Opinion is not Information - Why Social is Not the Answer You're Looking For

Lee Odden in his excellent presentation War of Words: Myth-Busting Social Media, SEO & Content Marketing has a slide that shows Pete Cashmore stating "Social is on the verge of solving all search problems". 

As a Information Professional with a quarter of a century of experience, I think my reaction to those words looked something like this:

And it came to me in one fell swoop WHY social is not the answer to search at all.


Opinion is not information - Social is not search. Information is nor knowledge - Search is not research.

Let's look at a common scenario to explore the difference.

You want to take a short vacation. You ask your friends for ideas. One suggests Las Vegas. Now, if you like spectacle, elaborate shows, gambling, theme hotels, this is a terrific idea. What if you hate those things? Not so good an idea. 

You asked for an opinion - you received an opinion. It may be relevant to you. It may be as irrelevant as possible, if your friends ideas are about their desires, as indeed, I have found with the above question. People tend to suggest the kinds of vacations that would appeal to them, whether or not they know your tastes.

Now you need to book that room, one friend went to one site, got a one price, another friend got a different price, one bought a package and has no idea about the cost of the hotel. You asked for information - you received data.

Social search can answer some, but not all the questions you have. When you need information, opinion and data points will only confuse the issue. 

Your friends are great when you need an opinion. Social Search will be great when you need an opinion. But when you're running a business, you don't need opinion, you need information. Information professionals take information and turn it into knowledge you need to make critical business decisions. 

Measure Twice, Post Once

When developing a Social Media Strategy, it's absolutely critical to know a few things before you begin:

Who Are You Talking To?

What Are You Trying to Say to Them?

What Do You Want Them to Do?

Before you try to answer any of these questions, think about where you're getting you data from. Are you out there listening to your audience, measuring your market and do you know how your strategy is supporting your business objectives? To do this, you must measure twice, so you only have to post once.


There are any number of free and proprietary social listening and measuring tools. They change so quickly that any list will almost immediately become obsolete the moment I hit "publish" on this article.  Here are a few of the tools I use to track influence, sentiment, response and engagement:

SocialMention - Social Mention tracks your keywords (company name, personal name, tagline) across the social internet. It tracks passion, sentiment, strength and reach, which gives you a good idea of what kinds of responses you're getting and from whom.

Klout - According to their description, Klout measures the likelihood of response to you. Higher scores mean that any given post/status will engender response, sharing or action. Unfortunately, many people are using Klout scores as a measure of expertise or elite status. Avoid this, as it indicates a lack of understanding about Klout. Klout has also spawned what Animenewsdotbiz has coined as "Credibility hobo." This would be asking users for shares, +1 on Google and other assistance for upping your score. "Brother can you spare a +K?"

Topsy will give you a overall picture of your activity online. It's doesn't dig deep into analysis, but if you want to see a quick overview of your activity - and any activity engendered by it - Topsy is a good tool.

And as I posted previously, I'm finding Crowdbooster to be a very useful tool to get a visual impression of the popularity and response to any given post.

Of course, any savvy company should have a Google Alert and Twitter Search set up to see what people are saying about them.

Now that you know who is listening to you, acting on your links, sharing and responding, and what they are saying about you, you can answer the above questions appropriately. You will know who you are talking to, when they respond, and to what. You can see what language works and which kinds of posts get the most response on your platforms.

Listen and measure before you post for the most effective use of Social Media.

How Real is the Information Companies Collect Online?

Everyone knows that 28.3% of statistics are made up on the spot. Or was that 53.9%? Or 88.1%?

At some point, you're going to find yourself contacting a company online. Whether it's through a Social Media profile or by traditional email, we all sometimes need to get an answer, express an opinion or make a point. When we do - how much of what we tell the company about ourselves is true? Companies use the data for their own market research. They look at the typical demographics of the people who contact them - and often the psychographics, as well. But are we giving them good information?

I've created a one-question poll about this. What are the different ways we skew companies' market research when we contact them online? I hope you'll take a moment to answer this one question! http://questionpro.com/t/AF0DiZJ5Tp

Let's see if it's time to set Market Research straight about the reliability of their data...or not!

10 Questions to Determine If You're Using Social Media "Right"

The words "Social Media" have become as common as "cell phone" or "online marketing." And, like so much else related to digital forms of communication, there's a tremendous amount of snake oil being sold as panaceas for your ailing business.

Here's a simple checklist to determine if your business is getting the maximum benefit from your social media use.

Do you answer when people talk to you?

Do other people answer when you talk to them?

Do you talk about topics other than yourself or your business?

Do your status updates look like a conversation?

Do your status updates include questions that encourage answers?

When someone complains that they did not get good service from you, do you respond quickly?

Do you respond to people on the same social network platform they commented on in the first place?

Do you allow open and free discussion on your social media profiles? (For instance, is your Wall open to comment on Facebook?)

Do you follow up with people after you have spoken with them?

Are your followers/friends/fans/likes increasing?

***

1-4 "Yes" answers

Your use of Social Media is not Optimal

Social Media requires good interaction to be successful. You may have profiles or pages on all the hottest networks, but you're not curating them. The more you interact, the more authentic you seem. The more authentic you are, the more people will want to interact!

Take a few moments and prioritize your Social Media presence. Focus on one or two places where you can realistically spend time with your customers and cultivate relationships with them. In 6 months, retake this test and see how far you've come!


5-7 "Yes" answers

Your Use of Social Media is Good

You've got the basics down and you're putting your best foot forward most of the time. You're busy, so sometimes maybe you miss something, but you're doing your best.

Take a long look at a few of the spaces that aren't really getting much return. Maybe it's time to let go of an old profile or network. One of your spaces might just be full of unmoderated spam and it's time to trim it. Don't just get rid of the old, though- your mailing list may still be the best conversation in town. Just be ready to let go of something that's not working and focus on what is.


8-10 "Yes" answers

Congratulations, you are doing Social Media "Right"!

You understand that responding quickly and politely to issues means there's no time for those unresolved issues to fester into resentment. You understand that being where your audience is means you can convert them to becoming your market. And you understand that talking with people is more than just talking about yourself.

Don't get cocky, though - there's always room for improvement. Take that excellent Social Media Strategy and turn it into something exciting for you and your followers!

Use these ten questions as a quick health check of your Social Media presence on any platform - you can even ask your followers to take the test for you and see if you and they have the same feelings about your Social Media use.

4 Building Blocks for Your Infant Social Media Strategy

For the next few posts, we'll focus on Tactics associated with the lifecycle of your Social Media Strategy.

Today's Tactics are for the Infancy of your Strategy so, not Tactics as in "spend your money on this ad on this platform" but Tactics as in "these behaviors will allow you to create a strong base even before you have a specific thing to promote." Consider these the building blocks of a strong strategy - the more you work on these tactics, the more clear your next steps will be.

You can start these tactics before you've even begun to develop a central communications base - or while your business is taking the first tentative steps into Social Media.

The 4 Building Blocks of Social Media


1) Build Your Reputation

There are a seemingly infinite number of spaces on the Internet in which conversation is occurring. It's likely that the number of spaces in which your particular knowledge is useful is finite, but your very first step should be to be in those spaces.

Search Engines are your friend. Pick one, put in the topic you know a lot about and words like "discussion group," or "mailing list" or "Facebook" and look at your results. You'll find forums, lists, groups, and maybe even specialized organizations and enthusiast spaces. Pick one or a handful of these and engage them.

Specific Tactics to Build Your Reputation:

- Read and join conversations
- Respond to questions and comments
- Assist people with finding what they need
- Learn who the other people on the community are, what they are good at and who you can trust

Every time you contribute to a conversation, you are building your reputation for being knowledgeable and, depending on how you handle yourself in a disagreement, professional.


2) Build Your Knowledge Base

No matter how much you know about your area of expertise, you can always learn more. Staying on top of the organizations, people and places that relate to your business may take up some serious time, but it's business critical. Actively reading, thinking and conversing about new developments will go far to building up your own knowledge set. The more you know - the more you can share.

Specific Tactics to Build Your Knowledge Base:

- Follow leading blogs in your industry, comment on them when you can.
- Use RSS to create a customized news feed from a number of sources
- Take online classes and read whitepapers offered online
- Look for previously posted answers to questions you have on the online spaces you inhabit, before you ask them yourself.

Continuing education is continuing. Like Social Media, the more you put into your field of interest, the more you'll get out of it. Learn what you can, where you can and share it as often as you can.


3) Build Your Network

Every time you interact with a person, you have a chance to create a relationship with them. Social Networking platforms make it easy (and more visual) to connect with other people in a way that forums and mailing lists don't. Use the tools each system has to follow, friend, add or connect.

Specific Tactics to Build Your Network:

- Add at least one new person a day per platform
- Look for peers in your field of expertise, news resources, professional connections, add them.
- Think forward about your business needs. Add people who you *may* need to know to your network now and you'll know where to find them tomorrow.
- Use system search tools to uncover key opinion leaders in your areas of interest, reach out to them

Be a RON - a Reasonably Open Networker. Use your discretion and trust your gut - if someone seems off, don't connect. If you can find a point of commonality or mutual admiration, then do.


4) Build Your Audience

Let me say this plainly - you can't game the system when it comes to Building Your Audience. Any tool that claims you can add 10,000 people to your audience a day is no good for you. Avoid those tools and anyone who tries to them sell them to you.

Your audience is made up of people who care about your product or service. Do not try to spray your scent across the entire Internet and hope someone will think you smell good.

If you play with the first three Building Blocks, then this one will be handed to you. You'll be inhabiting spaces that are filled with people who might care about your business, you'll be building up an audience of those people and assuring them that you can walk your talk.

Then, when you finally have something to focus on, you'll be well on your way to having a potential market.

***

I'm going to open up the floor to you, dear readers - what do you consider to be a basic Building Block for an infant Social Media presence?

Where You Are Doesn't Matter Until You Know Why You're There

One of the questions about Social Media I have heard most is "Which Social Network should I focus on?"

Part of the inconvenience of Next Big Thing-itis is that whatever the current "Next Big Thing" is gets most of the media coverage. Whether it's Facebook hitting X number of users (a totally meaningless number, since many accounts on Facebook are dead or nearly so,) or the current flock of celebrities who Twitter (another meaningless set of numbers since nearly all celebrities post communications meant to be read, but rarely respond to comments they receive), this kind of coverage means that the noise is way louder than the signal until the Next Big Thing is something else.

The side effect of Next Big Thing-itis is that for most people, putting the cart before the horse is their main issue. They ask where they should be, before they even know what they want to do there.

Effective Social Media is not a popular dance club. Being seen is not enough

So let's back up and take a look at the difference between Strategy and Tactics.

Strategy is the theoretical plan you start with. Taking into account your own Strengths and Weaknesses and those of your closest competitor(s), you take a high-level look at your market and formulate a plan based on as many variables as you can find data for.

For instance, this blog. My Strategy in creating this blog was to provide a single place to gather my thoughts on Social Media. Rather than build a website listing all my great skills and clients other stuff you may or may not care about, I decided to cut to the chase - here's my thoughts on Social Media. Having one place to collect them allows me to disseminate them easily.

I was well aware that there are many Social Media and Social Marketing blogs already in existence. I'm not competing with them, because my Strategy was to create a single place to gather *my* thoughts. Not to sell services or books (although that is not outside the pale, eventually.)

Tactics are the specific techniques and tools you use to execute a Strategy.

I chose a blog rather than a Facebook page, because a blog allows me more free rein with my ideas. If I want to try out a thought, a tactic, a marketing campaign, a design element, a blog offers me the most freedom to do so. It provides more space for exposition than, say, Twitter, and more personalization than LinkedIn. It's not a corporate presence like a company website or a presence on Foursquare. This blog is the conversation I have with - ideally - you, my readers.

If you can't articulate your strategy beyond "to have a Social Media presence" then it doesn't much matter where you are, because you don't know why you are there anyway.

Let's say that you are working on a new project - book, website, product, whatever. If you ask me what tactics should you use to promote that project, I'm going to tell you that it doesn't matter. There is no *thing* to promote, outside of your head. I mean this sincerely and with all due respect - very few people truly care about a project that you "are working on."

This is true for any widget, event or concept that is not about to be in existence. Any gleam in your eye might be of interest to those people who are close to you; your friends, your fanbase, etc, but for the large majority of people out there you'd like to reach, the fact that you are "working on" something means nothing.

So, what tactics *can* you focus on while you're writing that book or designing that site? You can pick one or two main Social Networks and Build Your Audience. It honestly doesn't matter what Network you choose - unless you focus your energy and time on one or two, you'll just have a small, diffuse audience all over the place. Pick a space and work it. Make it a base of operations - call all the shots from there. Refer back to it on your secondary and tertiary networks, mention it in casual online conversation - put it on your business card. Pull people into that space over and over and over. Build Your Audience using that space. Then, when you finally *have* something to promote, you'll have that audience to reach out to and hopefully, be able to convert them into your market.

Next post, I'll be talking about some broad categories of Tactics, so you can better target your efforts to the spaces you inhabit and the actual phases of Social Media Marketing.

In the meantime, your homework is to finish your End-of-Year review of your Social Media efforts and pare them down into the top few spaces where you'll spend most of your time and effort in the coming year. (I.e., for me, working on this blog.) Next Time we'll talk about what you'll be doing there to start the new year off with a strong Social Media Plan for you and your business.

Social Media for Comptetitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence: the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing Intelligence about products, customers, competitors and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for an organization.

I have spent two decades gathering Competitive Intelligence from public sources and I have to tell you, with so many companies jumping on the Social Media bandwagon, this is the best possible time to know your competitors like you know yourself.

A skilled and experienced Competitive Intelligence (CI) professional will use sources other than those in the public domain of course, but, without hiring a CI professional, there's still a great deal of information out there for you to discover. I don't want to tell you that CI is easy, because it's not. It takes some work and you need to look at yourself and your business critically. But here's a few thoughts to getting a better snapshot of the bigger picture.

Know Your Competitors

Whatever industry you're in, you have competitors. Even if you make a truly unique widget, you are competing against makers of other, less unique widgets. Some of these widgets will be made by companies that are ubiquitous and have instantly recognizable names. Some widget companies are the flavor of the month, and you'll need to get through all the noise of the buzz of those widgets before anyone might hear about yours.

Take a delusion free look at your business. If you run a local diner, in theory you are competing against the Starbucks across the street. But when you really look at your clientèle - are they the same people who visit Starbucks for a half-caf mocha frappachino? Or are they totally different people, who come in for a cup of coffee, a fried egg, toast and to read the newspaper before work? Yes, you should keep an eye on Starbucks, but also know your *real* competition - which may be the McDonalds down the road. If you run a small business software company, you *are* competing against Microsoft - just not directly.

List your top three competitors...these are companies that sell the same thing you do the same way you do. Players in the field that have resources beyond your wildest dreams are not really your competition - they are your benchmarks.


Follow Your Competitors

Once you've made this list of competition, direct and indirect, start hitting the boards. Visit their websites, check out their news, subscribe to their RSS feeds, their Twitter feeds, their mailing lists - then READ them. They will tell you about deals with other companies, upcoming projects and investments they receive and publishers they use. A list of potential resources, ideas and contacts will be handed to you on a plate - because if a company is doing anything, they will talk about it. Some companies, especially large ones in regulated industries, will report only what they have to, but the more regulated an industry is - the more they have to.

In largely unregulated industries and/or private companies, you may need to read a lot of press releases before seeing a pattern. That pattern may or may not be valuable to you now, but chances are it will be eventually.

When you find yourself in a similar situation, it is smart to reflect on the kinds of press and the sources your benchmark companies use to sing the praises of their newest product. Use their standards to push your own forward.

None of this is online dumspter diving, although that is possible. For more detailed Competitive Intelligence on your industry and competitors, hire a CI professional to do the dirty work. These two above steps are the minimum amount of Competitive Intelligence you can do and still, if you do this regularly, you'll find that you have a much stronger grasp of your own business and your industry.