Digital Expression

The number of followers you have doesn't matter.  Their devotion to you does.  build networks of interesting and powerful people. Large numbers are excellent for promoting the perception of influence. Engagement is a far better metric to measuring the value of social media to your business. How is this measured? Benchmark with Klout.com, Twitter.grader.com, Tweetreach.com,Twitalyzer (thanks Tim) and here's a mention for socialmediahuh's Facebook Page Valuation Tool. And there's a lot more tools you may find useful here.

• Check your influence in a particular city like Auckland
• Consider how many clickthroughs (publicity) you attract to your website & how many conversions result. This is trackable using tools like Hootsuite or Bit.ly
• Mentions like @justinflitter are like tagging people on Facebook photos or backlinking to blogs.  It cuts through the noise and commands an individuals attention.  It's a great way to engage key influencers who can dramatically increase the visibility of your message.

A short saying often contains much wisdom. - Sophocles

How I've been using Twitter:

• Use Geofollow to find people to connect with in a particual location.
• Use Twubs to connect with people associated with a specific #.  Also great for post-conference connections.
• Find followers who may be interested in your thought leadership by following followers of subject matter experts in your niche.
• Use TweetML to find easily follow people on Twitter Lists.

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." Mother Teresa......And since everything on the internet is forever archived, this quote holds true in more ways than one.

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak - Epictetus

• Retweet generously, but QA any link behind the headline first.  A good headline needs to be backed up by good content.
• #ff generously and give a reason for your recommendation.  This is as much for the followees ego than anything else.
• Ask peers for their opinion on your blog posts.  These comments feed back into Twitter and can work to widen the number of participants in the discussion you initiate.  Email them, or simply give them a mention a related tweet.
• Leave enough free characters for retweet accreditation - ideally 3 or 4 times.  This means the shorter your username, the better.  My username: @kunalkripalani is a classic case of what not to do!

Appearing on the first page of Google for your chosen search terms is perhaps the online equivalent of an Oscar win. Pete Cashmore, Mashable.

With 95% of clicks coming from page 1 and most of those clicks going to the Top 3 spots, the research says that if you don't rank on the first page, then you may as well not be there at all. If you're unfamiliar with search engine optimisation, you might like to have a read of SEO is Relevance, Uniqueness and Freshness first.  Search Engine Optimisation is always changing and its latest evolution is inseperably connected to social media. Let's explore why and how we can integrate social media into a search marketing strategy:

Social Media is an essential component of your SEO plan because of:

1. Real Time Search: The latest press releases, blogs, tweets, YouTube videos,images and fan page updates are almost instantly indexed by the major search engines. Because it's real time search, the benefits quickly fade so it's important to do two things:

1. Quite simply, make regular updates that are relevant, unique and timely - discussing current and future events. Demonstrate thought leadership.
2. Repurpose your real time content into topic related pages on your website. This is your unique content and makes for valuable SEO mortar. It also means your content is not lost in social media archives.

2. Content Accesibility: Repurposing your content and making it accessble through Scribd,Youtube,Slideshare,Vimeo,Twitter and Facebook increases the odds that your content will be seen and spread.

3. The Google Honeymoon Period: When a new site launches, it ranks highly for the first few weeks and then SERP rankings can drop dramatically if Google thinks that it doesn't meet peoples needs for what it appears to offer. So measure your bounce rates. SM can help keep your content sticky & fresh by facilitating the crowdsourcing process.
 
4. The popularity of Social Bookmarks including Facebook "Likes" Facebook Like is similar to social bookmarks like Digg,Stumbleupon and Delicious, but offers greater viral spread through your friend network. Indications are strong that more and more websites will continue to integrate with Facebook, making its Open Graph a valid measure of content relevance on the internet. The Levi's Store is a good example.

5. Google is getting more social.  The new interace emphasises the ability to segment your search by images, videos, maps, news, books, blogs updates and discussions.  That's atleast 8 opportunities to appear on the first SERP. And let's not forget their Buzz social bookmarking tool - Is it significant to search? The simple answer is inextricably yes, because Google owns it.

Finally, Benchmark where you rank for your Top 100 keywords before you start so you can measure the results of your efforts.

Not sure where to start?  Here's a comprehensive SEO checklist.

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How do you communicate with your customers? And how does this compare to how your customers want to communicate with you?  It's being available where your customers are, just like opening a new branch. When Second Life was in its hayday, US based multinationals and banks took to it like moths to a flame and opened virtual branches with transactional capability within second life that used the native currency, Linden dollars.

Today, with over 400 million users, Facebook offers the virtual experience of choice.  With a native currency, Facebook Credits, and full transactional capability, organisations are staking their claim with Fan pages and applications galore.  One example is 1800 Flowers. Another is Pampers, who cleverly used it for a new product launch. How can you get started? Kim Boatman offers a few suggestions over at Inc.com.  Also, there's an Australian based outfit, Moluko, doing good things in this space.

Starbucks keep coming up with intuitive Facebook integrations like their Starbucks Card application.  Useful online management functions have not only been imported into Facebook, but also tailored to fit.  For example, reloading a friends card.

Related Reading: Glenbrook's Model for Social Payments by @GP_Russ_Jones

All up, it looks like an open book that needs to be written.

Cheers, @kunalkripalani

Critical Mass and mainstream are words you could start to associate with social media. The bottom line is:

Your customers are embracing social media, making it an opportunity to build a community around your offering.

It's an opportunity to build rapport, loyalty and warm fuzzy feelings about your brand. Because of the context of the medium, you can afford to, in fact - you have to take a less formal tone than the typically corporate one size fits all corporate approach.

What is the new approach?
It's conversational. It's an opportunity to share what's remarkable about your product with people who are genuinely interested and turn them into evangelists that include their networks in the conversation also.

Engaging in Social Media is also a way to take back some control over your online reputation. For example, if someone leaves negative feedback on Facebook or Twitter, your monitoring and engagement means you can respond to the critisicm then and there.

Key areas of benefit are:

CRM: Communicate with customers through a medium of their choice, be it Twitter, a forum or Facebook. Because it's all public, understand that this is an opportunity to show the world that you genuinely care about your customers.  In the first instance, respond to the issue quickly and in a manner that ensures it does not spiral into a long public debate. Sometimes, when sensitve personal data needs to be shared, it's best to take an issue private using Twitter DMs or even back to email.

Sales: In it's simplest form: consider how can you repackage old marketing tactics?  For example, affiliate programs for lead generation on insurance policies can be made more social & conmmunity friendly.  Instead of a $50 commission to an affiliate marketer, you give that $50 to the favourite charity of your existing customer who gives you a new lead that converts.

Brand Visibility: Your presence on social sites will positively impact your visibility in Google search results, but more importantly, it puts you in front of eyeballs, and at a fraction of the cost of banner ads.

New Product Development Research: What better way is there to get fast and cost-effective feedback on new product ideas? What's working? What needs improving? Even what geographic location you get most interest from can be identified and perhaps used as a launch market.

Ultimately, you have an opportunity to have a conversation with every one of your customers, and win new ones.