MindComet

Are forums social media sites

While doing research on forum statistics for a strategy document I was authoring, I stumbled upon a discussion sparked by Tamar Weinberg. In her post, she asked the simple question -

“Are forums social media sites“

While there were good arguments in both the “for” and “opposing” camps, I felt that the views of a third camp required a response from me; the camp of “Who Cares and why does it matter?“

Before I respond to the “who cares” contingent, I’m going to weigh in with my answer. Based on the definition of social media being “platforms for social interaction and networking”, in my eyes, forums are definitely social media sites. They generally don’t have all the bells and whistles (APIs) as most social platforms. But at their core, they are a type of social media. Even Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, in their seminal book Groundswell, acknowledge forums as a social media platform, and write in length about the successes of Dell’s user support community.

Now on to you Mr and Mrs. Who Cares…

So the question is who cares? Why should we try to define if forums are social media sites? The answer is plain and simple: goals and strategy.

If you accept forums as social media sites, then it seems natural that the same goals and strategies for leveraging social media sites would apply to forums…which they do (this further supports the notion that they are social media sites).

To support this, lets look at goals that are being achieved through engaging forums.

Listening to and engaging your customers in order to gather feedback

TweetDeck, the uber popular desktop client for Twitter, setup an account on UserVoice (along with a couple of other smaller companies like Sun Microsystems, Nokia, and MySpace). I’m guessing that this is an invaluable resource for defining new requirements for their product.

Facilitating engagement and relationship building between your customers

Microsoft offers a large number of forums available to the their users. Many are the purposes of supporting each other, but Windows Home Server community is geared towards allowing customers to talk to each other about ideas and education.

Providing online tools that allow your customers to support each other

The success of Dell using forums for support is fairly wide known. But did you know that Pitney Bowes leverages forums to allow their users to support each other during postage rate changes? They’ve saved money as a result!

What camp are you in? Are forums social media sites? Why?

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Apr. 01, 2009

Social media usage eclipses email. What should you do?

According to a recent study release by eMarketer, social media activity has eclipsed that of email.

This is an impressive milestone for social media, however this shouldn’t be your cue for abandoning or even reducing your email marketing budget and throwing all your direct response marketing eggs into the social media basket.

According to a study by IDC, 43% of social media users have never click on ads (this one included) and only 11% of those who did converted to a sale. Email is still driving more online purchases than other online media, so stick with it.

Use social media as a complement your email programs or to execute a whole host of other business tasks that email can’t accomplish. When it comes to direct response marketing, though, email is still king.

Read the article on EMarketer

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Mar. 28, 2009

Hunting and gathering via Twitter

Fine food and Twitter. Two things that I love. And finally a reason to marry the two into a post.

There’s a phenomenon happening in Los Angeles right now. It’s called Kogi. It’s a fusion of Mexican and Korean BBQ. And it’s only available from a couple of roving trucks who’s locations are revealed via Twitter 20 minutes before they arrive.

According to reports, hundreds of people show up to each random location (Tues-Sat), which makes this one hot, and I’m guessing profitable, item.

Probably one of the most interesting Twitter monetizations yet.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Mar. 27, 2009

I got some $&%*#@& help from Twitter support

If you are a regular reader of Social Enchilada, then you’re probably familiar with my troubles with Twitter support.

I’m happy to announce that my troubles are over! MindComet has officially regained control of the Twitter handle @mindcomet. It was a long hard road, with more than a few bumps, but through a persistent and unwavering effort, I did it.

I began our mission in mid-November, 2008 by submitting a ticket into their support queue. By mid-December, I still had not received a response from their team. I even tried mailing them a letter (yes via the USPS), in case the online support queue wasn’t the best way of contacting the support team.  I even reached out directly to Evan Williams and he assured me he’d get it taken care of. No dice.

In mid-January (still no response), tragedy stuck in the form of a Twitter hack, which was attributed to their support queue. They scrapped the old queue, along with my two month old outstanding support request. To make things worse, their post-hack strategy for handling support was a complete mess. Fast-forward to March 23rd through a variety of tactics on my part to attract their attention…Twitter support finally got around to handling and completing my request.

That’s over 4 months that passed for a request that took them, in my estimation, a total of 1 hour to accomplish.

You’re probably getting a sense that I’m completely unhappy with the Twitter support staff, well I’m not. My gripe is with the Twitter leadership team.  By all appearances, they see support as an after-thought and have as a result, kept that department inadequately staffed.

How do I know this? I spent a few years in a technical support capacity, including managing my own team. Taking 4 months to complete a 1 hour ticket is a clear sign of a grossly over-burdened support staff. The fact that there was a ticket open for over a month shows a complete lack of attention from upper-management.

I wholeheartedly believe that by offering support, Twitter entered into an implied contract with it’s users and is obligated to provide them with a reasonable and timely level of support. This notion of support SLA’s (Service Level Agreements) is even more important when Twitter is on the verge of trying to monetize their platform.

Twitter, it’s time to grow up, and start acting like a $250 million dollar company. Providing top-notch service would be a good start.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Mar. 26, 2009

Gaining followers on Twitter

The power of Twitter is in your imagination ... and in the number of followers you have. It’s very logical, the person with 1000 followers tends to have a greater potential for influence than the person with 10 followers.

So how do you go about building your network?

People have dreamt up a variety of techniques for this purpose. Many people employ controversial methods, like this pyramid scheme for Twitter, which has drawn lots of criticism from the Twitter community. This blogger compared it to steroids in baseball, begging us to “resist the urge to be a Twittering A-Rod and don’t ruin the game for the rest of us.“

Others, like myself, prefer the slow grind of finding and following people manually. Here are a couple of methods that I’ve used to build my Twitter following.

1. Put your Twitter address everywhere! In your email footer, on your business card, on your website, your blog, everywhere! Ted Murphy has taken this to a whole new level.

2. Find and follow people with similar interests. Goto http://search.twitter.com and search for keywords relevant to your interests and follow the people you find. Some will reciprocate your follow. But for those that don’t, send them an @ message that they might find valuable. If you engage them in a conversation that is interesting, you will gain a follower.

What are the methods that you use to gain followers on Twitter?

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Mar. 25, 2009

The power of Twitter is in your imagination.

There’s a common sentiment about Twitter, and many social platforms for that matter - They are distractions. A waste of your time.

In fact, let me quote a recent post by Thomas Wailgum on CIO.com

It’s obvious that Thomas Wailgum is completely unaware of the potential of Twitter and other social platforms. He’s written them off as irrelevant and as a waste of time.

What he has failed to understand is that Twitter and other social platforms are tools, and just like most tools, can be re-purposed, to suit your needs. Thomas Wailgum sees Twitter as a waste of time, because when he uses it, he’s wasting time.

The power of Twitter is in your imagination.

Sure, there are people who consistently ramble about their plans for tonight. But there are also people who ramble on about brands, products, and customer service experiences.

So while Thomas Wailgum is wasting time on Twitter, savvy companies are listening their customers and building relationships 140 characters at a time.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Mar. 21, 2009

Three improvements to your company’s Twitter strategy

1. Stop using Twitter strictly as a broadcast medium

People are on Twitter to listen to others and to have others listen to them. Stop using Twitter as a way to broadcast out your marketing message and start having real conversations with your followers. No one wants a constant barrage of your marketing messages. Listen to what they have to say and provide authentic responses. You’ll build trust, loyalty and respect with your followers.

2. Share some knowledge with your followers

You don’t have to be a college or university to do this. Educate people about your products and services. Don’t go overboard though. Mix in selfless education about your industry, or hometown, or whatever. People grow tired of incessant self-promotion.

3. Have fun with your followers

Make Twitter into an interactive tool for engaging your followers in fun ways. Send out trivia questions, quotes and fun facts that are relevant to your industry. If people respond to your engagement, acknowledge their response. Try mixing a contest into your engagement. Offer a nominal gift for the first person that responds.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Mar. 20, 2009