Twitter – Noise = Company Buzz February 24, 2009
Posted by Mario Sundar in Community Marketing, Social Networking.Tags: twitter
1 comment so far
I hear this all the time – what’s the deal with all the Twitter Noise – not noise on Twitter, but the buzz about Twitter. While explaining the value proposition of Twitter to professionals, I realize that its true value surfaces only when you eliminate the noise inside of Twitter.
So, here’s a quick guide to implementing those filters real quick that’ll then allow you to enhance your productivity not detract from it, while using a service as noisy as Twitter.
Depending on how much time you have (2 minutes or 10 minutes), choose either LinkedIn’s Company Buzz app or TweetDeck (An Adobe Air App) to customize your productive Twitter experience. Today, I’ll walk you through the 2 step installation process for Company Buzz.
Step 1. To install LinkedIn’s Company Buzz app, go here (requires a LinkedIn account)
Step 2. While one-click-installing the app, you can select whether you want to app to be displayed either just on your profile or on your LinkedIn homepage as well. Update Settings, and Boom!
A – List of most recent “company” related tweets. In my case “LinkedIn”
B – Topics you’d like to follow. While, installation pulls up the most recent tweets of your current company, you can also set up additional topics/keywords to follow – like your name (@mariosundar or “Mario Sundar”)
C – Buzz words that are closely associated with tweets related to the topic that can be used to further filter through the tweet volume you see in A
D – Trends based on the volume of tweets in a week, related to the topic
Fin.
You can access the Company Buzz app, either through the Applications tab on the LinkedIn homepage or bookmark this URL. Can this be any easier?
Feel free to share your thoughts on the Company Buzz app in the comments section
It begins at home… February 23, 2009
Posted by Mario Sundar in Community Marketing.Tags: customer-evangelism
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Ben McConnell, over at the Church of the Customer, raises the question: Does customer evangelism begin at home (I mean) at work, with employee evangelists?
The best part is you can help, Pamela Hutton, quantify that answer for us.
Good question. We think so, but we’re glad grad student Pamela Hutton is trying to quantify the answer with dissertation research at Fresno Pacific University. If you’re a company employee and have opinions about the role of company culture and its effects on employee evangelism/ambassadorship, take Pamela’s confidential survey. Deadline is Wednesday Feb. 25. She promises to share the results with us in late May.
Take Pamela’s confidential survey here and help prove that evangelism (much like charity) begins at home. More on this later.
White House goes Live! February 11, 2009
Posted by Mario Sundar in Community Marketing.3 comments
The White House has a blog and they’re now live blogging the President’s public speeches, etc. (via Steve Rubel)
This is a big deal. The new administration, unsurprisingly given its history, is slowly opening up the White House to the new world of media. It’s not that they don’t get it. They do. It’s just hard to turn around a giant institution like the government. But slowly, it’s happening. Posting the weekly addresses and more on YouTube, inviting The Huffington Post to ask a press conference question (a first, which Obama did last night) and now live-blogging are all baby steps in the right direction.
I wonder if the White House will revive Obama’s old Twitter account next.
I do think the Obama campaign and now the White House, exhibit a terrific sense of social media and use it in a very targeted and effective manner. They have replaced FDR style “fireside chats” with the modern day YouTube equivalent and are broadcasting the President’s press movements live on their blog (updated with pictures!).
This is a great start. And, to Steve’s point, I’m not sure if a Twitter account is necessary, given the blog activity?
Craig on Community February 11, 2009
Posted by Mario Sundar in Community Marketing.1 comment so far
I have a dream, but Craig of Craigslist fame is living his dream – fostering a culture of participation through his eponymous website. What I love about Craig is his intense focus on customer service. Even his title says so.
His job description, in his own words:
“From the very beginning,” Newmark said, “I was involved in talking to people; listening to people. And it hasn’t stopped. The idea was that people send me information; I’d ask them about it, listen, try to do something about it – and then ask for more feedback.”
More on Craig’s dream here
Fake Dalai Lama February 10, 2009
Posted by Mario Sundar in Community Marketing.add a comment
Apparently, it was too good to be true. I blogged about two religious leaders establishing a virtual presence – one on YouTube (the Pope) and the other on Twitter (Dalai Lama).
Of the two it seemed like the Dalai Lama was trying to establish a more conversational attitude towards addressing the community with tweets like:
Our office is currently overwhelmed by responses from our first day on Twitter. We will make every effort to answer your questions in time. – OHHDL
Punk’d!
Twitter confirmed that the “Dalai Lama”s Twitter account was fake:
Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder, said in an e-mail that “the account was suspended because it violated our Terms of Use regarding impersonation. Using Twitter to impersonate others in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others is also cited in the Twitter Rules.”
When Customer really is King! February 9, 2009
Posted by Mario Sundar in Community Marketing, Marketing.Tags: harvard-business
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I just read a terrific write-up by Peter Merholz (Adaptive Path) at Harvard Business that defines customer experience in this new age. A must-read if you’re in any kind of marketing group.
Because customer experience is an organizational mindset. It’s not something a business buys, it’s something a business becomes. Customer experience refers to the totality of experience a customer has with a business, across all channels and touch points.
Although, this is definitely a traditional attribute of brand experience, he goes on to highlight the challenge of bringing customer focus to every company since that entails cultural change that impacts brand and external evangelism.
Embracing customer experience is a process, one that requires fundamental shifts in how your business behaves and is organized.
One can’t help think of Zappos who just recently crossed $1B in global sales in their 9th year, as the very epitome of what Peter describes. Interestingly, the CEO at Zappos, echoes similar sentiments when he talks about external change arising out of internal alignment with key values.
Hseih firmly believes creating a ‘wow’ experience for the customer and investing in a corporate culture that allows employees freedom and space is the essence of what makes Zappos so successful.
“If you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff, like great customer service or building a brand will just happen naturally.” Hseih says.
Read more here
What are the five strengths of a Community Manager? July 21, 2008
Posted by Mario Sundar in Community Marketing.1 comment so far
As I’d mentioned in my most recent post, last week was a mix of furious blogging and a quick break, which was forced by a ton of stuff at work, off-site meetings, speaking opportunities, etc… In the midst of all this structured chaos, I enjoyed taking the Clifton Strengths Finder Test (that I highly recommend).
Since I’m both a community guy and a blogger, I assume these themes are replayed in the work lives of other community managers/corporate bloggers as well. Here are my five key work themes arranged in order of importance and prominence to me as a professional:
#1: Positivity
People who are especially talented in the Positivity theme have an enthusiasm that is contagious. They are upbeat and can get others excited about what they are going to do.
#2: Connectedness
People who are especially talented in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.
#3: Communication
People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.
#4: Includer
People who are especially talented in the Includer theme are accepting of others. They show awareness of those who feel left out, and make an effort to include them.
#5: Activator
People who are especially talented in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient.
Well, looks like I just found my dream job! Something I’ve been saying for a while. Interestingly, my role as a chief blogger benefit greatly from traits 2 and 4. The need for a community manager to take feedback from users to team and team to users is enabled by trait 5. And, positivity is an all-round indicator of how well a community manager can connect users with a positive brand impression & experience.
So, what do you think? Are there any traits of a community manager that’s missing here or that you think is critical. Would love to hear from you. Feel free to leave a comment. Or better still…
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Community Manager Resources (Wiki Page & Twitter IDs) July 21, 2008
Posted by Mario Sundar in Community Marketing.Tags: twitter
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In the words of our Governator, “I’m baaack” and it feels good. Some of you may have noticed my absence after a few days of inspired non-stop blogging (yep, I blogged like 15 posts in 4-5 days) and then poof! I disappeared. I know it felt a tad disorienting for me. Fear not! It was but a case of super-busyness at work, an off-site meeting, speaking at Stanford, and all round weekend goodness!
Interestingly, my prolific week of blogging yielded the second highest traffic day on my blog just a week ago. So, rest assured, I have the motivation to continue blogging. So, let’s get right on topic here. Some of you may recall a recent post of mine, where I aggregated a list of community managers that I know of and their respective twitter ids. It received quite a ton of feedback and I’d missed some of the more recent comments:
Connie Bensen helps create a resource to maintain the twitter ids of social media managers
Before creating a google doc – what about adding to this (maybe even making a subdivision?) – esp since you want it twitter-centric
She has also used the list I started with to augment and create a resource for identifying twitter ids of community managers as a component of the above Wiki page.
Ok – I took the liberty of creating a Community Manager Pack on the Twitter wiki. Help spread the word now. The password is ‘project’. I will blog about it too.
http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com/New-Media%2C-Social-Media#CommunityManagerPack
Please contribute to the above two resources as well. Wondering what to do with the above two resources on social media and community managers. Here’s how you can help build that community resource while simultaneously benefiting from it:
1. Check out the list of Community Managers here
2. Find the brands you possess and need someone to turn to (for e.g. Comcast)
3. Follow that individual on Twitter.
4. Have a question on the product that you can’t find an answer to, contact the individual on twitter
5. Update the list if you know of a community manager who’s NOT on this list
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