It's not always about you!
How many brands discuss nothing but themselves in social networks? About 62%. Too many brands do nothing but talk about themselves. But the millennials and Gen Z want to be part of the "sharing" culture! They want this "relationship" to be a win - win.
Look for opportunities to comment on your clients comments and POV. Set up ways you can have them participate. I love what Taylor Swift does in her Social Media empire. She fills up up Tweets with undiscovered artists singing her songs, fan collages, and wedding videos using her songs. This past Christmas she did #SwiftMas and sent out gifts to those fans out there engaging and documented their openings of the presents on video. TD Bank did a ATM - Automated Thanking Machine - to say thank you to their clients documenting their responses.
What will you do to recognize and talk about your clients and their interests?
The Best Ideas: Entrepreneur creates WishPop
Yesterday, I had a wonderful meeting with Rob Ross who is a natural techy, developer, and entrepreneur.
His creation -- an app for the iPad inspired by his daughter. WishPop allows kids to create wish lists and thank yous to help their "grown ups" know what to buy them!
And Rob did all the right things:
1. First, he got a first class team. While the team was only 8 people, he had experience from Nickelodean, Disney, National Geographic Kids, Game Designers from Ramps, and Acclaim Entertainment. This drove an incredible design.
2. Second, he knew his "client's" pain points. His own daughter served as a chief requirement giver and her 15 BFFs gave constant and consistent feedback.
3. And finally, he learned and pivoted. He noted that the technical platform that he chose to build on didn't allow flexibility. He has since switched over to a developer platform Xamarin.
I love this app and the story!
Every Social Network Is Different !
Dogs are different than cats, and therefore we treat them different. We walk a dog on a leash and leverage catnip for kittens!
The same is true of social networks. The audience of Twitter is different than that of Google Plus. They are different and those that win, treat them differently!
While people know this, we still see content cross promoted on brand's social networks. Your team should be leveraging the differences and be creative to craft the story differently for the different social networks.
One of my favorite brands finds new and unique ways to engage with their fans. They strategically use social to report sentimental stories about how fans’ lives intertwine with the product, thereby growing their social engagement.
What are you doing in your brand?
Tip of the Week: Word Clouds - A great way to see your focus
When I produce a document or content, I will dump the document into a word cloud tool like Wordle.
Review and see what words are really standing out. Are those the words you want to stand out? Do you know what you want to emphasize? Make sure those words and phrases are sprinkled throughout your document!
Have fun developing content that matters!
Social Business Is Growing and Morphing !
I was re reading the recent ibm.biz/SocStudy on social business impact! If you haven't read it, please take the time to comb through it!
Some things that struck me!
First, enterprises are rapidly adopting, investing in and achieving business outcomes from social. In fact, Pacesetters, those who are exceeding in the market, are 4x more likely to embed social into both their internal and external processes! 43% of the best embed social into their processes but we need more to think this way! Social is not a channel, but a more effective and efficient ways to transform business processes!
But how do they approach social? Organizations tend to deploy clusters of capabilities together, each aimed at achieving a specific goal. Most are driving both internal and external collaboration but the #1 social entry point for most organizations deploying is on a client engagement mobile app.
To ensure success, these organizations are building, educating and protecting the workforce. 82% of these companies also recruit their employees via social networks.
However, most of these organizations are using social analytics to support their decisions, not for making decisions. For instance, 70% of those who are deploying social analytics still DO NOT USE THEM to influence marketing decisions - still rely on gut feel!!!!
Employees are critical in the battle for mindshare and relationships online! 43% of those deploying rely on employee evangelists to spread the word
Visit ibm.biz/SocStudy to read the full study and start driving your social business impact!
Digital tip of the week – #TwitterAcademy webinars
If you are interested in learning more about Twitter for Business?
#TwitterAcademy offers free webinars on topics such as how to increase your follower base. You can register here: https://twitter.twimg.com/TwitterAcademy.
Each session lasts around 30 minutes and it ends with a live Q&A session.
Digital tip of the week – How to Import your email contacts as connections in LinkedIn
Digital tip of the week – How to Import your email contacts as connections in LinkedIn
You can connect with most people you’ve done business through your email. LinkedIn allows you to search through your email contacts to find anyone who might have slipped your mind or works in a different industry now.
To import your address book:
- Click the Add Connections icon in the top right of your LinkedIn homepage.
- Click the button for the email provider you use. If you don't see your provider, click the Any Email button.
- Enter your information.