Buffer: The Scheduling Tool Twitter Needed

Let's face it, G+, FB or whatever, twitter remains the fastest and easiest way to reach millions easily. Somehow it's got the same feel as the most routine of tasks one does on one's mobile - texting! Yeah, so it's limited to 140 characters, but thats what I love about it.

Twitter is a powerful way to build a brand, maintain awareness, and communicate directly with your customers or simply send out coupons, discounts or spread news / industry insights. The trouble I've had is that because of my work schedules, I send tweets in bursts and then get on with the rest of my day. I'm unable to tweet like Guykawasaki all day round. Not that I want to tweet volumes, but in all fairness, for marketers it would annoy your followers and reduces brand awareness to spams in time.

I recently tried out Buffer, a service that automatically posts your tweets by spacing them throughout the day. It’s really simple to use: After setting up a free Buffer account, just connect it to your Twitter account, and you’re ready to go. From the Buffer website, you can enter a bounty of tweets and move on to other things without a second thought; each of your posts gets queued and sent on a schedule that’s managed by Buffer. That means they’ll go out at regular times during the day, and — unlike alternatives like Hootsuite — there are no settings to mess with. Buffer doesn’t change the way that you post or add any extra machinery between you and Twitter; it’s truly fire-and-forget.

If you prefer, you can install the Firefox or Chrome browser extension, which lets you tweet from any Website. See something you like? Click the Buffer button to post the link, add any extra text you like, and then send the tweet to Buffer.

You can use Buffer for free, which gives you a “buffer” that’s ten posts deep. If you routinely send more tweets, or want extra features (like the ability to send to two or more accounts and access to analytics, then you can upgrade. You get a 50 tweet buffer and two accounts for $8.50/month, or unlimited tweets and 4 accounts for $25.50/month.

Are you ready to handle a Social Media Crisis?

Everyone can benefit from a dynamic platform like Social Media, if exploited correctly or turn into a graveyard if not dealt smartly during the times when it matters the most. In the world, physical or virtual, where disasters are waiting to strike, it is best that you are prepared before hand for the situation. A Social Media Disaster Management plan has to be incubated and inducted to everyone in your Community Management and Public Relation Team.

Social media disaster strikes when you are either going all wrong or you aren’t able to meet your customer’s expectation. In either case it is essential that you own up, come out brave and communicate surely but humbly. Social media is eyed by your customers, investors, employees, media, etc, each of which will have a different point of view to look at your social media conduct and you have to live up to it all!

Social Media Disaster can strike in many forms, some of which are listed below:-

• Online reputation maligned by customer by complaining, creating hate communities or blogs or sites. It becomes a disaster when within matter of hours it gets world talking about it.
• When your product has performed poorly and media is busy taking down your name.
• Your ex employees go bad mouthing about your management, reveal secrets, leave no stone unturned to paint your image black.
• When panic surges amongst your people- natural disasters, fake news or rumors surface, industry is badly hit, etc.

Social Media Disaster Management Stages

• Crisis Identification:- Social media monitoring would help you see through this stage, in fact if you are involved in this regularly then you might even avoid the crisis and deal with it at nascent stage. Follow the talks and understand what exactly is being said and the general sentiments of the public about the situation.
• Insight Identification:-  Get to the crux of the matter. Explore from where the crisis arise, who are people talking, which mediums are being used, how it is affecting the company’s image, do you know the authors, what is the volume, etc.
• Goal Setting:- By the end of your crisis management activity what is it that you expect? Control over negative comments, more positive talks trending, the authors becoming positive influencers, your target audience (investor or customer or employee or media) is happy and satisfied by the end of it, etc.
• Plan Communication:- Shape a strategy to counter this disaster by apt and strong communication program. First devise what would you communicate, how are you going put the whole crisis in front of people, what would be the tone, who would be speaking, etc. You need to figure out which are the right platforms or mediums you need to be on, where you have to create base and accordingly customize the message or content strategy to meet the platform's needs. Remember each platform is a different market.
• Make a Team:- Social Media Disaster Management Team which must include Community Manager, a PR and a Senior Management representative so that the communication can be designed, approved and executed easily and each one is on the same page!
• Execute the plan.

Social Media Disaster Management can be avoided with ongoing social media monitoring activity! Are you ready to handle a social media disaster?

Have you brought out your A-Game when it comes to Content?

Why is everyone all of a sudden talking and writing about content?

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience -- with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Social search is becoming an important way of finding and filtering relevant information. 

When you create content, you need to keep in mind what attracts customers and prospects, and their friends. Educating, informing, and creating with them are all ways to engage people in a conversation with you. 

It should therefore not be surprising that the reasons why your content marketing strategy fails are:

(1.) You don't have one -- you think fulfillment just means you stick all you've got on that landing page, mini site, or newsletter, and pray something will stick. 

(2.) You don't understand the difference between interruption and content marketing -- you think that because you have something to sell, you can push it out there and get people to but it because you say so.

(3.) Your content does not provide value -- the worst offenders will ask for information on customers and prospects to give them something that doesn't really tell them anything new, just to get people's email address.

(4.) Your in-house experts think it's marketing's job to write it -- while we agree that marketing professionals need to be in the content business, it's a very bad idea to assume that they need to be proficient in every kind of conversation, even those where they'd be clearly not the experts.

(5.) You think that changing the title to last month's paper will work -- this is akin to starting a brand new relationship on the wrong foot. Will your customers believe you next time, after experiencing this kind of stunt?

(6.) You invite people in for one topic, then you give them something else entirely -- another dangerous assumption is that people don't pay attention. They won't if this is the kind of treatment you reserve for them. It's like starting a conversation with a great opening, and then putting absolutely no substance behind it.

(7.) Your call to action is not clear, or you have multiple ones -- the main reason why you don't want to do this, of course, is that you won't know what works among the many messages you put out there. When you're focused, things have a way of working out much better for all involved.

(8.) You want too much, too soon -- there's no relationship and you're already asking your customers and prospects to give you something substantial.

(9.) You don't get the anticipated and relevant part of it -- you think integrated and all matching means you're not interrupting. You missed the the opportunity to write custom content specifically to address the needs of the audience you are hoping to engage.

(10.) Your content is all about you, not your customer -- the surest way to bore someone or to become irrelevant quickly is by not being relevant to them.

Your goal is to reach the people who will buy your products and services. Whether your content marketing strategy is fulfilled through marketing or public relations activities, you should think about providing value and worry less about measuring clicks and hits.

Will your customers and prospects find you on the Web when they're looking for what you provide? Will your articles, bylines, white papers, eBooks, blog posts convey that you understand the issues -- from their pain points -- like no one else in the market?

Does your newsletter provide timely, relevant tips, commentary, and information that reveal industry or industry vertical knowledge? Do analysts and third parties pick up your thought leadership in their articles and amplify what you know?

If the answer is no, those are still great places for you to start.

Source: http://www.conversationagent.com

Author: Valeria Maltoni

Is an MVP necessary?

Most often the list of features and capabilities that your product needs to satisfy the needs of your target market and it is huge. When the number of hours to implement everything is well beyond your financial runway or your market opportunity window, how do you pick which features to do first?

 

 

 

 

Let’s first define a Minimum Viable Product. An MVP is simply the minimum set of features that provide the initial value to the user of your product. It is crucial that this first incarnation of your product must show your value differentiation. In other words, not only must it provide that initial functionality for your first users, it also needs to show off why your product is different or unique in the market place.

For example, a smartphone application may show off the integration between the phone’s native features and your application in such a way that the value of your application is extended through the phone. This is a crucial time in the development of a brand new product. Generally speaking, this early version of the product dictates whether the company succeeds or fails.

a. Validation of market assumptions is critical. Even though some market research has been done, at some point one or more assumptions about the needs of the target market were made. In some cases these assumptions are pivotal – i.e. your business rests on whether these assumptions are correct or incorrect. Getting the MVP into the hands of users as well as demonstrating it to experts in the target market, helps to validate some of the assumptions. Course correction at this stage is easier and less costly than when the product is nearly complete.

b. As these early users work with the MVP, they help you to refine the product in such areas as the flow of a specific feature or the user interface. Early users have a tendency to love new technology. They love the fact that they can influence a product’s direction as well as the look and feel in the early stages – at any stage actually, but especially early on. Regular meetings with early users (even if it is in a coffee shop) are crucial in refining the product but also have a side benefit of building a solid relationship. Word of caution: evaluate each suggestion to make sure that it has wide market applicability; creating a product solely based on the feedback of a handful of users is dangerous.

c. The quest to seek funding for your new venture is a continuous event. The days of receiving funding for an idea jotted down on a napkin are long gone. Having the MVP shows investors what value real users will find in the product. It also helps to get the point of your venture across that a slide presentation cannot do. People respond far better to a real product than to a large slide presentation.

But which features do you select? Which market needs do your satisfy first? This debate will be a constant occurrence within your team. Here are a few key points to remember as you go through the process of deciding what features to build.

a. In the end, your target users will use your product to perform one or more specific tasks. The MVP cannot be a set of random disjointed features, but instead must be a set of features that work seamlessly together and allows the user to accomplish the tasks they need. Imagine the team that developed the first bank machine. They probably implemented the ability for a user to withdraw money first. They in all likelihood recognized that this use case was the most important use case – ahead of transferring money, printing account information, etc. The first implementation of this use case most likely had the ability to insert card and enter the PIN, select the amount to withdraw and from which account, and dispense cash. The key here is to understand how your target users perform their primary task today and make sure that they can perform the same task with your MVP.

b. As mentioned earlier, building in your differentiating value is key. Without this your product will be perceived as simply a “me too” product and will not end up getting the interest of your target users and investors. Continuing with the bank machine example. A key differentiator is convenience – the ability to do banking anywhere and anytime replacing the need to go into the bank and wait in line to get money. One can imagine that early machines were placed in the lobby of the bank or in the nearby convenience store. Had the machines been placed inside the bank, making them accessible only during banking hours, they would not have garnered the enthusiasm of the target users.

In summary, the MVP is crucial from an investor-pitch perspective as well as from a product-refinement perspective. Both these activities are crucial in the early stages of a new venture. The trick is to choose the right set of features for the MVP. Make sure that the user can perform one or more or their end-to-end tasks. In other words, make sure that the use case is implemented enough to provide value to the user. The implication here is that you have to know your target users rather intimately.

And lastly, the MVP must have one or more of your key differentiators. The MVP needs to set what you are doing apart from other potentially competitive offerings.

Image: Jon Radoff’s Internet Wonderland

Blog Source: http://francis-moran.com

 

Britney is back with her latest Number - Hold It Against Me

lovin it..

Social Media Intelligence: Monitoring vs. Measurement

Are we all ready to talk about the Elephant in the room now? Hell Yeah ! 

We all know how important word of mouth is, and social networking is like word of mouth on steroids. As a business, it’s vital to tap into and join online conversations not only about your brand, but also those about your competitors, your industry and your areas of expertise.

2011 seems like a year of awakening for companies with increase in social media spending. It's becoming ever important to track the performance of key marketing initiatives. Depending on the social media platform and specific activity being tracked, you might have the option to take one or two approaches: monitor or measure. Nope, those 2 words aren't the same! Let's take a look at how they are different when it comes to tracking social media efforts.

Let's look at difference between monitoring (listening) and measuring (tagging) social media initiatives, by taking a simple analogy based on listening to music.

Monitoring is like tuning into a radio station on your car stereo.

You could choose your favorite type of radio station (i.e., pop, jazz, country, etc.), but you’re still at the mercy of the radio station to actually play the music you want to hear. 

Measuring is like creating a custom playlist from your personal music collection for an MP3 player. Every song is a favorite because it’s from your music library, and the playlist fits the particular activity or mood you’re in.

Keys of Social Media Optimization

In terms of tracking and optimizing social media initiatives, there are three keys: monitoring, measurement, and management. All three of these areas are different but complementary. Organizations may only have one option such as monitoring and in other cases all three options come together to complement each other. 

 

MONITORING Social Media (Listen)

Most social media tracking is currently done with monitoring solutions, which leverage the APIs of each platform (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) to pull predefined metrics and dimensions into web analytics reporting. In most cases, any data at all is fantastic ! Kind of like picking up a clear frequency in the middle of nowhere. Data such as demographics are invaluable to organizations.Various tools such as Radian6, ThoughtBuzz, Buzzmetrics, Sysomos help companies with regards to Social Media monitoring. A careful study of the organization's needs in alignment with it's business and social media strategy has to be done to make the right choice. ThoughtBuzz does a fantastic job in gauging demographics with a proprietary algorithm.

Some limitations of monitoring/listening approach are that companies can’t tie any of the social data to actual visitors on their other web properties, and they also can’t obtain any additional custom metrics beyond what’s already provided by the social media platforms. It’s a “take it or leave it” scenario. Because we can’t actually tag a Facebook fan page or Twitter profile page, most companies just leverage the data that these social networks provide. While we can’t tie monitoring data directly to website activity, we can use predictive modeling to understand the correlation between various types of social activity and the website’s KPIs.

Post globalization, business have started becoming more regionalized and localised targeting the niche market segment. It is ever more crucial for companies to gather social media insights on a local level. This is one critical area where most social media monitoring tools fail miserably. Accuracy in terms of providing regional content is critical. The trouble is most content is US centric. ThoughtBuzz, a SM Intelligence solution solves this problem by providing country specific indexes. It's by far one of the best value for money solutions that gives a comprehensive coverage and detailed insights.

 

MEASURING Social Media (Analyze)

 

 

There are 2 kinds of analytics - social media analytics and web analytics.

SM analytics provides insights such as tonality, discussion themes, influencers, source analysis etc. The accuracy, relevancy and comprehensiveness depends solely on the effectiveness of the Social Media Monitoring solution.

Even if you haven’t launched an outbound social media strategy, you have to keep a pulse on what people are saying — good or bad — about your company, competitors and major trends. And, by representing your company in a positive, authentic way, you can build credibility for your expertise and business and link to customers and prospects quickly.

 

SM analytics can help you better understand prospective and current customer needs, increase visibility and generate leads. But it takes a lot of time and energy to stay on top of all of this in a manual, piecemeal fashion. 

Web Analytics related to social media activities can actually be measured in some cases, meaning that companies can tag them just like they would any normal website, application, or campaign. In essence, companies can instrument or tag certain social media activities in any manner they like - choosing the level of reporting, dimensions, and metrics they need rather than having them prescribed to them by the various social media platforms.

For example, a marketing team might want to know how visitors are specifically interacting with a particular social application on their Facebook fan page. Armed with pathing and conversion funnel reports, they can better understand the user experience and fix potential fall-out points in the application. In addition, another advantage of the measurement approach is that the social media initiatives can be viewed in the context of a company’s larger online presence (i.e., treating social media initiatives as an extension of your company’s online world), and organizations can gain deeper insights into cross-domain pathing behaviors and conversion.

Currently, there are four main social media activities/areas that can be measured, not just monitored, across the leading social media platforms:

1. Social media campaigns: Any URL or shortened URL (bit.ly) can have a tracking code appended to it so that traditional campaign tracking can occur.
2. Facebook apps: Unlike Facebook fan pages (monitoring only), the applications and custom tabs can actually be measured and optimized.
3. YouTube branded channels: In some cases, companies are given control over a widget area at the top of their brand channel, which can be customized to include a custom player, other content, and SiteCatalyst tags.
4. Facebook Connect/social plugins: Any embedded Facebook features on an external website can be measured in SiteCatalyst to understand their effectiveness and overall impact.

Although the measurement options are fairly limited right now, social networks are constantly evolving and will allow more tagging opportunities in the future. It has been challenging for small and large organizations to keep pace with all of the changes happening in the social media space - let alone understand how their social media initiatives are performing. Fortunately, ThoughtBuzz has strong relationships with the leading social networks and partners which can help companies to more effectively optimize their social media investments.

 

MANAGING Social Media (Engage)

As the volume of social media venues and conversations rises, it quickly becomes a time- and labor-intense process to effectively track, converse, monitor and manage them.

Social media management solutions help manage outbound and incoming online interactions — along with other small business marketing activities — in a more efficient manner. They streamline and consolidate how you listen to and participate in relevant conversations on various platforms they’re taking place — blogs, social networks like Twitter or Facebook, and other public and private Web communities and sites.

Social media management tools can also help you to integrate social networking activities with your other marketing programs. These can include other online activities, such as Web sites, search engine marketing campaigns, contact management systems, and email marketing, as well as offline marketing, such as events or white papers.They also help you to more easily monitor what people are saying about your business, and by automating the process of delivering your outgoing messages through multiple social media outlets simultaneously, help you to amplify your social media presence across several social networking sites.

 

You can also help mitigate damage should negative conversations about your company emerge by quickly responding to complaints. Social media can also steer people to your other marketing programs, where it’s easier to individually track and manage individual customer and prospect interactions. 

Some social media engagment/ management activities include:

• Creating content on multiple places, such as a blog, Twitter, a Facebook page, etc.; monitor and scan the views, decide what comments to approve, and respond to replies on these sites
• Scanning Twitter followers for conversations you may want to join, or checking your RSS reader subscriptions for relevant articles and new ideas
• Checking the Social Media Monitoring dashboard to see when and where your business is mentioned on the Web
• Creating and monitoring a community and topics on a site such as Facebook or LinkedIn

Let's face it, social media isn't a one way traffic and neither is it a simple task. It's a lot to handle and it's difficult to measure short-term payback on social media efforts. While taking care of brand advocates, preferences and awareness, you simply cannot ignore other marketing activities such as SEO, email marketing, contact and sales management etc. 

ThoughtBuzz helps organizations achieve communication lines with an organization's fans and users interacting or conversing online through its engagement console and action center. Other tools and dashboards can be used to complement the toolkit. Check out Mashable for the 5 superior social media management tools to complement the toolkit.

Internet Restricted in Bahrain as Protests Escalate

As protests continue in Bahrain, access to many websites has been restricted there.

Arbor Networks, a security research company that tracks Internet traffic, told The NY Times on Friday that traffic into and out of Bahrain has dropped between 10% and 20% below expected levels. Traffic normally only drops that low during natural disasters or global sporting events.

The graph below shows Bahrain’s Internet traffic levels this week compared to average traffic levels during the previous three weeks. The traffic this week has been significantly lower than usual. Arbor Networks told The Times that it couldn’t absolutely rule out technical difficulties as a cause for the drop, though the most likely cause was blocked websites.

A Harvard University website that crowdsources reports of inaccessible webpages shows that many sites, including bahrainonline.org and bahrainrights.org, have been reported to be inaccessible. But almost all of the reports were made before the protests in Bahrain started.

Last month, Egypt blocked websites like Twitter and Facebook in response to unrest before blocking the Internet altogether. The success that Egyptian protesters had in ousting former president Hosni Mubarak despite these drastic digital measures is often cited as enhancing the confidence of protesters in Bahrain, Algeriaand elsewhere in the Middle East.

While data suggests that Bahrain is restricting the Internet in response to unrest in the same way Egypt did, Arbor Network’s Internet traffic data shows nothing out of the ordinary in Algeria’s Internet traffic (at least between February 10 and 13).