Highway to Hale

I wrote this on Posterous after returning home from a tweetup in Sioux Falls.

I grew up in Omaha. I spent four years at school in Sioux Falls. The Internet and group functions have allowed me to socially network heavily with individuals in Minneapolis.

When I send a resume to an Omaha company, a return email systematically lets me know that the company is not currently looking for entry-level employees.

In Sioux Falls, members of a close-knit professional community (from CEOs to Account Executives) will sit down for lunch or coffee and discuss possibilities in the area and speak candidly about employment opportunities as they see fit. Personal introductions are often the chosen method for passing along names, information, and recommendations.

Is the difference simply due to size? I don’t think so.

When I send a resume out in Minneapolis, the recipient indicates they have read the email and at least glanced at the attached document. If they are unable to help through employment, they offer to forward the information to colleagues and keep an ear open for possible opportunities. I’ve run into very few companies in Minneapolis that simply turn a cold shoulder without staying in contact and offering assistance.

How does information flow in your community? Like Omaha: the ‘Black Hole’ model [information that goes in never gets out]? Like Sioux Falls: the ‘Cheers’ model [where everybody knows your name]? Or like Minneapolis: the ‘Collaborative Potential’ model [our community can benefit from solid work and solid workers]? Maybe something completely different.

After driving 200 miles to meet with some great people in Sioux Falls, I began thinking about a post concerning the physical relation to one’s community. I would ask how far is too far to travel for a good community? And what do you do when you move out of a stellar community?

There is something more important than the geographic relation you have to your community. When I ask how far you will go for your community, I mean what will you do to show your community that you are one of them?

Scribnia community manager, David Spinks, does a great job of letting the community know that he belongs with them. He is every bit as likely to be nominated as Blogger of the Week as he is to choose the award. Furthermore, David makes it easy for bloggers to join the community by creating the skeleton structure of their page that they can fill in and claim when they choose to do so.

So, what can you do to show your community that you are a valuable component of the group? How will you show your community members that you belong with them and that you are willing to improve the community? It is commonplace to say go the extra mile for clients/communities/friends/coworkers.

Well I say – Go the extra 200 miles.

Image Credit: Tara Hunt (flickr.com/photos/missrogue)

By now, you have all at least heard of the case in which United Airlines reportedly ruined the $3,500 guitar of country musician Dave Carroll. If not, join over 2 million viewers in watching the music video Dave created about the situation. If the video doesn’t do it for you, feel free to read the story from Dave’s perspective on his website.

Hero?

Dave has been lifted to near hero status among social media circles in the past couple weeks due to his band’s catchy viral video, but has Dave exposed the dark side of social media heroism? When I first heard the story and watched the video, I thought it was great. I knew Dave had been wronged by United Airlines and I was happy that somebody had the ability to take a shot at a corporation that ignored his customer service needs. Blog posts jumped up all over the place praising Dave’s destruction of the United Airlines image and support rolled in through comments about never flying United again.

Villain?

Whoa, slow down a minute. I know it looks bad for United at this point, but take a second to consider what they were dealing with. There is probably no excuse for giving somebody a run-around for nine months, but United might have a case here. First, we all know that airlines claim that they are not liable for lost, stolen, or damaged luggage every time they get a chance. But if Dave saw the handlers throwing his instrument around, there must be an exception. If not, there should be – so we’ll stay on Dave’s side. After Dave claims to have seen the handlers throwing his guitar case, he picks the case up at baggage claim and goes to his hotel. Seven days later (after a Nebraska-wide tour), Dave returns to United and says they broke his guitar. Why didn’t Dave check his guitar at the airport if he saw it being tossed around? Dave says the case looked fine and they were tired.

Implications

Again, there is no excuse to send a customer from employee to employee for nine months basically avoiding response to his claim. But United might be on the receiving end of the dark side of social media. Dave and his band are less-than-famous and have created a viral sensation on the internet at the expense of United’s reputation. I would like to believe that Dave honestly knows that United broke his guitar, but it seems like he has a lot more to gain in this situation than a repaired guitar.

Does this case indicate that a certain amount of publicity, whether with good intentions or not, will result in a desired outcome? The most common solution I have seen is that United could have avoided this by fixing the guitar. Do you really want business to work that way? If you make a claim, they bend over and accommodate your demands? Whether wrong doing has occurred or not, publicity would dictate the outcome. Imagine United did not break Dave’s guitar, but to avoid confrontation they replaced the guitar. Yes, $3,500 is a relatively small price to pay to save your reputation, but what other expenses would United have opened themselves up to?

I feel bad for Dave, his guitar, and United. But I’m still on the fence about whether this is a shining moment for social media or a dark realization, what do you think?

This guy is clearly annoyed.

There is a fine line between staying relevant and getting annoying.

For example, #followfriday used to be relevant and was a great tool for finding new, interesting people. Now, #followfriday is annoying. It has become Twitter’s greatest form of spam. Proponents of Twitter say spam is not possible because you choose which users to follow, but #followfriday changes that theory. Some of the most interesting people on Twitter have become the most effective spammers as soon as the clock strikes 12:01 on Fridays. Another route some have taken is to simply throw every trending topic into a spam tweet. Annoying, but it can be dealt with.

So, how does one become relevant while embracing the idea of Follow Friday? Insert @ArikHanson and @DannyBrown (I’m sure others are doing this too, but as far as I know, these were two of the first). Arik now records a video containing the few people he believes deserve to be highlighted as the best people to follow. He takes a few seconds to explain why each person deserves the mention and he posts the video on his blog – Communication Conversations. Danny does much the same at his blog, but he writes out individual descriptions of each person he highlights rather than filming a video. They have both created categories so viewers can easily distinguish what the person does and why they should be followed. It is a very personal touch and it gives back to readers. I don’t get the sense they are listing names for their own well-being or for the approval of those they are mentioning.

What’s the lesson to be learned here? It is annoying to simply go through the motions. Stop and consider the motive behind actions and you may discover that you can do it better. I was talking to a friend in medical school the other day and she mentioned that many doctors simply go through the motions and it causes a lot of angst in patients. The doctor has seen a million patients with the exact same problem, so they do the standard tests without explanation. It is necessary to consider the motive behind the tests and pass along the knowledge because it is probably the patient’s first time. The information is relevant to the patient.

I have heard graphic designers often run into similar problems with logos. After working on a logo for days or even weeks, the designer sees the final product and quickly tires of it. To them, the logo is old. They have seen it a million times. To them, it is annoying. They must remember that the audience has only seen the new logo a few times. Consumers find constant design changes annoying because they never know what to look for. In this case, you can stay relevant by staying the same.

Relevancy can be achieved by change or consistency. Either way, it comes down to recognizing the motive. Next time you start a project or jump on a bandwagon, consider the reason you are doing such. Consider your unique goals and try to avoid doing something just because that’s how it has been done in the past.

There have been a lot of campaigns lately that have recieved mixed reviews about whether they are relevant or annoying. What are some the recent campaigns you have seen that are relevant and what are some that are simply annoying?

This post comes in response, and with a big thanks, to @DavidSpinks and his post called “Are You Good At Social Media?”

Don't be this kind of tool.

So, you can create a Facebook page? You’ve @replied somebody on Twitter? You read your friend’s LiveJournal?

Would you hire a graphic designer based on their ability to tell you what Adobe Creative Suite is? I hope the answer is no (if you answered yes, call me Scott Hale: Graphic Designer). The same goes for social media – Knowing what Twitter, Facebook, and blogs are does not give you the skills to effectively design a social media strategy. Building a community and cultivating conversation takes more than a username and password on the most mainstream social tools the web has to offer. At this point, knowledge and proficient use of social media tools is more like using your right arm and less like using a tool.

So, what is the most important tool in social media? YOU.

You must have background knowledge in marketing, PR, customer service, human interaction, technology, writing, sociology, and psychology. To this point, education has been concerned with nice neat little packages so everybody can succeed. Social media has reached a point where customization is necessary. Cookie-cutter automation will not work in social media. Nobody can stand in front of a class of students or marketing professionals (or CEOs) and give them the magic bullet to interacting correctly.

The overriding theme of social media is interactivity. When interacting with others, the only tools you have come from yourself. Your ability to read the situation and connect with ideas are central to maintaining conversations and constructing a community. The term “relationship marketing” has been showing up a lot lately, and I believe it describes the goal of social media quite well. Relationships demand loyalty from both sides and the way to engage consumers will be different in every strategy.

Individuals create successful social media strategy. Social media strategies need to be unique. It is not only necessary that campaigns have the ability to be customizable, it is necessary that every campaign be customized. Great customized plans are run by people with a great knowledge of interaction, idea connection, sociological patterns, and flexible strategy.

Are you a tool? I believe I am. If you (or anybody you know) are looking for a social media tool, feel free to contact me.

D[space][username][space] (no comma).

That’s what a DM looks like on Twitter. I’ve screwed it up, you’ve probably done it too. Is it a big deal? It might not have been big news last week, but I did notice Chris Brogan failing a DM and shooting his cell phone number to his 70,000+ followers. That’s all for now on that subject.

The big news this past week was the change in how Twitter users will experience @ replies. To be more accurate, it has to do with how approximately 3% of Twitter users will experience @ replies (according to the Twitter Blog). As I earn my Social Media MBA (look to @arikhanson and his blog for that reference), the change in replies makes it difficult to connect with important influencers, but what does it mean for brands and companies on Twitter?

It may have only been 3% of users capitalizing on the ability to creep in on the conversations of others, but those 3% were passionate about the subject and using Twitter intelligently. Evan Williams was forced to respond within hours of the change because the hashtag #fixreplies became the top trending topic on Twitter. I understand the rationale that the users, in general, might not want to see partial conversations of those they follow, but I disagree that the option should be removed. Rather than promote running away from partial conversations, the option should have been roled out the other way. Force people to see half-conversations and let them choose whether they want to jump in and follow the other side or simply ignore the few tweets pertaining to a specific superfluous topic.

The most powerful words in social media marketing are engage and empower. The option to see one side of the conversation promotes both engagement and empowerment. Take @mnChevy for example: a car lover and follower asks when Chevy’s newest addition will hit the streets. This car lover has a bunch of followers that aren’t yet aware of the mnChevy account, so they miss the tweet and Chevy misses out on the chance to engage and empower their target market. On the other side, mnChevy answers the question, replying to the car lover. Many of mnChevy’s followers are interested in the release of a new product, but rather than ask, they assume they will look it up online somewhere later…and forget about it. Those followers also miss the tweet about the release; another missed opportunity. Just because a user did not ask the question, you cannot assume they were not interested in the answer.

That would be an isolated case, but an important example. Whether you scale the example up or down, the idea does not promote community. How many networking events have you attended where you join a conversation in which you only know one side? You build your network by meeting the other side and gaining a contact. Your community expands – empowerment through engagement.

How can you remedy the situation as a brand on Twitter? Fairly easy actually. If you want to simultaneously reply to a follower and broadcast the message to all followers (whether they are following the subject of the reply or not), simply do not put the @ reply at the beginning of the tweet. Either put the name later in the tweet, or add a character (such as a period) before the @ reply and Twitter will not recognize the tweet as an @ reply. This way, all of your followers see your reply and have the opportunity to engage the subject of the reply and build a community around a common brand (your brand). Information reaches a larger audience, communities reach higher levels, everybody wins.

What do you think about the changes? Were you part of the 3% that noticed? Does your position on the topic change as you consider personal use of Twitter vs brand use? Do you run a corporate account that was impacted by the change?

Why is social media so scary for traditional marketers? Because social media acknowledges that consumers are getting smarter. Smarter consumers means that marketers have to get smarter. Not a comfortable thought for the people who are currently considered marketing pros.

It is no longer enough to get your product in the right place for the right price with the right promotion. Of course those things all help (a lot), but social media gives the ability to join the right conversation. Consumers have been doing their best to avoid marketing messages for quite some time now, but the goal of social media is to provide a forum in which consumers want to engage. It doesn’t take a leap of faith to agree that engaging consumers is more beneficial than shoving a message in the face of an unwilling listener.

Another scary aspect of social media is that it often includes a waiting game. Consumers do not want their lives (conversations) intruded upon, but they do welcome answers when they pose a question. Prior to even pitching a social media plan, you have to listen to, analyze, and track conversations about the product. After you’ve listened, you better become the expert, because you need to jump head first into the communities that discuss your products. By “jump head first” I do not mean START SELLING! I mean be a member of the community. Add value, answer questions, be transparent.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of social media for traditional marketers to grasp is the idea that (before engaging) they must ask whether they are contributing to the conversation or selling. Selling is going to lead to avoidance, contributing value will lead to engagement. Transparency is one of the keys here. People will talk about your brand (both positively and negatively) whether you are there to hear it and engage in it or not.

The difficulty that comes with engaging customers is what draws me to social media. It’s an art of sorts. If traditional marketing is a blacksmith (forcing metal into unnatural, yet strong, forms), then social media marketing is glass blowing (strategically forming glass into an organic form with intelligent persuasion). Like blown glass, no two social media plans are exactly the same.

Agree? Disagree? Like to add? Looking forward to your comments.