05/27/2013
BlogPaws ~ Turn corner - a cute puppy. Turn a corner - a cute kittie. Turn a corner - a cute ferret named Snotface (really!).
BlogPaws ~ Turn a corner - hundreds of people passionate about sharing their love of animals and pets.
BlogPaws ~ Turn a corner - talking pets and social media. Turn a corner - talking pet rescue. Turn a corner - talking pet 
So when BBF Yvonne DiVita asked if I would join in the 2013 BlogPaws festivities and present a session on Twitter for pet businesses .. how could I say no? Especially when the press was in attendance!
The challenge: to step-up a presentation for a group of folks using Twitter. I wondered. I wanted to share a few ways to identify customers and followers, bring some tools to the party and remind that no mattter how great your content .. they will not come unless they know you exist.
Perhaps I could created a simple strategic model that could be used for any social network. Examples would be Twitter-based of course. What if we worked the model during our session and attendees left with the foundation of a plan specfic to their business? Might work.
Here's the model.
What did we talk about? Since this was a Twitter session seems appropriate that inBloombuzz, laurabennett and AimlessAndru tell you what they got out of the session.
As promised, to the amazing people who kindly attended and tweeted the session, here's the deck.
More about BlogPaws
Tom, Yvonne, Chole walk the BlogPaws red carpet.
Max Approved!
05/13/2013
The truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time but it ain't goin' away. ~ Elvis Presley
Just One Crowd Sourced Question
Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin,
Pinterest and other social networks changed how we think about "social media" from those long ago days of the blogosphere. However, I wondered if the "truths" of
social media also changed.
Is social media still about people-to-people conversations or is
monetization the focus? Has social media become a ghost writer's paradise or is
transparency still critical? What does authenticity mean in 2013?
Just Once Crowd Sourced Question is a Diva Marketing
series where the community shares their insights on a specific social media
issue. One truth that still remains consistent even in 2013 .. social media is about learning together.
What Is Your One Big Truth About Social Media in 2013?
Jack Yan. I think social media are changing forms.
I go to my
Facebook feed and I see links. This could be the new Digg (something I’ve said
for years). I didn’t come here to see links, I came here to share and see what
my friends are up to. Facebook is too busy monetizing and breaking its own features,
too, which doesn’t help. It’s buggy as heck. It has zero user support.
So to
get those people-to-people connections, I have to go to Instagram, where the
“conversations” (via photos) are just that more authentic. I don’t see that on
Pinterest or Linkedin. But if I am sharing on Instagram, then something’s got
to give.
Twitter, once so open, has become a closed-minded place—it’s not
helped by Tweetdeck, which crashes like crazy now, and Metrotwit doesn’t handle
multiple accounts. I know there are other tools, but my point is that things
aren’t all running in Twitter’s favour any more. So if I have good tools to use
for Instagram, then why should I bother with Twitter?
Tumblr, which I always
thought was a blogging platform, is still a neat insight into our preferences
and how we think. In that way, it has a social connection for netizens. Plus it
has reached 100,000,000 users—and staff can still send personal replies,
responding to bug reports and other enquiries. Facebook, Yahoo, Google and
others have a lot to learn from these guys.
Social media are still about
people-to-people conversations. We had those conversations with Vox between
2006 and 2009, which predated Facebook with sharing to different audiences.
Transparency is still important.
I don’t think these definitions change—just
that the sites that once hosted them are not what they used to be.
~ @JackYan JackYan.com
Nettie Reyonds. I would say that this year the big and necessary truth is for social media to stop taking itself so seriously.
It's not what it has been hyped up to be and people need to employ the social media economy of effort - meaning use the tools to connect with your customers on a real basis - make that effort and your company will benefit long- term much more than it would mired in hype, haste and hastily pushed out disingenuous content!!! ~ @netreynolds Nettie Ink
B.L. Ochman. My one big truth about social media: it continues to be my most important source of news and information, and it continues to baffle most companies. Wait! Is that two thruths?! What's Next Blog PawFun @whatsnext
Judy Mod. We believe social provides a lens into the world of our buyers and continues to transform the way buyers go-to-market to solve strategic business problems.
The problem we are focused on solving within the Social Executive Council is the shift from vendor-driven to peer influence is marginalizing vendors as buyers demand to be empowered with education on the problem definition before they engage for education on solution differences.
How do we arm buyers in the market to operationalize their problem diagnosis to reach them early enough to be a trusted advisor in their buying process and throughout their life cycle as a customer?
This shift and our lack of market visibility because of the noise and barriers to buyer adoption are having a significant impact on every aspect of our business performance. ~ @JudyMod
Anonymous. You don't have to be on every form of social media just the
ones that work best for you and your business.
Michael Rubin. It's ultimately still about people. Technology's the tool,
social media's the rocket fuel, people are the soul. ~ @merubin MichaelE.Rubin.com
Tanya McGill Freeman. I think it's
absolutely about people-to-people conversations...now more than ever!
People do
business with people that may represent companies but not really just the
companies themselves as a whole. Therefore the act of authentic, real
engagement is so incredibly important. We tend to do business with those we
know, like and trust, and social media provides a very effective way to
establish those bonds and maintain them. @D_Sophisticate
Kelly Dovovan. social media is still about one-to-one or one-to-few
conversations, but social media networks are making that harder to do as time
goes on.
Facebook admits that they show a Page's posts to only about 16% of
that Page's followers' news feeds. You have to pay if you want to send a direct
message to your fans, too.
Both Facebook and Twitter have started cluttering
users' news feeds with ads and sponsored posts/tweets, making it harder for
users to notice your posts.
LinkedIn seems to be the least commercial platform,
but surveys show that people online spend only about 2% of their social media
time on LinkedIn, so your conversation better stand out for the moment when
someone in your LinkedIn group actually logs into that network or you will miss
them.
Our challenge in 2013 is to meet users where they are and position
ourselves as someone worth actively following.
~ @HurriGator
Anonymous. Simplicity. Simplify it.
Toss of the pink boa to all who generously shared their truths.
What is your one Big Truth about social media in 2013?
Read More Just One Crowd Sourced Questions
How Do You Build B2B Relationships Using Social Media?
How Do You Take The Fear Factor Out of Social Media?
How Do You Put Soul Into A Blog Post?
Why Don't People Get Social Media Is Not A Private Conversation?
What Is Your One Tip To An Agency/Freelancer Contracted To Be The Voice Of The Brand In Social Networks?
