Your Website Should Be Proud of your Social Life!
January 15, 2010
It is one of the most frustrating and saddening moments…when I visit a website and see small, unobtrusive, ashamed little social media icons at the bottom of the page, below the fold, and generally hidden from view. I happen to be looking for them, always, so when I have trouble finding these important links, I wonder, how is the unsuspecting non-social-media-obsessed visitor supposed to find them?
Many businesses have entered the social sphere over the last year and some understand the arena more than others. Most at least know that being social is a good thing, something to be proud of…or at least, among other social folks. But their website must feel like a non-social entity to many of them, because they are either afraid or reluctant to proudly display their Facebook, Twitter or Blogging status for visitors to see and follow.
Imagine going into your friends home and noticing that there were framed pictures of their other friends and family displayed beneath the sofa, under tables and in dark corners…You would wonder what they were so ashamed of!
Being social means being public, present and proud, so I want to encourage the following organizations to re-think the placement of social links on their websites. These businesses all have fairly active social lives, but hardly an indication of their alter-social-egos on their websites.
Unacceptable
Bocanova: A new restaurant in Jack London Square (where HyperFolk often have lunch)
See the faded Twitter and Facebook icons at the very very very bottom of the page.
Successful Post Topics of the Top Bloggers
January 4, 2010
Many blogs that I follow published posts recapping their best (most read) blog posts of 2009. As I read Peter Kim’s collection of his top posts, I began to categorized each one. The following are the genres/categories that I see the most sucessful bloggers use over and over again. In general, the best posts not only fall into these groups, but also offer some unique and helpful insights or advice. Peter Kim sums it up,
“I wrote all of those posts out of a desire to share my thinking with you. This is one way I enjoy giving back to a community-at-large that helps make my work in social business strategy the best of what’s around.”
So below you can see how I categorized each of Kim’s posts. I also found some good examples from a few other popular bloggers (David Meerman Scott and Chris Brogan) that fit the following descriptions:
- Identify a problem and then a solution
Social Media needs to transform
Ad agency masturbation (DM Scott)
In social media, there IS a free lunch!
December 8, 2009
Social media philosophy always encourages us to “give it all away for free” when it comes to content, expertise and advice. Bloggers tell their readers how to use FBML, how to build their own Wordpress theme, how to customize their Twitter background, and more.
Another big trend is giving away actual products for free. Many big brands have embarked on campaigns that offer free goods (like Burger King, for example) but often experience a spike in their following that dies again after the campaign has ended.
We always cringe at the term “campaign” because it implies an effort that has a beginning and an end. Social media marketing is not what it sounds like (a marketing scheme)…it should be a new way of doing business, period. It should never be a concentrated effort that ends with some high # of fans. Social engagement is about building relationship with your customers. But you knew that :)
We are trying something new at HyperArts. Yes, we are giving our friends a FREE LUNCH! Or dinner, or drinks, whatever…After working with Chop Bar, our neighborhood restaurant, we have some nifty gift certificates to give away.
At our next social media event (Thursday December 10th) we will pick 3 of our Facebook Fans to receive a gift certificate, ranging in value from $15-$25.
We want to support local business. We want to share our interest in social media with the community. We want to connect with other players in the social sphere.
We hope that this “freebie” promotion is perceived as more than just a campaign. We care about more than just amassing Facebook fans (although it’s mighty nice). We want to take to turn social media into a social reality!
See you there…
UPDATE:
Immediately after publishing this post I saw 2 hot deals on Twitter:
A free MacBook Pro from DealsPlus
(requires that you follow them on Twitter and tweet about contest)
(requires a tweet with hashtag #myyearyahoo)
How the Socially Savvy Deal With Competition: Intuit and Square
December 3, 2009
I just saw this wonderful example of the right thing to do when it comes to competition in the realm of social media:
Everyone can learn from Intuit. Anyone whose business has competition should pay attention.
Intuit’s product “GoPayment” allows businesses to make payment transaction with a mobile device, just like Square. Square’s new product has received a lot of buzz (see the previous post on this very blog) and their name is popping up all over the place.
Intuit knows that Square is a competing product in their market. They could easily ignore their success and publicity. But rather than just continue promoting their own product, Intuit congratulates @Square in a tweet, and then shares a link to their similar product. This allows a consumer to compare the two products, and decide for themselves which they prefer. Or maybe decide that they like both for different reasons. Either way, they are going to show up along with all of the other mentions of @Square in a search.
This is what social media is about; not constant self-promotion but joining a community. Not just a community of your own loyal customers, but your colleagues and fellow businesses.
And being nice is always appreciated. People notice and remember.
Why EVERYONE Should Blog
November 13, 2009
In an ideal world, everyone would have a blog.
Because in an ideal world, everyone would have unique, interesting and valuable content to share.
In an ideal world, blogs would produce ONLY those three types of content (entertaining, educational and insightful are characteristics that fit within those other three categories, but they also deserve a mention).
In an ideal world, businesses would blog not about their product or service, but about their consumers, their peers and their field in general.
In an ideal world everyone would only speak when they had something worthwhile to say.
So in fact, this post should be titled “Why EVERYONE Should NOT Blog”.
Because this is not an ideal world.
credit: www.gapingvoid.com
“That’s the Best Buy Promise!”
September 21, 2009
This is a love story.
A story about a girl who fell in love with more than just a social network…she fell in love with a way of doing business, a philosophy of customer service, the innovative spirit of real-time social media community building…
Ok, I’m getting a bit carried away. This is really just another story about how one company has successfully integrated social media into their customer service strategy and managed to harness the power of viral marketing and word-of-mouth reputation management. @ComcastCares does it, so does @RichardatDELL, @Ask_WellsFargo, and @JetBlue. Recently, I discovered that @BestBuy is on Twitter as well, and that is how my story begins.
Actually, it begins months ago when I bought a new external hard drive and when I opened the box a month later, it didn’t work. The people at Best Buy told me that I had already waited too long to be able to return the drive to the store (30 days), so I had to contact Western Digital, the manufacturer. They required that I purchase postage, package the drive in it’s original box and send it back to them in order to receive a replacement. Weeks went by and I finally was sent a new drive…all by itself…with none of the cords or cables (which I had sent back in the original package!), so I could not use it at all. To make a long (and frustrating) story short, I could not get on the phone with a human at Western Digital for the life of me, so last Friday I was fed up. I tried calling Best Buy, to see if they could help. Again, NO HUMAN. The phone rang and rang and rang.
As I sat there, staring at the receiver and wondering what was wrong with the world, I had a flash of inspiration… “Maybe Best Buy is on Twitter,” I remembered seeing their name mentioned somewhere…a quick search revealed that they indeed were present on Twitter, so I sent out a cry for help:
My first tweet to Best Buy
Within literally 1 MINUTE I received this reply:
The speedy response
Why isn’t it working? Social media is NOT a machine.
August 31, 2009
It seems like there are two types of people who misunderstand social media:
1) Individuals who don’t comprehend or believe in the benefit of social networks and would rather just ignore them;
2) Businesses who know they should have a presence online but can’t seem to do it right; they have all the right networks but nothing going on…
People who are not involved in social networking consistently misunderstand the point of communities like Twitter and Facebook. They ask, “What’s the point?” assuming that online interactions are impersonal and one-sided. If I tell them about social media marketing they instantly assume that businesses are using networks to advertise (which some do) and begin to doubt the integrity of social media relationships.
Businesses often set it all up but then can’t seem to foster any sort of engagement online. This blog post from the Brains of Fire blog talks about this very same phenomenon and caught my attention today. It’s about the importance of brands being human/real/genuine/soulful when interacting online.
Read more
Make A Business Blog That Matters
August 11, 2009
David Meerman Scott does an excellent job of inspiring his audience with examples. Last week he profiled the money management firm Putnam Investments, who have recently entered the social mediasphere with a CEO on Twitter and a new blog. What makes Putnam’s blog unique is that it’s not really about Putnam. Their blog is about retirement savings plans in America and the conversation around that issue.
David admires Putnam’s willingness to go where few financial service companies have gone before. I like the example because they have found a perfect way to develop a web presence without overly self-promoting. The art of the business blog is a difficult one to master, how do you produce quality content that people actually WANT to read?
Inspiration from All That Jeff Bezos Knows
July 23, 2009
I watched this video today and was immediately inspired by the 4 keys to success in business as described by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. He seems like a down-to-earth guy, and very intelligent.
He also speaks about the recent acquisition of Zappos by Amazon, two companies who both believe in developing a unique culture and putting the customer first.
From the video, these are the “only things” that Jeff Bezos claims to know:
1) Obsess over the customer, instead of competition (if you have to choose).
2) Invent (on behalf of your customers – it’s not their job!).
3) Think long term, since most ideas will not show ROI in the short term. This means you need to be willing to be misunderstood for your ideas, at first.
4) It’s always day 1. If you are always inventing and thinking long term, there should constantly be something new on the horizon. In other words, don’t get comfortable…