ImpactWatch Blog

John D. Sutter of CNN seems to think Twitter is going to cause a riot.  In this article he explains how new media is helping create a “hotbed of unnecessary hype and misinformation about the outbreak.”  Others like Sean M. Wood of Communi-K believe that mainstream media is more likely to spread panic in an attempt to scrap up new readers in their dying industry.

Interestingly, a lot of Internet attention has shifted from factual information about the epidemic to stories about how news of the epidemic is being spread.  I have a working theory that Ashton Kutcher created Swine Flu.  After all, how else would you explain his recent battle (again, coincidentally with CNN) for top Twitter-god?

Thanks to celebrities like him, Twitter has finally surpassed being only for those ‘in the know’ to being ‘for anyone with a pulse and computer’.  People who once ignored the social media tool are now taking notice thanks to the Ashton-CNN-gate and the Swine Flu controversy.  And let’s not forgot the supposed ‘Oprah Effect’ that some speculate to have increased user numbers by over one million.

So with all these new users, is there cause for worry that social media will begat panic (as this comic so hilariously illustrates)?  Below is a recently made graph showing the number of tweets concerning the topic:

The tweets are mostly offhand comments about the disease.  Some contain links to recent news while lots re-ask the common questions about eating pork.  While many are discussing it, no one is saying anything new.  The tweets don’t seem to be causing panic any more than in-person chat would do.  If anything, I notice a lot of informative replies and Direct Messages to some of the sillier questions.  This could actually ease panic by calming the masses.  Isn’t that the point of social media (and heck, the Internet) in the first place?  To be as informed as possible.

UPDATE: Luckily, thousands of tweets are pouring in this morning about Adam Lambert’s bottom two appearances on American Idol, nearly just as many as about swine flu.  Twitterers are getting back to normal.

This is going to get messy.

Tomorrow, Facebook will radically shift its gatekeeping policies and allow for Twitter-like access to its data stream. The immediate effects: Facebook support in Twitter apps, a social networking giant declaring the need for connectivity, and a flood of Facebook apps, remixes, mashups, thawed and reheated in the morning.

The huge implications for Twitter aside, it’s also a significant step towards real-time interconnectivity. What’s in the right now — the derivative — definitely seems to be the way things are progressing. A good indicator could be the largest player in social networking blatantly declaring through action, “I will give you all of my data. Right now.”

I am quite sure that other services and networks will morph towards this trend (many already have), and soon the different “genres” of services will all congeal into desktop or mobile based mega apps, supporting dozens of communications services, from e-mail to messaging to Facebook to the next big thing. You can quote me on that. It’s coming.

This is of course a logical move for Facebook, and analysts have seen it coming — avoid the costs of developing various interfaces, but still grow out the user base garnered by third-party developers.

Will Facebook be able to get past its reputation as a more personal experience and dip into Twitter’s celebrity, news, debate, and networking share of the market? Nobody can say for sure, but I suspect it has more than a fighting chance to become a huge participant. Considering the figures for Facebook’s growth demographics, Zuckerberg and his associates have surveyed a nice set of trends by which to gauge their investment.

Over the coming weeks, more details and trends will materialize and the races will commence — I’ve already got my tickets.

HOW TO: Track Social Media Analytics – Mashable

Determining the ROI of Enterprise 2.0 – ZDNET

Can PR measurement save companies? – Roots PR (Disclosure, we work with this guy’s firm)

Learn to Measure Your Web Presence - Entrepreneur

Spotlight on PR Return on Investment (ROI) – The Cutting Edge

Social Media Measurement is a Must! – Marketing Technology Blog

Make the Case for Social Media through Measurement and ROI – Armory Blog

Metrics, ROI of social media still unclear and Web analytics get social from BtoB

How Many Times Have You Been Favored – Electric Outlet

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CrossFit is an excellent example of using smart Web 2.0 tactics to gain popularity among the online world.  The ideology began in the 1980s with creator Greg Glassman (who sounds suspiciously like he dated Jan Brady).  The first CrossFit gym opened in the mid-90s, but the topic of this post–the website–began in 2001.  The exercise giant has been heralded for its virtual community that bolsters its visibility and supposedly encourages others to stick with the program.

 The beauty behind the program is that it succeeds by infiltrating every ‘big boy’ of Web 2.0.  The program has made an effort to incorporate new Web 2.0 technologies as they became available.  Now the program’s so wide-spread that users start the process on behalf of CrossFit.  Pretty impressive.

Blogs

The blog/site of CrossFit has a simple idea.  It posts the next WOD (Workout of the Day) around 11PM each night, thus making it available for review by all participants for the coming day.  The forums are utilized to post variations on the workouts and exercises s well as elicit discussions among the posters.  Most blog entries contain the following: the WOD, a picture of successful CrossFit people, links to similar previous blog posts, and any additional information about the day.  Users are encouraged to post to the forums and blog comment sections on their times/weights/successes of the day.

Each day is additionally dummy-proofed thanks to a HUGE library of videos of the exercises listed in the workouts. 

Photo-sharing Sites

People love to post pictures of their progress and routines when they enter an exercise routine, and CrossFit is no exception.  A simple keyword search on Flickr for “crossfit” resulted in 72,416 related photos, while an astonishing 64,434 photos were tagged with “crossfit”.  Basically all of the photos were positive, showing progress, CrossFit gyms, or before/after results.

Video-sharing Sites

The concept of CrossFit on video sites is practically the same as photo sites.  Users upload clips of them performing exercises and showing progressive results.  These same users friends and subscribe to other CrossFit participants to keep motivated by seeing likewise progress.  13,100 videos results from a keyword search for “crossfit” on YouTube.

Twitter

The micro-blogging platform is incredibly easy to use for CrossFit, almost as if they’d planned it that way back in 2001.  The website contains explanations and definitions of numerous acronyms, many of which are used in tweets.   Twitterers tend to use the platform to remind others of their impending workouts and post their results.  Some examples follow below.

A search for tweets containing “crossfit” in the 140 characters for just April 22^nd resulted in 448 tweets.  The hashtag #crossfit resulted in 229 tweets.  Of course, some affiliates of CrossFit have official usernames as well.

CrossFit has revolutionized exercising for the Internet age.  The gigantic network of users provides an excellent way to hold exercisers and would-be exercisers accountable to the program, which grows the concept every day.  Personal trainers agree that working out with a friend helps keep people motivated.  CrossFit’s Web 2.0 presence lets you work out with thousands.

Last week was an interesting week to be monitoring social media. There were several examples of consumers’ feedback running rampant on the social web and companies scrambling to keep up. Here are the big ones.

• Amazon.com delisted thousands of books from general search results, including many gay and lesbian themed books, prompting accusations of sudden policy change against such topics.
• Employees of Domino’s Pizza posted a video on YouTube of them defiling food while making it.
• Time Warner Cable revealed the details of its metered internet usage plans being tested in four major cities.
• Ashton Kutcher and CNN were involved in a challenge to be the first to reach 1,000,000 followers on Twitter. Only it turns out CNN didn’t even operate the CNNBrk Twitter account that was in the race.

All of these events created a massive amount of social media buzz, and the companies involved varied in their responses.

Amazon apologized and basically said the problem was “a glitch” but since then seems to be hoping that the buzz will go away leaving all of those who were outraged without much satisfaction.

Domino’s created a YouTube video response and set up a Twitter account of their own to answer any questions people might have showing that while they might not have been ready for something like this, they can certainly roll with the punches and respond appropriately.

Time Warner Cable backed off and has delayed plans to implement metered billing, presumably to polish up their PR and marketing machine before giving it another go. We’ll have to wait and see what the final outcome is.

CNN embraced the idea of the race to 1,000,000 followers while behind the scenes they hired James Cox, the owner of the CNNBrk account, as a consultant to run it for them. This well-played maneuver was a great way to make the best of the situation and let the hype about the race overshadow the possible branding nightmare.

The speed at which these story lines unfolded illustrates just how important it is to be monitoring your brand. But that’s only going to give you a fighting chance. The way you address the concerns of your consumers is going to mean the success or demise of your reputation in the long run.

Marshall Kirkpatrick’s “This Machine Eats Tweets” on ReadWriteWeb started an interesting conversation last week by asking if corporate social media engagement is helpful or intrusive.

After a negative experience with Comcast Cable, Marshall wrote a sarcastic tweet about the company’s customer service. He received a message from Comcast on Twitter, asking if Comcast could help.

Seems like a fairly innocent, even positive exchange. But Marshall quickly realizes that Comcast most likely received some sort of automated notification of their company’s twitter mention. He posits that:

• It’s “deeply disturbing” to have a media monitoring or CRM system between customer and company (though he acknowledges that it’s unrealistic for large companies to monitor and respond to social media without technology).
• While an interaction may look like a simple exchange to the customer, the company is collecting and applying information from his/her profile (past interactions with companies,  background, influence, etc).
• Social media monitoring opens the way for marketing/sales attempts through SM platforms.

There are a lot of great comments on the post, many of which address Marshall’s concerns.

• Michael Downs mentions that some companies are using this information as an opportunity to improve customer service.
• Marcel LeBrun points out that the interaction was genuine as (at least in the case cited by Marshall) the company spokesperson has an ongoing presence on Twitter, is available to form a relationship with and personally responded to Marshall’s concern.
• Richard Petersen contributes a great list of ways that companies really can go wrong in social media engagement:

“When the company violates the norms of online social communications – spamming (as you noted); pretexting and/or astro-turfing; outsourcing your identity to others to act on your behalf; selling or upselling instead of offering  help authentically; or violating the network’s terms of service or APIs.”

• Coldbrew suggests that media monitoring tools make it difficult for companies to maintain authenticity.
• Martin Edic gets the gold star for his comment that all of this information is submitted to public forums.  If you don’t want companies to see it, make it private.

Despite the discussion surrounding media monitoring tools, I think Marshall’s main concern in the motivation of companies who engage in social media. They may decide to only respond to influentials’ complaints, or only negative comments, or only to expressions of need/sales opps.

And that’s not engaging in a “real” conversation.

But the probability of a company accidentally stumbling on your Twitter profile and genuinely wanting to have a conversation with you is…well…not very high. That person is getting paid to address your concern, to improve consumer satisfaction, to increase profits. That’s how companies work.

When you call the customer service number of a corporation or send them a help email, you’d better believe that they are looking up how much money you spend with them and how much of a pain in their ass you are, just like service reps on social media are looking at your past tweets and follower count. But maybe Average Joe’s new-found ability to trash a vendor to a few thousand of his closest friends will get him closer to VIP status.

Marshall’s concern about marketing and sales pressure through social media channels is already coming to pass. I see this every day. And sometimes do it myself.

When someone asks how to measure social media, I sent them a link to resources. When someone asks about how to  monitor their media, I answer their question. When someone asks for a recommendation, I introduce our firm.

Everyone will have a different idea of what crosses the line between helpful and intrusive, but I think social media has an advantage in finding its own happy medium – companies are listening.

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If you’re looking to capitalize on Oprah’s show last week as well as the publicity generated by Kutcher’s million user showdown with CNN, then you’re probably interested in getting involved with Twitter — a great place to increase your exposure to the social media savvy.

The trick to Twitter is to keep things targeted, and only Tweet with real “value” — snippets or links that people will actually find insightful or useful. Let’s face it, Kutcher and Oprah have an overwhelming advantage when it comes to Twitter — their own celebrity — and making the platform work for your organization is going to take some strategy, patience, and a bit of luck.

While is is nice to achieve a following of epic proportions, Twitter really won’t do anything for you unless the relationships you make on the site add value to your organization. The first step here is to identify influential Twitterers within our target niche (your organization’s target market) and begin conversing with them. Use Twitter’s search features to find content that relates to your niche or industry. While these people will certainly appreciate a ReTweet, adding insight to their postings and pointing them to relevant, undiscovered slices of the web will be the most direct way to get noticed.

How much  should one Tweet? There’s no straightforward way to answer this, and there are multiple correct responses. An account that has dozens of Tweets a day will annoy users and come off as “spammy”, but an inactive account won’t do you much good either. I would let quality be the barometer for what you should or shouldn’t Tweet; quotas might encourage lackluster Tweeting, or conversely curb quality conversation. As a general rule, if a Tweet doesn’t contain original insight, perspective, or content, I tend to pass on posting it.

Twitter is all about conversation. Responding to direct messages, Tweets, and mentions should become a daily occurrence.  Using a Twitter App might streamline your Twitter-related workflow.

Facebook is a completely different game. While they’ve recently been making efforts towards joining the real-time conversation, Facebook is more about a static presence and providing a reference for addicted users rather than the “here and now” of Twitter. Provide real contact details, and make sure your organization’s page looks friendly and professional. If you prefer, you can integrate Facebook to distribute your Twitter announcements — more on this in part 5, when we orchestrate our social media to work together as a well-oiled machine.

At this point, we’ve begun creating our own original social media with an overall strategy in mind, keeping good etiquette practices in mind. The next step will consist of expanding readership and exposure through news sharing services such as Digg and Delicious, and finally we’ll wrap things up in an involved, step-by-step example of integrating all of these web layers into our home URL.

Study: ROI May Be Measurable in Facebook, MySpace After All – Ad Age

The Future of Social Media Monitoring – ReadWriteWeb

Measuring Social Media ROI: Does size matter? Social Computing Journal

Understanding Digital Media Measurement – Digiday

How to Measure ROI for Social Media and the Long Sales Cycle – Deckers Marketing

The Retweet Is One Of The Best Measurements Of A Brand’s Success – Six Pixels of Separation

Does Twitter Monitor Its Brand? Fake-Twitter.com Suggests No – Danny Brown

Three Steps for SocMed Solution Shopping – Spiral16

How Do You Convince Executives that Social Media Marketing, Blogging and SEO Are Important? – HubSpot

Please leave any great articles that I missed as a link in the comments.

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There are lots of differing opinions on who is best suited to analyze media coverage. Some say it must be done in-house as company employees are the experts on their own issues and initiatives. Others say PR firms are best because they understand how to track and analyze media and public outreach efforts. Then you have analysts from your monitoring firm who may have the most objective perspective.

Each of these options comes with a unique set of pros and cons. But I believe that the “who” in media analysis is less important than the “how”. Quality media analysis can be ensured through two steps.

1. Make the rules

We have a written protocol for every single client. These instructions outline:

- Features of the system and how to use them.
- A list of article tags.
- An explanation or definition of each tag.
- Instructions on how to apply to the tag.
- Examples of how (and how not) to apply the tag.

We have protocols that are 2 pages long and some that are more than 100. They are a valuable tool regardless of the project’s scope:

- As a reference for analyzing media coverage that is unusual or complex.
- As training material for new media analysts.
- As a reference for performing quality control.
- As a means of communication between client and analyst – so the client understands how their coverage is being analyzed and can provide feedback.

2. Enforce the rules

Quality control on media analysis is essential. Even the best analyst will occasionally misread a mention or click the wrong tag button. So it’s important to have a system in place to catch these mistakes.

Your quality control procedure will depend on a number of variables but, in general, we follow these guidelines:

- Daily quality control checks ensure corrections are timely.
- Documented corrections allow the analyst to review their mistakes, and allow the supervisor to determine if there is an ongoing issue. If a mistake is made repeatedly, re-training on part of the protocol may be necessary.
- Special coverage needs special handling. We keep track of any publication, tag or other coverage attribute that is consistently challenging (or especially important), search these out and ensure thorough quality control.
- More opinions help reduce subjectivity. For “borderline” tag situations, we consult a group of analysts for opinion. This is especially useful on tags such as sentiment where objectivity is more difficult.

Creating guidelines for analysis and ensuring those guidelines are followed will get you pretty far in developing meaningful media analysis. But let me throw a few more buzzwords at you.

1. Training

Analysts need to be experts on their client’s protocol. Depending on the complexity of the coverage and the frequency of tag changes, refresher training may also be warranted. Thorough training also reduces the time required to complete quality control procedures by reducing mistakes.

2. Consistency

The absolute most important quality in a media analyst is consistency. Obviously, it’s important to analyze each mention accurately, but far more important is to analyze each mention as all comparable mentions have been analyzed.

Consistency ensures that you can compare data points – this quarter to last quarter, this year to last year, this year to 5 years ago – and know that you are drawing accurate conclusions.

3. Transparency

The end client should have access to the protocol, the analysis reports and the underlying data. This transparency ensures that the analysts are accurately analyzing the data and faithfully translating the information into reports.

Follow Hannah on Twitter for more rules and/or regulations.

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Last week, we took a look at creating a home URL and covered good starting practices for a bit of internet marketing. This would have been adequate as recently as 2006, but the internet has become more modular and intricate since then. Social media portals have become mini networks themselves — this guide was written to help readers use these mini networks to drive traffic to their home URL, thereby increasing revenue and message spread. Let’s get started.

A good starting place for any organization is Check Usernames. At this website, you will be able to check for user name availability at a plethora of social media websites. This will aid us in choosing an appropriate username for professional use. Your username should be the name of your organization or a recognizable variation. I find Check Usernames to be a very convenient tool, because I prefer usernames to be more or less consistent from site to site in attempts to create a consistent online presence. Make sure to use your top level domain e-mail contact (the e-mail service provided by your home page URL) or create one in Gmail.

First, let’s create a shortlist of social media sites that are appropriate for your organization. Twitter is currently universal, and a Facebook page is easy to make. Unless you’re a twenty year old DJ or in a local alt rock band, it would be advisable to steer clear of MySpace, which lacks proper quality control suitable for a professional organization. Social news sharing sites like Digg and del.icio.us (now just delicious.com) can be used to promote home URL blog posts. These four websites will be a good starting point for our purposes:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Digg
• Delicious

With just registering for these four networks, we’ve already begun our process of using social media traffic to increase our exposure. Make sure to use strong passwords, as company or organizational social media accounts are valuable to hackers. After you’ve registered, take a moment to read through the website FAQ to get an idea about how each functions.

We’ll begin our strategic use of these social media profiles next week, but it could be useful to blog about your newly registered accounts. For a complete newcomer to the social media scene, take a while (more than a day) to peruse the various networks to see how other individuals and organizations are using them. Take notice of any differences you see between professional organizations and individual internet users, especially on Twitter and Facebook.

In the next round of our guide, the raw content will commence. I will take you through Twitter and Facebook etiquette, strategies, and optimization tips. Part four will focus on blog and website promotion through social news sharing websites (mainly Digg and Delicious, though much of the information will apply to others as well). In the last installment of the series, we’ll bring it all full circle and tie our social media accounts back into our home URL using plug-ins and blogging strategies.