Social Business: Where is Your Focus?
January 21, 2010
“Platforms are the means. People are the focus.”
This quote is taken from a presentation by VP of Social Media at Razorfish (a digital marketing agency) Shiv Singh, on Social Influence Marketing.
He points out an important distinction here. A business existing on social networks should be putting effort into listening, engaging and contributing…not into building a flashy profile. The people on social networks are what give social media value, not the networks themselves!
Think of Facebook, for example, as a house, where millions of people live. A business with a presence on Facebook needs to focus on interacting with its fellow inhabitants (fans), not on renovating, decorating and pimping out its room in the house (a fan Page).
Singh also modifies a quote (originally from Peter Drucker) that makes an interesting point:
“The purpose of a business is to create a customer who creates customers.”
Replace “business” with “social influence marketing” and you almost have yourself an excellent definition. However, I don’t think that social media is about creating customers. That’s what your website is for — selling your product. But your social networks are about making fans out of your customers. This is what we firmly believe should be every business’ approach to the Social Web. You are here to create brand ambassadors, not necessarily customers.
See the context in this slide show:
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.
Square: Harnessing Payment as Social Currency?
December 1, 2009
“Today the Square team is focused on bringing immediacy, transparency, and approachability to the world of payments: an inherently social interaction each of us participates in daily.”
I discovered this new product today, an application and payment method called Square. What struck me immediately was the fascinating idea of credit card payments, happening every second all over the world, as social interactions. I understand how this application could potentially make the payment act social, but so far it seems like not much is happening. You swipe, sign and are done.
This article and video from Tech Crunch explains the application and its uses, and we hear from co-founder Jack Dorsey, one of the creators of Twitter.
Metrics in Social Land?
November 25, 2009
How many people have written about metrics for social media? Too many to count, think about or even mention.
But I have never felt like there was an answer to the question “How do you measure the success of social media”. The question of ROI, even when there are lots of fans and lots of conversations, is almost always present in the mind of a business (I guess Patagonia is the exception).
There are a few key things that we all agree are easy to measure, with the right tools and code set in place. I identify the ultimate measurable metrics as the following:
1) Loyalty: number of returning visitors, blog subscribers, number of fans, etc)
Tool: Google Analytics, FeedBurner, built-in Facebook and Twitter functions
2) Interaction: number of “genuine” comments on blog, conversations on Facebook, mentions and RTs on Twitter, views on YouTube
Tool: your eyeballs, Facebook Insights, built-in Twitter and YouTube functions
3) Reach: clicks on links, public bookmarking, name mentions
Tool: Bit.ly tracking, Google, Delicious/Digg/StumbleUpon, Twitter
**If a website is selling something, an important metric is tracking the conversion funnels coming from social sites and ending on a sale. This is trackable with Google Analytics.
This means getting all the information you want requires going all over the place to get it.
The missing piece of the puzzle? One tool to measure it all.
We are trying out PostRank analytics. I’ll let you know how it goes…
Small Businesses Need Facebook
November 12, 2009
A New York Times article (published today, Nov 11, 2009) begins:
“Business owner, you might want to friend Facebook.”
Good advice, since I have been telling friends, clients and colleagues this for months now. Everyone’s heard about Business Pages and what a big audience there is on Facebook and how important it is to be present and engaged…But many people still don’t think it’s worth their time. Does the New York Times have to come out and say it? I guess so. Read more
Social Media Going Corporate
November 7, 2009
Well, it seems like the Mainstream Media are catching on to what we who work the social media have known for awhile. Businesses are getting on board with the realities of a Social Web.
The November 7, 2009 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle has an article “Social sites invade corporate culture” discussing how corporate attitudes about social media are shifting.
Written by Benny Evangelista, the article talks about Comcast’s big shift in attitude brought on by one employee’s using his own Twitter account to respond to customers tweeting about service issues. The employee, Frank Eliason, now heads a staff of 11 who monitor social networks, offering help to customers.
The article quotes Comcast’s CEO Brian Roberts who says that their Twitter strategy has helped change their corporate culture “from inside the organization, not just top down.”
Social Event “How Do I Find The Time?” Recap Part 2
October 28, 2009
HyperArts hosted a social media event on Oct 22nd, at our offices in Jack London Square. This is the second post of 2, recapping the presentations given by our wonderful guest speakers. See the first post here.
Tisha Winters, who manages social media for Numi Tea here in Oakland, presented at our last event and spoke on the topic of “How do I find the time for social media?”
She started at Numi as an intern and soon became a full-time employee. She has helped convince her superiors that social media is worth her time by building a dynamic and active Facebook page and Twitter account for Numi. She interacts with fans daily but also has a large list of other tasks to fill up her work schedule. She can relate to the dilemma of trying to find the time to develop, manage and monitor a business social media presence.
Here are some of her insights:
1) People care about VALUES.
Numi has a core philosophy and cares deeply about reflecting their passions in all aspects of their company. This attitude made it easy find an audience that had same values. Tisha simply expressed the core tenants of the Numi mission statement as written by the company founders and this transparency attracted a large group of loyal fans. Transparency is key.
2) Be clear and consistent.
If you have a clear vision, it won’t ever be “hard” to share your message via social media; you will always be able to find the time since sharing that message matters to you.
Since Numi’s values are all about that relaxing moment of drinking a cup of tea, they can repeat this concept in their daily interactions and develop a reputation and a coherent brand image. Read more
Social Event “How Do I Find The Time?” Recap Part 1
October 23, 2009
HyperArts hosted a social media event last night, Oct 22nd, at our offices in Jack London Square. We were proud to host Latisha Winters from Numi Tea and Sorel Husbands Denholtz from California Academy of Sciences. Both speakers had such wonderful insights into the topic of the evening “Social Media: How do I find the time?!?!” that I decided to write up a recap of the evening. Broken into two parts, these posts summarize the presentations of each speaker.
Sorel Husbands Denholtz
“How do people use the web? How do we use it together?”
Sorel does not describe herself as a marketer, but a person who is excited about the opportunities social media offers. Actually, she doesn’t even really like to call what she does online “social media”… Soon, she predicts, social media will be everywhere, and not called by that name. It will be part of life, not something we “do”. Sorel manages a CSA Facebook Page for fun and has seen it grow to over 4,000 fans that have lively and dynamic conversations on their own, without her constant involvement or mediation.
When beginning her work with the California Academy of Sciences she says the most persuasive argument to enter into social media was the knowledge that people were already talking and sharing information about their organization online. The academy needed to be where their audience was already gathering.
Her objective in social engagement: to listen and learn. The Academy’s initial goal was not to slam their audience with PR and advertising; it was just being present and engaged.
We asked our guests to talk about some practical tips and ideas for finding the time to spend on social media for your business.
Read more
Trust and Transparency
October 15, 2009
Today I was catching up on posts in my Google blog reader after a 2.5 week vacation (hello 487 blog posts!). I found more than one instance where bloggers were talking about the issues of trust and transparency within companies attempting to use social media as a marketing tool. Two examples were of companies that enthusiastically encourage employees to share their experiences with the world…
Example #1:
Nate Riggs talked about how Southwest gave him a satisfactory customer experience in multiple ways, including allowing their employees to be transparent about the company. One flight attendant allowed Nate to film him talking about the company’s plans for WiFi on board planes.
Southwest interacts with customers online via their blog “Nuts About Southwest”.