Presentation Advisors Blog

Social Media for Business Takes Third in World's Best Presentation Contest

I'm quite happy to inform all of you that my presentation, Social Media for Business, was awarded third place overall in SlideShare.net's World's Best Presentation Contest!

In its seventh year, SlideShare.net's World's Best Presentation Contest fielded 1,822 entries in five categories.  First, second, and third place overall were awarded, as well as six individual category winners.

A big congrats to Empowered Presentations, located in the state of my honeymoon (Hawaii), for their incredible presentation, SMOKE - A Convenient Truth.  It was without a doubt worthy of first place.

I especially want to thank each and every one of you that voted for me, ReTweeted me, and supported me thorughout this contest.  I was overwhelmed by how supportive, helpful, and simply awesome my readers, colleagues, family and friends are.

Take a look at the full list of 2010 winners.

If you haven't seen it already, you can view my entry below:

Social Media for Business

View more presentations from Presentation Advisors.

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Gap Free Jeans Promotion - Successfully Confusing

Did anyone get free jeans recently by taking advantage of Gap's Facebook Deal?  I did, and naturally I look fantastic in them, however thousands were left confused and pantless by the promotion.

Find out what caused the confusion in a recent post I wrote over at the Post Advertising blog...

Also, if you haven't heard, there is a premier presentation conference, aptly called The Hook Conference taking place next March in the Music City, Nashville, TN.  I'm going to be covering it in more depth quite soon, but you can learn more about the Hook Conference here.

Why The Pasta Bar is Doing Everything Right in Social Media

About 8 months ago I was sitting in my favorite lunch spot, Liquid Lunch, and was trying to use my cell phone to check into Foursquare.  Unfortunately I couldn't because not only was there no wifi, there was terrible cellular service (not the business's fault, I know).  As I looked around, this quaint soup/sandwich joint with a freezer full of old-school sodas, a chalkboard menu, and a line nearly out the door made zero effort to join the new media revolution.  No Twitter presence.  No Facebook presence.  A website akin to Geocities.  A missed opportunity.

It motivated me to write a post about the lack of restaurants embracing Foursquare, and praising AJ Bombers which has done a bang-up job of exactly that (and more) in Milwaukee.  There are so many opportunities for businesses to embrace their customers and even those who aren't yet customers by utilizing the FREE tools that web 2.0 has provided us.  No purchase necessary.  Sweat equity not included.

Just today I was reading AJ Leon's blog, as I do nearly every day, and he posted a video of a restaurant he had found in Azusa, CA, on his cross-country road trip for Rise of the Cubicle Farmer.  It's called The Pasta Bar, run by two uber-passionate people who have taken advantage of all the opportunities social media has provided to "hug their customers" as I like to put it.  AJ explains more in the video below. 

This is exactly what I was hoping Liquid Lunch would do.  In our Post-Advertising age, this is exactly what ANY business can do to tell their brand story, close the trust gap, and make life a little better for their customers, one meal at a time.  The opportunities are endless, as long as you're passionate and willing to put in the sweat equity.  The Pasta Bar has, and they're reaping the rewards.

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Book Review & Giveaway: UnMarketing by Scott Stratten

Rarely do I read a book and highlight the footnotes. Yes, UnMarketing was that good.

Scott Stratten, better known as @UnMarketing on Twitter, has written a book about Marketing that didn't seem like it was about Marketing at all. I read it. I loved it. You will too.

You see, this isn't a book about Marketing in the traditional sense, where you're given all the tricks you need to boost sales, lower customer churn, drive website traffic, and automate half your marketing tasks, all in only four hours a week. On the contrary, Scott vehemently argues against all things automated and describes how his "overnight success" actually took him years of building strong relationships based on trust.  Success in business isn't for the weary, folks.

The Audience Conference 2010 - Social Media, Comedy, and Relationships

Over the weekend I attended The Audience Conference at historic Caroline's on Broadway in the heart of Times Square, NYC.  The conference was to be a blend of social media and comedy, and their similar relationships with content, audience, and the like.  Only a 60-minute train ride and an affordable $100 price tag, I couldn't pass it up. 

Overview:
Via the suggestion and rave-review by C.C. Chapman, I signed up only minutes after learning about this conference.  I was particularly intrigued by the fact that there was NO Tweeting, live-blogging, or connectivity of any kind.  I saw a few people using their iPhones to take notes, but otherwise we were disconnected from our technology.  My iPhone didn't get any service so I had no choice.  I'd have to admit - I felt far more focused and connected (in a non-digital way) with the speaker and my fellow audience members.  I wasn't racing to Tweet out the latest speaker soundbyte and staring at the hashtag column instead of at the speaker.  There is definitely value in spreading presentation content virally, but I thought this was a unique selling point for the conference and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere (and table-service).

Content:
The day started at 10am and was split into two parts: the morning containing "Tech" speakers and the afternoon containing comedians (apart from a sit down interview between host Loren Feldman and Jason Calacanis).  I won't go into depth as to what content they offered, but every talk was different and interesting, and the comedians actually performed their comedy sets and gave some rare insight into their craft during the Q&A sessions afterwords.  Their jokes are content, just like our blog posts, and they A/B test just like Marketers do.  They also, like Marketers, have to know who their audience is, pay attention to their wants/needs, react when expectations aren't met, and connect with them.  All of the comedians brought an honest piece of their lives into their sets, reminding us all of the importance of transparency and storytelling. 

Speakers:
For such an affordable conference and limited amount of tech-related speakers, this conference had an impressive lineup.  Chris Brogan, C.C. Chapman, Chris Pearson (founder of Thesis), and host Loren Feldman from 1938 media.  They certainly didn't disappoint and because of the small venue, all of them were easily approachable which is why a conference like this is so rare.  Instead of swooping in and out, all of the speakers were there for the conference in its entirety. 

As for the comedians, they were all really funny and all had totally different styles but each of them echoed the same sentiment - quality content is king, always be testing and revising, and you have to know and understand your audience.  It made me think about the vast differences in blog topics and writing styles.  Whether you're a food blog or a sports blog, quality content wins and without an audience you're just talking to yourself (so don't ignore them). 

My favorite comedian was Harrison Grennbaum.  He had a fantastic delivery, a welcoming persona, a myriad of joke styles and even finished with an unbelievable magic trick.  Check him out on YouTube. 

Venue
As C.C. Chapman put it so eloquently when I spoke with him briefly, "This is a hidden-gem of a conference."  The venue is quite small, and looked to seat maybe a hundred or so comfortably (although I'm sure they fit 200+ uncomfortably).  This made for a very intimate and connected conference, where you felt like an active participant rather than a passive crowd member.  No matter where you sat, the speaker was no more than a shout away and your question would always go answered.  The food was fantastic compared to more expensive conferences that provide just a box lunch.  I had some fantastic mini-wraps and potato salad for lunch and drinking was encouraged once the comedians took the stage.  I'm sure that resonates with many of you.

I fully expect next year's Audience Conference to outgrown the capacity of Caroline's.  Everyone I spoke to or overheard were raving about the conference, which means word of mouth alone will generate tons of awareness. 

The Presentation Blogger's Thoughts:
Putting away my marketing/social media hat and putting on my presentation hat for just a minute, this was an interesting setting.  No slides or PowerPoint or visuals of any kind.  Just a speaker, a smaller-than-you'd-think stage, and blinding stage-lights.  I have no problem that there weren't any visuals.  Many speakers can tell engaging stories just by their lonesome on stage. 

Lacking visuals, particularly slides, has some inherent positives (usually the fodder anti-PowerPointers use to argue against its use).  Without slides there was nothing the speakers could use as a crutch.  If they stepped on that stage, they needed to know their stuff and as a whole, they did.  I only saw one slightly unsettling technique, which was when one speaker used his iPhone as his notes.  I have no problem with using notes, but I would suggest having a simple small notecard he could have placed on the stool and glanced down at every once in a while.  Instead he held his iPhone and brought it quite close to his face to read what was next.  His content was great and he seemed like a super-smart guy, but I couldn't help but feel a disconnect when he'd look down at his iPhone.    

The Concept of Audience:
A presenter's audience is so important.  Of course without an audience, you don't have much of a presentation.  That's what makes me so crazy when I see poorly prepared presenters with sloppy visuals they use as a crutch.  It's so insulting to the audience - the people sacrificing their own time (and sometimes money) to listen to the presenter.  You're not only doing a disservice to yourself, since whatever your story is will go unheard because of the "noise" created by poor visuals and delivery, but you're wasting the audience's time as well. 

As presenters, writers, marketers, you have to love your audience.  If you ask ANY of the social media influencers out there (you know, the ones that worked hard for years to become an "overnight success"), they'll all tell you stories about how much they care and have cared about their audience.  They created high-quality and valuable content that they were passionate about.  They responded to every comment.  They found where their audience lived (in online terms) and engaged with them.  They attended conferences and shook lots of hands and actually listened to the people they met.

There was no better example of this than at the very end of the conference when I approached Scott Stratten of UnMarketing fame.  Scott is a sought-after consultant, speaker, author, and nothing less than a social media influencer.  Scott used the valuable relationships he's built over the years to leverage Twitter and raise just under $30,000 for Tanner (his goal was $25,000), a special young man whose story pulled on Scott's heartstrings.  Oh, did I mention he did this in ONE DAY?!  Yes, just one-day.  How's that for ROI of Social Media?

I wanted to compliment Scott on his amazing work for Tanner's cause.  I don't know about any of you, but I get a little nervous when I approach speakers and "influencers" at conferences.  I just feel like they get approached every two seconds and all anyone wants to do is pitch their business.  I was afraid he'd presume the same about me.  I'm probably wrong about that because when I pulled Scott aside, he seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say.  We talked about Tanner, social media, relationships, audiences, the conference, and much more.  I promised myself not to take up too much of his time (get in, get out), but Scott was so genuine and cool that we talked for at least 20 minutes.  I'm just one of MANY "audience members" he has (over 60k followers) but he treated me like we were long-time friends and I can only assume he treats everyone like that.  Now he's turned a follower into an evangelist.  I've already pre-ordered his book, but if you haven't click here to order, available September 7th.  

Conclusion:
After reading this I'm sure you're not surprised that I highly recommend this conference.  I don't know what to expect for next year as far as ticket-price, venue, and attendee growth, but if it stays similar to this year's, it's a must-go.  The only other conference with this much value for the dollar is the 140 Conference.  I will no doubt have fond memories of the conversations I had, people I met, valuable information I learned, and the brownies (which were to die for). 

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Image courtesy of Today Is A Good Day on Flickr

4 Important Takeaways from Dan Zarrella's "Science of Presentations" White Paper

Full Disclosure: I have no affiliation with Hubspot and wrote this post on my own accord.

Over at Hubspot, a company that is undoubtedly going to take over the world soon, Social Media Scientist Dan Zarrella is hosting a free webinar on the Science of Presentations: How to Give Contagious Talks. Being a presentation junkie, when I saw the email invitation I immediately registered. Luckily, Dan has written an accompanying white paper of the same name outlining his research and findings.  To get the white paper, you'll have to register for the free webinar.

At first I thought, “Who does Dan think he is? I realize he knows a ton about the science of social media, but what does he know about presentations (other than his own personal experience as a speaker/presenter)?” Of course, my narrow-mindedness failed me. Dan has done some interesting research on the best ways to get people to Tweet or blog about your live presentations.

It’s so interesting to see how this topic has emerged in the last few years. I’ve been studying presenting and marketing communications for years, and real-time information sharing has become a powerful tool for presenters and audience members alike. Dan has shared the best ways to get your audience to share the information you, the presenter, are providing in order to give contagious presentations.

It is not my intent to give away all of his research. Instead, I wanted to provide my reaction and thoughts to his white paper. I suggest you read the white paper first before reading my reactions, but I’ll try to keep them high level if you’d rather forego reading it. Of course, sign up for his free webinar on Thursday, August 19th at 1pm EST.

Without further ado, here are 4 important takeaways from Dan’s Science of Presentations white paper:

1. 75% of those surveyed live-Tweet during a presentation
   Twitter has become a backchannel for audiences to share information and reactions with each other and their respective networks. I’ve attended many conferences and webinars and I’ve come to LOVE live-Tweeting for two reasons: 1) I feel that I’m sharing valuable nuggets of information with my followers and 2) I can connect with other audience members who share the same interests. Presenters generally love active backchannels (especially positive ones!) and I’ve been thanked personally by a few presenters who appreciated my live-Tweeting of their talk.
   
   My only hesitation with this stat is that he surveyed people who were marketers or at least interested in social media. I’ve hosted and attended a variety of presentations and webinars where the topics were far removed from marketing/media and the backchannels were completely silent. The audience members simply weren’t active on these channels (yet), so don’t get discouraged if your backchannel isn’t what you’d hoped it would be.


2. 52% of those surveyed had joined because they saw a live tweet about a presentation
   I would have also responded yes, and this is another powerful aspect of a real-time backchannel. There are so many conferences and webinars going on every day that we can’t possibly keep up with all those that interest us. If you encourage your audience to live-tweet or to be active in wherever the backchannel lives, you can grow your audience. If you run a conference, it’s definitely feasible to think that promoting the sharing of information via the backchannel will expose the valuable information found at the conference to people who were unaware of its existence, resulting in those attendees joining next time. The 140 Conference sells tickets to attend, but streams every talk for free on UStream and the backchannel is incredibly active. Trust me, you’re not giving away the farm for free if you do this…it will only make people watching want to attend in person next time.


3. Sharing, novelty, and relevance were the top 3 reasons those surveyed Tweet or blog about a presentation
   According to those surveyed, audience members live-Tweet or blog during presentations because they want to share new, relevant information. This ultimately helps the exposure of you and your content (as the presenter), so encourage viewers to “Be kind and share”, make sure your presentation contains new, relevant, and laser-focused information they haven’t heard yet.


4. Focus on ReTweets by scheduling Tweets of takeaways by the presenter during the presentation, or by post-presentation Tweeting
   I love this idea and I have to admit, I’d never really thought of it. While sometimes the backchannel is wonderfully active in grabbing all of your sound bytes (which should purposefully be presented in sub-140 characters), sometimes it is not. Regardless, if you provide Tweets of your presentation content on your own account (either during or after) you can plant the seed to be spread by your audience members. If you can effectively time your presentation, you can schedule tweets to go out a few minutes after you intend to actually present a specific sound byte. Instead of feverishly typing in a quote of yours, an audience member may be able to focus a little better because they know they’ll be able to ReTweet all the important information via your account. Regardless, it helps focus your content, reiterate your core points, and offer them in an easily spreadable fashion. 

Of course, to get the full understanding of Dan's research you should register for and attend the webinar. I’ll certainly be active on the back channel. Oh, and yes, I’m thoroughly offended that I wasn’t asked to give my perspective as one of the “expert presenters.” :op

Book Review and Giveaway: Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

When a business becomes so successful that there is an article-a-day written about them, it's only a matter of time before the CEO writes a book about how he/she achieved such a feat.  What you expect is 200 or so pages of business processes and advice.  That's absolutely NOT what this book delivers.

Instead, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose offers a first-hand account by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh of what shaped him as a person which would eventually lead him to creating an online company whose values were developed from the inside out.  Zappos invested their time, money, and resources into customer service, culture, and employee training.  Three areas often pushed aside by companies whose only goals are dollar signs.

I had expectations for this book and it completely missed the mark - in a good way.  This isn't a business book (or a customer service book), per say.  It will DEFINITELY help you look at business differently, from Tony's perspective as a CEO unlike any other.  This book provides Tony's account of his journey, from grade school to Amazon.  I am familiar with Zappos but was unfamiliar with their history, from an idea on a napkin to a 1 billion dollar business.  Let's just say it wasn't all rose petals and double martinis.  It's not a complete history of Zappos, nor Tony's autobiography, although it includes many elements from both.  It is simply Tony trying to tell the story of his journey while also offering insight into the science of happiness, complete with graphics and resources. 

While I'm a fan of all things related to business, there was actually a specific section in Delivering Happiness dedicated to Tony's experiences with public speaking which I featured in my post Presenting Happiness: Tony Hsieh's Rules for Public Speaking. 

This book will teach you what passion can accomplish, and how sometimes all you can do is have faith.  In the end, this book will do nothing less than inspire you to deliver happiness in your own way, whether it be to your culture, your customers, or yourself (or all three).  I highly recommend it. 

Want to win a FREE copy of Tony's Book?

The folks at Delivering Happiness not only provided me with an advanced copy to honestly review, but a second copy (paperback, which I think is more convenient) to give away to one of my readers!  Very cool of them.

If you would like to receive Delivering Happiness free to your doorstep, there are two ways:

1. Simply ReTweet this post with the hashtag #FreeDHBook (that's VERY important!) and/or
2. Leave a comment below with the title/author of a book that has changed your life personally, professionally, or both

If you do both #1 and #2, you will be given two entries, although retweeting multiple times (while appreciated) will not improve your chances of winning.

Good luck, and thanks so much for reading!

Presentation Tips and Takeaways from Social Media Plus Summit

I just finished my last session at the Social Media Plus Conference in Philly.  I was excited to attend because there were a number of presenters whose blogs and twitter ID's I follow and wanted to meet face-to-face.  You can see my conference related tweets on my Twitter feed with the hashtag #SMPlus.  It was my first wholehearted attempt at live-tweeting at a conference. 

These conferences give me the opportunity to see a bunch of smart people present about topics (I think) they're passionate about.  Unfortunately for them, I can't watch a presentation without my presentation designer's eye.  It's the same reason I won't play in a backyard volleyball game.  If you've played volleyball for 15 years like I have, you know what I mean. 

I was pleasantly surprised with the caliber of presentations.  Not only from the content perspective, which is generally good at conferences that cost hundreds of dollars, but by the presentation design and delivery.  I blogged about the Search Engine Strategy Conference presentations a few months back and I'd say that these were better, especially for a smaller conference.  Now, the content at SES was higher level, but that's neither here nor there.

Instead of walking you through the presentations I thought were great, I'm going to simply list the things they did well and a couple pitfalls a few presenters fell into. 

• Leave the confines of the podium/stage and engage the audience
  I was pleasantly surprised when Frank Eliason, aka @ComcastCares (who I was excited to see present), immediately left the podium, walked off the stage and stood in the middle aisle amongst all the audience members.  He told us "I don't do presentations...I don't do "decks"...I have conversations."  Fantastic.  I've said before that while I believe PowerPoints can help enhance your message in certain situations, they aren't necessary for a successful presentation.  Jason Falls also made his way from side to side on the stage to make sure he made eye contact with audience members on all sides of the room (a much bigger room than Frank presented in). 
  
  
  Frank Eliason presenting from within the crowd
  


• Use big, high resolution images
  A number of presenters including Rohit Bhargava, Jason Falls, and Bill Lublin used big images and very little text on their screen (although I tweeted that Bill could have lost the unnecessary template which only added noise).  Naturally I found all three of these presentations very interesting and engaging.  Not simply because I enjoyed the content matter or because I'm a presentation designer.  They were interesting and engaging because my attention was nearly always on the presenter and their images reinforced their messages so I understood their points better.  I usually only see one or two presenters in an entire conference use the "big image, few text" style of presentation design, so I was pleasantly surprised to see 3 in one day.


• Be interesting and even a little funny
  Trust me - I'm the first one to tell you that being an interesting and funny person isn't something you can just "wish" upon yourself.  If it were I'd have a gaggle of girls sitting beside me right now, laughing at all my jokes.  I found Frank Eliason, Jason Falls, and Bill Lublin all to be extremely engaging and at least made an effort to keep insert some humor into the presentation (it can't always be work, work, work, right?).  Naturally, not every joke worked, but that's okay.  Even when I didn't think the joke was all that funny, I appreciated the effort.  When a presenter is on stage presenting content that they don't even seem interested in or find enjoyable in any way, it's utter agony for the audience.  Perception is reality when it comes to presenting.  If you seem like you're having fun up there, the audience will have fun too.  Jason seemed like he was having a great time and I'd give him the award for best presentation of the day.  He offered great content and let his personality shine through.


• Always think about your audience - Would you want to see that??
  I did sit in on a few forgettable sessions and the Twitter feed confirmed I wasn't the only one who felt that way.  While the presenters will remain nameless, a few designed their presentation in the "old way".  They used long lists of bullet points, slides cluttered with text and small images all over the place, and font so small that I guarantee only 10 percent of the audience could even read.  If they were in the audience instead of presenting, would they want to see these slides?  In those sessions I found myself starting to multi-task.  I was catching up on work emails, news, and other sorts.  It's a shame because I was excited for the content that these particular sessions promised to provide.  Maybe they did provide it, but I doubt many people retained any of it.  Their poor presentation design and lack of concern for their audience's well being as students eager to learn left a bad taste in many audience members' mouths.  

If you're looking for a business-to-business social media conference and you're new to the space, I'd recommend it.  I think they have a good thing going if they offer the caliber of presenters next year that they did this year.  However, I've said it before and I'll say it again: Conferences that team up with a presentation designer (i.e. TED and Duarte, although not formally) to help create effective PowerPoint presentations will have much happier audience members at the end of the day.

10 Reasons I Won't Follow You Back on Twitter

I take my Twitter stream very seriously.  I didn't at first, because I was happy that anybody would choose to follow me.  A follow-back was a near guarantee unless you were an obvious spammer peddling your "kewl pix of me and my girlz."

I've been on Twitter for about a year and a half now and I look at it much differently than I used to.  I'm a "new marketer" as I like to call it, and I'm not out to garner the most eyeballs - I want the best eyeballs.  (My blood boils when I see "grow your followers overnight" schemes) The best aren't the most influential or popular though.  The best, in my opinion, are the ones that offer me value and have an opportunity of creating a real relationship - maybe not in person, but at least virtually.  I know with over 1,500 people followed, I'm not going to create a relationship with everyone.  It's simply not scalable.  But that doesn't mean I'm going to give anyone a free pass.

I choose the tweets that I post carefully because I care about my followers.  I save my personal, often goofy statuses for Facebook and try to spread as much value to my Twitter followers as possible in the areas I'm passionate about.  Not everything will relate to our similar interests, but if you're following me I hope it's because something about me interests you (business, hobbies, sports alliances).  I only expect the same in return.

So now I get enough followers each day where I need to pick and choose who I follow back.  My stream is so noisy that I simply can't stand to have it filled with one spammy tweet.  It seems as Twitter grows, so do the spammers, and each day I get more "bad" followers and less "real" followers (relatively speaking).  I use Topify to help me sort out who I'm going to follow back.  (I have no relationship with Topify)  Like the default Twitter setting Topify will email you when you're followed, but Topify will give you much more detailed information. (Topify is still in beta, thus requiring an "invite" code.  To register, go here: http://bit.ly/gotopify)

Here is a screen shot of a recent follow (my friend Brad!)

This gives me some immediate information to make a decision.  You have to realize that when you follow someone in hopes that they follow you back, all of this information is your presentation.  You don't have the opportunity to give a few quick reasons why they should follow you back.  They only have the information that a program like Topify can give them.  Here are the important parts I look at:

• Ratio of Followers to Following - If you are following 900 but only have 83 followers, chances are you're not that great of a tweeter.  A lopsided ratio in the other direction means you're probably "famous" in Twitterland, which is certainly better than the latter, but the chances of there being any real value in our "relationship" is slim to none as well.  I like to see someone who has a ratio somewhere around 1:1.   


• Biography - This usually is as far as I need to go.  If you are a real person you'll want to list your interests here so I can see if we share similar ones.  No, "Marketing" is not enough because I think 99% of people on Twitter are Marketers.  Don't use it as a place to hock your services either.  Here are a few more bios that will send me scurrying to click on the delete button (these are just from today):
  
  Say what?
  
  
  You're going to make me a millionaire?  Really?
  
  
  You're a "social media rockstar", on Twitter for over 2 years, and I have more followers than you
  


• Twitter Join Date - Joined yesterday and are following 800 tweeps already?  No thanks.


• Website - Shortened URL?  Sketchy.

Which brings us to the content of the most recent tweets.  Since there have been a number of great posts outlining the top 10 reasons people don't follow back, I'm not going to try and reinvent the wheel.  But when judging if I'm going to follow, here are some quick criteria that I look (and look out) for:

• Too Self-Promotional - It's okay to promote oneself on Twitter.  Many people join Twitter with the ultimate goal of driving new business and spreading brand awareness.  I can take the every-so-often self-promotional tweet, such as
  
  
  "We can serve all of your design needs - from logos, to videos and more - [link to website]."
  
  
  But when it happens five times a day, every day?  No thanks.  You're adding only clutter, not value, to my stream. 


• Protected Tweets - I used to follow these if the bio checked out, but I've stopped.  If you're protecting your tweets (and I'm not a close personal friend) then you don't understand the value of twitter and probably won't be a good twitter-friend.


• ReTweets - If you don't ReTweet then I won't follow you.  If you look normal and I don't see a retweet in the handful of tweets that Topify shows, then I'll probably go directly to your page to get some more info.  If I don't see any ReTweets there, then I'm not following back.  You're too selfish.


• @ Replies - The greatest value I've gotten from Twitter are the great people I've met and the conversations I've had.  If you never @ reply then it's the equivalent of showing up at a party with a megaphone, yelling.  Not what most people are looking for and certainly not adding value to your followers.


• Last Post - I only follow people who actively use the tool.  If your last post was 2 months ago, or if you've never posted a tweet, then how will you offer me any value?  (I realize some people are on Twitter just to follow others and don't care to be followed back.  Let's pretend that's not the case here.)


• Automation - Not all automation is bad, but if you burst out 10 tweets in a matter of seconds...well, I'll just leave it at that.

There are a number of other reasons I won't follow back, but these are just the reasons I will notice at a glance.  These are my personal feelings and I'm sure many people will disagree, especially if their use of Twitter is different than mine.  If you're just in it to drive eyeballs to your site in order to sell advertising based on traffic, then you're not going to waste time actually creating relationships on Twitter.  Instead you'll do everything possible to grow your following, although it's been shown that more followers doesn't necessarily mean more traffic.

To finish this post off on a more positive note, here are ten rules I follow to be a valuable member of the Twittersphere:

1. Engage with those you follow and those who follow you (ie @ replies or DM)
2. Be real.  Be genuine.  Be human.  Be yourself. 
3. ReTweet other people's content at least at a 5:1 ratio of others:self.
4. Be aware of other people's streams by keeping a normal tweet frequency (try not to tweet 20 times in under a minute - if you have to do that, take it onto another medium)
5. Never use a program to grow more followers
6. Never follow and immediately unfollow
7. Follow those people who interest you and don't take offense if they don't follow you back
8. Don't feel obligated to follow everyone back
9. Never auto-address a single person
10. It's okay to ask for a ReTweet, but not on every post

I'd love to hear your thoughts.  What are some other reasons you won't follow back?  Am I being too harsh with my reasons?  Let me know in the comments section.

Image courtesy of Jaako on Flickr (Found via CompFight)

My Rules of Social Media Engagement

I am by no means a Social Media Expert.  Not yet at least.  Nor do I claim to even be a Twitter or Facebook expert.  I'll leave all that to the thousands of people who claim they are.

I do know a few things though.  I'm educated in the worlds of marketing, design, presenting, engagement, storytelling, and a little bit of technology (put that Info Systems degree to work!).  All of this knowledge and experience has helped me mold a social media strategy that works for me. 

I believe the most effective marketing techniques are those that don't market yourself at all.  Especially over the last couple of years, many companies have found great success in what is sometimes called Content Marketing.  It's more than just creating and distributing content, however.  It's about sharing information, helping people, engaging with your audience, responding to their needs, and most of all CARING. 

A wholehearted believe in this type of marketing has led to my social media rules for engagement.  These have helped me engage with my target audience, spread brand awareness, and truly help others.  This isn't the only blueprint for success, and there are many other ways to market yourself - many of which will probably drive more traffic to your site, grow your followers overnight, and help you build a database of emails you can spam - but these are rules that I like to live by.  This is how I truly believe your audience wants to be treated.  I know that because it's how I want to be treated as a consumer, and audience member, and a friend.

Never "Auto" Anything
This isn't all-encompassing, but it nearly is.  Hardly anything I do on Twitter is automated.  The key to effective engagement is to actually be there.  When I receive an auto-DM (direct message), it feels disingenuous to me.  You send the same thing to everyone who follows you, so you don't really care about me, personally.  However, it puts a smile on my face when I get a real DM, with my name, thanking me for following.  Especially if they note something specific about me, like "Thanks for the follow Jon.  Looking forward to reading your presentation tips!"  Social media is about building relationships, and few relationships can be auto-built.

The only automatic thing I approve of, and all of this is just my opinion, is scheduling tweets.  Most nights I finish my blog posts at 1am EST (or is it EDT?).  Many of my colleagues are asleep and only tweeting my blog post once at such a late hour will get little exposure.  So I schedule my tweets to go out 4 times on the day it's posted, spread out 6 hours each.  All of my quality followers follow enough that this won't clog up their stream, and gives them a better chance of seeing my tweet.  I used to religiously be against this tactic, but it helps drive traffic and I'm not repetitively tweeting a link to my product.  I believe these posts are all helpful and free of charge, so it's not rude to want to spread it.  

Be as Human as Possible
I was on #brandchat recently where a question was posed about how human a brand should be, mostly regarding the use of faces vs. logos for Twitter avatars and the proper handling of multiple "tweeters" per account.  Being human is one of the greatest marketing techniques there will ever be, and striving to be as human as possible can do wonders for your brand.  It's not appropriate 100% of the time, but some brands choose to be human 0% of the time, and that's never appropriate. 

There's no one formula for success in social media when it comes to humanizing a brand.  There are valid arguments to use a logo instead of a face and to use just one Twitter account instead of many.  But if you're on Twitter as a personal brand trying to connect with others, you will go very far if you act like a human.  That means using a picture of your face as your Twitter avatar, being descriptive about yourself and your passions in your bio, @ replying people to try and engage them, especially if it's just to thank them for a ReTweet or to tell them how much you appreciated their recent article, and responding to all your blog comments, @ mentions, Facebook messages, and emails (it's okay if it takes a little while - just make sure it gets done). 

Don't Let Your Social Media Presences Flatline
One thing I've certainly noticed over the last few years is that keeping the heart of my social media efforts beating is no small task.  There are many different parts and they all need tending to.  If you neglect one for too long it basically shrivels and dies - however, it never goes away which can be even worse (unless you make an effort to completely remove it).  Many companies jumping onto the social media bandwagon, only to fall off shortly thereafter.  During the first week they may post twice daily.  Soon that becomes daily, then weekly, then monthly, then the cobwebs start to form in the corners of their blog or Facebook Fan Page.  At this point consumers are coming across these pages and wondering what the heck happened.  Did this company go under?  Did the person tending to this get fired?  Did they lose their passion?  Were they only doing this because everyone else was?

First, just because a social media website was created doesn't mean you HAVE to join it.  Nobody is putting a gun to your head to create a Facebook Fan Page, a Twitter account, and to author a blog.  They can all certainly be useful, but only if you know you can commit the time to them.  Second, make sure if you choose to create one that you will commit the time to it.  Create a schedule to keep yourself on a deadline.  Telling yourself that you'll write a post "when the inspiration hits" can lead to a lonely blog.  Tell yourself you'll ask your fans 3 questions per week on your fan page, or you'll write 3 blog posts every Sunday (or before a certain time on Sunday) to be posted on three separate days per week.  This isn't easy, and even I struggle with it sometimes, but without it you'll certainly fall off the wagon.

CARE
I'm a Gary Vaynerchuck fanboy.  Although I'm not a fan of wine at all, I watch nearly all of his video blogs, watch his keynotes, read his book, and met him after he spoke at RJ Julia bookstore in Madison, CT.  I've consumed a lot of @garyvee content and while I realize it's impossible to retain it all, I know I've learned and retained a good portion of it.  As any presentation expert will tell you, "Forget two or three.  You're lucky if your audience remembers just one point you made in your presentation."  There's one piece of advice to become successful in business that Gary gave in the very first keynote of his that I ever watched, and that was to care.  Not just to care, but to CARE.  To go above and beyond what's expected of you as a brand, a business, and a person.  Gary has nearly 1 million followers and gets thousands of emails per day, but if you @ reply him or email him, I bet you'll get a response (if you're patient).  Try doing that to Ashton Kutcher or your favorite athlete on Twitter.  Maybe they're more famous than Gary, but regardless, as a human being he can't scale.  No matter who you are, 850k followers is too many to respond to them all (not to mention emails and blog comments) but he finds a way to reach almost everyone who reaches out to him.  Heck, I've messaged fellow Xaverian alumnus and pro quarterback Matt Hasselbeck a few times on Twitter and never gotten a response, and he has 22k followers (that's 2.5% as many as Gary, if you're keeping score at home). 

Truly caring about your customers, your audience, your followers, your fans, and your friends is so underrated.  I've come across a few college students who have tweeted that they were working on a PowerPoint and I offered my help, free of charge.  I do this for the sole reason that it would have been cool to get the help of a presentation designer when I was a college student who knew nothing about presentation design.  It's a nice thing to do, and my parents always taught me to be nice.  My paying customers come first and I don't spend all my time laboring for college students, but it's a better way to spend my time than watching reruns of the Soup.  I truly believe doing things like that will come back to me somehow.

This isn't the only way.  You can use many techniques, including black hat techniques, to grow and monetize your business or brand.  But I believe that we as human beings have a responsibility to treat others as we want to be treated.  I believe that following my rules of social media engagement will make this space a better one to be a part of. 

What do you think?

Image courtesy of Gord McKenna on Flickr