by Bruce Newman

Largely because of its extensive reach and low costs, social media has rapidly become an important tool for social causes and non-profit organizations. Through the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email marketing, and numerous other platforms, organizations are able to target and reach huge numbers of potential donors and followers.

Being able to reach such a wide audience can also be a two-edged sword. Particularly in these financially troubled times, social causes and non-profit organizations are inundating a target audience who is increasingly becoming less responsive and more thick-skinned to their postings. This in turn requires that each of these organizations develop and implement an effective strategy designed to meet their specific goals (which can include increasing awareness, fund raising, attending a conference, etc.).

I recently began working with several organizations including Vassar Hospital/Dyson Center, Mid-Hudson Workshop for the Disabled and Kiwannis Club of Poughkeepsie in the following promotion which we posted as a Facebook event (scheduled for March 31^st of this year):

Leukemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow which many children are dying from. You know what’s sad? A LOT of us can help them. A simple cotton swab of your mouth to collect DNA can register you as a donor and a simple procedure can extract your bone marrow to save a life. Consider the HUGE impact you will have if you are a match for someone with leukemia!

(This event is scheduled on Thursday, March 31 from 3-7 pm at Vassar Brother’s Medical Center/Dyson Center for Cancer Care)

As we plan on making this an annual event, here are some more ways that we plan on promoting it using social media:

1. We will be visiting the www.facebook.com/causes app which currently has over 21 million active users. We will also be visiting the causes exchange (exchange.causes.com). This Facebook app will allow us to interact with many people and groups while enabling us to reach out to our Facebook friends.
2. We will probably also create a simple blog on Tumblr because it’s quick and easy (and free).
3. Since there are already numerous organizations involved with Leukemia and DKMS (“where Leukemia meets its match”) – with whom we are already working, we will enhance their Facebook and Twitter efforts by enlisting support and followers. This includes the loading of pictures onto their websites. One thing we don’t want to do is be in competition with anyone while still getting out our message.
4. We also won’t be doing any videos at this point. Although they can be highly effective, if you don’t have a reasonable budget, thousands of fans or a celebrity, they may not generate many completed views or results. Besides, for our specific cause, videos already exist including one by Shaquille O’Neil. If you do decide to use videos, I strongly recommend that you create several of them while making sure that you maintain a consistent theme across every video. (A consistent thread is crucial to a successful social media campaign.)
5. Discussions are also very useful. It’s a great way of building relationships, strategies and followers – particularly if it involves good, thoughtful content. This can be done on Facebook or on a site that promotes groups such as Yahoo Groups or Ning which primarily focuses on the development of a community. The reason why we probably will not use Ning is because we can’t donate the necessary time it requires to maintain and grow a group. Nevertheless, it can be a highly effective platform.
6. We will also use an email campaign to maintain contact with people who have expressed an interest in being a donor. This may include invitations to events, discussions, etc. throughout the year.
7. One thing you should always use social media for is to request help from others. We will be asking all of our friends and contacts to forward or retweet our message to their friends and followers. Remember, it’s social media; it’s supposed to be social and this is for a good cause.

In short, I will be participating in a social cause to help people suffering from childhood leukemia. I have included several of the steps in the social media campaign we recently started as a guide for anyone who would like to work with us or any person or organization looking to promote a social cause.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC. An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has developed winning social media strategies for companies of all sizes along with several well-received social media courses, services and products. Bruce is also the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader. Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog. Bruce can be reached at bnewman@prodinst.com.

by Bruce Newman

This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Developing a social media marketing campaign has become more demanding as social media technology and popularity continues to evolve.  This seems counterintuitive at first since there are more tools and more people.  However, it also means that there are more people trying to reach and influence each other.  It therefore takes knowledgeable and effective strategizing to create an effective social media marketing campaign.  In short, it requires the 4 S’s – Social, Sharing, Sustain, and Strategize.

Social

The first rule of social media is to be social.  Your communications must be positive, knowledgeable, incisive, thoughtful, etc. It is okay to provide some negative comments provided they are appropriate.  They just must not be nasty, racist or insulting.  Think of when you go to a party and meet new people.  The appropriate behavior you display is similar to your online behavior.

When you are building and maintaining your social networks, you must be social.

Sharing

The purpose of social media is sharing; “pay it forward”.  By providing information and good, relevant content, you provide the basis building up your contact network and branding yourself as an expert of your particular specialty.  Since each social media platform has its own “personality” and followers, it is important to distribute your content across numerous platforms.  In this era of proliferating social media platforms and subscribers, it is important that you utilize social media sharing to share your information with as many people as possible.

Sharing of information that helps brand you as an expert and increases the size of your networks should be provided across multiple social media platforms.

Sustain

The rule in advertising is that people need to hear, read or see a product seven times before it makes a lasting impression.  In social media, this number is impossible to track and largely irrelevant.  What it does denote, however, is the importance of remaining in front of your target audience.  This is accomplished by providing a sustained and consistent effort.  Blogging once a month is insufficient.  One of the key components of a sustained effort includes scrutinizing various analytics to determine which strategies are effective and which are not.  (Scrutiny can almost be considered as the “5th S”.)  Optimally, a blog post created twice a week coupled with sustained effort commenting, asking and answering questions on several social media platforms is far superior.

Sustaining your presence on multiple platforms will help enhance your social media presence, the size of your network and your credentials as an industry leader.

Strategy

In the past few years, the social media realm has grown from a small number of participants to hundreds of million people, many of whom use it daily for extended periods of time.  Given the ease of setting up an initial account and the huge number of subscribers, the difficulty of achieving an effective – and sustainable – social media presence has rapidly increased.  It’s nice to fantasize that a campaign will somehow go viral.  Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasing unlikely as that percentage continues to diminish.  In place of this dream is a campaign that incorporates SEO, possibly some type of paid advertising, blogs and social media to achieve a client’s specific goals.  An effective social media strategy takes significant planning and time to implement.  It does not happen overnight.  However, if effective it will provide substantial and recurring results, usually at a far lower cost than traditional media campaigns.

Utilizing an effective social media strategy across multiple blogs and social media platforms will achieve specific goals.

By adhering to the rules of the 4 S’s - regardless of the product, service or goals you are promoting, you can help ensure the success of any social media marketing campaign.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients. An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media courses, services and products including: Social Media Policy, Social Media Starter Pack, and Maintenance and Management (available through the PI website or by clicking here). In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader. Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Coupons have been around seemingly forever. In social media, however, they have now taken on a new incarnation: groupons.  What’s a groupon?  A groupon is a coupon that requires a predetermined minimum number of people to use it before it becomes effective.

To elucidate further by use of an example, a store offers a coupon for 60% off of some item. However, since this may be a drastic reduction, it needs to make a minimum number of sales for this promotion to be cost effective.  It sets this minimum and the percentage off for the product when creating the groupon.  Using the groupon, a buyer will purchase the item at the reduced price with their credit card.  However, the charge won’t be made and the purchase won’t be completed until the specified minimum number of groupons are used by interested buyers.  For this reason, buyers are encouraged to use social media – such as Facebook, Twitter and mobile – to tell other potential buyers about the sale.  The seller wins because it gets a lot of publicity and – potentially - moves a lot of merchandise. The buyers win because they get a large group discount and Groupon wins because its user base continues to increase.  In Groupon’s first nationwide campaign which just ended, it partnered with the Gap by offering $50 worth of apparel for $25 (a 50% groupon).  This resulted in 441,000 groupons and over $11 million in sales.  Did the Gap make a profit on the sale? Probably, but more importantly, it generated a huge audience and brand awareness.

Since the software behind this popular group model is rather simple, a growing number of sites are also offering group coupons – usually with a twist or specific market emphasis.  Some of these sites include: livingsocial, adility, 8coupons and even Zagat.  The food and restaurant industry is very intrigued by this model.  Baskin & Robbins used this model (in part) to help build their fan page to over 722,000 fans.

Increasingly, the goal of many social media campaigns is to build community and enhance brand recognition.  Chris Gayton, Gap’s Senior Director reported that it uses social media to reach people and direct them to Gap’s website where 70% of them make a purchase at a Gap store.  So, while the 441,000 groupons were generated by the Gap’s promotion, the real benefit was probably the number of people who were directed to their site.

Many campaigns are starting to emphasize brand exposure and effective campaign strategy.  As a test, on April 16th of this year, McDonald’s ran a campaign on Foursquare that involved the random offering of 100 gift cards in denominations of $5 and $10 to people who checked in through Foursquare.  Although the entire campaign totaled less than $1,000, it was able to increase McDonald’s foot traffic nationwide on that day by 33%.  Success stories also abound for restaurants with only one location.

Social media is rapidly gaining in importance to most businesses.  It has greatly increased connectedness to levels that will only increase as additional social and mobile technologies are developed.  It can greatly enhance brand and company recognition while deriving significant additional business and since this technology is horizontal, it is applicable to most businesses regardless of their size.

Not all companies can sell 441,000 groupons but most would happily settle for a 33% increase in traffic in exchange for a minimal time and financial expenditure.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients. An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has developed several social media courses, his latest course being the Social Media Starter Pack. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader. Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog. Email: bnewman@prodinst.com

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Social media is constantly evolving.  With over 400 million Facebook users alone, it has rapidly become the most common activity on the Internet.  Yet, many companies are either unaware or have decided to ignore the two-sided nature and power of social media.

People are greatly influenced by what they hear from other people.  For example, if I want to buy a new car and several people I know tell me that they have had a terrible experience with the type of car I am considering, they will influence my decision and my thought process even if I decided to go ahead and purchase that particular car.

We can readily extend this scenario into the social media realm.  Now, when I tell the world about the car I am thinking of buying, literally thousands of people can weigh-in on their experience – or purported experience and in all likelihood influence my decision.  And that’s the power of social media – for better or worse. 

People are readily influenced by what they read about in social media.  A recent survey reported that 68% of people can be influenced by what they read online.  Furthermore, if they read something negative about a product or service they are considering, 53% of the readers will look into a competitor’s offering.  A second study found that 67% of Facebook fans and 51% of Twitter followers were influenced by comments made from other users on those respective platforms.  It is therefore important for companies to quickly respond to negative – or positive - comments on social media.  It doesn’t matter if they are realistic or not, a prompt response is important.

Prior to the Internet, when a customer had a problem with a product, he or she would just complain to the company or its assigned representatives – few other people, if any, were made aware of the problem.  That is no longer the case.  If someone has a problem with a product and tweets about it, the whole world can rapidly become aware of it.

Fortunately, social media also provides the means of rapidly responding to people’s comments and complaints.  Many large companies have set up teams that constantly search blogs and social media looking for some reference to their company.  One such company, Starbucks for example, has been known to issue coupons for free drinks for people who have tweeted with a problem or complaint.  This is not to say that social media can be used to rectify a problem, only that it can provide a (hopefully) friendly interface through which companies can rapidly and more inexpensively interact with their customers.

In preparation for a recent talk, I looked up a major computer company’s fan page to see what people were discussing and how that company was handling it.  Given its positive reputation and technical savvy, I was stunned to read the comments on the page almost unanimously panning its products.  In fact, one person even wrote, “Hey, don’t you want to do something about all of these negative comments?  Do you think anyone is going to buy one of your machines after reading this?”   (The company’s surprisingly latent reaction was to merely remove the fan page.)

Customer service can greatly enhance or detract from a company’s reputation.  Fast and helpful customer service will enhance the customer experience.  Considering the extremely high cost of customer acquisition and that existing customers will spend over seven times as much as a new customer, monitoring social media and creating an effective online customer service response – even for a small company, can greatly enhance a company’s reputation and sales.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media courses, services and products including: Social Media Policy, Social Media Starter Pack, and Maintenance and Management (available through the PI website or by clicking here). In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

Social media is rapidly becoming an important component of most businesses.  Whether or not these businesses utilize social media, their employees and customers do. 

The law is significantly lagging behind social media.  Most of the legal actions are based on precedent: copyright law and trademark violations being the most common.  However, what employees write, where and when they write it is becoming increasingly important.

Recently the Supreme Court heard its first case on social media and the employee privacy rights.  The outcome of this case is expected in June and will affect the actions of many businesses in the entire country. 

There are additional cases that are slowly making their way into the court system, many of them involving the rights of a company versus the rights of its consultants and employees.  These legal actions are very expensive and often detrimental to all parties – and maybe most importantly, to company morale.  Preventative measures – starting with a social media policy, can greatly ameliorate this situation before it erupts.

The moral: If you do not have a social media policy, get one!

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC.
Social media policy – online course and policy: $117.

Reuters – People walk down the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington May 20, 2009. REUTERS/Molly Riley

Thu Apr 15, 9:39 pm ET
As the high court’s 2009-2010 term winds down, Yahoo! News will look at some key cases whose decisions have potential to impact the lives of everyday people.

Most of us have done it: Sent personal emails from the company computer, texted a friend or significant other on the BlackBerry they gave you for work. No harm, no foul, you say — our lives are so crazy these days that it’s hard not to blur the lines between the personal and the professional. Of course that’s true, but company time isn’t the only issue — what about your privacy? What if the boss reads your messages? Would you be embarrassed  — or worse? Does your employer even have that right?

The rules surrounding workplace communication in the digital age are pretty fuzzy; so fuzzy, in fact, that we still largely rely on parts of afederal law enacted in 1986 — back when fax machines were all the rage — to govern our privacy on technologies we use today. Calling someone on the phone or sending them postal mail isn’t remotely the same as sending a text or an email, so as technology develops, so must the laws that protect the privacy of our communication.
 
“[The laws don't] really make any sense in the modern era,” saysJennifer Granick, civil liberties director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates for free-speech rights in digital communication. “It’s just not the way the technology evolved.”
 
Important court battles being waged all over the country are helping to shape this area of law, but one case has made it all the way to the top of the legal system.

At issue in City of Ontario v. Quon is whether a SWAT officer — a public employee — had a reasonable expectation of privacy when sending personal text messages on a police-department-owned pager. The official policy at the Ontario, Calif., police department had prohibited personal use of things like email and the Internet at work, and employees were explicitly told they should have no expectation of privacy in that regard, but the policy never said anything about text messages.
 
At some point, pagers were issued to members of the SWAT team, who were later told at a meeting (i.e. not in writing) that texts sent and received on them would be considered by the department to be email,  and therefore subject to monitoring or audit. The officers were also told they’d be responsible for paying any charges incurred when going over the character limit in the department’s contract with the pager service. Eventually this arrangement eased into an informal understanding between officers and their superiors that as long as they paid the extra charges, the department wouldn’t look at their messages.
 
Sgt. Jeff Quon went over the monthly character limit a few times, but he faithfully paid the overages. He also sent text messages — sometimes sexually explicit ones — to his wife … and to a co-worker with whom he was having an affair. As he understood department policy, his superiors would not be reading his messages. But the department — tired of acting like a bill collector for overage charges — later changed its mind and requested Quon’s transcripts from the wireless service provider. (Quon was one of the officers who had exceeded the character limit more than once.) After the provider, Arch Wireless, provided the transcripts, Quon’s superiors were able to read his, ahem, personal messages.  
 
Quon and others, including his wife, who was not a department employee, sued, claiming the police department had violated their Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search. (In other words, the suit involves not only the employee’s privacy rights but those of the people sending and receiving messages to and from him.) They also sued Arch Wireless, claiming the provider had violated a federal statute when it gave the police department Quon’s transcripts without his permission.
 
After losing their battle in federal district court, Quon and his co-plaintiffs prevailed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California, with that court ruling they all had a reasonable expectation that the department would not read the text messages. And now it will be up to the Supreme Court to decide if the city violated theFourth Amendment, which protects people against unreasonable search and seizure by the government. (The high court will not be hearing a separate appeal concerning the wireless service provider.)

Although the ruling is likely to be narrow (sticking strictly to legal questions concerning the public sector), it will come at a time when there is great need for the high court to shed light on how the Fourth Amendment affects electronic communication. Hard to believe that when this case comes before the justices on Monday, it will be the first time the Supreme Court will consider how the Constitution affects so much of what we now take for granted in our workplace communications — indeed, many of us hardly pick up a phone anymore.

It’s difficult to see where the high court will go with this legally nuanced case, especially because there are so few similar cases to provide guidance, says Susan Freiwald, a law professor at the University of San Francisco who teaches cyberspace and information privacy law.
 
The ideological makeup of the court doesn’t help much either.
 
“Ideas about privacy don’t always correlate to traditional labels of conservative or liberal,” Freiwald notes. “You don’t really know how the justices are going to feel and how those positions translate.”
 
Whether this case has a broad or narrow ruling, the hope is that it will be a guide for both employers and employees as advancing technology makes it easier for us to blur the lines between private and professional communication.
 
The court likely won’t release its opinion until June, but for now, what’s the advice? A little bit of common sense, of course.
 
“Employees in general need to be a lot more careful about what they commit to writing,” says Robert Brownstone, a lawyer who advises employers on information privacy. “And if they do, they should not use their work computer, because that’s a whole different level of privacy.”

Are you concerned about electronic privacy in your workplace? Let us know what you think.

— Laura E. Davis

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100415/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1641

by Bruce Newman

    This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Social Media is rapidly gaining in importance concerning how business gets done.  This is aptly demonstrated in many ways both by the hundreds of millions of users of various social media platforms and blogs.  A recent study showed that a staggering 91% of the privately owned businesses in Inc. magazine’s fortune 500 now use social media (up from 43% only two years earlier). 

While possessing the potential to be enormously beneficial, social media also comes with a two-edged sword.  Liability issues are beginning to abound as a result of social media.  Decreased productivity, insubordination, disclosure of confidential information and reputation management are among only a few of the issues that can now plague companies. 

It is very easy for an employee to utilize some social media platform or blog late at night while at home and write negatively and in detail about the day’s events at work.  Or, suppose some employees start tweeting about weeks of poor sales?  In either case, these simple situations can quickly – and negatively - affect a company’s reputation.  Even if a company does not utilize social media, its employees do – and so do its customers.  It is therefore of key importance that every company protect itself with a social media policy.

First and foremost, the key purpose of any social media policy is to prevent a company from issues of liability and certainly any expensive and protracted legal action.  Arguably, the second most important aspect is the delineation of the limits and boundaries for a company’s employees and contractors – what they are and are not permitted to say.  These rules help form the foundation of any social media policy. 

According to Manpower (January 26, 2010), only 29% of the companies in the Americas currently have a social media policy.  This is a shockingly low number and in part explains the increase to 17% from 12% in 2008 in the number of exposure incidents for such social media sites as Facebook and LinkedIn along with an increase to 8% reporting employee termination (Proofpoint Inc., 2009).   There are likewise increases for blogs, videos and other forms of social media.

Without a social media policy, companies are much more vulnerable to human resource and legal issues.  For many companies, a social media policy can be included as a part of an employee handbook – but one that still requires periodic education and an employee signature.  Violation of a social media policy (or lack of a policy) can also hit executives of even large corporations.  The CEO of Whole Foods Supermarkets, Inc., a nationwide chain of 130 high-end supermarkets was forced to resign following the outrage (and growth of the Boycott Whole Foods campaign) after he published an article on health care policy in The Wall Street Journal without first disassociating himself from Whole Foods.

There are decisions every company must make concerning the role of social media within a company and its employees.  These decisions can greatly affect the productivity and working environment for all company employees and consultants.  Regardless of which decisions are made however, what is of crucial importance is that every company has a social media policy – for the good of the company and its employees.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media courses, services and products including: Social Media Policy, Social Media Starter Pack, and Maintenance and Management (available through the PI website or by clicking here). In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Traditional marketing programs emphasize the importance of the 4 P’s (Product, Price, Place (distribution), and Promotion).  Utilizing various combinations of these components allow marketers to reach many different target markets.

The growth of social media transformed the 4 P’s into the 4 R’s (Review, Respond, Record, and Redirect). 
• Review – what the social media community is saying about you
• Respond – appropriately and accurately to any postings or comments
• Record – providing short videos that inform and educate
    Note: I prefer Recognize – brand recognition and its promotion/evolution
• Redirect – providing content across multiple sites to improve visibility and search engine rankings.

They are not as established as the 4 P’s but perhaps that is because of their “newness”; after all, social media has only been around for a few years.

Nevertheless, I think they can be improved.  As companies are increasingly viewing social media as both a networking and business tool, they need a foundation which espouses its key principles.

Recently, while I was working on a presentation that discussed the 4 R’s, my wife came over and asked, shouldn’t I use the 4 S’s for social media?  Upon reflection, I thought she had made a valid point and subsequently developed the 4 S’s.  As a test, I discussed both the 4 R’s and the 4 S’s during my presentation and asked the audience which they preferred.  The overwhelming response favored the 4 S’s.

The 4 S’s
• Social – being sociable and appropriate is #1
• Sharing – share your relevant content and profiles across multiple social media sites
• Sustain – your presence by consistently providing appropriate and substantive responses to any postings or comments
• Strategy – create and implement an effective social media plan

The 4 S’s exemplify the behavior and potential of social media. 

Social
Of primary importance is sociability.  If you’re not sociable, honest and conscientious, you will not be successful in this medium.  It is these interactions with people and communities that will form the basis for all subsequent communications. 

Sharing
While doing this, you should share valuable and relevant content – of any format - with peers and your community, sometimes across multiple social media platforms, when appropriate.  One aspect that is extremely important and yet frequently overlooked is the completion of your profile(s) on each social media platform since almost all of them have a personal and business component. 

Sustain
Increasingly, companies are using social media for real time interactions with prospects, customers and interested respondents.  Sustaining a presence through new entries – often across multiple platforms – and quickly servicing posts and comments on a regular basis can help brand a company as an industry leader.

Strategy
Given the number of social media users, the large number of social media platforms, and its growing ranking relevance, developing and implementing an effective strategy to achieve your goals is rapidly becoming a necessity.  Just having a Facebook page for example, is no longer sufficient.

By following the guidelines of the 4 S’s, you will have the foundation upon which to build an effective and strategic social media presence to help achieve your goals.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Who would have thought 140 characters would be so pervasive? Not I, I admit.  And yet, Twitter has in several ways simply overpowered the social media landscape.

It’s hard to believe this has occurred. When you consider that 58% of Twitter users generate less than ten tweets and that the top 5% of users are responsible for 75% of the updates, it becomes readily apparent that a relative few are driving this entire platform.  The attention that Twitter has generated, however, has greatly eviscerated these statistics.

On November 10, 2009, Twitter and LinkedIn announced an agreement in which recent tweets would now be available from within LinkedIn and recent changes to LinkedIn updates could become tweets.  Since LinkedIn is a highly successful social media platform targeted for business professionals, this agreement represents a huge – and at no risk or expense – step for Twitter in building its business appeal and credentials.

This follows recent agreements between Twitter and Google and Twitter and Microsoft to index twitter messages in their respective Google and Bing search engines.  The advantage for Microsoft and Google is that their searches will now include real time input.  How they will present Twitter search results and how it affects their indexing and search algorithms is yet to be determined.  Regardless, it provides additional credibility and relevance to Twitter and the need to even more closely follow existing search engine rankings.

It should be noted that the purpose of this article isn’t to disparage Twitter, only to recognize its ever-growing reach.  Twitter provides real time information and feedback that can be crucial to the functioning and perception of many companies. Some companies have implemented successful Twitter (and social media) strategies.  However, the majority of companies have placed more emphasis on other social media platforms or excluded Twitter entirely.

Most importantly, how will this affect an end user?  At this point, it’s hard to tell.  Just by the nature of its agreements, Twitter’s value has increased and it must be given more credence when plotting social strategy.  If you use LinkedIn, for example, you should continue to regularly update your profile since people in your network will be automatically notified.  How will it affect search engine rankings?  Again, it’s too early to tell.  However, since search engines are putting more emphasis on context, person information and social media activity, the incorporation of a strategy that includes Twitter has now assumed greater importance.

All of these developments in this rapidly changing social media world denote its fluid nature and what has becoming increasingly apparent; the need for companies to implement a comprehensive strategy that allows them to effectively utilize social media to achieve their goals.
 
Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

There are currently over 200 million blogs on the Internet.  54% of all bloggers post content or tweet daily.  34% of bloggers post opinions about products or brands.  The highest percentage of new bloggers are people in the 55-65 years old range.

These are amazing numbers and statistics.  They indicate the importance of blogging for both business and personal reasons. Blogging for business allows companies to gain attention, enhance market share, announce new products and be branded as an industry leader.  Positive buzz is extremely important, particularly since so many bloggers will readily post their opinions about a product or brand (which also denotes the need for a solid social media policy).  Conversely, blogging for personal reasons is often simply because people feel the need to write or to be heard.

With this huge number of blogs and new content, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the din.  Increasingly, a strategy must be employed for a blog to be successful.  Being a very good writer is no longer sufficient – unless you work for the New York Times or are very famous.  If you’re not in these categories, here are five important keys that will help your blog be successful.

1. Know your goals and target market

Determine the goals of your blog.  Is it to generate attention for your website or brand you as an industry leader?  Is it mainly to communicate with others?  Do you just want to provide information or use it as a political platform?  There are many different goals.  Select only one as your main goal and if applicable, several secondary goals which, when achieved will help you reach your main goal.

You must also know your target market – including your competition.  The more you know about how people are reacting to other blogs and what is triggering their reactions, the better idea you will have concerning what actions you must take to achieve your goals.

Knowing your target market also includes determining the keywords that you should scatter in all your posts and include in your titles.

2. Plan a mix of posts

Just straight text is not sufficient.  Augmenting your posts with videos or pictures will enhance their value.  It will also provide a basis for content distribution (as discussed in point 4, below). What is most important, however, is that you supply excellent content, for it is this content that will continue to drive people to your site and follow you.

Writing great headlines will also attract attention.  Since searches by keyword are extremely important, make sure to include them in both your headline and content.

3. Publish regularly

You must publish regularly.  If you stop publishing, the world will go on without you and you will be quickly forgotten.  No matter how loyal your readers or followers are, unless you write regularly, you will lose them.  The best solution is to establish a writing schedule. Twice a week is good, three times is even better.

4. Spread it around

Remember, your world does not revolve only around blog and maybe a handful of social media platforms.  Twitter and Facebook are important, but so are many other relevant blogs and sites - particularly if the target market of your article matches their specific niche.

5. Listen

Comments that reflect your article content are great. Definitely respond to them.  It will help develop a dialog that will attract more subscribers and attention.  Unfortunately, too many people respond with inane comments such as, “I learned a lot” in order so they can generate back links to their websites.  You can ignore them, set a no-follow flag so they don’t get credit for their links or review all the comments before allowing them to display.  My personal preference is that people who provide thoughtful feedback should get back links (if they want them).  They should be rewarded for their thoughts and I enjoy read and responding to their comments.  I’ve started some great dialogs and made some good friends as a result.  But, because I do allow back links, I must approve (or ignore or spam) each comment first before I allow it to be published.

Blogging is an important part of any social media campaign.  By following these five steps, you significantly enhance its success.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.