Sarah Fowler » Twitter

Back to Basics: How to “listen” to social media

Sarah Fowler — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:51:03 +0000

(Image by ky_olsen)

You’ve heard a lot about social media. You know you should get involved. You’re just not sure you have time/not sure you know how/not sure you want to jump in just yet. That’s fine (for now). What do you do now, then? Ignore the conversation? Pretend no one is mentioning your brand because you’re not there? No way!

Whether you have profiles on every site, are waiting to jump in to social media or never plan to get involved, you should know what is being said about your company. Here’s how to do that.

Set up Google Alerts on terms you want to keep track of across the Web (your company name, your own name, brand names of your products or services, and– for best results– other terms related to your industry). Be sure to click Comprehensive! You can have these delivered to your email (in a daily or weekly digest, or as they occur) or to an RSS reader. (This step is really an absolute necessity. If you do nothing else, at least do this!)

While some tweets will eventually show up in your Google Alerts, for the most real-time results you should use Twitter Search. If you want to do this daily, you’re welcome to; but the easiest way will be to search the terms, then click Feed for this Query and subscribe in an RSS feeder.

In order to use Facebook Search, you’ll need a Facebook account. It’s worth signing up for, since anything within Facebook will not show up in your Google Alerts. If the mentions you see through Google are showing up in blogs, subscribe to search terms in the blog siteTechnorati. You might also search regularly through Alltop, a topic aggregator.

Once you have a good idea of the conversation happening about your brand (or related topics), you’ll have a chance to decide where you want to go from there. Do you want to set up profiles on existing networks, or try to start a community around your brand? Do you want to blog or just chat? Is there an educational gap surrounding your product? After listening for a while, you’ll know where the gaps are– and you can figure out (or get help figuring out) just how you want to fill them.

Without being active on the Web, you’ll have a hard time responding if you hear something about your brand getting out of hand, but at least you won’t be blindsided by something that arises “behind the scenes”. (Remember: Your customers have access to search engines and are usually on at least one social media site. It’s not behind the scenes for anyone but you.)

Back to Basics: 10 Things You Can Do with Web 2.0

Sarah Fowler — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:19:53 +0000

It’s very common for me to have a conversation with a potential client that starts something like this:

“I know I should be on social media; I keep hearing that. But I don’t get it. What can I use it for?”

Let’s start with how you do business already– there’s no need to totally reinvent the wheel.

Host a town meeting or focus group– via UStream, Twitter or another chat service.
Host an educational seminar (in this case, a webinar)– use UStream, GoToMeeting, or another service.
Publish educational content– via a blog (WordPress, Blogger, Facebook or another platform) or as multimedia (on YouTube, SlideShare, etc.)
Provide top-notch customer service through Twitter, Facebook, or any number of forum or chat platforms.
Send a newsletter– use ConstantContact, Emma, or the bevy of other products available. (By permission only, please!)
Distribute informative literature by posting it on your website, Facebook fan page, or other platform.
Send invitations or spread the word about events– store openings, special sales, educational seminars, campaign rallies, whatever! Use MeetUp, Facebook, Evite, or a range of other options.
Distribute coupons, discount codes, or event tickets individually via email or generally to online fans/followers.
Organize volunteers to political events, community service opportunities, or other causes (MeetUp, Facebook, Evite, etc.).
Make announcements or distribute press releases. You can do this through regular communications on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, on a section of your website, or officially either through direct communication with reporters or by using a service like PitchEngine.)

(PS – This video on the social media revolution is worth seeing.)

Handling Crisis: Advantages of Social Media

Sarah Fowler — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:36:10 +0000

This morning, thousands of people in Florida and Georgia awoke to “SOS Only” service on their AT&T cell phones. While only a minor annoyance for some, for others (like me) who use the phones to run their businesses and/or have gotten rid of their land lines, this constitutes a major problem.

I called AT&T and sat on hold for fifteen minutes. A customer service representative told me they were aware of the outage and it would be fixed within 24 hours. 24 hours?! That is a long time to be without cell service. I asked if this service interruption would be eflected in my bill. I was put on hold again, and then was told I would be given a 48-hour credit ($4.79). That’s good, but doesn’t really address the larger business problem I’m encountering by being without cell service!

I began searching Twitter to see whether others were having this problem. Many were. Soon local station Central Florida News 13 was talking about it on Twitter, getting lots of responses and starting a hashtag for the event: #attfail. The Orlando Sentinel picked up on the story too, and began live blogging the updates they received from AT&T’s spokeswoman.

Facebook isn’t searchable in the same way, but news about it has definitely been going around my newsfeed.

AT&T was nowhere to be found. As far as I can tell there was no acknowledgement of the problem on their website (although the system was so clogged I couldn’t log in to my account online), and no use was made of their Twitter account to respond to the growing number of people making this problem very public.

Etan Horowitz, an Orlando Sentinel technology journalist, wrote a blog that the outage had been confirmed by AT&T and began actively updating the blog entry and Twitter (even @-replying to each complainant he found via a Twitter search) to keep people informed of AT&T’s official response. In short, he was doing precisely what AT&T ought to have been doing!

If your company ever has a service crisis like this, how are you equipped to respond? Will you rely on a local newspaper reporter to assure your customers that something is being done? (Are you willing to trust the media to communicate as well as Etan did with your customers?)

If you are not active in social media (especially Twitter), you are not set up to control your own message through a crisis. That’s a dangerous place to be.

You Can’t Use Every Platform the Same Way

Sarah Fowler — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:07:28 +0000

One of my early clients said he wanted to get involved in marketing his business through social media… but he wanted to know if there was a way he could update just one place and have it hit every platform on which he had a presence. Well, sure (Ping.fm and others), but if broadcasting is what you want to do on social media, you won’t get far.

Social media has the word social in it for a reason. It’s about building real relationships with real people; but even more boiled down it’s about communicating. Be careful, though, because as the lovely Amber Naslund pointed out, “to some, communication is talking, not conversing”. Social media is all about conversing.

If you’re still unclear about how to converse on Twitter, go to Twitter Search and click on one of the “trending topics”, preferably one with a hashtag (#). You will see a multi-person conversation taking place, many of them beginning with @ replies that signify essentially an instant-message conversation. Check out the Twitterstreams of the people you follow and see how many of their tweets begin with @. This means they are conversing with that one particular person. For the millionth time, Twitter is not about “I just had a sandwich.”

This brings me to Facebook. The “new Facebook” is a platform with a lot more opportunity to communicate and see how others are communicating. The new front page basically just makes this information easier to see – we already had features like commenting on items/statuses, “Like”ing things, etc. on the “old new Facebook”. A lot of people (including me) say Facebook is becoming more like Twitter. It is. This does not mean it is actually Twitter. You should not have your Twitter status updates become Facebook status updates.

If you are using Twitter correctly (with @ replies and hashtags and retweets), it will be completely out of context on Facebook. Part of the reason is that Facebook doesn’t allow the @ replies and hashtags to be links, so you can’t follow up on an item. The other reason is most people on Twitter have their settings where they can’t see @ replies unless they are following both users. (This encourages conversation and cuts down on total information overload; I recommend it.) Your Facebook status updates, however, will include all those @ replies no one—especially those on Facebook who aren’t on Twitter—needs to see.

If you have to show people on Facebook your Twitterstream, I suggest you do it subtly through a FriendFeed tab on your profile. Depending on what you’ve connected to your FriendFeed profile, that tab can show your activity on all the social media platforms. Essentially, give interested people the chance to opt-in to the information but let the poor uninterested people be.

This is a good concept to apply to all your marketing: interruptive selling can put a bad taste in the mouths of potential customers, but if you make information easy to find (through SEO, a good website, and a social media presence), people who are ready to buy will come right to you.

Your Customers Will Say Nice Things

Sarah Fowler — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:54:47 +0000

One of the most common objections I’ve heard from execs about getting into the social media space or starting a blog is the negative comments. They often want to completely disable blog comments or some other drastic measure to avoid an incensed customer (or devious competitor) ranting and raving about how terrible their experience was. This is a misunderstanding of the purpose of social media.

(Aside: Why are so worried about extremely upset customers? You should already be taking care of that.)

It’s likely your customers are already saying something about you online. They may be raving fans, they may be ranting critics, they may be asking for help. It doesn’t matter. If you’re not there to respond with thanks, resolve the issue, or solve the problem, I promise you someone else will.

For example, several days ago I tweeted about how much I liked Google’s photo editing program Picasa, saying it was a good alternative to Photoshop for basic tasks. Within minutes I had three replies—two from people who weren’t even following me—offering suggestions of other programs I should try out: Pixlr, Gimp, and Aviary Phoenix editor. Google didn’t know I’d praised their product, Adobe presumably didn’t notice they’d taken a dig, and thanks to the recommendations I now use a different photo program.

On the other hand, if you are available people will usually call on you for help before ranting. I’ve seen many a tweet that said something like ‘Was about to trash Comcast, but contacted them on Twitter and got issue resolved! Thanks, Comcast!’

The other half of being available is being aware. If you’ve never done so, you should immediately go search Twitter for your company name. If you’re prepared to get involved (ie, have a Twitter account), you should also search industry terms and competitors’ names, offering helpful information or links to solve issues people are having.

I’ve also seen Twitterstreams where the person ranted something about Comcast (a technician not showing up, a price hike, poor service) and a Comcast representative responded within a few minutes. Later that person tweeted—usually more than once—about how great it was that their issue had been resolved. I’ve also seen those same people recommend Comcast’s representatives on Twitter to others who have issues. That’s what social media marketing is all about.

This exchange happened on Twitter this morning—a great example of how the customers who know you are actually listening are much more likely to offer good feedback:

sonnygill: @HomeDepot You have some super personable & helpful ppl over at the Virginia Beach location off VA Beach Blvd. Nice experience this morning.
HomeDepot: @sonnygill Great – I’ll pass that along to our friends in VA Beach. Is it feeling like spring there yet?
sonnygill: @HomeDepot Awesome, thanks! It’s getting close – usually its pretty warm by now but still hovering 50s. Patiently waiting

Sonny couldn’t spend ten or fifteen extra minutes in the store tracking down a manager to praise the employees. He did, however, have a good enough experience to want to give praise; so knowing Home Depot was active on Twitter, he chose to tweet about it. Sonny Gill has more than 2,500 followers on Twitter who now know about his positive experience at Home Depot this morning.

It’s also important to note Home Depot’s response. Firstly, she acknowledged his comment immediately. Second, she told him she was taking action on his communication—she didn’t just say Thank you; she told him she was going to pass it directly along to the store he praised (his goal). She also continued the customer service and social part of social media by asking him about spring, and he responded.

These are the kind of interactions you’re not having if you’re not on Twitter!

As this concept regards blog comments, the same principles apply. If your site has an easy way to reach you (commenting on a blog instead of filling out a contact form, sending an email, making a phone call), you’re much more likely to increase your positive feedback. If and when comments are negative you can respond quickly to resolve their issues. People will take notice of this and probably give you the benefit of the doubt the next time they consider ranting.

If you’re not interacting, you’re losing ground every day to your competitors who are!