Warning - Social Media & New Technologies Can Change Your Business

Yesterday I was presenting at the Art of Digital Conference (Twitter Tag: #artofdigital) along side:

• Identity 2.0 – Alison Gow, Executive Editor, Digital, Liverpool Echo & Daily Post
• Break Out Session: Power of Online Communities – Millicent Jones, Liverpool Philharmonic
• Web 2.0 & New Audience Relationships – Will Gompertz, Director, Tate Media
• TV 2.0 – Ian Forrester, BBC Backstage

One of the loud, over riding themes that came out of the conference for me, is that this tidal wave of the social web is upon us. For those companies embracing this trend, means that they are fundamentally having to change they way they do business.

Millicent mentioned in her presentation that they are moving to a more media production company, where they are looking at live streaming some of their concerts. It also means that they potentially have another revenue stream as well. It has also meant that they will have to look at their stage lighting as it need to be TV & film standard. They have also experimenting with concerts in Second Life.

Will talked about how they have been working in partnership with BBC to scan and show the work in their archives for Francis Bacon. They have also joined forces with Google Maps - so if there is any Tate artwork associated with a location it is shown on the map. They have also teamed up with You Tube to promote some of their video footage.

Alison talked about the first big push they had was around the day in the life of the newsroom and got the entire newsroom involved in the project. From 7am - the following 1am they covered how they picked the stories for the headlines to questions that were sent in. At 1am there were still 60 people online posting comments when the front page as posted up. More importantly if the business hadn't been restructure then the opportunity to be the Digital Editor would not have been available. The culture change within the business seems to have changed focus to a more devolved content structure.

Starting on the journey of embracing these new technologies is an exciting journey into the unknown, and definitely not for the faint hearted. The companies that will survive will be those that place the new media / technology /social media at the heart of their business.

More importantly this needs to be reflected in the management structure of the business, as strategic decisions are made in the board room, so therefore it would correlate that the New Media / Technology / Online Marketing should be represented on the board of a company if they are that serious about making it intrinsic to the business.

Once you have started on the journey into the social media / online communities / new technology, there is no turning back.....it's a one way ticket. Reason being that you will have set the expectations of your audience and once you have given them the glimpse of the new world, they'll be hooked and want to continue the online conversations with you....as their views, reviews and opinions count. It would be like walking out of a room mid conversation - and none of us do that (right?).

So let's get serious guys.......and start thinking about what this means for your business and how you can embrace the tidal wave that's heading your way.

who's in my flock - tracking digital brand

When you think about your personal online / digital brand - what are the core messages that you want to get across?

For me it would be- the key things that I've mentioned on my LinkedIn and Twitter Profiles. Whittling this down to a few words it would be:

• visionary leader / entrepreneur in the internet and online marketing sector
• passionate about emerging leaders
• experienced director of SME companies
• online marketing /search marketing /social media / online business strategy

How to measure how effective you are?
I took a look at TwitterSheep that measures the buzz words of the people following you on Twitter and shows these in a tag cloud.


What I was pleasantly surprised to see was was that some of the words that I have been focusing on are included in the tweets of my followers. Which means that I have been successful in ensuring my tweets have been on message.

What I do need to do is refine slightly what I'm tweeting about to get more followers around the emerging leaders aspect.

The other way of tracking whether I've been on brand is to evaluate the website statistics and to look at the key phrases people are finding on and also which sites are referring traffic.

When someone new contacts me via LinkedIn or Twitter I also ask them how they found me. What I find is that they have found me via a blog post, someone has recommended me or they found one of my tweets in twitter search / alerts.

My digital brand - how to get your identity established online

I've been thinking about my digital brand and wondering whether I am communicating my brand messages and values correctly. So what do I mean by that?

Your digital brand
As an individual you are known for your specific area of expertise and skill in the real networking world. Translating this online, means that you need to ensure that you are engaging in discussions around your brand identity.

Imagine if someone met you at a real networking event, and they lost your card. If they typed in your name into Google - what would come up? If they can find your LinkedIn profile, Twitter account or blog, then they are more likely to get in touch with you to follow up the conversation.

If you have not got any information out in the digital world about who you are, then how do you expect people to find you in the online networking arena?

Managing your digital brand
There's a few other 'charlotte brittons' around. There's one who's a nun in Spain who paints watercolours and there's an actor in Wales or Manchester.

So over the past 18 months I've worked hard at getting my personal brand online expanded so people can find me in a number of different locations such as Linked In, Twitter, Make Your Mark and obviously my blog, plus a few other niche sites such as slideshare.

Online networking
Once you have got your brand established online you can then start using the channels to find new contacts and ideas. Through Twitter I have found some like minded people in Leeds who I would have not found if I was active on Twitter.

I have also had a huge success on LinkedIn. Over the past year I have gone through my offline network and replicated this on LinkedIn. So when I updated my profile in February, my old boss from many years ago got in touch. A lunch and a few coffees later, we have started doing business again.

I have started investing more time in LinkedIn, instead of going to actual networking events I spend time updating my profile or doing blog entries.........which in time will pay off in terms of finding new and old contacts.

Is it worth it?
I get asked that question loads of time. In fact I was at a meeting on Friday afternoon with some senior business leaders from Leeds. My answer is always the same - if you spend time effectively on the sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and blogging, then yes, it's totally worth it.

When you are blogging or on Twitter though be wise and savvy.....don't Twitter 'I've had Shreddies for breakfast' and other whatnot like that. Who's interested? But your Tweets get indexed in Google. So if someone Google's your name your latest Tweets are included in your listings......and is that really something that you want to share with a potential customer or business partner?

The future of search - how customer comment could influence your rankings

Imagine that you are researching a product to purchase online, and you mention it to a friend. They had a bad experience of the retailer, and consequently you choose a different retailer.

The Online Version of Customer Feedback
Online the scenario would play out differently. You would search for feedback on the product and retailers using search engines. In Google there's the functionality to add comments to a business listing on Google Maps. The volume of customer reviews will effect your ranking on Google Local search.

Start the conversations with your customers
With the recent addition of Google Search Wiki, and Google Connect features, you realise that how your customers reviews and comments could start influencing your search engine listings. That step is not that huge, but the impact of this could be devastating.

There are so many companies who just can't take that step and start listening to the conversations about their brand and products. It's like sticking your head in the sand and hoping it will go away. Strangely enough, this one is here to stay, like it or not.

So how do you go about the 1st steps?
Set up Google alerts and Tweetbeep to start monitoring the conversations. Then set up your account and take the plunge. Listening is the more important step and really understanding what your customers are saying. If there is any negative comments, don't just dive in and blast back. Take a deep breath and see it from the customers view - imagine how you would deal with it if it was a telephone call or letter....and manage it in a similar way.

There are some great features in the Google connect site which you can drop in on your site which will start allowing you to build the community and interactive feel to your site.

Remember when.....
Back when Google was launched I was working for Stickyeyes, in those days people were saying 'who's going to use a search engine that has got no advertising on it, how strange!' and dismissed the search engines as a passing buzz or trend. Over a decade later Google have the largest share of the search market.

I feel that we're riding the crest of the wave on the social media marketing and I'm not quite sure where it will end up but I know it's a similar scenario to how Google made search engine marketing main stream. What I do know is that it is changing the way people are doing business and therefore cannot be ignored.

So tell me........how are you taking the 1st steps in taking your business into the social web.