Eevon

"I’d love to see the social media conversation turn more towards integrating social media into the overall marketing mix..."

I'll love to see that happening too.

I'm gonna get 1 for myself and 1 for dad. Then we shall exercise together!!!
:D

Beyond the Badge: Big Media Brands Strike Foursquare Deals

'Checking In' Becomes Branded, Carries Incentives for Users

Posted by Allison Mooney on 02.08.10 @ 11:25 PM

Brands seem to be tripping over themselves to align with hot mobile startup Foursquare.

After Pepsi, Tasti D-Lite and Metro News dipped their toes, a wave of media brands including Bravo TV, HBO, Warner Brothers, Zagat and the History Channel are now testing the waters, experimenting with the platform in new and interesting ways.

These new deals represent an entertainment trifecta for Foursquare -- network TV, cable TV and movie studios. Last week Bravo announced integration for select shows. Today, Warner Brothers began a promotion for their star-studded movie "Valentine's Day." HBO also appears to be rolling out an effort for "How to Make It in America," a New York version of "Entourage." And the History Channel says it is also in the midst of partnering with Foursquare, though details are still being worked out.

"Entertainment brands are in an interesting spot," says Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley. According to Crowley, viewing behavior is changing. People are watching shows with computers on their laps or phones in their hands--multitasking while they watch, communicating about the content, or just killing time during commercials. Some shows have tried to harness this behavior with text to vote options ("American Idol," many Bravo shows), Twitter feed streaming (Current TV, Fox's "Fringe"), and interactive game play (MTV's Backchannel).

--> Foursquare is offering another channel through which media companies can reach fans. The opportunity is to extend engagement beyond the screen--both television and computer--and into real life. On Foursquare, "when users are out, they get pings from these show reminding them about it. This has potential to get people thinking about the brand and the show," says Crowley.

So what do these "pings" entail exactly?

Once they have opted in, messages are pushed to Foursquare users through branded "tips" and "badges."

When users "check in" at a venue on Foursquare, they can see notes, called "tips," left by friends. In these campaigns, brands have left tips at selected locations, which users that add them as a friend can receive. These tips are generally related to the show/movie's characters or themes. So for example, followers of Valentine's Day on Foursquare will see tips about the most romantic places and experiences in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston.

-->

For HBO's "How to Make it in America," it seems users will see tips from select publishing partners including Blackbook, Urban Daddy, Flavorpill, Racked and Eater. While HBO has declined to comment on this campaign (its agency, phd, says it is still finalizing major details) branded tips are live, and the network has begun to follow certain Foursquare users. According to the page's copy:

 

Hustle your way in to the NYC scene with HBO's How to Make It. Unlock one or all four of the badges: Culture, Living, Cocktails, and Nightlife. Need some tips? Check out these sites Blackbook, Eater, Racked, Flavorpill, and Urban Daddy for more game.

 

Then tune-in to HBO on Sundays at 10pm to follow Ben and Cam, two enterprising Brooklyn twentysomethings as they hustle their way through New York City, determined to achieve the American Dream.

 

Using bits of content, it seems HBO is hoping fans live vicariously through the characters and emulate their lifestyles. The Bravo integration is structured similarly, with tips from the channel's contestants and judges.

Another feature of Foursquare's brand integration is the "badge." Users earn badges based on where they check in; checking in at a gym frequently can earn them a "gym rat" badge, for example. Bravo, WB and likely HBO are using these as incentives to visit the places they've curated with tips. When users check in at a few of the romantic venues suggested by "Valentine's Day," they unlock a movie-themed badge, for example. These badges can even be tied to real-life rewards, which Bravo is doing through sweepstakes entries, awards and coupons.

In effect, these tips and badges turn brand into curator, guiding fans through a city, similar to Project Runway's "Guide to New York" on Socialight in 2007 and even Nike's recent True City iPhone app.

This brand activity is terrific for Foursquare's bottom line, but what will users think? Can brands be integrated seamlessly and add value to the experience? Or will users smell spam and run to Gowalla?

"Of course we are scared that everyone will hate it," says Tristan Walker, Foursquare's business development brain. But seeing as they're being called the "next Twitter," the company is in a position to be picky about its partners. If all they want to do is push messages to as many users as possible, Foursquare is not interested. "We've gotten a ton of interest from various entertainment brands," says Walker, "but we've gone with the ones that are relevant to our platform and can be made seamless to our user experience."

Media brands are an easy fit, too. They can provide content -- not "ads" per se -- that betters Foursquare as a whole. While some users may leave not-so-useful tips, they can effectively tell brands what to write. "You can guide them to come up with the best things that represent the elements of their show," says Crowley. And not only are they putting quality content into Foursquare, but they are also promoting the platform itself, investing in it with media dollars. Crowley hopes that this mainstream promotion will help them cross the chasm from "tech early adopters" to "normals."

 

 

--> Zagat's new integration will also lend more quality "professional" content to the service and help it reach new users. The restaurant review guide has populated five cities with tips that share their expertise--things like drink deals, the best times to dine, and what entrees to order. By checking in at Zagat-rated locations, users can unlock a new "foodie badge" and those that frequent a place most often might be featured on Zagat.com through a "Meet the Mayor" series.

 

Zagat's Ryan Charles says that Foursquare is a natural progression for them beyond iPhone, Android and the mobile web. "There is an obvious synergy between Zagat's expertise in helping people make quick, informed dining decisions and Foursquare's location-based platform," says Charles.

 

 

--> The reaction to Bravo's campaign has thus far been overwhelmingly positive. Foursquare is actively monitoring the results, getting feedback and seeing what worked and what didn't. "We don't want to be explicit in our advertising," says Walker. "We want to do it in a smart way, one where we can iterate upon the model without losing users. The fact that these campaigns are opt-in helps a great deal."

 

While most of the brands launching campaigns now are likely hoping for first mover cred rather than meaningful user numbers, monitoring and analytics will ultimately help Foursquare prove its value to brands. It has no CPMs, no traffic numbers, no "impressions." It is admittedly still trying to figure out its metrics, but they will be based on "engagement" over pure reach. "The challenge is going to be redefining what engagement really means," says Walker. "Is it tip unlocks? Check-ins at recommended places? We are working with these brands to find engagement metrics that work, and we are painstaking about getting feedback from them and build that analytics set that makes sense." According to Heather DiRubba from the History Channel, "the reason we are looking to get involved with Foursquare is because History is very active in the Facebook and Twitter communities, and we see partnering with Foursquare as a whole new way to deepen our social engagement with our fans."

In the future, expect to see more tangible rewards tied to Foursquare promotions with big brands. Zagat's Charles sees this as key to its growth. "As Foursquare expands from a social game to a platform that offers real-world incentives for users (like discounts and specials), their reach will undoubtedly expand." This will also provide an opportunity to better tie Foursquare brand campaigns with buying behavior. Did people actually watch the show or see the movie? Providing a trackable discount that users could redeem at a theater could help close this loop. Indeed, Walker sees education of the content distributors as the next logical step.

Foursquare is a young platform. But unlike most startups in their "experimental" phase, it is lucky enough to have big-name brand dollars to play with. While it walks the line between growing the ecosystem and monetizing it, Foursquare is hoping these things are not mutually exclusive. "We will build a product that is great for brands based on their needs," says Walker, "but only those that value the platform and want it to succeed."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Allison Mooney is VP-emerging trends at MobileBehavior, an Omnicom Group Company, and runs its blog.

In Age of Friending, Consumers Trust Their Friends Less

Edelman Study Shows That Only 25% of People Find Peers Credible, Flying in Face of Social-Media Wisdom

By Michael Bush
Published: February 08, 2010

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Whom do we increasingly trust less? Us.

It's a finding that strikes at the foundation of many a social-media marketing philosophy: Tapping into peer-to-peer networks is a way for marketers to tell authentic, credible stories to consumers whose confidence in corporate CEOs, news outlets, government officials and industry analysts has taken a beating. But according to Edelman's latest Trust Barometer, the number of people who view their friends and peers as credible sources of information about a company dropped by almost half, from 45% to 25%, since 2008.

 

WHOM DO YOU TRUST? Edelman's barometer

Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman, believes it's a sign of the times -- and the lesson for marketers is consumers have to see and hear things in five different places before they believe it.

 

"The events of the last 18 months have scarred people," Mr. Edelman said. "People have to see messages in different places and from different people. That means experts as well as peers or company employees. It's a more-skeptical time. So if companies are looking at peer-to-peer marketing as another arrow in the quiver, that's good, but they need to understand it's not a single-source solution. It's a piece of the solution."

Consumers are a distrustful bunch in general -- the credibility of TV dropped 23 points and radio news and newspapers were down 20 points between 2008 and 2010.

CEOs up
And when asked how credible they deemed the information they get about a company when a "person like yourself" serves as a spokesperson the numbers again dropped. This year 39% of those surveyed felt the messages conveyed by consumer spokespeople was credible compared to 45% in 2009, the biggest drop-off among all categories.

Conversely, CEOs -- who have of late been trotted out as public faces of their companies in times of stress, such as General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre -- saw the biggest year-over-year increase from 17% in 2009 to 26% this year. Other groups seeing increases in the level of consumer trust were government officials (22% vs. 27%), a financial/industry analyst (46% vs. 52%), NGO representative (42% vs. 44%) and academic experts (61% vs. 64%). The only other group to see the credibility of their word diminish was company employees, which saw a drop of three points (31% vs. 28%).

If consumers stop believing what their friends and the "average Joes" appearing in testimonials say about a product or company, the implications could be significant not just for marketers but for the social networks and word-of-mouth platforms selling themselves as solutions to communicating in a jaded world. The influence of peers has been considered the leading rationale for brands' shifting marketing dollars to social media.

In some cases, social networks themselves may be contributing to the decline in trust. Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have allowed people to maintain larger circles of casual associates, which may be diluting the credibility of peer-to-peer networks. In short, the more acquaintances a person has, the harder it can be to trust him or her. Mr. Edelman believes the Facebook component has "absolutely" played a role in diluting trust levels.

A changed game
"When you're seeing so much noise, it's very easy to dismiss a lot of it, and that's a problem marketing messages have had for a while now," said David Berkowitz, director-emerging media for 360i. "Facebook really exemplifies this with the live-feed and news-feed options," he said. "If you use the live feed and have a few hundred friends, some kind of peer recommendation, whether it's explicit or not, appears every couple of minutes and sometimes they come in a matter of seconds. If you're seeing all of that come in, it can be overwhelming."

Not surprisingly, Paul Rand, president-CEO of Omnicom Group's Zocalo Group and president of the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association, said word-of-mouth is more effective than ever. But he does concede the game has changed.

"The mind-set is no longer 'I can just trust it because it's somebody's opinion,'" he said. "It's, 'I can trust that specific opinion because it's someone I know.'"

Another potential reason? People have caught on to the fact marketers are increasingly behind that influential blog post or tweet. Despite regulations regarding disclosure of marketer-driven efforts, consumers may feel that whatever it is these people are receiving from companies positively influences their endorsements.

Christina Smedley, global head of Edelman's consumer practice, said there is still a core group of influencers that can change how people trust and influence the actions of others. And consumers, whether they are close to them or not, will follow their lead.

"There are ... consumers who still only trust the people they see every day or their 120 friends on Facebook," Ms. Smedley said. "But there are those that trust all 380 of their friends on Facebook. And there's opportunity for brands with both groups. If marketers can find those action consumers, they can build campaigns that work through their parameters and get some very good results."

 

 

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Trends change. People still trust but who they trust is the question. In short, key influencers are not static. Time to step up the game. 

"The mind-set is no longer 'I can just trust it because it's somebody's opinion,'" he said. "It's, 'I can trust that specific opinion because it's someone I know.'" Paul Rand, president-CEO of Omnicom Group's Zocalo Group and president of the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association

What 'ThugLife' Can Teach Us About Twitter

This Ignored Demographic Shows What You Can Learn When You Look Beyond Social-Media Elites

Posted by Alan Wolk on 02.09.10 @ 10:24 AM

While most in the social media bubble would have you believe that Twitter's output consists solely of links to "relevant articles," "breaking news stories," "unique insights" or retweets of all three (along with the occasional "what I'm having for dinner" tweet from the latest Asian-Fusion-locavore bistro) a look at Twitter's Trending Topics reveals otherwise.

While the aforementioned geek patter is certainly in there, it's generally dwarfed on the trending topics list by tweets about Disney Channel stars the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus (put out, one can safely assume, by middle-school-aged females) and tweets from another demographic, 20-something African-Americans tweeting in what can best be described as ghetto slang.

(Note: These tweeters may well be Harvard doctoral candidates playing an elaborate practical joke, but the verbiage and profile photos seem to indicate otherwise.)

And what's fascinating is a.) how large and active this demo is; b.) how much their notion of how to use Twitter differs from that of the tech and media crowd; and c.) how much the self-proclaimed "Twitterati" like to pretend they don't exist. The Twitterati -- the digital/tech/social media specialists who "discovered" Twitter back in 2007 -- will grudgingly debate the existence of tweens on Twitter, as if there were a real possibility that 31-year-old programmers in Palo Alto were tweeting endlessly about Miley Cyrus -- but I have yet to see any mention of this young African-American demo.

And that's too bad, because the way these folks use Twitter is more universal, more inclusive and more fun than the way the experts generally suggest using it; most of their tweeting is around broad topics that invite clever responses, rather than current topics that invite the sharing (or, more accurately, showing off) of knowledge. As I write this article, the hashtag "#ThugLife" has been in the top 10 all week, and a poster on the Brizzly app describes its popularity thusly: "Users are tweeting their 'baddest' things they've done, as like a thug."

Which is sort of half right. The tweets are not serious nor are they meant to be taken seriously. They're jokes, and the hashtag serves as a sort of "can you top this" repository of over-the-top "thug" behavior.

So @Quenette_VA, who describes herself as a "college student & music lover," tweets: "I'll fil a zip lock full of baby powder & throw it into a crowd of crack heads #thuglife via @o_so_bad) LMAO!!!"

And @iPutYouOn, who says he is "Gods son...MyMothers child...and my Brothers Keeper," notes: "I just cut the sleeves off my snuggie #thuglife"

@Ghostwrita® of East Atlanta, goes for the literary allusion with "I read a Clifford the Big RED Dog book out loud in front of a group of Crip gang members. #thuglife"

The main thing to note here is that, unlike many of the Silicon Valley and Alley Twitterati, who take themselves and their tweets oh-so-seriously, this crew is having fun. The tweets are meant to be funny, and the funniest and most outrageous of them will wind up getting retweeted. Yet despite the fun and the humor, the flow of the hashtag is uniquely Twitter-like in that it mixes people who already know each other with strangers who are interested in the same topic -- or joke, as the case may be.

It's an interesting use of the medium, and the people participating in these hashtags seem to be getting as much value out of them as the Twitter-Is-a-Serious-Business-Tool types who busily append words like "Genius!" to their retweets of a fellow blogger's "Top 10 Reasons Location-Based Services Are the New Twitter."

So then why won't the powers that dominate the tech and business press admit that this demographic exists and that they use Twitter as much, if not more, than the stereotypical power user? Could it be because they're actually having fun with Twitter and that's a no-no? Twitter is, after all, supposed to be serious. So while the Twitterati trip all over themselves to point out the noble Iranian students using Twitter to further the revolution, a bunch of trash-talking 20-somethings from a markedly different social group are just not the image they want to project. Even if they do dominate the trending topics list week in and week out?

It's too bad, because there's a lot that both technology and marketing types can learn here.

To begin with, technology consistently evolves in unpredictable ways. And in the same way YouTube was supposed to be a place to share videos of your kids' birthday parties with grandma and grandpa, we now see how Twitter can be a way to share something other than "valuable links" or "crowd-sourced information." In fact, it can even be a passive medium; for every person posting to threads like #thuglife," I'm sure there's someone else just sitting back, reading the tweets and laughing.

That leads us to another valuable lesson, this one for marketers: People like to have fun and be entertained wherever they are -- even Twitter. Given that the conventional wisdom is that Twitter is only good for customer service, to share information or to run giveaways, the news that it's also a great way to entertain the troops is a real breakthrough. One that can lead to expanded use for the medium in more creative ways than just issuing press releases as bit.ly links.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alan Wolk is the founder of the creative strategy consultancy (and blog) The Toad Stool.

I guess being a thug is not so bad afterall :)

s - the impact on your legs from running can be up to 12 times your weight, so it's preposterous to believe a half-inch of rubber is going to make a difference.

When it comes to sensing the softest caress or tiniest grain of sand, your toes are as finely wired as your lips and fingertips. It's these nerve endings that tell your foot how to react to the changing ground beneath, not a strip of rubber.

To help prove this point, Dr Steven Robbins and Dr Edward Waked of McGill University, Montreal, performed a series of lengthy tests on gymnasts. They found that the thicker the landing mat, the harder the gymnasts landed. Instinctively, the gymnasts were searching for stability. When they sensed a soft surface underfoot, they slapped down hard to ensure balance. Runners do the same thing. When you run in cushioned shoes, your feet are pushing through the soles in search of a hard, stable platform.

'Currently available sports shoes are too soft and thick, and should be redesigned if they are to protect humans performing sports,' the researchers concluded.

To add weight to their argument, the acute-injury rehabilitation specialist David Smyntek carried out an experiment of his own. He had grown wary that the people tellin

I'm kinda enjoy running! 2.5 rounds non-stop around the stadium yesterday!

This article originally appeared in The Art of Self Promotion.

Don't you hate it when a prospect calls with a (supposedly) urgent need for your services? You drop everything to do an estimate, you begin to clear your schedule to make room for this new project, you submit the quote, and then you wait. And you wait. When you don't hear back, you call to follow up and they say they haven't had time to look at your proposal yet. You wait some more and, though you dread it, you call again. Or maybe you don't. In any case, you never hear from them again.

This happens all the time -- not just to you -- and there's little you can do about it. Here's what it may look like from your prospect's perspective: On the day they called, this project was at the top of their list; the next day, something else came along that took priority and kept pushing the project further and further away, until it was on a permanent back burner. They never bothered to let you know, probably because they didn't have time. Or, more likely, they got caught up in their own world.

The reality is you can't control your prospects, and it's almost impossible to know in advance if a lead is a good one or if the project you're quoting will go anywhere. On first impression, you can't usually tell the literature collectors from the bona fide prospects. Sometimes you may want to say, "Tell me either yes or no, but don't keep me hanging on like this." But they can't. Only time will tell.

What might help is to know the difference between what you think is going on and what is really go on.

What they say:
I have a project. Could you send your information?
What you hear:
They want me.
What they mean:
They're gathering information on potential candidates.
What to do:
Send your info. Follow up in a week.

What they say:
Your info is here somewhere but I haven't looked at it yet.
What you hear:
They chose someone else.
What they mean:
Other things have come up and the project isn't as urgent.
What to do:
Ask when to call back and keep in touch.

What they say:
I've looked over your materials and they look interesting, but we haven't decided what direction to take. We'll be in touch.
What you hear:
They chose someone else.
What they mean:
Things have changed and the project isn't as important anymore.
What to do:
Keep in touch quarterly for other possible projects.

What they say:
Nothing. No call back.
What you hear:
They chose someone else.
What they mean:
They're busy with other things or maybe they did choose someone else. It's not the end of the world.
What to do:
Keep in touch every few months.

Ilise Benun is a national speaker, the author of several books on marketing and self promotion, as well as the co-founder of Marketing Mentor, a one-on-one coaching program for small business owners.

Copyright © 1999-2008
The Art of Self Promotion
All Rights Reserved.

I really don't want to be creepy -_-

pretty similar to what I'm doing at 24seven :)

Most social media blogs are filled with posts containing articles that have been posted by someone else. Opinions are few and far in between; not including comments. The following blogs all deal with social media and social marketing. They are a source of valuable information for those searching for social media takeaways. Please leave some suggestions and feedbacks in the comment area.

PR 2.0

 

Brian Solis is the first person that comes to my mind when it comes to social media. He is, probably the most prominent thought leaders in the new media arena. His articles often leaves one wanting for more.

Dan Zarella

 

Dan Zarella is a social media marketing and viral marketing scientist; with the credentials to back this claim up. His in-depth analysis behind the science of Twitter makes him the person to go-to when one needs an explanation of how things work.

Chris Brogan

 

Chris Brogan is president of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency and home of the Inbound Marketing Summit conferences and Inbound Marketing Bootcamp educational events. He specializes in building digital relationships for business organizations and individuals.

Logic + Emotion

 

Logic and Emotion is owned by David Armano; the current senior vice president of Edelman Digital, the interactive arm of global communications from Edelman. His blog is about blending strategy with design to look for new opportunities around the Social Web to enhance customer experience.

 ReadWriteWeb

 

ReadWriteWeb is a blog that provides analysis of web products and trends. Their readership revolves around the intelligent audience of web enthusiasts, early adopters and innovators. A must read for the technologically inclined social media enthusiasts.

BuzzMarketing Daily

 

BuzzMarketing Daily is part of a larger website; The KBuzz. They are a Word of Mouth marketing firm that creates and sustains buzz through word of mouth and social media marketing. Their articles revolve around the importance of word of mouth in today’s context.

Social Media Examiner

 

Social Media Examiner is a free online magazine designed to help businesses discover how to use social media tools, increase sales and generate more brand awareness. The site contains comprehensive articles   and videos on how to use social media tools.

Conversation Agent

 

Conversation Agent is owned by Valeria Maltoni, a brand strategist. Her blog content revolves around creating conversations between marketer and customers.

Scobleizer

 

Scobleizer is handled by Robert Scoble who is a technical evangelist. He is currently working at Rackspace and building a community for people fanatical about the Internet called Building 43.

180/360/720

 

The blog is owned by Helge Tennø, a Strategic Director and Digital Planner at digital agency Screenplay in Oslo, Norway. Her blog helps companies and organizations discover why there are valuable in consumers lives and how they can utilize it.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by omgzam: (New Post) 10 Must Visit Social ...', 'type': 'trackback' } , { 'author_name': 'Tweets that mention 10 Must Visit Social Media Blogs | Online Media Gazette -- Topsy.com', 'author_url': 'http://topsy.com/tb/is.gd/66t73', 'date': '01/13/2010 11:04 PM', 'excerpt': '[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Willis Wee, Ignacio, Hairunizam, Hairunizam, Steven Kraus and others. Steven Kraus said: ...', 'type': 'pingback' } ], 'trackback_url': 'http://omgzam.com/social-media/10-must-visit-social-media-blogs/trackback' };

With the increasing number of users on Twitter, a lot of people believe that this could be their silver bullet to save their businesses. But is this true? As I had previously explained in my post; Get Real With Social Media, there are too many people out there proclaiming that they are the go-to person when it comes to social media advices without the substance to back it up.

Twitter is an excellent example of pull medium, where people get to choose how and when they see what you have to offer. Simply put, if your product interests them, they will come to you.

How do we create this interest?

1. Quality content

Content is still the most essential part of promoting yourself or your product, even though nowadays it plays a less vital role in doing so with the rise of community building. Imagine this, you live in a fantastic neighbourhood with little to non-existent crime rate; the community. However, when someone visits your house, they get turned off by the stench of your living room where you have not cleaned up or sort out for god knows how long; the content. Would people want to stay in that house of yours and have a chit-chat over a cup of coffee?

The above is a little analogy that I tell my friends when they insist that community is now king and content is dead. To add on to the above example, if you have a great content, people will continue visiting your house compared to a one-off deal; repetitive visits. From there, you can then build a relationship with your visitors and ensure that very important visitor loyalty.

In Twitter context, users will look out for your tweets amidst their Twitter stream and respond to what you are tweeting. Also, they would even visit your personal Twitter page to see your latest tweets and share it with their followers despite you posting it hours or days ago.

2. Reply & Respond

Have you come across a Twitter user where you asked a question through @ mention or D direct message but you do not seem to get a reply from? I am very sure that everyone has come across that particular kind of Twitter user. It does frustrate us that we are not getting a response from the person despite asking personally; provided that you are asking the right kind of questions.

You may not have the time to monitor your Twitter stream of updates from others for a question to pop out, but it will be just as excellent to reply to any replies through your mentions and direct messages. When I say reply, do it personally, not through auto-replies; that just shows a lack of involvement and insincerity which may highly lead to being ignored.

Another way to be proactive in responding to questions of your niche market is use a third party-application like TweetDeck. You can do this by creating a column and then searching for the key words that are tied to your niche market. Be known as the person that has all the replies to certain questions regarding your niche market. People will soon take notice and place you on a higher importance scale in their Twitter stream.

This point works hand in hand with the first point to have a great content because no matter how good your content is, if you ignore directed questions at you, you too will be ignored in return.

 3. Engage Everyone In Your Conversations

You also want to be known as a discussion-starter, a thought leader. Ask your friends and followers relevant questions that are of their knowledge or you could also engage them in active discussions about a breaking news or hot topic. A great tool to have when holding discussions on Twitter would be using LiveFyre.

LiveFyre helps discussions to be held continuously by a large margin. The introduction of threaded comments where you can see every discussion topics through a single glance, assists users to keep their arguments or opinions in context of the conversation.

Everyone wants to be heard, so do you. Before you can be heard, hear them out. Engage them, listen to what they have to say and then you can add your opinion. This part of relationship building with your followers can never be skipped or cut into a shorter time frame.

4. The Human Touch

There is a huge difference between being on social media and being engaged in social media. Social media here refers to Twitter in the context of this article. No one wants to talk to a bot or someone who does not listens to them. Be that person who does, even if you are using Twitter to promote a company or a brand, you want to have that human touch behind that username and logo of yours because people like doing business with people.

If that is not sufficient, join or organize a tweetup. Most people are very different from how they behave or talk online. The objective of a tweetup is to match the person’s character and face to the username and logo. Also, it helps build a relationship between followers and users at a more personal level, the human level.

Previously, there was a myth that online networking will replace offline networking but that apparently got busted by previous article. The experience is different; immensely different.

Conclusion

If you are really serious about getting involved in social media, you need to have the time for it. You cannot do it half-heartedly because people will notice the amount of effort you put in. From there, they will judge how sincere you are. If you are not, goodbye to the initial interest shown by followers and you will just be part of their Twitter noise stream.

Do something, be different and rise above the Twitter noise. No one wants to be part of the noise or get recognized as one. Do share with me your opinions and viewpoints through the comment section.

Over the past week, I’ve had the opportunity to have some great conversations with companies, individuals, and groups looking for my help growing their businesses (as I’ll be leaving Edvisors at the end of the month). There’s been a common question among all of them:

How do we get more traffic to X?

This is the wrong question to be asking, folks. Yes, absolutely, more feet in the door is critical to long term growth, but you don’t start fixing or improving your business at the top of the funnel.

You start at the bottom.

Which would you rather have? A web site with 1 million visitors a year that converts 0.5% of them, or a web site with 20,000 visitors a year that converts 30% of them? Everyone clamoring for more traffic says “I want the million visitors!” but the answer is the latter, in case you’re mathematically disinclined.

Fix your funnel from the bottom up. Why? Two reasons – you make the conversion engine more efficient, so when it’s time to build traffic, you can make use of it, and the further down the funnel you go, the more control over its outcome you have.

If you don’t know what your funnel is, now’s a good time to map it out. I suggest this order:

• Awareness
• Traffic
• Leads
• Customers
• Evangelists

Start at the bottom, which is evangelists, the people who love you so much that they spread your message for free on your behalf. If your product or service sucks, you won’t have evangelists. If your customer service sucks, you won’t have evangelists. Put time and energy into making a killer product and helping people make use of it, and every referral you get from your evangelists will bring gold to your doorstep.

Making customers is a function of sales. If sales can’t take a qualified lead and turn it into a customer most of the time, your sales process is broken or your sales team sucks. Ask your leads why they didn’t become customers, and fix that. Sales force automation tools can give you more insights into aggregate info about who tends to convert or doesn’t convert, but nothing beats asking the folks who didn’t buy.

Making traffic into leads is a function of marketing. You want as many qualified leads as possible – so if you’re not turning your traffic into leads, chances are marketing’s not doing its job demonstrating the value of what you have for sale, or the mechanism for conversion to a lead is broken. Are your web site forms working at all? Have you tested using things like Google Optimizer? If your lead quality is poor, are you asking the right questions and filtering out the garbage before your sales force has to handle it?

Building awareness and getting traffic is what you handle last – as said earlier, the higher up the funnel, the less you have control over the outcome. This is where stuff like search engine optimization, social media, and the variety of traffic building mechanisms come into play, and this is where most folks think you should start, but it’s where you finish.

Make sure the engine is working before you start blinging the shell of your car. More traffic without a conversion engine is just wasting your bandwidth, your resources, and your time.

Photo credit: Chris Brogan

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