Archive for August, 2009


Social media helps level the playing field for new college grads

Aug 21st

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Meet Rebecca Denison. She’s one of the brightest young social networkers I’ve met on Twitter. Social media has made a huge impact on her recent professional transition from college and, so to provide a non-old view of the world, I asked her to write about her experiences for {grow} readers. Keep an eye on her … a rising star!
On May 10, 2009, I sat among 3,000 of my closest friends in Kenan Stadium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With the economy falling down around me, I was graduating from college. It was time to leave the friendly confines of my university home and grow up.

My personal journey to the professional world is still a work in progress, but one thing that has had the most profound impact on me has been my transition to “professional social media.”

In college, Facebook and Twitter were fabulous tools for keeping up with friends and family, romances, life changes, and weekend plans. But one month after graduating, I started a new Twitter profile. It’s my “professional” Twitter account. Because my passion and career goals lie with PR measurement, I immediately began to follow the leaders that I knew. Not the leaders I knew of, but only the ones I knew personally. New profile, same mind-set — I was still on the friends and family plan!

Soon enough I realized that in this new wide professional Twitter world, you don’t have to know everyone you follow! My goals and mind-set shifted. I began to search for anyone who seemed to be adding value to the discussion about PR measurement or social media in general.

Before I knew it, I was Tweeting with the best of ‘em! I was reading the same articles and blogs, and I was expressing my opinion just like the pros. More than that, though, I began to engage with the pros. And even after a couple months, the giddiness from getting a reply from one of the best hasn’t faded.

“Professional social media” still provides a centralized meeting space, but these spaces are not based upon common relationships in the same way. Each space is defined by professional interests and information. Twitter is still used to set up fun outings (i.e. a Twarbeque), but social media used in a professional context is far more focused on value.

It’s not about me and my friends. It’s about what I can bring to the table, how I can contribute to the conversation and what I can learn.

Lessons learned from college social media use can still be applied in grown-up virtual liaisons. There is always such a thing as too much information. My friends don’t need to know everything I’ve had to eat today, and my professional followers don’t need to know everything I’m doing at work.

Another college lesson applicable to the professional world is that it’s essential to engage, to give back more than you get. No one would ever respond to “that guy” who always promoted his fraternity’s events and nothing else, and no one will respond to you if all you care about is self-promotion.

As I’ve transitioned to my professional Twitter account, I have gained a very different kind of value from social media. I have earned interviews and invitations to professional events. Most importantly, though, I have learned that there are people out there that are willing to help me so long as I’m adding value, too.

A successful transition from college to the professional world is never handed to you, but learning and networking through social media has made it a lot easier!

Rebecca is looking for a job in her field of interest, public relations measurement. Her professional experience includes working for Katie Paine and setting up a Corporate Reputation Observatory studying North Carolina companies. You can reach her through Twitter: @rebeccadenison.
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Can you out-source authenticity?

Aug 20th

41 comments

One thing is clear: To be successful on the social web, you need meaningful content … and LOTS of it! Some debate whether you need quality or quantity, but fact is, you need both. Five excellent blog posts in a month is better than one excellent blog post … and 10 is even better than five! And every company and non-profit is jumping on board.
So where is all this quality content going to come from?
I’ve been approached about creating “ghosted” content for executives who realize the value of a blog (or tweet) but don’t have the time to do it. Ghost writing is a common corporate practice but with the emphasis on authenticity on the social web, this becomes a trickier proposition. In the context of social media, ghost writing is not just about authoring a speech or the annual shareholder letter — it’s becoming a personality.
I need your input on this! What is your opinion about creating content under the signature of another person?
  • Many executive and corporate blogs/tweets today already come from a team of people behind the scenes. Does that bother you? Make it any less effective?
  • If you were regularly reading a blog that you thought was being written by a business leader you admired and then discovered they only “approve” the articles, would it hurt the credibility of the individual or company?
  • If I accept ghost-writing assignments, what guidelines should be in place?

If this debate is not relevant to you right now, it will be in the near future as the demand for content explodes. This is the way the world is moving! What do you thnk? Please leave your thoughts and comments on this blog post. Can you out-source authenticity?

Note: After I orginally posted this topic, these articles came to my attention which might help you explore this topic further:

The ethics, of lack thereof, of ghost blogging by Jason Falls

Would you trust a company that ghost blogs? by Danny Brown

A defense of ghost blogging by Bill Sledzik

Why is this different from ghost-writing a book? by Wintress Odom

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Social media advice for the small business

Aug 19th

1 comment

Photo: This is an article about advice. This sign is not one of Robin’s recommendations. But it should be.
Final installment of a three-part interview with Robin Frank, who manages social media strategies for The Gap Outlet, Banana Republic Factory Store, and other leading brands.
Many of {grow} readers work for small businesses. What is the best advice you could give to a small company or a regional brand establishing a foothold in social media marketing?

I love lists. Here are my Six Strategies for Success:

1) It’s all about your audience: If you only remember one thing, remember this point. This is where social media is no different than traditional marketing. Ask yourself these questions: who are your customers, where are they living online, what communities do they participate in, what do they like to talk about there? Now go play in that field.

2) Stay focused. You absolutely must set clear goals and objectives for your social media program AND you must align these with your marketing and business objectives, AND you must stick with them.
3) Everyone on board. Get buy-in throughout your organization. Social media touches all aspects of an organization, so get everyone paddling the same direction here.
4) Create an excellent communication strategy. Develop measurable campaigns and a communication strategy that reflects your brand, creates engagement and two-way communication, provides useful information, and sometimes talks about your business.
5) Measure your results and fine-tune your strategy. Set up a system for monitoring your progress, then adjust your strategy. Repeat often. See my answer earlier on ROI.
6) Get an expert. If at all possible, hire an expert to get you up and running or to give you a tune-up. Seriously, Social media is not rocket science, but who has the hours to invest in learning the ins and outs and ups and downs, thousands of apps and best practices? This will save you money in the long run. With your strategy in hand and several months of implementation under your belt, you can run with this baby or hire someone cheaper to run it for you.
Robin, thank you so much for doing this interview. Here is my final question. Do you ever wash children in the sinks?
What???
Robin Frank consults with a wide range of companies – retail, banking, clean/greentech, and B2B – helping them establish cost-effective Social Media programs that increase marketing ROI and foster broader and deeper customer engagement and education. You can reach her at @robeen, robeenf@gmail.com, or linkedin.com/in/robinfrank.
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The invisible rules of social media

Aug 18th

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This is the second part of my interview with Robin Frank, who leads social media efforts for Gap Outlet, Banana Republic Factory Store and other well-known brands. The first part is here.
After being in the social media trenches for some time, what organizational or cultural changes need to be made at a company to succeed with the new channel?

In the world of improv comedy, there is a concept called invisible rules – the rules you play by, but have never really questioned and aren’t explicitly stated. Traditional brands have a few invisible rules that social media pushes them to articulate, explore, and eventually move past, and each company has their own set.

One such rule is that large brands historically use any opportunity for customer interaction to push their product and promotions. Engaging their brand advocates in conversations, rewarding their customers with special deals and promotions, and encouraging word-of mouth on a daily basis is new territory. The real fun begins when they branch out and offer relevant and useful content for their social media audiences. Sometimes this is an easy leap and just a matter of giving them a few creative ideas that are aligned with their brand.

For Gap Outlet and Banana Republic Factory Store, we created a series of tweets (and soon Facebook posts) that run several times a week called “Fab without a Fortune” – these are tips that speak to their social media audiences and show them the brand “gets” what they want and is there to help them shop smarter, stretch their dollars, and still be fashionable. We’ve had a great response with these.

The other invisible rule I sometimes come up against is the “email is king” mentality – brands want to use social media to drive people to their email lists because then they’ve GOT them. I see many companies with big budgets for email marketing, and they need some help understanding that social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook can be less intrusive, more direct, and offer better results.

Customers are more likely to follow you or fan you than give you an email address. And, it is mega opt-in – customers want to hear from you more than say, once a week – they want to hear from you several times a day. I have seen double digit click through rates on Twitter and Facebook that put email marketing to shame. These companies need some guidance to transfer resources and rethink their approach so they can ask their loyal customers to join them on Twitter and Facebook.

As every brand competes for the consumer’s attentions, the emerging social media channel is becoming noisy and crowded. Is consumer overloading a real risk for you?Sure, there are a lot of brands and noise out there, but there will always be loyal followers who want to HEAR from your brand and want to be HEARD. Going forward, consumers will actually demand higher engagement from brands – more useful content, more useful promotions, more entertaining links, more conversations.
Smart brands will give consumers the ability to CHOOSE how they want to interact – email, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or any other channel. Just remember that social media followers are finicky – the will unfollow you in a click, or simply not participate if you do something they don’t like. My advice is to stay focused, stay engaged, and make it as easy as possible for consumers to do business with you.

Tomorrow: Robin’s six social media strategies for YOU!

Robin consults with a wide range of companies – retail, banking, clean/greentech, and B2B – helping them establish cost-effective Social Media programs that increase marketing ROI and foster broader and deeper customer engagement and education. You can reach her at @robeen, robeenf@gmail.com, or linkedin.com/in/robinfrank.
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