How To Keep Yourself Up-To Date On Social Media

While working as a Social Media professional we know that it is essential to 'listen'. Apart from listening to our community members, it is essential to listen to other professionals who are on-board as well within the Social Media space. It is from each other's experience and expertise that we can keep ourselves up-to date on what is taking place in the online space and how the future is getting shaped.

While you do have the option of searching individual professionals and then connecting with them, there is a much easier and a more methodical way. If I tell you there is one site that will enable you to receive information from the blogs of the various professionals what would you say to this? Check out socialmediainformer.com. Share your experience with us here on what you think of this amazing space.

'Social Media Informer' site is a syndication of information. As the name suggests it is your space for Social Media information. Single space which you can say is in reality an 'online Social Media knowledge hub':

• A space where you find best of online experts contributing their real working expertise.
• You will find a plethora of 'how to articles' - to take you through steps that experts are using to get into higher engagement space with your customer sets so that you work your way into retention strategy and viral for acquisition purpose.
  
• Check out the vast archive that is since over 5yrs and is growing - almost the time when Social Media took off.
  
• This site is great for ready information, reference and usage for the wide spectrum of newbies to professionals.

It does not matter who you are - you want to be online you got to be subscribed here.

Do check it out and share your views here. It will be great to know what is your advice for this site.

How To Know If Social Media Network Can Help Your Business

We have all heard that Social Media Network is to be integrated into the overall marketing plan. While we have heard that Social Media has a lot of benefits for the business we may often wonder if it is 'really suitable for our individual brand and category', 'is this right for my business?'. There are often doubts that I notice when people look at Social Media. Many a times industrial and manufactures think that they may not find Social Media path a very fruitful marketing endeavor. While others at professional level, retail level, consumer durables and FMCG do work towards the Social Media space.

Social Media is not and should not be a constraining factor to any business. The logic is very simple here on how to determine if your business should take the Social Media path. First and foremost check on who is your target audience.

Your target audience decides if you should be on Social Media or not:
If your customers are online then you 'may need to consider Social Media'. However this plain understanding is not enough to decide that you should be on Social Media space. Lets consider the below factors:

What type of online activity do your target audience indulge in?:
If your target audience is merely looking at emails and not really spending time on other Social Media sites then you need not get into Social Media Network. Perhaps you may need to consider email marketing alone in this case with regards to online activity.

Target Audience looks for information alone? They are not on Social Sites like Facebook, Twitter and others?:

• Incase your target audience sees search then you may want to consider Pay Per Click method of Google AdWords, and other advertising methods along with those spaces that does not require a registration and login. For instance blogging is a great method. Your target audience need not login nor register they can view and read your blog posts directly after coming from the search link. Search engines have a very high affinity of crawling and indexing blogs. This is a very good and positive way of Social Media path.
• Additionally, You can be a writer for various other sites, like for instance you could look at writing for your industry and category specific sites. Add to this you could look at writing industry and category specif articles and submitting the same to article sites.
• There are lots of [PR] press release sites that enable you to submit your information and publish the same. 
  

Target Audience looks at search and other Social Networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and others?:

Great! Now you definitely can look at blogs, PR sites,and article marketing path and in addition to these you can be on Social Media sites as well. However: you need to still determine on:

• What exactly is their view, behavior and attitude towards the Social Media. How do they use and consume the Social Media. What relevance and role does Social Media play in their life.
• Based on this information you need to plan your strategy. 
• You can then, determine where your target audience is and 'if' you should also be on those site. We need to be careful here you need not be on each site that your target audience is. The site selection depends on two main factors: one being the target audience and the other being the brand personality. If your brand personality does not allow your interaction on a particular site then lets not be there. The Social Media site personality [perception] matters as well.
• Dependent on the involvement level of your target audience with a particular site you can then determine what should be your frequency of posting content. What kind of content will bring about the desired call to action.

Additionally there are various others factors as well no doubt, for instance creating your own website etc.

Conclusion:

• Determine your target audience behavior, attitude and usage on the internet.
• Have your brand personality and brand print drawn out properly.
• Understand the mood, tone and functions of the various sites.

Do join in here and share your parameters to help business to determine if they should be on the Social Media path.

Maslow In Recent Times Would Have Added Social Media

We do see Social Media all across. Whether you work as a Social Media personnel or not, as long as you have an urge to go online and start to search where your friends, relatives and colleges are, you end up on a Social Site. And then, you start to spend more time online.

What would have been Maslow's theory today? Would Social Media be one of the main basic factors for human survival. He had mentioned food, shelter, clothing as basic human needs. Today perhaps Social Media would also fall into this category. Add to this Social Media also spreads towards the next level of psychological satisfaction as well.

What do you think? Share your views.

Content Curation For Social Media Integrity

While working on Social Media it is important to maintain integrity and ethics. Blatant copy pasting someone else's hard work is just not correct. It could mar your professional credibility. You could loose out on potential clients and start to give out an image of yourself as not being genuine. This could lead people to perceive you as not knowing much about the field you are working in. Having said this, to each time get ideas to populate your blog could be difficult. In-between your hectic schedule  how do you each time get matter for content?

In order to have a good ranking on search engines it is imperative to be consistent with fresh content on your blog. This in turn would bring good and positive quality traffic. Good content takes up your time and energy.

How do you manage to consistently produce quality work? Ofcourse blatant copy pasting does not justify the existence of your blog. Here is where content curation comes to your rescue.

Content curation is about appreciating and synthesizing work of others. Allow me to repeat myself: it is not about copy pasting someone's hard work;  It is reviewing and filtering it is all about synthesizing.

Have you come across any such content curation? ReTweet is a form of content curation. Content curation is a skill and art. It is not stealing. It is understanding and then putting forth your opinion and your own understanding.

Do you encourage content curation? Share in your views here.

Manage Your Social Media Better - Distribute Your Blog To Twitter, Facebook And More

Managing your important communication on the Social Media could be tedious at times. It is important that you have a system wherein you can organize your communication. There are couple of tools available online that enable you to communicate with your various communities. For instance when you post a blog you need not manually start to copy and paste the same matter across your other sites. A simple tool like dlvr.it does this task very efficiently. To the extent that this site even shortens long urls so that they fit in well with the posts and even leave space for Retweet in Twitter. 

This site enable you to simultaneously post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Buzz, Ping and a couple of others as well.

This service constantly scans the various sites and informs if there is any API and such other problem.

Add to this you can also utilize its scheduling services. Herein you simply have to put date and time on when and which site should your posts be delivered. 

Have you tried dlvr.it ? What is your experience with this site. Do share in your feedback. What similar platform do you use?

How To Tackle Negative Comments While Managing Community In Social Media

Hi Folks, do you work as an Online Community Manager? Do you often receive the negative remarks of some person whom you have not known in a long time? Well you do not have to be a community member to receive negative feedback / response or a comment. You could have subscribed to a site and there you have someone creating a high noise level. You may not know this person. The only connection between you and this person is the Page / Site that you both are on. While sometime the comments 'may' not be 'useful', other times certain comments are necessary to be heard and addressed to.

When the comments are directly towards you at a personal level you may tend to re-act a little more strongly. When it is towards your business or brand then you at first step try to plan but yet could have a strong urge to re-act.

There are couple of reasons why people react negatively. Before we re-act to negative comments we need to have a basic understanding towards the human mind set.

People face different situations in their daily life and this they interpret with their own individual understanding and thus portray certain attitudes and traits and thereby a particular behavior takes place. Before we re-act we need to take a step back. We need to realize that each person comes with some background / situation / circumstances in life. Yes, this is very easily said than done. However we need to try and step back. Many a times a person voices negative remarks within the online space is because they feel maybe this way you will at-least adhere to what they are sharing and quickly work towards solution. Perhaps they have been given the feeling of not being heard otherwise. They could also be voicing - just so that they feel they are heard. For some it is a good ego boost.

There are a couple of ways in which one should re-act or rather let me say 'address' negative comments.

Weigh the comments first:
Re-read, try to listen to what the person has actually been driving towards, what is being referred to and mentioned, rather than what is being read by you. Read between the lines. There would be aggressive words and tone of voice however beneath this is the person trying to share with you that they are quite troubled and fed - up with a certain aspect / reason to comment. See if in the first place the comment is to be addressed. Try to move your anger and aggression out.  Is this person justified in what they have shared and voiced?

Do not make each response public:
Just because the person has made their comments publicly towards you or your brand or your business it does not mean and is not necessary to re-act in a same public manner. Sometimes connecting with this person on a one to one basis could be helpful. Yes one could feel that 'others may think i am a coward' and so on. Let us not be hampered by our own uncertainties, as there is already the commentator in a not so good state of mind. By going public we could unnecessarily make a situation ugly. Remember you are judged by what you do and not do. If the person is a regular aggressive commentator people will realize. You do not have to degrade yourself.

Not to re-act:
Sometimes senseless rantings need to not be addressed at all. Yes you need not comment and start to get into a dialogue with each comment; while this is being said it should be very clear that you should be noticing, listening to each comment and would be having a logical reasoning as to why you do not re-act to certain comments at all. Silence speaks. It is just like the case of pen being mightier than the sword. Silence speaks a thousand words. So be very careful when you choose to silence yourself with respect to some comments. Definitely if it is a feedback please do not get into a silence mode. Yes if it is some comment that has just intercepted into an ongoing conversation in a aggressive manner then perhaps silence towards that comment could be justified. 

Accept the problem:
If the person is correct in what they have shared then you need to accept this case. However please do not make each bad remark into an apology. In the sense if some third person comes to that particular page they should not find a string of only apologies. I have seen this in cases of certain brands. You may go on Twitter and check that these are full of a sentence that goes as 'we are sorry to hear this, can you please send your email id or contact number so we can contact you'. While this is good customer service it may not be the right engagement in the online space. It so happens that wherever you scroll on this page this sentence seems to have been the template for all cases. The acceptance can be on a one to one basis as well.

Be in-sync with your brand:
If the person whom you would be addressing is a online contact alone; who does not know you personally / professionally and whom you may also not know this persons only see and perceives you in the manner in which you react within the online space. Lets be clear that your personality is constantly being portrayed and comprehended by what actions you do and not do. It is critical that you have a planned brand personality within your system. How should you re-act should be driven by the brand personality. It is also essential that you have an escalation matrix within your system. And all concerned are aware of this. The reason being is that you finally need to deliver what you are mentioning online.

In Conclusion:
Be consistent with your brand image. Have a planned escalation matrix. Remember online material many a times cannot be deleted from the mind. Think before reacting. Consider and listen clearly. Move out the negatives wording see between the lines and listen in to what is being said, get an understanding of why it being said rather than concentrating on the how / the words being used.Please be empathetic.

Do share in your parameters and caution points as well. Do join in here. 

Facebook Notification For The Benefit Of Managing Your Social Media Community

These days with a lot of noise and clutter around various Social Media sites it is imperative that we have a better monitoring tool. Fortunately many famous / popular Social Media sites have given access to various third party tools. This monitoring enables us to work more efficiently and thereby effectively.

One such tool that enables you to receive notification on Facebook Fan Pages is the 'PageNotifier'. When you are administrator of Facebook Fan Pages you would need to be in touch with your community.You need to be able to respond to them in approximate real time.

How does PageNotifier work?

PageNotifier scans our Facebook Fan Pages regularly. The Notifier scans for new comments on status updates, videos, photos, and albums. If atall there are any new posts / comments etc the notifier captures this and sends us an email along with the link to the comment / post etc. So you can directly go to that particular space and respond in an appropriate way. Add to this it emails to you any comments on the photos as well.

What comes to you is an email:

You receive an email notification with mention of who commented, what they said, what post they commented on, and a link to the post for easy reply.

PageNotifier is developed by Brandon Zundel. What I have noticed is that he personally replies to any information that you may want with regards the application.

Do join in here. Share in which other such notification you rely on.

Social Media Community Manager's Management

Monitoring Social Media can be overwhelming. From the outside it looks like a mayhem. Lots of people chatting, couple of praises, many silent monologues that could lead the Community Manager themselves into utter silence and the rest of the time stressing with negative feedback. Add to this some person posting an affiliate programme link and someone else venting out their frustration. Sounds familiar?

Have you faced these situations? What do you do?

You start your day with new zest, saying that, you will create a buzz. The much wanted buzz such that maybe the head of the organization gets to hear about the same from elsewhere [in a positive way].

All you need is to plan out your day. Have a schedule. Check each site and restrict this for thrice a day or maybe four times if you can manage. Over a period of time you will realize the below:

• There are certain people who are good and interactive. They like to hear from your end. They are interested in what you mention, suggest and inform.
• These interested people have a 'kind of' set way to checking and responding to what you share. They come on particular days of the week at a particular time period.
  

When you start to have a grasp of the above two points, you will find yourself managing the 'noise' on your page. This in no way means that you start to restrict yourself from checking your pages at other time intervals. This in no way means that you do not respond to others at the time of their interaction.

What this means is that you can plan your time and schedule your online Social Media management a little better. Having said this please keep an open mind for new people to start making you notice new activity schedules.

To manage Social Media it is important that you start to understand that you need to be flexible. Flexibility in terms of time, the response turnaround, the quality of content that you share and the quantity of time, energy and content.

Do share in your views on what philosophy and modus operandi you have - so that you manage your online Social Media effectively and efficiently.

Earning From The Internet - A Social Media Ruin

Many a times we come across information on the net as: 'Make your pc an ATM Machine!' 'Mr.X earns four figures monthly!' 'Become a billionaire by not doing anything!' 'If X can become rich then you too can!' 'Have your dream cruise come true!' 'Just invest $194 and earn every month four figure without doing anything!'

Many people who read this fall into the trap. Many people seem to have fallen into this trap. You probably may know some person who will have [and maybe still awaiting] awaited the infamous four figure monies to land in their bank account.

You will find these people on the net. Unfortunately though you can report them to cyber crimes most of these eventually are not reachable as the very account and email they identify themselves with is fake. To the extent the proof of earning that they show is just a photo-shop [a software used for images] made job.

At the beginning they offer great help and service. Once you have paid suddenly they do not exist. You will find them in Social Sites, Forums, perhaps they even to come to your blog and post messages that lead to their amazing offer.

Just wanted to share - be careful. Many a times those who are at home and hope to earn from the internet are soft targets for this. Many a times working people who feel they have little extra time for extra income are soft targets for this.

Do join in here. A scam is a scam there are no two ways to this. In case you have witnessed this kind of experience do share in here.

As A Social Media Network Professionals What You Do

Hello and how have you been.

Many a times we are asked as to what exactly do we as Social Media persons do. Do we create advertisements online? Do we blog generally? More evolved asks do we moderate the forums? Do we go to practically each space online and start to post messages that are sales driven? And for those who do never really go online we are doing something on the net - unexplained! Ah do you do all that scam!?

Well do join in here and add on to what a Social Media Network person does. Do share in your experiences.

Below what I have shared is just the tip of the ice burg. Each parameter shared below has lot of depth and requires experience and skill sets. Unfortunately many a times the person may find it difficult to extract information from the concerned parties, but do try.

Marketing Objective:
The Social Media Person to start off understands the complete marketing scenario. It is necessary to understand what are the various communication messages that the consumer set is getting exposed to. Social Media is part of the overall marketing effort. Even if the companies may not look at it in that manner it does fall into achieving the marketing objective and is a vehicle which takes you towards the goals. Marketing objectives need to be clear to the personnel.

Understand Consumer Mind-Set [Lifestyle, Behavior, etc]:
It is imperative for the Social Media Person to understand what is the Consumer Mind-Set. Factors like who is the customer, what does he or she do, how do they behave and what kind of lifestyle do they live and aspire towards are the pillars that the Social Media Personnel would be constantly and consistently updating themselves with throughout their tenure and engagement with their clients.

Competitor Understanding:
While the Social Media Person should be provided with the names of competitors, it is this personnel who would be tracking the competitor activity with regards to their engagement on the Social Media Network online space. The personnel would be keeping track of what is taking place in the category.

Social Site Understanding:
It is crucial to be aware of what the various sites like Facebook Personal Page vis a vis the Facebook Fan Page should render itself towards. What is Twitter lending itself to and so on. What is LinkedIn bringing across. And so on.

It is the crucial understanding of the Consumer Mind-Set and the Social Media Site that tells us how should one interact with the Community Members / Fans / Followers. The reason being the mix of these two parameters tells us in what current mind-set the customer is making interaction with us.

Brand Personality:
Brand Personality is the core of directing the brand on how should it behave under various circumstances. To understand and breadth the brand personality by the Social Media Personnel is extremely crucial. The Customer sees the brand in various communication formats as a single personality during a campaign and in the long term as well - this is exactly the Customer should be seeing, interacting, and understanding the brand when they come across the Social Media Network personnel across various Social Media sites / blogs etc.

All the above parameters are not placed in order of importance. Let me state that that they all are important equally. There is much more when the Social Media Personnel actually starts to work. Unfortunately many a times the person may find it difficult to extract information from the concerned parties, but do try.

Share in your views and experiences as well. Do join here.
 
 

How To Add Static FBML To Your Facebook Page For Social Media

Just thought of sharing a little 'how to do the FBML on Facebook'.

First thing first, what is FBML? FBML is a subset of HTML. Full form of FBML is Facebook Markup Language.

Next questions 'who is to use it?' and 'so why am i to use it?' Allow me to answer the second question first, in this lies the answer to the first question as well. FBML enables you to create custom tabs on your Facebook Fan Pages. This application is available for Fan Pages on Facebook. You will not find this [as yet] on your Personal Facebook Pages nor will you find this on your Group Pages at Facebook.

How to create and use FBML section? Ready? Lets start...

• First log-in to your Facebook Page.
• Once logged in to your account you will notice on your left hand side 'edit page'. click this and get into the edit page part.  
• Scroll down and you will find in the 'application' section the FBML . Click this.
• Go to the static 'FBML application'. You will see that you have landed onto a Fan Page of Static FBML. There on left hand side you will notice 'add to my page'. Click this and thereby you have added the application to your Facebook Page.
• Once you click this the list of all you Facebook Pages where you are the administrator will appear. Please click on the Page you want this application to be added to.

In this way the Static FBML is added onto your Facebook Fan page.

Now we need to set it up and configure this so that we can display what we want to.

• Once again get into the 'edit page' on your Fan Page.
• On this page scroll a little down you will find the application. Get into the 'application setting' please do not go to 'edit application'.
• Once you have clicked the 'application setting' you need to mark the 'add' 'tab'. click 'ok'
• Once you have done this get into the 'edit application' which is close to the 'application setting'.
• Once in the 'edit application' you will find that there is a box.
  

This is the space where you can have a tab header / name and you can place your HTML Code onto this space. See to it that you do not go beyond 520 pixels in width. You can add more FBML Pages and Boxes by Clicking the 'Add another FBML Box'. You can have maximum 10 FBML Boxes. 

This is a growing subject. Add and share your experiences and tips and tricks here.

Social Media Needs A Driver

Many a times we commence the Social Media planning and strategy with a bang! We start with enthusiasm and a lot of hope that we will achieve our objectives within the marketing preview.  So, there is a team appointed to carry out the various tasks. And, the execution starts.

With a good take off, everyone has started to join into Twitter and Facebook [dependent on what is wanted, this is just example]. And soon the excitement builds up as we start to count on how many people have joined us. In elevators and corridors a quick response is shared on questions like 'how many today?'. This excitement continues till suddenly someone wants to know the ROI. And then suddenly everyone is  figuring out on parameters - the matrix to measure Social Media. This could be the first part of loosing out on steam of enthusiasm.

Next part when the steam starts to get out is during engagement period. While initially we may engage but the problem starts when someone complains and we do not respond as a company / brand properly. While apologizing is one part if there is no real concrete step taken then things could go out of hand. It is essential to have developed a matrix / escalation levels while creating the plan and strategy itself. It is essential that all departments know and understand that if the Social Media person flags an issue the concerned department should take the responsibility and solve the issue. This is critical. This the Social Media person should establish at the very beginning itself.

Social Media is a consistent and constant efforts. Let us 'never' think that once the basics are set up it will all generate talks on its own. People always need a little push and a little nudging. Social Media no doubt catches momentum, but one has to keep the momentum going. We cannot say that without an 'active driver' the Social Media will continue to create and achieve our objectives.

Social Media could start to loose the steam. How do you keep it going? What do you think? Join in ...

Your Social Media Output Should Be An Extension Of Brand Personality

Social Media Networking is part of the overall marketing scenario. It is not a separate silo that one works within. Our Social Media efforts are an extension of the brand's overall marketing efforts. Just like any other aspect of marketing like advertising [print, tv, radio, outdoors etc], Social Media is also one of these. Ofcourse the modus operandi would be different. However our target audience would be part of the overall target audience itself.

This means that if our customer is viewing our brand say for example on TV it is very essential that they meet the same personality on the internet as well. If on TV our core brand personality is projecting ourselves for example as humorous and easy going then it is crucial that in the online medium as well we have similar projection. Which goes to say that the Social Media person who is actually communicating and interacting with the customer sets needs to behave in a similar method. However we need to be careful here; not to over do or cross the line, as a matter of speaking. Humorous as i have shared is just a very light example. As we create a brand personality there is more added to humorous as well in the sense there could be a tongue in cheek kind of personality another could be wise and so on. The main idea that am trying to share with you is that we all need to be very much cued into understanding how our brand should be in the online space.

There is more to brand personality while working online as a Social Media person. We need to fine tune and zero down on the brand personality to an extent that as and when we face a crises say an irate customer, we should be well aware of 'how are we approaching the irate customer'. If for instance the brand personality is for teens and contemporary with interest in the latest happenings and portrays the 'cool' lingo, when faced with an irate customer we cannot loose out on the personality aspect however the same brand would be a little serious and would try to talk it out and solve the situation. We cannot be high handed during crises.

Hence, we need to understand the brand personality as a person. We need to know and be clear on how the brand reacts and acts. The brand should be considered as a human being. Naturally this is how you would draw out the brand personality. Afterall it is one human that can deal with another human under dynamic situations. The sense of the brand personality should be  the way you would know your very close friend. You can almost predict how your very close friend would act and react in various situations of life. Be it at their home, amongst relatives, amongst their friends, at work, in a meeting etc. Similarly we need to be clear on the detailing of our brand personality.

Many a times we will notice that Social Media is a live test of the brand personality. We will see that we are living and actually breathing the personality of another person [the brand].

Infact if you notice once you understand the brand person the way around comes with ease. You will notice that you will be able to clearly select the sites to live and expand on. You will automatically know if you should be on MySpace, Flicker, or restrain yourself to Facebook. You will also understand if at all you need to be on LinkedIn if you are directly dealing with say for instance school children. You will notice that School Children would take parent permission [atleast we hope that they would] in the online space given a lot of scams etc. If this is the situation then parents will be comfortable seeing you on LinkedIn while the actual target audience [school children] may not visit your LinkedIn profile. 

So this brings us to three aspects of personality understanding:
One is knowing your 'Brand' Personalty [along with Category Personality ofcourse]
Another is understanding the 'Social Media' Network 'site' personality
And thirdly is to understand the 'Customer' Set personality
These three pointers are not in the order that are shared above. All of them have equal importance.   

How do you bring alive the brand on the Social Media space? Do join in and share your experiences.


             

Benefits of Online Reputation Management - Social Media

Online Reputation Management comprises of various elements. Together they start to form a complete picture and enable our stakeholder’s experience to percolate within the system. We need to understand that there's a high degree of correlation between good customer / stakeholder experiences and their willingness to associate with the same organization, brand, product and service.

The various points of influence are:

• Traditional/mainstream websites.
• Professional networks like LinkedIn.
• Social networks like Facebook and others.
• Consumer Review sites such as epinions, MouthShut and others.
• Social news / bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, technorati, dig and others.
• Collaborative Research sites such as Yahoo Answers, Rediff Q&A.
• Independent discussion forums based on categories and general interest by profession. 
• Blogs created and managed.
• Blogging communities as the Open Diary, LiveJournal, Xanga.
• Microblogs e.g. Twitter.

Our primary goal when developing a social marketing strategy should be to establish conversation parameters. We cannot possibly control the direction of every conversation, nor should we try to, but we can be available to answer questions and provide honest and helpful input wherever possible. People visit social networking sites because they want to have conversations that don't involve sales pitches. In order to gain trust, we will need to create an environment in which potential and existing customers feel free to express opinion without fear of being censored, but also in which we can provide responses to negative comments that help viewers understand the reasons behind your company's actions in any particular area. When appropriate, we can point readers toward your product, but in such a way that they feel we are providing useful information rather than pitching your company. When we do professional activities on the above elements within the internet space we start to approach our stakeholders at various levels. We start to mean, what we aim to be perceived by our target audience.

• Improve customer satisfaction by gaining insights from consumers about what is good and bad about our product or services.
• Increase positive perceptions of brand by creating opportunities to listen to and engage with consumers.
• Gain insights about competitors and their customers’ perceptions about their products and services.
• Maintain shareholder value by mitigating risk by having ears close to the ground where opinions about our business are being formed and propagated.
• Engage in more effective public relations by understanding who the real influencers are.
• Gain understanding of the relationship between user generated content and traditional forms of online media, e.g. news, print, etc.
• Provide early warning systems for reactive Public Relations.
• Reduce marketing spend by learning how to reach out to customers more cheaply.
• Reduce internal costs by employing services which save time and effort, as well as money.
• Help identify gaps for products and services which can be developed for profitable niche markets.
• Gain insight into online networks and keywords and key phrases found in user-generated content, which can help to bolster natural search results about the person, product, or business. 

The benefits are definitely there in the Social Media Network space; yes if we do the networking in the right manner. Do join here, what do you think?

Social Media - Why Does Facebook Not Have Many Tracking Tools?

Social Media is all about interaction. It is good and healthy engagement with your community members. Your community members could be called by any name for instance Fan on Facebook, Followers on Twitter and so on. Whatever we may term them they are fellow members having a similar thought and they contribute ideas and thought processes towards the same main conversational point.

The situation: Social Media is a 24 by 7 [24/7] task. There could be comment or a post concerning you or your brand anytime and anywhere within the online space. You are not really expected to answer this intermediately however it would be just great and a bonus point for you if you do answer it immediately. Having said this you are not to reply to it 'never' or after a 'couple of days' this definitely will be negative for you. Ofcourse there could be instances which you may select not to interact upon based on how you may want to portray your brand.

If this is the situation what should you do? should you really be online 24hours all of the 365 days? This ofcourse is humanly not feasible. Hence we have a range of tools that come to us within the online space. Some of them are free and some come at a cost. They enable us to 'gather' our name [brand] being mentioned anywhere and hence we could be able to answer and communicate to fellow commentators.

While tracking of Twitter is not too difficult though. The reason being that we have number of good and useful tools online. However a huge membership of Facebook does not have easily identifiable tools online. The reason being that Facebook does not enable tracking by outsiders easily.

So how do you track your Facebook members and how do you track your Facebook Fan Pages? Facebook already has a good 'Insights Dashboard' where you get to see the number of interactions done. You can view the number of users, comments etc. Do you use this? What other tools do you use? Do join in here and lets share ideas on which online free tools you use for Facebook.

Could Google Wave Be One Of The Many Social Media Networking Sites

These days there are numerous Social Media sites taking place on the internet. All the Social Media sites are receiving good amount of logins. Ofcourse some like Facebook have become 'nations' within themselves.

Social Networking is all about people interacting with each other having a common topic, which sometimes has differences and sometimes mutually agreeing on certain view points.

Lets look at Google Wave. Google recently has sounded off the media world that it will withdraw the Wave, however, will retain the technology for further use. Where exactly will the Wave technology get utilized is to be seen as Google has not made an announcement to this effect as yet.

Contemplating if Google Wave could have been a good space for people to collaborate and interact as typically one would on other Social Media Network spaces. At first glance we would immediately tend to go towards the two ends of the spectrum as 'no it cannot be' and some others would say 'yes it could be'. Where do you stand? What is your opinion? Could Google Wave Be One Of The Many Social Media Networking Sites?

Lets take a little more closer look at various, already existing, Social Media sites. What do they offer? They offer friend connection, a voting system, photo upload, a post system, a space for conversation continuity, a status messaging, knowing who is friend of friend, an email notification comes in most cases of any messages etc., and so on, and ofcourse they are free sites.  Each site has these basic features and some specific features as add-ons to create a little distinction and a little difference.

Similarly Google Wave also has its own basics, like as shared above, in place. Add to this Google Wave has certain specific gadgets and plug-ins that create a difference and make it a different technology for usage. Then why did it not get onto to the mass appeal section? what is it that other sites did that perhaps Google Wave may not have yet done. Google Wave is a wonderful mix of being partly social networking functionality and partly as being an unified communications factored into it. Wave combines instant messaging, blogging, document sharing, email, wikis, and multimedia content to provide a seamless communications platform.

If there is a good list of positive and plus points to it why did this attempt of Google not take off atleast as yet? The reasons could be quite a few. What do you think?
The reasons could be:

Marketing? Was marketing the reason?
While Facebook and Twitter are getting onto various methods like providing follow badges which can be put up on the sites and blogs Wave does not have this as yet. Though Wave provide a link that can be embedded onto blogs and sites.

Mobile? While the other Social Sites have given mobile facility like you can visit the pages from your cell phone Wave would be on the heavy side for cell phone accessibility. GMail itself can be easily accessed via the cell phone but Wave is still difficult. Both GMail and Wave are from same Google though.

GMail integration? Fortunately from the same Google came Buzz. Buzz though has not really a very different usage from regular chat and posts it has more number of loyal people using it. Is it because Buzz is well within reach in GMail and Wave is not found in GMail could this be a very big reason for Buzz growth and Wave not growing as much?

Usage? At first take many people would state that Wave as confusing. Yes one has to take an effort and go up the learning graph for one to be enabled and capable of using Google Wave to the fullest.

Behavior? Was Wave asking its users and new people who were to experience this to change a behavior pattern? Well maybe yes to some extent. Wave had to be studied and was requiring a dedicated time factor at the beginning from new people to latch onto it. You would not find the typical links, posts etc at the top where normally you would be used to on the other sites.

Invites? Wave was not open to entire public. Could this also be a reason?

Have you used Google Wave, how did you find it? Join in here and share your experience with the Google Wave that is unfortunately waving a goodbye to us now.

How To Measure Your Social Media Efforts

Social Media efforts like any other marketing effort requires that it be measured, monitored and be accountable. This is simple business practice not restricted and not limited by marketing efforts alone. Typically in business terminology called Return On Investments or ROI.

It is certain that while Social Media is easily available and can be networked with, it still does require investment, skill and thorough knowledge. These investment at minimal level would be time, energy, technology [hardware, software the web and internet connectivity], dedicated human resource. Add to this just like any other marketing campaign we will require objectives and KPIs Key Process Indicators as well.

There is lot of research and discussion going on in the area of 'how to arrive at a ROI for Social Media'. There are two unique groups at the two ends of a spectrum. One group profess that Social Media has not as yet reached the stage of measurement and the other group states that Social Media can be measured. What is your take on this? Can Social Media be measured - as yet?

What we need to understand is that while we do measure the Social Media space we need to be very clear on what the parameters are to be. Naturally the most upfront one is mentioning that if the objective is achieved then all other things would fall in place. Now the objective for Social Media need not always be in terms of quantifiable terms. It could be qualitative and / or quantitative. The measuring process works just like any other profit and loss system however the parameters are very very different. Add to this not only are the parameters different but the scale of these parameters are also different.

One needs to understand 'how Social Media works' before diving into a measuring chase. This is the most critical part. If one does not know, understand and comprehend how Social Media actually works, how it performs and how to go about it then one is not [with due respect] qualified to establish the measuring criteria. As you read below you will get an understanding of  this statement.  

While measuring the Social Media efforts we need to consider the below parameters. The below parameters are indications of the various factors that are to be 'considered' and 'understood' before we start to set a formula:

Time: Time is of great essence here in Social Media. At one level we need to be clear that immediate results are not every time the only correct way for measure. Social Media by its nature works on two levels one is engagement levels with the members and the SEO level. If we go a little deep both engagement and SEO get better with consistent efforts.They require the time factor to get established. For instance the positive engagement which eventually should lead to loyalty and viral effect cannot happen at once by merely setting up of a Facebook Fan Page for instance and getting people to join in. To develop relevant interactions the brand and the customer set would require time. The next part is SEO. SEO work is like an investment. You consistently work on the SEO aspect while working online. The efforts put in today will reap you rewards in the near future.  

Number of followers / fans / members: This is the most sought after target. While it would be great to have a huge Fan base it is necessary that the topics we communicate is relevant to them and enhancing our brand image. It is equally essential to get them dialoguing with us and just not having a one way communication [only from us]. This means that we need to have quality and not just quantity based followers / fans / members. When our communication is engaging only then we can be sure to a large extent to have a desired response. Additionally we should remember that good quality of engagement would lead to a viral effect. Thus automatically leading to increase in membership which is relevant to us and to whom we are relevant and bring value into their lives. This leads us onto 3 aspects namely:
Quantity [number of members]
Quality [right members that are relevant to brand]
Engagement Level [level of interaction and involvement]

For those who would be satisfied with numbers there is still a way out: Hence instead of the typical, usual number game how about using parameters like:
How many customers asked for more information
How many have been retained for over three months as your Tweeter followers
How many come to your main site / main blog
What was the conversion taking place in terms of sales
Number of features that the customers suggested and how many have we managed to implement
Number of hours in a week when we have interacted with the customers and created a result
Number of new qualitative customers
How many qualitative customers are being retained over three months
Number of repeat customers [same customer interacting intensely and participating more]
Number of viral effects that have taken place
Reduction in support costs
Number of new things that we discovered as consumer insight
Increase in Page Rank
Number of redemption taking place [if at all there is redemption coupon made available]
Number of back-links that you receive [qualitative back-links not just quantitative]

Add to this be sure to measure the qualitative aspect in terms of:
Satisfaction
Loyalty [retention and viral effect]
Engagement
Feedback

So it could be the mix of qualitative and quantitative matrix.

Add to all of the above factors is constant improvement. Having set the parameters we need to consistently check with reality of out individual case. Many a times we may set a lot of parameters that will not really make sense to an individual case for measuring. The parameters need to be in-sync with the feasibility of there being an output in terms of the brand, customer set, competition and category. It is not the case of same parameters fit all.

So we need to be very clear on how we want to measure the success of a Social Media Network Campaign.

What are your thoughts? Do join in.

Social Media Facebook Security

These days all accounts and sites are concerned about account holder's identity, and rightly so. It is definitely good that Social Media Network sites are having privacy protection. What do you think?

The problem comes in here: on Facebook for instance we have numerous games like Mafia Wars and others. These games require that you have lots of 'Mafia Members' in other words the more number of people to be your neighbors in that game. These persons need not necessarily be your 'real friends' you may not really know them. They are people who are helpful no doubt in your game and that is it, ofcourse you may start to connect with them by interacting on what they may put up as posts etc. So you have rampant connections taking place in order to increase your 'game family'.

Usually security is checked by asking certain questions that one has answered and keyed in while registering like what is your birth date or which street you stay on etc. Facebook has recently started asking you to identify the people who are on your friend list. Let me explain: you are showed random photos and you are to identify who is the person in that photo. Now probably you really never went online and checked your 'extended gaming family' what they are doing or how they really looked etc.

So now what takes place? You who are the real account holder when while going through this security check which is 'mention the person in the photo' seems to be seen as trespasser! 'this account is not verified by you so you are not the real owner of this account!'.

What would you say to this? Did you face this?

Social Media - I am where You are

Are they stalking you? Are they haunting you? Many a times we will see certain people joining every place where their customer sets are.  It is really the case of 'I am where You are'.

Joining spaces where your customers are is not a very bad idea. However then intruding into their every activities [comments, posts] starts to be a discomfort.

What normally takes place is that the customer has given general information since their favorite brand asked: So the customer informs that they are on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other places. Well the over enthusiasts follows them and at the slightest chance starts to broadcast their sales messages. 

Lets be careful when we start to track and communicate with our customer sets [who are ideally known as members of community  / fan] when we are online.

Soon, the so far, the 'favorite' brand is then the 'dreaded fugitive' online.

The key here is to understand who is the customer and what is the site like. There are certain sites that may not fit your brand personality. Thus being there and creating a buzz could be harmful. It is as good as reaching customers at the wrong time in a wrong way. This could be irritating and could mean a lot of negative spread about you.

All sites may not cater and may not lend themselves to all types of brand personality influence. Add to this it may be the case where the customer may not be in the correct frame of mind to react positively towards the brand announcements.

Thus we do need to be clear on who is the target audience, what is their attitude and behavior on various sites, what is the brand personality and what si competitor doing. Once we have a good written frame work of this information then we could start our jorney online.

What is your opinion? How does your experience span across with the very enthusiasts as being the community manager.

Social Media is set for Google Wave?

Have you tried Google Wave?

It has been around for quite sometime.

It is brought by Google as the name suggests and is known for real time communication and collaboration.

It works like how you would be conversing on a forum; just that Wave has a little more flexibility and navigational support system. So far as i write this post it is not as yet integrated with GMail the way you will find BUZZ. However there are instances where with certain coding this integration is made feasible by some people. Hopefully Google should soon make this integration easily available.

The wave is said to have various attributes and aspects of web chat, email, wikis, instant messaging, social networking, and project management all this as an in-browser communication client.

So? Have you used Google Wave? What is your opinion of this offering?

Social Media and back-links

While working on Social Media it is imperative to have a Link Strategy in mind as well. Links guide the search engine towards your main page / blog / site. Links work as directional road map for the spiders and crawlers. Having said this, we need to be careful and not fall in the link farming trap. The moment we get into this zone the algorithms at search engine start to flag this as they recognize spamming actions.

Additionally you need to be careful on the part from where the links come to your page / site / blog. It is good if they come from a high traffic page. At the same time that page should not have too many links or else again the danger of neutralizing the effect comes in.  Allow me to explain: Lets consider two options. Lets call two pages as 'Page A' and 'Page B' respectively. Page A has high value traffic and too many links. While Page has good traffic not as high as Page A but is healthy traffic and has less than 20 links. When you will submit you link to both Page A and Page B you will notice that the search engine considers the trust value as equal. The reason being that too many links cause the search engine to start looking at spam information. Hence Link farms etc get into negative count.

Add to this you link should be supported by proper copy matter and keywords that point towards your link.

There are many more factors to consider before jumping into the back-link strategy.

Share in your experiences. What is your hands on experience on back-links? What makes it really work and what does not? Join in here.

Social Media - Protect Your Work With Copy Rights

How many times have you felt like posting content on the net which is developed because of your hard earned skill sets? But you have harbored the fear of it being copied? Well coping material with a link back to you is not so much of a concern as against when the copied matter gets owned by some stranger on the net. Am referring to copy right issues. You will have put in your thought, time and energy and created the material.

Copy Right enables protection to a large extent. If you scroll up on my bog you will find the copy right site link.

What do you think of this facility? Is your matter still safe?

Social Media - Get Me 1500 Fans On Facebook

What would you say as a Social Media professionals when you are 'instructed' to "'get 1500 Fans on Facebook'". Well you have two upfront options: one is to decline this task and the other is to take up this task and frantically start searching for our fans / members. Well if you have taken the second option then you may be tempted to join the fan farms [similar to backlink and linklove farms] or maybe you start the scary part - spamming. So you spam on social sites, you start off rantings on forums and all spaces that come under the click of your mouse. And yes you will be counting each member joining in. And probably start to panic when anyone of those hard earned stressing member leaves your Fan Club.

So what would you do? which option would you opt for?

Or would you discuss with your client and check to see the basis of such a request? Am sure there is reasoning to this request. However will a target such as 'get me ...' really suffice and help in achieving the goals?

This leads us onto 3 aspects namely:
Quantity [number of members]
Quality [right members that are relevant to brand]
Engagement Level [level of interaction and involvement]

While it would be great to have a huge Fan base it is necessary that the topics we communicate is relevant to them. It is equally essential to get them dialoguing with us and just not having a one way communication [only from us]. When our communication is engaging only then we can be sure to a large extent to have a desired response. Additionally we should remember that good quality of engagement would lead to a viral effect. Thus automatically leading to increase in membership which is relevant to us and to whom we are relevant and bring value into their lives.

So building a Fan ? Membership base takes time. Takes consistency. Over a period of time yes we could hope to achieve a good and healthy base.

What is your thought on the much wanted huge amount of fan base?

Is Social Media for all industries and brands?

This question is answered when you answer: Where is my target audience?

Social Media Network is a way to connect your brand with it's customer set. It is a tool that enables you to engage with your customers and connect with them. If used with consistency and with good quality content then it could lead to deeper engagement with your customer set.

If your customer can be found on the online space then definitely yes Social Media could be a part of your entire marketing plan. However if your customer does not have net connectivity and / or if they are a certain segment that does not utilize the internet services then naturally you might as well keep Social Media Network out of your business plan.

Hence before you commence with the online marketing plan it is imperative to know your customers. You need to understand the customer behavior and attitude towards the internet.  At the basic level you need to be sure that they have an online life. I repeat 'an online life'. And you also need to understand if their online life really leads to any emotional connect with them. This you could find by using direct and indirect research methods with respect to your actual customer set - not only the ideal customers that we may hope for.

Once this is fixed and you have understood your customer's behavior on the net and attitude towards the various net sites you then can start to look at online marketing via the Social Media way.

Social Media - Oh My God Where Are My Followers!

How many times while working as a Social Media personnel have you received a call asking you why have the number of followers / community members fallen [even if it means one person leaving]. Or to that matter how many times as an individual would you have looked at your follower list and wondered whatever you did or rather did not do created the follower to leave you.

Probably this thinking itself caused our fellow member to go away. The thinking as in: Where are my followers. What i am trying to put across is that thinking of our community member as 'one of the members' or as 'a follower' would be the reason why we may have not really connected with them on a one to one humane basis. Yes Social Media is time consuming not tedious though.

It is time we observe and listen to what our fellow members seek and want and respond to them. It does not take you whole day to do this. We may state that if we have member list running into thousands and more then will we stand to have the quantum of time to enable such a response based behavior. Well allow me to share that not all customers and community members  become active at the same time / simultaneously unless ofcourse there is a crises and that ofcourse would need to be handled on a mass level with humane touch to it. Even crisis management after a period of times needs to be drilled into one to one method.

In short lets attempt to treat our community members as individuals with individual identity and not as mass of receivers who have to be sent some message.

Social Media requires good SEO Management

Social Media needs SEO [Search Engine Optimization] Management. The reason to work on SEO while managing and handling Social Media is so that your brand comes up ahead on the Google and other search engines. This is not paid for and it is known as chronologically high ranking on the search engines. It is similar to Page Rank. The higher your page rank the more plausible is good ranking on search engines.

Though the search engines like Google do not openly disclose their algorithms and the basis of their calculations on how do they rank the page and how does the page come up ahead on the searches there are certain ways of doing this. The reason that the search engines do not disclose the maths behind the page rank is so that it cannot be rigged and genuinely good and healthy pages come up high on the search. This enhances the search engine's credibility. Thus when you work towards a high rank on search engines you need to be consistent in preparing and publishing good healthy pages.

How do you publish good and healthy pages? Below are certain ways and methods of ensuring that your page starts to get ahead on the search engines.

• First and fore mostly you need to be consistent. This is not a onetime activity. You need to work on this atleast three times a week to ensure that you are preparing pages that are consistent in quality.
• You need to have fresh content. This means that even if you have a website it needs to be refreshed. Now practically a website cannot really be refreshed thrice a week as there would be more than 5 pages to it and it is humanly not feasible to ensure freshness on this. So what do you do? There are a couple of ways in which this situation could be tackled. One is have a certain potion of the web pages dynamic in nature. Thus new press releases and new matter can be easily fed in via RSS coding. Additionally what you could do is enable a blog to the site. Thus herein you could post information and very relevant topical matter for the visitors. This enables freshness and a reason for your visitor to re-visit your site on a regular basis. This will give your site stickiness as well. Thus ensuring that search engine has fresh matter to index and the number of pages [due to posts] keeps on increasing. 
• Next you need to ensure that the key words that your visitors would use on the search engines are well populated onto the blogs, websites and social sites. This does not mean that you repeat the key words mindlessly. If you do this then at one level the search engines would define this as SPAM and would block your page. Additionally mindless adding of key words will make your visitor leave your site for good. As when your visitor will read your site your information quality will not be good.
• The keyword needs to be in all sections like your title, your images saved as, your subtitle, body copy, tags and labels. The keywords are to be intelligently utilized in tabs and sections as well. Instead of writing a section called 'About us' or 'Contact us' you need to be creative to enable the same meaning with keywords inserted. One more part that is crucial is to be remembered that if your business or brand name is not generic to the keywords then please restrain from using it all along. Searchers type generic and direct terms in search engines.
• Metatags. What are metatags? You will have come across a lot of time on this terminology being used quite frequently. Metatags is form of scripting in programming language. They are code pieces. They enable the search engine robots to crawl and index your page. Again here too we are to remember that they are not to be over stuffed with keywords. There are three types of Metatags. They are Meta title, Meta description and Meta keywords. All three are to have the key words incorporated into them. 
• What you also need to remember is that the spiders of search engine crawl from left to right of the page. So if your left side of the page has no keywords or has flash with keywords etc then you loose the robots immediately.
• Next is to submit the pages url to search engines. There are free submission pages that you can utilize. 
• Once you do this you PING the page to search engines. Pinging in simple terms means to attract search engines to your page.
• Additionally be careful about page loading. Please enable quick load. 

Ofcourse SEO has more technical side to it however doing the above would ensure some kind of progress on search engines. Do join in here and add your views and information of how to increase SEO while doing Social Media Network.

 

 

 

Happy Social Media Day to all of us!

Happy Social Media Day to all of us!

Social Media Merging Of The Minds

Many a times am asked as to what does a Social Media person 'really' do. Well does this person do blogging? Write on Facebook? Generally keeps on Twitting? Or uploads photos of products to be sold? So generally when you want to broadcast a message you start to login to all the social network sites and start to give out messages? And so you tell people to buy something and push this till doom's day? That means you give out same old message in new way? Do you have a list of sites that you generally send this message out to? Do you send this as anonymous messages? And do you keep apologizing to an angry customer!?

Well lets for a start step a little back and see the whole picture in its totality. Well it is none of the above in the way it is mentioned and yet i could be all of the above with a lot of tweaking. Well what according to you is the role of Online Social Media Network professional?

Join in here and share your views. Be a guest writer if you want on my blog.

Social Media Side Wiki

Has the controversial Google tool Side Wiki lost its prominence amongst other social media sites? The Side Wiki that permits the public to comment about any web site in a side bar displayed in their web browser. 

The tool is integrated in the latest version of Google Toolbar and works with Firefox, Internet Explorer and with Google Chrome. Ironically it was not activated to Goggle Chrome in it initial days.

Once activated, Sidewiki glides across from the left and becomes added browser sidebar, where you can compose entries in a vertical column and read the entries of other people.

Is Social Media activity to hunt and get hunted?

Many a times a speak with people i get a shocking response the Social Media can be handled just by anyone. Well if this was the case then why are we all not connected to more than atlest 10 brands as customers. In our lives we would be utilizing atleast 10 brands during a week's time. Howcome we are not Socially dialoguing with these 10 brands.

What does all the effort boil down to in the world of Social Media Network Online. Well to put it more simply it is got to do with 'connecting' and 'being connected with'. We all need to connect, be it individuals or brands. Social Media is got to do with building relationships. It is a dialogue between two parties to enable mutual benefit. Repeat: 'mutual benefit'. It cannot really be 'sales driven'. It cannot be conduced to 'being hunted' and 'hunting'. If we start to use the traditional 'push' force then we have lost half the battle. It requires an almost 24/7 dedication. Hence it will not work out if you delegate this to someone who is merely doing their 'job of being online'.

The person managing the Online Social Media needs to be passionate and outgoing. Needs to be crisp at the same time verbose and articulate. Needs to understand the sites, competition and the brand personality as well.

Social Media activity is definitely not for the faint at heart and nor is for the hunter.

Is Social Media mainline advertising or direct marketing?

Many a times we are stuck with 'this is not mainline' 'this is not dm!'. So, what is it? Well, Social Media lends itself or rather enhances the two worlds. While you connect with people who could be strangers is mainline work. And when you form a following and community you start to connect on a one-to-one basis.

Lets put it this way: it is both, the customer decides on how close or how far they want to be with it [brand]. Social Media is an integration of the way people choose to connect. It cannot be marked as 'this' or 'that'. Lets not look at it like some alien of neither world. It is what you and I do to connect online. It is what our customers are addicted to. It is happening while you are reading this post!

Tool for Social Media Network and Online Reputation Management

Online Reputation Management comprises various elements. Together they start to form a complete picture and enable our stakeholder’s experience to percolate within the system. We understand that there's a high degree of correlation between good customer / stakeholder experiences and their willingness to associate with the same organization, brand, product and service. The various points of influence are:
• Traditional/mainstream websites.
• Professional networks like LinkedIn.
• Social networks like Facebook and others.
• Consumer Review sites such as epinions, MouthShut and others.
• Social news / bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, technorati, dig and others.
• Collaborative Research sites such as Yahoo Answers, Rediff Q&A.
• Independent discussion forums based on categories and general interest by profession.
• Blogs created and managed on blogger.com.
• Blogging communities as the Open Diary, LiveJournal, Xanga.
• Microblogs e.g. Twitter.
Our primary goal when developing a social marketing strategy should be to establish conversation parameters. We cannot possibly control the direction of every conversation, nor should we try to, but we can be available to answer questions and provide honest and helpful input wherever possible. People visit social networking sites because they want to have conversations that don't involve sales pitches. In order to gain trust, we will need to create an environment in which potential and existing customers feel free to express opinion without fear of being censored, but also in which we can provide responses to negative comments that help viewers understand the reasons behind your company's actions in any particular area. When appropriate, we can point readers toward your product, but in such a way that they feel we are providing useful information rather than pitching your company.

Social Media Network and me

I started my career in mass communication, proceeded onto direct marketing and currently have established myself strongly on digital assets, online media and mobile marketing. Currently working on Online Social Media Networking as Self-Employed, Freelance Professional. I have been working in the Social Media Networking Online Space since 2001 alongside with the Brands and Clients. Am working directly with the Clients and the brands. Am also working with Agencies for their Clients as well. I can address audiences on the Online Social Media Network. I can get customers and communities to connect with the Brand on the Social Network Medium in the Online space. Currently working on the Online Social Networking, writing and managing, for brands and products. I can write and manage the Social Media Network Online space. Utilizing the online space like Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn. Online media, including search engines, are managed. Setting online alerts for the brand. Writing on blogs, social media like Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc. Covering: Traditional / mainstream websites, Professional networks like LinkedIn, Social networks like Facebook and others. Undertaking work on Consumer Review sites such as epinions, MouthShut and others, Social news / bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, technorati, dig and others, Collaborative Research sites such as Yahoo Answers, Rediff Q&A., Independent discussion forums based on categories and general interest by profession.

I have been on the online digital space along with regular direct marketing. My recent endeavors have been in launching and sustaining the brand reputation across digital mediums. I write and manage the blogs and social media sites for clients and brands. I find the online and the mobile industry quite promising. In the online space I do keep in mind the SEO requisites. While writing content I keep in mind the SEO requirements so that the page / site comes up high on the search engines. If your established site has no SEO optimization in place at all, and has navigation that is blocking search engine spiders, then the site / page will not throw up on a high ranking with search engines. Mobile’s ability to provide superior targeting by age, gender, location, time of day and day of week, and to facilitate two-way communication between advertisers and consumers, make it one of the main reasons that mobile is now—particularly for reaching Generation Y. It’s their lifeline. Have built applications for Mobile as well [with tech team ofcourse].

I find Online Social Networking, writing and managing, for brands and products very interesting. Utilizing the online space like Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn. Managing the brand’s Online Reputation, ORM. Online media, including search engines, are managed to make positive information visible to the public and downplay any information which could negatively affect the business. Online Reputation Management comprises various elements. Together they start to form a complete picture and enable our stakeholder’s experience to percolate within the system. Setting online alerts for the brand. Writing on blogs, social media like Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc. Covering: Traditional / mainstream websites, Professional networks like LinkedIn, Social networks like Facebook and others. Undertaking work on Consumer Review sites such as epinions, MouthShut and others, Social news / bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, technorati, dig and others, Collaborative Research sites such as Yahoo Answers, Rediff Q&A., Independent discussion forums based on categories and general interest by profession.

Specialties:
Online Social Networking, writing and managing, for brands and products

Including search engines

Setting online alerts for the brand

Writing on blogs, social media like Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc

Work on Consumer Review sites such as epinions, MouthShut and others, Social news / bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, technorati, dig and others, Collaborative Research sites such as Yahoo Answers, Rediff Q&A., etc

How to do Social Marketing Online and Reputation Management Online

How to do Social Marketing Online and Reputation Management Online

A quick read book on sale: http://tiny.cc/t7d16 This book is specially created for all those who would like to enhance their Online Social Media activities so as to generate response and a call to action from the various customer sets that they connect with. This book brings to light a working knowledge and will enable you to actually work on your task. This book could be kept as a handy guide which enables a step by step understanding of what a Social Media expert should work towards. This book is meant for corporates, agencies, brand managers, social media professionals, public relation personnel, for people who would like to market their own name and their own business. It works great for freelancers to market themselves on the online space as well.

What has Social Media Network done to us

Well at the start let me confess that i myself am glued to the world of Social Media Network Online. So much so that apart from my personal life I have made a profession out of it and am into freelance Social Media Network Online which also takes us to the Online Reputation Management System. And so I lead my life on the Social Media Network Online.

You may have received panic chat messages to loot a certain Bangkok bank on 'Mafia Wars' to which you simply cannot disregard but end up helping. Sometimes a panic message seeps in to help harvest in 'farmville' or for a pet that needs a home in 'petville'. To which you may start to search frantically and help. This help could be to a total stranger. Irrespective of time and day if you are online you are helpful. Your concern levels are high and you cannot ignore your own pet in 'petsociety' who is starving and needs food and a little cleanup as there are virtual flies all around it.

It is difficult for most to sleep and call it a day without a peek at the Facebook and Twitter status. And ofcourse what we login to for a quick peek ends up being minimum an hour and so on. We are logged in and very concern about someone else frame of mind. Our own state of mind is not understood by us till we broadcast a post and then we also along with the world understand what is happening to us, what we like and dislike.

Viewing the profile of friends and strangers has become our prerogative online and we even go to the extent to encouraging others to post, incase they have not for a long time we may even remind them by a simple click on Facebook that says 'reconnect'.

When we do not do the above, our mind unconsciously starts to remind us about our various online commitments; starts to make us a wee bit uneasy and we start off having withdrawal symptoms. Maslow in today's world would have added Social Media Network Online as one of the basics that one needs to survive apart from food, clothing, shelter, security etc.

Well the online world enables us to be what we could not. In web 2.0 online societies you can be an astronaut, a doctor and many other avatars. No need for anything just register and select your avatar and hen go about daily activities online and get caught up in this too.

With such a state of mind and so much more openness would any brand or marketer dare to miss this world of opportunities? Online Social Network is all about meeting people in a state and scenario that they are most comfortable in. It is the right time to share with them and gently lead them to your end.

Social Media Network / Online Reputation Management

Why Online Reputation Management is suggested:

Online Reputation Management, ORM, is the practice of managing your business reputation with your online community of stakeholders within the online media space. Online media, including search engines, are managed to make positive information visible to the public and downplay any information which could negatively affect your business. Reputation and trust are earned through years of hard work and this can be damaged online, often anonymously.

While the internet has opened up a huge opportunity for us to broadcast any kind of information that we intend to share, the same internet enables our competitors, irate customers, disgruntled employees, and any unhappy stakeholder to also publicize their negative views about us. Just the way we have freedom to mention what we like, they too can exercise the same freedom and mention what they like... or rather, don't like.
The advent of social media, web communities, and networking sites, has been useful to many companies. The phenomenon has positively affected the majority of businesses by allowing them to directly communicate with consumers about products and services they offer. However social media has also opened doors to malicious online postings, which has proven to be damaging to corporate reputation.
Due to the number of people who use search engines as a research tool, online reputation management is becoming a big industry. Ruthless competitors and angry customers now have open access to blogs and web sites. They can define a person or company's online identity and their words have far reaching effects – whether they are true or not.

This is why ORM is necessary. Because it is difficult, if not impossible, to eliminate traces of thoughtless actions or malicious attacks on the web, online reputation managers disseminate positive information about their clients. The goal in online reputation management is to bring public attention to positive blogs, articles and other online media written on behalf of the company, product, brand or service. The positive online publicity takes the higher search engine result rankings, thus minimizing the damage of any attack.

Social Media an extension of the Brand Personality

Matching the Brand Personality while working on Social Media Network Online is a very important portion. We need to keep in mind that afterall the Social Network voice that we project via the various medias online needs to be in the similar tone and manner the Brand is conceptualized. Hence for the Social Media specialist it is important to understand the Brand Personality and be very certain on how this 'brand' would act and behave under various circumstances.

Additionally the brand personality is to be kept in mind while selecting which online sites the brand is exhibited in. While one needs to keep in mind as to where would the right target audience can be found one also needs to select if the site is correct and insync with the brand personality.

Social Media a CRM perspective

Social Media lends itself to Customer Relation Management. Infact Social Media enables CRM to increase the brand and customer connect, get interactive and be more receptive. Thus increasing the brand awareness, creating a positive brand perspective and thereby encouraging loyalty. This then leads to more sell and up sell. It also encourages the existing customer to become the brand ambassador and introduce new members to the system.

Those organizations willing to invest the time and resources required to develop and support a strong virtual presence are gaining practically unlimited access to consumers' steady outpouring of raves and rants, toward favorite and disliked companies and products. Tying this invaluable data into a CRM solution generates sales leads, ideas for product direction and strengthens a company's image and brand. As a result, those companies that use the strongest social CRM integrations should increase revenue; expand market share; improve their corporate image and, maybe, even fine-tune product development to offer items with the most wished-for features or capabilities.

Unlike traditional CRM, which creates vast internal databases of clients and prospects, social networking sites are external repositories of direct communication and indirect comments about businesses, products, people, experiences and an array of customer sentiment. Therefore, CRM software developers are creating tools that allow companies to locate, absorb and use the thousands or millions of messages about their company, products, advertising campaigns or reputation.

At little cost or effort, a business now potentially can reach far more customers or prospects. Opinionated social networking users become a virtual focus group, praising or complaining about a company's offerings, and coming up with suggestions for improvements or new products or brands. Social CRM also allows a company to track - and interact with - those who are vocal in their displeasure with a given product, service or brand.

Service calls may drop, too, as consumers reach out to their personal networks as the first round of contact for a technical question or how-to query. Savvy responders also become a company's asset, perhaps becoming thought-leaders or go-to resources in product developments.The goal is to build on the success of CRM solutions, adding the 'social' capability and enhancing the overall customer experience and revenue-creation opportunities. To accomplish this, companies should create customer-focused online communities with well-established components like blogs, forums, chats and wikis. Businesses also need to monitor social networking sites, recognizing and rewarding - often with badges, stars or other low-cost measures - those who are most proactive and communicative about a company's products or services.

In addition, social CRM should incorporate the strong workflow capabilities of traditional CRM software systems, otherwise all this important data may be relatively useless. Businesses must ensure all relevant departments and individuals have access to the information streaming into their computers via active social networks. Likewise, executives want results, they want to see if their investment has a direct correlation with the goals of increased revenue, decreased support, expanded market share and enhanced brand. So it is imperative that social CRM includes business intelligence or analytical tools that measure success and help guide any corrections or enhancements along the way.

Unlike a strong corporate website, businesses should tap the boundless, less structured and uncontrolled world of social media. Those communicating about a company or brand may never visit the company's home page, preferring to disseminate their comments, opinions and suggestions from LinkedIn to FaceBook. Social CRM then, must go to the source, not try to bring the source to it.