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Social events need not be a huge affair, but they can be extremely effective. They should definitely be a part of any social media strategy that your organization is considering. From a marketers perspective they can be a good way to persuade the C level that the trip to Vegas will be more than just a non-stop party.

Having created your Facebook page, your Twitter account(s) and your LinkedIn page how do you take that work out to the real world with a consistent message? How do you leverage all that online work when you meet people in real life?

For some reason this is still one of the biggest puzzles for a lot of organizations. They understand face to face marketing & sales, they go to tradeshows, conferences and other events, but for some reason when they get there they completely forget to utilize their Social Media efforts.  Here are some suggestions to make that connection easier.

Four simple things to do

Let’s imagine you are sending a team of four people to a tradeshow in Vegas with a booth. If all your efforts are focused on the tradeshow floor you are missing a big opportunity. Why not create a tweetup at a bar, perhaps in the hotel that the tradeshow is being held in.

• Use Twitter to find out who is going to the tradeshow. It’s as simple as sending out a tweet asking just that.
• Create a hashtag for your event that reflects your company name and/or the main event.
• Put up signs at the event – just simple ones printed in the business center of the hotel reminding people to Tweet the event, use your hashtag, checkin on Foursquare and send a shout.
• Have a couple of door prizes for people who tweet your event, maybe even have a few quiz questions about your company or the event and reward the first person to tweet the answer.

These simple steps can turn an ordinary conference trip into something a lot more creative, that has tangible results that can be built into the trip autopsy.

What does your organization do to move Social from online to the real world?

We have at our disposal a wealth of software tools that all us to connect with both people we know in the real world and those that we only know in the virtual one. As we grow our connections the volume of information coming to us from all of these connections can seem overwhelming.

I have some 4500 followers, on Twitter, not a huge following compared to many. If I were to try and use just the Twitter website to stay in touch with all of them it would be impossible, so instead I use Tweetdeck. I have about 20 columns all well organized. Followers added and sorted into how they fit into my greater connection set.

Facebook is the same, with over 1100 connections on Facebook lists become essential to help me sort through all the communication. Facebook itself tries to help me by only showing me status updates from those people with whom I interact most.

Does Shouting Equal Quality?

Therein lies the problem. I interact with those people because they appear on my home page most often. I tweet with those people who appear in one of my columns. I hear those who shout loudest, but are they always the ones I should be listening to?

Is volume in either quantity or sound a measure of worth of content? If I come to a party at your house and stand in the middle of the room and shout out what I have done with my day am I adding more to the party than the individual standing in the kitchen sharing the profound thoughts with only two others?  Probably not.

With all this software that supposedly “helps” us are we in fact missing out on the good stuff. Are we missing the diamonds in a mountain of coal? I am constantly seeking out ways to find those diamonds. From adding ever more columns to Tweetdeck with less and less people in them, to creating more and more lists in Facebook. Certainly one method that I have found that has proven useful is to categorize people in multiple ways. Location, Job, Subject etc is one way to make sure I don’t miss out.

How are you making sure you don’t miss the diamonds?

This week I found an addition to my Gmail, Google Buzz. Like so many others of you I was surprised at the way this was rolled out. No invites, no “elite” group of users first, just open your email and there it was.

Open Rollout – Not the Google Way

A definite departure from the way Google has rolled out previous applications, including Gmail. What to make of that? Was Google not so sure that they could create a buzz about Buzz?

Having played around with Google Wave and been left with the impression that while it might be useful for groups of collaborators, as an individual it left me feeling like I had taken a trip back in time 15 years or so to the days when I was one of only a handful of people I knew that had email. I could see that this might be useful, but no one I knew used it and so for the most part it was irrelevant.

Turn Down The Volume

Google Buzz seems to be much the same type of thing. For the first time I would have to say that Google is a day late and a dollar short. Google Buzz is little more than an echo chamber, in a world that has enough noise already. Rather than bringing something new and exciting to the table, they have invented a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, namely, how to stay in touch with people I email using Gmail. The people I email using Gmail I am already connected to, on Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, Foursquare, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube and of course via email. Why do I need another tool?

When I look at Buzz what I see is cross-posting from Twitter & Facebook, along with “Hey, how does this work?” posts. So what is the point?  That is a classic software development conundrum. Google has given me a tool, but I have no idea how or why I should use it. So I will just leave it be and not use it.

A New Tool For The Miner

If you are going to build a social tool, then at least look at what already exists, and look at the problems that occur with them. The primary problem for anyone actively involved in Social Networking is Noise. A tool that enables me to reduce the noise, focus on what I am interested in across all sites and still enables me to catch those odd alluring snippets that might otherwise be missing from my attention stream is what I need.

Tweetdeck is the nearest tool that I use that comes anywhere near that, and that barely does the job. I currently have more than 20 columns in Tweetdeck that I scroll across every day looking for the good stuff. I am an information miner, what I need is a laser, not dynamite and definitely not a 16oz claw hammer which is what Google Buzz is. Old tech, old approach.  Google I expect more from you.  Back to the drawing board you go.

Have you found a use for Google Buzz?

I’ve been using the mobile location service Foursquare for sometime now. Originally via the mobile web and more recently as part of the Beta test group for the Blackberry – sorry but I can’t reveal anything about that at this point. What I want to cover in this post is the more basic question of  ” Why the heck should I bother with another app?” Over the next two days I’m going to try cover this from two angles, that of the user and that of the business looking to leverage another Social Media platform.

From a user perspective Foursquare appears, on the surface, to be nothing more than a game. Check-in more times than your friends and claim the title of “Mayor” of a location. So what? In much the same way that new Twitter users are stumped by the question “What are you doing?”, new Foursquare users find the act of checking in at a location somewhat pointless. As a friend of mine says, other than enabling stalkers what exactly are you getting out of it?

It’s true that the current actual value of Foursquare to the average user is minimal, if you stay mostly in your home town, you might find you are checking in at the same location as friends, possibly you might get a recommendation for an alternative to the location you are at, but that’s it. If you travel then you are likely to get more from it in terms of recommendations for places to visit, things to do and the potential of meeting other users – the core of Social Media.

However, just as Twitter as a service has spawned numerous add-on services and applications (see OneForty for the definitive list), so Foursquare is doing the same thing by opening up their API.  The heat map of my checkins below was created by WhereDoYouGo.

Ok so it’s a pretty picture but, again, so what? Imagine being able to layer your friends check-ins over the top and see it all graphically. You would, at a glance, literally be able to see the “hotspots” of your location. Much more useful, now add to that augmented reality applications like Layar – put the two together and you have a real-time city guide written by you and people you know.

Imagine being out for an evening, hold your cell phone camera up to a bar front and instantly see layered over the image reviews by people you know, see who you know who is in the bar without going in and what the special offers are for users of the application. Sounds like science fiction but all of the tech to achieve this already exists and is rapidly converging on a phone near you very soon.

Ready to sign up? Go on try it, and send me a friend request at the same time.

Avatar premiered this weekend. A multi-million dollar blockbuster and much vaunted as a game changer in the movie going experience.  James Cameron has spent a considerable amount of time and money building the technology he needed to bring to life the story in his head.

I went with high hopes of the movie and saw it in its 3D version (my full review here). What I came away with was a sense that the movie was more about the technology than it was about the story.

What Can Social Marketers Learn?

What Social Marketers can learn from this experience is that, no matter how slick your presentation, no matter what technology you deploy, if your content doesn’t meet the need or expectation of your audience the gloss will wear off fast.

Tools & Tricks Are Only Part of The Solution

Investing heavily in a great looking Facebook page, or an amazing set of Social Media monitoring tools will serve no purpose if you have no content or content strategy to back it up.

Commiting to Social Media and to providing your readers/viewers/listeners with quality content is much more likely to generate a lasting impact than having only a flashy interface.  That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth making those investments too, but be prepared for that fact that the real investment comes in the form of content, not tools.

Content Is Still King

Content has always been King, no matter the medium. Whether in print, on the Radio or Television or more recently Online, the method of delivering the message is never as important as the message itself. A slickly put together Social marketing campaign will have a much shorter shelf life than content that draws in the audience, makes them feel involved and ultimately encourages them to talk about it.

Publicity is something all businesses need.  For many small businesses this starts and ends with a listing in the local Yellow pages. They have neither the expertise nor time for anything more elaborate.

Blogging Partners – A new Publicity Channel

Occasionally they will find the money to do some small scale advertising, perhaps in a community newsletter or even the local newspaper. All of these methods are credible, viable methods of spreading the word. However, another channel that seems to be, as yet, fairly untapped is partnering with local bloggers to have the word spread.

Bloggers, like all other content producers are hungry for one thing – more content. Preferably new content. By feeding this need small businesses can in fact create a relationship that helps both parties. So how does a small business find a blogger and get their attention?

Reach Out To The Community

Firstly, do what small businesses are usually very good at, interact with the local community. Perhaps blogging is something you know nothing about, beyond reading one or two, if that. So your first step is to read more, do google searches for blogs in your area of business, then narrow it to your geographical area. We will look at why geography is important in a moment. Find out which events bloggers are attending in your area, Twitter is an excellent source of this information, a good percentage of people attending Tweetups are bloggers – they might not be writing about your line of business but they probably know someone who is.

Finding a local blogger is important for two main reasons, firstly it enables you to develop a real relationship with them, secondly it gives them the opportunity to get to know your business. If you are a coffee shop they can come and work from your shop, if you are a car mechanic they can get their car serviced, anything that gives them an insight into what and how you do what it is you do.

Why Would They Care?

So why would they write about you? Read what they write, find an angle in their writing that applies to your business. I write mostly about Marketing, Social Media & Blogging, so the best angle to approach me is how your business is using those things differently. Come with a story at least outlined so that some of the work is already done for them.

From a bloggers perspective, why would you be interested in writing about local businesses? Well unless you are already have an unlimited supply of content, you want & need fresh content that appeals to your readers. Local businesses are a great source of that content. They want the publicity, you want the content, the question you should be asking is “why am I not approaching local businesses?”.

Which bloggers do you know who could write about your business?

Last week I wrote  about a particularly frustrating incident I had with my local Best Buy store. I used Twitter to promote the post and included Best Buy CMO in the tweet. Here is the interactions between us on Twitter about the post:

It has been just over a week since this exchange took place and I have received exactly the communication I expected to receive from Best Buy – NOTHING. Nada. Zip.

Read The CMO

A recent post on Barry Judge’s blog (Barry is Best Buy CMO) is entitled Buyer Be Happy. In it he talks about the new Facebook fan page that Best Buy has launched and how excited they are about it. He also  makes reference to their new “Price Plus” program where they:

” Price Plus” is shorthand for great prices plus providing the best help before and during the shopping process and then after you buy something via all our touch points in our stores, web sites and call centers.

As I wrote last week Best Buy only wants this level of relationship with you if you pay for it. So I suppose their program title is accurate – it is a Price Plus the extra to get customer service.

Social Media Failure 101

This is a classic example of an organization not being prepared for Social Media, Best Buy wants to present a “warm, fuzzy, we are here for you” image through the use of Social Media but internally they are not set up to respond to customers reaching out to them through the same channels. This is the classic failing of organizations approaching Social Media as simply another push medium.

If the CMO of Best Buy can’t get someone to respond then what chance do the rest of us stand?

You can consider this a rant post if you like but my experience at Best Buy today got me thinking about customer service and how Social Media can sometimes be used to mask an organizations real customer service policy.

Yesterday my Blackberry Storm died on me. To be more accurate it suffered a software issue that is a known problem. The only fix is to replace the handset. So I went to Best Buy where I purchased the handset from four months ago. This seemed to me to be the obvious course of action.

We Only Help If You Pay

When I spoke to the assistant they told me that Best Buy were unable to help me because I had not purchased their additional insurance policy at the time of purchase. I was careful to explain to the sales associate that the insurance policy wasnt necessary as this fault was not caused by accidental damage but by a software flaw – a known issue and that the handset needed to be replaced. He recommended I send the handset to RIM. I asked him what I was supposed to do for a phone, he shrugged and asked did I not have an old handset lying around that I could use?

I asked to see the manager, what I was presented with was someone from the Geek Squad. Not THE manager but A manager. She told me the same thing, that unless I had purchased additional insurance Best Buy would do nothing for me as I was outside their 30 day policy.

Take Your Problem Somewhere Else

This struck me as strange. I could understand if I was taking in a broken handset, something I had damaged, but this was a service issue. I asked them to clarify their policy again, she said that I needed to take the handset to Verizon. I asked why I would do that, they are the airtime provider, not the hardware provider, she stated again it was not Best Buy’s problem.

Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am

So Best Buy only wants a relationship with me if I am prepared to pay for it. This sounds rather like another, much older profession to me. Best Buy entered Social Media with their warm and fuzzy TweepleForce on Twitter, setting the expectation that they wanted to”engage” with customers, seems that is only true if you want to pay for it.

What other brands make you pay for the relationship with them?

As an aside, I took the handset to Verizon who replaced it, backed up my data and made sure I left the store completely happy with an updated handset all for no charge. While I was waiting I was even able to pay my cell phone bill at their in-store kiosk.

I recently attended a guest lecture by Dan Rather at the University of Texas, Austin on the Crisis of American Journalism and Why We Should Care. I wanted to attend for a variety of reasons not least of which was to hear what such a notable journalist had to say about the crisis faced by the news media industry and what he thought could be done about it. I also wanted to hear his views on New Media and its impact on that decline.

He made some extremely, in my opinion, valid points. He highlights that one of the reasons we (the public) were given for the bailout of the banks is because the banks are the lifeblood of the American Society. He stated that if the banks were viewed as that then so too were News outlets. They provide the people with the ability to understand the major issues of the day, to be involved and to participate in the democratic process. He quoted Thomas Jefferson who said “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” He blames the lack of belief in the current News media on the corporatization of the news which has led to an increase in politicization, risk aversion and homogenization of the news.

On these points I have to agree with him. It is perhaps, these three reasons, more than any other that so many now turn to outlets like Twitter for their news. He argues, and I again agree with him that true journalism, is not just about reporting the news, but investigating it. It is, if done right, predictive not reactive. While many bloggers try for, and in some cases achieve, a style closely approaching journalism, they are often not qualified/trained to produce the level of investigative pieces that a journalist can.

Perhaps the future of news media lies in the truly investigative pieces, the stories behind the stories that are reported by “citizen journalists”. When I asked Dan Rather what his view of Citizen Journalism was, he said he was in favor of it, felt that it made a valuable contribution and that outlets like Twitter had a role to play in news reporting. He was also quick to point out the lack of editorial control, fact checking and general overview can and does lead to false stories, misuse and just general errors.

As a huge fan of Twitter and of course Social Media in general I was surprised to find myself agreeing with him on these points. It took me back to my college days as an Anthropology student and reminded me that “original sources” are the most reliable and that secondary sources need to be validated. Twitter, blogs, and google are no replacement for a tough investigator examinging the facts.

What is the future of your news reading?

image from How Stuff Works

Social Media, like so many other marketing activities is often criticized for its lack of real measures. “How do I know its working?”, “How do I measure ROI?” good questions to ask of any program, but with Social Media being so new to so many, how to measure ROI is still open for debate.

One area that can be measured and tracked over time and therefore show results is conversation. There are some great tools out there that will help with this process. Some are free, some available on a subscription basis, depending on your budget you can definitely find a tool to fit it. What is missing from all of these is the metrics that go beyond the counting.

While all of these methods will show you how many people have mentioned you, your brand, your product in a given timeframe and on given platforms, be they blogs, twitter, youtube or any of the other popular sites, what they miss is the importance of those mentions. Context is everything. Just because you find a blog that talks about nothing other than your brand, this doesn’t mean that anyone is reading it. So how important is it to you really?

All the marketing departments I have contact with have one thing in common, whether they are Fortune 500’s or startups, not enough resources. So focusing those resources on actionable items is paramount. If your tool shows that you have had 400 mentions in the Social Media world, are you really equipped to cope with responding to all of those? Probably not, in reality you have to decide how to focus, the simplest way to do that is to look at the reach of those mentions.

On platforms like Twitter this is fairly easy to achieve – a rough guide to a Twitter users reach is the number of followers they have. This isnt an absolute measure of reach but it is certainly a good starting point. With blogs it becomes a little harder, while there are numerous sites that will provide you with “webstats” for blogs they really only work well on unique domains, for example getting an accurate measure of traffic for a blogspot blog can be challenging, but that doesnt mean that because a blog resides on a free blog host it doesnt have a long reach.

Monitoring these results, and seeing how they change over time is a very good way of determining your impact on the world of Social Media. As the conversations about your organization, brand or product moves from low traffic sites to higher traffic sites so you can determine that those with a broader reach are talking about you and therefore more people are seeing your brand mentioned. Monitoring will also help to ensure that these mentions are for the right reasons.

What are you measuring in your Social Media activity?

image from Newton Math Tutors