Google+ Pages: A New Way to Interact with Your Customer
Tuesday 12/13/11
A few months ago, when Google+ came out, we told you a little bit about it even though it wasn’t time for businesses to start building their brand pages quite yet. (If you missed that article and you’re unfamiliar with the basics of Google+, we suggest you go back and check it out so you’ll know what we’re talking about today.) Now that the networking site is properly optimized to meet the needs of businesses with Google+ Pages, it’s go time, people.
Google+ brand pages look a whole lot like a Facebook fan page with images at the top, a list of followers displayed down the side of the page, and a place to post messages/status updates, etc. But, Google+ has some cool things that make it different from Facebook.
For example, Google+ Pages allow users to recommend brands by using the +1 button:
That button functions similarly to the Facebook “Like” button. By clicking on the +1 button, you aren’t automatically signed up to get updates from a particular brand. You have to opt-in for that by adding the brand to your circles. So, users have more control over how much or how little they interact with your business.
But you have control too! With the circles feature, you can create different circles and sort your fans/followers into different groups. So, if you have a particularly loyal group of followers, you can create a special circle to put them in so that only those people get special offers from you. Likewise, you can make an introductory offer just to your new people. This gives you tons of options when you’re running a promotion or you want to target specific content to a specific segment of your clientele. Google+ Pages allows you to have even more focused and intimate interactions with people.
Speaking of interacting with customers, the Google+ Hangouts feature is pretty slick. Remember when we talked about holding seminars a couple of weeks ago? This might be an interesting way to do that. And with the integration of Google Docs into Hangouts, you can even share documents with your attendees! But that’s not all! Hangouts can also be great for a face-to-face alternative to traditional customer service calls. If you can’t be in the same room with your customers, this is the next best thing.
But one of Google+’s biggest strengths lies in the fact that it reaches a much larger audience than Facebook. When you use Facebook, it’s fairly contained within the walls of that network. Google+ content, on the other hand, is directly relevant to search results which means that all of your +1’s will reach not only the 40 million or so people who use Google+, but also all the people who use Google every day.
That’s a lot of people, and if you’re trying to build up your web presence, Google+ can certainly help you do that.
This isn’t at all an exhaustive list of what Google+ has to offer as opposed to Facebook, but it’s some food for thought just in case you’re considering starting a page.
At this point, you’re probably wondering how you’d even use a Google+ brand page. After all, you’ve already got a Facebook page, right? You’ve already invested lots of time into that, so why would you start a Google+ page and what on earth would you do with it if you did? Well, one argument for starting one in addition to your Facebook efforts is that more brands are appearing on Google+ every day. You want to beat your competitors to it, if you can. You should also get in on the ground floor before all kinds of new features are added and it becomes more difficult to learn your way around.
After you’ve started your page, and filled out your profile completely, don’t feel badly if you don’t know what to do once you get there. Many brands haven’t quite figured that part out yet either. Some even go so far as to ask their followers what they’d like to see them do on Google+! There’s no shame in asking your fans for feedback—after all they’re the ones who make this whole shebang worth doing!
Another good way to help you remedy the “we’re here, now what?” situation is to write out what you might be able to accomplish with some of Google+’s features and develop a strategy to go along with it. Have you been wishing you could send a special offer to only a few customers, but lacked a good way to do it? This could be a pretty cool way to do that. Plus, it’ll make you look like a social media rock star—rockin’ the Google+ pages while everyone else is still depending only on Facebook.
At this point, we’re not going to say that Google+ is the best thing ever, but it’s got some really neat features that you could take advantage of and we think it’s definitely worth going over and starting an account to play around with. Besides, we’re there! Come hang out with the cool kids and don’t forget to add us to your circles!
SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is the topic of much conversation around the Interwebz lately. And rightfully so: it’s a very complex and controversial political issue and it can potentially have a big impact on the Internet AND your business.
Legislators in both the House and Senate are attempting to pass their own versions of anti-piracy legislation by the end of this calendar year. Both bills propose granting new permission to law enforcement agencies in order to crack down on illegal pirating of movies, music and other copyrighted material.
The anti-piracy legislation, known as SOPA or H.R.3261 in the House, and its companion legislation known as “Protect IP” or S.968 in the Senate, has the support of such entities as the Motion Picture Association of America, the Screen Actor’s Guild, Viacom, and other cable, movie, and music industry companies and unions who point to billions of dollars in lost revenue due to piracy. Nike, L’Oreal, Revlon, the NBA, Ford Motor Company, as well as the AFL-CIO and the US Chamber of Commerce also support H.R.3261. (Protect-IP has a similar list of supporters.)
While everyone agrees that Internet piracy is an important issue that must be addressed, some say that the legislation confuses “piracy protection” and “censorship.” Web heavyweights like Google, Yahoo, eBay, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Facebook have joined the battle to stop SOPA, arguing that the legislation—at least the way it is currently written and proposed—is overreaching and could potentially have a devastating impact on free speech and innovation, and that it benefits media companies at the expense of social/tech companies.
So, why do you care?
Well, part of the intent of SOPA is to help put a stop to foreign websites that illegally post and occasionally sell intellectual property coming from the United States. SOPA seeks to empower federal law-enforcement agencies to shut down those sites, cutting off ad revenue and online payments and keeping profits from American innovation in the pockets of Americans.
However, some argue that the way the legislation currently reads, it is possible that sites that contain user generated content like Flickr, Etsy, or Tumblr could be found liable for copyright infringement and be shut down until the content in question is removed.
Your website is not immune to this. For example, if you post a video on your website that contains material protected by copyright, whether you realize it or not, your site can be shut down. You could face blocked ad revenue, blocked search engine traffic, and blocked direct referral traffic from the United States.
Sites that you use every day to help you conduct business could be blocked and email providers might be required to censor links that you send or receive. The links and the content you share on your social media sites can potentially be monitored and censored as well.
Additionally, concerns have been raised about the technical methods used to “shut down” sites. The methods focus primarily on exerting control over DNS, the “telephone book” of the Internet. However, the DNS is carefully designed to be replicated, and if that replication is upset (by injecting blocks on certain domain names, etc) then the stability of the internet itself is affected.
Finally, one of the major issues cited by opponents is that portions of both H.R.3261 and S.968 directly contradict existing law in the form of DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), notably its established “notice-and-takedown” provision that allows sites such as YouTube and Vimeo to operate today.
No matter what side of the debate you fall on, it’s a very complex issue and it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the coming weeks. Backers of this legislation hope for it to be ready for vote by the end of this year.
Quora: Fun to Say and Even More Fun to Do!
Wednesday 11/23/11
Quora is a strange one, GLAD WORKS friends, but the buzz is that it’s turning into the new LinkedIn! Popularity is soaring and there are certainly a few ways you can maximize it’s potential for your business. But first, let’s explain Quora.
Quora is a social website. It’s a collection of questions and answers that are created, edited, and organized by the people who use the site. The goal is to have each question page be the best possible resource for someone who wants to know the answer to that particular question. On Quora you will find high-level executives, journalists, hobbyists, industry insiders, every day people, and entrepreneurs just like you. They’re all passionate about what they do and they’re eager to be the big cheese and answer the question du jour in the best possible way. These answers get voted on and pushed to the top of the pile of various answers to any given question.
Some of the questions are silly. Like this one: “If I say I’m a feminist will hot women want to date me?” But in general, Quora culture is not about The Silly. People there are usually looking to ask and answer serious questions. This is not to say that people are boring on Quora. It’s just not a place for absurdity. People treat Quora sort of like a cache of all the best answers to all the research they do online.
In short, you go to Quora to either obtain or impart knowledge, and YOU, dear reader, can be a part of it all.
And when you become an expert, you get all the wine and chocolate you want when you get to heaven.
Not really, but you do get something that can be equally as awesome and we will describe all of that for you today.
Get to know some awesome people:
A great way to get yourself noticed on Quora is to answer questions for people. Eventually, they’ll “like” one of your answers or comment on it. At that point, you can send the person a direct message and be all “Hey! I’m awesome, you’re awesome, we should be friends!” While you don’t want to just sidle up to people on Quora and start in with your sales pitch, if you are patient and you build a relationship with them first, it’s an amazing way to connect with people—whether they’re potential customers or colleagues, or people you look up to and can learn from.
Be a rock star:
We all know that self-promotion is a no-no, but nobody said you can’t be a total rock star on Quora and really show off your expertise. That’s what it’s all about! So when you go on there, look through the questions related to your particular area of interest and pick one that you think you have a really killer response to. Again, this is not an opportunity to tell everyone about how you’re the smartest smarty-pants ever. It’s your chance to provide the best, most reliable information to the Quora community. You build your business by being helpful and trustworthy.
Know what questions to ask:
Questions are just as important as answers on Quora. There is definitely a spirit of competitiveness in how Quora works that encourages people to not only answer questions the best, but also ask the best questions too. If you want to attract feedback from interesting people who know a lot about really important stuff, you have to ask an awesome question. If you ask, they will come.
Build a presence:
The only way to do this is to use your real name and the name of your business. Make sure your profile is completely filled out. On Quora, you want to follow colleagues, thought leaders, competitors and anyone else who is making a contribution that’s worth reading and thinking about. Be sure that you’re not just following questions, but actually getting in there and being a part of the community.
From a marketing perspective, Quora is mainly about building relationships by establishing yourself as an authority in your field. Clearly, this happens over time as you keep asking and answering intelligent and relevant questions. What’s really cool about Quora is that the subject matter is incredibly focused which allows for some pretty tight relationships to form. These relationships translate into valuable business contacts and, ultimately, sales.
Niche Social Networks and You. And People Who Love Mustaches.
Wednesday 10/19/11
We know what you’re thinking.
“Not another social networking project! You’re killing us here, GLAD WORKS!”
We know you’re probably kind of sick of hearing “social media this” and “social media lalala,” but we would be remiss if we didn’t talk to you about how integrating a niche network into your social media mix might help you out. “Never be remiss” is our motto, among other things, so we have to mention it.
But what in the name of social media is a niche network?
Well, it’s a smaller network that’s kind of like Facebook in its features and functionality (sharing and communication), but niche networks center around a specific theme instead of being general like Facebook. In a niche network you automatically have the attention of like-minded people who care about the same things you do, and you have a great opportunity to engage both current and potential customers in this emerging medium.
Increasingly, companies are participating in these networks since customer involvement can be very effective—sometimes far more effective than Facebook and Twitter since niche networks strategies focus on the people who are already involved with or interested in your product or service.
Niche networks work differently from larger networks, so you must behave accordingly. With a niche network, your main reason for existing is to help strengthen your relationship with like-minded people, whereas Facebook is useful for trying to get people interested in what you’re doing. Niche networks have a much more established knowledge of the niche due to their specialization.
So, for example, if you own a store that sells…stick on mustaches, you can go to Facebook to try to get all the people there interested in mustaches and mustache related paraphernalia. The Sweet Mustache niche network is where you go to chat it up with those who are already into mustaches. You know that guy with the handlebar mustache? There he is, twisting his ‘stache and doling out advice to all the other enthusiasts.
You love mustache mavens like him because they’re the ones who are truly in a position to help your business. They’ve got the potential to be uber brand evangelists because you can connect with them on a deeper level than you can with folks on the mainstream social networking sites. Imagine how easy it will be to talk mustache with people who are already receptive and engaged. They would love to hear from someone equally experienced and knowledgeable in the finer subtleties of mustaches. You’re now free to get to know these current and potential customers on a deeper and more personal level. Your conversation will flow freely and you will likely find that you enjoy it!
Your presence in a smaller network helps you to be heard above all the noise on mainstream networks. This is not to say that Facebook and Twitter shouldn’t be a part of your gig. They absolutely should be, but in this smaller, more intimate, and more targeted community, you are much more likely to be noticed and it will be much easier to establish your brand as a trusted authority in your field.
At this point, you may be wondering what to do if there’s no niche network for your business. We’re glad you asked because all you have to do is start your own! There are social networking software packages available to purchase, or you can give us a jingle and we can take care of the set up for you.
However you decide to go about it, you need to have a clear and solid plan for what you’re doing. Just like everything else, this does require effort, but it also has the potential to be really fun and help you communicate to your customers how passionate you are about what you do.
Fashion Blogs: Like Thor and His Mighty Hammer, but With Cuter Shoes
Wednesday 9/21/11
People are always asking us how powerful a branding tool blogs can be, so today you get your answer people! Perhaps the best example of this power can be found in the popularity of fashion blogs and the bloggers who write them. They are r-e-d HAUTE right now!
As you know, we here at GLAD WORKS are quite the Fashionistas. To that end, we’ve always got our eyes on the new hotness—in August we were even platinum sponsors of StyleWeek Providence, an organization dedicated to showcasing emerging and established fashion designers from the New England area.
With all our fashionista-ing and whatnot, we’ve noticed how super popular fashion bloggers are! In fact, they’re so powerful and popular that they’ve even gone meta! As in, there are blogs about fashion blogs!
If only we could all be that lucky, right?
You know you’ve hit it big when other bloggers blog about your blog. Don’t worry though—even if we never make it to that level of greatness, there’s no denying that blogs are extremely powerful branding machines.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
In 2009, fashion bloggers had finally typed their way to the front row of some of the most exclusive runway shows. They were sitting right there next to the Anna Wintours of the world, watching and listening and reporting back to their legions of followers. The fashion designers were all hoping that these bloggers—right alongside the editors of the fancy fashion magazines—would like what they saw and show their brands some love. Fast-forward to today and this trend is only gaining momentum.
One of the biggest advantages blogs have over other forms of communication is the fact that the blogger has already done the work of creating a personal brand, and that brand has a loyal, engaged and trusting group of fans. Companies are dying to get a little bloggy love from these people because it translates so easily into sales.
Bloggers get their credibility in three main ways: 1) they live in the “real world,” 2) they talk about themselves/put themselves out there, and 3) they tend to interact with their followers.
Bloggers use the inspirational and visual nature of blogging to share their own perspectives, writing in a conversational style that’s highly relatable, and they’re very aware of what will resonate with their audiences. Readers grow to like and trust them—even if the blogger is a little quirky. In fact, in many cases, the quirkier the blog/blogger, the better!
Rosanna Ortiz-Sinel, president and founder of StyleWeek Providence, thinks selling quirkiness isn’t just a matter of blogging on the Internet. In fact, it can be seen across the entire industry: “the weirder you are in the fashion industry, the more followers you get because it’s a little out of the box,” she states.
Holla, BryanBoy with that quirky, editorial look you’re so famous for!
This is not to say that ALL successful blogs MUST be cute and quirky, but hey. Sometimes it helps!
Our blog is cute and quirky and you LOVE it… Right?
Right. You love pictures of dogs and mullets and you can’t even help yourself!
Needless to say, quirky fashion bloggers can and DO wield The Mighty Hammer of Thor over a brand—they also happen to do it wearing fabulous outfits.
Ortiz-Sinel agrees that the power of a blog is significant, and mentioned that two local fashion blogs in particular (The Newport Stylephile and Audrey McClelland from Mom Generations) had a positive impact on the success of StyleWeek Providence: “they helped us go viral with our message. That was really what we needed because these bloggers are known in the industry for their focus on style and they have a lot of credibility.” The bloggers created a buzz that augmented StyleWeek Providence’s marketing and advertising by talking about it to their followers.
And stretching beyond just the world of fashion, leveraging blogs absolutely should be on the list of options for companies trying to get the word out while improving engagement. As Ortiz-Sinel saw first-hand with StyleWeek Providence, local followers can be turned on to events they might not have been aware of otherwise.
Because of their intimate and direct relationship with their readers, bloggers have tremendous influence on helping an existing brand when launching a new product, broadcasting information and generating buzz about an event, reigniting interest in a seasonal line, or entirely turning around a not-so-great image. Considering that drumming up this support may not involve much more investment than a few emails, or perhaps shipping a few sample items, the ROI is fantastic!
(NOTE: As of 2009, the FTC requires that bloggers disclose when they’ve received payments or goods in exchange for review or endorsement. Blogs have to say “care of” or c/o the brand supplying the goods, just so everything is on the up and up. For more information, see http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm )
Oh, Grow Up Already! How Mature is YOUR Social Media Campaign?
Wednesday 7/27/11
We recently came across this nifty “social maturity scale” created by Forrester, a super cool technology and marketing research company. The scale is based on a ton of research and a survey of 95 different companies to answer the question “What’s the roadmap that organizations follow in adopting social media?”
Oh, stop yawning. You know we’re going to make this fun for you!
Now, if you remember back in the springtime we did a whole series on how to get your social media machine all fired up. And you jumped right in with both feet and created a totally kick-butt social media campaign, right?
Of course you did.
So this is a nice little follow up to all of that so you can gauge your “social maturity” and get an idea of where you are compared to other companies. Also, we can help you see what the next level looks like and what you need to do to get there.
Forrester refers to the first level of social maturity as the “Dormant Stage” and the folks who are in that stage are called “laggards.” That’s right. They went there. They’re calling people with no social applications whatsoever “laggards.” Nobody wants to be a laggard because that’s terrible! So if you’re one of them, (we’re looking at YOU people in conservative culture or regulated industries) you need to get on the bus already and become the first Laggy McLaggardton to become a social media animal! It’s not going to go away, you know.
The Forrester people recommend that laggards go check out Radian6. Radian6 is a kind of social media monitoring software that helps businesses listen, discover, measure and engage in conversations across the social web. It can be very useful in helping you determine where to start and what people are already saying about your business. There’s a lot of different tools like that that can help, so Google it and find one you like. See that? We even put a link for you so you don’t have to go clicking around. We are here to help the laggards of the world get into the next category at least.
People in the “Testing” category have some social applications going, but there’s no coordination. They’ve started a Facebook page, for example, but it’s not really doing anything awesome. What needs to happen is they need to shift from measuring how many friends/followers/likes they have and focus on the actual impact their efforts are having on their business. Are those friends/followers buying stuff? If so, build on that success! Expand into new communities so you can get to the next level. If things aren’t happening, re-evaluate what you’ve been doing and try some new stuff.
In Forrester’s “Coordinating” phase, management recognizes the value of social media (because you’ve been doing a great job tracking you ROI) and makes it a priority. People are tweeting and Facebooking and going all kids of Cra-zay! These “Coordinating” people even have committees set up to strategize and build a long-term plan. That’s pretty awesome stuff right there, but they’re still not as cool as the “Scaling and Optimizing” folks.
“Scaling and Optimizing” means that a business has really pulled things together nicely. There’s a strategy in place, and there are multiple social applications being used effectively and efficiently. Businesses in this phase have a presence on all the major social media sites and maybe even have their own “channel” on YouTube. Their employees know how to use social media effectively and they actually do it. If you were to see a company like this, you’d be all “whoa. These guys rock, dude!” only you’d say it in a more Socially Mature way. You probably wouldn’t say “dude” for example.
And finally Forrester’s upper echelon on the Social Maturity Scale is “Empowered.” Clearly, this is a looonng way from laggard. These people are innovators, y’all! In this stage, social media is a well-oiled machine and it pervades the entire company and informs all that they do. This is where you wanna be, but it’s rare and it certainly doesn’t happen over night, but don’t be discouraged! It’s totally possible.
It’s important to understand where you fall on this scale and to keep striving to climb higher and move forward. Companies that use social media to its fullest can create brand evangelists, improve the quality of their products and services, and continually improve their business practices. Not only that, but people listen to them because they’re all “Empowered” and stuff.
PS: Come back next week so we can talk about pretty, pretty pictures and why you need them! It's going to be an epic post...
What’s All the Fuss over Google+?
Wednesday 7/20/11
If you’ve been conscious anytime within the last couple of weeks, chances are you’re sick of hearing about Google+ and that’s too bad because we’re talking about it too. But don’t go away, dear readers. We made this blog just for you!
A lot of the reviews we’ve read just gush about how wonderful and amazing Google+ is and how it will solve all of our social networking problems and probably maybe even bring about world peace. To this we say…really? How could anything ever be that amazing?
If you’re anything like us, when you heard about it, you probably wondered if the world needs Google+. It’s already very hard to keep track of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts. Add to that responding to emails and Instant Messages and your head feels like it’s going to explode! Why do we need yet another social network to tend to?
But Google+ will not be ignored. Judging by its insane popularity right now, it’s very hard to imagine that it’ll go away anytime soon. As it picks up momentum, lots more people you know are going to jump on the bandwagon, dragging you with them. At this point we’re up to ten million users… in two weeks. So, listen up cuz here’s the skinny on it so far!
What’s kinda strange is that even though everyone else is calling it a “social network,” Google doesn’t. They refer to it as “sharing” and that’s a more accurate description of it if you ask us. It’s more like a comprehensive online communications tool. It has an email service, blogging platform, micro-blogging site, news feed, video conferencing system, chat service, location-based social network and a whole bunch of other stuff too.
What’s making people go all nutsy for it is that it’s sort of like rolling Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, and all the other sites you may be using right now into one. You only need to go to one site. You have one login and one feed so you’re not hopping all over the Internet to get your social networking needs met.
But does it suck?
Our feelings about it are kind of neutral at this point. There’s some great stuff about it and some kinda lame stuff, but it’s new so we’ll give it a chance. Google has links to report issues or suggestions peppered all over the place, and, judging by the buzz on various forums around the web, people are definitely clicking on them.
What we love most about it is the circles that help you keep business contacts and personal contacts separate. You can create groups of people—your circles—to help you organize folks and control who sees what. For example, let’s say Kristen puts Adam in her Friends circle. Kristen will see all of Adam’s “public” posts in her stream. If Kristen chooses to publish to her Friends circle, Adam will see her public posts. If Adam isn’t following Kristen back because he hasn’t put her in any of his circles, he won’t see her posts unless he clicks on his “incoming” stream. The circles thing is a little bit complicated, but those are the basics. It’s far easier to maintain your circles on Google+ than it is on facebook, which uses “friends lists” that are much more cumbersome to administer.
The Video Conferencing is all kinds of cool and we can see it having great potential for use in business. It’s called “Hangouts” and you can view videos in a group with up to ten users at the same time. You can invite specific people to a video chat session or you can open it up to larger groups and talk to everybody. Let’s say you’re involved in a particularly intense chat session with someone and you get sick of typing like the wind. You can immediately launch a video conversation--BAM! Hope you don’t have miracle whip on your cheek ‘cuz you’re on camera, buddy!
If you’ve ever been frustrated by spam filters catching your email newsletters and preventing your audience from seeing them, Google+’s “Social Circle” might be the solution to your problem. It makes it easy to share content to other members of Google+
And on the less than awesome side, if Google+ is going to be adopted by businesses, it needs to have a Google Apps integration. Google+ made a recent announcement asking businesses and brands not to create a profile just yet. They’re apparently working on something very, very special for us! We’ll see…
We’re also not thrilled with the lack of search functionality. Seriously, this is GOOGLE for heaven’s sake. Let’s get to some searching! And what about the noisy full stream? There’s no way to collapse a long comment string, so posts pop up to the top every time somebody shares a new comment. Ugh! It’s annoying! Hopefully it’s one of the things on the “tweak” list for Google.
We do have more thoughts to share with you, but we’ve already stretched the Internet attention span past its limits, so we will leave you with this thought:
We are reserving judgment on Google+ until we see more, but we would like to hear your thoughts, if any.
GO!
When You’ve Got Klout, You Own the Universe! (Or at least Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, Anyway)
Wednesday 6/22/11
Last week we promised you an explanation of Klout scores, so here it is GLAD WORKS friends!
Klout is a social media analytic that measures a user’s influence across their social networks. It’s a great tool for you to use if you’ve been at this social media thing for a few months and you’d like to see what kind of progress you’re making. You can use your Klout score to help you measure your overall web influence, and you can compare your results over a period of time to watch yourself go from a fledgling tweeter to a social media superstar! Plus, if you’re the competitive type, you can totally publish your great score and rub everyone’s faces in it: “Who’s the boss, now? That’s right. It’s ME!”
Ahem.
The Klout analysis is done on data collected from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It measures the size of your network, the content you’ve created, and how other people interact with that content to give you an idea of the size of your web influence.
Part of your web influence score is configured by looking at data points from Twitter such as your following count, follower count, retweets, list memberships and how many spam/dead accounts are following you. It also looks at how influential the people who retweet you are, and the number of unique mentions you get.
That stuff from Twitter along with your activities and connections from LinkedIn gets all mashed up together. Your Facebook comments, “likes,” and the number of friends in your network get thrown into the soup too to come up with a Klout Score. A Klout score ranges from 1 to 100. The closer you are to 100, the more you’re rocking it out on the Interwebz! But that’s just the Internet. It has no idea how you’re doing in real life; so don’t be insulted if it seems low. You could be All Kinds of Fabulous in real life and still have a crummy Klout score. It just means that your Internet presence needs a little sprucing up. Clearly, Klout scores provide great feedback, which is what you need if you’re really trying to make a go of this web influence thing.
If you’re still not convinced that Klout isn’t just a popularity contest, but a useful tool, WAIT! There’s more!
We should probably tell you that experimental brands and businesses are testing out programs that provide special perks to social network users with high Klout scores. You know what that means, don’t you? FREE SCHWAG FOR YOU!
Klout is also now working to identify topic experts. Can you imagine what it would be like if you established yourself as a topic expert? That would be pretty great for business, we’re thinking, and it’s something to strive for.
What’s more is that your Klout score can travel with you across the web. Twitter clients like Seesmic show Klout scores attached to tweets, and that can have a tremendous impact on how your status updates are perceived by your followers. The higher your Klout score, the more people will think you’re A Very Big Deal, and they’ll tend to take your word as gospel, which is always nice.
Anyway peeps, that’s the Klout deal. Just remember to keep an eye on all your social media accounts and be as participatory as you can if you want to show the world your awesomeness. Start re-tweeting people and responding to their tweets. Get on facebook and say something fabulous that will encourage people to “like” and comment on what you’re saying! Things will start happening for you, and you’ll be publishing that Klout score with pride in no time at all!
PS: Next week, we’re changing direction and giving you a rare insider’s look at GLAD WORKS. WEEEEEE! You get to see our recycling bin!
Charlie Sheen Reads Our Blog (No Question). WINNING!!
Thursday 6/16/11
Last week we got all excited talking about Twitter and how to manage your followers to following ratio, when it dawned on us that we should probably shut our pie holes and let you get on with your day because we’re super considerate like that.
So, we saved our discussion on followers/following and Klout scores (which we’ll explain later for those of us who have yet to be initiated) for today since not only should you be cleaning out your Twitter feed, you sometimes need to keep yourself in check.
As we’ve told you before, you can’t just fly by the seat of your pants on Twitter and expect to get good things out of it (then, you’d just be a twit). So, take a good hard look at yourself and see if there’s anything you should change about your own Twitter behavior.
Have you examined your following to followers ratio lately? How many followers do you have? How many people are you following? This ratio is important because it says a lot about you as a tweeter and it’s a publicly displayed metric people use to help them decide whether or not to follow you. So, pay attention. It’s kind of a big deal.
The best kind of ratio to have is a 10.0 ratio, or 10 following to 100 followers. If you’ve got that, you must be Charlie Sheen! What are you doing reading our blog, Charlie Sheen? Go back to your Tiger’s blood, dude! You don’t need to read our blog anymore because a lot of people follow you and find you…interesting! WINNING!
Seriously though folks, this kind of following grows organically over time. So, it’s something we’re all working toward. You can’t force it, not even if you’re a warlock with fire breathing fists! That said, when some people come across a ratio like this, they might think you’re not a “true” tweeter because you’re not being very social and following all of your followers back. Really though, you can’t follow everyone. That’s ridiculous. So follow who you want to follow and don’t worry about the haters. Just go on with your bad self, Charlie.
A 1.0 ratio means 100 following and 100 followers. This, at first, looks easy to achieve if you employ the “I’ll follow you if you follow me” tactic, but for every person you follow; only a fraction of those will actually follow you back. This ratio implies a more reciprocal relationship between the people you are following and those who follow you. There’s a nice interaction between two equals who are getting to know one another that’s implied with this kind of ratio.
A 0.1 ratio or, 100 Following, 10 Followers is not so good. If you’ve got this kind of lopsided ratio, check your pulse. You might be a bot! Nobody is going to follow you back with this kind of ratio for fear of being spammed to death. Sure, your friends who know you will follow you, but other than some random spammers, that’s probably it.
So, what is the ideal ratio for people who aren’t warlocks like Charlie Sheen?
Well, that changes actually. It should be in the range of 1.0 if you want to grow your Twitter following. Anything above that shows you might be a boring tweeter. And anything below that range may indicate that you don’t care who follows you and you may not follow them back. So, if you’re Charlie Sheen, you can totally get away without following anyone and people will still hang on your every tweet, but that almost never happens, so you have to play by the rules just like the rest of us mere mortals.
So, keep an eye on that ratio and you’ll be all good in the Twitterhood.
But, what about this Klout business we mentioned earlier?
Well, since we’re pretty sure you’ve already stopped paying attention (except you, Charlie. We know you hang on our every word…) we’ll save Klout for next week.
Why Are You Following Me? Wait. Why Am I Following You?
Wednesday 6/8/11
Have you looked at your Twitter feed and wondered “who the heck are these people, and why are they following me…wait a minute…why am I following them?”
You have?
Well, you’ve come to the right place today!
Every once in a while, you have to go into your Twitter account and do a little cleaning up. Just like the rooms in your house, your Twitter feed tends toward chaos, and somehow you wind up following someone who spams you to death, or someone who posts the most inane details of their existence every thirty nine seconds.
These tweeters have to go unless you enjoy spam and inane details. In that case, rock it out! But chances are, you don’t like that sorta thing, so read on, friend.
How do you un-follow tweeters without offending them?
Well, that’s a tough one because this is another one of those things that even social media experts cannot agree on. Some people think that if someone is following you, it’s proper etiquette to follow them back. But you shouldn’t feel obligated to do that. You should follow only those people who share your interests or whose tweets you find meaningful or compelling in some way. So, when somebody follows you on Twitter, don’t’ be afraid to go check ‘em out and decide if they’re worthy of your followage.
After all, it’s your twitter feed and if you can’t deal with people who tweet things like “need. coffee.” 10 times a day (unless you own a coffee shop and then you’ll be all like “woohoo!”), then you don’t have to put up with it. There’s no rule that says you have to follow boring/irrelevant tweeters just so you don’t hurt their feelings.
We know you’re a nice person and you don’t want to be rude, but look at it this way, if people are tweeting properly and politely, you probably wouldn’t be frustrated with them in the first place--they’re kind of asking for it if they’re tweeting garbage.
Feel better?
Good.
Just know that you’re eventually going to offend someone by not following them or un-following them, but don’t worry about that. It’s more important to spend your energy thinking about what’s going to add value to your Twitter experience. When your Twitter homepage is flooded with tweets that make no sense to you, you’ll be frustrated and you won’t get anything out of it at all. Maybe you’ll even stop using it altogether, so consider this advice preventative medicine. It’s tough to take, but it will save you some pain later on.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t be willing to take a chance on someone and follow them--even if they’re outside your immediate area of interest. In fact, you really should follow people outside your usual circle—that’s how you learn about stuff and get ideas you never would have thought of otherwise! These are the people who can keep you fresh!
So, what happens if you’re following someone and they turn out to be a disappointment? Just un-follow them! There’s a good chance they won’t even notice you’re missing. Some people will notice however and they will be hurt, but hey, this is your Twitter. You do what you want.
Just don’t be offended when someone un-follows you or doesn’t follow you back. It happens. It’s how the Twittersphere turns, man. For every person who doesn’t find your tweets valuable, there’s bound to be a dozen who do, so don’t sweat it.
Another interesting conundrum business owning tweeters face is whether or not to follow employees. This is a double-edged sword because on one hand, you can see what they’re up to, but on the other, you can see what they’re up to. What happens when, say, a client follows you and sees your employee’s tweets? That’s awesome if your employee just tweeted something that makes your business look really, really good. But what if that employee just tweeted about his or her weekend festivities that may or may not have involved any number of, ahem, unprofessional activities followed by a 2 am run to Taco Bell?
Oh. My. Stars!
Now what do you do?
It’s just hanging out there like a big matzo ball.
So, maybe you should consider not followiing your employees and maybe you shouldn't let them follow you either, just in case. Whatever you decide, you’re the boss and you make the rules, just be sure you've considered this issue carefully before you make your policies.
And before we take up too much of your time here, we’re going to wait until next week to talk about your follower to following ratios, often referred to as the “TTF Ratio” amongst Twitter nerds. What is the ideal following to follower ratio for a tweeter to have? Let’s think about that next week!