Here are the notes from the networking event at the Hawaii Chapter of the Social Media Club: Build a Social Media Strategy. We mixed up our format to complement the venue, Ka Restaurant. We met in the intimate (read: packed!) lounge room for a brief presentation of the highlights of social media strategy. Presenters were Tara Coomans, Rob Bertholf, and myself. We were limited to one slide each, plus the cheat sheet that we posted on all the tables scattered throughout the bar – and to where we adjourned for robust conversation after the overview. Download the PDF here.

Tons of links at the end of this post; get your goodies there!

Building a Social Media Strategy is like building any strategy: you start with that brilliant question, “What’s the point?” The catch with many of us in these rushed times is that we tend to jump into social media before thinking about strategy, and then forget to come back and revisit why we jumped in, in the first place! It is very easy to get sucked into the stream of activity and distractions, playing a few rounds of copy cat, and then being stuck having to write an annual report that basically says, “Well, we were really busy this year but don’t have a clue what we actually accomplished!”

This SMCHI meeting was an antidote to that. And, it used our guiding principle of “If you get it, share it” to bring us together as business collaborators. Of course, there were companies in attendance who normally think of themselves as competitors, but the beauty of social media is that we actually can help all of our businesses grow though collaboration. Just like how the gas stations learned long ago to all set up on the same corner.

Another aspect of social media at present, is that there are so many tools to use and it is not easy or obvious to know which ones are more efficient at specific tasks. I find people complaining that they don’t get results with SM, however when I look at their platforms in use and the activity taking place, I can see why. ;-) Twitter is the easiest example – where people start accounts, post some things, yet aren’t aware of the faux pas they are creating or the opportunities they are missing by not using links, keywords, and etiquette to their best advantage. As we help each other get smarter, our Hawaii business community gets stronger.

The concept was simple, even if the execution is not so easy – pretty much a metaphor for our evening. Seems the flat screens at Ka require a very obscure cable: VGA to RCA. Not being able to secure one in time, we could not use the TVs for the intended live Twitter stream. Nonetheless, we pursued our goals and you can see the results by searching “smchi” on Twitter. Here’s a screen shot with a curated sample of some of my favorites! (Click the image to see full size.)

We are purchasing a couple of those mystery cables and will be gifting one to Ka Restaurant so other groups who meet there will have an easy process of connecting their laptop media to the house screens. We’ll be heading back there December 15 for our Social Media Year in Review Party. Please join us!

Thanks for reading! Here are the goodies I promised above.
Handouts that we shared can be dowloaded here. Thanks to Tara Coomans for posting those.

You can the slides and photos from this event on Flickr.

You can view the live stream video of the presentation on uStream.tv.

You can play with the interactive Social Technographics Tool from Forrester Research.

Follow the tag #smchi on Twitter to catch some of the comments from the evening. (And remember, if you don’t include the tag, it’s nearly impossible for us to include you in the conversation and discover you!)

You can see who attended this event on our RSVP page.

Mahalo to Lululemon for donating a $25 Gift Certificate. Lucky winner was @lorenawire (photo attached of the cool Lululemon bags.) YOU can win a free yoga class, just by checking in to Facebook Places the next time you are at a Lululemon store. We have one here in Honolulu at Ala Moana Center. Tell them Tess sent you!

Aloha,

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We had an open forum on Facebook at the March meeting of Social Media Club Hawaii, held free of charge courtesy of ING Direct Cafe in Waikīkī. People were invited to submit questions and tips in advance. We shared these at the meeting, while my colleague Rob Bertholf and I moderated the meeting and added several tips, along with Joel Tomyl, Tara Coomans, Vernon Brown, Angie Blaisdell, Jon Lewis, and Bruce Fisher while Tess Staadecker managed the live video stream and chat. Looks like we forgot to hit the record button on the love video streaming, so we don’t have that this month. Look at the Flickr photos here.

Privacy Issues on Facebook

• Use Lists to organize your friends in to groups.
• Use your Privacy Settings to adjust who can see what.
• Additional privacy settings are available under many of your Tabs.
• Check monthly as Facebook changes their TOS (terms of Service) frequently.
• Test what others can see by going to My Account > Privacy and typing someone’s name in.
• Some say forget worrying about privacy – if you are a business, you want to get as much exposure as you can.
• When posting content, use the “except” feature to post only to selected people.

Advertising on Facebook

• Go to the Create an Ad link from your page or account and walk through the steps to test all of the available options.
• You can add one photo, one link, and a small amount of text. You can see how the ad will look as you are creating it
• You will be able to target your ad very specifically: by age, gender, location, education, keywords, etc. You can also have it display friends who are also fans.
• You can use pay per click or pay per view; most people felt pay per click is more reliable.
• You can set the amount you want to pay per day and per click. Individuals can go into Account Settings and choose to block all ads.
• Facebook has advertising standards: no X-rated, etc. Read common mistakes here; the full Ad Guidelines are here.
• Run several different, short term, targeted ads first to test response. Watch your ad stats
.

Increasing Fans & Best Practices for Fan Pages

• Post frequently with useful, interesting tips and links (not just selling.)
• Look at stats to see what types of links are most popular.
• Provide Facebook-only coupons to create interest and motivate action.
• Add a Facebook Page widget to your blog so you can add fans from outside FB.
• Send Facebook links to your regular email list
• Offer discount codes your fans can retweet/repost.
• Poll your fans on topics of interest.
• Use the FBML application to customize your page.
• Target non-fans with a unique URL when they land on your page and provide custom messaging.
• Fan pages are more for customer retention than customer gain; talk to them accordingly.

Saving Time by Cross-Posting Content to more than One Social Network

• WordPress Plugin for Facebook: Wordbook
• On other sites, use the FB login, such as Trip Advisor.
• On your blog/website, provide links to your other networks on every page.
• Here are some applications you can use to post simultaneously in one place:
HootSuite Chi.mp Ping.fm Twitterfeed to auto post your blog entries to Twitter Blog RSS Reader Facebook App

Credibility of social messages and people connections

• Facebook is now subject to phishing emails; don’t follow links from email! If it is a legitimate request, you will see them when you log in to your FB account directly or “by hand” in the browser. (Same goes for other social networks, gmail, PayPal, your bank, etc.)
• Some people do create multiple accounts on the same network; in some cases it is legitimate as people want a personal and a professional profile. In other cases it can be as a poseur.
• Look at the quality of a person’s feed or entries: are they just adding links or are they engaging in legitimate conversation? Do you know any of their friends?
• Check out their main website: are there many pages of authentic content? Or are there “coming soon” pages? Do they provide verifiable testimonials and clients?
• When choosing friends, many recommended to be more selective on your personal account and to be very “open tent” on business fan pages. In other words, practice non-discrimination on your business page
.

Pro Tips from Mari Smith

• To help build “social equity,” generously share relevant content…with no agenda.
• To increase fan page “stickiness” (fans keep coming back for more) and fan engagement, thank and acknowledge fans. Often.
• Use their first names. With a string of comments, reply using ”@name” (a person’s first name is the sweetest sounding word in their vocabulary!).
• If you know (or can find out) a fan’s Twitter ID, also send out acknowledging tweets from time to time!

Aloha,

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I participated in a panel on social media for nonprofits today, hosted by the Hawaii Community Foundation. It was held at the beautiful Hawaii Convention Center, and I was joined by colleagues Christine Lu, Chris Noble, and Olin Lagon. Local newscaster Dan Cooke was our social media-savvy moderator.

We made a last minute decision to live-stream the presentations, which were held in the morning and afternoon sessions. This may sound crazy, but I can feel a palpable energy boost in the room when I am live-streaming. The attention of the extended audience “out there” on the internet, does come into the room! We had close to 50 people, from as far away as Detroit, Michigan, and many from the neighbor islands, including @EastHawaiiArts who could not make it in person.

I was really impressed with the quality of questions and the passion that lit up in so many people’s eyes! In the brief conversations I had with folks afterwards, the ideas they had already generated were amazing! We talked about organizing some training to help people set up their accounts and learn how to start telling their powerful stories. If you are interested, please join the mailing list at our training site, KnowHow Cafe, so you will receive notifications about upcoming events! (Use coupon “rox” so we know how you found us please! And everyone who signs up receives a Free eBook on creating your online identity.)

I am using yet another social network, SlideShare, to post the slides from my overview segment, and added the audio sound track – as captured by the live video stream!

View the slides and audio on SlideShare. (13:26)
Watch the entire sessions recorded from the live stream at uStream.tv.

UPDATE: Here is some coverage of this event.
Wayne Yohioka of Hawaii Public Radio with highlights of our session.
Olin posted his video and blog at KanuHawaii.org. While there, please join and add your actions of support to the community.

Mahalos to Kaimana Pine and Neenz Faleafine who helped keep the conversation alive in the live stream chat room yesterday.

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I was invited to speak last week at the Sales and Marketing Executives meeting here in Honolulu, which featured Governor Linda Lingle as the keynote speaker. The topic was “Using Social Media to Differentiate.” I have posted my presentation file at Slideshare and also uploaded the five video episode snips I created to represent a few of the many case studies in the talk.

You can view the slide show here.
You can download a PDF of the slides here.

David Jones v Microchip

Watch the original video from David Jones.
Watch the original video from Microchip.

Blendtec Listens to & Surprises Customers

Watch the original video.

Johnson & Johnson Shares Even the Bad News

Watch the original video.

Gary Vaynerchuk Says Stop Waiting

Watch the original video.

The US Navy’s Social Media Policy

Watch the original video.

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Does it feel like 1999 all over again?

Remember when you didn’t think you needed a web site because you had a brochure?

Confused by all the hype surrounding blogs, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook?

Then Social Web Bootcamp is for you. It’s a one day program that takes you from the 30,000’ view of how things work all the way down to live demos for creating a blog, a Twitter account, and setting up your social networking identity.

Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Time: 9 am – 4 pm
Place: ING Direct Cafe – 1958 Kalakaua Ave, Honolulu, HI

A decade ago when the internet was really taking off, I used to tell people not to feel pressured to get a web site for their business. After all, I said, the internet is not going away and you have time to figure things out.

I no longer say that.

Now, I tell people that the longer they wait, the steeper the learning curve. New interactive web applications are being created every month. Everyone can be a publisher. You no longer control access to information about you and your business. It’s been building for several years, and now we’ve reached critical mass.

If you are still trying to figure out what all this is or what it means to your business, or how and where to get started, we’ve got a program for you. Plus, you receive a $30 discount as a member of the KnowHow Cafe mailing list. Please visit our sister site, KnowHow Cafe to read more about the Social Web Bootcamp and register.

I hope to see soon!
Aloha,

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We have the antidote to yesterday’s post on how to learn what you don’t know!
We are launching a new business that is all about training. We’ve helped out clients be incredibly successful on the web over the past 14 years, and we want to share this knowledge with others. We also want to do it for a lower price than our private hourly rates and we want to be able to reach many more people.

Because our phone keeps ringing (and that takes us away from actually building the site!) we are holding some live classes here in Honolulu in the interim.  Please join our mailing list to stay informed of updates and go check out the three classes we are offering in July 2009 for your education and business benefit!

Please use promo code “bfs” and receive a free eBook on Online Identity when you join the list. It’s the first place to start when getting active on the social web. Or as The Week would say, “Boring but Important.”

We can also bring private, targeted classes to your office or association too.

A Reason to Visit Hawaii?
Maybe this would be a good time and reason to book a trip to Hawaii. Airfares and hotel rates are down; I would be happy to connect you with my many tourism colleagues who would be delighted to personally assist you. Here are just a few:

Hawaii-Aloha.com - Ask for Bruce Fisher; or on Twitter
Starwood Hawaii - Ask for Candice Krauto; or on Twitter
Hawaiian Airlines – Follow them on Twitter too
Hilton Waikiki Prince Kuhio

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I am speaking on a Social Web Panel at the YWCA this week on Tuesday, May 5th, along with Laurel Boylen of chi.mp and Kelly Mitchell of Prudential. Here is a little blurb I wrote for their newsletter as supporting inspiration.

The talk is for members only; maybe this is a good time to join?

I just did!

The social web is all about connecting with others and having conversations. The foundational question that is continuously asked in the background of peoples minds is, “Who are you?” This is answered in everything you do online. Every email you send, every screen name you create, every network you join, and the people with whom you connect, all add to the collective definition of who you are as perceived by others.

UPDATE June 30, 2009: The YWCA has posted photos here from the event.

The internet is also an archive, and there are sites (such as www.archive.org) that are capturing copies of nearly every web page. So even if you remove a page that was the “old you” it’s probably still out there. The bad news to some is that those old hair styles you wore can still be found, but the bigger good news IMO (in my opinion) is that you can let go of trying to be perfect every single day. The aspects of humanity that make us most lovable and most real, are our slips as much as our achievements.

Whether you are communicating for a company where you work or only on your own web sites, you are showing the world who you are, how you think, and what you stand for. That is enormously helpful to others in deciding whether they want to move closer or walk on by.

This is incredibly liberating!

You no longer have to bland yourself down to be palatable to “everyone.” You can be YOU and that actually makes it easier for people to find you who want someone just like you.

Aloha,

Related Post:
Finding Your New Media Voice

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Though many traditional businesses are still sitting on the sidelines studying how the “not new anymore” social web tools work, the people are taking it to the trees and creating events for social benefit. So I am delighted to present a brief case study for your consideration.

The latest of these is Twestival, a global event designed to have simultaneous fund-raising efforts in 175 cities to raise money and awareness for better access to clean water. The target recipient was charity:water.

From @VBrown of 808talk.com, the man who initiated the event: “Basics: started planning jan 28 at a table ala moana food court. Sold 167 tix online over 35 at door.”

It is a pretty straightforward formula:

• Someone gets an idea, creates a tag, and starts promoting it on Twitter and blogs.
• Thought leaders eagerly claim their turf in local communities as word spreads rapidly.
• Volunteers come on board, wanting to be part of something bigger than themselves.
• Sponsors are enlisted to help underwrite the fixed costs.
• Social web tools (free) are used to promote the event, collect donations, organize tasks, and make this thing happen.
• The event features entertainment, donated food, video monitors showing facts about the charity:water cause, and lots of live-streaming, live Twittering, and like-Flickring of the event, generating thousands of impressions for each local event, including the sponsors.

The results are overwhelmingly positive:

• Sponsors get outstanding response for their investment.
• Charities effortlessly find dedicated volunteers; the charity itself only had to provide information. All of the leg work was done by formerly unidentified volunteers.
• Individuals can hardly find easier ways to make a difference – something so valuable in these times when problems seem so huge and insurmountable.
• Enormous sums of money are raised, over $7000 just from Honolulu alone.

What about the intangible business results?

• If you search Google for “charity:water” there are now an astounding 32.7 million results.
• If you search Twitter for the hashtag, ”#twestival”, you can easily learn about the event from around the world, and keep in mind these voices from the collective also are freely helping create search results from the bottom of their hearts.
• If you search Flickr for “hitwestival”, you can witness the event in living color from the people who attended, took pictures, then tagged them.
• Local musicians donated their services yet found new fans and were beamed live around the world. (See list below.)
• Local artists, like @valdezign, share talents to create a logo and get lots of free attention, otherwise hard and expensive to buy.
• The mainstream press takes notice, like the NY Times and those of us who participated can even leave a comment there and further brag about “our” local event. (Mind you, I was only a participant on this one – adding a few tweets to the pool, buying a ticket, making a donation, buying a t-shirt, and live-streaming the event – all done on the fly in the last 48 hours.)
• In less than 24 hours after the event, you can read the results on numerous blogs, including this one.
• Etc. I hope you get the picture now.

Here’s some link love for the Planners and Volunteers:
Arleen Anderson (@AlohaArleen)
Vernon Brown (@VBrown)
L.P. ”NEENZ” Faleafine (@NEENZ)
Nathan Kam (@NathanKam)
Susie Lin (@susielin)
Matt Matsumoto (@matmatsu)
Kelly Mitchell (@HawaiiRealty)
Paul (@twirrim)
Tammi (@alohaTammi)
Judi Clark (@judico)

More link love fro the Musicians:
Guy Cruz
Anuhea
Mailani Maikainai
Jama Hang
Sunset

Further Reading
See all of the players, including the sponsors and prize donors, on the HiTwestival Wiki.

Reed Ryan’s colorful play-by-play coverage to get a feeling for how this event unfolded.

Learn more about how to use Social Media to Promote Your Event.

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This post is a summary of the conversation we had at the Hawaii Advertising Federation Conference. Please feel free to join in. Tip: Lots of links here, so right-click or control-click to open them in a new window.

Advertising online is fraught with challenges. Most web savvy consumers have learned to tune them out, as people are increasingly displeased with advertising in general. A large part is due to ads getting noisier and more ubiquitous. I was on a US Air flight recently and when it came time for drinks, and the tray tops came down covered in ads, I heard three different people complain out loud. People are tired of the intrusiveness and one-way-ness of most ad messaging. They want to have conversations that are two-way. The nice way to put this, is that advertising is due for an upgrade.

Since my expertise in online, the underlying theme today was to convey how the internet is a foreign country. It has it’s own practices, many of which are the opposite of their offline counterparts. The pace is faster, the look and feel is less polished in most cases, the interactivity is high, and there is a good chance someone is talking about you whether you know it or not. You may use email, Google, and have your own website. (That’s web 1.0). To be a successful traveler, you’ve got to leave the Holiday Inn in this foreign country and go out to meet the vocal locals. (That’s web 2.0.) The social web is filled opportunities and pitfalls for advertisers.

A Few of Our Group Metrics

• Most of the 70 or so people in the room had read a blog before.
• Less than 10 had left a comment on a blog.
• 2 had written in a blog.
• About 10 belonged to LinkedIn.

• 1 person was on Twitter.

  Benefits and Buzzwords
  Your power comes from joining the conversation. At it’s most basic form, by adding a comment, you create a valued in-bound link back to your web site. You also add your point of view. You can in many cases claim thought leadership for your company, for your industry, for your customers, for your vendors. Read my post on how and when to leave blog comments.

  Remember relationship marketing? The tools and apps (applications) of web 2.0 are relationship marketing on steroids. People stay longer on sites that allow them to do something other than read some text or look at a some pictures. On blogs and socnets (social networks) people click through to more pages. That translates into longer session times and more page views which are a resource you can sell, or sell ads on. And the relationships you build with your visitors? Priceless.

  Accepting comments on your site allows people to tell you what they love, what’s not working so you can fixit sooner than later, ideas for new products and services, and most importantly they build trust with you. If you talk back in the comments, it shows you pay more than lip service to the concept of listening. When it comes time to buy, they will come to you first, because you have already established a relationship and possibly market leadership too. All the while you are getting free market research data, if you think of it that way.

  And regardless of whether or not you (as the company) are engaged in online conversations, your brand is being discussed, debated, celebrated and parodied online. This brand democratization can be ripe with opportunity as well as fraught with bloopers. Your odds are better the more you are engaged. Here’s a “link to the YouTube Mac vs PC” ads, the real ones and the spoofs, some of which Jason Sperling showed to us at lunch today.

  Social Networks
  Thanks for joining our “analog” social network! Now that you’ve had practice creating a profile and sharing a few details about yourself with someone you did not previously know, you are ready to go out an join an online social network. Try one under a personal screen name to get some more practice before you start doing this on behalf of your company. And check out Mitch Joel’s blog on personal branding to get tips on how to benefit from your participation.

  Free Blogging Services: (Set one up and play with it for personal use)
  WordPress
  Blogger
  iWeb – if you’re on a Mac (It’s part of the iLife software package)

  Sites I mentioned:
  CNN – Click on “From the Blogs” link below an article to see recent, related blog posts
  Honolulu Advertiser – find a news item and look for “Reader Comments”
  Technorati – indexes millions of blogs; look for blogs here and claim your blog here once you have one
  LifeHacker – popular blog with tips for managing your life
  Chris Brogan – Look at the “MyBlogLog”: in the orange-bounded box in left column to see recent readers (we left a comment on the Mac Book Air post)
  My Sister’s Site – pets and kids in southern california
  My Mom’s Site – Blanche’s Art Show

  Business Examples:
  Mary Schmidt – marketer who grew her service business with a blog
  Association for Downloadable Media – Association for Downloadable Media; multi-author association blog
  MightyJ Music – local girl band who gets bookings by having a video blog; doubled site traffic after an appearance on Beach Walks with Rox, as compared to zero traffic increase after appearing on local morning television in Honolulu
  Legal discussion of Hasbro/Mattel – Scrabble and Scrabulous discussion of Hasbro/Mattel/Scrabulous trademark infringement
  Discussion of Ford Black Mustang Fan Club issues

  Social Network (SocNet) Sites:
  LinkedIn
  MySpace.com
  Facebook
  Twitter
  YouTube
  Viddler

  Please leave a comment and tell me what you liked, didn’t like, and anything I may have missed! I am working on some additional training programs targeted for agencies and business communicators to learn how to use the social web effectively. Let me know if you’re interested.

  Mahalo nui for inviting me. I had a blast – and hope we can continue learning together.

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  ]]> http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2008/01/24/haf-links-from-roxannes-presentation/feed/ 2 http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2008/01/24/pep-talk-and-talk-prep-for-haf/ http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2008/01/24/pep-talk-and-talk-prep-for-haf/#comments Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:01:40 +0000 Roxanne Darling http://www.barefeetstudios.com/2008/01/24/pep-talk-and-talk-prep-for-haf/

  I’ll be speaking this morning at the Hawaii Advertising Federation’s annual “university.” This is a day when the ad pros come together to network and open minds to new ideas.

  First off, I say congrats. There is this sticky wicket in that the more a person becomes an expert, the more confusing it is to find space for new information. If you are like me, you can hear the echo of a client somewhere saying, “But you’re the expert – why didn’t you know that already or why are you going to this seminar?”

  Of course, true experts and wise people understand that with information being created at an inconceivably fast pace, no one can be an expert for more than a few moments in time. I prefer to think of myself as a lover of knowledge, and that inspires me to learn as much as I can, plus I am interested in sharing it with others. That is my time-saving gift – I will do the research and make some of the silly learning mistakes so I can fast track you with a new tool.

  This session is a tour of the deep parts of the tubes. The internet truly is a culture of its own, and I will be your tour guide making the trip inside fun and informative and safe. It will be a living example of how the net works these days, so please expect some interaction, some social networking, some gossip 2.0, and some key takeaways for how this can impact your business and those you serve.

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