Talk It Up!

Best Practices for Twitter, part deux

A while back, I wrote up a post on Best Practices for Twitter, both for those starting out and for those who've been Twittering for a while but perhaps wondering why their following is growing so slowly. In the wake of the Domino's Pizza kerfuffle (now affectionately known by some as Boogergate) and the Ashton Kutcher/CNN race and Oprah's Twitter debut, a few more practices have come to light for the list:

• Complete your Twitter profile with a photo that looks like you. Don't put a photo of an umbrella or of your pet. You're expecting folks to relate to you, so post a photo of you. It doesn't have to be professional; a flattering webcam shot is fine.
• Complete your Twitter profile with a link to your website. If you follow someone, make it easy for her to find out who you are and whether you are worth following back by providing a link to your best/most representative website on your profile.
• Download a Twitter app to your internet-enabled phone. Using a mobile device to Twitter will enable you to live Twitter from events, which gives your followers the feeling that they are there, having fun and learning with you. (Try Twitterfon, Twitterific, Twittelator or Tweetie for the iPhone; my current favorite it Tweetie for managing multiple Twitter accounts simultaneously.)
• If you are Twittering as a business or corporation, specify the human being who is Twittering under that auspice. When Domino's created @dpzinfo two days into the recent kerfuffle, it was useful, but it would have been better if we'd had any idea who was doing the Twittering--was it one marketing guy? A team? Were the Tweets one person's opinion that we could relate to and form a relationship with, or were they all corporate-approved? Your followers need a "who" to relate to. So, for example, when Kristen Taylor Twitters for @knightfdn, she specifies that she (@kthread) is doing the Twittering:

• Please don't use all caps anywhere, ever. It's just not user-friendly. Who wants to read this?

• Don't use automation to thank your followers. Either thank followers individually by hand, or just don't thank them.
• Don't put a link to your money-making, life-changing website in your auto-thank message. It's just tacky, as if someone came to your party expecting a great converstion, and you greeted him at the door by trying to sell him a timeshare. 
• Use TwitPic to Twitter photos of the people you're with, the speakers you're hearing, the conference you're attending, the funny sign you saw, even the lovely sunset you're witnessing. Bring us into the moment and into your life.

I'm sure there will be a Best Practices for Twitter, part trois. In the meantime, what would you add to these lists?

Nielsen reports social networking usage up

Nielsen has just release a new report, this one on how the economy has affected use of the internet, including video viewing, internet ads and social networking sites.

It's probably not too much of a surprise that Nielsen reports use of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are up 73% over the last year; 883% since 2003. The San Francisco Gate  quotes Charles Buchwalter, a senior vice president with Nielsen Online, as saying that "the research shows is a fundamental shift from shopping directories and search tools as people seek more 'personalized relationships' when they go online."

In short, what social media hawks have been saying for years is true: people are yearning to connect with people like themselves. They are yearning for real conversations with real human beings. They want to be engaged, and they want to spend time in online communities both for the information exchanged and for the sense of community provided. (Did I manage to use all the social media buzzwords for that one?) People are no longer using the internet just to buy a pair of shoes; they are joining communities to find other shoe enthusiasts; they are finding shoe-shopping buddies; they are subscribing to feeds to find out about the latest shoe styles; they are Twittering about shoe news and sales; they are forming Tweetups with their shoe community buddies.

And very little of that interaction and engagement is actually about buying shoes; it's more about finding, creating and participating in a community that shares a person's interests.

Buchwalter continues, advising internet marketers to online marketers to "create more meaningful relationships with customers."

That's right. It's no longer enough to market to customers; we want to be engaged with as human beings in a living, breathing community.

In a YouTube video (what else?), Nielsen Online CEO John Burbank tells more:

In it, he reflects on the impact of the economy on the online media landscape. He reports:

• while categories like auto and financial services are spending less, pharma and others are increasing spending
• he challenges the industry to change the way the internet uses advertising
• YouTube doesn't cannibalize television; both TV and YouTube viewing trends are going up

The good news seems to be that marketers and advertisers have more options and more chances to engage consumers than ever before online. Question is, will they?

Susan Mernit to launch Oakland Local with New Voices grant

My good colleague and friend, Susan Mernit, has some great news to share. She has been awarded one of the eight 2009 New Voices grants awarded by J Lab with Knight Foundation support this year! Considering the grants fielded applications from over 300 applicants, she is thrilled to have gotten this two-year grant support.

So what's the funding for? It's to kick start Oakland Local, a new site for Oakland. Says Susan, "Oakland Local will be a daily-updated web site and mobile service with a focus on environment, climate, transportation, housing, local government and community activism in Downtown, Uptown, North Oakland, West Oakland, Fruitvale, Lake Merritt, and the Dimond District."

She plans to have an editor, a publisher and three paid part-time reporters who will produce content, along with community contributors. And of course, the site will be mobile-friendly as well, given current trends towards news distribution via mobile devices.

The site will also geotag content to an XML data map, encourage users to interact via cell phones and employ a range of social networking tools to surface, share and make discoverable so much of the amazing organizing and activism in Oakland.

Susan says:

"For me, the Oscar Grant shooting were a transformative factor in applying for this grant. I saw that there was a gap in reporting that none of the blogs or local news outlets, as good as they might be, actually filled--and that lots of the best discussion was happening in smaller groups, on the margins, where people new to Oakland (like myself) or people who were not part of a particular community, might not have access to that information.  The vision here is to marry a deeper aggregation of community and non-profit content with more considered, analytical coverage of a narrow set of issues that have huge resonance for so many people in the O--and see what we can learn from the mix."

Susan co-created New Jersey Online with Jeff Jarvis back in 1995 and, with this new project, hopes to offer an opportunity to provide so many groups working on issues in Oakland an opportunity to have their work and views be heard and seen.

This is a very exciting project to those of us interested in the gaps in information needs on a local level. Personally, Susan, I wish you the best in this new endeavor!

Biz Stone answers Twitter questions

Mike Volpe and Karen Rubin of HubSpot sit down with Twitter co-developer Biz Stone to compare Twitter with blogging.

Biz compares Twitter with blogging and comments on the Oprah phenomenon, the Ashton Kutcher/CNN Race to a Million, how to grow a community on Twitter:

Biz' best advice for community building:

"The key is listening... a little bit of that goes a long way."

So true. Every good social media strategy begins with paying attention to the existing community and its members. Begin by finding out what the current members are saying, what they are complaining about, what they are laughing over, what they are passionate about, what they are rolling their eyes over. Listen first, and you're already miles ahead of the yokel who thinks that Twitter is a strategy, not a tool.

Four best tools for organizing life and getting things done

Life gets busy. Scratch that. Life gets absolutely, crazy, cat-jugglingly insane. Tasks and projects pile up every day, and some great ideas simply slip through the cracks for lack of capture. If you're like me, you have about 14 projects going on right now, at least five of which are super-high priority for clients.

Sound familiar?

On a recent  Marketing over Coffee podcast, John Wall and Chris Penn asked about "swipe files"--that is, how do you keep track of ideas, tasks and projects so that nothing gets lost in the mix?

Great question, guys. Here's what I do:

Situation 1: at my desk
If I'm at my desk, my computer is nearby, which makes this super easy. For new tasks (pick up mascara at Walgreen's, have navy pants altered, post Seesmic video for client, research Facebook for upcoming class), I use TOOL #1: OmniFocus' Inbox.

You guys know I'm a huge OmniFocus fan (full disclosure: I did work with the OmniGroup earlier this year), and this is one reason why: you can easily dump every task into the Inbox, and then sort them into their respective projects later.

So eventually, "pick up mascara at Walgreen's" and "have navy pants altered" will go into the Errands context; "post Seesmic video for client" will go into that client's Project, and "research Facebook" will go into the Social Media Boot Camp Project.

Also, TOOL #2, Zenbe lists iPhone app, is great for keeping running lists. So "pick up mascara at Walgreen's" would be translated into "mascara" on the Walgreen's list--at which point, I'd see that I have three other things to pick up there, so I should stop by today. Zenbe also has online synching and sharing, so you can sync the list and call your sweetie to pick up the four things you need from Walgreen's today.

What if it's more informational or idea-oriented?

Use TOOL #3: a Google doc for ongoing brain dumps. When I was putting together my latest Twitter class, I kept running across ideas and articles I wanted to include, so I created a Google doc to harness all the links, ideas and "oh, you have to remember to include THIS"'s. Google docs also work great for dumping content and potential content for upcoming podcasts: for each podcast, I keep a Google doc and drop in links, listener emails, reminders to play promos, etc. in the doc. Then, when I'm ready to podcast, I simply pick and choose the content, arrange it in a logical way, open up any links in tabs on Firefox, and voila! An organized podcast.

Situation 2: on the road
For all those great ideas that only seem to come when in the car listening to a podcast, try TOOL #4: iTalk for the iPhone. Use it to verbally record to-do items, new project ideas, and books to download/order and read. Then, once at destination, listen to the brief recordings and throw each item either into OmniFocus, Zenbe lists or a Google doc.

What about you? How to you keep the juggling to a minimum; what are your best tools for juggling cats?

Domino's responds to hard-learned social media lesson

Over the weekend, a YouTube video created by two erstwhile Domino's employees made its rounds online, hitting nearly one million viewings at last count. (I wrote about it here). Once Domino's was alerted to the video of two of its employees doing unsanitary (and rather disgusting) things to food ostensibly to be served to customers, they acted swiftly by firing the two employees in question, Kristy Hammonds and Michael Setzer.

However, until yesterday, no response from Domino's was available online; the videos unflattering to the company brand went viral in a matter of days, while Domino's was still forming its response.

By yesterday evening, Domino's had created a Twitter account, @dpzinfo, to stem the tide of outrage in the Twittersphere, posted a short notice to its site (however not on the home page), and, more importantly, Patrick Doyle, Domino's CEO, created his own YouTube video, condemning the former employee's actions as "sickening" and announcing that warrants had been issued for their arrest:

An excellent response in general. It would have been better if it had been issued Monday. To date, this video has been viewed 18,423 times, versus the original videos' near-one-million stats. A swifter response might have stemmed the Twitter tide or the over 200,000 Google Blogsearch results with headlines such as Domino's YouTube Nightmare , Mashable's Domino's YouTube Video: YouTube Can Get You Fired, Too and Brian Solis' catchy PR 2.0: The Domino's Effect.

As Solis points out in Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, there is such a thing as bad publicity:

PR contributes to the brand personaltiy, perception and resonance of a company. It is the voice. It shapes the company's personality. It helsp keep companies, products and services on the radar screens of their customers.

When you think of things in this light, you can quickly understand why "bad PR" isn't "good PR."

If Domino's had been prepared with a Twitter ID and YouTube presence before the advent of this now-infamous video, dealing with this bad PR would have been a snap. If Domino's had already established relationships with bloggers and Twitter followers prior to the release of the former employee's video, the communication for this crisis wouldn't have taken nearly four days to construct; it could have been addressed within a matter of minutes.

This is the value of social media, in participating in conversations with your public before the PR nightmare hits your brand. Start building those relationships now, and any brand-busting video, blog post or Tweet that hits the web won't be able to make a dent in your credibility or your brand.

Word to Domino's: respond swiftly, publicly, humbly and right now

Update 4-16-09: Domino's CEO condemns the original video with his own YouTube video; Domino's has started a Twitter account @dpzinfo for customer concerns; the site now addresses the issue and the New York Times studies the kerfuffle

This afternoon, Neville Hobson and Barbara Nixon alerted me to one of the more disgusting videos on YouTube. Over the weekend, two employees of Domino's decided to have a little fun. They shot videos of themselves preparing food in various ways that would be considered less than sanitary and posted them to YouTube under the name Whiteair2.

Never minding the fact that this would be the number one way to guarantee firing (I wonder if they could try any harder to lose their jobs any faster). The employees have indeed been fired and the videos removed, but Domino's site still has no mention of which location sported the contaminated food or indeed any sort of official corporate statement condemning the employee's actions and assuring the public that this type of behavior is not typical or accepted at Domino's.

The Consumerist reports that some citizens managed to track down the location where the videos were shot, but shouldn't Domino's have a voice here? As the days and hours tick away, the social media space is exploding with customers (and no doubt, former customers) expressing their disgust and outrage at the employee's behavior. Where is Domino's voice in all this? Silent. As their brand is now associated with giggling employees flagrantly putting food to nose, the brand itself is remaining mute while customers shift and form opinions and loyalties.

Domino's, are you paying attention? Give customers a bit of confidence in your brand after this shaking. Don't take your time; respond NOW. Swiftly, publicly, humbly, and everywhere you can. Make a statement on your site. Refute the YouTube video. Send out some Tweets. Take Shel Holtz' advice and get out in front of this situation. Or Brian Solis' wisdom that

 Amplifying the voices and the faces of trustworthy employees, customers, and managers can help us convey a believable and sympathetic persona that offers something or someone to connect to for those open to the other side of the story

The damage to the Domino's brand will not be contained to that one Domino's location--now every time a consumer orders a pizza, she might be wondering if she should call Pappa John's instead, recalling the etched-in-your-brain image of the employee relishing the idea of making the food as unsanitary as possible.

Domino's, are you listening?

The Eight Best Marketing Podcasts for Your Daily Commute

For a busy social media geek like me, travel time is catch-up time; it's the only time a consultant can, in a guilt-free environment, take a breath and take some time to do some self-education. Personally, I don't have a regular commute, but you'd be amazed at how much podcast listening one can squeeze into 10- and 20-minute trips around Chicago. Also, I'm not adverse, as a busy podcast listener, to building up my B-list podcasts and listening to a backlog of shows in one fell swoop, as I did during the 10-hour drive to Saint Louis and back last weekend.

The point is that podcasts are a time-delayed medium; even news-related shows can be informative and educational a few weeks later. Every single show listed here teaches me something I didn't know every time I listen. What's more, they give me a chance to interact with the host every time, too. If you don't already, try programming your favorite show's listener call-in numbers into your cell phone so you can pause the podcast, call in a comment (using your hands-free headset, of course), and then keep right on listening.

(Oh, and if you're new to podcasting, read here to find out how to download and listen to a podcast.)

The first group are knock-down, drag-out, absolutely essential marketing podcasts. If you're an entrepreneur or into social media and not yet listening, go to iTunes and download them now:

For Immediate Release: the Hobson and Holtz Report. This was one of the first podcasts I ever subscribed to, and it's still my A-list first listen. Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson meet twice a week over Skype to discuss online media in the age of digital communication and marketing. And they never disappoint! At one hour twice a week, this might be the only podcast you have time to listen to, but it's worth it--you don't need to set your Google alert for "social media" if you listen to FIR.

Get It Done Guy's Quick and Dirty Tips Stever Robbins, the witty geek who just happens to also give advice on getting things done, gives one great organizational or productivity tip in each five-minute podcast--an easy listen on your way to the store. Helps with productivity, plus if we ever hit a zombie apocalypse, he's right there with advice on training your zombie army.

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips Mignon Fogarty is the grammar geek among grammar geeks, delightful to listen to and more than happy to get all available information and perspectives on even the trickiest of grammar questions. Hey, ya gotta love a girl who can even cover the adverbial malfunction of the presidential inauguration with ease. Her podcasts are also in the five-minute range, so download and few and listen on your way to the gym.

Managing the Gray I can't imagine anyone who doesn't already listen to C.C. Chapman in some form or another, but there might be a few of you out there who have been living in a cave or who dropped your iPod in the lake a few years back and just never bothered to replace it. Managing the Gray is C.C.'s business podcast, his chance to chat and give observations about social media. Always full of energy and great marketing ideas, C.C. is one of my constant iPhone companions (even though he seems to be able to get iTalk to work for podcasting, whereas it only gives me so-so audio quality).

Marketing Over Coffee Shel Holtz turned me on to this marketing podcast, hosted by Chris Penn of the Financial Aid podcast and John Wall of the M Show. These two social media gurus sit in a Dunkin Donuts and talk social media strategy, news and tools. Again, great new information with each show, and the hosts have a fun and approachable dynamic.

Media Hacks I just started listening to this one, and I'm behind. But Mitch Joel, Chris Brogan, C.C. Chapman, and more? What social media geek wouldn't listen to this show? The audio on the first episode made it unlistenable, but it's much improved since then.

Six Pixels of Separation Mitch Joel's conversational show on new media marketing and communications. Sure, like C.C. Chapman, he talks at the speed of light, but I wouldn't cut time from his show at all--just listen as long and as often as you can.

Trafcom News Podcast Donna Pappacosta podcasts monthly from Canada, branding her show as one for people who love communicating. She's got a great, podcast-heavy focus, with detailed tips on making your podcast interesting, engaging and effective. Plus, it doesn't hurt that her honey-toned voice is the best one in podcasting!

What about you? What are your favorite business podcasts? What is on your A list? Your B list?

Book Review: Difficult Conversations

I listened to Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone et al. on audio about five years ago, and I listened again recently. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: everyone who communicates with human beings needs to read/listen to this book. I mean, how often do you get a chance to find out about human interactions from a bunch of Harvard researchers?

If you've ever had a simple conversation go awry or if you've ever had a confrontation get out of control, this book will likely end up being a great resource for you. Douglas Stone and the other brainy Harvard authors take motivations, emotions and identity out and dissect them for a better understanding of why people act and react the way they do in difficult conversations, both at work and at home. This book will help with professional interactions, with bringing up tough issues with your spouse or partner and even with friends and kids.

For me, the most useful parts of this book were:

• focusing on the "and" stance: replacing "but" with "and," and acknowledging that two things can be true simultaneously
• contribution versus blame: admitting your own contributions to a situation and asking for others' contributions, exclusive of blame
• starting from the third conversation: approaching a situation from a neutral, curious stance rather than from one's own point of view
• focusing on going into conversations from a questioning stance and sincere desire to understand the other party rather than proving one's own point of view

Many of the techniques Doug Stone et al. recommend are rather advanced--they won't come easily or feel natural the first time. However, trying one or two new things in low-risk situations (with your kids, for example, versus with your boss) is a pretty easy way to give their suggestions a try.

Has anyone else tried these? What were your results?