Archive for reputation management
Gist – A New Contact Management Tool
Posted by: | CommentsAre you trying to figure out how to harvest all the potential leads in your social media files? Are you wondering what to do with all your email contacts that you think might be in LinkedIn or might be found on Twitter but you just aren’t sure if that is the case? Are there some great people in your industry who you suspect have blogs filled with useful information? Then Gist is a tool you will want to explore for data mining your social media profiles AND your email or SalesForce CRM software for contacts and leads.
Gist allows you to have an all in one dashboard to see all the contact information and communication history or anyone in any of your contact circles (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blog, Gmail, etc). Displayed on the dashboard for each person among your contacts are not only the publicly available social site links for their profiles as well as any news articles that mention them, emails you have exchanged, links and attachments you have shared, common connections, as well as their Twitter feed.
The potential of all this information aggregated in a single easy to access location makes for a powerful resource for your next meeting with a client, your boss, your son’s angry teacher. No more digging around in your email, searching your files for content previously attached or received, it is all right in front of you in a nice easy to use spreadsheet like format. No more mind maps to figure out who knows who and how, no more trying to remember when exactly you or they sent a file attachment and where you stored in and in which folder. No more trying to figure out what is that contact’s LinkedIn, Twitter, and email information. Theoretically you can tap into their social and professional profile and find out everything you need to initiate contact professionally within Salesforce or Outlook and create an uber intelligent contact dashboard filled with all kinds of relevant content that you can assign various priorities for processing purposes. What a boon this is for managing information and contacts for prospecting and follow up purposes. What an amazing aggregating tool for gathering all kinds of information formerly scatter to the social media winds! You will know more about your prospect than the xray guy at TSA!
The beauty of Gist is the more complete profile you build for a ‘connection’ across their various profiles on line in a centralized location. It cuts out some of the manual data harvesting efforts previously required to really figure out who your social connections are and how to leverage their connections. Gist helps you know ‘more about who you know.’ The unity of information on Gist is incredibly useful. Whether it is searching or creating a dossier of a contact’s recent activities, the intelligence this tool collects and updates regularly is amazing. Still, it has its limitations in Beta form. It relies on your importing of updated lists from your various profiles. It does not auto-update when you add new contacts or connections. It limits the number of Twitter followers you are allowed to import as well. But these are minor limitations for the tool.
As a tool to use to facilitate further engagement with your followers and contact, this is an incredibly useful resource for PR, Marketing, Sales, and Social Media Community Managers. Take the pulse of your community, respond rapidly to individual needs, and engage with more people more often. Now if I could only get them to include Google local search listings for companies. Can you imagine adding a map, video, slideshare, etc?
I am hooked. And you will be too once you try it.
Social Media “Experts” on the Rise – What is Your Social Media Moniker?
Posted by: | CommentsSo you are a social media expert? Maybe in a room full of business owners or professionals I am the ‘expert’ on social media, but I would not call myself one. I prefer the assignment of proficiency or specialist to my name.
General Definition of an expert: http://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/expert Doing something for 10 years or 10,000 hours http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert Since Twitter has not been around for 10 years yet…I guess I can’t use the expert moniker but I can call myself a specialist! I can say that I am an expert in measurements and evaluations and statistical design models. I have done that for more than 10 years.
I was talking to Kevin Urie of Social Media Club of Seattle the other day and he asked me, “What do you think of the social media ’scene’ in Seattle?” Wow…that was a loaded question. I think it is great! I think it is exciting! I think it is an enthusiastic bunch of enthusiasts who are clamoring to learn more and more about all the latest gadgets and tools. But what I don’t see in many of the enthusiasts is a meaty need and driving desire to understand the potential of each new piece and how to measure the data points in meaningful ways. There are lots of enthusiasts and great fans roaming the west coast proclaiming the power of social media but there are more zealots and practitioners than in the trenches analysts and tinkerers. That is why he and SMC Seattle continue to bring thought leaders together for their more formal presentations to help the enthusiasts and the thought leaders exchange ideas and build a knowledge base that promotes expertise and informs the casual user as well. Kevin’s leadership and the great group he surrounds himself with is bringing great value to the Seattle social media community. They offer something for the beginner to the most experienced practitioner in the field of social media and it is always innovative and exciting.
Next I had coffee with my friend who works with a government entity that won’t embrace social media because the bureaucratic chain of permissions is so great that it would take months for a single tweet to be approved for broadcast. The burden of understanding the immediacy of social media and the potential it possesses for their organization is so beyond them that they are skeptical about anyone in the business regardless of their skill sets or experience.
I moved on down the Seattle waterfront and had coffee with Warren Sukernek of Social Media Breakfast Seattle for an interview for my upcoming book on Twitter techniques and strategies. The conversation moved from the hows and whys to the vetting of not only Twitter followers for brand engagement but also regarding the person representing the brand itself. We both knew of companies that had hired someone’s niece or nephew still in high school or college to ‘Tweet’ for the company. We also knew of cases where a social media expert’s complete work history involved a stint as a bagger at Safeway and barista at the corner cafe. And the company wonders why their social media efforts are not working so well for them? SMBC’s last presentation by Sean O’Driscoll of Ant’s Eye View briefly addressed just that question as he went on to address pithier matters about measurement of conversations, etc.
This led to a lengthy discussion with my buddy David Grigsby a tech geek like myself who lives in the heartland of America. He and I chat almost weekly about the latest tools and techniques that impact small business on the web. Gist, Flowtown, Mailchimp, CRM, Odesk, you name it and we have turned it upside down and ripped it apart to analyze its effectiveness for small business owners. Not surprising we have also analyzed the ways and means of social media. We came to the same conclusion…measurable output is critical to success on any of these platforms
The most interesting thing that came out of all the conversations with these professionals is that there were some common benchmarks or standards we are looking for in the ‘experts’ we will work with, support or engage on behalf of our clients:
1. Must be a doer not a talker. Actively participating in the social environments they propose to represent for a brand. An abandoned or inactive Twitter account does not make one an expert. Tweets must bring value and encourage engagement at a minimum. Consistency is important as is output.
2. A true dynamic web presence that is optimized for find-ability. If you are in the business of building the web presence of a brand then you need to eat your own dog food. If someone ‘Googles’ you and you can’t ‘be found’ don’t call yourself an expert. You can’t because you aren’t. As Nike says, “Just Do It!”
3. Social media projects are an integral part of a maven’s portfolio. Let your work speak for you. If you can’t point to anything you have done that is professional and represents your knowledge base you won’t impress anyone.
4. A polished, highly optimized, and professional LinkedIn profile is important to the vetting process. You will be assessed based on your strengths and weaknesses found on available online information. If you can’t be validated as a professional with appropriate education or experiences that align with what you claim, then you probably won’t make the cut.
This is not to say that there are not gems among the inexperienced. They get how it works. They stumble onto the one thing that not one of their peers has discovered as of yet. The technologies are in their infancy as are all the ‘experts’ that abound. We are all trying to differentiate who we are and what we do. None of us can claim to truly be experts at the moment. We are all practitioners building tools, strategies, and techniques built on our individual and collective experiences in the field. The reason that I won’t call myself an expert is that I am not that confident anyone is including the inventor of the technology, methods, or tools.
Your thoughts?
The Top 5 Mistakes on LinkedIn
Posted by: | CommentsI often write about things you should do on LinkedIn to maximize your effectiveness. Today we’re going to look at the other side of the equation…the mistakes. The five mistakes listed here are related to your ability to eventually monetize LinkedIn.
1. Not Having a Purpose or Not Understanding Why You Are On LinkedIn
Quite simply if you don’t know the answer to this question then how do you know what actions you should be taking on LinkedIn? There are numerous reasons to be on LinkedIn and you may have several. The actions you take should be done to support your purpose.
My ultimate goal is to grow my business (make money) so I focus on growing my networks and communicating my message as often as possible. Because I know my purpose, have determined what actions support this purpose, and implement my strategy on an ongoing basis, I have been successful in developing new business clients.
Action Steps:
a. Write down the top 3 reasons why you are on LinkedIn
b. Determine what actions will support each reason
2. Failure to Participate
There are 41 million people on LinkedIn and a large majority does not interact with others on a consistent basis. This is a direct result of mistake number one. Without understanding your purpose you can’t know which actions to take that will produce a positive outcome.
There are only so many hours in a day and people tend to repeat what works. Social media marketing rarely provides quick results. Most often success is built over time only after people get to know you, like you, and trust you. You have to have the patience to continue participating when you’re not seeing the results.
There are no guarantees that your efforts will produce results, but if you do not participate consistently, I guarantee that you will not find success.
I spent almost a year providing value and interacting before I started seeing results. Now I can count on several inquiries each week from potential client’s looking to engage my services.
Action Steps
a. Commit to taking action on a weekly basis
b. Schedule these activities
c. Post them next to your computer or in your electronic calendar
3. Presenting an Incomplete Picture
On LinkedIn people get to know you through being connected, belonging to common groups, the information your share, and your profile. People want to look at your profile and have a clear understanding of who you are and how you might be of service to them.
If you don’t provide enough information for them to know those two pieces they are unlikely to go looking for the information. You need to make sure you have a detailed profile. You need to include a professional photo. You need to have links to your websites, blogs, etc.
If you’ve been fortunate enough to get them to view your profile, you’ve accomplished the hardest part. It would seem a shame to lose them for simply failing to provide enough information.
Action Steps
a. Look at 20 profiles to see how others are presenting themselves
b. Spend an hour each month working on your profile
c. Personalize your profile–add keywords, personalize your public URL, and Change your Web URL’s to the name (go to edit and choose “Other”)
d. Look at the LinkedIn application to see which make sense to add
4. Not Sharing Information or Providing Value
Mistake number three is about people getting to know you. Number four is all about getting people to like you. It’s a simple fact: If you provide value to others without asking for something in return people will start to like you.
The quickest way to generate goodwill on LinkedIn is to provide value to others. Directly this might be responding to a connection or introduction request. You can also build goodwill by providing thoughtful responses to questions in Answers and in group discussion posts. Another great way to provide value to others is through writing recommendations for those who have provide great service or assistance to you.
Everything you do on LinkedIn either adds to or subtracts from your online brand so make sure you put some thought into what you say. Participate consistently and you’ll notice that your profile visits increase and people will start interacting with you.
Action steps
a. Find at least two connections to introduce each week.
b. Answer at least three questions each week
c. Identify connections that deserve a recommendation and write it. Try to find at least 15 people to recommend. Make sure these are 15 people that deserve it. If you can’t find 15 now, build this up over time
5. Failure to Build Credibility
By addressing the previous four mistakes you will have reached a point where people know and like you. You may have even started to build some credibility. There are six ways that I document to build your credibility. These include:
A. Your Profile: first impressions count.
B. Answers: In number four we addresses answers from the perspective of providing value. This is also a great way to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise. Whenever you answer a question it is available for anyone on LinkedIn to view. Your Direct connections are also notified that you answered a question on their Home page.
C. Recommendations: Nothing beats having another sing your praises. I have found that my client recommendations have been a huge part of building my online brand.
D. Your connections: Who you are connected to can have an impact. When I seek to connect to others I will often reference a common connection in the invitation.
E. Your Groups: With groups you have something in common with fellow members. I reference common groups in invitation requests as well.
F. Providing Value: This will help others grow to like you but it also is very helpful in building your credibility.
Action Steps
a. Answer at least three questions each week in your field of expertise
b. Try to get 10 recommendations. You can request recommendations but only do so from people you know that you have provided great service or help to. If you don’t have 10, keep providing great service and you’ll get there. When you do, join The “Top Recommended People” group on LinkedIn.
c. Grow your connections based on your connection strategy
d. If you don’t belong to 50 groups find 50 that are relevant and join.
e. Seek out every opportunity to help others.
Wrap Up
There are many other LinkedIn mistakes I could mention including avoiding typos, having multiple accounts, etc. These 5 though are fundamental mistakes that will impact your ability to monetize LinkedIn.
I’m a firm believer that the true value in LinkedIn as a vehicle to add to your bottom line. You may have joined to network, to find a job, or to advance your career…all are great reasons… and all that at the end of the day are about monetization.
It’s OK to be on LinkedIn to make more money. It’s what will keep you coming back and participating, which in the end helps every other person on LinkedIn.
The Top 5 Tactical Mistakes on LinkedIn
Posted by: | CommentsLast week I wrote about the top 5 mistakes on LinkedIn. The list was made up of mistakes that were strategic in nature, and dealt with mistakes that affected your ability to monetize LinkedIn. Today we take a look at the Top 5 mistakes from a tactical perspective. These mistakes affect your credibility, success in connecting, and finding opportunities.
1. Typos, Grammatical Errors, Pointless Info
If I had to choose one area that I am guilty of violating my own advice it would be this one. Typos just happen. I write most of my posts now in Word to avoid misspellings, yet I constantly get caught by misspelled words that are simply the wrong word spelled correctly. Your is instead you. Can is an. And many others.
Its always fun to write a post that talks about typos only to receive an email from my readers correcting errors. I still feel strongly about the subject, but I’ve come to terms that for me they will periodically occur. In the end its a function of time and with the growth of the blog and the need to continuously add content (and run my two other companies), I’ve chosen to rely on help from my readers. Hopefully the content is valuable and can overcome a typo here or there.
Also make sure thatyou are providing relevant content. Pointless information wastes time and adds no value.
What to do: Write online posts in a word editor. Go back and read it after an hour or two. You’ll see things you missed. Review your information to confirm that it is relevant to the conversation.
2. Canned Invitations…not personalizing your invitations
This one seems to be a topic I write about often and yet immediately after writing this post I will receive invitations using the canned LinkedIn text. LinkedIn could resolve this issue by simply changing the included text to “Add your invitation information”.
Until then you have a choice. Personalize the invitation and have close to a 100% positive reaction or use the canned text and have a 50/50 chance of your invitation being viewed positively. Given the potential for someone indicating “That they don’t know you”, personalization is as much a defensive action.
Personalization can be telling the invited how you know them, referencing common connections or groups, telling the person why you want to connect, and the value you bring to the table.
What to do: Personalize the invitation.
3. Requesting Recommendations that haven’t been earned
Even worse is requesting an invitation from someone you don’t know. It’s not your connections job to build our credibility.
I received a request to recommend a connections work this weekend. The problem is that I don’t know this person and have never used their services. I connect to others I don’t know because it increases my chances of unexpected opportunities finding me. I’m willing to help as much as possible, but writing a false recommendation isn’t one of those ways.
What to do: Request recommendations only when earned from people you know. Give recommendation to only those who you know and have earned them.
4. Keeping Your Public Profile Hidden
The people that you are connected to can view your complete profile. But what about people outside of your network who want to know more about you? If you have set your profile to be accessible to all members no problem.
If you haven’t you may be limiting your opportunities. There may be a reason to keep your profile hidden, but these are few and far between. If you want to attract opportunity you have to provide information that is viewable to all LinkedIn members.
What to do: Make your profile viewable to the public. ”Click on the “Eedit Profile” tab and at the top right click on the “Edit Public Profile Settings” text link. Then click in the check boxes to allow all of your profile to be viewable and then save your settings. There is a link at the bottom of the page to view your Public Profile. Click on this tosee how it looks.
5. Taking Negative Actions
Everything you do either adds or subtracts from your online brand (I’ve said this over and over…its that important) so act prudently. If you disagree with someone do so in a professional manner. If you answer a questions provide a well thought out answer that adds value (answering 300 question in a week may get you on LinkedIn’s weekly expert list, but what it really says is that somethings wrong with your business if you have this much time on your hands)
If you don’t want to connect Archive the invitation rather than choosing the “I don’t know this person” option.(when you choose IDK the person sending the invitation can see that you did so. That may not matter but it creates a negative perspective about you that may not affect you but is better not existing.)
I could write for hours on this one topic but if you use common business sense you can avoid most of these.
What to do: Use common sense. I don’t know how many times I’ve typed up a response only to delete it once I thought about what it said about me.
Wrap Up:
This is just a small sample of tactical errors. Most are easy to avoid if you think about your actions before executing them. If you wouldn’t do or say it in person don’t do it on LinkedIn.
Bonus Mistake: Unsolicited Sales Pitches
I really don’t need to explain this any further. If you want success on LinkedIn provide value and communicate your messages indirectly.
If you would like to build a solid foundation on LinkedIn my “LinkedIn MBA” guide is a great resource. Its currently priced at $1.97 for two reasons:
1. I want as many people as possible to build a solid foundation on LinkedIn. This leads tomore activity and helps every other member; and
2. I want to create a desire in as many members as possible to get to the point that they want to go from using LinkedIn from a networking perspective to a money making perspective. I call it going from “Connecting to collecting”. That’s where the “LinkedIn MBA Workbook” ($7.97) and the “LinkedIn Marketing Secret Formula” ($39.97 but only $29.98 using discount code: x25rdr) come in to play.
These two resources will help you take the next step. They do cost money but if you compare the cost to the time it would take to discover the information included they are a cost effective way to learn LinkedIn.
Buy the books or simply continue reading the blog. Either way you’ll likely know more about LinkedIn today than you did yesterday.
Warm Regards,
Sean Nelson
**Don’t keep the blog a secret. Twitter, Digg, and other social sites are a great way to share with your friends and others.
Facebook to Offer Personalized Web Addresses
Posted by: | CommentsBy Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — Like concert goers lining up for a coveted ticket, Facebook users are queuing up to claim their digital turf.
Late Friday and early Saturday, the world’s largest social-networking site was to begin offering its 200 million users the chance to claim a personalized Web address on a first-come, first-served basis.
The move will allow them to create a distinct online address for their personal profile with a name of their choosing, such as Facebook.com/jonswartz. It would also let them use their Facebook page like a personal home page, as a vast majority of members of rival MySpace already do.
The late-night change (12:01 a.m. Saturday ET) had some anxious Facebook members changing their Friday night plans to grab their name before someone else did.
“As a sole proprietor, it is very important to me,” says Scott Roewer, a professional organizer in Washington, D.C., who uses Facebook and Twitter to promote his business. “I have no choice but to sign up at midnight.”
Facebook member Bryan Christmas, 27, wanted to be sure he had Internet access at 9:01 p.m. in San Francisco, altering his weekend plans for a few precious minutes.
The intent of so-called “vanity URLs” is to make it easier to find profiles through Web searches, says Facebook. Currently, Facebook profiles contain a sequence of numbers.
But the change could lead to a virtual land grab. Once someone snags a name, for example, no one else can use it. And after that name is confirmed, it cannot be changed.
The lure of “vanity URLs” might lead, in some cases, to courtroom disputes over trademark rights, say legal experts.
One possible scenario is a third-party improperly registering the name of a celebrity or brand name.
“It could be a quagmire,” says Howard Weller, a trademark attorney in New York who represents celebrities. “We could have another case of cybersquatting,” when squatters claimed domain names during the early years of the Internet in an attempt to sell them at a profit.
Last week, baseball manager Tony La Russa sued social-networking site Twitter, claiming an authorized profile used his name.
Facebook says it has taken steps to prevent cybersquatting. Tens of thousands of names have been restricted, including those of well-known companies and brand terms, celebrities, politicians and profanity.
In addition, for several days Facebook members were also able to submit requests for terms they didn’t want used, spokesman Larry Yu says.
Facebook users won’t be able to transfer their names to others, and Facebook will only allow users to claim a name if they had an account before the feature was announced June 9. That restriction lifts June 28.
Facebook says it’s unclear how many people will sign up. It has, however, taken steps to ensure the site’s service isn’t adversely affected, Yu says.
