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First off, let me apologize to you for not publishing this monthly as promised. It was taking me around 15 hours to compile and edit the PDF each month and it was just overwhelming. I'll keep publishing it on a quarterly basis as a blog post moving forward. Thank you for understanding!

As always, I use the data that Facebook provides from their advertising management system. The actual numbers may be larger, but we're marketers and these are the people who can be marketed to.

Key Takeaways:

• The fourth quarter of 2008 saw a 27.55% increase in the total population of Facebook going from 100 million users to 138.6 million. That's a larger increase compared to past months on this report.
• The US is still the largest segment of Facebook at around 42 million users. This is 282% greater than the next closest country (the UK)
• Italy and Romania had over 400% gains on Facebook leading the pack while the US led by total population gain at 9 million new users
• Norway and Canada have the largest percentage of their total populations on Facebook (over 25% each)
• South Africa was the only country to lose population in Q4
• Macedonia and Oman were the only new additions in Q4 2008

Top 25 Countries by total users

Top countries (in order greatest to lowest): US, UK, Canada, Turkey, France, Italy, Australia, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Argentina, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Hong Kong, Norway, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, India, Greece, Finland, South Africa top25bytotalpop.png [Click image for larger version]

Top 25 countries by highest % of total population on Facebook

Top countries (in order greatest to lowest): Norway, Canada, Denmark, UK, Chile, Iceland, Australia, Hong Kong, Sweden, Finland, Singapore, Puerto Rico, US, Luxembourg, Maldives, New Zealand, Lebanon, Cyprus, Israel, Malta, UAE, Switzerland, Belgium, The Bahamas, Colombia top25bypercentpop.png [Click image for larger version] *Note: This chart uses the total population of each country (not the online population)

Top 25 largest Q4 % gains

Top countries (in order greatest to lowest): Italy, Romania, tunisia, Slovakia, Indonesia, Spain, Argentina, Czech Republic, Uruguay, Bosnia, Slovenia, Serbia, Iceland, Ecuador, Macedonia, Oman, Belgium, France, Turkey, Switzerland, The Bahamas, Austria, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Morocco Q4_pct_change.png [Click image for larger version]

Top 25 largest total gains

Top countries (in order greatest to lowest): US, Italy, turkey, France, UK, Spain, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Australia, Chile, Denmark, Indonesia, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Venezuela, Colombia, Greece, Hong Kong, Serbia, India, Mexico, Finland, Malaysia Q4_total_pop_gains.png [Click image for larger version]

Raw country population data for Q4 2008

*Note that Macedonia and Oman are new additions to Facebook for segmenting purposes and don't have Q3 data.
Country    Q4 2008    Q3 2008   
Argentina    2,254,200    936,540   
Australia    4,327,920    3,650,260   
Austria    258,780    144,800   
Bahrain    50,660    42,360   
Bangladesh    198,780    135,220   
Belgium    1,666,340    833,600   
Bolivia    184,920    150,480   
Bosnia    198,660    90,720   
Brazil    209,100    155,600   
Bulgaria    136,980    79,300   
Canada    10,851,420    10,025,320   
Chile    4,152,060    3,477,540   
China    220,620    196,200   
Colombia    3,636,320    3,226,980   
Costa Rica    73,100    55,080   
Croatia    491,240    300,500   
Cyprus    109,420    78,660   
Czech Republic    176,660    75,900   
Denmark    1,778,440    1,174,500   
Dominican Republic    115,680    91,800   
Ecuador    130,860    105,700   
Egypt    821,760    838,480   
El Salvador    67,360    51,540   
Finland    920,960    656,780   
France    6,595,300    3,382,840   
Germany    1,255,480    817,620   
Ghana    53,880    36,780   
Greece    1,000,320    639,340   
Guatemala    93,960    76,980   
Honduras    54,180    41,660   
Hong Kong    1,456,740    1,111,580   
Hungary    90,260    63,700   
Iceland    120,520    57,700   
India    1,072,080    807,040   
Indonesia    898,360    321,980   
Ireland    401,280    308,100   
Israel    895,520    663,240   
Italy    5,582,980    1,035,900   
Jamaica    64,780    49,560   
Japan    213,420    170,080   
Jordan    266,700    211,700   
Kenya    130,920    105,120   
Kuwait    105,160    91,520   
Lebanon    414,240    378,580   
Lithuania    41,800    29,880   
Luxembourg    87,400    49,480   
Macedonia    78,180    0   
Malaysia    851,240    591,880   
Maldives    33,880    31,220   
Malta    45,820    36,160   
Mauritius    57,060    40,620   
Mexico    1,439,580    1,174,600   
Morocco    369,660    214,180   
Netherlands    351,540    283,700   
New Zealand    534,320    433,360   
Nicaragua    29,560    23,740   
Nigeria    212,780    145,000   
Norway    1,455,080    1,315,880   
Oman    24,240    0   
Pakistan    376,800    286,340   
Palestine    69,660    55,660   
Panama    236,200    219,760   
Paraguay    19,200    11,440   
Peru    295,620    208,560   
Phiilippines    390,700    233,300   
Poland    194,960    113,900   
Portugal    84,760    61,860   
Puerto Rico    541,640    455,160   
Qatar    67,840    54,820   
Romania    56,300    10,760   
Russia    122,780    94,100   
Saudi Arabia    325,860    265,740   
Serbia    557,480    266,120   
Singapore    740,220    539,660   
Slovakia    138,120    46,060   
Slovenia    184,120    86,640   
South Africa    920,860    1,022,240   
South Korea    113,940    86,500   
Spain    2,591,640    1,031,780   
Sri Lanka    154,780    96,500   
Sweden    1,697,100    1,242,240   
Switzerland    1,122,900    609,640   
Taiwan    112,840    84,780   
Thailand    168,840    109,980   
The Bahamas    43,900    24,280   
Trinidad and Tabago    136,080    94,300   
Tunisia    239,600    66,440   
Turkey    7,924,640    4,087,640   
Ukraine    41,400    26,860   
UAE    485,540    358,560   
USA    42,017,280    32,923,620   
UK    14,922,560    12,662,320   
Uraguay    198,160    89,320   
Venezuela    1,872,840    1,456,420   
Vietnam    39,120    26,580   

Does anything surprise you on this? Anything else you would like to know?

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Technorati Tags: advertising, Facebook, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, strategy, Techno//Marketer, Twitter

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What's fast to build, slow to grow and needs constant attention? No, not a Chia Pet. It's social media! I've given this post a lot of thought over the past couple of months as I talk with executives and marketers who are discussing their entry into the social media space. Some are skeptical, others are passionate. Most have incorrect pre-conceived notions that are contradictory to the way things actually are. Ironically, most of these contradictions have been used as selling points in the early days of the space. So, here we go.

Contradiction 1: Fast setup, slow build

Yes, it is true that you can create a blog in less than five minutes. However, a five minute blog is going to have the same marketing impact as letting an 2-year-old create your brand identity. The physical build of a blog will take months to get right. It needs to be professionally designed or at least customized to look unique.

That, however, is the easiest part of blogging. The real build comes in building your community. It took me around 8 solid months of posting 4-5 days a week to really start making traction. Only around a year and a half in did I start to feel like I was making an impact.

Tip to manage: Look around at people who are successful here. Look at companies like Zappos, Dell or Comcast and see how they use it. Look for other companies in your space and seek out what they are doing. Ask experts, people are very accessible here.

Contradiction 2: Cheap up-front, financial marathon

I think way too many companies think of social media as an inexpensive alternative to pricey paid media options. On the contrary. The physical build/setup/design/etc. is in line with traditional digital implementations (think website/microsite). The real investment comes in the personal time necessary to make an impact. The build is just the tip of the iceberg.

Personally, I estimate that I spend 3-4 hours a day on this blog and within my online space. That's reading, commenting, writing and thinking about digital marketing and social media. That's on top of my workload and travel.

Let's say you have a community evangelist to work your digital marketing as well as social media. There are around 260 work days a year. I am a proponent of companies dedicating AT LEAST 2 HOURS A DAY to do this right. (Obviously, the more time spent the better.) Take agency rates of around $150/hr and that works out to around $78,000/year minimum just to manage the work. More time = more chances for engagement = a better chance for success.

Tip to manage: Look at the people/companies who you admire and ask them how much time they spend. Do your own estimations. Look a the content they're creating and estimate what it took to build. You have to show that this requires a continued commitment from a financial perspective.

Contradiction 3: Open/transparent/mashed-up meets legal and regulatory

While the spirit of social media and participatory marketing is open and extensible, there are real fears that MUST be addressed with the legal team. The best way to do this is to address them head on. Legal teams have been trained to defend brands, stop "unauthorized use" and do it quick. That doesn't fly in this space, it backfires.

Extending marketing and customer service into social media requires the full commitment of the organization at all levels. Everyone needs to be comfortable with the strategy and be kept aware of the execution. If this doesn't happen, it can lead to big trouble.

Tip to manage: There are a ton of examples here. Look at Scrabulous for example. The best idea is to sit down with legal and draw parallels to help them put this in a framework. Can you compare traditional media outreach to blogger outreach? Can you compare your phone reps to your Twitter reps? You can and you should.

Contradiction 4: Creating real estate turns to building on other people's property

Up until social media, digital marketing has been all about creating real estate. Websites, microsites, Flash demos, webinars, virtual offices, etc. Marketing around these spaces required volume to be successful. Email lists were crucial, online ads drove volume and measurement supported these tactics.

Social media is about finding where customers already exist and finding ways to add value within that space. Solving problems, crowdsourcing product and service development, creating cool applications, etc. all add value. Customer service may be the silver bullet in this space. Measurement needs to adapt to your business. Throw out the standards and find what matters to you, then measure it.

Tip to manage: Again Zappos, Dell and Comcast are case studies in the making here. Think about how Nike+ shifted the paradigm of tracking runner's progress and extended it to widgets, Facebook apps, etc. The iPhone is another example where you can add value and get the marketing benefit.

Contradiction 5: Unlimited opportunities to engage, finite places to make real impact

There are literally thousands of places to engage with your customers online. The challenge for brands is to find out where they are, how they move and what they find of value. The other challenge is to dedicate resources to support customers in the places that make sense while limiting waste. Facebook is a great platform to use if you add value to your customers through your marketing. However, if your customers aren't there it's a waste. If you don't see that they shift to a niche network on Ning next month you will continue spending time and begin wasting money.

Listening is key to keeping the pulse of your audience. It lets you see changes in location, sentiment and identify memes that resonate in real time. It lets you be able to pounce and that's key.

Tip to manage: Follow big brands and follow personal brands too. Look at how Chris Brogan engages with his community and grows his business. Look at how Mario Sundar advocates for LinkedIn. Watch Guy Kawasaki   extend his business and build new ones (seemingly) on the fly. Watch Jeremiah Owyang redefine what it is to be an analyst while helping to empower an amateur analyst army. See Gary Vaynerchuk kill it every day and inspire everyone he touches like in this video:

What contradictions would you add? Any other examples that people should pay attention to beyond the ones I noted?

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Technorati Tags: brands, conversations, marketing, Matt Dickman, micromedia, PR, social media, social networks, strategy, trends

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Little things are the new big thing, right? Well, in keeping with that notion, I wanted to share a couple of little tips on online identity. Whether you're a blogger or a corporation, these two items go a long way. One is very old school and the other is as new as new can be.

New school: apple-touch-icon.png

This one I found out when my lovely, amazing wife bought me an iPhone for Christmas. Thanks dear!! Through the iPhone you can add a blog/site to your menu just like an application. If you do this without following the next steps, however you get a very generic, non-identifiable icon. It looks something like this:

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Not impressive, not readily identifiable. After a bit of digging, however I learned how to add an icon to replace the generic default. To do this you'll need to create a PNG file that is 158x158 pixels. Here is the one I created:

apple-touch-icon.png

Now, rename that file to apple-touch-icon.png and upload it to the root directory on your website (meaning it will be at http://www.yourdomain.com/apple-touch-icon.png). The iPhone/iTouch does the rest. It resizes and rounds the corners and adds that shiny love to the image.

UPDATE: Here is a quick video overview of how this one works.

[Click through to the post if you cannot see the video.]

Old school: favicon.ico

Depending on how geeky you are, you may or may not know this little file. The favicon.ico controls the tiny logo/headshot that appears in the address bar for a site when you visit (see below). It's a small differentiator, but that's okay.

To create this file head over to this site. From here you can create one from scratch or upload an existing image. Keep in mind the output is around 15 pixels square so make sure you use something simple. Once you have the file, you need to upload it to the root directory for your site. ( Ping me if you need more info on this one.)

Shows up in the address bar in your browser

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Shows up in tabs when you have them open

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Shows up in your bookmarks to help them stand out

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These are both easy tactics to implement can make a big difference in user experience and usefulness. Feel free to add Techno//Marketer on your iPhone and let me know your thoughts.

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Technorati Tags:
branding, marketing, Matt Dickman, micromedia, Techno//Marketer, web2.0, microbranding

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What does the real population of Facebook look like? How does it compare to MySpace? This is the latest edition of my look at social networks and their populations from a marketing perspective.

All numbers in this post are US-only and are collected using each site's advertising management systems so they are up to date and accurate from a marketer's perspective. (Who wants to talk about populations that can't be reached by marketing? Not me.)

What you need to know right now:

• MySpace's total population is down 4% in the US
• Facebook now for the first time has more people ages 36-45 than MySpace, soon will overtake 46-50 as well as 31-35
• Facebook's over 30 growth is still booming at around 24% per category
• Facebook's under 30 growth was stagnant
• MySpace still dominant in HS and college age groups

Facebook Overview:

Facebookhad fairly consistent gains across most age groups, however for the first time I see slowdowns in the under 35 population. Surprises include:

• Less than 2% growth in the 18-21 and 22-25 year old groups (down from approx. 22% gains over past 4 months)
• 13-17 year old growth is under 8% and the 26-30 year old group gained just over 11%
• Facebook is 56.89% female and 43.11% male

MySpace Overview:

There were some surprising shifts in the population of MySpace this month. Of note:

• Overall, the US population on MySpace dropped by 4.16%
• 26.87% drop in the 36-40 age group from November's numbers
• 32.93% drop in the 41-45 age group from November's numbers
• 40.65% drop in the 46-65+ age group from November's numbers
• MySpace is 52.71% female and 47.29% male

MySpace down 4%; Facebook under 30 stagnant; Facebook finally overtakes MySpace in 36-45 populations

January's look at the real age of MySpace vs. Facebook (US)

Totals.png Click to enlarge image.

Here are the actual December-January numbers:

AGE RANGE   Facebook   Δ last month   MySpace   Δ last month   overall variance   
13-17   5,593,200   +7.21%   17,072,104   -2.94%   305%   
18-21   10,802,300   +1.24%   20,326,180   +1.89%   188%   
22-25   7,703,340   +1.87%   13,029,345   +3.32%   169%   
26-30   5,966,040   +11.19%   10,528,581   -5.70%   176%   
31-35   4,123,740   +18.27%   4,958,016   -15.37%   120%   
36-40   3,055,720   +23.90%   2,843,813   -26.87%   93%   
41-45   1,580,460   +26.74%   1,577,310   -32.93%   100%   
46-50   963,900   +23.88%   981,911   -40.65%   102%   
51-65+   1,416,820   +23.41%   7,030,912   -7.51%   697%   

Other key takeaways and burning questions:

• These numbers represent all total users who can be reached through each site's advertising systems (not all active users)
  
• I'm continually interested in the Boomer audiences on these sites and how they engage
  
• MySpace's reporting system has been on the fritz, we'll have to see next month's numbers to get a real sense of the space
  
• MySpace skews younger than Facebook, engaging more of the highschool population
  
• Will need to look at Facebook under 30 numbers next month to see if the growth remains slow
  

What do you think? What other networks are you investigating? The demographics and targeting options on both sites let you reach your audience in targeted/tailored ways.

UPDATE: Data sources: If you're curious, here is where the data comes from on both sites.

• Facebook - Go here http://www.facebook.com/ads/create and edit the audience settings as you wish. No need to even create an ad.
  
• MySpace - Go here https://advertise.myspace.com and then click "Click here to get started". Enter a test ad. Then you can filter by age/gender/geo/etc.
  

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Technorati Tags: advertising, Facebook, LinkedIn, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, strategy, Techno//Marketer, Twitter

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Hopefully you got the reference to that great TV show of the 80s " You Can't Do That on Television". This post, however, is the first in a series of posts covering a couple of common mistakes that marketers are making on Facebook. First up...

You've gotta be you.

A post on drew McLellan's blog prompted me to write about this in more detail. I think most marketers are not aware of the limitations of Facebook and they port over bad habits from other social networks. Unlike on MySpace where companies, brands and spokespeople (real or imaginary) can have a profile, on Facebook you cannot create an account that does not belong to a real person. Comprende? If it's not a real person, don't create an account.

Let's break down the Facebook terms of use that specifically cover this:

Facebook clearly states that "except for advertising programs offered by us on the Site (e.g., Facebook Flyers, Facebook Marketplace), the Service and the Site are available for your personal, non-commercial use only"

Users agree NOT to:

• register for more than one User account, register for a User account on behalf of an individual other than yourself, or register for a User account on behalf of any group or entity;
  

  This means: Don't sign up for somebody else or a group

  
  
• impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent yourself, your age or your affiliation with any person or entity;
  

  This means:Don't sign up and impersonate somebody else (no ghost accounts), don't create fictitious accounts and don't lie about who you are, your name, how old you are or who you represent

  
  

Hopefully this is pretty clear. Like I said, I don't think marketers read the terms and conditions on most of these sites, but it's important to know how they work and engage in appropriate, more successful ways.

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Technorati Tags: advertising, Facebook, marketing, Matt Dickman, MySpace, PR, social media, social networks, Techno//Marketer, trends, web2.0, brands

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I hope you all had a great holiday! A while back I posted a poll on the blog asking what you wanted from this blog moving forward in 2009. I wanted to post the results here and tell you how I am going to adapt to meet your needs. Thank you to those of you who took the time to fill this in. As always, I'm continually looking to improve and you can email me with any more specific questions or comments

Here are the results of the poll:

Here is what I am going to do:

• Incorporate more actionable information in every post. This includes tips, hints, "top 5s", etc. You'll see this immediately.
  
• Provide more strategic and advanced content. This is something that I'll start to weave in immediately as well. I've kept the level pretty basic here, but everyone can benefit from more advanced content.
  
• I'll provide more video content in 2009 including the launch of Techno//Marketer.tv which I am developing. This will have more video and a weekly show that I think you'll enjoy.
  
• I'm recommitting to more posts in 2009. This is hard to do with travel and my workload, but I need to do it.
  
• Some people want the same content or don't know what they want. That's okay too! I'll keep the same type of posts I am doing, just more of them with some of the other info sprinkled in for good measure.
  

Like I said, I'm completely open to your feedback. Let me know if there is anything you would like to see added.

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Technorati Tags: marketing, Matt Dickman, Techno//Marketer

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Reaction time is a major competitive advantage in social media. What I mean by reaction time is the difference between an event or popular meme and the opportunity for your brand. This is one of the reasons that a comprehensive listening plan is so vitally important to any company. It takes one blog post, one media mention or one video phenomenon to present you the opportunity of a lifetime.

Don't get me wrong, it's crucial to create a social media strategy and have a plan, but part of that plan needs to give you the tools to stay fluid and react in real time. The strategy needs to act as a guide.

Listening

Monitoring Plan: Listening is key to success in social media. It's the first thing I recommend to my clients in this space and it takes a real commitment. The tools for this are all around. You can use any combination of options. Most programs that I use involve the following:

• Monitoring Service: Radian6, Collective Intellect, Nielsen, Cision, Vocus, BackType (per Jason Baer) etc.
  
• Google Alerts: They're easy to set up, they're real time and they are proactively sent to you
  
• RSS Reader as aggregator: I use Google Reader to subscribe to the following two options to stay on top of things in an easy, manageable way.
  
• Blog Search RSS: Go to any search engine and enter your keywords then look for the RSS symbol. They'll let you subscribe to those results and monitor changes (try Google, IceRockey, Technorati, etc.)
  
• Twitter Search: The ultimate in real-time listening, enter your keyword and subscribe to the RSS feed
  

Analytics: Having analytics and using analytics are two very different things. This is one of the most powerful tools that we have as digital marketers. Know your site, look at the keywords that are bringing people there, what sites are they coming from, why are these things happening? Also, find out what is important in your analytics package and go over it regularly. It only takes one week of skipping a report to miss the next big thing. You can isolate opportunities through analytics. I'll cover this in more detail in January.

Popular memes: Keeping your ear to the ground and staying active in sites like YouTube, watching what's popular on Digg/Delicious/Facebook/Techmeme/etc. gives you a way to stay relevant to your audience. If you're trying to reach women ages 40-55, you need to find what they're watching, what they find funny and what moves them. Think about Mentos and Diet Coke. Mentos found out and embraced the meme. Diet Coke was late to the game, reacted negatively and finally saw the light.

Taking Action

Shortening Time to Customer: Too many companies have an unnecessarily long delay between identification of market opportunities and the time the customer is aware of the response. Legal review, group think and death by committee are killers. There needs to be a clear path to the customer and a knowledge of what is critical to get review (some things do need legal input) and what is good to go. I would suggest making this path as short as possible.

Opportunity Report: Create a daily/weekly opportunity report for your client or management. List key trends, key partners, memes that impact your customers, pop culture trends, etc. Doing this a couple of times will prove easier. You can have a junior person compile this, but it should have senior review to make sure all of the opportunities are seen.

Content is Key: Marketers need to have a mind shift. We are content creators. Not the usual content either, the content we're creating is open source. It needs to be free from copyrights, open to the public and easily repurposed. It could be video, photos, copy, a logo, a story, etc. This is not a website, but content that finds the customer and rings true to their ears. It shows up in their social sphere, on their turf and in their language. The best marketing is doing this now. Examples are hard to find, but agencies/companies are making it work. More on this in January too.

Keep Your Mind Open: This is also important. Not everything that comes out of this will be new media. It may require doing more events, possibly advertising in a new place. Alternatively, an opportunity may come up quickly in the online space. It seems marketers are finding/leveraging new services at breakneck pace. I caution clients and I'll caution you, be strategic about your selections of platform and service. Make 100% sure your customers are there.

Measure. Measure. Measure. Any digital campaign should have measurement at the heart. Key interactions need to be recorded and have meaning assigned in order to manage performance. A/B testing messages is easier than ever. Unlike offline marketing, we have the opportunity (and responsibility) to maximize the dollars we spend on behalf of our clients in real time. Allowing money to underperform is negligent in this day and age. If an ad isn't getting clicks, find why. Test the copy, test the target. It may mean taking it down and refocusing the spend. It's up to us to measure and respond.

What would you add?

[UPDATE: David Alston from the comments below was profiled on Shel Israel's Twitterville notes. Another great case for listening and reacting.]

[UPDATE 2: Gary Vaynerchuk talks about the need to pounce in this video. Listen up PR folks!]

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Technorati Tags: marketing, Matt Dickman, measurement, social media, Techno//Marketer, trends, web2.0

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One of Twitter's core attributes that has helped propel its growth is its open nature and extensible architecture (the ability to build on it). Twitter's open API ( click here to see my API for marketers video) makes it possible for developers to allow access to user account information from third party servers and then build upon that.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been exposed to two services that leverage Twitter and try to add value to the community by building additional services. One I loved and the other I am totally over. You be the judge.

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The worst - Qwitter At first, I thought I would like this application. Qwitter is very simple to use. You sign up online and the service looks at who is following you. Over time it tells you when somebody stops following you. Great information to know right? For me personally, I found that I was taking this personally. Qwitter would send me an email that somebody stopped following me and I had a little pang of guilt. I would think to myself, "what did I do wrong?" "How could I change this?". It wasn't healthy. So, in the end I quit Quitter. It wasn't adding value to me. If you're a masochist, go for it ;)

Now, for clients I would recommend using Qwitter. I think it's very valuable to know what messages lack resonance so the voice can be refined over time. It's part of the listening process. It's just not for me.

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The best - Mr. Tweet I heard about Mr. Tweet on, you guessed it, Twitter. (Go figure.) At the end of the day, however, it's one of the most valuable services I've found for extending the service. Mr. Tweet is also easy to use. Once you follow their username on Twitter ( @mrtweet) they send you a direct message with a personal URL. Once there you have two options, 1) find people who follow you and you should be following and 2) find new people to follow. Mr. Tweet uses some influencer mapping to suggest new people to you.

The service lets you log in to your account and easily follow the people you want. They show you nice metrics like total followers, total following, total message and the follower-to-following ratio. If you're looking to extend your network in a quality manner, this is a great service.

There is room for improvement however. Mr. Tweet has a very slow/non-existent refresh rate and needs to update each time new people are added to show a new group. Showing that I already follow someone isn't that valuable to me.

I'd encourage you to try Mr. Tweet if you have time and try Qwitter if you can take the rejection.

Either way, let me know what you think!

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Technorati Tags: conversations, influence, marketing, Matt Dickman, micromedia, social media, Techno//Marketer, Twitter, web2.0

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One of the most confounding issues in social media for most people/companies is finding, tracking and staying in the conversation. Backtype is a service that I've found helpful in monitoring comments that I leave, as well as reviewing comments that others have made.

As most of the value in blogs comes "below the post", monitoring comments is vital

On top of monitoring your own comments, the service also lets you track keywords inside all of the comments they index. This is an area that you will find hard to manage if you're monitoring with Google (who doesn't index most comments). As most of the value in blogs comes "below the post", monitoring comments is vital.

Here is a video overview of how it works:

[Feed readers please click through to the post if you cannot see the player.]

Key Takeaways:

• Listening in the comment stream is normally difficult because Google does not index comments (so no alerts, etc.)
  
• Uses a simple interface and method to track where you leave comments
  
• Tracks replies to your comments or other comments in the same thread
  
• Allows you to see how other people are commenting
  
• Allows you to track keywords in comments (also hard to do with Google)
  
• Built around a social network platform, add friends to see their comments when you log in
  

Do you monitor comments? If do, how do you monitor comments? If not, why?

If you have a suggestion for my next video, let me know. You can send me an email or you can leave me a comment.

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Technorati: conversations, marketing, Matt Dickman, reputation, social media, Techno//Marketer, trends, comments

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I am far from an HR specialist, but I often see companies who are struggling to adjust to the age of social media. On the flip-side, I see a few companies who understand this shift and take advantage of the possibilities.

We're operating in a difficult economy, surrounded by a shifting, unsure world. HR practices of yesterday are not possible to maintain. Leaks happen, employees are building personal brands and creating content that is (like it or not) related to your company.

As challenging as this is, it also is an unprecedented time to use social media to engage and acquire the best talent in the world. It takes a clear strategy, a solid focus on what works and the follow through and commitment to make it work.

Here are some successful, and unsuccessful lessons from social media. What would you add?

ON VIDEO

Don't create a staged, inauthentic video that makes you look silly (I'm talking to you Bank of America)

Don't post a video that you wouldn't want to have used against you for the rest of your agency's life (Agency.com Subway pitch aka "When we roll we roll big")

Do create a video that allows people to see who you are, how you operate and do it in an authentic way (One of my favorite videos from Connected Ventures will either implore you to run away or apply immediately)

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Do give the world an insight into your culture using the tools of the trade (I always enjoy the Critical Mass Always in Beta site which evolves as they need it. Through video, photography, new applications, Twitter and more they engage their customer and recruiting audiences in an authentic way.)

ON TWITTER

Don't think that people who you are laying off/disciplining/promoting/hiring/etc. will keep quiet, don't think their peers won't find out from Twitter first. Once it hits, the message (right or wrong) spreads very quickly.

Here are some layoff announcements on Twitter:

Do be proactive, honest and open (Zappos is a great model for this. They missed some funding and the CEO sent a Twitter message linking to a blog post with more info. Some employees made a video to help people cheer up.)

Here is the original message from Tony, the Zappos CEO. Note, you could see all of their customer and employee reactions in realtime at twitter.zappos.com

I could go on and on with other platforms, but this should get the conversation boing. How are you using social media for HR? It's has the potential to be an amazing sales tool or it could be a repellant for new talent. Would you know? Are you listening and engaging?

Let me hear what you think!

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Technorati Tags: marketing, Matt Dickman, PR, social media, Techno//Marketer, Twitter, video, word or mouth, HR