Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

In an article called “How Three Brands Got Smart About Social Media” over on the ClickZ network, author Anna Maria Virzi wrote a perfect setup in her beginning paragraphs:

“A cacophony of voices are chanting: Put on a good face for Facebook, chirp on Twitter, tap dance for YouTube — all without looking stupid, appearing phony, breaking the law, alienating customers, or busting the budget.

No wonder some marketing executives are paralyzed.”

The article goes on to describe some interesting implementations of social media marketing, and some nice ideas for measuring success - positive comments, number of downloads, increased sales, increased customer satisfaction…

Paralysis Analysis (sorry, I couldn’t resist)

The feeling of paralysis is real when it comes to entering into the different areas of conversation online (which is all social media really is, in my opinion).

At the root of the issue for most businesses is one simple thing - control.

I used to think fear was the underlying issue, but I’m beyond that now. Fear simply describes the emotion around loss of control.

“What if someone says something bad about us?”

The most oft-heard (and generally first) question I hear from businesses when asking how to safely enter online conversations…

My answer? They’re probably already talking about you anyway. Don’t you want to know what they’re saying? (It may not all be bad - unless your business has prompted bad feelings.) And regardless of the tone of the conversation, don’t you want a voice at the party to respond?

These days, it’s OK to be human - even if you’re a brand.

A brand is (ideally) how your market feels about you, after all… And I know of no human in the world who’s always in control. To be human means to be:

• Delighted when things go well. (For most of us, that’s - what? - 10%-20% of the time?)
• Vulnerable when things don’t go well. (Another 10%-20% of the time?)
• Unsure, irritated, bored, smug, beseeching, aggressive, threatened… when things are just going along (the majority of the time).

Most of the time, we just make stuff up to move us to one state of feeling or another…

Why, then, does your business need to consistently appear superior to the general human condition? That’s a very 1.0 point of view.

Until businesses are made up of robots, we’re full of people. Which means we’re stuck with having forces beyond our control affect us - whether they be people, the rising/falling dollar, the agility of our partners or the resilience of our natural resources.

The first step in building resiliency to the forces beyond our control is to admit we’re not superior; and we’re interested in being part of the solution.

“What if I don’t know the answer?”

In another excellent article, this time on Online Spin, Max Kalehoff wrote, “Acknowledge What You Don’t Know.“In it, Max writes:

“…acknowledging what you don’t know implicitly means you’re open to alternative viewpoints and solutions. Allowing others into your realm enables choice and optimization, and greatly improves problem-solving likelihood….

…The fact is that people want to help. Being open identifies yourself, makes you visible and encourages others to contribute positive thinking and support to help you succeed.”

That’s the value to businesses in social media. There are thousands of examples every day of people offering their advice, opinions and experiences with brands online.

Smart businesses are listening (1.5), and even smarter businesses (2.0) are engaging in those conversations online.

And then there are those businesses (1.0) who simply have their heads stuck in the sand.

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Okay - here’s how it went. I decided to check in on the Twitter chatter from the Community 2.0 conference going on in Vegas tonight.

1. Checked my Twitter feed.
2. Found a Tweet by @MarshallK about Summize - which allows you to search Twitter for memes.
3. Tested it by Tweeting about Attensa blog post - Attensa didn’t show up in Summize.
4. Was able to post my test results directly to Twitter from Summize - very cool.
5. My second Tweet about Attensa blog post did show up in Summize - okay, I’ll use it.
6. Did a search on #C20 (the Community 2.0 meme) in Summize, found some new folks to follow.
7. Saw a Tweet about @NancyWhite’s beautiful drawings, was curious….
8. Followed one of her links to Flickr to view the drawings
9. Was absolutely blown away.
10. Had to blog about it to share… Sometimes “cocktail party” Twitter is too fleeting…
11. Checked the Creative Commons license to be sure, and can publish a photo here - set for slide show mode and enjoy!

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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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In a great post last Friday, Marshall over at ReadWrite Web set forth a great set of examples of how they (RWW) use Twitter in their journalistic efforts. Head on over and read the whole thing - but in a nutshell, he tells how they use Twitter:

• the discovery of breaking stories,
• performing interviews,
• quality assurance
• and promotion of our work.

What was fun for me personally about this post is that I finally met Marshall (in person) the afternoon he was writing it - via Twitter. I was waiting for another networking meeting, and was watching my Twitter feed via iTweet:

How many “Earthhippy” buildings in the Pearl are there? I surmised I was sitting in the exact spot (EcoTrust Building/World Cup) I’d find him. And I looked up toward the register, and le voila… an introduction eased by coincidence.

Fast forward to Monday. I went to meet Scott Kveton, also down in the Pearl. On autopilot, I had neglected to check where we were to meet, and went to World Cup again. I wondered whether I had crossed my wires, when, at 2:08, I hadn’t seen Scott walk through the door for our 2:00 yet. Knowing Scott is an avid Twitter advocate, I checked my feed only to see:

Ugh! wrong place… so I immediately DM’d Scott (sent him a direct message) letting him know I was in the wrong spot, and we quickly arranged to meet in the middle. He DM’d me back saying “meet in middle?” and the rest was captured here:

So: (and I know I’m on a rave about Twitter recently) the two events are linked in my mind forever as little examples of the beauty of “in the moment” speed, usefulness and connectedness that Twitter provides me.

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