That’s why it’s critical to build a content strategy into your social media campaign. Without a framework for what you say and a plan for how and when you say it, you risk leaving your audiences, at best, confused. At worst, they’ll ignore you. Who wants that?

These five content strategy techniques will build better relationships and earn your brand better results on the social web.

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1. Know Your Voice

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Everything you say on the social web should “sound” like your brand. It’s something Skittles does well. Some of its status messages garner more than 1,000 comments, and many exceed 10,000 “Likes” on Facebook

Why are these little content snippets so successful? The writing is just like the candy: colorful, playful and imaginative. The pithy, daily, flavor-packed observations are reliably surprising. You can relish today’s post and look forward to tomorrow’s — like candy in word form.

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2. Time Your Content

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Create a calendar that spells out what you’re going to say and when you’re going to say. Make sure it’s relevant to where people are in their lives and the season. Nobody cares about Santa Claus in January, but a whole lot of people care about sales after Christmas. A quick look at Google Trends will confirm that.

Banana Republic’s tweeters got the memo.

Macy’s and Walmart didn’t.

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3. Know Your Audience

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Why does somebody follow you? Why do they like you? It’s because your brand offers them something. Make sure you deliver. Here’s SKYY Vodka on Twitter with a message that’s relevant to most of its followers about the ultimate Bloody Mary, with personable responses to those people engaging in the conversation.

Compare that to Grey Goose, which hasn’t tweeted since September 2010.

And Grey Goose’s Facebook wall features a weekly “drink card” with identical copy.

Grey Goose isn’t talking to me, it’s talking at me. Points for posting regularly, but why should we care?

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4. Solve Problems

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Humans have survived for so long because they’re great at answering questions like “What do I do when my t-shirt’s stitching rips?” We all love it when somebody helps us the way Threadless does in this Facebook string.

Give your audience the tools to help themselves, and make sure your social media team has the right information to share. By making things easier for others, we build trust. Trust strengthens our relationship.

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5. Be True

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Good content isn’t fake. It doesn’t make promises that it can’t keep. It’s human and honest. It has a personality and a point of view. It’s intrinsically social. That’s why it engages us. That’s why we follow or like your brand.

Your audiences will sniff it out if you’re pretending. But if you’re fun, honest and relevant, they’re going to recommend you to their friends. Isn’t that what social media’s all about?

Source: http://mashable.com

By Pam Moore

Source: Social Media Today

Are you struggling with social media engagement? Struggling with building your audience? You have thousands of  Twitter followers, maybe even 50 or 100 people who have clicked “like” on your Facebook page.

However, even with this early success you’ve seen in social media, people just simply aren’t engaging with your brand? You are not feeling the social media love that others talk about.

Top 10 Reasons Why Your Audience Doesn’t Like You

1. You are not engaging. You spend all day listening or retweeting. You are not genuinely engaging with your existing network. You are on the sidelines watching the game go on.
Tip: Engage. Have a conversation. Get in the game.

2. You are not providing value. Your website may lack content that resonates with your audience. Your tweets are well let’s say, tweets. They look, smell and act like everyone else.  There are more than 10 Billion Tweets sent  in a year.  Tweeting a simple tweet that looks and smells like every other tweeter will get you no where.
Tip: Provide value. Inspire and connect with your audience. Get in their head and learn who they are and what they need.  Provide content that helps them solve real business problems. Provide tips that help them move their business forward with new skills.

3. You are not following people back. If you have people following you and you are sitting on your arrogant Twitter mountain thinking you don’t have to follow them you might want to think again. This thinking drives me nuts. Show the love. Be a good friend.
Tip: Develop a follow-back strategy. There are different schools of thought on this. My personal recommendation is at minimum make an effort to follow people back. Don’t sit high on your Twitter mountain with the expectation everyone owes you something. They don’t.

4. You are not a good social media friend. You don’t retweet. You don’t thank people who show you love. You never follow back. You don’t comment on other blogs in a genuine way. You don’t thank people who comment on your blog.
Tip: Show the social love. Genuinely engage and make your audience and network know that you care about them. At minimum let them know you know they are there! Often times if I don’t have time to thank all of my retweeters or send a series of #FF follow friday recommendations on Twitter I will send a couple tweets during the day thanking my network.  I let them know I appreciate them and all the social love they gave me!

5. You are boring. Sorry folks but it could be you are just boring. I am seeing many people who have a boring profile picture, boring content. They are the same ones who sit all day and retweet news feeds of mortgage rates or market news. They are providing no value and not engaging.
Tip: Brand yourself.  Understand your audience. Who are they and what do they need. Who are you and what can you offer them. Give your business and brand a personality. Dare to stand above the norm.  If you shoot for status quo that is exactly what you will receive, if you’re lucky. It may be less.

6. Your website stinks. If you are boring, your content  is boring and your website stinks you have three strikes and you’re probably already out of the social media game.
Tip: Social media is about conversation. Engage in conversation with interesting content, design and brand.   Hire a web developer and freshen up your website.  If you don’t have the funds to do such then find a self-help site or teach yourself WordPress blog at minimum.

7. Your social profiles stink. If your Twitter background is the default and your Facebook Fan Page has no customization you once again are shooting for status quo.
Tip: Hire a consultant or an agency to spice up your profiles. If you don’t have the funds the leverage an off the shelf service. There are several Facebook Fan Page engines you can use yourself that are affordable.

8. Your Facebook Fan Page is all about you. What are you doing to engage your audience?
Tip: Engage your Facebook audience.  Have fun.  Ask them questions? Do some research. Ask them what they need, what they want.  Leverage the discussion tab to invite people to introduce themselves.

9. People don’t know the real you. You are hiding behind an avatar (social media profile photo). You are not sharing the real you. You are using corporate speak. You aren’t using video, no interesting blogs.
Tip: Let yourself shine. Try out video.  Come out behind the avatar and let people get to know you.  Don’t be afraid of video.  If you use video you will attract people who like you, people who want to business with you.

10. You are afraid. Because of what I said above you are afraid to come out and play in social media.  You have been intimidated by the mean blog posts that are surfacing the net on social media gurus, wannabe gurus etc.
Tip: Don’t let the bullies scare you! Be confident. Have fun. If you don’t you are never going to make it in social media, business or life.

Your Turn!

What are you doing to build community? Are you really engaging? What are you doing right that others can learn from? What do you find most difficult in building and engaging with your community?

Source: Social Media Today

Posted by Augie Ray

Source: http://blogs.forrester.com

Google has said nothing about its rumored social networking offering, but it may be that the company has just revealed its secret weapon to take on Facebook.  The new Priority Inbox feature in Gmail hints at social media’s next great battleground: Relevance!

Facebook itself inadvertently demonstrated the value of relevance and what is most wrong with the current Facebook user experience.  The Facebook Places announcement event two weeks ago was the geeky event you’d expect, but there was an unexpected moment of clarity and beauty in the midst of the typical discussion of APIs, partners and functionality.  Facebook VP Chris Cox told a story set in the future that defines the true promise that social networking has yet to fulfill:

“In 20 years our children will go to Ocean Beach and their phone will tell them this is the place their parents had their first kiss, and here’s the picture they took afterward, and here’s what their friends had to say.”

It’s a great story, isn’t it?  But today’s Facebook experience offers no chance this experience could actually occur.  Instead, here’s what would happen based on the current Facebook functionality:  Those kids will visit that beach and their parents’ precious story will be nowhere to be found on the Ocean Beach Places page.  That wonderful 20-year-old status update and picture will be buried under 500 pages of less meaningful messages such as “Don’t buy a hot dog from the snack bar,” “Here’s a picture of some hot babes I took here,” and “Beach kegger party this Saturday night, dudes!”

The noise in social media is getting deafening.  In addition to the hundreds of friends we follow in Facebook, brands are putting the full-court press to capture user attention and “likes” in Facebook.  Not only can you “Like” JCPenney on Facebook, but you can also “like” their stores, JCPenney-sponsored concerts, a weekly store ad application, and a pair of Faux Leopard Fur Socks (plus every other item in their online catalog).

It used to be that only social media professionals complained about the “drinking from social media firehouse”;  today, I am hearing more and more “Facebook fatigue” from average users.  Of course, few are turning away from social media; no behavior within Forrester’s Social Technographics ladder has grown as substantially in the past two years as that of “Joiners” — people who maintain a profile on a social network.

More people, more apps, more Facebook-enabled sites, more places, more status updates — it all adds up to a cacophony of voices vying for our attention.  I recently missed a friend’s announcement of the birth of his child on Facebook — that important news was lost in an ocean of viral videos, places check-ins and summer vacation photo albums.

This is why the new Gmail feature may provide a hint at what is up Google’s social sleeve.  According to Google’s blog post, it launched Priority Inbox because people are “getting more and more mail and often feel overwhelmed by it.” (Sound familiar?)  Google adds, “Our inboxes are slammed with hundreds, sometimes thousands of messages a day…. It’s time-consuming to figure out what needs to be read and what needs a reply.”  (This isn’t a problem you have on Facebook and Twitter, is it?)

Gmail’s Priority Inbox doesn’t require users to set complex rules.  Instead, Gmail intuits what is important to users.  It can predict what you care about by observing the people you email the most, which messages you open, and to whom you reply. You can also click buttons to mark a conversation as important or not important. The new Gmail feature is meeting with great interest and approval — “Priority Inbox” became a Twitter trending topic within a day of Google’s announcement.

Will Google tackle the problem (and opportunity) of relevance in social media?  If Google can make our inboxes more relevant, why not our Facebook and Twitter feeds? (Back in February, I predicted that Google Buzz would be a Relevance Filtering tool;  perhaps I wasn’t so much incorrect as I was premature.)  And make no mistake — Facebook understands that social tools need relevance to attract and retain users.  I expect 2011 to be the year of relevance in social media, and the winners will be the social applications that make our lives richer, not noisier.

What does this mean to marketers who are seeding millions of messages into social media every time someone uses a loyalty program, enters a Twitter hashtag sweepstakes, makes a purchase or “likes” a pair of JCPenney socks?  If a status update reaches a social network but no one sees it, does it exist?  My friend and associate Nate Elliot is working on a report about how marketers can overcome social media clutter. I’m anxious to see his recommendations, but this much is clear: In a future where being relevant will be vital, marketers must get people to have authentic conversations about products and services and not merely to click “Like” buttons or tweet hashtags.

Source: http://blogs.forrester.com

Interview by Christopher Burgess

Source: http://huffingtonpost.com

It’s that time of the year again. Summer vacations wind to a close and a return to school moves once again to the forefront. For many families, schools are identified; students enrolled; and supplies purchased. In 2010, those preparations no doubt will include a technology component, often times more than one technology. So here are a few safety tips to help your student stay safe as they prepare and use their electronic media devices back at school.

Social Media

One of the first steps a student takes in any academic setting involves determining who they are going to be interacting with for the next nine months and the attendant peer interaction. As much as one wants to be social, let’s keep some social media do’s and don’ts in mind. Educate your student in being prudent in adding new “friends” to their social networks. They wouldn’t invite their whole class, be it kindergarten, middle school, secondary school or university to their homes and pull out the family photo albums, the last year’s online-exchanges, etc, so why be in a hurry to allow those same folks to see into one’s social network pages, online photo albums, notes and stream of thoughts by the act of “friending.”

As your student signs up for the various online networks associated with their educational level, please make sure all the privacy settings begin at “opt-out” then selectively “opt-in” for those which you need or desire to access. In addition, be cautious about over sharing of activities and locations. With respect to the use of location based services (Foursquare, GoWalla, and Facebook Places) be circumspect in posting about where one is or might be. This also applies to parents using carpools and the pick-up and drop-off of younger students.

Device Security and Configuration

Will your student be taking a device to school, be it laptop, smart phone, iPad, or other device to access the Internet? Make sure your student is able to physically lock down those devices which won’t fit into their pocket should it have to be left unattended. These devices can be locked down to a non-movable object (desk, commode, sink, etc.). One might also wish to invest in a “screen filter” which will cut down on the opportunity and capabilities of any “shoulder surfers.”

Data backup is also crucial for the student, especially the student whose entire life is contained in the hard drive of a laptop. Daily data backup will ensure schoolwork is not irretrievably lost. Available options include portable hard drives (lock and store separate from your primary device) or online backup services or virtual disks. Any of these options will help keep the stress level down should a hard drive fail or a device go missing.

Malware Contagion

With respect to your device security, always ensure your antivirus/antispyware software is installed and up-to-date. You will want to set your privacy filters within your browser with respect to your web-history and “auto-fill” capabilities to a level that you are comfortable. Configure your device to never “auto-run” anything — be it a USB, Smartcard or CD. This allows you to run your security software against the file(s) prior to their executing for the presence of malicious software. This inspection should occur on all media that is new to your device or has been out of your direct control (even if from the school or a friend, you just don’t know if their device is corrupt and contains malware. Data hand carried between devices is one of the leading methodologies of having an otherwise clean machine become infected — the truth is, your machine may be very secure, but your neighbor’s, school’s or friend’s machines might not be kept as secure as your own.

The above tips should serve you well to ensure your students heading back to school do so safely.

Source: http://huffingtonpost.com

Interview by Max Chafkin

Source: INC Magazine

Three years ago, Twitter was barely known outside the geeky confines of San Francisco. Today, it’s a marketer’s dream: a free service with an audience of nearly 125 million people, who use it to keep tabs on friends, celebrities — and their favorite companies. Co-founder Biz Stone explains what’s happening, where it’s headed, and how entrepreneurs can take advantage.

Which approaches to social media work especially well?

There are straightforward uses. A New York City bakery uses Twitter to tell customers when the cookies are coming out of the oven and Dell uses it to tell people about deals on refurbished computers. And then there are companies that are blending together marketing and customer support and using it to build their brands. I once sent a tweet that said, “I’m getting on a JetBlue flight,” and I got a reply from JetBlue’s Twitter account that said, “You should try the smoked almonds.” That’s customer service, but, because our conversation happened in public, it’s also branding.

You have 1.6 million Twitter followers. How can a normal business develop that kind of following?

You just have to start slowly and react to what people are already saying about your company. You might try to offer a coupon or post pictures of your offices or give a sneak peek of a new product. You don’t need a million followers to be successful. If you have 3,000 people who really care about your company and are interested in what you have to say, they’ll share it with their followers, and you’ll gain a much bigger audience.

Don’t businesses with a presence on Twitter run a risk of appearing overly opportunistic or unseemly?

You have to walk a line between making announcements, as you would in a press release, and talking directly with your Twitter followers, the way JetBlue did with me. If you mix it up and keep it authentic, you’ll build a personality around your company and your brand.

Lots of businesses now use Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites to market themselves and even to sell products. Should companies making money on Tiwtter be worried that you eventually will try a piece of that revenue?

We’ve tried to be clear that our advertising platform, Promoted Tweets, is the main way we’re going to make money. If a business wants advertise in the Twitter timeline, it has to split the revenue with us 50-50. That’s our business model. But there are lots of other ways to make money that we are never going into. For instance, a company called Co-Tweet built a system for businesses to use Twitter to improve their customer service. They went from having the idea to being acquired in 16 months.

How pervasive will social media be five years from now?

I hope it’s less pervasive. I hope we can get sophisticated enough so that people aren’t hunched over computers, spending hours looking at their friends’ photos. Instead of doing that, the information you want will come to you, allowing you to save money, save time, or serendipitously meet up with a friend. Companies like Netflix and Amazon are already doing this by giving people recommendations for products.

When Twitter came out, a lot of people said, “I already have Facebook, LinkedIn, and a blog. Why on earth do I need another social media site?” Is there still room for start-up in this space?

There’s always room for something that delivers value in a new way. Someone once asked me, “What new technology will allow entrepreneurs to create the next big thing?” But the Next Big Thing already exists. It’s just a matter of thinking like an artist — of trying to take something that already exists and repurposing it for something it wasn’t intended for.

Source: INC Magazine