MackCollier.com

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Is Twitter making us lazy bloggers?

I’ve been closely examining this blog over the last few weeks in several areas.  One of the areas I’ve been looking at is interaction.  Most posts here get several comments, some even a few dozen or more.  So it’s been easy for me to assume that this blog has a very active and engaged community.

But it doesn’t.  I started really looking at the people that were commenting and interacting, and noticed something: They weren’t regular blog readers, for the most part.  They were people that follow me on Twitter.  Another hint was that whenever I write my posts ahead of time, I will schedule them to publish the following morning at 8am.  At 9am, I will tweet out a link to the new post for the first time.  I almost never get the first comments on my new post UNTIL the link gets tweeted on Twitter.

Another thing that I’ve realized is that I’ve been cultivating my Twitter network at the expense of my blogging network.  Up until a year or so ago, I used to comment on other blogs on an almost daily basis.  I stopped doing that, because I rationalized to myself that I could get more ‘accomplished’ by tweeting out a link to a post I liked, instead of commenting on it.  My thinking was that pointing my 25K+ followers to a post would be more appreciated by the blogger than me commenting on their post.

And maybe it would be, but by not commenting on other blog posts, I’m also decreasing the number of comments I get here.  See the dilemma?

So moving forward, I am going to start investing more time in cultivating a community around this blog, instead of just trying to get my Twitter network to come here.  One thing I did over the weekend was de-activate the LiveFyre commenting system.  I loved the customer service they gave me, it was exceptional, but at the end of the day, I didn’t like that LiveFyre doesn’t support Comment Luv, and it doesn’t let you click on the commenter’s name and go straight to their blog.  These are two very powerful community-building tools that I prefer to use, and will be from now on.

I’m wondering, have the rest of you noticed this as well?  Are you also cultivating your Twitter network at the expense of your blogging community?  It’s so easy to simply point your network from Twitter here, but if Twitter goes away, does your blog readership leave with it?

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Let’s Connect at Blog World Expo Plus a Live #Blogchat Update!

Blog World Expo is only 20 days away!  Can you believe it’s almost here?  I am knee-deep in getting prepped for my first trip to Blog World, and I wanted to touch base with y’all on a couple of key areas:

First, we have nailed down all the details on the LIVE #Blogchat!  It will happen on November the 5th, a Saturday, at 3:30pm.  Live #Blogchat will be located in Room 150A.  Deb told me this is one of the rooms right next to where they’ll have the keynotes.  She said it can hold between 100-150 people.  We aren’t going to have any type of registration for the Live #Blogchat, seating will be first-come, first-served.  Should also be the largest Live #Blogchat we’ve done so far, so come early!

Now, as for the topic….we asked y’all to pick from one of 5 possible Live #Blogchat topics over at the Blog World Expo blog.  The most popular topic was How do you create a strategy for your blog?  So that will be our topic BUT, the 2nd most popular topic was How do you use other social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Plus) to grow your blog?  Deb and I decided that it made perfect sense to discuss how to create a strategy for your blog, but that in the course of that discussion, we could also devote some time to discussing how to use other social sites to grow your blog!  So the best of both worlds!

So here’s the LIVE #Blogchat at Blog World Expo skinny:

When: November 5th (Saturday) at 3:30 pm

Where: Room 150-A, Los Angeles Convention Center

Topic: How do you create a strategy for your blog?

Registration: NOPE! Attendance is first-come, first-served!

I cannot wait to see y’all at the Live #Blogchat!  I’m so glad we’ll finally have one on the West Coast as I know a lot of #Blogchat regulars like Bruce and Marcy have been asking about when we would!

Now, the second reason for this post is to let you know how we can connect at Blog World Expo.  Since Blog World is so ginormous there are a TON of people that I want to meet, so for most of Thursday and especially Saturday, I will be at the Convention Center, meeting and mingling with all of y’all.  I won’t be attending many sessions, because I want to have as much time to catch up with old friends, and meet new ones!  So if we haven’t already connected and you want to, please email me and let’s try to get together!

Besides catching up with old and new friends at Blog World, I am going to actually be doing some business there as well.  To this end, I want to connect with you at Blog World IF:

1 – Your company or event is interested in having a Live #Blogchat in 2012.  I would be happy to meet with you and give you more information about how a Live #Blogchat works, show you video from previous Live #Blogchats, go over prices and sponsorship packages, whatever you want.

2 – Your company or event is interested in having me speak or provide on-site social media marketing training.  Same as above, I’ll be happy to give you more information on how this could be structured, fees involved, etc.

3 – Your company has a brand ambassador/advocate program you’d like to talk to me about.  I am always looking for new case studies to profile here and in my presentations of companies that are doing innovative things to embrace and empower their advocates and fans.  If your company has something you’d like to share with me, please email me.  Bonus points if you have already documented a case study you can point me to 😉

So if you’d like to have a Live #Blogchat at your company or event, or you’d like to work with me, or you’d like to tell me about your company/organization’s brand advocate outreach efforts, please email me so we can talk about setting up a time to meet.  I am going to try to keep Friday the 6th more or less free so I can have on-site meetings with as many companies as possible.  If Friday doesn’t work for you, let me know and we’ll see about finding a time that fits in both our schedules.

That’s it!  I can’t wait to see all of y’all in LA in just THREE weeks!  Please leave a comment if you’ll be attending so we can start connecting now 😉

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What Ragu just taught us about how big brands should use Social Media and connect with influencers

I am loathe to blog about a topic when it seems that everyone in the ‘Social Media Bubble’ has already covered it, but the recent spat between Ragu and Social Media-savvy dads just keeps pulling me back in.

First, above is a list of the tweets that @RaguTweets sent out to ‘influential’ dads on Twitter pointing them toward this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXoFKt-5j6o

As you can see, that video is pretty condescending to dads.  So when you purposely target dads that you deem to be influential and social media savvy with a video that talks down to them, guess what happens?  Thaaaaaaat’s right!  Those dads turn to social media to call your brand out as being clueless idiots.

Did we REALLY not see this coming?

As C.C. said on his blog: “When my first interaction with a brand is an @ spam on Twitter … and when I engage and yet see nothing to welcome me … that is a turn-off. Follow that up with a video that insults me and my friends? Yeah, not exactly the welcoming committee I would have expected.”

What made this situation worse (as it usually does in the case of a ‘social media firestorm’) is that Ragu took a half day or more to respond to the dads they had spammed with the above tweets.  As I keep saying, most social media firestorms aren’t caused by the brand’s/org’s initial action that triggers the discussion, it’s by how the brand/org REACTS (or doesn’t), to that firestorm.  Here’s a couple of examples:

1 – Motrin Moms.  The discussion started I believe on a Saturday on Twitter, and Motrin never responded.  By Sunday, the anger had reached a fever pitch on Twitter because the brand wasn’t addressing the complaints over one of their ads.  So someone figured out who their agency was, and contacted them to ask for a response to the outcry on Twitter about the Motrin ads, to which the agency rep gave the now infamous response of ‘What’s Twitter?’  Motrin’s mistake was that they weren’t monitoring online conversations about their brand, and when you drop a new ad on Friday and go home for the weekend, you run the risk that said ad might generate some discussion that you want to be aware of, over the weekend.

2 – The Red Cross and #gettinslizzard.  The Red Cross did the exact opposite in handling a ‘rogue tweet’ from an employee that was accidentally sent from The Red Cross account instead of the employee’s account where she MEANT to tell her friend that she had the beer they were going to be drinking that night.  So it looked like The Red Cross was tweeting that they were #gettinslizzard.  There was an immediate reaction to this tweet, but to The Red Cross’ credit, they quickly jumped all over this, and within an hour had deleted the tweet, and explained the situation.  This totally changed the reaction to the event, and turned detractors into evangelists, and The Red Cross actually ended up seeing a nice bump in blood donations as a result.

 So in closing, I think there are two key lessons that brands need to take away from this whole episode with Ragu:

1 – If you are going to use social media sites and tools to promote yourself, you have to be prepared to respond to customer feedback via those same sites and tools.  Again, what Ragu did was effectively spam these dads with links to videos that talked down to them.  That’s a recipe for backlash from those same dads that anyone can see coming a mile off.  But when Ragu didn’t respond to criticism via Twitter till the next day, their slow response time became part of the frustration for the dads, and only made a bad situation worse.  As Gini says, you can’t commit to using tools your customers are using to be social, as sales channels only.  Your customers have an expectation that if you are going to use social media, that you will be….social.

2 – Understand that reaching out to influencers is a double-edged sword.  The great thing about influencers is that they have reach and the ability to connect with large networks.  The bad thing about influencers is that they usually have little to no affinity for your brand.  When Ragu targeted influential dads and then spammed them with a condescending message, they were setting themselves up to get slammed.  And then they haven’t helped matters with their response in MediaPost which basically reads as ‘sure, we got some things wrong, but so did the dads as well’.  The very thing that attracted Ragu to reach out to these influencers (large network, they are influential) is the very thing that sparked this brouhaha because of a poorly-conceived strategy and message.

This is also why I think that brands need to invest more time in connecting with their advocates and fans.  Look at what Dell (Disc: I’ve worked with Dell on this project) has done with #DellCAP.  They have a Customer Advisory Panel in place made up of Dell brand advocates.  These are special customers that Dell can bounce ideas off of, and get direction from.  If Ragu had a similar group in place, they could have reached out to them and gotten feedback on this idea.  My guess is Ragu’s advocates would have seen what would happen, and advised the brand to try a different approach.

In closing, I wanted to share an ‘old’ video from Gary Vee recapping how he handled a potential social media firestorm that affected his business.  As you watch this, pay close attention to how Gary explains that he responded to the criticism via the exact same channels and tools where that criticism was occuring.

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#Blogchat This Sunday: How Sports Teams Can Connect With Fans Via Blogging With Lou Imbriano!

This Sunday at #Blogchat we’ll be joined by Lou Imbriano, who will talk to us about how sports teams can use blogging to connect with their fans!  Many of you know Lou, as he’s been a regular participant in #Blogchat for well over a year now.  Besides being the CEO of Trinity One, Lou is the former Chief Marketing Officer for the New England Patriots!  Additionally, he’s just published the book Winning The Customer, which he’ll be giving away a couple of copies before and after #Blogchat on Sunday!

Speaking of Winning the Customer, I wanted to share with you part of what Lou wrote in his acknowledgments section: “I have to give a big shout out to Twitter.  It’s the reason Elizabeth and I met, and it also led me to Mack Collier and #blogchat, which gave me the notion and the tools to write a blog.  That blog is what made me think I could actually write a book.”

How great is that?  That means every one of you that participate in #Blogchat have helped Lou in seeing Winning the Customer come to light!  Which is another reason why I’m so excited to have Lou join us!

Here’s what we’ll be discussing:

8:00pm Central – 8:30pm:  How can sports teams use blogs to connect with fans?  Should they start a blog based on the franchise as a whole, or one area?  If the Patriots said today that they wanted to get into blogging, how would we make that happen?

8:30pm Central – 9:00pm: Who should be blogging for the franchise?  The owner?  The players?  If the players, how much freedom do you give them?

That’s it, and although we do want to focus on blogging, if you’d like to talk to Lou about how sports teams and franchises can use other social media tools to better connect with fans, feel free!  And please in preparation for #Blogchat this Sunday, please do follow Lou on Twitter!

See you Sunday at 8pm Central!

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The three blogs we’ll be reviewing tonight at #Blogchat are…

Thanks again to everyone that submitted their blogs for review.  Here’s the three that we’ll be reviewing, starting at 8:00 PM Central, Sunday (the 21st).

1 – Campfire Song Thanks to Lindseyfor submitting her blog, we’ll review it from 8:00-8:20 PM Central:

Here’s Lindsey’s feedback for us:

“I blog at http://campfire-song.com. I’m targeting women in the 25-35 age range, probably with kids. (Mommy blogger?)

I’m interested in a review of

1. post titles

2. effectiveness of a blog on WP.com vs. WP.org (I’m considering a switch in the near future to self-hosted with a custom template)

3. info/widgets (i.e. sharing buttons) etc. that I should remove or add to enhance the look and usefulness of my blog”

Also, please follow Lindsey on Twitter.  We will review Campfire Song from 8:00-8:20 PM Central on Sunday the 21st.

 

2 – Patrick’s Place.  Thanks to Patrick for submitting his blog, we’ll review it from 8:20-8:40 PM Central on Sunday the 21st.

Here’s Patrick’s feedback for us:

“My blog is “Patrick’s Place,” at http://www.patrickkphillips.com. I’ve been blogging for about seven years now, and I’m trying to build a larger audience. My key topics are television, politics and religion and my audience tends to be adults 30+. I’m looking for feedback about the presentation and how easy it is to find those key topics, as well as tips for better interaction and SEO. Thanks for considering me.”

Also please follow Patrick on Twitter.  We will review Patrick’s Place from 8:20-8:40PM Central, on Sunday the 21st.

3 – Poet on Poetry. Thanks to Sheree for submitting her blog.  We’ll be reviewing Poet on Poetry from 8:40-9:00pm Central.

Here’s Sheree’s feedback for us:

“I’d like my nonprofit blog reviewed. It is 4 months old and has had good traffic (over 25k views from 77 countries) but it I would like to evalaute

1. How to increase that traffic
2. Why I am not getting more followers
3. Why I am not getting more comments.

Thank you for this opportunity. My blog is ar http://poetonpoetry.blogspot.com I write for poets and poetry lovers. I started the blog as a place to promote my own poetry book once i have one but it seems to have mushroomed rather quickly into more. I enjoy promoting other poets. I would like to explore being able yo make money from the blog.”

Also, please follow Sheree on Twitter.  We will review Poet on Poetry from 8:40-9:00pm Central on Sunday the 21st.

Thanks to everyone that submitted their blog, and if yours wasn’t picked, please submit it again next month!  See everyone tomorrow night!

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Should Social Media/Marketing Consultants List Their Prices?

I am totally piggybacking on Marcus’ post over at Spin Sucks, but this is a question I have been pondering for a LONG time.

The two most popular posts so far this year (by a mile) are this post on How Much Social Media Costs in 2011, and this one on How Much Social Media Costs in 2010.  Also, three of the top 7 keywords that send search traffic to this blog are associated with the price of social media services.  So I only have to look at my Google Analytics to tell that there is a HUGE interest in the price of social media services.

And yet, most social media and/or marketing consultants don’t list their prices.  Or if they do, this information is usually buried on their site, in doing research for both of the above posts on the price of social media services, I found several ‘name’ consultants that did have prices for their services, but it was like hunting on their site for a needle in a haystack to find the numbers.  It seems that the few consultants that do quote prices are quoting prices that are so far and above what most of their peers charge that it seems to simply draw ridicule from their peers.  Which might be the plan, cause it also draws a lot of attention to their prices!

I did start listing prices for my Social Media Strategy and Blogging Strategy Audits, but that’s really all I have solid prices down for.  And I also offer a Satisfaction guarantee on both, which is something else I am experimenting with.

But really I want to know what y’all think about this issue.  And I can completely see both sides:  I can see why it would be better to list prices, but I can also see why it would be hard/impossible to quote exact prices for some services.  And to further stump me, I have very good friends and business professionals that have told me I should absolutely list my prices, and others that tell me I absolutely should not!

What do you think?  Should every consultant/agency list prices for their services, or nothing?  If you are a consultant or work for an agency, what’s your policy?

Should consultants list what they charge for social media and marketing services on their site?  Yes or no?

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The three blogs we’ll review at #Blogchat tonight are…

Thanks to everyone that submitted their blog to be reviewed tonight at #Blogchat.  Here’s the three blogs we’ll be reviewing, and please do check these three blogs out if you will be joining #Blogchat tonight, and please pay close attention to the feedback each blogger has given us:

1 – Christine Margiota-Geraci’s blog.  Here’s Christine’s feedback for us:  “This blog started out as merely a professional presence for me online, but it seems to be morphing into my thoughts on social media as it pertains to my work. I’d love feedback on the content itself, as well as some of the features I’ve included as a result of recently changing WordPress themes: the Links I’m learning from section and the Featured Posts section in particular. I’m very new to the blogging world but I’m learning so much from participating in #blogchat when I can. Thanks so much for the consideration!”

So please check out Christine’s blog with an eye toward her feedback above.  We’ll be reviewing Christine’s blog from 8:00pm-8:20pm Central tonight.

 

2 – Allen LaRose’s blog.  Here is Allen’s feedback for us: “I would very much appreciate any feed back on my new blog http://www.allenlarose.com. It started as simply an online place for me to express myself. I have quickly discovered blogging is addictive. I have been using social media to help drive traffic to my blog, but would any advice to help boost traffic further.”

Please review Allen’s blog before #Blogchat tonight, we’ll be reviewing it from 8:20pm-8:40pm Central time.

3 – Sporting the Small Stuff.  Here is Michele’s feedback for us: “I recently started a sports and adventure blog at http://SportingTheSmallStuff.com and I would greatly appreciate suggestions on how I can better engage the audience (I would love to interact with fitness/adventure-minded individuals). I would also appreciate suggestions for writing more effective titles (both from an engagement standpoint and an SEO standpoint).

Thank you for this opportunity!”

Please review Michele’s blog based on her feedback or any other ideas you have for how she can improve her blog.  We’ll be reviewing Michele’s blog from 8:40pm-9:00pm Central.

 

So there’s our 3 blogs we’ll be reviewing!  Thanks again to everyone that submitted their blog for review, and if your’s wasn’t picked, remember that we’ll do this again next month!

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#Blogchat LIVE video plus info on my Social Media and Blog Strategy Audits

One of the ‘problems’ I am running into when I talk to event organizers and potential sponsors about doing a LIVE #Blogchat is that it’s sometimes difficult for them to understand what a LIVE version of a Twitter chat would look like.  I try telling them that a buncha smart people get in a room and talk to each other, but somehow that still doesn’t get the point across very well 😉  Thankfully, Chris and his team from Huddle Productions created a short video with footage from the LIVE #Blogchat that Dell sponsored last week prior to the start of its #DellCAP event.  This should give you a better idea of what a LIVE #Blogchat is like (Hint: Smartitude galore!):

If you are interested in learning more information about adding a live #Blogchat to your existing event, or in sponsoring one, click here.

The second area I wanted to point your attention to is an update I am making to my consulting services.  For a couple of years now, I have been offering Social Media Strategy Audits to clients.  This service has proven to be very popular so I’ve decided to begin offering Blog Strategy Audits to clients as well.  For many companies, a blog is the only social media tool they are using, so for these companies, a Blog Strategy Audit makes more sense.  Both of these audits will analyze what the company’s competition is doing, as well as assess how the client is currently using blogging/social media, and give them a blueprint and recommendations on what they should do moving forward.  And perhaps most importantly, both audits will include a section on how to measure the results of your strategy.  So I’m not only going to tell you exactly what your strategy should look like, but I’m also going to show you exactly how to measure your efforts.  This is a key area that’s often missing from most blogging/social media strategies.

Both the Social Media Strategy Audit and the Blog Strategy Audit are two-month projects.  For each, you’ll make three payments: You will be billed for the first payment when you agree to purchase the audit, and I must have this payment before I can begin work on your audit.  At the end of the first month, you will be billed for the second payment, and I must have this payment before I can deliver the finished audit.  At the end of the second month, the finished audit will be delivered, along with a bill for the third and final payment.

The price and billing schedule for each audit is:

Social Media Strategy Audit – Price is $7,500.00.  You will be billed in three equal payments of $2,500.00.

Blog Strategy Audit – Price is $5,000.00.  You will be billed in three payments of $1,600.00, $1,700.00 and $1,700.00.

Now, the big change I am making to these services is that as of now, I am adding a guarantee to both of these audits.  Note that above it states that you will be billed for three payments, and that for each audit, you will receive the finished audit, along with a bill for the final payment.  When you receive the finished audit and if you are not satisfied with the audit, then you do not have to make the third and final payment.  I *only* want you to make that third and final payment if you are thrilled with the audit.

I often ask my close friends to give me advice on my work, and to be honest, when I told them that I was thinking of adding this guarantee to these audits, most of them did not think it was a good idea.  As they correctly pointed out, if the client is under no obligation to make the final payment, then why would they?  But I am ok with that.  Because I want companies to understand that I am willing to take that risk because I believe in the quality of the work I will produce for them.

So if your company is interested in either service, please click here for more information on the Social Media Strategy Audit, and click here for more information on the Blog Strategy Audit.  And if you have any additional questions about either audit, or about Live #Blogchat, please do email me.

PS: If you want your blog to be considered for one of the three review slots for this Sunday’s #Blogchat, please leave a comment on this post!

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Sunday’s #Blogchat topic – How to Respond to Negative Comments

Tonight’s (Sunday) #Blogchat topic will be How to Respond to Negative Comments, and we’ll be joined by TWO special co-hosts!  Helping us learn how to handle negative blog comments will be Bazaarvoice’s Chief Marketing Officer, Erin Nelson plus Bazaarvoice’s Social Media Manager Ian Greenleigh!  Please click the links to follow both of them on Twitter, and click here to follow them on Bazaarvoice’s blog!

As you know when we have co-hosts, we try to have more structure to the topic, and here’s how our discussion will unfold tonight:

1 – 8:00pm Central when #Blogchat starts, discuss what’s the best response to a negative comment.  How should you handle it, what tone to use, what to address, etc.

2 – 8:20pm we’ll discuss WHO should respond to a negative comment.  Should it be the bloggers, or is there circumstances where the blogger should route the complaint to an internal SME, etc?

3 – 8:40pm we’ll close by talking about if there are any situations where a blogging company should NOT address a negative comment?  What if the commenter is a ‘troll’ and purposely attacking the company?

So that’s the structure for our #Blogchat tonight!  And to help you prep for tonight, here’s a link to a post I ran last year where I shared some information that Bazaarvoice has found on the value of negative comments and reviews.  It was one of the most popular posts here last year and has some fascinating revelations!

See everyone at 8pm, Central!

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I am officially a social media packrat

And two events clearly illustrated this for me yesterday:

1 – I went to ManageFlitter.com to see how many people I am following that aren’t following me.  I was following almost 3,000 people that were NOT following me.  This really worried me because the main reason I use Twitter is as a way to connect with others and have conversations with them.  By following those 3,000 people that have no interest in seeing my tweets, it’s making it far more difficult for me to connect with the people that DO want to chat with me.  I don’t like that.

2 – I have about 600 people in my Circles in Google Plus.  I started looking at the people I have in my circles and realized that half of them I didn’t have the faintest idea who they were.  I’ve already lost control of my network on Plus after less than a week!

One of the things I have constantly wrestled with was how to scale as the size of my networks grow on these social media sites.  I have always been really strict about who I follow on Facebook, and even now I only have about 600 friends and have been there about 3 years.  But on Twitter I follow over 16K people.  I’ve always wondered in a rush to expand our networks, if we aren’t really stifling our ability to actually connect with people.

So I’ve decided to do a bit of an experiment.  On Plus I am going to be super-picky who I follow, and only follow people that are close friends and/or people I know and have met in real life.  Complete contrast to how I manage followers on Twitter.

The idea is to test two different approaches: Is it better to try to have mostly platonic connections with thousands of people like I do on Twitter (with the hope that some might develop into deeper connections), or have deeper connections with only a few people, and let your network grow only by bringing in closer connections, like I have on Plus.

Man this social media stuff can get complicated!  How do y’all manage your online networks?  Do you have different approaches for different sites?  Am really fascinated in how we scale (or attempt to scale!) our ability to communicate online.