Let's discuss some social media books

Some "Rules" from The Community Rules
Tamar Weinberg's amazing new book "The Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web" is chock full of tips for marketers on all levels of knowledge. Here are some, but you can find more information on my blog post book review: http://sharisax.com/2009/12/20/1734-uses-for-social-media-look-em-up-in-tamars-text/
"You can't manage something you can't measure."
"On the Social Web, conversations happen WITH or WITHOUT you."
"A Community Manager's key function is humanizing an organization."
"Strategy requires teamwork and idea generation."
"Communities flourish because people are helping people."
"If you consistently Listen, AND Give Back to your social media community, you will be miles ahead of the competition."

1) Establish goals for your social media marketing campaigns.

2) Create a strategy for executing your social marketing efforts.

3) Communicate effectively with the communities you intend to target.

4) Take charge of the conversation, even if it's not on your website.

5) Gain exposure from participating among many social channels.

6) Utilize social media to handle a reputation management crisis.

7) Utilize blogs and bloggers to send messages to larger groups of individuals.

8) Leverage existing sites to market your products.

9) Craft content that is currently "hot" within many social media circles.
Where can you learn this information?
One great source is the newly published The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by blogger and social media enthusiast Tamar Weinberg.

Watch for more info as I read and think about her book. Meanwhile, check out her website.

More from Tamar's book:
12 different Online Reputations you should monitor:

1. Your name


2. Your company name


3. Your brand names


4. Your company executives


5. Your company's media spokespeople


6. Your slogan or marketing message


7. The competition


8. Your industry


9. Your weaknesses


10. Your business partners


11. Your clients


12. Your intellectual property

If anyone has built the chops to thoroughly discuss the news business, journalism, public relations, and social media marketing, then David Henderson qualifies:

* Emmy Award-winning CBS News correspondent and public relations executive for dozens of years, David has been online with his blog www.DavidHenderson.com since 2003.

Some of David's best advice in his new book "Making News in the Digital Era":

1. Let go of Old Ways and embrace Change.
2. Present ideas for developing a company's reputation with communication approaches that underscore transparency, openness, and credibility.
3. Messages need to focus on audience benefits, not talking about the greatness of an organization.
4. Avoid jargon and "gobbledygook" and use clear, direct, easy-to-understand language.
5. Key communication practices: Listening, engaging, story-telling, and always speaking the truth.
6. Today's executives must be involved in online strategies that require inspiration, passion, purpose, and focus.
7. Forego Mission Statements and carefully create a concise and appropriate Positioning Statement.

"Strategic communications in today's fiercely competitive world mandates clever positioning, understanding audience needs and knowing how to craft timely and meaningful messages that excite people and create results" [p. 23]

Check http://sharisax.com for further info on David's book and other PR 2.0 information.

Corporate blogs need to build company reputations through transparency, honesty, and credibility, according to David E. Henderson in his 2009 book "Making News in the Digital Era."

When the CEO publishes an individual blog, he or she must consider certain parameters. Here are some of David's suggestions:

1) Make certain to have a purpose and even a measurable objective.

2) Present all sides of a developing issue, not simply what would be considered marketing materials.

3) Invite comments, listen, engage, and offer solutions -- if possible.

4) Offer valuable information like trend news and values for customers.

5) Enhance the visual aspect with video, photos, and graphs.

6) Above all, resist selling and promoting: put a human face on the organization.

In today's evolving communication landscape, getting interviewed for a media article has not changed like so many other aspects of telling stories to the masses. But there are some Do's and Don'ts that business execs and managers should understand -- and apply -- when talking with reporters and bloggers.

David E. Henderson has devoted an entire chapter of his "Making News in the Digital Era" to navigating these possibly rough waters. And here are some of his key recommendations:

1. Never guess when you don't know.
2. Always tell the truth.
3. Know when to stop talking and just listen.
4. Strive to communicate three clear messages and use facts and statistics to back them up.
5. Answer questions that are asked.
6. Remember that eye contact and how you say things is as important as what you say.
7. Never say anything you do not want to see in print; media interviews are not conversations.

BLOGGING HEROS: Interviews with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers [2008]
By Michael A. Banks

Interviewees included Robert Scoble @Scobleizer; Chris Anderson -The Long Tail; Steve Rubel - Micro Persuasion; Rebecca Lieb - Click Z; Richard MacManus - Read/Write/Web and two dozen others.

Here are some of the points heard repeatedly from these bloggers

• The key to getting more visitors to your blog is to post useful, original, well-written content.


• Good content beats SEO.


• Links from other blogs are more valuable than SEO because those links give you the effect of SEO.


• If a blog is to succeed, it must focus on something the blogger is passionate about it.


• As a blogger, you have more of a vested interest in making your posts interesting and fun than a journalist writing a news story.


• If you plan to succeed as a blogger, you must learn to accept criticism.


• The best way to improve your blog is to listen to your readers and think about them before - and as you write.


• Growth does not happen quickly. Produce a large amount of quality content, and readers will come.


• Combining news with one's personal background and perspective can make for more interesting blog posts.


• Check your facts before you publish.


• Consider blogging in a niche.


• A certain kind of advertiser can add prestige to a blog.


• If you make a mistake, admit it, accept it, and move on.


• Although it's impossible to read everything, keeping up with competitors' blogs is a necessary part of business blogging.


• Blogging is a learning process.

Many of the students who've come into my Public Relations courses at San Francisco State University didn't have the first clue about what public relations was . . . and in today's New Media World, even PR people themselves are scratching their heads.

What worked in the past -- to build and maintain reputations and relationships -- isn't working well now . . . now that hundreds of millions of people are surfing and searching the Net for news, bargains, and conversation.

Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge have written a very well-received book describing the New PR, which Brian began calling PR 2.0 in the mid 1990's.

The next few articles will give you a glimpse at some of the information you find in many of individual chapters and sections of the book.

Here are some of the key points from the first four chapters of the book under the section heading: THE TRUE VALUE OF THE NEW PR

* PR has always been about relationships -- not spin. And that is not changing.
* Listening is the first step to designing a modern PR campaign.
* The Social Media makes listening easy -- but it does take time, and an organization may hear things that it would rather not hear, i.e., negative comments.
* The key is to turn those customer objections into problem solutions.
* We should no longer SELL stories, but rather TELL them.

The New PR is all about Truth, Transparency, and Trust.

You can read an archive of the @smbookclub Twitter discussion of this section of the book here: http://smbookclub.pbworks.com/Archive-8-31-09 and you can check out my blog for more comments as well: http://sharisax.com/2009/09/08/no-apologies-from-this-pr-2-0-evangelist-putting-the-public-back-in-public-relations/

and other lessons from Putting the PUBLIC Back in PR [part2] by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge

The five chapters in PPBPR's second section focused on the Tools of Social Media Conversations: Ch 6 The language of New P'R - suggested that terms like "user" and "audience" are out-dated.

Ch 7 Blogger Relations - PR people, and anyone who wants to get a blogger's attention, need to read the blog BEFORE making contact. [Brian has published an entire Ebook]

Ch 8 Social Media Release [SNR] 2.0 - includes an actual template for a recommended format.


Ch 9 Video News Release [VNR] 2.0 - features strategies for creating successful video programs.

Ch 10 Corporate Blogging - offers tips and links to more resources for planning blogging strategies for companies.


Key points in chapters

If bloggers have a large following, then the comment section can be as valuable as the blog post itself.

Gobblygook [i.e, meaningless jargon and cliche expressions] does not belong in press releases.

Many companies are finding the news releases, distributed by wire services, may only be necessary for huge product launches.

PR is all about relationships, and if you want someone to write about you, you need to establish a relationship.

The problem with most traditional releases is that they are designed for a mass audience -- and that's no longer effective, either for the media person or the end consumer.

Marketers and PR people need to stop thinking about sending messages, but rather tell stories, i.e. telling rather than selling.

Social News releases focus on the facts clearly stated in an easy-to-read format as in the template offered in the book.

Newswriting -- and the teaching of newswriting -- is a different ballgame these days.

Print media is looking for community engagement and is doing more stories on local residents.

VNRs are time-consuming and expensive, but they are very effective.

Video logs, or Vlogs, are not as common as their likability would suggest because they are more time-consuming to create, and they are not as searchable as text-based blogs.

Corporate types find it difficult to get into the dialogues that ought to be achieved through company blogging.

Think about these ideas:

"We earn the relationship we deserve."

"To be an effective marketer, you must think like the consumer."

"The true influencers are the peers of your customers."

"The game is changing: It is no longer about survival of the fittest, but also the most capable and sincere."

Section 3 of PPBPR delves into the world of social media platforms and surfaces with this caution:
"Remember that these are merely tools to communicate with others; they're not representative of the strategies and methodologies for observing and communicating with people."
Four chapters in Part 3: "Participating in Social Media"

Ch 11 - Technology Does Not Override the Social Sciences

Ch 12 - Social Networks: The Online Hub for Your Brand

Ch 13 - Micromedia

Ch 14 - New "Marketing" Roles

Here's some of what you'll learn:

1. Conversations will go on -- with or without you. Watch that the competition doesn't get there first.


2. Negativity in the conversation can present opportunity, e.g., to change a perception.


3. Basic PR has not changed: YOU are the communication bridge between your company and the people you want to reach.


4. Social media helps uncover relevant online communities: LISTEN, OBSERVE and, then, ENGAGE.


5. Reach out to individuals not audiences.


6. Everything you do online today, whether it's personal or on behalf of a company you represent, contributes to public perception and overall brand resonance.


7. Social networks are forcing PR practitioners to evolve -- to step out from behind a cloak of anonymity.


8. "Socialize to Survive" : The days of focusing solely on Web stickiness, eyeballs, and click-throughs is waning. These are the days of immersion, conversation, engagement, relationships, referrals, and action.

What platforms do you use on a daily or weekly basis, and how have you selected them?

Who OWNS the responsibility of managing social media conversations for an organization?
You'll do well to check out chapter 15 in the social media/PR 2.0 book I've been reviewing -- Putting the PUBLIC Back in Public Relations by Brian Solis and Dierdre Breakenridge.

Although every business department should be responsible for social media participation, the overall strategies and tactics are best directed by a community manager -- or one of several other titles:

• Community Advocate


• Brand Ambassador


• Social Media Specialist


• Social Media Evangelist


• VP of Social Media


• Chief Social Officer


• Community Relations Manager


• Community Builder

What is it that you learn by listening?

Whether the online conversations are positive, neutral, or negative, the insight garnered from listening and observing will reveal opportunities not just for engagement, but also for gathering real-world intelligence
-- the type of information that is "ear to the street" and that you can feed back into your organization to improve the existing service, product, and management infrastructure.

This chapter featured a discussion of the Four Tenets of the Community Manager by Forrester social computing analyst Jeremiah Owyang:

1. Community Advocate: represents the organization.


2. Brand Evangelist: promotes events and products.


3. Savvy Communication Skills: shapes editorial and mediates disputes


4. Gathers Community Input: gathers and shares comments from marketplace conversation

Notes from Ch. 16: Socialization of Communication and Service Putting the Public Back in Public Relations

Find your customers: observe, listen, engage, and offer solutions to their problems:

• Do not fear negative comments as they can help organizations improve their processes and offerings.

• One goal: pull your company into online conversations to help influencers, customers, and prospects gather the information they need.

• Empower people to help one another.

MONITORING TIP -- Use Google Alerts and "search.twitter.com" --You receive email notifications through Google Alerts for key words that you sign up for. If you use a desktop application like Tweetdeck, then you can set up columns to regularly stream mentions of your keyword from search.twitter.com. You could be receiving regular updates about your company, your products, and your competitors.

NING.COM: A new one for me, but I tried it and like it. Here you can set up YOUR OWN social network. For example, in my fledgling social media consulting business, I can offer SM Newbies a "comfortable" place to gather online and ask me and my interns questions about social media in a Newbie forum.

REVERSE ENGINEERING [one of my favorite concepts to (a) deliberate over and (b) put to USE

Here is the PPBPR 3-step reverse-engineering model:

1. Determine Who, Where, How -- prospects are communicating.


2. Listen.


3. Adapt to their needs.

Notes from Ch 17 - The Rules for Breaking News
Blogs and Tweets have become regular sources of news and opinion for all types of readers INCLUDING reporters and PR professionals. So how companies distribute facts and stories and promotions is evolving and changing in dramatic ways.

PPBPR authors discuss the concept of embargo in which PR news must sometimes be provided in advance of when it can be published. But the speed of the Internet and lack of certain controls can compromise this process. This chapter lists a 13-step process for news distribution.

Several bloggers are now saying that PR agencies are no longer necessary because companies can handle the public relations functions effectively on their own.
Do you agree? Who does -- and why? Who doesn't -- and why?
Here's an opinion on the topic from Steve Rubel - thought leader, lifestreamer, and top Digital PR guy for Edelman, the largest global PR firm:

Does the thrill of the chase make PR obsolete? It's our view that increasingly, bloggers (and maybe journalists too) simply don't want our help. Many bloggers -- particularly those who cover tech -- love to discover new things and experience them on their own.

Key difference between bloggers and journalists: many bloggers want the news way before the story -- because, in many cases, They are the Innovators and Early Adopters.

One key similarity: RELATIONSHIPS are All Important, no matter the medium or the writer/broadcaster.

Most sought out website features:

* Keyword search
* Product comparison
* Catalog quick order
* Consumer reviews
* Alternate product views
* Loyalty program
* What's New section
* Recently viewed products
* Customized content
* Live chat
* Audio or video clips
* Wish list
* Best sellers listing
* Gift suggestions
* Discussion boards/blogs

[list from 2006 J.C. Williams Group study - published in Tom Funk's Web 2.0 and Beyond]