A product of thinking

“Social networking and blogging has recently become more popular than personal email, and is growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors (search, portals, PC software and email).” Nielson Media 2009

It’s no secret, nor is it a surprise that brands have been quick to turn to social media in a bid to engage and create meaningful conversations with people online.

Many have done so incredibly well.

However, in the frantic rush to capitalise on the popularity of social networks, most have failed to define a distinct and compelling reason to be in this space… to disrupt and interrupt doesn’t count!

Social media users have very quickly learnt to filter through the saturation of brands and messages, cutting straight to those (friends, and brands) they know, and trust. To become a trusted brand in this saturated space (trust us it’s saturated and also highly unlikely that your competitors aren’t already there), there are a few key rules of engagement.

1. Know where the conversation is taking place, listen & respond

Use tools like Buzz Metrics and Scout Labs to identify where people are talking about you online. Once you know where they are, listen to them, learn from them, and respond if necessary. The open nature of this space means a lack of response shines out and is picked up upon quickly.

It’s far better to actively micro-manage opinion across networks and blogs than it is simply set up a few profiles on Facebook that never get updated.

2. Be worth talking to

OK, so you know where the conversation is taking place, but how do you get involved?

Most brands in the social web bare striking similarities to the ‘dad in the disco’ (at best a little bit embarrassing, at worst can empty the room), however… even the dad in the disco can be popular if he’s buying the drinks!

So be entertaining, exciting, and amazing. Be unique, offer exclusive money can’t buy opportunities, most of all have fun! As long as you respect your audience, you are free to try pretty much anything.

3. Be yourself

Social media is a culture of transparency and honesty that must be embraced. Try to behave less like a company and more like a real person and people will respect you. Saying this

“learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about ‘listening to customers.’ They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.” The Cluetrain Manifesto (1999)

If you are a CEO that knows how to blog, do so, even better why not create a network of employee blogs, write about your experiences, what you are working on, what you do in your day to day life. It’s interesting, honest, and endearing.

FINALLY

4. Invite people to get involved

To really engage with people you can’t just talk at them. Invite them to the conversation, think of ways to involve them, and again, listen… Who knows, you may even learn something.

Written for Saint London, for more go here

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Social network sites like Facebook and MySpace, and social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit now enable anyone with enough fire in their belly to influence on a mass scale. When ‘everyone’s an influencer’, satisfying consumer trust is absolutely essential, however…

Despite the great efforts many companies go to to preserve their good ‘brand image’, there will always be at least one disgruntled customer/fan looking to share a negative opinion online -’Ipod’s ureplacable battery lasts only 18 months’ video almost destroyed the iPod 3 years ago.

Whilst there is little we can do to keep fans quiet (maybe you can buy their silence?), there are examples of brands that have been able to successfully counter negative opinion, EA Sports did an amazing job with this ‘Tiger Woods 09 – Walk on Water’ response.

One could argue that ‘being responsive’ in 2009 will be a key contributing factor to the success of many businesses. Fortunatly, there are already a bunch of free tools that enable us to monitor buzz and sentiment across blogs, forums and social networks (see a couple of my favourites below), so you needn’t trawl the web looking, nor stay up late at night wondering. For smaller brands this is often all you need. For bigger brands it may be worth checking out agencies like Market Sentinel or Onalytica.

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3 Free tracking tools

Google Alerts

“With Google Analytics there’s really no reason why you can’t stay up to date with who’s talking about your brand.Enter your terms, select what you would like to search, and then choose the frequency of reporting. If you’re looking to stay on top of what bloggers are saying, just choose blogs or the comprehensive alert. With an alert set for your brand (or just about anything), you can be certain that you’re getting the latest word from the blogosphere.”

Tweetbeep

“TweetBeep is a simple tool that will let you monitor the conversation among the digerati. Are they talking about you or your competitor? Is there something important happening in your marketplace that you need to know about?” All you need to do is sign up, choose your targeted key words, and then you’ll be notified if they’re among the “tweets” of the day.

Newsnow

“NewsNow monitors breaking news in 15 languages from thousands of the Internet’s most important online publications and blogs, including international, national and regional titles, newswires, magazines, press releases and exclusively online news sources.”

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