TWITTER … Bla Bla Bla…are you sick of TWITTER yet?

January 31st, 2010

The more I speak with association managers, marketing and communications professionals, senior executives and CEO’s, one message is absolutely clear. They feel bombarded by the hype around social media and frankly are getting sick and tired of hearing about it!

At a recent meeting of about 100 communications and marketing specialists (the kinds of people that are embracing social media) more than 95% of them have used TWITTER and 100% of those have determined that it held little to no value, or worse, was a time suck.

An Executive Director of an important trade association summed it up best when she felt that social media hype was exerting a tremendous amount of” peer pressure to embrace social media” but that it was difficult at best to see where the value is. Her view was echoed by colleagues and they wanted to know, where is the measureable ROI in social media?

These frustrations are both normal and unfortunate. Social Media has a great deal to offer organizations of every size and type, but the heavy focus on social media technology features, rather than the business strategy of how and why to use social media, is the problem.

What good is it to know that ‘Beyonce’ has half a million followers on TWITTER? What lessons are learned for a professional membership organization that Susan Boyle’s combined YouTube hits now number over 100 million? Or that Facebook has 330 million users?

It is like saying that China has 1.4 billion people so therefore it makes sense to do business in China. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, but you do not decide just because of the impressive numbers.

Some organizations are starting to wade through the hype and make real, measureable use of social media. These organizations have several things in common:

They have identified a specific use or objective for their social media activities
They have determine how they are going to measure success and they start that measurement right from the beginning
They have developed a strategy and a business plan that includes designating sufficient human resources to implement and manage their plans.

In other words, they are treating social media as they would any other important business project, not like it is a hobby.

Tags: Blogs, Social Media, Social Networks, Twitter
Posted in Social Media Strategy | No Comments »

What do you think about “LinkedIn Groups”? – An early morning question from Brazil

November 18th, 2009

Early this morning, before my much needed coffee, I read the following question that was posted by Nils Montan from Sao Paolo Brazil on LinkedIn.

Nils is an attorney with a very large law firm in Brazil (Dannemann, Siemsen, Bigler & Ipanema Moreira) and started a Linkedin Group call “Law and Social Networking”. Have a look at his question and my response to him.

I would be curious to know how you would respond to his question about LinkedIn Groups?

_____

Nils:

”Many of the Groups I belong to are kinda “dead.” The owner started them and then just let’s a thousand flowers bloom without rhyme or reason. Usually people seem to get bored and stop posting and the featured discussions stay up for months.

Not a good situation.

How can we prevent this from happening here?

A good quote from Chris Brogan. “Communities don’t want to be managed. They want to be cared for.”"

Terrance:

“Nils, I have belonged on average to 40+ groups on an ongoing basis because of my work. I have also been working with or for professional and trade associations for over 20 years. Non-profit associations are the “original”

social network and so it has been interesting to observe the flourishing of online communities of interest when they have existing already in the offline world in the form of “associations” for many, many years.

I have been a member of LinkedIn for a number of years and over that time I have made two major observations about Linkedin Groups:

a.) Many are indeed zombies – the walking dead whereby they get launched, accumulate a certain number of initial members but then go silent, or;

b.) They become dominated by spam, whereby the “discussions” are simply advertisements for the individual or for other services and products.

What most people should be doing is what you have just done with this post; ask a thoughtful question to generate real dialogue and thereby advance the collective knowledge of the community.

The LinkedIn Groups that have been successful and that have grown are often actually started by existing “off-line” communities or are in areas of high profile like “sustainable energy” or are in emerging fields were the traditional associations may either not address the niche topic well, or are absent.

I will be curious to read what others have to say on this topic?”

-END-

Indeed I am very curious about Nils’ question. What do you think about this?

Tags: Community, Community Management, LinkedIn, Social Media Strategy
Posted in Opinion, Social Media Strategy, Social Technologies | No Comments »

Facebook and a 20′ something with a nose ring is not a social media strategy!

October 29th, 2009

A surprisingly large number of organizations are using a Facebook site, managed by a millenial generation junior staff person, as their organization’s approach to social media. Not that there is anything wrong with Facebook or with millenial’s or with junior staff people. It’s just that they are not a substitute for a business strategy on how to use social media for most professional or trade associations.

What’s your opinion?

There is so much hype about how social media is changing society and in particular, about how associations are facing the most serious threat yet to the way they are doing business and even their very existence, that it is intimidating for many. Some of the hype is true – social media is changing how associations need to operate and in many cases the changes are life threatening for traditional associations. However, there is also a great deal of confusion because of the proliferation of new tools and the many very disparate ways they are being used to connect people. The tools are important but they can also be a distraction from creating the necessary strategy if you start with tools and features first.

What associations need to remember is that associations are all about creating community, something that is new to most of the new entrants in the social media space. What associations should also keep in mind is that social media is first and foremost an engagement strategy, something that associations also have as part of their DNA.

What is different and what many associations are going to struggle with however, is that social media tools require a new and evolving skill set to be leveraged effectively. For example, association staff are often expected to create and generate content for their association. In the new social media context, it is more about user generated content and enabling more autonomy in the community at large. Staff have then to learn more how to influence and manage thought leaders and experts who then create content and less on creating it themselves. This can be a significant and difficult change for many. They have to become true “community managers”, a position that will include subject matter understanding, political skills and excellent communication capabilities.

Social media applications and tools offer an exciting and new way to enable real engagement within communities of interest. But if you want to make intelligent choices about which tools are appropriate for which purposes, it helps first to know what you want to achieve through social media and how best to do it. That is what a social media strategy is all about and it is the starting point, before making technology decisions.

Information and free resources on social media and strategy can be found at: http://Ez.com/SMResource

Tags: Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Platfroms, Social Media Strategy, Social Networks
Posted in Social Media Strategy | No Comments »

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