social media 101: help! i need to get into this social media thing
when i was in i.t. (and even now) i was fielding technical support questions for friends and family. now that my day job has changed, the questions have changed a little. people now ask me about the social media. the most common question i get asked goes along these lines: “i’ve heard about this social media, should i start a blog, start twittering or create a facebook page?”
they generally want a nice short answer which i can’t give them. i want to take some time to answer the question here.
the single most important question i want them to answer is “why?”
- why do they want to engage in social media?
- do they view it as a medium to drive revenue?
- is it because someone told them they should?
- is it because everyone is doing it?
“why?” is a question that had to be answered on every project i’ve ever worked on and particularly in business it should always be a question that is asked.
i have never been able to justify an infrastructure upgrade, software development or deployment to the cio/cto with “we just should”. i need to know why and what benefit or return i hope to achieve and be able to articulate it in a business case.
once you answer the “why?” then we can start talking about the “what?“:
- what should we do?
- what tools should we use?
- what are the success metrics?
treat a social media project as you would any project. you are spending your company’s (or your own) money for an expected benefit. now what you do need to be careful about is, like other business projects it may be difficult to prove the r.o.i. as a tangible on your balance sheet. in that respect, you may liken a social media project to be like a c.r.m. project. nobody disputes that having good customer satisfaction is essential to a successful business, but it’s difficult to use customer satisfaction in a business case.
to work out the why’s you might want to think in terms of who you intend to reach, or the “who?“. in p.r. we call these groups your intended audience or your target public:
- clients
- suppliers
- employees
- the general public
- regulators
- shareholders
the list goes on. the reason you ask this is because if you don’t know this you can’t really decide what to do can you? it would be akin to telling senator conroy we don’t want his broadband censorship plan wouldn’t it? it would fall on deaf ears.
the second thing to remember is, social media is not a one-way street. it is very clearly two-way. you can’t just advertise at people. so if you want to drive a quick buck, social media will generally not work for you (there are exceptions, but they’re rare so forget about it). the thing about social media is, it’s about getting feedback. this is why i like to compare it to a c.r.m. project. it’s about listening as well.
so if you are able to answer the “why?” and the “who?” you’re off to a good start and stay tuned for the next 101.
can we expect kevin rudd to personally tweet?
well today our prime minister decided to join twitter. welcome kev. this follows hot on the heels of the current leader of the opposition, malcolm turnbull’s very successful entry to twitterverse.
probably, but not all the time. what is good is that his people are transparent when it’s not him updating his twitter page. see below.
highlighted in green, the team post, clearly marked from the kevinpm team. highlighted in pink is a tweet that would seem to be from kev.
i wouldn’t expect him to tweet all the time or read and respond to all of his own tweets. let’s face it, it would be a full time job. the man probably doesn’t read all of his own email or answer all of his own calls.
what will be interesting to see whether he takes the feedback and do something with it.
let’s see what happens with the internet censorship issue because i’m sure there will be a few people asking him about that one.
STOP the Great Firewall of Australia
if you have been tracking the news today the australian government is attempting to subvert the freedom by which australians are able to choose what information they consume on the internet.
to make matters worse, they have brought pressure to bear on a critic of this move.
mark newton, a network engineer for isp, internode, wrote a letter of dissent to his member of parliament.
the government retaliated, attempting to force mark to tone down his dissent through his employer, internode. i won’t go through the entire saga, which asher sums up well enough in his article at the smh.
if you consider yourself a net professional, take action.
if you consider yourself an advocate of free speech, take action.
if you consider yourself a resident in a democracy, take action.
the government’s clean feed plan does not just filter out child pornography as the government trying to sell it? how many australians are child pornographers? why should we be treated as such?
the blacklist they propose can be expanded to any topic, as they have shown this week, they are not afraid of trying to silence dissenters. if they have the power to block your blog because you don’t like their policies, they can.
who has the right to determine what you can and read and think?
this is not iran, this is not china. do not allow a bunch of bureaucrats to censor you!
busted by facebook: kyle doyle and the sickie
so i originally posted the full name and details of everyone involved, but now that sick boy has taken down his public facebook page, i think it only nice to anonymise.
the interesting thing about this, besides the obvious lesson, is if there are only two people involved in this exchange, how did this email go viral?
–Update 23/10/2007
Now that all the news media have reported his name…
—
From: Boss Man
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:35 a.m.
To: Kyle Doyle
Subject: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008
Hi Kyle,
Please provide a medical certificate stating a valid reason for your sick leave on Thursday 21st 2008.
Thank You
BOSS MAN
Real Time Manager, Workforce Operations
________________________________________
From: Kyle Doyle
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:38 a.m.
To: Boss Man
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008
Boss Man,
1 day leave absences do not require a medical certificate as stated in my contract, provided I have stated that I am on leave for medical reasons.
Thanks
Regards,
Kyle Doyle
Resolutions Expert - Technical
________________________________________
From: Boss Man
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:39 a.m.
To: Kyle Doyle
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008
Hi Kyle,
Usually that is the case, as per your contract. However please note that leave during these occasions is only granted for genuine medical reasons. You line manager has determined that your leave was not due to medical reasons and as such we cannot grant leave on this occasion.
Boss Man
Real Time Manager, Workforce Operations
________________________________________
From: Kyle Doyle
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:43 a.m.
To: Boss Man
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008
Hi Boss Man,
My leave was due to medical reasons, so you cannot deny leave based on a line manager’s discretion, with no proof, please process leave as requested.
Thanks
Regards,
Kyle Doyle
Resolutions Expert - Technical
________________________________________
From: Boss Man
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:50 a.m.
To: Kyle Doyle
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008
Hi Kyle,
I believe the proof that you are after is below
Boss Man
Real Time Manager, Workforce Operations
________________________________________
From: Kyle Doyle
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:55 a.m.
To: Boss Man
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008
HAHAHA LMAO epic fail No worries man
Regards,
Kyle Doyle
Resolutions Expert - Technical
bad apple. bad apple. bad apple
i must say i am really disappointed in the new “i’m a pc” tvc by apple. i think the hubris has set in at one infinte loop.
apple you were original once. resorting to vista bashing again? how much do you spend on advertising? how many time did you use the word “beautiful” mr jobs to describe the new mac products in your last keynote? has apple now believed its own hype machine to the point where it is now simply just beautiful?
microsoft’s “i’m a pc” ad was a clever response, it was funny and it was positive. apple’s comeback has been negative, in an old format and old news. looks like apple’s going to do what they are so good at: meteoric rise followed by a heavy crash. lift your game guys.
funny photo depicting apple’s market share
your man here is no apple zealot (or pc zealot for that matter) but this image is particularly powerful and particularly funny. i don’t know whether to think “wow” or “what a bunch of unoriginal clones”.
social media case study: drupal.org-part i
few posts ago i wrote about my experiences tweeting about drupal and then having the drupal redesign guys start to follow my tweets.
well, i was immensely impressed with the proactiveness of this approach and i reached out to the team to find out more about the project.
for those of you who don’t already know, drupal.org is an open source content management engine. in some respects it is in competition to wordpress but the feeling i get is that it really is in a slightly different market. drupal boasts some impressive community users including the people behind the internet, icann.
as an open-source project it is community driven and does not leverage funding in a commercial sense. so i was curious as to how they staffed this social media project.
i reached out to @drupalredesign on twitter and asked to interview them. i got a response the next day.
after a few emails i was able to get a clearer picture on how the they are running their communications efforts.
i have included the q & a below.
the interview
do you guys have commercial backing?
from twitter? no, we are simply using the search function to view all tweets that include the word ‘drupal’.
where did the idea come from to leverage twitter as an ideas feed?
this was leisa’s idea. leisa is a ux researcher and ia strategist who has joined us for the duration of the project. leisa also regularly speaks and writes on twitter and ambient intimacy
do you run scripts to monitor for keywords?
we haven’t automated the process at all (except for automatically adding people back who join our twitter group). we use search.twitter.com to monitor mentions of drupal
has the campaign been effective for you?
i suppose the answer to that depends on what context you monitor effectiveness. In terms of raising awareness of the redesign project, then yes, most definitely it has been effective … a good example is the fact that you asked us for an interview.
it also means that we can reach out to a large pool of drupal users all at once, pointing them to the blogs where they can leave detailed comments if they so wish.
how many hours a day does it take to monitor the feedback?
i keep the search window open all day in the background. then i dip in and out of it throughout the day and follow anyone who’s comment about drupal interests me. it’s a process that you could spend all day looking at, refreshing the tweets and following people etc … i chose to dip in and out so some days i hardly get chance to monitor the feedback and another day i may spend up to an hour or more sifting through it.
as well as the search window, i also log into twitter as the drupal redesign group, look at our followers and follow them back if we aren’t already.
do you approach people who have said negative things to get better information?
definitely! if we didn’t then the comments/feedback would be too one sided. there is no hard and fast rule for who to follow. sometimes it is comments that have interested me, sometimes it is a random choice. an example is a tweeter who said they couldn’t understand drupal and didnt like it, so i followed them as we may be able to get more detailed info off them further down the line regarding why they dont like drupal etc.
do people respond well?
absolutely! Many users have directly messaged us saying they were glad we were following them and they were looking forward to getting involved. clearly you were impressed with it too so it seems to be pleasing people rather than annoying them. We have 398 followers as i type this and that number is increasing daily . in order to ensure we don’t annoy/offend people, we have decided not to follow everyone who includes ‘drupal’ in their tweet. a bit of selection is needed. the people we follow have mentioned drupal in their tweets so its fair to assume that they are engaged with it somewhat and therefore would be interested in the redesign process.
how many people monitor the stream?
myself and leisa.
finally, what’s your role on the team?
i work for mark boulton design as a project manager, so my core duties are to oversee the project and do all that I can to ensure it comes in on time and on budget.
what are the learnings?
you’ll have to wait for the next post for that!
should i have one blog or multiple blogs?
is it better to have one blog where you write about anything and everything or have multiple blogs that are more specfic to different interest areas?
for example, this blog i talk primarily about pr and social media.
however, i am interested in many things. i am still a technologist to a large extent and would love to blog about technology as well. i also like current affairs and news should i set up a separate blog for that too?
there are bloggers who very successfully blog about everything they think about their lives whilst others have a very successful targeted blog.
i am keenly interested to hear what your thoughts are on this one because i haven’t been able to come to a conclusion. so come on smart people! let me hear your thoughts!
don’t mess with the press - letterman vs mccain
one of the blogs i have been following of late, is operated by singapore blogger dk.
his posting today, on mccain cancelling an appearance on letterman at the last minute is amusing and raises an interesting point.
letterman gives mccain a ten minute bashing in return.
dk makes a valid point, in the social media landscape, can organisations and pr practitioners treat bloggers and journo’s badly?
social media: do we need editors? - follow up - jobs has heart attack
a timely illustration of one of the reasons why we might need editors or we need to start educating people to be much more discerning when they read news.
