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Social Media Sharing Falling Short? Why You Should Keep Trying.

October 6, 2015

The results of a recent tweet:

Crickets. No clicks, no engagement, nothing. Did anyone even see the tweet? Twitter’s analytics dashboard tells me some of my tweets receive less than 100 impressions. Given that I have close to 7,000 followers, that’s discouraging.

Given results like this, it’s easy to get discouraged. Here’s why.

We’re Results-Driven

My day job as a marketer makes me data-driven and results-driven. Looking at my personal Twitter account with a Marketing lens, I think about where I can optimize. If optimizing doesn’t move the needle, then I ask whether to focus my time on other things.

Lack of Progress is Discouraging

Occasionally, I’ll hit it out of the park with a tweet. But for the most part, I’m hitting weak grounders to shortstop. Making an out.

At the plate, professional baseball players fail most of the time. But they accept that. On social media, we’re less patient. While we want to continually drive in runs, the reality is that most of us hit below .200.

Is Anybody Out There?

If a tweet falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, was it a waste of time? I tweet to provide interesting content to others. If there was no one on the receiving end, then it wouldn’t be worth sharing.

That’s why metrics (like those shown above) are discouraging. I found an interesting article, I tweeted it and 44 people saw the tweet. But no one clicked or engaged with it. Was it worth my time? Read on to find out why those 44 impressions may mean all the difference in the world.

It’s Important to Keep Trying

“Dark social” is a term coined by Alexis Madrigal to reference hidden measures of social sharing. It’s sharing whose data is not captured and tracked. If you tweet an article and I share the link via email or IM, then that share is not captured by Twitter’s analytics.

My Term: Dark Impact

What I’ve come to discover is this:

Dark social also encompasses the hidden impact of your content. I call it Dark Impact.

Your content can have an impact on people, whether they share it or not. Some personal examples follow.

Recently, I saw a close family friend whom I haven’t spoken to in 10 years. Her first comment was, “I see your posts on LinkedIn. I can almost hear your voice in your posts. I learned a lot about what you’ve been up to.”

Via LinkedIn, she was able to learn about my job changes, as well as understand my current interests.

My friend never once interacted with my LinkedIn posts. I had forgotten we were even connected!

But there sure was an impact to my shares.

LinkedIn, Part 2

At a neighborhood block party, I chatted with neighbors who happen to be retirees. I’m connected with them on LinkedIn. At the block party, they told me they enjoy the content I share on LinkedIn.

One neighbor commented to another, “You should connect with Dennis on LinkedIn for the posts that he shares.”

Another neighbor sees the content I publish via LinkedIn Publisher. “I read your post on LinkedIn. I can’t believe your’s was right next to one by Arianna Huffington,” the neighbor said.

Without speaking to my neighbors, I would not have known the impact my LinkedIn activities made with them.

I had no idea they read my LinkedIn Publisher posts.

Twitter and Blogging

At meetups and events, I’ll meet someone who says, “I think I recognize you from Twitter.” They had seen content that I shared, or saw retweets from users with large followings. Once, I met someone at an event who said, “Aren’t you the person who blogs about virtual events?”

Remember the 44 impressions I mentioned earlier? NONE of the people behind those impressions engaged or interacted with my tweet. But SOME remember me simply for the fact that I tweeted.

The tweet may have been meaningful, it may have been irrelevant. But I tweeted. And as a result, I was remembered for it.

My Twitter and blog metrics may show low clicks and minimal engagement.

But it’s making a difference with someone, somewhere.

What to Do?

Keep trying. Don’t get discouraged. Don’t give up. Share useful information. Whether you realize it or not, you’ll make an impact.

Next, leave home and get out of the office. Meet new people and network. That’ll help connect your social media activities with the people you’re impacting. It’ll shed a light on the dark impact.

Leave a Comment » | Social Media | Tagged: blogging, dark impact, dark social, Linkedin, social media, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Dennis Shiao

Improve Your SlideShare Marketing with These 10 Fun Facts

November 16, 2013

Introduction

At DNN, we produce 1-2 webinars per week on topics ranging from online community to content management to website optimization. Recently, we created a SlideShare channel to host all of our webinar presentations. It was a convenient solution for distributing slides to our webinar viewers. And, it would help widen the reach of our webinar content.

Results Have Exceeded Expectations

In the three months since launching our SlideShare channel, our presentations have received 40,000+ views, 47 Likes, 186 downloads, 317 Facebook shares and 180 tweets. One of our webinar presentations, in fact, generated 10,000 SlideShare views during the first week it was posted.

Let’s consider ten fun facts about SlideShare that can help inform your SlideShare marketing.

10 Fun Facts About SlideShare

1) SlideShare has 60 million monthly visitors.

According to their “About” page, SlideShare has 60 million monthly visitors and 130 million monthly page views. They’re among the top 200 most visited websites in the world. It’s a no-brainer, folks: extend the reach of your content (for free) to a potential audience of 60 million people.

At DNN, our webinars might reach thousands of people. With our SlideShare channel, we have the potential to reach millions. As a bonus fun fact, more than 10 million presentations have been uploaded to SlideShare. Check out a neat infographic from SlideShare that marked the occasion.

2) Hyperlinks (in slides) are clickable.

It’s true that Penguin, Panda and Hummingbird have changed the dynamics of SEO, but links are still a primary currency of the web. When creating your presentation, be sure that any links become true hyperlinks. I’ve found that hyperlinks (on SlideShare) are not clickable on Slide 1, but are clickable on all subsequent slides. On the DNN SlideShare channel, our presentations have generated 95 clicks to external pages.

3) Infographics are liked 4x more than presentations, and 23x more than documents on SlideShare.

Earlier this year, SlideShare announced support for infographics. Since then, they’ve published data points that compare engagement and interaction between infographics and other content formats. Just save (or convert) your infographic to PDF, then use the standard “Upload” process in SlideShare. It will detect that the uploaded document is an infographic and place it in “Infographics” tab in your SlideShare channel. We recently published an infographic, “Top 10 Blogs Every B2B Marketer Should Read.”

4) Your URL is derived from your presentation’s filename.

The structure of your URL is important for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SlideShare auto-generates the URL of your presentation and you’re not able to edit or change it. So name your file to match your desired URL.

I like my SlideShare URL’s to match the title of the presentation. You’re not guaranteed to get your desired URL: if another presentation has the exact same title, SlideShare will append a number to the end of your URL (to make it unique). Don’t name your presentation “My webinar deck with edits from Jon v2”.pptx unless you want those words to appear in your SlideShare URL.

5) You can link to a specific slide.

You’re already using your social channels to promote your SlideShare presentations. Let’s say you wanted to share a surprising statistic on Slide 7, however. It’s not a great user experience to tweet about Slide 7, then drive users to the Slide 1 of your presentation.

SlideShare has an easy solution: to permalink to Slide 7, just append “/7” to the end of your URL and you’re done. Once users land on Slide 7, they can still navigate backward or forward. SlideShare explains further on their blog. In the spirit of sharing a specific slide, here’s a fantastic quote on community management (from a recent webinar).

6) SlideShare supports audio in the form of Slidecasts.

You can upload an MP3 (audio) file and synchronize it to your slide presentation. Side note: I’d like Morgan Freeman to narrate my presentations. SlideShare provides step-by-step instructions on how to do this.

By grabbing the audio track from your webinar (and then doing the synchronization), SlideShare can be a convenient place to host on-demand webinars!

7) You can easily embed SlideShare presentations on web pages.

You can embed any SlideShare presentation onto a web page, including those published by others. By embedding your own, you play the role of promoter or syndicator. By embedding presentations from others, you play the role of curator and commentator.

When viewing the presentation on SlideShare, simply click the “Embed” button at the top of the player. Copy the HTML code for use on your site (or blog). You can also copy a “shortcode” for WordPress.com blogs. Using embedding, we generated 10,000 SlideShare views in one week (for a webinar presentation).

8) You can link your SlideShare account to your LinkedIn account.

By linking these two accounts, activity on SlideShare gets fed automatically to LinkedIn and seen in the Newsfeed of your LinkedIn Connections. As you upload new presentations or “Like” existing ones, your LinkedIn Connections will know. Check out how you can use this to share social media content in five minutes a day.

9) You can share your videos on SlideShare.

Presentations, infographics and audio, oh my. Now comes video. Yes, you can share your videos on SlideShare, too. Check out this FAQ on videos (from SlideShare) for further details.

10) SlideShare PRO gives you some premium features.

After seeing early results with SlideShare, we decided to upgrade to SlideShare PRO Silver, since it gave us the ability to embed registration forms, as well as a deeper view of analytics. The Silver plan costs $19 a month, so it was a no-brainer. Have a look at this SlideShare for more info on PRO.

Conclusion

We hope you liked our fun facts as much as we liked documenting them. Beyond the fun, we hope you can apply many of these facts to become a more effective marketer on SlideShare. Sixty million visitors are waiting.

Related Resources

The DNN Software SlideShare page.
A Twitter chat I participated in: Tips for Using SlideShare in Content Marketing
Prior post: How a Webinar Presentation Generated 10,000 SlideShare Views in 1 Week

Originally published on the DNN Software blog.

Leave a Comment » | Marketing | Tagged: audio, DNN, Fun Facts, HTML, Linkedin, Marketing, MP3, PowerPoint, slide presentations, Slidecast, slides, SlideShare, SlideShare Marketing, video | Permalink
Posted by Dennis Shiao

How to Share Content on Social Media in 5 Minutes a Day

November 2, 2013

Photo credit: Flickr User purplemattfish via photopin cc

Introduction

Recently, I participated in a webinar produced by Leadtail and DNN. In the webinar, Leadtail presented findings from a recently published Social Insights report. Leadtail analyzed tweets from 500 North American B2B marketers over a 90-day period. One of their findings was a list of the Top 50 People Most Mentioned by B2B Marketers (on Twitter).

Leadtail then analyzed the Twitter activity of these “most mentioned” users and shared insights on WHY they were so frequently mentioned. One of their findings was: “Top influencers tweet a LOT: 10-20+ times daily.”

Finding Time for Social Sharing

During the Q&A portion of the webinar, a very good question was posed to us. The viewer observed that she simply doesn’t have the time to tweet 10-20+ times per day. We answered by saying that the 10-20+ frequency was not set in stone – and that B2B vendors (who aim to reach and influence thought leaders in their market) ought to tweet (and share) at a frequency that’s comfortable to them.

The goal of this post is to show you how to get started with social media sharing in as little as five minutes a day. The post is geared towards individuals (rather than brands), although some tips certainly apply to brands.

If you can find five minutes in your day, I’ve got a system just for you. This is a system that’s proven to work (or your money back). There are a few prerequisites to complete first.

Prerequisites to Complete First

Minimum Completion Time: 2 hours.

Photo credit: Flickr User The Daring Librarian via photopin cc

Sorry to bust your time budget here, but take the time here to do a thorough job with your profiles. If you implement this system well, you’ll be generating attention. And the last thing you want to do is drive attention to half-populated social profiles. Friends don’t let friends leave the default “egg” on their Twitter profile.

Here are the simple steps:

If you don’t have one already, create a Twitter account.
Populate your Twitter profile. Here’s a useful guide on how to do just that.
If you don’t have one already, create a LinkedIn account.
Populate your LinkedIn profile. The LinkedIn blog provides some good tips on this.
If you don’t have one already, create a SlideShare account.
Populate your SlideShare profile. The SlideShare blog provides a good set of tips to get started.
Connect your SlideShare and LinkedIn accounts. Here’s the page to make that happen.

If you already have accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn or SlideShare, I encourage you to check out these articles (above). Still spend the two hours here to complete and optimize your profiles. Believe me, your social sharing will be the better for it.

Sharing Content in 5 Minutes a Day

1) Review presentations on the SlideShare home page (3 minutes)

Visit SlideShare.net. If you’re already logged in, you may get re-directed to your “Newsfeed” page. If so, simply click the SlideShare logo in the upper left to go to the home page. The first place I look is “Top Presentations of the Day,” a set of three presentations curated by the editors at SlideShare.

From there, I proceed in “top to bottom” order, checking out “Featured,” followed by “Hot on Facebook,” followed by “Hot on Twitter,” followed by “Hot on LinkedIn.” Presentations in these lists got there for a reason: they’re good. So it won’t be difficult to find a few that (a) interest you and (b) are worthy of sharing.

Some of the things that catch my attention are (a) an appealing image on the cover slide, (b) a compelling title and (c) slides that give me actionable information.

So take the full 3 minutes here to find interesting presentations and flip through the slides. Every time I do this, I learn something new!

2) Identify the handful of presentations that are share-worthy (1 minute)

Go for quality over quantity. If you share 15 SlideShare’s during a 5 minute burst each day, followers on social media are likely to tune you out (or unfollow you entirely). I recommend going with a set of 2-3 presentations that you found the most interesting.

3) “Like” the presentations on SlideShare (30 seconds)

There are two ways to “Like” a presentation on SlideShare. The first is to find the button at the top of the SlideShare. The second is to mouse over the thumbnail image (e.g. from the SlideShare home page) and click on the “Like” icon that appears.

If you’ve connected your SlideShare and LinkedIn accounts, then the “Like” (on SlideShare) will automatically appear on your LinkedIn profile. This, in turn, “publishes” that update to the Newsfeed of all your Connections on LinkedIn. Guess what? You just shared content on social media.

4) Click the “Tweet” button on each SlideShare (30 seconds)

Clicking the “Tweet” button launches a new browser window with a pre-composed tweet ready for you to review. SlideShare does just about everything you need: it includes the presentation title, auto-generated hash tags and the Twitter handle of the presentation author (if available). All you need to do is review the tweet, ensure there’s at least 10 characters to spare (to make it retweet-friendly), then click “Tweet.” More sharing on social media, completed.

CONGRATULATIONS.

In 5 minutes, you’ve completed Day 1 of this proven program. You’ve successfully shared interesting information on social media.

Benefits of Social Sharing

1) Let the world know what interests you.

In working closely with people, I get to learn about their capabilities and competencies. Tools like Twitter and LinkedIn help round out the picture: I get to better understand their interests and passions. By sharing on social media, the world around you gets to know you better. And that’s a good thing.

2) Become a useful resource.

If you consistently share information that informs others, you’ll become a useful resource to them. Do this consistently over long stretches and you’ll become a trusted advisor. You add equity to your personal brand and you increase the likelihood of being consulted or contacted in the future.

3) Generate some social credibility.

The more you generate Likes, comments, retweets and mentions, the more you become known on social media. From there, the more followers you’ll naturally accrue.

Side note: on LinkedIn, I’ve discovered that “Liking” a presentation on SlideShare will generate more LinkedIn likes (from my Connections there) than my sharing of articles there. How do you “Like” that?

Advanced Activities: Going Beyond 5 Minutes a Day

1) Publish your own SlideShares.

Have you recently provided a webinar or an “in person” presentation? Consider uploading the slides to your SlideShare channel. Remove the logistical slides (e.g. the “Webinar Q&A” slide), so that what remains is the “meat” of your presentation. This can take as little as 5 minutes per presentation. Feel free to tweet your SlideShare, but I’d hold off on “Liking” it (out of concern for being called a narcissist).

Side note: at DNN, we’ve assembled a content-generating machine by simply posting all of our webinar slides to our SlideShare channel.

2) Pre-schedule your social sharing.

Instead of doing all your sharing in a five minute burst each day, you may want to spread things more evenly during the course of the day. This is especially true as you assemble larger collections of content (e.g. more than the 2-3 SlideShares). Experiment with tools like Buffer and HootSuite, which make pre-scheduling a cinch. In addition, if you’re a customer of Twitter Ad Products, you can now do scheduling directly within Twitter.

3) Mix it up: content.

Once you have this formula down pat with SlideShares, expand the five minutes you’re spending each day to branch out into other types of content. For instance, as I read blog posts and articles throughout the day, I ask myself whether to click the “Tweet” button to share the article on Twitter. Make sharing part of your reading routine.

4) Mix it up: destinations.

This post has revolved around SlideShare, LinkedIn and Twitter. Look to share content in other social networks, such as Google+ and Pinterest. Also, consider sharing content to particular LinkedIn Groups in which you’re a member.

5) Add commentary to your shares.

Go above and beyond the “default” share text and include some of your own thoughts. If you find a particular SlideShare compelling, tell us why via the tweet text.

Conclusion

It might seem intimidating (or excessive) to consider doing 10-20+ tweets per day. In reality, sharing content on social media can be quite easy, especially if you make it a part of your consumption routine. For newbies, I recommend starting off with five minutes a day and then building up from there.

I began this post by referring to a Leadtail presentation. I’ve included the full slide deck below.

Leave a Comment » | Social Media | Tagged: 5 minutes, Google, Leadtail, Leadtail webinar, Like, Linkedin, SlideShare, Social Insights Report, social media, social sharing, tweet, tweet button, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Dennis Shiao

How Halloween Reminds Me of B2B Marketers

October 26, 2013

Introduction

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. As a kid, I loved to head out (after dark) and go trick or treating. As a parent, I revel in seeing the enjoyment experienced by kids. You may be wondering: how does Halloween relate to B2B marketers?

Let me explain. Recently, DNN collaborated on a Social Insights Report with Leadtail. The report analyzed 113,039 tweets (from 500 North American B2B marketers) from June 1, 2013 to August 31, 2013. The report then draws a number of conclusions on how B2B marketers engage on Twitter.

To gain access to the report:

http://offers.leadtail.com/social-media-insights-report-b2b-marketers/

Since I reviewed the report so close to Halloween, I couldn’t help but draw analogies between B2B marketers and my favorite holiday.

1) We know where to trick or treat.

Photo credit: Flickr user Joint Base Lewis McChord via photopin cc

The report looked at B2B marketers’ tweets to see what other social networks they’re active on. LinkedIn is the clear winner, as 35% of B2B marketers shared content on LinkedIn. Instagram and Foursquare came in at 18% and 13%, respectively. Facebook registered at 3%, more than 10x less than LinkedIn.

This tells me that B2B marketers know where to trick or treat. Their B2B presence takes them to neighborhoods that make sense for their jobs (e.g. LinkedIn), while ventures into the land of Facebook are reserved for activities outside of work.

The Instagram result (18%) runs contrary to this point. It may be that Instagram is the “shiny new object” that B2B marketers want to experiment and learn from. A number of B2B brands, in fact are using Instagram as an effective marketing tool.

2) We take our kids to familiar houses.

I have a daughter in fifth grade. While I’ve taken her to some “foreign” neighborhoods in the past, I tend to take her to houses for which I know the owner. I think that makes for a safer trick or treating experience.

As we saw with the LinkedIn result, B2B marketers like to share familiar content (i.e. things related to their jobs). Of the 100 most popular content sources for B2B marketers, mainstream media registered at 25%, but industry media came in at a whopping 62%.

3) We know how to provide the candy our visitors want.

Photo credit: Flickr user MzScarlett via photopin cc

A “good house” buys the candy variety pack at Costco. A great house surveys the likes and dislikes of neighborhood kids and tailors their treats accordingly.

Side note: one house in my neighborhood gives out ice cream cones for each kid. They ask which flavor the kid wants, then gives the kid two scoops of the selected flavor in a cone. This is an example of “great.”

B2B marketers tend to retweet content (i.e. share their candy) if they believe “my followers will like this.”

4) We visit the houses with the best decorations.

Some homeowners go to great lengths to create an experience that delights visitors. Great B2B content marketers go to equally great lengths to create content that delights their target audience. The Top 50 vendors most mentioned by B2B marketers are doing something right (hint: it probably has something to do with the content they’re producing and sharing). I’d love to go trick or treating in their neighborhoods.

5) We’re drawn to creative and visually appealing costumes.

Photo credit: Flickr user geckoam via photopin cc

Whether it’s Halloween costumes or content marketing, I’m always amazed at some of the creative concepts I run across. At Halloween, we’re naturally drawn to costumes that are both “different” and visually appealing. If you look at the list of Top 10 most shared social sources, you’ll see a number of visually oriented sites: YouTube, Instagram, Vine and Pinterest.

Conclusion

Hope you all have a safe, happy and fun Halloween – DNN is doing a webinar the day before. We’ve invited our friends from Leadtail to share findings from this Social Insights Report and provide recommendations on how you can most effectively engage B2B marketers. Don’t miss it! Register here:

http://info.dnnsoftware.com/WebinarLeadtail103013_RegistrationLP.html

Originally published on the DNN Software blog.

Leave a Comment » | Marketing | Tagged: B2B Marketers, DNN webinar, Facebook, halloween, halloween candy, Instagram, Leadtail, Linkedin, Retweet, Social Insights, Social Insights Report, trick or treat, Twitter, Vine | Permalink
Posted by Dennis Shiao

10 Ways to Optimize Your Social Media Channels

September 14, 2013

Photo credit: Flickr user mkhmarketing via photopin cc

Introduction

Some organizations are rocking the house with social media (a few come to mind: Coca Cola, Starbucks, Virgin America). At the same time, many organizations I speak to are challenged to achieve the results they desire using social media.

ON-DEMAND WEBINAR: Social Media Optimization: 10 Tips in 30 Minutes.

The challenge? It’s usually a combination of “lack of know-how” and lack of resources (or both). So here are ten easy steps to take to optimize your social media channels. You can perform these steps in any order.

1) Use consistent branding across channels.

For personal use of social media, I recommend that people use the same profile photo across all social channels. Why? Because followers who know you on Twitter will recognize you on SlideShare.

So the consistent photo removes a barrier to gaining that new follower. For organizations, use the same logo everywhere. Also, if you’re running a campaign, use the same campaign theme across your channels.

2) Strategically hyperlink from profile pages.

Check out all the valuable hyperlinks we’re afforded on the DNN Google+ page. Take advantage of these opportunities. You can drive clicks (to your web properties) from views of your social profile pages.

And, the inbound links will help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Don’t be too cute, however. Make sure your link’s anchor text aligns with the page you’re linking to.

Additional tip: YouTube allows hyperlinks in the description area of your video:

3) Reciprocate.

Gain a new follower on Twitter? Verify they’re a “real” person (vs. a “bot”), then follow them back. It’s a nice gesture on social media to follow back. And, by following back, you get the opportunity to listen to what your followers are saying. On Twitter, following back allows your followers to send you a “Direct Message” (a private message), which is often an effective channel for customer service or related inquiries.

4) Tag (link to) other users.

When I share an article on social media, I like to “link” to both the publication and the author. Why? Because it gets you (or your organization) noticed by the publication and the author (in addition to sending them some good karma). The author may follow you, retweet you or respond to you. In turn, the author’s followers may decide to follow you. In short, good things can happen.

5) Learn the tricks of the trade of each social network.

Using the “retweet” button on Twitter. Setting up a Google+ Hangout. Managing your Circles in Google+. Each of these things is unique to that service: get to know these unique features well and your use of that service becomes more effective.

6) Measure, evaluate, adjust.

Become BFF’s with analytics (and yes, you really should become best friends forever). Did you know: Twitter now provides free analytics dashboards to all Twitter users (read more on the Constant Contact blog).

Use analytics to evaluate your social media effectiveness across a number of dimensions (e.g. content type, content format, topic, time of day, etc.). Metrics to track include reach, engagement and traffic. Next, draw conclusions that help inform your subsequent social sharing.

7) Mix it up.

I know of professional sportswriters whose Twitter profile is an automated feed of every article they write (and nothing else). While I love their sports writing, I don’t follow them on Twitter. Instead, I follow other sportswriters who comment, respond, retweet and engage. So mix it up: share content, retweet, respond and engage. Don’t be a social media automaton.

8) Engage proactively and respond promptly.

Users on social media can be chatty. And they expect responses to their issues or comments. Your role: listen to what they’re saying and respond promptly. A same-day (or same-hour) response is far better than one that comes tomorrow or next week.

9) Cross-promote your channels.

While your primary goal is to “be useful” on any given social network, there are times when you’ll want to promote your other social networks. Let fans know that you “exist” elsewhere. And, when you’re running events, contests or campaigns on a particular network, use your other channels to drive additional awareness of those activities.

10) Experiment with paid advertising.

Image: a Twitter Ads dashboard for Promoted Tweets.

It’s great that you have a lot of fans and followers on social media. But did you know they’ll miss 80+% of what you post (that’s my own, unscientific estimate)? That’s just reality.

Paid advertising can create a higher likelihood that fans see your content – and, it extends your reach to people not currently following you. We’ve had fun experimenting with it here at DNN.

Conclusion

Social media can drive tremendous value to your organization – and, it can be a lot of fun doing it. I hope you found these tips useful. I presented a DNN webinar on this same topic recently – you can find the presentation slides below.

Originally published on the DNN Software blog.

Leave a Comment » | Social Media | Tagged: 10 Tips, Facebook, Google, Google Circles, Linkedin, paid advertising, Retweet, social media, social media channels, social media optimization, tagging, Twitter, Twitter Ads | Permalink
Posted by Dennis Shiao

10 Ways to Prepare for Your Social Media Manager Interview

August 10, 2013

Introduction

Social Media Manager has become a rather popular position lately. Whether it’s a dedicated or partial position, the function exists within most organizations.

Enterprises, non-profits, small businesses and associations understand the benefits of maintaining social media channels to generate awareness, engage with prospects and interact with customers and partners.

A Friend’s Interview

Recently, a friend of mine was preparing to interview for a Social Media Manager position. He was looking to transition into that position from a related role and asked me for advice on how to prepare for the interview.

Here are ten tips on how to prepare: they’re meant for people who haven’t done the job before.

1) Clean up your social media profiles.

Pictured: privacy settings options on Facebook.

I can guarantee you that your social media presence will be a key consideration for this position. Your prospective employer will look you up on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter (in that order).

Congratulations on passing the “sniff test” – you scored an interview.

That being said, between now and the interview, clean up and optimize your profiles. Professional-oriented sites like LinkedIn are a given; also be careful to review the “Who can see my stuff?” settings on Facebook and un-tag yourself from photos that you wouldn’t want your mom to see.

2) Find and discover the organization’s “brand voice.”

Every organization has a “brand,” which means that every organization has a brand voice. In other words, do some research on your potential employer.

Check their website for a listing of their mission statement or core values (example: the core values of Zappos).

Understand what’s important to the organization, along with their vision for the future. Then, subtly reference some of the information you learned during your interview. When you get the job, you’ll need to tweet, post and pin with the brand voice.

3) Practice being the organization’s Press Secretary.

Photo of Jay Carney via Wikipedia.

Jay Carney is President Obama’s Press Secretary. Like all presidential press secretaries, Carney has a challenging job. He needs to stand up in front of the White House Press Corps and answer questions.

Sometimes he’ll be thrown “softballs,” while other times, he’ll need to address pointed and difficult questions. Carney needs to answer the questions in the “brand voice” of the Oval Office. As a Social Media Manager, your followers on Twitter (for example) are the press corps and you’re the press secretary. So watch a few White House news briefings and see how Carney handles questions.

4) Immerse yourself in the role.

Plan a number of 30-45 sessions during which you observe brands in action (on social media). “Like” some brands on Facebook, both in the target industry and a few outside of that. See how they’re crafting their status updates on Facebook.

Then, venture over to Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and other social networks and observe how brands are using those channels. Pay particular attention to how those brands engage with their audience. You get bonus points for tracking a single brand across channels and figuring out how they uniquely use each one.

5) Be prepared to define ROI.

It’s great that you’re proficient at tweeting, posting and tagging. It’s even better when you can do it in the brand’s voice. Some organizations will want you to take it to the next step and measure the Return on Investment (ROI) of social media.

So do some research on ROI models (for social media) and be prepared to talk through some of them. Then, turn the question around and ask about the organization’s goals with social media. Suggest particular social media metrics that can be assembled to tie back to those goals. The key point: the definition of social media ROI should be unique to each organization.

6) Do research on social media advertising.

Pictured: some of the targeting options available in Twitter’s Promoted Tweets.

There are lots of options for spending money to augment your reach on social media: Promoted Tweets, Boosted Posts (Facebook), Sponsored Updates (LinkedIn), etc.

Do some research on how these work: how are they priced, what are the benefits, how can you measure, etc. If your prospective employer is not yet using these tools, you can score bonus points by planting the seed (with your knowledge).

7) Consider celebrating your outsider status.

Let’s say you’ve never worked in the industry of your prospective employer. Especially for social media marketing positions, employers are starting to look past the “industry experience” pre-requisite.

If the topic comes up during the interview, be prepared with a way to celebrate you outsider status. You may bring a new perspective to the organization’s approach to social media and be able to communicate in a fresh, new way (while maintaining the brand voice).

8) Research agency relationships.

While this may only apply to larger organizations, do some research to see if your prospective employer uses agencies in its social media: PR firms, design firms, interactive agencies, etc. A good place to check is the “Press Release” or “News” pages on their website. Having this information in your back pocket keeps you better informed going into the interview.

9) Think up a creative idea or two.

Do NOT tell your prospective employer what they’re doing wrong on social media. However, it’s fine to observe what they’re doing and think up new and creative ways to do the same thing. Sort of like this: “I noticed you’re doing <this>, have you considered doing <that>?”

10) Research past campaigns and contests.

Take a look at past social media campaigns and contests run by your prospective employer. Understand what they were looking to achieve and how it was received by participants. You’ll have a role in campaigns and contests going forward, so speaking knowledgeably about them during the interview puts you ahead of the pack.

Conclusion

It’s important to remember the “larger calling” of your role. It may be neat to tell friends that you get paid to tweet, post and pin, but it’s all in the context of the organization’s goals.

The social networks are the tools that you use to help achieve those goals. Portray that message during your interview: your excitement about the opportunity is less around social media and more about leveraging social media to advance the organization’s cause.

Leave a Comment » | Social Media | Tagged: brand voice, Facebook, Facebook Ads, interview preparation, Jay Carney, Linkedin, LinkedIn Sponsored Updates, Pinterest, press secretary, ROI, social media, social media ads, social media advertising, social media interview, social media manager, social profiles, Tumblr, Twitter, Twitter Ads | Permalink
Posted by Dennis Shiao

20 Social Media Predictions for 2013

December 17, 2012

Introduction

It’s December, which means that it’s that time of year. Predictions! While 2012 was an exciting year for social media, I find it challenging to look back and characterize it. Was it the year of the mobile app? The year of the pinboard? Pinterest was certainly one of the big stories of 2012.

What will 2013 hold for social media? Let’s explore.

Social Media Predictions for 2013

Social media becomes a “given” and we no longer call it out separately. We use terms like “marketing strategy,” “engagement strategy” and “audience generation strategy,” and NOT “social media strategy.”
Likewise, organizations with “social media” job titles broaden those roles to cover a wider set of responsibilities. For instance, the “social media marketing manager” broadens to become the “marketing manager.”
We see the major players doing more blocking and disabling of each other’s services, not less. The measures taken by Twitter and Instagram (in 2012) were the start of what we’ll see far more of in 2013.
Venture capital will dry up for “pure” social media start-ups. You’ll need to pair your social media offering with a mobile or big data angle – or, whatever will emerge as the hot new thing in 2013.
The “social media darling” of 2013 will be a new app that uses your social graph, your “interest graph” and your location to facilitate face-to-face connections. It’ll have specific features to discourage its use as a dating app.
There will be a drop-off in blog postings on the topic of social media (consider this one an endangered species).
Twitter publishes its definition of “spam user / spam bot” and drops those users from its official registered user count. Its reported user base drops by 20%, but advertisers give them a pat on the back.
One among Klout, PeerIndex and Kred will be acquired for an eight figure sum. My money’s on Kred.
Yahoo! acquires Quora for $800MM. Quora remains an independent site in 2013, but merges its user database with Yahoo’s.
Despite investigations of anti-competitive actions, Google places increased emphasis of Google+ content in its search engine results. This forces social media marketers to tell their clients, “If you’re not on Google+, you lose.”
We’ve gone from blogging to microblogging. In 2013, our sharing isn’t 140 characters at a time, it’s 1 character at a time. As they say on Wheel of Fortune, “Can I have an ‘E’?”
Twitter’s makes further progress with the stability of its infrastructure. The fail whale faces extinction.
MySpace expands beyond music into sports, recreation and other selected hobbies. It makes some acquisitions to grow audience in those areas and becomes the talk of the town at year-end 2013.
After making significant concessions to the Chinese Government, Facebook is made available in China.
As Facebook, Twitter and others focus on growing revenue, their end users experience “ad fatigue” and response rates (e.g. clicks) take a hit.
Finding success on Twitter, The Pope expands to Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. He declines an offer, however, to become a LinkedIn Influencer.
Facebook considers a move into the “data locker” space, figuring that they already have the critical mass of users – and, that it’s more effective than serving banner or text ads. See this related piece on data lockers from the New York Times.
If there’s such thing as a “social media product of the year,” then in 2013 it will be Google+ Hangouts.
Crowdfunding via social media is big. In 2013, it becomes huge.
This post will receive precisely 17 comments. So leave your own social media predictions –and perhaps you can make this 2013 prediction come true in 2012.

Bonus Prediction Number 1

Facebook launches the equivalent of Twitter Cards, so you can embed FB posts across the web (like I've done with this tweet) #prediction
—
Dennis Shiao (@dshiao) December 15, 2012

Bonus Prediction Number 2

This prediction comes from Heidi Thorne (@heidithorne):

In 2013, I think that people will continue to collapse the number of social networks in which they participate to the Big Three: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

YouTube, though I have a hard time classifying it as a “social” site, will continue to dominate the web. Google Plus, while an awesome platform, will continue to struggle to be relevant due to their late entry into the social game, but will be used for unique functions such as Hangouts.

Pinterest? I’m biased, but I think its sizzle will fizzle in the not too distant future. Other social sites, such as the reinvented MySpace, will become, for lack of a better term, “sites.” May have social sharing capability, but would not qualify as social “utilities” such as Facebook or Twitter.

Conclusion

Thanks for stopping by throughout 2012. Hope you had a good year and I hope 2013 is even better. Happy Holidays!

Note: I invite you to connect with me on Google+.

6 Comments | Social Media | Tagged: 2013 predictions, Facebook, Google, Google Hangouts, Klout, Linkedin, Pinterest, Predictions, Quora, social media, social media predictions, social networks, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Dennis Shiao

Let Me Explain: Why I Have Not Endorsed You on LinkedIn

December 3, 2012

Introduction

In September, LinkedIn rolled out Endorsements, “a new feature that makes it easier to recognize them [Connections] for their skills and expertise.” In their Q3 2012 earnings announcement, LinkedIn noted that “members have generated more than 200 million endorsements to their colleagues.”

I contributed just a handful of endorsements to the (quite impressive) 200 million total. While I’m fairly active on LinkedIn, Endorsements is one feature I haven’t used much. Let me explain why.

1) It’s too easy and convenient.

Yes, that does sound counter-intuitive. And granted, LinkedIn wanted to make it easy and convenient, a la the “Like” on Facebook. On Facebook, I’m happy to “Like” a friend’s witty comment or interesting photo. It takes less than a second and provides an endorsement of sorts.

But LinkedIn is a business setting. And if an action takes so little overhead to perform (just a single click), then the meaning and significance of that action is diminished. To “endorse” a post on Facebook is one thing, but to endorse a colleague’s work? That should take more effort.

That’s why I like LinkedIn’s Recommendations feature: you need to put some effort into expressing why you’re recommending your Connection. And you need to do so “in writing,” rather than via a single click.

2) It doesn’t describe quality or depth.

Notice the language used by LinkedIn: “Does [NAME] have these skills or expertise?” and “Does [NAME] know about [TOPIC]?”. So the Endorsements feature is a way to validate the skills that users list on their profile. That’s fine and good, but it doesn’t capture the depth or quality of the particular skill.

You could measure depth based on the quantity of endorsements received per topic. But all that says is that people confirm that you have the skill. It doesn’t denote that you perform the skill particularly well.

3) Creates awkward decision-making moments.

I don’t know about you, but I find this process a bit awkward. Do I endorse Diane for all of the listed skills, or would that be too generous? Do I remove a few, then endorse her for the rest? Should I feel bad that I’ve chosen to NOT endorse Diane for particular skills? These are some of the questions that run through my head when I see the Endorsements “prompt.”

Feature Ideas: LinkedIn Endorsements

Let’s discuss ways to address some of the issues I list above.

1) Reverse the model.

What if Connections could view a set of skills and expertise and endorse you from that list? This way, the endorser determines the list of skills, not the endorsee. When making an endorsement, it would be ideal to hide the pre-existing endorsements (from others), so as not to influence the endorser. This model would make the endorsements more meaningful, as they’re independently selected by the “audience,” rather than being influenced by the user (i.e. via the skills that they choose to list).

2) Use up/down voting.

Currently, proficiency in your skills is based on the quantity of Endorsements you received. Your Connections can influence your proficiency based on the specific skills for which they endorse you. An endorsement for a “highly endorsed” skill widens that bar, while one for a previously un-endorsed skill creates a small blip.

Instead, why not let Connections perform a set number of up/down votes. Is “social media marketing” listed too far above “lead generation”? If so, I’ll up-vote lead generation, if I think you’re not getting enough credit for that skill. This model allows Connections to more directly influence the relative order of your skills.

3) Endorse particular achievements or completed projects.

Did you work on an impactful project? Pull off a world class event? If you did, then I’m sure the project involved a number of people. List the project (or event) on your profile and allow those involved to endorse your work on it. And, they can leave a comment on how the project impacted them – or, how your role was instrumental to its success.

4) Use comments to capture depth of particular skills.

Ratings and endorsements, in the form of clicks, can be gamed. And that makes them less meaningful. It’s harder to “game” a written endorsement, however. So similar to LinkedIn’s existing Recommendations feature, Endorsements could have particular areas (e.g. the “project idea” listed above) that allow endorsers to chime in with their thoughts. Rather than long paragraphs of text, perhaps this uses the Twitter approach (140 characters or less).

Conclusion

I hope this post helps explain why I haven’t been active in LinkedIn Endorsements. I have participated quite a bit in Recommendations (rather than Endorsements), because I believe in the worthiness of the written (vs. one click) form. Leave a comment below to let me know if you endorse this post!

Note: I invite you to connect with me on Google+.

12 Comments | Social Media, Uncategorized | Tagged: Linkedin, LinkedIn Endorsements, LinkedIn Profile, LinkedIn Recommendations, professional skills, social media, social networks, up vote | Permalink
Posted by Dennis Shiao

Turn Outings into Professional Networking Opportunities with @sonarme

October 19, 2011

Introduction

Recently, I took the family out to a pumpkin patch. As my daughter rode off on a guided pony tour, I had some free time on my hands. As I looked around, I saw a few other dads with wandering glances. Because I’m quite “networking oriented,” I wondered what these other dads did for a living and whether we shared any common interests.

It occurred to me that a mobile app could work well in this scenario. You could “check in” to a particular location and see “profiles” (e.g. LinkedIn profiles) of other individuals who checked in to the same spot. Perhaps you discover an individual who works for a company that you’re trying to sell into. Or, perhaps you volunteer for a non-profit organization and find an individual who’s a potential donor.

When I returned home, I did a search for such an app. I found Sonar™ (@sonarme).

Sonar Overview

On its web site, Sonar describes itself as “a mobile application that uncovers the hidden connections you share with people nearby. We bottle the 1000s of connections that you miss every day- friends, friends of friends, fellow alumni, likeminded strangers- and put them in the palm of your hand. Sonar helps you use the information you share about yourself online to connect with the person sitting next to you.”

Sonar searches publically available data on Foursquare (checkins), Twitter (tweets) and Facebook (posts) to determine who’s nearby and how you may be connected to those people.

Finding People via Sonar

In the image above, I’m at (or near) the Jacob Javits Convention Center and see a list of people who recently checked in there (presumably, via Foursquare). From here, I can click on a user and see their profile card.

The profile card shows me that I have mutual friends, connections and interests on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, respectively. I can drill down to find out more details on the common connections. For Twitter, “shared interests” include common friends and common followers. In addition, I can “Say Hi” to the user, which posts a public tweet (Twitter at-reply) directed to the user.

Here’s a tweet I generated via my own use of the service:

Hi @(username-removed). I saw on @sonarme that we’re both checked-in @ Cisco – Building 9 so I thought I’d say hello!

Sonar’s design is elegant, as the service can be useful even without a lot of users (downloads). I download the app, but since Sonar parses publically available data, the people I find do not need to be users of the service. Also, rather than encouraging random (if not intrusive) introductions, Sonar seeks to find common attributes that connect you with others, so that you may leverage those common elements as a means of introduction.

Recommendations for Sonar

That being said, here are a few things I’d like to see added to the service.

Opt-In for the Random Introduction

While Sonar seeks to find common connections tying two people together, I’d love to see a “random introduction mode,” in which those who opt in can introduce themselves to one another at random (i.e. without any connection whatsoever). If I’m selling into a company and I see people listed from that company, I want to introduce myself (virtually) and let them know I’d like to chat. The key here is that they’ve already opted in, so an introduction is not unexpected.

Saving of Contacts

Sonar allows me to find new people and send them messages. However, I don’t see a means for saving discovered contacts within the app. I’d love to have a record of whom I discovered (and where) and be able to view their “discovered” profile, including the common elements Sonar discovered on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Built-In Messaging System

Currently, Sonar allows me to send messages to other users via Twiter. I’d like a built-in messaging system that allows supports “SMS-like texting” to other users. I’d use this capability to reach out to other users (privately) and invite them to meet up at a particular time and spot. In addition, for groups of users that discover each other via the service, a built-in group messaging service (a la GroupMe) would be neat.

Linking Additional Services

How about linking to Instagram (a popular photo-sharing app for the iPhone). Location data can be parsed from Instagram users who choose to share it. Posting a picture (with location information enabled) becomes a form of “check in” and Sonar users could use commentary on the shared photo as a means for starting up a conversation.

Conclusion

Now that I have Sonar installed on my iPhone, I’m planning on “checking in” to it from time to time. It will be especially useful when I’m out and about, and happen to have some idle time. Shopping malls, airports and sports stadiums come to mind. And don’t even get me started about trade shows and events!

Here’s a short video about Sonar:

2 Comments | Social Media | Tagged: Facebook, Instagram, iPhone, Linkedin, professional networking, social networks, Sonar, Sonar.me, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Dennis Shiao

Virtual Event Email Promotions and Hotmail Active Views

January 14, 2011

Note: Image sourced from a Hotmail YouTube video.

Introduction

The Hotmail Team has introduced an interactive email technology called Active Views. The technology allows recipients of Active Views emails (within Hotmail) to interact with the email itself.

Hotmail showed examples of two of their early partners, Orbitz and Monster. Recipients of the emails could search a flight (in the Orbitz email) or search for jobs (in the Monster email).

Interactive Emails and Virtual Event Promotions

Interactive email technologies present interesting possibilities for virtual event email promotions – and, more broadly, for any email promotion that seeks to elicit a response. Imagine the following for virtual event email promotions:

Register for the virtual event
Enter your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. identity and see which of your followers, friends, connections, etc. have already registered
Navigate through the session schedule and indicate which sessions you’re interested in attending
Complete your attendee profile – upload your image/photo and add a short bio
Social sharing – let your social networks know that you’re interested in the event – or, that you’ve just registered

The possibilities are endless.

Considerations

Only Hotmail “trusted parties” can utilize Active Views
The technology is platform-specific (it’s limited to Hotmail)
The technology is new and largely untested (at a large scale)
It remains to be seen how well the technology functions across platforms (e.g. email clients, operating systems, tablet devices, etc.)
While security provisions are in place, it may open a window for providers of phishing and malware

Related Links

Active Views introduction on the Inside Windows Live blog
TechCrunch: “Hotmail Active Views Look To Make Email Interactive“
ClickZ: “Hotmail Active Views Revives E-mail Innovation in 2011“

Leave a Comment » | Virtual Events | Tagged: attendee profile, ClickZ, Facebook, Hotmail Active Views, Inside Windows Live, interactive email, Linkedin, Microsoft, Microsoft Hotmail, registration, session schedule, TechCrunch, Twitter, virtual event email promotions, Virtual Events | Permalink
Posted by Dennis Shiao

It's All Virtual

Improve Your SlideShare Marketing with These 10 Fun Facts

Introduction

Results Have Exceeded Expectations

10 Fun Facts About SlideShare

1) SlideShare has 60 million monthly visitors.

2) Hyperlinks (in slides) are clickable.

3) Infographics are liked 4x more than presentations, and 23x more than documents on SlideShare.

4) Your URL is derived from your presentation’s filename.

5) You can link to a specific slide.

6) SlideShare supports audio in the form of Slidecasts.

7) You can easily embed SlideShare presentations on web pages.

8) You can link your SlideShare account to your LinkedIn account.

9) You can share your videos on SlideShare.

10) SlideShare PRO gives you some premium features.

Conclusion

Related Resources

Virtual Event Email Promotions and Hotmail Active Views

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Introduction

Results Have Exceeded Expectations

10 Fun Facts About SlideShare

1) SlideShare has 60 million monthly visitors.

2) Hyperlinks (in slides) are clickable.

3) Infographics are liked 4x more than presentations, and 23x more than documents on SlideShare.

4) Your URL is derived from your presentation’s filename.

5) You can link to a specific slide.

6) SlideShare supports audio in the form of Slidecasts.

7) You can easily embed SlideShare presentations on web pages.

8) You can link your SlideShare account to your LinkedIn account.

9) You can share your videos on SlideShare.

10) SlideShare PRO gives you some premium features.

Conclusion

Related Resources

Share this:

Like this:

Introduction

Finding Time for Social Sharing

Prerequisites to Complete First

Sharing Content in 5 Minutes a Day

1) Review presentations on the SlideShare home page (3 minutes)

2) Identify the handful of presentations that are share-worthy (1 minute)

3) “Like” the presentations on SlideShare (30 seconds)

4) Click the “Tweet” button on each SlideShare (30 seconds)

Benefits of Social Sharing

1) Let the world know what interests you.

2) Become a useful resource.

3) Generate some social credibility.

Advanced Activities: Going Beyond 5 Minutes a Day

1) Publish your own SlideShares.

2) Pre-schedule your social sharing.

3) Mix it up: content.

4) Mix it up: destinations.

5) Add commentary to your shares.

Conclusion

Share this:

Like this:

Introduction

1) We know where to trick or treat.

2) We take our kids to familiar houses.

3) We know how to provide the candy our visitors want.

4) We visit the houses with the best decorations.

5) We’re drawn to creative and visually appealing costumes.

Conclusion

Share this:

Like this:

Introduction

1) Use consistent branding across channels.

2) Strategically hyperlink from profile pages.

3) Reciprocate.

4) Tag (link to) other users.

5) Learn the tricks of the trade of each social network.

6) Measure, evaluate, adjust.

7) Mix it up.

8) Engage proactively and respond promptly.

9) Cross-promote your channels.

10) Experiment with paid advertising.

Conclusion

Share this:

Like this:

Introduction

A Friend’s Interview

1) Clean up your social media profiles.

2) Find and discover the organization’s “brand voice.”

3) Practice being the organization’s Press Secretary.

4) Immerse yourself in the role.

5) Be prepared to define ROI.

6) Do research on social media advertising.