It should hardly need repeating at this point: When you post stuff to the Internet, people will see it, and quite possibly use it in ways that you don’t intend. And yet, either people keep finding new ways to make the same mistakes, or other people keep finding ways to use that information. Two recent cases in point: * Project ‘Gaydar’: This Boston Globe article looks at some MIT researchers who analyzed Facebook friending patterns and figured out that they could pretty accurately predict which men were gay, even if they didn’t list it in their profile. They did this by looking at the subjects’ Facebook friends; apparently, gay men have more gay male friends than straight men, so by looking at someone’s followers and plugging them into a computer model, they could infer who was gay. (It didn’t work as well with bisexuals and lesbians.) The reason it works is that people with similar interests tend to cluster. Call it birds of a feather flocking together, or guilt by association. Either way, it shows another way that indirect information — in this case, the company you keep — can be used to reveal more information about you than you might have intended, especially when that ... read more >>
|
One powerful use of online communities is to help get new ideas into a business; taking advantage of the fact that many (if not most) of the best ideas for your business are likely to come from outside, from people who don’t work for you. There are some well know examples of businesses working with consumers on co-creation in this way: MyStarbucksIdea and Dell’s Ideastorm being among the most well known. Most of these sites use a similar process: people can join the community and then suggest their own idea, comment on existing ideas or vote for the ideas that they think are best. The best, most commented on or most voted for ideas are then responded to by the brand. They are an effective way for businesses to get ideas into their business and, more importantly perhaps, of showing customers some of their internal decision making and letting people who buy the product understand more about, and even influence, the processes by which it is made. Like any good online community, such ideas sites work best when they work with other social networks – interacting with people on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, in forums and blogs. Going to where ... read more >>
|
 Technorati top 100 Blog PlatformsBlogs make it easy for website publishers to create content. Most blogging software makes it ridiculously simple to add links and images without the content creator possessing considerable knowledge of HTML. Some blogging platforms are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors, but without the miscellaneous extraneous code. In other words, blogging software makes content updates really easy.
Additional benefits of blogs include the integration of RSS without the overhead of setting up syndication channels yourself. The biggest benefit, though, is probably the built-in software that contacts a variety of servers (specified by you, often provided by the blog software) and informs them that content has been updated. This action, called pinging, occurs when a new update is pushed out by publishers. When blogs ping servers, the servers get a notification that your blog has published new content – and almost immediately, search engines may begin to crawl (or “spider”) your blog in an effort to index the content. (In fact, even content on small blogs has been known to get spidered within an hour of publication.) Furthermore, once a blog post is ... read more >>
|
PRSA-LA held their first multicultural group meeting with a panel about using social media in diverse audiences. Panel members were Jose Villa of Sensis Communications, Chase Wang of BAM! Marketing, Alan Breslauer, deputy for info, tech and new media for Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas and me. Link to original postLink to original post ... read more >>
|
The power of communities is so tantalizing - the idea that a large group of people will all work with you to help make your products better, help other customers, and advocate to all of their friends is too intriguing to pass up. There are enough case studies to show that it is, indeed, possible to do this. A vast number of companies are now looking at some form of community to help with their business and I think that is great. If a company is selling a product and service that does not have some passionate fans, I wonder why they are still in business. However, in the quest to build communities there are a lot of pitfalls. I shared a number at Social Media Breakfast 15 - The Power & Peril of Online Communities and my slides are here. I want to cover one peril in particular that I'm seeing more often. People are eager to ramp up their communities quickly. This is completely understandable - large companies cannot even put a dent in their marketing with a 100-person community. They are looking for the promise of community which is a geometric growth and ROI curve that is achieved by some very successful communities and networks, looking something like:In their .. ... read more >>
|
 It’s no surprise that I have community on the brain lately. Mostly because it’s my job, but I’m reflecting a lot on how much this role is starting to shift organizational mindset toward social media. In fact, the idea of “building community” is often many companies’ first thoughts when embarking on all this stuff.
So here’s a list of a few small bits of community building you might do today to get you started down the right path. 1. Cultivate Your Existing Network
People aren’t bottlecaps. Just collecting a pile of them for more eyeballs isn’t the foundation for a strong community. Instead, what fosters long-term growth is the fierce loyalty of a connected, tight knit few. Is your community small to start with? That’s okay. The quality and impact of a community has nothing to do with its size. EVER. Focus on them, and on bringing them what they need from you. Growth will happen. If a community is what you really want, take the time to lay the proper foundation. 2. Tend The Outposts If you’re going to have a presence on Twitter or Facebook, it needs tending, participation and presence from you. It’s not like a “set it and forget it” kind of thing where you just expect people ... read more >>
|
Jay Baer let the cat out of the bag, so I might as well confess - I am a connector, and a life time one, too. Someone said on Twitter today that she wished people understood that the loudest ones are not necessarily those who are making stuff happen (I'm paraphrasing here). Many collect people, I learn about them - what they're looking for, what they're passionate about. From strangers to friends on trains (part of being Italian and trains never arriving on time), to discovering amazing talent among people in a room crowded with voices intent on networking. I don't have a very sophisticated method, I'm afraid. No big spreadsheets or ultra-tech tools, although the human brain is probably the most sophisticated of all systems. I just choose to observe, find out, and remember. Because I know a time will come when I'll be able to connect a dear friend with a resource, a business with a partner, an acquaintance with a job opportunity. What do I get out of it? Why do we need to get something beyond the being helpful part out of it? Connections is one of the topics here at Conversation Agent. I met Jason Falls when he noticed my first post on connection Katas. I still remember .. ... read more >>
|
Women are responsible for more than $5 trillion dollars of spending every year. We’re a growing economic force in the world and more companies are recognizing the need to understand our preferences in much greater depth. SheSpeaks.com is a community of smart women created around this idea. “What if, as women, we could get together in large numbers and tell companies what we want, what we like and what we don’t?” asked Aliza Freud, who started the community. “What if we could directly influence the products and services we consume.” The idea has certainly caught on - their membership grew more than 230% in 2008. They surveyed their members about their online activities and the results give us some valuable insights into marketing to women in social media. Top activities online - Shopping/purchasing products online
- Researching product to purchase offline
- Connecting with other
40+ Women A sizable number of 40+ women are taking advantage of social networking, and in some cases are more engaged than their younger peers. The 40-something women have a strong presence on social websites. Nearly one-half (45%) have profiles on social networks, and of those, ... read more >>
|
It is important to have community guidelines. They are imperative for any online community. Members need to know what is expected of them and what types of behaviors are frowned upon or prohibited within the community. I remember creating the guidelines for the community I manage. It was laborious but imperative. I scoured the internet for guidelines from other communities and then thought a lot about what kind of community I’d like to see take shape. Writing such guidelines can make you feel as though you’re building an environment where all will be well. You think that people will refer to these guidelines and perhaps even follow them. But having those guidelines in place does not make every call I make as a community manager, an easy one. In fact, I rarely go back to them when making tough decisions. Guidelines are a starting point. Interpreting those guidelines is how you become an effective community manager. The way you do that interpreting can make or break you. This job is not about being a robot. It’s emotional and we are human.You can stare at the guidelines all day long and never get the answers you need when things get complicated. I know that many of ...
|
Earlier this week I wrote a post about follower-building services on Twitter, warning about the dangers and how people may perceive you if you use them. It felt a little bit like preaching to the choir. Amy Mengel made an excellent point in the comments to that post: “Unfortunately the people on Twitter who promote these schemes and have tweet streams full of nothing but the garbage you outlined above probably won’t be reading this post and getting the message!”
This made me think – did I target the post correctly? I came to the conclusion that in that case, no, I didn’t. If the people reading this site already view follower-building services that way, they’re more likely to be the people talking others out of these tools than the ones using them. With that in mind, here are a few suggestions on how to approach people using follower-building services and help them to re-think their approach to their followers (which, it seems, we all agree isn’t a good one). How to approach - Approach delicately: No-one likes to be backed into a corner publicly. Consider approaching them privately.
- Give them a way out: Ask questions instead of pointing the finger.
Reflective questions read more >>
|