Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I’ve blogged before about tools to measure buzz / “memes” and reputations online. The first tool you should use is a smart RSS reader, like that from Attensa. But there are many other tools out there to measure buzz, and some very fun ones are beginning to be developed.

Over on the Search Insider blog, David Berkowitz profiles “Seven Buzz Monitoring Sites to Watch.”

A short list:

• Facebook Lexicon: Lexicon is Google Trends for Facebook
• Summize: a Twitter search engine I discovered recently. But David points out that using Summize Labs you can also use a “near:” modifier to narrow results to people writing from a certain zip code - in case you want to find like-minded folks nearby. Cool.
• Flaptor is another Twitter search engine, and has a trend tool called Twist that you can use to compare search terms. You should always run your Twitter searches through a couple of engines, as they’re not yet perfect. I’m looking forward to the day that Attensa takes care of all of these searches for me, persistently.
• Using Quantcast you can track the demographics of searchers for a particular keyword. David helps you figure out how easily, and I won’t steal his thunder… go have a look on his post.

There are tons of additional tips and explanations there anyway… It’s going in my del.icio.us file. For sure.

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Sometimes it’s just hard to be creative. It really is. I consult with many technology and start-up organizations, and I work with dreamers who love to drain the right side of my brain. By the end of a work week, my creativity is often tapped out.

And as a part of my business, and as a way of giving back, I blog. And (I often liken it to caring for a dog) just because you’re tired doesn’t mean you can neglect your blog.

This past week I’ve been talking a lot about blogging as I’ve been networking around town. And one of my basic tenets of blogging for business is this:

Never tie a corporate blog to just one person.

It’s precisely because we get tired (or go on vacation… or get sick… or are out walking the dog…) that we sometimes just need a break from blogging.

If you don’t have the luxury of relying on others to keep the blog dynamic and scintillating, you can still rely on others for good blog fodder when you’re out of ideas yourself. Here’s a brief synopsis of where I get great content ideas for my blog:

1. Newsletters to which I subscribe and are delivered into my email - my personal favorites (on the topics of marketing, technology and social media) are those from the ClickZ network and the IAB Smartbrief.
2. Blog posts from the blogs to whom I subscribe and read via my Attensa RSS reader. RSS readership, by the way, is growing this year - 34% percent of global respondents to a March social media survey from Universal McCann said they had “ever” subscribed to an RSS feed, up from 15% in 2007 (via ClickZ).
3. Research in the marketplace. Just this week I got a link from my friend Bryce to a fantastic piece of research from the California Health Care Association called “The Wisdom of Patients: Health Care Meets Online Media.” A woman named Jean Sarason-Kahn of THINK-Health (who blogs at Health Populi) wrote it, and it’s a must read for anyone looking into health care or social media.
4. Invite guest bloggers to post for you. I got such an invitation a few weeks ago from my friend Meryl over at Meryl.net. Her blog turns 8 years old tomorrow - 8 years! - and in celebration, she’s taking some time off. So she invited friends to provide her with some guest posts so she can take time off. I wrote one that will run sometime next week - talk about a little extra pressure, writing for someone else’s blog! But it was great fun, and I look forward to seeing it run.

If you’re going to post using other’s ideas, add some value: sprinkle a little of your own opinion and make sure your examples add to the conversation. That way, even though you’re not being overly taxed to be creative, at least you’re collaborating with- and contributing to- their work in some way.

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With the chatter today around Google’s Friend Connect code being announced, there’s a wealth of new optimism for the notion of “open” social networks… where social networks become the fabric of the web, not the “walled gardens” we’re forced to manage separately with different logins, passwords, connections and feeds.

Charlene Li, Forrester Research, blogged of that notion last March, when she projected that this day would come - that technology would open up the networks to share information: “ubiquitous Internet access and the servers to enable real-time social graph access.” You can’t get more ubiquitous than Google giving away social connectedness to any web site for free.

Google’s description of Friend Connect:

Attract more visitors. Visitors bring along friends from social networks like Facebook, orkut, and others to interact on your site.

Enrich your site with social features. Choose engaging social features from a catalog of gadgets provided by Google and the OpenSocial developer community.

No programming whatsoever. Just copy and paste snippets of code into your site, and Google Friend Connect does the rest.

As they opened up the world of web analytics to “the rest of us,” so shall they open up the world of social networks to any organization interested in implementing social networking features. And these are important features like inviting friends to connect, vote and easily share the information already out on millions of web sites. For example, again from Google:

• An academic site - Discuss and review articles in context with colleagues and the broader community. Filter the discussion to colleagues only, or widen your view. Forge connections with new participants whose comments seem particularly insightful.
• A shopping site - Read expert reviews and tips right next to the camera you’re thinking of buying, and find a friend who has already purchased the same item.

(Note: they’re not shipping the code yet, but they are taking preview release participants here.)

How do we get ready for this brave new world? In many ways, both large and small. I’ll tackle the first (large, but simple) step today.

Track your digital reputation.

Old Joke: You shouldn’t Google yourself too often because you’ll go blind…

New Reality: Frankly these days, you’re blind if you don’t Google yourself often.

1) Set up persistent searches so a free RSS reader - like Google on the low end or Attensa on the high end [Attensa offers search of 18 different social networks/search engines] - will keep an eye out for online mentions on the following:

Your name/your company name/your product names… it’s quite simple to do - here’s proof:

2) Once you set up the search, check your results (you can get the feed results delivered into your Outlook inbox from Attensa) at least a couple times a week (if you’re not active in the blogosphere/social network) or more often if you are.

3) You’ll be able to train Attensa (they’re a client of mine) to know the difference between “Janet Johnson, the FL realtor,” “Janet Johnson, the former Congresswoman,” and “Janet Johnson, the marketing strategist” over time.Simply tag, check or delete the results and, depending on the relevancy, Attensa will will learn which instances to serve up first, below:

After all, millions of conversations are going on every moment of every day. More likely than not, some are about you/your company/your products. At that point, you can enter into the conversation and manage your online reputation actively.

Knowledge is power. These tools are free. From this point forward, it’s incumbent that you know…

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I’ve been doing a bit of networking lately, and have received some fascinating feedback as a result:

“I occasionally read your blog to catch up, and rarely understand a word you say; but you sound very, very smart.”

<ouch>

“I’ve seen your blog, and it’s quite a collection of ‘bright and shiny things’ you talk about.”

<guilty as charged>

“I went through your paper, and it’s very, very technical. Who’s your audience?”

<great question!>

These comments have given me pause, and they couldn’t have come at a better time, as I am personally trying to define my own use of social media tools in my business, in order to better clarify their uses for others.

In an effort to do so in public, here’s a stake in the ground:

RSS: Every time I get a new client, I set up a new RSS feed in my Attensa RSS reader to gather news and information about them. (I posted screen shots on SlideShare, in case you like pictures to walk you through how it works.) I also subscribe to a few blogs that I find interesting - and read them within Attensa because it’s more convenient to have one place to go to read and comment on them all.

RSS is like the nervous system of social media - it grabs news from the entire universe and routes it to the brain.

RSS readers are the brains of social media - we train them to understand what we pay attention to, and the smart readers anticipate how to prioritize the information to feed our attention properly.

Blog: I use my blog to personally comment upon things that move me. Whether it be a new tool, a personal experience, or software to help marketers. I agree with Ken, though, that it seems a collection of bright and shiny objects. I’m okay with that, although I think it might be time to mix it up a little more. The danger in blogging is that I seem to be obsessed with, and harp on similar themes; so my posts might become boring for those who subscribe or visit often. But this is my space, so I get to be the medium of “me.”

Blogs are the hearts of social media to me - if I care enough to write about something at length, I’ll blog it. My readers know how I feel about pretty much everything I choose to share. For businesses, blogs can create a glimpse inside your organization and get right to the people who make it work, connecting with their obsessions, thoughts and (yes, even) emotions.

Twitter and other “micro-blogging” tools: I use Twitter to connect with what people are thinking/doing “in the moment.” It fits my “bright and shiny object” proclivity to a tee. Through it, I can check out breaking news, get to know people I work with in a much more casual, personal way, and share thoughts/jump into conversations and engage quickly and directly - right now.

Twitter is like the eyes and ears (maybe all the senses) of social media to me. Blink, turn your head, sneeze and you’ve missed something. But it adds color, depth, taste, and texture to the people, problems and knowledge of those I follow. I tell people in business that teams who are working together should follow each other on Twitter. Especially virtual or geographically diverse teams… they’ll learn more from each other, be more accessible, and get more done with each other as a result.

I ‘d love to hear what others think… as I’ve found this week, it’s most enlightening and helpful to get feedback. It helps focus my thoughts and further define my messages and how I relate them to others.

Which is the true beauty of social media and marketing to me.

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I put up a slideshow on SlideShare last night that shows (rather than tells) screenshots of how easy and powerful a smart RSS reader (like my client Attensa’s) can be to setup and use. (View it in ‘full screen’ mode so you can see the screen shots easily.)

I’ve blogged before about how much my productivity has been enhanced by using it to keep up with news and information about clients.

Thought it might be useful to people to see how easy Attensa’s RSS reader for Mac is to use.

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