social media

Google profile ties together search and social

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Just came across this via a tweet from @jopkins – Google profile.  Fairly simple idea where you fill out a short bio, contact info and add social network links to increase searchability through Google.

Here’s mine.

Google describes it as:

A Google profile is simply how you present yourself on Google products to other Google users. It allows you to control how you appear on Google and tell others a bit more about who you are. With a Google profile, you can easily share your web content on one central location. You can include, for example, links to your blog, online photos and other profiles, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and more. You have control over what others see. Your profile won’t display any private information unless you’ve explicitly added it.

Anyone with a Google account can sign up and providing you tick the box that marks your enables your full name to be searched upon it makes you a lot easier to find and also pulls together your social network links into one place too.

googleprifle-screenshot

{updated} Now with vanity URL switched on: http://www.google.com/profiles/BeckyMcMichael

social media: creating a winning campaign

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Image courtesy of Hugh McLeod

Image courtesy of Gaping Void

Great post here from Darren Barefoot on how to create the much sought after social media purple cow. His checklist is about right for every industry I can think of:

  1. Bring the funny
  2. Explore extremes
  3. Keep it short
  4. Go meta
  5. Give it away
  6. Add mystery
  7. Respond to current news
  8. Bring sexy back
  9. Demonstrate extraordinary skill
  10. Embrace the ephemoral

And the most important piece of advice….you are creating it for your audience; not for everybody so don’t try to be all things to all people.

Using photos in social media

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Interesting post from Seth Godin on the power of using a good picture on social networking sites.

“If it’s important enough for you to spend your time finding and connecting with new people online, it’s important enough to get the first impression right.

If you use any online social network tool, the single most important first impression you make is with the 3600 to 5000 pixels you get for your tiny picture.”

how do you do social?

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

Ever wondered how much overlap there is between your social networks or contact groups?

I always find it amazing that when I hit the “find people to follow or find your friends on X” button and add my email address such a relatively small number of users comes up.  Yet with fairly healthy numbers on each of the services I use, why is there so little overlap between the services?

Having received lots of “follows” on Twitter recently from friends on other networks, I started to examine how and why I use each service.

Here’s what I discovered (apart from the fact I need to pay a babysitter and get out more often and have a MASSIVE sort out to get all my contacts in one place at some point, perhaps when my daughter leaves home):

  1. I am currently active in several email or social network apps/services (such as FriendFeed, Delicious, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Huddle, wordpress, Yammer, Photobucket, Google Reader, Technorati, Slideshare, MS outlook)
  2. Email aside, I began using many of these services in 2004/2005 – the oldest are MS Outlook, Photobucket and GMAIL and the newest is FriendFeed.
  3. When I compare the friends I have on each service, only approx. 15-20% are shared across social networks, the remainder is distinct to an individual network.
  4. Only approx. 40% of my social network friends are represented in my email contacts.
  5. The exception is FriendFeed that has no distinct friends – all are shared with other networks.
  6. Facebook has the highest amount of family and close personal friends.
  7. LinkedIn has the highest percentage of colleagues and ex-colleagues and the highest percentage of overlap with my email contact book.
  8. Twitter has the highest percentage of people I have never met IRL but feeds into the largest number of other apps (blog, email, IM, delicious for example)
  9. The order in which I tend to use to strike up meetings IRL are Facebook/Facebook messaging or Twitter/Twitter DM->Email ->IM-> RL -> Phone
  10. I use Twitter DM almost as often as email/phone to set up / confirm RL meetings nowadays (work related, not personal).
  11. Connecting with people you don’t know varies in both etiquette and ease.  The easiest network to contact or connect with people on are Twitter, FriendFeed and blog networks.  I find LinkedIn slightly less easy in terms of approaching people you don’t already know.  For me the big no-no is Facebook in terms of approaching strangers you’d like to contact – I feel it is a personal network and I don’t accept invites there from people I don’t know and wouldn’t expect others to either.
  12. With IM,email and mobile numbers, my rule of thumb is if you put them on your blog, it is fine to use them…providing it is relevant.
  13. Very few of mky closest friends and family are on Twitter but the majority are on Facebook
  14. In terms of the monetary value/benefits outside of the community and conversation loveliness of these services:-
  • I’ve found work via LinkedIn
  • I’ve saved recruitment costs by using LinkedIn and twitter
  • I’ve been approached for new business leads via Twitter
  • I’ve had press coverage because of the blog
  • As a remote worker, Huddle saves me money on conference /long distance calls as does IM
  • Email is by far the biggest time (and therefore money) drain

How do you do social?

beyond conversation: what web 2.0 can do for your agency

Posted on by Becky Green (was McMichael)

I spotted a really interesting piece from McKinsey this week on six key ways that companies can make web 2.0 work for them. The piece covers the management and technological aspects of deploying web 2.0 tools with a few interesting supporting cases from google, AT&T and Pixar amongst others.

So this kicked off my thoughts about the six (OK I tried 🙂 ) seven biggest benefits that I have seen at Ruder Finn since embracing and actively using web 2.0 strategies and tools both internally and externally are:

1.  Recruitment. One example is a fabulous associate director through Twitter last year and have had some great CVs for a senior account exec post this year

2. Internal comms. A third of my team (tech and corporate division ) work remotely / collocate at least part of the time so using collaborative tools has helped the division manage account work as well as keep the banter up at a healthy level.

3. Measurement and trend analysis. We find that social media provides a much quicker and more reliable measure of current opinion that older forms of research.  Everyone from our managing director to graduate trainees use social media to crowdsource ideas, gain recommendations and give / seek advice from both inside and outside the industry.

4. New business. We have received new business briefs, recommendations, invitations to speak at events, training requests and various others through the blog and Twitter.  Writing a proposal in only 140 characters is our next mission 🙂

5. An even bigger focus on reading and analysis. Our agency believes passionately that you cannot be in PR without being a total media junkie however through use of RSS, embracing apps like Twitter and becoming bloggers ourselves, we read and consume more media than ever.

6. Genuine experience and better consultancy. Through doing it ourselves, we are much better placed to advice, counsel and help clients in their social media efforts – an essential in an industry moving this fast.

7. Feedback.  Whilst compliments on social media (or anywhere else) are always fabulous to receive, far more valuable are the more negative constructive things you learn about yourself, your agency or your clients that might previously have gone unnoticed.  The stuff that helps you improve as a company is, in my opinion, the most valuable result of all.

(I haven’t listed stronger/new relationships and conversations here as that is a given)

Reading this list you can see why the naysayers are so frustrating to us and others in our industry.  No matter what your opinion of web 2.0 is, I’m sure you’ll agree that the outcomes listed above are pretty impressive business benefits by anyone’s standards.

CROSS POSTED at Ruder Finn’s (my employer) blog