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Raquel Richardson

ideas, marketing, marketing plans, social media, twitter, youtube

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Fans, Followers, For Reals?

March 12th, 2010

Ryan Puckett and I recently met for breakfast and had a fun talk about the use of the word “fan.” I said, you should write a blog about that… and here it is. What do you think of the word fan? We would love for you to chime in…

guest post by Ryan Puckett

Ok, so I have no research to back this up, but I’m absolutely convinced that one of the major barriers to more people using social media (especially in marketing) is the lexicon that accompanies it.

Last year at Blog Indiana, I remember one colleague saying that she has a hard time getting her managers to understand what a blog is and why there is a need to do it. The answer to her problems, according to another colleague, was to stop calling it a blog and just call it a web site. If she wanted to go a step further, she could call it a web site that is updated easily and frequently.

I’ve known many people to start using Twitter and they get totally freaked out when they receive that first email with the subject line, “Ryan Puckett is now following you on Twitter.”

Ack! Why is Ryan Puckett stalking me? Who is he and am I supposed to stalk him too?

The terms “follower” and “following” give Twitter a creepy vibe for the newbie, but once you realize that it’s really a subscription to somebody’s Twitter feed, it’s not so hard to get your head around it and realize no harm will be done, nor will your vacation beach photos be published on TMZ.

Another odd term is “fan.” ABC Graphic Design Company suggests you become a fan on Facebook. Really? I know the owner, but I’ve never even used their services. How can I be a “fan?”

Again, the problem is in the lexicon. When I think of fans, I think of the Jimmy Fallon in “Fever Pitch” or the scary Robert Dinero stalking Wesley Snipes in “The Fan.”

However, once you realize that being a fan really means subscribing to a company’s Facebook updates, it isn’t so hard to get your mind around it.

This week, my Twitter feed has been all abuzz about folks heading to South by Southwest, otherwise known as SXSW. Somehow, this music and film festival became a hub for interactive, marketing types in the last few years and it’s where Twitter took off and increasingly popular (and sometime annoying) Foursquare made its debut too.

I wonder what kind of new words will come out of Austin this year? I’m predicting something weird like “salute.” Can’t you just imagine getting an email that says “Ryan Puckett is now saluting you on Salute.com” or trying to explain to your manager that they need to start “saluting” their “army.”

What does all of this mean for marketers? Easy. Use normal words to explain these concepts to your clients, managers and those in the C-suite. In other words, keep it real.

Raquel Richardson

marketing, social media

blogging, ideas, social media, twitter

3 Comments

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Update Your Profile Picture Across Multiple Websites All At Once

February 19th, 2010

I visited a social network this morning that I haven’t been to in almost three months. I wasn’t surprised to see that it still had an old picture of me on my profile. I thought I had updated my picture on all my social media networks a while ago, but this wasn’t a network that I go to a lot. It did get me curious, though, so I checked some of my other profiles. It turns out I only thought I updated all my online avatars with that new photo. More than half still had my old photo up.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I could update my photo in one place and have it updated everywhere? I think so, and the folks at Gravatar agree. They’ve created a central repository where you can upload photos of yourself.

Then any social network or other website that uses Gravatar doesn’t need to ask you to upload a photo. They can look at the email address you used to sign up and pull the image straight from Gravatar. So when you update your Gravatar photo, it automatically updates your photo on every site that uses Gravatar. Makes life a lot easier.

Who uses Gravatar?

I’d love to tell you that Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN all use the Gravatar protocol. They don’t. If you want to update your photo on these sites, you have to go to each one individually and upload an image.

Most of the action that Gravatar gets is on blogs like this one. That’s right. If you create a Gravatar account (it’s free) and leave a comment on this post, your picture will show up right next to your comment. It will also show up on comments you leave on thousands (if not tens of thousands) of other blogs.

What if you leave a comment and you don’t have a Gravatar? Nothing breaks. You’ll just have a non-descript gray icon that looks vaguely like a human being. I find that when I’m reading a blog post with a long list of comments, the ones with a unique image next to them tend to catch my eye.

Why doesn’t every site use Gravatar?

My first guess is that they want to allow you to be unique on their site. You might put a casual photo of yourself on Facebook and a more professional photo of yourself on LinkedIN. I prefer to have one photo that works in a professional or casual context, but maybe I’m in the minority.

Clay Mabbitt

social media, web

blogging, facebook, linkedin, social media, social networks, twitter

4 Comments

How to use Twitter in Sales

February 14th, 2010

We talk a lot about how your marketing and sales must mesh together well. In fact, this month on the 25th, we have a workshop to help you align marketing and sales. Likewise, we talk a lot about Twitter (you can follow me @silversquare if you’re not already). So, I thought it would only be appropriate to give you some tips on using Twitter for your sales effort. Here are some easy places to start thinking about how Twitter can help you sell.

Research. Yep, I love using Twitter for research. I use it for sales, personal, marketing, business advice. I use Twitter more often for research than I do google. The minimal effort of deciding if I want to read more (ah, the true beauty of 140 characters or less!) before hitting a link is great. The fact that just about everything is recent and relevant to what’s happening in the world right now is even better.
Industry news. I have admitted I am a news junkie, but Twitter makes it a lot easier to stay up on what trends are taking place in my industry, or a client’s industry I’m monitoring for them, or, an industry I’m trying to break in to. We all know knowledge is power. Take that power in small, relevant doses and who knows where you’ll go.
Best time to call. Oh yes. Once you start following people, you’ll learn where they are traveling, what time of the day they are most often on Twitter, i.e. what time they may be at their office in front of their computer, and if they will attend or be somewhere you can connect with them or share in an experience. Learn about your prospect, professionally and personally.
Job change. I recently learned of a friend’s super big job change from Twitter. It’s where they decided to put the news. I also see what other friends and clients are jumping around from place to place. I have worked with clients as they have moved from business to business, so keeping up on where they are and what new needs they may have is important.

I’m sure some of you can think of other ways you’re using Twitter in your sales process. Drop us a comment and let us learn from your greatness!

Raquel Richardson

marketing & sales, social media

ideas, marketing, relationship building, social media, twitter

2 Comments

Being Funny on Twitter is Good

February 12th, 2010

Raquel recently wrote a post about using humor in your marketing – especially your online marketing. That principle doesn’t just apply to your big campaigns. You can also inject humor into your bite-size marketing endeavors. Case in point: Twitter.

Earlier today, Indianapolis-based Twitter aficionado Kyle Lacy ( @kyleplacy ) wrote the following tweet:

Follow @claymabbitt : It is very rare to find an individual that can make you laugh through Twitter. This guy does it.

Do I make people laugh on Twitter? Well, I certainly think I’m pretty funny. Apparently Kyle does, and I imagine there are at least a few others out there. Is it the tweets about the songs playing in the bathroom where I work? The inappropriate things I say to my wife? Road rage? Maybe it’s just because I make a point of following very funny people and retweeting their best stuff.

Would Kyle have told people to follow me if I had never made him laugh? Well… hmm… maybe? I do also tweet about serious stuff in the online and social media spheres, which are areas most of Kyle’s audience probably cares about. But it certainly isn’t “very rare to find an individual” who does that. (Actually Twitter is crawling with us.) Kyle decided to endorse me because he thinks some of the stuff I’ve put out there on Twitter is funny.

That endorsement had a positive effect. My new followers have spiked in the last few hours. That’s more people who get to see me be funny on Twitter. While they’re chuckling, they also get to see my occasional tweets about upcoming Silver Square seminars and new resources we have available. Because I’ve made them laugh, they like me a little bit. Because they like me, they’ll be more inclined to look for the value in the seminars and resources I’m talking about.

Does that mean everyone I’ve made laugh will become a paying customer? Not even close. My product or service still has to address some pain they have, be appealing, be in their price range, and fit dozens of other variables that go into a buying decision. But I have a bit of their attention, a bit of their interest, and a bit of their goodwill.

And that’s a good place to start.

Clay Mabbitt

branding, business smarts, just for fun, marketing, social media

humor, ideas, indianapolis, relationship building, social media, twitter

2 Comments

Etiquette of the Twitter Follow

January 28th, 2010

It’s an almost daily occurrence. I get a notice that someone has stopped following me on Twitter. I don’t recognize this person or organization that has decided they aren’t interested in my tweets any longer. I hadn’t even known they were following me until they stopped. My total number of followers (that all important number on which hardcore Twitter users hang their self-esteem) remains steady because some different person that I’ve never met or heard of has started following me… at least for a few days.

So what’s happening here? In all likelihood, these people are following me in the hopes that I will follow them back. From what I can tell they don’t care about hearing what I have to say or starting a conversation with me. But when Twitter was still a fledgling social media startup, it was customary to follow anyone who followed you. Some would say that reciprocal following is still the appropriate etiquette today.

Ultimately you will decide how you want to use your Twitter account, but you have some options when deciding how you want to dole out your Twitter follows. Spoiler alert: my recommendation is the third option mentioned below.

1.) Auto-follow

With this approach you reciprocally follow anyone who follows you. You can even set up third-party Twitter add ons that will take care of the following for you. Perhaps appropriate when Twitter was just starting out, I’m not a fan of auto-following these days. Not only do you get inundated with a stream of tweets from people you don’t know or care about, you’re also rewarding “Twitter spammers” who follow thousands upon thousands of accounts just to inflate their own number of followers. It’s not too melodramatic to say this practice is bad for the social economy of Twitter.

2.) Ignore New Followers

On the other end of the spectrum you can simply ignore any stranger who follows you out of the blue. That’s not to say you don’t follow anyone, but when you add a new follower it’s because you found them and are interested in what they have to say. It doesn’t matter who is following you. I personally feel like this devil-may-care attitude is a step above auto-following, but it certainly doesn’t leverage the power of a social media network like Twitter.

3.) Selectively Follow

When I learn someone new is following me on Twitter, I’ll usually check out their Twitter page. I’ll look at the quick bio and read some of their latest tweets. If I find value in what they are talking about, then I follow them. At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that new people follow me all the time that I don’t even know about. But there are a very intelligent few who don’t just hit the follow button and call it a day. They mention me in one of their tweets. Something like…

if you want a good web guy in indianapolis, you could do worse then @claymabbitt

When I see that tweet, of course I go check the sender out.

I think selectively following is hands down the best approach. The power of a strong social media network like Twitter is you can make connections and start a conversation with new people. You just have to be smart about it.

Clay Mabbitt

social media, web

relationship building, social media, social networks, twitter

2 Comments

The Pope has spoken, and he says you should blog

January 24th, 2010

You probably think that headline is a joke, but it’s far from it. Mashable reported that Pope Benedict XVI has shared that the cultural shifts have come and it’s time to reach out in the social media world. The Pope himself has launch social media efforts and wants others to follow. Here is an expert from his original message:

“The spread of multimedia communications and its rich “menu of options” might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web, or to see it only as a space to be filled. Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different “voices” provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.”

Social media is defintely here to stay. It can be a perfect outlet for your message, with one of the key phrases of the Pope’s message being: “exercising their proper role as leaders of communities.” Use these wonderful outlets to see how you can speak to and engage your community. If you want more on this topic, I’ve listed a few other posts as reference: