B5Rss: 7 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community

sâmbătă, 14 ianuarie 2012

7 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community

7 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community

Retweeting the Right Way

Posted: 14 Jan 2012 02:30 PM PST

The art of retweeting a tweet seems simple enough. On most applications you can simply press the 'retweet button' and you're away…or at least you think you're away….

However it seems that hundreds of competent tweeters get this simple action very wrong.

In the midst of tweeting excitement, many people tend to forget that they need to tailor the tweet in order to include the entire tweet content plus your 'RT @handle'.

If you fail to amend your tweet by condensing a few letters or emitting a word or two – you are in great danger of going over your 140 characters and therefore missing out your vital ingredient – your hyperlink.

If you are using Twitter on your android or iphone – it's less easy to commit this crime. The Twitter app on smartphone really dumbs things down for us and we are given the option to simply retweet the tweet as it is – 'no RT @handle' needed. Twitter.com actually allows for us to do this as well.

However if you are a Hootsuite user, for example, things aren't so simple. You just need to remember to amend the tweet and allow enough character space to write 'RT @handle' and then include all the tweet content. It's also worth noting that most tweets will need some editing as the majority of tweets take up the required character space.

When you hit that retweet button in Hootsuite – it very kindly takes the tweet for you and adds the 'RT @handle' in front of your tweet – however, that doesn't mean to say that the whole message will now fit into 140 characters. If you just then hit send – you've most probably chopped off the end of your tweet and therefore your link, which is a waste of time for everyone involved!

We hope this small complaint on our part will help to stop people getting over excited with their retweeting and delivering half messages. Please help to spread the word by sharing on this blog – in the hope to eradicate retweeting errors.

The Next President Must Have An Integrated Social Media Strategy

Posted: 14 Jan 2012 01:35 PM PST

When President Obama became president, it was widely reported that he used social media and technology to help gain the momentum and the votes he needed.

Today, if we look at the republican candidates and their use of social media, we see that each has a lopsided social media strategy at best. In other words, someone might have a lot of Facebook activity, but not much on Twitter. One might have a lot of "likes" and another one may not have any "likes" because they don't understand what "likes" do. Some of them have Facebook and Twitter, but they aren't on YouTube.

For example, let's look at frontrunner Mitt Romney. He has over 1.3 million Facebook "likes." That's powerful. But his Twitter followers are only around 200,000, and his You Tube subscribers are a measly 3,300 (as of this writing). So he's doing great in one area, but where's the rest?

The other candidates have a similar track record. They're really good at one or two things, but there's no overall, consistent social media strategy. I see the same challenge in the business community every day.

Here's an important point for everyone to consider: Many people think social media is all about Facebook and/or maybe it's all about Twitter, but it's so much more than that. Facebook is the current leader under a certain category of social media. But realize that leaders come and go. Any leader is good for a certain period of time, but then someone else takes over.  Why?  Because technology shifts.

For example, when it came to search, Yahoo was the leader of search…until Google came along.

Now let's talk social media. Social networking is a category. Who's the current leader? Facebook. But Facebook wasn't always the current leader. It used to be MySpace. You don't hear about MySpace much anymore, but they were the big one until Facebook changed the game.

So could someone change the game on Facebook? Of course. Someone can change the game on Google, too, by the way.

The point is that there's more than Facebook when it comes to social networking. Are you on the other social media sites? Do you even know what the other ones are? Here's the short list of social media categories and their current leaders: The social networking leader is Facebook. The professional networking leader is LinkedIn. The blogging leader is WordPress. The micro-blogging leader is Twitter. The video sharing leader is YouTube. The photo sharing leader is Flickr. The crowd-sourced content leader is Reddit. The geo-social networking leader is 4Square.

As you can see, there are a number of categories. Are you looking at how you might be able to use those categories, or are you just picking the big ones in one or two categories?

Going back to the presidential candidates, it seems that none of them have a comprehensive, integrated, well-thought-through social media strategy at all. In fact, it seems they are really good at one or two social media platforms, but they haven't found how to pull it all together and integrate them all into a powerful whole.

Here's my prediction: The candidate who figures out how to create that well-rounded strategy, whether it's the republicans or whether it's the President, will get amazing momentum and tip the scale in his favor this November. The only variable is who that person will be.

Daniel Burrus

Applying Game Mechanics to Blog Design to Drive Engagement

Posted: 14 Jan 2012 12:30 PM PST

On average, our standard of living is higher now than it was for our parents.

The basic needs for survival, shelter and safety have been met and the thing that we are all searching for now is more fun, engagement, more connectedness with other human beings, and more Game Mechanics. Except, we're not consciously aware of the last one.

Those of us who are in Content Provider business, are competing for one resource that is finite, and that is people's attention.

The Flipped Funnel

It used to be that people would become a customer FIRST, and only then would the seller allow the customer to engage in a game. Think Marlboro miles for instance.

If you wanted to collect Marlboro miles you had to become a customer first (buy a pack of Marlboros). Same thing with Airline miles.

But the sales funnel has flipped.

Now, we are all competing for attention of the customer, and the way to get the customers to buy from us, is to keep that customer glued to our content.

If the reader is glued to your blog, if that bounce rate is low, if the page views are high, then, and only then, will you have the opportunity to sell to that would-be-customer.

Except selling to that customer is not the main point of the game.

3 Types of Engaged

You want your readers to stay on your blog for 3 reasons other than an immediate and direct sale.

  1. Longer they stay, more likely they are to share your content with their friends, thereby bringing other readers to your blog which can then do the same thing. A virtuous circle indeed.
  2. Longer they stay more likely they are to comment, sign up for your newsletter, click on ads, click on affiliate links, etc.
  3. Longer they stay more likely you are to burrow your ideas and images into the reader's head, ergo, more likely they are to return.

Big blogs like Huff Post and the ilk understand this, so they keep readers engaged by pumping out new content that's easy to share and breaking new stories which drives the return traffic.

Personality bloggers and one-man operations are seldom able to compete UNLESS we step up our game. And the only shining beacon of possibility is if solid Game Mechanics are employed on our blogs.

Porn-Dirty Sans Porn

We've followed the Internet Marketer example for way too long. Lemme ask you a question.

Ever been on a website that had nothing to do with porn and yet you felt dirty?

If yes, then you've experienced the unethical, sleazy, and salesy methodology of gaining a customer. And Internet Marketers have bean leading the charge in experimentation, aggressiveness, brute-force sales, and –lets not mince words here- unethical behavior.

Bloggers who are successful have learned from this but have basically toned down IM techniques to preserve their souls at the cost of diminishing effectiveness.

I say we can keep our souls and increase effectiveness through solid Game Mechanics.

Game Mechanics isn't Only for Games

In Sweden, they experimented with Game Mechanics on a large scale and in real life.

Instead of punishing drivers for speeding, cameras would capture drivers who were driving 5 miles below the speed limit. These drivers would then be entered in a lottery and the reward money came from drivers who were speeding. This had a significant effect (over 70%) on the reduction of accidents on Swedish highways.

So, if Game Mechanics can be applied to Swedish highways, Marlboro customers and frequent flyers, why not your blog?

To learn more, follow Gabe Zichermann on Twitter. He will DM you a link to few really great videos on Game Dynamics. Also, check out his book.

…Ability to Engage? Priceless.

What does everyone want?

Everyone wants SAPS. Status, Access, Power and Stuff. And in that order.

The great news for your blog is that Status, Access, and Power cost absolutely nothing and yet THEY are the strongest drivers of engagement.

Stuff, on the other hand, (mugs, T-Shirts, hats, whatever) costs money and yet it is the weakest driver of engagement. Why? People know how much "Stuff" costs. People know that a T-Shirt costs about $15.00 bucks. And a hat costs about $10.00 bucks. They can put a value on it.

However, no one is able to correctly apply value to Status, Access, and Power.

  • If you are the Chief of a tribe on Triberr, that is a status designation. But how valuable is that?
  • If I give you access to a secret post before its published to everyone else, how valuable is that?
  • If I allow you to become a moderator on my forum, how valuable is that?

It's impossible to put a dollar value on these things, and as a rule, people usually over shoot in their estimates.

Bad Design is Pervasive

From the perspective of Game Mechanics, blogs are –by and large- terribly designed. So how do you design your blog so it drives engagement?

I will NOT talk about giving stuff away. This is simplistic and common. Moreover, I will save the discussion of Power-giving to drive engagement for some other time.

At this moment, I want to discuss two most powerful drivers of engagement, and those are Status and Access.

Leader Scoreboard

If you look to your left, you will see my Leader Scoreboard.

It shows 21 people ranked from highest to lowest as measured in terms of commenting frequency on DIYB.

This is not terribly original. Many blogs have Top Commenters widget on the side. But Top Commenters doesn't do anything to impart the sense of Status on anyone. However, calling it Leader Scoreboard, does.

If you call it "Leader Scoreboard", the reader is immediately transplanted to his or her childhood when they would walk by a video game at the local Arcade and glanced at the top players. This would usually be followed by either a comment under one's breath "those lucky bastards", or inserting of the coin at an attempt to beat the top score.

In our case, we're going for the second reaction.

However, Leader Scoreboard, as it's applied her on DIYB is far from perfect.

The lowest "score" is 19 Comments at the time of this writing. Which –for some- may be a real deterrent, an insurmountable number to reach. Which creates a barrier to entry for new arrivals.

A perfect Leader Scoreboard widget, would show 4 of your friends (pulled from Facebook, Twitter, or comment systems database) and show you the 2 above you and 2 below you.

This way, you would see that you're doing better than some of your friends (bragging rights) and you would see what you need to do to beat the friend who is right above you (competitiveness trigger).

A perfect Leader Scoreboard widget would also allow you to tweet or share on Facebook when you reach a new level on the Leader Scoreboard.

As far as I know, such a widget doesn't exist. Could someone please create one?

Responsiveness is Access Trigger

There are blogs who get 10 times more traffic than this one. And yet, DIYB does 10 times better in terms of comment numbers. And folks, lets not fool ourselves, comments are in important sign of blog's stickiness.

Comments are a "shorthand" new visitors use to determine if the blog is worth sticking around for, or not.

One way in which bloggers can make their blog more engaging is to give commentators a timely reply.

What is a timely reply? An immediate one, ideally.

This gives the sense to the visitor that they have Access to you (which they do), which is incredibly empowering to the reader.

This level of accessibility is something smaller bloggers have that large blogs (and bloggers) cant replicate. This is an advantage small bloggers have that –I feel- they are not using as much as they could.

I live what I preach

How many of you have watched a comment come in only to think "I should wait to reply so I don't come of desperate". Can you see how wrong that kind of thinking is?

Another Example of Access

On my dog blog, I would give my Facebook fans exclusive access to an unpublished post, 24 hrs before it became available to everyone else.

This always resulted in a few comments and lots of traffic.

I use Posterous platform for my dog blog, which allows me to do this. On WordPress, I don't believe that's an option. Too bad, that would be another cool plug in. Will someone get on that please?

The Only Way to Beat WoW Is To Quit WoW

Dan Cristo used to play World of Warcraft…A LOT. He shared a saying they have in the world of…World of Warcraft.

The only way to beat World of Warcraft is to quit.

Did you know that the second largest Wikipedia-like depository of information is WOW-Wikipedia?

I'm saying this to impart upon you the significance of applying Game Mechanics to your online efforts. And no one does Game Mechanics better than WoW.

Whether they are in the form of an online game, blog, Social Media strategy, motivating your employees, or something entirely different, solid Game Mechanics will be the difference between success and utter failure.

The problem is, we're not accustomed to doing this. Not on our blog, not in our Social Media efforts, and not in real life.

But, if we start thinking in terms of Game Mechanics, and we start applying it to our blogging efforts, Social Media campaigns, and even life, (remember the Swedish highway?) we will improve our chances of stickiness and success by a significant margin.

  • How much do you know about Game Mechanics?
  • Have you used any on your blog or life?
  • What questions do you have after reading this primer on Game Mechanics?

Google+, Citizen Activism and the Future of Journalism

Posted: 14 Jan 2012 10:35 AM PST

Last week I had the pleasure of joining other guests on This Week in Social Media with host, Robert Tercek. As always, it was a lively discussion ranging from the rise of Google+, to citizen and consumer activism, to the future of journalism. I hope you enjoy it.

Top 5 Twitter Tools Like You’ve Never Seen Before

Posted: 14 Jan 2012 07:00 AM PST

When I grow up, I want to be just like Rob Pene.

He's put together a great system for business owners who are trying to balance the need for social media time with the time needed to actually run a business.

Rob and his team have mastered the art and the science of using tools to help manage their time spend interacting online and they share their secrets in Rob's Twitter Massive Influence course.

Rob is the Founder of Mission Driven Brand and the person responsible for making Triberr's Facebook page look like a million bucks. He can do the same -and more- for you.

Watch the video to learn a lot more:

Tools featured in the interview:

Google And Facebook Are Forcing You To Have Sex With Your Cousin

Posted: 14 Jan 2012 03:00 AM PST

Sweltering heat of the August sun was beating down on us like it knew it would have only few hours before we retreat into our caves not to be seen for weeks. But I was a geek amongst geeks, and sun or no sun, I was ecstatic that tonight I will finally get what I was longing for all summer long. Windows 95.

So, I got mine, Jack.

I unwrapped my shiny new 386 loaded with Windows 95, set it up, and called America Online to activate my 30 day free trial.

I had America Online (AOL to the noobs) for exactly 5 hrs before I figured out what it was about.

It was a human-moderated directory that would give you a heck of a time if you tried to access the actual World Wide Web.

Well, I uninstalled that shit really quick, canceled my account and went with Earthlink. F U AOL.

Why?

For me, the Internet is beautiful exactly because it's unmoderated.

Why would I want some human employed by a giant corporation to tell me what is suitable for mental consumption and what isn't?

The TV sucks because FCC moderates the content and whitewashes it into blandness 'till there's nothing left.

The Internet is awesome exactly because there are no arbiters of taste, morality and standards.

I want to explore and discover the nooks and crannies of the Interwebs on my own. I want to fail, and stumble, and catch something nasty so I can re-install. But maybe that's just me…

Google and Facebook are Now AOL

What you may not realize is that Google and Facebook are doing the same exact thing AOL did back then.

When you search one of these giants, they are providing you with a human-moderated results.

The Big G and FB are little wiser than AOL of course. They are not employing a large staff of drones to filter what's "inappropriate", instead they are using your friends to figure out what search results you would like to see.

Search results I would like to see? WTF?

If you happen to be a Democrat and some of your friends have a Republican slant, Facebook will favor the newsfeed items by your Democrat-friends and obfuscate and suppress results returned by your Republican constituency.

Same is true of religion, brand awareness and everything else these algorithmic giants can figure out you would like to see instead of what it actually is.

This feels to me like Google and Facebook are forcing me to inbreed with like minded people. Not to mention that it skews the reality of my existence in a seemingly positive way while "protecting" me from bad people with differing opinions.

Two Systems, One Goal

This is absolutely disastrous behavior for us because two things are happening here.

On one hand, we are forced into groups of like minded people which results in our beliefs, opinions and realities confirmed and reflected by these like minded people.

This creates a pretty bubble of existence for us where none of our beliefs are tested, opinions questioned, and realities re-examined. If you like that sort of thing, then Google and Facebook are your thing, but…

On the other hand, forcing us deeper into one mindset separates us from people of a different mindset. If it ended there, that would be fine, but it doesn't.

Studies were done where moderates (religious, political, etc) were placed with extremists for only few hours. Due to peer pressure, seeking of social proof and other psychological factors, these moderates were quickly converted into extremists.

The House Always Wins

The system always favors its creator.

Whether it's a casino, the system of government, a religion or an online service, the system always favors its creator. And in order for the system to support itself, it needs to create a separation within a system, otherwise, the members of the system start to pay too much attention to the makers of the system and the system itself. And that is a huge threat to the system.

I forgot the details, but I saw this in an old documentary once. A member of Black Panther movement was receiving financial support from a corporation. The corporation figured as long as there is social unrest, the people and the government will have more immediate things to worry about than the questionable practices of the corporation. Clever little fucks, aren't they?

My point?

As long as we are led into like-minded circles and given to reinforcement of our own beliefs, we are further taken away from opposing circles. This creates a chasm and this chasm is at the root of all conflicts.

Conflict however, favors the system for as long as there is conflict within the system, no one is minding the architect.

Social Reach: Size Does Matter

Posted: 13 Jan 2012 03:20 PM PST

A popular topic amongst social media folks is the ongoing discussion around how many likes/followers a person or organization has and how much that matters. Most folks will usually side on how the numbers do not matter, and what's more important is engagement, conversions, and whether those connections actually result in contributing to business results. All of this is is very true. Having a large social reach is certainly useless if none of those other things are happening. But I can tell you from experience that anyone that says the size of your reach does not matter is flat out wrong.

Almost 3 years ago a bomb dropped on me when Microsoft laid me off. I did not see it coming, nor should I have as they never had laid anyone in history of the company. I was ill prepared to enter the job market with thousands of other unfortunate souls. I had failed to focus substantial efforts on my own social credentials. I was fortunate however to have a decent enough severance package to buy me the time to focus on myself. And that's exactly what I did concentrating on blogging, building my social following, and influence in social marketing.

Those efforts were the foundation to some fairly significant career happenings in my life. To more clearly reinforce why the numbers do matter, the following are a few examples to demonstrate how.

  1. In the past 2 1/2 years I have scored 3 different interviews, 2 at Microsoft, and 1 for my current gig. In all 3 experiences, my social following was clearly a big reason for getting the initial interviews. It put my name at the top of the list every time.
  2. Every client pitch I walk into is proceeded with my social credentials, and every time, it impresses them enough to walk into the room with a level of credibility before I even say a word.
  3. Most recently, I was contacted by a casting producer for Season 2 of a reality/adventure show called Escape Routes. I was clearly identified and drew interest initially because of my social following.

I know what some of you are thinking…all those people don't know enough about social media thus are easily influenced by big numbers. And my response to you would be….Yea, that's exactly my point.

Of course those numbers are not the be all end all. You have to back it up with actual knowledge, experience, and an ability to effectively leverage those networks, which I have been able to do. In all my examples, if I wasn't able to back it up with clear examples and experience, of course they wouldn't have worked out for me. But one clear fact remains; MY SOCIAL REACH OPENED THE DOORS. And that my friends, is the whole point of this blog post. Having a large social following in and of itself will open doors for you. You better be able to back it up, but the doors will open. Fair? Maybe, maybe not.

What's your take or experiences?
Publicat de la 15:45

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