Tell them what you really think – it’s all about the opinions

I’ve been doing a bit more pruning recently of those people who I am following on Twitter. I’ m always in the process of promoting my personal brand and part of that is finding people who sound interesting and following them for a bit to see if you can find some common ground to start a conversation. During this “honeymoon” period, the thing that I’m finding turns me off the most is the distinct lack of OPINIONS.

It’s an estimate and not really based on much but I’d say a good 90% of people that I follow for a bit appear to be completely bereft of an opinion of their own. All they ever do is retweet Mashable links or Chris Brogan‘s latest musings. Never do they stray into the territory of actually saying what they THINK about anything.

I think I know why this is. It’s because they are afraid of alienating themselves. They don’t want to form an opinion of their own because they’re afraid that the popular consensus won’t back them up and then where would they be?

I worry about this attitude.

I worry that there are so many people out there who would rather homogenise themselves than actually try to find some meaning in amongst all the noise that permeates the social media universe. I worry on their behalf, I honestly think their life would be enhanced if they got that little electric buzz that comes from actually disagreeing with someone. It would make them more interesting and, as a result, they wouldn’t get binned the next time I do a spring clean.

For me, it’s all about opinions.

You can’t call yourself a guru or a ninja or whatever the latest badge is when all you’ve done is ingest the wisdom of others. You have to use that knowledge to try to make sense of the world as you see it. That’s all an opinion is.

The birth of the iPad has thrown up a good example. While most people have got on the Apple-is-Good train, the real influencers are actually divided on it’s worth. Jeff Jarvis believes it’s a step backwards to the bad old days of closed systems being controlled by “the man”. While over at Scobleizer, Robert Scoble is quite happy with it as he doesn’t see it as a replacement for what he’s already got. See, that’s two people who are almost certainly on your following list who don’t share the same opinion. Isn’t that interesting? I think so. Take the hint.

I have opinions about pretty much everything and I love to get them out there. My latest opinions, for anyone who cares are:

Promoted Tweets – I am well used to ignoring the sponsored links in Google and am quite happy to do this is Twitter providing they don’t pollute my stream with any more than one at a time. I have no grudge against Twitter for monetising their business and I hope it works out for them I do however have my doubts as to how much money they will make from click throughs given that the intent to actually do something is not nearly as strong in a Twitter search as it is in a Google one. Having said that though, from an advertiser’s point of view there’s nothing wrong with promoting yourself simply for the visibility factor alone.

#stuartmaclennan – I think he was exceptionally foolish for a very long time as he laboured under the impression that being sexist, homophobic, slanderous and generally unpleasant was a reasonable way to present himself to a voting public. I fly in the face of the general consensus on Twitter that he shouldn’t have been sacked and his right to free speech should have been upheld because I know that the Twitter vote won’t amount to much on election day.

Marmite – hate it!

If you’re serious about your own personal brand, I guarantee you that you will attract more attention and, dare I say it, have a bit more fun, if you begin to think about things more and let others know where you’ve decided to stand. You won’t necessarily become the next Brian Solis but you might just stay on my list.

Is social media consultancy worth paying for?

Yesterday I was drawn into a discussion on the value of social media consultancy. I came across a conversation which suggested that people should not be paying “so called” social media consultants to provide a service around tools which are free, specifically social networking sites.

It may well be a fair point, the sites are all free to use after all so why pay someone to use them for you?

Well, I can think of plenty of reasons

Not least of which is that it’s nothing new to pay someone for a service that you don’t have the time or the will to do for yourself. Cleaner, taxi driver, nanny, PA, website designer, kitchen fitter…the list is probably without end. We pay these people for their time which allows us, in turn, the time to do whatever it is that we do best. We also pay them for their skill and experience, knowing that, in most cases, they will do a much better job than us.

I can only speak of my own practise when it comes to social media “consultancy” but I firmly believe that my skills and experience make me worth paying for. I’m not setting up a twitter account for you and telling to you to tweet before holding out my cap. In fact, I’m kind of assuming that you’re willing to at least make that step for yourself because from that point on you’re going to be using it a lot more.

What do I do?

What I offer clients is an analysis of their communications and marketing efforts. From there I can then advise as to what I feel would best suit them in terms of improving their visibility online.

I spend time learning about their business, then I spend time learning about their clients. I then spend more time thinking about how they might be better engaged in conversation. I set up search feeds to listen to the conversations, after which I draw up plans for how best to join them.

I help them improve their websites to include more relevant and up-to-date content. I edit their blogs for them. I hold their hands and I prompt them, I reassure them and keep their best interests at the heart of my own. I represent them to other clients. I pitch them ideas to help them tie online and offline together. I travel in buses, taxis and trains to meet them in cafes and talk to them about improving what they do.

And, as if that’s not enough, I then come on here and blog about how I’m doing it.

I do all of the above very well

I do it very well because I have 15 years experience of  digital communications. You seriously can’t underestimate that when you’re poised to press send on an email campaign which is going to roll out to 50,000 people. I’ve worked for an enormous cross section of clients and understand the marketplace online for anything from whisky to community food initiatives. I also love what I do.

Now, believe it or not, all of this “so called” stuff takes up a lot of time. My time which I’m spending to improve business for my clients. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I prefer to be compensated for that.

Social media strategy for cause-based campaigning

I’ve been around the block a bit with this old thing we call the internet. Since 1996 I’ve been helping clients to make themselves heard online and It’s not always been about making money. I may have a bunch of financial services clients on my CV alongside big consumer brands, but more recently my work has been leaning towards the third sector.

Currently I’m freelancing for the Scottish Government and getting a good understanding of the public sector. Prior to this I was Web Communications Director of The Graphics Company, a design agency focussed on the Third Sector. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t eschewed the commercial sector, rather I’ve added a new layer of understanding to what I can offer both groups.

With that bit of context, I’ve been thinking about cause-based campaigning using social media. It’s an area where it’s clear that a little bit of SM savvy would yield great results. The problem is that, for the most part, campaigners have not got on board.

There are a lot of good people involved in campaigning. Often people with a solid background in politics or social marketing. Often people who have had dramatic results in the past and don’t see any reason to fix something that aint broke. That’s fair enough but the goalposts have moved. There is not an unlimited number of supporters out there and it’s supporters who are the real currency of any cause-based campaign. If other, equally worthwhile but similar campaigns do get onboard the Social Media train then that supporter pool gets at best diluted but at worst it’s drained.

So what are the quick wins for campaigners wanting to make the most out of Social Networks?

Get listed

It’s the obvious first step, and to be fair it’s the step that pretty much all of them have already taken. Get yourself a Twitter account, set up a Facebook fan page. These are the bare minimum. Once you’ve done this set up a YouTube channel, a flickr account and a good, old fashioned blog.

Get busy

You can’t just build your presence and expect people to magically flock there. Simply listing your Twitter page and inviting people to become fans  will only bring you the audience that you already have. The ones who you are already getting the message to.

You have to find new supporters and this takes work. You need to utilise all the channels you have available. In the first instance get a video up on YouTube. Find a celebrity supporter or film some voxpops, it’s easy with the technology you have on your computer these days so there’s no excuse not to do it. Don’t wory about productions standards. It’s YouTube!

Take some photos. Take your digital camera to one of your rallies. Snap some volunteers at work or just capture the pile of correspondence on your desk. It’s all interesting. Tag it up and release it onto flickr.

Then write about it. Tell your existing supporters how the campaign is going. Give some behind the scenes gen on what’sbeen going on. Speak about the broader context of what you’re tying to achieve.

All of these things give more ways for people to find their way to your cause at the same time as adding real value. The more content you put out there, the more conversations you will stir up. It’s these conversations which will grow your supporter base online.

Get influencers

Use Twitter Search to find out who is talking in your area (both geographically and metaphorically). Start following a few of the more interesting chats that you see. Chances are that you’ll begin to see a couple of names cropping up more than others. Keep an eye on these tweeps and one or two of them will emerge as influencers. People  who can help form opinions. Engage with these people. Get them onside and they may help promote you to their own list of followers.

Get social

Having said all that, the traditional model of campaigning does have one great advantage over much of the social media activity on the web: real human interaction. Getting out there and meeting people, letting them know what’s going on and where to get their hands on all your carefully crafted content is what it’s all about.

I’ve stuck to the big Social Media sites here. There are other ones that you may find relevant depending on you target audience. If you’re aiming at kids or musicians then by all means include Myspace. Also, there are other channels that shouldn’t be ignored. Email is tried, tested and easy to measure for instance and should already be part of your strategy while iPhone apps are less established but bring their own possibilities. I guess you need to do a bit of reasearch…