Google+: Hype and The Basics

Google+ will revolutionize social media. Google+ is a Facebook-killer. How can anyone use Facebook after using Google+? Google+ will change how brands interact on social media.


Do any of those comments sound familiar? Google+ discussion dominates my Twitter and Facebook streams. I can't go a day without seeing a story about it popping up on TechCrunch, Engadget or Gizmodo. People are convinced Google+ is the proverbial social media promised land.

People, Google+ is not even a month old. It's still invite only. How can we make these grand statements about it? Do you not remember the Google Wave hype? Or Color? Did you use Google Wave or Color the day after their release?

We all need to take a deep breath and let Google+ organically find its niche in the social media world (I mean, Google+ is currently almost 90% male, it's not really an accurate picture of social media).

So let's cut the hype and actually talk about Google+ for the average Joe and Jane, whom will ultimately determine if Google+ receives widespread adoption.


The Basics

Google+ is Google's answer to social networking. It incorporates Google's product lines under one umbrella.Your Google profile is now the hub of everything. Google Chat (or G-chat), the chat function of Gmail, is part of Google+. Hangouts, a new feature, allows you to video chat with several friends. You can post, comment and +1 on content. Does this sound like Facebook to you? Well, it's incredibly similar.

The biggest difference between Google+ and Facebook though, lies in who you share content with. When you add a contact to Google+, you put them in a 'circle.' These circles determine who gets to see your content. Circles are completely customizable (aside from the Public circle, which is what everyone can see), so you can categorize people how you like. When you decide to share content on Google+, you choose which circles can see it. This can be a little hard to grasp for people who haven't used Google+, so let's use an example:

John is one of my friends. Jack is a work colleague. Jane is a friend who also works in my industry. I would put John and Jane in my 'Friends' circle, while I would put Jack and Jane in my 'Professional' circle. Let's say I want to share some vacation pictures. Obviously, my professional contacts really don't need to see that content, so I would choose to share it just with friends. John and Jane would see my content, but Jack would not.

But let's say I was at an industry convention and took a picture of a really innovative booth (Company XYZ is using Fire Dancers at their booth!). I'd probably want to share that with both my 'Friends' and 'Professional' circles. John, Jack and Jane will see my picture. But Jane is in my 'Friends' and 'Professional' circles! Won't she get my content twice? Nope! If someone is in two circles you share content with, it only shows up once.

Hey, can't you do the same thing with Facebook privacy settings?

Not really. Facebook is very limited with privacy settings compared to Google+. On Facebook, you can only edit set levels (Everyone, Friends, Friends of Friends, Custom) and just determine what someone can or cannot view. On Google+, you just drag and drop people into circles. Controlling your content and making sure you 'talk' to the right audiences is very easy.

Will the average user abandon Facebook for Google+?

As much as I love the ease of content sharing on Google+, I really can't think of a MySpace-level exodus from Facebook anytime soon. Facebook has had some controversial privacy issues, but it hasn't alienated users to their breaking points yet.

Already, early adopters are having some gripes with Google+, such as issues of online identity, privacy questions and lack of a way to import contacts from existing social networks (Facebook, for example). Are these insurmountable hurdles? No. But they raise some significant questions about the network.

Plus, it's just a huge pain to migrate content over from Facebook to Google+.

Businesses

Businesses will soon get their own way of using Google+ (testing will begin soon for selected businesses), so I will try not to speculate on what means for them. However, if circles act the same way for people as they do for businesses, segmenting your audience into circles and being able to have different messages for each will be fantastic.


I understand the excitement behind Google+, it has many possibilities. But we should not pull the cart before the horse. We have to let Google+: 1) Open up to the public, and 2) Organically flesh itself out. Otherwise Google+ is going to crash harder if it doesn't meet lofty expectations.

What do you think of Google+? Do you think we should be hyping it up?

Klout and Social Media Measurement

A little over six months ago, I talked about the so-called 'social media bubble' and my lack of faith in Klout. My argument came out of hearing people proclaim Klout as the only authority on social media engagement and influence. Upon further reflection, I was too heavy-handed with my thoughts on Klout.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe Klout is not the be-all, end-all of social media influence. Instead, Klout is just another tool (in addition to others) for social media measurement.

Why did I change my mind? Some of the recent additions and major adopters of Klout have started making it more than a passing fad.

• Klout now has crowdsourcing elements instead of just hidden algorithms determining score and influence. The +K tool now allows users to identify those who are influential on certain topics and assign points. So if I think someone is influential on social media measurement, I can +K him/her. The +K I gave is now calculated into his/her Klout score. Update: Upon further research, +K does NOT calculate into your Klout score, but it allows users who view your profile to determine what other people think you are influential in. This is just another reason to look at Klout as a part, but not the whole picture in terms of social media measurement. I still feel +K does have value.

• Klout now allows your LinkedIn account to be another variable to generate your score. In the B2B world, LinkedIn dominates. This lets Klout expand beyond the B2C sphere ruled by Twitter and Facebook.

The list of influential topics does need tweaking. For example, Klout says I'm influential on dogs. This is all because I tweeted a picture of a dog my family found and I reached out to media outlets to help me find the owner. Does this mean I'm influential about dogs? Of course not.

Twitter chats are another issue. Klout says I'm influential about #u30pro just because I participate in the chats every week. If you don't actively managing your Klout profile (Klout allows to delete items you feel you aren't influential about), your influential topics list could be completely out of sync.

I mentioned major Klout adoption, but what do I mean by that? Well, certain companies are taking Klout very seriously and are inviting influential users to receive perks:

• Audi targeted influencers in design, technology and luxury to come to San Francisco and test drive the 2011 Audi A8.

• Plum District gave influential moms a $50 credit for the daily deals. The moms also were able to give out this credit to friends and followers.

• DreamWorks gave influential moms and dads early access to see King Fu Panda 2 with their kids.

Klout's widespread adoption is making it a major social media measurement tool. But it is not the only tool. Here are some others:

• Google Analytics now allows social interaction measurement. 

• Speaking of Google Analytics, you can add tracking codes to links posted on social media and measure how well they perform.

• Google is rolling out +1 (which will integrate well with Google+, no doubt).

• Radian6 offers various social media analysis. 

• Heck, you can still measure mentions, likes or comments on a post (NOT FOLLOWERS OR PAGE LIKES!) by hand!

Social media measurement is still very new and not all of these tools are going to be appropriate for what you want to measure. If you want to measure influence, Klout is a good tool. If you want to track social media conversions, you'll use Google Analytics. If you want to measure your company's thought leadership on social media, a mixture of Klout to track influence and Google Analytics to see how well your links perform are your tools.

Each tool has its own use, it's up to you decide what you really want to track and measure (and, ultimately, what defines social media success).

Social Media: The Megaphone for Unhappy Employees

Twitter crises seem to be a dime a dozen these days.

Some involve getting 'slizzered' and have a happy ending. Others involve road rage and end up causing serious damage. There are also tweets making a light of revolution and interns burning bridges.

Then there are the stories you never heard.

Ryder, a well-known truck rental company, recently had an unhappy employee blast the company on Twitter. This employee had a workplace issue he/she felt was not adequately addressed by HR. The employee started an account called 'ryderemployees' and followed trucking companies, industry leaders and media outlets. The employee called Ryder out on its response and made it known he/she was not happy.

What was the issue? Well, I'll have you look at these screenshots of the now-shuttered account. Remember, the oldest tweets are at the bottom of the last image (the yellow highlights are from Google Cache).

Obviously, this was a crisis and had potential for more damage. The employee engaged with local and national media trying to get attention. The account was gone shortly after the employee posted the last tweet, before anyone could pick up the story.

Before the rise of social media, an employee in this situation would have sat quietly and said nothing. He/she would just be angry and mutter under his/her breath. No big issue except for one unhappy employee.

But social media is a gigantic megaphone. If someone isn't happy, it will take no time for him/her to be heard. If a company treats employees unfairly (or is perceived as doing so), there is nothing to stop this from happening. The only way a company can stop this from happening is by treating employees fairly and ethically.

Ryder recognized the issue and addressed, since the account is gone. Did Ryder solve the problem? Did they threaten the employee with a lawsuit? How did they really solve the issue?

I have no idea. I reached out to their PR department via Twitter but received no response. If you're the person behind the account or if Ryder wants to reach out and explain the situation to me, I'd love to hear it.

How would you handle this situation? Would you find and engage the employee directly? Would you ignore the issue?

B2B Social Media Value: Twitter and Monitoring Conversation

Well, well... it's been a while. My life is pretty hectic and I'm juggling quite a bit both professionally and personally, so my blogging keeps taking a backseat. I'll try to remedy this in the coming weeks.

As you may or may not know, I work in marketing communications for a B2B transportation software company. It's not a fast-paced agency or B2C company with a product I use, but it's very interesting. I've learned a lot about my company's products and modules by jumping head-first into sales literature and product documentation. It's very challenging, but I'm proud of my new-found knowledge about the products.

Part of my job involves managing our company's social media presence. Do you know of any transportation software companies using social media? Yeah, I don't either. My company is huge in our industry, but we don't have the presence of other giant B2B software companies (Oracle, for example). Our closest competitor uses Facebook to repost press releases, but that's an awful use of social media. So I've really been experimenting with our social media presence. Here's a recent example demonstrating the value of Twitter for my B2B company.

Monitoring the social media conversation isn't just about mentions

I monitor our Twitter feed using HootSuite every day. I set up HootSuite to let me know when our company or products are mentioned on Twitter. Many people think this is enough to qualify as monitoring social media. It's not. You need to actually read these tweets and pay attention. Why? Well, let me tell you:

(Note: Company name has been redacted. We'll call it 'XYZ.')

Last week, one of our customers (who we follow) tweeted something similar to this: "If you were an XYZ driver, call us! Let's get them back to work!"

XYZ must have went out of business or had something major happen, but I didn't know if XYZ was our customer. So I checked our customer database and it turns out XYZ was a customer. Further digging online showed XYZ went out of business the day before in the late afternoon. I saw no mention of this in any industry news source. I contacted our general manager (GM) for the product line XYZ is on, to let him know about XYZ's sudden closure. Guess what? The GM had no idea XYZ closed and I was the first to tell him.

This is why you must actively monitor your social media sources. A keyword search for trucking or my company wouldn't have told me this information. Actively reading what customers were talking about was the only way I would have found this information in a timely fashion. By doing this, I've shown a GM at my company the value of social media.

I plan on sharing more B2B social media experience as more happens.

Do you have any stories demonstrating B2B social media value? I'd love to hear them!

The social media bubble: Does it exist and will it burst?

I never thought I'd be interested in hearing about social media from General Motors.

GM's Christopher Barger sat down with ZDNet's Jennifer Leggio and talked about how he handles social media and his thoughts on the future. The interview is a great read, but Barger's comment about a social media bubble really piqued my interest.

Barger says the social media bubble is going to burst just like the dot com bubble a decade ago.

But do we even have a bubble? Is it going to burst?

I completely agree with Barger when he talks about social media "gurus." Most of their advice is absolutely worthless. They define engagement as constant linking and retweeting without any engagement of their followers. These people also believe having thousands of Twitter followers or Facebook fans is the path to success.

These egomaniacs have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. They take advantage of businesses and people to make themselves look good. Those awful books about how to increase your presence on Twitter? These people write them. The 'RT me and get 500 followers' scams? Yep, these gurus are the culprits.

Barger argues the "gurus" will cause the social media bubble to burst.

I don't buy it.

The number of followers, likes and the ridiculous Klout score mean absolutely nothing. Having one million followers means absolutely nothing if there is no interaction and engagement (unless you're already a celebrity in person). But five hundred followers who regularly interact and engage are of great value.

The "gurus" will fall apart when people see through their charade. Sure, some people will fall into their trap and end up not utilizing social media properly. But this happens in business and real life regularly. There are people who think they will get rich fast by selling knives for Vector. I don't think these people are so much creating a bubble as they are taking advantage of unknowledgable social media newbies.

And how awful is the Klout score? If you think the Klout score matters, I'm here to tell you to stop drinking the Kool-Aid. Boiling down social media relationships and engagement into a score makes no sense. You can't put a number on relationships. It's like giving a girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband a score based on dates, intimacy and overall relationship.

"Susan, honey, the relationship score-o-meter says we are only at a 42. We need to boost our sex life, have one more kid and travel to Australia in order to increase our score."

Klout is just ridicuous.

There is no bubble. Even if there was, Barger's only argument for the burst is the proliferation of "gurus." This is hardly enough to make the bubble burst.

However...

There are social media specialists who are actually the real deal, though. These are people who encourage discussion and engagement within the community. They realize social media ROI can't be assigned a simple numeric value, but rather is an analyzation of relationships and discussion monitoring. These specialists provide compelling content and spark discussion with thoughtful ideas.

We shouldn't discount all social media specialists because they are outnumbered by "gurus." There are many specialists who can help people and companies do great things with social media. Just stay clear of those who say you will be a social media opion leader in a week. And the ones peddling a book.

Social Media is 24/7, Coffee Fight and More: News Roundup

Did you hear about that crazy storm shutting down the Midwest this weekend? Guess who was caught in its crosshairs?

Me!

Fortunately, I wasn't one of those stuck on the road in Indiana for over 12 hours. United Airlines canceled my flight from Chicago to Cleveland Sunday afternoon. The only rebooking option was flying the next morning and connecting through Washington D.C.. I hate connecting, but I only had a carry-on so it ended up working out alright (My 3:30AM wake-up call? Not so much fun).

Which brings me to my first subject:


Social Media Doesn't End After Business Hours

United Airlines left their Twitter account completely abandoned when all hell broke loose in the Midwest last weekend. I mean, when your largest hub has over 1000 flights canceled over the course of two days, leaving your social media account unattended isn't the best idea.

It took me an hour and a half on the phone to rebook with United when it canceled my flight on Sunday. I ended up checking my new itinerary online several hours later and my rebooked flight was not showing up on my account. I tweeted United asking if I should be concerned. No response.

I had to call reservations and wait on hold for almost two hours. The man who finally answered said my reservation was there even though I was not able to check in for it online. To be honest, I had my doubts about what he told me since United outsources their call centers and I've known people who had problems with them. Luckily, my reservation actually existed and I was able to get home (after dealing with a surly flight attendant on my 6 AM flight to DC, but that's another story...).

Social media is a 24/7 animal. If an incident happens after regular business hours, it needs to have attention. American Airlines, for example, responded on Twitter about a flight skidding off the runway in Montreal on a Wednesday night immediately. They even beat out the @BreakingNews Twitter account.

United knew a major weather disruption was happening, yet didn't have anyone assigned to their social media accounts. Social media is not a 9-5 job; it's 24/7.

PS: United did end up responding on Monday, after I landed in DC. Their advice was about adding my Mileage Plus number to the reservation, which didn't make much sense.

PPS: My nonexistent economy plus for my return trip has not been refunded yet. Boo.


Coffee Fight!

Starbucks and Kraft are bringing an end to their relationship.

Well, Starbucks is actually kicking Kraft to the curb but Kraft is not leaving without a fight. Starbucks wants to go at it alone on the grocery store front since their VIA product is a huge success. Starbucks wanted to buy Kraft out of their agreement, but Kraft thought the offer was way too low.

The result? A legal battle between Starbucks and Kraft plastered throughout business headlines. Starbucks says Kraft intentionally stymied growth of their coffee in grocery stores. Kraft says Starbucks is making unreasonable demands and wants Kraft to shift focus away from its own Maxwell House coffee.

It's going to be an ugly battle.


Yahoo Rearranges Deck Chairs on the Titanic

Yahoo gave the pink slip to 600 staffers yesterday. This should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone.

Yahoo has no real identity and is not on top like it used to be ten years ago. The company acquires the most random entities (Flickr, Rivals.com, Associated Content, MusicMatch, etc...) and just sits on them. I briefly mentioned this in my post about MySpace.

All Yahoo does is respond to what others do. It hasn't come out with an original, successful idea in a long time. Google won the search engine war. Pandora is better than Yahoo Music. Examiner is more known than Associated Content. Though Flickr and Delicious are probably the most successful Yahoo entities right now. This goes to show a company can't buy its way to success.

If I worked for Yahoo right now, I'd be looking for another job as fast as I could. This isn't the first and it won't be the last round of layoffs. Unless Yahoo can be innovative, it's going to die.

My B2B and social media approach

We all know B2B and B2C marketing and public relations require very different strategies. Most B2B companies can't simply sign up for Facebook and Twitter and automatically attract a legion of loyal followers. If a B2C company has a good product, they'll easily attract fans. If a B2B company has a good product, that can mean nothing in the social media sphere.

Why? Well, if Susie has loves muffins from Muffin Company X, she's very likely to follow them on Twitter and like the company on Facebook. If Susie works for a clothing store and uses a program to help her do inventory in five seconds, while she's happy inventory takes her no time, she won't run off and find the company on social media. Hence the B2B challenge with social media.

I work at a B2B software company right now and I had a big social media dilemma. The consensus I've read is B2B companies aren't sure how to make social media work for them. B2B companies can't give discounts at checkout because pricing is very situational. B2B products often don't get much mainstream attention.

How am I, an entry-level employee right of college, going to use social media to help my company? Besides monitoring industry news and discussion on LinkedIn, how else do I use social media?

It took me a while, but here is how I am approaching social media (LinkedIn is exempt from this strategy since it's already being utilizing):

1) Use social media channels as two-way communication.
This is all about relationship management. I want my company to use social media and engage prospects, current customers and industry players. We need to interact with them and be a good social media neighbor (retweeting, sharing information from others, etc...). Obviously we're not going to promote our direct competitors, but we'll pay attention to the industry magazines, government agencies and other players.

2) Provide compelling content.
There's only so much talking you can do without providing the goods. I want my company to post relevant articles related to our industry. I also provided links to new classes and resources our company provides to customers. New customer case studies will also be content to share.

3) Position company as an opinion leader
My company is pretty well-known in our industry, but we have no social media presence. One of the ways we're going to change this through blogging. I've stated my feeling about blogging before, so I am going to make sure my company doesn't fall into the trap of updating the blog once in a blue moon. My company has people with a ton of industry experience and have fantastic insight to share.

A company can't half-ass their social media effort and expect it to grow overnight. My focus is on cultivating relationships, sharing content and giving our take on the industry. I want the return of investment (ROI) of our social media approach to be better customer, prospect and industry relationships.

This is just the start of my approach. I'm sure it will evolve as time goes on. Does anyone have any advice for a B2B approach to social media? Am I heading in the right direction or am I off my rocker? How do you measure social media ROI as a B2B company?

News Corp considers MySpace sale, but does it matter?

If a tree falls in the woods with nobody around, does it make a sound? If MySpace disappears, will anyone notice?

MySpace's five users should be very worried with News Corp's plan to sell the web site. That is, if News Corp. can even sell it.

I'll be shocked if News Corp. finds a buyer for MySpace. The web site is completely irrelevant in today's social media world. Consider this the death knell for MySpace.

I won't completely dismiss MySpace, though. It definitely had its place in the history of social media. It was a great way for singers and bands to get noticed. Everyone had a MySpace when I was a junior in high school (2004). It was the cool thing to have. I still even have a MySpace account, despite not accessing it for years (good luck finding it).

People filled their MySpace with lots of crazy .GIFs and loud, unmutable music greeted you on their page. Embedded flash and YouTube videos would usually freeze and crash browsers. You could be yourself or adopt a fake persona.

Facebook was always the holy grail, though. My friends and I couldn't wait until we could get a Facebook account, back when it was college only. People had to verify who they were on Facebook (via a .edu e-mail address). I'll admit I contacted my college to get my school e-mail address before freshman orientation, just so I could join my college's Facebook network. Everyone's Facebook page looked the same, creating a sense of calm against MySpace's insanity.

MySpace represented teennage angst while Facebook was maturity.

In 2005, News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million. Seemed like a good investment based on the lack of other significant social media competition (Friendster was dying). Eventually, Facebook opens itself up for high school students, businesses and finally the world. This practically eviscerated MySpace and began its decline.

Despite rebranding, a focus on music and layout changes, MySpace is now essentially dead.

News Corp. made a good amount of money based on a Google advertising deal, so they recouped their investment. But now MySpace makes absolutely no sense for News Corp.

But who will even buy MySpace? Yahoo might since it has an identity crisis and can't figure out what direction to take. Besides Yahoo, I just can't picture any company buying MySpace. It's not exactly a good investment.

The new owner could try and reinvent MySpace, but it won't work. The MySpace brand brings back memories of bathroom mirror pictures, listening to Hawthorne Heights ("Ohio is for Lovers," to be specific), drama over who made your top 8 and some guy named Tom who always wanted to be a friend.

I'm not sure anyone wants to revisit that chapter of their life. I know I don't.