding from the account.

- Brand only. This is when the whole thing is branded and there is no mention of an actual person.

- Brand mascot. An account where a fictional personality represents the brand, they’re the avatar, the account name and whoever is writing is pretending to be that person. Jack from Jack in the Box is a great example of this.

So what model works best? I think it varies depending on the brand. But the rule on how to decide what is right for your brand never changes: Choose the one that will make your purpose clear to the community. By reading your name and/or profile I should get a good idea of what being friends with you means. If you present yourself as an individual person who is going to share interesting information and then I follow you and find out it’s all branded messaging, that’s not going to make me happy. At the same time if I follow a brand and get a bunch of personal messages or my feed is full of personal photo albums, I’m going to be pretty confused.

How you clarify your online identity (whether that be for a brand or for yourself):

1. Identify the purpose of the account. Is it for keeping up with friends, talking about business, talking about a particular business, or a mix of several things.

2. Think about how to describe that purpose using the bio/profile picture/any other fields available. Is it about you or the brand? Is about your personal life or professional career? If it’s more than one thing, highlight the main objective and describe the secondary objective later.

Disclaimer: Just because you create a separate business/brand account as well as a personal one doesn’t mean you can say whatever you like in the personal one and think that it’s anonymous (it’s not – even if you try to make it that way, there’s a very good chance it will somehow come back around to you.) You still have to utilize basic social skills.

This is my recipe for online identity, what do you think? How should we present our identity online in situations where we may be representing more than just our personal selves?

Sitewire’s sister company, Agencyside, has asked me to speak at their upcoming seminar on Monday, April 27th. I will be presenting “Tactics and Tools: How to implement social media strategies for your clients” along with my coworker, Dustin. I’m really excited about it- we have a pretty great deck put together with a lot of real actionable items you can take home and use.

It may be too late to sign up for this seminar, but webcasts of each session will be posted online after the fact. I’ll update you with more information on that in the next week because I think a lot of valuable content is going to come out of this event. It’s mainly geared towards marketing and PR professionals/agencies but I know my session, and likely several others, will be useful to a broader audience.

If you’re interested in Agencyside’s seminar series, another event is tentatively planned for May. Visit Agencyside or follow @Agencyside to keep up to date.

Title: @SocialMedia seminar (Agencyside)
Location: Tempe Mission Palms
Link out: Agencyside
Description: Using social media in meaningful ways for your clients and your agency

Start Date: 2009-04-27
End Date: 2009-04-27

 Twitter, meet paid advertising. Paid advertising, Twitter.

Twoogel launched today – it’s a Google powered search engine for Twitter, complete with, you guessed it, PPC ads provided by Google.

( @Twoogle is a third party site that’s not directly affiliated with either Google or Twitter – simply using the technology provided by both to create an integrated search experience.)

The mix of paid advertising with Twitter search results is interesting. Seach.twitter.com doesn’t include paid ads to Web sites or other landing pages – just search results full of tweets. It’s possible that if a page full of positive tweets about your company comes up in search results, and next to it there’s a paid advertisement directing people to your landing page for a free trail or coupon or whatever, they might be more inclined to click on that ad secure in the knowledge that other Twitterites seem to like you. At the same time, a page full of negative tweets might be just as equally detrimental.

Users may have a different reaction to it – why use Twoogle when other twitter search engines provide social elements (trending topics, tag clouds, sentiment, etc) and all Twoogle has are ads? Ads aren’t a big attraction for users. I think Twoogle will have to step up in those areas in order to get a significant amount of search traffic in order to support their paid ad model.

Time will tell whether a service like this takes off with users or not, but in a way it’s a logical extension of the same old “how will Twitter make money” argument. One of the ideas put forward has been including paid advertising space on the network, on search results, on profiles, anywhere. It seems that instead of waiting for Twitter to make a move like this on their own, someone else has harnessed the power of Twitter with the money making ability of Google ads and made their own search engine.

I’d predict that if it does take off, either Google or Twitter (or both) will take notice and integrate a similar idea into their own search sites.

Thoughts? Like it, don’t like it, don’t care? Leave a comment and let me know!

As Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets gain popularity among the mainstream public it appears that some people aren’t entirely clear on the codes of conduct we have here in Socialmedialand. A recent event involving some people at work and our vendors led me to think it might be valuable to write a quick guide on manners to help everyone out.

Act Like You Would In Real Life

I was going to make a list of things to keep in mind but I really think that one thing covers it. If you were in a room full of people, good friends, acquaintances, business associates and a few people you hadn’t met yet – what would you say? Better yet, what would you literally announce to the room? What if you knew everyone there would have a historical transcript of everything you said, and anyone who joined the party later could see the transcript of what you’d said earlier. Then what would you say?

Would you tell your new boss that you will hate the work at that company?

Would you talk about an ongoing trial that you’re involved in?

Would you mention that vacation you took while you were ’having a family emergency’?

Would you say rude things about a city, your boss, your client, your {fill in the blank}?

Would you announce sensitive information about pregnancies, engagements, buying a house, or taking a new job without telling the people involved first?

No. you wouldn’t. So why would you say those things in a very public, permanent place? It doesn’t make sense. I wrote a previous post about being kind to others online – treating them how you’d like to be treated. Not saying anything at all unless you can say something nice. Now it’s time to take that a little further.

You’re online identity is no longer completely separated from your real identity. Like I’ve said before, privacy is now a tricky thing. The days of obscure AIM screen names are over. Even if you use an obscure word jumble as your Twitter ID or email address - it’s probably tied to your Facebook or LinkedIn which uses your real name – and clearly leads straight back to you.

So it’s time for another pearl of wisdom from our childhood:

Be Yourself

Don’t think you can say things online and they’ll disappear into cyberspace like a puff of smoke. Your words have meaning and they are linked to you. You don’t have to over-edit yourself; you can say how you feel about things, as long as you can take responsibility for having said them. Recognize that you are the same person online and offline and act accordingly and there shouldn’t be any more problems.

If you have any questions about specific instances – leave me a comment. It’ll be like a mini ”Ask Ms. Social Media Manners” column.

Photo credit: Someecards

Social media was made for amateurs.

It’s easy to use. The more intuitive a service or network is, the better it does. It’s not complicated. In fact, the beauty of it is how delightfully uncomplicated it is. It makes sense, it enables us to do what we  like to do best: socialize, connect, learn and grow. It just makes it easier and faster.

So I’ve had it with the whole “who is an expert and who isn’t” debate. Being an expert is not what it’s all about. Have you noticed that the only people arguing about it are the ones who work in this space anyways?

I wasn’t going to write about it. I wasn’t going to be a part of that noise, but honestly, I just can’t take it anymore.

The only reason there are social media consultants in the first place is because companies and brands weren’t built to work like humans. Individuals will find it fairly easy to naturally adapt to social media, whereas businesses find it “strange” and contrary to how they’ve done business over the last X number of years. Enter social media experts/managers/consultants/etc. They explain to businesses why it’s important and essentially how to behave properly and be successful here.

You’re doing it right if the company you’re advising is achieving successful results (however they’ve defined that based on their goals) and they’ve begun to act like a human – creating personal connections with their customers.

My coworker, Dustin, told me a story the other day about his friend who goes to the same cafe on a regular basis. He struck up a conversation with the manager about Twitter and how the business could use it. His only qualifications were 1) He was a frequent customer 2) He uses Twitter and 3) He knew what he would want. He wasn’t an expert. He doesn’t even work in this industry. He is an amateur. And you know what? The ideas he had were pretty insightful.

I’ve realized that my goal should be to think like an amateur, not an expert.

The amateur model of social media:

1) Think about the customers and their needs. If you’re not one yourself, find some to talk to.

2) Find out what social networks and services those customers use online. Where do they go and why?

3) Put those two together to figure out what they would want from this business online.

4) (or the *bonus* step) Learn, adapt and try again. Experts have to know it all, amateurs have the advantage of being able to continually grow and learn from their mistakes. It makes them a little more versatile in an ever changing world like Socialmedialand.

I’ll continue to give you my (amateur) opinion on social media and it’s uses – you can disagree with me, you can do things differently, and we can learn from each others’ experiences. But let’s stop arguing over who’s the expert. Ok?

Thank you.

Photo credit: www.amoeba.com

I saw this billboard at the Diamondbacks game Saturday night and it caught my eye. Notice there is no phone number, no web address – just their twitter name. Simple. Easy to remember. And just a little bit mysterious…(Side note- check out DD&F’s Twitter profile – looks like they get it.)

As the game went on, I thought about the implications of that sign (what can I say, the game wasn’t very pretty, we lost 8-1, I needed a distraction) and came up with a few things:

1. A social media profile CAN be your only web presence. Jason Baer talked about this a while back and I think it’s an intriguing idea. There are definitely some business models where this would make a lot of sense. If your website would mainly just be a digital business card – trade it in for a social media profile that’s more interactive. At the recent Tempe Chamber meeting (where I spoke about the importance of blogging and social media) this topic came up with a few of the business owners. I’m going to dig into this a little more and research whether there have been any successful examples of this model yet but I think it would be especially relevant to small and/or local businesses.

2. If it’s not you’re ONLY web presence – it can be your calling card. After I went home and visited their Twitter I found out that DD&F does have a website. But they didn’t put that on the sign. They also have a phone number, address, the works – none of that is included in the advertising. They’ve identified a social network as the easiest way for their customers to get in contact with them and get a taste of their business. From there the customer can click through to their web page for more information.

3. It may not be truly mainstream yet – but it’s on its way. Looking around the stadium at the diverse crowd reminded me of some of the things Bret mentioned in his recent Gangplank presentation on connections. He said that the adoption rate of some social networks is still less than that of the snuggie blanket. For those of us who are in it, it’s sometimes hard to remember how many people are still not participating. However, even if they’re not participating, at this point they have heard of it because it’s being referenced in mainstream places, like on the news, and at baseball stadiums. So I think the mainstream adoption is coming and we, as early adopters and advocates of social media, need to be ready to help the public learn to use it. Whether that means technically (how to use it), or socially (developing norms on how we act in this space), we need to be cognizant of it.

I got a reality check on this at the Tempe Chamber meeting, when I was talking to some of the members, a lot of the questions were about the real basic how to mechanics of using sites like Twitter. This is the reason I created a very elementary guide on how-to use Twitter in my resource section. I realized a lot of the how-to resources out there assume you already know the mechanics, when many of the newer people joining still don’t. After that, most of the questions I got were on what types of things you can say and what is expected of you on specific networks or in certain spaces – so look for follow up guides on those things.

A lot of stuff for one little sign huh? But let’s talk about all this - I want to explore these ideas more fully in the future so leave a comment with your opinions and thoughts and let’s see where this all leads. 

P.S: Later that night I took the lightrail back to Tempe and went to one of my favorite bars on Mill Avenue – this sign was up in the restroom, almost as a little confirmation of everything I’d been thinking about earlier:

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Socialmedialand has been under construction the last few weeks and I wanted to give you an idea of what new things are in store for you:

- The resources section: There’s a new page up there on the menu bar called “Resources.” Check it out. I provide you with tools you can use on your own adventure through Socialmedialand. Some of the things I find are so cool they need their own dedicated post – other things might just get added to one of the toolboxes I have included under resources. It’s my place to collect new things and your place to find new things, so check back often.

- The superficial side: You’ve probably noticed the new design, hopefully it’s a little cleaner and easier to read/use. Personally I’m a little bit in love with the customized subscribe, follow, and chat icons on the sidebar. Haven’t seen them yet? Look over there > (and hey, if you want to click on one who am I to stop you?)

Those are the two major updates you’ll see around here. Take a second to explore- oh and if you come back often you might just get a visit from a trickster up in the header…

_{*Photo credit: bucklava (Flickr)}