Independent Thinking » Social Networking

5 Digital Trends to Watch

Daria Steigman — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 10:05:17 +0000

If Steve Rubel is right, there are some fascinating digital trends to plan for in 2011.

During a recent MarketingProfs Webinar, Rubel highlighted 11 digital trends, including location-based services, thought leadership, and social media schizophrenia (e.g., information overload). From his list, here are five that stand out:

Attentionomics, or the concept that it’s not enough to reach people (e.g., eyeballs or numbers)–you have to grab their attention to drive behavior. A couple ways to do this: using visualizations and creating digital embassies within your social networks.
Digital Curation, which Rubel concisely defined as “separating the art from the junk.” This is a big one for me, because right now we’re focusing on aggregation far more than curation (think paper.li and similar “auto”-curation tools).
Integration Economy, or the concept that the way we communicate will demand that people collaborate more across an organization. I’ve been talking about shattering silos for a long time, so I hope Rubel’s right about this one.
Ubiquitous Social Computing, or what Rubel said involves “optimizing for mobility, not just mobile.” A couple ways to do this: designing for multiple platforms and thinking about integrating social sharing into your products.
Transmedia Storytelling, which is the concept that technology is changing the way stories are told (think Avatar, Toy Story). Rubel said that “narrative is no longer a whole,” and that we must think instead about “connecting the dots.”

What stands out for you? And what trends would you add to the list?

Photo by Phillie Casablanca (Flickr).

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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).

LinkedIn: The New Frontier for Spammers?

Daria Steigman — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 10:15:37 +0000

I’m seeing a disturbing trend of late: people using LinkedIn to blatantly self-promote and hawk their wares.

It started with a trickle: An occasional e-mail suggesting I might be interested in a Webinar, a conference, or a book. Then it progressed to group owners sending regular “updates” (yes, you can ask click off “allow group manager to send me an e-mail”–but should you really have to?). Now it seems at least once a week someone’s offering me something I can’t refuse. Oh, but I can.

It’s rare that I delink from someone, but it’s happened occasionally. The first time was a person who decided to use my contacts as their personal prospecting list. The most recent was someone whose response to my polite query to take me off their LinkedIn e-mail list was “this comes through LI. In order to stop them disconnect me from your list.” (By the way, you can target your lists if you want to.)

Do We Need to Rethink Our Connections?

Like many people, my use of LinkedIn has shifted over time. Where I once linked only to people I knew personally, I’m now connecting to people I interact with on other social networks, have met at a conference, or with whom I otherwise have a “weaker” starting connection. Perhaps because these connections are weak, some people don’t mind adopting a scattershot approach to promoting their business.

What’s been your experience?

Photo by Ray MacLean (Flickr).

Is Your Marketing Team Obsolete?

Daria Steigman — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:42:45 +0000

Hubspot founder Brian Halligan kicked off What’s Next DC* with a terrific presentation on inbound marketing (aka, how to get found by your clients, customers, and prospects). In it, he identified six steps to viral growth and looked at the skill sets needed to market to the way that people today shop, learn, and buy.

Halligan said the six steps to viral growth include:

Content Creation. He advises creating as much content as possible, and suggests that each piece can act as “a mini-magnet” to attract customers.
Optimizing for Social Media. Halligan talked about creating “remarkable” content. Halligan said that some of the best-read posts on Hubspot’s blog promise (in the headlines) insights, analysis, or marketing tips.
Be Original. The more your content is unique (or you’re first with breaking news), the more likely it will have legs (and spread via Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks).
Include Strong Calls to Action. Halligan recommends that these be “valuable, easy, prominent, and action-oriented.”
Nurture Your Leads. This is obviously a big deal, because if you’re not nurturing leads you’re losing them.
Study Your Analytics. If you’re not looking at your statistics and measuring your success, then how do you know what’s working and what’s not? Halligan talked about the need to “measure often and evolve fast.”

Don’t be Cocktail Party Compliant

Halligan said that many marketers are “cocktail party compliant,” a great phrase to describe going through the motions but not really being invested in the process. Does your marketing team have the right skills for 2011′s business environment?

Halligan suggested that every marketing organization needs to identify people with four key skills. (If you’re an independent consultant or a small business without a big marketing staff, think of these as skills you need to either own or borrow.)

Digital Native. Halligan suggests this is genetic. I’m not convinced it’s a gene thing, but I am convinced it’s not demographic. I’ve seen 70-somethings who “get it” and 20-somethings who are Web-phobic.
Analytic Capacity. We all know I’m a big proponent of data-based decision making, so I was happy to see Halligan highlight the importance of having at least one person on your team who’s happy crunching data.
Reach. “Reach is the new Rolodex,” says Halligan. This speaks to the need, even more today, to value the skills that networkers and connectors bring to the table.
Content Creator. Clearly being a good writer helps. But content is broader (e.g., video, photography).

Other conference speakers also talked about the need to rethink how you’re doing marketing and PR in the digital age. Bryan Eisenberg touched on a theme that I believe is critical to business success: being nimble, authentic, and continuously improving. Rand Fishkin pointed out that companies are very under-invested in SEO (so there’s a huge opportunity to make the long tail work for you). And Shonali Burke offered case studies of two companies that are building relationships with their customers. Echoing the day’s “content” theme, she talked about the need to tell your story “really well” and pointed out that everyone in your organization today is (by default) involved in customer service.

*Disclosure: Comped admission; but choice to blog and what to write about are all me.

Photo by Matthew Rakola Photography.

Social Media Rules, Wrongs, and Beating Ourselves Up

Daria Steigman — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:13:26 +0000

We need to stop beating ourselves up.

There seem to be two big trends among social media proponents these days:

Beating up on people and companies alike for using social media “wrong.”
Beating up on ourselves.

This post deals with a little of both.

First, though, some great food for thought to set some context. Over on his blog, Stowe Boyd pointed to this amazing presentation by Google researcher Paul Adams that looks at people’s communities and the disconnects between our various networks and how online platforms have typically been designed. It’s really smart stuff, and worth going through.

The Real Life Social Network v2

This presentation is particularly relevant to our ongoing efforts to define the boundaries of our various networks. Who should I connect to on LinkedIn? Is it okay if I don’t friend you on Facebook? Will people think I am vouching for you just because we’re connected somewhere in cyberspace?

We’re trying to create ”rules” without having any rule book.

Ari Herzog wrote a very moving post about his struggle to set parameters. He said, in part:

I want to say I am sorry for reading your messages and requests to be my friend, for me to join your networks and for you to join mine. You wanted me to share myself with you on a deeper level outside of this blog and you invited me into your inner sanctum–and I said no.

That conversation continued here. It’s worth reading in full–including the comments–as it’s clear that this discussion is going to go on for a long time.

Here’s my bottom line: It doesn’t matter if your network is more (or less) exclusive than mine. There isn’t a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all community. I’ll hang out where it makes sense for me and evolve the parameters over time just as my business might shift strategies and add or subtract services as market conditions change.

So can we agree to stop beating ourselves up as we work on our rules?

Is Your Network Deep or Wide?

Daria Steigman — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:00:40 +0000

Is your network deep or wide?

Tiger Woods‘ network is very wide–but it turns out it’s not very deep. Few top players turned up to play his tournament over the Fourth of July weekend. When Tiger, Inc., was at its height, the tournament was a who’s who of stars.

I heard one golf commentator state that players feel that Woods has never supported the PGA Tour. Sure, he made everyone a lot of money (including himself), but when was the last time you saw him play the Frys.com Open or the John Deere Classic?

Networks exist in many shapes and sizes. Most of us have a private network of family and close friends that’s walled off from our business selves. It’s deep, but not overly wide. Beyond that innermost circle, we have ever-wider ones of friends, then colleagues, then contacts.

The best networks are both wide and deep. You want breadth to be able to identify potential partners, new business opportunities, and step outside your own bubble. You want depth so that you have a network of friends and colleagues who have your back. How wide and deep our circles are depends on how we nurture them.

When Tiger Woods private life crashed into the open, it opened up the schisms in his network. So we see he may hit a golf ball brilliantly, but he has no well of goodwill among his professional circle.

What kind of network do you have?

Photo by ellenm1 (Flickr).

Business, Hierarchies, and Social Networks

Daria Steigman — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:07:00 +0000

Remember the Deck of Cards that the U.S. military unveiled after the 2003 invasion of Iraq? In addition to Saddam Hussein, it featured a who’s who of the regime’s inner circle. If you’d diagrammed it, you would have been ended up with a traditional hierarchical chart with Hussein at the top and the lines going down from there.

But that’s not how the military found Saddam Hussein. Instead, Col. Jim Hickey and his colleagues developed a social diagram to understand the Iraqi leader’s network of family, close friends, and tribal ties. (Stick with me here, I promise this post isn’t about politics or military strategy.)

At a recent New America Foundation panel discussion on Social Networks and Modern Warfare, Hickey stressed that filling in the pieces and capturing Saddam Hussein was the result of tremendous teamwork–not just by his troops, but in conjunction with special forces and others operating in Iraq.

Hickey also stressed that:

everyone worked together to exchange information
there were no silos
they worked together to pursue opportunities
no one asked for permission or ran decisions up the chain of command (i.e., they just went with it)

I’m going to suggest that the way the military pursued its objective offers three lessons learned for businesses:

1. We need to rethink influence. Hickey and his colleagues understood that family structures, not government officials, were the key to finding their man. We still over-rely on traditional org. charts rather than looking at how information truly flows within organizations. This has huge implications not only for how companies operate, but also for how we identify good business intelligence.

2. We need to do, then ask. Best Buy‘s Results-Only Work Environment is a good example. The people who developed the strategy didn’t ask permission to implement it; they tested it and proved it worked–and then sought permission to roll it out more widely.

3. Silos have to go. I’ve written about silos before. Hickey did something atypical of many hierarchical organizations: he shared information, and shares the credit today. Companies also need to let go of their fiefdoms.

What would you add?

Photo by striatic (Flickr).

LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Part II

Daria Steigman — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:50:21 +0000

During AdWeekDC, the LinkedIn/Facebook/MySpace panel not only gave their definitions of social media, they also talked about how the McCain and Obama campaigns are using social networking.

All three panelists agreed that having an online presence is critical to being a part of the conversation:

Dale Durrett, LinkedIn, said the candidates are using the site’s polling product to ask about energy policy and other key topics. They’re also using the Q&A feature (1,500 people answered Obama’s first question about economic competitiveness), plus targeted advertising.
Tim Kendall, Facebook, said his site enables the campaigns to microtarget, such as advertising to everyone betweeen 18-25 living in Boston or to all Facebook members in a specific congressional district or county.
Jason Oberfest, MySpace, said his site has created a standalone property, MyDebates.org, that links to each candidate’s MySpace page and offers members an opportunity to share their opinions and get up-to-date on the issues.

In the end, social networking is just a tool — and hopefully not the only one in the candidates’ toolbox or yours. As LinkedIn’s Durrett put it, “People need to understand the people aspect, and how they identify with social media. Once you understand who the people are, the next step is the technology.”

LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace on Social Media

Daria Steigman — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:27:41 +0000

What is social media? It’s a simple question, and it’s been the source of much discussion of late in the blogosphere. It was also the first question posed this morning to a trio of folks representing MySpace, LinkedIn, and FacebookÂ at an Advertising Week DC session on Social Networking: Come a Little Closer.

Jason Oberfest, MySpace, said social media is “about connecting people.” He defined MySpace’s three pillars: 1) members’ self-expression; 2) enabling the discovery of media assets; and 3) enabling people to meet other people with similar interests.
Tim Kendall, Facebook, called “the social Web the next great platform” after 1) business productivity on the PC; 2) the Internet; and 3) search.
Dale Durrett, LinkedIn, defined social media as “people using technology to get information and assets from each other (instead of from companies and institutions). He defined LinkedIn’s role as providing business professionals with the ability to be more productive day-to-day by enabling them to reach out quickly and find needed expertise.

Next post I’ll write about the panel’s thoughts on using social media effectively.

Following the Breadcrumbs

Daria Steigman — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:10:29 +0000

One of the great things about social media is how one interesting site can lead you to another. Ever since I set up my RSS feed, I’ve been skimming posts from people as diverse as Interesting conference founder Russell Davies and Harvard Business blogger and author Scott Berkun. And I keep adding more feeds. They’re intellectual breadcrumbs that take me from business leadership to social networking strategy to the art of investing in India. Why? Because knowledge is always valuable, and you never know which byte might help reel in your next client.