Who owns Social Media in a business? #w2e

A very interesting question was asked today at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. "Who in a business owns Social Media"

Presenters Answer:
According to the presenter (Joshua-Michele Ross from Fleishman Hillard)
"Social Media should not be owned by the obvious departments in the business such as Marketing or PR instead it should be owned by the person / department that wants the opportunity.

Why I disagree:
Now this is where I strongly disagree, sure its good passing the buck to someone who wants it, but just because you want the opportunity does not mean you have the necessary experience in both business and in the social media.

Most of the recent Social Media disasters (Nestle springs to mind, see below for related post) was caused by inexperienced business users who thought they are social media experts because they have a facebook page and know what a tweet is.

You need a careful blend of traditional business communication knowledge and informal social language.

Just because you are engaging your users on a social platform does not mean you engage them with the language and attitudeyou engage your friends with

Presenters answer continued:

He then stated that it should be done on a mandate from top management.

Why I disagree:

I am not quite sure if he has ever truly worked in a business where top management still think of blogs and forums as a place you "go to play" after hours.

If you look at the general age of Top Management, most epecially those from established businesses tend to be baby boomers / gen Y.

These are the people who still cant sleep at night because the company's fax number is no longer on their business card.

It is only in 2016 that most of the Top Management will be the gen y's or Digital Natives as Gartner calls them.

In my view, current top management are not qualified to make any kind of Social Media mandate. They just don't seem to 'get' it. They still believe it can be controlled or censored and that it should be about us telling them what we want them to hear.

What business leaders and top management need is 3rd party enducation from a respected peer. Only once they fully understand the Social Media space and implecations can they truly decide the who, what, where and when.

Related post

- Why internal corporate socail media often fails
- Nestle's Social Media Fail

Engaging The Twitter Backchannel

Hi my name is Johan, and I'm a Twitter backchanneleer and I like to be engaged.

This statement might sound quite self serving, but that cant be helped. Social Media has show everyone that the world can revolve around them and now it's become the norm.

I've not always been into the whole "me, me, me, this is how I want to be engaged" power trip,  its not till I had my first true online engagement experienced from a thriving community that I realised there is a better way.

Bare with me as I take you through my "first time" and then make a few suggestions on how to improve your engagement with the backchannel to truly take your event global.

My first backchannel experience
I've been to a number of events and conferences armed with my trusty paper notebook and pen that I picked up from an exhibitor.

Erm... ok when I say "Picked up", I actually mean, "Sneaked up in a way that would even make James Bond proud, grabbed a pen or two and disappeared into the crowd before I'm even a blip on an overzealous sales person's Radar. "

Anyway, so here I am pen ready, paper ready, sitting comfortably and ready to learn from the person behind the podium with more titles behind their name than Stephen Hawkins.

That's where it all starts going wrong. Not just for me, but for the speaker and the event organisers.

The speaker starts by welcoming everyone, she mentions a free wifi service is available and that questions will be taken via Twitter and pops up the event twitter hashtag on the screen.

Everyone gasps (ok not really but its more dramatic that way) and a number of iPhones, androids and tiny teeny laptops are ripped out of bags pockets and purses.

She looses the audience for a few minutes while a large number of the audience is trying to logon to the wifi and setting up twitter searches on the hashtag.

And guess what? the Wifi network is flooded and cracks under the pressure, those that are lucky enough to be in a part of the auditorium that has a 3G signal immediately start tweeting about the event and the broken Wifi.

Within moments the event is all across the world being retweeted and it appears negative. Eventually everyone gets over the initial shock of their being a hashtag and wifi not working.

I must say I missed most of the first speakers presentation as I followed suit and happily chatted away on the trusty tweetdeck for iPhone... and that was it... I was hooked,  I shrugged off the old pen and paper and rose like a phoenix to become a Backchanneleer!

Backchanneleer: A person/s that belongs to a group of individuals who socialise, comment, fact check, aggregate and interpret content, in real time,  during a presentation or live engagement. Twitter often being the most popular channel.

Then comes the Q&A and someone dares ask a question via Twitter, the chairman asks the question and then turns to the audience asking the twtterer to raise their hand.

The gall of the chairman, shattering the poor tweeters anonymity.

So I raise my hand, yes yes, it was me asking the question. All eyes turn towards me, some smiling (due to my participation in the backchannel) others just staring at me blankly.

So the day progresses and I learn more from the twitter backchannel conversations than the actual presentations.

Somewhere during the day the paper and pen obtained at great personal risk, went missing. I suspect the pen had words with the pad of paper and decided to find someone who would actually use them.

That night I find myself exhausted, emotional and surrounded by new friends made during the event.

Something started bouncing around my mind and I finally sat down an wrote down how I would like to be engaged, so here goes:


Engaging the backchannel

1. Ensure your event has a Twitter hashtag(#) and please make it 10 characters or less, I only have 140 characters to play with. If you do not have a hastag in place by the time your event starts, several will be created for you by the backchannel, fragmenting your event and message.
   
   
2. Publicise the hashtag (#) and start using it to keep everyone informed, use it beforehand to talk a bit more about the event and its presenters. People would like to set up their searches and start engaging before the event, not during the first speaker.
   
   
3. Follow the backchannel chatter and react accordingly, just taking questions via Twitter is NOT engaging the backchannel, its called "We are to lazy to think of better ways to engage with Twitter users, but if we allow them to ask questions via twitter it will keep them happy"
   
   
4. Introduce the speakers with twitter via the event's hash tag.
   
   
   
   • Include name, company, job title and twitter username in one tweet
   • And  @username subject of their presentation in another.
   This will allow me to correctly tweet and retweet the speaker
   
   
5. Tweet golden nuggets out of the speakers presentation during presentation. I have never seen it done before but would love a short 100 character summary of some of the choice quotes and statistics tweeted by the presenter or presenter's assistnt during the presentation. So all I need to do is retweet and I can add some comments.
   
   
6. Answer all questions that is asked via Twitter, even if its a tweet to the person within a few hours. Nothing annoys me more than being given the opportunity to ask a question and then it being ignored.
   
   
7. Have the presenters engage before or after their presentations. Not all questions can be asked during the presentation, so encourage presenters to be available on twitter or a live chat to answer any further questions. A live video chat would be perfect.
   
   
8. No matter how negative the backchannel, Never antagonise or belittle the channel. This sounds like common sense but apparently its not. I have seen many "experts" rant and rave about the negativity. That just angers everyone. 
   
   
9. Provide fast reliable free Wifi Access. Well... what else do I need to say? If you are to offer such a service ensure its exemplary, and that people are aware of it before the event.
   
   
10. Provide recharging points. Laptop, Pones, iPads etc run out of juice quickly. Ensure you have enough recharge points available. If possible have a few spare adapters available, even if you have to glue them to the wall sockets so they don't mysteriously "relocate".
    

In conclusion
When running an event or you are a public speaker. Please do engage with the backchannel. However think about the what, the how and the when, well ahead of time.

Its better to not do it and let the backchannel sort itself out, than deciding to do it at the last moment without thought and planning.


Possible post of interest:

• Why Public figures should fear Social Media 
• 6 tips that will improve your business Twitter posts 
• Anatomy and life cycle of a tweet. Know your @'s from your #elbow

The best and worst day to do a business tweet

Hubspot released a report that focuses on the current state of the twitterverse.  Social Media Today has done a quite in depth dive into the report.

What I found rather interesting, and would like to focus a bit more on this short blog post, is the days and times that most people tweet and how you can effectively use this info to plan your tweeting strategy.

Most prolific tweeting days:  Thursday & Fridays, accounts 16% of all tweets

Busiest time of day:  10pm – 11pm, accounts for 4.8% of daily tweets

Most likely days to be retweeted: Mondays & Friday afternoons

So If we look at the dates and times of the most prolific tweets, then look at the days you are most likely to be retweeted, the following observation can be made.

Retweets do not happen on the most prolific tweeting days or times.
This indicates that tweets made during these times are less relevant to the social community  and more self indulgent to the individual. 

Monday the best retweet day.
The retweeting trend on a Monday seems to start around 11am, peaks just after noon but then has a steady growth till around 8pm where it then declines.

Casual Fridays.
Even though Fridays are the most retweeted day, it would not be the most optimal day for a business tweet. Unless your call to action can be handled outside of business hours

Blackspot Tuesday.
Out of the whole week, Tuesday are practically blackspots for retweeting, none but the most die hard tweeters seems to retweet

Conclusion.
So... if you want to have your business to ruffle feathers on twitter, ensure you optimize your online campaigns and social media strategy to be most accessible and retweetable on a Monday...

Anatomy and life cycle of a tweet. Know your @'s from your #elbow

At first twitter tweets seems like a very strange language filled with @'s, #'s, RT's and tinyURL's. I found it terribly daunting at first.

Hopefully I'll be able to help you understand your @'s from your elbows.

Twitter has quite a few commands that can be used with your tweets. Most were created by Twitter but a few user generated commands crept in. I'll only be discussing the ones most commonly used to communicate & give credit.

Anatomy of a tweet

So lets have a look at the typical life cycle of a tweet. Consider the following tweet:

RT @skok RT @socialpond Free Cloud Computing Adoption Survey Slideshow http://ow.ly/1b6UZ SCR @timpickard  #mimecast #survey

This particular tweet has been around the block a few times. So lets break it up and follow it's life cycle.

Step 1:

timpickard Uploads a slideshow onto linkedin

Step 2:

socialpond (me) stumbles across it via linkedin updates (google, rss etc.). I decide its a great slideshow and I feel that my twitter followers might find it interesting so I construct the following tweet:

Free Cloud Computing Adoption Survey Slideshow http://ow.ly/1b6UZ SCR @timpickard 

You will notice I used SCR,  @timpickard and ow.ly,  

• SCR allows me to give credit to timpickard (his twitter account is listed on his linkedin profile).
• The '@' allows the tweet to appear in timpickard's twitter feed and makes him aware I tweeted his link.
• ow.ly is a URL shortening service used by hootsuite, you can use any URL shortening service, personally I use hootsuite as it allows a great range of tracking and reporting. Using the URL shortening service has change the original URL from :http://www.linkedin.com/osview/canvas?_ch_page_id=2&_ch_panel_id=3&_ch_app_id=14109190&_applicationId=1200&appParams={%22from%22%3A%22profile_view%22%2C%22view%22%3A%22canvas%22%2C%22page%22%3A%22slideview%22%2C%22slideshow_id%22%3A%223272407%22}&_ownerId=840549&completeUrlHash=THa1. To: http://ow.ly/1b6UZ 

Step 3:

skok who is a follower of socialpond sees the tweet, views the slideshow and decides to retweet it, however she feels that the tweet is related to "mimecast" so she adds a #mimecast:

RT @socialpond Free Cloud Computing Adoption Survey Slideshow http://ow.ly/1b6UZ SCR @timpickard  #mimecast

skok added RT and # tags:

• RT is used to acknowledge the re-use of socialpond's tweet, as before the @ causes the retweet to be displayed in socialpond's twitter feed.
  
• # is used to categorize and tag tweets. This allows people searching for a specific term to find the tweet, even if the term is not specifically used in the tweet.

Step 4

One of skok's followers sees her retweeting socialpond's tweet and retweets it to his followers, giving credit to both skok and socialpond, he also feels the tweet relates to "survey" and adds #survey:

RT @skok RT @socialpond Free Cloud Computing Adoption Survey Slideshow http://ow.ly/1b6UZ SCR @timpickard  #mimecast #survey

If you reread the original tweet it no longer looks so strange or difficult to read.

140 limit and now what?

However this process is not scalable due to the 140 character limit of twitter. You will eventually be faced with a decision of what to remove.

1. Removing the original author 'timpickard' will be the first step. Anyone clicking on the link will be directed to content he created.
2. Try condensing the words, replace 'for' with '4', 'You' with 'U' etc.
3. Remove some of the #tags in the above example I would remove both tags if need be.
4. Remove the retweets, only crediting the last person to retweet it.

  
With careful consideration, credit and tagging your tweets can relive in others feed.

Why Public figures should fear Social Media: What the Palin Twitter gaff teaches us.

I've been following the minor storm that erupted after Sarah Palin's recent comment about "that twittering thing". 

Funnily enough I became aware of it thanks to a tweet, after reading numerous blogs, I realized most people seem to have understood the comment as belittling the Twitter community (see her comment below).

“... Just you watch now, too, because somebody will be here with their little Twittering thing, and it’s going to be on the Internet any minute now.”
_{Source: mashable.com}

In fact I think the comment actually is quite the opposite, by trying to marginalize Twitter she has in actual fact shown how seriously she is taking the twitter and associated social media communities.

Forever gone are the days when the media could be manipulated in the favor of the one who has the most money or influence

Now the truth will out, distorted and opinionated for sure, but it will be tweeted, retweeted and commented on by those that do that "Twittering thing" and then spill out into blogs and mainstream media. (as this blog proves)

In 2009 Sky News recognized the fact that news no longer "breaks" via the tradition controllable channels but via social media and especially that "Twittering thing". This means that "Breaking News" can no longer be sold off to the highest or most influential bidder.

Imagine the panic of influential public figures who in the past only needed to make a phone call to their PR teams to make all but the most noticeable gaffs disappear.

Personally I imagine the call between Palin and her PR team, after her comment, to go something like this:

-- Ring Ring --

PR Agency: "Awful good PR agency, how may we help you"

Palin: "Guys this is Palin, I just made a bit of a gaff with this twittering statement, can you please embargo any journalist that were in the room."

-Awkward silence-

PR Agency: "Ah... erm..."

-Whispering in the background-

"You tell her, no you tell her"

-Another awkward silence-

PR Agency: "We know all about it, we just read it on Obama's blog, apparently he picked it up from a friend's facebook status, who in turn read a tweet by someone in India who retweeted the waitress from the catering company at the event"

^{Please note: this is an imagined fictional conversation and is not based on fact}

So you see instead of reproaching Palin, we should thank her for showing us that she believes the social community should be feared.

We are everywhere, we see everything and worst of all.... We have our own opinions that others listen to. Fear the social media revolution.

Do you agree with me? Does public figures fear social media? Has the once powerful lost the ability to control traditional media? Or have they found even cleverer ways of manipulating it? Let me know your views

6 tips that will improve your business Twitter posts

Every second blog or website claims how powerful twitter and other social media platforms are and how businesses can make a real impact in the social media space.

But how do you go about it? sure there are over an estimated 75 million active twitter users and there combined amount of posts run into the billions.

How on earth is one company with one voice going to be able to be seen amongst the deluges of tweets and posts?

There is no clear black or white  answer to this, one strategy is to become a thought leader, or an Industry authoritative figure. To do that, you will need to break yourself and your company away from any preconceived ideas you might have in regards to how you traditionally took your brand to the market.

This strategy is the hardest to sell to the business as it involves promoting topics and conversations not necessarily your own.

1. Topic not Product.

Even though you have a product to sell, most people probably don't want to buy it at this moment in time. So if your social media strategy purely involves pushing your product then you will fail.

Rather have a decent look at the industry you are in. What new innovations can be found there? What is the latest news? Latest statistics? You know these things, others don't. Find the articles, find the blog posts and retweet them, repost blogs (obviously giving credit to the authors). Share what you stumble across. Become a reference point, someone to watch due to the quality and relevance of your posts.

Fact: More people will follow you for your insights into your industry, than for you pushing your product. Your biggest opportunity to sell will come from questions and interactions you have with your followers.

2. Play follow the leader.

Give credit where credit is due. If someone has an interesting tweet... do them the courtesy of retweeting and then hitting their follow button! not only will they most probably return the favor but the likelihood of them tweeting something else interesting is very high. But be careful, following to many people will create a flood of tweets that will drown out valuable information. 

Important: turn off outo follow! a lot of programs and bots will randomly add you in the hope that you have auto follow turned on, this will just add to dead weights and sludge followers.

The follower sweet spot is around the 150 -200 mark of active content creators and contributors. There is a lot of theory and debate on this, some speculate that the active content contribution rate is 9/100 and content creation is 1/100  but that's definitely a debate for a future post.

3.Keep it in the ball park

Try sticking to topics that are connected, jumping from disconnected topic to topic will quickly discredit you as a knowledge leader. The last thing you want is to be seen as a virtual ADHD sufferer. 

However saying that, If you must cross topics ensure that you have the relevant hash (#) tags. please see point 4 below.

4. Mention it or Hash it

Aah the wonderful world of #hashtags and RT @someones. At first I found it confusing, geeky, and perceived it as industry babble. At first I shied away from using it. After reading this excellent article on the Twitter 101 website I realized I was  missing out on a key way of driving people to my Tweets and views.

By #hashtagging, not only can I ensure that people find my tweets but also reassure them that my tweets are not just random acts of a hyperactive webbrowsing.  

Tip: Find/define your topic # tag and stick to it, don't use "#socialmedia" one day and "#social media" the other day. Don't worry when people search for "Social Media" both forms will be picked up

5. Personality vs. Quirkiness

When possible do inject some personality into your tweets, yes this is difficult in a 140 character world but it can be done. The beauty of social media is that there is a real live human being sitting on the other end sharing information. So show your readers your alive. However: don't be to quirky, your aim is to be seen as being knowledgeable, not be seen as the industry clown. Consider the example tweets below, which appeals to you, your business and your industry the most? How will you talk to your followers?

Examples:

No personality: "Mimecast wins 2 Knowlist awards http://bit.ly/a3HNSY"
Personality: "Over the moon about our Knowlist Awards - Service excellence & Value for ROI http://bit.ly/a3HNSY #mimecast"
Quirky: "Whooohooo!!! We rock legal!!! We won at the Legal Knowlist Awards http://bit.ly/a3HNSY"

6. Determination and Adaptability.

Remember how Sylvester the cat could never quite catch tweetie bird? one admirable thing is he never gave up. If one tact did not work he tried another and another.

Note: Determination and the will to adapt your strategy is the biggest key to making it in social media. Be under no illusion, going viral is much harder than it sounds.

In Closing
Never forget Twitter is but one small cog in a much larger social media machine. With time and nurturing it can become an invaluable traffic driver for your business and increase not only your share of voice but also your share of conversation.