The question was posed to me, what is Reputation Management, and as a marketer should I be concerned about it? Here is Wikipedia’s official explanation:
Reputation management is the process of tracking an entity’s actions and other entities’ opinions about those actions; reporting on those actions and opinions; and reacting to that report creating a feedback loop. All entities involved are generally people, but that need not always be the case. Other examples of entities include animals, businesses, or even locations or materials. The tracking and reporting may range from word-of-mouth to statistical analysis of thousands of data points.
Historically marketers have used Reputation Management to monitor negative sentiment in Social Media channels by creating and optimizing content around keywords that would move negative sentiment off of page one in Google. Smart- right? It also allows the company to address that same negative sentiment and document a case study of success. Make the naysayer happy! Good stuff and smart as well.
That was the past, today Reputation Management is a must for any brand swimming in Social Media channels. Here is why! I have tried to tag and #hastag alot of keywords I am interested in being found for. Sure enough, some of the organic keyword traffic this blog is receiving comes from social channels, as well as those tagged keywords from Google. I don’t link build, so that direct Google traffic (attached to a specific keyword) is a direct byproduct of tagging my content and Google finding the correlation to my Social reputation.
Since Google started indexing tweets, I have seen Twitter pages and even individual tweets I have posted start appearing within Google search results. Same with ReTweets (RT) of me, or of my valued Twitter peeps! The result has been more referral traffic and the direct connecting of the dots to SEO.
What I outlined above is a way you can show ROI in relation to Social Media. If you are not engaging socially, you might want to reconsider. Social Media now has a direct quantifiable relationship to SEO with a pivot point named Reputation Management. Share This Post
Back on February 3rd of 2009 I wrote a post that asked Will Social Media Become More Niche In 1000 Days? With the recent rise in popularity of Foursquare the answer to the question is yes. Social is far more niche than when I wrote that post.
The addition of geography to keyword and #hashtag search has allowed users to dive even further and businesses are able to derive even more:
Business Intelligence
Competitive Analysis
Direct To Consumer Marketing
In the coming months look for Foursquare to start segmenting industries even further. Also, rural America does not have much of a presence on Foursquare, so they might have to seed some content there. Ultimately, the day might come where you will be able to search for the most random of items or service based on your current location- and find it. I think it is safe say that Foursquare is pushing niche and the Geo makes traveling, moving or simply knowing your surroundings, that much easier.
I am sure there are other business drivers I missed. Feel free to bolt on your business drivers for Foursquare in the comments.
At least once a day I receive an email that says something along the lines of: “Help, I need something to help me sell Social Media”. While I was on vacation a recent college grad was hired by a company to build their social media presence, but doesn’t have a clue where to start. He emailed me and simply need inspiration. So with that, here is two videos that answer the questions; “why social media?” and “where can I get ROI data around Social Media?”
I really like this one.
Thanks to Socialnomics and @equalman for doing a fantastic job. And to the chap that is in his first job post college- keep plugging buddy. You have 40+ more years of work. There will be many more challenges – seize the moment and kill it! I hope these help!
I will be doing a Betty White blog post this week. Stay tuned!
Over the last couple of weeks I came across some pretty swell new Social Media tools. One of which is Ad.ly – I think the best way to describe it is to take the word-smithing right from the page:
What is Ad.ly?
Ad.ly is an in-stream advertising platform that matches top-tier Twitter publishers with top-tier brands.
Ad.ly for Advertisers
Ad.ly is an in-stream advertising platform that matches top-tier brands with top-tier Twitter publishers. Twitter is a global phenomenon and one of the fastest-growing sites, with over 52 million users in the U.S. alone. Ad.ly enables advertisers to reach the highly sought-after Twitter audience by connecting brands with the most influential people in the community.
Ad.ly for Publishers
Ad.ly enables Twitter publishers to make money from the content they produce on Twitter by sending one tweet every day from advertisers that they approve. In order to ensure authenticity, every Ad.ly tweet is explicitly approved by the Twitter publisher. The publishers are able to set the price they want advertisers to pay and can optionally donate their earnings to charity.
Imagine if you had a product for your women and Kim Kardashian tweeted about the product to her 2.7 million followers? Ad.ly connects the demographic dots with your brand through celebrity Tweeters. Let’s be honest- Celebrities have made Twitter into the cool kids club. If you are not a fellow celeb, they won’t follow you back. Shame on the Celebs for missing out on the opportunity to rub elbows with their fans, listen and run with some invaluable ideas and apply them. But if they won’t take the time, or hire someone to harvest the ideas, then Ad.ly is a perfect way for them to line their pockets even more. The beautiful thing is it levels the playing fields giving brands, large and small, equal footing to be tweeted to the masses. All the while taking into account demographics and #hastags! Brilliant! The cost is the same for me as it is for Coke to have Shaq retweet my message.
The bottom line is Celebs are making twitter a traditional push marketing tool-why not let your brand monetize on their short-sightedness? In the end it will drive the following business objectives: Brand awareness, brand affinity (how cool would it be to have Shaq Tweeting about your brand), heightened market share, inevitable traffic and in some cases could be viral depending on how you set up the campaign. Read this article on proven methodologies of success using the Ad.ly social model.
As for being a publisher – I don’t care about the money I would get on a daily basis, but your brand might – especially if you have many followers and are struggling to monetize your presence. Some food for thought! Which begs the question, is Ad.ly the future of Twitter?
Content is king in social media, especially when you share your content out!
Content is king in social media, especially when you share!I am proud to say I am number 1 in Google for “Social Media Widgets”. It might come across like I am trying to toot my own horn by posting this…quite the contrary. I am actually shining the spotlight on the need to do 3 things:
Create unique content that has real value proposition
Think about SEO and keywords with everything you do
Share your unique content out in DoFollow Social Media & Niche channels
The result of these three commitments is #1 rankings in Google. For me it made sense to try to rank for “Social Media“. But instead of trying to topple “Social Media” out of the gate, I went after terms that include “Social Media” within. Thus “Social Media Widgets” was one of those terms I identified and alas- won!
In the end, the content I created was valuable enough to drive the #1 ranking- thus making content king! However, if content is king, then SEO is the King’s fuel and sharing in a DoFollow social channels makes for a smart and well nourished King.
It is 6AM and I am already a third of the way through a pot of coffee. What is early occasion? Brand awareness tools! Thrilling right? Well actually – yes! For many executives, being able to show their brand penetrating the market is vital. So for the last few days I have been researching and playing around with some of the cheaper Brand Reputation tools for those companies with smaller budgets.
NOTE: Let me preface this post by saying, I am a firm believer that Techrigy and Radian 6 are the market leaders and the best value if your organization has the bucks to spend.
The following are the 5 tools I recommend for those with a slimmer budget:
Scoutlabs- A fantastic little service that I have used in the past. Their official quote is “A powerful, web-based application that tracks social media and finds signals in the noise to help your team build better products and stronger customer relationships.” $100 dollars a month for track your brand in Social Media channels, analytics and a platform that helps you assign actions based on sentiment.
YackTrack – A free service that lets you monitor the chatter of any URL. I use this as a quick reference often. Certainly is not a service that you should hang your hat on as being “the monitor service for you”.
Nielsen NetRatings – I have been monitoring their service for awhile. They have been diligent about rolling out more and more bells and whistles. It is an ala carte approach to buying what you need, as you go. This makes it cost effective and simply works. I would just like to see the website be a little less cumbersome!
The Search Monitor – I feel like this service is great for monitoring not only your brand, but also monitor competitive intelligence and an entire industry. For $99 dollars and a free white page, you can’t go wrong!
Buzzlogic – The buzz around this service is very high. The client testimonials are solid and the customer base is fantastic. There is one issue- the issue of cost is vague! It doesn’t show, which makes me believe that they might fall into the Radian6 and Techrigy category instead of the services above.
Have a suggested service? Leave it in the comments? Are you a analytics solution provider? Same deal, drop your value, website and digits in the comments. Have a great hump day!
Social Media is going to change the broadcasting landscape in the not too distant future. Recently Detroit Tigers Hall Of fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell, announced that he has inoperable cancer. To a roaring crowd he came out to wish the city of Detroit goodbye and delivered an incredibly classy and moving speech. In the face of the unknown he recently said his “voice had always been around. Day after day! Year after year! Barbecue after barbecue, booming through summer thunderstorms…it’s just there!” His statement about his voice being an icon for Detroit and the surrounding suburbs, got me thinking about technology and Social Media.
Ernie Harwell, Vin Scully and Bob Murphy are the end of “the voice of baseball teams”. As technology becomes more readily accessible, the future of broadcasting will involve several voices calling games. It has already begun with podcasting and a number of notable unknowns growing in notoriety for their commitment to sharing and broadcasting. Look at iTunes, the robust list of radio stations grows daily. I suspect we are just months away from iTunes introducing a number of independent broadcasters to the equation. Eventually, anyone will be able to login their feed.
XM/Sirius Radio has already started a push where the listeners pick the new songs that are “cool”. It is only a matter of time and technology that can organize millions of feeds via keyword that there will be independent broadcasters broadcasting anything and everything. Soon, you can be Rush Limbaugh! Soon your neighbor can be Howard Stern, and as these independents grow a following, they will start getting fantastic guests- thus giving Rush and Howard competition. And yes – anyone can become Ernie Harwell! It will then come down to creativity, content and over time traditional marketing coin.
So what is the point Derek? The point of this post is to hammer home the need and commitment to unique content. From March to September, from 1960-2002, Ernie Harwell broadcast the Detroit Tigers games with his flair. Unique content and a commitment to bringing that content to life is the key to making money in the business world and yes…Social Media! The future of broadcasting will be driven not by the technology (technology is leveling the playing field for everyone to deliver information and content), but by the value and creativity of the content being delivered. Brands of ALL kinds need to find their voice in these channels, add value to the world to help get their brand recognized and maybe even evolve the product to the voice of their prospects and customers. Ernie Harwell is nothing more than an old school community manager for the Detroit Tigers. He delivered the brand in the format technology allowed at the time. Today, technology is allowing brands to deliver their message and value in a multi faceted approach. So the question begs to be asked, who is your organizations Ernie Harwell?
Best wishes Ernie Harwell and his family. May the last days of his life be as fruitful as the first 91 years.
I have had a number of clients ask how to set up an auto feature. I thought about doing a video myself, but why bother when Aymee has already done such a wonderful job. Thanks Amyee! Also, be sure to look at every follower. I know it is time consuming, but it is important to look at everyone. Make the time, and do reach out to the people that can help you and you can compliment their business. Automation makes it easier to say thanks…nothing more. Be human!
There are many thoughts swirling in my bean on this rainy spring morning! So I decided to unleash some random musings starting with how the Apple stores are now selling iPhone 3G without a contract. Who has a the money in this economy to afford it? Is now the right time?
Twitter- There were as many spam follows from Twitter in my Inbox this AM, as there were birds chirping outside my window. What is Twitter going to do about this? They claim they are taking steps to remedy the issue, but are they really? I had a self proclaimed “porn star” follow me yesterday morning. I don’t think it is working! Just a point, when people have a username spelled out it makes them more accountable. Twitter should encourage people to not create aliases and use their name as their business brand.
Jeremiah Owyang & Mzinga – I am still waiting for the official post from Jeremiah in regard to his meeting with Mzinga this past Monday. Hmm…..
Am I the only person that likes the new Facebook structure? I could care less about changing it back? Although it is important for all Social Networking companies to listen to their users, I feel like this is a case of people getting comfortable. The bottom line is the new structure makes the fan pages far more sticky and I have found myself spending less time, but doing more on my personal page. That is a good thing! This is my request to Facebook to keep on…keepin on!
Authority Domains Contest – I am working with the rest of the design team at Authority Domains to rework the website. So far so good! However, the beauty of Social Media is to ask your peers what they would like to see. Use the wisdom of the masses to craft your vision is simply smart! Have a gander and comment here on what improvements you would suggest. The best idea will net a $20.00 ITunes gift card!
Baseball Predictions – With baseball starting soon, here is my 2009 predictions:
We will have a classic Dodgers/Red Sox Worlds Series. I think the Dodgers & Red Sox have a great blend of youth and veterans. I think the Mets will be good, but are one stud starting pitcher short. Oh, Manny will have revenge on the Sox in 7 games. I almost forget that very important prediction.
About six months ago I made the recommendation to my previous employer (Mzinga) to create a widget that would embed a group of Twitter posts into any community or website. The posts would be organized by either keywords or opt-in by the Twitter user. The value is exposure for Mzinga and a huge value add to the Social Media industry. My idea was met with crickets from the then head of Social Media platform development.
Tweetizen is a fantastic tool that I would recommend anyone with a niche website. If your web presence encompasses a wide spectrum of subjects, the Tweetizen tool might be a bit cumbersome to draw in all the keywords. But if you can think of three keywords that encompass your web presence, then here is the value.
The widget makes your business community or website sticky with real time content
Tweetizen helps you target new members for your community-or business targets based on Twitter keyword
It helps you keep a strong pulse of the industry you are passionate about.
I created a group for Authority Domainshere. My only complaint is where is the search functionality to search the existing groups?
Sit tight, the embedded/widget version is about a week away. For now I would suggest getting your feet wet and playing with the tool so you can plug it in when it goes live. I will update this blog when that functionality is live!
The question was posed to me, what is Reputation Management, and as a marketer should I be concerned about it? Here is Wikipedia’s official explanation:
