If you are thinking a college intern would be the perfect person to run your social media marketing program, here are a few points to consider before you post your ad.

1. Loyalty — your project is just one of many things competing for their attention – school, sports, partying.  Sure your job is fun, but so is that party next Friday night.  And if you’ve left monitoring in their hands, who’s there to listen and respond while they are in class?
2. Political savvy — Examples of social media faux pas, even by large, well-established brands that should know better, are much more common than you might expect.  Why? Social media done well is immediate and conversational.  That means whoever you put in the field needs to have an impeccable sense of decorum, an ability to edit oneself before hitting “update”, and a nose for sniffing out potential landmines.  Unless you have someone looking over your intern’s shoulder every minute, it’s better to leave them behind the scenes scripting scheduled updates than conversing with customers.
3. Investment – Interns expect to learn from their experience as much as they give.  You may have the time and interest in taking a student under your wing and mentoring her. But have you considered the long-term view for an intern is typically a school year, just 9 months. All of your investment in your new employee is likely to be lost as soon as the school year ends.
4. Independence – Most college students and young adults are used to working with externally imposed deadlines and supervision. If you are hiring an intern to take the pressure off a more seasoned employee, ask yourself: how much time will you need to spend on supervision and training?
5. Branding – Branding is ingrained into every detail of your product and each interaction of your team.  Your intern needs to learn to speak in your company’s voice, not their own. You are putting a lot of power and responsibility into the hands of your intern. Are they up to the task?
6. Marketing background — Effective social media is part of a larger marketing program. Interns not only are learning to employ social media as a marketing tool, but they are also putting the marketing principles they learned in class into practice for the first time.
7. Company knowledge — Not only does it often take time to get up and running in a basic understanding of your company and how your product is delivered, interns often don’t have the life experience to understand what your customer’s needs and point-of-view. It is unreasonable to expect an intern can just pick it up and run with it.

Bottom line, an intern needs close supervision and guidance as they get their footing. So if you are thinking they’ll take the burden off a busy marketing staff member, think again.  Well done social media takes more thought and effort than throwing an intern at it. Instead of an intern, there are several other affordable avenues you can explore. Give me a call and I’ll be happy share my experience and develop a long-term solution for your social media marketing needs. (1-321-345-3789)

Have you had success in using an intern?  Let me know what worked for you in the comments.

How much time do you study what makes some copy pop and other writers fizzle?  My 5th grader often demonstrates stronger writing principles than many professionals employ. Her recent book report illustrates 8 effective writing techniques for every writer’s tool kit.

Let’s start with the 5th grade copy

Molly Moon’s Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure Book Report
by L.D. (my 5^th grader)

I did my book report on Molly Moon’s Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure. In the book Molly Moon’s companion, Petula, gets kidnapped — or may I say dognapped — by their new gardener. In my scene Molly Moon is looking out her window when Petula is outside and the gardener is petting her and, Poof!, they both disappear. How will Molly solve the mystery?

This book includes…

• Suspense
• Magic
• Dogs
• Adventure
• Mystery
• Evil gardeners

*****

Genre: fantasy fiction
Author: Georgia Byng

Note:
I think that people who like fantasy or fiction would love this series. You should read the one before this one, Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism. This book is around a level T-U. I think whoever wants a good book with action, suspense, dogs, evil gardeners, fantasy, and magic will love this book!

How to write like a 5^th Grader

1. Clearly state your purpose up front
2. No one has to guess what her paper is about.
3. Use an authentic voice
4. Who wants to read a dry explanation when you can chat and learn the same thing?
5. Don’t be afraid to play with punctuation
6. Sure the exclamation after “poof” isn’t technically correct, but it adds drama and energy in just the right place.
7. Use the right words
8. Companion is better than pet. Dognapped is better than stolen. ‘Nuff said.
9. Effectively use humor
10. If you don’t know Petula is a dog, “may I say dognapped,” adds a smile to your face and an invitation to sit beside the writer.
11. Make it short and scannable
12. A list is often better than a paragraph. Variable paragraph styles keep your eye moving down the page.
13. Every writer needs a proofreader
14. The punctuation and capitalization in the original version made it clear that it was written by a 10 year old; don’t let your writing send the same message.
15. Engage your audience
16. How, indeed, will Molly solve the mystery? I certainly want to learn more and if I was a fan of the book, I’d be sure to leave a comment, wouldn’t you?

Which mobile apps work and which miss the mark?

Last week I attended Puget Sound AMA’s monthly luncheon where Scott Townsend of Urban Airship spoke about mobile marketing apps.  Here are a few pointers I gleaned from the presentation:

Why should marketers invest in mobile marketing?

• Mobile is personal – it’s nearly always with you
• It has a built in payment option
• Mobile is plugged into our social network
• And it’s always on – but people not always open to receiving your message

A few points to remember about mobile marketing:

• In the old days advertisers could get to listeners/viewers through a fairly consolidated channel – any TV will play any channel. Now things are much more fragmented – iphone and android never mix.
• 60% of mobile time is spent in apps
• The average app has a one month life soon and are opened, perhaps, twice

Key considerations when developing a mobile app

So how do you move from a one month shelf life for your mobile app and get it opened again and again?  Scott offered up these pointers:

• Use your app to bring customers closer to your brand (instead of selling them something new).  Ex. Nike plus help runners learn more about their exercise experience and share with friends.
• Provide personalized news feeds. Ex. ESPN app
• Create conversions in your thinking.  Ex. Politicians notify constituents when they will be visiting a region and ask questions so they can customize the conversation when they get there
• Develop an app that pushes notification out to the user so they don’t have to remember to visit.  Ex. Hootsuite notifies you when you have a new mention.
• Apps must solve a problem for the user (not the brand)

Mobile apps development do’s:

• Do be personalized. Build in preferences so each use can personalized for them.  What is motivating each user segment?
• Do use location to your advantage. What patterns lead to interaction with brand?  Go beyond “you are here.”
• Do send appropriate information to users at the appropriate time. Tell people when it’s time to pay attention.
• Do deliver information based on preferences.
• Do experiment with mobile commerce.
• Do get users to download the app first by offering it free, then sell afterwards through subscriptions and upgrades.
• Be social.  Have your users engaging with people (friends), not the app.
• Do measure results.  Download and stars have nothing to do with how people are using the app or how effective it is at selling products.

I’m a day late in celebrating Geek Pride Day[1] but the reason I even know about it is that I am one.  A proud, card carrying (well not really but it sounds fun) geek.

Sometime last year I started calling myself a geek, but quietly, just amongst friends.  After reading Geekwire’s Geek Pride Day post this morning, I’ve decided to come out of the closet and wave my professional geek flag for all to see.  Turns out I’m not alone.  1 in 5 Americans consider themselves geeks.[2]

I don’t want to identify as just any geek. Nope, I’m a SOCIAL MEDIA GEEK. Yep, it’s in all caps; after all it’s my job title.  Not social media guru or expert or Sherpa, goddess, diva, rock star or any of the other creative titles social media professionals (and amateurs) title themselves.

Why geek? GeekWire published a nifty Venn diagram defining geek, nerd and dork.  I think they’ve nailed the distinction:

• Geek = (Intelligence + Obsession) – Social Ineptitude.
• Nerd = (Intelligence+Social Ineptitude) – Obsession. [3]

I’ve got the obsession alright.  My mom once asked me if I was addicted to Twitter.  And just this week I decided I had to back off my Empire Ave play (but more about that later.)  And if you ask my mom (or my clients), I certainly have the intelligence.

Geek insight into the “Social Media Expert” debate

This week there’s been a lively debate amongst some of the leading social media pundits about whether you need a Social Media Expert on your marketing team.  Peter Shankman (founder of HARO) and Gary Vaynerchuk ( wine mogul and author) both came out against hiring social media experts.

Vaynerchuk crushed[4] the field with this scathing criticism, “99.5 percent of the people that walk around and say they are a social media expert or guru are clowns” and “have no business sense.” [5]

Meanwhile Shankman’s article, I Will Never Hire a ‘Social Media Expert,’ and Neither Should You,  stirred up a hornet’s nest of criticism when he said “No business in the world should want a ‘Social Media Expert’ on their team. If you have a ‘Social Media Expert’ on your payroll, you’re wasting your money.”

I first got wind of this discussion on the SEOmoz feed in my RSS reader[6].  There Rand Fishkin wrote a well thought-out article, titled Everyone Should Hire ‘Social Media Experts’, that explored the responsibilities and expertise of the Social Media Expert.  He includes a detailed chart about the spheres of social media expertise within each marketing skill set (creative, analytics, tactical, tools, etc.).  He advocates for including social media “experts” or “professionals” within every marketing department.  I’m sure Nordstrom, Comcast, Starbucks companies are happy that @randfish thinks their staffing strategy is sound.

Do you really need a Social Media Expert (Geek)?

Me, I sit on the fence between the two points of view.  When I work with your organization, I view my end objective as moving you towards integrating social media into all that you do. You need me as an expert to come in at the beginning to help identify your community, social media brand extension and voice, platform objectives and ROI measures, tool identification and training on how to use it etc. But eventually I need to step back from center stage and let you run the show.

From a practical standpoint, I recommend that people are designated to be “owners” of different social channels throughout the company. Many organizations I work with have small marketing departments.  Spreading out the expertise among content owners ensures that one person doesn’t leave a huge knowledge gap should they leave for a new position.  Also, when many people own a piece of the social puzzle, there are more people serving as brand ambassadors in all of the various social media channels.   Non-profits are well-served, for example, to have a social brand ambassador committee.  This is led by the designated social media coordinator in the company.  Gasp!  Sounds like social media coordination and expertise is needed after all.

Turns out when I’m sitting on the fence, I’m facing the side supporting the social media expert.

Why I’m YOUR Social Media Geek

Recognize these oldies?  Digg, StumbleUpon, Plurk, Jaiku, MySpace, FriendFeed, Delicious, RSS.

How about these latest social media darlings?  Quora, Empire Avenue, Scoville, Groupon, FourSquare.

I know about and have tried all of these platforms because I live, breath and, yes, obsess about social media.  It might be exhausting at times to stay on the bleeding edge of the information explosion, but I love it. I love bringing creative ideas to my client. I love learning new technology. (Yes, I’m even teaching myself html.)  I love discovering the next thing. I love meeting new people in the social media space.

Why this is good for your organization?  I’ve been doing this day and night, seven days a week for more than 4 years now.   (Twitter’s only been around for 5).  And before that I served in the trenches in a large corporate marketing department and in nonprofit public relations.[7] In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell proposed the 10,000 Hour Rule — competency and success are honed in 10,000 hours of practice.  If that’s the case I’ve surely surpassed that hourly goal.  What have 14,000+ Tweets, 3 years of consecutive weekly blog posts, countless blog comments and facebook likes, 15 years of marketing experience and hours of surfing (er, exploring) and experimenting taught me?

• The next “big” thing may not be your thing.
• Failure is part of social media success.
• What was an effective campaign last quarter, may not work in the next.
• Start small and build relationships instead of followers.
• Figure out who and where audience is before you start talking to them.
• Maximize the exposure and value you get for the content with strategic repackaging.
• Content may be king[8], but ideas are what get you noticed.
• Sure 20 somethings grew up with computers, but 80 year olds write blogs and are on Facebook too. Age does not make an expert.  Experience does.
• Social media isn’t a one-person job; it’s a group effort.
• And yes, Peter Shankman, social media is just another facet of your marketing and customer service functions.

A last word about card-carrying geekdom

Lots of geeks say the business card is dead.  They bump their phone instead. The latest buzz is your phone is going to become your virtual wallet, but I find that plenty of people still ask for my old-time business card.

So will I put “Social Media Geek” on my card for my next reprint?  Of course not.  It’s only one facet of what I bring to the table.  But could your organization benefit from my knowledge, skills, point of view and social media obsession?   Absolutely!

[2] Geek has even become a compliment.  Nerd still isn’t.

[3] A dork has all three qualities: obsession, social ineptitude and intelligence

[4] That’s a pun on his book title, Crush It!, for all of you non-geeks out there.

[5] http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/13/gary-vaynerchuk-social-media-clowns-tctv/

[6] Yes, I still use RSS.  I find it’s a great way to read and share content from my tablet. Actually use it more now that I have one.

[7] See my LinkedIn profile for deets.

[8] The idea, content is king, is attributed to Bill Gates back in 1996 http://www.craigbailey.net/content-is-king-by-bill-gates/

Empire Avenue: Farmville meets Wall Street

Seems like every week there’s a new social platform that people are diving into — clothes and all.  The current hot property is Empire Avenue.

EAv, as the aficionados like to call it, is a social game where you buy shares in people and “earn” dividends based on their social activities on the web (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogging, and EAv.) The more you are “worth” on line, the more money you earn.

I’ve come across a couple of conversations on the site about whether or not businesses should take the plunge and so far the jury appears to be out.  But then, as mega EAv player, Chris Pirillo e(Pirillo) tweeted earlier today, “They didn’t see business ROI in Twitter, YouTube at first, either.”

Right now I’m leaning towards the “fun but no ROI” side of things.  Thus my “Farmville meets Wall Street” appellation.  With time at a premium, who has time for one more social site?  Wouldn’t Quora be a better use of my limited social budget?  I asked the ROI question on Quora and there are others discussing the value question there. What struck me about these answers is they are much more thoughtful than those I’ve seen on EAv, leading me to believe that people are investing entertainment time into EAv and social capital into Quora.

When I first started on Twitter 4 years ago, I spent the first year tweeting inanity and floundering.  But then I figured out I could meet new people, build relationships with others, testing out headlines and getting my message out there.  I still find those assets to be true of Twitter.  So I’m hedging my bets and testing the waters.

Right now I’m still not quite feeling EAv. I’m watching it closely with Mari Smith e(Mari) who tweeted today,

“I do love the concept of @empireave… but so far have it lumped in same category of playing games on Facebook!”

It is fun, but is there more than meets the eye?  If any of my clients should ask me if they should jump in, I’d say “wait and see.”  Can you see opportunity that I’m missing? I’d love to hear about your experience.

Get a head start with 4 winning EAv strategies:

• Fill out your profile and add every social network you can.
  Join communities. Add add RSS feeds and ask your friends to endorse them. If you don’t have a blog, remember any site you update (ex. foursquare) has an RSS feed associated with it.
• Purchase shares in individuals that pay a high dividend (I look for at least .50) or are new to the site and more likely to be under valued.
• Don’t be offended if someone shares your stock.  It’s just a game.
• Have fun!

Have you  started to see these funny squares in newspaper and magazine ads?  They are known as QR Codes. QR stands for quick response.  If you have a smart phone it probably has a free QR Code decoder app available.  (For the old folks in the audience, didn’t that last sentence sound like something out of a Dick Tracy comic strip?)  To use the QR code, simply take a photo of the code with your phone and use the app to follow the link with your mobile web browser to the url that’s specifically related to the print material or item you are looking at in real life.

Why is this exciting?  Because now you can publish “clickable” links anywhere off the web.  Just a few ideas off the top of my head about how a QR Code might come in handy:

• Realtors could add QR codes to their fliers and give people a virtual tour of a home that isn’t open until the weekend.
• I can paste my QR code on a business card when I want to send someone to a complex url address like a YouTube video clip.
• You could eliminate the need to process a pile of paper contest entry forms when handing out fliers at a large, public event by directing people to enter via a QR code.
• A vendor could put rich product information into potential customer’s hands using QR codes on tradeshow giveaways.

Make your own QR Code

Creating a QR code of your own is amazingly simple.  So simple even I can do it and so can you!

My favorite way to make one is using the link shortening service http://bit.ly.  Bit.ly is commonly used on Twitter to shorten long links into fewer characters.

• If you don’t already have a bit.ly account, go open one and shorten a link.
• To create the QR code just add “.qr” to the end of the shortened link (ex  http://on.fb.me/ProvientFB becomes http://on.fb.me/ProvientFB.qr). Voila, I have my very own QR code in less time than it takes to say Bob’s your uncle.
• Note, if you already have a bit.ly account, you can convert any link you’ve already shortened into a QR code. What’s easier than that!

So how are you going to use your first QR code?

On the left hand

Kudos to Mashable for publishing details for all of the new specs you’ll need to tweak your background.  It’s important to note that they start with the caveat that “the new Twitter utilizes a fluid layout, meaning that the browser window or screen resolution can impact the width of some of the columns, as well as how much of the background image is visible.”  The upshot of this means being conservative about how much left hand margin you can see is best.  Some people estimate as little as 12 pixels are seen on the left hand of many browsers so you may begin to see a trend of people stacking their left hand copy vertically as I’ve done.

On the right hand:

I also discovered some clever  code by Justin Parks that makes your right hand sidebar transparent.  Without the code the sidebar has 75% transparency. When you load the code into your settings it makes your sidebar completely transparent.  I just redid my background and added the transparency code so you can see what it looks like (http://twitter.com/#/freerangemom).  Fans of Justin Beiber may want to make their sidebar transparent to see their idol’s face everytime they log in, but you could use that space to convey more of your brand personality whenever someone visits your Twitter page.  (Word to the wise:  Don’t forget to click on “save changes” after you load the code.  I didn’t and kept wondering why it didn’t work!)

I just was reminded by a client that Facebook is serious about shutting down profiles that are not real people.  This means if you are flying under the radar using a personal profile for your business instead of setting up a business page, your account is at risk of being shut down by the Facebook patrol.

And just because you are a non-profit, don’t expect Facebook to go easy on you.  One of my clients a local (small) nonprofit just got shut down by the Facebook police.  If you have been thinking you are too small for Facebook to notice.  Think again.  And don’t wait to be caught.  It’s worth your while to set up a business page now and start migrating people to it before you are forced to.

Because even if you beg for clemency, the Facebook patrol will only give you a three week window to amend your ways before they shut you down for good.

Here’s a copy of an email Facebook sent my client when they begged to be reactivated:

Hi,

After reviewing the situation, we have temporarily reactivated your account. Unfortunately, the profile held under this email address is being used to maintain a Facebook presence for a brand, business, group, or organization. Facebook profiles are intended to represent individuals only, and it is a violation of our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to use Profiles to represent any other entities.

As a result, we have scheduled the profile under this email address to be permanently unavailable after three weeks. If this account is used solely to maintain a Page, please add your separate, personal profile as an admin to the Page in question or add other admins to the Page. To add admins to a Page, follow the instructions below:

[http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=15188].

If you do not have a personal profile, you may create one by going to http://www.facebook.com/.

Keep in mind:

• Pages must have admins who have personal profiles on Facebook.
• You may only create a Page if you are an official representative of the entity in question.
• Pages may have more than one admin.
• The admins’ personal information is not published to fans of the Page and they cannot gain access to your personal information.

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer further support for this issue. If you have additional questions regarding Facebook products and features, feel free to visit our Help Center at the following address:

http://www.facebook.com/help.php

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Josephine

User Operations

Facebook

Have you been thinking you are too small to be noticed?  Think again.  Can you afford to start over?  Why not follow Facebook’s terms of service in the first place!

Have you ever attached a link that came with a whole bunch of garbage and a funny title that looks like nothing to do with the page it directs you to? Something that looks like this perhaps?
A very messy same Facebook link
Here’s how you can customize your link let your followers know exactly what they’ll find when they click on it.

* Start with a status update introducing your link.
* Attach a link like you normally would.
IMPORTANT: Don’t hit “share” button yet.
* First click on the link box:

link

* Then paste the url address and click attach:

9-20-2010-4-58-50-pm

* Now you are ready to customize your link box.
* Roll your cursor over the highlighted areas in the link box seen in the next sample. There are two areas you can customize: the link title and the link description.
* When an area is highlighted, click on it. You will then be able to type whatever you’d like to rename the link or description. Here I changed the link name to an instruction, “Get the MP3 download here.”

9-20-2010-1highlight11

* When you are all done, click the share button.

Now you’ve taken a very messy link that is not specific to your followers, and told them exactly what they’ll find when they click on it. Simple.