Sad fact. I haven’t really had time to blog lately, or should I say, in a ridiculously long time.  That being said, I do have a new post here if you want to find out how Princess Tweep resurfaced to help Zuck fight off Google +.  :-)

What I want in a social media management tool.

Have you ever wanted something that doesn’t exist? Or, maybe what you want does exist, but you just don’t know about it, and you don’t have enough time to figure it out? Well, that’s how I feel about social network management tools – they all have something to offer, but <huge sigh> they are never precisely what I need.

So, I’m going to outline my needs and my hope is that someone will:

1. contact me and say they have this very thing, or…
2. contact me and say they are in the process of building this very thing, or…
3. build it for me because its such a great idea, or…
4. happily shell out some funds and ask me to build it for them.

However it happens, I think I’m on to something, so go ahead and run with it if you like.

My caveat is that I haven’t done an exhaustive search of these systems, but I have sat through a few demos and while I liked what I saw, it was never “enough.” And, there aren’t even enough hours in the day to get up to speed on everything that’s available. That’s why I need someone to come to me. Am I being too demanding? I don’t think so… Oh, but did I also mention, I don’t want to pay a huge amount for this system? Not that I expect it to be free, but I also am not thinking about shelling out six figures for this system, no matter how great it is…ok, well convince me, but I’m thinking…#not.

So, here’s what I want: I want a social media system that allows me to take care of the front, middle and back end of my complex social media program in one application. Just what do I mean by complex? Well, any corporation that has multiple brands, complicated regulatory environment (think pharma, financial services), numerous end users and business units and numerous social platforms.

Front End (Content Gathering/Creation/Organizing/Approvals/Scheduling):

• I need a content management tool and calendaring system that allows me to plan out all of my content in a visual calendar format, organizing and tagging it by category, business unit or whatever grouping.
• I need to be able to share this calendar with my organization and receive feedback on it.
• I need to have multiple calendars for different programs and brands.
• In terms of publishing, I don’t want to be restricted by site or platform, so make it compatible with more than the big five – no I’m not talking about the animals you hope to see on safari! I’m talking about Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, and LinkedIn…and blogs, actually make that more than five.
• I need to be able to send out requests for content and receive requests for content from my system to all the end users in my internal (and external/agency) networks. There might be A LOT of them, so I need a robust tool for this.
• An HTML email would be nice, with a link to our site where the end users can have their own area to enter their content ideas.
• If all the end users could access the system with their own credentials, they could plan out ideas and leave messages for me. I won’t go into the details of the UI here, but I have a few ideas…call me.
• I need a way to take all these content ideas and sort and prioritize them for publishing.
• I also need the ability to take this high level calendar and send it out for approval or comments, or just as an FYI – as in here’s what’s coming up. Did I mention, it would be nice if it were automated?
• Then, I need to take all the content ideas and create the specific tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube entries, etc. that pertain to this content, with associated time frames and frequencies (including any variations in specific language to make it interesting, and across multiple accounts/user names/handles). Perhaps I could drag and drop them onto my calendar(s) (hint, hint).
• And, I need to be able to assign all of the work of creating the tweets and posts to, potentially, a variety of different people, internally or externally to the organization.
• Also, once the content is created, I want to send it for approval to my internal peeps (call ‘em what you like but you might need some content to be approved by a review board, legal, compliance, risk, or PR team (if you’re not already in that department) and sign off on the content with some sort of documentation/electronic “paper” trail so that in case the proverbial sh*t hits the fan, we’ve got our butts covered.  I might need more than one approval, and who approves it might be different each time, so I need some customization here. I have used systems like these before, but they are not tailored for use in social media.
• I want these tweets and posts to be slotted into the appropriate calendars and broadcast to my networks on schedule; but ultimately, I want control – I would like some email notification about what will be broadcast each week or each day, so that if I need to change anything I can take action.

Middle (Community Management/Monitoring/Response Triaging and Assignment)

• Once the posts are made, then I need the ability to be notified by email in a digest format at my preferred interval a day with any network updates…by this I mean a summary email that shows some stats about what’s been happening, and the specific responses that are being picked up on our networks – i.e., direct @ replies, Facebook wall posts, etc. Anything that would require action from us, I would like to know about.  That doesn’t mean everything being said, everywhere. That would be a problem, but on the main spaces, yes.  I need this because I’m busy and not sitting at my desk all day waiting for comments to roll in.
• For each person who interacts with my brand,  I’d like to get the stats on them in real time  – who are they? how influential are they? Maybe this tool will assign a priority on them based on how many followers/fans/readers they have on their Twitter/Facebook or blog?
• And, if it’s not too much to ask, can I have all of this integrated with my CRM system? So I would be able to get a sense of who’s a customer/who isn’t and what kind of relationship I have with them. (ok, I’ll admit that this might push the cost up some…)
• And, to be honest, I want to know what people are saying about my competitors too. I know, I’m demanding, but if something happens with a competitor, I really can’t wait for an aggregate listening report can I? By that time, the opportunity might be over.
• I want the ability to include the monitoring of specific sites in this email, beyond those where I’m actively posting like my own community, Twitter or Facebook. And, I do mean specific because I wouldn’t want a “river” of news with every possible mention of my brand in THIS report. The CAPS on THIS hopefully implies that I would like this on some other report. Are you with me?
• When I go to this application, I need to be able immediately scan all the posts and determine which ones require response…ok this does exist with some tools…and I’m happy for that. So, let’s continue…
• I need to be able to assign the response to individual people. Yes, yes, I know that exists…but I need to be able to assign different levels of reply – some people may reply directly to the consumers on behalf of the company, but some may not. For those who will not be replying, I need to be able to forward the post/tweet and append my own comments/request. Maybe I’m looking for the answer to this question, or a specific link, whatever. I need to get a response and then I need to take that response and craft the channel-appropriate message. I may even need approvals on that message, so it needs to go through the system. In other words, I need a messaging system within my app, that’s tied to the specific posts/tweets being made and to my approval system.
• And, of course, I need to track all of this activity, including who’s doing the replying…just in case .
• I’m sure there are other things in this category…but let’s move on.

Backend (Measurement/Performance/Reporting)

The back end is about reporting. There are definitely tools that do this…although maybe they don’t do it all in one.

• I’d like to have a comprehensive dashboard of all my activity across all my sites, including the click throughs of all my content/links and an analysis of how my tweets are doing (retweets, click throughs, what percentage of posts we responded to, etc.)
• I’d like to see new followers, lost followers and other follower information, especially a longitudinal view of my progress so I can easily demonstrate the growth of networks.
• I’d like to see a more granular level of detail on my dashboard organized by business unit or other grouping – who’s using social media the most and who’s the most successful in their efforts might be interesting information and help with campaign analysis. I also want to know what is working and not working.
• I’d like to see a set of platform-specific or contextual information for each platform that I’m using.
• I’d like a set of “pretty” automated reports to be generated and sent to the distribution of my choosing with the appropriate level of detail for each user group. I want to set specific time frames for my reports.
• And, I want to be able to add in my own commentary to the graphs, or to the report in general before blasting it out to my users (the list of which, ideally, would be easily manageable in this system).
• And, I’d like the opportunity to choose – html or email with attachment.
• Ok, this next one is pretty good idea – so pay attention  I’d like to be able to select some data to go into an overall scorecard that sums up our progress. It’s a composite score that is customized potentially to my organization’s needs and looked at from different angles. In utopia, I’d have access to everyone else’s scores and be able to look at how I’m doing compared to other companies in general, or in my industry. This would be a great way to justify to senior management that you need more funding or resources, or to prove that you are doing well, relative to the competition.
• I’d like to be able to plug in some financials and estimate the value of all this activity, in general and at the program/campaign/group level (let’s work that out later). In other words, what’s my ROI?
• Even though I’m mostly focusing on our interactions with consumers, I’d still like a comprehensive listening report of all the tweets/posts about my company and, if I choose, about my competitors, with stats on what percentage were replied to etc.
• Lastly, I would like each user in my system to have their own customized dashboard – maybe I have a blog style commentary that provides a glimpse into what’s going on the networks in real time, RSS, and email at their preferred frequency. Maybe a desktop widget with a follower count and graph of our activity. Something that keeps it top of mind and gets them to contribute to the process. Make sense?

I’m sure I’m leaving out a whole bunch of requirements, so feel free to contribute and help build out the requirements for the ultimate social media management tool.

It took me awhile to get to it, but I finally read Barry Schwartz’s 2004 book The Paradox of Choice – Why More is Less, which is a fantastic book regarding the psychology of choice. The basic premise is that having more choices actually results in less satisfaction. When we are bombarded with choices, we feel more insecure about our decisions, less willing to commit and more likely to experience “buyer’s remorse.” Ultimately, even if we make good choices, we’re likely to be haunted by the promise and potential of all the choices we didn’t make.

On the whole, we all have more choices than ever before — from the bewildering number of products at the typical supermarket to the multitude of choices of what to do with our free time, to what career to choose or where to live. As the choices continue to proliferate, we spend more and more time making decisions that used to be fairly simple and routine — even figuring out what milk to buy can be a time-consuming decision nowadays.  All these choices require more energy but don’t necessary result in a meaningful payout. In fact, all these decisions are actually making people less happy, not more happy.

In order to achieve a higher level of satisfaction, Schwartz says we should strive to be “Satisficers” – Satisficers are thoughtful decision-makers. But when they find something that fits their needs, they lock down on it and then close the door on other options. Consequently, they complete the process and move on. Ultimately they are usually satisfied.

Maximizers are also thoughtful decision-makers. However, they are so thoughtful, they continue searching for the very best, even if there are excellent options already available that suit their needs. Even after making decisions, they continue agonize over the decision they made, questioning whether it was really the right choice. Ultimately they are less satisfied and can’t fully enjoy what they have.

It’s likely that people are not wholly one or the other – and, depending on the circumstances, you could be a Satisficer with regard to certain decisions/topics and a Maximizer with regard to others.

I’ve been thinking about this philosophy across many spectrums of my life – from personal to professional and I think it could be a helpful framework to improve decision-making, save time and achieve higher levels of general satisfaction.

Looking back on past decisions, I can see how the times I acted like a “Satisficer” led to a better outcome than when I acted as a “Maximizer.” For example, for many years I was looking for a car that I thought would “represent” me – whatever that means. I researched all kinds of cars, went on numerous test drives and even negotiated a few times. Each time at the last minute, I bailed out and could not complete the transaction because I was worried that it wasn’t quite right – it wasn’t the right color, didn’t have the exact set of features I needed, didn’t really feel like “me” etc. As a result, for years, I was also less satisfied with the car I already had, because I wasn’t committed to it and was always thinking about getting a new one. Sort of a lose/lose scenario.

Then, one day, I decided my car didn’t need to be a personal expression of anything. I wanted a good quality car that I liked and that was safe, nothing more. So, I did some research within a defined set of models that suited my needs and budget, quickly locked down on one brand and model that seemed best. When the time came, I took a quick test drive, purchased this car and never looked back. Not one moment of buyer’s remorse. Why? Because I had taken all the other options off the table. I was getting a Honda and that was that.

Here’s an example of how this might apply in your personal life:

Say you’re making plans to go out on Saturday night. You find something you want to do, and tell some friends. Then, even though everyone has agreed to it, you continue to search for something even better and you end up spending several more hours working on the plan when you could have been doing something else either more fun or productive. And, worse, ultimately you’re not sure that you chose the exact best plan and you go out still thinking about the other options. You’re less than satisfied.

Solution: Once you find an acceptable plan, take other options off the table and move on.

Here’s an example of how this might apply in your professional life:

You need to hire a social media agency or any vendor. You talk to some people who recommend a few firms. You go out and get three bids — all of the companies sound great and are comparably priced. One of the firms stands out, but only slightly. However, you hesitate and start to wonder if you could do better. After all, there are many more companies to contact and you want the only the very best. So, you decide to continue looking. During that time, your number one choice enters into an agreement with your primary competitor and now there’s a conflict of interest. They are no longer available. Now, you’ll have to pick someone else and you’re less than satisfied because you didn’t get your “first” choice and you’re still insecure that you haven’t explored all the options.

Solution: Since all the companies met your criteria and they all seemed great, you should be satisfied with either of the other two. Don’t look back. You’re wasting time. Pick one of the companies and go!

Bottom line:

• Save time and emotional energy by reducing the size of your consideration set.
• Don’t feel obligated to research every possibility – if something meets your criteria, go with it.
• Then enjoy what you have and be happy!

On that note, I’ll stop tweaking my already published post and move on to other things!

I’m having a disconnect.

One of my women’s career networks – one that boasts an exclusive membership of business professionals, lawyers, politicians, scientists, doctors and more, just sent me an invitation to attend a webinar entitled “Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough.”

Huh?

Ok, I’m not saying that this webinar wouldn’t include some valuable information for many of us women, but seriously, what does this have to do with the business network?

Can anyone actually imagine a situation where a men’s business organization would offer a seminar about how to find Mrs. Right?

Are they trying to reduce the size of their membership by marrying off their members to the first available guy?

Or, is this actually a ploy to get women to refocus on their career aspirations and achieve financial security so as to avoid having to settle for Mr. Wrong?

Regardless, it pays to note that the seminar is not even listed on their web site – maybe because it would ruin the credibility of the organization as a place for serious professionals?

…Ya think?

In a country where women are still earning about 80 cents on the dollar compared to men, women’s organizations have a particular responsibility to stop playing into stereotypes and start focusing on topics that can help us achieve the career success we deserve.

Here’s what that means to me…

For starters – let’s please eliminate the beauty and dress-for-success break out sessions at so-called women’s conferences.

(Digression #1: If you are clueless about what to wear, then pick up a copy of Glamour magazine, enlist the help of a personal shopper, or check out an episode of “What Not to Wear.”  Hint: this might be obvious, but at a simplistic level, just make sure you cover up your belly ring and keep your “girls” in check.)

(Digression #2: And, before you go thinking that I’m all business 24/7, I can assure you that it not the case. I love fashion and make up and all that “girly-girl” stuff.  Want proof? I’m on a first name basis with all the staff at Barney’s and Sephora. Seriously, check it out.  And, if you buy me a martini, I might even admit to thinking Hello, Kitty is super cute.)

Ok, now back to the subject at hand…

Seriously, LADIES! There is a right time and place for everything!

Make-up and fashion consultants, mani-pedis and mini back rubs at conferences make me cringe, as do flowery gift bags loaded with beauty products.  Do men do this stuff at conferences? Uh, no. They don’t.  Do we need this at our conferences? Uh, no we don’t.  Or at least we shouldn’t – idealistically.  IMHO. Feel free to disagree.

Instead, women’s conferences should spend time on substantive topics that could make a difference and perhaps open a few doors, such as:

• how to negotiate and get the salary or title you deserve
• how to get respect in a world of old boys’ and their old boys’ networks
• how to break through the glass ceiling and join the C-suite
• how to make sure you’re not outdated when you return to work after having a baby
• how to change corporate culture to embrace more collaborative, women-oriented workstyles and lifestyles
• how to project confidence and feel comfortable bragging about your accomplishments (come on, we all know it works)
• how to start your own business, etc.

Ok, now that I got that off my chest, I need to dash. I have a webinar to sign up for.

Oh, and one last thing btw, if you’re not doing anything this afternoon, maybe we could meet up at Bloomie’s? I hear they are having an excellent shoe sale.

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Special Note: For women in Boston, there is an interesting conference coming up on Saturday, February 6, 2010.

The 19^th Annual Dynamic Women in Business Conference – from the Women’s Student Association at the Harvard Business School.  Hope to see you there!

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If you know me, you may have noticed that I haven’t tweeted much in the past few months. What started out as just a small break, ended up as an extended Twitter vacation.

 The whole thing became crystal clear one day when I made the following observation:

Only 1 hour of Twitter per day is 365 hours PER YEAR. Just imagine what you could do in 365 hours…you could:

• Learn Chinese
• Write a novel
• Get into the best shape of your life… and SO much more.

Well, I was probably spending a bit more than 7 hours a week on Twitter, perhaps quite a bit more, and that was a depressing thought. So, I decided I needed to make a change.

At first, friends who use Twitter basically thought I was crazy…as in “why the heck would you want to do THAT?”  Friends who don’t use Twitter were simply smug, as in “See, I knew that Twitter thing was stupid and you’d stop doing it eventually.”

Actually, getting off Twitter was an excellent way to reclaim my brainspace. After nearly two years of tweeting, my brain was so full of Twitter-related minutia, that I just needed to clear it all out.  While it sounds like a lot of tweets to the nonuser, at only 3000 tweets over two years, I certainly don’t qualify as a heavy Twitter addict (you probably need about 5k per year to get into that category).  However, at a certain point, Twitter was encroaching onto too many aspects of my life and drowning out other valuable thoughts. 

Further, tweets aren’t the only measure of how much one uses Twitter or how much brainspace it takes up. I use Twitter as a great information source, so a lot of my Twitter time is spent reading all the articles that others are tweeting. Also, just managing Twitter can be demanding.  Keeping up with followers, reading profiles, reading tweets, sending and responding to DM’s, checking @replies, trying out the latest tools…it all takes time. 

So, I did what I needed to do and made a clean break. As I said, it wasn’t necessarily intended to be a long term thing. However, after a few days off Twitter, I decided maybe I needed a few more. Then a few more. That became a few weeks more…and well, the rest is history. 

So you’re probably wondering “what was it like?”

At first, it was strange to be off Twitter in a formal capacity…my brain was still forming thoughts in 140 characters. I’d think of a tweet and then realize it had nowhere to go.  If I had a few minutes of extra time, I had to control my impulse to check Twitter. I experienced some negative emotions (anxiety, isolation, sadness) which essentially boiled down to one key thought “what am I missing?”  I felt out of the loop.

However, at a certain point, maybe after the first 5 to 10 days, these feelings were replaced by positive emotions: happiness, freedom, peace of mind.  No longer was I thinking about Twitter when doing other activities. That was a nice change. Also, I reclaimed a decent amount of time in my week which I put to good use. By the end of the first month, I had a perfectly clean house, all my bills were paid, I was back at the gym and I had learned how to sew. I also was able to sit and read quietly, watch a movie or television show from start to finish, go to lunch without checking my phone and have a conversation without thinking about tweeting. It was a relief.

5 Benefits of being off Twitter…

1. You’re free of the “noise”…when you’re really off Twitter, your brain has time to relax, resulting in enhanced creativity and the ability to focus.  And, with all of that extra “noise” gone, you’d be amazed at how well you can sleep. No more middle of the night thoughts about that tweet you want to remember for tomorrow.
2. You’re more productive – when you’re off Twitter you can make space in your day for other things – things you probably used to do more of — like seeing your friends, talking on the phone, going to the gym, participating in your favorite hobby or activity.
3. You’re less anxious – you’re not constantly wondering if you missed anything, you’re not thinking about your next tweet, you’re not wondering why someone stopped following you…or thinking about your follower count.
4. You’re more polite and you can actually LISTEN. If you’re using Twitter while you’re out with a friend, you’re not being a good friend. Get off twitter, put your phone away and have a real conversation, you’ll be glad you did.
5. You’ll be more interesting. Seriously, people who aren’t on Twitter could care less about it. They don’t want to hear about how you gained 500 new followers by using Mr. Tweet.

5 Reasons to Get Back on Twitter…

Of course, being off Twitter for awhile also has a few drawbacks. And so, at a certain point, I started to miss some of the benefits:

1. You’re well informed – if Twitter is good for anything, it’s sharing information. From the latest news to special interest articles, Twitter is a great resource for just about anything.
2. You’ve got a presence – looking for a job or next consulting gig? When you’re online and active, you’re on people’s radar. Not on Twitter = out of sight, out of mind.
3. You’re part of a community – if you’re on Twitter, especially for business, chances are you know a lot of tweeps in real life, which makes it easy to walk into any conference or networking event.
4. You can continue to grow your network…while you were away, everyone else was meeting new people, adding followers and creating new relationships…stay away for too long and you might just become irrelevant and your network will shrink.
5. It’s fun…Well, it IS.

So, what’s the moral of the story? Balance.

5 Ways to find your Twitter Equilibrium…

1. Don’t let Twitter get you side tracked. Stick with your plans for the day and save Twitter for later.
2. Set a defined amount of time aside for Twitter. Set an alarm if you have to. But when the time’s up, walk away.
3. Take an “offline” class of any kind that takes you away from the computer and allows you to create something tangible – pottery, jewelry making, etc. creating and working with your hands is therapeutic and probably helps repair some of the damage that all this social media is doing to our brains (NOTE: this is just my opinion…I’m NOT a doctor nor have I done any research on this topic). 
4. Close your browser or Twitter client. Don’t have Twitter open all day. Seriously, can you really work effectively when you are distracted by Twitter?
5. Keep Twitter to yourself…when you’re out and about, focus on who you are talking to. Put away the iPhone and Blackberry and get back to the basics. No one wants to have a conversation with a person who is tweeting while they are talking.

A few months later, while I check Twitter now and again and even tweet occasionally, I’m not quite “back” yet.  I’ll plan to see you back on Twitter in a more serious capacity after the first of the year. In the meantime, what would YOU recommend to help you find your Twitter equilibrium?

It seems like every week there is a new study about the demographics of Twitter users. The problem that I have with these studies is that usually something seems “off” with regard to the analysis.  In fact, the findings often seem misleading and designed to garner publicity instead of answering fundamental questions. This past week, Nielsen published some data from their Nielsen NetRatings panel regarding the growth rates of Twitter users by age group. In this case, to further support the sensationalized Morgan Stanley report about teens use of Twitter based on the habits of their 15 year old intern.  The problem is that most people take the headline at face value and never read the details. Furthermore, they then ”retweet” and blog about it without critical analysis until it becomes “fact.”

Consequently, as a result of this Nielsen NetRatings study,  the twittersphere is abuzz with the headline that “TEENS DON’T TWEET!” trending to the top of the Twitter search.  It sounds so alarming, you’d think the sky was falling.

In their article, Nielsen makes the following statement:

“Perhaps even more impressively, this growth has come despite a lack of widespread adoption by children, teens, and young adults. In June 2009, only 16 percent of Twitter.com website users were under the age of 25. Bear in mind persons under 25 make up nearly one quarter of the active US Internet universe, which means that Twitter.com effectively under-indexes on the youth market by 36 percent.”

It’s true, the growth of Twitter is impressive and the size of the youth market using Twitter is very small. However, I think the claim is misleading, and I’m not jumping on the ”OMG, teens don’t tweet!” bandwagon.  Here’s why:

The Nielsen chart is listed as the Twitter.com Website Growth by Age Group.  While the graph itself shows the growth visually, the only numbers listed are the percentages for June 2009, which indicate the absolute proportion of users by age range.

While this is interesting information, the numbers don’t really tell us what the change in the proportion has been for each segment over time – or the actual growth rate for that group.  That’s an important piece of information — is the proportion of young people less than or more than what it was 6 months ago? Are young people keeping up? Are they accelerating their rate of adoption, despite their relatively small absolute numbers?

The answer is Yes. In fact, it looks like there has been an explosion in the 2 to 24 year old group’s use of Twitter in the past 6 months.  Based on a quick analysis of the graph,  the 2 to 24 year old segment grew from just under 6% of the users in January to 16% of users by June. 

I think that’s pretty huge. The youth segment substantially increased their relative size in the Twitter population. And, somehow, they managed to do this despite the fact that we’re realistically only talking about a 10 year range (13 to 24).  This is in contrast to the vast majority of people who fall into the 25+ category, which represents about a 50 year range!

Since the number of users in January was substantially smaller than in June, it’s difficult to simply view the Nielsen graph and make an assessment of the percentages. Just a thought for Nielsen — I wouldn’t have had to do so much work if you had simply included the numbers upfront.  To make the calculation reasonably accurate, I put the graph into Photoshop and added a grid to it. I then estimated the audience to come up with the percentages for January. Doing this clearly showed that only 6% of the total were 2 to 24 years old in January, which was about 260k people. By June, the number of younger Twitter users was more than 10 times what it was 6 months ago, whereas the number of Twitter users over 25 was only 3 to 4 times what it was 6 months ago.  So, yes, the absolute numbers are larger for the overall population but the kids are catching up!

Using the grid overlay, I was able to get a good estimate of the numbers behind this graph…

Analysis of the Nielsen Twitter Users Chart

I’m attaching my spreadsheet here for anyone who would like to look at the calculations.

Semantics. Semantics.

As mentioned, on the surface, the study shows that 2 to 24 year olds are under-indexed by 36% when it comes to tweeting. This group represents 25% of the Internet audience and only 16% of the Twitter audience.  I don’t have an issue with that. My issue is that rather than the misleading headline “Teens Don’t Tweet, Twitter’s Growth Not Fueled By Youth” it would be more correct to say:

“Teens Are Less Likely to Tweet. Twitter’s Growth Not Fueled By Youth”

or, even better:

“Teens Less Likely to Tweet, But Numbers Are Growing”

or

“Youth Market Finally Catching on to Twitter!”

In other words, take teens out of it, unless you are going to publish a story specifically about teens, who are generally 13 to 17.

Let’s further address the age range. The study aggregates children, teens and young adults. Why do that?  The behavior of these three groups is very different, for obvious reasons. To lump them all into the same category makes for an uninspired and confusing analysis. There are plenty of issues related to this:

Terms of Service:  The Twitter terms of service prevent anyone under the age of 13 from using the site. So, why are we talking about 2 to 24 year olds?  Seriously, are there any 5 year old tweeters? Most 5 year olds are just learning to read, so the idea that they would be on Twitter is ridiculous. They may be on the Internet, but they are doing other activites designed for kids.  Given the recent amount of porn spam, I don’t think I would want any kid under the age of 18 using it.

Public Environment: Twitter is a public place and I can’t see many parents allowing their teens on Twitter — a lot of people I know are still debating when to let their kids get a Facebook account, which is as private as you want to make it.

Again, Nielsen, why are you reporting the age range of 2 to 24? And, more importantly, did that 25% you mentioned actually include kids under 13? If so, you should remove them and recalculate your percentages.

Even still, I’m not sure 13-24 is really that useful of a group anyway. It would have been more interesting to break it out into 13 to 17 and 18 to 24 olds — pretty standard categories in the research world.  I’d like to know more about the differences between teens and young adults and their adoption rates of Twitter.

Assuming that we’re really talking about teens and young adults, and not children, there are a host of other reasons which have already been brought up about why teens, in particular, don’t use Twitter as much as adults:

• Teens aren’t in front of a computer all day
• Many don’t have smart phones, which would make interacting with Twitter difficult and not particularly engaging.
• They don’t want to use up their text message limits on Twitter
• Their friends are elsewhere (Facebook and other social networks)
• It’s public — and they don’t want their parents to see what they are up to
• They are (generally) not selling anything (which is why a lot of people use Twitter)
• They are (generally) not interested in sharing and discussing business articles (ya think?)
• They are (generally) not interested in discussing world events (war, politics, etc.)
• and so on.

So, as Mashable asks, what does this mean for the future of Twitter?

Well, as presented it doesn’t mean much, for the reasons listed above. I think we should be more focused on the trend and the trend is looking good for the youth market. The base is much smaller, so it’s not surprising that the numbers seem relatively small. However, time will tell.

In terms of young adults, as young people migrate into the workforce, if they are not adopting Twitter – for networking purposes or news/information, then this is something that could be a problem in the long run. However, by that time, all the adult early adopters may have moved on to something else as well.

In terms of teens, if Twitter wants to accelerate the growth of the youth market, then they should develop some features that would make it fun and safe for teens while relieving parental anxiety over public tweeting. Since the parents are likely to be the gatekeepers anyway of some of their teens Internet use, the parents need to feel comfortable with it.

There is still plenty of growth possible for Twitter so I don’t think we need to worry that teens are under-indexing on Twitter use just yet. Despite all the buzz, we’re still not talking about that many users relative to Facebook, for example. And, until Twitter can provide a stable, scalable platform, do we really want to encourage rapid growth?  Nothing is more of a turn off to both new and existing users than super-slow page loads and fail whales. Just think about how unusable Twitter was this spring when Ashton Kutcher and Oprah got onboard.

Presidential elections are not the only domain for sensational headlines and sound bites, the business community is predisposed to latching onto them too. The problem is that they muddy up reality and most people never get past them. It’s like when the CEO of a company comes to only one focus group and it happens to be the anomaly. He/she will only remember what they saw in the one group and think that this represents the behavior of all customers. Generally speaking, it would be better for everyone if we all bothered to read the full report.

Let me know your thoughts and take a look at my spreadsheet to make sure I’m not missing something.

Posterous is a cool site that allows you to post content simultaneously to multiple social media sites by email. You can attach almost any document or link and posterous will format it for you correctly and even embed the players if necessary. If you have multiple photos, it’ll even automatically create a gallery and reformat the pictures for online viewing, while retaining the full scale photos so that others can download them.

Today, I’m experimenting with posting to WordPress from email through Posterous. Posterous says they’ll format my YouTube link and embed the player. So, here is that super funny wedding entrance dance video that’s going around right now (only 12 million views to date).

You should be seeing the video in the YouTube player if it worked correctly:

As I mentioned above, the site is good looking. It has the type of modern, clean user interface that I love. Even their emails are nice looking. Looks aside, it’s easy to get started on posterous. They have a super helpful FAQ that answers pretty much any question you might have. They have password protected sites if you’re skittish about having your content in the public domain, and they have group sites where you can add the email addresses of your friends or family for group posting.

Also, if you tweet, this is an easy way to post content that is longer than 140 characters, add photos, etc. and have it all in one place. This is helpful, especially when posting from your smartphone. Currently, my photos go to twitpic, my tweets are texted to Twitter and my Facebook status is updated via the Facebook Blackberry app. Doing all of this via email to posterous could be a huge benefit.  Also, you have the option to post selectively to each of the services you’ve added — just by modifying the email address you send to (i.e., twitter@posterous.com for a tweet vs. twitter+facebook@posterous.com for selective post to twitter and facebook only vs. post@posterous.com for everything).

Though some folks might use this as their blog, because it doesn’t offer all the customization that most bloggers would want, I think posterous would be good as an “unblog” — you know, all the stuff (read: noise, junk, crap) that you want to post and share but don’t really want on your real blog or Facebook.

Anyway, that’s about all I can say right now. I’m going to try out Posterous for a few weeks and see what happens. There are so many features to check out.

Thanks to Ed Richardson who posted a terrific article about Posterous on Social Media Today. http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/112828 It was just the push I needed to get started.

Clicking the send button…now.

Posted via email from pamelawella’s posterous

Dissatisfied customer who accidently purchased a song lasting only 2:48.

Have you ever downloaded a song from iTunes and thought – damn, that’s one short song. Was that really worth the 99 cents or did I just get ripped off? After all, in today’s down economy, you can’t afford to waste your money on just any old song.  Wimpy little two and three minute songs songs just don’t add enough value anymore. And, for that matter, neither do 5 minute songs. Frankly, I’m done with anything under 6 minutes.

The iTunes Value Maximization Framework:

First: To fully realize your investment, make sure your picks are at least 7 minutes long, preferably more. That’s not to say length is everything. You’ve got to add a little substance too.  And, watch out for really lengthy self-indulgent tracks.  Take Marais la Nuit from Neko Case’s album Middle Cyclone, for example.  I’m sorry, but the next time I want to hear crickets chirping for 31 minutes, I’ll go outside, thank you very much.  It’s technically not a song and I’m a purist, so I’m treating this one as an outlier and taking it out of the average cost per minute (ACM) for my collection.

Second: Delete all the shorter songs in your library. Trust me, you don’t need them. Two minutes goes by really fast. That’s less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee, get the mail or eat an ice cream cone.  And, as you age, time goes faster anyway – so if Stairway to Heaven seemed long to you in high school, give it another chance.  It’s a lot speedier today. Really.

Third: Pledge to check your downloads each and every week.  Don’t forget this step. It’s very important to keep the integrity of your music collection intact and not let any low value songs sneak into the mix.  Kind of like the Farenheit 451 of iTunes collection management – just burn ‘em.

To help you get started, I’m sharing some of my personal picks below. While not necessarily the definitive list on the subject, I guarantee that these songs will help you lower your ACM:

1. Land of Hope and Dreams (Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Live in New York City) Length 9:46
2. Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (Rolling Stones – Live Licks) 10:02
3. Disco Inferno (The Trammps  – Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack) 10:51
4. Movin Right Along (Michael Stanley Band – Stagepass) 9:35
5. Elegant Gypsy Suite (Al DiMeola – Elegant Gypsy) 9:16
6. D.M.S.R (Prince – 1999) 8:17
7. Taboo (Charlie Byrd – The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd) 9:41
8. Groove Line (Disco Version) (Heat Wave – Best of Heat Wave) 7:29
9. Riviera Paradise (Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble – In Step) 8:48
10. I Want Your Sex (George Michael – Faith) 9:04

Special mention: Do You Feel Like I Do (Peter Frampton)  (The best versions of this song clock in at 19:28 on Frampton Comes Alive II and at 14:17 on Frampton Come Alive. Imagine what type of impact that could have! Unfortunately, you can only get them by purchasing the entire album. Note to Apple iTunes: what’s up with that?)

Important note: Older songs, such as these listed above,  generally provide even more value because presumably you’ve already heard them, which contributes to reducing the cost per listen (CPL).  That’s a complicated subject – so a future post will outline in detail how to lower your CPL, complete with step-by-step illustrated instructions.

Much credit goes to @fitzroy for bringing this extremely important subject to my attention.

What are your picks?

After an entire month of rain in June (ok, well, almost an entire month), this year’s July 4th weekend in Boston proved to be quite a nice surprise. The weather was beautiful.  The skies were clear.  People were happy. Finally.   However, doubts did linger, and  I did see a considerable number of people toting umbrellas just in case. And,  if you put me in Room 101 (sorry, reference to Orwell’s 1984, which I just finished re-reading), I might just admit to carrying one myself.

Anyway, after making a solid but unsuccessful attempt at moonwalking, it was time to head down to the Charles. I was pretty excited to capture some photos  – I thought it was a special thing (my glass is half full) until my bubble was burst by a cynical friend (glass half empty) who commented that these pictures would look just like the ones from last year, and the year before that. Geez.  Anyhow, I ignored that comment and it’s a good thing because after posting them to Twitter, Universal Hub was kind enough to mention my photos in his post about last night’s fireworks.  So I got another 2 or 3 seconds of Internet fame.  Plus, amazingly, it got me to post to this frightfully neglected blog.  

Here are a few more shots. You can view the entire set on Flickr.   These were taken at the end of Mass Ave. in Cambridge, which is a GREAT place to watch the fireworks, although I highly recommend earplugs — it’s pretty noisy from this location.

It’s been over a year since I first posted about the format change of WBOS to Radio 92.9.  For those of us who liked the old station, the switch was KIND OF A BIG DEAL.

I’ve got a pretty low key blog here, and I generally find it distasteful when people quote their stats, but I think it’s interesting too look and see what type of activity I had over the course of a year or so. I’m hoping my buddies over at WBOS/92.9 will think so too.

I still get a decent amount of traffic to this site as a result of people searching on WBOS or Radio 92.9.  YES, PEOPLE ARE STILL GOOGLING THIS TOPIC! According to my WordPress Dashboard, I’ve had 8,398 page views for my WBOS posts. That doesn’t even include the people who viewed multiple posts from the home page. That’s a lot of views.  I’ve had over 200 comments.  The comments have, of course, tapered off, but once in awhile someone still comes along to express their disappointment. 

I said back then that I was listening to WBUR  more. I STILL AM. And, guess what — WBUR actually talks to their customers. In fact, they do an excellent job at cultivating a positive brand image using a variety of social media — such as via Twitter (@wbur), and their regular in-person Tweet-ups where they give fans a tour of the station, engage in conversation and then head out for drinks after. I’m wearing my cozy WBUR fleece jacket as I type this. I shelled out quite a bit of money for this jacket during their fundraiser last fall, and I did so happily because of my relationship with the station.

I also said that I would have loved to listen to The River 92.5 just down the dial from my old station, but the biggest barrier was the reception. Non-existent in my house. Not so good in the car either due to a damaged antenna. Well, guess what? I have a different car now and can listen to 92.5 all I want, which suits me just fine. Plus, just to complicate things, the new car has XM satellite radio. So there.

If you Google 92.5 or WBOS, you will see that my posts are still near the top — maybe not #1 anymore, but still in the top 20 or 30.  I’m still surprised that I never received any official communication from the station.  Way to go!  I was also disappointed at several local journalists who clearly referenced my posts but didn’t link back to my site. Oh well. I wasn’t really doing it for the publicity. In fact, the surge in traffic was a huge surprise. 

So you might be wondering, what ended up happening to the station’s ratings? Did they improve as they had hoped. Well, it looks like they did.  See the ratings: http://tinyurl.com/d6mxnu.  And to show their gratitude to Dana Marshall, the program director who took over in February 2008 and would have been part of this success, Greater Media laid her off in January along with some others. Nice. 

So, in the end, the business bots over at Greater Media will pat themselves on the back and say they did the right thing. Some of their previous audience is likely putting up with the new station because it’s close to their preferred format, and they’ve likely got a bunch of new, younger listeners who like a harder sound. The rest of us, well…we just moved on and it worked out great too.  So I guess it was a win win after all.

After all, it’s not personal, it’s just business.

If you are having the same experience as me, you may have noticed that some of your favorite local shops have gone out of business. Others may be on their way out soon. It’s sad to watch a small business shut down, especially if it’s a place you enjoy, such as your favorite Thai restaurant, the used book dealer, or the coffee place that has great muffins.

I love shopping locally and supporting the small business owners in my town. It’s to everyone’s advantage to have local businesses survive the downturn in the economy. Why? Because they keep your town from turning into a generic strip mall or getting ‘Wal-Martized.’ They support the tax base.  They add character to your neighborhood. They may provide unique merchandise or services.  They help drive foot traffic, which makes a town nice to live in. After all, who wants to walk down a deserted block when going for coffee? It’s much more fun when others are also walking around – providing needed life and energy to your neighborhood.  Plus, it’s convenient — you don’t have to go far – saving energy/gas and your own precious time.

Photo by Jessica Diamond. Click to get more info

If you are a small business owner who might be at risk, here are 10 things you can do right now that are essentially free and don’t require a deep knowledge of technology:

Super easy: little or no education required

1. Listen and Learn

Are you listening? Do you have Google alerts set up for your business? Do you read the reviews of your business on Yelp, CitySquares.com, Sidewalk.com or the dozens of other sites that gather customer reviews? Has some disgruntled customer blogged about you recently? What are people saying about your business? About you? If it’s not good, then you’ll need to figure out a way to get your fans to speak up, help you out and correct any misperceptions in the marketplace. If no one is saying anything about you, then this is a clear indicator that you need to get more exposure!

2. Get Publicity

Got something to talk about? Call the local papers and see if they will do a story about you.  Also, subscribe to Help a Reporter Out (HARO) http://www.helpareporter.com/ and scan the daily emails for interviews that pertain to your business or to your personal interests or lifestyle. You might just end up getting profiled in an article, which could lead to a lot of other publicity opportunities.  Do #3 and put out a press release.

3. Have a Party

Parties may not be 100% free, but what better way to get in touch with your customers than to throw a party? If you have a gift shop, invite your customers over one night for wine and cheese. If you have a restaurant, hold a happy hour and offer free apps and drinks. Make a presentation and tell them about your buying philosophy and the history of your business. Hold a question and answer session. Circulate and get to know them. Give everyone who stops by 10% or 20% their purchase. Tell them about your new blog, Twitter account and Facebook page!

4. Research Your What Your Customers Want

What better way to help your business than to get your customers to tell you what they want or need.  Whether you post a survey online or print one out on a sheet of paper, it will serve you well.  At the very least, ask your customers a few questions when they stop by or call you.  With the exception of unwanted telephone surveys, people generally love sharing their opinions and will feel good about being asked.

What to ask? What do you like best about my store? What do you like least? What other products or services would you like to see me offer? If I did this [insert your idea], would you shop here more often? Do you tell your friends about my store, why or why not? Etc.

5. Join a Meetup or other Networking Group

Anyone can benefit from in-person networking. There are probably dozens of networking groups in your area – either through professional associations, local groups, LinkedIn groups, or Meetup.com. Scour these groups, make a few calls or send out a few emails and determine which ones might be worthwhile for you.

Not too difficult, but get educated first

6. Start a Blog

Anyone can start a blog. If you haven’t blogged before then make sure you understand blogging before you start.  Spend some time beforehand reading others’ blogs, articles about blogging and familiarize yourself  with the tools that are available. Before you commit to any blogging platform, get familiar with the terms of service and the capabilities of each. Some platforms offer more flexibility than others.

What to write about: Write about being local, what it means to you to be part of the community. Talk about how you started the business, post pictures from the past, talk about your plans for the future, showcase your merchandise, etc.  Talk about the activities that your business is involved with – organizations you belong to etc. Link to other businesses and local groups in your posts to help drive additional traffic. Over time you will develop a following and more people will get to know you.

7. Get on Twitter

At a most basic level, Twitter is a conversation. As a technology it’s considered microblogging. In other words, like a blog post but shorter. In fact, each “tweet” is only 140 characters — which forces you to be succinct. The ”tweets” that you post can be seen by the public.  The more people who ‘follow’ your tweets, the more potential you have to spread your message. 

There are many ways to use Twitter. You can become part of a larger conversation with people “like you” who have the same interests, you can use it purely as a broadcast tool to talk about your business or promote your web site, you can use it for listening and gaining knowledge, or use it to establish yourself as an authority on a particular subject matter, or some combination.

For local businesses, once you have an account, start by conducting geographic based searches and following the people in your area – many of them will follow you back.  Find everyone you know personally and follow them as well. Provide the URL to your blog or your main web site in your Twitter account.

What to talk about: Being too promotional on Twitter is annoying to your followers. So start by adding value and gaining trust.  For example broadcast out helpful tips and other facts related to your industry or business.  If you have a restaurant, post recipes to your blog and then announce or post a link to these recipes on Twitter.  Talk with people – not at them. Show interest in their activities, and they’ll be interested in yours.   Be helpful — post links to interesting articles. Engage people in philosophical discussion.  If you have a very focused audience, then you can even blast out your specials and promotions.  For example, if you have a dry cleaning business – how easy would it be to post the following:  Get three sweaters cleaned for the price of two, or now that spring is here – don’t forget to bring in your winter coat for a cleaning. Mention this post and get 20% off. 

8. Create a Facebook Account

Join Facebook and get your network going. First, join at the personal level. Get a feel for what Facebook is all about and start making friends. Once you are comfortable, create a group or fan page for your business and blast out an email to your friends to have them join your page. Offer discounts and tell them about your newest merchandise. Get people talking about your store or business. Answer questions and make authentic connections.

Tip: As with blogging or almost anything you might do, get online and learn about it before jumping in blindly.  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of articles and blog posts about how to use Twitter and Facebook wisely. 

What else?

9. Broadcast Your High Tech Efforts the Low Tech Way!

Once you’ve done the tactics above, tell everyone who comes into your store about your new blog and Facebook and Twitter accounts.  If you’re reluctant to print up new business cards right away, then just hand out a sheet of paper – even a half sheet, with the URLs for your new Internet accounts. Ask everyone who stops in if they blog, have a Twitter account, or Facebook account. Get their screen names and email addresses and add them to your friends/followers lists.

10. Barter Your Products and Services to Get Marketing Support

If this all seems a bit overwhelming, you might need some help.  You may already know some people who can show you some of these solutions – like Facebook, Twitter or how to set up a Google alert.  Enlist the help of your employees. After all, it’s in their best interests to keep the business as vibrant as possible. They may be able to help you generate content for your online activities or they might help broadcast your message.  At the very least, they might be able to show you how to get on Facebook

If you don’t have anyone to turn to but you can’t afford to pay someone out of pocket to help you with your marketing, perhaps you can barter your services for marketing support. Trade drying cleaning, free food, housewares or books, plumbing services, painting, or car repair for marketing. Why not? There is no shortage of social media and marketing consultants. There are probably a few in your town who would be happy to barter.  

Remember, these solutions don’t necessarily generate huge revenues over night. But with a little work, you could see an uptick in sales. And, at the very least, you will have created a strong base of supporters and be very well positioned for when the market bounces back and people start buying again.