social media Archives - Page 2 of 7 - The Social Penguin Blog

This interview first appeared on my Thought Leader Thursday column over on The Social Axcess blog.

There aren’t many people out there that I would class as true social media experts. Sure, many people get it and are able to use it effectively, however few can take that knowledge and communicate it as well as Mr Mark Schaefer. I took the opportunity to run some questions past Mark, read on for some great insight and a sneak peak of what you can expect from his up-coming book, Return on Influence.

Tell us what you do in 140 characters or less?

I am an author, college educator, mentor, business consultant, founder of Social Slam, blogger, speaker, father and husband.

So, it’s fair to say you are a busy man! If you could give people one tip for managing their time, what would it be?

It would have to be “focus.” Be clear about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole, especially when you become immersed in the social web!

Would it be fair to say that Twitter has been a great catalyst for you and your business interests? What has it brought you that was missing in those not so long ago pre-Twitter days?

It is not too bold to say that Twitter has changed my business and my life. The connections I have made through this platform have become customers, trusted business colleagues and friends. The big advantage this has had for me was the ability to network far beyond traditional business barriers.

Your new book, Return on Influence, explores the world of personal online influence, helping people to understand how it is measured and to harness the power it can create. Do you think we are looking at a world that will give more and more importance to such metrics?

Without question. We are in a world of incredible information density so people are hungry for shortcuts to help them make decisions. Social proof “badges” like the number of Twitter followers or a Klout score are important in this regard. That’s not to say that is necessarily a good thing, but it is a business reality we need to acknowledge and deal with. Also, I think Klout is on the brink of really going mainstream beyond the small social media community. When that happens, there will be quite a frenzy of activity to try to understand these scores and how to improve them. That is all covered in the book (Return on Influence), of course.

Here we are in January 2012, what do you see as the biggest challenges facing businesses in the coming year?

That is quite a broad question and I would like to narrow it to digital marketing. I think Internet privacy and the Anti-piracy issues will continue to dominate headlines. These are absolutely critical issues that will have to be addressed with some sort of regulation … and the Internet HATES regulation, so it will be an interesting year.

And finally, what does 2012 hold for you?

Of course the launch of the new book in a few weeks is kind of a watershed event. Return On Influenceis unlike any other marketing book out there right now and plows entirely new ground so this should be exciting. I am also working on a new video educational series on my website called Social Media From Scratch (February), a new speaking tour, and my next book, which is starting to firm up as an outline. Lots of exciting developments!

If you liked this post, please do share on Twitter >>> Tweet

Enjoying reading The Social Penguin Blog? Why not subscribe to our RSS, follow us on Twitter or join Dave on Facebook.

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: mark schaefer, return on influence, social media, social media interviews

Nicholas Montgomery Interview – Part 2

February 6, 2012 By Jenni Maley 2 Comments

The second part of our two-part interview with Nicholas Montgomery,a 16-year-old technology blogger, podcaster, entrepreneur, and regular tech expert on The Marilyn Denis Show in Canada... See the first part here.

Photo courtesy of CTV

You often write about what it takes to be an entrepreneur and how to be motivated for success. What is your inspiration and where are you headed with this?

My inspiration for writing about entrepreneurs is that they try to solve real problems and leave an impact on the world. I admire entrepreneurs who see issues and can offer solutions without letting any barriers get in the way. I myself have started a social organization called One Plant Per Class . Fortune 500 companies and academic studies have shown productivity increases and a more positive mental state can arise just from having one plant in the room. I decided to take action at my school and I ‘ m now amidst working with the fourth largest school board in Canada, The Toronto District School Board, to get one plant in every classroom. It isn’t going to revolutionize education, but it is a small change that will have a huge impact on students. Most importantly, I want to inspire other young adults, who may also have an idea to improve education, to share it with the world.

What is the one piece of advice that you want to continually remind yourself of as you progress with your career?

“Happiness isn’t the absence of problems, but how you deal with them.” - Siddhārtha Gautama

I love this quote because some things in life that happen are just simply out of your control and you can only control how you deal with them.

What tech predictions do you have for 2012?

A strong Google+ presence will become more important than Twitter. For the past few days, I’ve been testing out the Search Plus your World changes and the implications are mind-blowing. What the update does is change the search algorithm to place a much greater emphasis on what your Google+ friends are sharing. Every single search page is now personalized. Even if they aren’t signed-in to their Google+ account, previous search history, geo location and other search behaviour is taken into consideration. For example, Gary Vanyerchuk is in one of my circles and when I searched Facebook on Google. The fourth result was Gary Vaynerchuk’s Facebook page – not because of him having the most link backs or best SEO optimization, but it was because he had previously shared it. To appear on the search results page above the paid ads (of very competitive keywords) it only takes a few thousands fans. Try searching cars for instance; right now it only takes Ferrari 6,350 fans to appear at the top of search results, above the paid results. By having Ferrari included in my circle it also means they have an impact on what I see in my search results. Searching for fast cars? They may have shared a fast car on Google+, so it will influence my search results.

3-D Printers will change the economy, taking China out of the picture in the next 3-5 years. Both Canada and the U.S. have primarily outsourced majority of its manufacturing to China. At the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Makerbot showcased a 3-D printer that you can purchase for your home for $1,749.00 – not exactly within the average budget for a printer. Also, it is not practical as it takes hours to print. However, flat-screen prices have fallen 800% in the past decade and have greatly improved. Three-dimensional printing from digital designs will transform manufacturing and allow more people to start making things. Soon, I believe everyone will have a printer in their house, a bucket of raw materials and we’ll just buy the blueprints to make basic objects that are one material based and have it in our house within an hour. This takes China out of the picture because we’re doing all the manufacturing ourselves. We won’t be able to make iPods on 3-D printers (yet), but for most basic objects that are one material based, we’ll be able to print ourselves in the comfort of our homes.

Everyone will learn basic coding skills. Initiatives such as CodeYear are showing people, who want to learn, how to write code. Already 355,739 people have signed up for the 2012 weekly programming lessons. Even the Mayor of New York City has signed up . Local initiatives, for instance Ladies Learning Code in Toronto, are popping up to help people learn basic coding skills.

Tech expert Nicholas Montgomery can be seen regularly on THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW, which airs Weekdays at 10 a.m. ET on CTV, 11 a.m. ET on CTV Two and on-demand at marilyn.ca.

For more information on THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW, visit marilyn.ca. Follow THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW on Twitter (@TheMarilynShow) and Facebook (Facebook.com/MarilynDenis).

For more information on Nicholas, visit NichM.com. Follow Nicholas on Twitter (@NichM) and Facebook (facebook.com/nicholasmontgomer).

If you liked this post, please do share on Twitter >>> Tweet

Enjoying reading The Social Penguin Blog? Why not subscribe to our RSS, follow us on Twitter or join Dave on Facebook.

Filed Under: Google+, Interviews, Social Media Interviews, Technology Tagged With: google, interview, Nicholas Montgomery, social media, technology, Twitter

Is Your Business Social Enough?

February 2, 2012 By Jenni Maley 4 Comments

Apparently, 2012 is the year of the social business. And if that is the case, then I am more than happy to see that prediction come to be. But knowing you should be more social and actually being social are two different things. Insights Consulting recently conducted a survey involving marketing managers from 400 businesses in the UK and US. The full results can be seen in a presentation here, but one of the initial takeaways is that while many businesses have adopted social networks, most struggle to fully integrate a social mandate. So how do you close that gap?

Allocate the Resources

Social will change the way you do business, and that ain’t no small thing. Underestimating the scale of change will be the biggest mistake many businesses will make. We all learned our lesson from signing up for every new social media site that seemed fun for a day and then being overwhelmed by having more profiles than you could count (or even remember) and giving up on almost all. So let’s not do that again! Understand that this will be a process, it will take time (if not your own time, then your staff’s time) and you will need to invest in the right programs for your business.

Image credit: www.jostle.me

Build from Within

If you want your employees to effectively use social channels to the benefit of the company then weave social tools into the internal processes that you already have in place. Tools like Yammer, Salesforce Chatter and Jostle are social media networks design specifically for corporate use. If your employees learn how to use newsfeeds for communication and to moderate groups to manage their workload then it will be a more natural switch to external social media channels.

Pick the Right Tools

There are so many tools and applications that its challenging to know which ones will help you. Using social media channels like YouTube, Twitter, and Google+ are obvious marketing and communication tools but social integration will mean findings tools that fill a need within your business beyond basic social media. Tools like Zendesk, Basecamp and Slideshare all have social facets but are also practical programs that can help improve the way you do business.

Social Media Policy

If letting your staff lose with all your social media marbles makes you nervous then make sure you clarify the responsibilities and expectations by having a clear and simple social media policy. It’s widely publicised that Dell has over 6000 staff trained to use social media. You might think that a company that size, with that many fingers in the cookie jar, would have a book-length social media policy. But no, it’s actually just a page or two. Check it out and use as inspiration for crafting your own policy.

Do you buy into the concept of Social Business? Have you found interesting ways of using social tools in other areas of your business?

If you liked this post, please do share on Twitter >>> Tweet

Enjoying reading The Social Penguin Blog? Why not subscribe to our RSS, follow us on Twitter or join Dave on Facebook.

Filed Under: Social Media Channels, Social Media Customer Service, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: customer service, internal social media, jenni maley, social business, social media, social media policy

Tech Talk With Nicholas Montgomery (Part 1)

January 30, 2012 By Jenni Maley 2 Comments

Nicholas Montgomery is a 16-year-old technology blogger, podcaster, entrepreneur, and regular tech expert on The Marilyn Denis Show. Based in Toronto, Nicholas started in the cyber world when he was 12-years-old by co-hosting a live podcast about Web 2.0 and the latest tech startups.

In 2008, he launched a website profiling design related work on the Internet such as screensavers and wallpaper, where users could vote on a featured daily item. It exploded to 35,000 unique visitors by the second month. In addition, Nicholas created a weekly 60-episode video podcast called Blastr.tv, featuring the best of web culture.

Nicholas has contributed to a number of tech blogs including, MacApper, Listified, Appletell and iAppBlog. He has also made appearances on CP24, Digital Journal, CTV News, Yahoo! News and more.

You’re the tech expert for a popular daytime TV show in Canada, a social media consultant at Ryerson University, an intern at Sprouter and have various other projects on the go. How did you end up getting involved in so many things at your age?

I developed my passion for technology at a young age. Once I realized it was something I was passionate about, I decided to pursue it – even if I didn’t know much about it. When I was 12-years old, I started a couple of podcasts interviewing tech entrepreneurs, journalists, founders and anyone else in the community to learn what they were doing and how they were doing it. I also hosted a news recap with teens analyzing the tech news of the week.

At the beginning I tried to hide the fact that I was young, but I soon realized that was my greatest asset. We all have something that separates us from the crowd, and when you can embrace that trait instead of downplaying it, you will start to work towards success.

In 2010, CTV’s THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW was launching soon and Marilyn was looking for a team of lifestyle experts. The production team reached out to me and we worked on a couple segments before the show launched to see if I would be a good fit for the show. It turned out I was, and I became the youngest professional on the show’s roster of specialists. THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW provides an opportunity for me to educate audiences both in-studio and nationally, on how technology, social media and other gadgets work and how they can maximize its usage.

What part has social media played in all of it?

Social media has played a tremendous role in everything I’ve done. Twitter and Facebook are great to connect to people (and viewers) because they remove all the barriers of traditional media and the conversation isn’t just one person broadcasting, but two-way. I use Twitter on a regular basis for testing out ideas for a show segment and ask followers questions that garner instant feedback. There is also the power of social media, which allows anyone to market just about anything at zero cost.

Social media is also great for networking. Before I go to a conference, I will look at the list of attendees and speakers and look for individuals I can potentially work with and find their Twitter names to message them. By the time I introduce myself the next day at the event, they will have already recognized me and we’ve already built that initial connection online. I love Skype, Facebook and other tools to connect, but at the end of the day no technology can replace grabbing tea (or coffee) with someone and engaging in face-to-face conversation.

Tech expert Nicholas Montgomery can be seen regularly on THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW, which airs Weekdays at 10 a.m. EST on CTV, 11 a.m. EST on CTV Two and on-demand at marilyn.ca.

For more information on THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW, visit marilyn.ca. Follow THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW on Twitter (@TheMarilynShow) and Facebook (Facebook.com/MarilynDenis).

For more information on Nicholas, visit NichM.com. Follow Nicholas on Twitter (@NichM) and Facebook (facebook.com/nicholasmontgomer).

If you liked this post, please do share on Twitter >>> Tweet

Enjoying reading The Social Penguin Blog? Why not subscribe to our RSS, follow us on Twitter or join Dave on Facebook.

Filed Under: Interviews, Social Media Interviews, Technology Tagged With: interview, Nicholas Montgomery, social media, technology

What Google Plus Your World Means for Your Business

January 16, 2012 By Jenni Maley 3 Comments

Last week Google announced it’s latest search innovation called Search Plus Your World which adds three new features to the search giant (taken from the description in Google’s post):

Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;
Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,
People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.

Watch the video. Its cute if not entirely informative. (post continues below video)

On a personal level, it may not mean a whole lot. Even those of us who are active on Google+ can admit that the activity level is still quite low compared to Twitter and Facebook and the Your World results are going to vary depending on the quality of the content shared by you and your connections. There is some argument that Your World could actually decrease the quality of your search results, but I have a feel that most of us won’t notice a significant impact for some time. If nothing else, Google is just making Google+ a little more difficult to ignore though at least you can turn off the social search feature if you feel the need to.

What does this mean for your business?

The effect may actually be more deeply felt by brands and businesses in that it could force you to invest more time into your Google+ Page or risk loosing headway in your SEO efforts. The addition of personalised results means that regular search results will be pushed further down the page and that brands with a heavier social media marketing emphasis are more likely to have been shared and therefore listed in Your World results. Also, the People and Pages makes it blatantly obvious that more screen time will be given to business that have a Google+ page. With that in mind, I’d say its time to give in and start giving your Brand Page a little more attention:

1. Create a +Page for your business if you haven’t done so already. Here are a couple links with good tips to get you started.
2. Share content and comment on things that are relavant to your business. I feel like I say this every day but having quality content and engagement that is useful to the end user is key to online success. It will make it more likely that people will add you to their circles and generate the kind of activity that will show up in Search Your World results.
3. Monitor the results. The full effect of Search Your World is still unknown (especially since it hasn’t been launched worldwide) so you need to keep a watchful eye on the sucess of your efforts and adjust them accordingly.

This is going to be case of needing to take my own advice. I have set up a page for the company I work for but haven’t done terribly much with it as Google+ just doesn’t have the support of the local social media community quite like Twitter and Facebook do. But with this new combination of search and social, its clearly time to get on board whether I like it or not. Thanks for adding to my to do list, Google!

Have you had a chance to test out the new Search Your World features? Please leave a comment and tell us what you think of it!

If you liked this post, please do share on Twitter >>> Tweet

Enjoying reading The Social Penguin Blog? Why not subscribe to our RSS, follow us on Twitter or join Dave on Facebook.

Filed Under: Google, Google+, Social Media Marketing, Social Networks Tagged With: google, jenni maley, search, social media

2011 – The Year of The Social Media ‘Meh’

December 7, 2011 By Mike McGrail 6 Comments

The year 2011 is drawing to a close, a cold, wet and windy close. As I sit by the fire contemplating the past year, I can’t help but think it has been a bit ‘meh’ in a social media sense. Why? Let me break it down for you.

Hype came, and hype went…

At the turn of the year, Quora was all the rage. The next Twitter! The sum of all knowledge! Well really I think everyone was just looking for a bone to chew on during the bleak month of January. Yeah, it does what it does pretty well, but I’m not sure it has really cracked the mainstream. The past year has seen many things getting the tech community whipped up into a real frenzy, Path came along and was a ‘real threat to Facebook’. It re-emerged in the past couple of weeks after a ‘pivot’ (buzz word of the year anyone?) and again has every blog up and down the land writing it up as the next social network monster in a bid to secure hits and links. What social presence or app has really cracked it this year? Instagram has built a strong user base and only on one mobile platform. Really one to watch grow in 2012.

Blogging standards slipped…

The quality of social media and digital marketing blogging took a real nose-dive in the past year. I have rarely been blown away by anything I have read. I’ve been less inclined to comment on posts, which is a strong barometer in my book. For me, too many blogs are just outlets for the same news, regurgitated and spat out across the web. Facebook makes a tiny change and blogs across the globe report it as is if we just found life on Mars. Original content and the thoughts and opinions that go along with it has dwindled. Come on people, find the voice again and start using blogging as the powerful tool we know it all can be.

Social media and cats. Meh.

Facebook continued to smash it…

It gets bigger and bigger, and no-one can stop it. Google+ landed and every man and his dog started to put it up against Facebook. I’m not even sure the guys at Google want it to be the next Facebook, surely there are other things to aim for in life? Let Facebook be Facebook and hope that G+ (or something else) can offer a viable alternative for those who wish to share and converse without having to sift through a bunch of chumps whinging about their jobs, their wives and how hungry they are. The fact is that Facebook is a behemoth, it is present in our lives at every corner. As the ‘Open Graph‘ continues to develop and the world gets their Timelines (a bit like waiting for hoverboards?), the Facebook dominance will only grow. Nothing out there is going to stop it.

Location didn’t really take off…

Location based marketing. The next frontier of digital marketing. Really? Well it just kind of skittered along like wet fart in 2011. Yes, Foursquare has 15 million users, but you can hardly call that huge in this day and age. The majority of deals that get sent your way via the various apps suck. No real pull for the user equals no real potential for growth. When Facebook started pushing its Places offering (now defunct), the world started checking in everywhere they went, making life seem really, really mundane. Zuckerburg and co have now bought check-in minion Gowalla and appear to want to shut it down in January 2012. Will 2012 see location really push things forward? I’m not so sure, it may take Facebook to re-ignite it.

People still have social media tunnel vision…

IT’S JUST ANOTHER DIGITAL MARKETING CHANNEL! STOP USING IT FOR THE SAKE OF USING IT OR MONUMENTAL AMOUNTS OF FLUFFY BABY BUNNIES ARE GOING TO BE CAUGHT UP IN A BURNING HOT TREACLE INCIDENT.

Social media muppets continued to hide behind the ‘you can’t prove ROI’ excuse…

The use of social media can absolutely, well and truly be measured and if anyone tells you differently, you need to look elsewhere for guidance. That said, if you are not setting up your campaigns and strategies correctly, it can be hard to prove. Take the time to learn how to do it and things will work out a whole lot better. Don’t be a phantom.

On a positive note…

Social media has amplified the voice of many long suffering people in the past year and that is a real thing of beauty. Social really is a great facilitator of change.

Baa humbug?

I am being a real miser? Was it an incredible year for the social media world? What got your juices flowing? Do share and do argue.

Follow @mike_mcgrail

Enjoying reading The Social Penguin Blog? Why not subscribe to our RSS, follow us on Twitter or join Dave on Facebook.

Filed Under: Social Media Marketing Tagged With: Mike McGrail, social media, Social Media Marketing, social media meh, social media review, social media review 2011

Get The Social Penguin Blog by email...

Categories

Archives

Sites & Blogs We Like

The Social Penguin Blog on the Web

Social Penguin on The Web!

Get The Social Penguin Blog by email...

Popular Posts

Categories

Archives

Sites & Blogs We Like

The Social Penguin Blog on the Web