Far From Being a GhostTown your Webinar Could be haunted

Acceptance is one of the things we all desire. We want our status updates to be liked on Facebook. We want a reply, mention or retweet on Twitter. And when it comes to our online events, we want people to not only sign up, but show up!

Many frightening things can happen to affect your webinar success:

• You lose your voice
• The power goes out
• The webcam stops working
• Your phone gets cutoff  – (I was on the phone once with a car dealership and Verizon cut off their service right in the middle of my call. The poor customer service rep called me back on her own cellphone and apologized profusely. Talk about embarrassing.)

Other than these things, what could possibly go wrong, I mean what could be the worst?…

GHOST TOWN!

You realize it’s five minutes into your webinar and it’s only you and one other person.

One of our biggest fears when it comes to webinars is that no one will show up live to the event.  We’ll end up talking to ourselves and God forbid we’ve promised a Q&A at the end and there’s no one there to ask questions.

While this seems like the worst thing that could possibly happen, it doesn’t have to be the case if you plan accordingly.

Getting everyone to sign up for your event is a big deal, however the overall goal is to get those who signed up to actually show up for the event.

According to the 80/20 rule, you can typically expect 20% of the people to actually show up for the event. However, there are several things you can do NOW to improve that percentage.

1. Remind them. No one wants to be spammy or clutter someone’s inbox, yet we can all appreciate a could reminder. Send several reminders about your event.  A good schedule is one week prior, two days prior, one day prior and one hour prior.

2. Include valuable information in your reminder emails. Instead of sending bland reminders with just the name, time, and link for your webinar, why not also include information like:

• What the webinar is about
• What attendees can expect to learn
• Information they can learn from in the mean time from, like articles, a free report they can download, or a YouTube video, all related to your webinar topic

By providing valuable information you keep the webinar subject fresh in their mind. This will help your audience remember why they signed up in the first place.

3. Don’t assume everyone knows how to join your event. Some systems require you to download webinar software in order to attend an event. While others may require existing computer software to be current, including Java or Flash. Be aware of the requirements for the service you’ll be using and make sure your audience knows exactly what to do in order to participate.

Remember, those who sign up expect to hear from you, so don’t worry that you’re sending too many emails. Just concentrate on providing value and the information they need to be able to attend, and you’ll have a much better turnout.

You can fill those live seats with proper planning and the right approach. Your next webinar will not be a ghost town.

No more webinars for one!

Twitter Updates its Direct Messages System

Twitter has recently introduced a new feature that gives the user the option to send a direct message (DM) to users who don’t follow them. This is a change from the previous direct messaging system which only let users send direct messages to people who mutually followed each other. Although it may lead to more spam messages received for some people, it also could be beneficial to some brands and companies who use Twitter for customer service issues or as a marketing tool.

The new direct message feature has been rolling out to certain users over the last few weeks, testing a setting that allows users to send and receive direct messages from others without needing to mutually follow one another. This latest update has already been featuring on the site for specific users for a couple of months – for instance, the Twitter account Magic Recs, which sent follower recommendations in direct messages to users who decided to follow their Magic Recs account.

This new direct message feature has led to discussions of whether Twitter will launch a standalone direct-message application separate from the Twitter app, showing more similarity to WhatsApp messenger or Facebook messenger app. Twitter has also been learning from the success of Snapchat, which has managed to engage many users through their instant picture messaging platform. Twitter’s latest app update, specifically for Android Tablet users, appears to have borrowed heavily from Snapchat by providing users the ability to draw on images that they tweet, or illustrate their own whole image.

Currently, the direct messages are used a lot for spam messages, however, they do also have more valuable uses for brands and companies. Direct messages still work in a similar way to tweets, only allowing a maximum of 140 characters for each one sent, but they have the added benefit of being private. This means the new change to the DM system will be very beneficial for brands that use Twitter as a customer service channel. If these brands allow their accounts to accept DMs from anyone (and not just those that they also follow) they will then be able to receive private customer service messages from customers, even if they aren’t already following them. This will allow customers with problems, that they wish for customer service to solve, to send their queries over a private channel instead of publicly broadcasting it across the net. This can benefit some companies because it moves complaints out of the public eye, as they do not necessarily want all their customers to see that someone has disapproved of their service.

However, at times having customer service in the public eye can be beneficial because it means that a customer service channel does not have to respond to every individual query as others might be able to search through the hashtags for a similar problem finding the answer without sending in a query themselves. This is one of the benefits of Twitter – that it is in the public eye and conversations are shared in a public manner making them searchable. If these conversations are moved into a private arena, then it takes away some of the value of the site.

The move is likely to have been introduced as a method of allowing brands and businesses to receive private messages from their followers, as opposed to allowing companies or individuals to spam Twitter users. The move comes following Twitter’s recent partnership with the TV provider Comcast, in an attempt to promote its service and create a new form of social TV. This new DM feature allows Twitter users who use features like this to communicate with brands and companies without being followed by the brand itself.

However, this new feature will only work if a user has opted in to allow messages to be sent to them by any user, which might be important for your brand. Yet the average Twitter user will not want an influx of spam messages into their individual direct message inboxes, so if you do not want to be sent unwanted inbox messages make sure you check your Twitter settings and be sure that “Receive direct messages from any follower” is unchecked. 

What do you think?

Do you think it is beneficial to be able to send Direct Messages to any user on Twitter?

The Secret To Growing Your Blog to It’s Potential

I recently had a blogger sidle up to me at a conference and ask me to share ‘the secret’ technique that would allow see their blog grow to it’s potential.

While the blogger was asking with tongue planted firmly in his cheek (he understood that there was no single thing that would transform his blog) I do sometimes wonder if some bloggers are looking for ‘the secret’.

The reality is that looking for a single technique to make your blog blog grow to its potential is as crazy as looking for a single technique to make your child grow to its potential.

Actually I like the analogy of children growing to their potential… lets go down that path for a moment.

I have 3 boys. They’re 2, 5 and 7.

They started small (of course). Here’s our 2 year old a few minutes after he was born.

He was little (although like all Rowses had a quite large head for his age).

I look back on that photo today and can barely believe that the 2 year old that runs around our house talking up a storm is the same person that I saw born just a couple of years ago.

I look at my 7 year old and am even more amazed at who he’s become already! He has grown so much – physically, emotionally, socially and so much more.

But how did he grow to become the 7 year old he is today?

The reality is that while it seems just yesterday that he was born, his growth has been little by little thing – every day since.

He certainly has had growth spurts where he’s shot up at a faster rate over a month than other months but he’s grown gradually and as a result of consistent feeding, exercise, sleep and nurturing.

As parents we can’t identify a single thing that has resulted in him reaching the point he’s at – it’s a result of small consistent and regular actions over time.

The same is true with your blog.

There’s nothing you can do that will suddenly make your blog reach its potential.

It will grow as you regularly add content, as you regularly look after the readers you have and grow community, as you regularly participate in places off your blog to find new readers and as you regularly nurture it by keeping its design and technical side up to date and working.

You will probably go through growth spurts where you see bursts of activity that results in growth in one way or another – but its what happens between the growth spurts that is just as important.

The key to success in blogging (and in many areas of life) is small but regular and consistent actions over a long period of time.

The Psychology of ‘Adapting to Change’ on Google Plus

When the platform changes, many of us go through a process of thinking “nooooo, why do they keep changing stuff!” etc.

We tend to like status quo, whilst knowing change is inevitable.

But what happens when this changes ‘happens to us’? How do we shift our internal models of what was was, to was it now? Well, I have had the good fortune of watching what happens for me so thought I would share it.

Introduction

My experience of Google+ could be summarised as a constant learning curve. Some changes leading to a totally new versions how I ‘see’ Google+ in my head, whilst others tend to be subtle adjustments of the processs at play e.g. how a +1 can lead to people seeing posts in their streams (where it was more passive earlier).

During the early part of the summer many of us know how Google+ was transformed – now with ‘cards’ that ‘flip’ and pages that are far more dynamic. Let’s face it, it is very pretty and functional too.

But do you remember how it looked beforehand? I am getting the answer is ‘no’, and even if you can recall it will be hard work to patch it back together. And what about the process of change…do you think about it as a cyclical process?

Freeze, unfreeze and refreeze

I was recently discussing this with the very forward thinking social fellow Paul Simbeck-Hampson as a way of preparing people for a change occurring within an organisation. There are several models of change out there but one way to think about is loosely applying Lewin’s 3-stage model. 

It is frozen and you know ‘where things are’
It unfreezes and many things that were in place are not lost, but there is learning occuring
It refreezes whereby integration has occurred and the change process/cycle is completed

Below I have taken this model and applied it to my own experience of internal changes to thoughts as they are ‘forgotten’ and ‘rebuilt.

Stage 1 – Frozen.

Applying this to how we create the internal model of the platform.
In essence, through experience and learning, we have thoughts we have ‘in our head’ – largely visual, with some auditory overlay i.e. the neurology is laid down.

These thoughts, when we recall them, create an internal map that represents the platform.
Depending upon the person, there is a mapping between the thoughts and the actual platform, with varying degrees of accuracy in the recall.
These thoughts can then be altered (meaning in this context ‘come and go’), one by one, or chained, whereby a person moves from ‘screen to screen’, or step-by-step as they mentally ‘click a button’, mouseover, drop in a file to a post etc.
This gives us the ability to ‘know the place’ and be able to navigate it in our minds.

Stage 2 – Unfreeze (during the change)

We will often find ourselves in a state of confusion when things ‘change’.
But how does this happen?
Well, it is likely the thoughts relating to ‘knowing the platform’ become ‘weaker’, often with a physical association of ‘discomfort’ or uncertainty.The images are no longer as clear, as bright, lacking depth etc.One is no longer able to accurately ‘map’ where the buttons will lead when you click them, a mouseover no longer does the same thing, you get ‘lost’

Stage 3 – Re-freeze

Once, through practice, the new task has been learned (as effectively every click, mouseover, drop of a file etc is a task) you return to a state of ‘knowing’ once more. But not until you have grasped this new territory and mapped it accordingly. When this happens…

The thoughts return more consistent density in terms of clarity of the content
You can, for example, perceive detils better than in the previous stage – you think of a screen on Google Plus, e.g. the box for making ‘posts’ and the icons are clear to you
The ‘content’ (e.g. where the icons are on the Page) is now the ‘new way’ and the stability of the object i.e. the thought is now formed
You are able to move through sequences of tasks far easier and you ‘know where you are’ i.e. the actions are coming from a more clear internal model – the patterns are now laid down.

Conclusion

Knowing this to be one way to describe the natural cycle of change, it makes it easier to relax during the unfreeze process, where many people feel all at sea. It is during this stage of the process that community support really helps, as well as access to reassuring and straightforward materials that enable any changes to be understood in the easiest possible manner. With numerous educators in the Plus – alongside Google themselves – they reduce too much discomfort and provide clear explanations of ‘what is going on’ and what it means.
Changes will not stop happening, and if anything it is going to speed up considerably. We all know this, but often we want ‘frozen’ to stay forever as it is comfortable. Instead it may well be easiest to flow down stream when system changes come, getting to a point where the flow itself is enjoyable as it enables new learning and increased integration, understanding and connection to who and what matters to us most. It is one heck of a ride!

- See more at: http://www.martinshervington.com/the-psychology-of-adapting-to-change-on-google-plus/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+martin-shervington+%28MartinShervington.com%29#sthash.0BLTK1zu.dpuf

5 Twitter Content Ideas For Your Holiday Marketing

Twitter is sending business accounts emails with the 5 suggestions below.

The suggestions are “holiday marketing” suggestions that promote some simple content ideas, promotes Vine, AMEX’s Small Business Saturday, and Twitter-exclusive sales.

The main call to action in the email is a link to sign in to Twitter Ads. Twitter is definitely eager to get more businesses using their ad platform as the company prepares to go public soon.

These types of emails and marketing recommendations are also becoming more common as social networks begin to help teach businesses on their platforms how to be more successful with their social media marketing.

—-

Check-out these Tweet themes to help your business drive more results this season.

Mondays
Ask followers which holiday products or services they want to see more of, then reply back.

Tuesdays
Count down to Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas by offering Twitter-only sales to entice followers. See how

Wednesdays
Share photos of your business giving back to the community during the season.

Thursdays
Create 6-second Vine videos with how-to content and to reveal new products. Download Vine

Fridays
Promote a community event or joint offer with business partners leading up to Small Business Saturday. Learn more

Do even more with Twitter Ads to expand your community of followers then amplify your Tweets to extend beyond current followers to reach more customers.

Set your business up for success this holiday season by advertising with Twitter.

Google to Encrypt All Keyword Search Data – Creates Panic Chills

Have you heard that Google is moving to hide and encrypt all keyword search data? If you use Google Analytics to analyze the organic search terms that visitors used to find your website and are just hearing the news, you may be feeling a chill of panic. You are not alone.

Marketers around the world are feeling the daunting shock wave of losing access to the precious keyword data that has been traditionally provided through Google Analytics. The dreaded “not provided” will be growing to 100%. Let’s take a look at why Google is doing this and what this means to website owners.

Why would Google Encrypt All Keyword Search Data?

The “not provided” missing keyword data is actually not a new phenomenon, as it has been progressing since 2011. In 2011, Google implemented a major shift inmaking search more secure. When a user signed into the search engine giant’s account, any search conducted would be redirected to https://www.google.com for the encryption protocol SSL (secure socket layer). Google explained then that search queries would be encrypted and that it was a “move to increase the privacy and security of your web searches”. This move was the beginning of the “not provided” within Google Analytics Organic Search Traffic Keyword reports.

Who Flipped the Switch?

Fast forward to 2013 and Google appeared to be quietly moving to expand keyword encryption. The “not provided” keyword search data started to spike indicating that Google had “flipped on encryption for people who aren’t even signed-in.” Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land reached out to Google in September about the shift and received this response from Google:

“We added SSL encryption for our signed-in search users in 2011, as well as searches from the Chrome omnibox earlier this year. We’re now working to bring this extra protection to more users who are not signed in.”

While Danny Sullivan speculated that this shift might be the result of “US National Security Agency spying thing” or to boost ad sales through Google’s Adwords system, the result is the same. Google’s free keyword data is going away.

When will Keyword Encryption Reach 100%?

The “million dollar question” is when the encryption will hit 100% “not provided” in Google Analytics. According to (Not Provided) Count by ClickConsult, a company that tracks 60 different sites, the not provided data as of October 2, 2013, was up to 80.63%. With this trend, the company is estimating that the not provided stats will hit 100% by November 18, 2013. The real answer is that no one knows for sure.

How Does Google Keyword Encryption Affect Marketers?

SEOs and marketers have used Google’s organic keyword data to measure how effective their organic SEO efforts are and to determine optimal content marketing opportunities. What is a website marketer to do now? Rand Fishkin, CEO and founder of Moz, shared his viewpoint going forward in his article, The First Existential Threat to SEO:

“I believe that in the long run, smart SEOs will find workarounds to backfill for keyword data. I also believe that for every company that shifts their SEO budget elsewhere, another will find that despite the difficulties in perfectly calculating ROI, there is both measurable return and a harder-to-measure increase in serendipitous value. After all, TV advertising has never been perfectly measurable, and it still garners many times the investment total of SEO.”

What Can a Marketer Do Going Forward?

Google’s “not provided” in Google Analytics is not an early Halloween trick. It is here to stay. Going forward, as Rand Fishkin suggested, smart SEOs will find workarounds. Although there are a myriad of articles to help with the missing Google keyword data, here are a few golden nuggets to help you on your way:

• Google Webmaster Tools – If you haven’t set up Google Webmaster Tools yet, now is the time. To locate keyword search data, go to your dashboard and select Search Traffic and then Search Queries. You will see the search keywords that are encrypted in Google Analytics that visitors used to search for and find your website. Note that there are query impressions and clicks as well as average positions. Currently, this is the only accurate way to monitor Google’s encrypted search terms. This data goes back 90 days and you will want to download the data as a CSV file on a regular basis.
• Google Adwords – If you haven’t tried Google Adwords, you may want to try using this PPC (pay per click) system to give some insight on the valuable keywords or phrases that users might use to find a website with services and/or products similar to your site. You will not have access to organic keywords, but the keyword planner suggestion tool will give you ideas.
• Evaluate Other Search Engine Traffic – Even though Bing currently garners only 17.9 percent of the search market share in August 2013 according toComScore, you can still get an idea of traffic driving keywords through Bing’s Webmaster Tools. Bing is currently not encrypting keywords and analyzing the keywords will help you create content going forward.

Losing Google’s keyword data has sent a chill of fright to some website owners. Essentially, we have lost the ability to quickly analyze keyword data through Google Analytics to determine how our content is driving traffic and if our optimization efforts are producing results. It will be a loss, but with every closed door, there are other possibilities and new opportunities.

What are you thoughts about Google’s move to encrypt all keyword search data? Do you have another resource or idea to help fill the void that Google’s “not provided” keyword data has brought? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

How To Create A Successful Social Business

Are you a social business? By this, I mean are you aligning your social strategy to business goals? In a new Altimeter Group Report, “The Evolution of Social Business“, my co-author Brian Solis and I found that this was not the case. Only 34% of businesses we surveyed felt that their social strategy was connected to business outcomes. Brian goes into detail about our findings in this post.

Our research found that organizations typically go through six stages of social business evolution. But this doesn’t mean that you have to wait until Stage 6 to realize business impact. Rather, it’s not only possible but crucial to focus on achieving business results right from the very beginning. The six stages are as follows (for a deeper dive into each, please download the report):

A great example of this from the report comes from Shell. They launched the Shell Facebook presence only in January 2012 and they mostly post content on the page and moderate comments. But they see tremendous benefit from this activity because their business goal is to understand and improve their reputation with customers and partners. They ask the question, “To what extent is Shell meeting customers’ energy needs in socially and environmentally responsible ways?” The key here is that this is not an effort isolated to Facebook — they measure reputation across ALL media channels so that they can see their activities impact reputation differently. Moreover, they measure this DAILY. Shell may be early in their social business journey, but they make sure that they see business impact from their efforts.

Creating Your Social Business Strategy

The focus on business goals is the key to having a coherent social business strategy, which we define as “the set of visions, goals, plans, and resources that align social media initiatives with business objectives”. That alignment and focus on business objectives forms the foundation for the strategy, no matter where the organization is on their evolution. Just 28% of respondents in our survey felt that they had a holistic approach to social media, where lines of business and business functions work together under a common vision. A mere 12% were confident they had a plan that looked beyond the next year. And, perhaps most astonishing, only half of all companies surveyed said that top executives were “informed, engaged and aligned with their companies’ social strategy.”

But there is hope. we found a set of best practices common across all development stages. We call these the Success Factors of a Social Business: 

1. Define the overall business goal and align social media strategies against it.
2. Establish the long-term vision for becoming a social business.
3. Seek and earn key executive support and sponsorship based on the business case, not the trend.
4. Beyond marketing and service campaigns, develop a list of prioritized initiatives that will demonstrate business value at the enterprise-level and in key functions/lines of business and plot them on a two-to-three year roadmap.
5. Train and educate executives and employees not just how to use social media, but also how social media can impact business objectives and how to develop and run programs that do so continually.
6. Get the right people involved at the right levels. An effective social business strategy takes a unified approach with cross-functional support. It’s a combination of social media savvy and business acumen.
7. Invest in technology only after your vision and strategy are set. Technology and social media in general are only enablers to the overall mission and purpose you set forth.

Applying The Social Business Success Factors

From the research and from our work with clients, we have found that these success factors become especially important when the organization moves from one stage to the next. Some of the most common issues we’ve seen organizations face include:

• Getting executives to buy into the social strategy — and fund it. Factors #1 and #2 which use business goals and a common vision to align the organization, become crucial. Sometimes this can be accomplished with a short education session, but more often, it requires that social strategy be built into the very fabric of the executive’s work and priorities. This is done only by strongly linking social activities to the 3-5 strategic goals that executives care about. If social doesn’t help the executive accomplish their mission critical goals, then it won’t ever make it on to their radar.
• Creating a coherent strategy for social business. As crazy as it may sound, we’ve been working with clients to create three year roadmaps for their social business strategy. That’s not a typo, although it may seem impossible to do this in a fast-changing technology landscape. The key is to focus on the long-term strategic business goals of the organization and to make technology decisions ONLY after the vision and strategy are set.
• Establishing governance. This is the perennial question, “Who owns social media?” This isn’t a simple issue determined by company size, maturity, or industry. It’s base much more on how the organization sees social playing a role in the company in the future, and creating a roadmap to bridge the reality of today to the future. One organization we worked with envisioned a multiple hub-and-spoke model with product and country teams. But to get there, they realized they needed to be temporarily centralized first, move into a basic hub-and-spoke with defined responsibilities, and a migration path for governance to pass into the spokes in a few years after training ensures that the skills and capabilities are in place.
• Engaging and transforming the organization. This is perhaps the most challenging problem facing senior executives — they see the need to redesign and retool the organization for greater flexibility, adaptation to a changing landscape, and resilience in the face of increased competition. CEOs see social technologies as a way to harness and bring together employees, customers, and partners, but don’t have a roadmap to be able to do this.

By keeping in mind where you are in your social business evolution AND using the success factors, you’ll be able to start tackling some of these tricky issues. We’ve seen firsthand that this is not an easy journey, but it is one that you can successfully navigate. I’d love to hear how your journey is going — what stages are you in and have you encountered similar challenges? If so, how has our organization managed to move forward? Add your comments below or send me an email with details — we’re always looking for more case studies!

Google adds hashtags to search results

Google+ continues to grow its influence as a major social network for with the addition of hashtags to search results. Now, when you search for a hashtag on Google, results from Google+ will appear next to popular hashtags.

In general hashtags have been growing in popularity across all major social networks. In May, Google added related hashtags to Google+ streams with Facebook rolling out their own Hashtags in June.

Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr are all finding increasing more use from connected conversations, paid media to amplify conversations, and hashtags in Google+ and Google search are one way to further bring relevance to content across all Google platforms.

Google Senior Software Engineer Zaheed Sabur posted on Google+ about the new updates last week, explaining:

• When you search on Google for a hashtag, say [#AmericasCup] or [#WaterfallWednesday], a set of relevant Google+ posts may appear to the right of regular results.
• You’ll only be able to see posts that have been shared publicly or shared with you.
• If you click on any of these posts you’ll go to Google+, where you’ll see the full set of relevant posts.
• You’ll also see links to search for these hashtags on other social sites.Today’s update will be available (initially) to English language users in the US and Canada on google.com and google.ca.

As you can see below, a search of #throughglass on Google pulls up a number of different options, including the new hashtag results on the right hand sidebar. You have the option to scroll up and down through the different pieces of content.

This section rotates through content tagged with that hashtag. Also, you can notice the personalized results present as well. My friend Josh Murdock (who is in my circles) has been exploring the use of Google Glass, and his posts are showing up near the top as well.

For marketers, this new update means that Google+ is increasingly a more important part of your search profile. Content posted on Google+ is clearing getting a valuable piece of real estate inside of search.

With Google’s cleaner redesign this hashtag content takes the space of what could be sponsored links, so this could be an incentive for more users to share content on Google+ when hashtags heat up across multiple platforms.