Building a social networking reputation: 4 golden rules » social media monitoring, best metrics, best practice, next practice, cost-benefit analysis, benchmark social media, marketing metrics, right blog metrics, reputation, brand management, » ComMetri

In my blog post Why social networking groups fail, I wrote about four rules a group moderator should follow to facilitate engagement and provide greater benefits to members:

1. Provide structure and focus.

2. Support and nurture.
3. Share the gardening duties.
4. Continuity is king.

But what about you, are you effective as a group member on any of your Facebook, LinkedIn, Biznik, Xing or other groups?

Have you succeeded in building your reputation through these networks?

If you want to know more, we outline four tips that will help improve your experience below.

Tip 1 – Be a good listener

With all the chatter on various social media channels and other noise, we may no longer grasp the meaning of what is being said or written.

Listening means that we read the responses to questions we pose in forums, instead of abandoning them like orphans due to lack of time to read responses, or worse, not expending the energy to compose a thoughtful reply.

Successful social networkers make the time to monitor groups of which they are members to stay informed. We all want people to listen when we talk and acknowledge the intelligent things we have to say. But do we listen in return?

My advice: In order to participate successfully, it is necessary to spend time reading about group activities on a daily basis. Failing to do so results in failing to reach the first milestone to making group membership beneficial.

Tip 2 – Be an active listener

Reading other people’s contribution carefully is a first step to becoming an effective group member. But people want to be acknowledged for their thoughts and insights left on various forums or discussion threads in a group.



Accordingly, responding to a comment someone left in response to a question you posted is wise.

Successful networkers manage their memberships in virtual groups on social networks in such a way that they can spare the time to participate in discussions. Participation can happen in many ways but it requires responding to replies posted to one’s question or replying to other people’s questions.

Participating also means visibility, but as importantly, it gives others an opportunity to develop some level of trust in the quality, depth and tone of your responses.

My advice: Active listening means one regularly contributes by writing a comment to other people’s questions and contributions or threads started in a group.

See also ComMetrics – Engaging comments: Where is the beef?

Tip 3 – Make sure others feel comfortable

Commenting and contributing your insights puts you in front of an audience. This allows members to get to know you better as a first step toward increasing trust. It also means gaining recognition and improving one’s reputation as a member of the community. But more is needed.

For instance, Queen Victoria is famously said to have drunk the water in her finger bowl. She had no choice: her guest, the Shah of Persia, did so first.

“Correct etiquette, also known as good manners, is all about making other people feel comfortable.” People must feel wanted and appreciated to open up and engage.

In turn, engagement champions are the people that welcome others as new members, write a response when nobody dares to or provide support in many other ways such as taking a phone call and giving free advice if asked.

My advice: Make a special effort to ensure other group members feel appreciated and comfortable. Acknowledge other people’s contributions by replying to their comments and keeping them engaged.

See also ComMetrics – Making sure the source is trustworthy: Facebook, Twitter, Xing, LinkedIn

Tip 4 – Be sure to keep your contenance

C’est le ton quit fait la musique, is a nice, French way of saying, it is not what you say, but how you say it. Finding the right tone while never losing one’s temper while responding in writing is a true challenge.

Ensuring someone does not feel they are being talked down to or misunderstood is something that effective group members seem to master better than most of us.

My advice: Successful networkers make an effort to stay polite and give others a chance to appreciate, if not like, them.

Take-aways
Following the above suggestions and exhibiting similar characteristics in our networking lives means being liked, and if you are liked you can be more effective.

1.
Out of nothing comes nothing: Participating means posting an answer to somebody’s question or adding your thoughts to their comment. In turn, people recognize you, read your input, start trusting your assessments and, as importantly, provide you with feedback and additional insights by commenting on your stuff.
2. 
A fine red wine takes a few years to mature: Being acknowledged or recognized as an expert in a group will take time. So you need to contribute twice a week on different days for several months before thinking about reaping the rewards. By the way, if twice weekly is too much, prune your group memberships now.
ComMetrics – 3 golden rules for best practice: LinkedIn and Xing

What is your take? How do you see these issues? Have you tried to apply any of these approaches for your group memberships? Worked, failed – share, please! Please let us know in the comments!

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Article source: ComMetrics – Building a social networking reputation: 4 golden rules

This blog post is related to our webinar held on Wednesday 2010-05-19 ComMetrics University – Building one’s reputation on social networks.

Upcoming webinar:

2010-05-26 – Helping a client attain goals on Twitter, Facebook and Xing (coming soon)

Attend our webinars by registering for ComMetrics University – we help you improve your social media performance faster.

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Tagged as: effective networking, John F. Kennedy, measurement, media metrics, networking groups, ropes to skip, social media influence, social networking

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Digg loses a third of its visitors in a month: is it deadd? | Technology | guardian.co.uk

The recommendation site that trailblazed a new generation of sites saw an abrupt drop in unique visitors in April. A blip or a trend? And what can Kevin Rose do about it, if anything? (Updated)

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Digg saw a dramatic fall in visitors in April compared to Twitter and Reddit. Why?

Back in January 2006 we asked "Will Slashdot be overtaken by Digg?" The idea at the time that the venerable "news for nerds" site could be surpassed in popularity by a two-year-old site didn't seem tenable - until you looked at the numbers. Those showed that Digg was rushing up on Slashdot - and later that year it passed it for pageviews and unique users.

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Social Selling – Social Media Academy

Social Selling

While social media is often limited to “Social Media Marketing”, the Social Media Academy teaches a holistic social engagement model. In order for businesses to create a better business experience it is suggested that all departments understand to leverage the social model.

“The Principal of Social Selling” may give you a good idea in how modern day sales people engage with their customers.

Feel free to download the white paper
“The principal of social selling“

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 April 2010 06:53 Written by admin Tuesday, 20 April 2010 06:50

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The Social and Semantic Web: Getting the Right Hands on the Spigot

One of the biggest challenges of the next few years is going to be finding a way to take all the data we are collecting on people-- both wittingly and unwittingly-- and do something with it that won’t make us feel like we’ve walked onto the set of a latter-day 1984. (The Orwell novel, not the Apple ad.)

Many of the scenarios I’ve seen laid out are sort of creepy and user-unfriendly. Stores that text us to ask how we liked those jeans we bought a few months back the second we walk into the store. Restaurants we've eaten at that try and lure us in with lunchtime discounts sent via text message just because it’s 12:30 and we happen to be nearby.

What’s scary isn’t so much that these scenarios are being put out there; it’s that they’re more than likely, given the overzealous nature of many marketers and their strong desire to push a controlled, pre-scripted message to consumers (albeit in the guise of a conversation.)

The push-pull here (both literally and figuratively) is going to be who is in control of when and why the information gets delivered. If it’s lunchtime and I am looking for a place to eat or if I’d like to see which of my favorite restaurants has a deal for me, then I want to be able to push the “lunch deals” app on my phone and see what’s available. (I’d even be open to an exchange where, say,  I posted a message to one of my social networks in exchange for a 10% discount. Particularly if I really liked the restaurant.)

What I do not want are random assaults.  I don’t mind seeing advertising messages when I am actively looking for something. But often as not, I know exactly what I am in the mood for at lunchtime. And I’ll gladly pay the extra fifty cents that undiscounted slice of pizza will cost me and have zero interest in receiving a stream of ads all touting their amazing discounts shouting at me like some digital carnival barkers.

Same way when I walk into the Gap, I’m either there for a reason or I’m killing time. If I’m looking for suggestions or directions, I’ll ask. But a database is never going to feel like a person. A person can usually read my body language and know that I am not in the mood to chat or receive follow-up questions or upsell attempts. But the hypothetical database John Battelle suggested in a recent post is a regular Chatty Cathy, bugging me to buy a sweater for my kids, pointing out items on sale and otherwise making a nuisance of itself.

The key to success on the semantic web is going to be finding a way to be unobtrusive. To let customers call the shots and tell you just how much input they want-- to let them have their hand on the virtual spigot so they can increase or decrease the flow of information from brands-- even brands they like-- because people rarely want an unimpeded flow of commercial messaging.

Or, to put it more succinctly: we want to hear from brands when we want to hear from them. Not whenever they feel like chatting.

Sort of the same reason there’s caller ID.

via socialmediatoday.com

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Guide to Using Social Media for Your Business – Part I

Using social media for your business can be quite overwhelming, especially if you have just arrived on the scene. Here we shall discuss some of the things that will help you make the best use of social media to market your business.

Use your website content

You might have a lot of interesting content on your website, so why not make use of it? Post links of pages that have interesting information to share. You can also get more traffic to your site by installing widgets like “Add This”. This will automate the process of linking to popular sites and visitors will be encouraged to share your website content in a swifter manner.

Use multimedia to share what your company does

Integrate multimedia with social media and watch how your sales get a boost. Create videos about what your company does, the services you offer, and demos of the products you sell. What you can do is create a channel on YouTube and express the mission and values of your company through videos. You can also boost your brand by featuring video series giving tips or advice related to the products and services you are marketing.

Keep reading for more ideas…

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Tags: content marketing, multimedia sharing, small business social media, social media marketing, social media tips

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47 Weblog Directories, Portals & Platforms - Website Magazine - Website Magazine

You need links and lots of them. If you're a blogger however acquiring links can seem challenging if not downright impossible at times - even more so than for e-commerce or service-oriented sites. Our upcoming June 2010 issue features a helpful article from John Alexander of Search Engine Academy called "Stress-Free Link Building" which I'm sure will be an instant hit among our audience as it provides very practical insights on this challenging aspect of search engine optimization and guidance on how the problem can be overcome.

That upcoming article will be available early June for Website Magazine monthly subscribers. If you're not yet a member you can sign up now or keep reading below for some related guidance.

Alexander's article got me thinking during our final round of edits how truly common the feeling of stress must be among those responsible for building links. Since finding sites that like what you do enough to send a link your way is so time consuming, many opt instead by starting their link building campaigns by submitting to directories. This can be especially helpful for those that frame their sites exclusively as weblogs. Below we've listed some of the top blog/weblog directories on the 'Net and provided an estimate (courtesy of the DoubleClick Ad Planner) on their monthly unique visitors.

These sources should be just one part of a multi-phase link building effort but it's handy to use them to get your link building underway. Keep in mind that many of these are not your traditional "directory" or "portal" but rather multi-user blogging platforms. But hey, a link's a link - especially when you're getting started. Did we miss one (or two)? Comment below and let WM and our community know.

 

Website URL  (Estimated Uniques)

aboutus.org (1.7M)

allforblog.com (9.4K)

biggerblogger.com (13K)

blloggs.com (1K)

blogarama.com (63K)

blogburst.com (22K)

BlogCatalog.com (2.9M)

blog-collector.com (10K)

blog-directory.org  (21K)

blogdirectory001.com  (10K)

blogexplosion.com  (44K)

blogflux.com  (260K)

bloggapedia.com  (57K)

Blogged.com  (760K)

Bloggeries.com  (52K)

bloggernity.com (58K)

bloggernow.com (26K)

bloggerschoiceawards.com  (58K)

bloggingfusion.com  (24K)

bloghub.com  (48K)

blogintro.com  (8.7K)

blogio.net  (12K)

bloglisting.net  (22K)

blogobbler.com  (8.5K)

blogoriffic.com  (13K)

blogpulse.com  (76K)

blogrankings.com  (150K)

blogs-collection.com  (25K)

blog-search.com  (30K)

blogsearchengine.com  (43K)

blogsforsmallbusiness.com  (9.4K)

bloguniverse.com  (15K)

blogville.us  (18K)

getblogs.com  (10K)

Globeofblogs.com (47K)

liquida.com 27K)

OnTopList.com 84K)

regator.com (77K)

submitblognow.info (10K)

superblogdirectory.com (10K)

topblogarea.com (390K)

weblogs.com (57K)

webworldindex.com (84K)

zimbio.com (9.1M)

totalblogdirectory.com (39K)

bloghints.com (39K)

blogtoplist.com (630K)

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Can Social Media Really Be Used for Branding?

by Zephrin Lasker, Yesterday, 5:00 AM

Can social media be used for branding? Or to state the question in an even clearer and more tangible way, "Can a marketer abandon conventional broadcast methods and use social media to build reach and drive brand awareness?" First, let's define the terms "branding" and "social media." Through careless overuse, these fundamental advertising concepts have been deprived of their essential essence. Stated simply, branding is the process of creating a feeling, attitude or perception in a person towards a product or company. Branding helps a company differentiate itself from the competition. It is what makes us think of Coca-Cola as more "old fashioned" and "established" and of Pepsi in terms "edgy" and "for the young generation." Now let's move on to social marketing. There are many examples of places on the Internet where people come together to form brand social communities. Facebook is one. Twitter is another. Email newsletters are the oldest social communities and the most commonly used by brands. Traditionally, marketers have used broadcast mechanisms such as TV ads, radio spots or display banners to blast their message to a wide audience. In the broadcast branding model, the focus is on primarily on garnering reach (number of impressions) and frequency (how often) within a target demographic -- in essence talking to a wide pool of anonymized impressions. However, in a social branding campaign, the marketer can't think in terms of anonymized impressions. This is because social groups are made up of people and not impressions. So the focus of the campaign shifts to acquiring user data of consumers who want to hear from the brand -- the name, email address or social networking handle of the end user. Instead of planning a campaign targeted towards women 18 - 54, a product manager at Gap could now reach consumers based on their individual preferences -- be it for khakis, jeans or summer dresses. The prospect of speaking to a consumer in such a customized way is enticing, and is a large driver of the buzz around social media. But before social media can take off as a mainstream branding tool, it has to prove itself capable of delivering those old branding staples -- reach and frequency. And for both metrics, social branding campaigns are more than up to the task. If you want to find America's consumers, go online. There, you'll find 76.2% of consumers in America. And they are social. In fact, it seems that's all they ever do. According to Forrester Research, over 95% of people in America have an email address. Nearly 50% of people share their email address with 20 or more friends. Email might be the oldest engagement tool in the marketing toolbox. But the new social vehicles aren't doing so badly either. According to research released by JP Morgan, U.S. consumers watched approximately 240 million YouTube videos a day in 2009. Over 100 million U.S. consumers across all key demographics are on Facebook. And if one accounts for the viral effect, the effects are staggering. A Ford Fiesta video campaign launched earlier this year got 6.5 million YouTube views and 50,000 requests for information about the car -- virtually none from people who already had a Ford in the garage. While social media can match or come close to broadcast in terms of delivering reach, it definitely has a clear advantage in delivering frequency. TV shows typically deliver high audience duplication from one episode to another. But marketers have to pay for the second showing of an ad all the same. Achieving optimal frequency can quickly get to be expensive. In a social branding campaign, marketers acquire the email address, Facebook username, Twitter handle or site login username with the explicit permission of the consumer. They don't have to pay a dime for subsequent communications. What's more, if the marketer leverages the acquired consumer data properly, future messages can be delivered in a relevant and customized way. Relevant messaging helps boost important metrics like aided/unaided awareness, brand preference and loyalty. "Acquiring the email addresses of people who are interested in our products is instrumental to our leadership in the marketplace," says Jared Blank, Senior Director, e-Commerce, Tommy Hilfiger. "It allows us to communicate the wide breadth of offerings in a crowded marketplace effectively and keep consumers engaged with our brand." I am not making the case for an either/or approach. But marketers need to take advantage of the potential for reach, frequency and meaningful branding that exist in social media. For this to happen, they have to first to make that fundamental shift to focus on acquiring user data instead of planning for anonymized impressions. It is already beginning to happen. Earlier this year, Pepsi decided not to advertise during the Super Bowl. Instead, it started a Pepsi Refresh social media initiative. "It's a big shift," said says Lauren Hobart, chief marketing officer for Pepsi-Cola North America Beverages said in Time. "We explored different launch plans, and the Super Bowl just wasn't the right venue, because we're really trying to spark a full-year movement from the ground up. The plan is to have much more two-way dialogue with our customers." To which I say, Ditto.

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Citybizlist Launches Social Networking Optimization Platform with Gigya

Citybizlist Launches Social Networking Optimization Platform with Gigya - cbl

By citybizlist Staff

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Local business news site citybizlist announced today the integration of social optimization platform of Gigya.

Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, said, "Leveraging the power of the social networks is a major step forward for citybizlist. With the spectacular rise of social networks, users are increasingly turning to their friends to determine what to read online. The Gigya platform will provide citybizlist users and readers with an easy way to share stories with their business colleagues on Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, and other social network platforms."

The Gigya social optimization platform enables online businesses to easily connect their sites to all the major social platforms, including Facebook Connect, Sign in with Twitter, LinkedIn Platform, and Yahoo! Open Strategy Platform; enhance their users' connected experience through authentication via existing identity, one-click sharing, and on-site social features such as live chat; and analyze the business results of their on-site social optimization efforts via detailed metrics and real-time data.

"With people today relying more than ever on their trusted networks to determine what to read, watch and buy online, social networks are starting to rival Search as a source of referral traffic for any website," said David A. Yovanno, CEO of Gigya. "Gigya 4 provides a powerful way to turn this change in consumer behavior into a competitive advantage by maximizing the number of site users who connect with an existing social network identity and share content with friends. On-site social optimization is taking its place alongside SEO and SEM as a critical element of any online company's strategy for driving qualified traffic."

Warfield added, "Earlier this year, Google and Yahoo began including citybizlist news in their news and search results. This has resulted in a 304 percent jump in monthly unique visitors. Social is the next search and the citybizlist/Gigya partnership will be the next important driver of users to citybizlist."

About citybizlist:

Citybizlist is the premier insiders resources for local business news and is presently published in 11 cities. Citybizlist is published via email, the Web and Twitter in 11 cities: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte/Raleigh, Dallas, Houston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, South Florida and Washington, D.C.

About Gigya, Inc.

Gigya is a leading social optimization platform for online business, enabling websites to connect seamlessly to the most popular and powerful social networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Gigya's technology, which it hosts and delivers to its customers as an on-demand service, enables customers to provide social sharing, registration and interactive features to drive increased traffic, conversion and time spent on their websites. In addition, Gigya provides widgets, analytics, best practices, consulting and customer support to ensure clients optimize the social performance of their websites. Gigya technology reaches more than 250 million users each month and powers the sharing of more than a million pieces of content per day across the social web for Fortune 500 clients including A&E, Intuit, The Coca-Cola Company, Time, and Turner Networks. www.gigya.comc

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Social Media | Digital Connections – Blog of 360i, Digital Marketing Agency | 360i « Digital Connections – Blog of 360i, Digital Marketing Agency

Is all mobile social?

Five years ago, penning a MediaPost piece that feels like it was written far more recently, I asked, “Is all mobile local?” That question would have been a more fitting title for the column rather than the wonkier one I used, “The Mobile-Local Redundancy,” which sounds like a rejected name for a Jason Bourne movie. The question and the column answering it remain relevant, making me wonder if so little has changed in sixty-one months.

A very different question probably wouldn’t have crossed my mind back then: Is all mobile social? More specifically, is all mobile media inherently shareable through digital social channels, and should that be the case?

Read the full article »

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