nickyjameson.com — My take on Copywriting,Technology and Social Media.

7 Signs You May Be On a Social Media Treadmill

by Nicky on February 26, 2010

As a business owner using social media you’re probably well invested in using it frequently in your business. It’s a marvellous way to promote yourself, and build your brand. You tweet, update your status on various social networking platforms and blog whenever you can. But have you a direction for all your social media activity? Or do you sometimes feel rather like a hamster… running fast, trying to keep up, but not entirely sure of your direction?

Here are 7 signs you may be on a social media treadmill.

1. You totally get the social media thing. Hey, you “do” social media, just like everyone else does. Trouble is you’re not entirely sure why. You just know you should do it.

2. You’ve set up several social networking profiles…LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and even a couple of other social platforms your friends invited you to join. You update your status, but it’s about all you’ve been able to do. You’d love to keep them all up to date and join in the conversation regularly, but, well, there are only 24 hours in a day!

3. You diligently update all your profiles so people know what you’re doing. Sometimes you get tired of it, but if you don’t update people wonder if you’re ok.

4. You Tweet diligently every day, for hours a day. In fact, while you would never admit it, if you didn’t tweet every day you’re certain you’d get withdrawal symptoms.

5. You diligently answer tweets, questions, given answers and comment. You silence the sneaky little voice that whispers it feels more and more like a chore.

6. You’re connected… to everyone and everything. Everyone said you had to “get connected” so you did. Now you wonder what’s next. What should you do with all your connections?

7. You think you might be spread a little too thin… but you’re not quite sure what to do about it.

There is no doubt that you should be taking advantage of social media to boost your business. However, as many business owners have found out, social media can be very time consuming.

How does a business owner keep up and do it all? And how to get off the treadmill – or, better still avoid the treadmill entirely?

How do you scale and manage your social media activities? Or is social media just one more thing to add to your already full plate?

Share your thoughts… and stay tuned for part 2.

Tagged as: blogging, Social Media, social networking, time management, Twitter

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Apologising Via Twitter is Like Proposing Marriage by Email

by Nicky on February 18, 2010

in Customer Service, Social Media Marketing

Or “Beware Social Media, It Can Bite You Where (and When) You Least Expect.”

By now Southwest Airlines must be wondering if social media is still hip and trendy, having made a bit of a social media faux-pas. I think they should have handled The Kevin Smith Affair a bit differently.

Silent Bob Aims His Twitter Feed at South West Airlines Guess Who’s Winning

I’m not about to get into the whys and wherefores of the “throwing off plane because Kevin was a Fat Person.” If they have a policy, they have a policy. The thing is if Mr Smith hadn’t turned out to be such a famous persona with thousands (or is it millions?) of Twitter followers who actually listened to what he had to say Southwest Airlines wouldn’t have had the current social media fire to fight because there would have been no story. It wouldn’t have mattered to them.

If you are a brand and a customer is upset and you’re really sorry (I mean really, really sorry, not canned PR sorry – and not via a blog post that comes across as insincere) apologise directly to your customer and give them something to make them feel you actually mean what you say. Sending an apology via Twitter after the fact (presumably Southwest Airlines discovered Kevin Smith had over a million followers when they decided to apologise via Twitter) doesn’t wash especially when it’s after the fact.

Southwest Airlines blog response to Not So Silent Bob

The episode brings up some interesting considerations for companies.

Southwest Airlines has been held up as being one of the poster companies for using social media. They are mentioned in most case studies to prove that “social media works for companies.” And not that it doesn’t work, it’s just that it can backfire royally if companies fail to remember it isn’t a get out of jail free card for basic customer care and you can’t use it effectively for CMA (Cover My Ass-ing) because people know the difference.

The fact is, as a company or a brand, any one of your customers can get on Twitter and tell the world about their experience. Companies shouldn’t need that particular stick to coax them into better customer services, but they’d do well to keep it in mind.

While you could understand using Twitter, Southwest Airline’s blog post actually doesn’t help. Reading between the lines it sounds insincere as it places the blame squarely with the customer. If you are going to use Social Media at all then people have to feel you are being sincere about blogged “apologies.”

“We sent you an apology via Twitter,” is just not the way a company should do it. Neither is “echoing the original tweet.” Too impersonal. Assuming someone with a million followers is going to see it anyway. And no matter how popular social media may be, it isn’t a replacement for proper handling of unhappy customer situations. No brownie points for Southwest Airlines.

This only ever came to light because Kevin Smith happens to be a celebrity with considerable Twitter clout. What’s more important is how they would treat a non-celebrity. Would other “large” customers (sans thousands of Twitter followers) feel humiliated when removed from the plane? Would they get the social media apology from Southwest Airlines? Would they get any apology? Somehow I doubt it.

Tagged as: blogging, companies and social media, kevin smith, Social Media, southwest airlines, thatkevinsmith, Twitter

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SocialGo: A Rather Irresistible Social Network Builder

by Nicky on February 7, 2010

in Social Media Networking

If you’re looking for a robust, integrated and “enticing” social network, with excellent customer service SocialGo is a platform worth considering. If there is something that’s not on this social network, they are probably adding it or it’s on the list to be added. I first thought it was Ning on steroids but after trying it out I thought it was much a lot more user friendly than Ning – and had a lot more going for it. You can be the judge.

With SocialGo you not only can create a great social network you can actually create an entire website around your social network, complete with customisable themes, chat, video Instant messaging and a whole host of widgets that leave you drooling. The chat widget is just in beta, but it’s coming.

Here is a quick overview of what you get with SocialGo and the things that really struck a chord with me.

Go IM – we mentioned this above you just install it from the Widget Store. Facebook Connect and Twitter Connect are available and you can import your Twitter status easily.

Visitor Radar – you can track visitors profiles and members can see who’s visited. Rather neat.

Lab Tunes – from which you can play music.

Lab Arcade

Games and more games members can play… also customizable. Given the popularity of Farmville, the use of social games in a network can’t be ignored.

Network Design – For those of us who are too busy to design our own networks – no worries. SocialGo does it all for you (yep, so you don’t have to). At $349.00 you get the SocialGo designers to design your own unique site and network. Or you can go directly to one of their 3rd party designers. And some of the designs are pretty darn coo – not that the pre-set templates are anything to.

Blogs and Forums

Easy to start both. You simply import your blog’s feed and you’re set or integrate your blog so it’s part of your SocialGo Site.

You can also run your own ads, use your own domain and include Audio, video and text chat.

What about making money?

There’s a member billing option (purchasable from the widget store), which means you can charge members subscription fees if you want.

White Label

You can remove all traces of SocialGo from your network should you wish, there’s a member option for that – plus you can create a public or private network and your network can also create their own networks.

Everything can be set up from your admin panel and really, you’re limited only by your own creativity. The interesting thing about SocialGo is that you can use it for any type of network, from a keep in touch with family community site to a fully fledged business network and shop.

Packages

There’s a free 30 day trial – which I took – which enables you to try out the features however to really see and access most of the cool features. The paid subscriptions start from around $40/month. With the Concierge version, if you’re really pressed for time, or don’t want the hassle of maintaining your network SG will manage your site for you on a monthly basis.

If I sound quite enthusiastic about SocialGo, it’s because I think in terms of social networking platforms it has nearly everything one might need to get up and running in minutes. It even has Wordpress integration – a must-have as far as I am concerned.

In terms of ease of use and customizing it to your tastes it is very hard to beat (at least of the ones I have looked at). All this does come at a price – albeit quite a decent price. You’ll need to purchase most of the add-ons from the widget store. The billing component for example costs around $99. You also can’t upload files such as PDF’s so you need to link to those in the usual way. You can also buy themes from $39 if you don’t care for the free themes.

I think it’s a good idea to provide the basic framework while the individual add-ons are optional and can be purchased from the Widget store.

There’s a Free Trial

As with anything, my advice is to check it out yourself with the free trial. These are my personal thoughts (I’m not getting any reward for writing this). They also hold workshops for network owners and a very helpful monthly newsletter plus their their customer service is great – when I had questions I could chat online with them and someone even offered to call me back.

The key thing about having a social network is how you can make it truly social and the business model you adopt.That will differ for each user, If you’re tired of Facebook and other hosted networks and want to create something uniquely your own with a rich multimedia experience - without it costing you your first-born – SocialGo is a worthy consideration. They make it easy… you can have all your social media collateral and social network all in one place in record time. Worth a look. I found a few examples of SocialGo Communities – most were private but Trikepilot is a great one for showing something of what’s possible. Of course yours will be different but it’s always good to see what others have done.

TrikePilot

Tagged as: Blogs, building a social network, business, community, content, forums, Social Media, social networking, socialgo, socialmedia

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