Why are there so few top executives on Twitter and social media in general? What are some of the major fears and issues that are preventing that kind of adoption?
There are really three factors there: one is age. Hate to be so obvious about it, but most of these people are of the typewriter and Wite-Out generation. If you’re born in 1980 and onward you’re in the AIM generation. The next generation is the Facebook generation. The next generation after that is the iPhone generation. So only those three generations born since 1980 have lived in a world with social technology.

Before that, you may be the Apple II generation or you may be the IBM PC generation, but especially at college it wasn’t part of the life you lived; it wasn’t the air you breathed and the water you swam in. So age is a factor.

The second factor is the constraints: the first is regulatory, especially if you’re a public company. With Reg. FD (Regulation Full Disclosure), the FCC says that every time a CEO speaks, any current or potential investor must be able to hear it. They have not yet defined whether Twitter is at Reg. FD or the blog is Reg. FD or if Facebook is Reg. FD. They have said at times it is or sometimes it isn’t — it’s still not fully defined.

So those rules need to be set before we’ll see wider adoption.
Exactly, yeah. There are a lot of other regulatory FTC rules for CEOs too. Then the next factor is really about risk. The CEO has risk that they’re going to offend customers, partners, the Board of Directors. Then you have risk around litigation. I won’t say who this is, but a very prominent CEO of a large company was told he could not become more social because he was in too many courtrooms already. So the risk of litigation is a big issue.

The next factor is time. If you go to a CEO and say — and this is sort of conventional wisdom around being social — “We want you to make between five and six 140-character statements a day” — that’s 30 a week. “Then we want you to make one large statement per week — about four or five paragraphs.” And most CEOs would say, “There’s absolutely no way I could do that.”

There are two problems here: one is time. Calculate the time behind this and it’s about five or six hours — that’s a lot of time for a CEO. The second is that model — which has become almost an accepted model if you want to build followership — that model is unsustainable if you want to sustain quality. In other words: There’s not enough to say. There’s not enough wisdom in the world for one person to be wise over all those statements to fall over a year. That’s 1,500 short statements a year and 50 large statements a year.

Those are the factors that constrain a CEO from doing this.

Are those reasonable constraints, or should C-level executives be actively interested in overcoming them? Do they need to get involved with social media sooner than later, and does it vary by industry?
Today, the top 100 CEOs don’t do it; the top tech CEOs don’t do it; and the top social executives don’t do it, if you look at Zuckerberg and all those guys. The question is should they? My answer is yes, but with a big if — actually two ifs involved.

The first if is: Do you have a CEO who can do it? Who has the ability to communicate, who wants to do it, who wants to take these risks — so that’s the first big if. Second if is you have to look at the customers and the employees of who will be the audience. You have to look at what we call their “social technographic” — are they listening? Are they participating? Are they commenting? Are they critics?

If you look at the social technographics of U.S. consumers, the change in the last two years has been incredible. From 2007 to 2009, the social demographics just pegged in this country. So you have many more creators, many more people who are listening. So you’d say generally for most companies: The audience is ready for you. And if you’re a tech CEO, tech audiences are very ready for you, because tech people have high technographics. Those are the two ifs.

What I said is if you have the right CEO and the right audience, then the question is how would they do it. Time is a big factor here, I think time is a massive factor limiting CEOs and it always will be. You can’t change that; there’s not more time in the world.

So I’m saying that for the CEO to do it, there has to be a new model of social. Think of “social heavy” as being six tweets a day and one post a week on your blog. That’s the current model. I’m proposing there would be something called “social lite,” which says that the CEO can be social but in a different way, which is much less high-profile. Where they would do maybe six to eight posts a year on their blog, and they would have short statements in between 12 and maybe 24 per year. So that’s two tweets a month or maybe one tweet a month.

So you look at it and you say, “That doesn’t sound very social.” You’re not participating. That’s not a follower-centric model. Many people have a lot of activity to create followers. What I’m arguing is for the CEO to be social it has to be quality over quantity. And that even a small profile, this “social lite” profile, would be highly valuable to the company because you have new employees entering these companies. They’re the Facebook generation. They’re saying, “OK, I’m not joining this company until I see what’s the CEO’s social profile.” To have zero social profile is going to be difficult. But to have a limited social profile, although it’s not logged into every week, lends legitimacy to that CEO. That CEO does have some profile, so is somewhat connected here.

So this whole concept of “social lite” — that we don’t have to be follower-centric, we can be quality-centric. If Einstein had been a blogger — he was a very introverted guy — he probably never would have posted except once — but it would have been the most important post of the last century. That’s quality over quantity!

I also say that the CEO should not have somebody else doing it. It shouldn’t be a PR person writing it, it should be actually in the CEO’s voice. They should be doing it themselves. The CEO ultimately has to understand social because their employees are connected in this way, and their customers are connected in this way.

My quote about social is that it’s a little like sex. It’s fun to talk about, it’s fun to read about in books and look at pictures, but you can’t really understand it unless you do it. So the CEO to truly understand social they’re going to have to do it at some point. That’s another reason it’s important for the CEO to be engaged in this

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The term social media marketing generally implies the use of online communities, blogs and social networks and other online media for the purpose of sales, marketing, customer service and public relations. The word social media itself implies those web properties where the content is mainly published by the users themselves and not through those who are the direct and actual employees of that web property. The varied twitter uses and benefits often help in this very purpose.

When it comes to marketing through a social media, the first and foremost thing required is the creation of buzz. This means that some newsworthy event or blog entry or even a tweet has to be made. This is the first step in creation of buzz and dispenses with the requirement of any press releases. The news which is put up does not necessarily need to be in relation to the product or service which the company seeks to promote.

An amusing or even a compelling message on twitter, which carries the logo of the company, has been successfully used to create a viral campaign. Many times, the inclusion of an incidental tagline is employed for this purpose. This is a part of twitter uses and benefits, which allow the company to instantly reach hundreds of users instantly and simultaneously.

To read full article CLICK HERE

Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way government operates and interacts with the public worldwide. They present an opportunity for government CIOs to slash IT costs and transform internal collaboration using social technologies, a new report has found.

However, moves to use Web 2.0 capabilities to radically overhaul the government’s relationship with the electorate will need to overcome resistance, as it will have to address concerns over security of information, current commercial arrangements and the breakdown of hierarchies, if they are to succeed.

Social, economic and policy changes are forcing governments across the world to take advantage of technologies such as wikis, social networking and blogs, according to KPMG’s Government and IT Advisory.

It also says cloud computing offers the potential to dramatically reduce public sector IT costs.

To read full article CLICK HERE

RULE #1: It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. 
The practice and art of managing communication and influence has changed significantly over the last three years driven in large part by the impressive utilisation and growth of social media – further enabled by innovations in the development of mobile technologies and social applications. 

The ability for anyone to publish and communicate instantaneously with reach beyond boarders (only limited timezone) has fundamentally changed how communication professionals manage influence and shape opinion.

Communication professionals are often under pressure (sometimes false) to react or respond to issues in the social web in a matter of seconds or a few minutes – rather than several minutes to a few hours.  

The pressure to react or respond so quickly to a negative ‘tweet’ or blog post before it becomes viral can be great.  It can also often make an issue or situation worse if done in hast.

Because of the viral nature of social media – when you react or act you must do so with a sense of purpose, clarity and honesty.  Sometimes this means taking time to gather facts, background and even assess if a response is warranted – or – if the ’social system’ will self correct issues of concern.

It is always best to allow time to assess and condition a situation before reacting…because it might not look that bad after thinking it through.

RULE #2: Get mad, then get over it. 
Social media is a tremendous environment for people to channel their emotion and how they feel about a particular issue or situation.  When people communicate via social media it is often because they want to be listened to – they want to be heard.

As such, you should resist being pulled into someone’s emotional state – particularly if it is one of anger.

Keeping composure in how you communicate or react to a situation on the social web is paramount.   In many cases the life span of a seemingly negative issue is short lived.  Communicating with anger or emotion only fuels more emotion, speculation, and will likely add to the longevity of issues (unnecessarily).

Using sports as an analogy, when faced with an adverse situation you must collect yourself, get back into the game and focus on forward progress – which can be done in both defensive and offensive positions.   So get mad (privately), regroup and re-establish a position directed at turning a negative situation into a neutral or positive one.

RULE #3:  Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it. 
Given the rapid pace of change in an increasingly competitive business environment it is important to question the old, comfortable ways of doing things.

As David Zinn rightly identified in his article – If you are doing things simply because it is the way things have always been done, you should question yourself.  As the old way often will not be conducive to success or creating the elusive and much desired competitive advantage.

Reinvention in business and in corporate communications is critical to foster and sustain innovation and forward progress both for your company and your professional career.

Don Bulmer found there are three fundamental principles of social thinking that business leaders must ‘align to’ in order to be successful in today’s environment:

   1. Be open to ideas outside of your own
   2. Be flexible and open enough to incorporate those ideas into what you do
   3. Have genuine desire to achieve continuous competitive advantage

To read full article CLICK HERE

Well, first you must decide what you want people to do, and then choose a couple things to measure that success. For instance, take the following metrics, their possible data, and some actions you can put against them.

Engagement. One of the first things you need to do in social media marketing (or any content-based marketing for that matter) is figure out whether people actually care about what you’re saying. Are you getting them to react? Now, what is the metric for that? Well, in Facebook it is comments and likes and in Twitter it is retweets. So over time look at the spikes in comments, likes, and retweets and analyse what kind of tweets, posts, content, and questions sparked those elevated levels of engagement. Then take action – do more of that type of communications. Don’t talk about your product features if no one cares or reacts. However, if people like your research, industry news, or infographics, focus on that stuff.

Clicks. What posts in Facebook and tweets in Twitter generated actual clicks to your site? Are you using tracking links and Bit.ly to figure this out? Just like banners, e-mail, and search ads, some things get traction and results and some things don’t. Figure out the actions in the social space that get you real ROI and do more of it. Also, keep in mind that things can be posted more than once. I’m not saying do it every day, but if a study you posted did well grab another fact form and post it again in a few days or weeks. Remember, news feeds and tweets flow down the page and out of sites in literally hours and even minutes – so not everyone sees what you post.

Conversions. So you’re tracking all the clicks you get form Bit.ly, but with all those tracking links you can track conversions too. What tweets and posts are actually driving the actions that equate ROI? Figure that out and do more. Optimise the offers you push into the social space just like everything else. The challenge here is you cannot just use the same language again and again – you need to think deeper about the value and essence of the offers you make and repeat those elements.

To read full article CLICK HERE

The competition for attention is focused on social networks as brands vie for awareness and consideration. Establishing a presence in Facebook and Twitter is as necessary as it is trivial.

In the great social land grab, many organizations are missing true opportunities to connect with the fifth P of the marketing mix, people. It’s less about communicating with those individuals who are already following you online and more about those who aren’t.

To excel in social media, engagement has its rewards but it is through the acts of recognition, empowerment and reward that advocacy extends a brand’s reach across social graphs and social networks, online and in the real world.

Competing for the Moment: The New Influencer
Transcending visibility into presence and presence into community is the critical path for companies to earn a place in the hearts, minds, words and actions of the very people who define its markets.

In the real-time attention economy that is social media, branding gives way to resonance as recognition is not nearly enough to compete for the moment. Many businesses are focusing time and resources on engagement while others are experimenting with advertising and promotions.

What’s clear, is that in social networks, information is not only democratized, it is deafening. For brands hoping to connect value with demand, rising above the noise is critical, but in order to see the effects of a rising tide, it must have a fleet of boats in the water.

Connecting with traditional intermediaries who maintain desirable audiences is one way to stay visible and relevant. Connecting with authorities and tastemakers directly in social networks represents a complementary opportunity to spread the word and apply a sense of endorsement and credibility to the marketing mix.

While the ideas of recruiting respected and connected individuals as brand ambassadors or creating digital street teams isn’t new in social media, it is still highly effective. As social media becomes pervasive, individuals are increasing their digital footprint through every connection they forge. Everyday people are gaining prominence in social networks and as such, a new genre of both audience and spokespersons are rapidly gaining traction.

To read full article CLICK HERE

So, how has PR changed? Not to overstate, but in the last few years PR has changed more than in the last 30 years combined. How? The changing roles of journalists and marketing practitioners, and the rapidly increasing use of social media in PR.

No doubt, the recession has taken a toll on journalists with layoffs, and those remaining having greater workloads, tightening budgets, and added responsibilities of writing for multiple mediums. According to the 2010 PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey, 59% of traditional (print) journalists are the author of a blog, and are also expected to contribute to online news, Twitter and other channels.

With greater workload, the research tools used by journalists might identify opportunities for marketing practitioners. Not surprisingly, Google and other search engines rank highest. 95% in 2010 per the PRWeek survey, followed by company websites (93%), Wikipedia (47%), newswires (36%), social networks (33%), and blogs (32%).

While the hype of social media pervades marketing practitioners, the use of social media for publicity is growing rapidly, and becoming a major part of both journalist and practitioners PR activities.

To read full article CLICK HERE

For decades, PR has been seen by many marketeers as “cheap reach via editorial” – in other words, the goal of PR was to gain editorial coverage that provided the greatest number of opportunities to see – at a significantly lower cost than advertising.

Because the means of providing a verifiable link between editorial coverage and business impact was either prohibitively expensive or just not possible, there has been a largely accepted assumption that positive press coverage is valuable – period.

In the past, the notion of measuring engagement with editorial content was largely theoretical.  Circulation and readership figures were treated as proxies for engagement (if a newspaper has a readership of 2 million, then we assume that a large proportion must be in some way engaged with some or all of the content – we just aren’t sure which content and to what degree. Or whether this engagement results in a meaningful business outcome).

However, you could argue that Google data now provides for a much deeper understanding of editorial engagement. At least online.

For example, by using the Google search “site” command, you can easily see how many pages of a site the search giant has indexed (ie are likely to be found).  And with Google’s Doubleclick Ad Planner tool, you can get a fix on a specific engagement metric – namely, time spent on page. The more time someone spends reading content, the more likely they are to be engaged with – and influenced by – that content (of course, it could mean that people are having difficulty understanding the content – but if that extended to all of a site’s content, you would presume its readership figures would tail off rapidly).

So what kind of engagement do people have with leading online news sources? (*Full detail and slide presentation of  joint Realwire/Escherman analysis here).

For example, the average UK visitor to The Economist site spends around 122 seconds per page. While the average UK visitor to the Reuters site spends around 214 seconds per page.

To read full article CLICK HERE

• Blogs allow you to share information with customers – it is an interactive medium where readers can comment on the posts and they humanise your business.

• Blogs inform people about other things your business is doing – You can easily update a blog with business news – it only takes a couple of minutes. My blog on my website CP Communications is used for client media releases, and news from my business.

• Blogs generate powerful referral networks – Readers will on-market blog posts which is free marketing for you. Sometimes they post these to discussion forums that have thousands of members. You will never be able to reach these potential clients through your usual marketing activities.

• Blogs create an opportunity to network and share information with people from around the world – it significantly broadens your network. It maximises your marketing opportunities by creating a wider audience than a website alone.

• Blogs allow you to create or follow trends – I see spikes in the hits on the blog when I address certain topics. This gives me insight into how the market is thinking and reacting at any given point. With this invaluable marketing intelligence I can offer new products or services to match that interest.

• Blogs create an opportunity to build relationships with your customers – Business relationships are built on providing helpful information that makes peoples lives better- or businesses easier to run. Blogs are the perfect platform to do this.

• Blogs are easily found by search engines – they naturally attract search engine traffic and have optimized site architecture. By using key words and tags in your posts, people researching information can easily find your blog. They have the added advantage to be well-linked to other blogs and websites.

•    Feed it into other sites – I also feed my blog into my LinkedIn page and my business & personal facebook pages. This means my posts can be read by a whole other audience.

•    Make it up-to-date – I would suggest you post 1-2 times a week. They don’t need to be original articles – although I would suggest 1 per week is. You can also provide commentary or links to other articles that you find interesting.

•    Make it relevant – they need to offer helpful relevant information to your target readers. So writing about fast cars for a beauty blog will drive readers away. You want them to keep coming back.