But, I WAS interested in finding the right one for my desktop and iPhone. I chronicled my search in a goofy video.
Monthly Archives: January 2009
Now You Can Stalk Your Twitter Stalkers
Using Twitter for data mining and information gathering isn’t new. Most Twitter users effectively search for key terms using Summize, and for PR professionals this is almost a must-do these days to monitor your brand.
I regularly use Twitter (and other microblogs) to direct my “followers” to stories of interest, which can be pieces I’ve authored or news stories. But I have no idea if people actually like the stuff I post unless I get positive feedback (which I occasionally do). I do know that on sites where I have administrative control I notice a steadily increasing amount of traffic from these posted links.
One of the key tricks to posting links on Twitter is using a link-shortening service. TinyUrl was one of the first, but these days I prefer Is.Gd because it uses less characters. Less is more on Twitter because you can do more commentary.
But now there is a new link-shortening service that also has some incredible metrics built in. TwitClicks shortens your url, but also tracks everyone who clicks on it. This way you can see which stories actually attract the interests of your professional and social connections, and which ones are total duds. And hopefully improve on it in the future.
I tried it out a little on different sites and I was surprised how many people actually click on the stories I post. If you are reading this article from a link I’ve posted elsewhere, I used TwitClicks to do it. I was not surprised to see almost half of them come from Facebook and my personal site. But here is where it gets a little creepy.
In addition to the site that people click your link from, TwitClicks also tells you what browser they are using, their location, and their IP address. Using this information, they also estimate which specific Twitter user was likely the one who clicked on the link.
I can understand trying to fine tune my “tweets” to make them more popular. But do I really want to know which specific user is clicking on them, and what would I do with that information?
More importantly, now that everyone knows I can get that information, is anyone going to click on my links any more?
Cross-posted from Slaw
MediaCampIreland – Newsletter
Please sign up here for official MediaCampIreland news, we do not rent share sell your details, this is the Mafia for goodness sake, don’t be a newsletter snob!
Where’s the Weirdest Place You’ve Ever Had ROI?
I recently stumbled across a really interesting take on ROI and social media. Peter Kim, who I am almost over being irritated with for blowing me off twice in scheduled briefings last year, really nails it when he talks about how people who pontificate on ROI and social media usually don’t know what they are talking about.
Not only have I seen it done in the social media world, I’ve committed the unpardonable sin myself back in my early mobile days. I have been the inch-deep guy talking ROI, leading with ROI. I mostly got away with it citing a few tired old case studies with metrics that were, in retrospect, a little dubious. I got my comeuppance in a big deal with a major restaurant chain when the CFO asked me if I was ready to back up my promises of ROI with a contractual remedy in the event of non-performance.
Game. Set. Match. (I lost that deal)
So when Peter Kim suggests that it is “easy for anyone with an understanding of business finance to see the shallowness of these analyses,” I not only believe it to be true, I feel the still burning hole in my wallet.
I don’t make that mistake anymore with social media. If I find myself developing some kind of weird narrative around ROI, like I do when I am trying to convince my significant other why I failed to take care of dinner on my turn, I know I’m on tenuous ground. Stop. Reset. Let’s think this thing through kind of ground.
This is not to say that social media shouldn’t be held to the same accountability standards as other marketing spend – it should. Nor is it to say that social media can’t deliver more than some insipid notion of “branding” value (I just vomited). I am sure it can be a wildly successful, marketing-driven ROI generator. My point is that ROI, like love and a winning poker hand, isn’t exactly predictable. In the long-term, most people find love, and, if you play poker enough, you’ll even get rockets.
Case in point, our client Scripps. Ratemyspace was developed to earn Scripps additional advertising revenue on a site with waning traffic. While they were able to generate ROI in the form of advertising, the more unexpected cash driver was the fact that it became so popular they spun it out into a television show. Now that is ROI.
I think there are my more case studies like that waiting to happen. What it will take is companies who demand ROI, but are willing to invest in experimentation, and don’t throw out the social media bathwater with the Facebook Whopper baby.
Social Media Big Players Tone it Down, Take Their Own Advice- My Predictions for 2009
Everyone and their second cousin’s kindergarten classmate’s barber has done a ‘Predictions for 2009′ post, especially within the social media sphere. John Battelle’s usual antics and Peter Kim’s assemblage of the whole social media blogosphere’s predictions both stood out, but I am too stubborn to accept what the big egos in the industry have to say. In fact, my prediction is that such egos are going to be harder to create and maintain. There’s going to be movement away from big, all-or-nothing cults of personality and little leaky silos, more niche verticals, will find their respective icons and make their efforts worthwhile.
Templates you need (1): Your roadshow
The situation: early stage marketing
What if a client of yours wants to bring you in to help set up some social media, but his or her colleagues are skeptical?
Are you ready to go in and make an engaging presentation to him or her overcome their objections?
Action
Can you talk readily and wittily on
- the features of Social Media
- the benefits of Social Media in your sector
- the first 3 steps for getting started?
Example
CJ, @pcmcreative, has her presentation for social media in the drama/theatre world on Slideshare.
More examples?
Would you add a link to yours below? Maybe we could make a catalogue of the sectors we cover and the issues important to our clients?
Hat-tip
Hat-tip to Paul Imre, @i_paul, who provides web solutions to small businesses in High Wycombe.
Do your customers have any idea what you can do for them?
When your customers land on your blog or website, do they know exactly what they can hire you to do?
Do you get approaches from potential clients who’ve read your blurb?
Do current clients come back to you and say, “I saw you do this and that. I was thinking, can you also help us with this?”
Writing a blurb is hard. We muddle up in our mind what we can do and what we want to do – what we are confident about and what makes us anxious.
Asha Treacy, who is in HR, and I (work psychologist) are happy to talk you through it – no charge. And when we are done, we’ll get marketers to take over and polish it up.
For now, how’s about we link here to good blurbs that tell customers. Here’s Ruth Kanter‘s.
4 stages for winning consulting work?
So you get a chance to bid on a #So.ME project? How long would it take you get out your proposal and to draft contracts with other #So.ME providers who will help you deliver?
I am used to a four stage process of winning work. Does your process look like this or do you use another method?
- Work with prospects over quite a long time until they ask you for a proposal OR you hear of a public bidding process which has formal Requests for Proposals (RFP).
- Scope the proposal by talking with your client to understand the background, motivation of the request and their budget OR get hold of the Terms of Reference (ToR), attend briefing meetings, and interview the decision makers (if possible) to get more information.
- Prepare the written proposal and submit it to the client OR submit as a formal tender by the due date.
- Follow up meetings to vary the proposal or to find out why it was rejected and if you have the job, commit the agreement to writing as a Letter of Engagement.
Does that look like what you do? What jargon is used in various parts of the world and in different sectors?
Social Media Mafia in SecondLife
Social Media Mafia SecondLife
We have an island in SecondLife available for Social Media Mafia activities, and years of experience to boot, having worked on some cool projects with companies such as Coca-Cola and Audiocourses.com. We are not sure what we’ll do other than get cyberly drunk and dress-up as foxes, but we may do some serious stuff too.
You can find us at the following SLURL
New Year Challenge: Make a leak proof silo
For everyone who believes that social media builds silos, I set you this challenge: build one!
Look at this attempt to build CatholicGoogle!
Cheers!