Blogs
Tuesday 2 March 2010
I used to have a colleague who constantly worried about “getting all the ducks in a row”, by which he meant, I think, knowing what the elements of the task were and tackling them in the right order.
Re-thinking and re-creating your web presence needs you to line your ducks up; not because it’s so difficult to build a functioning website, but because it’s hard to devise one that fulfils all your objectives and integrates fully into your operational structures.We’ve all experienced some of the...
Monday 1 March 2010
Previously we have exercised ourselves over the meaning of ‘social media’ and the importance of a ‘social media policy’. With that as background it was clear from a recent talk I gave on ‘Creating an integrated social media strategy’ at the TFM&A show that there were plenty of people looking for answers.
What is social media?
To get us all in the same place it’s important to clarify the words we use. In this context when we say ‘social media’ we actually mean ‘online social...
Friday 29 January 2010
A few weeks ago we asked if you have a social media policy, and gave you some ideas for how to create a simple plan which will enable your internal team to help support the audience-facing representatives of your company or organisation.
But a social media policy is more than just knowing how to respond to online enquiries in a timely manner. It’s also about how your organisation presents its brand online, and how individuals within your organisation speak about your brand in their own...
Thursday 7 January 2010
We talk a lot about community and community management, blogging and content-sharing, but while the sexy stuff is important, don’t forget the old-fashioned arts of editing and publishing when you’re planning and developing the inhouse parts of your website.
Content management systems normally offer two friendly buttons at the bottom of the page, one marked Preview, the other Publish. Of course, your access rights to those buttons will have been set by the site manager, but if you...
Tuesday 5 January 2010
What happens when someone asks you a tricky question in your community, website, Facebook page, Twitter page or blog? Do you answer them? How long does it take you to answer? If you don't know the answer, do you know the appropriate person to contact in your organisation? Does that person understand the importance of timeliness in a web environment?
Every organisation needs a team of internal “champions” to help support the audience-facing person of their team (you may call...
Thursday 17 December 2009
This is a 4-part guide to using Facebook and Twitter for those already running their own online communities on their own sites.
In Part 1 of this guide to using Facebook and Twitter I explained that you should get into the social media scene and have a look around to find out where you need to be, and how information you share can shape your audience's perception of you. Click here to view Part 1: Getting into the social media scene.
In Part 2 we discussed your online presence,...
Tuesday 8 December 2009
This is a 4-part guide to using Facebook and Twitter for those already running their own online communities on their own sites.
In Part 1 of this guide to using Facebook and Twitter I explained that you should get into the social media scene and have a look around to find out where you need to be, and how information you share can shape your audience's perception of you. Click here to view Part 1: Getting into the social media scene.
In Part 2 we discussed your online presence,...
Friday 4 December 2009
Stories get our attention. Good stories are easy to remember. Story-telling is the oldest form of human interaction, and helps convey meaning, values and custom. If we ignore the power of story-telling in building our online communities we are missing one of the most powerful conversational assets. Yet how many sites looking to engage with their audience demonstrate an awareness of this natural form of interaction?
Let me tell you a short story. It all started in early 1996. A young accountant...
Wednesday 2 December 2009
I'm often asked how the Sift business came about, sometimes by clients and regularly by colleagues. So I asked our CEO, Ben Heald, to give me the details and I'm pleased to share them here.
The Sift Story
"The origins of Sift lie in the two key founders Andrew Gray and I. Andrew was running CompuServe in the UK, whilst I’d trained as an accountant with KPMG and had entrepreneurial leanings. I knew Andrew as I’d studied psychology at Bristol University with his wife...
Monday 30 November 2009
Back in August, as his News Corporation company reported huge financial losses, media mogul Rupert Murdoch announced his bold strategy for shaking up the newspaper industry: charging for content. It wasn't a new idea, of course; businesses of all types have tried charging internet users in many ways for many products, some sucessfully and others not.
Today, Johnston Press has become one of the first to adopt Murdoch's proposed charging strategy for a number of its local titles. One...
Wednesday 25 November 2009
This is a 4-part guide to using Facebook and Twitter for those already running their own online communities on their own sites.
In Part 1 of this guide to using Facebook and Twitter I explained that you should get into the social media scene and have a look around to find out where you need to be, and how information you share can shape your audience's perception of you. Click here to view Part 1: Getting into the social media scene.
Part 2: Your online presence and information overload...
Wednesday 25 November 2009
One reason I’ve been writing about KPIs for online communities is simply the lack of information out there on blogs and websites. And what information there is isn’t always clear. The second reason is simply that organisations want to make the most of their online investment. So my aim is to try and provide a simple framework for measuring and monitoring performance of your community so it delivers results.
The challenge is to turn the elegant theory into practice that can work for...
Tuesday 24 November 2009
Anthony Lau, founder of Cyclehoop, emerged victorious after presenting to a panel of top class business talent and an audience of 150 entrepreneurs at the exciting conclusion to The Pitch 2009, having dealt with a grilling from judges Tim Campbell, winner of The Apprentice 2005; former TV Dragon Doug Richard; Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins and Helen Stevenson, chief marketing officer at Yell.
Anthony's prize, a total of £50,000 worth of business support, includes strategic...
Thursday 19 November 2009
This is a 4-part guide to using Facebook and Twitter for those already running their own online communities on their own sites.
It starts from the very beginning, so if you are already a huge fan of these two websites and use them a lot professionally – move on to Part 2 where I get into the detail. …Though you’re more than welcome to read the first part as a little refresher on where we’ve been and where we’re at now. Part 2: Your online presence and information...
Monday 9 November 2009
When a membership organisation or specialist magazine upgrades its web presence, it frequently concentrates on the impact of the new interactive functionality. That’s hardly surprising: opening itself out to community demands new skills, new habits of mind, and a new business model. But, while planning a community launch to produce lots of user-generated content and lots of ROI, don’t forget to spring-clean the copy you generate in-house too.
Telling people what you want them to...
Sunday 8 November 2009
In my last post I explored how to integrate social media metrics into key performance indicators, to help drive performance. Of course it's easier said than done, as I was reminded recently at ‘MeasurementCamp’ an event where market researchers, corporate PR folk and humble social media people gather to try and make sense of metrics. From the morning's discussion it's clearly a subject which can easily generate more questions than answers. For example consider some of these thoughts...
Thursday 5 November 2009
Perhaps inspired by the adoption of Drupal by The White House, the Tories this week have announced a lean, mean approach to Government IT projects should they come to power, and will place emphasis on smaller, open-source, user-friendly projects in an attempt to chop some £4bn from current IT budgets.
Two thoughts on this:
1. Open Source doesn't mean lower implementation costs
Well, not necessarily, anyway. The Conservative Technology Forum issued a warning to consultancies and major...
Tuesday 27 October 2009
Our for-profit clients often challenge us to show them new ways to improve their ROI on online engagement and social media technology. It's not hard to show how improved customer satisfaction and increasing self-service can reflect directly on the bottom line.
We're now being asked more and more by not-for-profit organisations and charities to show them how their online activities can translate into benefits for them as an organisation - some of the less obvious and palpable benefits.
So here...
Tuesday 27 October 2009
As always, the best way to answer the question is to think about real life. Personally I find joining an existing community (like a sports club) a fairly stressful business. I introduce myself, look for a friend or mentor to show me the ropes, engage in the core activities and hope to attract the attention of more established members, until something happens – maybe the arrival of someone newer than me, maybe an invitation to join a committee – which means that suddenly I feel like...
Monday 12 October 2009
A key factor in the success of your community is demonstrating that it can deliver results. This is linked to the fact that the role of the community manager has risen in importance in the private sector as how they can help generate value is better appreciated. Because part of that value is intimately connected to setting up and monitoring the value created through the community and feeding that back to the host organisation, and the community itself. That’s a neat fit on paper but in...
