My Top 4 Social Media Profiles for Professionals

Building a strong and professional image is a very hard thing to do. As online identity and reputation become more valuable, focus on profiles that get "maximum bang for the buck". If you have not done it yet take a moment and setup these four, which will help serve as a healthy foundation for your online presence and give you the benefit of showing up in mainstream search engine results.

There are many reasons you have to consider for maintaining a healthy online presence. You may simply want to have easy to find information, you may want to connect with industry peers, or you may simply want to have some reputation insurance in case Google finds some strange tidbit from your past.

If you are unsure of where to start, the following services will provide a fairly strong online presence.

Linkedin is the most established business network. With over 50 million members in over 200 countries around the world, Linkedin is the only business network that can currently claim there are executives from all Fortune 500 companies on it. Linkedin also has the most robust networking functionality, keeping many of the personal social networking features off the user interface.

BENEFIT – It is the largest. It has a straight-forward interface. It has many worthwhile services provided for free and doesn’t "break the bank" for a professional account with some extra options.

DISADVANTAGE – The downside of Linkedin is that they sell advertising on profiles types and keyword variations. This means that people viewing your online profile are also being exposed to ads from potential competitors.

The newest kid on the profile block. While originally launched back in 2007, Google recently started showing Google Profiles in search results and tying them into other services. Profiles have a HUGE benefit in that they appear in Google search results for your name.

BENEFIT – It shows up in search results. It allows you to add links to any other web presence you have. This profile also works for services using Google’s friendconnect service (greatly helpful for businesses and developers.) At this point in time, it is clean cut and completely void of any real distractions to people looking for your information.

Another benefit is that it works with all of Google’s other free services: ranging from Google Labs, Google Reader, and Google Adwords/Analytics. This makes it a very simple “home base” for anyone already using Google’s platform.

DISADVANTAGE - Google has a plan. They always do. You can expect to see advertising slapped around this and to see your profile information integrated into dozens of other services in the not too distant future.

Well, what else needs to be said about Facebook?? Originally a youthful college site, Facebook has grown into a full business portal. As a social portal, Facebook has now become huge with more than 350 million active users.

BENEFIT -Facebook clearly has the largest active network to find other professionals on. It has a great number of niche user groups that are searchable on brand, geography, and user interests. It also has a robust API (Application Programming Interface) for businesses that want to develop tools working with Facebook information, ranging from such services as Facebook Connect, to user applications allowing additional information to be relayed.

DISADVANTAGE – Facebook slaps you with advertising wherever and whenever it can. The overall profile page turns non web savvy users into a state of information overload, and the navigation of the site is often nestled within hidden paths that are not user friendly.

VisualCV - while Linkedin, Google, and Facebook all have huge budgets behind them and have established presence VisualCV has the most professional interface, a clean cut experience, and tons of useful options that include a variety of social media “share this” functions. VisualCV could easily be a destination page for professionals who do not (or cannot) have a website of their own.

BENEFIT - You can have private and public profiles that include nearly any type of information you can think of. This site is also great for professionals on the job hunt, as it features a Print to PDF feature that produces a clean version of what you put online.

DISADVANTAGE – Unlike the other three, VisualCV doesn’t have a substantial social network population attached to it.

And remember, you need to be smart about what you say and do online as Google and other engines have the ability to catalog and cache seemingly all online activity, yours too! So if you say or do something your Mom would not like then don’t put it online…;) Lastly, Google yourself every now and then and see how you can improve on those results.

And the numbers continue to go up

Social media sites up to 82% in one year!!

We are spending more than five and half hours on social networks, that is the result of a global survey conducted by The Nielsen Company.

Globally, social networks and blogs are the most popular online category followed by online games and instant messaging. With 206.9 million unique visitors, Facebook, surprise surprise, was the No. 1 global social networking destination in December 2009 and 67% of global social media users visited the site during the month.

The survey took into consideration several countries such as Japan, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Australia and the United States just to name a few but not huge markets like China, India and Indonesia. So these numbers are not really giving the real picture.

I also believe corporate website are losing importance, is there future for them?

For the full report please visit here.

Social Media Poll Results

Here follow the results we got from the poll on your favourite form of social networking.

People voted not only from Oman but from everywhere, every continent, which give us a better idea on a much larger scale, however the number of voters was only 51.

The overwhelming winner was Facebook (34%) with YouTube (22%) and Twitter (21%) coming solidly behind. At number 4 we have LinkedIn (9%) which is a sort of surprise but not as much as number 5 which is....None At All (8%); very interesting to find out that this scored more than other very widely used networks.

Last position with 6% of the votes go to a number of other networks like Posterous, Tumblr, My Space, etc.

Here is a chart.

Thanks all for voting and we'll have another poll on what influences you the most when deciding to buy something. Please vote.

 

PR insight & tidbits (6) - Newsletter

A newsletter, or better e-newsletter or e-flier, gives you the opportunity to create and send information about your business. It is a form of direct marketing that in Oman is very common. Every week I receive newsletters from various businesses; from big multinationals to small family-run businesses, and I have to say that while some of them are really nicely designed and interesting, most of them are just boring.

This service enables you to send to an e-mail list, your own message. Some companies send it directly to their database, some others give you the chance to download it from their website while some others will print it out and distribute.

We’ve been doing newsletters for a while, the one in the image is a simple but good example from Totem boutique (click here to see the high res image).

I'd like to share with you the dos and don’ts:

1. Decide what the purpose of the newsletter is. Is it to drive more people to your website? Maybe you’re selling a new product or have a special offer? This is very important so focus on the key aspect of the newsletter, pick a target and be consistent.

2. Be original. Come up with good story ideas. Here are some topics that could be of high reader interest:

    • Product stories, news, industry news and analyses of event and trends.

    • Tips on product, reviews and case studies.

    • Milestones, customer stories.

    • Photos (VERY IMPORTANT).

    • Links for people to find out more.

The other day I receive a newsletter and it was only text; I could not be bothered even reading it as it just looked boring and plain. An image speaks for a thousand words...they say!

3. On the design and page layout side, a good newsletter design creates interest and maintains readability through consistency, conservation, and contrast. You probably have corporate guidelines to follow so please make sure you’re consistent. Once you have a design stick to it, use the same template and format for a while.

I personally like newsletters that are not too formal. Newsletters are great because they only need time and application, otherwise they are free, simple and fast!

The purchasing power of social media

By understanding how consumers process product information, or more simply, how their purchase decisions are influenced, we can then plan our campaigns that reach their target audience in the places where they are influenced.

A lot has been said and written about the decline in influence of the traditional media and yet more still about the rise in online search technology, and the mass adoption of self-publishing tools and interconnected networks of individuals that have helped contribute to the traditional media’s demise.

But to what extent is that true and how does it affect a consumer?

Any communications activity should not be isolated within channels. Rather than create separate online and offline campaigns brands should create campaigns that draw no distinction between the channels deployed. Consistent stories should be told across all the media that reach your target. What you do offline should also be visible online.

When thinking about purchasing goods or services in general, how influential are these sources in helping you make your purchase decisions?

It is proven that young consumers are more influenced by the traditional media than their older counterparts. Over half of consumers under the age of 35 express a desire to interact with brands via social networks.

In Oman newspapers and magazines advertising is still more influential when making purchasing decisions. Is it because consumers do not wholly accept what they read online until they have checked the facts in the traditional media?

Online advocacy is now the most influential source of information for consumers (26%). Online advocacy is defined as online user reviews and recommendations. This is remarkably consistent across the western world, with every market citing it as the most influential source of information. Similarly, every market agreed that the second most influential communications channel on their purchase decisions was their friends and family (20%).

Online advocacy also demonstrates that consumers check out facts and opinions in print, on the radio and TV as well as the Web. Therefore a truly consistent and complementary brand story must be told across channels both ‘old’ and ‘new’.

The growth of digital media has driven consumers online to research and validate their purchasing decisions. This is an enormous opportunity for marketers in Oman to identify and mobilise advocates for their brands. I think some companies are slowly realizing it so soon we might see a “social media rush” in Oman?

Google's suggestions

Yesterday i was reading an article on TechCrunch on how Google gives suggestions when we are googling something. As i was a bit bored, i admit it, i started to search various words and every time i got suggestions from Google. I kind of got addicted to it and found some hilarious suggestions. Google is really funny and creative on this, maybe you want to give it a try too.

Here are some of my findings:

• Oman

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Sex

• Blogging

• Google

• I am

• You are

• Muscat

• Friends

Some of them are really funny, aren't they? I was positively surprised to see our fellow blogger UD scoring so high when searching Muscat, nicely done Mr. Confidential! I am sure you will try some creative queries yourself to check it out. Don’t forget to tell me about what funny suggestions you got.

Have a good one and stay tuned.

The famous Mentos ad campaign

As you know i'm not into advertising but it is still an area which i really like and that i'm linked to as i deal with designers, concept developers and graphic artists on the daily basis. Today i bumped into a famous Mentos advert which was develop just less than a year ago (some of you might already know it) and it was for the Russian market. Below you can see three of those famous ads and you will understand why everybody in Europe suddenly started to talk about this campaign.

Will we ever see such things in Oman? Nah!

Credits go to:

Advertising Agency: B&B furculiţă, София, България
Creative Director: Francis Battiatosky
Copywriters: Lucas Jorge Bartolao
Art Directors: Sergey A. Baxinsky
Photographer: somuosky from corbisivic

Does social media let everyone act as their own PR agency?

No. It doesn’t.

Public relations is much more than just pitching journalists. It is not something you can just jump into and be great at. While people can be good at one or more aspects of PR, there is no way you can decide to do PR and be immediately good, or even great, at all the facets of the business.

PR is event management; it is media training; it is strategic planning; it is crisis management; it is internal communication, etc. In our company (MPiRe), for example, we widen it further to include relationship building, community building, sports management and more.

Social media does let people carry out some aspects of public relations themselves, such as building relationships with journalists and online influencers, and outreach to those people.

However, public relations is not as easy as drafting a release and pitching it, well, that is the conception in Oman. It requires skills and experience. I could become a mechanic, a butcher, or a doctor if I wanted to, however it would take me years of training to do it well. Similarly, you can’t just pick up the reins of public relations and undertake the full suite of functions that the PR department/agency does.

Anyone can embark on basic public relations efforts through social media, but few people will do them well. Public relations is the external face of your organization; would you want someone with minimal knowledge and skills of the discipline representing you publicly? I would not.

Public relations needs to evolve as we've already seen here. That is what i think and that was also the result of the poll we had some time ago.

As an industry, public relations in Oman need to embrace social media tools in order to keep up with the rest of the world. Various studies and researches show that public relations is a natural fit for social media, and there is so much that can be done that clients expect to be represented in every way possible.

This means expanding to blogging, Facebook, Twitter and any other form of electronic media. Everyone uses them nowadays, so clients want and need to be represented on them all in order to get their name out there.

We need to blog; to create podcasts; to experiment on Twitter; to produce videos; to build social media sites; to foster online communities. We need to do this so we don’t lose relevancy during these changes, we should provide integrated solutions to our clients.

Social media doesn’t mean everyone can do public relations; however, it does mean that we need to up our game to get the best results for our clients.

PR insight and tidbits (5)

There are still quite a few people who ask me about advertising and public relations; these two industries are very different even though they're commonly confused as being one and the same. Of course each can work on its own or they can go hand in hand as part of a campaign.

So let’s have a look at them and why they are so different.

1. Paid Space or Free Coverage

• Advertising:

The company pays for ad space. You know exactly when that ad will air or be published.

• Public Relations:

The aim is to get free publicity for the company. From news conferences to press releases, you're focused on getting free media exposure for the company and its products/services.

2. Creative Control Vs. No Control

• Advertising:

Since you're paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that ad.

• Public Relations:

You have no control over how the media presents your information, if they decide to use your info at all. They're not obligated to cover your event or publish your press release just because you sent something to them. If you sent the company logo or a photo along with the press release they might not be published.

3. Shelf Life

• Advertising:

Since you pay for the space, you can run your ads over and over for as long as your budget allows. An ad generally has a longer shelf life than one press release.

• Public Relations:

You only submit a press release about a new product or service once. You only submit a press release about a news conference once. The PR exposure you receive is only circulated once. An editor won't publish your same press release three or four times in their magazine or paper.

4. Wise Consumers

• Advertising:

Consumers know when they're reading an advertisement they're trying to be sold a product or service.

• Public Relations:

When someone reads a third-party article written about your product or views coverage of your event on TV, they're seeing something you didn't pay for with ad dollars and view it differently than they do paid advertising.

5. Creativity or a Nose for News

• Advertising:

In advertising, you get to exercise your creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials.

• Public Relations:

In public relations, you have to have a nose for news and be able to generate buzz through that news. You exercise your creativity, to an extent, in the way you search for new news to release to the media. Creativity is essential to results in PR.

6. In-House or Out on the Town

• Advertising:

If you're working at an ad agency, your main contacts are your co-workers and the agency's clients. If you buy and plan ad space on behalf of the client then you'll also interact with media sales people.

• Public Relations:

You interact with the media and develop a relationship with them. Your contact is not limited to in-house communications. You're in constant touch with your contacts at the print publications and broadcast media.

7. Target Audience or Hooked Editor

• Advertising:

You're looking for your target audience and advertising accordingly. You wouldn't advertise a women's TV network in a male-oriented sports magazine.

• Public Relations:

You must have an angle and hook editors to get them to use info for an article, to run a press release or to cover your event.

8. Limited or Unlimited Contact

• Advertising:

Some industry pros have contact with the clients. Others like copywriters or graphic designers in the agency may not meet with the client at all.

• Public Relations:

In public relations, you are very visible to the media. PR pros aren't always called on for the good news.

If there was an accident at your company, you may have to give a statement or on-camera interview to journalists. You may represent your company as a spokesperson at an event. Or you may work within community relations to show your company is actively involved in good work and is committed to the city and its citizens.

9. Special Events

• Advertising:

If your company sponsors an event, you wouldn't want to take out an ad giving yourself a pat on the back for being such a great company. This is where your PR department steps in.

• Public Relations:

If you're sponsoring an event, you can send out a press release and the media might pick it up. They may publish the information or cover the event, it can be pre or post event.

10. Writing Style

• Advertising:

Buy this product! Act now! Call today! These are all things you can say in an advertisement. You want to use those buzz words to motivate people to buy your product.

• Public Relations:

You're strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any blatant commercial messages in your communications are disregarded by the media.

Here is an example of what was done some time ago for the Environment Society of Oman (please visit their new website as it is really informative) and its anti plastic bag campaign:

Ad:

Press releases:

Feel free to contact me at any time for any questions. And remember....avoid using platic.

How to prepare a product launch with Social Media in 250 hours

Here’s a simple process for a product launch that will dramatically increase your marketing results within eight weeks of the launch. Approximately 250 hours are required from start to finish, including the time for video production, message creation, and media interaction. Any company can do this.

Develop a Main Message(s) – Identify the target audience groups and develop a set of message points for each target audience, once you've done that you need to prioritise the communication channels. For example, to reach a potential buyer of an inexpensive consumer product, you could focus on Facebook and YouTube.

Write a Press Release – Write a traditional press release and send it to the wire on the same day of the product launch. A social media press release format will not automatically get you more online coverage and may be less appealing to traditional media reporters. My advice is to focus on the basics of writing a good press release. Keep it accurate, easy to understand, and make sure it contains your main message points.

Compile a Media and Analyst List – Create a traditional media list that includes print and online reporters, bloggers, industry analysts, and other influencers.

Produce a Video – Produce a single three-minute video of the top two executives explaining the vision behind the product. Create a script for the video ahead of time using the main message(s) to cover the major message points. The simplest and quickest way to create a script for the video is to focus on three to five key questions. It will take two to four hours to shoot a three-minute video and an equivalent amount of time to edit the video. You must also budget additional time to write the script, distribute and promote the video.

Product Screencast Videos – Produce multiple videos of the product that vary between 15 seconds and five minutes. The simplest video shows the product manager or an executive providing a demonstration of key product features. The features should match up with the main message(s).

Promote Videos – The simplest technique is to release all the videos to the public on the day of the launch and to promote the links to the video. You should rely heavily on blogs, Twitter, YouTube, web site, press release, and direct email to the existing customer base and e-newsletter list for promotion.

Corporate Blog – Produce two different blog posts for the corporate blog that go live on the day of the launch. One blog post should focus on technical details and the other blog should focus on the vision of the product. The two bloggers could be the CTO and the CEO in smaller companies or the lead engineer and the product manager in larger organizations. Cross-promote the blogs in the standard areas – web site, direct email newsletter, Twitter. Monitor the blogosphere on the day of the launch and encourage your corporate bloggers to engage in public online discussion in online hotspots you identify.

Twitter Management – Build up the Twitter following prior to the launch day by defining a voice for the Twitter feed in your internal planning document, assigning a single person to manage the feed, and engaging in interactive discussion on Twitter. Prior to the launch push out valuable content that other people will want to re-tweet. Remember that if you’re not getting any re-tweets, then what you have to say on Twitter does not interest your target audience. Reserve 15 hours per month to build up the Twitter feed prior to the launch. Plan for more than six hours of combined Twitter, blogger and media interaction on the day of the launch, not including media interviews.

Direct Email – Time direct email campaigns with the press release. Include all relevant links to social media content and channels. If you are using an opt-in list of your customers, i suggest you provide them with unique information or privileges such as access to special videos before the general public.

Other Programs – Standard launch campaigns generally include updates to Facebook, LinkedIn and may include monitoring of message boards, Forums and Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

The key to getting results is to use all the components together, linking to each other, and using a common set of messages.

Should companies have a Social Media policy (before going into social media)?

I think, and hope, companies in Oman are finally realising that people are talking about them whether they like it or not so maybe they’re deciding whether they should consider having a social media presence, and hence, a policy for employees with corporate guidelines or principles of communicating in the online world.

So, just like in the old days when companies had to figure out how to deal with email, now they have to figure out how to deal with the various new media venues. Companies should contemplate what might happen if an employee says or does something stupid (we've seen plenty of cases on You Tube). Employers need to be upfront with employees that they have no right to privacy with respect to social networking. Employers reserve the right to monitor employee use of social media regardless of location, i.e. at work on a company computer or on personal time with a home computer.

And employees should be made aware that company policies on anti-harassment, ethics and company loyalty extend to all forms of communication (including social media) both inside and outside the workplace. People need to remember that bashing your organization/boss/co-workers online can lead to consequences at work.

Forming a social policy should start with an understanding of how your employees are aligned with your company values. It’s important that authenticity can exist without the need for what may be perceived as forced company morality.

In addition, social media can strengthen the company’s brand not only as an employer but as a company. Take Dell for example; a recent report claims that Twitter has made Dell $1 million in revenue over the past year and a half. So what are they waiting for?

Media is for everyone…not just your marketing department. So for it to really be effective consider expanding the policy to all employees, not just for a handful of people. One way to think of it is, while it’s called social media, it has a vibrant customer service component to it. You wouldn’t take the phone or email from your employees, so why take social media away from them.

Companies have existing communications policies, directives that spell out the company’s expectation when employees use the phone or email. Since the conversation has moved to the web, it’s important for organizations large and small to acknowledge that and extend their existing communications policies to include online sites.

When you give all of your employees the ability to interact with the whole world…well, then you have to provide them with some training on how to use it properly and effectively. A great example is Zappos. They encourage all of their employees to have Twitter accounts so they can interact with current and potential customers. And, they actually train their employees on the proper use of Twitter during new-hire orientation.

Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, said that their company uses Twitter in a big way. “We’ve found that it’s a great way to form more personal connections with both employees and customers.”

The time to think about drafting a social media policy is now. Twitter is growing at a rate of 1,382%, and it’s just one of the many social networking applications in the market. Companies are using social media tools to establish value in terms of marketing and branding.

Social media or new media is really media. Plain and simple. Many organizations with any kind of formal structure have a policy in place for working with media and social media is merely an extension of what any company should already have in place.

So it’s time for companies to start thinking about social media in the same context as all other forms of communication. That means developing guidelines for its use, training people to leverage the benefits, and proactively creating a positive social media presence for the organization. As an example you can view BBC’s policy here.

Crisis Management in the blogosphere – Case study

Who should have had a blog.

Sometime ago Dell launched a new monitor, the XPS One. Unfortunately the monitor was not working properly so an upset customer wrote his feelings and bad experience towards Dell on his blog. His blog was read by another blogger who also wrote about it on his blog and his post was so popular that a new term for Dell was created:

This blogger’s post became the number 1 result on Google’s search! As a result, Dell got negative press coverage in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Dell, those days, did not have a blog, so they were unable to communicate with the angry blogosphere but luckily there was a happy ending. Dell set up its own blog.

First step Dell dispatched technicians to reach out to complaining bloggers and solve their problems, earning pleasantly surprised buzz in return and saw a 79% decrease in negative blog posts. Most importantly Dell saved hundreds of millions which would have costed to create an ad campaign.

There are quite a few similar stories happening to companies in Oman but i thought this is a better example.