social media popularity Archives - Page 3 of 4 by Mark Murnahan

Social Media and The Absurdity of Implied Reciprocity

If you are one of those people who expect social media favors because somebody owes you something, just stop it! If you like something and find value in it, share it with others or do whatever it is that you do with good information. Just don’t assume that it means people owe you anything.

In business, and in life, reciprocity is a wonderful thing. It feels good to do business with people who do business with you, right? You have probably heard the old saying, “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”

A problem with reciprocity comes when people start doing things they would normally not do, only in hopes of demanding favors in return. It is nice to reciprocate, but this does not mean it is implied.

I received a message on LinkedIn yesterday that read as follows: “Hi. I liked ur PAGE through LINKEDIN GROUP. Expecting ur LIKE and SUPPORT.” I thought to myself, “Really? You liked my page in order to add to my number of people artificially interested in my work and you want me to do the same? Oh, and ‘SUPPORT?’ Does this mean you want me to feed your kids, too?” I guess I just didn’t see that as any kind of favor.

If you like what I do, and you think you could learn something from a guy with over 20 years of successful marketing experience, by all means, “Like” my Facebook page. If you think you have done me some great favor and I am going to do you a favor by liking your Facebook page which has absolutely no interest to me, you need me worse than you think!

Why would you have any desire whatsoever to have me “Like” your Facebook page if I will never, ever, be a customer or recommend you to anybody because you are a a demanding douchebag who expects something from me?

If You Like Me, Just Like Me, But Stop Expecting Favors!

Rather than to rewrite the whole thing, I want to share something I said in a previous article titled “Do You Tweet and Retweet Seeking Favors?” Here is the closely paraphrased version:

People in the social media field often build relationships in which they will work together to spread a message. As long as there is honesty and integrity in the message, I am generally happy to help. However, I have been hit over the head with some of this recently. It seems that I get a lot of requests to scratch somebody’s back. It is all fine and good to be reciprocal, but is it good to take away the human filter that makes us who we are?

If all I was doing was tweeting, retweeting, blogging, Facebooking, YouTubing, Digging, Stumbling, and etcetera, because I hoped people would return the favor, would people still care what I had to say? I do not imagine the answer is “yes”.

Reciprocity Has Its Place

Don’t get me wrong, reciprocity certainly has its place, but if you are doing things with expectations of others doing things for you in return, don’t you at least think it should be something meaningful or useful?

The only time I recall actually being a little hacked by lack of reciprocity was from a car dealer. Hell, I purchased three brand new Corvettes and a Cadillac Escalade (total cost over $240,000) from this guy in under a year’s time, and I sent him many new customers. When he went to somebody else for his web hosting because it was cheaper than my recommended $209 per year plan, I kind of thought that was a bad business decision. Then when he asked me about a new website and used my website proposal to shop around, I wanted to kick him in the nuts. Yeah, I kind of felt slapped in the face, but I will still buy a car from him based on the merits of his business … not mine!

I Did Not Buy These Just to Sell a Website!

In summary, don’t “Like” my Facebook, subscribe to my blog, follow me on Twitter, link to this page, kiss my butt with kind comments in my blog, or anything else of the sort if it is only because you want something. Do it because you know I am not full of crap and because you receive value from my hard work.

I may reciprocate, but not because I feel guilty if I don’t.

I have just one more thought for you, and it is what my wife said when I mentioned this subject to her. Here is another way to look at it, and a brilliantly performed song.

Note that since I wrote this, I have replaced the Bonnie Raitt version of the song. Apparently she stopped allowing her YouTube videos to be embedded in web pages. this guy performs it nicely, too!

“I Can’t Make You Love Me“

Dog Photo Credit to wsilver via Flickr

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Anybody Will Sell You Stuff: Some Will Ask “What About You?”

Listening Builds Friendships ... and Companies! — Listening Builds Friendships
... and Companies!

Let’s consider a trait that we can each benefit from, and most of us should work harder to achieve. I will tell it in personal terms, and then explain how it applies to marketing a business.

I am sure you must know somebody who makes you feel comfortable to talk with about anything you want to talk about. When I find myself encountering this rare-as-a-unicorn person who just wants to know about me, and the things I want, it almost feels awkward at first, but in a uniquely good way.

I am talking about those people who listen attentively and do more than just nod their head and yawn as you ramble, while waiting to assert their agenda. I mean the kind who draw you in and make you feel totally comfortable to want what you want, think what you think, and be who you are. You tell them things, because they actually show their interest in you.

When you encounter this type of person, it is easy to feel that their story has got to be a great one. Their expressed interest in you has made them more interesting, and it makes you want to know them better, and to hear their side. Suddenly, there is a desire to switch things around and make the conversation more about them, what they want, what they think, and how you can be a better friend to them.

I hope that you have had the privilege to know somebody like I have described here. If so, you are probably nodding and smiling as you think of the way it makes you feel about them. It may even make you want to ring them on the phone to catch up on things since you last spoke.

Applying Listening to Marketing a Brand

Think about how you feel in a scenario where a person really cares what you have to say. I don’t mean the kind who fake it, but rather the kind where you can sense a sincere interest in you. Don’t you want to be more like them?

Have you ever encountered this feeling that you are talking too much and listening too little? All of the sudden you feel a little bit like a conversation hog, but it is so hard to change. When you want more business, you have to talk more, and it becomes hard to remember those listening skills.

This “listening person” we all enjoy is often there, in the back of our mind, but they are very hard to emulate. What I described is a common dynamic of any relationship, but the special ones we think so kindly about are simply better at it than we are.

In business, we each have our agenda, and our sets of rules for what we think is the best outcome for our own interests. We plan things in ways that we will get what we want out of the relationship, and deviating from that plan is a threat. It is simply against the rules.

In marketing, it is very popular to be the one doing all the talking, and nod and yawn while customers try to tell us what they want. I see extreme selfishness every day in marketing. I see it most profoundly online, because it is easy for companies to scream louder when they think that nobody is listening.

It is important to notice when our set of rules and a selfish mindset diminishes our potential. This is a common outcome when we forget to listen and be that person who becomes more interesting simply by being genuinely interested.

Consider for just a moment the instances when it may be best to approach business as a bit more of an interested introvert, and less of an interesting extrovert. It may create a chance to reset your objectives and become a better “friend” to your customers. The outcome will often be that you will become more interesting, and others will think kindly and smile when they think of your business. The good news is that this truly is scalable to any size of brand!

Are you taking enough time to ask people “What about you?” I guess we could call compassion and listening matters of “growing up” or “wisdom”, but I believe that we can each do more to cultivate our listening and caring skills.

How can you better address the importance of listening to what people want? Will you do the necessary research? Will you take that extra time to slow down and get to know what people want and expect of you?

What do you have to say about this? I welcome your comments, and I want to know “What about you?”

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Will Your Social Media Noise Withstand 2011 Filtering?

Toward the end of the year, it is easy to look back at the last twelve months, and to form new thinking of the year to come. We may try to do this all year, but let’s face it, as we see the clock tick toward 2011, it is easier to close one chapter and open another with a fresh mind. I want to share some of my social media observations of 2010 and look toward 2011. Please join me.

This year, as with past years, many people were frantic to learn the value of social media marketing for their business. During 2008, 2009, and 2010, social media experts in shining armor came riding along on their strong white steeds to save the day with theories from A to Z.

As we near 2011, there are about as many theories on social media as there are “social media experts”, and let me tell you, there are a lot of people calling themselves experts these days. In the past few years, the field of social media marketing took on the excessive noise of squillions of unemployed and starving advertising salespeople, public relations reps, marketing strategists, receptionists, real estate agents, automotive line-workers, and broom-pushers from around the world. Go ahead, shoot the messenger, but what I say is the truth.

Many newly self-appointed social media experts formed theories of what creates enough value in social media that they can sell their services to the abundant number of companies desperately trying anything to get their bills paid. A lot of these so-called experts agreed on things such as the best tools to use, the value of listening to the public, and engaging their customers and potential customers using social media. However, there has often been a huge disparity between the theorists’ ideas and their actions. Worse yet, they have often confused efforts with results.

A lot of people have claimed to have expertise with a given angle, such as how to become popular on Twitter (a very funny topic, by the way), or how to manage a Facebook campaign. Other experts will dig a bit deeper with topics of social media data analysis, and a smaller few experts engage the psychology of people in order to build upon their pack mentality and create a desired response.

As the experts came calling, so did their noise. Even the people who are reliably good at their jobs in social media found that there was a strong barrier of noise to overcome. What was often heralded as the most important factor, which was “engagement”, began to fade as people implemented a stronger filter to strain out the noise. A hazardous outcome of this was that many of the “experts” simply turned up the noise, rather than to create a new strategy and new tactics.

Making a Whisper Heard in Social Media

Social media is a very noisy place, and most of what people will encounter on a daily basis is easy to consider “junk”. That is because it is junk to them. I urge you to remember the old adage that says “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” and it goes both ways. Your treasure may be their junk.

The Internet is inundated by noise (people are noisy, after all), and there is likely only a small percentage who will see value in your “junk”. What I have to say is certainly “junk” or “noise” to the mango farmer in Navsari, India who just needs to find a new truck to haul his crop of mangoes. He is not my target, and thus, I keep my noise level down so as not to bother him. If he needs me, I am still here, but I am not going to bug him.

Where many failed social media campaigns sealed their losing fate is by simply adding to the noise. Failing to reach a specific target audience is not only wasteful, but leads to a significant filtering-out effect. As a marketing professional, myself, I have been stunned by how many people contacted me in 2010 to try and sell me their SEO and social media marketing services. They would actually even email me through my blog’s contact page where they have to enter a captcha code to send their email. This indicates that it was not just automated, but actually a live person entering their sales pitch to sell me the same services which I provide. Before you waste time with this approach, you should at least note the title of the blog.

These people who approached me had no idea of a target, and they added to my filtering-out of the majority of others in their industry … my industry. People approaching their market in this way made so much noise that many people’s “noise filters” went into hyper-drive and tuned them out. This was not limited to my industry, either. The noise level of the Internet as a whole is higher than ever, and with noise-filtering becoming more important, often times a whisper is heard above a shout. This means that the challenges are in careful targeting and balancing volume with value.

Social Media Balance of Volume vs. Value

There is an easy assumption that the volume and reach of a message creates value to a company. This is what we have all be taught through years of commercialization. It is true that there is a strong correlation, but there is a big backlash, too. In the realm of social media, there is a very common outcome of being filtered out.

A better solution is to be filtered-in by proving your value rather than just your volume. Anybody can create volume, and it is quite evident online. It does not take a marketing genius to promote something online and put it in front of a lot of people. Doing it in a way that gets you “filtered in” instead of being “filtered out” is a lot trickier.

Can I claim that this will be the most important piece of your social media strategy to address in 2011? I am not going that far, because there is already plenty of argument on the matter. There are many points of your social media strategy which should constantly be analyzed, criticized, and adjusted. What I can say regarding volume vs. value is what I have experienced. If you wonder if I actually mean what I say, simply look at my frequency of blog updates and usage of other social media for my answer.

I have been claiming it for years that volume alone is often wasted effort. Reaching a good balance of volume and value is important. I believe that as 2011 moves on, the balance will become even more important than ever while people continue learning to filter in good information and filter out noise.

Just as before, but with more prevalence than ever, targeting your message more carefully to reach your market influencers and discovering what they want will factor heavily in the success or failure in many social media campaigns.

Social Media at a Whisper

In summary, it is my continued belief that careful targeting and keeping value high will trump the importance of volume in 2011, just as it has in past years. As such, I invite you to filter me in and subscribe to my blog by RSS or email. If I do not have something to offer which I believe you will find useful, I will keep the noise to a whisper.

Photo Credit to Joe Shlabotnik via Flickr

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Social Media Measurement Tools: What Do They Know About You?

Social Media Measurement is Big Business

How much do people know about you? This is an important question to a lot of people, and particularly businesses. Another perhaps even greater question is “how much do they know about you that gives false indications about you?”

Opinions are very important, and also very easy to forge in social media. At least the bad opinions are easy to create, and so it becomes important to address things which may give early impressions about you, or your company.

There are millions of companies hot on the trail to compiling data about you online. It is easy to imagine that all of the data is just aggregate data which applies to you and millions of others like you, but there is also a shocking amount of data about you, specifically. This is not always a huge security risk, such as people stalking your social media usage to know when you are home and away, or anything so threatening as that. However, a risk that it may impose is an early impression that people or companies may create about you, or insights to your weaknesses.

Whether you are in the business of social media, or using it to promote your business, there are a lot of ways for people to make early, and perhaps false judgments about you. This is not limited to subjective statements about you or your company, and it is often presented with objective data.

I will point out a handful of the social media ranking and measurement tools that people may use to gather an opinion of you. Some may appear as little more than tools to allow people to boast, and promote themselves as being greater than reality. Others may cause a greater impact, especially when used to form a composite view.

It should be noted that each of these services are subject to errors, and often have network limitations imposed by their sources. The data should never be presumed as completely accurate, but again, when a composite is created, it begins to paint a clearer picture.

Klout: “The Standard for Online and Internet Influence”

Klout has some pretty compelling data collection and measurement metrics (see Klout website). Klout measures influence of users across the top social networks, Twitter, Facebook, and soon to include LinkedIn. The service seems to be making a lot of progress with improvements such as daily score updates, which used to be limited to every six days.

On the surface, Klout may just appear to be great for producing bragging rights. However, the emphasis is for discovering others who are measurably influential within given industries or topics. This gives it huge potential for networking as people seek influencers. On the other side of the coin, it could also show competition where you are lacking.

I like Klout’s idea, and with a large group of developers working on their service, it seems they are putting significant effort into it. Since the release of a recent plugin, users are able to view Klout measurement in the popular desktop social media tool, Seesmic Desktop. This makes it clear that people are viewing this data, and most certainly forging opinions.

I believe that Klout has some real potential to add value and move their service forward. I must also say that, although they may be completely wrong about this, I am definitely flattered by their assessment of me as a “Celebrity”. Heck, roll out the red carpet … the Murnahan limo tweeted from 48th Street and is headed this way!

HubSpot Grader Tools

HubSpot has created a suite of individual tools for social media and website measurement, including a Facebook grader, Foursquare grader, Twitter grader, and more. I generally place much lower value on any singular social media signal when compared to aggregate data across multiple sources, but people are using them. The number of people using these tools to discover other influencers or forge opinions, as opposed to seeking bragging rights, is unclear.

In my experience, most ranking services which only grade based on individual services are extremely easy to “game”, and especially with Twitter. I have seen my name at the very top of each of them when I wanted it there, and it often only takes a very short time (hours, not days). Twitter is a pretty challenging place to numerically assign accurate and meaningful values to users, but services like HubSpot’s Twitter Grader, Twitalyzer, TweetLevel, and many others are trying very hard. I have previously pointed out that any algorithm to measure Twitter can be cheated, and often with ease. Here are some reference points for that statement:

PostRank Measurements are Useful, but Flawed

PostRank measures social media engagement of blogs. Yes, blogs are social media. If your company does not have a blog, please stand up and hold out your wrists for a good slapping. Didn’t you read “10 Really Good Reasons to Blog“? Your competition probably did.

PostRank pulls data from many sources, which makes it far less fallible than others which only measure single points of data. PostRank is still limited to restrictions of networks, and simply cannot aggregate all pertinent data. However, it is more compelling than many measurement tools because it aggregates and assigns measurements from an impressive collection of data points.

The image below shows an example of a PostRank score for a given article which shows what PostRank knows about it. Again, I must emphasize that PostRank data can still be flawed, due to network restrictions and the sheer volume of data which is to be reported.

Advertising Age’s “AdAge Power150” Accuracy Through Composite Data

Advertising Age gives a great example of increasing relevance and accuracy by producing a composite view across more data points. The “AdAge Power 150” shows that if you selectively merge some of the many social media measurement tools together, the outcome can become more accurate and compelling.

In the example of AdAge Power 150, they have implemented measures of Todd Points, PostRank, Yahoo InLinks, Alexa Points, and Collective Intellect. Their calculations are explained on the Advertising Age website, and I think it makes a useful example of how social media measurement can be used to form a composite view. To further the depth of the data, most of their sources pull from multiple other data sources.

Summary of Social Media Measurement

Social media influence and authority of a company or individual is not easy to measure, but many people are seeking this data to make estimated guesses about you. This is becoming more prevalent as measurement tools are integrated with other services. It is easy to let down your guard and assume that nobody actually uses this sort of information, but they are, and in huge numbers.

If your online representation is weak, competitors can key in on that weakness and use it against you. On the other hand, if your online branding stands tall and reflects industry authority, it can lead to furthering your network and growing your business opportunities.

One common fact about each of these measurement tools is that in order to be viewed as relevant, you must make consistent efforts.

P.S. One of those measures of PostRank is comments. Strangely, my blog scores sky high, even with a considerably small number of comments, but you can still do your part! Tell me what you think, and how you feel about all of this measuring? How might it affect your business? Do you have a favorite?

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Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Etc.: All Those Friends and Now What?

Making friends is fun. Some of them just touch us for a moment, and some of them last a lifetime. Social media has changed a lot of our communications, and sometimes for the better. Usually it is for the better, but not always.

Over the past decade and a half or so, I have acquired a lot of contacts online. I try to keep a sense of closeness with them, and I still enjoy the friendship of many old friends from the once-popular AOL and Yahoo! social networks. In fact, one in particular stands out. We met ten years ago and became close as members of a Yahoo! chat group that got together every Friday night. We were married eight and a half years ago, built multiple successful companies together, and have three darling children now. A sad and frightening thought that occurs to me is whether with today’s astonishing level of social media static and frenzy to reach so many people, whether she would have even heard me.

What Happens When Social Media Gets Too Noisy?

I really care about my social networks, and they bring a lot into my life. I enjoy reconnecting with old friends from way back, and reminiscing about our crazy times as kids. I enjoy the many business relationships that I have built through social networking. I enjoy meeting new people who can make hot coffee shoot from my nose as I laugh at their uncanny wit, or who make me feel more love and compassion with stories of their lives. I suspect that you can relate to this on some level.

There is scarcely a day when I do not receive something that I hold dear, if only for a moment, that has come to me by way of my social networks. I think this is true for many of us, or otherwise social networks would likely lose much of their audience. We would lose much of our audience of friends who bring smiles with their presence.

In the past few years, the world has created a lot of “friends”, “followers”, “connections”, and etcetera. I guess that made it feel cozier when we call people “friends”, even if they are just another random person willing to check out our lives in exchange for checking out their lives. After all, by having “friends”, it is pretty easy to feel as if people like you, or at least pay attention to you. They express it every time they “like”, “comment”, “share”, “retweet”, and etcetera.

Social media satisfies our need to connect with others. Sometimes it just satisfies our need to be heard. It makes us feel popular, and it validates us. It is often something emotional, even for those who do not acknowledge it as emotion. We each want to connect on some level, and social media does that for us. It lets us collaborate, connect, share, and feel a sense of togetherness that is otherwise unlikely or impossible through pre-Internet channels. It is usually just fine, but if you are not diligent and attentive with social media, it can all begin to sound like static.

How Could Social Networking Possibly Go Wrong?

My short answer to how social networking can go wrong is that it can go wrong in more ways than it can go right. Perhaps the worst of all is a sense of static noise from having so many people trying to communicate with you, and not having an orderly way to keep the static down and let the important information through.

I am not saying that there is a defined “right way” and “wrong way” to enjoy your social media. What I am saying is that it is really easy to overlook the things which make it more fun, productive, and sustainable for long term objectives … whatever the objectives may be. Some of us want more friends, love, admiration, or perceived respect for having a squillion “friends”. Some of us want more business, more consciousness, more votes, or more peace of mind knowing that we are not all so different after all. The individual reasons we use social networks are as unique as our thumb print.

The worst thing that I see go wrong within social media is static noise. It is really common that people will pick up a huge number of “friends”, “followers”, “connections”, and etcetera, but then have absolutely no use for them, or value to them.

Have you ever sent something out there to your social networks and wondered how, with all of those so-called “friends” that it could possibly happen that none of them responded? Sure, it could be that you just said something so mundane and boring that staring at a blank sheet of paper would have been more exciting to them. This is usually not as likely as the possibility that they are overwhelmed with static from so many other people (their “friends”), that they totally forgot about adding you to their special list of people to give attention to.

Can you relate to this? I mean, have you ever found out that an old friend was sick, dying, or just had a fantastic day … or maybe just got the job promotion they so clearly deserved? Did you ever find out much later than you wish? I have, so I am certainly not pointing any fingers.

Sometimes life gets in the way, and we are surely each guilty of doing less than we could. The possible causes for the disconnection are numerous, but there are usually more reasons to reconnect with old friends. So, give it a try. What is the worst that could happen?

What is the Solution? Reconnect! … But How?

There are a lot of possible solutions to help avoid this tragedy of communications gone the way of static noise. Of course, there are a lot of great social media monitoring tools, but even with all the technology in the world, you still have to use them to get any benefit.

My suggestion today is that you take a little time to go through your list of friends, followers, and connections and try to reconnect with them. If they are somebody you found a particular interest in, or has shown an interest in you at some point, add them to a list or subscribe to their comments. Most social networks have the capability to create lists to help keep you in touch with people. Keep up with what they have to say. Let them know it, too. Interact, engage, communicate … you know, all of those things you used to do with them. Give them some feedback! If you have a blog, go back through some old comments and find out who used to always be there, but is less active than they once were. Do the same thing across other social media channels. Think about the people who provided some influence to you when you needed it. Bring them closer and don’t let the static get in the way.

If you feel like you have too much to keep up with, a little list-making effort will help you remain close to the ones you care about or respect the most. If you think really hard, I’ll bet there are some pretty great people who just slipped through the cracks of your everyday life. Reconnecting with these people and keeping them in a special list can be a huge help when struggling with all the static noise.

What do you think? Have you ever been let down, or let somebody else down just because their communication got lost in the static? Don’t be shy … be social! I have a comment form here on my blog, and it is there to connect and share. Tell others what you think, and if you have suggestions for managing relationships, by all means, share it!

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