Pro Tools for Social Media Monitoring and Analysis: Sysomos Laun Sysomos, a Toronto-based startup, officially launched its two flagship products this morning: MAP (which stands for 'Media Analysis Platform') and Heartbeat. Both products are incredibly powerful (but costly) social media monitoring and analysis tools. In many ways, it is probably best to think of MAP and Heartbeat as companion pieces. What can MAP do for You? Maybe the real question to ask is actually: What can't MAP do? MAP can, for example, tell you that the largest number of Twitter users who wrote about the Palm Pre come from California and Great Britain, as well as who the most authoritative Twitter users who tend to tweet about the Pre are (MAP assigns a score from 1 to 10 to every Twitter user, based on the number of followers, replies, retweets, etc.). This video gives a good, quick, overview of what the Sysomos tools can do. But MAP is not just a tool for analyzing tweets. Monitoring the Heartbeat Intelligence for Social Media Don't Despair: Free Version Coming Soon
Search less, understand more - Evri Eight Twitter Habits That May Get You Unfollowed or Semi-Followe Best practices on Twitter are still developing, and everyone seems to have their own preferences and attitudes about right and wrong on the microblogging service. Standards vary widely depending upon whether one is using Twitter just to keep in touch with friends or is tweeting on behalf of their business or employer. Whatever your purpose, you may have some tweeting habits that encourage others to unfollow or semi-follow you. Before delving into the list of attention-repelling habits, let's first explore the concept of the semi-follow. For example, I follow over 2,000 people, and as my list grew beyond several hundred, I found I was missing tweets from the people I care most about. They key to being followed more closely is to say and share things that others care about. 8. 7. 6. It's one thing to say "@you That Conan O'Brien video clip of Shatner reading Palin's speech was funny," but it's an altogether different and more annoying thing to tweet, "@You That was hilarious." 5. 4. 3.
5 Ways Sentiment Analysis is Ramping Up in 2009 The New York Times has an article today about sentiment analysis, a trend which has been accelerating on the back of the Real-time Web - and Twitter in particular. Sentiment analysis is no short-term hot trend. It will eventually become a key feature of search engines, which will integrate the aggregate sentiment of the crowd into search results. The NY Times article looked at 3 sentiment analysis tools: Scout Labs, The Financial Times' Newssift, and Jodange. It also mentioned 3 Twitter apps: Tweetfeel, Twendz and Twitrratr. 1. Sysomos launched its two flagship products in June: MAP ('Media Analysis Platform') and Heartbeat. MAP is a powerful and flexible analysis tool. See also: This Machine Eats Tweets: The System Behind @Comcast and Others 2. As Marshall Kirkpatrick noted in a post from April, a whole class of technologies are emerging to help companies keep track of the conversations exploding online. 3. In his recent analysis Could Real Time Information Be An Unfair Advantage? 4. 5.
5 Social Media Lessons Learned from Whole Foods As a company, Whole Foods has impressively embraced social media more than most, gathering over 1.2 million followers on Twitter and 123,000 fans on Facebook in the process. While it is easy to understand why a relatively young company or one started by a tech-savvy founder would so completely embrace social media communication tools, it is quite a bit more remarkable for an almost 30 year old established brick and mortar company with roughly 50,000 employees and over 270 stores worldwide to have done so. I recently visited the Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas to meet with members of their new media team, including Bill Tolany, the company’s Senior Coordinator of Integrated Media, and Winnie Hsia, who oversees the @wholefoods account. I wanted to know how Whole Foods integrated social media tools into their communications strategy, and what lessons had they learned from doing so. Below are five of the lessons that Whole Foods shared with me during our chat. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Which Social Media Channels Should You Be Using? I've categorized and compared 7 social media channels that are currently being used by both B2B and B2C brands. I've suggested which type of brand works best in each channel. (click here to view full size) Blogs: Generally, blogs work better for B2B brands because they require a certain level of prior knowledge and interest. B2C brands can still take advantage of 3rd party blogs; but generally don't get the ROI required to justify maintaining their own blog Micro-Blog: For a similar reason, B2C brand's likely won't find the value in maintaining a micro-blog. B2C brands are starting to exploit micro-blogging for customer service. I maintain, that at the present time, this channel is still better suited to B2B brands; but I can recognize that it has value for B2C brands. Social Networks: There are many types of social networks; many niche social networks are specifically designed for B2B brands, and, therefore, are better suited for them. Video Sharing: Social Bookmarks: Image Sharing: Podcasts:
Answers to Social Media Questions You Should Know - Online Marke In the course of providing consulting services and conducting training programs for companies on social media marketing & PR or a combination of SEO and social media, there are some common questions that have come up. I thought it might be useful for readers if I documented a few of them here along with answers. “If we open up to comments, won’t people criticize us?” This is one of the most common questions I hear. Companies have traditionally feared negative content posted online because bad news travels fast and most businesses aren’t entirely sure of how to deal with online criticism. Even more of a concern is the fear that after creating social content for the purpose of building goodwill, positive buzz and influencing sales, an angry troll decides to use that platform for their sinister purposes. To begin answering the “won’t people criticize us” question, let’s start with a “Yes, they may”. “Where should we participate?” “How many interns do we need for this?”
Demand Media is a Page View Generating Machine - And it's W In our recent post about the top 50 web properties in the U.S. according to comScore, we noted that Demand Media is on the rise - moving from #36 to #24 in the past 12 months. Demand Media owns a number of successful sites, including ehow.com, Pluck and eNom (the second or third-largest domain registrar in the world). The company also proclaims itself to be "the leader in social media solutions." Demand Media provides social media platforms to corporations and has a strong SEO business, creating niche website content tailored to search engines. In short, Demand Media knows how to get page views. Demand Media's original plan in 2006 was to buy up millions of domain names and stick content on them in order to monetize. Demand Media operates based on a simple formula for success on the Web: create a ton of niche, mostly uninspired content targeted to search engines, then make it viral through social software. Where Does the Content Come From?
Social Media Marketing Basics: Facebook & Blog Promotion - O As companies grow their confidence and familiarity with the social web, there’s a bit of a mental hurdle they pass in accepting that it makes sense for their organization. It’s not unlike 10 years ago when companies finally started to “get” the need for a company web site. And just like a web site, building it doesn’t mean “they” will come, so the logicial next step is: “Once you start a social media effort, how do you promote it?” The reason for a company or brand’s social media participation, the audience they’re trying to reach, budget/resources and the actual social platforms being used will all flavor how a social media program can and should be promoted. This can be resolved with a few key questions that should be a part of a social media strategy: What is the primary goal? As a tactical example, let’s say a fan page has been created on Facebook to promote a specific brand / product. On – Facebook: Off – Facebook: Another example might involve a newly launched company blog.
Digital Influence Mapping Project: Are Influencer Panels Good fo What do all of these badges mean? More and more brands are assembling small groups of influential bloggers under the banner of "11 Moms," "Fab 15," "DigiDads," and more. Their purpose? Ultimately, when you scrape away all of the ancillary benefits, brands want these folks as outbound word of mouth ambassadors. Panels can serve two essential purposes: providing feedback into the brand or spreading word of mouth about the brand. These are not exclusive. They Are Good For BrandsThere are three essential reasons why brands embracing "influencer panels*" is a step forward for traditional marketers into a 'best-use'of social media: (*we shouldn't call them blogger panels for all the reasons I outlined in this post. Turning to the Most Trusted SourceWord of mouth marketing continues to grow as the most trusted source for purchase decision information across many categories in many markets.
Marketing 2.0 & PR 2.0 is here | The Electronic Engagement B The Internet and mobile devices have changed not only our lives, but entire disciplines. Marketing is no exception. Marketing 1.0 vs. Marketing 2.0 In Marketing 1.0 world, marketers could get away with producing brochures, ads, press releases, events, and promotions. It was a world world where opinion makers ruled in mass communication mediums. Accountability for performance was fuzzy at best; metrics such as brand impressions were bantered around and were found acceptable. In contrast, Marketing 2.0 is about doing all of that in a new ecosystem where your prospects and customers are now living in print, on the Internet and carrying mobile devices. The paradigms of new marketing are demand generation, conversations, collaborations, engagement and accountability. Here is how the marketing 2.0 ecosystem looks like. Two Mediums The Marketing 2.0 ecosystem is currently dominated by primarily two mediums: Here is how Marketing 2.0 tools are working now:
Marketing 2.0 & PR 2.0 Contests and Twitter: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly