by Rob Cottingham | Apr 13, 2010 | Blogging, Social Signal
For anyone who’s been told to cut the blog from their communications proposal…
…for anyone who knows their social media activities could pull more of their own weight on the bottom line…
…for anyone who wants to take their blog from the experimental stage to having real-world impact – and real-world value…
…we have something for you.
Today we’re launching Social Signal’s first ebook, called 10 Ways Your Blog Can Provide Real Value to You, Your Organization and Your Brand.
It’s based on one of our most popular blog series, and we think you’ll find it timely. Budgets for organizations – whether they’re corporations, non-profits or government agencies – are tighter than they’ve been in a long time, and every program has to justify itself. That’s especially true when we’re talking about something as new as social media.
One thing you won’t have to justify is the purchase price for this book: it’s free, in the Open SoSi spirit.
This ebook will help you make a business case for your blog (and for other social media channels). But more importantly, it will help make sure you get as much value from your blog as possible: by building capacity for your team, putting a human face on your organization, creating a crisis communications channel, and more.
It’s illustrated with Noise to Signal cartoons, naturally, and licensed under a Creative Commons non-commercial attribution license (which basically means you can’t sell it, and if you reproduce it or portions of it, please attribute it to Social Signal with a link to this page).
We would love your comments. Even better, we’d like to hear your ideas for getting value from blogs and other social media tools.
In times like these, organizations have to make every bit of effort and investment count. We hope this book will help make that happen… and we hope you’ll join in.
Download it here (PDF)
by Rob Cottingham | Jan 13, 2010 | Social Media, Social Signal
Last week, I mentioned BC Hydro’s Deb LeRose, and the brilliant opening slide in her social media presentation: the one that shows a free puppy and a baby. Her point is that, like many social media presences, each is supposedly “free”. But you have to look at the long-term cost, whether it’s feeding your dog… clothing and educating your child… or maintaining an effective, engaging social media presence.
So what if you’re not sure you’re ready yet?
The good news is that – just as you can babysit a niece or nephew, or volunteer to take your neighbour’s Shih Tzu for the weekend – you can get your feet wet in social media without diving in over your head. You’ll get at least a sense of the kind of time and attention various tools demand, and that can help you start planning your organization’s first public foray.
Here are six ways to try social media on for size – midnight feedings, shedding, dirty diapers and all – before you commit your organization to taking the leap.
Been resisting the siren song of Facebook? Its flaws are undeniable and well-documented… but you won’t understand why people stay involved with it until you jump in yourself. Create a personal profile, and use the privacy settings to keep your cards as close to your vest as possible… then start exploring.
Join a few groups, fan a few pages, install a few applications… but go easy at first, especially with expanding your herd of “friends”. (At least, until you get a good feeling for the difference between “friends” and friends.) Get to know how people interact, and then ramp up: from leaving comments on walls to sharing photos, videos and anything else you want to. And be sure to check out how organizations like yours are engaging with Facebook – especially what works and what doesn’t.
Before you go much further (you’re still only toe-deep), you’ll want to create some kind of identity on the web: a home base where people who meet you can go to find out who you really are. One handy way to do that is to create a Google profile. (Here’s mine.)
Start with the basic information: you name, a (non-embarrassing) photo, a brief bio and whatever contact information you feel comfortable sharing. In time, you’ll be able to add pointers to your other social media presences – a blog, a LinkedIn account, Facebook, what have you – but for now keep it simple. Your goal initially is just to have a landing page with some basic information.
Nearly four years ago, Alex introduced Social Signal’s readers to the beauty of Delicious and social bookmarking. The elevator pitch: store your bookmarks in the cloud instead of on your computer, and you can use them with any browser on any device, discover similar sites, sort by tags instead of strict hierarchies (although some browsers are finally getting wise to this, too), share with others, and discover people with similar interests.
Here’s what makes this a great way to sample the social media world: it’s completely scalable. At first, you can store bookmarks in complete privacy; screw up, say something dumb, and nobody need ever know. Take the time to add a few notes about them, then get the hang of tagging (re-read Alex’s post), and then start checking out bookmarks with similar tags from other people.
Once you’re ready to lay out the welcome mat, you can start saving your bookmarks publicly – and even then, you’ll discover that Delicious makes next to no social demands on you. (Handy hint: be sure to snag the bookmarklet that lets you bookmark any site with a mouse click.)
Commenting
Now it’s time to take your first big step: expressing an opinion, tied to your identity. Yes, you could comment anonymously… but if you’re going to be responsible for an organization’s social media presence – and reputation – you need to get used to the idea that anonymity is often illusory. Better for an organization to stand behind their content than to be accused of sock-puppeting or astroturfing.
Pick a blog you like, and follow it for a while, reading not only the posts but the comments. Get a feel for the local culture. And then find an opportunity to weigh in with a comment that adds something to the conversation: a new point of view, some pertinent information, a useful link.
Lean more toward conversational than provocative, and keep your comment relatively brief (again, keeping in mind the typical comments on the blog). Then keep watching the blog for responses to your comment; where appropriate, respond to them, and build a conversation.
Let’s combine the skills you picked up on Delicious with your commenting chops. Head on over to Posterous (or Tumblr, or any of a number of other similar sites) and set up an account.
For all intents and purposes, you’ve just created a blog. Deep breaths – and relax: this is a surprisingly easy blog to maintain. What you’ll be doing here is logging the interesting things you find online, just as you did with Delicious. (And here, too, the bookmarklet is your friend.) But you get to choose an excerpt to include, and add your comment about the page, video or image you found.
You can also check out other users, subscribe to their feeds, comment on their posts and, yes, do a little social networking. But at first, be conservative about how visible you are. That helps to keep the stakes low until you decide whether you’re in this for the long haul, and want to invest the time and social capital in building a more networked presence.
Guest-blogging
Got a particular area of expertise? Chances are there’s a blog out there on that topic… with an author who wouldn’t mind running a few posts of yours. Your best bet is someone in your personal network, or a friend of a friend who can vouch for you; you may have to knock on a few virtual doors before you find someone who’s willing to take you on.
Talk over expectations and possible topics, agree on a schedule of posts, and then stick to it (to get used to the idea of a steady rhythm of content creation). Respect the tone and voice of the blog’s author (although you don’t have to imitate it). Talk up your posts in your other online presences, and engage whatever conversation emerges in the blog’s comments and on other blogs. Finish off with a thank-you post mentioning both the author and the blog’s community for having you, and ride off into the sunset… until your next guest-blogging stint.
Ready to bring that puppy home?
Now you’ve had a real taste of the world of social media, what was it like? Were the time demands onerous, or were you able to manage them? Did you find that words came easily to you, or was it like pulling teeth? (And did you find yourself resorting to clichés like “pulling teeth”?)
What you’ve learned in this six-city tour of social media is only the beginning. (We barely even touched video, audio or photography.) But now you have a first-hand sense of the time required and the degree of public exposure it can involve.
What’s more, hopefully you’ve done more than just clean up dog poop and change baby diapers. You’ve also had a glimpse of the more rewarding side of the social web – the shared ideas and relationships that can be so powerful both for individuals and for organizations.
So now you get to decide: is your organization ready for a puppy of its very own?
by Rob Cottingham | Jan 5, 2010 | Social Media, Social Signal
One of the great things about the clients I’ve been lucky enough to work with is how smart they are. Case in point: BC Hydro’s Deb LeRose, who – among many other things – helps the company’s many departments and business units understand social media.
She likes to start presentations off with a slide showing a free puppy and a baby. Both of them, she says, come without a price tag. So does a Twitter account, Facebook profile or WordPress.com blog… but don’t kid yourself. You’d better know what you’re getting into before you click on the “submit” button. (Or take hold of the leash. Or make a baby.)
She’s right. Price tag or no price tag, you’ll be paying: in time, attention and energy. (Mercifully, nobody’s come up with a social media presence that requires you to take it to the vet to get neutered.)
You’ll need to…
- Plan before you launch: You need to know just what you’re hoping to accomplish. Just want to learn a little about YouTube? Hoping to create a new channel for customer service on Twitter? Whether your ambitions are modest or audacious, taking the time to clarify your goals and exactly how you plan to achieve them is critical to social media success.
- Keep posting regularly: Status updates for Twitter, posts for your blog, photos, videos, notes or links for Facebook… it all adds up quickly.
- Respond to comments: Social media is conversational, and you’ll want to stay engaged in the discussions you spark – both on your own presence and out in the larger web.
- Tend to your community: As your online community grows, you’ll want to encourage participation, make introductions, extinguish flame wars and keep things moving productively.
- Promote your presence: You don’t want to go to the effort of creating and maintaining a social media presence without having it count for something, right? So you’ll want to let the world know about it – which can involve everything from advertising to guest-blogging.
- Monitor the social web: You need to know what’s being said about your organization and the issues that matter to you. That can be as simple as searches set up on a tool like Technorati or Google Blog Search, or as sophisticated as commercial tools.
- Track metrics: Since you’re investing this much effort, you want to make sure it’s giving your organization some benefit. Actually measuring those results can become more or less automated, but analyzing them and deciding on actions to take: that requires time and energy.
Organizations that have had social media success will tell you it involved real effort, but yielded great results — just as dog owners and parents know it’s sometimes tough work but tremendously rewarding. You end up with someone who, yes, chews up your most prized possessions and covers you with slobber, but is also a loyal, loving friend. (And with children, they grow out of the chewing and slobbering phase. I’m told.)
So what if you don’t know whether you’re ready for the responsibilities of raising a child, owning a dog or tending a wiki? That’s next week’s post.
