Social Media Policies - A "Get Out Of Jail Free" Card?

You hear a lot of companies doing their best to jump on board constructing "Social Media Policies" (SMP). SMP are indeed the foundation from which you must not only hire the respective positions from but mandate that anyone within your company that uses social media tools understands. We here so much about a few key strokes ruining brands these days with the misuse and lack of understanding that can come from not using social media properly...

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$ocial Media Is Not A Trend

(Originally written and published for the St. George News is a Sentric Media LLC company)

It’s all you hear about, “social media” this and Facebook that, and what’s being said on Twitter. But what does that really mean to a business? Well there’s a lot of different ways one can look at it. But first and foremost, social media is not a trend and savvy businesses and professionals, large or small, are using it to improve their messaging, customer service and brand loyalty.

(PLEASE NOTE: There’s far too much to cover in this one article to answer all your potential questions, therefore we’ve inserted an array of links that will give you greater clarification to some of these technologies.)

Understanding the foundational landscape:

“Social Graph” – is the term that comes from all of your social networks connecting to each other. The more you can have followers of a given social network be able to connect to other networks, and ultimately your website, the more effective you will be. This is no different than traditional “integrated” marketing approaches. Think of it as television, radio, outdoor and print advertising all telling your customer to go to your store. Your social graph comes from the same integrated directive.

Your Website (with Newsletter) – All roads lead to Rome and your website should act as your hub for your social graph. Here you will market yourself, your product and your service. Remember that it’s incredibly important that if you change directions with your website that you retroactively make the same messaging changes to all your social networks as well. You wouldn’t want your radio spot selling a widget for $10 dollars and your television spot saying it’s $12 would you? The same applies to social media.

A Blog (with RSS feed & Sharing) – A blog (a term that comes from an older term ‘web log’ or journal) is a unique opportunity to speak, share and communicate with your customers. The difference between a blog and standard marketing speak however is that a blog should feel “human”, have opinion and allow for speculation. The first rule in blogging (as is the same in all your social communications) is be honest, authentic, consistent and professional. Blogging gives you the opportunity to reach around your primary directives and talk about your industry, your opinions and (within reason) diversification of subject matter.

Facebook – What’s important to understand about Facebook is there are “profiles” that are personal accounts that share photos, posts, connections and what are called “LIKES.” Likes are how Facebook targets and profiles you to get you information and content that is relevant and interesting. Secondarily for business there are Facebook “pages” and “groups.” These are different from your profiles, as they are directed at creating interest out of a business, service, person or directive. Groups are created to harness interest within defined topics. If you have a profile you can create a page  or a group.

Twitter  – Twitter is a tool that is considered a “Microblogging” platform. It allows you to post messages (called “tweets”) to your account and creates the ability for people to “follow” you. By creating a following, every time you tweet, your message is pushed to your Twitter collective and gives people the opportunity to respond and interact with you. It’s important (as with all your social graph) to respond in a timely manner.

Linkedin – This is the professional’s social network. Here you can find millions of professional people, groups and businesses to connect with. Not only does it serve as a place to hang your resume, but it gives your a forum for groups, a place to ask and answer business questions and post/look for employment. For businesses it also provides you yet one more “touch point” on your social grid to tell people about what you do.

YouTube Channel – This is not always an essential tool to your social graph, but more often than not is added into the fold. This channel allows user to upload, like, share and embed videos with one another. And while any one of these technologies could take several articles to define perfectly, it’s fair to say that the future will be deeply entrenched in what is called “User Generate Content” (UGC). With every smart phone in the future giving people the ability to shoot video in HD, the world is fastly becoming bound by its media. That being said, it’s jump in or get left behind.

Social Photo/Video Network (e.i. Flickr or Picasa) – Lastly, much like a YouTube channel, it might be in your best interest to also have a social photo network as well. Much like other accounts, businesses use social photo accounts to show new product, document events and tell needed stories to accentuate demand for their product or service.

What I outlined for you is the concrete to a social media platform. There are literally thousands of social sites that get more and more granular to specific products, topics and interests. This article has been meant to scratch the fertile surface of what’s available to you online. I hope it serves you well.

Have you used any of these tools for business? Are they working? Share your comments and questions with us!

Justice Mitchell

Serendipitous Website Optimization

You hear people in the interactive industry say all the time "well are you optimizing your site?" Just what does that mean for a blogger or a business? Well, let's put it into other terms, that of a car. Think of optimization as putting your prototype in the wind tunnel.

• Are their improvements to the form that can avoid drag and make it more efficient?
• Can you adjust tire pressure and sway controllers for better ride and handling?
• Taking into account what you adjusted to the body of the car, how did that change the experience for the driver within the car?

All that being said, you need to progressively jab at your marketing with a stick until it does exactly what you want it to do. The double-edged sword here is simply that the entrepreneurial spirit will never let us be completely satisfied and therefor your interactive work, traffic, fan growth, brand message and customer satisfaction will be a constantly evolving process. Live by the words of Yoda when it comes to business: "Do or do not... there is no try."

So as always, I am looking to expand the traffic and reach of my social graph and get more people to view my blog. This too is tricky, as everyone is coming for a different reason. Some to learn, some to laugh, some to explore and others simply thought I might be a cute African American girl - which at this point I am not. At least not in public.

So much to my surprise was seeing a recent spike to my traffic a few days ago and I tried to put my finger on where it came from. It was something simple and therefore unexpected.

Many of you know that I'm a photographer, it is both a professional and personal passion of mine (you can find my portfolio here). And I'm a ravenously addicted Instagram photo-sharing community fan. A few days ago, I changed my first name on my profile to my URL at justicemitchell.com. After such time I posted a great many shots from a recent vacation trip where I spent too much time making my wife wait while I took shots of metal textures and landscapes.

This one "tweak" made a spike. Nothing really noteworthy, though in the social media game we're all our own worst critic, especially when it comes to the work that we do for ourselves. The core point of this post is that you must continue to address and rethink the way you already use the tools you use. A screwdriver can ram a hole in a soda can as easily as it can put in screws, just don't hold the soda can at the same time - safety first.

Different thoughts on tweaking your social media:

• Try linking to your own posts more to support your tweet messages.
• Try video tweeting something once a day.
• Break the mold on your blog and do a series of posts outside of your regular subject matter (still maintaining your same voice and brand directive).
• Try working with some third-party Facebook applications to drive awareness (see: involver, wildfireapps, buddymedia).
• Engage a new social network, try a new application or website community, or join a forum of like-minded discussions.

What other techniques have you seen help with your online traffic (outside of conventional SEO)? Give me a shout!

Blog Posts Are Where You Find Them

A close friend of mine and I were talking online the other day about 'what he wants to be when he grows up,' so to speak, and one of the things I advocated is that he write a blog. Not only is a blog a good hobby that increases your writing and literary skills, but it separates you from many in whatever particular vertical that you're in. His response is quite common in that "I don't feel like I do anything special, at least not enough that someone would want to read about it." Well let me tell you a little bit about this person and you tell me if it wouldn't peek your interest.

He's a 23-year-old pop/metal musician; he's going to school for web design and graphic design; he's a budding self-taught photographer that captures amazing images; he works as a fraudulent security investigator for a well known software developer; he wants to work with kids (in a high school concealing), especially those afflicted by meth addiction and he's struggling day-to-day in the current economy trying to find his way. Knowing this about him, he feels there's nothing to talk about!?! Well let me count the ways:

• Write to upstart musicians that have never started a band, tell them how to find other like-mined musicians.
• What do you look for in a singer?
• How can you be a band on a budget?
• What's good equipment on the cheap?
• Push your music online for open feedback.
• Talk about your job, what's right and what's wrong in the process.
• What is the likely future of your position?
• Talk about internal processes (be mindful not to out your company in so doing) and how they can be streamlined.
• Talk about what inspires you as a person, musician, lover and friend.
• Ask questions openly about your photography, music and design to solicit expert advice.
• TALK ABOUT METH! It's going to be a hard pill to swallow but it's high time that America wake up to this epidemic.
• Talk about what can help parents understand what to do, how to talk to their kids and what the warning signs are.
• Talk about being 23 in a shitty economy.
• Talk about your dreams.

There are countless other bullets I could put in this kid's gun, but the force is strong with this one and I hope to be his Obie-Wan (short of the dying in a light saber dual, though if you gotta' go that's not a bad way to step out). Thinking about this really inspired me to think about what I do when I get frustrated and cannot come up with something to say in my blog.

Therefore, here are some tips that just might help you as a creative resource:

• Checkout Slideshare.net – post the presentation and write an evaluation of it and your takeaways.
• Watch videos online, post them and write an evaluation of it.
• 'Copy & Paste' a chat that you find funny, interesting or telling. (Be sure to let the other participant know that's what you're going to do)
• Make up a chat you wish you had!
• Things you overheard and how you interpret it.
• Once you get enough blog posts, you can do a 'greatest hits' or 'best of' for that year.
• Numbered lists! People LOVE numbered lists! 8 reasons why this, or 10 steps for maximum that.
• Ratings and reviews of anything that you do with great frequency and could honestly answer blog comments about.
• Go to TED.com, post a video and tell the reasons why.
• Take some photos and post them to your photo sharing site of choice and tell people about those photos.
• Construct your own ranking system for something that you use, do or interact with and make it a reoccurring post.
• Create themed post for the month, season or holiday.
• Expose your weaknesses and ask for help.
• Take a topical moment in your life and post comparative viewpoints on that point.
• Recant a story from your childhood.
• Talk about the things/brands you use the most everyday and why you love or hate them.
• Create a fictitious character and put them within a story as a metaphor to a directive.
• Advocate charities and ways of being good to one another.

Going to the well - These are easy topics that you can always pull out for content and should be easy for you to write:

• Talk about family.
• Talk about your job.
• Talk about something topical in the news (the faster you do this the more traffic it usually aggregates to your blog); be sure to link to your source.
• Talk about your favorite things, hobbies, music and anything that will allow your reading audience to feel as if they have a deeper understanding, and more importantly, a more intimate connection to you and your posts.

Brilliant blog inspiration from brilliant bloggers:

• Chris Brogan's master list
• Copyblogger's master inspiration techniques
• Darren Barefoot's list of ideas
• Sketch 101's inspiration