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Earlier this week WFAN’s Mike Francesa had an awesome rant on Twitter. Some of the top sound bites include Twitter should be illegal, one of these days someone will monetize it and Twitter cuts the middle man out of sports journalism.

Now sports radio is known for dumb things being said, but this may take the cake. I guess we can just chalk this one up to old media not wanting to admit that media is changing.

Would you want to be the grandkid or production assistant who has to educate Francesa on Twitter?

It is probably a phrase that you have heard dozens if not hundreds of times over the course of the past few months. Hell you have probably uttered it to people you’ve met as well.

Question is, do you really think about what your story is?

You don’t have to answer that now.

But knowing your story and why others should care is something that everyone participating in social media, blogging or managing a brand’s social presence or community should do.

The social media space continues to fill with more and more clutter each day. You don’t have to be a scientist to know that standing out and gaining valuable mind or eyeball share becomes more difficult each day.

So instead of relying on gimmicks and industry statistics, take a step back, and look at what you are doing.

Individually

• What makes you stand out?
• What perspective are you bringing to the table?
• What value does your story have to the audience?
• Why should they come back?

For a company

• What do your customers or stakeholders care about?
• What content do you offer them?
• Why should they come back to your website or community?
• Why should the relationship continue after the purchase?

While I could go on with things to think about I won’t. There is no need to get preachy because this is something we all know deep down.

In the past 240 words I have talked about stories and why people should care more but have yet to tell you my story and why you should give two craps about what I have to say, so here goes.

I’m a thirty-something husband father, who worked in sports PR before moving over to do the same thing for Vistaprint, a company that provides marketing materials and solutions to small businesses. I moved over to social media at Vistaprint after getting Stephen Baker’s Beyond Blogs BusinessWeek thrown at me in a team meeting. I started this blog to talk the things I geek out about and draw from life experiences.

So if you’ve read this far; thanks, I appreciate you for checking out this site.

Now to the real question: What is YOUR story?

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By the time the Capitals were done celebrating Ward’s overtime goal that knocked the Boston Bruins out of the playoffs; Ward was the center of a different emotion online.

Immediately following the goal Ward, who is a black Canadian player, was the target of irate fans using racial epithets and slurs on Twitter.

No matter how much you believe in free speech, I hope most of you will agree that these posts are disgusting and reflect poorly on the authors. After the flood on Twitter, Capitals Owner Ted Leonsis offered his take on his blog:

What these people have said and done is unforgivable. I hope they are now publicly identified and pay a huge price for their beliefs. There should be zero tolerance for this kind of hate mongering. Their messages should now stay glued into the algorithms to place a forever warning and a mark upon these people and their actions. They shouldn’t be able to escape their keystrokes.

While Leonsis’ opinion may sound extreme, it is not too far from what is possible, given the data that is shared on social networks. I am sure that the majority of the folks who Tweeted out this vitriol thought they were being snarky or funny to their friends did not realize the reach of what they Tweeted. In reality their Tweets have went well beyond that network.

This is 2012 and the whole naivety around social networks needs to go away and these rants only further showcase how society in general is clueless as to the reach of what is said online. There is a clear line as to decency and what is acceptable out in public – where users of social networks not only reflect themselves, but also their employers.

With all the ugliness aside, I do think that this incident offers some real teaching and learning experiences for everyone who congregates on a social network at any given moment.

Education is key – Before sharing something on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Path or a blog, take a step back and think about how that can be seen by others. This also includes looking at the individual network privacy settings and how your content can be used. And don’t forget that whatever you post can be forwarded, reposted, copied, etc by those in your network regardless of your privacy settings.

Online = Offline – Do you ever think about hitting send on a Tweet or status update? Chances are that more times than not you don’t. It is easy to voice your opinion because a social network is all about you and how you interact with friends. What many people do not realize is that employers are looking at these updates and can, at times, deny or terminate employment because of what was posted. Many of the folks who tweeted out these posts might be marked as Leonsis suggested and denied employment due to the beliefs that they made public.

Words can hurt you – The old adage of sticks and stones breaking bones and words never hurting you rings false when it comes to social media. There have been a number of people fired for their Tweets and one of the Tweeters in the Joel Ward incident is currently facing punishment from his school in Massachusetts. At the end of the day, we may all be entitled to our opinions, but employers and schools reserve the right to punish those who use a public platform to voice outlandish thoughts and hate speech.

While I know that these three points might seem basic, it appears that they still need to be said because so many people just don’t get it.

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Why bother trying when you get the same result? Think differently.

March 29, 2012 9:49 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@geoffliving

Geoff Livingston

A few weeks ago, the Tweet above inspired a pretty good conversation with Geoff Livingston. While some saw as passive aggressive, I saw it as an inspiration to dealing with roadblocks and changing perceptions.

There is no question that every now and then we are faced with challenges that test our breaking points. Be it family, work, a pet or just plain old life, you have two options for dealing with these challenges – banging your head through the wall or thinking of another way to approach the problem for a resolution.

In the social space, a common challenge we face is when coworkers question the true value of social media is or read research reports that say that all companies need to be using the “hot new social network.”

Sound familiar?

Hearing these questions day in and day out can be trying and annoying, but treat it as an opportunity rather than a hindrance. When faced with these kinds of queries, be ready with a well constructed answer, which will serve everyone better in the long-run. So instead of the eyeroll or quick terse response, take a step back and consider answering with a thought out response similar to the ones below.

On measuring social:

Hi X. Thanks for bringing this up. When we look at social media there are a number of factors that we’re measuring. These include X,Y and Z. If you’d like to hear more, I’m more than happy to set up time to walk you through them.

On the new shiny object:

Thanks for reaching out about X. We’ve been looking at it as a potential avenue for some time now. Currently our strategy is X or X network is not going to fit into our current strategy immediately due to the following factors. . .

While the template responses above are only examples, hopefully they can serve as an example of a way to diffuse a roadblock or annoying situation.

How do you deal with these situations? Do you keep getting the same frustrating results, or do you try to think differently?

Over the weekend I picked up a 12-pack of Magic Hat for a family birthday party for my son. While loading up the cooler, I noticed some interesting packaging where the brewery invites consumers into their online community. During the sampling of the brews, I noticed on that had a QR code on it, leading to an online profile of the beer (click here to see site).

This was definitely the first time I’d seen a QR code on a beer, click the video above to see my full breakdown.

Take a second to consider the answer. I am sure that for the most part that the answer is no.

While the question might seem a no-brainer, it is actually one that I have seen debated time and time again within the community management and social media fields. Sure debate is good, but when it comes to this question I often find myself in a state of conflict whether to laugh or feel sad for people.

The reason for the conflict is that younger practitioners in these spaces feel the need to be on the clock and working for their companies at all hours of the day. When I’ve engaged folks as to why this is a need, the typical responses are that they don’t want to miss anything and that being devoted now will pay off in the long-run.

Both answers have merit, but are equally incorrect.

Social media is a 24-hour buzz-cycle, but for 99.9 percent of the brands out there, 24 hour a day, 365 day a year coverage is not merited. Whether you want to admit it or not, your company and its products are just not a matter of life and death, so responding to every waking Tweet, Facebook message or blog comment can wait until the morning or end of the weekend. There are exceptions to this in terms of crisis, but for the most part, you get the point.

Devotion to one’s career is admirable, but committing all of your waking time to work with no break will lead to burnout. Don’t try to deny it, you are human and have been burnt out at some point in time.

When we reach the tipping point of burnout, two things typically happen: frustration and mistakes – both of which lead to anger. Any of those things can spell disaster for the career and company that you’re killing yourself for.

To avoid this, I’d advise finding what my friend Jim Storer refers to as life balance. This is where you have a healthy balance of everything that you need to be human. If your company is looking for extensive coverage take a step back and provide some education for them. Within this plan, lay out how your company handles traditional support along with industry standards with two options. One would be a staffed 24-hour solution and the other would give options with the existing resources.

Sure it might be scary saying no, but an educational framework will serve you better down the road than working non-stop.

So I’ll ask again do you work around the clock, seven days a week?

Hopefully you’ll take the time to sniff the roses and enjoy the small stuff. Yes they are cliché, but hold truth and are essential to avoiding burnout.

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Before you go gaga applying for every job on the job board, take a step back and answer the following questions honestly.

• Why do I want to work in social media?
• What makes me qualified for this job?

If you answered because I Tweet, use Facebook, I can pin things better than anyone, I blog therefore I am or I am Awesome! You will probably need to some polishing up because  companies aren’t just looking for power-users of social networks, they’re looking for someone who can tie social to the bottom line with passion.

If you’re new to the space, still in school or looking for a career change and social is where you want to go, take some time to educate yourself on the space with these five books that will get you thinking beyond the Tweet to make you more appealing to employers. Click on the links to see my video book review.

The Social Media Strategist (2011) – I wish this book from Christopher Barger was around when I started in the space four years ago. Goes over the basics and offers real-world experiences and case studies on some of the more successful companies out there. It also takes a look at dealing with a social media crisis.

Social Media ROI (2011) – Oliver Blanchard’s book is one that I often thumb through to get inspiration or work on some planning. It’s a great reference book that looks at setting up your program and measuring what matters.

Trust Agents (2009) – This was the first book on social media that I read when thrust into the space from Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. While it is an older book, it looks at a mindset that social media folks should have when working for a company.

Social Media Metrics (2010) – If you want to work in the social space, you are going to need to know about measurement. Jim Sterne offers some good metrics to get started with. If you’re well versed on measurement, this might be one to leave off your reading list.

Welcome to the Fifth Estate (2011) – Geoff Livingston’s book takes a look at media creation and best practices in getting your message out there in a way that stands out and doesn’t suck.

If you’d like to pick up a copy of any of these books for less, click here (Amazon affiliate link).

Hopefully this will help and best of luck in your job hunt.

If you’re a social media pro already, what books would you add to the list?

Image - Matt Hamm

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Anyone who reads this blog with any kind of regularity knows that there are two things that I am very passionate about – sports and social media. So needless to say, when I see an initiative that mixes the two, I get geeked out.

At this year’s South by Southwest conference, Samsung caused one of these moments for me with their US Olympic Genome Project.

This initiative runs via Facebook’s Connect technology which maps users with Olympians with similar interests. So if you are interested in cats, computers and fishing, the Genome will connect you with an athlete with similar interests.

On a base level it is pretty interesting and should help spark some more attention on the US team as they head to the London Olympics next summer. This initiative could be really awesome if Samsung and the team have an engagement strategy to connect with fans. Since the Olympics are something that the vast majority of us will never experience, an insider’s look into training and the event can help draw people in and could increase overall interest into sports that fly below the radar.

I for one will be watching intently as the Genome project rolls out live and have high hopes for it. The program is currently in a beta stage, if you want to sign up to get in on the action when it rolls out, check out Samsung’s US Olympic Genome site.

A special thanks to James Price who gave me the lowdown on the program in the Samsung Lounge and took time to do a video interview on the program.

No, not the conference attendees, but rather the social media landscape. The atmosphere at the conference was that social media has matured from a cute trend to a part of business as usual. For example, companies sent more “suits” to the conference than in past years; and the space’s biggest publication, Mashable, was in acquisition talks with CNN for $200M. One hot topic among the folks I met was the new advertising models for Facebook and Twitter. These new models represent a sort of coming of age for the space’s two biggest players.

Facebook has created the perfect drug and knows it. Users need their daily fix, making it a destination site and a place that brands need to be active. This addiction has given Facebook the perfect flytrap and opportunity to become the Internet. The new ad model encourages engagement on the brand’s page as opposed to sending traffic directly to the brand’s site.

So if you take a second to read between the lines on this, you’ll see that content has been anointed king. This shift also allows Facebook to further separate their ad-model from Google’s by building trust among users since the ads served are less obtrusive and more relevant to users’ interests. I’d also argue that this model will force companies to invest in building a community rather in turn building up brand affinity than pushing advertisements.

In the case of Twitter, its new model isn’t as dynamic as Facebook’s, but is still just as important for brands to keep an eye on. The company is now rolling out a self-serve ad model for small businesses, which should refine the platform for enterprise-level clients along and its backend analytics. Twitter has also made it clear that verified accounts are important but are not going to come cheap. As Facebook’s model of keeping ads on platform continues to evolve and roll out, I can see Twitter gaining marketshare in traditional direct response-style ads. It will be interesting to see if they wind up panning out in traditional ROI models or if companies will need to incorporate new metrics like follower acquisition and social impressions into their forecasting models.

While you can say that this is a tipping point for social business, I think it is more of a wake-up call for traditional marketers who are still looking at social media as a cute niche with no future. The C-suite is going to have to take notice and devote real dollars to playing in the space instead of dipping a toe into the water. Standing on the sidelines will leave companies as relevant as Enron after financial reforms.

The winds of change swirling across the social landscape are going to make for an interesting year for social media practitioners. The question it begs to ask is: are you ready for it?

In a little over a week thousands of techies, hipsters and marketing folks will arrive in Austin, Texas for the interactive marketing portion of the 26th Annual South by Southwest Conference for five days of sessions, keynotes, events, networking opportunities and parties. Over those five days there will be a plethora of trends, Tweets and predictions of the next “it” thing in the digital marketing space. The event is something that I am looking forward to and hope to meet some of you at in my second trip to the conference.

Instead of saying what sessions to attend or parties to hit up, I wanted to offer five tips that I picked up while having my Austin cherry popped (as this badge from foursquare points out ) a year ago.

Have a schedule…but prepare for it to change – If you’ve logged onto the SXSW homepage and looked at the schedule you’ll see that there is a lot going on. Take an hour or so to look through the list of panels and decide what ones you would like to attend. Then do the same things with the parties that you have already signed up for.  Repeat for any vendors that you plan to meet. Once that’s done put it into a sheet that you can work off of. All of these activities will happen in different areas in the city so each day select something from your schedule as must do and work around that. Also be ready for the unexpected to happen like a lunch meeting or unconference that pops up that will throw off your routine.

Pack comfy shoes – A pair of shoes that are comfortable and made for walking are the most important thing that you can pack for SXSW. You’ll be doing a shit-ton of walking and the last thing you want is aching feet.

A-B-C… always be charging – As you probably know smartphone batteries like to die quickly. Chances are you’ll be using services like foursquare, Twitter, Facebook or Path to be keeping in touch with folks and share some of your knowledge. To make sure that your phone is ready to use when you want it, be sure to keep an eye on the battery meter and an eye out for open outlets wherever you are. Since there will be a ton of folks looking for the same thing you might want to consider packing a small multi-outlet strip (Amazon Affiliate link). My friend Doug Haslam likes to call them instant friend makers and you can see why.

Remember why you are there – if you are attending the conference, there is a really good chance that you were sent by your company. So you probably have goals that your boss has in mind. Since you are there for business in some way shape or form, be sure to keep your goals top of mind. Also remember who you’re representing when chatting with folks at the parties.

Connections are more important than being seen – A lot is made at SXSW about the parties and who is where at what time. Now I love parties as much as the next guy but found more value in having more intimate conversations and get togethers. Not only was it easier on my vocal chords (no yelling needed), but it also helped spark better conversation and led to longer-lasting relationships. Now don’t get me wrong, the parties are worth going to, but take them in moderation.

Explore – the city of Austin is beautiful and has a lot of hidden gems. Many of the hotspots will have long lines to get in or are over-crowded. Take a step off the beaten path and you’re sure to find a place that you’ll fall in love with that wouldn’t have experienced staying on the set map of SXSW approved map.

To get to your Insights click on the "Insights" link on the left hand side of your fan page

If you manage a Facebook page for a company, entity or personal blog you are probably aware that Facebook has rolled out a new Insights tool. Instead of the bare bones metrics from the old Insights tool, the new tool offers more data than most folks truthfully need.

If you aren’t into crunching numbers, the main Insights page for your brand is probably more than enough as you can see where new fans are coming from, reach of your wall posts and people talking about you. However if you want to go under the hood and pull up some custom reports simply plug a date range into the export box and download page or post-level data. The page level data has over 50 tabs for you to sift through. With all that data in place, it is easy to get lost and wonder what is really important to you. While I can’t give an exact answer to this question as everyone’s key performance measures are different, I can offer some that I find useful.

Click the export data box to get the full Insights for your page

Overall Reach – this shows you how many impressions your posts are seen in a given month. This can be broken down by organic (impressions generated from fan page posts), viral (impressions generated by people sharing or interacting with a brand’s content) and paid (impressions generated by ads). To get this metric you can tally up the total number of impressions for each category in the Key Metrics tab (columns R, U & X) on the data export. You can also do a daily average by looking at the 28-day numbers.

People Talking About Your Brand – these metrics show you how many people are actively talking about your brand. When I look at the numbers, I break these folks into two buckets. The first are the content creators; these users are proactively creating content on a brand page. Now while this might sound like a good thing as people are generating content on your page, it can also be a bad thing as these fans might be coming to your page for support. If you aren’t offering social support or are trying to dedicate additional resources it would be smart to track the amount of support calls coming in compared to other types of user generated content. The second bucket is content participants, these users are engaged with your content and offer comments or likes to the posts you tirelessly prepare.

Opt-out Rate – to get this metric you look at the amount of new fans added in a month in comparison to the fans who have decided to “unlike” your page. You can pull these numbers from the Key Metrics tab in columns I and J. While it doesn’t tie to specific users opting out of your page, you can still take a look at the percentage of users churning out of your community compared to those opting in. If I were a betting man, I would wager that you should see the number of opt-outs at a much lower clip than that of your email marketing list.

New Fan Drivers – you can find this data in the export sheet, but it’s much easier to look at it in the main Insights dashboard. Sure the metrics are basic, but at the end of the day it is always great to show the business where your new fans are, especially if you are pushing for prominence on your company’s site.

Post Efficiency – this data is great to see what content resonates with your audience. You can pull this data from the post-level data export. Once downloaded be sure to look at the talking about, reach and engaged users for each post and then look at the top performers. What time were they posted, what kind of content was it, etc. From there it is all about optimizing and testing so that you can get the maximum bang for your buck in the content space.

While it might not seem like much, looking at these five metrics each month can really assist you in keeping an objective eye on your program and giving you data that is sure to resonate with your executives. I know that there are many other metrics that can be gleaned from Facebook’s insights aside from these; I’d love to hear what you are measuring.

Key takeaways include:

• What can be measured
• All measurement is not equal
• Evolving your metrics
• Tracking sales to your social interactions

If you are like me, you’ve probably played around with a number of these new networks and had to decide whether or not they are right for you or your business. Don’t try to quantify the amount of time that you spend in this research phase because it will make your head spin and probably make you sick.

As you bucket these networks into winners and losers, you’re sure to have a few that are on the fringe of either being really awesome or being a complete waste of time. So it takes an honest effort to give these networks a try. I typically have a handful of these up live and have honed into four that I am really going to give the ol’ college try this year.

Buffer App – It is really easy to get caught up in the instant gratification of Twitter and share impulsively. I know I have and I’m sure you have, too. If you think you haven’t, log onto your public stream and look for quick bursts of Tweets sharing news stories or blog posts. Buffer lets you add stories to a queue that publishes the stories at set intervals. It also allows you to go back and change the stories that you have lined up if you did an impulse share, almost like an undo button that isn’t available on Twitter.

Path – I am not going to lie, but Path is quickly becoming one of my favorite apps. It is a location-based network that offers personal sharing and intimate networks, kind of like a hybrid of Facebook and foursquare mixed with a close circle. In keeping my network small, I’ve been able to have more meaningful conversations and relationships with the folks that I’ve connected with.

GetGlue – I have been playing with this application now for the past nine months and really can’t make heads or tails of it. I like the check-in functionality for TV shows, books, movies and music; but really haven’t seen much more benefit to it aside from the stickers for the users. If I were in the TV industry I would be on this like flies on poop, but I’m not so seeing the number of folks who love a program really doesn’t speak to me. This is the one on the list that I am hoping the most for because it could really add real-time feedback on shows to help a viewer decide if they are missing out on some jokes on a show or if the show is just not funny.

Pinterest – Despite all the hype around Pinterest right now including the traffic volume that it sends to sites, I am still relatively new to the site. Actually I have only been on the site for a few weeks mostly on the urging (or was it pity and peer pressure?) from my friend Gini Dietrich. On one hand I like that I can store a bunch of cool pictures and marketing graphs instead of cutting and pasting links in a word doc. To me it’s more curation than social ecosystem.

What applications are you currently evaluating to see if they are humps or dumps? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

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