Even with the funny awkwardness of our phone reliance we argue that the phone is a valuable tool and we couldn’t live without it. Yet there was a time we all lived without it, because they didn’t even exist.

Can you shop without your phone?

This reliance on the phone is an extension of both new found access to information and human resources who act as unlimited lifelines that never expire.

Pew Internet just published the results of a study that show how Americans used their phones during the 2011 holiday shopping season.

They analyzed the time before and after Christmas and discovered that more than half of people use their phones while they’re in the store. From the study:

• 38% of cell owners used their phone to call a friend while they were in a store for advice about a purchase they were considering making
• 24% of cell owners used their phone to look up reviews of a product online while they were in a store
• 25% of adult cell owners used their phones to look up the price of a product online while they were in a store, to see if they could get a better price somewhere else

Calling a friend or looking up a resource is a newly found behavior. My question is, from where is this behavior born?

• Do we need the security blanket of someone else’s opinion or an Internet price check every time we make a purchase? Does this approval decrease buyer’s remorse?
• Is this a way that couples can avoid shopping with each other? The husband can just sit at home and watch the game and the wife sends MMS pics while the husband text’s back his approval.
• Is this now a mirror image of caveat emptor, “Let the seller beware?” (In Latin: caveat venditor) Now that buyers have this knowledge and resources wherever they go, they’re proving to sellers that they can’t be swindled.

I’d be interested to know if this new “I must check my phone” behavior is actually reducing product returns and/or reducing purchasing. Or could it be doing both? How often have you been at a store, seen the product for sale, looked online and saw a cheaper price and ended up walking out and purchasing it online? The idea of doing it is always tantalizing, but I don’t know if people actually do it. Being there with the product in front of you in your hand, you’re willing to pay an additional cost to just have it right then and there.

What are your thoughts?

Creative Commons photo credit to MrWerner and Peter Hilton.

To cut to the chase, the post revealed some data that showed certain behaviors, specifically from journalists, resulted in higher engagement (e.g., likes, comments, and shares) over average posts. Here’s a summary of the data and advice (The numbers are all in comparison to an average Facebook post):

• Journalists have seen a 320 percent increase in their subscriber numbers since November 2011. Those numbers are mostly fueled by the “people to subscribe to” recommendations.
• Journalists aren’t just broadcasting their articles. A quarter of their posts ask questions and those result in a 64 percent increase in engagement.
• Nearly two-thirds of all journalist posts include links. If they add some commentary to those links it results in a 20 percent increase in referrals.
• Almost a third of the posts include promotional language like “read my post” or “check this out.” Those posts get a 37 percent lift in engagement.
• Twelve percent of the posts have photos. Posts with photos get 50 percent more likes than posts without photos. Photos in general can increase engagement from 200 to 400 percent.
• Current events with commentary and analysis triple their likes and get twice the number of shares.
• Direct pleas, such as reader shout outs will result in quadruple engagement. Asking for recommendations will triple comments.
• Humor is your best friend as it has been for journalists resulting in 1.5x “likes” and 5x more shares.

Personally, I’ve tried many of these behaviors and while I couldn’t give you the exact statistics, I would agree with Facebook’s study. One thing I would be wary of is the promotional posts. Notice that they’re about 30 percent of total posting. I think if that ratio were to increase the pass along wouldn’t be as favorable.

Do you have any tried and true Facebook posting techniques that work for you? Let us know.

Creative Commons photo credit to Halans.

1. Not only are you competing with others on products and services, but you’re also competing to be your audience’s primary information source.
2. As the quality of your competitor’s content improves, your audience’s expectations increase as well, rendering your content either obsolete or just average.

This article got me thinking about how hard we try here at Intertainment Media to create content and invent new formats. Whether it’s on the Ingaged Blog, the IndyCar fan site Social Racing Grid, or through our services KNCTR and even Ortsbo.

Needs, demand, and figuring out the next big thing in content

Each of the services Intertainment Media produces has different content needs depending on audience demand. But often the audience doesn’t know what it wants and we have to foresee what they want. For example, Apple’s products were not developed out of audience interviews and testing. Henry Ford famously said (or maybe not), “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Asking the audience what they want is often not a good course of action.

Content creation and distribution formats is a never ending game. We constantly have to concern ourselves with the form of content, how it’s being created and presented, plus we have to create the content itself. Each one is a full time job in itself. But to stay relevant, you have to be doing both continuously.

While our content could be very successful today, it could hold no interest tomorrow. We see this all the time as TV shows and bestsellers that were popular one day no longer hold an audience’s interest.

To maintain relevancy, I realized I had to always be asking myself:

• Are you distributing content via a means the audience is currently using and wants to consume (e.g., blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos)
• Are you listening to your audience’s concerns and delivering answers in a timely fashion?
• Is your audience listening to you as a leading voice for information and advice or are they looking to others?
• Are you creating new thought pieces that become pillars for others to create discussions?
• Are you experimenting with different formats of content production and gauging audience reaction and engagement?
• Are you experimenting with different formats of content distribution (e.g., new video sharing tools, chat applications, widgets)?

Uggh, that’s so much, you might think, and you’re right. It is a lot of work. But if you make it a part of your daily thinking then it doesn’t become additional work. It’s part of an ongoing process that’s necessary if you always want to be seen as current, relevant, and interesting with both the content itself and its presentation.

Creative Commons photo attribution to FontShop and Werner Kunz.

Two years ago I wrote an article about my personal daily media consumption which was in response to a meme that Jeremiah Owyang began three years prior. So much has changed in the past two years that I thought I’d revisit the discussion, talk about my own morphing media consumption patterns, and ask you about your daily media consumption. It’s a topic that’s near and dear to Intertainment Media, because they distribute a communications and content application, KNCTR, which pushes content daily to your desktop.

Since my last article, I believe there have been three significant changes in my media consumption:

I’m forcing myself to go paperless

I made it a plan for 2012 to go paperless. The obvious thing to change with a paperless strategy is to scan all your receipts and then throw them away. But paperless also has to do with removing all the other paper junk in your life such as manuals, books, newspapers, and magazines. I now trash manuals and download the PDFs. I only purchase eBooks to read on my iPad. And I read newspapers on digital devices and my favorite magazine, Wired, cover-to-cover on my iPad. Oddly, Wired doesn’t have a way to turn off the paper magazine subscription, and just get the digital subscription. Every time that magazine shows up, I just throw it in recycling. An unfortunate and unnecessary waste.

By going paperless, and consuming my media in that manner, it’s forcing me to better organize my digital media. That means I have to have a system for bookmarks, storing digital files, and finding the media.

Reading a lot on my mobile phone

I can now actually read text, and lots of it, on my Android phone. The screen size is large enough and my favorite media sites either have a mobile application or a mobile optimized web site. The latest news in the areas I’m most interested is always with me. I don’t have to wait for it to be mailed to me or go pick it up at the newsstand, nor do I need to deal with the physical disposal of the media, which is a pain in itself.

The downside to all this media consumption on the mobile device is that batteries die quickly, rendering their primary use, communications, useless. Luckily, Android phones have removable batteries and you can purchase plenty of extras. I always have three extras charged in my bag at all times. This isn’t true with the iPhone, but there are plenty of portable iPhone chargers.

Reading everything on my iPad

I’ve become a huge fan of my iPad for reading PDFs, newspapers, blogs, magazines, and purchasing and reading eBooks. It’s a fantastic media consumption device. I don’t ever plan to purchase another physical book again. I’m so tired of packing them up in boxes and moving them to just adorn a shelf like it’s artwork in my home. Yes, there is something very comfortable about a physical book, but in quantity they’re a sheer pain in the ass to manage. Also, when I want to read something new, I can just select it and have it on my device within seconds.

The next obvious stage is textbooks to go digital. It’s no surprise that Apple is targeting the education market and will be making an announcement in NYC next week. I wish I had all my textbooks on an iPad when I was in school. My son is going to have it so easy.

How has/will your daily media consumption changed in 2012?

How has your media consumption changed over the past five years, or even just last year? What are you doing now that you’ve never done before and what have you given up?

Creative Commons photo attribution to leondel, zandwacht, and BenSpark.

After some uncertainty, Google is blaming this paid link fiasco on an ad buying vendor, Unruly Media.

First, what did Google expect when they hired them? They’re called “UNRULY” Media. They’re not called “We’ll listen to whatever you say” Media. I guess that’s what they have in their contract. Sure, we’ll sign this, but remember, we are called “Unruly Media” so caveat emptor.

Are we still fooled by bogus “search engine gaming” content?

What this story underscores is the fact that even with all the blocking and tackling Google and other search engines do, those who want to still can and will find ways to sidestep the system. Even Google will do it to itself. But all that means is they’ll be able to push their bogus content to the top of the search engines. It doesn’t mean people will actually accept it and take action on it.

Yes, non relevant links make a search engine less valuable because we count on receiving relevant results.  But when there are a few outliers, are we as humans really thrown by this? Would someone see an article “Google Chrome Helping Small Business,” not see any content about Google Chrome for business, and then switch their business to Google Chrome?

Or would it actually have the negative effect?

Would someone realize that the article actually has no content about Google Chrome for business and feel that someone is trying to pull a fast one. You’re too smart for that. Screw you Google Chrome.

We talk so much about the insidious tricks that are played by websites to fool search engines, but when you get right down to it, it’s ultimately a human’s decision. Why do people spend so much time and money trying to game the system when you could spend the same time and money actually working within the system to create content that people actually want. Then you’re not fooling the search engine nor are you fooling humans. How hard would it have been to actually make those articles actually about how Google Chrome can help your business? An article was written and a video was produced. I don’t understand why they just didn’t actually create relevant content.

Someone is still being fooled by these tricks, but it’s not me and I don’t know who it is. Got some ideas why these tricks still work?

How you make relations currently will dictate your success or failure in reaching out to influencers. Simply because trying to get the attention of an influencer is just like getting the attention of anyone else. Although there are other factors involved. For example, you may have an agenda to push some product or announcement that would be perfectly inline with the influencer’s agenda to get new product news. Or, the influencer could be completely turned off with obvious or subtle pushes of an agenda.

The other issue is to feed their pipeline when it wants to be fed. In a panel discussion I moderated in San Francisco about PR for startups, Eric Savitz of Forbes noted that different publications want to hear from you at different times in your product life cycle. For example, sites like Venturebeat will pay attention to you when you’ve got a funding announcement.

But that’s a little more cut and dried. What happens when you haven’t gone through the methodical process of developing a relationship yet you need people to pay attention to you right now? It’s not ideal, but there are things you can do to improve your chances for recognition.

I have no relationships, but I want someone to pay attention to my announcement now

This is the most severe and difficult case. You’ve got no PR firm that has the relationships you need, yet you’ve got a big announcement and you’ve got little time to get the news out. You need influencers to pay attention to you.

Unless your announcement is so amazing that it can survive on its own merit you’re going to need to employ some tricks to get people to recognize a message from you. Success is low here, but here are some possible steps you can take.

Don’t call – Seriously, whatever you do, don’t call.

Drop a name – Use LinkedIn to see if any of your colleagues know the influencers you want to reach. Reach out to your friends and see if they could either make an introduction or let you drop their name. If you’re going to drop their name, make sure you do it in the subject line. Something like “David Spark suggested I contact you.” If you’re going to have them make an introduction, make sure you write out exactly what you want your connection to say in their voice. Obviously let them have the opportunity to edit it, but write it as if it was coming from them.

Refer to a past article – If you mention a specific past article in the subject line and body copy that’s related, the influencer will take notice and appreciate it. The best compliment you can give an influencer is to acknowledge you’ve read something they’ve written.

@ Reply them on Twitter – An influencer definitely gets tons of garbage emails. They don’t get that many @ replys, and while they won’t look at all their emails, they will look at all their @ replys.

Ping them on Facebook – Similar to Twitter, if you can find their Facebook account and you can message them through it, ping them there. You can add a link to a photograph which can appear in your message and better illustrate what you want. Even better, try sending a video message. It’s definitely more than they want to see, but so few people do it that you will get noticed.

This is just a sampling of different suggestions. Do you agree, disagree? What are your suggestions?

Creative Commons photo attribution to Thomas Hawk.

How often have you heard that? All you need to do is create “valuable” content. It’s just that simple. Why haven’t you figured that out?

I find that answer, “Just create valuable content,” to be rather dismissive. No explanation is given as to what is valuable content or how one goes about creating it. It’s either a situation of they don’t know how to do it themselves or they’re not willing to open the kimono and show their secrets of creating great content.

Here’s what I believe it takes to create “valuable” content.

Your production skills need to be up to snuff

Whether you’re writing, producing video, or a podcast, your skills need to be up to snuff. This article is not going to make you a better writer, video producer, or podcaster. If you do have your technical skills in check, then read on.

Linkbaiting has a short shelf life

There are certain techniques for getting people to click on and share articles. There is no automated formula for creating “great content.” While there are subject lines that people fall for a lot, it doesn’t necessarily translate into valuable information underneath.

In essence, you can’t “fool” people into thinking you have valuable content. Don’t try to succeed with the idea that people are lemmings that’ll fall for any linkbaiting infographic or top ten list you create. When people get burned they don’t keep coming back.

Build an argument and show your work

People respect and recognize well thought out research and work. One way to create valuable content is to simply research your topic and show you’ve done your work. Quote people, cite sources, and create evidence for your argument.

Share experiential information

If you had something that happened to you, and only you, and the knowledge you gathered from it could help others, that can easily be made into valuable content. Tell your story. People will be able to relate to it.

Interview people with more knowledge than you have

You don’t know everything and no one expects you to, but by interviewing others you build relations and extend your visible knowledge through association with your interview subject.

Deliver on what people are asking for

When I’m prospecting for customers, the number one question I ask is “What is the number one reason you’re losing sales?” They’ll tell me because people don’t understand X technology or we lose out to competitor Y. When I get that answer I always ask, “Do you have a piece of collateral that explains X technology or a side-by-side comparison explaining how you’re different and better than competitor Y?” Almost always they say no and then give a range of excuses as to why they don’t have it. But if this is the number one reason you’re losing sales, it should be the number one piece of content you’re creating. There should be no excuses.

Deliver on what people aren’t asking for, but want/need

Henry Ford was once famously quoted, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

The argument is people don’t know what they want until you create it for them. No one knew they wanted an iPod, iPhone, or iPad until Steve Jobs created one for them.

I’m not suggesting you invent the car or the iPhone. But what you can do is not constantly copy others, but rather offer some new ideas and new suggestions. You’ll have to test the waters many times before you get people to jump on board.

Engage people in an industry debate

One of the best ways to create valuable content is to crowdsource answers to a contentious issue in your industry. Simply ask many people the same question, and then edit their answers. This will start the flow of an initial debate that will usually continue in the comments section of a blog post.

What’s your technique?

Do you have a method for creating “valuable” content? If so, can you share it with us? Let us know.

Creative Commons photo attribution Tracy Hunter.

Yelp has become a phenomenal resource for consumers looking for great vetted recommendations. The operative word there is “vetted” as that’s been a source of consternation between Yelp and the vendors who are reviewed on the site. Yelp has a very secretive algorithm for how they vet the authenticity of a review. They realize they have to keep that algorithm secret because if they made the information public, it would be easy to circumvent.

While asking your audience to retweet something, or comment on a blog post is acceptable social media behavior, Yelp actively discourages vendors from soliciting reviews on its site. Seems odd that they would discourage that since user reviews are their core assets that drive value for the product. But if the review isn’t authentic, then it actually detracts from the value of the service. That’s why Yelp is so vehement about it.

Talk to vendors and they’ll tell you many authentic and legitimate reviews have been removed, and it understandably aggravates them greatly, especially when Yelp leaves up negative reviews.

Regardless of where you stand on the debate there are techniques to getting more Yelp reviews without being overtly solicitous. The suggestions all revolve around keeping Yelp top of mind with the customer. Here’s how:

Ask customers to visit your Yelp page

“There is an important distinction between ‘Hey, write a review about me on Yelp,’ [BAD] and ‘Hey, check us out on Yelp!’ [GOOD],” said Luther Lowe, Director of Outreach and Public Policy at Yelp. “It’s the difference between actively pursuing testimonials and simply creating awareness of your business through social media outlets.”

Brand your business and website with Yelp

Lowe also recommends you adorn your front door, coasters, napkins, website, email signature, and cash register with “Find us on Yelp” stickers. You can freely use these Flickr images or use this widget to create a badge with embedded reviews for your website.

Create a Yelp Deal

One way to draw customers into Yelp is with an “only on Yelp” coupon. That’s possible with Yelp Deals. Let your customers know that you always post your first coupons and deals on Yelp.

Passive request for reviews

Tyler Willis, VP of Business Development at Unified suggests a more informational way of asking for a reviews rather than outright request. Print on the receipt and/or say in person, “If you enjoyed your time tonight, we love getting reviews on Yelp.” Just say that, and nothing else. It’s purely informational even though it’s a passive way of saying, “We want a review.”

Lead them to Yelp

If you want people to leave a review, make it easy for them to do so. That means configuring your website’s UI so that the Yelp button is big and prominent and it’s clear that’s a place for them to go. Willis also suggests forwarding a web address, such as myrestaurant.com/yelp, to your Yelp URL.

Talk about Yelp

Mat Siltala suggests you ask customers if they found out about you through Yelp. No matter what they say that opens the door for a conversation about Yelp. Use it to talk about how many of your customers come from Yelp (whether it’s true or not) and tell a story about how Yelp has been helpful to you with some other non-related business. When you tell your story make it clear that it was the positive reviews on Yelp that influenced your decision to go to that establishment.

You can be so bold as to say, “Yelp is my favorite way to attract new clients and reviews are what put us on the map,” said Siltala. “Expressing how powerful an impact positive reviews are to your business is really stating the obvious! Its a direct yet subtle way to influence a positive response.”

Yelp customers get the best service

I like Siltala’s suggestion of dropping the line, “Because you found us through Yelp, we’re going to deliver you the best service.” Of course you try to deliver the best service to all customers, but that phrase really connects the service you’re delivering with Yelp.

Yelp goodbye

Siltala goes on to suggest that when a customer who found you through Yelp leaves your establishment, say, “Thanks for choosing our business AND using Yelp”

Don’t overdo it

Lastly, Siltala advises to do all these suggestions in moderation. There is a point where it goes overboard. Don’t be that guy that overwhelms your customers with your Yelpness.

Creative Commons photo attribution to Yelp.com, wellohorld.

I watch my Twitter followers go up and down all the time. Why is that happening? I must not be providing useful information or I must be irritating people. Or there could be some automated Tweeters that are following and unfollowing me. Who knows.

Whether you’re worried about it or not, there is often a reason that people stop following you. While it’s close to impossible to please all people all the time, it’s still a good idea to understand the most common reasons why people stop unfollowing on Twitter.

I’ve always been intrigued by the subject of unfriending or de-friending as I used to call it because the term “unfriend” had yet to take hold. See my piece for Mashable “12 Great Tales of De-Friending” and the Spark Minute piece “The Awkwardness of De-Friending.”

Three years ago when I wrote those pieces I employed a service called Qwitter (three years later it’s still in beta!) which would automatically email me every time someone unfollows me. Included in the email would be the last tweet the user saw before they decided to stop following me. I paid rapt attention to those tweets that appeared to have caused the unfollowing, until I realized I needed to spend my time a little more wisely (read: When Technology Tells Us We have No Friends).

The unfollowing discussion won’t disappear, and it sparked my interest again when I happened upon this discussion on Quora where people gave their list of reasons they unfollow on Twitter. Here’s my summary of those reasons with a few of my own sprinkled in.

11 Common Reasons Why People Unfollow

1. Too salesy – I think these two quotes sum it up perfectly:

“They’re all business, all the time. It’s like being stuck in an elevator with a salesman.” – Chris Velazquez, screenwriter.

“No one wants to meet the encyclopedia salesman in a party.” – Alan Firmin, Founder & CEO of Sqrall.com

2. Too much tweeting – This is usually my number one reason. I once unfollowed a very well known social media star because the first ten tweets in my feed were all his.

3. Sales pitches via DMs – I don’t know what it is, but via email I can handle it, but Twitter seems more personal, and it seems like a broken level of trust. For someone to send a DM you have to follow them as well. And it seems a violation of that unwritten rule of DM being a very personal non-sales channel.

4. Excessive cursing – I’m obviously not following the right people, because it doesn’t affect me, but many people complained about this problem. There was a time that if you did want a flood of cursing, you could head over to the site Cursebird which was a feed of tweets with profanity. Unfortunately, Cursebird was shut down in the middle of this year. DAMN IT!

5. Empty Twitter profile – Hard to trust someone when they’re not willing to present their identity to their audience. Without a bio or photo in the Twitter profile, how do I know who you are? And a link in that Twitter profile to your blog, LinkedIn page, Facebook page, or some other personalized page is key. Also, if you’re not willing to spend the time to upload a photo or write one sentence about yourself, why should I give you any of my time?

6. Irrelevant auto-posts from other social services – People checking in to Foursquare are the worst abusers of this. When this dominates your Twitter stream what value are you truly providing your followers?

7. Link-only tweeting – Some people only share links and while this can actually do wonders to build their Twitter brand and Klout score (see Why Sharing Online Content Might Be Too Easy), too much of it without conversation and discussion seems like they’ve got a personal brand building agenda.

8. Me, me, me, me, and did I mention, me? – Similar to the “too salesy” complaint is a person who just talks about themselves. Unless you’re a celebrity for which people want to hear every minute detail of your life, cool it.

9. Repetitive tweets – Sending out the same tweet over and over again to the same audience is like seeing the same advertisement over and over again. There’s a crossover point where each additional promotion has a negative effect and you start actively avoiding that person/brand.

10. Getting too political – We’re heading into another political season and watch this amp up considerably. Three years ago I witnessed this happen primarily on Facebook. People get very passionate and they can’t control their political views. Pushing your political views with statements such as “Why can’t people see…,” “You have to be an idiot to think…,” and “I’m so impressed with…” can sour a long standing friendship very quickly. Be careful about expressing your political views too strongly.

11. Depressing and complaining tweets – I actually haven’t been subject to this issue, but a few tweeters argued that constant negativity from fellow tweeters became a serious problem.

So now you know what it takes to get unfollowed.

Want to follow me, with the option to unfollow at any time? Find me on Twitter at @dspark and click “Follow.” And follow Intertainment Media’s @ingaged_blog as well.

Stock photos courtesy of Shutterstock. Creative Commons photo attribution to Gina Trapani.

Developing a social media strategy is a never ending moving target. Regardless, there are some standard things almost everyone does, such as getting a Twitter account and a Facebook presence. Many often think that’s it: “Our social media strategy? Well, we’re on Twitter and Facebook.”

For basics on getting started read, “Looking for a social media strategy? Try this one.”

We all know that’s not enough, and even if you do a lot more, any social media strategy can truly have an endless number of moving parts. There’s always something you’re not doing. Still, I believe there are there are a number of critical issues that are often skipped or not fully thought through.

What could you possibly be missing with your social media strategy? Here are some suggestions:

1. Blocking social services is moot

If your company still has a policy to block services such as YouTube and Facebook, it’s completely pointless. The penetration of smartphones in your office is very high, and any service you may be blocking via the corporate network can be access through a mobile phone. In addition, many of those phones have their own hotspots so people could use their mobile phone’s wifi to circumvent any service blocking you have. If you believe your employees are using these social services unproductively, then it’s your job to train them to do otherwise.

2. Simplify discovery of what’s most important

It’s not too hard to find us fall into the trap of link overload. So often sites try to point people to everything all at the same time. Nick Bilton of the NY Times did a really interesting study where he analyzed 98 of the most popular sites just to see how many links they have on a single page. The results were surprising. Huffington Post had 720 links on a single page. Other well known sites had more than 500 and 400 links on just one page.

It’s impossible to put all your social media efforts on everything. Some people will be more involved in Twitter, a discussion board, LinkedIn, or Facebook. Wherever you want people to spend their time, you need to direct them there with less links, in more obvious locations.

3. Turn blogging into a challenge among colleagues

Ever try to get an office of non-bloggers to all of a sudden start blogging? It never works. In the early days of blogging for a completely unknown site and bloggers you get little to no response. Really hard to keep people motivated to blog when it seems so futile.

For that reason, in the early days of a corporate blog you need to gamify blogging within your organization. Give out awards and badges for small accomplishments such as first person to get five retweets, or first to publish three blog posts in a week, or maybe first to get a comment from a non-coworker.

To avoid social media strategy failure, read “Will your company ignore your social media strategy?”

4. Time, time, time

Similar to the last item, web developer Tom Belknap advises you to build time into the strategy. “The biggest mistake people make in getting into social networking is the thought that, well, we post a few updates on Facebook and we’re all set,” said Belknap. Plan on your social strategy taking time.

5. Own a singular identity across all social services

A successful social media presence has a lot to do with having a consistent identity. Too often organizations don’t plan out what their social identity is going to be. We’re “CompanyX” on Twitter. “CompanyXCorp” on Facebook. Our web address is “CompanyX-Inc.com”.

All these slight differences which may seem simple to you, are massively confusing to everyone else.

Pick one name and use it across all the services you plan on using. Use KnowEm to see if the name you want is available on all the services you want to use.

6. Move existing content from private to public space

A successful blogger is able to spot private conversations that could and should be made public in a blog post. We have private conversations in emails, IMs, over the phone, and at professional networking events. Learning what should be made public is what will make blogging a lot easier. For more, read my article, “Blogging advice for people who ‘have no time to blog.’”

7. Engage your top customers/connectors A LOT.

You’re going to learn and gain the most from the people who are your biggest supporters. For that reason, you need to feed that fan pipeline by communicating with them a lot. “Ask them if they had to replace you as their supplier how would they go about finding someone else? What keywords would they enter into the search bar, what social media sources would they pay attention to and consider to be authoritative,” said Phil Lauterjung, Duct Tape Marketing Consultant.

8. Your offline social strategy

Your strongest social media connections will be initiated in real life. Most people have very poor follow up skills. For example, 1-in-20 people I hand my business card to actually follows up. Not only should you follow up with someone via email, but also try to connect with them via all necessary social connections such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn so that you can more seamlessly maintain a relationship, even if it is only ambient intimacy.

9. Integrate with all other communications efforts

When it comes to customer relations, it is sadly the norm that you’ll get completely different service depending on how you contact the organization. I’ve noticed that the more publicly I discuss an issue (e.g., complain on Twitter, write a blog post about a poor product experience) the better service I’ll get from someone high up in the company. Conversely, if I chose to pick up the phone, I’ll wait a long time and get some phone lackey that may or may not work directly for the company, and not have the authority to give me the service that I need. They may not care about my dissatisfaction. I have always seen disjointed customer experiences. The trick is to simply bring everyone to same table and train them simultaneously, no matter what medium the public uses to connect with you.

10. Your strategy should be to help others

Almost everyone who begins in social media comes at it from the marketing angle of “How can I get people to pay attention to me?” If you flip that poorly aimed philosophy to ask yourself, “How can my social media strategy allow others to express themselves and their own interest,” then you will have a lot more success with social media.

Even though you need a strategy. The best social media strategy I think is to just start. For more read, “No more, ‘What are we going to do in social media?’ meetings.”

What’s your advice that I didn’t consider?

This is far from a comprehensive list. I’d like to know your rarely considered, yet highly important, social media strategy advice. Let me and your fellow readers know in the comments.

Stock photos courtesy of Shutterstock.