How do you see businesses using social networking to drive their growth in the future?

Federico: Social networking is one of the most efficient ways to tell everyone what you do, and most importantly, how you do it. How a business engages its audience on social media tells a lot about the way they do business. Making people love your brand goes beyond just marketing your products and services. It’s about loving them in the first place, and social media is one very powerful way to show it.

More businesses use social media to amplify customer experiences with their products beyond the moment they’re being used. While doing so, they are also telling potential customers what type of business they are. Small business owners usually take on this task, others hire community managers or outsource this job to agencies. I see social media as a core strategic process in every business, empowering both sales and customer retention.

How will business networks change the process of gaining new leads?

Federico: There’s a lot more to social and business networks than just profiles, likes and comments. The right strategy and tools can provide access to a world of very valuable information about your current and potential customers, in real-time. There are endless lists of applications that leverage networks’ data to provide businesses with actionable business intelligence and qualified leads.

Business networks are replacing word of mouth, customer referrals and in some cases marketing efforts in the process of feeding the top of sales funnels. The extent of how this is happening in specific businesses depends on the priority social networks have been given at strategic level and what teams, tools and processes have been put in place to accomplish this.

What is one factor that companies often neglect in their social media campaigns?

Federico: Consistency. In small and medium businesses, you see companies jumping into social media through isolated initiatives that are not part of a consistent plan towards a given goal. It’s just done because everyone else is doing it and randomly posting updates on their business profiles. This is probably even worse than not showing up at all. If you want people to fall in love with your brand, you need to be present and you need to be consistent.

Where do you see the future of B2B social networking going?

Federico: I see businesses connecting with each other just like people do on social networks. The B2B world is a network of seller-buyer relationships that is still not captured by people-oriented networks. Just like in any other ecosystem, these offline connections will find their way into the online world. This will change the way businesses connect with each other, just like social networks did for individuals before them.

What is the main difference between how social networks should approach B2B vs. B2C marketing?

Federico: B2B marketing is not just finding your prospect customers, but also understanding who actually will use your services within a business, who pays for it, who decides if it fulfills requirements, and more. B2B marketing also feeds more complex sales funnels, pre-sales and post-sales processes.

Social networks have the potential to capture, process and deliver unique insights on what a market looks like. The question is whether they are geared towards B2B marketing or not. While they are doing an excellent job for B2C businesses, B2B’s still need to rely on offline initiatives to get their jobs done.

The post Why Social Networking Is Key to a Brand’s Success appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Find a New Bae – or New Boss

With a new component called “BumbleBIZZ” (set for release in early fall) Bumble is aiming to make a transition from a Tinder-like dating app to a more all-encompassing social-networking platform.

This new feature matches individuals to others in similar professional circles. Like with Bumble’s dating feature, women must message first — and within 24 hours of being matched. CEO Whitney Wolfe says that this makes it “easier for women to set the tone in a potential business relationship.” Unlike Bumble’s business networking competitor, LinkedIn, where conversations and connections are more formal and professional, BumbleBIZZ hopes to engage potential cohorts in a more casual and immediate manner.

With merely a swipe, individuals who have the potential to influence and advance careers can be within reach. Whether the user is looking for help, an intern or a new coworker, BumbleBIZZ can connect them to others in the field. The algorithm behind this program takes into account the location, “industry, current job, education, and other relevant details” to match profiles of similar interests or professions to benefit both parties.

Dating-Style Networking Has Its Challenges

Individuals searching for a job, connection or internship may feel more confident connecting to individuals on BumbleBIZZ than on LinkedIn due to its casual vibe. However, employers may not be equally invested. They may feel as though they are wasting time swiping through photos as opposed to dissecting resumes and reading emails from individuals who are taking more time and care to reach out themselves.

It will be interesting to see whether there is a good balance between individuals searching for opportunities with those that can provide them. Similarly, workers on BumbleBIZZ must find the app legitimate enough to actually follow up on their new connections, which may be quite a hassle depending upon how many matches they make.

Another challenge facing this new function is keeping a solid wall between the Bumble features. Bumble has stated that the business profiles will be “kept distinct from their dating profiles,” although it will be interesting to see just how they are separated. If the profiles are not distinguishable, there is a danger of matching romantically with a potential boss — a terrifying thought, to say the least.

Lastly, most professionals don’t include a photo with their real-life resumes so as not to bias the selection process. However, physical attraction may weigh in on matching decisions on BumbleBIZZ due to the inclusion of numerous photos in users’ profiles. Similarly, people may wish to display different photos and interests on their dating profiles than on their professional profiles, so they should be afforded the ability to customize each one.

This leads one to wonder: how extensive will the professional profiles be? What criteria will hiring managers use to decide on whom they will swipe right versus left? CEO Wolfe herself stated that the process is “less about your resume and more about who you are.” That said, it appears as though BumbleBIZZ will lead workers to connect based on personality rather than by focusing on credentials. Is this strategy most advantageous for scouting new hires? Time will tell.

There may be current limitations to BumbleBIZZ due to its matching algorithm and the platform’s original focus on dating. However, BumbleBIZZ certainly has the potential to change networking for the better — as long as the guidelines are clear and it distinguishes itself enough from its competitors.

Is BumbleBIZZ worth all the buzz? Let us know in the comments, or chat us up on Twitter.

The post Introducing BumbleBIZZ: Tinder Meets LinkedIn appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

The key insight: Google+ is not the focal point of the company’s efforts. It’s a fabric that ties many of Google’s products together.

You’ve likely heard the terminology batted around by thought leaders and analysts. “Social is the glue that binds the company together,” or “You become a social business when you stop focusing on social and realize it connects the business together and to your customers.” These have become popular battle cries for the consultant set, especially those trying to sell “social business” to big corporations.

But it’s seldom introduced as a concept in action as it is by Horowitz.

My favorite part of Newton’s report:

“Google+ plays a second role, as a product that improves other products. Google tends to talk about this in abstract terms — it’s a ‘social spine;’ it’s a ‘fabric;’ it ‘weaves’ Google products together.”

What social is for Google, is what it should be for us: Connective tissue, not the heart or soul of our efforts. What this means is this:

Your job as a marketer is not to devise a social media strategy, it’s to socialize your business strategy

• Your job as a marketer is not to devise a social media strategy, it’s to socialize your business strategy
• Social interactions may give you a chance to say, “Buy my stuff!” But they also give you an opportunity to know your audience better, either by direct interaction and learning or by tapping into their social graph to understand their likes, dislikes, interests and friends.
• This better understanding of your audience can help you deliver better returns on more traditional methods of reaching your audience like social advertising, pay-per-click advertising and even direct mail.
• There’s a fairly good chance your “return” on a social “investment” might be as intangible as consumer insights, awareness or even just the warm and fuzzy feeling those you touch have as a takeaway. But there is great value in that.

For a big search company that has had failure after failure in the social space and has taken hit upon hit from those wanting to compare it’s latest attempt at a social network to Facebook, Google certainly is teaching us a bit about what being social really means.

Are you leveraging social networks for more than just communications platforms? Tell us how. The comments are yours.

The post What Google+ Can Teach Us About Social appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

For show notes including links to everything discussed in this episode of the SoLoMo Show go here.

SoLoMo Show Links:

• SoLoMoShow.com
• Subscribe: iTunes, Email or YouTube
• Twitter: @SoLoMoShow, @CoryOBrien and @SecretSushi
• Email: SoLoMoShow@gmail.com

The post SoLoMo Show Ep 34: Social Media Self Expression and Redefining the Social Network appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Limiting event coverage to a video camera on a tripod that records or streams the event live may not bring the optimal outcome needed to grow the exposure of your event. To maximize the ROI for your next event, you can set the stage for success with live video streaming added to the mix of your live event coverage.

Here are some ideas to do so:

Stage the Signage

Position an event sign that appears through the viewfinder and stream at all times. This printed collateral should include the name of the conference, the event hashtag, and date and location of the event.

Similar to a backdrop at a press conference, this branding item helps online viewers and event attendees to promote the event throughout the day through Twitter. This also gives online viewers who watch the video at a later date a clear understanding of the time and place of the pre-recorded conference.

As a bonus, include signage of the event hashtag, sponsors as well as the speakers and their Twitter handles as they present. You can accomplish this by either providing a monitor that displays a screen shot for each individual speaker, or a simple landing page that lists each speaker and hashtag. This information should be easily accessible for the viewers at all times. In addition to these helpful items, a simple printed nameplate that can easily set in front of the speaker and includes the presenter’s name and Twitter handle is helpful.

Give Back to Sponsors

Sponsors are the livelihood to events and conferences. Without sponsors, events are not  sustainable. Don’t limit the vendor to a logo on a lanyard. Event promoters must publicly announce their gratitude towards sponsors as much as they can. Help to change the mindset on “vendors are second-class citizens of a conference” scenario by highlighting the benefits the vendors offer frequently and publicly announcing gratitude throughout the event’s lifecycle including prior-, during- and post-event.

If you do allow vendors the opportunity to speak as experts in the industry, be confident that their presentation is not spammy and it provides valuable industry insight. This builds trust in your audience-base, including the online viewers, as you develop your speaker list and grow the number of registrations for future events.

Promote Giveaways Virtually

When vendors provide giveaways throughout the event, and they should be providing giveaways throughout the event by the way, encourage the online viewers to participate by using hashtags and tagging the sponsors’ twitter handles. The sponsors will appreciate this immediate contact and online promotion via social channels.

Remind the audience members, including the attendees and online viewers about the Twitter contests throughout the day. Announce the winner live. Provide a countdown to this “live announcement.” This holds the attention of the online viewers.

Recognize the sponsors, the prizes and the winners prior, during and after the event with photos that can be added to your event web site or other social media channels. The prizes can be the carrots that promote future attendees to register for your events. They can also set the standard of what vendors can giveaway for the next event. The sponsor who gave away frisbees may want to reconsider their prize campaign for your next event.

Give V.I.S. Treatment

Very Important Sponsor treatment can include more than extra passes to the event. Help provide V.I.S. Treatment as you promote your event and sponsors socially through a variety of social platforms.

Similar to product placement, be mindful of sponsor placement when gathering content for social coverage. Snap friendly photos of the industry influencers with sponsors and their promotional items such as logos printed on the event signage or their booth display.

If possible, capture images of the sponsors interacting and networking with the attendees and include Twitter handles, tagging them when you place the photos on social media sites like Pinterest, Instagram or Twitpic so that they can easily follow up directly, if they’d like. This provides opportunity for engagement and leads to added value for your existing sponsors and vendors which enriches the event community ultimately  increasing value for everyone.

Create V.I.S. Photo Gallery

By showcasing photos of the networking socialites during the event, the event coverage can be spreadable, increasing the readership and clicks. A digital photo gallery of networking by vendors, speakers and attendees will not only be appreciated in a heartfelt manner, the photos will be revisited and relinked, increasing exposure and awareness.

For increased clicks, create the photo gallery as a slideshow format. This will promote traffic however, it could lessen the spreadability factor.

This key event coverage practice of  event photo galleries also attracts the interest of the online viewers who are often isolated, behind a desk and in need of real networking with thought-leadership. The photos of people will pique the interest of the online viewers increasing the odds of them to attend the event in the future.

Predestine Promotion

Scheduled tweets prior to the event and throughout the day can provide a standard promotion of the event through the Twitter channel.

This is a marketing activity that only takes a few minutes to set up and provides added promotion to all of the event’s headliners. After all, if you invest in live streaming video to cover your event, how will you expect people to know about it and “tune in” unless you have consistent stream of announcements.

Do not expect your event team to tweet out these main frame announcements during the event as they will most likely will be distracted. This activity can be pre-programmed to publish at a specific time using a publishing platform like Argyle or Hootsuite.

Examples of these scheduled tweets include:

• event details announced by the week, -day, -hour
• sponsor information
• speaker introduction
• announce networking party details
• provide a next step, call to action (landing page examples include a registration page for the next event, a web site sign-up form, an event evaluation form, a facebook page to join, a book to pre-order, etc.)

Each tweet should include twitter handles, a link to the event landing page and an event hashtag when applicable.

Limit the live video coverage details and link until the morning of the event. Then, try to include the link to the video coverage throughout the day. Depending on the streaming platform used, you will need to consider the benefits of where to host the video coverage and if embedding the content onto your own site is a possibility.

Remind Audience of Video Channel

Throughout the event, remind viewers to visit the landing page. As mentioned, the video may be hosted or embedded to your own web site, or on a third-party streaming platform. Regardless, make it easy and convenient for your online viewers to find the video from tweeted announcements throughout the day. If you are using a third-party service like YouTube or  UStream, announce the name of your channel frequently. Encourage viewers to subscribe to the channels prior and following the event for future engagement.

Engage Online and In-Person Viewers

Online viewers can be considered as future in-person attendees and as promoters who help spread the event’s rich content socially. Encourage the event attendees and online viewers to ask questions and share comments  via Twitter frequently. Validate with a response to the questions and comments online and in-person at the event. If a question or comment comes in via Twitter or other online chat stream, have the emcee mention it. People love the recognition and it will encourage engagement throughout the event.

Include the twitter handle of the audience member who posted the question or comment. If the question is directed to the speaker on the stage, relay the question and allow the presenter to respond to the question directly either verbally, or through a twitter tag. This is a great way to encourage and integrate engagement through social media during your event. Online viewers watching the recorded video stream may provide residual engagement.

Another exercise to consider during your event is the trusty ol’ “Where ya from?” icebreaker. The emcee should try to engage with the audience members by asking the question, “Who in the room traveled the farthest?” Get the audience members to share and validate their travel investment. Extend this question beyond the people in the room and invite the online viewers to participate. Provide a prize to the furthest traveler in the room and to the viewer online and announce the winners at the conclusion of the event.

Do not limit event coverage to a dull C-Span approach when you use video to capture your event. Try implementing these tips.

Ask online viewers to send a tweet with event hashtag and their location they are viewing from and include their best part of the event so far. This is a social activity that engages viewers, promotes the event as well as elevating the value of the event when others see that attendees invested in the event through traveling a far distance. One example of a prize could be tickets to the next event.

Recently at one of Jeff Pulver’s #140Conf events, he announced during the event the the video stream was reaching 57 countries via UStream. This increased credibility and value for the event for future sponsorships as well as added some excitement to the viewers in the room and online.

Love the LIVE with CAPS

There is a gob of content available online. When event coverage is captured and published LIVE during the event, it provides a higher level of value and relevance to viewers. There is a human attraction to be part of a LIVE event and receiving the hot fresh data being shared industry-wide. When viewers know there is a LIVE event, they want to tune in with others. LIVE coverage appeals to the human need for community and social engagement.

Therefore, remind viewers of the LIVE coverage. Mention the LIVE coverage frequently, promoting the LIVE coverage prior and during the event. Use ALL CAPS with the word LIVE, it gives an importance to the event and allows a little more pop, giving premium to the event’s brand as well as the content provided by the live coverage.

Promote the event by announcing the LIVE coverage and its video watching landing page and hashtag on Twitter. Use the term LIVE before or during but be mindful of the “archived content.” After the content is recorded and available, avoid confusion by including the event description, like the date and location of where the event coverage was recorded.

Share the Video Clips

Following the event, edit the video into individual speaker or topic segments if possible. Be sure to include proper titles and the date and location of when the event was covered. Add tags to each individual video clip for SEO purposes. Event promoters can publicly share each parsed video clip with a tweet to the speaker as a courtesy with a link to each video. Speakers will gain added value from this as well as provide added promotion, elevating the event value.

Repurpose the video content into individual posts and updates on Facebook or Twitter for future marketing endeavors. If future events are being planned, be sure to promote the details for the next event where the audience views the video clips.

This Just In …

These ten tips are just a handful of ways to improve the promotion of your event beyond video streaming alone. Extending the buzz beyond the four walls of a conference room and amplifying the content throughout the lifecycle of your next event provides many benefits. Do not limit event coverage to a dull C-Span approach when you use video to capture your event.

As an audience member, do you have any tips you would recommend event promoters implement to gain more attention and traction? Please share in the comments.

The post 10 Tips to Maximize Event Coverage Via Video appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

In spite of Twitter’s mass appeal and the millions who rely upon the service, the network has been slow to see monetization occur.

Twitter made headlines recently for shutting off its connection to LinkedIn, which has been in place since 2009. Now, Twitter updates will no longer be displayed on the profiles of individuals who used the LinkedIn service. Instead, visitors will have to go directly to Twitter profiles if they wish to see such information. The change is actually part of a sweeping redevelopment of the Twitter API, which is the code that third-party developers use to connect with the platform. The new API has been created to allow the display of “expanded tweets,” which could mean advertisements of some form.

All of these moves are expected to simply be new ways that the company is attempting to generate revenue. Twitter is fortunate in that the platform is primarily developed for a mobile marketplace, meaning mobile ads that pop in through the lines of tweets could be a great way for the company to make revenue, whereas other social networks are still struggling to see how ads fit into their revenue sources. If LinkedIn is refusing to display such advertisements, Twitter could likely be responding in this manner, simply not allowing tweets from its users to be displayed on LinkedIn.

Ultimately, the loss affects LinkedIn in a much more profound manner than it does Twitter. In fact, it could be argued that Twitter won’t feel any repercussions from the change, whereas LinkedIn stands to lose some traffic potentially.  Most LinkedIn profiles are viewed and utilized much less frequently than profiles on other social platforms, but Twitter updates allowed those profiles to stay current with the latest information from its user base. LinkedIn has now been forced into a position in which it needs to come up with a solution to quickly get its user base engaged with the service in way it has not done so previously.

Although there is no question that LinkedIn will feel the immediate repercussions, Twitter could potentially causing issues for itself by denying LinkedIn the ability to connect to the API. Part of the appeal of Twitter is its ability to be used across a myriad of different platforms, with companies across the globe relying on Twitter for assorted applications. Even mainstream news companies have gotten in on the act, with many of them displaying viewer feedback on their news tickers.

As Twitter walks the fine line between the necessary monetization of its service and connecting with other platforms, careful attention needs to be paid to avoid causing a problematic issue to surface. Should Twitter become too closed off and begin to disallow certain applications and sites from accessing its API, companies and Twitter users alike could potentially find themselves looking for a new microblogging platform to fill in the gap left behind by Twitter. Such a scenario would mean that the social network would lose valuable traffic that would only further complicate the organization’s attempt to make the social platform profitable.

What do you think? Did Twitter shoot itself in the foot or make a smart business decision? The comments are yours.

Sara Carter is enthusiastic about social networks, Google android, registrycleanerswatch.com and psychology. Her interests include IT services, computer upgrades, computer repair and computer apps. She loves traveling and skiing. 

 

 

The post Is Twitter’s LinkedIn Denial A Shot In Its Own Foot? appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

While Internet-based social networks are built for scale, people are not. Dunbar’s number says we can’t maintain more than 150 stable relationships at once. Hence the appeal of applications like Path — I don’t want to friend everybody. I want to “friend” the people that are my friends. Sure, many of us can stretch that 150 to a few more, but let’s be realistic. If you’ve got 500 people in your friends circle on a given social network, you aren’t really maintaining a relationship with them. You’re just catching a random update from time to time. That’s far from personal. It’s also far from social.

But because marketers, technologists and gamers were at the helm of many social networks, it became a game: How many friends can I get? Every social network I’ve ever joined as immediately told me I needed to add friends and then slapped a big badge on my profile telling me, and sometimes the world, how many people like me enough. This gamification trigger made people want to add more friends.

Suddenly, it was a race to 10,000 on Twitter, then 25,000 and so-on. LinkedIn developed the LION designation for people who had lots of connections and were open to connecting with anyone, even those they don’t know. From a marketing, gaming or ego perspective, it made sense: Whoever has the most friends wins.

But from a human social capacity perspective, it’s just plain dumb.

I have 50,000+ followers on Twitter. I probably average around 175 public “@” replies on a slow weekday. Mind you, I don’t sit on Twitter all day. If I have time to look, I look. If I’m busy, I’m busy. Yet, I’ve been accosted by people THAT I KNOW for not responding to a public tweet — One that I didn’t even see. (I know, first world problem. But it’s easier to reply to every message when you have significantly less of them. And keep in mind, that’s Twitter … not primary communications like emails, phone calls, meetings, etc.)

Yet, we still think more is better. We have to have more Twitter followers, more Facebook fans, more LinkedIn connections, more people have to circle us on Google+ … the list goes on.

Complicating matters is the emerging world of online influence measurement. Klout, Kred and the like are starting to have serious implications for mainstream consumers. Even if it is just perks and coupons, when the Sunday ad-clipping nutters figure out they can game Twitter to get followers which then gives them free stuff from Klout … watch out!

Whether you’re building online influence as an individual or as a business, there are way too many reasons to aim for more, rather than less, followers. But what we marketers need to consider as we try to communicate our messages to all the other users on social networks is that they just might not be like us. They may not want 3 bazillion followers. They may just want to chat with their friends, stalk their ex or see pictures of their family from time-to-time.

You may not be able to market to those people here. And by those people, I mean most people.

Have You Registered For Explore Minneapolis?

Don’t miss two days of intensive learning with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the digital marketing and social media marketing space. Join SME’s Jason Falls and Nichole Kelly, The Now Revolution co-author Jay Baer, Edison Research’s Tom Webster, Ad Contrarian Bob Hoffman, Neil Patel of Kissmetrics and more at one of the leading digital and social media marketing events of 2012, August 16-17 in Minneapolis, Minn. DON’T WAIT TO REGISTER! Seats are filling fast! Reserve yours today!

The post The Social Networking Rub appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

It’s not a secret that many recruiters and business owners use social networking sites to screen prospective employees. According to the survey of 300 hiring professionals conducted by Reppler the most popular online resources for time wasting are Facebook (76%), Twitter (53%) and Linkedin (48%). It probably means that the whole (online and offline) business world considers it necessary to take social networks activity into account and use it for corporate objectives. But there are not so many employers who enable their employees to use these social networks at the working time if they are not engaged in corporate social accounts maintenance: In 2009 Robert Half Technology proclaimed that:

• 54 percent of U.S. companies ban workers from using social networking sites while on the job;
• 19 percent of companies allow social networking use only for business purposes;
• 16 percent allow limited personal use of the web.

In 2010, Manpower Inc. published a survey of over 34,000 employers in 35 countries and it turned out that three out of four companies have no formal policy regarding on-the-job use of social networking sites. In addition to the fact that social networking sites expose employees’ productivity to risk, corporate networks security and confidential data prove there is a strong need to determine how social networks can influence organizations.

Surely the problem related to the non-purpose use of the web at workplaces is quite hot and is an object for debates. There are numerous pros and cons of on-the-job use of social network sites including:

Strengths

• It gives the “bush telegraph” effect.
• Employees will be well-informed about latest online trends.
• Organizations with an access to social networks are considered to be progressive ones.

Weaknesses

• It’s hard to influence social networks messages of employees.
• Occasionally there is a need to invest money into office networks security.
• Some employees spend too much paid working time using private social network accounts.

Opportunities

• It is possible to increase labor productivity using this tool.
• It can be a good stimulation for workers enthusiasm.
• It’s also a good mean to increase the pleasure employees get during working hours.
• Using permissions for social communication it is possible to motivate and encourage workers.
• It can be a strong advantage while searching for new employees.

Threats

• Some public messages on social networks can really hurt the company’s public image.
• There can be some emotional and moral disorder of staff.
• There is a risk to infect corporate networks with viruses.

You can also supplement this list with other points which you consider to be important and influential. This ones are just examples that we think will make you think about the harm and benefits from using social networks at workplaces.

As Manpower’s survey states, very few organizations all over the world mentioned that their reputation has ever been impacted as a result of employees’ use of social networking sites at their workplaces. Here is a strict illustration on how little damage was caused by social media websites from the employers’ point of view.

Has your organization’s reputation ever been damaged by employees using social networking sites?

Americas – 11,000 employers from 9 countries from South and North Americas.
Asia Pacific – 7,700 employers from the Asia Pacific region.
EMEA – more then 16,000 employers from 16 countries of Europe, Middle East and Africa.

It shows that the threat of being damaged on the web by your own employees is lower than it’s considered to be. Within the whole world there are only 4 percent of companies whose business interests were negatively affected by the private online communication. Nearly 90 percent of businessmen don’t see any harm in social networks. Probably this diagram will look a little bit different in case of taking into account the employees’ productivity and time which they spend on social networks.

Now let’s get to another part, which can really be more important. This previous diagram was about actual damage, but what’s really widespread is not the damage, it’s the lack of any use from those employees spending their working time on social networks. Official Facebook stats claim that there are more than 400 million users which log in to Facebook every day and what is more important all of them combined spend something about 2 billion minutes a day on Facebook. Do you really think that all these people check their accounts at home after a working day? Nope! They spend their working time to chat with friends and relatives! Unfortunately, nobody estimates the work efficiency before and after such brakes. There are many employees who frankly think that social media communication during working hours relaxes them and even tones them up. This point of view is quite interesting and challenging to make some employers think about enabling their workers to surf through social media websites. But undoubtedly, this question requires a strong regulation.

For example, look at the graph below. Too much lemonade makes you hate lemons. This statement relates to pretty much everything – like eating sweets, watching TV and social media communicating too. So it is possible to find some solution when private communication becomes more of a useful thing than the harmful one for your business (position A). The point is that even if an unlimited access to the entertainment sites would be given to the employees during their working hours after some time general interest towards such form of wasting time starts to fall (position C) .

For example: if employees can use their private Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. accounts at workplaces 30 minutes a day they will be waiting for this time and will try to take maximum advantage of it. Then if they are allowed to communicate on the web for 2 hours a day – be sure workers will do the same as if they have had only 30 minutes (there is no need to hurry up if there is a plenty of officially allowed time). And when an unlimited access to all social media sites is provided people either get bored of this idea very quickly or they will waste the whole working time on the web (however in such case the employee risks to be fired).

So here are several suggestions on what can be done to minimize the threats and maximize the benefits of on-the-job usage of social media sites (as well as other entertainment online resources):

• Provide an unlimited access to entertainment sites and wait until employees will be tired of playing around on the web. In this case you’ll need a strong network protection software and plenty of patience.
• Provide an unlimited access to the web but do not let things drift – a constant online activity control is demanded.
• Allow a free access to the web only during breaks. It will save your corporate network from overloading and employees from time wasting.
• Another option is to forbid any access to social network sites at workplaces whatsoever. This step will probably reduce company’s popularity among current and potential employees, so be ready for a public dissatisfaction (especially if your competitors are not so strict).
• Provide an access to different sites for different categories of employees according to their duties. It requires some monetary and labor spending, but it is a very effective optimization tool.
• Describe all conditions concerning non-purpose use of social networks in the employment contract. This measure will clarify everything for both parties: employees and employers
• Establish fines for those who use Internet for private purposes. However there is a need to separate different types of employees: those which were and always will abuse an access to the web, those which will react and those who are indifferent to the web. All these people need an individual approach.
• It is possible to make entering social media sites a some kind of encouragement. The more effective employee is the more time he/she can spend on social networks. It will stimulate those workers who like to relax on the web and will build convenient labor conditions for others.

Probably there are no universal solutions for every single case but there is one good rule of thumb: be useful and don’t harm. If employees follow it then probably they deserve getting some encouragements from the company. A few minutes in social media communities a day can hardly hurt any business but this time will bring a feeling of satisfaction for every worker. But of course it’s all up to you: to allow web surfing during working hours or forbid it. You are welcome to choose your own way of solving the problem of non-purpose use of social media websites on workplaces.

Have You Registered For Explore Dallas-Fort Worth?

Don’t miss a day of intensive learning with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the digital marketing and social media marketing space. Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, Edison Research’s Tom Webster, Edelman Digital’s Zena Weist and more headline one of the leading digital and social media marketing events of 2012, February 17 in Dallas, Texas! DON’T WAIT TO REGISTER! The first 100 to do so get an incredible discount! Reserve your seat today!

Ann Davlin is a young inspired blogger who is always open to trying new things. She works at MotoCMS –  an advanced Flash CMS and Flash templates provider. And if you are a fan of web design and social media (like Ann is) you can always follow her on Twitter (@SmilingAnny)

The post Employees on Social Networks: To Be or Not To Be… appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

And that’s usually because they are filled with things you know you should do but can’t commit to doing. They’re too aspirational. Too shoot-for-the-moon-y.

Which is why I’ve kept this one bare-bones, tactical, and hopefully useful for you beyond the 4 days it typically takes us to crash and burn through our empty new year promises.

1. Check which pages on your site earned the most inbound links

Any search engine optimizer who knows her SEO clichés will tell you that inbound links count as votes in the eyes of search engines, and having links point to your content will help you rank better in search. It’s a feel-good moment that brings value to your domain. It’s a win-win.

Take a look at which of your posts attracted the most inbound links and see what they have in common. Were the headlines provocative? Were they exhaustive posts on a singular subject? Were they curated round-ups of the industry’s top events?

Figure out what type of content is earning you links (votes) and produce more of it in 2012. Also, look up to see who the human is behind a link. If this person made an editorial decision to link to your stuff they are paying attention to you and think your content is worth sharing. They’re someone you probably want to network with on Twitter if you haven’t started already.

2. Look at search terms that drove visits to your site

It may seem obvious: monitor keywords that lead traffic to your site and celebrate your SEO dominance. While it’s ok to pause and celebrate your search victory, the real opportunity is to find mediocre-performing keywords and exploit them for your purposes.

(It is way less sinister than it sounds.)

Basically, search through your top few thousand keywords and find keywords that your site ranks for somewhere on page one of the SERPs (search engine results pages) but not at the top of the page.

Identify the articles which are ranking for these terms and tweak them to more strongly target the keyphrase. Then, find opportunities in your own relevant content to link to these articles and consider sharing them in social media (if they are still relevant, of course). The idea is to find keywords you are already competitive on and try to turn a #7 ranking into a #3 ranking and earn more share of the clicks for that given search term.

3. Test your page load speed

When is the last time you’ve checked how quickly your website loads? If you’re one of the people taking advantage of Google’s Analytics pageload feature (or Google Page Speed Online, or Pingdom’s website load speed calculator), then you’re probably on top of it. If you’re not, it’s a good thing to start looking at.

Load speed is a huge factor for search engines when they are choosing what content should rank for a given phrase. Knowing what pages or elements on your site that are holding things up is the first step in addressing and fixing any issues.

Give your site a website speed audit  and prioritize fixes based on severity (the tools will tell you what is high, medium, and low importance).

4. Check for page leaks

Make a list of the pages on your site that have the highest bounce rate (i.e. pages with the highest percentage of visitors who leave your site almost immediately after arriving, without clicking through to more content).

Start with the pages that get the highest volume of traffic (and are therefore leaking the most of it away). Examine the page for possible causes:

• Is there a relevant call to action?

• Are there links to related content that users may enjoy?

• Is page load speed extra slow on this page?

• Is there an obvious issue with the layout of this page?

If the answer isn’t immediately obvious, consider setting up an experiment on fivesecondtest.com or a similar service to see how viewers are experiencing the page and try to get insight on how to improve the page’s performance.

5. Look for dead-ends

Similar to page leaks, dead-ends are places on your site where users run into a hurdle (and we all know that most people would rather avoid the hurdle on the web rather than get over it themselves).

Take note of any 404 errors you may have on your site and consider creating a more user-friendly 404 error page. Run Xenu’s Link Sleuth and see if there are broken links from your content that are frustrating users and search engines.

Fixing dead-ends will help you maximize the experience for the traffic you already have.

6. Follow top blogger actions, not advice

Top bloggers don’t always practice what they preach. And conventional wisdom isn’t always the path to success in the world of digital marketing. Best practices may prescribe a course of action that lead you in the wrong direction.

For instance, I once looked at what the top 10 blogs in content marketing were doing (as opposed to saying) and found some interesting results, like, the average blog in AdAge’s Top 10 in the Power 150 write 2.4 posts per day with an average word count of 1,278 every day and have been doing so for nearly 7 years. (Doing this is probably not the answer you’d get from them if you asked them how to be successful online. See what I mean?)

A lot of sites publish a list of “best of” content at the end of the year. Take the top posts and see what they have in common. Check word count, style of post, layout, use of images, etc., and uncover patterns.

Sometimes it’s not what people say, it’s what they do.

7. Get in tune with the right social media channel

Take an honest look at the volume and quality of traffic from popular social media. Where are you getting solid traction? Are you spending time building a presence in the right social media channels?

Ten thousand visits from StumbleUpon could be a mixed blessing if visitors only stay for a quick few seconds. Likewise, if you’re spending an inordinate amount of time hustling your content on Twitter but not seeing a return, it may be time to reevaluate your priorities and focus your efforts on other social media outposts.

Some sites I’ve been working with have had low traffic volume with high engagement from LinkedIn, and vice versa with Twitter. We now know that spending more time earning the good traffic from LinkedIn is well worth our while.

8. Conduct an old-fashioned customer survey

Magazines have been doing reader surveys with great success for years, gleaning valuable data directly from their audience. This simple but often overlooked tactic can provide mountains of business intelligence and hard to get insight, but can also help tell a more compelling story to your advertiser base. The more clearly you can define your audience, the better off you’ll be.

Nothing beats conducting customer surveys and many web services offer the ability to do this at a fraction of what the cost used to be.

9. Consult your real-life network

This is the time of year to shake the holiday lethargy and get socially active in real life. Talk to people you know that operate web sites (regardless of the niche) and attend events in your area where you can meet people also in the content marketing game.

Look through your LinkedIn connections list and find a few people to schedule coffee with in the first month of this new year. Talk to them candidly about what you’re trying to do with your site in 2012 and ask for their honest feedback.

And make sure you offer to pay for the coffee.

10. Read boring industry research

We’re in an environment of quick tips, sound bites, and real-time reactions. And who can blame us? It’s easy to feel productive if we stay on top of industry-leading blogs and skim the points they make. But how much more value could we get if the next 500 pages we read online were part of a research report or a book?

Research reports pack a lot more effort, analysis, and peer-review into what they publish and can be worth their weight in gold (or bytes, at least).

These aren’t the only places to look, but sometimes the less glamorous places have the biggest payoffs when it comes to creating a content marketing strategy for the new year.

Read your fair share of top 10 posts – they do have value – but don’t forget to look in the nooks and crannies of your own operation, too.

Where do you find your business intelligence and inspiration?

Have You Registered For Explore Dallas-Fort Worth?

Don’t miss a day of intensive learning with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the digital marketing and social media marketing space. Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, Edison Research’s Tom Webster, Edelman Digital’s Zena Weist and more headline one of the leading digital and social media marketing events of 2012, February 17 in Dallas, Texas! DON’T WAIT TO REGISTER! The first 100 to do so get an incredible discount! Reserve your seat today!

The post 10 Better Ideas Than Looking at a Top 10 List for Advice appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

I’ve been experimenting with Path for about a year now. It’s a neat concept, but its the concept that people don’t seem to get. Instead of friending everyone you know like you do with other social networks, Path is built so that you connect with just the people you really know. As such, it’s a place where many users share much more unfiltered versions of themselves.

Still, I’m getting friend requests from people I’ve only come into contact with in cursory fashion — not to mention people who probably don’t want me all up in their business.

Stop it.

Just because there’s another social network out there doesn’t mean you have to be the fastest to 10 million friends. You also don’t have to figure out how to use it for business purposes. The first person who comes out with a Path ranking can kiss my ass and is forever launched into the Hall of Fame of Dumbasses.

It might just be that Path is your own little family and friends network away from the big playgrounds of Facebook and Twitter. It might just be that here you share your family pictures and notes about your kids and not worry about who might see them because the 60 people you’re connected to are people who may babysit for you at some point.

The point of Path is to carefully select and curate who sees your stuff. Maybe this is a chance for you to reset and grow into a social network naturally rather than trying to be Johnny Marketer on the Spot.

If I friend you on Path (and yes, I went an curated a bunch of people last night), it’s because I know you personally. You’ve probably met my family. I would trust you to watch my kids. If you’re not in that circle, don’t friend me there. Or at least don’t expect me to friend you back.

It’s not personal. The app is.

Note: Hat tip to Aaron Marshall for inspring this post.

Related articles

• Friend Count Up, Sharing Down: Path Only Works If You Reject Those Friend Requests (techcrunch.com)
• Watch out Path, here comes Touch: A new messaging platform for close friends (venturebeat.com)

The post Please Do Not Friend Me On Path appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Here’s an old school look at the Dos and Don’ts of managing your organization or brand’s Facebook page.

Roll the dice and see where you land – and please feel free to drop by the comments and let me know your thoughts on what squares you would add.

The post Facebook Snakes and Ladders [Infographic] appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

But if technology continues at the current pace, a future with bot-authored posts may not be too far off on the horizon.

Depressing? Definitely. Crazy? Maybe not. Automation is alive and well in the world of social media and the debate rages on whether social media automation defeats the purpose of social media altogether.

An oversimplified summary of the argument: (Some) people advocate for the humanization of brands while (some) brands automate their advocacy toward people.

In the battle of automation versus humanization there’s no clear hero and no clear villain. (It can be as confusing and frustrating as that sentence above was to read).

So who better to turn to for answers on the automation debate than a Twitter robot?

For the past month, I ran a Twitter account where a robot produced every bit of content it spewed out into the social media ether. This robot relied solely on other people’s thoughts and added no knowledge of its own to the social media sphere because it was completely, 100% automated.

Here’s what I did:

• Followed 1,744 accounts suggested in this post by HubSpot

• Used RSS feeds to automatically Tweet content produced by 50 digital media blogs (mostly selected from the AdAge Power 150 and Junta42)

• Picked (what I thought was) a cool name (@contentasaurus) and accompanying avatar (pictured)

• Sat back and waited to see what happened

And here’s what the Twitter robot taught me:

Automation is not quite automatic

It takes a considerable amount of time and effort to set up an automated Twitter account which can cause you to wonder if your productivity shortcut was actually worth it.

You’ve got to do the dull work of setting up the feeds (I used Twitterfeed for this) and go through hundreds or thousands of Twitter accounts and mindlessly click “Follow.”

Then you’ve got to determine your sources and vet them for frequency and content (so you don’t flood people’s streams or find your auto-bot Tweeting bizarre personal posts from a blogger that are entirely out of context to your audience).

And even if you’re careful:

Sometimes, you look pretty dumb

Even when you carefully select sources, automatically posting from RSS feeds will sometimes lead to embarrassing gems like this one, which @contentasaurus dutifully Tweeted:

People will follow bots, but engagement is low.

After I set up the account, I prepared to be mostly ignored. But that didn’t happen (which probably says a lot about the quality of content produced by the sources I selected).

Some statistics from the 43-day life of @contentasaurus:

• The account posted more than 2,500 Tweets (about 60 Tweets per day)

• Which generated 443 clicks

• Which resulted in about 80 @mentions and 19 Retweets

• And a Klout score of 43 (for whatever that’s worth)

Ignoring people is painful. And it turns them off.

The hardest part of the experiment was ignoring the nice messages people sent to @contentasaurus; thanking it for sharing their post or wishing it a good weekend. Despite my impulse to act like a human and respond to them, I let the conversation languish, because that’s what a robot would do.

It turns out that when you don’t respond to people in conversations, they eventually stop trying to talk to you.

So, what are the lessons I learned from my Twitter robot?

• Automation can be useful, but it’s got to be carefully set up, monitored, and curated (In other words, not truly automated)

• Automation will never replace conversation

• Automation, when mixed with curation and conversation, can be very powerful

Related articles

• How to Automate a Twitter Feed with Hootsuite and Bufferapp (wolf-howl.com)
• When (And When Not) to Automate Your Social Media Updates (hubspot.com)
• How To: Use Social Media Automation The Right Way (oneforty.com)

The post Lessons Learned from a Twitter Robot appeared first on Social Media Explorer.