Social Media is going places and today as we speak, your government is probably thinking about incorporating Social Media into its governance policies and execution. When I first heard this topic, it sounded a bit awkward to me. Because Social Media always resonated with fun, while Government as obviously, quite the opposite. So, the question was, would Social Media and Government turn about to be a Oil in Water exercise ? Looks like its not.

Alex Howard, of O’Reilly Media did a talk recently on “Open Government”, and has shared some interesting facts & analysis about it on his blog.

He says that “Open Government” is a mindset. And cites examples of how the Federal Government of USA have successfully employed the top-down approach with social media services in their campaigns.

According to Wikipedia,

Open government is the governing doctrine which holds that the business of government and state administration should be opened at all levels to effective public scrutiny and oversight. In its broadest construction it opposes reason of state and national security considerations, which have tended to legitimize extensive state secrecy.

The US Government have had several projects opened in the Open Government initiative, meanwhile and is adopting more initiatives as we speak.

Alex, through his presentation goes through the history of Social Media and how things have evolved from the 90′s to the present, which is interesting to see (nice pics there). Also, he talks about how the recent Gulf Oil spill and such examples have been discussed on social media by members of the Government. I wish there were more insights on the risks involved, the potential and possibilities of open-government however, the 49 slides in itself are very informative on a birds eye perspective, with examples of open-government and notable quotes.

Check out presentation here.

OK, before we start, let’s take a look from a bird’s eye perspective. Social Media is still considered as an experiment – by many. Its not glorious as we might think it is from a sales perspective. Sometimes, people push it off as a fad because they don’t see the value in it. Not everyone thinks that social media can be sold. And what I’d like study is that, what if they are right ? Is social media really a sellable commodity ? Or is it just a fun thing we all love to do ?

While some folks think that social media is what we see today, I’d like to believe that we’ve only seen the tip of the ice berg, while not pushing away the fact that not everyone can sell it.

Let’s take a deeper look at things.

What might be the reasons for companies not being able to sell social media ?

1. Social Media is not for everyone – Deal with it !

What most people do is believe the hearsay. “Everybody is talking about social media and the coolness factor, so let me jump in too !” – is what many people think. And that’s where the problem is. Social Media can work for everyone, but it has to be customized for each industry to work closer to it. When you go for the hearsay, you ape what someone else did, and that might not be the right way for you. So at one point, there is a risk involved. You have to figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. You also might have to do experiments to find how to reach out to your target audience. So, all this involves certain level of risk, and even then a lot depends on how the whole strategy is planned. For every product, there is an alternate way out, for instance a restaurant’s social media strategy can revolve around foursquare and facebook while a web-design agency have to go full fledged with as many channels as possible. So even when the efforts are the same, the strategy and channels are essentially different. If companies don’t understand this, we have a problem.

2. Social Media probably should not be seen as a “Fishing strategy” !

Another major problem is when we see a social media strategy like search engine marketing. You put in your budget and wait for the results the next day. Two problems here.

i) Results on social media differs for each strategy. It necessarily isn’t tangible in all cases. Social media measurement metrics needs to be clearly defined and tracked for real results.

ii) Time required for social media results can also differ for each strategy/plan. If its a website for which the hits are tracked, the results are immediate but if its a brand, then the scale and scope of results differ and expectations have to be tweaked accordingly.

So what is right way to sell social media ?

Wish if there was a book on this. Oh ! Wait, there are some noteworthy ones – The only 6 books on social media you need to read.

So, is there a right way to sell social media ? Unfortunately no. There is no single fool proof way to read social media. Is that good ? Well, yes and no !

Before jumping into social media one needs to –

1 – Figure out who your target audience is.
2 – Find out if they’re actually on social media. If yes, where ?
3 – What are your USPs? Is there something that differentiates you from the rest ?
4 – How can you be entertaining ? Or can, you actually be ?
5 – Understand if your management understand what social media means ? Do they see it as a value addition or an investment ?
6 – Does your product have the potential to go social ?
7 – Clearly define what your expectations are from social media.

Once these questions are defined, its easier to create a social media strategy around it. The idea is to clearly define what goes in, what it takes and what you get out of it. Blindly jumping in without knowing these is probably the wrong way to go.

So, how to sell Social Media to clients ?

1. Find out what the expectation is

As I said, for each product the strategy differs. So, lets say you have a small company with limited local audience. Find out what the expectation is. Is it brand identity or something more tangible and immediate, like referrals and sales ? Ask as many questions as possible and figure out what exactly the expectation is. Believe me, most of the time, the expectations are vague, which you need to bring more clarity in, otherwise it will result in failure later.

2. Clearly give an idea of what’s possible and what’s not

Social media isn’t magic. The fact that one doesn’t know it properly, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. So clearly, give clients an idea of what actually is possible, what the ROI is and what’s not possible. Clarity on all levels will help convince the client in more than one way.

3. Know your audience, know your tools

Whom are you going to talk to on social media – this is a very important question. Sometimes, clients ignore or hide the fact that there aren’t sure of whom to talk to. They just know blindly that they got to be on social media, so they approach you. But it is your job as an agency or social media professional to figure out if there is a target audience, and if they are accessible via social media. If yes, give clients a detailed idea on how you will connect to them, with what tools and what you can expect in return.

4. Give time-cost estimates

When it comes to business, everyone has things ending at a three letter word – ROI. When you put money into something you expect returns, same with social media. When you have clarity on the deliverables, chalk it out on a timeline, with tasks and costs involved. Strategies and tools required. Because clients always wants to measure things and compare it to the money they put in, so give them a chance to do it. Many social media professionals and agencies fail in this area because they don’t have clarity on what needs to be done and what’s actually required. Putting down everything to numbers actually help.

5. Show how you can track analytics on social media

Stop the talking, stop those overly promising videos. Those things are only good enough to excite the client. When it comes to results, you need to show people how things are measured and how the ROI works.  There are several tools to measure social media available today, use one of those, or create your manual spreadsheets and show an example of how things are measured, how the analytics are. Believe me, this is a crucial point. If its good enough, you don’t need to talk any more. Closed deal !

Okay, so with that let me wrap up. The idea of the whole thing is that selling social media isn’t difficult. Its that either you’re not clear on what’s required, or you’re note taking the risk and clearing your own way out. Keep in mind, there is no one single way of doing things, there are more than one way of doing it, but you have to come down to results and numbers and not get stuck with the hype alone. Why ? Because everybody else is doing just that – talk about the hype.

Viral videos are the craze. Recently, there’s been a lot of them popping up, and quite honestly not all are impressive. Some are clearly promotional in nature, while some are purely accidental – truly viral in nature. Interestingly many of them are promoted by brands that are interested in social media. I’d like to see them as great examples of social media strategies executed well for brand identity.

Here are the top 10 viral videos of the season worth mentioning.

1. Hardchorus – Puma

2. Hamster Black Sheep Video – KIA Motors

3. Swagger Wagon – Toyota

4. Seat Belt Safety – Embrace Life

5. Freedom – Dodge Challenger

6. Lewis & Jenson, One car, No team – Vodafone

7. Extraordinary – Pantene Shampoo

8. Funny Ad – Heineken

9. History of Celebration – Coke

10. Extreme LED Art – Samsung

Wait, first – who do you think is an influential guy ?

If my guess is right, most people think that the person with the most number of followers is. Technically, I can’t disagree. Obviously the more you have the merrier.

But study shows that the number game isn’t really what it is. Its beyond numbers.

Companies measure influence in social media by metrics like engagement value, carrier value, message reach and community influence and most importantly credibility.

Hmm, that’s a tough game altogether right ?

I think I agree to it. Its definitely got to be beyond the numbers.

So, how do you measure influence on social media ?

Well, luckily, there’s someone who does it the right way, so that we don’t have to.

Klout. I’ve seen Klout’s growth from its start. It’s always remained different from the regular non-authentic guys out there. Their algos are more reliable and accurate – not to mention, makes sense completely !

I know what you might be thinking no. They have an arrangement with me and I grade on top of their lists. No (Wish if I did.) !

Klout has a very genuine measurement scale, and the reason why I trust them is because, the obvious bogus, valueless profiles don’t appear on them at all, while it does everytime on others.

Its speculative as to what “valueless” means.

In my opinion, a person who has no tweets at all, and someone who’s got a million followers but no replies/mentions/engagement at all is probably as good as nothing.

So, the crux is in how authentic and how credible you are with the people.

Ask yourself these questions.

– will people listen to you when you make a comment ?

- Will they buy a product you recommend ?

- Do they look up on you for advice ?

- Do they think you’re a reliable source of information ?

Those are the kind of questions one should ask himself before declaring him as a “Social Media Expert” !

Thanks to the folks at Klout – they have an amazing tool that does all the calculation for you.

Put in your name and see what you’re worth.

As for me, I like tough games.

I know exactly what you’re thinking. Oh! No. Not another post on how to do it on social media.

Well, good or bad is your call. But this is yet another post on social media. But this time, I don’t want to make it short and crisp. No fluff just the real deal, out of my experience. Hope you’ll like it.

1. Find what you’re good at. Stick to it, brood and improvise on it. Period.

2. Information is everywhere around you on the internet, but don’t just copy paste everything. Put in your bit & add value.

3. Don’t believe what the “A-listers” & “Pros” say. There is only one way to popularity on social media – hard work.

4. Short cuts are in plenty. Softwares are in plenty too. But they can’t keep you for long. You need to find your own potential.

5. Make people feel important. If you’re trying to “get something out of them” by being popular, you’re doing it the wrong way.

6. Treat everyone like a friend.

7. When you climb up the ladder, you might feel that people below you are not important. Wrong. They make you.

8. Find time to talk to people. Its impossible to give time for everyone, but you’ll have to find work around ways to this.

9. Don’t get excited. Responses and praises may make you feel like the most important person on earth. No. The question is how long will it last?

10. Every other person you meet is special and has a talent. Accept it and try to find it out. They’ll appreciate it.

11. Let your communication be two way, monologues are boring.

12. Don’t stick to just one social media channel. Ex:- Twitter or Facebook. Each channel has its characteristics, find it out and adapt.

13. Don’t take sides. When you speak your mind, think of the broader audience. You’re not talking to a small cluster but to the world. Unless you have enough facts to substantiate, or a reason to be adamant, don’t take sides.

14. Take the pain in finding the gems out of the mesh. Be it posting content or finding people, there is always that little unnoticed gem in the crowd. Find it because nobody else does.

15. Make sure you have the “Wow factor” ready with you all the time. People come in all the time to your profile, keep something ready for them to get excited about.

16. Don’t repeat what others are doing. Figure out what extra you can give, in a unique way.

I’m not sure if this will work in every aspect / situation we know of. They might differ but the crux of the whole thing is that while you try too hard, it shows up. While short cuts and softwares can do the trick in boosting up your numbers (many folks do), the community is clever enough to find out if you’re bogus or not. The real value therefore is not in the numbers but the value. If you know how to deliver value, with your profiles, you’re automatically on the winners side.

With the plethora of options to Tweet, its cut-throat competition in the Twitter clients section.

Obviously not all the eye candies we see are popular. The best ones are those that has great functionalities integrated within them – irrespective of whether they are eye candies or not.

Below is a snapshot view of the most popular Twitter clients used by “Twitterers” worldwide.

Click here for full size image
Data courtesy- Clientopedia

Okay, engagement is cliché, forget about it. Think of it this way. If you’re a website / product / service owner, how would you measure success with engagement on social media ? One often repeated factor is social media engagement. Build a community around your site on social media, and if you can retain the community with a good chunk of loyal folks, you’re half way through.

Once you create a community, you could do anything with it. Sell stuff, branch out to different levels, you could diversify to different products – anything. The community remains the core.

But that’s easily said than done. Building a community is most important as well as most difficult.

To develop a rich community, certain factors are very crucial

Lets take some ideas.

Stickyness is essential in a community

A community is only as good as a bunch of random people is the users are not sticking to your website. That is they need to come back to your site. There are many tactics to ensure stickyness like exclusivity, bonuses, points system etc. Regardless of the strategy, the core idea is that users/ clients should directly get involved in the core product.

Emotional attachment with the reader

There is essentially only one reason why a reader would come back to your site. Emotional attachment with the site. There are several ways why a user would feel emotionally attached to your site, it could be your picture or your style of talking or the content itself. Whatever it be, emotional attachment to your site is a must.

Engagement is key within the community

Engagement is crucial. What many people don’t realize is that you cannot sell a product or service without letting the user feel that “he is the one”. Every website/product makes a typical user feel or reinforce that he is the right user for the product. Many a times a user carries this mindset in his mind and only needs a reinforcement. Sometimes it could be persuasion with a material benefit or something similar. Either way, the user should feel important as the product.

And social media is the best tool available to build a community and engage uses within.

Here are 5 tips that will help you create a great community with rich user engagement.

1. Brands should come down to the user’s level and be with them

Brands/products/services or websites not easily can adjust to the idea of coming down to the user’s level.  Why ? Because they are insecure doing it. Because most of the times, the user is at a level that is genuine and real. They criticize, they swear, they rip you apart and do all that – and brands cannot stand all that. Their mentality is “We made a product with a great deal of effort – and we deserver a win for the efforts”. Not always true. Unless the brand-and-user come into a straight line in unison, the equation never gets balanced.

2. Make the user feel important, right in the middle of everything

Who does that ? Successful brands. And quite honestly, not everyone can do it because it requires great deal of humility, patience and precise calculation. Either because its too much deal with or because its too risky, most people ignore it. If its a website, and the owner is on social media, he doesn’t answer silly questions being asked to him on the channels. Which is a fail. You are on social media because you’d like to answer those silly questions and questions will always be silly. So if you’re up to it, take it head on otherwise, don’t even bother to try.

3. Formulate a content strategy around the user not your product

Simple mistake isn’t it ? Most folks first decide the product (as they should rightly do) and then figure out ways to attract people. Go the other way around. First find out what attracts people and then create/tweak your product to match their expectations. Easy way out.

4. Engagement doesn’t mean asking questions

Many folks have recently joined Twitter and what they do normally is ask questions to get people to answer. What happens usually is that none or only  few answers. The reason ? Credibility. Anyone who’s making a big evident joke out there is obviously trying to get your attention, and you don’t want that person to be you. Instead, figure out how you can get friendly with the users, be one among them before asking questions. Asking questions is fine but make sure that users trust you and would genuinely be interested in answering them.

5. Engagement probably is the wrong term. How about “Marriage” ?

Okay, lame joke that one. But the idea is that engagement today means another bait. Which is wrong. It shouldn’t be. Social media is an open space and instead of engagement, times have come that both parties, irrespective who’s on the giver-donor side, should commit to each other. Because that is where several other important factors come into picture. A much more transparent and just environment that will provide a win-win situation for each.

So user engagement though technically sounds as a one sided process, really is a dialogue, not definitely a monologue. It might sound very easy from an outsider’s view but nurturing values such as trust, transparency and commitment is not easy in a community. If at all anything, they are the factors that matters most today in social media community management and user engagement strategies.

Facebook has now overtaken Google as the most visited site on a daily basis. Though I believe that it doesn’t make sense to block or prohibit the use of facebook/other social networking tools at work, we know that many offices do. That’s fair on their part but there are several tools available that will help you access facebook in many ways other than the browser. If you’re embarrassed loading up the facebook page all the time on your browser, these tools are for you.

Though many of us are facebook addicts, not many of us know that you don’t necessarily have to logon to facebook every time to do everything. Of course, everyone prefers the straight way out logon to facebook, get updates, upload photos etc, that’s what we were taught. But there are several gems of free software available that will help us do almost all the things on facebook without actually logging in to the facebook page. Quite handy if you want to save time and most importantly, don’t get distracted. Let’s take a look.

1. Scrap Boy

Scrap boy is a one stop application for many social networking sites such as facebook/myspace or even orkut. It lets you access the site and do all the regular stuff such as facebook chat/ commenting / status updates etc. Basically everything you do on facebook through a different application.

2. The Facebook Toolbar

This guy sits in your browser, however gives you updates on the go. You don’t have to keep refreshing or clicking on your homepage link to see what the updates are. Save loading the facebook page itself, if that saves you from some embarrassment at the office, and get updates on the toolbar.

3. Bubbles – Facebook Desktop Application

Bubbles turns Facebook into a desktop application with easy access and notification features, without having to change your browser, or the way you interact on Facebook. A tray icon and minimize to tray for Facebook as any other application, tray notifications on all your Facebook news feed events, such as photos, invitations, friends status changes and more.

4. Seesmic for Facebook

I love all seesmic apps, they’re awesome in all respects ! And Seesmic for facebook is no different. It uses Facebook Connect to let you update your status and view friend status updates without surfing to the Facebook site itself. Very handy and useful !

5. FB Look

So you’re in office  and the software you spend most of your time with is Outlook. Okay, then FB Look is for you. It sits right in Outlook and gives you updates on your friends status updates and also lets you update yours right from Outlook. Did I mention that your boss would never figure this out ?

Screenshot via – Techhit.com

6. Facebook Quick – Desktop Application

This guy does four things precisely. And that’s all we ask really.

1. Receive instant profile notifications on your desktop
2. Stay connected with your friends, groups, and events
3. Monitor your Facebook profile without a web browser
4. Enjoy all the fun facebook has to offer plus more!

Now having said that, watch out for that geek at your office, he probably knows all these stuff. As for the others you’re safe, your boss will never know that you’re a facebook addict.

Microblogging is always referred to as Twitter, it begins with Twitter and ends with Twitter. But that’s not the reality. Although Twitter is the most popular, there are technically better micro blogging sites than Twitter, that are fortunately or unfortunately not as popular. However, here are some of the other Twitter alternatives, for those who dare take the offbeat road !

1. Kontain

Site	Features	Comparison with Twitter
Kontain	Microblogging with rich media Easy & Simple to start with iPhone app available	Its more content rich compared to Twitter, and has a fancy interface that’s very easy to use because of its simplicity.

2. Present.ly

3. Yammer

4. Tumblr

5. Identi.ca

After the D8 conference, and the interview with Mossberg and Kate, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has lost all his charm, if at all anything was left.

At the interview, he was seen sweating, stammering to Walt’s questions on privacy and the related issues. Walt’s questions were bullets Mark couldn’t dodge. Clearly the Facebook CEO realizes the seriousness of the situation but he’s unsure how to deal with it. Instead of answering questions, he’s seen repeatedly admitting about mistakes earlier, like a seasoned parrot. But taking responsibility of the situation ? Nothing at all. This is where he fails to be a CEO. With millions of user profiles in his database, and an array of privacy issues raised against it, he is answerable and should take responsibility.

But this interview leaves us with doubts and questions more than answers. He is not experienced, he’s not taking responsibility, and may be he can’t, he might be better off as a founder not a CEO.

Here’s the interview and judge for yourself.