Sumolabs

Reading and Links for 2009-03-31

• What Social Media Means for Search
  "The separation between search and social media is melting away, and a new paradigm is taking hold."
  
  
  
• Skimmer, a lifestreaming tool
  Definitely worth checking out, or at least keeping your eye on
  
• Relationship Symmetry in Social Networks: Why Facebook will go Fully Asymmetric
  I agree, but they might just keep Page? I think that keeps a nice separation of Friends and Followers (Use user accounts for friends, use pages for followers)
  
  
  
• How To Monetize A Social Network: MySpace And Facebook Should Follow TenCent
  Sshhh! Don't let the cat out of the bag. We know this very well over at http://www.workatplay.com. Micro-transactions are the hip new business model.
  
  
  
• Steel Cage Debate On The Future Of Online Advertising: Danny Sullivan Vs. Eric Clemons
  "The separation between search and social media is melting away, and a new paradigm is taking hold."
  
  
  
• Customer Service is the New PR
  "My takeaway is that this isn't just a CRM concern, but rather it requires close coordination between customer service and PR."
  
  
  

Knowledge is power.

Top 5 Worst Practices in Social Media Marketing

This is a follow up to my quick 5 minute presentation at the Vancouver Social Media Road Show 2009: Risks & Rewards for Marketers. In it, I only really had time to go through the 3 best practices that I perceive to be the most important.

Here is the original quick 5 min presentation I gave:

And without further delay....

The Worst Practices in Social Media

Forgetting about SEO & SEM

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is only one part of the inbound marketing equation. Don't forget about proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Being able to excel at all three will cause some synergies to form, thus amplifing efforts. I call this cross pollination.

Treating social media like traditional publishing

Traditional publishing is broadcast. Radio out, TV out, magazine out, newspaper out. Social media is a conversation and therefore is implicitly bidirectional.

If you are only publishing, you are not really participating and reaping the full benefits you might be able to.

Not being transparent and honest!

Don't be fake in any way. Don't even think about Astroturfing. Bullshit detectors are exceptionally well tuned on the social web.

Be clear about your intentions out in the social media wild.

Not making social media a company-wide collaborative effort

It is often that different departments and divisions try to create their own social media tests and campaigns. What results is a disparate group of marketing attempts with mixed messaging. A collaborative effort, sponsored from the top dogs, is best.

Monitoring the Social Media Wild With or Without a Budget

How do you monitor what people are saying about you, your brand, company or competitors?

There is either the cheap way or the $$$ way.

Use Social Mention, Google Alerts, or Boardreader to look for where conversations are happening for your brand. You can also build your own brand monitor/social media dashboard on the cheap with netvibes.com

If you've got the cash, check out Nielsen BuzzMetrics or Cymfony.

Charlene Li on Future Of Social Networks from SXSW

Charlene Li is awesome. Here is her latest from SXSW: "The Future Of Social Networks"

Thesis: Social networks will be like air.

Description: Your friends, your family, the people you care about, the people like you, will be available anywhere and anytime that you need them.

Examples: (Accompanying screenshots are in the slideshow.)

* Shopping: When buying something on Amazon, you'll be able to filter reviews to see those from friends, or chat with your music-loving friends to get advice on which headphones are best. (Slides 5-6)
* Events: At conferences, you'll be able to find friends or people with similar interests who are in the same session with you. (Slide 7)
* Mobile: Apps on devices like iPhone will recognize when friends have the same app downloaded too, and invite them to play games, interact with content, etc. (Slide 8)
* TV: Twitter streams were integrated into Current TV's presidential debates coverage. Integra5 is building a platform that will enable friends (via Facebook Connect) to chat with each other right on the TV screen via PC or mobile. (Slides 9-10)
* Enterprise: Salesforce.com integrates Facebook profiles into customer records, while Lotus Notes shows the LinkedIn profile of an email sender. (Slide 11)

There is also a summary of her presentation over at Amy Sample Ward's blog.

My view? A good deck indeed, and makes me marvel at the future - but it reminds me alot of the thinking that went into Razorfish's presentation back in December.

Announcing TweetTop.com - Who to Follow on Twitter

I got bored over the past two nights and created TweetTop.com. It took me 6 hours (which is why it looks like crap -- I'm not a designer).

Tweet Top is the latest and greatest from Twitter people on popular topics. We update the latest thinking from topic experts every 20-30 seconds. Pick a Topic below and we'll deliver it to you 24 x 7. All the top "Tweets", All the Time.

Currently it has 18 topics and we'll add more based on user suggestions. Got any?

So -- if you are struggling with figuring out who to follow on Twitter, or just don't want to bother with creating your own account at all, then TweetTop.com is for you.

Current Topics

Yes. I added myself to the Social Media page. Deal with it ;)