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Adopt or die

Swiss twitter dinner Zurich with Wisequeen and Bloggers

The future of client care and branding

“Revenues from social networking, dating and personal content delivery services will increase from $572m in 2007 to more than $5.7bn in 2012, with social networking accounting for 50% of the total by the end of the forecast period.” Juniper Research

“Over 800 million people worldwide will be participating in a social network via their mobile phones by 2012, up from 82 million in 2007.” eMarketer
Still need convincing that as a non adopter of social media your personal or corporate brand will fall by the wayside in the next year or so?

Well, if Virgin and Richard Branson think its worth doing, if a world conference is being held in London in March, don’t you think you better ask what’s going on?

Simply Getting a Twitter and Facebook account isn’t adopting, you need to communicate and promote your brand as we spoke about on the last post
Major companies are replacing their PR person with a social media wiz kid who can communicate interactively with the market.
Still scoffing?
Well scoff no more, because communication has changed with web 2.0, its faster, word of mouth has changed, its faster.
Do you and your company need an online presence? you tell me.
Donna Jackson
Social Communications Specialist.
Wisequeen.

How to build a social media empire

Video on networking with twitter

One of my favorite Bloggers Guest post

Christine Gilbert is a full time traveler, freelance writer and photographer. She blogs about her transition from Fortune 500 Manager to traveling vagabond on Almostfearless.com. Her tips about traveling Europe on a budget can be found at europestring.com. She travels with her husband and two large, slobbery dogs– and still wonders why it took her so long to make the leap.

How to Build Your Social Media Empire (in 13 easy steps)

These steps assume a couple of things. First, that you have a blog (or business) that you want to promote. Second, that you haven’t really started using social media to promote your blog or your unsure where to start. Next, that you already know what your brand is, how to be consistent you’re your brand message no matter where you write and you actually have something to say. Finally, there are tons of additional places (like plurk, for instance) that I don’t mention here, because this is intended to get your started (not overwhelm you with the thousands of sites out there).
1. Sign up for an RSS Reader if you don’t already have one. I suggest bloglines or google reader.
2. Add your blog, plus the blogs of anyone that comments on your site (or blogs that you read). This will become your task list.
3. Sign up for a stumble account. Add everyone you know as a friend. Be sure to list your own blog on the profile page.
4. Everyday try to comment on at least 5 blogs per day. You want to change up who you comment on, so use your RSS reader as a “To-do list”
5. Everyday stumble at least 5 posts.

You definitely want to pick the best content to stumble, and be sure to write a review. Thumbs up without a review has less bang for the buck.

(Note: you can but try not to, it doesn’t look good. )
6. Check your webstats. Are you getting stumbles? Go to your post that got a stumble and use the stumble toolbar to see who reviewed it. Add these people as friends. If they have a blog, add them to your RSS.
7. Sign up for twitter. Add everyone you know. Be sure to use tweetlater to autofollow and autorespond with a link to your blog or RSS feed.
8. Go to a twitter account of someone with a similar blog topic and start adding their followers. You can usually get away with about 100 a day. After 3 days, drop anyone who doesn’t add you back. Repeat. (Always follow everyone who follows you first).
9. Start experimenting with Digg, Mixx, Reddit, Delicious, and so on. Watch your stats. See what works. There are times when these sites have great rewards, but it takes some finesse.
10. Respond to every new commenter on your site with a personal email. Let them know you have added their blog to your RSS (if applicable) and thank them for commenting (offering assistance or something free (like an ebook) doesn’t hurt either).
11. Sign up for twitterfeed to auto post your last blog post to twitter. Be sure to participate in twitter in a friendly way. Respond to what others write. Offer cool links not on your blog. Give tips. (Don’t just post links to your blog over and over, this is spammy).
12. Once you get a hang of it, create a daily to do list. It should read something like: check webstats, 5 comments, 5 stumbles, 5 tweets, add followers to twitter, catch up on emails, 1 digg/reddit/mixx. After a few months of doing this you should have a healthy following of a few thousand people. Always be gracious and helpful.
13. You have a social media empire, now what? Use it for good. The best self promotion is selfless promotion. Give new bloggers a leg up. Gently promote your stuff. Enjoy the warm glow of being part of a bigger community.

Got something to say? dying to tell us what you think? comment below,
Wisequeen

Corporates using social media to market

We’ve been on a social media roll here this month with social media being debated on wisequeen.
But the question on everyones’ lips is, Are the big corporates and brands using social media? And if so, how and for what.
Well the question I’ve been researching for some weeks with the Democrats using Twitter to build brand full on, was nicely answered for me, when I was directly targeted in a marketing drive launched on Twitter by Virgin Airlines. Yes, that bright red brand flag we have come to know so well, popped up in my followers on Twitter and I followed. They were promoting new flights to Australia. Good, because as it turns out my sister moved there last year and I’m considering going to visit. So Bingo! Richard Branson has his own Twitter too.
Now for the marketing gurus out there, this may seem a bit like throwing mud at a wall and seeing how much sticks, but it is probably as effective and cheaper than most ad campaigns.
Well it did answer my question, and that is, yes the big brands are using social media like facebook, twitter linkd’n and others rather than email, to find and build customer relationships.
So the web 2.0 age comes to all who can use a Laptop or iphone.
Have an opinion on this, been targeted yourself?
Send us a comment.
Donna Jackson
Social Communications Specialist
Wisequeen

social media your rights - can your boss ban use

In my last post I covered “it’s not about the tools it is still about the content”. Now here’s your rights laid out. There are bosses that ban the use of  social media tools like Twitter and Facebook during working hours, but this is almost impossible to enforce. A nifty pdf file that is downloadable  on socialmedian and also mentioned on mashable.com written by Peter Bradwell and  Richard Reeves, in 2008
lays it all out. www.demos.co.uk/publications/networkcitizens.

This is sure to get corporates discussing this. As many big companies like Hewlett Packard  and IBM decide to use social media like Twitter and socialmedian to keep their staff talking to each other across the globe.

The Somesso conference on today 31st Nov in Zurich is addressing all these issues and is being attended by industry insiders.

Speakers include David Terrar on building communities, who gave his views here  on wisequeen.com on the wi fi post

Jon Mell Web 2.0 evangelist and  Senior Consultant at Headshift and

Thomas Power director of ecademy  is talking on creating an online presence.

That’s the Brits. who rocked

Then  Daniel Joerg a  Bio Digital Strategist at  Crossmedia Agency

Follow online.

Have something to say? send a comment.

Donna Jackson.

Social Communications Specialist.

Wisequeen

Blogging the beginning and the future

Ever wondered how blogging started and when?  Blogging now mainstream, was still not considered the best way to communicate just five short years ago. I like to see it as a collision resulting in a new star, when the traditional publishing star was falling and the internet star was rising.

“Several broadly popular American blogs emerged in 2001: Andrew Sullivan’s AndrewSullivan.com, Ron Gunzburger’s Politics1.com, Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire, Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit, Charles Johnson’s Little Green Footballs, and Jerome Armstrong’s MyDD — all blogging primarily on politics (two earlier popular American political blogs were Bob Somerby’s Daily Howler launched in 1998 and Mickey Kaus’ Kausfiles launched in 1999).”  Wiki The history of blogging

Now with social media  sites like twitter you can find blogs, swap links, and as a blogger, list at http://justtweetit.com/

Promoting your blog on twitter  and other social media  sites is an essential.

So as a reader of blogs rather than an expert (I have about thirty in my reader, which I visit regularly and others that I stumble upon whilst on twitter or just searching), I humbly offer this advice to fellow bloggers.

Bloggers golden rules.

Make your posts shorter. We live in the info age. Info is streaming at us so fast and from every possible quarter, that rambling on for pages will loose me, and many other readers I suppose. Bite size rather than the whole roast beef.

Keep it short and sweet, provide links if you want your reader to get more, let them choose. There are blog posts that are captivating enough to hold me for pages if I’m on the mood, but not often.

If your comments start a thread that goes on and on and on consider stopping re-posting and starting over.

Comment on other’s blogs if you want to get the same attention.

There are people who categorically refuse to post comments based on the fact that people meaninglessly repeat what has gone before and rarely read the string, but I’m not one of them.

Let your readers know what the blog is about in the title or within the first few centimeters. Purpose!

Don’t steal content, but credit and link.

Donna Jackson

Social Communications Specialist

Wisequeen

Social media - Is e mail dead or dying?

O.K. we seem to be on a roll here, so who am I to stop it? First I wrote on social lending, social etiquette, and twitter social media, now let’s introduce Dopplr yet another way to keep in touch for frequent travelers with cool applications for bloggers and anyone who just wants to keep track.

I was skeptical when Facebook mania first took hold. Did I really want to know what everyone had for breakfast. Well, not everyone… but those special somebodies, yes!

I also wanted to know what my colleagues and peers were up to. So, facebook, linked n, twitter, plurk, and before you knew it a whole quiver full of unpronounceable names where in there.

Then I blogged live at a tech start-ups in Zurich and discovered Sandbox, Doodle, Wua la, Poken, Yes.com and so many other ways to keep up and transport your contacts wherever you need them. I will in the next few posts, give you the features of each of these.

But what does the corporate world think of this?  Here’s HP in action The big boys like IBM who need communication to flow between thousands of staff members on different continents. Is e mailing dead or dying? Do they use social media?

Somesso The corporate social media conference seeks to answer this question, kicking off in Zurich on 31st October and with dates in London and Barcelona to follow. They hope to captivate the attention of corporate communications experts in this niche market and plan to ignite passion where others have failed in more generic Web2.0 conferences.

Their website lists an impressive array of speakers. CEO’s and top managers are being encouraged to adopt social media as the medium of choice in communicating internally with their teams.

For those who would like to attend, tickets are available on the website up to the day and for those who can’t, pod casts and tweets will have to suffice.

Have something to say? send a comment.

Yours tweetly

Wisequeen

Donna Jackson

Social Communications Specialist

Twitter tips for twits

Most of us have heard of, or use twitter right? Wrong! most don’t, or at least not effectively. This social media, micro-blogging site, where you can send quick messages, links, and info to those who follow your updates, can be a lifeline to networking and building an internet presence.

I joined recently, and as a follow on to my post on social etiquette golden rules Here are some tips that I have to offer so far, as a relative newcomer.

Say who you are by including your name. Calling yourself sprogit may work as an enigmatic tease on a dating site, but this isn’t it.

Log in each day, respond to those who have started following you, if you agree. Spend half an hour twice a day and then get off. You have a life don’t you?

Don’t just give impersonal updates, have short conversations with those who post on your subject or area.

Contribute something useful to the social space.

Don’t spam other twitterers with a hard sell, this is not a place to sell your product it’s a place to socialise.

Don’t spend all day talking about your children and the chocolate cake they have smushed all over their faces. For you cute yes, for everyone else - not as cute.

Be a mentor to someone and receive mentoring from someone in your area of interest, that’s powerful.

Don’t blather on with political messages 24 /7, angry and bitter is what you become. Politicians have campaign managers for that, save your energy to make your business better.

Here’s a post on the types of social media users

Be a happy twit!

Have something to say ? send us a comment.

Wisequeen

Donna Jackson

Social communications specialist