soulati.com

Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

Soulati-'TUDE!

Twitter Police Needed For Citations

By

When I first dived into Twitter, my initial impression was “why is everybody yelling at me?”

For the first few months of my involvement, it seemed anyone I followed was ranting about/bemoaning the “bad behavior” of other Twitter users. Don’t do this, don’t do that. It was extremely off-putting.

And then I’d run into the “Don’t tell people they’re doing it wrong! You can’t do it wrong!” No wonder people drop off Twitter. Who can keep track of the etiquette when it contradicts itself? It would seem from all those ranty tweets and posts that you certainly COULD do it wrong. WTH, everyone?

Of course…I became one of those people! I cringe when I see the ALL CAPS TWEETS. Meaningless #FF tweets. Or on Facebook, which I joined after Twitter. Really, song lyrics as status update – are you a 13yo girl? Does your JOB know you play Pet Society this much? Hide hide hide hide.

Still, even as I was sucked into the etiquette police, I wanted to write something about not yelling at everyone so much. Especially lately. But this morning I woke up to this item from one of my favorite shopping sites, Modcloth.com: The social media citation pad.

Where are my programmer friends at? We need to digitize this. Let’s just do it. Like a version of someecards. We can just cite people in a tweet and get on with our lives. CITATION: ACRONYM ABUSE! CONSIDER THIS A WARNING. Each citation will be accompanied by a picture of a sad dog – maybe Jon Buscall’s basset hounds!

We can do this.

About Condoms & Social Media, Heh

By

credit: blogs.laweekly.com

It’s Saturday and finally hot. My mind takes silly twists and turns without the confines of intense focus of the customary work week (which has grown to encompass nights and weekends).

I’m sitting in the streaming sunshine with streaming thoughts (stay with me here) marveling at all the comments still active on three blogs I commented on and wrote yesterday (do people ever put up boundaries?). Scanning a headline in O’Dwyers “Congloms, PR service firms see big Q1 gains,” I did a double take — condoms? Really?

And then my mind immediately returned to a sassy comment I’d made the other day in conversation (what, me sassy?); whatever happened to the condom (the link is clean…from Wikipedia)?

There’s a high profile case that has me blown away (well only wind blown) — that of the Terminator having sired a love child 10 years ago with his housekeeper while married to his also-celebrity wife Maria Shriver with whom he sired three(?) children.

And, let’s not forget John Edwards whose high-profile wife was terminal with cancer while he sired a love child he tried to keep under wraps unsuccessfully with a vendor to his presidential campaign. I’m not the man in the heat of passion with some young tart wanting a piece of his DNA; however, wouldn’t one think if he was a man in such a position of power and celebrity as these two both were that a condom would be in order?

I don’t know, call me stupid.

So what do condoms have to do with social media? Uhmm, nothing…but let me stretch the confines of creativity to ensure I’m ready for Monday…(you know keeping my brain cells focused on intense work over a weekend).

Let me define this useful item, (rarely used by celebrity males at least two we’re aware of which keeps mass production in check), as a sheath or protective barrier (it’s also defined as such by Wikipedia, a link above). And, a protective barrier has many uses in social media…here are three for you:

  • **How do you protect your Facebook page from getting spammed with negative comments? Let’s ask Burson-Marstellar! Why, you just remove the unacceptable posts from unfriendlies and hope for the best (aka suffer the backlash).
  • **How do you protect your Twitter account from being seen by your boss? You keep it locked and only accept tweeps by approval, of course. For sure; that’s a marvelous way to grow a community and engage, isn’t it?
  • **How do you add more subscribers and commenters to your blog posts? You take off the protective barrier and hope that posts like this don’t offend anyone. And, if your “subscribe” widget isn’t working or you miss the deadline for the Feedburner distribution by 20 minutes, that really helps protect anyone from reading a really bad Saturday post that truly stretches it.

That is all.

Content Is Still King (via Social Slam)

By

I attended Social Slam sponsored by the Knoxville Social Media Club April 13, 2011, and one thing was clear — content is still king in social media. We sat through various panels and 3-4 keynote addresses throughout the day.

On the panel I sat on (as a substitute presenter), my colleagues Trey Pennington and Anne Deeter Gallaher spoke with me about convincing the CFO that social media had incredible value. My analogy was to compare it to advertising — when you run a print ad, does it garner immediate results, leads, conversions, impressions, sales? Nope.

While everyone was touting ROI (my favorite statement was by Amy Howell of Howell Marketing who said ROI meant “risk of ignorance”) for social media and how to communicate its value add with measurable impact, the thread that binds all of social media is critically basic. It’s CONTENT.

Let’s think about that a sec. Businesses far and wide are jumping on the social media bandwagon, finally. Regardless of how large the company or organization is, each has one thing in common — the need to develop content, a tweet, a post, a blog article, an Internet press release, a website page, a landing page, tips series, white paper, case studies, and more.

Even prior to engaging and creating a community, the message becomes the only thing that matters. And, so, with my PR hat, I encourage each of you, regardless of whether you’re a solo practitioner, corporate communicator, not-for-profit, agency peep, or consultant to do the following:

  • Create a message map for your brand. Within this framework, tell your story much like Trey Pennington, one of the most impressive storytellers I’ve had the pleasure of meeting IRL (I learned that at Social Slam — “in real life!”).
  • Consider using a mind map brought to you by none other than Roy  Grubb, my tweep king of mind mapping who runs a wiki Information Tamers on all things mind mapping. Using this tool, show the progression of your marketing path and where you want to push your message.
  • Knowing social media is a time suck, get in the habit of taking your iPad2 (I’m blogging on one right now while kidlet is in taekwando class) with you everywhere to jot a note about something that strikes you. (You can use the traditional method of pencil and paper, too, you know!) Content development is inspired at the oddest times; I come up with blog post ideas while hiking the trails, just before bed (that’s why I have to read sci-fi and fantasy before I sleep because there’s no chance I’ll think about  business reading that crazy stuff).
  • Hire a junior person to draft 25 tweets on a topic oriented to your work. These can be basic and good filler throughout the week when you’re trying to buy some time back. At the same time, hire some people to research for you, too. I find research time a luxury I don’t have. If someone can pull the studies and review blog posts for me, then I can draft the copy.
  • There is an art and skill to Twitter and Facebook. If you’re naturally effervescent with words, and your personality shines through, then you can get away with engaging naturally. If you’re shy and have trouble with free speak, do a lot of reading, listening and testing the waters. Adopt a topic you’re comfortable with until you find your stride.

It takes a pretty seasoned public relations practitioner to be able to develop all variations of content as mentioned above. Not every department or firm or team is going to find that in house; it’s highly likely you’ll need to hire it out, and the best place to comb the field is at industry events the likes of Social Slam.

Mark W. Schaefer, the event emcee, announced next year’s event is at the end of April in Knoxville. Plan to attend; it was well worth it, and every age group was in attendance among the ~450; that’s darn impressive.

Social Slam Huge Success

By

Sitting amongst a sea of iPads, notebooks, Smartphones, MacBooks, and yes, even laptops at Social Slam in Knoxville.

Congratulations to the organizers of this amazing conference and to my dear colleague Mark W. Schaefer for his up-to-minute hosting of the event.

For this first gathering, I’m impressed with attendance (some 400?); age range of attendee (from student to highly seasoned and senior folks 50+); from perhaps 14 states and Canada; and the free Wi-Fi(! — how could they not?).

I got to meet people I’ve tweeted with, and I was recognized by people who knew me from Twitter (via my avatar). I got to hear the A-list speakers present and actually rub shoulders with them, too. I connected live with Erica Allison of Allison Development Group, Jenn Whinnem, Billy Mitchell from Atlanta, Amy Howell of Howell Marketing, Anne Gallaher, Deb Weinstein, and so many others.

I met the vivacious CK Kerley who is the queen of mobile marketing and B2B, and we just heard a fab analytical presentation from Carpathia Hosting. On the dais to come are another panel and Jay Baer’s keynote presentation to go.

I encourage you to come next year; you will NOT be disappointed!

Why Not To Reach 50,000 Twitter Followers

By

David Meerman Scott is someone you should follow on Twitter. He’s author of one of my favorite books,  The New Rules of Marketing and PR (and, I can’t find my dog-eared copy, darn it), and he blogs over at Web Ink Now.

As I was trolling through Google Reader for some blog fodder, I came across his post today, The Secret to Getting 50,000 Followers on Twitter (and, if you read the blog, there is no secret). David says it takes blood, sweat and The Grateful Dead to hit 50K (well, not really).

(Just to share, I like having handsome men imaged on my blog; David’s mug came directly from his blog, link above).

Since 2008, here’s what David Meerman Scott has done to reach Twitter nirvana — 50,000 followers (extracted exactly from his blog):

Now, I’ll share my thoughts about why you should never wish to reach 50,000 followers on Twitter:

1. You’ll never make a connection with anyone because the stream will be flying at warp speed.

2. You’ll be considered a jerk because anyone who mentions you or asks you a question will need to get in line for your response.

3. You’ll never be able to discern a legitimate direct message from junk mail.

4. You cannot strike up a one-off convo about music  with just anyone because tweeps will get jealous you’re not paying attention to them, too.

5. Your in box will be loaded with tweets, and your smartphone will show more Twitter activity than emails.

6. There will not be enough columns on TweetDeck or HootSuite to deliver the numerous hashtag chats you’ll want to engage in. In fact, you’ll need quadruple monitors to manage Twitter apps.

7. Twitter will become a one-way, outbound channel for you to promote your blogs, books and banter; no two-way communication.

8. You’ll stop following anyone else because that means you’d need to spend a day returning the follow-me-I’ll-follow-you favor.

9.You’ll just start RT’ing tweets without any screening so you can stay on followers’ good sides.

10. And, in reference to the list above…uhm, is that humanly possible, David? You’re not jivin’ us, are you?