redsheep on Xanga

Weblog

Monday, 23 November 2009

"What's Twitter?' asks China following Obama revelation | Media | The Guardian RT @cheth @Jason_Pol

Other sites, including Facebook and YouTube, are victims of a longer running clampdown. While the tech-savvy still access them via proxies or a virtual private network (VPN), to do so is increasingly inconvenient. "If you look at the sites blocked now and those blocked five years ago, it's gone from web 1.0 to web 2.0 – it's social media," says Kaiser Kuo, a Beijing-based expert on internet use in China. "The authorities are not worried about people having access to what the rest of the world is saying, but about the ability of these tools to spread rumours very, very quickly."
Two of Twitter's most popular local rivals – Jiwai and Fanfou – were taken offline shortly after 197 people died in clashes in Xinjiang. State media have alleged that social media "spread misinformation" and even that outsiders used them to orchestrate the violence.
"It kills me that Jiwai and Fanfou were so much more widely used than Twitter and no one talks about them," adds Kuo. "Everyone is wrapped up in the belief that it's Twitter or nothing, but I'd guess the number of Twitter users here is vanishingly small."
China has the world's largest internet population, currently estimated at 360 million. But the online giants are all domestic. Users understandably prefer interfaces designed for them, in their language, and speedier service thanks to servers based on the mainland.
Social networking sites are hugely popular, with a recent report saying about 124 million people use them, on average having two or three accounts; QQ, the market leader, boasts over 60 million users. But such services survive because these companies are huge enough to constantly monitor content and delete anything sensitive.
One Chinese user has a special reason to stick with Twitter. When the blogger Peter Guo (@amoiist) was detained, his tweet "I have been arrested by Mawei police, SOS" alerted friends. The result: innumerable retweets – and, a few days later, his release.

via guardian.co.uk

Posted via web from Sheep's Bookmarks

Sunday, 22 November 2009

Hiring For Social Media: What I’d Look For | Brand Elevation Through Social Media and Social B
Attributes

In my experience, the folks who grok social media best have a lot of attributes in common:

Curiosity: The desire to explore new ideas, in detail, and without specific direction to do so. Curiosity about the intersection of human interactions and technology is a specific aspect that’s helpful, and a passion for the potential of the work and the organization’s purpose is key to instilling that in others, both internally and externally.

Innovation: Ignore the buzzy nature of this word for a moment and concentrate on what it really means: the introduction of something new. Social media implementation requires new approaches to existing processes, both internally and externally, including communication, strategy, execution, measurement, reporting, and training. (This needs to be carefully balanced with realism and pragmatism, too, but I’d rather rein someone in than have to prod them forward.)

Motivation: Folks thriving in social media jobs are self-starters, often capable of creating clarity from a bit of chaos, and devising their own marching orders without constant direction or specific instructions. If you can instill and nurture this in others, too, so much the better.

Collaboration: “That’s not my job” and “get out of my sandbox” don’t play well in these kinds of roles. They’re far too new to be that rigid, and they definitely need cooperation and work with others across the organization.

Translation: In many companies right now, we need people that have the patience and clarity of explanation to teach others about the impact of the social web, and who work well across departments within a corporate culture. These roles, most critically, need to know how to work and educate across silos, in the terms that make sense to the relevant colleagues.

Humility: The goal here is to elevate the entire company and your colleagues as contributing, valuable members of the community and leaders in the industry. Not you and your “personal brand”.

Diplomacy: Social media roles are today’s change agents. If you expect instant sea change inside your company without a lot of legwork, communication, negotiation, discussion, education, and trial and error, this job is NOT for you. And the outside community will present challenges to you; you need to be able to handle them with patience and tact. It’s a balance of emotional intelligence here.

Connectivity and Awareness: This is a people job, inside and out (and I don’t just mean community roles). You need to be able to talk to people, work with them, socialize with them, connect with them in multiple places. Understand how the network and the people in it need you (and don’t), and how all of those interactions work together to encourage more, deeper, and better connections that ultimately elevate the quality of your work and company.

Expertise

Business Process/Planning and Analysis: From the mid level on up, you want someone who understands financial frameworks for profit and loss, strategic and long range planning (including how to write goals and objectives), and how to map out execution at a tactical level. The key here is the ability to think at a global company level, not within a silo, and not in a linear fashion.

Social Media Anthropology & Participation: If you have someone spearheading social media, I feel pretty strongly that they need to be using it themselves in order to fully understand its implications and unique culture. Yes, that means familiarity with the most widely known tools and technologies, and some of the most consistent and popular applications (for better and for worse) of same, and interest and observation of what’s new on the scene (without the tendency to chase everything new because it is). Academic knowledge is good, applied is even better.

Hedgehog Management: Social media programs that are well thought out have lots of moving parts to manage and drive. People who excel at social media jobs can tackle projects that span multiple networks or areas, and keep all the pieces moving toward a bigger, crystal clear goal (or in Jim Collins’ terms, Hedgehog Concept).

Customer or Client Service: Whether it’s a formal title or not, you really want someone who has experience communicating with customers directly, and fostering those relationships in order to meet their business goals. The most powerful bit of social media is in mobilizing those relationships.

Written Communication Skills: Yep. Sorry, folks. I think this one is really imperative. So much communication and engagement online is in the form of written communication. If you can’t write coherently and professionally, you’re going to struggle. On this note, I also think a lot of social media positions will and should include elements of content marketing, which means that the ability to create and contribute solid content is key.

Social Media Roles And Responsibilities

Again, let me say that I’m writing this from the POV of a job that’s heavily or exclusively social media, and I don’t think these jobs will exist like this forever. And this is a broad, sweeping list that’s not meant to tie to any one job description (though I’m quite certain I have experience bias), but instead give you things to consider if you’re in need of a role like this in your company. A few things that might fall under this umbrella:

Establish and use listening platforms to gauge the health of the brand online, and potential for participating in new communities

Build outreach initiatives outside of sales or marketing goals to give our brand a personality and voice within the industry and the communities we care about

Engage the community actively and responsively, both in relevant outpost communities and existing resident channels (like brand communities), and teach and empower team members to do the same, with consistency and clarity

Build training programs to help other areas of the company learn and tap the potential of social media for their roles

Collaborate on internal communication programs to inform and educate around social media initiatives and their broader implications

Create and facilitate content in multiple media to further engagement goals, both internally and externally, and contribute resources and expertise to prospective and existing community members

Consume, curate, and share relevant, interesting industry information and content with internal and external communities.

Understand and observe the parallels and implications of other online activities, including web analytics, email, and search

Communicate and collaborate on how social media activities impact other business operations, including customer support, human resources, product development, sales and business development, and translate online community and social learnings into business insights

Establish relevant metrics (new or existing) to map the impact of social media activities in both a qualitative and quantitative fashion, and amend strategies based on learnings and patterns

Reporting wise, I’d put this position under whomever is charged with driving customer experience and a sustainable, positive company presence through online channels, and whatever business function is being most heavily supported by these initiatives. That might be someone in PR, marketing, customer service, client or donor relations, even product management. It needs, in whatever case, to report in to someone who gets the importance and potential of this, even if they don’t necessarily understand the “how”.
via altitudebranding.com
Posted via web from Sheep's Bookmarks
17 areas to benchmark for social media optimization | Powered by John Haydon
17 ways to benchmark social media optimization

There are at least 16 areas you want to measure to establish a healthy social media benchmark:

Subscribers - How many email and RSS subscribers do you have?

Followers – How many people are following you on Twitter?

Twitter lists - How many Twitter lists are you on? A change in this number is a good indicator of the value you’re bringing to Twitter.

Fans – How many fans do you have on your Facebook Page?

Facebook comments – How many comments are people making? What are the quality of these comments (see more on this below)?

Facebook likes – What articles do people like the most?

Diggs - Similar to Facebook likes, but across an entire site.

Groups – How many followers do you have in your LinkedIn group?

Bookmarks – How many delicious bookmarks do you have, and what content is bookmarked the most?

Links – How many other websites are linking back to your site?

Content – Which blog post have the most traffic? Are those the same articles getting bookmarked? What medium do people prefer – video, images or text?

Guest posts - Of your guest posts, which author gets you the most traffic?

Comments - How many folks comment on your blog posts? How many of these comments are from first time visitors? And what are the quality of these comments? Are there real conversations happening or just “hey, nice post. I agree.”

Visits - How many folks visit your site per day? How long do they stay and how many pages to they view?

Google rank - What pages are ranking high on Google?

Clicks – How many click-throughs are you getting on external links?

Keywords – What keywords are generating the most traffic to your site? Are those keywords relevant to your strategy?

Note: Benchmarks on the last four items can be easily determined with Google Analytics or Woopra.
via johnhaydon.com
Posted via web from Sheep's Bookmarks
100+ Clean, Simple and Minimalist Website Designs | Inspiration

Brand Spanking New
A black and white color scheme with gray, orange, and pale blue accents.

Frieze Magazine
A minimalist grid design.

Indie Labs
A dark gray, white and sky blue grid-based design.

Rikcat Industries
An entirely black and white design.

The Morning News
A minimalist magazine-style site.

via hongkiat.com

Posted via web from Sheep's Bookmarks

Saturday, 21 November 2009

10 Successful Facebook Business Pages | Penn Olson

1. Ben & Jerry’s

What’s on the wall?:
Posting pictures of happy Ben & Jerry’s fans enjoying its tasty ice cream regardless of location and occasion has definitely created an image of global happiness. Not only that, its status is up to date and filled with comments from its fans.

What’s Special?:
Ben & Jerry’s is definitely one of the more creative pages around in Facebook. To promote its Flipped Out ice cream, it has created a Facebook application that allows you to flip your text like that: s,ʎɹɹǝɾ & uǝq (ben & jerry’s). This sends other people questioning, “how did you do that?” and guess where the fingers point to? Definitely Ben & Jerry’s!

In a Sentence:
Ben & Jerry’s is more than ice cream, it is a community.

2. Pizza Hut

What’s on the wall?:
It contains a lot of teaser messages that drive your stomach rumbling. Since I did order a Hawaiian Pizza, I must say they have a way in making fans hungry and most importantly, greedy! Every message is crafted with some evidence of creativity, which projects a cool and fun image – Exactly what Pizza Hut is all about.

What’s Special?:
Definitely their order app! Making it easy for Facebookers to order a pizza is a smart strategy.

In a Sentence:
Creative and punchy messages that certainly work with the fans.

3. Victoria’s Secret

What’s on the wall?:
From videos of sexy models (Alessandra Ambrosio and Marisa Miller), fun polls, new models introduction to promotion advertisements, the fans love it all! A question or request is normally thrown out to the fans to keep them engaged – an important element to building a strong page on Facebook.

What’s Special?:
Having problems matching your bikini? Victoria Secret’s bikini builder helps you find your perfect match with just a couple of clicks. Oh, and don’t forget to take down the names of your fittings!

In a Sentence:
A sexy page indeed.

4. FML

What’s on the wall?:
If you didn’t know, FML stands for F My Life. Its wall is filled with engaging text conversations and a couple of videos from its ‘nuttiest face competition’. FML posts are not exactly crafted in a creative manner but they certainly possess the style and language that fans fancy.

What’s Special?:
Nothing beats a series of hilarious nutty face videos. It is a great way to market FML book via fans’ nutty face work. Just like anyone else, I would feel very much appreciated if my submitted nutty face is featured on FML series.

In a Sentence:
What the eff are you waiting for?

5. iTunes

What’s on the wall?:

iTunes promotes different music and short MTV to entice buyers. Well, such advertisements are always welcome and are normally flooded with thousands of likes and comments. Who doesn’t like to be updated with the latest and coolest music?

What’s Special?:
There is a whole load of treasure under its “Featured” tab. Share a song through Facebook and easily receive podcast updates with the iTunes page. New to iTunes? Not to worry. They have a series of tutorial videos right on its page. A smart move to acquire more users through Facebook. And best of all, just by becoming a fan, you get 20 free songs. Isn’t this rewarding?

In a Sentence:
Music updates and rewards with iTunes.

6. Starbucks

What’s on the wall?:
‘Favorite Starbucks® Ice Cream flavor?’ poll, greetings and updates on CEO Howard Schultz and special promotions. Not many pages talk about its CEO and what they are really doing. This not only keeps the fan updated but also draws them closer to the company by letting them know that Starbucks is always striving to deliver the best to all its stakeholders.

What’s Special?:
No cool apps or funky ideas to entice its fans. However, the coffee giant has truly brought about a genuine and heartfelt approach in its page.

In a Sentence:
A friendly and warmhearted coffee giant.

7. Pringles

What’s on the wall?:
Humorous video posts on different people’s Pringles experience – which are certainly well liked by fans. Just thought it could be more up to date.

What’s Special?:
Pringles allows anyone to review its potato chips and so far, the reviews have been pretty positive. Judging from a business point of view, the reviews are certainly impressive. You hear them directly from the consumers’ mouth. Buy a Pringles now!

In a Sentence:
Potato chips loved by many.

8. Redbull

What’s on the wall?:
Besides the normal stuff you see, there is an interesting video that features Red Bull Racing NASCAR driver, Brian Vickers and his pit crew performing a full pit stop in the middle of Times Square, New York. That striked me hard. Redbull certainly lives up to its cool and sporty image.

What’s Special?:
Showing off its diverse sponsorships in sports has pushed its sporty image to a higher level. Redbull also features its athletes and allows its fans to connect with them through Facebook and Twitter. Building the connection between its fans and athletes give them more reason to indulge in Redbull. What a move!

In a Sentence:
This sporty bull sticks!

9. Coca Cola

What’s on the wall?:

Fans own this Coca Cola page. Discussions and posts are fans generated. I guess it is probably the Cola brand effect.

What’s Special?:
Nothing seemed special at the first glance but this approach is certainly working for Coca Cola. Allowing its fans to write freely on its wall makes the page more viral as fans feel significant and know that their voices are heard. However, this also means that Coca Cola would be potentially more vulnerable to critics. Although none has been found so far.

In a Sentence:
Fans managing the Cola page.

10. Facebook

What’s on the wall?:

The wall is filled with news and updates about Facebook. The fact that you’re looking at Facebook’s Facebook page with your Facebook account means that you’re already engaged with Facebook.

What’s Special?:
The videos are the ones that would possibly touch your heart. Watch a couple of them and you would probably be more “loyal” to Facebook. It tells you a lot about the Facebook team – who runs it, how they run it and their story behind each application. Watch them and you’d be impressed.

In a Sentence:
Facebook’s Facebook page.

via penn-olson.com

Posted via web from Sheep's Bookmarks