As the calendar turns over to our last summer month, I figure it’s time for me to put down the ipad (after I finished the quick great read of “Talking to Girls About Duran Duran”) and start getting my thoughts down on paper.  Over the past two months, I have spent a lot of time listening, reading, and learning.  In the past several years, social media space has been full speed ahead on the concord.  Remember when we were poking friends on Facebook? Now we are cheering for groundbreaking campaigns such as Procter and Gamble’s Old Spice Guy Yet I felt like I was losing touch of what social media was meant to be, social. I had to stop myself, unbuckle the seat belt and relax in the back yard with my two Jacks as I grounded myself.  In this process, I came up with 5 tips that seemed to gel with me.

1. Fire Your Marketing Manager…and Hire a Community Manager

This was a recent Harvard Business Review(HBR) hot title of a blog post.  No they didn’t mean it, but it makes a very good point to have internal qualified staff to help manage the company’s social media.  As companies grapple with how to incorporate social media into their business strategy, they may also be struggling with an existing team who may not be fit to play the social media role or assume that all this work can be done externally through the consultant and or agency alone.  Larger companies are slowly recognizing the importance and investing in a hierarchy of internal staff from Director to Analyst level that owns social media with a designated person who plays a champion role. The consultant therefore has an internal dedicated team to work with who executes campaigns and moderates the networks as part of their daily routine.

2. Have a Strategy in Place

As mentioned above,  in any discipline within a business, there should be a strategy and implementation process in place. This is no different for social media.  Step one in building a strategy is listening to your followers and customers. An organization needs to know what the general sentiment about itself is in the social media community, which may take time.  But this is your foundation; make sure it’s a sturdy framework before you start to build a village.

3. Deliver Happiness!

If you have not read the new book Delivering Happiness by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, then stop right now and go ahead and order it for delivery or ebook reader (Just come back here when you’re done). It’s a must read. OK, now that you are done with that, your premise for adding social media should be so that your followers and friends feel good about your company/brand. Tony has examples of customer service that may seem extreme, as his team is encouraged to even field a call asking “where can I find a local pizzeria”. His staff was selected very carefully and was even given a choice to take $3,000 to leave if they wanted to before they were hired. He wanted to make sure that he built a business empire that was true to his beliefs with people that can carry the message in their daily responsibilities and lives. Tony is very well respected by his team and is well known to be just as personable on twitter.  The brand is fun and the company consistently generates great stories with different perspectives from its employees, customers and loyal followers. The company continues to operate successfully and is able to keep its unique culture even after its acquisition by Amazon.

4. Have a Response Team and Plan in Place if Something Should Go Wrong

This goes back to the concept of having a strategy.  Reputation management in companies has been closely controlled as marketing and PR teams deployed traditional one way messages. This means that promotions were typically sent to customers and prospects via traditional marketing channels leaving a small window of opportunity for a disgruntled customer to express his/her comments publicly and potentially leading to a damaging groundswell . Entering social media space opens the avenue both ways. The public’s response and opinion of your brand can now be seen very easily and response to your promotions as well as business practices can be seen almost instantaneously.    The downside of this is an increased risk for a situation that can spiral out of control very quickly if not monitored. This is why having strategies, policies and processes with a proper team in place to manage and maintain your reputation are keys to minimizing this risk.

5. Provide Educational Content Which Represents Your Brand Well

A blog shouldn’t be cumbersome. As in any thriving company, news should be happening every day. These stories can be explained through pictures, video and in print.  Even Old Spice educated us as they took an old stodgy brand and revitalized it. They schooled us by letting us know that this isn’t your father’s Old Spice anymore.

BONUS—Turn That Frown Upside Down

Set good intentions for your followers and friends.  CEO of Twitter @Ev recently tweeted a great example of setting the tone for your followers “Sign in pediatric office: URGENT: Smile until 5:01pm.” Make sure your networks are bright, light and joyful. Visuals usually do this trick, so talk to your creative director and get the creative team involved in how to jazz up the networks.

What do you think? Share your story with us in the comments.

Thanks to Jonathan Tafarella for editing this post.

J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, ha-chooo, Jets!

Comfort in sharing misery…

I have been sick for 2 weeks. But I wasn’t alone.

From Twitter: @hisilver…I caught this from a friend who has his cough for 2 weeks. I am miserable – you must be too!

Since the new year, status updates and tweets, including mine, were related to the frustration of being under the weather.

Facebook: I can’t believe I’ve got another sinus infection!

Twitter: (with a smiley face avatar) Day two of the stomach flu… Kill me :-/

And common illness hashtags include: #sick #strep #tired

#Flu on Sunday January 3^rd showed quite a spike on Twitter.

I am always interested in seeing what someone has to say about running, as I am a runner and now in training for the ½ more marathon.  So while searching for the word “running” I saw a tweet..”Why can’t my nose stop running!”

Along with the “hope you feel better” and “yes I’ve been sick for a week too” comments included the remedy suggestions of tea, rest, the very popular neti pot, chicken soup, vitamin c, vitamin d, and meds. Feel good support from the global community. I felt better knowing I wasn’t the only one.

Can’t escape it, it’s January and we are sick. Good thing we have the comfort in knowing we are not alone.  We are human and we feel crummy. Back to the J-E-T-S Jets, Jets Jets game.

Hilary JM Topper, MPA Guest Blogger

Many people fear social networking sites that include a GPS, like BrightKite and the latest one, Foursquare, for fear that their safety may be in jeopardy.  However, like with most social media sites, you can tweak the settings so only certain people know of your whereabouts.

Foursquare is a great site for both marketers and consumers!

The way it works is, consumers sign up and can check in to different locations no matter where they are.  Interestingly, the consumer may even find herself in the same vicinity as a friend or co-worker and have an opportunity to connect.  And in terms of security, the only people who can see your entries are those who you are friends with on Foursquare.  You also have an opportunity to link Foursquare with Twitter and Facebook, but this is only an option.

Every time a consumer checks in to a restaurant, bar or business, she unlocks information.  For example, if she went to a restaurant and logs in, she may find that there are particular items on the menu to order or to avoid.  The consumer also has an opportunity to give a tip on a restaurant or attraction. Then, everyone who frequents that restaurant or attraction can read what she said.  This is a powerful tool, especially if the business is given high ratings.

There is also a gaming element to Foursquare as well.  When a consumer checks into various places, she earns points and eventually can become the “mayor” of the place, which can get her freebies – free coffee, free ice cream and even free hotel stays.

For restaurants and business owners, Foursquare is a great way to promote your business.  Owners can offer free products or incentives to customers using Foursquare to lure them into the establishment.  Once you have a Mayor, you can offer something really special!  The best part is, it’s free!  There is no cost for a business to sign up and it gives a lot of exposure across a host of networking platforms.

Foursquare is used primarily on your mobile phone but you can easily see stats, your history and even your friends on your PC or Mac.

When preparing your social media plan, consider incorporating Foursquare.  As more and more people get on to the site, your audience reach will expand and you can expand it even more by offering giveaways and promotions.  It’s a great site for anyone who owns a business!

Hilary JM Topper, MPA, has nearly 30 years of public relations, advertising and marketing experience, having worked at the leading PR/Ad firms in the country including Ogilvy & Mather/PR, Ruder Finn/PR and Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmpolus/PR.  In March 1992, Hilary founded HJMT COMMUNICATIONS, LLC, a boutique Public Relations, Social Media, Event Planning & Graphic Design Agency.   The agency is located in Manhattan, Long Island and in Rochester, NY.

She has received numerous awards and honors for her accomplishments within the industry from PRWeek, Long Island Business News, Newsday, Girl Scouts of Nassau County, the Communicator, International Association of Business Communicators, Long Island Center for Business and Professional Women, Diversity Business.com and the Stevie Awards.

Hilary is committed to giving back to the community and is a board member of several not-for profit organizations and local community organizations in her hometown.

She is a published author and has given numerous speeches and seminars across the country. She is a blogger, entrepreneur, wife and mother of two. Hilary received her Bachelor of Science degree from Hunter College and her Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College. In her free time, she likes to ski, play golf and go cycling.

Photo credit Real Portrait Images (Yippee), George Gavanas (Giving You The Boot)

It was such a busy week in Twitterville! A Billion Dollars! Major Woot! But there was both good and bad. So I think its best to categorize here. Woot vs. Giving You The Boot!

Hyperlocal Twitter accounts such as @sohonews10012, @suffolktime, @dinehuntington and the best yet The City of San Francisco implements @sf311, 311 on twitter. Woot!

Giving You The Boot! Rolf Twitter Worm and malware. Just as we are so cautious with our email, we need to be on Twitter.

Woot! The launch of oneforty the twitter outfitter store.  Laura Fitton, author of Twitter for Dummies and owner of Pistachio Consulting releases beta version of this “better way to discover twitter apps”  store.  Currently invitation only but if you would like to check it out, Mashable has got you covered.

Giving You The Boot! Mention tweets that tell me “how to make money on twitter”

Woot! #140 The Twitter Conference attendees and participants. To all of those who kept us in the loop while we were back in the office, thanks! Tony Robbins key takeaways, Pee Wee Herman comeback and oneforty announcement, awesome!

Giving You The Boot! To those of you who spammed us abusing the #140 hashtag

Woot! To Mashable, hats off to a credible social media source where CNN has editor Ben Parr as a guest expert to explain safety on Twitter.

Giving You The Boot! To those of you who create havoc in the twitter world where we have to be concerned about whats behind those tiny urls.

Woot! To TweetDeck for their awesome updates. Love the directory and auto shorten url feature on desktop. Full Facebook integration rocks!

Giving You The Boot! All those Twitter iphone apps that came and went, well I guess you guys gave yourselves the boot.

Woot! Those awesome cupcake folks who tweet us their location everyday, @cupcakestop, are in the finals of the NYC Vendys!

Giving you…nah, I am going to end on a good note here… thats all from me folks.

Please your comments, additions are welcome.

Photo Credit: Real Portrait Images

That is an image of Adam Hirsch, COO of Mashable and creator of the Summer For Social Good conference and online charity sponsored by Zappos and MailChimp. Over 400 attendees filled those seats at the 92nd Street Y auditorium and with donations still coming in topping $30,000, Adam was a great builder. Both an educational day and a day of giving, all proceeds went to four charities: Livestrong, WWF, Oxfam and The Humane Society. As an attendee, it was quite an enlightening experience and somewhat spiritual. The room was filled with giving people, and those who wanted to learn how to effectively raise awareness and funds for the non-profits.

An example of build it and they will come is Drew. Tomorrow is 9/9/09. Neat huh? Well tomorrow is also a day of blame. The event, Blame-a-Thon is organized by Drew Olanoff, one of the speakers from last month’s Summer for Social Good Conference. Drew was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma on May 20, 2009 and ever since then has been blaming everything on his cancer. Then it became a community blaming random things on drew’s cancer. “I am a geek so I started a website”. Blamedrewscancer.com is now partnered with Livestrong, a Lance Armstrong Foundation and has succeeded in getting big corporate attention with the Taco Bell truck being the first to donate $1 for the first 1,000 tweets with the dedicated hashtag #blamedrewscancer. They are now partnering with Drew on tomorrow’s blame-a-thon.

Presentations throughout the day included an engaging keynote speech by Randi Zuckerberg, Marketing Director, Facebook. I know, this blog is called TwitterCoach, but ever since FB integrated a Twitter feed on their fan pages, I feel I can get away with sharing their story. And boy did Randi have quite the announcement to share, the launch of charities on Facebook. Now you can purchase a donation to a charity of choice for someone’s birthday. They launched the gift shop, with virtual real charity gifts for Project Red, Kiva, Toms and WWF. If all goes well, they could open to all.

There was so much wonderful insight in the non-profit arena but I realize this is a blog post not a book. I will try to mention the key shout outs in good ole twitter style:

“If you have a voice or a platform you have a responsibility to voice your word” Randi Zuckerberg Facebook

“Our CEO is a twitter addict and we have 6 people out of 25 dedicated to social media.”…”We have buy in and resources to leverage social media. Our CEO visited Michael Vick in prison, we let the conversation happen but made sure it was taking place under our roof.. We were prepared for the twitterstorm” Carrie Lewis The Humane Society

“The more people that are engaging, the more leaders will feel pressure to do the right thing”… “Why social media?…best way to reach supporters, quickly trend people checking Facebook and Twitter more often than email” Andy Ridley of EarthHour

So build it, because they will come. No fear, no shame, don’t be afraid to tell your story and to ask for support. Lastly, it feels good to be a part of something, it was a Summer for Social Good, it was damn good!

Drew’s cancer is pissed, make it more pissed on 9/9/09. Raffle tickets are available for those who cannot physically attend blame-a-thon.

Summer may be over, but social good is still accepting donations

To join the conversation and to see what others had to say about the event, you can search #socialgood

To find out more about these charities and the social good conference, visit the Mashable event site here

Images of the presenters, attendees, cocktail reception and Adam’s shocking feel good proposal can be viewed on Real Portrait Images Facebook Fan Page

One month ago, I received a call from my cousin who left a message as, “give me a call when you get this message”. You know that call, in that tone, for certain it is not going to be good news. When we finally connected, he said the words “Karen has breast cancer”(my other cousin).

A disease that has killed not only her mother but also grandmother before the age of 45, it was undoubtedly alarming to hear. With a good report from pathology showing stage I, she thankfully is doing ok after having surgery. Chemotherapy will be the next step. It is surely clear to me that after over 30 years from her mother’s death, we need to “Run Breast Cancer Out of Town”, the subtitle to the September 13th Susan G Komen NYC Race for the Cure 5k.

Komen for the Cure as well as many non-for-profit charities can be found on Twitter, helping organizations gain not only substantial donations but also raising awareness and supporting the community. Ashton Kutchner’s victory over CNN battling to reach 1 million followers, lead to his high profile donation of 10,000 mosquito nets to help prevent malaria deaths in Africa. Hugh Jackman’s “tell me in 140 characters or less why I should donate to your charity of choice” told the world that “Charity Water” helps bring clean water to developing countries and “Operation of Hope”, provides surgical procedures to children in developing countries with facial deformities. He couldn’t decide on one in particular, so he split the 100k donation giving to both charities.

As the “Summer for Social Good” comes to an end, I share with you my story as well as a list of other charities that I support. What charities are you supporting and why? Please feel free to add to the list in the comment section, help spread the word and help your community.

Livestrong (Lance Armstrong Foundation for Cancer)
@livestrong
Proud of their strong and engaged community, the twitter account lets you know of latest blogs, twitpics from events and offers support messages from the enormous community. They will certainly retweet your message like this one from this Sunday Morning:

RT @lorenarojas just landed 4 the @livestrong Cancer Summit! Watch out Cancer this week you get weaker!

You can even get your Livestrong Band to wrap around your avatar to show your support.

Komen for the Cure:
@komenforthecure
The global leader dedicated to fighting breast cancer. Join me/support me Running Breast Cancer Out of Town

Thanks to Lululemon Athletica for their support in supplying me with athletic wear for the Race for the Cure 5k

Operation Smile:
@operationsmile
I learned about Operation Smile at a Pre-Conference Reception for the May 2009 TWTRCON conference. The organization helps children who have cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities and has a presence in 51 countries. Twitter updates include event listings, blog postings and general news about the organization.

Summer for Social Good by Mashable:
@socialgood
Four Critical Causes, Four Charities, One World
Tickets are still available for this Friday’s Social Good Conference in NYC, I will be there. If you cannot attend, they are also accepting donations. The fund supports Livestrong, Oxfam America (supporting the hungry in America), The Humane Society and WWF(raising global awareness to ensure a sustainable future on earth). Tweet to support! More details here.

Soles 4 Souls:
@soles4souls
After putting in way too many miles from training and running the NYC ½ Marathon, I went to my favorite local store “Runners Edge” in Farmingdale NY to buy a new pair of sneaks. Right there by the new sneakers was a box to donate your “soles for souls”, giving to those who desperately need footwear. Donation sites and events are listed here on their website.

Russell Refuge:
Fan on Facebook
Lastly a quick mention to Russell Refuge and their social media efforts. I adopted my sweet Jakey from this organization a couple of months ago. Russell Refuge accepts Jack Russells when they have no where else to go and helps place them in proper loving homes. Although they do not have a Twitter account as of yet, they have a fan page on Facebook.

Good Saturday morning to you all!

I was cordially invited by Hilary Topper, President and CEO of HJMT Communications, to be a guest blogger on her blog site www.hilarytopper.com. I invite you all to check out my posting “I Get Sports Info from Jack Welch and Breaking News from Perez Hilton on her site here.

Comments and your Twitter stories are welcome

Thanks

Constance

As the years go by, I am sure I will be asked “Where were you when you heard Michael Jackson died?”..on twitter

My mom would share stories of where she was when she heard JFK and Elvis died. I will never forget listening to the radio on the way to the beach when I found out Jerry Garcia died. Growing up in the 80’s I cannot forget the magical memories of watching Thriller on MTV, a revolutionary way of sharing music through short film. Now, June 25, 2009 as I was funneling through some tweets, I see Perez Hilton reporting “Michael Jackson suffers heart attack, rushed to Los Angeles hospital!” The tweets continue as reported from many different personalities when Perez Hilton then broke out the TMZ report that he was dead. Andy Roddick, the tennis star who was in Wimbledon tweets: “regardless of what u think of him he was completely revolutionary and will be missed” Within a couple of minutes, every minute my tweetdeck would report 100 new search findings for Michael Jackson. Then Perez Hilton changes his avatar to a black and white photo of Michael Jackson.
…and it continues, as people battle confirmed and unconfirmed reports

Where was I when I found out…it is all here

It was a day of I did it my way, yes the old Sinatra tune is playing in my head as I type on the plane home back from TWTRCON SF09. I was one of the lucky ones to be selected to go standby. They accepted a lower registration fee from me, helping me make the trip to where Twitter was born, San Francisco.

I heard things like twitter is like a phone, we don’t have to train people how to use the phone. However we need to have programs in place to get a desired outcome from using the phone. You can use phone for a social conversation, as well as for a telemarketing campaign.

Other key takeaways from the Sunday event include a surpriser for most, MCHammer. He was articulate and shared a twitter success story by being authentic. “I have watched who I am in the magazines for 20 years, I don’t know that guy!” Taking back control with help from @adventuregirl, Hammer has 700,000 followers and has his own ideas of the future of Twitter like actors themselves advertising their upcoming movies on Twitter, saving the industry millions of advertising dollars.

Twitter stories were told including the Kogi BBQ truck that utilizes Twitter to let their customers know when and where they will be as they drive through the streets of LA. Now they have BBQ truck groupies who have developed a culture for themselves which all began on Twitter! Charities such as the one that piggybacked the TWTRCON conference, Operation Smile, have promising results from viral messages going throughout Twitterville. A Twitter user panel offered tips and shared how they found Twitter to be successful. These included having a strong personality behind your Twitter account, being a utility, and going in with an objective and measuring your results.

It was a conference that we created. We were asked to write down what we would like to talk about during lunch on a white board. As attendees we participated throughout the event as there was much time dedicated to Question and Answer whether you wanted to get on the mic or tweet your question to technologizer who was monitoring the twtrcon twitter account. The sessions weren’t about powerpoint presentations, the whole event was a long conversation as the speakers for the most part sat in lounge chairs as if they were in their own living rooms. Even Steve Rubel, built out the future of Twitter with what he called mind mapping. Steve showed how Twitter can act as an OS or Ecosystem building out the tree using the audience’s input. We voted for the 6 vendors that we wanted to hear from. And in true Twitter style they only had 140 seconds to pitch us their product. I was happy to get my CoTweet account as it is in Beta and they release the version to select few.

What I found most interesting when recapping the day is that everyone has an opportunity to make their own story. Everyone has an opportunity to be a success or become more successful with Twitter. Whether that means being a good citizen alerting a large group of an earthquake that happened or solving a big challenge at their company like KogiBBQ, Twitter empowers everyone to do good and others to share the story around the world.

To see video coverage of the TWTRCON SF 09 Conference, check out TWOOTING

There will always be customers. As human beings it is our nature to want to grow, prosper and enjoy life. We will always need services, products and education and will always yearn for more. So post recession times can be seen through rose colored glasses. Once consumer confidence is back to normal, businesses have the opportunity to flourish. The question is how do we convey marketing messages to this new consumer?

I say new consumer because throughout this recession certain things have happened. Not only did newspaper subscription decline so much that many have gone belly up, but Twitter traffic now surpasses NYT and WSJ. Direct Marketers will be eliminating or drastically minimizing budgets for Free Standing Inserts (FSI) as well as print ads as readership goes down. Online banner ads on the web versions have lost their value as well. The new consumer wants to engage and feel proud they are a customer. They want to be a fan and announce to the world they stand behind your product and are happy to pass the good news on to others.

Direct mail will certainly feel the heat as well, as consumers will want to know about what you have to offer in 140 characters or less. And they want to know immediately. By the time a mail piece goes through design; copywriters; editors; marketing; upper management for approval; printing quotes; printing process; blue line proofs; etc, it is a month or months too late. Micro-sites, landing pages that can be created on the fly will prevail. E-brochures will also be part of this “new” movement. All of this can quickly go viral by links passing through the social networks, passed on by the best marketers of them all, the loyal customer.

The future of Pay Per Click? Well, the consumer is getting smarter. It appears that they want to know a company is top ranked organically to feel a part of the “Best Practices” club. Unless sponsored links are morphed into a community message, this will lose its ROI factor as well.

The marketing role will be redefined to match the new consumer. It’s all coming together, no fail whale on the horizon. T-shirt companies are already capitalizing on the moment. Will you?