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online conversational marketing

Facebook Etiquette: Some General Do’s & Don’ts

I, along with 500 million of my closest friends, have a tendency to use Facebook at least once a day.

I’m sure most of you log in more than once daily. That’s okay. I’m not judging. I am not going to get into demographics or even statistics because that is beyond the scope of this post, and that’s not what I intend to actually discuss. However, I have provided an image that shows a breakdown of user stats from 2009 compared to users in 2010.

Facebook stats

Status Updates

Let’s start with an example: “I’m eating a cheeseburger right now, and it’s tasty.”

Great, glad to hear that you are consuming sustenance for your body. Quite frankly, however, I just might not want to know that you are eating a cheeseburger. Instead of posting something as mundane as that (and not garnering any attention from your friends), why not try giving the update some context. For instance, “I’m eating a cheeseburger with BBQ sauce, topped with onion rings, bacon, arugula and a grilled lobster tail. Jealous?”

What this example has done is draw the interest of your friends, which may, in turn, elicit a response. Status updates aren’t about common, everyday events that no one really cares about. The status update is a way to be creative in communicating the trivial tasks you’re letting your friends know about. Then again, no one really cares that you went to the dentist either. Creative or not, don’t do it (but that’s just my opinion).

Profile: Bibliography

This is where it can get kind of tricky. What it comes down to is this: if you are going to use your profile for personal means or your personal/professional ones (i.e., you use it personally to connect with friends – but at the same time, you have work friends – Facebook provides you with a multitude of options. If you choose to use Facebook for personal/professional use be wary of the privacy settings that have a tendency to change without notice and quite regularly. Knowing how to set up friend lists (so only certain friends have access to your social network) can save your personal life, online social reputation and professional career.

Don’t be afraid to share some easter eggs about yourself, but don’t get so creative that nobody understands what you are saying. Social networks, in general, encourage bits of narcissism, and with the amount of space allowed by Facebook, it’s bound to happen. Go ahead and share, I say. Having the same interests and commonalities as someone else can provide for a lasting friendship, whether virtual or not. Just remember this: less is more.

A word about age (rather a quote, if you will): “While you may want to include your birthday on your Facebook profile, you should exclude the birth year. Your friends and family know how old you are, and there’s no reason for your professional ones to know.” ~ Kirsten Dixson, a reputation management and online identity expert.

Content: Links, News, Videos, Photos, etc.

Posting content is great. Not only does it inform your friends of the happenings of the day, it can also showcase your interests and your areas of expertise in your profession. Of course, some of your friends may not want to know about how “Little Zeus the Hairless Cat Won a Lock of Justin Bieber’s Hair” in an auction or how “Bristol Palin Can’t Stay in the Lines of a Coloring Book.” Try sticking to something that is relevant to you and your area of expertise. However, every now and then post something random. A penny for your thoughts: humor works every time.

If you’re posting photos, try not to post photos that are embarrassing to you and/or your friends in the photo. If the photo made you laugh, great. Unfortunately, that funny picture (of whatever it may happen to be), could be extremely embarrassing to your friend(s), so don’t get “tag happy.” This could possibly hinder their social credibility, and you could get unfriended, both virtually and personally.

A word of advice: if you have to think about it, it probably shouldn’t go up.

Photo Credit: istrategylabs

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What Inspires You? Tips for Blog Writing

True creativity will naturally flow.

What inspires you to sit down at the computer and blog, write or create ideas?

Personally, I feel the world of writing, blogging and literature can be compared to that of music. There are so many different genres, styles and stories to let yourself explore, it can be mind-blowing and, at times, overwhelming! But isn’t that, oddly and ironically enough, one of the best things about being human? Whether it be individually or collectively (as a group), we all possess the ability to be limitlessly expressive. With fine art activities – such as painting, drawing, acting and music – the human soul has many different artistic avenues to explore.

Today we are taking a look at a few tips for creating interesting blog posts. Most people want to garner an audience but, at the same time, as if to say ”C’est la vie,” simply throw the creative process to the wind. I treat blog writing like I treat playing my bass, as an extension of myself – who I am and how I’m feeling. Don’t be afraid to let some of your personality show through in your writing style.

Without further adieu, here is a list of tips I personally use to blog:

Find your comfort zone.

Whenever I write, at Incept or at home, I always have either my headphones on or speakers piping out my favorite musical tunes. Other than music, everything else is off. I am not focused on anything besides the topic I am writing about. Finding that bout of creativity is sometimes just a matter of being in a comfortable environment.

Incorporate personal experiences into your writing.

People want to read about people. At the very least, they want to read what an actual person is saying, thinking or feeling about something. When a blog’s writing style has a touch of the author’s personality or mentions first-hand experiences, it will not only make for an interesting read, but it will attract like-minded individuals and new readers who share a similar interest in what you have to say.

Don’t try to be someone you’re not.

When a person does not know what they are talking about, it is usually apparent in the content of their writing, and an educated reader will know. Having a good understanding of your topic, and even knowing a bit about the demographics of your audience, will naturally bring out the way your write.

Use appropriate vocabulary.

Everyone communicates differently. It’s obvious not only in speech, but in writing as well. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to use ginormously, big words or flashy ones either. However, having a strong vocabulary never hurts. Reading books and other articles that interest you are two of the easiest ways to increase your own vocabulary.

Keep it short!

This is something even I am continuing to work on! Consciously limiting the length of each post so that someone can comfortably read it in a matter of minutes is an excellent thought to keep in mind. I aim to stay under 500 words, but have already gone over that limit in this post! Keeping it short also helps you stay on topic.

One of the best things I’ve learned about blogging was from Nate Riggs, social media guru. He said, “Always end on a question to drive engagement.” At the very least, it will leave the reader pondering the topic(s) discussed.

What are some tips you would suggest?

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Simple Listening Steps Using Social Media

Technologically speaking, we have come an awful long way in the last sixty years.

Along with all these advances in technology came advances in the way we interact with one another. Whether it be purely for personal betterment or for more professional business pursuits, it is clear what type of impact social media networks have had on human interaction.

A big part of Incept (and being an iCME) is having the ability to listen. As we’ve touched on in prior blog posts on conversational marketing, we’ve discovered that in communcating with others, listening should always be a huge part of your conversational strategy. “You have two ears and one mouth! That means you should listen twice as much as you talk!” That is the way one of my high school math teachers put it. The same concept is easily adaptable in the online world.

So how do you start engaging? What do you listen for? What is the bigger picture and meaning behind it all?

How do I engage with social media? Engagement isn’t just tweeting on Twitter or posting notifications all over someone’s wall on Facebook. It is really interacting with people. This blog post is an example. Other examples would be polls, videos and other creative content posts. Engagement is all about creating or addressing conversational dialog.

What am I listening for? From a business perspective, I truly believe social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (along with many more) provide a free source of feedback. Whether you are listening for acclaim, indifference or complaints, mentions or referrals, when people communicate there is always information to be heard and taken from what has been said. Everything from positive to negative comments should be taken advantage of as a chance to engage. Even on a broader level, social media allows the ability to listen to what is going on within a specific industry. It is all about seizing the opportunities.

What does this mean for my business? Taking the time to engage with your customers, business partners and industry competitors can mean the world in gaining exposure. Right now, there are over one billion people in the world with access to the Internet. Out of those one billion, about 300-400 million people share content with each other every day via online communication tools. Where there is conversation, there is information to be deciphered. With such a large audience the key is to always keep an open ear. That is easily done by engaging daily on your preferred platform of social media.

What are ways you engage with social media? What does it mean to you to listen using social media as a tool?

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HootSuite: My Social Media Swiss Army Knife

Every morning, I come into the office, fire up the computer and open up my Internet browser. The first page I visit is my email. The second page is HootSuite.

Managing the outbound content on my personal blog, the Incept blog, two company Twitter accounts, my personal Twitter account, my LinkedIn network, the Incept Facebook page, and my Facebook profile would require me to juggle no less than 5 open internet windows simultaneously, at any given time. However, with the help of Hootsuite, everything is condensed into one neat, little window.

The Swiss Army Knife

I refer to HootSuite as my “Swiss army knife” for one basic reason: a Swiss army knife is meant to be the only tool you need in a survival situation. It has multiple gadgets to help you through just about anything you might get into in the wild. HootSuite serves the same function for me online, doing just about anything I need it to.

I use HootSuite for 5 main functions across all of my social media networks:

Hub – Because I can connect to any of my profiles from one page, HootSuite acts as my hub, or base camp, from which I can branch out into a conversation on any of my networks at a moment’s notice. Not having to open a new window and jump between sites means quicker communication, which also means stronger relationships.
Scheduler - Maintaining an online presence 24 hours a day meant drinking pots of coffee and not sleeping a few years ago. Nowaday, however, with the help of HootSuite’s handy scheduler, I can program content to go out on any of my profiles at any time of the day. I don’t have to be at the computer to be in front of my network. A bonus is that I can actually customize the content to make it more effective by choosing pictures for my Facebook posts or using the URL shortener to save valuable tweet space.
Real-time Communication – By using HootSuite’s content streams I can keep a watchful eye on what’s being said on any of my networks and react in real time. Personally, I like using the HootSuite interface to send messages on Twitter more than I like using Twitter itself. Cycling between profiles and accounts, sending messages on multiple accounts to reach more followers or cross-networking with followers on my other profiles is all made super easy, because it’s controlled from one window.
Team “Crossroad” - One of my favorite features of HootSuite is that it allows me to interact with people on my team. If Tim has a conversation with a follower on one of the Incept profiles and I need to lend a hand, I can take over that conversation seamlessly. If a post I scheduled needs to be updated before it’s sent, a team member can jump in and make changes if I can’t get to a computer. It’s the ultimate back-up system.
Listening Tool – By far, my favorite way to use HootSuite is as a “listening” tool. By setting up streams focusing on keywords and searches, or following a particular person’s conversations, I can get the drop on opportunities I might have otherwise missed. I can listen to what’s going on in my extended networks, watching what the friends of my friends are doing, so I don’t miss anything useful. It’s kind of like having your ear to the rail on the train tracks but being in the middle of the train yard. I can listen to all sorts of conversations, then pick which ones have the most potential and engage them – all from one window!

HootSuite serves as my Swiss army knife, my go-to tool. Of course, I also use other programs to complement what I can do in HootSuite. Heck, you wouldn’t go off into the woods with just your knife if you had the choice right? But when I know that I need something to rely on, I turn to my good friend, the HootSuite owl!

What tools do you use to organize your social networks?

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Online Conversations | It’s All About HOW You Say It

When you’re having a conversation online wether it be on Twitter, Facebook or a blog, context is everything.

As a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME), I have the luxury of being involved in daily phone conversations with people. That means I can literally hear their feelings through things like their tone of voice, the pitch of the voice, how fast they’re speaking, etc. When you shift into the online world, however, all of those things go straight out the window.

Issue One: Context

While it may seem like a good idea to jump straight into a conversation because a tweet popped up – containing a keyword that you had Google Reader alert you about – may seem like a good idea, you might as well be jumping into shark-infested waters. Do your homework. Read the conversation that’s taking place, and make sure you understand the context of the tweet. What’s the first thing you’d do if you sent your friend a tweet saying, “Want to go for coffee?” and moments later you get a tweet from ‘Coffee Pro’ reading, “Top-rated coffee shops in your area!” ? I’d venture to guess you’d ignore that profile and never take their tweets seriously again. Again, do your homework. You wouldn’t buy a house without researching it so why would you dive into a conversation with someone new in that way?

Issue Two: Timing

Keeping in mind that not everyone is on the same schedule as you (or possibly in the same time zone) is important! If you check your alerts at lunch and see that someone had a conversation that you think could result in a new opportunity – but that the conversation happened the night before at 3 a.m., it would likely be perceived a little out of context, due to the timing, if you dove in and commented. For the people involved, that conversation ended hours ago.

Issue Three: Presentation

How you say something can be more important than what you’re saying. Simply put, if you say something in a way that turns your readers off before they even understand what the message is, you’ve just failed to say anything at all! Example:

“Hey. Call me.” & “HEY! CALL ME.”

Same tweet. Two VERY different messages being conveyed. One says casual and relaxed; the other screams tension and urgency. The easiest way to foul up your presentation is to make it painful to read. Make sure the Caps Lock is off. Give your reader a break by separating paragraphs in your blogs. Get to the point in your tweets. Use punctuation where it should be. Would you feel more inclined to read a blog that is 400 words long and broken into 2 paragraphs or a 400 word blog post that contains 5 or 6 short paragraphs, with each touching on a focus point?

It’s all about HOW you say it. Because if I don’t like looking at what you have to say, what are the odds I’m going to find value in the message your trying to convey?

How do you say things in a way that makes people want to hear you?

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Initiating The Conversation | Guest Bloggers

I recently went on an adventure into the deep end of the blogging pool.

When I say an adventure what I really mean is I dove into the deep end without knowing if I could swim or not. I chose my target, lined myself up on the side of the pool, then dove straight in to get it. I’m referring to the fact that just recently I broke into conversations with a number of people about guest blogging on both the Incept blog, as well as other author’s sites.

Everyone sits in the stands at one point or another and says to themselves, “I could do that! It doesn’t look that hard…” But put one of those people in the game and they’ll quickly realize they don’t have a clue what to do or where to start. For me, the first step was building a relationship. I did that by initiating conversations with people who – I felt – knew what they were talking about.

I felt much like Captain Picard of the Federation Star Ship Enterprise (that’s Star Trek: The Next Generation, for those unaware). I was making first contact. At first, I felt like I needed to be careful and move slowly so I wouldn’t upset the delicate balance I assumed was needed to have a conversation with someone new. When attempt #1 (the slow move) failed and I was left in the dust with nothing more than a, “Thanks for the Retweet,” I knew I had to be more aggressive.

Simply put, attempt #2 was much more direct, and the results were much more productive! I initiated a conversation with a blogger who I had been following for some time, Rebecca Crosen. Rebecca writes a great blog called It’s Hip 2 Give! I felt she really knew what she was talking about and knew she had a great story to tell.

The conversation started out of the blue. Rebecca read a post I had just written for one of our Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) about a new synthetic blood technology. Rebecca commented and tweeted about our post, then promptly turned around and wrote on her blog about the topic as well. (Conversational green light!) From there, I started to interact with Rebecca on her blog, as well as on Twitter. Then, when the time was right, I “popped the question!”

To say that she was excited would be an understatement. End result: within a month, Incept had a post on the It’s Hip 2 Give! blog and Rebecca had a post up on the InceptSaves blog. All of this happened because of a relationship built on conversations.

Initiate a conversation that is meaningful to both parties involved, comment on each other’s work, and build a relationship of trust based on good experiences and productive conversations. The rest will just fall in place!

I survived my dive into the deep end. Did you? Do you have any stories to tell about guest blogging or making first contact with someone new?

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iCME Social Media Toolkit

There's a lot of social media sites to keep up with out there. Don't get swamped!

First and foremost, I LOVE being an iCME. I enjoy getting online and making connections with my fellow Incept employees and keeping pace with what’s going on online, both on our web pages and on those of our clients. In short: I love social media!

To be fair, it can be daunting to keep up with all of the different social media web sites I use. Things change so quickly online – whether it’s new blog posts being published, comments being left or keeping all of my source info together (and finding them again). Sometimes things just update too fast and before you know it, the conversation you were following is old news.

Luckily for me, I’ve found a some great tools to help me keep things together and up-to-date:

Diigo. I must say Diigo is a life saver! I use it for just about everything. Diigo lets you bookmark websites, add sticky notes and organize your findings all in one spot. It’s great for saving pages I want to go back to – and not just here at work, but also at home for term papers. Diigo even has its own toolbar to make it even easier to use! I’d be 10 times more disorganized than I already am without it.
HootSuite. I spend A LOT of time online and a good chunk of that is dedicated to Facebook and Twitter. Because they both update and change so frequently, it can be easy to get swept away. HootSuite lets me read and post to both of these accounts, as well as a lot of others, at the same time. HootSuite also lets me keep track of comments I get here on Incept’s inceptsaves blog. It’s a great consolidator of both time and space.
Google Reader. Let’s face it, as much as I love Diigo, and as great as Hootsuite is, I have to be online to get the most out of them. Eventually, I have to go to class and sneak in some sleep time. So how do I make sure not to miss anything? Google Reader. Google Reader scans the internet for you whether you’re online or not and saves articles. All you have to do is set some preferred tags – from news to blogs to just about anything – and it’ll pull those pages in and save them for you. If you’re interested, it’ll find it for you.

One last trick of the trade I’ve picked up may sound obvious, but it was something I initially overlooked. I have Facebook and Twitter accounts not only for work, but also my personal pages as well. I’ve discovered that keeping separate emails for work (for Incept’s social media accounts) and home (for mine) has helped immensely. I know, it seems like a silly thing to overlook, but I did and was swamped in no time flat. So my advice to you is whether you manage social media pages for work, home or both, keep the email addresses tied to them separate. Trust me, it’ll save you a lot of confusion.

All in all, there’s a bunch of great tools out there to make your social media life a little easier. Surprisingly enough, a lot of them are free. Get out there and see what works best for you! If you find something helpful, let me know. I can always use a new tip or tool!

What do you use to make managing your social media accounts more efficient?

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Blood Centers & Facebook: A Great Team

It started as a way for college kids to keep in touch. But now, no matter who you are, it’s likely that you have or have seen a Facebook page. From college and high school students to companies like Incept, it seems as though everyone is jumping on the Facebook bandwagon for recruiting clients, marketing and sharing content.

Mouse

The best part about this Facebook trend is that even blood centers have gotten involved. By using this form of social media, as well as Twitter, blood centers are able to get in touch with more potential donors than ever before.

The Red Cross is a great example of a blood center taking the initiative and getting involved with social media. Not only are they on Facebook, but they also have a blog and frequently tweet on Twitter.

I think that my favorite part is that on their Facebook page, the Red Cross has links to schedule appointments and an FAQ page that answers a lot of questions that donors may have about eligibility. It’s a great way to both educate donors and encourage them to come in and donate.

They say everything’s bigger in Texas and their blood centers live up to that expectation. While the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center (GCBC) doesn’t cover as large an area as the Red Cross, they more than make up for it with their Commit For Life Program. GCBC has also taken the social media boom in stride. Their Facebook page has everything a donor could ask for: great blog content, frequent posts and a link to schedule appointments.

Even one of my local blood centers, the Aultman Blood Center, is interacting with their donors on Facebook. They have some of my favorite pictures on their page and it’s saved me a lot of time being able to jump onto their page to see what’s going on. Obviously, the larger blood centers are blogging and getting involved with the social media world, but what about some of the other blood centers? You’d be surprised how many of them I found on Facebook!

The Blood Center of New Jersey, Lifeblood and Puget Sound blood centers are all on Facebook, as well as the Memorial Blood Center, New York Blood Center and even more blood centers and blood banks.

I was surprised to find out that even blood banks that collect and distribute blood for pets are online, using Facebook to initiate conversations with their donors. Some of them are on Twitter too. Who would have thought?

All in all, I was happy to see how many blood centers were getting online and, even better, posting regularly. It’d be interesting to see if there was has been a positive impact in the number of donors since the blood centers started “Facebook-ing.”

Put simply, I think social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are a great tool for blood centers. These platforms give them a chance to touch base with their donors like never before, while helping get blood onto the shelves and to the patients who need it the most. Is there anyone else out there who’s had a chance to put these pages to good use? It’d be good to hear whether or not anyone else has benefited from these pages.

Please Give Blood

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Would You “Like” Online Blood Donor Recruitment?

At first, it was difficult for people to understand why Incept would adopt social media so heavily.

Yes, it broadened our company culture, created a new, integral channel of communication and broke down several communication barriers that exist between C-level management and new employees, but there was always more in mind. Sam Falletta, Incept’s President, has always embraced this vision – one that I get to break down for each new employee training class.

“If the Blood Bank of Canton needs X units of blood each month, whether the units are acquired through phone calls, emails, SMS messages, television or newspaper ads, their primary focus is to reach their goal of X units a month. One client, using inbound and outbound marketing, may be able to bring in just 10 units short of X units that they need for the month. Incept, using inbound, outbound, and online conversational marketing, is able to bring in 130 units over the X units needed. Will the Blood Bank of Canton care that Incept used Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to generate the one-hundred-thirty units above goal?”

blood-bank

Now that the vision is in mind, one may ask can you really productively engage blood donor recruitment via social networks, such as Facebook? This is an understandable (and proactive) question to ask; notably, our current methods of tracking are capable of displaying the areas of productivity in which we’ve increased and decreased.

Can you interact with a certain group, demographic, geographical location or specific need on Facebook? Yes. Can you have conversations with individuals, privately and publicly, to increase awareness and stress urgency? Absolutely. Can you diagram the location of the drive, promotions, events, and contact information for an area out of your own state? Indeed. Can you recruit, direct, and guide blood donors to use a scheduling app on Facebook to schedule their donations, receive reminder emails and ask questions concerning the drive? You bet. Additionally, we are close to releasing a beta test for an online scheduler.

Thanks to these innovations and forward thinking, we are nearing the newest level of contact center personalized intelligence and blood donor recruitment. No one has been able to nail down the scope of Conversational Marketing – aside from what it’s not – but each day our Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) continue to pave the way toward a meaning. Ultimately, what we hope to achieve is a method of recruiting more donors, keeping them loyal donors and informing potential donors of the importance of donating via the same social platform they use for entertainment, research, and engagement. More donors means more help in the hospitals for our critically injured patients. It’s crazy to think that all of this is possible on the same Facebook your grandma uses, isn’t it?

Would this be something you would “Like” to see happen for your local hospitals?

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