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Shortest Horror Story Ever Written

“The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.”
attributed to Frederic Brown.

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Defining Social Spaces

definition of define

How do you decipher and explain the different social spaces / platforms?

Well, a while ago I wrote a blog post describing the Golden Rule of Social Media—it’s really simple and is summed up as:

IT”™S JUST LIKE BEING IN A BIG ROOM, FULL OF REAL PEOPLE

This morning a colleague emailed me with her own definitions of the social spaces and how they relate to real world scenarios (like cocktails and offices etc). Here’s my response:

  • Website—your online ‘shop front’ and everything inside from the products, customer service, to what you discuss related to your industry etc.
  • Blog—same as above (if you don’t have a blog then you don’t have a space to inspire people to be awesome)
  • Twitter—(mainly) public conversation party, giving you an opportunity to connect with people you would never usually get a chance to (great for just listening in and gleaming amazing ideas and information)
  • Facebook—private members club with exclusive insights and offers others can’t get elsewhere (rewards based model. Why? Most people are on Stalkbook not to buy but to connect with people they know.)
  • LinkedIn—old school drinking mens establishment where not much happens. It’s great for getting introduced to interesting folks although you then try to get them into other spaces as the current place (LinkedIn) sucks and smells of old people
  • YouTube—your Tivo (another words what you want to show to other people relating to your passions, your ideas and maybe your products)

What do you think? How would you define the above?

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Measuring, Metrics & Automation | Asking the Right Questions

measuring tape

How do you measure social media? What are the effective metrics you focus on? And, how do you automate the whole damn process?

Questions I’m currently wrestling with. They act like a fibonacci spiral, floating outwards, replicating into other questions. I like this.

Whilst most look to social media to provide answers, I search it for better questions.

For example, the number of Twitter followers will tell you how many people clicked the follow button not who they are, if they share your tweets / values, how much traffic you get from them, if they even like you, if you’re adding value to peoples lives etc (need to look at the back-end web stats for this or deeper still with funky little tools like Twtrland and Tweetstats).

Measuring social is a design challenge: what is left out is as important to what you leave in.

My approach is by starting with the end in mind, by exploring ‘what does success look like?’.

This is a one of those questions which never fails to connect a few synapses, and in terms of my role it’s the following (lifted directly from my job description):

  • CORE Education is recognised as key player in effective use of social media in business
  • CORE’s profile and reputation for understanding of use of effective social media is increased, especially through increased publication and dissemination activity
  • Social media activities throughout the organisation are embedded and sustainable throughout CORE
  • Improved (wider/deeper) brand awareness enables CORE to reach into existing/emerging market segments (especially into corporate market)

So that’s the result but what now needs to be crafted and applied is a change based approach. A layer of social media monitoring tools / platforms / metrics and some kind of reviewing structure to track impact.

So this is where I am. Opening up this line of questioning and hoping you the reader will offer guidance. Some ideas. Steerage and influence on how you are measuring it for your organisation, what metrics prove success and, how is it repeated.

Also keen to hear from people like Radian6 and Brandwatch or any other companies offering the above (especially for non-profits)…

“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.”
Jack Dixon

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