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How 1BandID Founder is Using Social Media to Build Virtual Shelf Space

Daria Steigman — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:03:05 +0000

What do you do when the big boys own all the shelf space?

One approach is to build a virtual shelf, one person at a time. That’s what Joe Vukson is doing.

I met Vukson via Twitter earlier this year after I saw a press release about a new runner ID product. I tweeted to a friend that I didn’t understand how the product was any different from what was already on the market. Vukson chimed in, asking me what I meant. So we started tweeting back and forth as I tried to explain that I didn’t see any competitive differentiation. (I was wrong, but more on that in a minute.)

It wasn’t until the conversation had run its course that I learned that 1BandID is his product.

The Virtual Shelf Works

1BandID has a competitive differentiator: Vukson himself. In addition to engaging with people one-on-one, the budding entrepreneur moderates an on-point bimonthly Twitter chat (#trichat) and manages an active Facebook page. And he’s a runner and triathlete, so he’s walking the walk as he builds his community.

The big boys may own the storefront space, but who would you rather buy from? I’m sending people to 1BandID–because I know Joe.

Disclosure: Vukson sent me the red 1BandID pictured above. The best part: my running motto, “Forward Motion,” etched in there with all the contact info. But I hope you know that free swag does not influence what I choose to write.

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Why I Quit Klout

Daria Steigman — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:04:26 +0000

I no longer have Klout.

I’m not sure what pushed me over the edge. Maybe it was the endless notifications urging me to urge my friends to sign up. Or the incessant efforts to get me to link to my Facebook account. Or the fact that it was so easy to game–and I don’t even like gaming.

Maybe it was the day Klout told me I’d lost my influence over @MagicPeaceLove (aka, my brother).

Guess what Klout? I can quit you.

Here’s the thing about influence: You can’t measure it with an algorithm. Computers can filter data, but you still need humans to provide the context.

Chuck Hemann led a terrific #socialmedia discussion on this topic recently. The transcript is here, and there’s some good food for thought in the tweet steam.

Do you have Klout? Why or why not?

Photo by Meg Wills (Flickr).

Why Google+ Circles Matter

Daria Steigman — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:05:05 +0000

If you’re read anything about Google+, the company’s latest foray into the social realm, then you’ve probably heard about Circles. Here’s my early take, which I shared via a LinkedIn answer on the topic the other day:

From my initial view of Google+, Circles are what Facebook needs but doesn’t have: a way to share based on real life versus the digital world.

You can create as many circles as you want–and share information across Google+ in multiple ways (public, or with one or more circles). As a result, this is the first platform that starts out with the premise that all people aren’t equal. So, for example, you might want to share an article that’s about politics with your family, a not-suitable-for-work cartoon with friends, and a great article about finance with your colleagues. I have, for example, set up a couple of broad categories around business/small business and communications/marketing. I can see people setting up circles around friends, colleagues, intramural sports teammates, book club members, etc., over time.

As someone who thinks that the private realm doesn’t belong online, I’m unlikely to share ANYTHING that I’m not comfortable with everyone seeing. But I think Google has been thinking about how people share. If they have any ambition of being “the next Facebook” (note: I’m not sure Facebook is going anywhere soon), being able to easily create “share” categories is a good first step.

Personally, I think Circles is just one of the interesting elements of what Google is doing with Google+.

Have you set up Circles yet? What do you think?

I actually have 6 business reasons I think you should watch Google+.

Sign up for my latest newsletter (sign up form in sidebar–or click through here if you’re reading this in RSS) to read my 6 reasons to watch Google+. As a bonus, I have five beta invitations to Google+ to give away to the first five people who sign up for the newsletter and then e-mail me your Gmail address and tell me why you want to test out Google+. (You have to have a Gmail account to use Google+.)

Photo by J Ronald Lee (Flickr).

Social Media Isn’t the Problem

Daria Steigman — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:30:28 +0000

Would you fire an employee who badmouthed your business?

I had the pleasure of presenting at the Direct Marketing Association of Washington’s Social Media Marketing Day. Our panel was charged with talking about best practices. Did you know, for example, that Facebook now allows page administrators to mute unwanted comments? This has the wonderful effect of letting a person continue to see his comment in the stream–but no one else visiting that page can see it. (Hat tip to my fellow panelist, Heather Shelby, for that one.)

One audience question really stood out. Someone pointed to a recent National Labor Relations Board decision (which has to do with an employee who was fired after she posted negative comments about her company on her Facebook page) and said organizations have to be careful about disciplining their employees for their social media activities.

My response: Well, maybe. The facts and decision in this case have always seemed pretty narrowly defined. And it wasn’t about free speech, but rather labor law.

Plus, smart companies have social media policies that address what employees can and cannot do online.

But there’s a bigger issue. Maybe firing someone for whining about their job isn’t always the best move. But if an employee is seriously badmouthing your business, chances are they are a bad employee. I’m sure you can find cause to fire them for performance reasons–unrelated to what they’re saying about you in their spare time.

Besides, they were talking about you before. You just weren’t listening.

Photo by Tonamel (Flickr).

Everywhere Is Not a Strategy

Daria Steigman — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:59:53 +0000

I once heard a guy with a software product he was trying to sell tell a gathering of entrepreneurs that his audience was “anyone who has a computer.” Huh?

Everyone is not a strategy. It’s a bad business idea in desperate need of a plan.

Everywhere isn’t a strategy either. Ask a successful global company, and their everywhere is segmented, targeted, planned out–and not really everywhere. Ask savvy small business owners, and they can define their audience, their market, their strategy.

Last week’s #profschat conversation was around Facebook pages and marketing. I noted that my small business doesn’t have a Facebook page:

I can set one up, but need a raison d’etre for doing so first. (Waiting for the right reason.)

Jason Gertzen then replied:

Good point. Meet customers/audience where they are. No need to be on Facebook just to say you have a page.

And added:

Wish more would take your smart approach. First, plan your strategy. Then, pursue your social outreach where it makes sense.

Is your business everywhere, or just everywhere you need to be today?

Photo by Hillary Boles (Flickr).

Being Liked Is Overrated

Daria Steigman — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 11:15:39 +0000

During a recent MarketingProfs Webinar on managing your online reputation, C.B. Whittemore said that “negative stuff isn’t all evil.” She cited a study that found that 64% of people trust social media more when there are both positive and negative comments.

This makes sense. I’m more likely to value reviews when there’s a mix of good and bad. First, the mix gives me context. Second, I have some faith that the company didn’t just flood the channel with its own evangelists.

So why are so many companies afraid of negative comments on their Facebook page, on a blog post, or in other social outposts?

Here are four reasons to embrace negative comments:

Negative comments can alert you to a problem (real or perceived) that you might not know you have. Embrace the learning opportunity.
Negative comments give you a chance to explain or clarify your position. For example, say 50 people are carping on Facebook that you won’t extend a promotion. What would happen if you said “sorry you missed this one” and offered them a code to sign up and get advance notice about your company’s next promotion?
Transparency builds trust. It’s okay to disagree with a customer, a client, or a prospect. We’re not clones.
A concerted campaign of negativity can energize your evangelists to come to your defense. (First, of course, people have to trust you.)

When I was president of my condo board, there were a couple of co-owners who didn’t like to take no for an answer. They’d call me up and state their case. I’d listen, and then politely explain why what they wanted wasn’t feasible. Then they’d come to the public meeting and ask the same question. My response: “As I told you when you called me earlier…”

If this were online, would anything have changed? I don’t think so.

Photo by Stefan Cloo (Flickr).

10 Social Tools to Help Your Business

Daria Steigman — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:02:19 +0000

We talk a lot about the “big 5″ social media platforms (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr). But the conversation universe is a much bigger place, and there are other platforms, channels, and tools that just might make sense for your business too.

Here are 10 of them (thanks to a terrific closing session at the Frederick New Media and Technology Conference on February 24 that featured 10 speakers, three minutes each, talking about 10 less-well-known social tech tools):

BuddyPress. Beth Schillaci said that this “social networking in a box” open-source WordPress add-on lets you build a community within your own space (e.g., where you have control and own your data). Suggested uses, said Schillaci, include a safe space for a student community and an in-house (employee) community that you can tuck behind a firewall.
Tumblr. Jessica Hibbard called the microblogging site “an elegant solution” for curating content. She said it is an easy way to post content as diverse as video, photos, and chat scripts. Hibbard said business uses include showcasing your thought leadership by creating a central location for industry news (LL Bean does this) or as a way to connect with your community. There’s even an “ask me anything” button.
Meetup. Kelly Beach said that you need to give to your community before you can start selling, and a Meetup group is one way to do this. She also pointed out that, with 250,000 meetups monthly, it’s a great way to connect with like-minded people in your community.
SlideShare. See my 4 tips for using SlideShare.
Quora. Lisa Byrne said that the fledging Q&A site is great way to both be helpful to your community and to ask for help. She said one way to use Quora is to ask questions that will help you deliver a better service or build a better product. (See here for my early take on Quora.)
HootSuite. Like TweetDeck, Hootsuite is another popular Twitter client designed to make social media monitoring and engagement easier. Sandy Sponaugle said that Hootsuite supports several multimedia sites and recently rolled out a new analytics tool.
3D Visualization. Darian Robbins talked about using Google Earth to layer information to create a 3D representation about your business. Can you say cool?
Open Source E-Commerce Systems. Nick Damoulakis talked about six good e-commerce products. UberCart and WP e-commerce both work with WordPress. His favorite: Magento, which he termed a “mini-Amazon.com” (lots of functionality, but it’s not plug and play).
HTML5. Jon-Mikel Bailey said that HTML5 is all about user experience. He said that the code is easier to develop and maintain, and that it gives you lots of options (including chat features and better form management). This is developer geek chic. While the rest of us don’t have to know how to do it, it helps if we know what can be done.
Google Instant. Jeannine Morber said that Google is moving increasingly toward valuing relevance in search. She said that the biggest implication is that content is and will continue to be the most important and relevant element of your Web site.

What’s your favorite “outlier” social platform or tool?

Photo by tuppus (Flickr).

5 Must-Have Tech Tools for Business

Daria Steigman — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:13:10 +0000

In an interview with The New Small author Phil Simon, Zane Safrit asked a great question about essential business tech tools. It got me thinking about the five tech tools my business can’t do without:

1. Access. People talk a lot about the cloud and cloud computing, but what good is having your documents and work processes offsite if you can’t access them? To me, being able to work anywhere today is dependent on a hard-wired Internet connection, a good router, a broadband card, and/or great WiFi.

2. WordPress. If Simon hadn’t mentioned WordPress in his top-5 list, I might not have thought about it. But WordPress is an essential technology platform because it powers my Web site and my blog–the “home base” for my business.

3. SmartPhone. It seems hard to fathom that I once walked around without a portable phone. Now I can’t imagine not being able to check e-mail on the go. And that doesn’t even touch on all the other productivity apps I access daily–and, of course, the mobile phone. My current phone of choice: Motorola’s DROID.

4. TweetDeck. My Twitter client of choice, I don’t just use TweetDeck to keep up with trends, breaking news, and my Twitter community. With its real-time streaming, it’s also great for tweetchats. In addition, I use the platform to monitor LinkedIn status updates and my Facebook feed.

5. Google Reader. I don’t know why anyone says RSS is dead. Between the 130+ blogs I read regularly and the alerts I’ve set up, Google Reader makes it possible for me to organize and process a great deal of information. I also like that I can follow smart people and aggregate–right in Google Reader–what they are curating. Plus there’s a terrific mobile app so I can catch up with my reading on the go.

What tech tools are in your business arsenal?

9 Steps To Your Social Media Check-up

Daria Steigman — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:40:58 +0000

Your work is all around you. The reality in this age of spidered content and 24/7 WiFi is that other people can find out a lot about you really fast. And this holds true whether you’re online a little–or a lot. Heck, I bet even people who live “off the grid” are finding themselves tagged in pictures on Facebook or otherwise showing up online. So doesn’t it make sense to know what’s there to be found when someone checks you out?

My latest Independent Thinking column provides guidance on where to look and what to look for when conducting your own social media check-up.

It also includes a book giveaway aimed at those of you new to social media. My friend and colleague Beth Schillaci has written Your Social Media Roadmap. It’s a workbook that takes you through the process of building a strategy and identifying what channels make sense for your business.

Book Contest Details

Want to win a free copy of Your Social Media Roadmap? Beth Schillaci has given me a signed copy of her book to give away here. Read the column, and then come back and leave a comment here on my blog about your social media goals for 2011 and what you hope to learn.

The best answer (judged by me) wins a copy of the book.

Photo by Ivan Walsh (Flickr).

5 Reasons Businesses Use Social Media

Daria Steigman — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 06:17:23 +0000

So why are businesses using social media?

According to the State of Social Media for Business, the top goals for companies are branding and community. Rounding out the top five are increasing Web site traffic (hmm, I hope that’s not really an end in itself), identifying and addressing consumer needs, and business development.

The report identifies eight trends in business use of social media–from who is using it to how effective companies think their efforts have been.

Social Media Outposts

The report also looks at where companies are focusing their attention. Not surprisingly, Facebook and Twitter lead the list. But are their customers, clients, and prospects hanging out there? And do most businesses even know the answer?

The evidence suggests they don’t.

Clued In or Clueless?

Two things really stood out for me:

only 14.7 percent of companies are measuring their social media efforts; and (perhaps not coincidentally)
only 14.2 percent of companies say their strategies are very effective.

What makes the statistics particularly interesting is that survey respondents self-selected. As a result, the numbers reflect companies that are more knowledgeable about and more inclined to use social media. That so few of these have adopted measurable strategies means there’s still a long way to go to make businesses truly social.