your daily social media routine - stuff that matters

YOU MUST MATTER.

Friday, February 24, 12

Ian Lurie@portentint

Me:

This is me. You probably know me by my cartoon self. His hair never falls out.


My company:

This is my company. They paid for me to do this whole presentation. Say hi.


equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem equivocate weasel weasel hem haw qualify caution pick nits dodge ahem

A quick disclaimer: This presentation is designed for beginners. It has some good stuff for everyone, I hope, but if you think I’m skipping stuff, or that I’ve suddenly forgotten entire chunks of the social media space, hopefully you’re wrong.

I worked hard to keep this simple and focused on the time and message management aspects of a social media campaign.


portent.co/searchfest

Because I race through so much, here’s a link to link bundle on bit.ly. It includes links to all the stuff I talk about, as well as my blog and some blatant self-promotion.


http://portent.co/searchfest


Let’s get social, shall we?


SOCIAL MEDIATHE INTERNET’S WAY OF DRIVING US ALL CRAZY

Social media. It’s kinda nuts. It’s the sailboat of internet marketing: A humungous hole in the water into which you throw money.

You can do a lot of work and realize very little benefit, or at least feel like you’ve realized very little benefit.

There are a lot of different social networks, and...


Follow me

Like me

Look at me!I have no pants!

...every semi-intelligent biped on the planet is also on those networks, clamoring for attention. If you’re going to succeed, you have to somehow be heard above it all.


700 FACEBOOK POSTS/SECOND

150 LBS CANDY CONSUMED/SECOND

Blah

Blah

Nom

Just to give you an idea: There are 700 Facebook posts per second. Americans can’t even eat candy that fast.


Community

Build community through content and a great site

Sell to that community (in a nice way)

Audience

SEO PPC

Social media Display

Build audience through channels

Signi!cance

Your pitch

Conversion

Then start over again, but with a bigger community.

Site qualityPerformance

CurationContent

Your web site

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectateur nonummy lorenzino. Interdum volgus videt, est ubi peccat. Si veteres ita miratur laudatque poetas, ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis compar

Where results happen.

E-mail Site quality

CurationContent

But social media is a critical community builder. It’s where you can turn strangers into members of a community. And that community is your potential customer base.


YOU CAN DO SOMETHING EXTREMEAND HOPE SOMEONE’S

WATCHINGYou can always clamor for attention like everyone else, or try to shock people into listening. Even if you keep all your fingers, though, this isn’t a long-term plan.


OR YOU CAN MATTER

LIKE VELCRO


FACEBOOK SEARCH?

SRSLY?


SRSLY.

Yes, seriously. Velcro matters. It’s not always sexy or cool. But we use the stuff everywhere, all the time. If all the velcro on earth disappeared, half of us would either drop our laptops or have our shoes fall off.


YOU CAN’T JUST TALK

blah blah blah blahblah blah

blah blah

blah blah blah blah

So you can’t just talk. That’s what everyone’s doing. If all you do is blather on about your discounts, your coupons, your next deal or whatever you just ate, why should your audience care?


YOU MUST MATTER.

You have to truly, really matter to your audience.

But I want to clarify: You don’t have to be life- or world-changing. Sometimes stuff matters because it makes you laugh, or think, or feel better, or because it informs you.


Community

Build community through content and a great site

Sell to that community (in a nice way)

Audience

SEO PPC

Social media Display

Build audience through channels

Signi!cance

Your pitch

Conversion

Then start over again, but with a bigger community.

Site qualityPerformance

CurationContent

Your web site

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectateur nonummy lorenzino. Interdum volgus videt, est ubi peccat. Si veteres ita miratur laudatque poetas, ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis compar

Where results happen.

E-mail Site quality

CurationContent

If you matter, then you build significance, which gets more folks to join the community, which builds significance even more. It’s a virtuous cycle essential to your business.


IF YOU’RE GONNA MATTER

What ‘matters’ is very much a function of your audience. It’s complicated. And you rarely go from unknown to significant overnight. It takes a lot of work, over a long time.


YOU NEED A PLAN

So you need a plan. That plan has to cover how you get started, and how you keep an eye on the strategic side of things.

But it also has to guide you through the daily grind of building an audience, and then becoming significant to that audience.


WHO WHEREWHEN WHAT

I look at four classic questions of storytelling. Because that’s what you’re doing: You’re telling an ongoing story.


WHO NEEDS TO HEAR YOU?WHEREWHEN WHAT


WHO WHERE ARE THEY?WHENWHAT


WHO WHEREWHEN SHOULD YOU SPEAK?WHAT


WHO WHEREWHEN WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SAY?


WHO NEEDS TO HEAR YOU?WHEREWHEN WHAT

The question of ‘who’ gets you started. Answering this question will help you set up your listening and tracking tools. That’s why I put it first, and ‘what’ last, even though that may feel a little backwards.

At the start of any campaign, I ask “Who needs to hear about this?”

“Needs” may mean potential customers, or it may mean influential folks who can help get the word out. It all depends on the product and audience.

The important thing here is that you’re finding people who already matter to your audience. You’ll need to listen to and build relationships with all of them because they matter.

Some people ask me, “Does this mean you just want me to copy them?”

Definitely not. But you can certainly repost what they say and cite them, or expand on what they’ve posted. Or you can ask them questions. Or, you can just listen and learn. If they’re out there Tweeting and Facebooking and whatever, they want to share and help build the community. Join in!


If you’re going to work on Twitter, Followerwonk is a great way to go. It lets me look for the people most relevant to a specific topic. That way, I can figure out who I should follow.

I can also look at what those folks talk about, and how the audience responds. That’ll clue me into what matters.

If I can’t find any really active, relevant folks on Twitter, then maybe I need to try another social network.


On Google Plus, I can just do a search. I love using this tool. And, of course, I can check the top influencers’ profiles to find their Twitter, Facebook, etc. accounts.

Then I can look at the level of response they get from their audiences on those networks. That can be a huge clue as to where I should spend most of my time.


You can also use SocialMention. It pulls in data from blogs, microblogs like Twitter, Friendfeed, etc. So you’ll get a bigger picture.

What about Facebook, though? Can you use Facebook search to find influencers there?


FACEBOOK SEARCH?

FACEBOOK SEARCH? LOL. STOP, YOU’RE KILLING ME.

I’ve found Facebook search results to be, uh, less than useful.


You’re probably better off using a ‘site’ search on Google.


Now you’ve got a list of people to follow. You also have a list of bloggers, writers and pundits you need to monitor. They’re going to keep you informed, even as you build relationships with them.

You can take all of this stuff and add it to Google Reader, an iGoogle home page, or whatever information manager you prefer. Marty Weintraub has a great tutorial on using iGoogle to set up a reputation monitoring dashboard. You can use the same thing to build a listening post.

Or, you can check out my ebook on the subject. I prefer Google Reader, but the principle is the same: Subscribe to lots of stuff, then group and classify it.


http://www.aimclearblog.com/2009/03/16/how-to-build-a-reputation-monitoring-dashboard/

http://www.aimclearblog.com/2009/03/16/how-to-build-a-reputation-monitoring-dashboard/

http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2009/08/free-e-book-social-media-monitoring.htm

http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2009/08/free-e-book-social-media-monitoring.htm

REEDER

On OS X, I also like Reeder. It’s a slightly prettier way to access your Google Reader feeds. It also integrates all sorts of cool stuff like Evernote, Twitter and ReadItLater. And it runs on iPad, iPhone, etc. and syncs between them, and back to Google Reader. More in a second.


WHOWHERE ARE THEY?WHEN WHAT

So, now you have a basic listening post, and you’ve followed a few people. Don’t worry if it’s pretty basic right now. As you learn more, you can add more.

I constantly follow new people and subscribe to new blogs as I find them. Usually. the people I’m following now introduce me to the people I add. Same with blogs.

Now you have to make a decision: Where are you going to concentrate your efforts? Faceook? Twitter? YouTube? A niche network?

If you have the time, of course, hitting ‘em all is great. But chances are you don’t have the time. So pick and choose. Find the networks with the most activity. I don’t have any great automated analysis for this. You have to use your brain and your gut.


IF TWITTER, USE HOOTSUITE

If you’re going to be using Twitter. Hootsuite is a must. It lets you divide Twitter stream, which will probably get pretty huge, into sub-groups and topics. It also has scheduling, and will let you post to LinkedIn at the same time.

And, if you’re on a team, it has some great tools for assigning stuff to others. And you can monitor Facebook using the same tool. It’s just nifty.


AND TIMELY.ISYou’ll also want Timely.is, which lets you schedule Tweets to go out at the best possible time of day.

If you use the workflow I describe next, you’ll end up posting lots of stuff every hour or two. You don’t want it all to go out at once. Timely will queue stuff up and then send it at the best time of day based on audience response.


OR BUFFERAPP.COM

You can use Buffer to do the same thing.


DON’T USE 3RD PARTY POSTING APPS ON FACEBOOK.

Hootsuite will post to Facebook, too. But don’t do it. There’s strong evidence that Facebook reduces the ‘edgerank’ of posts sent via third-party tools. Annoying, I know, but that’s the world we live in. You’ll want to do your Facebook posts directly, via Facebook.


DON’T USE 3RD PARTY POSTING APPS ON GOOGLE PLUS.

Do the same on Google Plus. I’m always worried about how Google handles 3rd-party submissions. Yes, they have an API that lets you post automatically. Just be really careful with how you use it.


DON’T IGNORE THE ‘LITTLE’ GUYS.

One last note here: Don’t ignore niche and specialized social networks. I put ‘little’ in quotes because I’m talking in part about sites like StumbleUpon and Reddit, which are hardly ‘little’. They only look little when you put them next to networks with populations the size of countries.


WHO WHEREWHEN WILL YOU TALK?WHAT

So, now you know who you’re going to listen to and talk to. You’ve (hopefully) narrowed down where you’re going to do it. Next up: When’s the best time to post?


CONTRA-COMPETITIVE TIMING@DANZARELLA

The guy to read on this topic is Dan Zarella. He has some great thoughts on what he calls contra-competitive timing.

Basically, he says you should consider posting when no one else is, like on a Saturday morning. Why? Because you’ll stand out. This can’t be your only strategy, but it’s a good one.

At the same time, be sure to use Timely on Twitter, since it’ll figure out the best times for you. If you’re on Facebook or Plus, look at the posting times that seem to get you the best response. Experiment a little.


WHO WHEREWHEN WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SAY?

That’s it for the one-time stuff. You’ve now got your listening post, you know where to focus, and you have a plan in place to find the best times/days to post.

Now you’re into the daily grind: The stuff you have to do again and again, no matter what. This is a lot of work - there’s no way around it. You’ll need a total of at least 45 minutes/day, spread out in small ‘chunks’.


OY. NOW YOU TELL ME THIS?

Relax. Even though it may seem like a lot of time, you’re giong to split it up into lots of little ‘sprints’. At most, you’ll take a 5-minute chunk here and there.

You’ll want to build your tactics around these small sprints. This events out time usage and makes sure social media won’t take over your life (any more than it has already).

Why does this work? Because the 30 seconds you spend posting something creates content that your audience will see and find for hours after. This isn’t TV. What you post exists forever. So a few seconds of effort can lead to lasting value for your audience.


10-5-10

I call this the 10-5-10 rule: When you’re running a social media campaign, count on spending 10 minutes in the morning, then three to five 5-minute sprints, then 10 minutes in the evening.


10 MINUTESIN THE MORNING

Starting with the morning. I use that first 10-minute shift to get organized, review the previous day’s leftovers and maybe get my first few posts out of the way.


HOW’S IT GOING?NEW FOLLOWSYESTERDAY’S READING LISTYOUR DASHBOARD

In the first ’10’ I’m focusing on four things. I just get as far as I can. If I can only do 2 out of 4, that’s fine. This is all about steady progress.


First, I want to see how things are going. I use Klout as a good general measure of how my social influence is growing (or shrinking). If you’re concentrating on niche networks or specialized sites like SlideShare or Reddit, you’ll need to check those networks or look at your traffic reports, instead.

My goal here is to get a very quick high-level view of how much I matter. I’m not trying to figure out ROI, or calculate visits generated. I just want to see if what I’m doing is working to both build my audience and be significant to them.


I’ll also take a quick look at any new followers and decide whether to follow back.

Depending on where your’e at in your campaign, you may want to follow every decent follower back. Or you may be so overwhelmed you need to be picky.


Either way, use common sense. There are some pretty simple cues as to who you should/shouldn’t follow.

If you’ve got lots of friends in common, for example, that’s a good bet.


10,000 FOLLOWERS150 FOLLOWS10 TWEETSWASTE OF TIME

+

On the other hand, if a new follower is clearly spamming or just in it to gain followers, they don’t care if they matter. Or they have a really weird definition of significance.

For example, if someone (besides a star) has thousands of followers but has only done 5-10 posts in their entire account history, something’s not right. They probably bought followers. Steer clear.


RESPOND FIRST

Now I’ll check my listening post, and my online accounts. When I do this, I have three priorities, in this order:

Respond to questions and comments directed at me first.

I do try to answer every question and comment, if possible. There’s no better way to matter.


Don’t flame people, even if they’re total jerks. A little humor goes a long way. Respond if you can, though, since that shows you’re listening.


If you’re a retail brand, or another organization that provides support to your users/customers/believers, then this is a great chance to come through for them. Don’t let it slip by.

When you answer someone on Facebook/Twitter/Plus/whatever, it matters to them.


DUDE, YOU ROCK.

THANKS MAN.

If someone compliments you, thank them for it. Easiest response in the world, and again, it shows you’re not just an empty profile.

By the way, this ‘response’ part of my routine takes about 2 minutes.


CURATE SECOND

Next, you curate content. This is really the mainstay of social media audience building. ‘Curate’ means finding content that matters to your audience and posting it.


THIS ONE’S INTERESTING.I’LL SAVE IT TO READITLATER

STUFF TO LOOK AT LATER

First off, I’m going to check Readitlater for any stuff from yesterday that I haven’t yet read. More about Readitlater, and how content gets there, in a moment.


REEDER

This is where your listening post really comes through. It lets you skim rapidly through all of the posts from all of the blogs and individuals to which you’ve subscribed.


‘J’ KEY MOVES ME DOWN

In Reeder and Google Reader, for example, I can use the ‘J’ key on my keyboard to click from one post to the next. That lets me glance at each headline and introduction to see if a particular post is of interest.



If something looks like it may matter, but I’m not sure, I save it to Readitlater. That way I can check it at the end of the day, or the next morning.



STUFF TO LOOK AT LATER

Readitlater is an awesome tool. It lets me store all the stuff that isn’t time-critical or clearly significant to my audience. Then I can move on, knowing I won’t forget about it. If it’s a week before I look at it again, that’s ok! This way I just know that I won’t forget it.


BWOOP! BWOOP! BWOOP!

If, while I skim through my listening post in Google Reader or whatever tool I’m using, or Readitlater, I see something that’s a slam-dunk significant bit of news or learning...


...I click through to the article...


...And schedule it for automatic posting via Timely. I click the little ‘Create a Timely’ bookmarklet, and up pops a window with everything I need. Note that I usually add my own comment to the posting.

A lot of folks ask me if this is spamming, since I’m queueing up posts. It’s not. You can’t just vomit 10 posts at a time up onto a network like Twitter or Facebook. It’ll all just go racing by in peoples’ streams. It’s no help.

You need to spread them out a bit, so folks get a chance to look. And, of course, you want to post at the best possible time. Which is what Timely or Buffer will do for you.


Oh, also, if you happen to have a typo in your post...


...you can log into Timely or Buffer and edit it. Phew.


Then Timely finds the best posting time and gets everything set up. You’re done. This is how you turn a few minutes of work into a few hours worth of useful posts for your audience.


RANT LAST

So, respond first, curate second, and rant last.


I love a good rant as much as anyone. But chances are folks will get tired of it. Hell, I get tired of it. So ranting is something you want to keep to a minimum. Even I can’t go on a really good rant more than once every couple days. It’s exhausting.

Before you post something ranty, think carefully: Is your audience one that’s going to want to hear this? Again, it’s about what matters to them, not you. Although I admit, this rant is one that made me feel quite a bit better.


DOES IT MATTER?

And always ask this question. Does what you’re about to post really matter?


Maybe this matters to Paris Hilton’s audience. It certainly wouldn’t matter to me. But she knows them better than I.


I know that a lot of my online friends appreciate a smart aleck. Otherwise, they wouldn’t listen to me. So a post about smart-alecky little rodent-like animals is probably a win.

(it was)


10 MINUTESIN THE MORNING

You’ve checked your followers, gone over yesterday’s reading list and seen how things are going. And, if you had time, you’ve done some fast response/curation/ranting.

That’s your 10 minutes in the morning. Nicely done!

HOW’S IT GOING?NEW FOLLOWSYESTERDAY’S READING LISTYOUR DASHBOARD


5 MINUTES EVERY 90 MINUTES

Now comes the hard part. During your day, every hour to hour and a half, you need to take a 5 minute ‘social break’. Each 5 minute break is a sprint where you do the same respond/curate/rant routine you did in your 10 minute AM step.

That’s all you do, though. No follower checking, readitlater review or anything like that unless you really feel like you’ve got the spare time.


So once again, I’ll skim through my Twitter/Facebook/Plus/whatever accounts, looking for things I need to respond to. And I’ll check my listening post.


If I find something interesting, I schedule it with Timely, or if I’m using Reeder I can Tweet it right from my listening post, which is a great timesaver.


I might post it to another network or two, as well. Here I’m posting the same thing to Google Plus for my friends there.

And that’s it. Spend five minutes. No more. You’ll rarely get through everything. That’s totally fine. Just do what you can. Remember, you do this every 60-90 minutes. I find that realistically I can a 5-minute sweep like this 4-5 times a day, at most. But that’s usually plenty.


10 MINUTESIN THE EVENING

At the end of the day, you do a wrap-up to prep you for the next day.


You might do another sweep of your followers to see if anyone really spammy snuck in there. This is up to you. I usually only do this if I feel like my morning sweep left some stuff unchecked, or if I started to see a lot of spammy stuff in my streams during the day.


I’ll check my Readitlater list.


OH YEAH...

So that I don’t forget something really good I wanted to make sure I read. It may be I don’t read it now - but I’m going to at least get that little mental tickle that reminds me.


WHAT WORKED? WHAT DIDN’T?

I’m also going to check to see what worked and what didn’t. This is why you must use some form of basic social analytics. Bit.ly is a great place to start. With a Bit.ly account, you can track clicks on links to content you’ve curated. It’s a great way to see what matters.


WHAT WORKED? WHAT DIDN’T?

On Facebook, you can look at your insights report. Their virality measure is a great at-a-glance indicator of really significant content.


And on Google Plus you can view ripples...


...which are the universe’s way of telling you that all content leads to Rand.

In all seriousness, ‘Ripples’ will tell you how content you posted on Plus spread through your network. It tells you whether it mattered, for one thing. It also tells you who helped you get it out there, so you can return the favor and so that you can respond by saying ‘thanks’.


10-5-10

And there you have it. 10-5-10. It sounds like a lot right now, I know, but as you settle into it, it becomes pretty easy. You’ll end up spending 40-45 minutes a day on your building a social media community. But that’s worth hours of ‘presence’.


SOME POINTERS

A few quick pointers for posting things that really matter.


EVERYTHING’S GROUPED

Be an organizational nutcase. I find I don’t have to push this much. As internet marketers, we tend to be pretty OCD as it is. But keep your listening post subscriptions grouped. It’s easier.


Once a month, be strategic. Look at what really mattered to your audience. Draw some useful conclusions. This one post had nearly 70% virality, meaning 70% of the people who saw it passed it along in some way. Why?

Because it was both funny and insightful. And because we posted it via instagram. That led to folks on Facebook reposting, but it also meant that other instagram users reposted it back to Facebook, even if they weren’t logged in. It’s a double-whammy that drove incredible response. Good learning for later.


Oh, and on Facebook, Reddit, Plus and such, use images. Folks are far, far more likely to repost if you do.


Use niche sites, media sharing sites and specialized social networks first.

Yeah, it’s less sexy. The audience is smaller. but they’re also listening more carefully.


Measure, track and quantify whatever you can. Measuring the value of social media is a whole other exercise that I can’t go into here, but I’ll try to cover it soon.


But when you do measure, think strategically. There are a lot of benefits from a strong social media campaign - from mattering to your audience.

First, of course, you can get customers.

Second, it helps with your organic search rankings.

Third, you’re expanding your brand, one-on-one, with vast numbers of people. Never, ever underestimate the value of connecting w/ someone. That’ll turn a stranger into a community member into a customer.


This is a race where a steady effort beats a huge one, any day of the week.


DOES IT MATTER?

And yes, I’ll beat this one last time: Make sure what you say matters. That’ll ensure that you matter. Which is the key to that entire stranger to community to customer cycle.


YOU MUST MATTER.

I know, this was a lot of stuff. The critical part is to remember you must matter. Create a routine around that principle and stick to it. If you do, whether you can spare 45 minutes a day or 4 minutes a day, and you’ll eventually succeed.


@portentintportent.co/searchfest

Don’t forget the link bundle!




your daily social media routine - stuff that matters

Business