#socialnomics

Today, I am blogging to you about some great advice give in the book Socialnomics by Erik Qualman. This brilliant man gives some really great points on what works and what does not. So...you guessed it! I’m gonna share some of my favorite parts with you (just to hold you over until your book comes in the mail, because I know you are dying to read it after you’ve heard how amazing it is... Let your Mass Comm self head to Amazon and nerd out.). I won’t lie to you; this is only my third blog post ever. However, I have fallen in love with it, and with great advice from Qualman, can I really go wrong?

Qualman makes some great points about blogging and lists out exactly what you need to know and do to have a successful blog.

One of the points he mentions is commitment. There must be a commitment from the blogger to the audience to write on things that the audience cares about, and to write often. They must commit to providing quality content, or else the readers may feel that the blogger no longer cares.

Another important point that Qualman lists is consistency.  Your audience will stick around if you cater to them. It is important to know who you are speaking to. To be successful, you must have an audience in the blogging world. You must be consistent with what you are talking about. One blog that does a great job with this is Sweet Southern Curls.

Something that always draws me into blogs first is how they look. Are they cute? Next I think about: Is it something that relates to my life? Will I enjoy reading this? (Don’t act like you don’t have little conversations with yourself like this one before watching that eight minute video that you grandma keeps sending you to watch).

One thing I love to see in other blogs are hyperlinks. Sometimes I want to learn more about what I have read about and this is such a great way to do so. My professor also encourages us to include them in our blogs, and I have had friends tell me how much they have enjoyed them without me even mentioning it to them!

Blogging can be hard and time consuming, but I think that it is such a great way to express how you feel and encourage conversations with others who may feel strongly about the same subject matter that you do.

How do you find new blogs to read? Have you ever tried blogging yourself? Will you incorporate some of Qualman’s points next time you blog? Are you more likely to read a blog that you found on Google or on social media?

Let me know how your blogs go, and leave me a link to them in the comments! I would love to read them.

Make sure to order Socialnomics by Erik Qualman so that you can read all about blogging, social media, and viral videos!

After I gave my presentation last week, someone asked the question about how individuals may use social media across different platforms, so I figured now would be a good time to talk a little bit about the research I did in my previous master’s before starting the MBA at Boston College that focused on how departments, specifically student affairs departments, at universities can create conditions to support social media use.

If you’re looking for some research on a good individual who focuses on effective social media use and how you can use it personally and professionally, you should look at Eric Qualman and Rey Junco. Qualman focuses on the concept of “Socialnomics” and published a book “What happens in Vegas stays on Youtube” that talks about looking out for your personal brand. Rey Junco talks through how we can use social media as individuals. Take a look at the research and videos from each of these individuals as they are pretty cool.

When we use social media, we can look at it in 3 ways as it relates to how we want to form our sense of branding and knowledge. We can look at it through an epistemological lens, which focuses on “How do I know” what I am saying; an intrapersonal lens, which focuses on “How do I construct relationships with others”; and interpersonal lens, which focuses on “Who am I”. Each of these are important to consider as they elicit difference responses in each of us. Students arrive to campus with technology devices for social and academic purposes and are using technology almost on a daily basis. Most of this technology is through social media. There has been a shift in content being published that now focuses on content focused on interaction with others and observing that more students engage with peers on social media before ever stepping foot on-campus as discovered by conducting research with 10-12 college/university offices who work to engage students via social media in various ways.

The research that we did conducted was able to be defined in the following chart as to the “Social Media Life Cycle” in working with students:

One of the tactics that we (myself, specifically) noticed schools talking about was this concept of an “Instagram  Takeover”. In order to boost their following, Ohio State discussed this concept of using a hashtag for their first year student orientation and allowed an orientation leader to be in charge of social media throughout the summer. Can you imagine being an incoming student and being the centralized part of the university social media account? Talk about brand promotion and sharing! Another concept I researched was how universities and individuals with large followings will engage with others via social media. If you ever have a chance, you should look at how Indiana University engages their followers via Twitter. Individual university employees also engage in positive ways. One individual was Kenn Elmore, the Dean of Students at Boston University who would engage in both humorous and serious ways with students, meeting them where they are at with publicity.

When you work on an individual or departmental level with social media, you need to think about who is providing the voice. Is it the voice of a specific person, of the department, of someone taking over the account, etc.? Many universities have specific guidelines for what type of content is aloud to or should be posted. In general, we found that universities with policies (University of Michigan being one, in particular) said that each platform should have an intentional purpose for engagement and information dissemination. They also talk about the fact that this needs to be beyond event promotion. Think to social media accounts of offices/universities/departments that you follow. How many of them actually engage with and respond to individuals who interact with them or who promote general student information besides those things that engage directly with their department. My guess is that you will find few schools doing this.

When you look at university and departmental social media accounts for any office/department, but in this case, higher education, you need to look at when your campus is most active on different platforms. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter each tend to have their various “time of the day” so it is important to be consistent with them when you use it and what you choose to post. Capitalize on what happens to be trending vs. trying to be reactive and cause the trend to occur. You also need to work to create a social media plan and have learning outcomes that your business/department/university has come up with to set the tone for how you want your brand to be on specific outlets. If inappropriate content arises, you should have a plan for how to address it. I think that some schools do this better than others (i.e. some schools are honest vs. others, like BC, tend to brush it under the rug and point to the positives of the institution; but who wouldn’t want to do that?). The last take away we discussed was to give constituents a voice. Don’t forget the individuals you serve in your social media accounts!

Now that we have discussed some key concepts of using social media for your business, such as word-of-mouth advertising, blogging, and advertising, it’s time that we move on to looking at big data. This blog post will examine the keys to Social Metrics and give you the information you need to advance your company’s social media usage past that of your competitors.

According to Erik Qualman, there are seven keys to Social Metrics¹:

Start with the problem, not the data¹

Looking solely at the data may solve your problem in the short term, but in order to make sure the problem doesn’t reoccur you need to analyze the problem and then use the data you have to help you find a solution. Looking at the problem through the lens of the data will limit the potential options that you will find to solve you problem.

Listen before interaction, reaction, and prediction¹  

I can not stress how important it is to listen to your customers and the data that you receive from them. However, even though listening is the first step, it is a step that does not end as you progress through your social media journey!

Share data to get data from customers¹

Customers are more likely to share information when they feel that they have a connection with or know a company reasonably well, rather than a nameless faceless entity. You need to give a little to make your customers comfortable so they will share information.

Assess your current data management and social analytic capabilities as an organization to determine if and where you need to upgrade¹

Unfortunately, social metrics is not one-size fits all. However, there are plenty of tools out there that will help you customize your data management and social analytic usages in a way that is appropriate for your company.

Base the equation of your business on customer-centric metrics¹

Although company-centric metrics can be useful in helping you plan, you should not rely on them. Customer-centric data will benefit  your company more in the long run, because you will be focusing on the customer’s wants and needs, which will lend itself to making changes that will attract and keep customers.

Let computers analyze and scientists analyze, respectively¹

Both computers and scientists have their weak points and their strong points, which often compliment each other. Computers are logical to a fault, and are good at seeing patterns that humans may miss. Scientists can input the human element into data, and allow a company to see why things are happening the way they are. Both of these resources are useful, and you need to be sure to use each to their full advantages.

Stay up-to-date with the latest in social analytics and CRM technology¹

Technology has allowed us to do absolutely amazing things, and our capabilities keep expanding as new technology is invented! Make sure you keep up with the newest inventions and use them to the best of your ability in order to make your social media campaign as successful as possible!

Now that we’ve discussed the seven keys to Social Metrics, I want to share with you some useful resources for social metric tracking and information.

OnBoardly, Keyhole, and SproutSocial have amazing sections of their sites which you can use to learn more about social metrics and the top social metrics tools!

PC Magazine has an amazing chart where you can compare and contrast the different offerings of social media analytic trackers!

As always, sources are under the cut!

 Hello everyone! Today we are going back to the beginning! As Lin Manuel Miranda tweeted,

We should definitely take care of our physical bodies (maybe go eat some fruit like Lin suggested), but it is also important to expand our minds. However, just like a poorly made structure, if you try to implement expert knowledge and ideas without a solid foundation to back it up, the business you are trying to support will crumble. That’s why today we are going to go over the four basic steps to social media.

Listen

It may sound simple, but listen to what consumers are talking about when they discuss your product. Many times, companies will jump right into the selling aspect on social media, and this does your company, your product, and your customers a great disservice. If you don’t listen, how will you know what works about your product and what doesn’t?

As Qualman reassures, “if you do the first three steps [of social media] well... then the selling will happen with a proper push here and a prod there.¹

Interact

In order to successfully promote your product on social media, you can’t just listen, however. You also need to jump into the conversation! Interacting with customers get you invaluable feedback and reviews of your products and services, but it can also give your company the reputation of being engaged with your customers!

If this idea scares you, there are multiple resources to help you better your online communication skills! Business.com, Forbes, and Chainlink are three such resources which give advice for connecting with customers on social media.

React

So, you’ve heard what people have to say about your product by listening and engaging your customers, now that you know, make some changes! Just make sure that any changes to a product or service is based on a majority of customer feedback and not a vocal minority. It’s alright to go back to steps one and two to try again if you’re not sure. Remember, this is your product or service, not only do you want it to be profitable, you also want it to be popular and functional!

Sell

Finally comes the aspect of social media marketing that you’ve all been waiting for! You’ve listened, you’ve interacted, you’ve reacted, now what? Well, as Qualman explains, jumping straight to selling is “the worst thing you can do, and it won’t be effective.” ¹

Customers appreciate being listened to and taken seriously. If you follow the above steps, customers will be more likely to not only buy your products, but also to tell others about your products. Customers telling other customers about products is important, because it gets you that fabled word-of-mouth advertising that everyone says is the best (look here for my post about it).

Hopefully going back to the basics for a little bit has helped you strengthen your social media knowledge foundations, so that you can build upon the knowledge you already have and improve your social media marketing!

As always, sources are under the cut!

It is almost impossible nowadays for one to log onto social media and not become at least a little jealous over something their friend has posted. You’ll be sitting at home scrolling thru Instagram and see those girls who you went to high school with, who are younger than you, by the way, touring the entire continent of Europe. Meanwhile, you’re at home watching Netflix and eating an entire pint of ice cream.

You know these girls might not have necessarily meant to show-off, but they still had to post dozens of pictures for their family and friends to see. We constantly see comments on posts like these such as, “Ugh, I’m sooo jealous” or “I wish I was there! You’re soooo lucky.” It’s just a constant passive-aggressive conversational battle. You start to wonder why you even keep up with these people online at all.

Social media is how we keep in contact these days. People don’t call each other. Half the time they don’t even text each other. If you need to connect with someone, you’ll add them on social media and then direct message them. You don’t even have to ask for someone’s number anymore, all you have to know is their name and you can find them quite easily. The digitalized world has completely transformed human interaction and it’s not just friendly or unfriendly interaction, it’s also romantic interaction.

Through social media and dating apps like Tinder or Bumble, meeting people that share common interests with you has become effortless. You can find out everything about a person via their social media, which makes deciding if you want to meet up with them simple. Of course, there is always the threat of catfishing, but that seems to be fairly rare.

Many people know the Buggles song “Video killed the Radio Star.” This is one flaw with advancement, someone will always come along and make improvements. DVD’s replaced VHS, Blu-Ray and Ipod’s replaced MP3 players which replaced CD players. Will social media, with it’s many marketing uses, replace traditional marketing styles?

Erik Qualman discusses this in “Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Ways We Live and Do Business.¹”

“Businesses, both large and small, have to realize that they no longer own relationships. Yet, when it comes to social media, many companies haven’t shaken their old tried-and-true marketing models.¹”

One example that demonstrates this is the different strategies that three companies used when they all made a new type of travel app for Facebook.¹ 

1. Acme 

Acme’s app made users give up personal information, such as their email address and mailing address.¹ When told many people may be turned off by having to supply this information, Acme decided that it didn’t matter, because on a good day they would get 50,000 downloads.¹

2. Where I’ve Been

This app was developed by Craig Ulliott, who was the concerned customer who brought the issue of Acme’s request for personal information to their attention.¹ Being a talented programmer himself, after his concerns were ignored by Acme, Ulliott decided he could do better on his own, and he was correct.¹ The app was so successful that Ulliott was able to open a seven-person company under the same name as his app!¹

3. TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor approached Craig Ulliott, and offered him around 3 million dollars for the purchase of his app.¹ However, when Ulliot decided that sum wasn’t enough, TripAdvisor decided to take matters into their own hands for a cheaper price.¹ TripAdvisor paid approximately $20,000 for the development of their app, and in 2009 TripAdvisor had 1,779,246 monthly active users compared to Where I’ve Been’s 885,577 monthly active users. In 2010 TripAdvisor’s number went up to 5,187,366 while Where I’ve Been went up to 1,031,902 users per month.

What do these numbers show us? Although they received tons of new information for their databases, Acme could have done so much more if they branched out from their traditional marketing strategies. Both Where I’ve Been and TripAdvisor had major successes by using a nontraditional social-media orientated marketing strategy. While Where I’ve Been’s numbers were significantly lower than TripAdvisor’s numbers, the fact that they grew large enough to warrant the starting of their own company and that they were competitive with already well-known brands such as Acme and TripAdvisor, shows that it’s not always down to the name, it’s also how you market yourself.

Do you have questions on the best ways to market your business on social media? Look no farther! Links to useful resources can be found here, here, and here!

Sources below the cut!

What is the biggest way to garner interest in your company? Word-of-mouth advertising of course! Consumers are more likely to trust a product review if it comes from someone they know to be trustworthy. However, as Erik Qualman outlines in his book “Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business,” there are three main problems with traditional word-of-mouth advertising: 

Reviews can be slow to spread¹.

Friends of friends may not know and trust the original source¹.

The positive review can be altered as it spreads, similar to the children’s game telephone¹.

Knowing this, how can companies make sure that they are getting the most out of this top marketing strategy? The answer is actually to encourage the use of social media, rather than traditional oral communication! Social media use is raising every year, and is expected to reach an astounding 3.2 billion people by 2021²!

This should tell you that social media, even with its many detractors and naysayers, is not going away anytime soon. Not only does this platform offer businesses a new marketing tool to explore, social media based word-of-mouth eradicates the three flaws in traditional word-of-mouth advertising! 

Social media allows a review to be spread to multiple people at once, rather than having to have one person tell one other person, who then tells one other person and so on¹.

Social media platforms allow users to interact with the media they share. This allows people to add their own opinion to reviews and therefore people who know the person who shared the review will be more likely to trust the review. 

Since the review is in text, and not relying on body language and tone, there is minimal chance that the original message will be misunderstood¹. 

Now, there are pros and cons to using social media as a tool for word-of-mouth marketing. According to the Australian Government, there are six things which may stop you from successfully marketing your company or business on social media³. 

“Not having a clear marketing or social media strategy may result in reduced benefits for your business³.” 

“If you don't actively manage your social media presence, you may not see any real benefits³.” 

“Risk of unwanted or inappropriate behavior on your site, including bullying and harassment³.” 

“Additional resources may be needed to manage your online presence³.” 

“Social media is immediate and needs daily monitoring³.” 

“Greater exposure online has the potential to attract risks. Risks can include negative feedback, information leaks or hacking³.” 

However, with some planning, these cons are easy to work around and avoid. For example, the first three cons can be managed by planning your social media presence and planned responses before implementing any sort of social media presence for your company. 

Hopefully this post has proven to you that social media is a useful tool for word-of-mouth advertising, and that change doesn’t always have to be a bad thing! 

Sources under the cut!

Chapter 13 of Erik Qualman’s Socialnomics gives a list of over one-hundred helpful tools and sites for social media marketing and management. For the full (updated) list, click here.

In order to fully utilize this chapter to its fullest potential, I’ve decided to visit each tool and see which ones I could most easily incorporate into my social media usage. Doing so, I would see what tools were the most helpful and made the biggest improvements in my online life. The only issue I found with the listed tools, is a lot of the links led to dead ends or error messages OR were no longer existent. I can only assume the list is a bit out of date, but nonetheless, the list is extremely helpful. Below are my new favorite tools/sites, and why.

Evernote: Although this isn’t a tool specific to social media usage, I find this tool incredibly helpful. I utilize my iPhone “notes” application, on an almost a daily basis, for reminders, writing down song lyrics to look up later, personal thoughts, epiphanies, etc. Although iPhone notes is a good tool, Evernote takes it to the next level. Not only can you drot down your thoughts, you can record anything (perfect for a lecture), and everything gets saved online, therefore you’ll ever lose your notes. This would’ve been a phenomenal tool to have been using throughout high school, and my previous years as a college student.

HootSuite: HootSuite is like social media marketing on steroids. It allows you to view your site analytics in real time, allows you to schedule future posts, easily respond to comments and tweets, and post to several accounts at a time.

Cyfe: Similar to HootSuite, this tool allows you to see your social media site analytics in real time. You add and configure widgets to show analytics on facebook, youtube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. It’s not overly complicated, but offers a great deal of stats and info, and is also great for a social media comparison. This is a great tool if you’re intimidated by, or can’t afford HootSuite, and only need the bare necessities of tracking analytics.  

TimeHop: As much as I cringe looking through old pictures or statuses, I love TimeHop. Timehop allows you to see what you were posting about every year upon a specific date. It’s crazy seeing how much you’ve grown, and how much your interests have changed. The reason this is a helpful social media tool is not only for nostalgia’s sake, but because often we push our achievements to the back of our minds, telling ourselves we haven’t made any improvements in life. Timehop will change your view. Another way TimeHop is helpful is because you may come across a post that no longer supports your brand as they are today, and “delete the evidence”, not to mention deleting old embarrassing pictures. 

*bonus* one that wasn’t in the book, but has helped me tremendously.