Social Media & Tech

All things social, from topics on Community to Customer Care through social media, and including apps which can help make us more (or less) social.

It’s About Influence, not Your Klout

October 27, 2011 by Shawn Add a Comment (2 Comments)

Yesterday, Klout released their new scoring model, which they said would decrease some klout scores while keeping many of them the same or increased.

Since then, you may have noticed many people complaining about how their influence has decreased and their score is now lower. I have also saw a post stating that they ‘were told by klout that they could no longer talk to those with lower klout scores then their own, or it would lower their score.’ No one knows exactly how the klout score is calculated (certainly not me) but it DOES NOT MATTER.

It’s not about klout, it’s about influence – If you truly influence people, YOU don’t need a klout score to know this. If your score goes down and you don’t agree – then *gasp* klout may be wrong!!!
If you are influential, you don’t have to tell others, they already know
If you believe that in order to be MORE influential you need to eliminate talking to some people, then you perhaps should seek another line of work
It’s ultimately about the ROI or MOO (movement of others)- If others spread your message online (or OFFline, which klout has no clue about) and you change or reinforce other’s opinions, behaviors or buying habits, that is the goal of “social” and really all media.Ultimately being an influencer is more about understanding who you are and whether you are providing timely, relevant, informational and personable content to others. Being a quote machine that garners 150 retweets or facebook shares per day does not make you influential about anything. Don’t fall prey to the WWGD (What Would @GuyKawasaki Do) principle. Just because someone floods the stream with content, doesn’t mean they genuinely have a passion for the post that interested you. As my grandmother says, “Even a blind cow can find the side of the barn once in a while.” If you keep these principles in mind, and your klout score goes up, then klout is perhaps a good measure of your influence.
Did the fact that my klout score is higher or lower than yours influence you? Or was it the relevance of this article? Point me. Thoughts?

Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media & Tech Tagged With: customer loyalty, influence, klout, marketing, Social Media

The New Social is Traditional Engagement

March 31, 2011 by Shawn Add a Comment

The New Social is about Traditional Values

This morning I was reviewing the plan for the day and reading blog posts and twitter updates when I came across a great quote that I immediately agreed with. The quote was not mentioned within the context of social media, community or customer service, but it started me thinking. The quote was:

“People may forget what you say. They may recall exactly the things you did. But people will never ever forget how you made them feel.”

This struck me as so true when it comes to social media and customer service. That for all the “newness” of social media and technology and gadgetry, the new social is all about traditional engagement and values.

“It is better to be hated than forgotten.”

It is much better to be loved, or yes even hated, than forgotten. Customers who come at your brand with complaints in a fervor, are trying to help you fix your product or service because they like it. If they didn’t, they would simply quit doing business with you.

The rules of engaging customers through social media have not changed. They are no different from what thebasic tenets of effective conversation have always been:

Be authentic: Customers are smart and savvy and are immediately turned off by anything less..
Listen: You can’t give a customer what they need without listening, and not just hearing. As Mark Twain said, if we were meant to talk more than listen, we’d have been given two mouths and one ear.
Be courteous: You can help a customer yet treat them terribly, and you will get negative sentiment from that customer to their social sphere.
Have empathy: Note I didn’t say “show” empathy. Put yourself in the customer’s place and try to get where they are coming from, and respond accordingly. This will be very evident to the customer.
Ask questions: You can’t understand the customer’s pain and or true needs without asking qualifying quetions.
Solicit honest feedback: Ask for feedback on yourself, the product or service, and check back in with them. Never underestimate the power of reaching out to a customer 2-4 weeks after you have assisted them (“Hi, I just want to see if your problem has not reoccurred.

A customer’s experience has by far the greatest impact on a company’s brand, image and reputation. Implementing the common-sense approach above will make your customers feel more engaged with your company. And engaged customers participate more in discussion about the brand, and drive discussions about it’s products and customer service.

Filed Under: Community, Customer Care, Social Media & Tech Tagged With: Community, engagement, Social Media

App Review: Starbucks Mobile Card

March 26, 2011 by Shawn Add a Comment (2 Comments)

As I was reading blogs and wishing I were back in Austin, or Orlando, or anywhere where it wasn’t presently snowing, I saw the new Apple ad on TV this morning. And lo and behold, they profiled a new app by Starbucks where you can load your Starbucks card on your iPhone, add funds and pay from your iPhone. Well, I had to try this out.

The app is very easy to use, and synchs up to your Starbucks.com account, where I was able to actually move all my various card balances to a single card. Loved that! The app shows you which stores have the ability to take these mobile payments (something like 6,800+ if I remember correctly). I counted 11 locations within ten miles of my house. Paying is easy and fast! You just touch “touch to pay” in the app, hold it down against the reader (pictured below) and voila.

According to the barrista, the “receipt” would be received cater on my app than their receipt would print and sure enough, they were right. Now, is this app faster than handing them your rewards card? No. But the balance tracking, receipts, rewards tracking and ability to reload from your phone make it the ultimate app for anyone who is a Starbucks aficionado (looking at you Brian Gardner) and iPhone user.

You can read more about, and download the app, at http://shawnmcpike.com/2S.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This review was written entirely on my iPhone, while drinking Starbucks coffee using the WordPress app.

Filed Under: iPhone/iPad App Reviews Tagged With: App, iPhone

My Experience at SXSW

March 22, 2011 by Shawn Add a Comment (6 Comments)

My badge from SXSWi 2011

I returned from SXSWi just a few short days ago. This was my first time attending this particular event (it is much more that a mere conference or festival, but more on that later), and had a great and productive time.

According to organizers, SXSWi experienced an increase in overall attendance of 30% over the record 14,000 in 2010. Along with these huge crowds, which in my opinion didn’t cause as many problems as expected, there were a few drawbacks. Firstly, with the larger conference, it was spread over a much larger area than I had expected which caused my dogs to bark at me since I wore my boots the first day. Two walks to and from the sessions at the Hyatt across the ‘bridge from hell’ and I wish I had discovered the free Chevy Cruzes that were ferrying attendees throughout downtown.

Secondly, many of the rooms that the sessions were in were not terribly huge, and thus if you didn’t get to your desired session early enough, you either didn’t get in, or had to wait for standing room only spots to open up at the very back. With some of my sessions having only minutes between them, it became impossible to attend sessions in different locations back-to-back and I quickly re-jiggered my schedule. However, those two things aside, the wait times for restaurants was nonexistent, unless you were in line between sessions in the Austin Convention Center (ACC) for coffee or grilled cheese.

Friday

My impressions for this day were:

Some of my favorite smart people and friends: Stephanie Wonderlin, Summer Boone and Sarah Hoffman

Free Go Go Internet on all flights to and from SXSW that had the ability
Pirahna Killer Sushi, which satisfied my immense hunger, and where I saw Sarah Hoffman, a truly great person and friend I first met at blogworld in Las Vegas
A surprisingly good session on reaching out to the father/dad demographic by Craig Heimbuch and Jason Avant called “Are We Not Men? Reaching New American Dads” at the Courtyard [See pic from foursquare]
A long-assed walk to the Hyatt to see the “Metrics for Social Media: The Net Promoter Score,” which definitely has applications to measuring community (and the improvements within).
Dinner at Which Wich and then back to my hotel by the airport to rest up for the night’s activities, which turned into an early night to bed reading about NPC and thinking about Community ROI.
Exhaustion. Sleep.

Me at Chevy AllHat 3 at SXSW 2011

Saturday:

Breakfast at the hotel. Yum. Biscuits and gravy always a good filler.
Attended John-Paul Walton and Zach Saul’s session on “Beyond Check-ins: Location Based Design”
Stopped by the Samsung Blogger Lounge (possibly my favorite place in all of SXSW), registered and checked-in
Accompanied Sarah to the SXSW Apple Store to purchase her iPad2.

The EVIL Congress Avenue bridge to the Hyatt.
Talking to the @MTV team (including Jason Rzepka) in the green room before Chris Baccus and I co-presented on “The Benefits of a Highly Responsive Community” at 12:30 at the Hyatt.
Chris Baccus and my presentation. Afterward I met some very cool people, including Michelle Kostya from RIM/Blackberry whom we will be working with in a few weeks, Leslie Skelly, Lee Diaz with AT&T and many many others.

Microsoft Mobile Slap Watch

Visited with the Microsoft mobile social team and got a really cool slap watch
Interview for Facebook with Daniel Stanush and Meghan Roskopf in the AT&T Lounge – talking about our presentation.
Attended Brian Solis keynote… well part of it. It was disappointing (sorry Brian!)
Fogo de Chao – #meatcoma with Sarah Hoffman, Tim Sears, Erika Sears, Joe Sarmiento and Josh Groth.
Attended the Copyblogger party at the Beauty Bar – where I met the very cool Brian Gardner (Copyblogger Media partner and StudioPress founder **of which it should be noted that this blog is the Sleek template by them!**), Brian Clark (@Copyblogger) and Sean (I have a cool first name even though I spell it wrong) Jackson (CFO of Copyblogger Media). We left before it got crazy, having gotten in early before the loudness, drinking and odd dancing began. Yes, you might say we were too cool for the room. Then again, you could say the opposite as well.
Slept ridiculously well… so tired.

Sunday:

SamsungJessica, myself and SamsungCarla in the Samsung Blogger Lounge

Hung out at the AT&T lounge, recharging my poor 3GS.
Met and did a short video with Mike Snyder in the Samsung Blogger Lounge.
Met a large contingent of the Samsung Mobile Support Social Media team, talked strategy/ideas, and exchanged information with: Carla, Jessica, Esteban and Cosmin.
Also in the Blogger Lounge… a quick hello to Jason Falls, a great chat with Patti Hosking where I also met Deb Ng, who’s book on community I am throughly looking forward to.
Chevy AllHat3. Talked to and met Jeremiah Owyang and Jim Storer of The Community Roundtable, Jay Baer, Mark Cahill and Shashi Bellamkonda
Met with some peers and very smart folks at the Pepsi Max event and then afterward for dinner. Amongst them: Stephanie Wonderlin, Summer Boone, Sarah Kay Hoffman, Jim Durbin, Samantha Ogborn, Drew Carls, Hope Bertrand and Kate Zimmer.
Vince Young Steakhouse – secret braintrust discussions of “The ROI of Community”

Monday:

Finally, the SXSW Tradeshow floor was open (having inexplicably been
The 2011 AT&T SXSW Booth

closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I quickly made my rounds, grabbing pamphlets and business cards quickly before vendors could see I was with AT&T. Many potential app-ortunities (sorry, I could not resist!) for what we’re looking to do this year and next.
Attended the JAM-PACKED (duh, I guess) Felicia Day keynote.
Visited with the gang and hung out and talked to folks in the AT&T booth on the tradeshow floor.
Flew home to St. Louis and collapsed, exhausted mentally and physically.

Filed Under: Social Media & Tech Tagged With: Community, ROI, Social Media, SXSWi

App Review: Nike+ GPS

March 20, 2011 by Shawn Add a Comment

Nike+ GPS iPhone App Review

The Nike+ GPS app, from iTunes in the app store, is a great application for training and engaging with your friends for sharing, feedback and motivation for new or advanced runners.

So who is this app for? If you run, whether outside or in a gym or on a treadmill, and you have an iPhone (any version), iPod touch, or iPad (though I question your sanity if you are iPadding and running) this is for you. It does not track calories, or other types of fitness – just running. It should also be noted that there is a version that doesn’t use GPS, but requires the $29 sensor/antenna to go in your shoe to measure your stride and pace. Considering the GPS version of the app is only $1.99, the choice here is obvious.

When you first start up the app, you’ll want to go to the Settings tab on the lower right and in your profile enter English or Metric, your height, weight and gender. You’ll also want to select a selection of Power Songs, which you will be prompted to play as you approach a goal (you can also play these anytime you want by tapping the screen). Next, you’ll want to register for an account on nikeplus.com, where your running information will be synched, but also where you can select additional challenges, add goals, invite friends to share your progress with, and much more. [It should be noted there is no fee to use these features of the site].

Next, you’ll want to add friends, if you have any, to the app. Unfortunately at the present time, this can only be done through the web site, and does not have the ability to pull in users of Twitter or Facebook, just Gmail. Plus, for me at least, the Gmail import does not seem to work. If it allowed you to add people in your social networks as well as if Gmail worked, this would be a 5-star app in my opinion. So for now, the only way I can add friends to this app is to search by name. If you’d like to friend me in the app, search for me and send me an invite!

You are now ready to run. Get your sturdy earphones ready and start the app. On the home screen it will tell you your total miles using the app on that device. Sorry, but even though you sync data to the web site, if you upgrade devices you will not see your overall total. The site does record and show overall totals, so you don’t lose this data. You can either Start a New Run, Do a Challenge which allows you to try to beat your last runs time, distance or speed, or you can play Tag (a game in which email invites will be sent out for a virtual running version of “Tag, You’re It”). In Tag, the losers are subject to having trash talked about them on their home screen until you win a game of Tag – which I suppose sounds interesting, although as a new runner I have yet to use this feature as I would constantly lose.

To start a new run, you are then prompted to enter Time, Distance or Basic (which just tracks however much you do), pick your playlist for your run, the location and whether to “Get Cheers.” If, in setup, you selected Twitter or Facebook posts (mine posts at the beginning and end of each run), then your friends/followers can comment on this and you will get those “cheers” real time in your app during your run. I personally love this option as it is a great motivator to me. So if you follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook, feel free to give me encouragement and I will do the same. Let’s all get healthy!

Note: there are a ton more features of this app, but half the fun is discovering them for yourself. Play with it, $1.99 towards something that can encourage you to be healthier and ties in your social networks and friends is not wasted money.

Nike+ GPS > My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Filed Under: iPhone/iPad App Reviews Tagged With: App, Fitness, iPhone, Running

2011 Customer Service Resolutions

January 17, 2011 by Shawn Add a Comment (1 Comment)

It’s a fresh year, replete with fresh resolutions. Whether we make such resolutions overtly or not, we should all strive to improve in everything we do. Thus, in contemplating the litany of questions I get around “What will customer service look like in 2011 from the perspective of social media,” I have come up with 10 such resolutions for myself. Admittedly, they are loosely ordered by priority, but outside of the top three I could easily argue any one of their importance.

Remove “social” from my vocabulary – Can we all agree once and for all that it’s Media, not Social Media? And Customer Service, not Social Customer Service? Media is by it’s very nature (at least if it is successful) social. The same can be said for customer service.
We do not have all the answers - Who am I referring to as “we” here? Take a guess. The answer is yes. No one, not a company nor it’s customers, has all the answers all the time.
It’s the customer, stupid – So if you buy into #2 above, then what does that mean? It does mean an open, honest dialogue with your customers. It does not mean the old, in my view false adage that, “the customer is always right” which implies a do-anything to retain them approach.
Everything is important - All data is good data and can be used to either validate, debunk or redirect your approach to creating, marketing and supporting your products and services. It’s what you do with this data that makes you more successful than your competitors.
Understand what you’re looking at before you respond – Don’t rush to judgement or to an answer too hastily. 2010 is littered with examples of how doing each without understanding the context behind the issue can lead to public relations firestorms.
Know your customer – Know who your customers are, their demographics, where they participate socially, and ultimately what they want.
Sometimes the best strategy is identifying what NOT to do – Sometimes it can look like if you aren’t rolling out the newest and freshest doodad, you aren’t doing anything. The art of knowing what, whether and how to avoid can be as valuable as engagement.
Oversaturation can lead to dilution – No company has the resources to answer every question in every networking location throughout their customers social graphs. Know where your customers congregate, and build established and trusted presences there.
KISS (keep it simple stupid) – Do not overtly monetize the social channels from a customer service perspective. Customers are interacting with you in the social realm in all likelihood because they didn’t care for the more traditional help channels. Remember that just because a customer can fix something themselves or find the answer via self help, it is their prerogative to choose NOT to.
The only constant in dealing with today’s customer service challenges is change - In all likelihood, what you need to do for customer service today will be different one, three or six months from now. Once you attain recognition for doing something right, you can bet your competitors will match you within a quarter or two. Do not rest on your laurels once you earn them.

Over the coming weeks, I will discuss each of these 10 items in detail.

Filed Under: Customer Care Tagged With: Customer Service, media, Social Media

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