Science behind “what to say on twitter” – GOLD 4b rules to follow!

All this, at least, according to a new study, released today, that explores what we like in our tweets — and what we find really, really off-putting. “Who Gives a Tweet: Evaluating Microblog Content Value” is the culmination of a year’s worth of analysis conducted by the researchers Paul André of Carnegie Mellon, Michael Bernstein of MIT, and Kurt Luther of Georgia Tech as they set to find out what separates value from vagary in a Twitter post. Last year, the team created a site, Who Gives a Tweet — essentially, a Hot or Not for microcontent — that asked users to designate a selection of tweets according to the emotional responses they provoked (“positive,” “neutral,” “negative”). And then, intriguingly, to explain those responses in their own words. The team, with the help of Mechanical Turk, then analyzed the 43,000 crowdsourced responses they’d collected from the site, looking for patterns and takeaways that might help the rest of us to become better, more crowd-pleasing members of the Twittersphere.

In that context, tweets that are informative or funny — or, ideally, informative and funny — evoke the best responses. And tweets that contain stale information, repeat conventional wisdom, offer uselessly de-contextual news, or extoll the virtues of the awesome salad I had for lunch today don’t, ultimately, do much to justify themselves.

So: Do be useful. Do be novel. Do be compelling. Do not, under any circumstances, be boring (be interesting).

Twitter 4B rules:

- be useful

- be novel

- be compelling

- be interesting

 

Social Media Analytics – what to look for?

1. Traffic & Conversions from social media sites
The source and amount of traffic generated by social media is one of the easiest metrics to measure. Analytics packages allow you to filter by traffic sources, so you can see how many users come from which social media sites. You can also see whether or not that traffic goes on to convert – e.g. purchasing something, signing up for a newsletter etc.

2. Fan or follower numbers
Most social media sites will only track the total number of fans or followers you have, so you will need a third-party tool to track when people have joined or left.

3. Conversation participation
Conversation participation metrics attempt to quantify how people are interacting with your social media campaigns. These metrics will largely include things like comments or likes on a Facebook post or responding to a tweet.

4. Social reach performance
This looks at whether or not people are sharing your content by retweeting or writing a blog post about your social media campaign.

source: http://www.salesforce.com/uk/socialsuccess/social-media/social-media-analytics-guide-metrics-tools.jsp?d=70130000000s826&RRID=481784455

What tools to use?

Mentions can be monitored using Google Alerts, which sends you an email when it finds a mention of whatever keywords you would like to track. You can then see the sentiment of the blog posts and respond accordingly – whether it’s to thank a positive writer, attempt to reach out to someone who feels negatively about your brand or ignore someone who is being unreasonable.

Traffic can be monitored with your analytics package, like Google Analytics, which is completely free and about as comprehensive an analytics package as you need. It can track where traffic comes from, what it goes on to do and changes over time.

Twitter:

- conversation participation

- social reach

- followers

- traffic driven to your site

Facebook (Facebook has created their own analytics centre called Facebook Insights):

- fans

- reach

- people who are talking about you

- traffic

LinkedIn:

- page views

- followers

- connections

- top keywords

- traffic

Google+

- followers

- “+1s” of content

- traffic

Read more: http://www.salesforce.com/uk/socialsuccess/social-media/social-media-analytics-guide-metrics-tools.jsp?d=70130000000s826&RRID=481784455

How to measure the impact of social media (Net Promoter Score)

Net Promoter Score is a management tool that can be used to gauge the loyalty of a firm’s customer relationships. It serves as an alternative to traditional customer satisfaction research.

NPS is based on the fundamental perspective that every company’s customers can be divided into three categories: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. By asking one simple question — How likely is it that you would recommend [Company X] to a friend or colleague? — you can track these groups and get a clear measure of your company’s performance through its customers’ eyes. Customers respond on a 0-to-10 point rating scale and are categorized as follows:

• Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
• Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
• Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.

To calculate your company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS), take the percentage of customers who are Promoters and subtract the percentage who are Detractors.

 

Read More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Promoter

http://www.salesforce.com/uk/socialsuccess/social-media/expert-interview-social-media-measurement.jsp?d=70130000000s826&RRID=481784455

Social selling {aka Sales 2.0} – facts or just trendy terms?

Well according to recent SalesForce publication it is fancy term to desbribe some recent trends. So there are some minor facts suggesting that this fancy term is the future for most of  sales departments.

As it is not really rocket science, something simplest things need to be highlighted.

Social selling represent a different way of working and different way of thinking about the entire sales process.

It is more person-to-person relationship that company-to-person/product-to-person connection.

 

 

Read more: http://www.socialsellingu.com/sites/default/files/social_selling_ebook.pdf

Monitoring social footprint – Get alerted when your brand is discussed on Social platforms?

Social Footprint – The consequence of a clumsy or narcissistic social action. The Social Footprint is philosophically linked to the Carbon Footprint, implying that all human actions leave a trace, and sometimes have negative consequences.

source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Social%20Footprint

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Internet monitoring tools that effectively and efficiently allow companies to maintain a close watch on brand reputation online.

Be it blogs, online sites or online press publication sites, our clients can rest assured that *** has a flexible and accurate platform that can remove the complexity of monitoring online content.

Covering 30,000 websites worldwide, our monitoring platform can update clients within minutes of relevant content appearing. More importantly, our search technology can hone in on specific elements of online media to ensure that the provision of content is exactly what is pertinent to the needs of a PR or marketing department.

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The Social Footprint Method (SFM) is a context-based approach to measurement and reporting that quantifies the social sustainability performance of an organization. In this regard, the Social Footprint is merely a narrow application of context-based sustainability, which in its broader form covers sustainability performance in all of its dimensions, not just the social one.

source: http://www.sustainableorganizations.org/the-social-footprint.html

Online Marketing trends in 2012 – what will happen and what to do?

What will happen?
- Social media advertising (real-time advertising) & budget for it will grow together with social gaming and “social-news”.
- Joining SEO and Social Media into one specialization called “Social SEO”. Social media will be incorporated into corporate websites.
- An increase usage on mobile devices & the rise of mobile sites.
- Monitoring social footprint and search footprint will be an advantage of online marketers.

What to do?
- Focus on creating great content, stop automating & be a person.  Also use more video.
- Think about creating website for mobile users & create an App.
- Monitor your social & search footprint.

#twitter – rules to follow

1) NEVER respond to rudeness with rudeness.
Bad comments about a company are a fact of life. This business owner actually missed a great opportunity here. Instead of replying to the less-than-favored Yelp comment with sarcasm and rudeness, a simple response asking what sort of hours customers would like to see the restaurant open would have done away with the whole situation in one post. Not to mention ingratiate the customer for listening to their woes and wants.

2) Tweeting after business hours is probably not a great idea.
We can all see how this played out. It was late. Drinks we possibly involved. Not exactly the best time to be responding to disgruntled clients no matter what your business. This could have waited ’til the morning when the light of day would have perhaps provided some better clarity about the entire episode.

3) Take a step back and review the situation before replying.
One could argue that in this situation the customer’s comments weren’t negative or rude to begin with. They were pumped about eating at the restaurant, they found it closed, and took to the social networks to express their disappointment. Was the Yelp comment needed? Probably not. Were the comments that ensued from the restaurant necessary? Absolutely not. Taking the time to reflect and recognize that this was a situation best handled positively would have served this restaurant owner well.

source: http://www.talentzoo.com/digital-pivot/blog_news.php?articleID=12576

#twitter – example of very poor company tweets

How Not To Tweet With Your Customers

Twitter debacle that recently occurred between a new local restaurant (shown below as “Restaurant”) and a prominent social media strategist (we will name him Client). When the strategist and a friend stopped by the restaurant and found it closed they were so bummed they tweeted their dismay. Here’s what ensued:

Client: We were going to go to @restaurant but they closed at 10. Kelley was going to eat her 1st burger in 3 years. #sadsies

Restaurant: we will be here tomorrow, open bright and early at 11am…im sure yall will need a hangover cure.

It all started off well. Apparently though, the tweeter’s friend then posted a “we’re so bummed!” comment on the restaurant’s page on Yelp. This is when the-you-know-what hit the fan and the restaurant started an all out attack.

Restaurant: really u have ur friend post a yelp review because yall couldnt tell the time and accept the fact that we were closed? #badmove

Restaurant: to go after someones business because you couldnt get u want is pathetic and spoiled.

Client: I don’t know why you are angry at me?

Restaurant: even tweeting about it is lame…its whiny. get over it

At this point, the customer, taken aback at the rudeness, tries to reason with the restaurant. She even apologies and still the poor tweeting contiued.

Client: I stated that we wanted to go there & were sad. It’s the same as someone saying they wanted to go on Tues & you’re closed.

Restaurant: yea i know its amazing, restaurants close sometimes #knowthehours

Client: Dude, you need to relax. I don’t feel like I said anything negative. I am sorry if I have upset you.

Restaurant: u need to tell ur friend to take that s*** off of yelp

Yep, they cursed at a customer. On Twitter, nonetheless, where all their other clients could see. The conversation went on and other Twitter followers chimed in at their shock at the whole exchange.

The next day, the restaurant’s tweets included massive apologies. “Today’s special: contrition.” Needless to say, they wised up. But the damage had been done. Customers, other restaurants, and social media professionals across the city were tweeting and posting the heck out of the whole sad conversation.

The restaurant owner could have avoided this whole catastrophe by remembering a few simple social media rules when it comes to dealing with bad feedback from customers.

 

source: http://www.talentzoo.com/digital-pivot/blog_news.php?articleID=12576

more: http://www.slideshare.net/Flightpath/good-tweet-vs-bad-tweet-a-guide-to-being-not-boring-on-twitter

 

Influencer – how “right” online friends can make you powerfull

Influence is the ability to shape behavior (thoughts & perception)

Every year 500 billion consumer opinions are posted online which have impact on purchase decisions.

Meaning those opinions are valuable, and people making them even more valuable.

How to spot “influencer”?

1. Popularity as indicator

2. Expertise in subject/field (“Tony Hawk advice about skateboard, but not about restaurant selection”)

3. Audience receptive to his/her influence

4. People with “Engaged” and “It’s complicated” facebook relationship status are more susceptibility to influence. (Marries not at all & Single not so much)

5. Count of Twitter followers

Facebooks Likes

High Google PageRank

Comments on his/her blog

Appears on relevant forums

6. Go for middle man in terms of statistics.

7. Use social media monitoring tools (don’t trust them 100%, use variety of them as indication of trends)

8. Listen and monitor what your top influencers are saying.

9. Be gentle and definitely assign task of contacting that influencer to person in your company with great people skills.

Example:

- Take 10 best social monitoring tools

- chose most appropriate social media platform to your business

- track influential bloggers in your subject

- who had conversation about particular detailed matter within that subject

- run tools simultaneously for 1 month

- put results in categories like user interface, drilldown, professionalism etc

Facebook Timeline – building your life story (multimedia diary of social activity) – invention

Another very good idea from Facebook. Is it FB response to Google+ If that is the case, gold has to go to FB.

Timeline is not simply a hand-built diary of social activity. Between Facebook’s existing algorithms, the new Open Graph and frictionless sharing, a whole world of activity could naturally flow to the chronological stream. Facebook will even decide what’s important enough to show. It’s a lot of power for something that lives solely on a computer screen.

 

source: http://mashable.com/2011/12/07/facebook-timeline-is-here-are-you-in/#28473BONUS-Mashables-Matthew-Silverman