Damn Fail Whale
Jun 16th
Ahhh. The Twitter Fail Whale, now that picture instantly raises my anxiety level. I was an early Twitter adopter as a Public Relations Professional and the first hundred or so Fail Whales I received weren’t a big deal. I would smile at the silly image and do something else. I’d cruise Facebook and wait a few hours until the tweets had stopped overwhelming the little birdies.
Here I am 1.5 years later as a Social Media Manager, swearing every time I see those damn birds carrying a whale. Put down the f*c**n whale and get my tweets up! I have sH*t do here guys.
Seriously? This one image makes me want to throw something, I just spent 5 minutes putting together the perfect 140 charater tweet with enough room left for re-tweeting!!! and now my tweet is gone and I am too pissed off to re-write it. Not to mention I had to shorten the url myself! Does the whale need all those birds? Can’t one be auto shortening my links?
Yes I know, there are plenty of Tweetme’s and Tweetdecks I can be using that seamlessly swim past these pathetic whales complete with url shorteners, but admit it, there are times when you have to go Twitter. Tweetdeck likes to freeze on me and make annoying spinning noises, so I often prefer to use Twitter for some simple tweeting and DM’s.
Sometimes its good to stick to the basics. I get a bit of nostalgia logging onto Twitter, but I am not sure I can handle anymore Fail Whales. I wonder if my doctor will prescribe me Xanax on the grounds of social media platform rejection by silly images?
Oh and if you know how to turn the Tweetdeck pop-up spinning noise making box off please save me.
Move over Craigslist, There’s a new Bird in town
May 20th
I’ve met several of my closet friends through Craigslist. Being a San Francisco girl, Craigslist helped me find several roommates after college in 2002 and sell my first car, a dodge neon.
Craigslist was one of the first social media platforms that connected people to buy, sell, rent and more. It’s now grown to be the 35th most popular site according to google. Has Craigslist gotten too big for its britches? Maybe… but it also seems a bit old school for me, as it brings back memories of Top Ramen and living with 5 people, 3 cats and 3 bathrooms. My hat still goes off to Craigslist as this “list” definitely paved the way for more innovative listing platforms.
Watchout Craig Newman! There’s a new bird in town, Adbirds. The Austin-based company has Craigslist capabilities with a bit more feathers.
Adbirds features utilize social media’s sharing capabilities with buttons to share items for sale with friends on twitter, facebook, digg etc. Its an easy way to get your items in front of more buyers. The interface is amazingly simple and easily connects you to where you want to be. Want to add 10 pics and embed video links? No prob.
The free accounts come with a unique user name and URL address, and easy pay features. Any Free account can run 5 ads at a time.
Did I mention community love? All Adbirds users are encouraged to help build awareness of a local favorite organization with name and web link using the “favorite charity” identifier from the account manager. So while you’re trying to make a few bucks off your old baseball card collection you can support your favorite charity, the name and link of the charity will appear at the top of every ad.
Join AdBirds Today Adbirds.com
California Issues Social Media Policy
Feb 28th
As a California girl I like to see that crazy state taking steps in the best direction. At first thought, regulating social media may seem controlling or invasive, but it is absolutely necessary, especially for government agencies.
We have all seen the news about the Military restricting social media from the troops, and for good reasons right? It protects the men and women serving from being located and protects our country from accidental leaks of sensitive information.
So instead of California restricting Facebook and Twitter use from government employees, they are enforcing guidelines. I applaud California and believe that all organizations, government or not, should embrace social media and enforce a policy amongst its members.
Here is the release from the State of California.
California Promotes Secure, Appropriate Use of Social Media Sites for State Government, Issues Policy
State Technology Update – February 26, 2010
The State of California has officially adopted the use of social media tools to promote communication and transparency for Californians interacting with state government. The Office of the State Chief Information Officer (OCIO) today released Information Technology Policy Letter (ITPL) 10-02 which outlines the use requirements for using social media sites such as FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube.
“The more we increase the state’s online presence to enhance communication and transparency, the better we are able to serve Californians,” said Teri Takai, California’s Chief Information Officer. “At the same time we must be diligent to ensure we use social media tools in a way that is secure and appropriate for official business. This policy provides a risk management framework for agencies to consider in their use of these innovative and dynamic tools.”
The policy encourages state officials to use social media tools, while requiring that only those users who are authorized and have been trained regarding their roles, responsibilities and the security risks as outlined in the policy, have access to social media sites while at work as a state employee. It also requires that agencies assign the management and monitoring of official social media sites to the same internal organization or individual that oversees public communications for the agency.
The policy is accompanied by a Social Media Standard to help state agencies consider the various risk factors associated with the use of social media sites. The Policy Letter can be found online at http://www.cio.ca.gov/Government/IT_Policy/ITPL.html. The Social Media Standard can also be found online in Section 66B of the Statewide Information Management Manual (SIMM) at http://www.cio.ca.gov/Government/IT_Policy/SIMM.html.
When the OCIO was established in January 2008, it was the intent of the Legislature and Governor to create an agency that, among other things, establishes policies and standards to ensure that state information technology (IT) systems run effectively. Through changes to the State Administrative Manual (SAM) and the SIMM, the OCIO creates statewide policy for the Executive Branch to ensure coordination as the agency works to oversee IT activities with a common direction and vision.
Getting your feet wet with Social Media
Feb 9th
By now we are all familiar with the top social media sites; Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We see each other tweets and notice that CEO’s like Mike Peter of Campus Advantage tweeted about the National Apartment Association conference 5 times in less than an hour on January 12.
You’ve heard it before, these sites can be powerful resources, help gain exposure and increase your online presence. For some, tweeting and other social media platforms come easy, but for most of us, we learn and explore before hitting the tweet this button.
There are no written rules on how to play the social media field, here are some simple ways to unleash the power of social media and design your own plan for success.
1. Share interesting content
Effective social media practices involve engaging your audience, which means figuring out what they want to know and what purpose you want to serve with your posts. Content can come in many forms, including articles, blog posts, video clips, quick tips, statistics, photos, news, industry resources, special offers and so much more.
2. Share information from other sources
Share what you find interesting and you will see your network grow with those that share the same interests. Share content from other websites, blogs, magazines, news outlets and other social media users. Remember, it’s about engaging your target audience. When you develop a reputation for providing interesting, useful content, even when it’s content from an outside source, you still benefit greatly.
3. Provide links
One of your goals should be to increase traffic back to your Web site or blog. You can do this by sharing compelling headlines alongside a link to further information on your site. You don’t need to include links with every post, but do distribute them often. Ever wonder how people get those tiny links? There are several link shortening service such as http://bit.ly, which shrinks long links.
4. Engage often
Commit to engaging as much as possible throughout the day, if that sounds like too much, try engaging at least once a day. Share a post first thing in the morning, then check in between meetings and at various intervals to respond to your audience, share new content and get engaged. Remember that your goal is to be a resource.
Are your needs being met?
Jan 26th
I’ve always been fascinated with Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs in life… checkout his pyramid of needs. Are your needs being met? This sequential hierarchy of needs doesn’t usually happen in today’s society. 
When I think of needs, I think of: Starbucks, whitening tooth paste, Google search, and my iphone. I actually have all levels in the pyramid covered multiple times.
How amazing is it that Starbucks found its way into being in my life’s pyramid of needs? Now that is impressive Branding! Starbucks provides every level of the Pyramid.
Let’s start with the basics, Physiological, they provide food and water. Moving along to Safety, I stay alert and productive because I get my Starbucks coffee every day and my co-workers are safer once I have my coffee.
Next is Love/belonging, this is my favorite one! When I order a tall half-caf, skinny vanilla latte, it shows that I am an insider and belong in “the club” I often ramble my long obnoxious order carelessly as I update the Baristas on the latest celebrity gossip. I feel like a Rockstar (loved) because they remember my name and know how to spell it.
Now we are really getting into the magic of this brand, Esteem, watching those Barista’s aim to please me is exhilarating and when they call out my name I get that gitty feeling like Bob Hope just called me up to the Price is Right. The first sip of the not-so-great tasting coffee, shoots my confidence sky high and I am ready to take the day.
The last need is Self Actualization, I accept Starbucks for what it is… it’s mediocre coffee with long lines and no parking… but it brightens my day everyday, sometimes twice a day.
What’s my point? Not only should we all have invested in Starbucks in the 70’s but Starbucks is a strong brand because they meet numerous core needs simultaneously. Does your Brand do that?
Measuring Social Media with Spredfast
Jan 21st
You may heard of these guys already, I’ve known about them for months, either way, they are worth keeping an eye on. They measure social media success across social networking platforms. I have never used their service, but I have met with several sales reps that claim to know how to “measure social media” and have yet to sign up for anyone services. I would love to know what you think. Here is the skinny on Spredfast!
AUSTIN, Texas–Today, Spredfast publicly launched its social media campaign management platform that allows organizations to manage, monitor, and measure their messages and voices across multiple social media channels. As the first comprehensive social media dashboard, social media engagement through Spredfast offers the opportunity to shape conversation, increase traffic, create relationships, and ultimately build sales. Founded by two recognized social media veterans, Kenneth Cho and Scott McCaskill, Spredfast combines its platform with social marketing expertise to deliver a complete solution.
“With Spredfast, my IBM team is able to work collaboratively on our social media campaigns much more efficiently than before”
Large and small companies are already reaping the benefits of Spredfast, such as current customer, IBM: “With Spredfast, my IBM team is able to work collaboratively on our social media campaigns much more efficiently than before,” said Cliff Kinard, IBM’s senior marketing manager, social media and eMarketing. “Based on deep metrics and social streams, I can craft my message to increase my reach and acquire new customers for IBM.”
While many “social listening” services and Twitter-only programs exist, this is the first platform that offers a solution to the execution and measurement problems inherent in social media. Spredfast’s dashboard integrates with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr, and also currently supports Wordpress, Blogger, MoveableType, Lotus Live Connections, Drupal and most XML-RPC enabled blogging platforms. Spredfast is also able to incorporate support for other blog standards as customers require. Spredfast allows its clients to extend their branded content from a single administration interface to the blogosphere and the major social networks.
“Spredfast came to be because we were living in social media ourselves and for our clients. Campaigns were awkward, labor intensive and disconnected,” said Kenneth Cho, Spredfast co-founder. “We have great respect for analysis/listening tools like Radian6 or Crimson Hexagon and think point tools like CoTweet are great for Twitter. However, we realized something was missing and that prompted us to build Spredfast.”
Spredfast’s three main features include:
- Collaborative Campaign Management – Maximizes efforts by distributing and tracking one’s content on many social media channels via a single integrated dashboard. Inherently multi-user, this platform allows many social marketers to participate in any given campaign – assign tasks, create posts, and only send out approved content.
- Integrated Social Streams – Utilizes the power of social media networks to craft and leverage existing high-quality messages that are both relevant and engaging to one’s target audience. Through this mechanism, Spredfast enables a user to quickly create content and respond to conversations.
- Comprehensive Metrics & Reporting – Measures every piece of content distributed. Every metric that is available through those social media channels is pulled into the Spredfast dashboard. In addition, Spredfast has developed measurable actions to help develop ROI analysis on specific social media campaigns.
“Spredfast’s new dashboard offering brings the emerging social media management space to a new level,” said Carla Thompson, VP of Community Strategy at Guidewire Group. “Businesses can now automate and simplify the tedious task of collecting social media metrics and, more importantly, measure the impact from the array of channels used in social media campaigns today.”
Spredfast is currently being used by large enterprises like IBM, Cisco and AOL. However, the tool is also equally effective for smaller companies or organizations, such as the University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center, who used Spredfast for its Edgar Allen Poe exhibit. Another example is Truluck’s, an upscale restaurant chain focused on seafood and steak, which used Spredfast for its entry into social media, significantly increasing its Twitter followers and growing from 0 to 659 Facebook fans in less than four months. Next up, Truluck’s is using Spredfast to integrate their blog and Flickr photos as well.
“What makes Spredfast unique is that it measures every piece of content you distribute and has the ability to create ROI analysis,” said Scott McCaskill, Spredfast co-founder. “Spredfast also categorizes its metrics into three segments, ‘Activity,’ ‘Engagement,’ and ‘Reach,’ a far more advanced measurement approach than is otherwise available for social media marketers today.”
Marketing agencies of all sorts and sizes, along with large enterprises and smaller organizations alike, can find value in Spredfast. For more information, visit http://spredfast.com/.
About Spredfast:
Based in Austin, Texas, Spredfast is a social media campaign management platform that allows organizations to manage, monitor, and measure their social media messages, and the effectiveness of each piece of content, across multiple social media channels. Founded by recognized social media veterans, Kenneth Cho and Scott McCaskill, Spredfast combines its platform with social marketing expertise to deliver a complete solution. Spredfast allows its clients to extend their branded content from a single administration interface to the blogosphere (Wordpress etc.) and the major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr. Some of the early company adopters on board with Spredfast include AOL, Cisco, IBM, Porter Novelli and Sierra Club. For more information, visit http://spredfast.com/.
Twitter Grows Up and Puts on a Business Suit
Jan 20th
Stocktweeting, an innovative website that lets you interact with investors about publicly traded companies on top of the micro-blogging service Twitter has officially gone from alpha to beta status this past holiday weekend while unveiling a slew of new features in the process.
One new feature that we think will become an instant hit in the Twitter world is their new stock voting concept. The website now boasts a social voting feature to rate publicly traded companies by tracking if users post tweets with a ‘+’ or ‘-‘.
Example
$INTC+: Indicates that you are bullish on Intel’s stock
$JPM-: Indicates that you are bearish on JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s stock
$AAPL=: Indicates that you recommend holding or are neutral on Apple’s stock
“Putting a plus or minus after a ticker symbol will quickly become a very popular twitterism – the same way that adding a dollar sign in front of a publicly traded ticker symbol became such an industry standard in ‘09.” said Matt Hagens, CEO of Stocktweeting.com. “This idea is still fresh; however, we will soon have the ability to track thousands of votes simultaneously to see if shareholders are bull or bear on a particular stock. We are not limiting this to just our site stocktweeting.com, our algorithm will calculate every vote within the freewheeling masses of Twitter stratosphere. This would essentially make guys like Jim Cramer obsolete. I’ll take a community’s sentiment over one guy’s opinion any day of the week.”
About Stocktweeting
Stocktweeting leverages the power of the Twitter community and its real-time aspect to generate investment ideas by using common word filters to bring traders together over their network. Stocktweeting is an Austin, TX based start-up business self funded by Matthew Hagens of HagensMedia, LLC. Mr. Hagens has a strong background in both web2.0 technology and finance, with a sound passion for Twitter and social media.
Stocktweeting.com Weekly Community Voting Sentiment Summary
$GOOG+ Bullish – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)
$KFT+ Bullish – Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT)
$CSCO+ Bullish –Cisco Sytems (NASDAQ: CSCO)
$DAL- Bearish – Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL)
$BIDU- Bearish – Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU)
$SRZ- Bearish – Sunrise Senior Living Inc. (NYSE: SRZ)
Signs you have a social media addiction
Dec 30th
This post goes out to a dear friend of mine, Elizabeth, who has a severe Facebook addiction and is close to needing medication to deal with it. Sorry, girl, but it’s time to get grip. Here is how I know she has an issue, and I bet some of you might see a bit of yourself in these signs. If you do, please let me know so I can blog about your issues.
1. Knows way too much information about people she isn’t really friends with… like who is getting married and who is pregnant. She also gets upset that she finds this out on Facebook and says things like: “another one bites the dust” always followed by an “ugh!”
2. Elizabeth logs into her ex-boyfriends Facebook account and reads his Facebook inbox messages. There are plenty exchanges between he and his new girlfriend, so I do enjoy hearing the scoop… but this is wrong! Very wrong!
3. She is constantly checking old boyfriends pages and often visits pages of the guys she is dating. This one is not so bad, but can still be harmful to your self esteem.
4. She thinks deleting someone from her Facebook page is the ultimate punishment and often gives me advice to delete a person from my Facebook when I am upset with them. (seriously bad advice)
5. She starts conversations with “what did you think of my Facebook status earlier today” This is a really annoying question to me. I do NOT stalk my best friends Facebook pages.
Alright, you get the point, she is seriously addicted and needs to detox from Facebook. I recommend spending less than 5 hours a week on Facebook for personal use. That is plenty of time to tag a few photos and ask your network if they have any meatloaf recipes they love.
If you are considering throwing yourself a pity party over the happiness and success of past lovers and friends… please keep in mind that Facebook is not reality, it’s a place to show off and put your best face forward. People put up flattering photos and only write about the positive’s. No one writes about how crazy his or her family is or mentions they prefer to not shower on Sundays.
Social Media Tips to Live By
Dec 7th
The way you play the social media field has a huge impact on you and your brand. Here are few tips I find useful, they actually apply to everyday life as well. Send me your tips. Enjoy!
1. Give More than You Receive- If you want positive attention, like most of us do, in the on-line world, than you have to be willing to give it first. I can hear my dad saying it now “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” he’s usually right and that is a great rule to live by. Respect is earned on-line not a right.
2. Treat others as you would want to be treated- Sounds easy right? Yet somehow there are those few who thinks its okay to post a nasty facebook status about a co-worker, friend, family member, even a client. Come on now! You catch more bees with honey… I hate bees and certainly don’t want to catch any, but it’s still a cliche to live by.
3. Contribute!- Just showing up to the office doesn’t get you anywhere, and neither does signing up for Twitter and ignoring all your DM’s or tweets of fellow twits. Sorry couldn’t resist that one. Don’t be shy, join the conversation and have fun with it! Please don’t just promote your brand, I may stop following you. Before you ever submit anything to a social media site, ask yourself “Does this article really add value to the community?” If not, reconsider submitting it.
5. Cheating is Wrong- Be faithful to yourself and don’t cheat or take short cuts. Focus on building a successful social media presence as you would a friendship with a networking group. Sure, you might be able to get thousands of followers and fans by cheating, but eventually, you will lose credibility.
6. Build Quality Relationships- People are more willing to help those who they really know. By building quality relationships with other users, you’ll always have someone in your corner to back you up. Remember, relationships require the participation of both parties, always be a willing partner your social media relationship.
Making a Splash with Twitter
Dec 2nd
Twitter’s popularity seems to be ballooning at a rate similar to our national deficit.
Twitter’s recent Neilson ranking as the fastest growing member-community site renders it a force to be reckoned with. It’s the shark in the ocean – and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything that anyone can do to stop it.
So if you can’t beat them, join them, or as Matthew Hagens, founder and CEO of upstart Stocktweeting.com like to say, fuse them.
“In a world full of financial news, it’s hard to get personalized financial chatter spoon fed to your wireless device. Connecting with the 800lb gorilla (Twitter) to fuse this information seemed like a logical answer for our customers and our company,” stated Hagens. “As Twitter grows, we grow.”
Among the largest of sharks one can always find a few Remora fish alongside.
Small upstarts like Stocktweeting.com and Stocktwits.com have made quite a splash this year by providing their social investing communities with live ‘tweeted’ financial information. Yet as complex as the business model sounds, their recent successes are due largely to their simplistic nature – live financial tweets, personally tailored to suit each member’s portfolio. That’s something even whales like Yahoo (Nasdaq: Yhoo) and Google (Nasdaq: Goog) can’t provide. And best of all, it’s free.
How small these two companies stay, well, depends on how much their king (Twitter) eats. Judging by the latest internet site rankings, a February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network based on their count of 6 million unique monthly visitors and 55 million monthly visits, the king seems to be eating quite well.
So while Twitter grows in popularity within the investing community, will upstarts like Stocktweeting.com and Stocktwits.com begin to make waves?
Should be an interesting ride.
