Grow My Law Firm

Determining who to follow on Twitter

I've done this post before, but it's been a while and it's worth revisiting now as I am going through a backlog of people who have been kind enough to follow me on Twitter. I'm @ChristinePilch, by the way.

I rarely seek out new people to follow any more. I used to when I started a few years ago, but I'm currently following too many people already to read every tweet, so it seems silly to actively pursue new tweeps. However, if you follow me, I will look at your profile and make a determination whether or not to follow you back. (It may take a while, but I'll get to it, so please be patient.)

There's no right or wrong follow process. It's all personal choice, but I'm looking for people who will add value to my Twitter experience. I like to reach out to my Twitter community when I need help, and I'm interested in meeting new people who will educate, inform and entertain me daily.

Here's my own strategy.

I use TweetDeck as my preferred Twitter client. So the first screening is what I can see there.

1. Your photo matters: If I see the egg, that tells me that you don't care or aren't serious enough about Twitter to bother, and I won't look further.
2. Your bio: No bio is a stop sign for me. It's not difficult to add a couple lines of text about yourself, so if you haven't bothered to do it, I won't bother to look further.
   
   The first 2 tests happen in a second or so, and if you passed them, I click over and check out your page on Twitter.com. The first thing I notice is,
   
   
3. Your background: It's okay to use one of the stock Twitter backgrounds for a little while when you're getting started, but if you're still using it after 1,000 tweets or so, although it's not a knock-out factor, I notice and file it in my mental follow-criteria folder.
4. Location: The next thing I notice is where the person is from. I almost always follow back people from Western MA, as that's my backyard, and I like to be friendly. If it's someone I know personally, they get an automatic bump into my local favorites column in TweetDeck, and I add newbie strangers to a second local column that I keep an eye on. I move people between and in and out of those columns regularly as I constantly re-assess value. Reading tweets is time-consuming, so I want my favorites to be prioritized.
5. The numbers: I look at the total number of tweets against the number of followers and following. If I see a disproportionately small number of tweets and a large number of follows, I know that user is a celebrity or just followed everybody on someone else's list without any thought at all, and oftentimes, many of those people auto-followed back. That's not my style. Again, this isn't a knock-out factor, but it's added to the follow-criteria folder in my head.
6. Tweet stream: While I pretty much automatically follow back local people, all the rest are screened by their tweet stream. This is one of the most significant factors to me. I don't bother following people who preach, that is, if I don't see a balance of unique content, @Replies and retweets, I won't follow, regardless of the value of the content. Twitter is, at its core, a communications platform, and I'm not going to bother with someone who has no demonstrated interest in an exchange of ideas.

So, that's how I make my decision whether or not to follow back someone who followed me on Twitter. Do you screen differently?

- Christine Pilch

Photo credit: geek&poke

Friday Favorites: 3.25.11

Here are 5 of my favorite or most helpful things I read on the web this week:

1. 7 Tools That Monitor Your Children on Facebook - Facebook can be a dangerous place for kids and a great concern for parents, but these tools can help provide piece of mind.
2. QR Codes: Game Changer or Passing Fad? - I believe that QR codes have tremendous potential to be a powerful component of marketing. This article explains what they are and how they can be used.
3. 5 Mobile App Trends You Can’t Ignore - This article is about using mobile apps for enhanced productivity.
4. How to Use Facebook Social Plugins on Your Website - Although I believe it's a bad idea to integrate Facebook and your blog comments because Facebook is too fickle to allow it control over something so important, this article is good for showing you how you can integrate Facebook into your site or blog.
5. Why Women Rule The Internet - This article is full of statistics about the significance of women for eCommerce, social networking sites, and even, surprisingly, gaming. If you're not optimizing your site for women, you just might be sorry.

 Well, that's it for this week!

- Christine Pilch

When does, "Can I buy you lunch?" mean, "I want to pick your brain."

Like all consultants, I deal with my share of casual acquaintances and strangers who look for a ways to get free professional advice. The requests often come disguised within their idea being clever, "Can I buy you lunch?" or "Can we meet for a cup of coffee?"

Too many times I have been lured into situations that make me uncomfortable, frustrate me, and are disrespectful of my value as a marketing/social media consultant when I realize that the person across the table is a taker.

Now, don't get me wrong, I give away plenty of free marketing advice. This blog and my Facebook Fan Page are full of tips, tricks, and advice. I speak frequently and contribute to online communities through comments and discussions. I write articles and create how-to videos that demonstrate the process of doing something and why I recommend it. I also guest post on other people's blogs, and I consult on a complimentary basis with favorite non-profits.

I am a giver. That's my core philosophy.

Things are different for those within my personal circle, but there is a line. If I don't have a close, personal relationship with someone, is it appropriate for them to expect special treatment over and above what I freely offer to everybody else?  

I tossed this out through my social channels and received some terrific feedback about how others handle such requests to essentially pick their brain for free:

Peter said that whenever a casual lunch turns, he laughs and comments, "Wow, look at that, you've just turned this into business!" 

Rob said that he politely comments, "Let's not turn this into a working lunch. We can set up an appointment for that."

Ron said, "You really have to frame it that way. Your time is valuable and you charge your hourly rate for lunch meetings."

Tish said, "...networking has to have a purpose for me. Who are the people who want to network? What do they bring to the table? Will the interaction have a benefit for both of us, or is it one-sided?"

John said, "... Everyone is thinking of themselves, 99% of the time. They invite you to lunch because they want something from you, and you accept because you want something from them."

On the other hand, others said that they view it as an opportunity to impress someone who may become a potential client or referral source one day.

Valuable advice from people I respect.

So I guess I need to dig deeper when an acquaintance requests such a meeting and determine if the exchange has the potential to be win-win.

How do you handle such requests for free professional advice?

- Christine Pilch

 

Photo credit: Deb Harkness 

 

Friday Favorites: 3.18.11

Here are 5 of my favorite or most helpful things I read on the web this week:

1. How to Draft a Company Social Media Policy - "The purpose of your social media policy is to help employees understand what is and what is not acceptable, where the line is, and how, exactly, they should react when someone they’ve never met, and whom they were only trying to help, turns around to call them a HUGE MORON." This insightful post will provide a few guidelines to help get you started on drafting your own policy.
2. Fortune Global 100 Social-Media Savvy, Getting Savvier - There are strong statistics here to give you a quick snapshot of how these companies are using social media. 
3. Which is Better for Social Media Monitoring: TweetDeck or SproutSocial? Before I read this, SproutSocial wasn't on my radar, but now I think it looks like a valuable tool. 
4. Scan a QR Code & Save Your Place on the Restaurant Wait List - This is a hot new app introduced this week at SXSW with terrific potential! 
5. Interview tip: flushing out objections to your potential employment - This 5 minute audio recording is well worth your time, even if you're not interviwing for jobs now. It's basically about closing a deal.

 Well, that's it for this week!

- Christine Pilch

A lesson in social media power

The following is a true story that was initiated within a private Facebook Group that I started a few years ago for members of my high school class and members of classes close to us. Following is a recount of the events from one of the participants.

"Back in January, I laid out a small rant on FB declaring my dissatisfaction with the FB social media experiment. I iterated how negative most of the end-results had been up to then regarding the SM world and how it had affected my life.

Then, two days ago, a close high school buddy, sends out a blast via FB to the alumni from our school asking for help. His 14-year-old niece, Samantha, had been a part of a student exchange program and had landed in Japan ½ hour before the quake hit. The kid was stranded and he was asking for help.

A friend, Marilyn, linked up with another alumni named, Sun Chul Kim, who had contacts in Korean airlines. He paid for a ticket leaving Hiroshima for Seoul, Korea, but she could not board without someone in Korea to act as a guardian.

I was able to provide a link to SFC Michelle Johnson, who reached back to 8th Army and her boss, a man named Mike Detor.(SP?) He and his wife stepped up and met Sam at the airport, took care of her, and placed her on a plane bound for NY and then home to NC and Mommy.

From nowhere, suddenly, people around the globe are hopping around expending effort to assist a kid none of them know personally. None of it being possible without the rapid access of the SM networking.

I take it all back. I really do. Facebook has proven itself a worthy tool that enables amazing power. Similar to the linking of small rooftop antennas into an array capable of sending and receiving signals out to space, the entwining of relationships and people can create a synergy that changes lives.

I am glad to have had a small part in linking good people together. Thank you, Sean, Sun, Marilyn, Terry & Ana, Michelle, and Mike for doing the right thing just...because... you are wired that way."

~ Roland (Chip) Filiault, Producer-Director for Soldiers Radio and Television based in D.C.

Social media sure is one amazing communications tool, isn't it?

- Christine Pilch

Photo credit: Official US Navy Imagery

 

Friday Favorites - 3.11.11

Here are 5 of my favorite or most helpful things I read on the web this week:

1. The CMO's Guide to the Social Media Landscape - Want to know how each social media application is affecting your SEO? This informative infographic is clear and easy to understand.
2. 9 Ways to Transform Your Website Into a Social Media Hub - Your own website (or blog) is the perfect hub for all your social media activity because, unlike a Facebook Fan Page, you completely control it. There are some great tips here.
3. Look at Your Social Media. You're Seeing the Future of Your Brand - Your brand is entirely about others' perceptions of you, so you can gage the future of your brand by people's reactions to your social media activity today.
4. 8 Simple Ways to Improve Your YouTube Channel - Video is hot, hot, hot! Statistics are showing that many people prefer to watch a quick video than read a post or article online. Here are tips to make your YouTube Channel better than ever.
5. Facebook Insights: Product Guide for Facebook Page owners - Ever wondered what those stats mean in your Facebook Page Insights? This is a must-read for Page Admins.

Well, that's it for this week!

- Christine Pilch

The wonder of social media communications in a disaster

I woke this morning and turned on the news, like every day, to be confronted with the horrible reality of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan. My first thought was for the safety of a very close and dear friend, Kaoru, who I met many years ago in high school. So I grabbed my Droid and checked Facebook for news. Fortunately, she and her family were safe.

My second thought was for another old friend from high school, Mo, who makes her life in the US but still has family in Japan. The news on her Facebook page was distressing. She was unable to reach her parents. A short time later though, her dad called to say that they were safe as well. Whew!

This is a perfect illustration of how social media has greatly enhanced mass communication. Instead of frantic friends and family flooding landline, cell, and email channels, three quick messages from these friends relieved the anxiety of thousands of people who care about their well-being.

Posts with the keyword, "Japan," are flooding Facebook to the tune of dozens/second today. And that's just posts that are publicly available to Everybody. I searched for, "Japan," on Twitter, and the posts are rolling so rapidly that it's impossible to read the live stream, and almost instantly, TweetDeck throttled my stream for too much traffic. All of today's top trending news on Twitter is related to this disaster.

Some people still think that social media is silly, but today's events have certainly demonstrated its power as a communications tool.

- Christine Pilch

 

Photo credit: Smooth_O

 

Why confusing a Facebook profile with a page is a mistake

Now, more than ever, with the new and improved Facebook Pages, it's important to make sure that you've don't confuse a profile and a page. Each has unique advantages over the other for particular purposes.

You can control what your friends see on your profile, whereas all fans have 100% access to page content. You can use friend lists to control access to individual aspects of your profile. For example, you may prefer to keep vacation photos hidden from a "client" list, and restrict people you don't know well from reading certain status updates and personal information. It's impossible to control who sees what content on a fan page.

Profiles are reciprocal, whereas Page admins can't see the Walls of their fans (likers) unless they are also friends. With a personal profile, you can read content on your friends' walls and interact there if your friends' privacy controls allow it. With pages, you have one space to intereact, on your page wall. You don't have the option to initiate a dialog on your fans' walls.

Profiles have friend limits, whereas pages are unlimited. Friends cap off at 5,000, so if you have a popular brand, you will have to insult all the extras by not friending them. You have the potential for millions of page fans, however.

Friends are mutually approved, whereas fans just simply like your page. Imagine the workload of manually accepting the 29M+ fans on the Lady Gaga page! On the other hand, it's nice to make an individual determination about each friend request and place each friend into an appropriate list at the point of connection, for privacy purposes

Pages can see usage statistics, whereas profiles have no statistics available. Since profiles are for personal use, there's really no need other than curiosity satisfaction for profiles to have stats available to them. Pages, on the other hand are for businesses, non-profits, entities, causes, products, etc. Admins have a vested interest in tracking who is coming to their page because the page is an investment intended to produce some result.

Once your friend leaves the buisness, who is managing that "company" profile and accessing your personal info? This one is a little scary when you think about it. You might accept a friend request from a "company" profile because you know the person who created it, for example, if your friend heads up the sales department. But what happens when your friend no longer manages that profile? Who now has access to your personal information on your own profile? Will you even know when/if a transition occurs?

Pages display videos prominently, whereas profiles bury them under photos. Video is one of the most significant marketing tactics available these days, and the latest generation of Facebook profiles not only got rid of the ability to highlight them in your left margin, but they also lumped them under your photos link in your left nav. Thankfully, Facebook retained the videos link in the left nav of the new pages, so they retain their prominence as a marketing tool.

Pages are accessible web-wide, whereas profiles can only be viewed by Facebook members. If you're looking for maximum exposure for your business, why would you want to hide your Facebook presence from people who aren't logged into Facebook? 

Profiles allow elaborate messaging, whereas you can only announce an event via pages. Facebook's messages enhancements made it possible for you to now see a comprehensive trail of all private communications between you and a Facebook friend, including chat. It also allows you to add friends and remove yourself from a thread. On the other hand, pages have extremely limited private communications capabilities.

Profiles and pages have distinct advantages and disadvantages depending upon your intent. Basically, if you're looking to market a business, product, cause, band, public figure, or non-profit, a page is the way to go.

- Christine Pilch

Friday Favorites

Here are 5 of my favorite or most helpful things I read on the web this week:

1. Understanding the Social Media ROI Cycle - I like this because it helps establish realistic expectations. No, you won't see instant returns from your social media investment. It takes time, consistence, perseverance, and diligence. There is no cutting corners.
2. Facebook Promotions: What You Need to Know - Many people run unsanctioned contests on Facebook and get away with it, but what it you're the one who gets caught? Are you willing to risk loosing your Fan Page?
3. 4 Innovative Ways to Use Web Video for Small Business - Video is one of the hottest marketing tactics available these days, and here are 4 solid tips for integrating video into your marketing. 
4. The Reputation Economy is Coming - Are You Prepared? - "The reputation economy is an environment where brands are built based on how they are perceived online and the promise they deliver offline." So, are you ready for this?
5. How Well Is Social Media Fitting into the Marketing Mix? - There are some great statistics here.

Well, that's it for this week.

- Christine Pilch

 

How to change your view of Facebook Pages

 

 

This video shows you how to change your view of Facebook pages from most popular to most recent. It will also show you how to see only posts from the Page administrator. Christine Pilch, www.GrowMyCo.com, 413.537.2474

© 2011, Christine Pilch, Grow My Company. This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Stop complaining about Facebook privacy and take control on your own

On March 1 there was much ado about Facebook's refusal to stop plans to make users' addresses and phone numbers available to 3rd party application developers. This was shocking to many, but should it have been? Really?

Make no mistake about it, Facebook is in the information collection business. They have made it abundantly clear over and over that they don't consider it an invasion of privacy to share your information. Most every platform upgrade comes with hidden privacy invasions. Even their default, suggested privacy settings make any privacy advocate's head spin.

You volunteer to play in Facebook's sandbox when you join. It's free, which means that they can do what they want. If you choose to share personal, private information without implementing Facebook's very comprehensive privacy controls, you do so at your own risk. They won't feel one bit guilty about that.

Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, has been very forthcoming about his beliefs that social media should be open and transparent, and that's the network they are working to create with Facebook. He makes no apologies for any perceived compromise of privacy. He stops short of actually saying it, but one might conclude that Facebook's philosophy is that if you don't like it, don't join Facebook.

On the other hand, to Facebook's credit, they have developed solid privacy controls that can be fine tuned down to a very detailed level. Unfortunately, most people either 1) don't realize what information they're sacrificing by not implimenting privacy controls, 2) don't care, or 3) are intimidated by the process of implimenting the controls and keeping up to speed on changes.

To a large degree it's human nature to be realtively complacent. Most people trust in what they're told and don't further investigate. Facebook understands this and takes advantage through a suggested setting that many people believe is too open, so they settle on a "Friends Only" setting that provides the illusion that this insulates their personal information against all but their own circle.

Unfortunatley, those people are lulled into a false sense of security. "Friends Only" is a good start, but there are plenty of additional settings that compromise the security of your information, are turned on by default, and are unaffected by "Friends Only."

The best advice is to take control of your own privacy. Read blog posts, watch videos, attend a seminar, and poke around yourself. Hire a speaker to come into your place of business and give a presentation about Facebook privacy, so your employees can all benefit.

Be proactive, but stop complaining, because Facebook owns the game. They make the rules and we're just players. We're not paying for this incredible networking and communications tool, so Facebook is free to do whatever it wants. Impliment the privacy controls available, but also be mindful that there is a possibility that everything loaded onto Facebook may become public one day. There's no guarantee that it won't, so you might want to be discriminate about what you do when you're playing in Facebook's sandbox.

 

- Christine Pilch

 

Brand lessons from the Sheen PR crisis

Charlie Sheen's public rants on major media outlets lately have created a potential brand crisis that he is doesn't seem to be anticipating. In his letter published by TMZ, he states, "Remember these are my people ... not yours...we will continue on together..."

Therein lies the bomb. Charlie believes that he owns his fans. He doesn't. They own him. Unfortunately, he doesn't understand branding.

The essence of branding is the feeling that people have about you. It represents perceived personality, which includes your constituency's total experience with you. People form opinions about you every day, be them good, bad, or indifferent. Brands need attention to thrive, so even "bad boys" enjoy a certain brand capital. When they're celebrities, this sometimes works to their advantage with producers because the "bad boys" have an inate ability to create buzz for a project.

But what happens when people ignore your brand?

It fades.

Brands are only strong when they incite reaction. What if Charlie pushed his fans so far that they stop caring and paying attention? That's a potential crisis that he doesn't seem to be anticipating.

 

- Christine Pilch