ImpactWatch Blog

This week my husband asked me for tips on live-tweeting some conferences he would be attending.  As with pretty much all forms of communication, how you interact depends on the circumstances, who you are and who your followers are. But unless you’re Obama or Bono, most of this advice will apply to you.

General Guidelines:

1.    Don’t overdo it. Tweet only what you would expect to interest most readers.
2.    Attribute quotes. If a presenter or attendee provides good information include their name or twitter handle as the source.
3.    Help non-attendees follow the event. Tweet to announce what is about to happen.
4.    Watch for responses. Regularly check for responses to your tweets or questions about the event so you can respond in a timely manner.
5.    Use an event hashtag (set it up ahead of time) so people can easily follow tweets about the event.
6.    Retweet useful information and insights from conference attendees.
7.    Don’t miss the conference with your face stuck to your Blackberry. Connected with someone at the conference? Meet them by the front door to continue the conversation in person.

Good example tweets:

-    Mr. Smith’s presentation on How to Increase Occupancy During a Recession in 10 mins Room F #hospconf
-    Mr. Smith: Customer service is important but a quality product is still key #hospconf
-    Stop by our booth to pick up new property brochures and free refreshments #hospconf
-    @questioner Our presentation is tomorrow at 2pm in Room B #hospconf
-    Great day at #hospconf tomorrow’s focus is on hospitality in developing countries.
-    After #hospconf cocktails at 8pm. Meet at La Cantina on New York Ave and 16th Street.
-    RT @confattendee Just learned that our company is up 15% in reservations for Oct! #hospconf

Bad example tweets:

-    Eating lunch  [no one cares]
-    Unacceptable response time accounts for 40% of dropped calls [where did you learn this?]
-    Just talked to an important client, wow is he boring [he can read your tweets!!! Don’t do this!]
-    Leaving the conference to hit the bar [Keep it to yourself unless it’s a networking opportunity for conference attendees]
-    [where are your hashtags?!?!]

Live tweeting is meant to enhance the experience of a conference, not replace it. Keep most of your interaction to fellow attendees and, unless you are doing something *extremely* exciting, keep it to around half a dozen tweets per hour.

Remember that your followers who are not interested in the event may be put off by the stream of event-related tweets. Consider what proportion of your followers are in your industry or potentially interested in the event before deciding how much event coverage to send out.

If you want to share comprehensive coverage of an event, consider live blogging with ScribbleLive , CoverItLive or your own blog, so fans aren’t held hostage to your updates. Post a link in Twitter to your liveblogging stream so those followers who are interested know where to go.

Another trick is to leave off the event hashtag when sending tweets that aren’t important enough to share with the crowd, like “@chuckfitz Where are you sitting? I can’t find you!” While the tweet will still annoy your personal followers, it will keep the tweet from reaching people following the event through the hashtag and from appearing on the big screen.

-

Follow Hannah on Twitter.

Chuck Hemann of Dix & Eaton has a fantastic guest post on Social Media Explorer that outlines the critical information that companies should be looking for when monitoring social media. Hemann uses his 5 point overview to help explain to PR clients how “listening” on social media should inform their social media engagement strategy – and why listening is worth the investment.

I think this is a great guideline for people to use while monitoring social media, to help them pick out and organize relevant information – a task that can seem daunting, especially for beginners.

* Who – The first W is “who is talking about you or your products.” Hemann identifies social media influencers and tracks the effect they are having on their readership. He also warns not to dismiss the opinions of average consumers. Very timely advice given that social media platforms have proved themselves as powerful mediums for the viral spread of information and opinions.

* What – The next target to track is “what are your stakeholders saying about you?” Hemann advises monitoring the type of mention and its context in order to decide how to engage the writer. He also cites the importance of determining the sentiment or bias of company mentions, and of tracking your competitors in social media. By watching competitor mentions and responses, you can learn from their successes and missteps in the medium.

* Where – This point refers to the type of source where conversations about you are happening. Whether the mention is on a blog, forum, or Twitter will inform the strategy of your response. Hemann also cautions companies to take care in trying to create or direct the conversation by creating their own blog or forum, and to make sure they have the resources to ensure their efforts are successful.

* When – Another important metric to track is the timing of company mentions. Are mentions driven by season or special events? Companies need to ensure they have the resources ready to listen and engage during busy times and be ready to stimulate conversation during lulls.

* Why – Hemann points out that the “why” of social media often cannot be answered through listening alone. He recommends primary research to determine what motivates stakeholders to talk about your company and products. If this isn’t possible, using the other “W”s can provide partial information.

Hemann goes on to emphasize that information gleaned by social media listening is valuable only for its application in a comprehensive strategy. Listening must also be an ongoing process, not a step taken before engagement then abandoned. It’s important to monitor changes to the five Ws and to modify your social media strategy accordingly.

Read Chuck’s entire post here.

-
Follow Hannah on Twitter.
Follow Chuck Hemann on Twitter.

-

• Social Media ROI? Traditional Is Still More Accepted – Social Media Explorer

• Why Social Media ROI Is The Most Over Debated & Misunderstood Topic? – Social Media Marketing in India

• 5 Ways Sentiment Analysis is Ramping Up in 2009 – Read Write Web

• Mining the Web for Feelings, Not Facts – The New York Times

• Sentiment Analysis Takes the Pulse of the Internet – ken Burbary

• Why Sentiment Analysis is About as Reliable as a Canary in a Coal Mine – Marketing Pilgrim

• Web 2.0 Rule #7: Social media programs are a choice, social media monitoring is NOT – CK’s Blog

• The Single PR Metric and Flying Pigs – Measurement Standard

• You are Crazy not to Measure the ROI of Social Media! – Tac Anderson

• Why Measure ROI of Social Media? – Regular Geek

• Are we too worried with finding the ROI of social media? – Mack Collier

• How To Measure Your Social Media ROI: Don’t – Social Media Today

Tools Lists

• Social Media Monitoring Tools: 26 Free Online Reputation Tools – Dan LaRusso

Presentations

• Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi – The Brand Builder

Photo courtesy of Lara604 on flickr / CC BY 2.0

TwitScoop is a website that shows recent spikes on Twitter and links to users’ postings. In addition, the trends are supplemented with visual data representing mentions over the past few hours. Another cool feature is an animated word cloud, shrinking/enlarging words gradually as they fade in and out of popularity.

I know most people are probably tired of reading about Twitter remixes, but this one is particularly well designed. It’s simple and functional, providing me with informatoin that very well may be relevant to my interests (the now).

In addition, there is a search tool and more information available for trends directly from the home page. Your Twitter credentials will suffice as an account login for TwitScoop. If only their API supported exporting these visualizations, or creating animated word clouds with terms of your choosing — there’d be some real value in that. So far it appears to restrict the API for hot trends (from their home page) only.

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.

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.

Photo courtesy of: Banalities

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.

We spend a lot of time telling clients what to do with their media management programs. But just as important are the things you shouldn’t be doing.

Please DON’T:

1.    Jump Right In

Please, please don’t. Whether you’re doing reporter outreach or engaging customers, you can do a lot of damage in a little time. Start by listening and figure out how your objectives fit with the medium and the individual you are targeting.

2.    Go at it willy-nilly

Media management is ineffective when analyzed piecemeal. You need a comprehensive plan, a system to organize your results and someone/team to oversee the efforts. This is still true if you want to start with a small program and scale it over time. It is still true if you break up tasks to different departments. In order to get big picture insights, someone has to draw the big picture.

3.    Expect overnight results

Media outreach – through any channel – requires a big commitment of time and energy. You get back what you put in, so unless you spend the weeks, months and years to build real relationships*, don’t expect journalists, bloggers or customers to line up at your door.

4.    Refuse to ask for help

If you knew everything there is to know about media management, you probably wouldn’t be reading this post. Don’t wait until you’ve made a muck of things to ask for guidance. Consult your PR/Marketing resources. Ask your media monitoring firm. Hire a consultant. Do a Google search. Get some answers.

5.    Look for standardized metrics

I may have mentioned this (in every post I’ve ever written) but it’s absolutely essential for your media management program to be customized to your needs. Just because a number is important to Starbucks doesn’t mean it’s important to you.

6.    Measure, then sit back and relax

Hello? Why did you just do all of that work? Put that data into action. Don’t just measure to see what you’ve done. Measure to see what you should be doing.

7.    Try to control every mention

You can’t. Don’t try. Use negative brand mentions as an opportunity to show the stakeholder (and everyone else watching) that your brand is honest, transparent and attentive. That doesn’t mean you need to let go of the reins. You should strive to be the most relevant and comprehensive source of information about your company and products.

8.    Wait until you have a reputation crisis

You don’t want to start media management on the defensive – it makes you break a bunch of my other rules. If people are talking about you in any type of media, start now. Get some benchmarks, build a reputation, be ready to respond from a position of strength if things go awry.

Any other potential pitfalls I forgot to mention?

-

*Or you could make a really sensational product, that works too.

-

For more marching orders, follow Hannah on Twitter.

Photo credit: flattop341

#followfriday is a phenomenon in the Twitter community. Essentially, people are tweeting about interesting people that they follow on Twitter to promote and share them with their own followers. In doing this they’re helping to promote and grow their own network.

So you’re following all these new and interesting people, and many of them are probably following you back to find out what you’re all about which leads to an email from Twitter telling you about it.

The email is pretty basic. Here’s an example:

Hi, Chuck Fitzpatrick (chuckfitz).

RedCross (American Red Cross) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out RedCross’s profile here:
http://twitter.com/RedCross

The first thing you’re probably going to do is click on the profile link to learn more about who that is. That’s where Twimailer comes in. It’s a middle-man replacement for the basic email that you normally get from Twitter directly. Check out this screen shot of the email I get now.

The Twimailer email has all of the info you were going to go look up anyway right there in front of you.

• Profile picture
• Full name
• Last 10 tweets
• Number of people they are following
• Number of followers
• Their bio information

Plus it still has the link to their page so you can follow them back. Of course, that’s if they don’t have crazy following and follower counts and their last 10 tweets were about the get-rich-quick plan they want to sell you.

Check out Twimailer and let me know what you think in the comments. And if you want to celebrate #followfriday you can always follow ImpactWatch or me!

How do you know what you know? It’s a question worth asking that seldom crosses people’s minds. When it comes to media literacy, few people stop to critically analyze the sources from which their news originates. After all the prestige and organization is stripped from it, mass media boils down to a story written by a biased individual.

One of the widely recognized normative goals of journalistic media is to remain “objective” and “unbiased”, a lofty and impossible goal. Unavoidable forces such as deadlines, ownership, the author’s personal worldview, editorial influence, and story selection all contribute to media bias. What I’m trying to get at is that news isn’t always fair, and anyone with a vested interest in their publicity should be wary of their perception in the media.

Take, for example, someone recently familiar with media coverage: Sarah Palin. Without speaking to my personal favorability, what comes to mind at the mention of her name? Does the term Malibu Barbie, the popular appearances of Tina Fey, or opinions about wardrobe selection come to mind? In reality, many people were turned off by Sarah Palin. Over her campaign for vice presidency, the media chose to zoom in on certain aspects of her personal life, imagery, and political history (as is the media’s responsibility for anybody vying for a spot as prestigious as she was). Whether you felt Sarah Palin was treated fairly or unfairly is irrelevant to my point: the picture you saw was painted entirely by the media.

Some wisdom can be drawn from this. If revenue is driven by consumers, and consumers are informed by an inherently biased media, it is necessary to “maintain” public image with the public. This is nothing new. Public relations firms have been around since the days of Edward Bernays, and before that in other forms. Building relationships with the public, networking with relevant (and influential) members of the media, and responding to negative criticisms are all key qualitative elements to maintaining desired public perception.

Somewhere along the way, a little thing called the internet came along. It took some time to catch on, but it is unstoppable; a TV-killer. Please take advice from this youngster: Do not underestimate its influence. While traditional media personalities have come to terms and accepted the internet as part of their toolbox (see our newspaper study), nobody could predict the overall influence social media would have on media relations. Tweets and blogs and spaces of all varieties have popped up anywhere and everywhere I seem to be looking. For the first real time in history, a medium with virtually instantaneous feedback has become the norm. Opinions from virtually anybody have the potential to go viral.

That’s where we come in. At IW, we take care of that for you. There is simply too much noise out there to maintain relations the way one could in the golden days. Harnessing the vast scanning capabilities of machines and the sentiment of living, breathing people, we deliver information about brands to people who get it. If you think I’m wrong, you’re probably missing something.