Mereja

Author: Aliza Sherman

  • How to Convert Your Facebook Superfans Into Brand Ambassadors

    Last week, I explored the birth of the “superfan” in social media, drawing from the superfan concept at sporting events and pointing out some fan qualities that my company has observed on our clients’ Facebook Pages. This week, I’m going to discuss how to harness the passion of the superfan in order to convert them into an ambassador for your brand.

    Once we had identified the superfans — the Facebook fans who not only liked a brand’s page but also participated and interacted with others on the page and even came back on a daily or near daily basis — we knew we had to do something more.

    Sure, we could give them a special gift or recognize them publicly in a status update saying “Thanks,” but was that it? What’s so “social” about that? Isn’t social media giving us far more capabilities? And if someone is that engaged with a brand, what else do they want? Clearly, having this kind of unprecedented contact and communications with a brand fills some unidentified need in individuals who revel in the opportunities that social media tools provide.

    Why Do Fans Become Superfans?

    First, let’s explore what motivates people to do more than just click “Like” on a brand’s Facebook Page, what drives some of them to become active members of an organically-forming community on that Page.

    I posit that what we are seeing on Facebook Pages is similar to what we’ve seen in online communities going all the way back to Usenet Newsgroups: People want to feel part of something larger than themselves. They want to belong. It’s human nature to be drawn to communities, and if one doesn’t already exist, then some people have it in them to start building one themselves.

    When we see a person moving from clicking on a Like button to responding to status updates to then commenting on what others are commenting on to visiting a page daily and announcing their arrival, we’re seeing the natural community builders rising to the top. These are our superfans. Some of them could become even more than that to a brand. Some of them want to be more, but don’t know where to start.

    How Do You Convert a Superfan Into a Brand Ambassador?

    Once we identified one of our client’s Superfans, we knew we were onto something much more compelling than just people who were active on a Facebook Page. So I came up with a process to strategically and respectfully offer opportunities to superfans to become something bigger: a brand ambassador.

    The term “brand ambassador” has been bandied about in marketing for years. Merriam-Webster defines an ambassador as “an authorized representative or messenger or an unofficial representative.” In this context, the concept of a brand ambassador is clear: someone who publicly and positively represents and promotes a brand. Note that I’m not talking about buying someone’s loyalty; this isn’t about paying them to be a brand ambassador. In my mind, once you pay someone a fee for their “ambassadorship,” what you’re really getting is a paid spokesperson. What I’m talking about it is how to create mutually beneficial and transparent relationships with brand superfans, to harness their passions and convert them into social media brand ambassadors. Here’s how we’re doing it.

    1. Identify superfans.
    2. Recognize superfans publicly.
    3. Privately request that superfans respond to a questionnaire to get a better sense of who they are.
    4. Evaluate the responses to identify potential brand ambassadors.
    5. Approach superfans privately with a proposal to become a brand ambassador.
    6. Engage the new brand ambassadors to amplify their passions around the brand.

    All of the steps above can be infused with whatever meaning you or your client wants. The choices you make, however, are critical to the success of your brand ambassador program. First and foremost, you have to understand the dynamics of social media, online communities and the meaning of value. You then have to be sensitive and respectful to the individuals with whom you are interacting. Let’s face it: You need them way more than they need you.

    The 4 Promises

    To strike the right balance of mutual benefits, I put together a list of four things that the brand would do for each ambassador, and four things that our ambassadors would do for the brand. I was careful to balance the perks with “feelgood” things and tangible things. I didn’t offer money, but was not closed to the possibility in the right circumstances. For example, if a brand ambassador had a popular blog reaching the right target market, we’d never ask for ad placement on that blog for free. That would be highly inappropriate, and disrespectful.

    Why did I decide on four promises for each side of the relationship? I felt that four was a nice, manageable number of actions to take. Not too overwhelming, not too demanding, but valuable enough for each party to feel they were getting something meaningful out of the relationship.

    Not sure what to offer? Ask. Simply ask the people you’ve identified and are interacting with privately: “What would be valuable to you?” You’d be surprised at what basic needs their honest answers will reveal. They usually boil down to being respected, recognized and rewarded in simple ways.

    Once we get people to accept the position as a brand ambassador, we invite them to a private Facebook Group to interact with them more directly. We also make it clear that they must always reveal that they are a brand ambassador for the brand when spreading the word publicly about the brand and if asked what they receive as compensation, they are encouraged to be totally forthcoming. There are no secrets here. There is full transparency.

    The only thing the public isn’t privy to are the behind-the-scenes communications that inform the brand ambassadors about upcoming promotions and help them understand what we need specifically from them. By having the brand ambassadors learn about these things first, we are providing them with the additional value that they seek: being “in the know” before everyone else.

    We’re using a combination of Net Promoter score plus our own proprietary measurement analysis to gauge the value of the  activities of our brand ambassadors. Even at this early stage, we can say that brand ambassadors are driving sales.

    How are you leveraging the passions of your best customers to bring in new ones via social media?

    Photo by stock.xchng image user cx_ed

    Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Social Media in the Enterprise


    Alcatel-Lucent NextGen Communications Spotlight — Learn More »

  • Web Work 101: 10 Apps You Can’t Do Without — Redux

    Last March, I wrote a piece about the 10 apps a web worker can’t do without. A year later, and the app landscape has shifted significantly, so here’s an updated list of what I consider to be the best solutions for our critical tasks in 2010.

    Backoffice

    1. Invoice management

    Freshbooks is still an excellent invoicing service, but there are some new and some improved invoicing apps in this space, such as:

    You can also track expenses with:

    And add functionality to your online invoicing:

    Also check out Celine’s piece on managing your finances online. If you are looking for solutions for creating and managing contracts, check out Celine’s roundup of contract resources. You may also want to check out Outright, a bookkeeping and tax prep tool that Scott reviewed.

    2. Time tracking

    Need to get a handle on how much time you’ve spent on a particular project or task? There are apps for that — some standalone, some that integrate with your invoicing systems, and some like Where is My Time that help you to analyze how the time flew by and how productive you were during that time. Here are some others:

    And in the time-, cash- and distance-tracking category, take a peek at 1DayLater (see our review here).

    3. Social CRM

    Here are some startups that provide useful Social CRM products:

    For quick contact information exchange, I love the Poken social business card and am so disappointed that they aren’t taking off like I think they should. I wear my cute skull Poken at every conference I go to but have yet to get “poked” unless Poken is a conference sponsor.

    I’m also keen on Bump for the iPhone and Android, and also covered some other contact sharing apps in this roundup: DropCard, Rmbrme, BeamMe, ShareCard, SnapDat.

    At SXSW, I was given a very impressive demo of relationship management tool Gist (see our review here) that promised a lot, though I have yet to incorporate it into my daily work.

    4. RSS Reader

    I don’t know about you, but I’m over RSS readers. But to be fair to those who have yet to discover the social firehose, you could go with the ever-popular Google Reader and the novelty of Snackr, which puts a little ticker at the bottom of your computer screen for passive, almost subliminal consumption of your feeds.

    And here are a few other popular feed readers:

    For saving articles to read later, I currently use a combination of Delicious, Instapaper, and “favoriting” tweets containing links on Twitter.

    Communications

    5. Email management Social communications management

    I have changed the heading of this section because I find that my communications are no longer mainly taking place through email, and are increasingly moving into my social networks.

    While I am trying to move away from Gmail and start using email management tool PostBox again (its attachment management tools make it a compelling option for me), I am also looking out other social communications management systems and apps.

    I was panicked to find Threadsy — the intriguing integrated communications client that you could use to see your email, social networks, and Twitter in a single place — under “re-construction” but have signed up to see what is happening with the app.

    You might also like to check out a few email productivity add-ons we’ve reviewed, such as Xobni, Rapportive and MailBrowser.

    6. Calls, Conferencing and Instant Messaging

    Right now, my company has been moving away from Skype. Although we all love the app, it seems to drops our calls almost constantly now. We are moving back to the old-fashioned telephone for calls, while for conferencing we have been using FreeConference.com.

    Here are a few phone conferencing and webinar-style conferencing systems that I also use:

    Note that I didn’t include WebEx in the list. I am convinced that the company, which once dominated this space, has had a hard time keeping pace with the more nimble startups.

    One other phone-related service that my company is trying is eVoice, because we need a virtual PBX system that can accommodate our UK office as well as multiple U.S. locations. Unfortunately,  I don’t have enough experience with it yet to tell you how it is working for us. Stay tuned.

    Work Process

    7. Project management

    My company first used Basecamp for project management before switching to 5pm. Today, I’m seriously checking out glasscubes as it provides project management together with collaborative space. It is much lighter on the project management side — it’s really just a task management  app — but I’m getting a feel for the company’s interesting take on how virtual groups can work better together. More on that soon, too.

    Just for giggles and grins, check out my old post about this topic: “Project Management, Collaboration and How Our Brains Work.”

    8. Calendars and Schedules

    I’m excited about the web-based services that allow me to give out a link to my calendar — or just a portion of my calendar — so  people can get on my schedule. But as my post about a scheduling bungle at SXSW due to system time zone issues, I know that there is still no single tool that “does it all.”

    Still, here is a quick rundown of a few tools I’m still using or trying out:

    9. Cloud-based collaboration/document sharing

    While I still use Google Docs, some fundamental integration issues are making me look elsewhere. As I mentioned earlier, my company is currently experimenting with glasscubes.

    Here are a few others:

    And I know you’re going to think this is kooky, but the 2.0 version of Spinscape combines mind mapping principles and collaborative communications in a way that is quite compelling to me.

    10. File storage/backup/sync

    Take a look at SugarSync. It provides backup, file sync and file sharing “on-the-go” on any Mac, PC or mobile device (check out my review here). Here are some other useful options:

    A newbie in the “active backup” and file storage space is Soonr, which also has Mac, PC and mobile capabilities.

    What are some of the must-have applications you’ve found invaluable in your own web work?

    stock.xchng images by johnnyberg, gun, toutouke

    Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

  • Tweeting 101: A Twitter Cheat Sheet

    I put together the following “Twitter Cheat Sheet” for a client, and thought it might be also helpful for others who are still struggling with how to get started with Twitter. It provides some gentle guidelines that should help to keep emerging best practices in mind.

    Why Use Twitter

    There are many reasons to use Twitter, but here are my top three.

    • Branding. The more others refer to you or “retweet” what you tweet, the greater your reach. Extend your brand by tweeting “retweetable” tweets.
    • Communications. Twitter can be a powerful communications tool, particularly because of its potential to reach not just your own followers, but your followers’ followers and so on. Google  and other search engines are also including tweets in search results now.
    • Community. By engaging your followers, you can begin to build a following, and join in conversations in meaningful ways.

    How to Use Twitter

    When you first open up Twitter each day, here are a few key things you’ll want to do to make the most of your “tweeting time.”

    1. Check @ messages. First check to see who has publicly referenced you in their tweets and acknowledge, answer or respond.
    2. Check DMs. Next check your direct messages (DMs) from people who have messaged you privately. Note that you don’t need to respond to auto-responders that say things like “Hey, thanks for following me! Can’t wait to learn more about you.” Responding to those is not expected.
    3. Check your Twitterstream. Read through the first few pages or screenfuls of tweets to see what the people you are following are saying, and to see where there might be appropriate opportunities to retweet, respond or reference them.
    4. Check Searches. You save searches for terms such as your brand name, product names, and keywords pertaining to your business or industry. These can be good sources of additional tweet fodder.

    How to Make Your Tweets “Retweetable”

    Twitter limits the length of tweets to 140 characters. In order to make your tweets “retweetable” (to make it possible for others to retweet you without having to edit the tweet), you need to reduce the the maximum length even further. Add five to the number of letters in your Twittername, then subtract that from 140. So, for example, there are 12 letters in “alizasherman” — adding five to that is 17. So I subtract 17 from 140, which equals 123. That is the maximum length of my “retweetable” tweet.

    How to Retweet

    There are two standard ways to retweet – adding “RT @Twittername” at the start of the tweet,  and adding “via @Twittername” at the end of the tweet. Either is acceptable, but the latter takes up more valuable “character real estate” — it’s longer, so you can fit less into the retweet. It is acceptable to change spellings of words to make a retweet fit the character limit.

    You can also use Twitter’s built-in retweet button, but this is a newer feature has not been adopted by everyone,  and it’s not the ideal way to retweet as it seems less “personal.” You can personalize retweets by adding a comment at the beginning or end.

    Here’s a screenshot showing all three types of retweet:

    Types of Tweets

    There are many ways to tweet. Here are a few examples of different types of tweets to give you some ideas.

    1. Informative with a link

    2. Provocative or timely statement or quote


    3. Questions to start conversations

    4. Referring to someone with an @

    5. Response to an @ message

    6. Retweet

    7. Promotional (with a link or link to image)

    How to Use Hashtags

    Hashtags are simply words prefixed with a hash sign (#) added to your tweet. Hashtags provide ways to group and find topically-related or conversationally related tweets — readers can click the hashtag in your tweet to find related discussions on the same topic. For example, if you tweet about wine, the best hashtag for wine discussion is “#wine.” By using it strategically, you could attract more followers.

    Here are some example tweets using the #wine hashtag:

    #FollowFriday or #FF

    There is an organic Twitter-wide event called “Follow Friday” where people recognize their favorite Twitterers by referencing them in a list and then adding the hashtag “#followfriday” or “#ff.” Note that you should make sure your Follow Friday list is retweetable.

    Follow Friday is a great way to give kudos, help others discover new and relevant Twitterers and to attract the attention of people you follow who may not follow you back yet.

    It’s a good idea to thank people when they give you kudos or list you in a Follow Friday tweet, but don’t thank everyone one by one as this can be annoying to your followers.

    What are some of your favorite Twitter tips?

    Photo by Flickr user Mr_Stein,  licensed under Creative Commons

  • 5 Things That Don’t Work on Facebook Pages (and 5 That Do)

    Should you have a Facebook Page? Before integrating Facebook Pages (sometimes called “Facebook Fan Pages”) into your social media marketing mix, you need to think strategically. Georgina provided a basic overview of the need for strategy in “Businesses and the Social Media Trap,” and I ranted about the problem of not understanding strategy in the first place in “It’s the Social Media Strategy Struggle.”

    This week, I want to discuss why people become fans of Facebook Pages in the first place. I’ll follow that with some thoughts on what doesn’t really work on Pages. After that, I’ll list some things that I believe do work, based on personal and professional experience, industry news and anecdotal information.

    I am surprised by the number of Facebook Pages that are popping up marketing what I would consider to be pretty “unmarketable” things for a Facebook audience. Let’s face it: Not everything should be marketed using every new cool tool on the block. Facebook Pages have specific features and functionality that may not always suit all the things you’d like to market. Facebook fans also have certain expectations in terms of how, when and why they interact on a Facebook Page.

    Some Reasons People Become Fans of Facebook Pages

    Reason Interactions on Page
    		 Benefits to You
    1. They genuinely like or are interested in the object of the Page (company, nonprofit, cause, campaign, product, brand, etc.) High Many, including branding, customer service, relationship building, attracting attention, growing customer base.
    2. They are doing it because someone they know did it. Moderate to Low Not much, unless the person they are following to your Page is engaged – they may “jump on the bandwagon” and become a truly engaged fan.
    3. They are doing it because someone they know asked them to do it as a favor. Moderate to Low Not much, unless they are engaging at the behest of the person they know as a favor to the person they know and this mostly will just create some activity on your Page that others can see when they arrive.
    4. Because it is easy to do (just click to become a fan) and then ignore. Low to None Very little benefit after the initial automatic broadcast to the person’s friends on Facebook that they’ve become a fan of your page.
    5. They are using the action of becoming a fan more like a “bookmark” for possible future reference. Low to None Very little benefit after the initial automatic broadcast to the person’s friends on Facebook that they’ve become a fan of your page.
    6. They want to keep up with a competitor or have a business reason to pay attention. Low to None Very little benefit after the initial automatic broadcast to the person’s friends on Facebook that they’ve become a fan of your page.

    I would venture to guess that many people are probably “fanning” your Page for the wrong reasons.

    What Doesn’t Work on Facebook Fan Pages

    Here are some thoughts on what falls short for Facebook Pages.

    1. “Non-Fannable” Stuff. I know this is a vague statement, but I’m not sure how else to label the stuff that you might want to market but people wouldn’t want to be a “fan” of. A nonprofit or an important social cause is “fannable.” A television ad campaign for a cause (as opposed to the cause itself) is less fannable. Something boring? Less fannable. Something overtly commercial without value to the community? Less fannable still. 
    2. Automating. Facebook isn’t like Twitter where the rhythm and flow is such that you can get away with a more automated presence. Facebook is more about conversation, whereas Twitter can skip along with automated and scheduled posts in between actual interactions. People expect you to be there on your Facebook Page — maybe not all the time, but in an attentive manner.
    3. Applications. Facebook Applications that integrate into Fan Pages or that you program yourself using FBML don’t always work and set your page up for failure. Don’t push the tech envelope unless you are ready to lick the tech envelope.
    4. Formulaic responses. You need to loosen up and “get real.” If you are working off a script, you will fail. Facebook Pages may be a useful tool in your customer service and customer relationship toolkit, but they are about as intimate as you can get with a customer/potential customer without sitting in their living room.
    5. Trying to control. Let’s face it. Social media is not about you being in control anymore. The customer is in the driver’s seat. You are along for the ride, but fortunately can give some directions or guidance in appropriate ways. Sure you can delete things from your Facebook Page, but in the world of social media, that is an attack on transparency (not to mention freedom of expression and spirit of online community). Someone says something negative about you on your Page? Look at it as an opportunity to right a wrong or to give your side of the story with unrestrained candor. Learn from the Nestle fiasco.

    What Works on Facebook Fan Pages

    On the flip side, here are five things that do work on Facebook Pages:

    1. Proper usage. When you use Facebook Pages for what they were intended to be used for, they work well. At the top level, they were created for entities or individuals with a commercial or non-personal communications “agenda.”
    2. Being present. Automation may feed content and may trigger brief bursts of interaction, but really having humans there checking in on your Page on a regular basis and being empowered to respond in a timely and transparent manner is priceless.
    3. Tech support. If you build it, you better support it. If you add applications to it, you sure as heck better support it, because adding things to Facebook Pages to enhance them is a great idea on so many levels, except when those enhancements prove to be unstable. Things might break. You must be on call to address the issues.
    4. Being real. It isn’t necessarily about “you” being real, as in the person behind the Page — although that doesn’t hurt. It could be “you” as in the “voice of the brand.” But whoever it is, be human, have good manners, smile.
    5. Leading or guiding. Think of yourself as a party host, versus being the dictator of a small country. You can lead by example, suggest, cajole, provide resources and support, redirect, but you should not be heavy-handed in your approach on Facebook. At best, people will leave. At worst, they will make your Facebook Page hellish and unmanageable. In a way, the looser your grip on control, the more fluid, flowing and effective your interactions will be on your Facebook Page.

    Facebook is a powerful communications and marketing tool when used well. Use it badly, and it will kick you in the teeth.

    How are you using Facebook Pages and what good — and bad — practices are you seeing on the Pages you’ve encountered?

    Photo by stock.xchng image by dafeba

    Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Social Media in the Enterprise

  • 8 Significant Developments in Social Media You Should Watch

    stock.xchng by bigevil600

    While I don’t have a crystal ball, here are some developments that I think are worthy of our attention and will affect how we do things in the social mediasphere over the next few years. Many of the things on this list will not be news to the very well-informed social media consultant types who live and breathe this stuff. But for the rest of us, there are seeds of opportunity here that should not be missed.

    1. MySpace: CEO Leaves; MySpace will die. Last year, I was telling my clients “We are cautiously optimistic that MySpace (GigaOM Pro company profile) will make a comeback because their new CEO is a Facebook co-founder.” Scratch that. I think MySpace is about to go the way of Friendster, although it is still a player in the entertainment space. Because Facebook doesn’t allow flexbility and customization, I’m going to miss MySpace. But now I wonder: Who is going to be the next MySpace? Virb? Bebo? (And don’t underestimate LinkedIn.)
    2. Virtual Goods: Insane, but insanely popular. The creation and selling of virtual goods and gifts makes absolutely no sense to people who just use the Internet as a basic communications tool. Try telling someone who isn’t really into Facebook that they could buy a virtual bouquet of flowers for 99 cents and send them to a friend — they’d look at you like you were mad. But with virtual goods as an industry already raking in the billions of dollars worldwide and over a billion in the U.S. alone (source: “Inside Virtual Goods: The US Virtual Goods Market, 2009 – 2010″), how can anyone ignore them? I’m not saying everyone needs to make and use virtual goods, but there is opportunity here for both marketing and revenue. Have you even thought about how you might be able to leverage virtual goods? Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): How the Next Zynga Could Reinvent Social Gaming
    3. Gaming: Not just for kids anymore. I think the very fact that the largest player base of passive online games is women flies in the face of the typical view that games are for kids. According to Nielsen Entertainment in August 2009, of the 117 million active gamers in the U.S., 56 percent play games online and 64 percent of those online gamers are female. And the revenues generated from online games is enormous and growing. Do not underestimate the power of games and gaming — and not just the marketing and revenue opportunities, but also the learning opportunities as well in the form of fun quizzes and polls. Have you used gaming yet in a social media marketing campaign?
    4. Twitter: Still transforming communications. Back in 2008, I wrote about Twitter’s impact on the fundamental ways we communicate and the way new tools and applications are being developed, but it continues to grow and evolve. How has Twitter helped you lately?
    5. Niche networks: A marketer’s secret weapon. Whether you choose Ning.com or KickApps or any of the other “white label” customizable social network-building platforms, the concept of creating a “gated”online community that is narrow in focus is smart and potentially powerful. The concept isn’t really that far removed from hosting an online messaging board in the early days of the web. If you held the keys to the gate of a more private, closed or niche community, you had everything from an instant focus group to a band of passionate buzz agents on your hands — if you knew how to properly leverage the community participation. Fast forward to today and the tools ca now give your members integrated communications, networking, publishing and social tools — brilliant. What niche networks are you participating in or do you run?
    6. Augmented reality. Sounds sci-fi, but it’s really here. I’m having a hard time describing Augmented Reality to people who haven’t seen it (if you haven’t seen it in action, these infographics from GigaOM might help). The reaction isn’t just “what in the world?” but “who cares about that stuff?” AR uses simply boggle the mind, and I plan to explore more of that in this column soon. I do wish we had a better term for it, though (like “data overlay” or “overscreen view”) so it didn’t have such a sci-fi feel to it. What potential uses for AR are getting you fired up? Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Augmented Reality: Lots of Promise, Lots of Hurdles.
    7. Google Buzz: Pay attention, even if you don’t care. I am one of the gazillion people who currently do not care about Google Buzz, apart from the fact that just because Google did this it means something in terms of the tools we’ll be using in the coming years. Right now, I feel like Google has the means to just throw tech spaghetti on the virtual walls of our work and lives to see what sticks. Anything it does has major significance and impact, even if it fails. So pay attention as you scratch your head. How is Google Buzz changing the way you communicate, or is it? Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Google Buzz’s True Home Is in the Enterprise
    8. Mobile: Be there. I don’t know about you, but I consider my iPhone to be a mini computer and Wi-Fi device first and phone a distant second. I’m never normally an early early adopter because I’m too busy to keep up most of the time, but I will be one of the first to buy the iPad, because it looks to me like a bigger iPhone, and I rely on my iPhone in ways I have never relied on my computer or my regular cell phone. My entire concept of connectivity and my access to everything has changed so dramatically since I got a smartphone that I know I can never go back to the old ways. What forays into mobile marketing are on your radar for 2010? Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Web Tablet Survey: Apple’s iPad Hits Right Notes

    I could also add the concept of location to this list, but I’ll leave that for another column.

    What developments in social media are knocking your socks off?

    Photo by stock.xchng user bigevil600