Social IRL Blog

Upcoming Social Media Events:

Join Social: IRL in Des Moines, Iowa, June 6 for a special “Beyond the Keynote” event with Brian Solis – Brian and special guest speakers will discuss critically important issues such as surviving “Digital Darwinism,” the rise of the connected consumer, the evolution of social business, disruptive technology and how to compete for the future, the psychology of engagement, and the rise of digital influence. Brian will also participate in a unique bigger dialogue style fireside chat and audience Q&A, a format that allows us to dig deeper and dialogue on a more personal level than the typical keynote. READ MORE

Social Media for Non-Profits - We’re excited to announce two additional dates for our non-profits workshops. These events are free for non-profit organizations to attend. Join us in Wichita KS on July 24, and in Springfield MO on August 23. READ MORE

Join Social: IRL, Brian Solis, and 500 of the top media minds in the industry in New York for Pivot - Here’s why we’re attending and are recommending the event for all agencies and brand marketers. We also have a VIP discount code to share, which will save you 20% on registrations. READ MORE

Links include content identified as being from our sponsors Spredfast, Expion, SocialVolt, Spiral16, and Appinions. We are grateful to these sponsors for their support and enjoy sharing content and webinar opportunities they provide which we consider to be valuable to the Social: IRL community.

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Best-Practices, Guide, Newsletter, Resource

Spruce up your social this spring – Register for this valuable three-part webinar series

May 9, 2012 By socialirl Leave a Comment

We’re excited to share details of this upcoming webinar series being offered by Social: IRL partner Spredfast.

The webinars feature industry thought leaders such as Jeremiah Owyang, Jason Falls, and Michael Brito and will provide valuable insights on key issues such as creating and sharing great social content, delivering unique customer experiences, and creating social programs that are optimized for maintenance and growth.

Click here for full details and free registration.

The webinar is the latest free resource offered by our friends at Spredfast. We’ve enjoyed sharing many of their whitepapers and best practice documents, all of which are available for free download (registration required) via the Spredfast website.

Creating and Using Great Social Content

Jason Falls, May 15, 1pm CT

A well-manicured social presence blossoming with great content is what draws people to your gate. Join us to examine the continued importance of great content and how to keep your social fresh and engaging.

Details and free registration.

Knowing and Delighting Your Social Customer

Michael Brito, June 5, 1pm CT

To set the hive buzzing you need to provide a consistently compelling social experience. Join Michael Brito and social business leaders as they discuss the importance of knowing and understanding social customers and how to use that knowledge to deliver value, provide unique experiences, and constantly exceed expectations.

Details and free registration.

Organizing and Creating Social Program Processes

Jeremiah Owyang, June 26, 1pm CT

Plotting your social presence and implementing processes for maintenance and growth can be the most difficult parts of undertaking social initiatives. They are also the most crucial steps to guarantee success. Listen to thought leaders as they provide advice and key insights into organizing social at scale.

Details and free registration.

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Content, Jason-Falls, Jeremiah-Owyang, Sponsor, Webinar

Perspectives on digital influence

May 6, 2012 By socialirl Leave a Comment

“Digital Influence” is very much a hot topic of conversation. Who has influence? How is influence defined? Can you really score influence? These are just a few of the questions often subject to passionate debate.

As we continue to explore the digital influence landscape, we turned to Social: IRL sponsor Appinions, an opinions-based influence measurement tool for brands and agencies, to get their perspectives.

How do you define digital influence?

At Appinions, we consider two forms of online influence: personal influence, which is one persons’ influence sphere (and measured by tools such as Klout), and contextual influence. We believe that it’s the latter, contextual influence, that is most useful for brands to consider. Appinions considers “influence” to be opinion based; that is, once you express an opinion, it is compelling and resonant enough to elicit action/response from others in the form of a quote, reference, link or re-tweet.

What does it take to be an “influencer”

The power to elicit some kind of action based on one’s opinions.

How is your approach to measuring influence different to more popular score-based systems?

Appinions is very different from Klout, Peerindex and other personal influence measurement tools in that we only consider contextual influence. Rather than returning a singular, unvarying score for each influencer, we develop influence measurement in the context of a topic which is customized and highly specific to a brand’s particular strategy. Our contextual influence measurement is multi-dimensional and across both social and traditional networks, focusing on the actual opinions and actions elicited, as well as the qualitative weight of where each action was published.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about the current approach to influencer marketing?

Too much emphasis is placed on personal influence – those scores which indicate one person’s individual strength as an influencer in general. Until recently, however, that’s all that most people were aware of. Contextual influence is going to be far more valuable to brands in the long run. Additionally, influence happens on and off-line; a personal influence score based on a couple of social networks is far less accurate and representative than contextual influence developed across news, blogs, tweets, forums and TV.

Appinions offers a separate toolset focusing specifically on the “Influencer Gap.” Could explain what this is and why you put so much focus on this?

The Influencer Gap gives brands an accurate and disciplined tool to measure success by understanding its Share of Influence, which is increasingly critical for today’s marketers. Specially, who should be speaking about you but isn’t? This allows brands to focus on developing thoughtful strategy and outreach programs that will increase the reach and engagement those brands can have with the people that influence their market the most. Having existing brand advocates speak more about you is one goal but finding those influencers that don’t speak about you and get them into a conversation, is even more valuable in the long run.

What would be the top five tips you would share for re-thinking and better understanding how we look at digital influence?

1) Don’t confuse personal influence with contextual influence. While personal influence has its place for individuals and brands as one dimension of influence measurement, only contextual influence will help a brand understand who is influential in the topic or category they are trying to measure.

2) Invest in focused WOM aimed at those people that count, which will have a direct impact on a business’s bottom line over time.

3) Don’t fixate on the influencers talking about your brand today, focus on those that aren’t as that’s how you grow your brand’s awareness.

4) Perception is reality, don’t ignore the criticisms or misconceptions discussed about your brand. Translate them into insights for your marketing strategy or product development cycles.

5) Influencers respond best if you deliver a relevant message to them. Reflect on their points of views as you communicate with them – that should translate into higher levels of engagement on their end.

Want to learn more about Influence Measurement Tools?

For a limited time, you can download the Realtime Report’s Guide to Influence Measurement Tools for free (registration required), courtesy of Appinions. The report is typically a $20 download at the realtimereport.com.

The report details:

5 business cases for influence measurement tools
The difference between Personal and Contextual Influence
How to use influence analysis to manage brand strategies
Best practices for using influence measurement tools to manage influencer relations, perks promotions and other marketing programs
A detailed look and comparison of Personal Influence tools (Klout, Kred, PeerIndex, TweetLevel, and PeekAnalytics) and Contextual Influence tools (Appinions, TRAACKER, mBlast, and SpotInfluence)

Click here to download the guide today.

About Appinions:

Appinions is an opinions-powered platform that makes it easy to identify, analyze, monitor and engage with influencers. Not only that, but Appinions enables researchers and publishers to automatically mine, analyze, and summarize opinion to gain insight into what people and organizations are saying, thinking and feeling.

Based on a decade of research at Cornell University, the platform features an extensive database that includes millions of opinions extracted from blogs, Twitter, Facebook, forums, newspaper and magazine articles, and radio and television transcripts.

The platform not only focuses on the influencers creating content but the influencers attracting the most attention. This lets Appinions provide a unique and unmatched view of the influencer landscape.

Services include the Appinions Influencer Exchange that lets public relations agencies and brands quickly and effectively discover influencers based on any topic, brand, issue or person, and the Influencer Gap that helps brands perform topic based analysis in order to effectively establish relationships and engage with these key influencers.

Learn more by visiting their website at Appinions.com and connect with them on Twitter and Facebook. You can also check out the Appinions blog for regular insights on the ever evolving influencer landscape. You can also view this short video to learn more the discovering, monitoring and engaging with influencers using the Influencer Exchange:

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Influence, Interview, Sponsor

10 elements regulated brands must consider before entering the social space

May 5, 2012 By socialirl Leave a Comment

Today’s post is a guest post from Melanie Woods, Interactive Marketing Manager at UMB Financial Corp. Melanie will be among the guest speakers at the upcoming Social Media for Financial Services and Regulated Industries forum Social: IRL is hosting at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City on Friday, May 11. This event is free to attend and while the focus will be on financial services, many other businesses will relate to the challenges being discussed (including privacy concerns, desire to control the message and protect the brand, risk and regulatory compliance, getting corporate buy-in). All are encouraged to register.

Everyone knows by now you begin a social strategy with goals, key performance indicators, relevant content and a clearly defined social media policy. If you are in a regulated industry, you have to take a few more steps to reach a compliant social media strategy. Simply put, regulators consider social media (likes, posts, comments, ratings, etc.) from the brand, or its associates, another form of advertising; therefore, it’s subject to the same rules. The following elements are critical for regulated industries to remain compliant in the space.

1. Risk assessment

2. Archival process

3. Compliance approval workflow

4. Customer service integration

5. Crisis plan

6. Training and certification for anyone representing the brand

7. Internal social media guidance council (compliance, legal, technology, human resources)

8. Enterprise-wide social policy education

9. External social policy

10. Access controls

Regulators are updating their guidance on a regular basis to try and keep up with the ever changing landscape of social media. Thankfully, your friends in legal and compliance can help guide you through the regulated waters. If you are just getting into social, start by grabbing lunch with your legal and compliance departments. You will be spending a lot of time with them in the future.

Finally, people always ask me if I think every brand should be on social. My answer is, if your audience is there and you have content they want or would find helpful, then YES. However, if your audience isn’t there, then you need to focus on the channels they are in, but closely monitor shifts. And, if you don’t have content worth sharing, then you have bigger problems to solve before you consider social media.

If you can do social in a regulated industry, you can do it anywhere! Cheers to all of those who are paving the way in regulated industries.

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Best-Practices, Guest-Post, Guide, Regulated Business

Zena Weist Joins Expion Leadership Team

April 30, 2012 By socialirl 1 Comment

Those of us in the Kansas City area know Zena Weist as a founding member of the Kansas City Chapter of The Social Media Club, a great wife and mother, loyal Jayhawk, and a passionate supporter of autism awareness. Professionally we’ve admired her work leading digital and social teams at Sprint, Hallmark, Embarq and H&R Block. Most recently she was Vice President of Strategy with Edelman Digital Chicago.

Zena has also been a great supporter of Social: IRL and has attended and participated in a number of Social: IRL conferences.

We’re excited to share news of Zena’s latest career move, joining the leadership of social software company Expion. Zena has joined as the firm’s Vice President of Strategy, and will report directly to Expion’s CEO, Peter Heffring.

“Zena has operational leadership experience in Fortune 500 companies and a solid reputation as an enterprise digital strategist, social media catalyst and brand thought leader,” said Peter Heffring. “As Vice President of Strategy, Zena will work with our clients and demonstrate how Expion’s platform can be utilized as a solution to specific organizational and market challenges they face today. With her experience, Zena brings industry-specific knowledge, and big brand experience that we will rely on to ensure Expion’s platform continues to be the leading social media management software solution for the world’s largest brands.”

“I’m excited to tap into Expion’s unparalleled combination of business intelligence and social media-based technologies to help evolve how brands interact with stakeholders in social channels,” said Zena, “and to empower brands to be more strategic in the digital arena.

Expion is also a Social: IRL partner, and we’re looking forward to the new opportunities this brings us to work directly with Zena and the Expion team.

Congratulations Zena and Expion on this exciting news.

You can also read Expion’s official press release here.

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: About-Social-IRL, SMCKC, Sponsor

Small Town Rules: How big brands and small businesses can prosper in a connected economy

April 5, 2012 By socialirl Leave a Comment

Becky McCray is someone we at Social: IRL first got to know through her work with Jeff Pulver in bringing his 140 Conference from New York City to Hutchinson, Kansas. Becky’s passion in promoting the message that small businesses and small towns matter, was pivotal in bringing this first 140 Local to the heart of the Midwest.

From her home base in an Oklahoma community of just 30 people, Becky has taken her message to a national audience. She is a recognized expert in rural small business and social media. She has been featured in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Entrepreneur Magazine. Her blog, Small Biz Survival, ranks in the top 20 small business blogs worldwide. She is listed among the 100 Most Powerful Women on Twitter. Along with Sheila Scarborough, she co-founded Tourism Currents to teach tourism professionals about social media marketing. They are considered highly influential in the tourism industry and organize the Tourism track at BlogWorld Expo each year.

With her new book Small Town Rules, co-authored with Barry Moltz, Becky takes her small town message a stage further. In the book they show how the business world is like a global small town, and how even the largest companies must compete for customers as if they were small, local businesses. They reveal the seven “rural-style”solutions that have become invaluable to even the largest companies, most dominant brands, and most cosmopolitan businesses.

Small Town Rules was written to help large brands and urban businesses that are struggling with the uncertain economy, radical changes in technology, and seismic shifts in society. Today, brands find themselves trying to compete for local customers, while being bombarded by inbound messages from consumers and fans, while also coping with drastic changes in revenue. Small town businesses have been juggling this set of challenges for decades. Small towns become the learning labs for business today.

Because Barry and Becky are both entrepreneurs, Small Town Rules also addresses the challenges of small businesses, no matter how urban or sophisticated. Special resources in the book address small business, and the Appendix includes small business ideas that were inspired by the Small Town Rules.

Small Town Rules contains some things different from most books.

Between chapters, Powerhouse Small Town Brands are profiled, including L.L. Bean, Walmart, Winnebago Industries, and Viking Range.
To help readers implement the ideas, an appendix of Resources includes specific tools, references and links for each small town rule.
An appendix of Business Ideas Inspired by the Small Town Rules profiles more than 20 different business ideas. Businesses of any size can use these ideas for expansion, innovation or to change the game.

If you want to do business on a human scale, no matter how large (or small) your organization is, this is a book that will serve as a truly valuable resource.

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Book, Brands, Resource, Review

Join Brian Solis and 500 of the top media minds in the business at the Pivot Conference

March 23, 2012 By socialirl Leave a Comment

October 15-16, Social: IRL Principal Ben Smith will be joining Brian Solis in New York for the 2012 Pivot Conference, an event Brian both produces and hosts. Ben is attending and supporting the event as a Pivot Ambassador, and because of that we are able to share a VIP discount code to save 20% off event registrations. The discount can be used in addition to the special early registration rate currently being offered, to represent a significant savings’ opportunity. We strongly encourage you to join us at this event which offers learning and networking of the very highest caliber. Register using discount code VIP20 for the 20% discount to be applied.

From Engage! to The End of Business as Usual, the Social Compass to the Conversation Prism, a website ranked among the world’s leading business and marketing online resources, and most recently his first official Altimeter Group report, The Rise of Digital Influence, Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media.

In Social: IRL’s own conference series, Explore and Engage with Brian Solis and Jason Falls remains among our most highly talked about events, generating thousands of Tweets and dozens of blog posts.

In October, 500 of the top media minds in the business—marketing leaders who recognize the game-changing power of the plugged-in social consumer—will join Brian Solis in New York to attend the 2012 Pivot Conference.

As Pivot’s editorial director, producer and host, Brian takes great pride in creating a content framework and speaker agenda of the very highest caliber.

With the focus “From Social Brands to Social Business,” attendees will discover the blueprint for a Social Construct that will transform their business, earn a significant competitive advantage, and improve customer relationships in the process. Attendees will:

Meet the architects who are developing Social businesses and the agencies and industry experts who are helping them define new models for consumer engagement.
Hear about common hurdles, how they broke through, how they secured buy-in, and how they started to bring together lines of business and functions that did not previously talk to one another.
Engage with the most creative minds helping Social businesses connect with connected customers to influence behavior and outcomes.
Get inside the mind of the connected customer to learn how to influence decisions and become a trusted resource.
Convert activities and conversations into actionable insights that guide the creation of relevant product and services and inspire creative campaigns.
Measure the opportunities inherent in emerging and disruptive technologies to improve internal collaboration and customer engagement.
Define the customer journey pre-, during, and post-commerce to reinforce value, cultivate loyalty and foster advocacy.
Learn how Social businesses are not only improving stakeholder engagement, but how marketing, sales, service, product development et al, are adapting, improving efficiencies, and achieving business objectives through new methodologies.
Learn from the most effective strategies to successfully start the transformation.

Pivot also offers an exclusive opportunity to network and connect with the top social marketing minds in the business. By limiting attendance to 500 top marketing leaders, Pivot 2012 provides an elite opportunity to compare notes, share ideas and connect at the highest level.

Learn more at the Pivot website, where you’ll also have access to valuable research, case studies and infographics. For the latest updates you can also follow Pivot on Twitter.

We’re excited to be attending this very special event and to be able to share the VIP20 discount code. See you in New York!

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Brian-Solis, Conference, Pivot

10 elements regulated brands must consider before entering the social space

Small Town Rules: How big brands and small businesses can prosper in a connected economy

Join Brian Solis and 500 of the top media minds in the business at the Pivot Conference

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