Archive for November, 2008

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A Poorly Thought-Out Sponsorship?

08.11.15

The Globe and Mail newspaper reports today that at the launch of Waste Reduction Week, hundreds of schoolchildren were given souvenir bags containing bottled water from Nestlé.

To their great credit, the students reacted badly to the Nestlé promotion (Nestlé Waters Canada sponsors the Waste Reduction Week). They wrote to both the recycling council, the corporate sponsors and to the two Ontario government ministers attending the event.

As one student noted:

"Isn’t it strange to talk about not wasting when you gave us a water bottle to waste?"

Meanwhile, although a Liberal MPP’s private members’ bill to ban bottled-water sales was defeated, the City of Toronto is considering whether to ban the sale bottled water in city facilities and the Toronto District School Board is considering banning their sale on school property.

A useful reminder to companies that if your message doesn’t match your actions, people may reject both.

(Image source: Green Union)

Posted in: branding, pr

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The Ethics of Ghost-Writing in Social Media

08.11.13

ethics_session Last night I co-hosted a session on social media ethics with Michael O’Connor Clarke at the Talk Is Cheap 2 conference in Toronto.

Ethics is always guaranteed to generate discussion, as much of it comes down to where you draw your own personal line in the sand. To my delight we had a standing room-only crowd, and we got into some interesting discussions around the ethics involved in engaging using social media (slides are at the end of this post).

One of the more interesting discussions arose around the ethics of ghost writing online.

Ghost writing?

In case you’re not familiar with the terms, “ghost” writing in general refers to (usually professional) writers creating content and then attributing it to someone else.

Note: there’s a difference between ghost blogging, astroturfing (bad) and character blogs like Captain Morgan (dodgy execution – in fact they seem to have packed the blog itself in now – but ok ethically).

Undisclosed ghost blogging is unethical

Undisclosed ghost blogging, while tempered somewhat by the intention behind it, is unethical in my opinion.

Unlike ghost-written speeches, where the spokesperson lends their name and approval to the writing by actually saying the words, ghost-written blogs can be published without the named person ever seeing them. Think, for example, of Kanye West’s blog, which kept publishing posts even after he was arrested this year. The result: brand damage.

When you’re online and especially when using social media tools, I think the expectation is that when you see someone’s name on something then it’s actually that person. That’s the point of “social media,” right? It’s social. If I’m not building a relationship with the person I think I am, there’s something very wrong with that. What’s more, when it becomes apparent that you aren’t who you’re pretending to be, you lose all of the trust you’ve built up with me.

One participant asked why, if ghost blogging is bad, is ghost micro-blogging ok? Twitter accounts like Barack Obama and Stephen Harper aren’t written by those individuals (unless Harper likes to write in the third person), but the participant thought people seemed to think it was ok.

My response: it’s not ok.

I don’t think either of these accounts is ethically sound. Neither are the many accounts like them, whether political or non-political. The staffers are pretending to be someone they’re not. They aren’t ‘hurting’ anyone per se, but they are misleading them.

Disclose

The key point for me is simple: disclose what’s going on. Be transparent.

I’m not completely naive. I don’t expect every politician, most of whom are probably cynical about these tools, to use them personally. I’d love it if they did, but I’m ok with other people writing on their behalf. They just need to disclose that fact.

If these accounts, or the many similar ones to them, simply inserted a quick “Written on behalf of PM Harper by [name]” I’d be absolutely fine with it.

If your CEO doesn’t have time to blog, don’t offer to write it for him and pretend he did it. Either be open and have a disclaimer from him that acknowledges “I don’t write these posts, but I do read them and I stand behind them” or just have a company blog. Then again, consider whether blogging is the right forum for you.

Isn’t it obvious?

One argument that I heard last night is that no-one really believes it’s Obama on the other end of the account anyway.

On Twitter, that might be true as it’s still largely early adopters on here. They’re savvy about this kind of thing. However, I don’t think that excuses it. What’s more, if you consider ‘older’ social media platforms such as blogs, you’re not dealing with people who live and breathe this stuff – you’re dealing with people who are much more likely to take things at face value.

As I said earlier, much of this topic is personal. What do you think? Is ghost blogging unethical to you? Is ghost micro-blogging different?

Slides – The Ethics Of Social Media PR

(Image credit: George Saratlic via TwitPic)

Posted in: ethics, events, social media

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Should Principals Really Do Media Clippings?

08.11.12

In a recent episode of Inside PR, one of the excellent podcasts I mentioned yesterday, the panel members talked about the importance of senior executives in public relations agencies continuing to do the “grunt work.” I meant to phone-in a comment but kept forgetting and decided, in the end, to write about it here instead.

Maintaining your skills is important

I completely agree with most of what the Inside PR crew said.

As Julie Rusciolelli mentioned in a related blog post:

“Senior PR practitioners should never feel so self-important where they don’t need to make a media call or draft a press release.”

For one thing, as they point out, staying involved maintains your executives’ skills. Writing takes practice, and it’s easy to forget how you used to go about it. Media calls are the same, as are many other aspects of communications.

Aside from the practical benefits to the executives, continuing to do the practical work also motivates the more junior employees who see that their boss is still willing to get stuck-in and do some of the heavy lifting.

However…

I think there are some things on which senior execs shouldn’t spend their time, and that wasn’t communicated effectively in the conversation.

One of the panel mentioned media lists. I’m not sure that clients would want to spend $300 per hour for you to create media lists or cut clippings when they could spend $100 or less per hour for the same result.

This isn’t about being too good or too senior to do something, or having worked your way out of having to do it; it’s about providing good value for money to clients.

Experience does matter

Don’t get me wrong – as I said earlier I agree with most of what the team said. In some cases it does make sense for senior practitioners to stay involved and I certainly don’t think you become “too good” for tasks as you move up. What’s more, in some instances experience can result in a superior product. For example:

  • Experienced writers add value by knowing how to structure their work
  • Experienced media relations pros know how to effectively communicate a story to reporters
  • Experienced event planners will see the gaps in event plans before they jeopardize the event.

It also makes sense for experienced team members to stay involved when they’re coaching others. That kind of learning is invaluable.

In other cases, though, this kind of thinking just comes across as people trying too hard to sound humble. Sure, when you’re short-staffed it’s great to know that people are willing and able to chip in. The rest of the time, however, wouldn’t it be better to oversee those things while helping the more junior employees to develop?

Long-term that will provide your client with better value.

(Prior to publishing this post, I contacted a couple of the members of the Inside PR panel to get their reaction. Dave Jones reinforced his valid point from the show that as people move up the ladder they can delegate work, but the responsibility for that work ultimately continues to rest with them. Martin Waxman, meanwhile agreed with my concern about billing rates and suggested that principals lower their rates for that work or provide a blended rate to clients. Thanks for your input, guys)

Posted in: public relations

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Top 12 Communications, Marketing And Social Media Podcasts

08.11.11

I’m a podcast junkie. I listen to them whenever I’m outside, and I get through a lot. It helps that I run marathons, so I spend an hour or two on the trails most nights and have plenty of time to listen.

If you’re into PR and social media and you’re new to podcasting or are looking for a few new shows to check out, here are my current favourites, in no particular order:

Six Pixels of Separation

As I said in a call-in comment to this show last week, Mitch Joel‘s ‘Six Pixels of Separation’ is one of the shows that got me into listening to podcasts. Mitch’s enthusiasm for his subjects is infectious. What’s more, his commentary, insights, interviews and useful tips make for essential listening if you’re even remotely connected to digital marketing.

For Immediate Release

This is another one of the foundations of my podcast playlist. Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson, together with a plethora of regular correspondents, lead their listeners on a bi-weekly tour of the world of communications and social media.

For Immediate Release is divided into several ‘streams’ – the Hobson & Holtz report; book reviews; interviews and live call-in shows. They’re available individually or aggregated together as a single feed.

The regular shows are usually about an hour long, so if you don’t have lots of time for your podcast listening it can be a bit infeasible to listen to them all (I quickly fall behind when I’m not training every day).

Inside PR

The first of several Canadian podcasts on this list, Inside PR is one of the shows that I make a point of listening-to as soon as it is published each week. Hosted by Dave Jones, Martin Waxman, Julie Rusciolelli and the guy-next-door-to-me, Terry Fallis. The show focuses on public relations from an agency perspective, and was actually the first podcast to which I ever listened.

Managing the Gray

Along with Mitch Joel, CC Chapman has one of the most energizing, infectious voices in podcasting. He can be sporadic in posting new episodes sometimes, but the energy level alone makes them worth checking out. I had the pleasure of hanging out with CC at PodCamp Montreal this year, and the energy is there in real life as well. The marketing thoughts in his show are helpful, too…

License to spyCBC Search Engine

This is the first show I listen to every week. Unfortunately Jesse Brown’s lively, insightful show got cut from the CBC’s regular schedule and the length has suffered from the lack of resources Jesse now has. Regardless, it’s still essential listening for me. It doesn’t hurt that I love the way the show is structured – the music, the tone, the topics all fit together perfectly.

CBC Spark

Nora Young hosts Spark, another CBC podcast which explores issues in technology and culture. I met Nora and her colleague Dan Misener at Podcasters Across Borders this year

Media Bullseye Radio Roundtable

The most recent addition to my list (as the folks at Custom Scoop just added it to iTunes); every week Jen Zingsheim and Chip Griffin invite a different person from the social media sphere to join them for a discussion of the latest news in the blogosphere. The different speakers each episode mean there’s always a new perspective on things. Well worth checking out.

PRobecast

The cast of PRobecast has changed over time as people have come and gone from the Topaz Partners team, but the show has retained its focus on social media and public relations. Nowadays the cast includes a couple of people who are new to/haven’t bought-in to the social media ‘thing’ so there are plenty of interesting discussions.

Marketing Over Coffee

Christopher Penn and John Wall meet at a Boston-area Dunkin Donuts every week to discuss the latest in marketing trends and techniques. I have a habit of referring to the show as “Spam over Coffee” due to their focus on email marketing, but whichever way you cut it, there’s more knowledge jammed into each show than I possess in total.

(Also check out John’s other show, The M Show, for his take on recent news and entertainment happenings; and Christopher’s Financial Aid Podcast for… well… financial advice.)

Trafcom News

The lovely Donna Papacosta’s podcast is one of the more irregular shows on my listening list, but it’s worth it for the useful, practical podcasting and audio production tips, and Donna’s dulcet tones (she’s like an audio massage).

Shill

One of the more irreverent shows on my list, this one makes it on here due to its occasional tangential mentions of PR and marketing. I primarily listen to Shill for amusement while telling myself it’s educational.

With an apparently random show schedule, Dave Jones and Doug Walker take a tour through whatever catches their attention at the time. Throw-in the occasional F-bomb, plenty of self-mockery and copious ribbing of their listener, and you’ve got a thoroughly amusing show (to me, anyway… but what do I know?).

Tip: The show notes are often as amusing as the podcast itself.

Media Driving

The show title is apt, as Jay Moonah quite literally drives while recording this podcast (I wonder how that will work with Ontario’s proposed new cellphone driving law…)! The shortest show on my playlist, the ever bubbly Jay usually gets into just one topic within the umbrella of “communications, content, messages and marketing” on each show. This makesMedia Driving perfect for when you’ve got a spare minute or 10 on your hands.

So now you know what I’m listening to. What about you?

Posted in: podcast

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Eight Tips For Difficult Client Conversations

08.11.10

Kerri Birtch, our latest hire in the Toronto office of Thornley Fallis, wrote a post on the PR Girlz blog recently talking about the art of consulting from the perspective of a new account coordinator.

One of Kerri’s more insightful thoughts:

…it’s not nearly as easy as some might think.

Here’s why:

We work for them, but we may not always agree with everything they ask of us. I think the key is balancing their wants with what you as the consultant feel they need.

Kerri neatly summarizes one of the founding principles of our firm – we tell our clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

Unfortunately, sometimes that means having difficult conversations with your clients. Here are seven tips for making those conversations as conflict-free and effective as possible.

1. Explain the implications of their approach

Organizations bring us in to offer our expertise in communications and social media. They aren’t necessarily experts in these areas. As a result, they may not realize the implications of some of the ideas they have. Chances are, they don’t really want to act ineffectively or unethically; they just don’t realize that they’ll be ineffective or unethical. Remembering this fact enables you to approach potentially awkward discussions delicately so you can avoid any embarrassment on either side.

2. Find other solutions

Try to avoid saying a straight “no” to the client if possible. If possible, come up with palatable alternatives that leave you closer to a solution than “no” would do.

3. Remember that they are the experts on their business

Your bright new idea may sound great to you, but remember that while you’ve studied-up on your clients, their expertise in their business is still an order of magnitude higher than your knowledge. They may know of factors that affect your work, about which you know nothing.

4. Don’t be afraid to disagree

Your clients may come to you with ideas that you believe simply won’t work. It’s your job to tell them that. Simply agreeing to implement ill-advised ideas does them – and you – no favours. It wastes their money and lowers your credibility, both with the client (who doesn’t see any good results) and perhaps with your media contacts (who see you pitching non-news to them).

You offer the best value for money when, rather than being a “yes man,” you offer useful, honest advice.

5. Think it through in advance

If you have the opportunity, take five or 10 minutes to think the conversation and your approach through in advance. Jot down a few notes if it helps. It’s much easier to have those tough conversations when your case is clear, organized and well presented.

6. Look to maximize the length of your relationship, not the budget

As I’ve often heard around the office, being a full-service agency it doesn’t mean we’ll suggest every service for our clients. Throwing-in a bunch of tactics that don’t fit the situation might maximize your short-term budget, but if you suggest the appropriate tactics you’re more likely to have a long-lasting relationship with a satisfied client.

7. Remember it’s their choice

This was something I learned early-on in my time in government: regardless of whether your client is a government minister or an organization, your job is to give them the best advice you possibly can, then carry out their wishes.

Sometimes clients will take your advice. However, sometimes they’ll listen, thank you and choose to approach things differently. When the latter happens, as long as it’s ethical, within your contract’s scope and budget and as long as you’ve explained the likely outcomes, you have to respect their decision and implement it to the full extent of your ability.

8. Stick to your principles

Sometimes you may be asked to do things that go against your principles. My advice is to politely but firmly stick to your principles. While doing so, respect point #1 above – they may not realize the implications of their approach.

If necessary, tell them you’ll get back to them on their ideas then talk it over with your manager, but don’t compromise on your principles.

How do you approach those difficult client conversations?

Related articles

Posted in: consulting, public relations

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How Often Do You Question Assumptions?

08.11.07

We began a brainstorming session at work yesterday by going over a list of a potential client’s strengths – community presence, relationships with suppliers, and so on. Part-way into the discussion, I stopped and asked, "are these really their strengths?"

The potential client gave us that list of strengths; people had assumed that they were correct. Once we’d started to question that assumption, we were able to consider: were they really strengths, or just how the client wanted people to perceive them?

Last month I structured a proposal around a challenge to one of the potential client’s assumptions. We walked into the room and suggested that the situation wasn’t as they saw it.

We progressed to the next stage of the bid.

Not questioning assumptions… not asking the tough questions… can be dangerous. It allows falsehoods to go unchallenged and allows ineffective approaches to continue.

Is that really…?

Frequently ask yourself:

  • Is that really the situation?
  • Is that really the only approach we could take?
  • Is that really a good tactic?
  • Is that really worth their money?

Challenge your assumptions and challenge those of others. Often the assumptions will be right, but it’s worth doing it for the times when they aren’t.

Posted in: strategy

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Integrated Communications – Not Social Media – Won The Election

08.11.05

Jennifer Leggio wrote today that Obama won the election – not social media:

I believe the big snake oil spotlight shines down upon us brightly — and justifiably — whenever we try to credit social media with a success that isn’t really a rightful success for it to claim. The 2008 election, and President-Elect Barack Obama’s triumph, is one such example.

Once again, as Jennifer often manages, she got me thinking. Ultimately I both agree and disagree with various parts of Jennifer’s post.

Social media didn’t win the election

To claim that social media won the election for Obama would be ludicrous. As Jennifer points out, the economy, candidate choices, platform positions and other factors had much more of a direct impact (in my humble opinion) than the videos, networks and other forms of media that the Obama campaign used.

Social media did play a part

With that said, I do believe that to claim that social media had no part in the victory is also false. Consider the Obama campaign’s ability to motivate young people or their astonishing ability to raise donations through small individual contributions. Social media likely had an impact on these factors, which in turn had an impact on the broader campaign.

The importance of Obama’s tightly-integrated communications strategy

It would be almost impossible to single-out one thing that won the election. The political environment alone, with an unpopular president and an economy in disarray, likely had a large impact. The choice of Sarah Palin as McCain’s running-mate was another. Neither of these was under Obama’s control.

Like it or not, the best policy in the world can be useless if it’s not communicated effectively. One thing was clear – that Obama’s campaign featured a tightly-integrated, well-produced communications campaign from start to finish.

Todd Defren described the Obama campaign’s roll-out as “meticulously planned” and I have to agree. As Media Bistro’s PR Newser noted today, it was disciplined and on-message throughout. That strategy (not just the social media) enabled his team to ride over the bumps, to capitalize on his opponents’ mistakes and to communicate his messages effectively.

I’ve argued for a while that social media can’t stand alone; that it has to be integrated with other communications tactics to increase the chance of it being successful. Social media was an integral part of Obama’s campaign – it was integrated throughout the strategy.

Social media didn’t win the election. However, a tightly-integrated communications strategy, of which social media was an important part, went a long way towards it.

Posted in: social media, strategy

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Five Tips For Pitching Me

08.11.04

As time goes on and the number of readers of this site slowly grows, I’m receiving an ever-increasing number of pitches from people hoping that I’ll write about their product, service or news. Very few of them are any good.

Occasionally I receive a good pitch. Sometimes I’ll even write about good blogger outreach. On the other hand, if I receive a bad pitch there’s a chance I may write about that too.

I’m open to people pitching me. If you read my site over time, then you already know me and you probably know how I like to be pitched. However, I know how the communications business works. Unfortunately, if you have a new client or you’re new to an account the chances are fairly high that you won’t have the time (or budget, for that matter) to dig way back in every blogger’s archives to see what they’ve written about pitching.

So, today I’m following in the footsteps of people like Jason Falls and Todd Defren have also done – I’m publishing a set of tips on how to pitch me. When I have a spare second, I’ve also added this to my blog header so it’s available on every page of this site.

I don’t need special treatment (quite frankly I’m astonished that anyone wants me to write about them). In general, if you follow these tips you’ll likely do ok pitching most bloggers. If, on the other hand, you send me what I consider a bad pitch:

  1. I’m not going to read it
  2. You’re wasting your time and/or your client’s money.

Hopefully this will help at least one person to change the way they approach pitching. If you have your own site, you may want to consider doing the same thing yourself. Who knows, it may help to improve the pitches you receive. If not, at least you’ll have a page to point people to when they spam you.

Five (plus one) tips

If you’re about to pitch me, I have five tips for you (plus one for luck):

  1. Know what I write about
  2. Know where I live
  3. Remember my name
  4. Write to me personally
  5. Use the ‘to’ field in your email
  6. Bonus: Get to know me first

#1: Know what I write about

I write about social media, communications and marketing. If your pitch isn’t about one of those topics, you should refine your target list.

#2: Know where I live

I live in Toronto. If your event is in San Francisco and you’re not planning to fly me down there, I’m not likely to be interested. If it’s in Toronto, however, you’re on the mark.

#3: Remember my name

It’s in the URL of the blog and at the top of every page. It’s Dave Fleet. Not “Dear Blogger” or “Dear Sir/Madam.” Thanks!

#4: Write to me personally

I’m a person. I appreciate a personal email that acknowledges why the pitch is relevant to me, breaks the ice and shows that I’m not just another email address on a list. I don’t mind if you copy a press release at the bottom of the email, or provide me with a link. If that’s all you send me, though, I’m not reading past the headline.

#5: Use the ‘to’ field in your email

Simply put, if you ‘bcc’ me on an email it’s game over. Odds are that if you follow the other guidelines above, you won’t do this.

#6: Bonus: Get to know me first

I’m more likely to read your email if I already know you. It doesn’t guarantee that I’ll write about your topic – especially if you don’t follow the other tips here – but the odds go up substantially. I’m not hard to find – try here.

Sound reasonable to you?

Posted in: how to, pitching

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Practical 101s: Tips For New Twitter Users

08.11.03

Twitter logo This post is a follow-up to my recent "Getting Started on Twitter" post. If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide to setting-up an account and using Twitter for the first time, I suggest you start there.

So, you now have a Twitter account and you’re raring to go. But what do you do?

This post gives my suggestions for how to get the most out of Twitter. These are based on my experience and some people may disagree with some of the points; that’s fine (feel free to say so in the comments). Much of this comes down to personal preference.

Let’s get started. I have eight tips for you:

  1. Start slowly
  2. Follow the ‘right’ people
  3. Don’t spam
  4. Interact with others
  5. Post substantial messages
  6. Do more than just self-promote
  7. Set-up searches for relevant topics
  8. Make the most of the tools available

Tip #1: Start slowly

Twitter can take a lot of getting used-to. One of the hardest things to deal with is the sheer number of posts you’ll see.

Start slowly. Follow a few people at a time. When you first start, I suggest following no more than 30-50 until you get used to it.

Reason #1 for this: if people see that you’ve followed hundreds or thousands of people and that only a few are following you, they may assume you’re a spammer and just ignore or block you (or worse, report you as a spammer).

If you want to, you can let the number of people you follow grow over time. Bear in mind that as the number of people you follow goes up, you will need to change how you use Twitter. Whether you want to do that or not comes down to personal preference.

I currently ‘follow’ around 700 people, which is towards the upper end of my tolerance. At that number, a message will scroll off my screen, to be replaced by others, in about a minute. In order to follow that many people, I have to accept that I won’t see every message that people post. Instead, I dip in and out every so often, check the last few messages posted and look for trends.

If you would rather read every message from the people you follow, I suggest you keep the number of people you follow down.

Regardless, start slowly or it will get overwhelming.

Tip #2: Follow the ‘right’ people

One of the most common complaints I hear about Twitter is that "people are always just posting what they had for lunch" or similar.

My response: People who have that problem are following the wrong people.

What constitutes the ‘right’ people will be different for everyone, as we all have different friends, interests and preferences for how to use Twitter.

Back in January I wrote a post looking at how people find other people to follow. I polled my Twitter contacts to get their thoughts, too. Four trends emerged:

  1. Friends: First and foremost, people follow those that they know.
  2. People That Others Follow: People rely on the quality of their friends’ friends.
  3. Similar Interests: People look for other users with similar interests that they can learn from.
  4. Conversation: People gravitate towards people who are involved in interesting conversations. One-way information pushing doesn’t work.

Earlier this year Chris Brogan started a wiki called Twitter Packs, where you can find lists of Twitter users divided into groups by topic, by location, by company and by events. As a new user, this is a great resource if you’re not sure where to start. I also suggest you check out my post on how to get the most out of Twitter Packs before you dive in.

If you like, you can stick to following people you know. That’s absolutely fine. However, I have derived huge benefits from expanding my online circle in Twitter and connecting to people with similar interests.

Some people argue that you should follow everyone who follows you. I don’t buy that for a second. That’s like saying you have to be friends with someone simply because they want to be friends with you, regardless of who they are.

Follow the people you want to interact with and don’t be afraid to click the ‘un-follow’ button.

Tip #3: Don’t spam

Spam

As Twitter has grown in usage, it has seen a growth in people/companies simply posting automated messages to their account.

In my view, that’s unfortunate and, in most cases, a fruitless attempt to drive traffic using old-school spamming techniques (there are exceptions, for example, BreakingNews or GlobeandMail, which offer good reasons to follow their updates).

Twitter has now set up a spam account to which people can report spammers, and continues its efforts to fight them. Don’t be one of the people caught.

Tip #4: Interact with others

This is another one of those ‘personal’ choices. I strongly advise you to use a large proportion of your messages to interact with other people.

Why?

  1. To get to ‘know’ people
  2. To learn from them
  3. To build a community

Now, some people choose not to do this with their accounts. That’s fine, to an extent, but unless there’s a good reason to read your messages, you may find you’re talking to yourself as few people will follow you.

Looking at my last 20 tweets, 13 of them were to other people.

Use the ‘@’ function frequently and you’re likely to get much more out of Twitter.

Tip #5: Post substantial messages

Remember the complaint I mentioned about people posting about their lunch?

That’s what I’m talking about.

If you want to post the occasional pithy comment that’s fine. However, if your Twitter stream is full of messages like that, people will unfollow you in droves.

Again, the type of things you post is very personal, so rather than telling you what to post, here’s what I tend to post:

  • Links to interesting articles or posts
  • My opinions on articles
  • Thoughts on current events
  • Conversations I have with others

Tip #6: Do more than just self-promote

Don’t get me wrong here – I think some self-promotion is ok (I have the Twitter Tools plugin installed on davefleet.com, which automatically tweets my latest blog posts). However, if that’s all you use your Twitter account for, you’re missing out.

Try to set a good balance between the messages you post about your own properties and the messages you post on other topics.

The end result if you only self-promote without providing some value: you guessed it – people won’t listen.

Tip #7: Set up searches for relevant topics

If you want to turbo-charge your Twitter experience, set up some searches for topics relevant to you.

The way you do this is up to you. You can do it using Twitter Search and keep that open in your browser; you can pump the Twitter Search results into an RSS reader, or you can use a third-party application to do the searching.

You can divide these searches into two categories:

  1. Search for yourself
  2. Search for other people and topics

1. Search for yourself

Twitter’s ‘replies’ function is pretty basic – it only shows you messages that begin with "@[your username]." Other applications like Twhirl or Twitterific offer an improved replies function, but I find it very useful to have a search set-up for myself anyway – every so often something seems to slip through.

2. Search for other people and topics

Are you interested in marathon running? Set up a search for "marathon" and see what people are saying. Interested in politics? Set up a search for "Obama" or "McCain." Using Twitter on behalf of a company? Search for your company name and those of your competitors.

Tweetdeck really is king for this kind of searching – set up all of your searches in one application.

Tip #8: Make the most of the tools available

My previous post on Twitter looked at a couple of the tools available to help you use Twitter. However, Brian Solis has a comprehensive list of the plethora of tools available. Check it out, and use them to make your Twitter experience simpler, easier and more enjoyable.

What tips would you offer?

There you have it – seven tips for newcomers to Twitter.

What other advice would you offer to people who are just getting started?

This post is part of an ongoing series of ‘practical 101′ posts on public relations and social media topics. For other, similar advice, check out the ‘practical 101′ series. What else would you like to see a practical 101 for? Let me know in the comments!

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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Posted in: 101, how to, social media, Twitter

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What’s Your Favourite Tool For Monitoring Conversations?

08.11.01

I’ve been thinking a lot about social media monitoring recently. I’m presenting on the topic at a couple of upcoming conferences, and I’m spending an increasing amount of time working in this area in my day job.

623562_whispered_secret_1As conversations become increasingly fragmented – blogs and discussion boards/forums are no longer the only source of discussion out there – they’re becoming increasingly more complex to monitor.

What’s more, there are thousands upon thousands of conversations happening, in real-time, online. The sheer quantity is almost overwhelming and it’s only going up.

So what do we do?

There are plenty of tools out there that let us monitor online conversations…

…the free ones, for example…

…and the professional ones, for example…

The search and monitoring tools out there are almost as diverse as the media we’re monitoring, and I’m seeing increasing interest from organizations in using these tools to listen.

So, I have a question for you:

What is your favourite monitoring tool (or tools)?

What have you found to be the most comprehensive/easiest to use/most logical/most cost effective?

What services might the rest of us have missed?

(If you want to hear more about social media monitoring, I’m presenting a workshop on the topic as part of a "Social Media Master Class" at The Canadian Institute’s Social Media conference in December and I’m doing a session on the topic at PodCamp Toronto 2009.)

Posted in: measurement, social media

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