Apple, the company behind aesthetically pleasing hardware that keeps fanboys drooling, has recently joined Twitter. If you take a look at any one of their four accounts, you’ll notice one thing: they’re not using Twitter to converse but to broadcast. Effectively, they’re porting their press release information to the wide open, and perhaps going a little more granular by featuring content specific to elements of iTunes.

First, I’m going to say kudos to Apple for trying involve themselves in the world of social media. I’m going to stop there, though. Unfortunately, they still don’t quite “get it.” Let’s envision this scenario: a user has a support issue about an Apple product. If it was a Comcast product, you’d get a near immediate response from Frank Eliason, the company’s Director of Digital Care. Apple has no such protocol in place, and at this point, there is no engagement. If you used Twitter to direct a complaint to iTunes, if and only if they bother to monitor and respond to their replies, they would send you to their faceless and non-responsive customer support channel.

I don’t expect Apple to port their customer service wholly over to Twitter, but Apple does little in terms of customer service issues altogether. They have discussion forums that are visited by moderators who merely police the content itself, but change never comes from suggestions offered in the forum itself or in the posts, even if hundreds of users contribute the same identical observations. Members are encouraged by other members (not moderators, and certainly not Apple) to submit product feedback, though if you take a look at that page, there are a lot of items. And once you’ve sent the email off, that’s all. No acknowledgment. In fact, of the many issues I’ve submitted over the years (and I know countless others have had problems with as well), nothing has been addressed. It makes me wonder if I’m sending my requests to a wall (or for your tech geeks, /dev/null) or if people really work for Apple (outside their marketing and engineering departments).

Apple’s approach toward using Twitter is likely motivated by a desire to connect with their customers. But connecting should be a two-way street. Social media is exactly that: “social.” At this point, it might as well be that these iTunes accounts are managed and maintained by interns who have no power to effectuate change. Yet listening is incredibly important. It can help boost your “ratings” among the crowd, turning a casual fanboy into a die-hard fanboy. It can turn a prospective buyer into a customer. It can instill faith that your customers have in your company. If not for your customers, you’d be nowhere, right?

If you’re going to dive in the social media world, you need to understand what it means to be “social.” That is, to promote your customers and not just your own agenda. Empower them. At the minimum, let them know that they are being heard (and yes, bring their concerns to those who actually can do something).

If you’re a company looking to dive into social media, you should be doing more than just broadcasting and taking advantage of your followers. Show them why you deserve to be followed by letting them voice their concerns — and by taking those back to the people who really can make a difference. Don’t wait until there’s a PR firestorm before you actually take action, Phil Schiller. Be proactive and not reactive. (To that end, the fact that apps are killing music is still an issue voiced by many of your customers on the proper channels — your forums and via the feedback portal — but yet you refuse to acknowledge the issue. Perhaps a PR firestorm is what is needed to get Apple to fix that problem. I’m sure there are other similar concerns.) Clearly, it seems that Apple responds when it needs to put out fires despite wanting to make its customers happy. And that’s never a good business practice to follow.

If you’re considering social media marketing for your business, no matter what size your company is, listening and engagement is key. Letting your customers know that they matter is priceless. Being human isn’t such a difficult task. If you need help at a bank and speak to the teller but the teller remains silent, is that good business practice? Is that even professional?

Think about redoing your Twitter strategy if all you plan on doing is broadcasting. I’m sure that if iTunes actually included the customer in its feed, and if other Apple departments followed suit, there would be a whole lot more followers and satisfied customers. It can make all the difference in nurturing a positive perception of your company.

[ This post entitled Apple Gets More Serious About Using Twitter, but Why it Doesn’t Matter originated by the blog of social media consultant and Internet marketing strategist Tamar Weinberg. ]

If you’ve been abreast of the strides and developments in the marketing space in the last few years, you’d know about both Chris Brogan and Gary Vaynerchuk. Both are incredibly popular public facing success stories with very strong brands, traveling often to make public appearances at a variety of conferences and venues. But while that’s a common trait about both marketers, that’s only the end result. It’s in the way that both Chris and Gary got there that is important. Let’s explore their characteristics and see how you can apply them to build your business or personal brand.

They are human. The brands of Chris Brogan and Gary Vaynerchuk are extremely well known. Both have incredible followings, and they often get cornered when making public appearances. It’s no surprise that both are asked to speak at events on a very regular basis. Clearly, both are celebrities in their own right. Their success, though, is contributed by the fact that they are down to earth individuals who are very personable. They are real people, and they make it known that they are more than just celebs. They are not afraid of being human despite the fact that they are in possession of incredible knowledge, which likely made them famous.

They have passion. Both Chris and Gary are extremely passionate about what they do, day in and day out. If you’ve ever seen Gary speak at an event or even just on his Wine Library TV appearances, you can see the exuberance of gusto in his presentations. There is not a single person I know who is more passionate about what he does while speaking in public. Similarly, Chris takes this passion in his writings, which are posted to his blog at least once a day. He gets up when it’s dark. He is extremely devoted to empowering individuals and companies about marketing, networking, reciprocity, and social media. And to lead into the next point, this passion emanates to who they are in real life.

They care about their followers. I started poring through the “list” of people I’ve met over the past 3 years at industry trade shows and events in my mind to see if anyone else really came close to the level of caring that Chris and Gary exhibited when they met with people face-to-face. I could not think of a single person who was on the same level with either. When I first came face-to-face with both, they genuinely seemed to care about who I was and what I was about. And they’d do it to you if you approached them for the first time too. They want to know about you. They want to learn from you. They celebrate the people around them. It’s about you also.

To that end, Chris often talks about how he rewards his followers by retweeting them, because this small act of reciprocation really resonates. And have you recently seen Gary’s Twitter stream? I don’t think I have ever seen that many @ symbols in my life. It appears that Gary responds to each and every single tweet directed to him, a task which is probably rather difficult for a man of his caliber. Yet he does not hesitate to show appreciation for his fans and peers and to develop relationships with each and every single one of them.

The Lesson

We’re all professionals, but expectations have changed of “professionals,” and putting a face — a human face — on an interaction is now expected of us. In fact, simply making ourselves seem human, just like everyone else, is a tactic that makes us appear more approachable and respected. Your customers want to hear from people who are just like them, so why not be a little more open about who you are?

Chris and Gary are devoted and extremely hard workers, but they make the work seem easy. That’s because this is fun for them and they live and breathe their work everyday. The passion for what they do is obvious in their interactions with individuals, their public appearances, their videos, and their writings. It’s clear that they belong where they are, doing what they love to do. If your work is not fun for you, it might be time for you to explore alternative possibilities.

When I was a young kid, I had a favorite teacher in every grade. Either they were knowledgeable about the subject matter or they cared about me as a student. I used to lump the knowledgeable and caring teacher together as a “favorite.” I remember having a discussion about favorite teachers with an older student who once said, “XYZ teacher is a great teacher, but is not a good person” and “ABC teacher is an excellent person, but she’s an awful teacher.” I realized that I’ve had nary a teacher who really excelled in both areas.

Little did I know that once I stepped out into the real world that I’d meet teachers that were both knowledgeable and caring, and Chris and Gary are examples of both. If you are looking to succeed, you need to know your stuff, preach it, but also reward your students and celebrate their importance. The bottom line is that both Chris and Gary are really nice guys.

I understand now that many teachers work merely to collect a paycheck. Few work to honor the achievements of their students. Few took the opportunity to look beyond the textbook and make the educational experience an enriching one. But these two web celebrities are doing this and more. The big question here: are you passionate about what you do? Do you live it every day?

If you are looking to become successful, love what you do. Reward your customers and followers by appreciating them, honoring them, and highlighting them in the work that you do. And don’t be afraid to show who you are behind the corporate face. Your customers — and you — deserve it.

[ This post entitled What Chris Brogan and Gary Vaynerchuk Have in Common, and What You Can Learn from it originated by the blog of social media consultant and Internet marketing strategist Tamar Weinberg. ]

This is a guest post I wrote for new media and PR expert Brian Solis, but I also wanted to share it with my readers. Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge just published an excellent book, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations. It’s a must read for any PR professional moving into or active in this space.

As bloggers, we’ve all experienced it: the completely off topic pitch. After pouring blood, sweat, and tears into our blog that clearly is known for addressing a specific subject matter, we get an email from a public relations agency that takes us for someone completely different. Where do they come off doing that?

A few months ago, Brian Solis talked about an off-topic pitch about a social network for plants. (Somehow, I think nature lovers would be more interested in socializing shrubbery.) I’m sure you can relate. With some of these pitches, I scratch my head. With others who address me as Jennifer or Dakash, I wonder if these individuals representing both small and large companies really realize that their lack of research reflects poorly on their clients.

There are thousands of public relations professionals. There are even more bloggers. With online interactions comes the conception that public relations outreach is all the more easier. Email facilitates communications. There’s no effort in adding thousands of email addresses to an address book, performing a mail merge, and sending off a generic press release. The thought is, “How about I target everyone I possibly can and hope for a handful of those folks to blog about the service I’m pitching?”

Guess what? The reason PR professionals are succeeding down this path is because of bloggers like us who are receptive to this impersonal and poorly researched messaging. Of course, not all of us will respond to a generic press release, but there are those who want the new shiniest gadget or a preview of the next greatest webapp or even the newest self-help book and they’ll immediately jump at the opportunity for a freebie.

Jonathan Fields blogged about his PR outreach nightmare. In a nutshell (and one that is hard to summarize given the chunks of gold in his communications), an email was addressed to “Mr. Jonathan Fields Self Help,” asking him to review a new book. More disturbing to Jonathan was the fact that the email itself “showed no regard for who [he] was and what [he] wrote or cared about.”

You’ve probably gotten emails like this to and decided to toss them in the trash.

Jonathan’s saga continues when the PR representative followed up with a stern email, chastising him for not considering the book.

It is the second time I wrote to you Jonathan. I am trying to interest you in perhaps one of the most important self help books ever written. You didn’t reply the first time and I thought that you might respond the second time.

Sorry if this doesn’t appear to meet your needs.

I will certainly respect your wishes, but it sure seems an ironic shame that you are choosing this course of action.

Great. The provocation begins. Jonathan decided he had to spin into action. He retorted back to the representative with the following statement:

The “ironic shame” is that as someone who represents the legendary [Big Publisher] and books based on respect and honoring human individuality, you’ve not taken the time to understand the fundamentals of how to pitch a blogger in a manner that’s not insulting and spammy.

The PR representative wasn’t done. His response? He’s been doing it for 35 years and “it works.” Further, it’s “simply unrealistic” for him to tailor his press releases to bloggers, and it’s “close minded” for bloggers to expect this of him. Why? Becasue “bloggers are only one of over 25 prime media and online technologies.” And as such, they’re not important. After all, “most media respond favorably … Dozens and dozens of them are responding simply by saying, ’sure, send us the books.’”

I read this post with my mouth open. Not so much from Jonathan’s expected response but because of this PR “professional” who clearly lacks the understanding of acceptable blogger outreach. “It works,” he says. It’s easy, with over 750,000 journalists listed in the Cision database, to compose an email without regard for who the person is and to make an immediate decision to hit the “send” button without actually spending 5 minutes on the blogger’s website and discovering what tickles their fancy.

If bloggers are receptive to this kind of lazy outreach, other bloggers need to step up and make it known to the PR representative that this behavior will not last. Some have gone as far as outing the companies who have trodden down this path. While public pages and blog posts can be effective, though, the low-key communication style may be just as powerful. Unfortunately, there are simply not enough Jonathans in the world who explictly respond to the PR “pro” to let them know that their behavior won’t win them any influential friends in the blogosphere. After all, there are more folks receptive to the freebies than those who feel the need to stand up to these spammers.

Blogger outreach does not need to take a significant chunk of time and can translate to long-lasting relationships that can really benefit your business or your clients. Search for blogs via paid tools such as Radian6, TruPulse, and Trackur. If you are going down the free route, use Google Blog Search, Technorati, and blogrolls to find relevant blogs. BuzzStream is a brilliant new tool that lets you gather contact names and addresses and chart your history of communications with each individual blogger. The process of doing outreach does not have to be so difficult and can be easily managed.

If your responsibility is to reach out to more than just bloggers, it might be a better idea to get someone more qualified — someone who knows how to put the public back in public relations — to cover the blogger outreach. Jonathan was too kind and did not identify the spammer, but next time, you might not be so lucky. Would you really want to become another Lois Whitman?

Writing on social media strategy has still gotten me my share of dance and fashion clothing pitches. I’ve yet to blog about either. (However, when responding to a PR agency in the past about this, I was told, “We thought it was a fashion blog.”) Further, I’ve made it clear that I only blog about services I have firsthand knowledge of and strategies I have worked on. I don’t blog about new products unless it suits me or my readers. However, this phenomenom has gotten so bad that I’ve asked people not send me press releases. No later than a week after my blog’s contact form was updated did I receive three spankin’ new press pitches. And all of them, again, were not relevant to my interests or my subject matter.

Is the PR pitch dying? Will there be other bloggers who follow in my lead and ask public relations professionals to stop sending messaging that doesn’t fit with their beat and doesn’t account for the blogger’s feelings, thoughts, and ideas? Probably not. But those of us who do receive those off-topic and spammy press releases have the responsibility to put these PR spammers in their place. Use this opportunity to empower yourself as a blogger who deserves to hear the right messages and not the wrong ones.

[ This post entitled The Nightmare Public Relations Professional and How to Stop Him originated by the blog of social media consultant and Internet marketing strategist Tamar Weinberg. ]

This is a guest post from Josh Schnell, founder of Macgasm.net and web developer.

Somewhere down the line, an exploitation has to occur in order for a financial profit to be realized. This is no less true for the world of social networks. Networks like Digg, FriendFeed, and Facebook are seeing huge growths in value, but the little guys, the ones actually providing the meat and potatoes for those operations, rarely see a nickel.

Let’s be honest for a second here. The major “Web 2.0″ and social networking technologies that have been created in the last several years have been a major boon for consumers and web users. They’ve aggregated the entire Internet into what’s cool and what’s not so cool. When searching for new and interesting websites, it is much preferable to visit a website on a friend’s recommendation than it is to use classic search engines. I’m not disputing the relevancy or success of these technologies to the average internet user. The problem as I see it is from a content creator paradigm, where the content creators are the ones footing the bills for bandwidth usage, paying the writers, and putting tears and sweat into their content so that it becomes sellable.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to maintain an environment where a high level of quality can be continued when some social networks are taking in content, verbatim, from multiple outside sources and passing it around their networks, without ever returning those interested in the information to the source. FriendFeed acts as a prime case in point when one considers the interest of the users on FriendFeed and then compares that to local statistics from the source article showing the rate of click throughs that the article received. It isn’t uncommon to see people sharing articles on FriendFeed, including all the images from the post, and then copying the entirety of the text into the comments section. Just like it’s not uncommon for someone to click the “Digg” button on Digg without ever visiting the site. It’s certainly not unthinkable that someone will import your RSS feed into another website without ever gaining any permission to do so. Some of those tactics may seem more vile than others, but a dangerous reality exists that no one is talking about — with social networks comes theft, and very little pay off for content creators.

Where is the incentive to click through? Why would anyone click through to a source when they are no longer required to click the link to finish getting the information from an interesting article? It starts looking a little bit less like “sharing” and “discussing” articles and a lot more like theft when put in this manner, doesn’t it? When contrasted with the StumbleUpon model, the FriendFeeds and Diggs of the world seem to have the process backwards. Why is it that these web applications allow users to rate an article before they’re even forwarded to it? Wouldn’t the most logical approach be creating a metric that counts a resources popularity by the number of people who actually click on the link, as opposed to click a “like” button?

Since these Javascript toolbars that follow you to the source article now seem to be an acceptable practice on some of these web applications, it makes a lot more sense to take away a user’s ability to like something, until they’re on that page or article that’s being referenced. The numbers would be a lot more representative if this approach was implemented, and the incentive to have users gaming these systems would be substantially diminished.

While the problem doesn’t solely lie on the shoulders of the developers who have been implementing the tools in these web applications, the responsibility for accurately monitoring true interest in submissions does.

With no incentive to click through to the source, we’re ridding content creators of their hard-earned payoffs. Advertisers aren’t going to pay a content producer if they aren’t getting traffic to their site, and certainly other revenue streams and models will be affected in the same manner. If content creators can’t make a living creating content, then the FriendFeeds of the world will cease to exist, and there will be nothing left to share, since their primary resource will have dried up. Resources aren’t limitless, and content will disappear if social services continue to exploit the hard work of the people who matter the most — the writers.

[ This post entitled Content Aggregators are Killing Content Creators originated by the blog of social media consultant and Internet marketing strategist Tamar Weinberg. ]

Last week, I wrote a piece on brand building for Forbes.com. With permission, I am publishing the unedited version here.

Today, marketing your business for free may seem to be an unattainable process. But with social media marketing, it doesn’t have to be. The only investment in the act of marketing on the social web is time and energy.

Thankfully, you don’t have to go at social media marketing alone. Engagement in a process called brand evangelism is one beneficial strategy to get your brand known and to help spread your message. Brand evangelism is a word of mouth marketing tactic in which the ardent supporters of your service or product feel so passionately about your offerings that they act as unofficial spokespeople on your company’s behalf. They are cheerleaders on the sidelines and they’re rooting for your team.

By listening to the conversations — the blog posts, the forum discussions, the tweets, and the other public dialogues — that relate to your brand, you can find out who feels strongly about your company and product, you can assess who might have a neutral stance toward your service, and you can gather information about your detractors those who dislike your current offerings. In a brand evangelism strategy, you’d take note of those who feel good about what you are doing: they already represent your target audience. As such, it would be foolish not to embrace them. Their citizen marketing can boost your credibility in the eyes of their peers who are hopefully your customers.

Spotting your brand ambassadors should not be too tricky. The easiest way to find these people is to find the communities that your users frequently visit, be it forums, Twitter, or other social networks. If you have a Facebook Fan page, look at what people are saying. Subscribe to service-specific alerts (e.g. get Twitter mentions of your brand via RSS or email) or use a service like Backtype (backtype.com) to see comments across blogs and other social media sites (such as FriendFeed). Google Alerts can also help you dig into the wider search space and may help you spot mentions of your company that may not otherwise be caught by other services. While seemingly overwhelming, there aren’t too many search services out there, and there isn’t one free solution that tracks every single mention of your brand. (Paid solutions, such as SocialRadar and Radian6, however, may eliminate this overhead.)

Once you gather these sources, begin by listening to what they are saying. Find out the users who can’t stop singing praises about you. (Find out about those who don’t like you and try to determine what is pushing them away.) Gather their usernames or contact information. You’ll need this to proceed.

Now you know who your brand loyalists are. These are people who are already loving who you are. Love them back. Offer them benefits that let them continue singing praises about your offerings. Sure, they might do this by themselves without your involvement, but embracing your supporters can keep them promoting you for much longer. Offer them free products, samples, or gifts. Shower them with discounts or monetary compensation. Provide them with inside information, such as your upcoming product line or new services to be launched. Non-disclosures may need to be signed and paperwork establishing a formal business relationship may need to be filed.

As part of the brand ambassador agreement, it is important to ensure that when you do embrace these brand evangelists, those marketing on your behalf are completely transparent and open about their involvement. Full disclosure of their representation as it relates to specific perks is important. This is especially true as the FTC plans to police sponsored conversations. Brand evangelism programs fall under the jurisdiction of sponsored content.

As for your detractors, take them under your wing as well. These individuals felt impacted by something that was associated with your company, so you can and should work with them where appropriate to nurture their perception about your company. In fact, the mere aspect of giving these individuals a voice and letting them know that you value their opinions — and even positive action showing that you have listened — can turn that perception around. What do you have to lose? It’s amazing what talking to people can do. Could you turn these people into brand ambassadors? Maybe.

Ultimately, there will be overhead “costs,” such as monitoring your evangelists’ representation of your brand. In some instances, depending on the type of role you want your evangelists to play, it may be necessary to train the individuals on your brand’s practices and culture so that they do not come across as clueless people being paid to promote you.

Therefore, you may want to have someone from your company to act as a point of contact for the ongoing brand ambassador engagement. This task can be delegated to a community manager who corresponds directly with the evangelists and distributes the special perks. The community manager should also keep an eye on the blog posts and other engagements made by those who partake in the brand evangelist program. Internally, the overhead is minimal; your “marketing” team has just been outsourced, clearing your company’s paid marketing team to work on more exciting projects.

One concern is the brand evangelist program itself. You may find yourself dealing with those who believe that brand evangelism is questionable and deceptive. While this holds true for sponsored programs, only a small minority of individuals have question such practices, and you likely will end up seeing returns on your investment despite this small bump. It’s up to you to determine whether you feel that it is something you are willing and able to participate in.

The benefits of brand evangelists programs may outweigh the cons, though. Taking your biggest supporters under your wing may cause them to come to your aid in the future, even when the brand ambassador program duration comes to an end. If you embrace a customer and show them how valuable you think you are, they may return that embrace and protect you when you need it.

Does brand evangelism work? In 2007, Royal Caribbean ran a campaign called Royal Champions, inviting 50 of its most vocal ardent supporters on cruises and to face-to-face meetings with company executives. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and there was much buzz from the happy participants. The company observed higher levels of word of mouth marketing from influential community members and have decided that this marketing tactic was worthwhile to their brand.

If you are looking for a fun way to empower your customers and encourage positive discourse, brand evangelism programs are a great way to promote your brand. Give your customers a voice in the communities where they already have influence. There’s not much to lose and a whole lot to gain.

[ This post entitled Creating Passionate Customers: Brand Evangelism and What it Means to Your Business originated by the blog of social media consultant and Internet marketing strategist Tamar Weinberg. ]

Sometimes you can’t tell the difference between a marketer and a blogger. A blogger might say that he wants to write for a specific publication, sending emails and instant messages asking, “Hey, I really like that you write for this publication. Can you get me a job too?” Marketing type folk, especially those representing a company’s service or product offerings, turn to blogs and ask to be mentioned in the blog. In both cases, the blogger and marketer will approach you when the timing is right for them and take advantage of these channels when they need to.

I don’t expect marketers or bloggers to have been reading specific blogs forever, but they should know about the blog’s culture before promoting themselves. There’s a pervasive theme that resonates with 99% of these email or IM requests: I expect marketers and bloggers to do a little more due diligence before they come pitching their product or themselves to a specific blog. In a nutshell, they should show that they know what the blog is about, and if they’re really looking for coverage or acknowledgments, they should be visible.

What does this mean? At the minimum, show that you’re genuinely interested in the blog and what is being discussed. Study those blogs to grasp the blog’s culture and why (or what criteria is used) to cover a specific product or service. Some blogs cover software only by being voted upon by the user, for example, and your press release won’t even fly for that category. Some blogs cover startups that meet a specific set of criteria. In general, if you send irrelevant pitches, your messaging isn’t going to go very far. And if you actually know and respect the blog you’re pitching to, it is in your best interest to follow that blog, its messaging, and the key players so that you know what kind of message to craft (does it fit their audience? If so, what is the existing post on site that made you think so?) and who the people are that are reading those messages.

Instead of emailing a blogger to include your company’s service in a specific blog post that has already been in the public arena for three years, comment on the post. Comment on other posts too, showing that you’re interested in the blog’s content. Let people know you exist. If the post does not allow commenting, send a relevant press release to the editorial team showing that you have done your research and understand what the blog is looking for. Don’t expect a blogger to change his posts from the past. Your service that launched in 2009 does not fit in a post that was written in 2006. You can’t alter history.

A few years ago, I had a friend who asked me about a possible guest blogging stint on a high profile blog. The problem: he was not at all active on the high profile blog and hadn’t written a single comment. Perhaps he was reading, but was he actually investing time or energy into the site itself but still wanted to write for the blog. With a readership on that blog in the millions and commenters in the thousands, there was no way he was going to stand out above the crowd.

The thing is: it’s not about you. It’s about us. It’s about growing our blog. Your visibility might be just a part of that. But if you haven’t participated and haven’t put in any effort to grow the blog, why should we be receptive to your pitch when it’s convenient for you? What about benefiting the blog you hope to be featured on? Wouldn’t you want to help it grow too?

If you genuinely believe that there are specific blogs that you want to involve yourself in or that your company should be featured in, you need to spend more than 5 minutes crafting a pitch as to why you or your company is good enough for the job. You actually need to involve yourself in the blog’s community, commenting and showing that at the minimum, you have a long term invested interest in the blog’s success, and not only when it’s beneficial for you.

In the real world, networking in person can also help. Go to trade show events or nighttime meetups. Don’t ignore the opportunities to leave a memorable impression on the bloggers who will talk about you. If they actually know you exist and see you’ve made the effort to haul yourself to an event where they’re present, they’ll keep that in mind when composing a piece about your software or startup or whatever other product you have to offer.

This is actually a lesson many marketers can benefit from in general. If you haven’t yet swam in the social media waters, it’s about time that you start. Even if everything is hunky dory at your company, it’s not in your best interest to wait until catastrophe strikes to immerse yourself in the vast ocean. Social media is all about community, and that community exists whether you need them or not. Why not get acquainted with the community now and before it’s too late? When it’s convenient for you to dig in, it might not be convenient for them. They might already be trash-talking you. Is it really in your best interest to do it then?

The point of this story is that it’s best to understand your surroundings: the communities, the blogs, the people, and to do this proactively. This is a process that needs to happen continually, or you should at least give the perception that you’re putting your heart into it. If you craft the right pitch and invest in the growth of the community over time, you’ll find that it’s really easy to get those job opportunities or blog mentions you’re seeking. And you’ll soon realize that it’s not such hard work after all.

[ This post entitled The Blogger and Marketer’s Cheat Sheet to Getting High Profile Jobs and Blog Mentions originated by the blog of social media consultant and Internet marketing strategist Tamar Weinberg. ]

In the spirit of featuring case studies like the ones in Chapter 4 of The New Community Rules, I am going to highlight other companies that have excelled in their social media achievements. Are you a company or do you know a company that has immersed itself in the social media waters and succeeded? Contact me and share your story.

I’ll be perfectly up front when I say that I’m not very familiar with most charities and nonprofit organizations. There are a few charities and non-profit organizations that have a huge presence on traditional media — you probably can’t help but notice the UNICEF commercials on TV during the winter out here in the states — but outside of Beth’s actual blog on the subject matter, I really haven’t grasped the magnitude of just how many nonprofits exist out there (hint: there are a lot).

As small companies with limited budgets, nonprofits may feel that they are unable to dive into the wide world of social media. But small is the new big and some small businesses have seen a whole lot of unprecedented success. It’s something that may have previously been thought as impossible. Thanks to social media, anyone can make waves. Are you on board?

How do nonprofits go about the social media landscape? This is a good question and one that Epic Change has mastered rather successfully. I’ve been able to speak with both Stacey Monk (@staceymonk), founder and CEO, and Avi Kaplan (@meshugavi), Director of Communications (aka “Bringer of Awesome”) at Epic Change, about the organization’s involvement.

The big catch: Epic Change is not a large company at all. Avi is the company’s newest hire, bringing the grand total of people working for Epic Change to three (thereby giving me an opportunity to speak with 67% of the entire staff!). But yet, despite perhaps not having substantial manpower or resources available, Epic Change has made waves of epic proportions in the social media charity world — at least from my perspective.

Why social media?

Epic Change decided to dabble in social media, because as Stacey says, it was “a way to cultivate a community of support for Epic Change.” After leveraging guest posting on a blog to successfully get more followers on Twitter, Stacey found Twitter to be a necessary addition to her social media strategy. More importantly, Epic Change has a mission to empower individuals to tell stories in order to acquire financial resources to make positive change in their communities. Since the organization’s mission relies on storytelling, Stacey says, “social media represented a way for us to share those stories with the broadest possible audience for the lowest possible cost.”

Epic Change brought social media into the mix for other reasons as well. The organization wanted to build connections in open and transparent communities. They wanted to reach a broad audience to help raise money quickly to achieve their missions. They wanted to use media that was free. Epic Change considers itself a startup nonprofit organization, and as such, money isn’t in abundance. Epic Change’s success obviously means that the tools they used, where the barriers for entry are rather low, are working.

Interactions

We’ve seen the motivations for Epic Change to get involved in the social media space, but what do they do? The Epic Change team uses its blog to expound upon its mission and to share and spread ideas. Because of their success both in the social media space and as a charitable organization, the blog itself has supporters who “look to us for reflection about our experience as a startup nonprofit and as an organization with experience in the developing world,” Avi says. The blog is primarily managed by Stacey, who humanizes the process with an emotional and occasionally humorous tone.

The three staff members also maintain their personal Twitter accounts (@SanjayPatel is the third) and use these (and a primary @EpicChange account) to spread ideas and to interact with followers. Avi explains, “Twitter lets us take relationships deeper and convert supporters to active volunteers.” But Twitter is the tip of the iceberg. Epic Change merely starts with Twitter; the conversations are then moved offline and interested parties are sent the phone number to the organization’s headquarters so that they can discuss how to help with one of the staff members in terms of getting involved to make a difference.

Major Initiatives

Have you heard of TweetsGiving? It was one of the first charity initiatives on Twitter. In November 2008, during the week of the Thanksgiving holiday, Epic Change leveraged Twitter to raise money ($10,000 goal) to help build a classroom in Tanzania. In 48 hours, that goal was met from 336 unique donors. Not only was money raised, Epic Change found a slew of new volunteers who were interested in the causes the organization seeks to support. Why did it work? It was more than just a sheer charity initiative. Using the holiday where most Americans express their thanks, a part of the TweetsGiving initiative was to act as a creativity catalyst, asking people to tweet what they were thankful for with the #tweetsgiving hashtag. All in all, there were over 3,500 tweets expressing gratitude for something in their lives. Avi explains, “the emotion that people were sharing in these messages was overwhelming. Gratitude is an emotion that also lends itself well to other media like video, images, music, and blogging, and we saw some of that as well. It’s emotional content in whatever media you express yourself best in.”

Earlier this year, Epic Change also utilized business/entrepreneur social media site Ideablob to help raise money to build a technology lab at a Tanzanian school. Using social media, primarily Twitter, to garner votes for the project, in addition to a mountain of email and phone outreach, Epic Change won the contest and will be building the lab at Shepherds Junior School in Tanzania. Avi gets excited at the prospect, as this will be a first computer class for every student in the room. He says, “The Internet in general is going to blow their minds. Most of these kids have never seen the ocean, let alone been able to ask questions about anything and have answers to their curiosity at their fingertips. We’re thinking about how to bring social media into the mix for them because of the relationships and connections to people around the world it makes possible. These kids have a voice too and social media may play a role in helping our community hear it better and easier (at all!).”

Other Bonuses

As mentioned earlier, Avi was Epic Change’s newest hire. A recent college graduate, Avi has been involved in Twitter and subscribed to the organization’s blog. Avi became acquainted with Stacey and exchanged a few @replies on Twitter after Epic Change solicited interns and virtual volunteers. Through phone communication, collaboration on TweetsGiving, and in-person meetings at industry conferences, including NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference in April, their relationship blossomed. Avi finally joins the organization’s staff this month. He calls this “social media human resources.”

The Future

This isn’t the end for Epic Change. Stacey says that there’s a lot more to the growth of Epic Change and she thanks social media for the opportunities afforded to the organization’s great strides. She makes some great comments on the success of social media. “Social media is making change possible,” she says, explaining that “with social media, we’re able to hear totally new voices who might not have had access to mainstream channels, which represents a real shift in power, and where change can originate.” She goes on to say that “social media is making change human again.” This element relates to charities and how the individual donor, after money is given, does not have much subsequent involvement. But with social media, this is no longer the case. “With the advent of social media, we have the capacity to re-connect those who give directly to those to whom they’re giving in some way — to restore that sacred, authentic transaction of one human helping another human and the joy, gratitude and sense of connectedness it engenders.”

Epic Change is not done with their involvement. Expect big things from them this Thanksgiving holiday.

And finally, a fun related fact: Avi and I went to the same day school. He’s 5 years my junior but we reconnected in 2008 and now look at how he’s grown!

[ This post entitled Social Media for Non-Profits: How One Small Charity Makes it Work originated by the blog of social media consultant and Internet marketing strategist Tamar Weinberg. ]

This post is a little personal in nature, but I’m sure if you read through the end, you’ll enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed telling it. In fact, I’ve been meaning to tell this story for nearly two years.

In the last few years, I’ve taken the liberty of doing more than just blogging — I’ve been trying to get to know the people who have inspired me most (and that list isn’t cumulative!). I don’t necessarily expect to meet with those folks immediately; often, these powerful relationships are formed online, and I then try to learn what I can about the blogger himself/herself and follow up, normally at a conference or industry event. I do my best to put a face to a name — a face that I can see beyond just a digital format.

But sometimes there are surprises in every single meeting.

I decided one day to read more about self-improvement and marketing blogger, Jonathan Fields (and author of Career Renegade). The date was December 12, 2007, and I was excited to hear that Jonathan was a New Yorker like me. According to his blog’s “About” page at the time, you could find him simply by screaming his name in the very large Bryant Park in Manhattan. You know, with 8 million people living in NYC, you’d think this is no big deal, but there’s more to the story.

I dropped him a line. “You live in NY? I didn’t know that,” I said. But I added, “I passed Bryant Park last night on the D train,” noting that I don’t quite live in Manhattan, but rather, the Bronx. Jonathan’s response was still possible, but not necessarily that unexpected: “Me too!” With Bronx being a big borough in NYC, we went more granular. “Too funny,” he responded when I told him we lived in the same neighborhood in the Bronx. And then we found out we live on the same street.

…and in the same apartment complex, one floor above the other.

If that’s fate or irony or whatever, I don’t know, but in my experience of using the Internet for work and pleasure for over 15 years, that is one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me. I’m finally meeting bloggers that I’ve admired for some time in my very own backyard. In a city of 8.3 million.

I once said that social media mimics real life relationships. But take it a step further: your online interactions can translate into something incredibly powerful offline. Nineteen months later, Jon and I are great friends, and we make an effort to meet up every so often.

If nothing else, I hope this story has inspired you to reach out and to value the relationships you forge online. You never know who you’ll meet, and it could form a deep and meaningful friendship that never would have been possible if you don’t make that effort. In the end, the bond between those immersed in the social media sphere is a bond that exists nowhere else.

[ This post entitled The Importance of Networking on the Internet originated by the blog of social media consultant and Internet marketing strategist Tamar Weinberg. ]

If you’re reading this article, it should be clear to you that people use social media — like this very blog post — as a way to broadcast their thoughts and feelings, be them positive or negative. Blogs can also convey information, share ideas, and chronicle important lifetime milestones. In today’s day and age, it is incredibly easy for a person to set up his personal web space to start sharing whatever is on his mind (and you begin to wonder why Twitter’s growth is so huge and popular among celebrities?)

With social media — or quite frankly, the existence of the Internet, any misstep you make in your personal dealings with others can become public. And this is why customer service is incredibly important, even if the customer service dealings are entirely handled offline.

Social media is social.

It’s easy for people to tweet about bank robberies and to photograph live displays of computer errors in public places. Do you think it’s harder for people to rant about your screw-ups?

Social media, quite simply, relates to the usage of content created by easily accessible publishing technologies (social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter, photo publishing sites such as Flickr, video sites like YouTube and Vimeo) that is generated by the hundreds of millions of consumers utilizing these technologies. As alluded to in the previous paragraph, it’s so easy for people to say something using these services that can be detrimental to your business. And if they don’t have a blog? It’s easier for them to tell someone else who could make it a public crusade for reform.

Customer service is social, too.

Situations like this appall me. In the linked-to article, Consumerist shares the story of an individual who opted to use a landscaping service to trim his lawn. Since he was reasonably happy with the service provider, he referred it to his friend. Only when the landscaping company mowed down the guy’s vegetable garden and did not rectify the situation seven weeks later did the guy decide to make a public spectacle of the situation. He brought the incident to Consumerist’s attention and then even transcribed, verbatim, the verbal threats he received from the company owner over his phone’s voicemail.

Sure, there are probably a few things you can point out that should work in the company’s favor. After all, you’re reading one side of the story, and the owner of the company admits that this is a misstep in the guy’s logic. However, the damage is done when a company’s customer service does not actually perform the service and refuses to right its wrongs. Despite not knowing the other side of the story, as a reader, I gleaned a few things: nearly two months have passed since the company wronged its client, the owner of the company was not apologetic, and not one but two customers were affected as a result.

If you’re reading this article, even if you did know the other side of the story, would you want to do business with this company? Does the company owner appear to be a guy you’d want to have dealing with? (Heck, are you even interested at this point to know the other side of the story? Clearly, there was no communication done there since two clients are left speechless.)

In a post made by Seth Godin, he writes:

My rule of thumb is this: every person you turn away because your product or service isn’t right for them turns into three great customers down the road. Every bad sale costs you five.

Here’s some more food for thought: Every blog post or negative review costs you thousands of customers.

This is exactly why your customer service representatives need to do a perfect job or none at all. Everything today can be turned into a public spectacle that can make or break you. We have embarassing pictures in Google Maps, videos about the death of an innocent man in the hands of a “competent” cop, and even Yelp reviews that can damage your personal reputation, never mind your business.

It’s evident that if you want to maintain your clients, you need to really make the effort to keep them. We’re starting to use search — and social media — as our recommendation engines. We trust what our peers or others say about the services being offered by providers and choose whether or not to proceed on the basis of what people are saying.

If you value your company’s survival, it is imperative that you educate those who respond on your company’s behalf to bear in mind that people are publicizing their interactions. Sure, you may not necessarily be in the greatest mood, and we all have those days, but that split second when you say something awful could really hurt the chances of growth for your business in the long run. How many people really want that?

Even if your product is terrific, if your service is horrible, don’t expect your customers to stay. We can learn a thing or two from the landscaping company and AT&T’s failures with the iPhone. If someone isn’t happy with the way you’re treating them, they’ll go somewhere else. Some will go the extra mile to share with their friends exactly why they’re moving on, too, so don’t make any missteps that will cost you business down the road.

I am a huge advocate of stellar customer service. I try to answer all emails within minutes of receipt — even at odd hours of the day — and I try to go above and beyond to provide the most informative responses that I can. Even if I’m in a sour mood, I still try to end my emails with a smile. Why do I do this? Because even if I don’t know the person (yet!), I still care about the people I am dealing with and the relationships to be forged, and I don’t want them to be disappointed in the lack of attention. When an email is genuine and personalized and someone has taken the time out to write it, would you really want to ignore it?

What’s the moral of the story? Your reputation is always on the line, and if you commit any type of blunder, albeit a small one, don’t expect to be off the hook. Since it’s so easy for people to vent their frustrations, you could very well discover that you are the subject of their complaints.

(And if you are, I hope you have a disaster recovery system in place!)

Update: Ely Rosenstock has a different take on customer service.

[ This post entitled Why Customer Service Should Be in Your Social Media Marketing Strategy originated by the blog of social media consultant and Internet marketing strategist Tamar Weinberg. ]

After years of trial and error and months of writing, The New Community Rules (O’Reilly link | Amazon link) has been released, and I wanted to dive into some of the concepts I discuss in the book, many of which I hope to explore in depth in future blog posts.

The New Community Rules talks about the important role social media has begun playing in our lives. Most importantly, however, is the role the emerging technology puts on the business owner who is tasked with finding out how to make an impact in this evolving landscape. We’ve seen that individuals nowadays don’t sift through their Yellow Pages to find a local business (nor do many people even own such a big book any longer); they turn to the Internet for help. By using the power of search, they are able to find what they want or would be reasonably happy with.

Search alone, however, isn’t cutting it. What if, on the first page of search results, you discover that people are very disappointed with the business? What if someone can’t stop singing praises about the product she just bought? If you’re looking at buying a product or utilizing a service, chances are you’re looking for the sentiment about that product or service as well.

That’s why social media is important. It’s incredibly easy for someone to put up a web page and show how much they like or dislike a company. And when the reviews are genuine and diverse, people are able to make a decision whether to proceed with the purchase or look elsewhere.

It doesn’t end there, though. There are two things that act as an extension to social media: #1: great customer service, especially since everything is now public, and #2: great content, so that you can do something that is clearly remarkable that people would want to talk about.

How do you do #1? Listening. You’ll get exposure to case studies of companies that do this well and review cases of companies where listening severe impacted the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. You’ll learn the importance of transparency and understand why this matters to your business.

Great content, #2, works across the board for social media. Why does one have to visit the same old web page with the same old messaging? How does one actually make their great content something people want to talk about and share with their friends? Fortunately, we have social media communities to inspire us. The best part? Access to these social media communities is free.

We’re seeing an incredible paradigm shift from a paid model to a virtually free model. The only substantial cost for you is time. How many of you would really want to ignore such a viable source of business that comes at such an affordable price? Why not dive into the landscape and understand it so that you can better target your messaging to achieve substantial return on investment? Social media is here to stay. You need to be ready to play or you’ll die out while your competitors continue to evolve while you sit on the sidelines.

After you’re quite certain you’re ready to dig into the social media world and you have formulated a strategy, the latter half of the book will guide you through popular existing tools that can ease your way into social media. You’ll learn:

• What’s the hype about LinkedIn and how can I use it?
• How do I make a killer Facebook page?
• Is MySpace marketing really worth it?
• How do I craft a corporate strategy for blogging?
• When should I use Digg?
• What is the benefit of delicious?
• How are small and large companies using Twitter, and how can I do the same?
• Should I start a video blog?
• How can I market effectively with Flickr?
• How can I get changes made to my company’s Wikipedia page?
• How can I navigate the millions of questions on Yahoo! Answers so that I can make my mark?
• What content works best on StumbleUpon?
• …and more

The New Community Rules will serve the needs of the one-man business to the corporate entity looking to understand the fast-changing nature of social media as they look to market their products and formulate strategy. It can also impart valuable knowledge to the agency or press relations entities looking to understand how to craft their messages so that it can make a real profound impact.

I hope you enjoy the book and find it valuable. Feel free to contact me if you want me to expound upon concepts discussed in the book on this blog or if you have any thoughts or feedback!

[ This post entitled A Brief Introduction to The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web originated by the blog of social media consultant and Internet marketing strategist Tamar Weinberg. ]