1. Customer Service – your company could provide a blog aimed at improving customer service. Users can share their experiences of using the your company’s product or services but beware, not everyone will be positive about their experience giving you the perfect opportunity to resolve their issues and prove your customer service excellence in the blogosphere. Not only that but it provides the perfect forum to monitor customer preferences.
2. Which leads me to market research – your blog, the comments it gets and the blog of others in your community are vital resources that you should be using to conduct market research.
3. Humanising – a blog can be used to put a face on your company familiarising customers and prospects with the people behind the brand and building trust. Company board members and staff members can contribute and in so doing make them seem more real – more approachable. See the effect company wide blogging had on Microsoft as referenced in Naked Conversations.
4. Internal communication portal – a blog is a great way to communicate personnel changes, policy updates, CEO commentary and company events.
5. Establish expertise – this is the main focus of this blog i.e. to show people like you that we know what we’re talking about so that perhaps you’ll think of us us when considering your Internet marketing strategy.
6. Expand Network – a blog is a great way to expand your network. Its always good blog practice to respond to those who comment on your web page and in so doing you are establishing contact and networking.
7. Leads – I am not too enthused about using a blog to generate leads but it can be done. Remember if you do this though that outright selling and self promotion are considered taboo in the blogosphere and will only piss people off.
8. Brand – a blog is a great way to further entrench your brand.
9. Generate revenue – many successful blogs put their traffic to good advantage by promoting related products and affiliate services to them through ads that are tailored to the intended audience and earn affiliate revenues in doing so.
10. Grow your base – a blog is a great way to extend your companies reach beyond its traditional geographical base. This blog gets comments and traffic from people as far and wide as India and the UK.

For many companies, posting a regular blog with informative up to the minute content is a daunting task. This is especially so for small to medium sized business who may not have the resources at hand to blog effectively and consistently.

Sound familiar? If  it is simply inspiration that you need then read this blog post about banishing blog writer’s fatigue. But if the thought of adding a blog to your corporate marketing arsenal makes your blood run cold, don’t despair: there are other ways that you can take advantage of the blogosphere with out having to.

Blog Learning

Blogs are a great way to keep abreast of what is going on in your industry, to learn from luminaries, peers and prospective clients as well as to keep ahead of your competitors.  Use tools like Technorati to find and follow blogs that pertain to your market.  If you are using blogs for this purpose, it is a good idea to bookmark or use and RSS feed reader (like Google reader) to keep track of the ones you like and to share them with others in your company.

Blog Comments

Links are like gold on the Internet, the more your site has leading back to it, the better and this is even more the case if links come from high ranking blogs.   When posting comments on blogs, always make sure they are relevant and add value in relation to the post.  In addition to the link love, posting comments on blogs can help you establish a relationship with the blogger or company whose post you comment on (particularly handy if you would like to do business with this company) and can spread brand awareness from the blog’s readers.

Blog PR

Blog PR or as it is sometimes called, blog outreach, is another way you can use blogs without having to have one.   Popular blogs often get many thousands of visitors every day.  Imagine the traffic that would bring to your site if the blog were to mention and link back to your page.  Blog PR is all about enticing the rock star bloggers in your industry to blog about you, your product, service or unique story.  Bloggers, like journalists with traditional PR, are on the receiving end of many attempts to get publicity every day so your message has to stand out from the crowd in order to get any attention.  To be successful with blog PR you have to be highly targeted and creative.

Internal Blog

Blog technology is very versatile.  Just because you don’t want the exposure an external blog might bring doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of blogs in house to disseminate information.  By doing so you might discover that you do indeed have the talent or resources within the organisation to make an external blog possible.  Read our post from last September to learn more about internal blog uses.

Conclusion

Blogging is often the backbone of a social media strategy but, to be successful, you don’t need to have your own blog.  In fact, if blogging isn’t right for your company then embarking on a blog and then abandoning it can be really damaging.  Instead, consider the options above in order to take advantage of blogs to build your online presence.

Foursquare, the location based social network, is purported to be the next big social media phenomenon despite ongoing privacy concerns.   Launched just last year in only a few cities around the world, Foursquare now has over 400,000 unique visitors (in January).  Since September there has been a steep increase  in activity as users catch on to this popular social networking game and this is only expected to grow since Foursquare went global last month.

Foursquare Growth

Playing Foursquare

Foursquare allows users to check in from their mobile phones when they are out and about at dinner, sports venues, tourist venues and even at the hairdresser.  As a user, each time you check in to a location you are awarded points.

Once you start accumulating points or visiting locations frequently you are awarded badges and titles (I am the Mayor of Stock Up, one of my favorite places to have lunch in Kerrisdale).   Foursquare apps are available for download to most major smart phones (iPhone,  Blackberry, Android and Palm Pre.).

If you think it sounds like more of a game than a serious business network, you are right but if your business is location based, it is a game you really should be taking seriously.   A little friendly competition can do wonders to bring people back to your location again and again and so businesses are beginning to clue in to the loyalty potentially and Foursquare as a tool to spread awareness: many businesses are offering incentives to those who become mayor and to visitors who offer tips about the location.

Foursquare Tips for Business

1. Make sure you are listed on Foursquare.  The best way to do this is by joining the community, downloading the phone app and adding a venue from there (read this post from Dave Tailor for more detail on how to do so).

2. Consider offering incentives for those who visit frequently and sign up with Foursquare to promote these.  Every time someone signs in to your location, their followers see this, so the more Foursquare visitors you have the better – its like free advertising!

3. Monitor Foursquare to see who is visiting and especially to track tips.  Foursquare users can provide tips about your location and since this is user driven you may want to reward positive tips and be prepared to go to bat if someone posts something negative.  Most of the tips I have seen to date are positive.

My Perspective

I have been playing around with Foursquare for a few months and it is fun but so far I haven’t been rewarded for my patronage – here’s hoping this post changes that!

Frustrated at the longer anticipated wait for sushi the other week, I posted this warning others to factor in time but there has been no response to that either.

Since Out-Smarts is virtual and not location based, we’re not on there but we do encourage all businesses to be aware of what Foursquare is, to make sure they are listed and to keep an eye on what is being said about their business.  If Foursquare does take off, as it is predicted to, then more and more of your clients will be using this tool to share their nights out, business meetings and fun.

A lot has changed in the social media scene since the last Olympics in Beijing in 2008.  More than twice as many of us are using Facebook around the world, there are over 200 million blogs and over 70% of people in North America who have Internet access are using social media.  This year’s Olympics in Vancouver is set to be the first to offer full streaming coverage online.  Its also being dubbed the first Twitter Olympics. For the first time ever, in addition to the Olympic coverage through the official media channels, we will be able to experience the Olympics through the eyes of the people.

A consortium of Vancouver social media trailblazers have been trying, since Beijing, to encourage the Olympic committee to embrace social media journalism but their open letters to VANOC have all but been ignored.  Not to be deterred, this group has gone about setting up and supporting media houses like True North Media house and Vancouver Access 2010: forums designed to bring together people who want to contribute and share content on and about the Olympics.

True North Media House is a media collaboration campaign to encourage social coverage of major events, highlight emerging media and provide a venue for discussing the increasing use of social media in society, particularly at events of global importance like the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver Canada.  Anyone can take part, you just need to get accredited.  Contributors include photographers, videographers, bloggers – there’s even a 5 year old self accredited reporter!

Vancouver Access 2010 is a collection of multi-media content; blog posts, pictures and videos covering the various winter/summer sports and cultural events during the past several games include Torino, Italy in 2006 and Beijing, China in 2008.  They are currently busy creating content for Vancouver 2010.

I talked with Kris Krug who is one of founders the of these projects.  He said that despite the lack of support from the Olympic committee, everyone else has welcomed their initiatives with open arms.  As a result social media houses have proliferated across the city.

So, these Olympics are indeed going to be different.  We will be able to follow and support the athletes on social media, we will, no doubt, all be tuned to our TV’s  as usual but this time we have another source of content and that will be live from the people on the ground here in Vancouver bringing their experiences and view points.

Related Articles:

The Olympics and Social Media

Social Media and the Vancouver Winter Olympics

The Olympics are in town and this city is all a buzz.  Following my post last week about how the Olympics use social media, I thought it would be great to follow up on that and take a look at how athletes are using these tools.

According to a Wired Magazine blog post, there is some confusion among athletes as to whether or not they are actually allowed to post during the games.  Here’s an excerpt from the article:

But there is no Olympic rule that sets up a blackout period for athletes according to Bob Condron, the Director of Media Services for the United States Olympic Committee.

“Athletes are free to blog during the Games,” says Condron. “And Twitter is just a blog that’s written 140 characters at a time.”

There are some restrictions on what athletes can do online during the Olympics. According to the IOC Blogging Guidelines for the 2010 Games, athletes and other accredited people must keep their posts confined to their personal experiences.

Despite this confusion many athletes are using social media right now.  Lets look at which social media tools they are using, how they are using them as well as how you can find, follow and lend your support.

Twitter

Lots of athletes are using Twitter to share their Olympic experiences.  One of the best ways to find them is to follow Olympic lists like these ones.

Canadian Athletes on Twitter

US Olympic Athletes on Twitter

Olympic Winter Sports

True North Media House

Huffington Post Athletes List

Olympians

Athletes are using Twitter in different ways.  Some are simply sharing their experiences in getting to BC and settling in to their new diggs at this point.  Many are posting their experiences in their final practices leading up to their events and all are  building their fan base. By finding and following our athletes on Twitter we have the chance to share in their Olympic experiences first hand as well as to give them our support.

Many national teams have dedicated Twitter feeds too, to keep fans updated:

Team Canada

Team Great Britain

Facebook

Whilst Twitter gives athletes a quick and easy way to communicate with fans, many also have fan pages on Facebook to build awareness of their endeavors, to post video content and share their Olympic aspirations.  Canadian gold medal contender in figure skating, Patrick Chan’s page links to video clips, fan photos and updates about the skater.

One of the best ways to find and follow athletes on Facebook is through the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Page.  Theyrecently asked the question “Hey any Olympic athletes out there? What is your Facebook page?”, here is the response.  Another way is to find the national team pages and check out who they are fans of – athletes are usually listed.  Here are a few – to find the rest search Facebook for “Olympic Team”.

Canadian Olympic Team

US Olympic Team

Swiss Olympic Team

Australian Olympic Team

Blogs

How these athletes find time to train and blog is beyond me – I guess that is why they are Olympians and I am not!  Here are links to athletes using these forums too:

Dustin Cook – Official blog of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team Member

Speed skater – Denny Morrison.

Good Luck To All Athletes

Good luck to all athletes competing at the games – thanks for keeping us posted on social media.  Welcome to BC and enjoy your time here: may it be golden!

I had a slew of old friends find and follow me on Facebook recently and its great to catch up but most of them are newbies to social media and making their first forays in these networks. In watching their actions, I thought I would craft a post giving them some pointers they should consider to maintain their safety and privacy online.

1. Use the privacy settings (in Facebook click on settings at the top right hand side of your screen then privacy) to make sure that your personal information such as date of birth, home address, email etc are not there for all the world to see – don’t want to encourage identity thieves or spammers do we?

2. Off the Wall – don’t use people’s wall to communicate personal information or communications. If it is longer than a couple of sentences take it to Facebook email.

3. Remember that the first thing recruiters do these days is to check out candidates on Facebook. If you intend on ever applying for another job you should be cogniscent of this. If you plan on getting your boobs out or boasting about your drinking prowess to the world give it some consideration first. Always do the granny test, be careful of what you post and again use the privacy settings accordingly.

4. Be authentic – upload a profile picture so that people can see that its really you – or what you look like after all these years, as the case may be.

5. Be selective about who you add. Don’t add every TD&H who invites you and remember what mother said about strangers! Seriously though, being selective about who you connect with gives you more control if safety is a concern.

6. Be respectful and don’t use profanities too much – you never know when someone’s kid is watching over there shoulder (take it from me – this happens a lot!).

7. Be true to who you are. Transeparency is key to effective social media participation. Don’t try to present yourself as something or someone you are not. Imagine how embarassing it will be when someone crawls out of the woodwork and points out the truth – to everyone.

8. My friend Marc at Amuse Consulting says if its not worth saying out loud, its not worth saying on line. This is a good mantra to bear in mind when considering your status updates.

9. Block Em – If someone is rude to you in comments or on your wall, you can block them. Again go to settings, privacy and scroll down to Block List to do so.

10. Applications – you should be aware that most of the games and applications on Facebook are from third party companies you know nothing about and are often set up for the simple purpose of collecting you marketing info. Once you add the application, they have access to your information. Be wary of which applications you add and again use the privacy settings to control this.

After a brief hiatus in December, our regular month end Reasons to be Cheerful post is back.  Here is a compendium of cool sites I discovered over the past few weeks that might of interest or useful for you.  Enjoy!

Screenr - easily create screencasts to post to Twitter.

Lifeforce TV – Canada’s online broadcast network.

Biddingo – an online portal that connects suppliers providing various goods and services to buyers from public and private sectors across Canada.

Xina – handy tool for checking how your SEO efforts stack up.

Entreprenuerial Woman Magazine – online journal aimed at Canadian small business.

Rollip – professional, online photo effects.

More and more companies and entrepreneurs are using video to help them promote their products and services online, to build buzz and drive traffic to their sites and rightly so: posting videos can be a great way to build your online exposure.

However, many of the videos out there are of extremely poor quality – blurred images, poor sound quality, that omnipresent “Flip arm” and the list goes on – they are just not pleasant to watch.  You’ve got to ask what these say about the company posting the content.

In the most excellent social media marketing handbook, Friends with Benefits, Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo point out, in reference to video popularity, that two factors don’t matter, one is quality, but I tend to disagree to some extent: I don’t know how often I have viewed videos by entrepreneurs on Facebook or YouTube that are so poor quality that they make me question whether I would actually want to do business with the company in question.  Everything you do online should represent your brand.  A video that is really poorly produced is simply going to reflect poorly on your brand. Its not necessarily all about how often your video is viewed but more importantly about the impact it has on your intended audience.

The challenge however, especially for entrepreneurs is to be able to upload good quality content without breaking the bank.  Which leads me to introduce you to BBN3.  SoMedia Networks is building Broadband Network Three (BBN3) websites in major cities across North America and then internationally to provide a platform and marketplace for a new class of user-generated video creators – the near-professional content producer. What this means is that you have an affordable alternative to the self made flip video.

Through a simple online interface, BBN3 allows you to work with them create and customize video projects easily and inexpensively. We worked with them in December – you may have seen my status updates about how much fun the shoot was – to put together a short intro to Out-Smarts.  Other than the fact I look a bit like the incredible hulk (only smaller), I like the end result. Take a look and let me know what you think:

Thanks to Gina for allowing us to shoot in the Meridian Pacific boardroom.

Yesterday, we talked about how you can use LinkedIn for recruitment purposes, today we look at some of the other tools available to support your recruiting needs.

Plaxo – another prominent professional networking tool with over 20 million users, Plaxo is similar to LinkedIn in that it allows you to search job listings and to connect with people who are hiring but unlike LinkedIn, it does not have tools aimed solely at recruiters yet.

Xing – Another professional network which is becoming more popular with over 8m users.  It is very similar in its functionality to LinkedIn but posting jobs is much cheaper.  The downside is that lots of users are in Europe so its not the best tool for North American recruitment purposes.

Other professional social networks that facilitate recruitment:

Viadeo

Biznik

Social Networks – Facebook

Facebook Groups:  there are groups on Facebook dedicated to getting the word out about jobs.  To do so you can join and post or participate.  Examples include:

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=jobs&init=quick#/group.php?gid=29593013279&ref=search&sid=745281396.2828234181..1

Facebook Pages – some companies have Facebook pages dedicated solely to helping them find staff.  The best known example is the Ernst and Young Facebook Page.

Facebook Events – having a hiring fare?  You can use Facebook events like this one to promote it.

Facebook Ads: allow you to post ads aimed at people you want to employ: location, education level etc.

Twitter

Twitter is proving a great tool to promote job openings.  You can use corporate or staff Twitter pages to Twitter to your community about job postings or you can even have your own dedicated Twitter feed that serves this purpose alone like KPMG http://twitter.com/kpmg

As with any Twitter effort, your follow strategy will be important.

Twitter Ad-ons

You can also use third party tools like Twitter Job Search to search listings and post your own.

Here at Out-Smarts, we are looking to hire an intern right now.  So far we have had 3 suitable and interested candidates contact us and all we had to do was post the fact to Facebook and Twitter.    If you are interested please contact us, otherwise good luck in your recruiting or job search efforts.

Social media isn’t only a great tool for networking and marketing online, companies are using these tools more and more to connect with potential employees, to attract new hires, to build brand awareness (as a great company to work for) and to research prospective employees.  This is the first of 2 blogs looking at social media for recruitment.

There are a number of social media tools you can use to enhance your recruitment function – here are a few:

• Professional Networks,
• Social Networks like Facebook,
• MicroBlog platforms like Twitter,
• Blogs,
• Video
• Podcasts.

Perhaps the main social networks that support recruiting are the professional networks.  To use these effectively, your company should have a presence in these forums whether it be through a company presence or through staff profiles.

Professional Networks:

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has over 47 million users in 200 countries.  As a “professional social network” it is ideal as a tool to use to assist recruitment.  There are a number of ways you can use LinkedIn for this:

Searching Jobs on LinkedIn – this is useful from a recruiting perspective as it allows you to search other positions in your industry that have been posted in this forum.

Find People

You can use your LinkedIn Profile to find people – LinkedIn is a free professional network but if you upgrade your LinkedIn membership you can communicate more effectively with possible candidates.  Paid LinkedIn accounts start at $24.95 and run to $400.95 depending on volume (of emails, interactions etc).  By using this paid LinkedIn functionality you can contact, communicate and interact more than with the vanilla version but more importantly for recruiting, you can check references.

Post a Job

Posting a job on LinkedIn costs $195 for a 30 day listing.  The benefit of posting on LinkedIn is that it facilitates candidate research and allows you to identify and connect with people who can recommend and refer them.

In addition, LinkedIn also provides a service aimed solely at recruiters called LinkedIn Talent Advantage which aids in the sourcing, getting the word out about jobs.

More on social media for recruitment tomorrow.