Conversation Agent

Community and Service

When I write about customer conversations I hold the memory not just of my experiences, but those of the customer service professionals I've had the privilege of working with and meeting during my career. It's only fair to make the conversation balanced from the start. This is very personal.

In August 2000, a group of 101 passionate, vocal, curious, interested people gathered in Denver, Colorado for what is to this day the most remarkable community @ work experience I've ever had. Consider that my education was based on group-work from a very early age. It was the defining moment on community.

For me to explain on this blog how one creates a community - which I will do in the coming weeks - I need to start from this moment in time. What I'm about to share is probably the simplest and most influential manifesto on community I've read to date. It was penned by Alan Webber and Bill Taylor, founding editors of Fast Company magazine.

Community.

Most magazines think of themselves as publications. We think of Fast Company as a movement. Most magazines think of their readers as customers. We think of Fast Company readers as members of a community. Most magazines aspire to nothing more than maximum circulation. Our main aspiration at Fast Company is simple: Serving as trusted agent, we want to help as many people as possible play and win in the new economy.

To do that we must be as inclusive as possible, as welcoming as possible, and as supportive as possible And ultimately, we must introduce as many like-minded people as possible to each other so that, as a community, we can help each other live smarter, better, and more-satisfying work lives. We must work with, talk with, and listen to the Company of Friends - one of the most amazing grassroots organizations in the history of publishing. CoF takes the promise of the new economy and the heart of Fast Company - and makes it real. Its slogan could easily be: "We're all friends here. We just haven't been introduced yet." By joining together in communities and companies around the world, the CoF spreads the ideas and practices that are the taproot of the new economy.

How will the new economy evolve?

How will CoF grow and change over time?

How can Fast Company continue to spark valuable, instructive, and important conversations among the members of this rapidly growing community?

Together we'll find out! And the movement will continue to spread.

The Company of Friends (CoF) was supposed to have broken the mold of business as usual in magazine publishing. In 2002, the community counted 165 local groups in 35 countries for a total of 42,000 members (some say 44,000, I prefer to be conservative on the numbers). Thanks to the ability to meet each other online and off line, CoF members over the years have:

• gotten jobs (in Philadelphia we still have a thriving Career Transitions group that meets regularly)
• found employees
• started companies together
• built a social network in record time when moving to a new city
• obtained publishing contracts
• even got married with people met through the network

But it wasn't just beneficial to members. The magazine benefited from the connections - often members brought their friends and colleagues at events who did not know about or read Fast Company, thus helping gain new subscribers and fans. Our events with Wharton Business School, LeBow College of Business, and Fox School of Business were attended by CEOs and executive vice presidents - they were at that level.

We had a good mix of in person events and online discussions. It does sound a lot like the conversations we're having on social media today, doesn't it? Pity that Fast Company ultimately decided it wanted to be a magazine, just when the rest of the world was starting to vote in favor of community.

Reclaiming that place and consideration after inattention and neglect is a hard task indeed. Especially since many of the curators and known community members have moved on to other communities - and, ironically, other publications.

This is very personal because I was there - in Denver, and in the capacity of community curator - and so were most of the Fast Company editorial teams and many of the people I consider mentors. Bill Strickland (also see this post), Mike Abrashoff, Craig Newmark, Amy Jo Kim, and Dan Hanson. It worked because the idea was to join together and make something happen.

Why wouldn't your service providers do that? Why wouldn't they learn to work together? This is the question we're exploring today at Fast Company expert blog. The companies that will figure out how to do that will be getting ahead even in tight economic times.

If there is one promise that can be fulfilled is that of people taking the time to speak with other people so they can solve customer problems and elevate the customer experience. Does your FriendFeed work with your Twitter, with your blog RSS, with your bookmarking services? The tools are there. Can the people get on board? What do you think?

FriendFeed: the Friends of Friends

One of the aspects I love most about being online is the spirit of community that comes across in conversations - even as we talk with perfect strangers. There are plenty of strangers in my FriendFeed - mostly friends of either Robert Scoble or Mariela de Marchi (on the other side of the pond). Both Scoble and de Marchi are curious and interested and so are their friends. And that is good for me.

I am contradicting a point I listed a long time ago, one that got Stephen Baker's attention at Business Week. Sales as pull-only has its allure, but as Baker pointed out, loosening our reins to receiving more than we ask for does expand our network of friends and knowledge. This is why I am starting to enjoy the opportunities of FriendFeed.

The concept of FriendFeed is quite simple. You add disparate accounts across blogs and social networking services, and Friendfeed aggregates them so your friends can follow what you’re doing. The interface is clean, and using it is easy. The new design allows you to separate your various subscriptions into groups. The new feature launched in mid September with a most requested addition - detection of duplicates, or related stories.

If conversations are fragmented, then a smarter aggregator, one that shows what people (and their friends) are working on in a threaded format, can help you keep track better. If you were to be looking to track certain conversations or detect patterns and pockets of interest, this is the tool to see that. I should point out that the majority (but not all) of what comes through FriendFeed consists of tweets, some of them with additional comments made directly inside FriendFeed.

While for many the jury is still out on what is so special about FriendFeed, there are three reasons why I find it useful and relevant (and this is valid of individual use and company use):

(1) It provides a 360 view of someone's online activity. Because it is designed to aggregate feeds from different tools - for example, Twitter, Flickr, Delicious, Google Reader, blogs RSS, Digg and Stumble Upon activity, etc. - you get a better feel of someone's social media imprint, tone, voice, attitude, including yours. What is the sum total of those impressions?

On the company side, it gives you the opportunity to see people respond to the conversation in real time. A recent example of that interaction is the Pepsi Cooler, a room Pepsi started upon the launch of their product's new logo.

The room provided a place for those who were curious as to the selection criteria of the initial group of bloggers for the outreach to make themselves heard, as an example. With the use of hash tags and the ability to see comments in aggregate, the Pepsi team is able to gage interest and the temperature of the conversation. FriendFeed entries run fairly high on Google searches as well - and the tool is free. Think about that.

(2) It shines a light over international discussions. While I have many Italian, Belgian, Australian and French professionals in my Twitter stream, their activity is drowned by the sheer volume of American chatter. Ever since I have been paying more attention to FriendFeed, I've been able to see the activities and conversations of my Italian network, for example, which makes very good use of the tool. Images, reports, and discussions all neatly captured in threads that on the Twitter surface would seem unrelated and disjointed.

I am biased, so I say that upfront. Italians know how to do conversation and they have a really nice network of friends of friends. From my USA colleagues there are only a couple who stand out for their network, Robert Scoble (link above) and Louis Gray.

Now imagine being able to see what the friends of friends like and say in the context of a product or service.

(3) It's full of surprises. A friend of a friend may post something quite interesting that I would never in a million years have thought of looking for and there is more than one dimension that is beyond broadcasting. For some reason it reminds me of conversations you strike when on a train in Italy or as you wait in line at a store - casual can mean interesting. If a thread strikes a chord, it will keep bubbling up in the stream, intact for you to catch up on hours later.

FriendFeed seems to be mostly about discovering and discussing content. I have seen some of my posts shared on Google Reader and "liked" - feedback I would have not otherwise had. Likewise, I have found it easier to share links to favorites with my comments from a variety of feeds.

Because the model allows you to see the activity of friends of friends, you have the ability to meet new people constantly, especially if your friends are Scoble and de Marchi. I have been gravitating more towards FriendFeed as of late. The pace is not as frantic as that of Twitter, and the conversations that are getting attention remain there for me to catch up with later in the day.

Do you use FriendFeed? What makes it worthwhile for you? If not, why aren't you?

Is There Life After Marketing?

It's that time of the year when companies are generally in one of two speeds: (1) use it or lose it, the budget; (2) slow down, the year is done. With the economy slowing everything down, in fact some things to almost a grinding halt, we are left with number 1. And if you are a marketing (or a communications) professional you know what or rather who is number 1 - it's not you.

Social media and your networks can help

This is an opportunity to regroup and take stock. I promise this one is a very good investment. The title is a little imprecise - everything anyone does when in business is marketing. Heavens, courting someone is marketing.

Marketing gets a bad rap, people think it's about the little brochures and sell sheets, then there is a larger conversation around demand creation, which culminates with the most expansive view of all - your business is marketing.

Yesterday at Web Strategy by Jeremiah we were talking about the difficulty companies are having with influencial and popular people in their midst - what we call personal brands. We've talked about it before, personal brand equity is for rent, only.

Opportunities for companies in this environment

Jeremiah outlined some perceived risks: (1) the personal brand is a cost to the company; (2)  the now popular employee is likely to get poached; (3) employee exits leaving a chasm to fill. I see them more as opportunities.

Opportunity 1: employees who have good karma and reputation in the marketplace are in fact making the company look smart for hiring them. They have connections, networks and processes to share and a pulse of what is going on outside. We all know you need more of those in your ranks.

Opportunity 2: the truth about competitors poaching someone is a bit more complex. I've worked in extremely specialized industries - insurance/financial services and chemical manufacturing - and I know that even in those industries, people need to be highly motivated to switch - and it's not about the pay. But it becomes about the pay if you handcuff doers to their desk or micro manage them. So don't.

Opportunity 3: I've heard this from more than one manager so I'll consider it a mini focus group - they think anyone can do your job, you are replaceable. Of course, everyone probably knows it's not true, but it's true enough in the way they deal with you. This is bad karma for your interactions. Intention shows and comes true. The reality is that we are creatures of habit, people move (almost) only when they have to. 

We are portable, wherever we go there we are. Why wrap your head before it's broken? I say when we stay flexible and adapt - on both sides - we win.

Dear company:

• Think bigger - the whole business is marketing. Today's content-intensive micro interactions can benefit from a good scrub of all those practices that detract from what customers want and need. Your whole employee base is a community with voices, why do you insist in trying to control them? Why not educate and help them (those who want to, of course) shine? This is the face of the company. It sounds a lot like groundswell, doesn't it?

• Embrace your stars and if you have too few of them, shame on you. Where is your succession planning? Where are your mentors? There are people out there in social media taking one on the chin for you, when was the last time you thanked them?

• Let your customers be heard. This is the point Jeremiah makes that fascinates me the most. We've been talking about customer evangelists for several years and then we added the concept of citizen marketers - thank you Ben and Jackie.

All of these points are related to one simple concept - let it go. It's easier to carry the torch if there's a team helping out, and it's ok if they interpret how they carry it along the way. We all have many friends and they often are very different, allowing you to cast a very wide net, wider than the best of lists. This is organic, word of mouth and viral all rolled into one. I thought I'd throw in a few choice keywords to get your attention.

Dear colleague:

Is there life after marketing? Instead of worrying about your personal brand as an end in and of itself, build your skills, remain curious and engaged, help your community and colleagues grow and learn, be responsive to those in need, and stay hungry. Leading brands lead. I know it's not that simple, have faith in yourself and you will find it's true. I believe in you.

Here are a few choice quotes from colleagues' comments to Jeremiah's post:

Adam Singer: Smart people are not necessarily motivated by ‘more money’ - perhaps by more freedom. You would probably have lost that person regardless if you try and tell them what they can and can’t do.

Matt Dickman: I’ve built a personal brand from zero through blogging and used it to move into a better position with better opportunities. I think trying to lock somebody down will either frustrate them to leave or cause them to go rogue. Why not empower them, set clear guidelines to protect yourself, but use them as the marketing asset they are.

Beth Kanter: Most nonprofits react by keeping the marketing faceless and “institutional voice” which can be stodgy, formal, boring, and cold. If they move past that, they typically have the recipient of their services be the brand or face - or the person’s stories … stories of the impact of the nonprofit services on one person or one puppy are more powerful and can inspire donations. So, why change that?

Robert Swanwick: The glass is definitely half-full. More information and more liquidity creates a much more efficient market. Embrace it. If you don’t want someone to leave then find out if what motivates them is also good for your company. If it is, do it.

Geoff Livingston: A person does not have a brand, they have a reputation. Intelligent management avoids the Scoble personality dominating a social media situation. At the same time companies should allow people to be brilliant.

BL Ochman: Scoble did more good for Microsoft than any of their advertising or marketing before or since. And he built his personal brand in the process. I think that was a win/win.

Christen Dybenko: Tools like Get Satisfaction make it easy for a “lone ranger” in a big company to step up and start listening regardless of whether or not the company is on board.

Alex, aka SocialButterfly: Someone in this thread brought up, “what if a company provides a brand that people WANT to use as their personal brand?” I think Dentsu does a great job of this, and it is re-enforced by their entrepreneurial type of business model. However, the whole branding of the company is interesting. Employees can choose their own “color,” almost like a personality, so that the company becomes them and they become the company, yet Dentsu itself still maintains the umbrella brand.

Fayza: My boss recognizes the risks you mention above. Sure, some succumb to them. He has hired smart people, and intelligent people are always looking to grow and develop themselves professionally. He even acknowledges that sooner or later, this grouping of intelligent people will probably fly out of his nest. So he invests in us as people, and tries to make us the best we can be, as individuals.

As a result, and speaking from my own observations, we are incredibly loyal to our boss and this company - and each other. He doesn’t try to stifle us; he wants us to reach our maximum potentials at his company and beyond. We know he cares about our personal growth - how many employees can say that about their bosses? We are lucky that he takes the time to invest in us as much as he does the company. We know we are his most valuable resources.

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What do you think? Are you regrouping and preparing for the next phase in your career? Is your company actively involved in helping you grow and learn? Are you involved in social media on behalf of your company? Do you weigh the risks of joining a company that has a bad brand in the marketplace? Is your personal involvement in social media allowing you to shift your focus from one career to another?

[many thanks to Matt Clark at Image Designs for my new Twitter splash page]

What if Customers Were the Service? II

More than one year ago I posed the question to Fast Company readers. It was one of the posts that got some of the more interesting comments. Admittedly, at the time my posts also got some visibility on the site - I cannot remember the last time any of them was linked to from any of the sections of the new "community" site. At this juncture, I am a customer of the magazine who volunteers to give it visibility through this site.

I was revisiting with the comments to that post - all legitimate parts of a larger conversation:

• Companies should care about providing support and service to their customers. And we should keep score of who does by voting with our money. No better way to provide feedback than through action. We should also recommend those companies to our family and friends. I have been practicing this for years.

• Culture can be the salvation of companies. It's ironic that such an intangible could potentially help turn around a company and the experience you have of it. It starts with being truthful and honest with each other as employees and continues in the conversation with customers.

• Opportunities exist to help facilitate conversations around hobbies and passions. Use them. Remember the Long Tail. Liz in the comments said: "retailers such as Best Buy would do well to take a cue from the Borders and B&N models of encouraging customer interaction with book clubs, etc. In addition to helping facilitate user groups and discussions -- both planned and informal -- they could no doubt get manufacturer sponsorship and participation." The Hobby Guy agreed 110%.

• Worry less about competitors and more about making your customers happy. It is well documented that if your idea is any good, you will have to spend years pitching it to anyone who will listen to make it happen. Why not try it out yourself and see? The greatest risk is doing nothing and having your customers walk out unhappy to go elsewhere.

• How about giving karma points to customers who are helpful to other customers? From Tommy's comment, a great story: 

"I have had the same experience in Best Buy and wondered the same thing. In my case I was there to pick up a check 4 port network switch for home and noticed a blurry-eyed customer 'wandering' up and down the network gear aisles. I asked him what he was looking for and he said he was trying to share his home DSL connection wirelessly. I walked him through several choices for how to do it, gave him suggestions for brands based on personal experience and even drew the connections out for him on a piece of paper. In about 10 minutes, he knew what he needed to buy and made the purchase. I'm sure a Best Buy staffer could have helped as well, but he said he'd been there for 30 minutes and received no help. They should encourage this type of peer-to-peer support and maybe give the person who helped out a discount card or something. Sorta like Karma points in the open source world."

• Interdependencies abound in the current economic environment. Peer recommendations are often the point of entry into a new customer's life for a brand. Staying in people's lives is then the work of the companies that produce and sell that product - it comes down to service. There is no amount of convincing you will ever do if your performance in that department is lacking. Today at Fast Company expert blog we discuss how to be innovative in customer conversations.

There are many new media tools where the customers are in fact the service. As I'm learning to use FriendFeed, I am seeing more and more evidence of peer support for customer service issues in the discussion threads. When TypePad was acting up, it was people in my Twitter network who helped first, for example.

If I were a company, I would look to strengthen my relationships with customers - listening and participating to the conversation they are having about your brand would be a fine step. What else would you recommend? Are you doing business with companies that are seeking new ways to be helpful?

Are You Getting Engaged?

When was it not a good idea to talk with your customers as if your business depended on it? How is it ever possible to go a whole day without being of service to someone? Why would you not share tips, advice, and learning with your team? Where exactly was it deemed acceptable to base your conduct on anything but honesty and ethics?

We end up having incredible discussions around tools, with little time left over to talk about the reason why we use them - to connect.

Social media is about building relationships - starting with your customers, business partners, influencers and their networks, communities of practice, fans and critics, etc. It's not like the shotgun approach to marketing, it's like the focused, appropriate conversation with those who wish to talk with you. In some cases they already are telling you what you want to know, if you are listening.

Are you getting engaged? In this sense, we give what we get, and we get what we give.

[image of the blogosphere circa 2007, courtesy of Matthew Hurst]

Twitter is a Social Network

We are the atoms within it. All living things exchange meaningful signals. They engage in conversations expressed in languages of form and color, chemicals, behavior, and sound rather that words and sentences.

We do like that form of a constant stream because it so mirrors life. In some ways, even though it is digital and searchable, it is also forgiving - our short bursts do have an expiration after all.

By paring down our own interactions at micro levels to a mere 140 characters, it is easier to think of and see us as social atoms, a term physicist Mark Buchanan uses to wrap around the understanding of human behavior and the social world. I wonder what he would make of the massive ongoing conversation that is Twitter.

Twitter encourages and engages certain features of our nature that are essential to our social lives. It also helps visualize social patterns and regularities, which humans are very good at picking up. This is important to those who are looking to Twitter for marketing purposes. These features are:

• the adaptive - we take a step based upon a rule, an idea, or a belief and then adjust based upon the outcome. Our behavior is governed more by trial and error than by deduction. We recognize patterns, make predictions, and then adapt. Our decisions are typically made on the fly. Don't you find yourself saying to others who have not tried Twitter that the only way to "get it" is to be participating? That is true for other forms of social networking, but it is especially true of micro interactions.
  

• the imitating - we are not isolated nomads, but, rather, individuals who regularly seek information from others, especially in circumstances of insecurity, ambiguity or danger. There are plenty of those circumstances around today.

That is also why we gravitate towards digital water holes like Twitter. "Social cascades" often result because of this propensity -- behavior becomes more attractive the more people do it. This can go to good ends, think about the Frozen Pea Fund and how enjoyable that made Fridays with all those creative avatars to signal our support.

• the cooperative - human beings are naturally not purely self-interested but, rather, "strong reciprocators." Think also back to the teachings of psychologist Robert Cialdini. We are capable of genuine kindness to those beyond family and friends and we also display righteous indignation toward free riders and those who violate the canons of justice.

According to Buchanan and the authors from whom he draws, these features of our nature emerged not through individual competition within groups--such competition favors selfish traits--but via competition between different (cultural) groups. Dare I say tribes? I smile as I think back to the color teams last holiday season.

People cannot be understood in isolation, and then summed together. Social reality emerges inherently from the collective patterns born of their interactions. Twitter is a map of several social networks that intersect and overlap long enough to give us a glimpse of threads appearing in other quasi conversations.

Yes, there is a danger to be misunderstood with such brevity. A meme can really gain momentum with the ease of a wild fire when imitating is engaged. It can be downright fascinating to see our adaptive nature at work. The most amazing conversations happen when we are cooperative and supportive of one another - for fun and for real.

Twitter is not for everyone. It may work for you some of the time. I find it superficial and arbitrary, and downright noisy at times. Then again, this can be said for just about any medium, and many physical situations - bazaars, airports, train stations, events. It's in the moments when it works, when it engages those certain features of nature, that it expresses the social of the network, that it connects the people and the ideas.

Has your participation on Twitter changed over time? Why did you join? What makes you stick with it?

[PN 35-07 atoms. Hydrogen breakthrough could open the road to carbon-free cars. Credit: EPSRC]

Why Start a Blog and 25 Tips to Make it Work

Today I'm presenting at a local association for small business owners about blogging for your business with Chris Krewson, Executive Editor for Online News, Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Daily News (Chris on Twitter, me on Twitter, just in case you're there). I like the idea of being paired with a journalist, it will keep me on my best writing behavior, verbally. 

To me the first question that needs answering about starting any social media or network activity is that of why - why start a blog? In my post how a blog is born I shared a graphic on the emergence and rise of mass social media. It described in visual form the shift to consumer control, pull, and its network effect.

For businesses especially, people have come to expect that you have a Web presence. But, when they research you or your type of business, they prefer to read what others are saying about you, or they want to see you in action - read how you solve problems, what kind of expertise you have, etc.

Sure, newsletters and testimonial ads still get the word out on your good work. They are not going to go away. But they are one way communications - from you to your customers and prospects.  Send one too many newsletters by email and they might skip it, or think it's spam even when they granted you permission to send it in the first place (remember to ask). On the other hand, some people prefer receiving information by email - you can still do that with a blog.

Blogs allow you to:

• provide topical and relevant information and resources regularly, become an appointment
• receive feedback from your readers and engage them in discussion that are relevant to them
• distribute your content more widely thanks to Google and the larger business community online

They allow your readers and customers to:

• receive regular updates from you when and if they want them
• share the resources and tips you provide with their network
• find you through search thanks to keywords and tags that describe their problem

Chances are your customers are more connected and in more ways today than they used to be. A blog will get you more Google juice and allow you to differentiate yourself from any other business with a little bit of work and personality on your part. Follow this link to the marketing genius of one guy with a video camera and a passion for wines and you will find Gary Vaynerchuk. Results? Gary has attracted a cult-like following of more than 80,000 viewers a day.

Gary works very hard at his short videos and blog. If you're ready to make that kind of commitment to your customers and prospects, then go ahead and get started. Blogging is much more inexpensive than any form of advertising you may do. But it requires time and attention. Are you willing to give it both?

So now that you know why, how do you make it work?

25 Tips to Make Blogging Work for Your Business

1/ Find the domain name. If you already have a Web site, find a way to attach your blog to your business site. The next best thing is might seem that of owning the domain name (dot com preferably) that is descriptive of your business. In fact, the next best thing might be using your own name for your blog. People already know that.

So go ahead and buy it on GoDaddy.com, mydomain.com, Register.com, PacNames.com and Dotcalmdomains.com (update: see special offer in the comments), for example.

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2/ Figure out what blogging tool would work best for you. There are at least two camps on tools - those who prefer self-hosted, and those who prefer a hosted tool. It really depends on what you are comfortable with and where you gravitate.

I'm a writer, not a designer, so I went with a hosted option that is customizable easily - I use TypePad by SixApart. If you prefer more control, SixApart makes Movable Type, which is the platform many blogs use - for example Marketing Profs Daily Fix where I also contribute, uses Movable Type. Many businesses and bloggers prefer WordPress - Marketing 2.0 was built on a WordPress theme. For expert advice on this platform I recommend Lorelle VanFossen, who has literally written the book on WordPress. Of course, you can always go with a free tool - Blogger.

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3/ Tell your readers about you. Use the about function of your blog template wisely to capture the essence of what you help people do and your experience. Because this is for a blog, strike a good balance between business speak and human voice, it will serve you well.

For more ideas on the about page, read Chris Brogan's post.

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4/ Register your blog to begin spreading the word. I would wait to iron the kinks out and get comfortable with it, especially to know if blogging is for you. You might also wait until you write a few posts and build content before you publicize it. It will help people subscribe to your feed if they have a small selection of posts to read.

Register the blog at FeedBurner to provide RSS (learn more about what RSS is) and email feeds for people to pull your content. Although less popular than it used to be, Technorati is also used to search for content (tags are important for this service). The more important registrations are with the search engines, especially Google and Yahoo, but also MSN search and Dmoz.org. Your submissions to those sites are free. The most valuable function online is search - make sure you are indexed so you can be found.

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5/ Create a blogroll or a resource section. If you have blogs you read regularly and utilize in your business, or think your customers would enjoy learning from, list them on your blog. I broke down my blogroll into topical categories, the themes I talk about in the content of my posts, what I am passionate about. A blogroll is generous in two ways - it allows the people you link to to find your blog, and it allows your readers to expand their knowledge by finding other blogs you recommend.

New media is about linking.

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6/ Link out from your blog as much as needed/possible. Take for example this post. There are a lot of smart people in my network who have written great posts on some of these topics. Bookmark their great posts and refer to them when you write about that topic. This is also good blogging etiquette and you do want to be a good neighbor online.

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7/ Comment on other blogs and sites. This is not only an opportunity for exposure and link placement, it's also a way to be generous and participate in the business community. Leaving comments is akin to networking actively in the off line world.

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8/ Give people ways to share your content. I've had little luck with it because I installed it when TypePad was launching a new composer page in beta, but people are very happy with social bookmarking plugins like Share This.

You can become an active promoter of other people's ideas, and in turn receive visibility, on Stumble Upon, Digg, and Reddit.

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9/ Give people ways to engage with you. The most obvious one is to open the comments function. If you decide to moderate comments, which is perfectly understandable, make sure you stay on top of it. People will come back to see their comment posted. In the rare event that you decide not to post a comment for some reason, make sure you reach out to the person who left it by email (required to comment) first. Also, write a comments policy and post it on the site.

For a good example of a comments policy see the one on the sidebar at Jeremy Pepper's blog. Customize the content to fit your purpose, style, etc.

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10/ Use a robust search function on your blog. I use Lijit, which performs searches on the sum total of my online content. Google search button (javascript) is also good, as well as other custom search buttons. The point is to allow people to search for a topic directly on your blog instead of coming to it from an outside search engine, where you registered.

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11/ Sign up for an RSS aggregation service. This is so you can stay on top of the blogs and online publications you read by syndication. I use Google Homepage. Many prefer Google Reader, or use Delicious, Bloglines, and even FriedFeed (instead of individual RSS you add individual accounts here, which include more than just the blog RSS).

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12/ Listen to what people are saying about you. There are many tools you can use to monitor the conversation. I use Google Alerts with my name, the name of my blog, and also topics that are of interest to me.

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13/ Publicize your blog to your network by printing the URL on your business cards, posting it on LinkedIn, Facebook, your Twitter account, including it in your email signature, in your newsletter - you get the idea.

A great resource to learn more about online tools and networks is Matt Dickman at Techno//Marketer.

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14/ Install analytic software to track traffic sources. I use Google Analytics, which is free. Another great free tool is Quantcast, which boasts 10M of directly measured web properties. This specific tool will also help you in case you decide to sell advertising on your site as it allows people to define an audience and measure your site on that basis.  

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15/ Create timely and useful content. This is worth a mention. As business-savvy professionals, you already know that newsletters and articles help you grow your business because they allow you to show your expertise. Blogs are no different. Take this post, for example, you can bookmark it and refer to it as you are building your social media presence, you can share it with colleagues and business associates. The same rings true for your own great content.

Consider the search engine optimization (SEO) value of your content as well. To learn more about SEO, I recommend the work of Jon Wuebben. There are entire blogs and sites dedicates to SEO.

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16/ Consider using audio, video and rich media. Different people learn and respond to media differently. If you'd like to start your own radio show, check out BlogTalkRadio, for example. It's free and it will allow you to interact with your audience by way of comments. My good friend Toby Bloomberg hosts a show on marketing topics there.

You may also want to try podcasts. My friend Anna Farmery at The Engaging Brand hosts the most useful collection of podcasts on branding. For tips on video blogging tools, read this post by Christina Laun on 100 tools, resources, and free software packages. I have used iMovie on my iMac to make short videos.

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17/ Create opportunities to meet face to face. Blogging can lead to many more opportunities to meet professionals face to face. Whenever you travel, you should be able to reach out to people you have met online at that destination. Think about opportunities at events you attend or speak at. Publicize that event on your blog and invite people from that area to contact you so you can meet at the venue.

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18/ Make it easy for people to contact you. I am still amazed at how in this day and age many sites, blogs included, do not have information on how to contact someone. Include your email, phone number, office location, anything that will make it easy for people to find you.

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19/ Post consistently and regularly. You do not need to post every day to make an impression. However, you will want to set expectations for your readers that there will be a consistent flow of content for them to read. Decide how frequently you will be able to post, then stick to it. This is a promise you make and it will be easier to keep if you announce it openly. It will also help you be disciplined about writing.

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20/ Keep a scrap book for ideas. One of the concerns many business owners have, aside from the learning curve on technology, is their ability to come up with content ideas. Keep a file, or a notebook, where you jot down thoughts after business conversations. Write down the questions people ask you and post about your thoughts to share with your readers. Ask questions yourself. Talk about how you solve problems.

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21/ Run polls and surveys at your blog. Also contests, games - these are all great ways to engage your readers and learn more about what they think or worry about. I use Poll Daddy, a free survey and poll tool. Free Blog Poll and Blog Poll are also good tools. For surveys, you may use Zoomerag or Survey Monkey, for example.

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22/ Use graphics and photographs that add to the content. There are some sites that offer free charts with data and research like eMarketer, Marketing Charts, Compete, and of course analyst blogs and sites often provide great charts and research. For photographs, browse Flickr (consider creating your own account there as well) for images licensed under a Creative Commons license. You can also buy great images for a few dollars at iStockphoto.

When properly tagged and indexed, these images will also drive traffic to your blog. Of course, you can have your own graphics and charts. In that case, I would add the URL of your blog in small type right in the chart or graphic so that people who use or share it will find it easier to attribute it back to you. A great example of visual imagery are the illustrations by Critical Mass agency VP and blogger David Armano.

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23/ Write compelling titles that will make people want to read. Take a look at your feed reader and see what attracts you. That would be a good gage of what looks interesting. All the same rules of apply here as they do for articles. Lists are always catchy. Revealing secrets, lessons, reasons why. Teaching "how to" do something, explaining why are all good ideas. 

For more ideas on headlines, read this post.

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24/ Include a call to action. If you want people to take an action, go ahead and ask. Be honest and transparent and if you provide value, people will not have a problem referring you or taking the next step. Just make sure you balance that with great content and engagement. 

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25/ Have fun! This should go without saying, but as business professionals, we can get too caught up with the professional side and spend less time showing our human side. People buy from people they like and a blog is an excellent medium to let others get to know you in a more informal way.

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What would you add? Please feel free to point to resources, tools, ideas I missed. This will help small business owners get the most out of their blogs and online relationships. 

[image by Valeria Maltoni, ConversationAgent.com]

LinkedIn Brings Utility to Your Network

A couple of days ago I received a message from the LinkedIn team where they announced they were adding ways to interact with your network on LinkedIn. Whether it’s a new way to create projects and collaborate, share information, customize your profile, or gain key insights, the new LinkedIn Applications deliver.

These open social installations or applications will enable you to:

Work collaboratively with your network.

• Box on LinkedIn: Share files and collaborate with your network.
• Huddle on LinkedIn: Private workspaces to collaborate with your network on projects.

Share information and keep up to date with your network.

• Amazon on LinkedIn: Discover what your network is reading.
• TripIt on LinkedIn: See where your network is traveling.
• SixApart on LinkedIn: Stay up to date with your network’s latest blog posts.

Present yourself and your work in new ways.

• Google Docs on LinkedIn: Embed a presentation on your profile.
• SlideShare on LinkedIn: Share, view and comment on presentations from your network.
• WordPress on LinkedIn: Promote your blog and latest posts.

Gain key insights that will make you more effective.

• Company Buzz by LinkedIn: See what people are saying about your company.

You can add these applications to your profile by selecting them from the directory.

Yesterday we were talking about finding ways to bring utility to your customers at Fast Company. This is a great example of doing just that. I especially like the Huddle idea - being able to work collaboratively with my network. It gives a whole new definition to the question what are you working on?

What about you, what are you planning to use? Has LinkedIn just helped you become more productive?

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Related post:

Business Uses for LinkedIn
Revisiting LinkedIn
Is LinkedIn Working for You?

FEED is About Consumer Behavior

That of the connected consumer. Razorfish new report Meet the Connected Consumer highlights some key observations (hat tip to Kris Hoet):

• “The concept of social networking is evolving and morphing. It’s now about making the 
  entire Web social instead of just creating a ghetto of destination sites where people have to 
  go to socialize.”
• “Distribution must evolve into a science, as reaching consumers in a fragmented, personalized environment will become increasingly complex. ... Major publishers are now forced to completely rethink the way they reach consumers in a fractured distribution environment.”
• “The new experience might be a conversation; it might be a series of decisions made by the user; it might be an interactive storytelling session. ... Don’t limit the vision of a new application by making it conform to your status quo when it’s only just an idea.”

It's about adoption and use, which is where as an organization and a business you can observe behavior and choose to offer a connection with you through distributed content. Some statistics to back this up:

• 28% use Twitter, a relatively new communication tool, with some frequency
• 41% use tag clouds with some regularity
• 52% use RSS feeds with some regularity
• 52% have shared bookmarks with others through services like Delicious
• 55% use widgets on the computer desktop with some frequency
• 62% use widgets on Web sites such as Facebook or iGoogle
• 81% read “Most Popular” or “Most Emailed” links with some frequency (84% receive videos from their peers)

The report finds that connected consumers increasingly rely on peers for product recommendations, and search (primarily Google) to locate products online. This is forcing online retailers, for example, to rethink their strategies—optimizing for search activity, enabling user-generated content and ratings, and creating engaging, valuable digital experiences to differentiate their brand.

It shouldn't be a surprise that human connections are the drivers of technology adoption. Feed is about personalization, distribution, and collaboration.

Someone asked me a question during my last talk at MIMA - how do you create a community? The short answer is that it's not instant, neither it is fast. You need people to get people, and it takes work - seeding and feeding - to reach a network strong enough to create a real, working community. The good news is that we are beginning to notice the efforts of organic marketing. 

Today at Fast Company expert blog I talk about how to connect with the connected customer. How are you going to utilize these tools to connect, establish your credibility, and engage your customers? The Internet allows your content to gain greater distribution in a way that is not controlled by the medium anymore, but by the user.

Are You Monitoring Online Conversations?

If your business has been around for any length of time, you know that knowing what customers think about your service is important. However, customers may be reticent to provide that feedback directly to you - good or bad.

For some reason, we prefer to vent with friends and colleagues. Sometimes those conversations escalate without warning. Perhaps because what you were getting through your customer service line was just a frustrated tone and a couple of hang ups.

Many companies have a process for monitoring conversations. Although there’s no silver bullet, you can use a combination of tools - Radian6, BuzzLogic, Cymphony, Twitter Search, Technorati and Google, for example. Some of these tools are free, some cost in the range of $5,000-30,000 for a single research dip, and some are subscription-based.

I was poking around and stumbled across a post by Ryan*MacMillan that offered a survey of the ten leading online conversation monitoring companies. You may see the table here - as an aside, this is quite a clever way of sharing excel spreadsheets.

I recognized MotiveQuest LLC - Tom O'Brien has been a contributor in this space and his Human Voice is inspiring. I'm also familiar with Radian6. There are other companies I listed when we discussed how to improve your company's reputation online. You may want to take a look at the Social Web Analytics eBook by Philip Sheldrake, which you can download here. In it you can find information about free services along with paid services.

Monitoring is a first step. You then need to figure out your strategy to respond, reach out, and help correct misinformation for your time and effort (and budget) to be worthwhile. Monitoring is also a reactive measure. A much better approach is that of embracing social media.

There are a number of companies that are already active in social media and learning from their customers as a result. Dell has IdeaStorm, Nike has Nike Plus, Ford has Where are the Joneses*, GE is present with Ecomagination, Method blogs at People Against Dirty, Graco shares resources for parents on their Graco Baby blog, and many others. For a more extensive dive, Peter Kim put together a list of social media marketing examples.

Today at Fast Company Expert blog, we discuss how you can own your customer service experience. Do you monitor online conversations about your business and brand? What tools have you found useful?

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Related Posts:

The Distance Between Avoidance and Attention in Customer Service
Improve Your Company's Reputation Online
Reputation, the One Thing You Cannot Really Buy

[* update from Scott Monty at Ford - this site was run until the summer of 2007. Ford gives people the opportunity to submit their own ideas at Ford New Ideas. They also have a forum for owners of the SYNC system (hands-free control of your phone and mp3 player, developed in partnership with Microsoft) called Sync My Ride.]