A very interesting comparison of several measurement tools and what they really measure. [note mg]
For marketers, PR professionals and customer service teams, personal influence measurement tools can save time and help facilitate business decisions. Tools such as Klout, PeerIndex, Kred and TweetLevel are being used by brands to rank the relative importance of customers and prospects, prioritize customer service responses, and identify groups of influencers to target with perks and product sampling promotions.
But what are these personal influence measurement tools really measuring? Are they really an effective way to understand which of your customers are more influential?
It is easy to understand influence as a concept; if you can get other people to do something, you have influence. But it’s not at all easy to define how you would measure influence. As Nathan Gilliatt has pointed out, there is no such thing as a “unit of influence” – an observable, measurable event that reflects influence.
Social reputation and social influence are becoming as important (if not more important) than your paper-based CV and your real-world network. But can they be empirically measured, and if so, what does your score actually mean? This article gives an overview of some of the products/services that purport to give you an influence score. Whether you take it seriously is entirely up to you!
For all those who have this kind of blog they often arise the question, how to thrive while meeting the comfort and the interest of all. This post, very interesting, will give you some information about it and encourage you, if necessary, to go outside the box... I like that! [note Martin Gysler]
Keeping fresh and creative is key to keeping on top of the game when writing different blogs across various sectors, and for various clients. Working with efficient workflows, time management and organization all help to keep that valuable information harnessed to be used when you need it, but how about making sure you can produce great content on time and on demand?
Keeping creative and informed means you are working efficiently to produce content that’s engaging, informative, and, of course, profitable for you. After all, time is money when you are managing a number of blogs and clients. Here are my top ten tips for fueling that creativity, generating ideas, and managing your time and resources.
Make the info come to you—start mass reading Filing it cleverly: Other Inbox Dump it! Brain dumping for multiple sources Getting creative Find your zone and stay in it Map it! Reach out Step away from the machine! Illumination needs you Unblock yourself on time If you are really stuck, go outside the box and freestyle
As a freelance copywriter, I’ve put together a nice portfolio of major corporate clients, ranging from Bay State Gas to Pizzeria Uno. And I found most of them in a rather unusual way.
I didn’t use SEO or pay-per-click. I didn’t go to networking events and shake hands with half the Rotary Club. And I didn’t take out billboards by the highway that said AWESOME COPYWRITER FOR HIRE.
I got most of these lucrative gigs in a way that wouldn’t cross many people’s minds — a way that’s unconventional and highly effective.
I sent them a sales letter.
Not the kind that’s an HTML page, but a good, old-fashioned paper letter in an envelope with an honest-to-goodness stamp.
As part of my on-going work developing social media for business units, I’m often asked about what types of tools I used for tracking all that ‘social media stuff.’
Let me talk about how I go about creating a social media dashboard
The basic answer is that I don’t have one tool (I have dozens, if not hundreds.)
The real answer is that I am not tracking social media. I am tracking key performance indicators (KPI) I don’t care if it is a shipping problem or a viral YouTube video. I simply want to know how I can track it, manage it, and maximize results.
With that said: when I think about creating a social media dashboard or using a platform to track results… I am looking at several unique business identifiers that define what tool I need for the job at hand...
A few months ago, I embarked in a project which has become more and more engaging and exciting as the weeks progress. With my partner Erik Lumer, we have been working hard in the development and distribution of a product called CircleMe, which Saul quickly spotted on his radar just less than a month from our public release, on October 4th, 2011. Our vision with CircleMe is to create an online environment where users can take advantage of technology and the social web to enjoy more their passions and interests in life (i.e., their “likes”).
Social Graph Power
The way we want to achieve this is by asking users to “connect” to the things and topics they love, and then CircleMe will leverage clever algorithms along with the power of the social graph to surface relevant content and new items tailored to each user. To get there, we need to move gradually. The first step has been to create an engaging environment where users can easily express all their ‘likes’ and discover (in a serendipic way) new things of potential interest. Then, as activity increases, we will have enough data to reach the goal to surface relevant content in a timely fashion for any interested user...
We are living in a new age of austerity. Environmentalism is no longer just a crunchy cause, but also a corporate mandate. Simple is good. So why has product spam spun out of control? Perhaps HP (and others) didn't get the memo? Whatever the reason, one thing is now painfully clear: Product spam must stop.
Spam Attack!
As exhibit A, check out Hewlett Packard's new computers released yesterday. In fact, it's practically impossible not to check them out: HP has coughed up a number of machines at the same time, and they're filling the homepages of many a gadget site...
This is a dangerous topic and I’m heading down a steep slope on this one as people may misunderstand, but it’s important to get it out anyway. Your Facebook page is important to you business, but it should only account for a small portion of your social media marketing day.
Period.
Most businesses that we work with have a strong leaning towards Facebook, just as they should. Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, even Google+ have a role in the social media strategy for most businesses, but Facebook covers most of the needs simply because it’s where most of the people spend most of their social media time. The challenge is no longer with convincing business to use Facebook. It’s in getting them to stop thinking that their Facebook page is their Facebook presence...
If you could create and manage an entire video blog using nothing other than an iPhone, would you?
If you’re interested in learning how to capture audio, pictures and video with nothing but an iPhone, keep reading.
Multimedia Content With an iPhone?
This is what I’ve been doing with my TalkingWithTom project this year. I’ve been interviewing digital thought leaders and then sharing those video interviews once a week.
And I’m creating the ENTIRE BLOG using just an iPhone...
Since the early days, Facebook page owners had the possibility to add a Discussions tab to their Facebook page. At some point, over 55 Million users were using this tab to talk, share their points of view, give feedback, and connect with each other. Then Facebook changed the layout of the pages, which lead to a drop in traffic, but the tab is still widely used today: 22 Million users per month use this tab.
Conscious of those issues, we have built a free Facebook Application called Forum for Pages in order to offer a solution for page owners to keep the discussions on their Facebook pages. The application is easy to use...
The media landscape is a very different beast today than it was even 5 years ago. Then agency-led television commercials dominated how we channel our marketing. The very fact you are reading this here proves that things have changed. Coca Cola have always been at the forefront of innovation. In this video Jonathan Mildenhall, Vice-President, Global Advertising Strategy and Creative Excellence at The Coca-Cola Company is the person responsible for leading global creative vision and strategy for the Company's portfolio of global brands.
In this video he explains how Coke will leverage the opportunities in the new media landscape and transform one-way storytelling into dynamic storytelling hoping to add value and significance to peoples lives. Jonathan describes the challenge of content creation in an enlightening way, reminding us that "every contact point with a customer should tell an emotional story".
I agree with Coca Cola about moving away for creative excellence to content excellence. They have developed their brand and established it well in the world. They are looking at ways to stay on top of other competitors; it is very smart of them to make sure their consumers are happy with the product and how they can connect with audiences. By creating the brand and establishing the brand does not mean long term profit or customer loyalty. It is how the business continues to market the brand that results in customer loyalty and profit. Coca Cola that identify this and made it their focus to create a strong customer loyalty with their audience; making sure the consumer shall never drift away from the brand and company.
If you’ve been around the SEO world for any amount of time, then you are probably pretty familiar with the basics of SEO. You know to do good keyword research and you have to do on-page optimization.
Sometimes, though, that on-page optimization can go to a deeper level than just making sure your meta tags are filled out… and you can go to that deeper level without having to be a veteran SEO.
Here’s how:
Tactic #1: Search for synonyms using Google
The use of synonyms in creating an SEO plan for your blog or website is pretty common. Finding those synonyms is not always easy or done properly.
I think the best way to search for these terms is to use Google. The reason is you get to see not only the synonyms but how they are ranking in competitors pages....
After creating content -- whether it's a blog post, an ebook, a webinar, or a video -- it's important to promote that content through social media channels.
And when you do promote that content in social media, you cross your fingers that it generates a ton of shares, tweets, and interaction. For the sake of Twitter, if you follow a few simple best practices, more people are likely to retweet and spread the distribution of your content, giving it a much broader reach and a better opportunity to get found by a new audience of prospective customers beyond your direct followers. Marketers should know how to retweet the right way, but it's also critical for them to learn how to get others to retweet their content, too.
11 Tips for Getting People to Retweet Your Content...
Facebook recently changed the way users interact with content on fan pages: any user, including non-fans, can now post on fan page walls and like/comment/share fan page content. In other words, a Facebook user does not have to first like your fan page before they can interact with your content. This is a good thing!
Since this change, the emphasis has shifted slightly from gaining more likes (fans) to increasing the number of shares on each piece of content. When you craft your fan page updates in a manner that naturally inspires fans and their friends and visitors to your page to share with their networks, you set in motion ripples of viral visibility. Basically, free additional exposure...
As a business owner, do I really have time to blog? I’m a business owner too, and I realize that we are already pressed to our limits for time. We are responsible for everything, including finding new business, working with our existing customers, interfacing with suppliers, running our books, and infinitely more.
Attempting to convince a business owner that we should add yet another task can understandably seem like a herculean endeavor. For anything that is going to take more time, the rewards must be tangible and immediate. As many of us cannot clearly identify what the rewards are that can be reaped by blogging, it is not placed high on the list of priorities. It should be...
Quick Pitch: Proliphiq filters social media clutter and focuses on what’s important to you.
Genius Idea: Social media search tool that lets people see who is credible in the areas that interest them.
“Who should I follow?” You may have asked yourself this question after logging onto social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, only to be overwhelmed with millions of profile options to follow or subscribe to.
Proliphiq helps you find the answer to that question.
Proliphiq is a social media discovery tool that helps you find the most credible contributors within the topics that interest you. The search tool filters social media clutter by aggregating profiles that are most relevant to your search topics and finding the best contributors based on personality, level of engagement and credibility.
CatchFree makes it easy to compare and find the best free online solution for your specific need.
Resources like CatchFree are indispensable at a time in which the creation and release of applications has become more and more democratized, and even people whose technical understanding is not really advanced can create an app and get it out without really over-exerting himself. While such a thing might not be bad from a competitive point of view, it is bad to consumers inasmuch they end up downloading/buying apps that are up to no good. Well, that is what CatchFree is here to prevent from happening. It is a community where people can recommend the best apps that they have tried, and tell the world at large why they are a cut above the rest.
These applications that are more widely-loved are all highlighted on the homepage, and they are actually arranged by popularity - the ones that have received the best ratings all sit on top.
This community site can be joined by any person who has a story to tell - registration is inexpensive, and it is over in two or three minutes.
How often should I post on my blog?... How long should my posts be?... Can I have other people write articles for me?... How far can I stray from my chosen topic?
How do I create incredible content that attracts hundreds of comments and shares? How do I keep people coming back to read everything I publish?
At some point, all bloggers have these and dozens of other questions about developing content. Maybe you’re struggling with some of them right now.
As we gear up for the launch of our new blog Expert Enough as part of the Million Dollar Blog Project, we’ve been thinking a lot about content strategy. I’m going to share our content strategy for the new blog later in this post, but first, here are 11 of my top tips for developing outstanding content for your blog:
"Without understanding connectivity, the basis of human connections, network theory, contextual intelligence, any business leader unable to grasp those things will be lost." [Warren Bennis]
The 12 habits of highly connective people has been the single most read and shared post I have written in the last couple of months. Literally.
Why it worked
Part of the reason is the structure of the post.
It starts with a great story told vividly by a master storyteller and maker who has earned tremendous respect and attention in the business and tech communities. Two communities I am becoming very involved with and hope to bring closer to each other...
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You can enter several keywords and you can refine them whenever you want. Our suggestion engine uses more signals but entering a few keywords here will rapidly give you great content to curate.
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Social reputation and social influence are becoming as important (if not more important) than your paper-based CV and your real-world network. But can they be empirically measured, and if so, what does your score actually mean? This article gives an overview of some of the products/services that purport to give you an influence score. Whether you take it seriously is entirely up to you!