Monetizing Social Media: Social Medians have to set a trend…

Having worked twelve years monetizing media platforms (offline and online) I follow with great interest the latest talk and buzz on monetizing the social media economy. The time has come to make a point after some famous blogs in Germany (medienlese.com and rivva.com) were about to be closed down. Being a blogger and a social median, I thought about this in a guest post on Digital-Conversation and received some interesting feedback. So, I would like to share my thoughts also with the international social media community.

In my post, I stated that it must be possible to monetize personal social media activities. Not in any kind of classical way of web monetization but in an unconventional way – as unconventional as web 2.0 has revolutionized the world of communication. The reason and necessity for this thought is that, in my personal view, social media activity needs to monetize for the individual as a good (online) reputation is not going to feed ‘hungry holes’. No, all this work costs a lot of time and effort. Does really nobody want to hear this?

So, we do need a new concept, in every kind of respect – as a combined concept of monetizing social medians in particular – not social media in general. And in my eyes, we won’t be successful in marketing millions of individual blogs, micro-blogs or social networking profiles. No, the complete picture of an individual counts… here needs to be the access for future ideas and concepts. The individual personal branding is key…

A vision – mental acrobatics
Let’s imagine a new web world and turn the present concepts upside down. Just as a kind of mental acrobatics, or vision, how we could be marketing the individual social median.

Let’s call it the ’3 at one blow’ idea – and don’t tear this concept into pieces – it only counts as one full picture…

Blogs…
Just allow brands you prefer to be a partner of your blog
If bloggers don’t want to follow the footsteps of the classical web 1.0 publishing branch, then blogs need to find an accepted standard ad format – a similar one web 1.0 started with (the full-size banner it was those days). Maybe the 125×125 Button could be the one which seems to have established itself at the leading blogs not only in America? Bloggers don’t want and need 20 ad spaces. No, blogs need a maximum of four ad spaces in my eyes, as we don’t want to have the right hand frame like a blinking advertising column for ‘everybody’s brand’. No, ideally, bloggers want to decide themselves which brands gets space, and which doesn’t. Bloggers should just give their self-preferred brands the option to be visible on the individual blogs. Bloggers should not write branded or sponsored posts (the Trigami modell) which pay out their business, blog or the areas of companies interest. Bloggers are doing enough for the world, they don’t need more work to do…

Micro-Blogs…
Just offer brands you ‘adore’ to sponsor your profile or background picture
Some micro-blogging platforms offer the option to create the profile and the back-ground picture in a way the social median likes it to be seen. Why do only some social medians use this as ad space? Is this working against your glory as a social median? Against the online reputation (and editorial integrity as we called it in the publishing industry some years ago)? Or will there be problems coming up with my employer when I suddenly integrate a logo into my profile picture, or my background picture? Again: If there was some kind of uniform standard, the problems could be solved quickly. Cut out a piece and make us serve our favorite brand!

Social Networks…
And finally, just offer one or two brands you prefer to sponsor your profile picture
The best and only valid ad space on social networking profiles in my eyes is… the profile picture. For, what is the first and most powerful asset you sell with? Yes, you, yourself. And what is the first thing we look at when watching social media profiles? Right, the face. So, why don’t we see profile pictures, in which ‘social medians’ stand for their preferred brands? The way, we have seen this at Twitter lately, where some people promote the events they will be attending in the near future. OK, I can imagine that the employers could be asking, why there is a logo on the profile picture. But if it was standard, and going hand in hand with the blog and the micro-blog, it would not be a problem anymore.

Let’s summarize this idea…

What if…
- you could monetize your pesonal branding by being sponsored from your favorite brands?
- you could define three to four brands you prefer to sponsor you as a social median?
- you could escape the discussion on media reach with the ’3 in one blow’ power monetization idea?

Somehow the social media scene seems to be stranded given shrinking or not existing budgets for online media. Isn’t this the right time for a change to find a new monetization model for social media? But in my eyes, either the social medians don’t want, or they cannot face this issue. Thus, although companies want to be present on social median’s activities.

In general, the social median has to ask himself/herself three questions in the future…
- Do I want to make money with my personal branding?
- Do I want to continue post my knowledge for free for a better personal branding?
- Or ‘live’ with a small online reputation and just have a microblog profile as of a lack of time?

“Free things always hurt” is the saying of the salesmen. Isn’t it better to show the value proposition of your content, combined with your personal branding, and market this according to your preferences?

The classical ways of monetization (Bannering, Affiliate and Google Adsense) cannot be the future of social media monetization. The problem is obvious: a small reach (compared to huge media platforms or ad networks) offers no chance for a payback or break-even point. The big online platforms have experienced for years that an increased cost-recovery is not to be achieved with these monetization models. Do social medians really want to continue playing along the odd old game?

And what I really cannot understand… Why do bloggers and their ad networks still try to make money with the old cpx models (cpm, cpa or cpo), following IAB standards. Don’t we all know that this cannot be the future of web monetization? At least not, if the quality of the platforms is not meant to suffer…?!

Social medians have to set a good example and find a new moentization strategy which is not depending on sophisticated IAB social media metrics. This way is too complex and I would not even find the time, or even see the necessity, to do the reporting based on this definition. Selling, optimizing and reporting cpx models already was difficult enough. So, why not make processes easier and give companies what they want…

Identifying and positioning next to social medians – but the social median is to decided on the partners.

Spot On!
Let’s imagine we could commit a maximum of four brands for one, two or three years to become partner with us. We would be so called ‘sponsored social median VIP’s’ (obviously not everyone in the world could reach such a status). Only those companies will get our valuable ad spaces that have been defined by us as our ‘favorite brands’ for a certain time-period. Isn’t this a worthwhile aim of monetizing a social median? Social medians are trendsetters. They are facing the signs for a change – and know about their powerful personal branding.

Looking forward to hearing your views on this monetization model ‘Only my favorite brands can partner with me’ (without writing sponsored posts!).

PS: Performance is nice for companies, but not at all costs for social medians. Or does the world really want to see the freedom of opinion with high-quality content dying before it has even started big way? Just because it cannot be monetized? The social median does not want to become rich, but she/he should make his value proposition clear to the world, right?

Das erste Jahr – von Personal Branding und Produktivität

Geschafft! Das erste Jahr als aktiver ‘Social Median’ liegt hinter mir…

Lange habe ich überlegt, wie ich zum Geburtstag meines Blogs ‘The Strategy Web’ in die Retrospektive gehe. Die Ereignisse der letzten Tage haben mir die Entscheidung abgenommen. Es wird vorwiegend eine Zusammenfassung der letzten zwei Wochen, sozusagen exemplarisch zum Thema: Personal Branding und Produktivität.

Denn um diese Themen geht es meiner Meinung nach vorwiegend in dieser schönen Social Media Welt…

Ein paar statistische Werte des ersten Jahres…
- 486 Beiträge
- 280 Kommentare
- 1.600+ Twitter Follower
- 7.000 Unique User und 10.500 Page Impressions (Durchschnitt der letzten 6 Monate)
- tolle neue Kontakte weltweit, die das Blog mit wertvollem Feedback bedachten
…und ja, ich habe zahlreiche Stunden am Personal Branding in weiteren Social Networks (siehe Buttons unten) gearbeitet und bin noch lange nicht fertig, meine Digital DNA zu vollenden. Sprich… ob ich produktiv im Sinne eines ‘Social Median’ war? Sieht ganz so aus…

Gehen wir mal ein wenig auf die Ergebnisse ein…

Die Karriere 3.0 entscheidet sich im Web
So ähnlich wie die Überschrift klang auch mein Vortrag auf der Webinale im sagenumworbenen Telekom-Szeneladen 4010, die Anfang letzter Woche stattfand. Unter dem Titel ‘Karriere 3.0 – Spagat zwischen Personal Branding und Produktivität’ habe ich den Zuhörern meine Vision zukünftiger Karriereschritte im Web erläutert. Das ist ein Erfolg meines Blogs, denn ohne diese Arbeit, wäre ich bei der Webinale nicht aufgetreten.

Die aktuellen LinkedIn Nutzerdaten bestätigen meine dort vertretenen Ansichten: Social Network Profile werden verstärkt zu unsere digitalen Lebensläufe, die klassischen CVs verlieren an Wichtigkeit und Online Reputation bestimmt unsere Karriere 3.0. Beispielhaft sein hier Nutzerzahlen des ersten Quartals 2009 genannt: Bewerbungen auf LinkedIn gingen um 49% nach oben, ebenso die durchschnittliche Anzahl an Bewerbungen pro Stellenanzeige (43%). Zudem streben die User vermehrt nach Empfehlungen (Steigerung um 34%). Die Online Reputation bekommt zunehmend mehr Relevanz für die Arbeitswelt, wie Jobvite erst kürzlich in einer Studie berichtete.

Warum ist Personal Branding wichtig?
Firmen investieren Milliarden in Branding, um den USP, den Wiedererkennungswert und die Einzigartigkeit von Produkten und Services beim Konsumenten zu stärken. Der ‘Social Median’ wird sich zukünftig als Marke begreifen lernen und da ist die Notwendigkeit nicht fern, sich selbst aktiv in Position zu bringen. Er/Sie investiert zukünftig eben Zeit, in Profile auf Social Networks, ein eigenes Blog, einen ‘Micro-Blogging-Stream’, oder wo es auch immer Sinn macht.

Das alles kostet zwar fast kein Geld, aber Zeit – die wertvollste Resource unseres Jahrhunderts.

Dementsprechend wird der von mir propagierte Personal Web Manager zukünftig von großer Bedeutung für engagierte Manager 2.0 oder 3.0 werden. Sonst zahlt sich der Invest in das Personal Branding wohl nur schwer aus – und wie sich der Personal Web Manager finanziert, steht in meiner nachhaltigsten Vision aus meinem ersten Jahr als Blogger.

Zwei positive Wochen für mein Personal Branding
Zurück zur Webinale… Unmittelbar nach meinem Vortrag erschien ein Interview mit mir auf Sian-Ru Lai’s Blog von European Venture Fund GmbH, welches sich meiner privaten Personal Branding Orientierung widmet. Mit Sian habe ich zudem ein paar Worte zum Inhalt des Vortrags, Erfolgskriterien für Start-Ups und Web-Investoren gewechselt. Wenn mein geistiger Output unproduktiven Wert hat, werdet Ihr es mich wissen lassen, liebe ‘Follower’ – oder sagt man Leser oder Community-User?

Ebenfalls letzte Woche erschien auch ein Video-Interview mit mir – aber zu meinem alltäglichen Berufsfeld: Marketing, Sales und Medien. Vor ein paar Wochen habe ich den Web 2.0 Kongress in München besucht und dort zwischen interessanten Vorträgen, selbst initiierten Gesprächen z.B. mit John Della Volpe und einem mit mir geführten Interview ‘geswitcht’. Christian Schmitt von Media-Treff hat mich zu Marketingstrategien und Chancen im Marketing in der Krise vor die Kamera geholt. Das Ergebnis ist hoffentlich produktiv, aber meinem Personal Branding hat es geholfen. Im Sommer soll ein Webinar zum Thema Lead Generation folgen – zu Gunsten der Produktivität der Marketiers und Salesleiter.

Um meinen Input ins Web 2.0 und somit meine Online Reputation besser monitoren und aggregieren zu können, habe ich inzwischen auf Anregung von Mario Grobholz, Gründer von myON-ID, mein Profil dort mit dem Personal Branding meines Twitter-Account versehen. Auch dies hat Zeit gekostet – ebenso wie ein Interview auf dem myON-ID Blog. Ob das myON-ID Profil produktiv ist oder nicht, wird sich zeigen, wenn sich die Plattform als Web 2.0 ‘Reputation-Visitenkarte’ durchsetzt.

Beendet habe ich die zwei Wochen mit einem Gastbeitrag zum Thema Vermarktung von Social Networks: Social Medians müssen Zeichen setzen auf dem Social Media Vordenker-Blog von David Nelles und Nils Maier, letzterer hat interessanterweise sein Twitter Branding wiederum dem ihres Blogs angepasst.

Als Sales- und Marketingexperte frage ich mich immer noch, ob wir unsere Social Media Aktivitäten auch zukünftig für unseren ‘guten Ruf’ machen (müssen), oder ob ‘Social Medians’ ihre Online Reputation irgendwann mal nach meiner Idee oder einem ähnlichen Konzept monetarisieren werden, z.B. um den Personal Web Manager selbst bezahlen zu können.

Denn um Profit geht es in der Social Media Welt nicht. Eher darum, noch mehr Produktivität für ein optimaleres Personal Branding herauszuholen – ohne der Notwendigkeit eines 36 Stunden Tages.

Spot On!
Ein Jahr Personal Branding mit zahlreichem Output – daraus die letzten beiden Wochen exemplarisch. Produktiv für Euch? Für meine Zukunft…? In meinen Augen: Ja! Diverse Einladung zu Events, Workshops, Seminaren und Interviews haben mir dies gezeigt. Und Spaß gemacht hat es auf jeden Fall.

Und allen, die meinen Input oder Output schätzen, möchte ich hiermit für Euren Input und Output danken. Und freue mich auch weiterhin auf Euer Feedback hierzu…

Studies: Using social networking at work

We all use them, we all use them on a daily basis and who has had success getting engaged loves them: social networks. Now, Deloitte comes up with some interesting insight in the view CEO’s use social networking for their companies reputation. According to the third annual Deloitte LLP Ethics & Workplace survey, 60% of business executives believe they have a right to know how employees portray themselves and their organizations in online social networks. Yes, a lot of us know the importance of social networks on our business, … and for our personal branding today. But not all…

What strikes about the results is that only 17% of executives surveyed say they have programs in place to monitor. 55% of executives admitted that their companies do not have an official policy for social networks. 22% would like to use social networks, but don’t know how. Seems unbelievable but we all have to understand that the use and benefit of social networks might differ from industry sector to industry sector.

Having heard this in some conversations with companies in the last months, I tweeted the Intel social media guidelines for companies that have not yet seen an example of how to handle employees that engage in social media or social networking. It’s for those who ‘participate in social media on behalf of Intel to be trained, to understand and to follow these guidelines.’ And yes, this is a short and easy to read and understand version. The IBM guidelines read a bit more complex but should be understandable for every executive.

On the other hand the study shows that nearly half of the surveyed employees (49%) indicate concrete guidelines will not have any influence on their behavior online. And they disagree that the company should be looking in their social networking activities intensely (53%). Especially the young employees in companies between 18–34 years think employers should not be monitoring their online activity (63%).

Deloitte’s Sharon Allen, chairman of the board, makes clear that using social networks bears also a risk for employees and employers.

“While the decision to post videos, pictures, thoughts, experiences and observations is personal, a single act can create far reaching ethical consequences for individuals as well as employers. Therefore, it is important for executives to be mindful of the implications of this connected world and to elevate the discussion about the risks associated with it to the highest levels of leadership.”

Spot On!
Personal branding becomes more important for employees and goes hand-in-hand with companies having a close eye on it in the future. Especially from an human resources perspective as we could see this week in the research results by Jobvite. So, employees should be aware of the point that employers will be monitoring social networking activities in the future more than in the past. It seems that there is some valid reason for my personal web manager vision.

“One-third of employees surveyed never consider what their boss or customers might think before posting material online,” states Sharon Allen, chairman of the board, Deloitte LLP. “This fact alone reinforces how vulnerable brands are as a result of the increased use of social networks. As business leaders, it is critical that we continue to foster solid values-based cultures that encourage employees to behave ethically regardless of the venue.”

The US telephone survey was conducted by Opinion Research on behalf of Deloitte LLP among 2,008 employed adults (1,000 men and 1,008 women 18 years of age and older).

News Update – Best of the Day

Online Reputation is becoming more and more important for brands and for the individual – but how can you have an overview where you are registered and where you should be registered. Brian Solis explains a new tool for brand management and online reputation called knowem, and explains the special service it offers for brand managers. And we are all brand managers, aren’t we? And if it’s only about branding ourselves in persona…

Now, online reputation from an individuals point of view is going hand in hand with personal branding. Dan Schwabel, who has written the popular book on personal branding Me 2.0, was speaking about his special topic at the Social Media Breakfast in Puma City on Monday. Listen and learn from him…

Good commenting is not easy when there is the personal wish to establish a strong online reputation. Brett Borders has thought about it and comes up with some great advice for efficient tools and how to build an effective comment strategy.

Study: Twitter used as a learning tool – not for ego-boosting

According to a recent study by the research firm MarketingProfs in early and mid-April, the main intention to use Twitter is learning in more or less real-time, then comes social networking benefit or pushing the ‘digital ego’.

The results of the study revealed that almost…
- 100% of the respondents said they value “getting information in a timely manner” and “I find it exciting to learn new things from people”
- about 80% like to be connected to lots of people.
- 70% answered “I find it gratifying to have people follow me,” and “I want to generate new business.”

The question that divides the Twitterati population is if a large number of followers makes you more respectful, or not. On this statement…
- 39,9% strongly or mildly agree
- 45% strongly or mildly disagree

Seeing the large number of followers as a perception of intelligence was tested with the question “People who have a large number of followers are smarter than those who don’t”…
- 81,7% strongly or mildly disagree
- 5.9% strongly or mildly agree

In the eyes of Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter, the benefits are …

“Twitter lets people know what’s going on about things they care about instantly, as it happens” (…) “In the best cases, Twitter makes people smarter and faster and more efficient.”

And yes, Twitter is turning around the media world if we look at the eMarketers summary ‘Twitter tally’.

Spot On!
But, hold on… One question makes me think about these results of the MarketingProfs study in combination with the authenticity of the answers and the first idea of the micro-blogging tool. The question “I feel bad when I tweet something and nobody responds” was answered as follows…
- 52,7% strongly or mildly disagree
- 24% strongly or mildly agree
- 23,3% neither agree nor disagree
Now, if Twitter is like a mobile phone for text message dialogues, meant to communicate with followers we like and rate, is this communication not going back to being a monologue then? So, are we really sending out some kind of information just for the sake of informing others? Don’t we await an answer if we send a text message with a mobile phone? If we tweet ‘I am in the tube’ or ‘Just got breakfast’, then probably nobody expects anything. But not if people are writing scientific papers of 500-750 words – and then tweet the headline and the link. In my opinion Twitter is moving from a communication tool to some kind of personal branding tool. Otherwise, we might ask: Why do people spend an average of 2¾ hours per day on Twitter (average using time for Twitter according to study!), instead of being productive, picking up the phone or meeting up with clients for lunch or in the bar? This is real communication, and not limited by 140 characters. And if someone has written the scientific paper it is on the web, it’s public, so if people are interested, they will find it. But Twitter spreads the word much faster. And is not this the reason why people love and use Twitter?

News Update – Best of the Day

Companies still don’t know whether to ignore Twitter or being aware of a Twitterstorm might save the brand’s value. David Sarno and Alana Semuels show good cases why major brands learn they’d better respond quick – focussing on Amazon, Skittles, Domino, Coca-Cola and Hasbro.

How to explain the social web to your parents? Obviously, all of us who engage in the social web world have faced this problem. In May, I have decided to speak at the Webinale on ‘career 3.0 – split between productivity and personal branding’ which will give some insight how successful companies might work with the social web of the future. Jeremiah Owyang did an excellent storyboard explanation on the social web and compares the industry with a ‘Social Reef’.

“…see this space like a reef, a complex ecosystem that has so many variables and changes, each day is different.”

Still thinking on how to behave on Facebook the right way? No worries, here is the answer and a wonderful advice by YourTango and their film ‘Facebook Manners’.

Top IT Consultants: What is your Twitter strategy?

Yesterday, we were focusing on the Twitter strategy from top strategy consultants, today we will finish this report with checking the activities from the top IT consultants. If these companies don’t use Twitter there is no reason saying they are the ‘technical specialists in communication’. We will merely focus on the official company accounts and the possible company brand accounts.

One thing before we start: Compared to the strategy consulting companies, IT consulting companies are quite ‘open-minded’ about the share economy. There is no hiding in the communication fields of the old economy. This is -in most cases- talking markets, showing transparency, creating value for the web busisness community and believing in the power of social software.

Let’s make the case…

Top IT consultant companies (in alphabetical order)
The questions that The Strategy Web asked these companies were like… Do you have a corporate Twitter account, how do you use it and what is your strategy behind it? Please find the answers, some were translated into English by The Strategy Web …

Company Account
twitter.com/BearingPoint
twitter.com/GovTwit
The first impression counts in business, the people say… “My personal Twitter strategy I learned directly from MC Hammer – ‘Forget the number of Tweeters – just stay interesting!’.” Paul Dunay, Director of Global Field Marketing at Bearingpoint, knows of personal branding, reputation marketing and the changing world of communication in the sense of ‘getting things gone differently‘.

Summary
Let’s talk about the GovTwit account first. This is one of the most excellent examples of a Twitter directory that probably exists on the web with Twitter IDs and links to official government blogs and URLs noted in Twitter bios. Beraingpoint knows how to share and all companies can learn from that example..
Nevertheless, the second one, the brand Twitter account, seems quite down to earth like a simple press release-RSS-push. But there is a clear strategy line as this Twitter account is the access point and traffic driver for the corporate blog which lives and broadcasts social media.

Company Account
twitter.com/CiscoSystems
twitter.com/CiscoGeeks
So, there are two different interesting Twitter streams: the first one for press releases, news on personal and management changes, and it picks up RTs of stories around Cisco from followers (Nice give-and-take scenario!). The second one (start Dec. 2008) pushes their Cisco AXP contest for application developers who are meant to “think outside the box”. No, the top brand account belongs to someone else. And Cisco started early sending tweets out… so this is to everone: you better hurry up to get your brand account.

Summary
Cisco has defintely entered the web 2.0 scenario big way. Using different social media like blogs, FlickR and sure, Twitter – to get all these activities around modern communication and messaging fly high. Twitter seems to be adding value to their marketing, their pr, and pushes corporate branding.

Company Account
twitter.com/gartner_inc
The man behind the corporate Gartner account is Andrew Spender -Vice President, Corporate Communications- and this company has more than 60 analysts (!) on Twitter. The corporate Twitter account from Gartner mixes internal knowledge, pr releases, communication on consulting issues, hints to their analysts and shares company experience from events and career opportunities. It’s the aggregator of their global Twitter and business knowledge satellites.

Summary
“Briefly, we use Twitter to communicate with a broad range of people. This includes IT end-users, technology providers, journalists, bloggers, etc. It has become a very effective way of developing a direct, credible, authentic two-way relationship with people who have an interest in what we have to say about the business of technology. Twitter is a great way for anyone to engage directly with our analysts and we’re always listening for feedback!” (Andrew Spender)
PS: Again, the most obvious account belongs to someone else…

Company Account
Many! – … and the brand account…?
There is nearly nothing that Twitter does not support for IBM: business sections here, here and here, events here and here plus community building accounts here. Is the brand account changing it’s owner? There were more follower, there is no actual IBM logo and there is definitely something going on…

Summary
IBM is a very active user of Twitter. It becomes obvious from the named examples that IBM uses new media for their communication strategy – not surprising as collaboration software is part of their business. “Social media tools are impossible to be taken away from an innovative communication concept.” says Petra Bauerle, Web Managing Editor at IBM – yes, she twitters as well.

Company Account
twitter.com/oracle
Similar ‘strategy’ that IBM has: Twitter for big events like Open World and it’s push as well as it’s blog), for tech communities around Oracle Technology Network (OTN) as well as an ‘cocktail-mixing’ aggregator account. Wanna see all Oracle Twitterati? Go ahead… and check their wiki with Oracle and non-Oracle people.

Summary
“Generally, as a company, we encourage communication among our employees, customers, partners, and others – and blogs, social networks, discussion forums, wikis, video, and other social media can be a great way to stimulate conversation and discussion. They’re also an invaluable tool for experienced Oracle users who want to share information and tips on the use of Oracle products. (…) I’m not aware that we have a formal, documented plan for the use of Twitter, just as we don’t for other social media, but we definitely have a level of participation, since it can be a good way to reach out to and engage with a variety of communities.” Steve Walker, Vice President EMEA

Company Account
None – brand account options difficult.
“At the moment, the trend washes Twitter in the spheres of a brand name like Google: Twitter is not only seen a web-service for micro-blogging but a synonym for for the dialog in 140 words – you “twitter” like you “googled”! This trend makes the service and the micro-blogging attractive for a bigger user group.” Torsten Schollmayer, Senior Associate Marketing & Analytics

Summary
Sapient sees the value of also for business accounts for the benefit of social information finding and -exchange, and supporting own brand building – Twitter offers direct and konvergent 1:1 and 1:n-dialogue with clients, competitors and specialists. That’s the reason why Sapient will be on Twitter in a short time period in order not to lose innovation leadership in te market of interactive consulting. BUT: The brand account is gone, so we will wait and see what the digital consulting experts will be doing… The question remains: Why do they start so late on Twitter?

Company Account
Many – company does not make them public as project-based…
“The motivation for our involvement in Twitter and other micro-blogging tools is connected with expertise. Through the use of these tools, experts of Siemens IT Solutions and Services can not only exchange information or present their expertise, but also interact with customers and stakeholders. Networking and open innovations play an important role within the Siemens group, therefore we also designed the open source tool ESME (Enterprise Social Messaging Experiment), which can be use by every enterprise.” Janine Krebs, Media Relations

Company Account
None – brand account options difficult… or not?!
Unisys pr agency answered briefly: “Unisys has decided not to go with Twitter. The companies opinion goes along the lines that Twitter is interesting, generally speaking, but up to now, there is no response from clients to head for Twitter.”

Summary
I am sure there will be some activity when they have been reading about the Twitter options in this post… if so, tell us in a comment, ok?!

Spot On!
We can learn a lot about the pr and career chances, capabilities and possibilities of Twitter from the IT consulting companies, and nearly all of them are using Twitter in a big way. If you need some more background on the Twitter effect for the benefit of your marketing, you should listen to Jon Samsel’s advice. Generally, the especially the real-time business benefit is obvious…

Before companies even join, they can search on Twitter and monitor what people are saying for any term or terms about their employees, their company, their industry, their branch etc. – and then simply put the results into a RSS feed reader.

The real time focus makes it one of the most valuable resources in fast moving industry days. And it tells companies very early when customers have a problem with their communication (see Johnson&Johnson Motrin example) or customer service.

Seeing all the positive aspects… there is one thing that needs to be said about the no. 1 micro-blogging tool: All the positivism in mind and seeing the wonderful new world of communication, Twitter can also be a time-thief if not treated carefully. For some managers professional support will make sense. Tweets attract your personal psyche, shake their body of words and love the power of anticipation in dissipation just like … does.

Anyway, happy to hear what you think of these IT consultants strategies…

News Update – Best of the Day

Yesterday, I joined an interesting webinar with Michael Leander-Nielsen on Marketing through Social Networks. In the webinar a question was raised on ‘What’s the difference between a Facebook Group and a Facebook Fan Page’? As this seemed to be a question for a lot of marketers, I send the link from Ann Smarty through the webinar pipe. As this has been commented continually, it is still a helpful resource. Generally speaking, she says…

Pages are generally better for a long-term relationships with your fans, readers or customers; Groups are generally better for hosting a (quick) active discussion and attracting quick attention.

There has been a lot of talk about digital trends in the last weeks which is normal for the turn of the year. Now, Edelman published ‘Five Digital Trends to Watch for 2009′ which was commented by George Dearing. Generally speaking (my opinion to the trends)…

* Companies need to find the time and resources for the new web 2.0 customer engament mechanics.
* Media needs to find a new approach from profiting of micro-blogging, blogs and linking mechanics.
* ‘Aggregation’ and ‘filter’ will become the words of the future networking business.
* People will increase their social media activities and define, explore and market their personal branding.
* Content was, is and will stay king of web success.

Are you a CEO? Have you ever thought about blogging? No… OK, here is why you should and why you shouldn’t. Well, now it is up to you. It’s your choice…

The business network netiquette

About four month ago, I wrote a post on the XING Netiquette which made its way to the XING experts blog. The reason was that some of my colleagues, relatives and friends realized the unfriendly and unprofessional style of communication with business contacts on business networks such as XING or LinkedIn. This was also some development that the XING expert experienced, Joachim Rumohr, who added the post to his professional blog. And, as this post was read very often in German, I decided to write also an English version about the topic: business network netiquette.

We all know from management trainings and media that the first impression counts to the highest degree. So, if we are reaching out for new contacts, or looking to kick off interesting partnerships, or just doing some ‘investigation’, we should all be aware of the actions and reactions this might cause.

Why? Every single web activity might affect our online (and offline) reputation. There are several people already focusing on this personal branding topic as a business model in terms of ‘creating’ books or blog posts, or reputation ID networks or they are just ‘visionering’ about this topic.

In terms of business networks such as XING or LinkedIn, the stumbling block is not the contacts that we are linked or connected with. Normally, people know how to behave and interact there as they know each other. It becomes more difficult when contacting an unknown business user in an online business network. In this case, it does not matter if you are contacting somebody or if some business person is addressing you. Although the networks advise with ‘FAQ’s’ and ‘Help’ sites on how to ‘meet online’ with somebody on a business level, these websites are quite often well-hidden and enlighten only some parts of this special topic called ‘netiquette’.

Let’s have a close look at some general principles which are definitely necessary and have to be taken into account when contacting somebody on LinkedIn or XING (or any other business network).

The business network netiquette

When you are contacting some business person…
a) Send a message: Be friendly. Keep your message short. Refer directly to your request.
Why are you approaching this special person? Be aware that the contacted person you are referring to might not have very much time for online networking – especially if this person has a high level of responsibility and credibility inside his company. Although all these people would love to have a personal web manager in order to spend more time for online networking, they actually don’t have any.

Be prepared to get some feedback. This feedback might be completely different from what you think and wish to achieve. Nevertheless, respond to this person no matter how the feedback ‘sounds’ in your ears.

b) Via direct connection: If you have had no contact before (online or offline), it is advisable not to contact these people directly without having addressed these people in an email, spoken on the phone or in persona before. Obviously not, when you are just a collector and hunter…

If you contact somebody, give this person the opportunity to communicate with you offline and online straight away. In some business networks you can also activate the contact details without being linked with somebody. Never stay incognito!

When you are being contacted…
a) Receive a message: In the ‘unlikely’ event of receiving an email with some business network member contacting you, this person definitely has a very serious and valid business reason to address you…. and it is you, you, you! If somebody has chosen to contact you (and no-one else!), this is an honor – please look upon this action favorably.

b) Via direct connection: If you had no contact at all before somebody is contacting you (offline or online), please evaluate whether you accept this contact. Having tones of contacts looks nice (as does having lot of followers on Twitter) but does it serve your purpose? Caring about all of your contacts is difficult and becomes unprofitable quite quickly.

If you think this person is beneficial (in private or for your job), then there is no reason not accepting this contact. Don’t be afraid of denying irrelevant contact offerings though. BUT: Definitely use the ‘Add’ or ‘Deny’ button and don’t leave this person desperately waiting for an answer in your folder ‘Inbox’ or ‘Contacts to Add’.

In any case, if somebody is getting in touch with you via business networks, it is an ‘unwritten’ duty to respond with an answer – no matter if long or short, positive or negative or if you have some business interest in this person. Even if this request is in your eyes uninteresting, boring or not fitting
your profile details. Everybody has deserved to get an answer.

Let’s take an example from the offline world… If an employee or some partner has a business idea that he wants to share with you, you are not just turning away, saying nothing, right? The same applies to the online world. And, premium-user do see and know more or less everything in business networks – also that you have been looking at the profile of the person that has send you a mail via the business network.

The above mentioned advice is also applicable for all group activity in business networks and for common email communication, too. Be friendly, offer the dialogue and be authentic.

Spot On!
Be the virtual person that you are in the offline world! This is the only way being authentic and successful. Contacts know easily by monitoring who you are, what you do and why you will be interesting – they might know your digital dna without even checking it for negative examples.

Always imagine you are joining a big business card party and you ignore somebody who might be introduced to you 5 minutes later. Remember… You always meet twice in life! In a digital networking world, when being a virtual person with a business network profile this might happen quicker than you maybe want it to happen…

News Update – Best of the Day

Die richtigen Strategien für Social Media zu finden, ist derzeit ein Versuch von zahlreichen RP- und Marketingexperten. Geoff Livingston, ein bekannter amerikanischer PR Stratege, bringt die Komplexität der Thematik in seinem Post ‘Five Social Media Strategies‘ kurz und prägnant auf den Punkt.

Es gibt viele Leitfäden für die Planung einer Webseite – aber nicht viele für die Planung der perfekten. MintTwist, eine Internetberatungsfirma aus UK, hat eine sehr interessanten Planungs-Leitfaden abgeliefert. Einfach mal durchlesen und selbst prüfen, ob die bestehenden Elemente der Planung, dem Design und der Aussagekarft der Webseite entspricht.

Nach seinem erfolgreichen Post über Personal Branding 101, hat der Autor des Buches ‘Me 2.0′, Dan Schwabel, nun seinen zweiten Teil abermals bei Mashable veröffentlicht. Personal Branding 102. Wer sich diesen Post durchliest, macht sich danach sofort an das Auffrischen seiner Digital DNA und seiner Kontakte in seinen Social Media Netzwerken.

______________________ Spot On!

Wenn Sie einen aktuellen Report zum Thema Social Networking haben möchten, bietet diese Studie Ihnen die Option dazu. Die Studie will herausfinden, wie wir Social Networks im Business-Kontext nutzen, welche wir bevorzugen und wieviel Zeit wir dort investieren. Nehmen Sie sich die Zeit und sein Sie einer der ersten, der die Studie bekommt.

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