community
Give Thanks, Help Kids in Tanzania #Tweetsgiving
Last year for Thanksgiving, Twitter gathered around a cause to raise $10,000 for a small Tanzanian school. It was a simple rally to help, to give a few kids that are a world away a shot at education, a chance for a new start. [Donate this year, details at the bottom of the post]
Today that school has grown from 6 students to over 350. The students are on Twitter, they are blogging, and now have laptops and some nice books.
TweetsGiving 2009 from LittlePurpleCow Productions on Vimeo.
Scheduled for November 24 – 26, 2009, the 48-hour event created by US nonprofit Epic Change will encourage participants to express their thanks using online tools and at live events. Join the celebration: www.tweetsgiving.org
If there is not a Tweetsgiving near you, give thanks by donating $10 by just text ‘thanks NY’ to 85944. Multiple texts = multiple donations
Do Backchannels Know No Boundaries?
Allie Sullivan (@ashevilleallie) is an online marketing and advertising specialist, formerly from the non-profit industry. She is a do-gooder, connector, and trying to make a difference in the world.
The Ugly Was Brought!
On Friday I was very excited to attend New Media Atlanta. Thursday evening I was fortunate to go to the speaker dinner and meet several of the presenters, the co-founders, and those who worked behind the scenes. The one thing that each player had in common is that they were all pumped about being part of the very first New Media Atlanta! I was excited too!
At the start of New Media Atlanta, after the opening comments by conference founders Matt Fagioli and Brad Nix, Jeff Turner took the stage for his presentation on Social Media Is Here To Stay. It was 10 a.m., the conference was just kicking off, and Jeff brought attention to the conversations that were going on through BackNoise. BackNoise claims …
“BackNoise lets you create conversations on the fly, in meetings, watching TV, during class, on the train, anywhere and anytime. Talk about what you want, when you want, where you want, and how you want.”
BackNoise is a channel that allows people to express themselves, anonymously or known, in a real-time online conversation. What started out on BackNoise that day as speaker feedback and comments that people were tired or thirsty, quickly spiraled downhill to what I believe, people who brought out their “ugly.”
Photo via @BeeRealty
There are certain people in this world that have the disco balls to say pretty much about anything. Chris Brogan was the main speaker at New Media Atlanta and embraced BackNoise by presenting with the backchannel behind him. There were some interesting comments such as his fly was down and that the more he cursed, the more an anonymous BackNoise user wanted to kiss him. Funny, right? Brogan has the disco balls though. Everyone in conference attendance was waiting for the moment that he took the stage. They know him, or have heard of him, and respect his reputation.
What about a speaker that isn’t as well known and adored? Does this mean that it’s okay to send a BackNoise comment that encourages the audience to cough two times if you don’t like their presentation? What about stretch if you don’t like the next one? Believe it or not, that’s what happened!
I’m sorry, but to attend a conference and revert back to middle-school mentality is pathetic. If I knew who started these behaviors on BackNoise that day, I would call you out publicly, but alas, you were anonymous. I have no problem with people suggesting that the content presented was weak, or that you’re bored or tired but at some point, grow the heck up!
If you are bored, say why. If you were a speaker and getting bashed, wouldn’t you want to know why?
I don’t think trying to get people to cough is going to help someone learn where and how they can improve. I also don’t think that by creating fear for future speakers is going to make any speaker become better at it!
We encourage people in the online space to be real and transparent, pay-it-forward, not to be a social media douche bag, etc. Why do these understood rules of common decency fly out the window when you don’t actually have to be accountable for your words and actions? They shouldn’t.
When users on the backchannel complained about it being too dark, the lights were turned on. When comments suggested that we needed a break, a break was given.
It is very clear that New Media Atlanta was paying attention to what attendees were saying and constructive criticism was able to bring about positive change. I like that. This also means that speakers were able to see what was said about them. Comments that attacked speakers on a personal level more so than the content that they were delivering, well, I tend to like that less.
Backchannels Are Here To Stay
There is no doubt in my mind that people will continue to use backchannels. After attending New Media Atlanta, it is only my hope that people will choose to use them in a more constructive way. We all like to laugh and feel part of a group, which is what platforms such as BackNoise allows, but where do you draw the line?
I admit that I looked at the backchannel conversations that took place at the conference. I admit that some comments made me laugh. There is something extremely intriguing about watching a stream of thoughts from people that don’t have to identify themselves for speaking what a lot of us might be thinking … but crossing the line of professionalism to middle-school bully is something that can be avoided.
Think about your words. Thumper said, “If you can’t say something nice … don’t say nothing at all.” Backchannels give us the room to dismiss that message and also the accountability of our words. Would you participate on a backchannel? If so, where would you draw the line?
44 Ways To Help Your Customers Fly
Word of mouth is great. It is marketing’s pot of gold. But one step beyond good customers talking about your business, are customers that become crazy, enthusiastic fans of your business. The ones that tell everyone about you and your product, the ones that sing your praises.
Call them champions. Call them evangelists. With a little help from you, more of your best customers can rise to that next level. Shouting your good deeds from the rooftop (or Facebook even).
Having a quality product is of course step one (let’s hope you have that one covered). Being remarkable in some way can create plenty of word of mouth on it’s own. And many of the steps below can be summed up as “building real relationships with your customers”. Still, I am thinking 44 concrete examples might help a little.
Please feel free to reblog this if you want, just please link back 44 Ways To Help Your Customers Fly.
Make Customers Feel Special
- Create a reward program, allowing customers to accumulate points, earn discounts/prizes
- Allow customers to influence your products/services (see Dell’s IdeaStorm)
- Have contests that require very little action by the customer (”100th customer of the summer gets a free reward”)
- Have customers give away swag for you (see @MommyBrain at Blogher)
- Create official champions that believe in your company, that can help you hold events, educate other customers, and create content
Simple Steps
- Start internally, look to employees, relatives, and friends for your biggest evangelism opportunities (see IBM’s employee blog network)
- Teach Employees to spot potential evangelists
- Create tags/hashtags/keywords that allow your customers to signal when they are discussing your company online
- Take surveys of your customers, display the results (on and offline)
- Encourage customers to check in on Facebook, Twitter, etc. (see Jet Blue at SXSW)
Connect and Educate
- Hold classes, webinars, seminars to teach customers relevant skills (see Hubspot’s webinar series)
- Provide content that helps customers that are parents teach or entertain their children
- Find customers that are using your product or service in a unique way and feature them for others to learn from
- Create a meetup group around a topic relevant to your business (discussion group, monthly book club, health/fitness club)
- Build communities online around existing social networks (see Graco’s Flickr group)
Content Creation
- Interview happy customers on video (case studies, testimonials, reviews, unique use of products)
- Quote customers as often as possible. Other consumers will trust them before they trust you
- Customer submitted product photos (see Threadless, Carhartt)
- Customer submitted video contests (see Late Night Jimmy Fallon Dance Challenge)
- Feature customers on blog posts, give faces and personality to your community
Customer Service
- Use unique feedback channels (Facebook, Twitter, Online chat)
- After resolving customer complaints, ask them what else you can do to improve their experience
- Suggestion box, online or offline, reward customers who make suggestions (see My Starbucks Idea)
- Forums, allow customers to help one another, answer each others’ questions
- Monitor blog searches (Google Blog Search, BackType) for comments and posts that complain about or suggest improvements to your business (and respond to them)
Be Creative
- Photo opps, bold visuals for customers to share online (see Dominos)
- Interview current evangelists about what they love about your company
- Give your customers business cards to give out (discounts would help of course)
- Ask customers to help hold an open house, or anniversary event
- Give away swag (customers wearing t-shirts, hats, bags, etc. are strong reminders), especially to return customers (see free Gmail stickers)
Blogging
- Exchange discounts for part time bloggers
- Let customers decide between two coupons that you will offer each week or month
- Feature vendors/partners and how they help you offer a better product
- Make it easy for your readers to share your content (Sharethis, Addthis, Tweetmeme)
- Create a podcast where your customers are the stars
- Feature photos of your customers with your products and at your events (see Zappos photos on Facebook)
- Wish your customers happy birthday – simple and easy – we all like birthday wishes
- Help promote community events and events hosted by your customers
- Hold contests for your Facebook fans, give them riddles, ask them to write haikus, celebrate the winners, give them prizes (see Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice)
- Become a fan of and participate on community related pages, for your city, your neighborhood, local philanthropies
- Link to your customers – again, feature them as the stars (see Trader Joes)
- Use Twitter Search to look for links to interesting stories relevant to your niche. Share them and give credit to the source (see Whole Foods)
- Ask questions of your followers and write a blog post that quotes the best responses
- Study and respond to your critics, or better yet, study and respond to the critics of your competitors
Be creative, have fun, invest in your customers – and they will invest in you.
Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments. The more the merrier.
Photo Credit: Anirudh Koul
The Invisible Twitter
So almost 3 months ago, Twitter tried to quietly implement a “small settings update“. There was outrage, a #fixreplies revolt, and a #ductape solution.
The Invisible Twitter n. – The content users miss since Twitter stopped showing all @ replies
I doubt most people still realize how the @ replies really work. Twitter said they had a temporary and a long term solution. Until that long term solution surfaces, you only see the @ replies your followers send when you follow both people, or when the reply is not a reply.
My Conversations Are Now Silos
I went to read a blog post today from a good friend. I found this post on their Twitter stream. I thought the post was an important one and could not believe it had not generated any @ replies. I did not see much discussion. I decided to check out their Twitter.com profile to see if The Invisible Twitter was responsible. It certainly was. I was missing a lot. I am noticing more and more how siloed some of my Twitter conversations have become.
I am still missing content from smart people and I do not like it.
The Simplest Point
Just because I am talking or replying to a single person, does not mean others may not benefit from the content? Or more importantly that others may have something of value to improve a discussion.
There was almost universal use of a first character solution at first: putting any character in front of the @ symbol. But most of us, including me, are not using this solution as much if at all. It is so easy to forget. And you lose the ability to track back to the original message, forcing me to decide between two features.
Cliches Not Networks
Discovery and virtual people watching is one of the things I love about Twitter. Much of this discovery comes from seeing who the people you follow talk to. If I have a trusting relationship with one person, and I notice they are talking to other specific people quite often, it behooves me to check those people out. Yes this still happens, but I feel like it happens less and less.
The Quiet Blue Yonder
Some people on Twitter send upward of 50% to 75% of their tweets as @ replies. That can equal out to a lot of missed content if we do not follow all the same people.
Twitter is still of value to me, and I can’t really be sure how much the experience has changed. But it seems so against the original nature the social platform that is Twitter. I hope The Invisible Twitter erodes, somehow, and the simplest bits of discovery don’t dissapear completely.
Why I Travel To Conferences Last Minute
So, as I scramble around my room this morning to throw a few items in a suitcase for the #Blogher conference in Chicago this weekend (big thanks to Whrrl for giving me a free ticket), I am starting to see a pattern.
I have been to 4 conferences this year, Blogher being number 5, where I decided to actually attend the event the week before it was held. Meaning no conference registration, hotel, or flight was booked.
Seems like poor planning, but for the most part these events were not must attends for me. The most recent was the Enterprise 2.0 event in Boston. I went because there were dozens of people that I have met at other conferences that I just wanted to see.
I Invest In People
If you know me, you know I love to travel and I don’t go to conferences for the content. I go purely to see the people. Occasionally I wander into a session or keynote when I have to, but it is reluctantly.
Do not get me wrong, there is plenty of great content out there, though I would argue at most events it is pretty hit and miss. And I am sure I am missing out on some of it. But I much smaller intimate conversations with the smart people and people that I call friends at these events. I go to connect with them, to learn from them, to challenge and be challenged by them.
This connecting and challenging happens less for me when I sit and listen to an unorganized panel or a speaker talk about how to improve my blog.
Events Get Louder As They Get Closer
So considering my focus on people, I rarely see a conference announced and KNOW right away that I want to be there. What typically happens is I hear a little bit about it from one person, and then another, and so on. As events get closer, these little teasers get more frequent and louder.
And while I love meeting new people, the more friends I know will be at an event, the more likely I am to attend. It seems this usually builds to a crescendo the week before the conference. I eventually see too many cool cats are going, and I have to give in and share in the fun.
So if you see me at a conference, please say hello, and let’s skip a session or two and talk shop.
