My Best of 2011

My 2011, and a little of the best - focusing on social media and learning:

1. The most popular Google videos this year - http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/what-were-we-watching-this-year-lets.html

2. Google's top search terms this year - http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/google-announces-top-search-terms-of-2011

3. Mashable's Awards (5th)  - winners announced (social media, entertainment, business, technology)  - http://mashable.com/2011/12/19/mashable-awards-winners/

4. Person of the year Time Magazine - The Protester - http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745_2102132_2102373,00.html

5.  My best book of the year - I'm Feeling Lucky  - The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 - Douglas Edwards - although technically not a marketing or a business how to book, I'd give this to anyone wanting to learn about business -it's an incredible and insightful book about Google.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1766361/im-feeling-lucky-google-employee-number-59-tells-all

6. Amazon's Best Books of the Year (so far) - http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&plgroup=1&docId=1000698051 
- read, read, read!

7. My best social media/marketing blog - We Are Social http://wearesocial.net/ -

it's mainly info about the UK, I think their Mashups are extremely valuable!

8. Ad Age's Best Social, Media Campaigns this year (UK) - http://adage.com/article/special-report-book-of-tens-2011/ad-age-s-book-tens-social-media-campaigns/231498/

9. My best ad of the year (funny and brilliant) -  by New Zealand's Transport Agency http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIYvD9DI1ZA -  

if you love ads (or work in advertising) - Best ads (interactive, TV, print and outdoor) week by week - http://www.bestadsontv.com/
(a fantastic resource)

10. My best Facebook community page - Toby the Wonderdog -  https://www.facebook.com/drkatrinawarren - where pet owners come and share their pet stories.

12. 5 Twitter people I admire and learnt from this year (trust me I have zillions!):

Kerri Sackville - https://twitter.com/#!/KerriSackville

NZJayZee - https://twitter.com/#!/nzJayZee

Pam Moore - https://twitter.com/#!/PamMktgNut

Servant of Chaos - https://twitter.com/#!/servantofchaos

JoJoebi Designs - https://twitter.com/#!/jojoebi

13. and lucky last - my best two free eBook providers (just need to give some details and download)

BuddyMedia - whitepapers - http://buddymedia.com/resources/white-papers

Hubspot - whitepapers and eBooks - http://www.hubspot.com/internet-marketing-whitepapers/

14. Bonus! Here's a free eBook library - focusing on marketing - http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/products_ebooks.htm

15. And if any of you are looking for blogs/bloggers  - (or just to learn and connect) here's The Best Australian Blogs 2011 winners (and others) a competition run by the Sydney Writer's Centre http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/bloggingcomp/enter.html

Social Status will be open over the holiday season, so if you need anything (training, tips or advice), give me a call, Tweet, email, comment on Facebook or even arrange to meet me for a coffee (gasp!)

Wishing you all a very happy holiday and for those of you finishing work this week - a wonderful new year!

5 social media resources on tools and advice

Chris Brogan said ” There are lots of people throwing “social media expert” out there. Hell, I had it as part of my “about” on my blog, but I’ve chosen to just say that I advise people. It’s more accurate, because expertise is fairly darned fleeting out there right now.”

Here are 5 resources I have come across, with advice, tools, suggestions and tips - to help you with your social media.

1. 12 Best Social Media Tools You Should Be Using  - try out some of these tools - John Paul advises that you "Find a few you like and work for you and learn to use that tool perfectly to get the best results."

2. Want to be successful on social media? - Listen to your mother - all the advice given to Michelle Shaeffer and how she  believes it applies to social media.

3. Passion and honesty in your writing will help you build a relationship with your community - so radian6 encourages you to Write passion into your social media content 

 4.  Social Rabbit believes that owning a dog and using social media have more in common than you may have realised - 6 things dogs and social media have in common 

5. Is your business ready for social media next year? - here are some templates from business.gov.au to help you plan and give your business direction.

7 ways to prevent Social Media Fails

There are many ways that a campaign, account, video, update, link, article, post, advert, small business or company can experience a social media #fail online.

Here are 7 approaches to help you and hopefully prevent your brand or business from experiencing a social media fail:

1. Social Media should be considered holistic. 

When setting up accounts/profiles, your social media should be consistent and in alignment with your business/company's policies and practices. 

Social media combines advertising, marketing, PR, writing, customer service and communications - approaching social media hoistically will be extremely rewarding.

2. Develop a 3/4 month social media marketing plan, this can be amended and adjusted accordingly. A plan throughout the year will help to set up your smm (social media marketing) strategy:

 -what is your message?

-what is your aim?

-who is your target market?

-what are your strategies?

-how much are you planning to spend on marketing and advertising (month by month)?

-which social media accounts and platforms you are going to use for your business and why?

-who is responsible for each account? 

-are you going to have an employee schedule?

-how will you monitor each account (or who)?

-what to focus on each month?

-do you have tech support?

-are you going to outsource,writers, designers, PR companies

I signed up for free and received marketing templates from VATrainingOnline, to start planning for 2012 - they are free, colourful and easy to use and share.

3. Every person, business and company should have a social media policy in place. The Department of Justice, Victoria has designed a policy and a video for their employees. 

A policy defines your code of conduct, your business practices, your responsibilities. 

You can protect your business and brand. 

Here is a free policy template that you can use to develop one of your own. 

Ideally, employees should read and sign the policy before using social media which represents their workplaces.

4. PR issues need to be discussed. 

Whether you hire a PR agency or you look at PR practices, knowing how to handle any crisis, having a crisis policy into place and knowing exactly how to act and deal with  a 'failure' will be extremely beneficial. 

Here are 10 steps to help recover from a 'fail'. 

Ogilvy has set up a slideshare on crisis management - don't overreact see a crisis as an opportunity.

5. Customer service, responding and monitoring is an essential part of social media. 

In fact, I think that customer service and social media go hand in hand.
People often use social media accounts to complain publicly and expect teams to handle them quickly and well. 

Most businesses/corporations need to align their customer service teams in the same way they handle email, telephone and written complaints and customer service training on social media should be an essential part of business practices.

Address the following:

Who will be handling enquiries and complaints?

What action will you take over weekends? 

Have you set up a feedback email or a number for complaints?

Have you set up alerts and notifications, so you can handle customer feedback in a reasonable time?

Here are 9 top brands who are embracing social customer care

Here are 26 tips to add and implement customer service as part of your social media strategy.

6. Look at and learn from #fails online.
Read up about social media fails and take the oppurtunity to learn from them to:
Listen to people online.

Set up alerts and notifications.
Monitor your accounts.
Track your brand and business online.
Respond to questions, feedback, complaints and enquiries (within reason).
Understand the terms and conditions of each social media account.

7. Consider research as an essential part of your social media.

Read blogs, forums, reviews and if you can, thank people for their positivity (via email).

Build advocates around your business and your brand. 

Take time to read about your industry and be aware of what is happening in your industry, this will benefit your content, your understanding, your expertise and ensure that you know exactly what is happening day by day online.
Set up RSS feeds, read articles and blog posts.
Track your industry and watch what is happening on Twitter.

   

Google+ just launched pages for business

Google+ has just announced that users can start creating pages for businesses, providing users with information on how to set up pages.

CNET's article will give you a basic idea of what Google+ pages entails and Google themselves  have set up a Google+ for business page -  with information on how to share, promote and measure.

Here's my page -  I cannot wait to see how it will assist businesses with building a brand, connecting with customers/clients and marketing their brands.

What is your influence?

Klout, Social Mention and all those monitoring your influence sites gives others an idea of what kind of topics you share and what you are influential about. It also acts as a referral/recommendation service and helps people to find you (or your business) online.

Measuring (and knowing) your online influence can be vital for brands. Generating, monitoring and engaging brands is ultimately what social media is all about.

'Understanding how your company interacts with its online community, and knowing which tools are effective in the ultra-specific world of the Internet, is crucial for driving your brand's overall success' Dave Smith - How to Measure Your Brand's Online Influence

Remember the more effort you put into the social media marketing, whether you are an entrepreneur, or you work from home, or run a small business,  or work for a non profit or work for a huge company - there are resources, content, blogs, guides, eBooks, marketing tips, tools and ideas to help you use social media daily and incorporate social media with traditional media, marketing and advertising.

How about a fun exercise, find out what you Facebook or Tweet about the most and then share?

Find what words you use the most, what do you like the most and what do you share the most - you'd be surprised,  I certainly was - I use the words like and love the most!

Here's mine! Social Status 

8 easy ways to invest in social media

Social Media is an investment. And it is a long term investment.

"Don’t treat it as a stand alone function, but as an asset, and you’ll be glad you invested in it."  - Sean Clark.

Most small businesses and non profit organisations are not going to see quick results. And they are probably not going to see ROI. Social Media requires time, energy, effort and often this is very hard to measure by ROI alone.

Larger corporations and companies who make use of email marketing, social media campaigns and a campaign or video going viral will probably see instantaneous results - but this can fade and it is up to a marketing team (or agency) to plan and invest in social media on a regular basis.

Over the past few years, we have experienced changes in the online world. We are learning to plant fish where people are actually logging in and looking for fish and most people are using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Thanks to Chris Brogan's eBook, Fish Where The Fish Are, he encourages the use of social and traditional marketing which will explain to you how to use sales and marketing tools to reach your audience online.

Once Google+ enables business profiles, there will be another platform to drive traffic and marketing.

Here are 8 simple ways you have to invest in social media over the long term:

1. Post often - at least once every working day. Whether it's a video, written content, an announcement, news, a launch or photos, blogs drive traffic to and from your website and to other social media accounts. Business blogs aid businesses, drives traffic and provides a communication tool. Every company no matter how big or small should have a blog.

2. Update often  - several times a week on Facebook. Make sure you respond to queries and build a relationship with people who have liked your page.

3. Tweet often - There is a limit of 250 times a day. Depending on the nature of your business, your style and voice, you can Tweet between 7- 100 times a day to help you drive your brand and business. Twitter acts as a global newspaper and often content gets lost. Try to use Twitter for sharing knowledge and for interacting with others; without constant marketing and promotion. Have a look at companies and brands you resonate with and follow their suit on Twitter.

5. Have a marketing strategy - plan for 3 - 6 months so you can plan campaigns, content, prizes, and giveaways. Keep adjusting the strategy every few months according to changes and needs. Have monthly meetings with the social media team (customer service or marketing team) to discuss changes online and new resources/ideas. Social Media is constantly changing.

6. Listen to your clients and customers -  monitor their responses, clicks and shares. Listen to what they want, answer their questions and plan or implement strategies to satisfy your advocates. Use surveys, questions, focus groups, emails, campaigns and email marketing to reach clients and customers.

7. Invest in training - Training provides the tools to assist with social learning, interaction and finding resources which fit the business, encourage social media in workplaces. Individuals (yourself, staff or team) will learn from each other and interact with each other. Social Media and Social Learning go hand in hand, it increases productivity, aids curiosity and understanding. Individuals who work in an environment which encourages social learning; find that they are more invested in the company or business. Talk to your staff; they are dealing with clients and customers in a myriad of ways from the receptionist, to customer service teams to the marketing team themselves. Your workplace will be able to understand clients/customers wants and needs via their emails and interaction with your business.

8. Engage  - thank people, answer people who reply or like or comment. They have made the effort to be in contact with your business and whether they are in need of assistance, customer service or advice; the more you interact; the more likely they will return.

Here are some basic best practices for social media success.

I would like to emphasise that social media is long term. People are seeking information online and are building long term relationships with brands.

These 8 basic steps will enable you and your business/company to invest in social media for the long haul. Most of these steps have to be taken everyday with regular meetings, reviews on a monthly (6 weeks, or bi monthly) basis. 

Whether you work for yourself or for a giant corporation, by making a long term investment in social media; these 8 steps will give you results.

Your time is limited

Your time is limited ,so don't waste it living someone else's life - Steve Jobs

Social Media has changed the way we do business and the way we connect to the world. In the past 9/10 years there has been a revolutionary growth of sites, blogs, programs, platforms, tools, products, and means to connect online.

Today Steve Jobs who was an exceptional innovator and leader passed away. Through his work at Apple, we are able to embrace and use technology on the run and essentially it's a social online revolution.

Technology has grown so rapidly and has extended so far.

I'm Generation X, I never had a mobile, never played video games as a child, had TV which switched off at midnight, did not have telephone messages and wrote letters and postcards. We sent faxes, wrote letters and make telephone enquiries in my early years of work. The World Wide Web and emails were exciting, then online chat, then mobiles and texting, then blogs and then/now web 2.0 and all the gadgets.

We got into trouble for passing notes at schools and some people will never understand the connection between a pencil and a cassette tape.

In fact some people will never see a cassette tape, apart from all the retro phone covers!

I have been watching technology grow so much that now children are blogging at schools, building websites, learning about animations and drawings and becoming computer, iPhone and iPad savvy. They are using words like Google, Photoshop and text speak naturally in sentences which amazes me.

There are careers now that were not in existence 10 years ago. 

People are website savvy, they are blogging, making videos, selling eBooks and have job titles that I'd never heard of until recently; Brand Ambassador, Director of Analytics, Director of eMarketing, Interactive Specialist, PPC Consultant, SEM/SEO Engineer, Social Media Analyst, Web Project Manager, New Media Coordinator, Director of Integrated Media, Content Strategist, Social Media Specialist, Communications Associate ... to name a few.

All these roles combine, PR, marketing, technology, engineering, innovation, ideas, building, searching, analysing, communications, customer service, media, advertising and client services.

For young adults and children, this means that they can embrace a wide range of study skills and their careers will combine so many industries that are radically changing the future of workplaces, entrepreneurs, CEOs and work on a day to day basis.

My nieces and nephew will probably be employed in a role with a job title, which has not been developed yet!

Steve Jobs, learnt, taught, did and embraced a huge combination of skills. He inspired and encouraged people (at and beyond Apple) to think and speculate what people may need and listened to what people wanted and then set about improving technology for us, to make it easier for us to use.

With changes in computer and online technology, everything is becoming so user friendly that it has having a huge impact on how we connect and how we can improve our work and productivity.

With social learning in the workplaces and encouraging people to learn at work; my clients are making an impact on their individual roles. Training has become and is the most important tool I have at hand, I love watching people learn. Social Media has had the most positive effect for them at work.

I use my iPhone and apps, to work productively while on the move and in between training clients, I check emails, monitor accounts, answer queries and find resources, news and info and this has helped me become a better trainer.

Steve Jobs said that ," I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love."

Farewell to Steve Jobs who lived a full life.