The Social Integration of Twitter

While technology keeps us moving forward with each new development, the creation of the Tweet-O-Meeter that can measure Twitter activity in major cities cites the Titanic as inspiration for its design. While the tool measures tweets-per-minute, it’s sleek design is on display in the British Library for free
until July 16 2011. The exhibit shows how social media has integrated itself into society; to measure tweets world wide puts Twitter and its use at the height of importance.

While the design pays homage to the Titanic, its real success is easily noticed: the acceptance of social media in daily life around the world. Social media’s place in society has grown ten-fold within the last few years, placing constant contact and connectivity at the fore front of our civilization.A quote from blogger Gil Pizano states,

“The social in social media also implies the tools, places and services that allow people to gather for social interaction. Social media allows individuals to gather and express themselves in a much more simple and immediate fashion. By giving people this capability, they not only have the ability to share ideas, opinions and other contents, but also (if they wish) gain notoriety, and expand their influence.”

We have progressed to the stage in our society’s fascination with social media that we are not only heralding it as communication at its finest, but rather the influence it has around the world. Pizano adds,

“Needless to say, social media has forever changed the way society works, whether it’s the sharing of an idea, the communication of news, or the availability of a product or service. Society today is on the verge of a new way of existing that it’s never experienced before. No longer will people from one side of the world be really able to say that they will never see a person or communicate with someone from the other side of the world ever in their life. “

We are beginning to take social media off its glorious pedestal of a new invention and showcase it as another venue for communication. The telephone’s spectacle eventually wore off as well, and when it did it became a house hold item. The Tweet-O-Meter throws away the mystique of Twitter and puts it on the back burner to the real success story: the connectivity of the world in under 140 characters.

It’s Not What You Know. It’s Who You Know.

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” I’ve heard it my whole life. The funny thing about that quote is that you can hear it everyday but if that day ends and you still don’t know anyone it hasn’t really gotten you far, and when you’re a young college student with a busy schedule it doesn’t feel like you can really go door to door and introduce yourself to business owners. The thing that seems most unrealistic? That any business owners will take a college student seriously.

Can you see me now? I’ve made an appointment with your secretary and I’m eager to meet with you, but to say what? You’re going to ask me about my accomplishments and I’m going to tell you the truth: I have none. Most college students can’t afford to be at the school they’re at so they’re working part-time jobs that rule out the possibility of networking and others like me are competing in athletics to help pay for school. Which let’s be honest, is only turning into a career for less that 1% of us. So here’s the scenario, I graduate and I hand out a carbon copied resume of things I think are important. Mine says something along the lines of “I’m an academic and athletic all-american. I have a high GPA. I worked at some summer jobs and my bosses liked me a lot. Oh and here were the classes I took, but I don’t know anybody important.” Now what? It’s start to feel for a lot of us like graduating is just the step before being unemployed. And it’s scary.

The best I feel like I can do is try to market myself. Social media is huge with my generation and if you’re anybody you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, FourSquare, etc. So I did what any kid in my situation should do. I created an online portfolio.  If we don’t have time to go door to door maybe CEO’s surfing the web have time to come to us. Maybe our network that consists of mostly college students we’ll end up competing against can develop and transform into a professional atmosphere. Maybe if we get some help. So check it out and see what you think: jaclynjmk.wordpress.com

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Today’s post was written by Jaclyn Luscomb,  a junior at the University of Indianapolis.  She is majoring in communications with a double emphasis in journalism and human communications. She is pretty smart cookie according to her GPA. Current member of PRSSA [Public Relations Student Society of America]. I’m also a repeat NCAA all-american in swimming.

How Social Media is Changing Journalism

Social Media has without a doubt revolutionized interactive communication and the journalistic approach to news. We all get our news from various resources with fewer of us looking to more traditional media for ours news consumption. In some extent or another all journalism will feature, if not already, a social component. The Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Internet and American Life Project collaborated to create a survey that explored the new participatory culture for news to gain a greater understanding of trends in media. For one content is changing to become more personal and therefore more social. Another aspect t that has caused a change in news in the increase in timely information. We are able to check at any given moment what the headlining news is. Therefore, people are turning to different platforms to get their news.

It’s interesting to note that the regular readers of The New York Times are 34% younger than 30, compared with 23% of the public, which suggest that a new generation of readers is discovering the virtues of the newspaper. Yet many still turn to the Internet to get their news putting a strain on how journalists in the past have conducted their work. Their entire industry is changing due to the rise of social media and the Internet.

While there are many options for the news consumer there aren’t many choices for a journalist. They either adapt of risk losing a job. We are seeing a rise of citizen journalists and bloggers are being seen as credible sources for news. How can a journalist make a living when their entire training has since then been changed? It’s time to start thinking about how journalism has changed due to social media. It’s a topic worth exploring. After all the journalist set the agenda for the news you consume.

Click here to download the report!

6 Tips for Successful Cross-Promotion of Restaurants

Sometimes going the extra mile for an event in your restaurant can make all the difference. I work very closely with one of my restaurant clients who came to me with a patron of theirs who wanted to showcase their art in the restaurant for an evening. I was brought in to help market this one-night event. What was going to be a simple evening of tray pass h’orderves and art, started to get my wheels spinning. What could I do to get more people to come to this event without spending a lot of money? What would get me to come to an event at a restaurant? Quick brainstorming led me to connect the dots in cross-promoting this event with the actual guests themselves. Here are the key elements I used to make this first Art Mixer event so successful that it is now a monthly event that has increased in attendance each time.

1) Invite a Guest Chef - While it would have been easy enough for the restaurant to cook the h’orderves themselves inviting a guest chef adds an unexpected element and intices people to come out for something special. There are many foodie chef bloggers online who blog about their food and would love the opportunity to come share their food at another restaurant. After some quick research of top food bloggers in the area I was able to reach out via Twitter and line up 6 chefs who wanted to participate for free to help get their name, restaurant and blog noticed. Each of them shared the event on their site with their audience.

2) Invite a Local Acoustic Musician – While art shows are great on their own, adding some music can liven up the space without taking away from the show. This was actually the hardest piece to pull off, as musicians want to get paid and the restaurant was not allowed to have amplified music. The way around this was using acoustic musicians that are not well known. Finding musicians is easy but often times they are struggling to meet ends meet and want some compensation. Convincing them to play for free is not easy but what I did to convince them was explain that it is an event to support and promote local artists and that I would share their bio on our website and send out an email blast to our customers with a link to their music, which could in turn help them get more gigs. Done! To actually find these musicians I turned to our Facebook fans at the restaurant. By simply asking if anyone knew any local musician we turned up 2 immediate suggestions who were both willing to play for free. Those musicians in turn knew more musicians that wanted to play at the restaurant as well.
3) Invite a Guest Artist - Customers love to see art in a restaurant, especially art that comes from the local community. We were lucky to have out first artist volunteer. What I did to find more artist was contact a couple local art bloggers and ask them to help me spread the word about the event and that I was looking for talent. This was the easiest piece to complete, artists were contacting me left and right to have a free spot to showcase their work. Once patrons from the restaurant heard about the event they too were submitting their own art to be considered.

4) Wine Tasting - What is an art show without wine. By including wine in the mix we were able to charge patrons to attend the event and participate in a wine and food tasting. We asked one of the wine representatives to come in for the event and pour wine and educate the customers on what they are drinking which in turn also increased future sales of those wines. Once the other wine reps found out that one company was successful in doing that they all wanted a chance to share their wine. Setting up a wine station with the wine rep doing the work instead of a restaurant employee saved the restaurant in labor costs.

5) Throw in a Theme - While the talent in this event are changing every month, changing the theme can help keep the event fresh and fun. In October we did an Oktoberfest beer tasting instead of wine, made a german influenced menu and had the musician do his own renditions of classic Oktoberfest music. Another suggestion just came from one of the artists. His art is mixed media “street” art so he wants to have food that compliments his art. What we will do for this one is challenge local aspiring chefs via our Facebook and email blast to come up with a gourmet street food menu and who ever comes up with the best menu will be chosen to come cook their items at his art show.

6) Partner with a Local Farmer’s Market - If you are lucky enough to have a Farmer’s Market in your town this can be a great way to cross-promote your restaurant while supporting local farmers. I contacted the new local Farmer’s Market and they were thrilled when I offered to send them one chef every month and shoot video and photos of the shopping at the market for fresh produce for a local restaurant. This was a home run for everyone because the chef blogged about the experience, the market was able to brag about a local foodie chef making an appearance and share the chef’s blog with their Facebook fans and the restaurant got a free plug on each of their sites as well. The restaurant is now considering bringing seasonal recipes with produce from the farmer’s market to continue cross-promoting each other.

There are many moving parts to this type of event but the reason it is so successful is that each of the guest talent has their own local audience. They all come together to promote each other on a small scale which in turn draws a greater turn-out. Each artist has sold at least 5 of their pieces at each show (ranging from $200-$1000 each piece) and one was even sold to a person that was just walking by and happened to peek inside. By leveraging the restaurant customers via Facebook for suggestions we were able to find artists that the community already enjoyed and that didn’t cost us a single penny. Our new slogan: Bringing together local talent and fresh produce supporting small business and local artists!
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Daniela Bolzmann is the Social Media Community Manager for Symbaloo. She graduated from California State University, Fullerton, in 2009 with a B.A. in Business Administration with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. Daniela also freelances as a social media marketer, helping restaurants and retailers in her home town of Orange County. She writes about her lessons in being a community manager, freelancing and being Gen Y on her blog and can be reached via her many social networks.

21 Ways to Build Trust and Sales Leads in Social Media

This is an old post with some new features. Feel free to add comments and suggest new ideas for building trust in potential clients and sales leads while using social media.

In the new economy there is one major truth that stands above the rest. Trust equals revenue. If you are a small to mid-sized business it is the amount of trust you can build between clients that strengthens your brand.

With trust comes happy clients and with happy clients come referrals. Trust is a fundamental block of building business. Marketing is built under the assumption that stories can create an emotional bond between a consumer and a brand… a client and a service. Can you tell a story… create a service and en experience that builds trust?

Social media can help you build that trust.

1. Content

Content is the number one way you can build trust with potential clients. By creating meaningful and thought provoking content you are building a bridge to later sell that person on your services. Talk about what you do on a daily basis. When I  say you.. it means you are writing and communicating stories that happen to you on a daily basis.

2. Tell A Story

The stories surrounding your company are the only thing that creates differences between the competition. It is extremely important that you allow for your clients to tell your story for you. The people who love what you do… and the people you serve… are the best people to tell the story of your company. Forget about mission statement and vision statements… ASK your clients.

3. Transparency

This can also pertain to content or how you use a specific social network. Be human. The people who are interested in your thoughts and suggestions want to know about you as a person. They could care less about a sale you are having or the amount of money you can cut off their bottom line. They want to know how you helped LARRY the plumber or Susan the account.

4. Picture of Your Day

When you are using social networks make sure you put up pictures of your daily life. If you have a cell phone with a camera takes some pictures of your daily routine and share them with your connections. Just don’t over do it. We can only look at so many professional business or glamor shots in a day.

5. Picture of You

Use your real picture. I don’t know how many times I have said this. Don’t use your logo. There is only one exception to this rule. If you are usingTwitter for your business and personal (see my company @Brandswag for an example). Also, do not use a glamor shot from the 1908s. We ALL know you are lying… the only person you are trying to fool… is yourself.

6. Saying Thank You

If somebody helps you share information or decideds to retweet a post.. make sure you thank that person. They are helping you spread the word… they are your online evangelists.. If you miss a thank you.. don’t let it kill you.. but try to make the most of the people that help you out.

7. Do Not Auto-DM on Twitter

See my post… I hate Twitter Auto-DM

8. No Hard Selling

I don’t care about your enewsletter or the new lotion you are selling. Also, just because I reply to a tweet or a message does not mean you can message me back and sell your wares. Social media is a long sell process. You are developing content in order to gain an order of trust with people in your area of influence. We are now experiencing a relationship driven economy… get on the train.

9. Time is Important

Remember that you are building relationships.. do not trust the people that tell you to add 1023920 friends and make $10,000 a month. It is a load of crap. Build your following slowly… create relationships in an online environment that can be transferred offline.

10. Criticism is Important

You will be criticized. It is a truth of open communication. Take it with stride and respond. If you are debated… make sure you debate back. Stand up for what you believe and you will gain trust with the people who are listening…. and watching.

11. Have fun

Good Lord… is it that hard? You have the ability to connect with thousands… and thousands… and thousands of people from every nationality… and life experience. Just imagine your ability to expand your knowledge base and learn?!

One thought: If you are not enjoying and having fun with what you do… quit… go find something else.

12. Send a Handwritten Note

People are thanked and communicated with on a daily basis through social media. If I need someone to thank… I usually send them a message or an email. It is very rare that I will get a thank you card in the mail from someone on social media. Talk about building trust and setting yourself apart!

13. Guest Post on Another Blog

There are times when you can write different posts for other blogs in order to reach a new audience.  It can help you build trust and brand awareness if your content is shared on other sites other than your own blog. This shows other people believe in your content.

14. Send Out Random Surveys to Your Clients and Readers

There are plenty of sites that have services for survey design and distribution. It is important that you ask your readers and clients to contribute to the business planning process through social media. It is important that you know what they are thinking… you also want them to understand you care.

15. Be Aware of Your Search Engine Rankings

If a client or potential client is researching social media and your name is ranked for the search terms… you are building trust. Check out Slingshot SEO if you are wanting some help in the world of search engine marketing.

16. Comment on Other Blogs

Comments on blogs and websites allow for your name and ideas to be spread at a faster pace. This is old news in terms of marketing on the Internet… it is known around the world that if you post comments… you will receive more traffic. Post 1-2 a week on your favorite blog.

17. Get Involved in Your Community and Share on Social

Community development and participation is key when building a business. It is the community whether online or offline that drives business for every small business owner. Get involved in your community and share your involvement on social media. This could mean that you share a picture of attending a fundraising event on Twitter or Facebook. You can also get involved with Causes via Facebook.

18. Be Responsive in Your Social Media Use

From the Science of Building Trust in Social Media post from Mashable:

Olson finds that when only text is available, participants judge trustworthiness based on how quickly others respond. So, for instance, it is better to respond to a long Facebook message “acknowledging” that you received the message, rather than to wait until there’s time to send a more thorough first message. Wait too long and you are likely to be labeled “unhelpful,” along with a host of other expletive-filled attributions the mind will happily construct.

It is important to remember that being responsive is huge. When a problem is happening on social media… it is happening.. NOW.

19. Do Not Over-share Your Content

We want to know what you are doing but we REALLY don’t what to know what you are doing…. does that make sense? There is only so much content you can share on a daily basis. Unfortunately there are no true laws (or rules) that apply to each social networking site. In my book Twitter Marketing for Dummies, I write about the 4-1-1 rule… for every six pieces of content you share (4 should be from other people, 1 should be your content, 1 should be content from your industry).

20. Be Findable

It is important that your social profiles are findable when an individual is searching for you whether through Twitter or Google. Check out this post by DigitalTattoo on being finable online.

21. Create a Facebook Group for Your Circle of Trust

We all have a circle of people that we trust to network and drive leads to our business. I have a set group of 10-15 people that I ask constantly for leads and I help them bridge connection for sales and business development. Create a Facebook Group to help drive 24/7 conversation between the group. It is important to create deeper and meaningful relationships with your core supporters.

You must first understand the new functionality of Facebook Groups. David Armano has a great post on the Harvard Business Review describing the new Facebook Groups.

Please add to this list!

Living a Better and Unforgettable Story

This has been a long time coming and should have been written about two weeks ago. Give me a break.

I had the pleasure of attending the first ever StoryLine Conference hosted by Donald Miller the author of best seller Blue Like Jazz and a Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I love the writing of Mr. Miller and was thrilled to be able to spend a day or two with him in Portland, Oregon. Talk about a beautiful city!

I didn’t really know what to expect when I first decided to attend the conference. I know that Don has a ton of writing surrounding the idea of building a better story in your life and who wouldn’t want to attend a conference about bettering your life! I’m not talking about the “live your best life now” or a smiling Tony Robbins raining his praises and neural linguistic fueled smile down upon his followers. I’m talking about a bare bones build out of how to live your life and tell an unforgettable story.

We are all living in a script filled world… do you want the best script or one that is tossed?

The conference had the ups and downs of any event that is working out growing pains. There were times when I was completely involved in the conversation and other times where I didn’t have clue what to think.  The best part of the conference was where Don talked about inciting incidents and how they apply to your life.

In writing an inciting incident is the moment in a script that kicks the story into motion. It occurs after the setup and everything that follows should be a result of that incident. It’s where a story really begins. In movies, there is usually one inciting incident that changes the landscape of the storyline so drastically that you have to watch for the end result.The same idea applies to your life. However, you will have multiple inciting incidents (both good and bad) that will help build your story over the course of your life.

I can now pinpoint different “inciting incidents” that have formed my opinion of life.

Your story is the only thing that is actually yours in life. You have the ability to tell your story in any way you see it. Do you want the main character of your story to be healthy? Do you want them to be successful and live a fulfilled life? Or do you want to live a tragedy? There is beauty behind the concept of rewriting your story. We are all on this path towards an ending. What type of conflicts, successes, mountain and valleys are you going to take to reach the climax of your life?

Are you striving to write a better story?

Size Does Not Matter in Social Media

Sometimes size does matter… in this case… it does not.

The debate over quality vs. quantity in social media is one to consider when using Twitter. The amount of influence a user has on Twitter is not a direct reflection of the amount of followers. So the debate favors quality. According to Mashable a study done by Northwestern University indicates that celebrities with millions of followers are mostly ignored on social media sites, which results in little influence, if any at all. Social media isn’t a popularity contest (though some may disagree) and size does not equal influence, engagement or action. What creates influence is amount of quality content. Popularity doesn’t do anything but allow for bragging rights.

The researchers from Northwestern applied their mathematical algorithm to the countless tweets that appear on Twitter each day and found that experts in certain fields were much more likely to influence topics to become trends. Thus meaning the quality of content shared on Twitter is what matters not the quantity. Social media enthusiasts turn to Twitter for substance and to engage with other users who share the same insight. Therefore, a big named celebrity may have millions of followers but they are not necessarily reaching their audience in a meaningful way. Numbers mean nothing in the big spectrum of Twitter influence.

However, celebrities can have great influence with the advantage of being a prominent figure.A case of celebrity and influence done right is in the case of LeBron James . He has hundreds of thousands of followers as well as influence. He tweets about basketball, what he knows, what people following him want to know. If he chose to tweet about politics he may not generate as much influence as a politician would… tweeting on the subject. James’ influence is a direct result of him tweeting quality content related to what he is well known and respected for.

Next time you get discouraged when thinking about how few followers have. Don’t. Keep tweeting quality content and with your loyal following. In the end it doesn’t matter how popular you are…what matters are the relationships you’ve built….and the discussions of substance you’ve had.

4 Tips on Writing Great Stories for Your Brand

When telling a story how do you make it a worthwhile read? How do you captivate your audience? Reflect on your daily activities to look for life experiences to help reach and engage with your audience. How do your use your life experiences to shape your story?

One thing to keep in mind when writing your story is the focus. As storytellers we can easily go off on tangents and get distracted. Stay on track by sticking to the focus of your story. If your having trouble finding your focus then stop and think….

and think…

It’s easy to forget a fundamental key in storytelling…thinking.

After some reflection and thought the focus may come to you once the story’s been told. The focus is what the story is about…why it was told.

Ask yourself four questions when preparing your story:

1. Why does my story matter? Why are you telling your story? You think it matters but who else does? This goes hand and hand with understanding your audience and telling them a story they’d connect with… emotionally.

2.What’s the point? What’s the purpose of the story. To teach something? To share an experience that changed you? This is your focus. You should be able to define what that is with only a few words.

3.Why am I telling the story? Original content comes from people who are simply willing to tell their story not attention seekers. So what’s your motivation behind the story?

4.What does this story say about me? Does it reflect you in a good light? Does it tell you audience who you are? Does the story flow? Is there a clear understanding? You want to make your story understandable and relatable. You want to be liked but you want to leave them with something to chew on.

By answering the four basic questions… your audience may be able to make a real connection with your story and ultimately you (your brand).

Why is it important to focus? Because we want to know what the story was about.

We want to know why that story was shared.

We want to take something away from it… connect with it.

Stories are Life. Marketers are Failing.

Stories are life. Stories are built off of every day occurences and the little things that happen in life. Where did we… as marketers… go wrong when telling the story? All businesses and products are built off of a story. What is the main point of marketing… Is it fulfilling a need? Is it creating a product that actually helps an individual? Is it selling your wares… period?

A story is something that creates a safe haven for an individual. You are building a message that should be involved in the story of your customer’s life. It should (and must be) the connection that brings in additional customer and evangelists for your brand.

You want your customer to get to a place… a place where they agree with your terms and conditions. A place where they say, “Yes. I do need, want, or should have that product or service.”

A place where they approve your service and believe/know it will work for them… in any capacity.

What is the series of events that drive a person to a specific point: buying your product. What are you telling your customers? Is your story bland… Boring… Normal?

I see normal marketing everywhere. Brochures… Smiling billboards… Postcards… Facebook updates…It is normal and plain. There are no new story lines. There is nothing to pull me into the brand. The stock photography you bought in 1980 is not going to sell me on buying a house. The telemarketer that just left a message on my cell phone is not going to trick me into buying your magazine subscription.

And… the direct mail piece you just sent me asking me about my retirement plans… is definitely not going to pull me into your luncheon.

My friends and MY preferences are going to sell me on your product. I want to pull your information at MY will… at MY discretion. Notice a trend here?

It is about me… how are you speaking to me? Nay… how are you listening? Do you know what I want as an individual… are you allowing me to interact?

If you are not…

You have a long way to go… shift that paradigm and interact.

Foursquare versus Facebook Places

Facebook and Foursquare at war?

Well, not really but Facebook has launched their new Facebook Places… trying to create a product that could become a leader in geolocal-applications. Foursquare stands on its own as the most popular or most heard of geolocation based application…however their biggest problem is Facebook’s size… over 500 million users. Foursquare must do something big and fast to compete with Facebook. So what’s next for the original pioneer in geolocation based application? What are you going to do Foursquare?

Do you really have to do anything?

Facebook has the tendency to copy sites that have early success in different ventures including Foursquare and Twitter. I remember back in the day of the Lacy household… my mother would always tell me that people loved you if they copied you. Truthfully, I haven’t figured out whether or not she was right… but Foursquare must be doing something right in the world of social media.

Imitation is flattery… technically.

Dennis Crowley, CEO of Foursquare, recently shared with Mashable his opinion of the two services:

“Facebook is about sharing experiences that you’ve had. Foursquare is more about the present tense and the future tense.”

I appreciate his opinion but it is truly how the user interacts with the application… not what the CEO’s opinion is of the competition.

What do you think? Where are you loyal? Do you even care?