The Social Web Analytics eBook 2008

For anyone interested in social media and the analytics of it, download the Social Web Analytics eBook 2008 by Philip Sheldrake. More about it here. It’s essential reading for novices and experts alike and introduces you to all the familiar organisations and sites in social media today. Did you know what Twingly is, for example?

I particularly liked the bits about the difference between research and engagement, and the importance of semantics analysis. It’s being called ‘essential reading’ - you wouldn’t want to miss out!

July 8, 2008 | Filed Under Anjali Ramachandran | 1 Comment 

Case study: Using e-mail newsletters to engage with your audience

Chris Brogan, a well-known blogger in the social media sphere, has recently started disseminating information related to social media to an audience that can opt in or out of it (primarily readers of his blog), through e-mail. Chris Hambly, our very own Godfather of the SMM, blogged about this recently as well. I wanted to use e-mail newsletters as a case for understanding how to channel your social media knowledge in a way that benefits others, and create a legacy of sorts, so to speak.

No matter what everyone says about their social media consumption patterns, e-mail is here to stay. I don’t think Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed or any new application can replace e-mail, and the reasons are that it is personal and targeted. When you e-mail someone, it isn’t just to say ‘Hi, how is it going’ (those kind of  one-line enquiries are best used on a Facebook wall, if you ask me) - it is to communicate something of value. It could be about work, your personal life, something you think or did, but it is not usually purposeless (unless it is a silly forward, but that’s a different issue).

I’ve already admitted I don’t use RSS feeds, so e-mail newsletters are a great way of sending me information that I want. Chris Brogan’s newsletter is short, to the point, and packed with useful information. Newsletters are a great way of having an impact on someone’s life even if it isn’t written just for you. This particular newsletter, for example, sent me information about social media tools like Zoho Show, Tiny Paste, Mixx and Evernote that I wasn’t aware of before.

Similarly, our SMM newsletter keeps us in the loop with SMM-related information.

I say way to go, e-mail newsletters.

June 28, 2008 | Filed Under Anjali Ramachandran | 4 Comments 

Connecting to consumers through social media

I am beginning to feel Twitter fatigue. I was incredibly active on it when I started, which was just a few months ago, but now don’t do much more than a cursory check once a day or so to see if anything interesting is floating around. Twitter used to be much more about links to interesting articles or even blog posts being bandied about, in addition to the usual status messages. That’s what drew me to it. Now, I feel it is more about conversations between individuals and status messages than the information I found so useful. And Twitter’s continuing technical issues aren’t helping either. I’ve been patient for a while because I understand that any website can have technical issues and things need to be sorted out, but it seems to be taking a much longer time than necessary.

Anyway, I wanted to explore the uses of social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, by companies and brands as a method of influencing consumers, which apart from link publicity (which sometimes counts as spam) is easily the best way of employing social media usefully. Jo pointed me to a useful blog post by Jeremiah Owyang that aggregates some examples of companies using Twitter in this way.

What’s important with what these companies are doing is that they are listening to their consumers/users and responding to them. The single most important thing for any consumer is to know that their opinion counts. If you ask me, every business in the world should have a mechanism like Twitter where people can contact the company with queries and be assured of a response from a human-being, and not an automated response like we usually receive by email. Ernst & Young, for example, has one individual responding to all queries that prospective graduate recruits have about working there on their Facebook group.

This video, an interview of Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff from Forrester Research speaking about the influence of social media marketing, is very informative and relevant to this topic.

June 27, 2008 | Filed Under Anjali Ramachandran | 3 Comments 

How does social media influence your life?

What forms of social media influence the way you work, and how?

Now that I’ve asked the question, let me try to answer it as well as I can, and then I hope to hear from some of you as well.

These are the main forms of social media I use: blogs (I write my own and read tons of others), microblogging (Twitter), wikis (but mainly to log in attendance at events so far, nothing much more than that - I think as a resource wikis are heavily underutilised and I am party to that state of affairs so far), and social networks (primarily Facebook). Other forms of social media that exist but that I don’t use much are virtual worlds (like Second Life), podcasts, and RSS feeds (if one can call that ’social’). I include comments as part of blogs.

Over the last couple of years, social media has increasingly taken over the way I live my life.

There, it’s out in the open. I communicate way more with friends I’ve made through social media and those that have an existence in the online world (like on Facebook) than I do with friends that don’t. I’m pretty sure it’s the same state of affairs for many people, but I may be wrong.

The reasons are pretty simple: I find social media engaging, and by communicating with likeminded people online, my need for socialising is adequately satisfied to a large extent. When that connection is continued offline, as with SMM sit-down lunches, for example, my quality of life is even better. (I guess that makes me a bonafide geek).

My thoughts are:

1. Isn’t everyone’s quality of life improved by connecting with people they share common interests with, with whom they can discuss topics and ideas of interest? If those connections originated in the online world, why should that make it any less social than otherwise?

2. I am constantly encouraged to think more about events which I largely hear of online, because of my presence and activity in social media. Therefore, it is a positive influence.

3. Social media has helped me connect with people I never would have met in the ordinary course of things. I’ve been greatly enriched by what they do - web entrepreneurs, for example.

Are these all valid arguments against critics of social media?

How does social media influence your life?

June 12, 2008 | Filed Under Anjali Ramachandran | 3 Comments 

Trying to define the undefinable

What is social media? Famous first words.

Here I am, bravely trying to define a term which is so huge in what it encompasses and so nebulous in terms of meaning. But, as part of the Social Media Mafia, someone has to take those first steps, right?!!

It’s not a new term, of course. A quick Google for ‘what is social media’ throws up 679,000,000 results, no kidding. So I’m not going to try and rewrite what’s already been written about it, because there is more than enough already and that would only be stupid. I’m going to start by pointing to different places where there seems to be a coherent enough explanation of what social media is. (If you do want my two cents worth, then at its most simplistic, social media can probably be defined as forms of communication (media) that involve people, thereby making it ’social’).

1. The Wikipedia definition of social media.

2. The BuzzLogic definition of social media. This is useful because it clearly explains not just what social media is, but the various terms commonly associated with social media. It is also probably the most easily understandable to laymen: ‘Web content such as blogs and wikis, created by individuals or a collaboration of individuals. Often times, social media content is intended as the starting point for larger conversations.’

3. The iCrossing definition of social media, which is in the form of an entire eBook and is very detailed. It takes you through pretty much the A-Z of social media, from what wikis and blogs are to how to create a podcast.

Then of course, you have the viewpoints of different individuals on what social media is - just trawl through different blogs -as a starting point, you can go to the Social Media Wikispace, Social Media Club and Scobleizer.

The discussion is open. We at the Social Media Mafia can help bring more clarity to what is already out there, perhaps.

June 11, 2008 | Filed Under Anjali Ramachandran | Leave a Comment