A Social Network Christmas

Here’s wishing all who celebrate a very blessed Christmas and a happy New Year!

May you experience a hearty measure of joy, peace, hope and love this season and look forward to the renewal that each New Year can bring.

I won’t be posting much over this holiday season… family beckons and it’s way too nice to be staying at the computer!

(This video, by Igniter Media, remains as one of my favorites to date):

How To Avoid a Social Media Disaster (via Mashable)

I was writing about my terrible ordeal with the telemarketer for the iStrategy2010 conference (on Social Media, no less) [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3] when I stumbled upon this helpful article via Mashable: How to respond when Social Media attacks your brand?. Of course, prevention is much better than cure… so here’s another helpful article via Mashable: How to avoid a social media disaster. (I really love Mashable!)

For the PR and Communications professional, the impact of a crisis has been exponentially exacerbated by the power of social media. As I’ve said before, this is due to the powerful fact that social media is essentially a network, with implicit assumptions of trust and credibility (by network members), and a built-in capacity for rapid dissemination of news.

Now, anyone and everyone can now vent their dissatisfaction about your brand and, I assure you, they will have their own like-minded audiences (friends, relatives, total strangers) who are similarly equipped and empowered. If unmanaged, you will have an echo-chamber of negativity that will get out of hand.

Even so, any practitioner will understand that one can never fully “control” what customers and audiences say about one’s brand – especially on social media platforms. Most would also agree that it’s not something you want to do, since social media is essentially a social medium – i.e. you don’t own it, the community does. It’s exactly because of this freedom to comment, to voice opinions and to generally share information that results in the kind of customers you want – those who are engaged with your brand! These customers end up being that desired loyal fan base that spreads the word about your brand to their friends and family.

Still, there are a few steps that you can take to prevent or circumvent a negative PR crisis about your brand on social media networks online. Here’s what the Mashable article recommends:

Social Media Monitoring Tools – Overview

Involvement in social media requires you to build up capabilities to be able to “listen” to the conversations happening around you and your brand. Fortunately, there are tools to help you do just that. Here’s a great, helpful overview for paid and non-paid tools I recently discovered while link surfing:

How to respond when Social Media attacks your brand? (via Mashable)

Just as I was writing about my terrible ordeal with the telemarketer for the iStrategy2010 conference (on Social Media, no less) [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3], I stumbled upon this helpful article via Mashable: How to respond when Social Media attacks your brand?

It’s a great article with real case studies of how three brands were attacked via Social Media and what they did to respond. Here are my key takeaways:

1. Stop the attack before it escalates. It’s very easy to jump on to the “bashing bandwagon.” You must realise that social media is essentially a network, with implicit assumptions of trust and credibility (by network members), and a built-in capacity for rapid dissemination of news. Think of what that means when people start bashing your brand.
2. Listen to your customer. Social media is social. You’re in a dialogue/discussion now. Gone are the days of monologues or one-way conversations. These days, the customer has the tools that empower them to be heard… so start listening for real!
3. Have a plan. Crisis communications and issues management is no longer just about managing print and broadcast media. Now, anyone and everyone with Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn can spread the news. Make sure you have a plan that takes that into consideration.
4. Monitor social media. Set up some capability to monitor social media channels. You’ll want to know what’s being said about you and where so that you can respond quickly.
5. Engage! As I said, social media is social! To earn the right to be heard (and therefore respond to allegations), you must participate in the conversation!

How NOT To Get Me To Attend Your Conference (A Cautionary Tale) – Part 3: Lessons Learned and Key Takeaways

Quick recap: I was recently contacted (or, more accurately, badgered and harassed) by a telemarketer from GDS International (www.gdsapac.com) trying to sell me on the “iStrategy2010” conference (www.istrategy2010.com) – essentially a conference on social media. The series of sales calls that followed were a terribly annoying experience of being harangued into spending time with the telemarketer – it felt as if they were trying to wear me down (like those time-share sales meetings) just so that, in frustration, I’d say yes and be done with it.

So, I blogged about my experiences with the GDS International telemarketer and what I did following that ridiculous sales call. Today, I’ll share with you some thoughts, lessons learned and key takeaways from the entire ordeal.

5 Steps To Manage Your Brand Online

I think it should go without saying that you need to manage your brand online these days, whether you’re doing it for yourself or your brand. You should realize that, these days, customers, professors, potential employers – all of them turn to Google, Facebook and other online avenues to find out more about you before they even encounter you.

So what can you do to manage your brand online? Here are 5 steps, which I’ve reworded and summarized for my own application from this great article:

How NOT To Get Me To Attend Your Conference (A Cautionary Tale) – Part 2: How the Internet & Social Media makes bad customer experiences worse!

Quick recap: I was recently contacted (or, more accurately, badgered and harassed) by a telemarketer from GDS International (www.gdsapac.com) trying to sell me on the “iStrategy2010” conference (www.istrategy2010.com) – essentially a conference on social media. The series of sales calls that followed were a terribly annoying experience of being harangued into spending time with the telemarketer – it felt as if they were trying to wear me down (like those time-share sales meetings) just so that, in frustration, I’d say yes and be done with it.

Yesterday, I blogged about my experiences with the GDS International telemarketer. Today, I’ll tell you what I did following that ridiculous sales call.

How NOT To Get Me To Attend Your Conference (A Cautionary Tale) – Part 1: How Bad Customer Experiences Are No Longer Acceptable In An Age Of Digital & Social Media

I was recently contacted (or, more accurately, badgered and harassed) by a telemarketer from GDS International (www.gdsapac.com) trying to sell me on the “iStrategy2010” conference (www.istrategy2010.com) – essentially a conference on social media. The series of sales calls that followed were a terribly annoying experience of being harangued into spending time with the telemarketer – it felt as if they were trying to wear me down (like those time-share sales meetings) just so that, in frustration, I’d say yes and be done with it.

Here is my cautionary tale…

5 Steps For Consumer Brands To Earn Social Currency (via Fast Company)

I always enjoy Fast Company articles – and this one comes with a great visual to boot! Fast Company shares 5 Steps for Consumer Brands To Earn Social Currency, which talks about how it’ s not just about deriving popularity over social media applications or sites, but rather harnessing them towards action by earning social currency – i.e. one of my pet passions: influence.

The article is based of a new study by Vivaldi Partners and Lightspeed Research, which fielded the data, examining more than 60 companies and assesses customers’ brand affiliations, advocacy, and sense of community, among other factors, for how they create true value for the companies, no matter whether it’s online or off. The results reveal some surprising insights about the limits of social media. Most notably, smug, stunt-driven apps, games, and videos generate buzz but little else.

So what does work? Fast Company combed through Vivaldi’s data to find the most intriguing lessons. Here are the new rules for the game.

Social Networking and Personal Branding

I know this is pretty much accepted as conventional wisdom, but I thought I’d put it down here anyway.

Social Networking – both offline and online – remains a vital tool in personal brand management.

As an example, I just found out enough about an incoming personnel both good and bad (unfortunately, it was mostly bad) – to have already formed my first impression. This means, the person will be coming in and, unknowingly, having to prove themselves already.

Is this good or bad? I don’t know – I only know that this is how things work.

It used to be what you know.

But then, it’s also who you know.

Now, you need to also think about who knows you… and what they know about you.

Hence, your personal brand: What you know < Whom you know < Who knows you < What they know about you.

Thoughts?