Web 3.0…. (yes 2 is nearly over!)

Good evening, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today this Rabbit went to a web 3.0 conference about the future of social media, it’s a two day conference, today was full of insights that I thought I would share with you…

First of all I wanted to share with you the Social Rabbit cupcakes that a friend made for us to give the delegates to promote Social Rabbit, ps they were yum…

Before I start you are probably thinking what the heck is web 3.0 I’ve only just realised what 2.0 is…  Good question, ok here it is

Web 1.0: Static websites, telling people information
Web 2.0: Listening to customers
Web 3.0: C0-creating with customers

Nick Love from Fox Interactive Media

• 78% of the internets population are engaging in social media
• The social web of the future will be more intuitive
• Reputation is a currency (as in your personal or your brand or business) both on and offline
• He tips reputation tools as increasing due to everyone wanting to be king of the hill
• Advertisers can no longer just insert ad’s they need to be inserting content (we know this of course!)
• He believes in the internet of 1, as in sites will become tailored through content to be specific each person as the web becomes more intuitive and shows you information based on what you like and are interested in
• Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc are just distribution networks for content (I like this idea, as it is saying that they are just vehicles to get your message in and out)

Mark Higginson from Nielsen

He sees 6 trends in the future of social media and web 3.0

• Consumers connecting more
• Enabled mobility continues to grow (ie smartphones – did you know 43% of Australian’s have a smartphone, which means they can go onto the internet?)
• web 3.0 will redefine business models – because of the consumer involvement
• Engaged consumers – because of involvement
• New currencies are being created, eg reputation and attention
• Privacy (an ongoing issue I suspect!)

Michael Kordahi from Microsoft

• People crave experiences
• It’s those with influence online who drive traffic eg sites such as Mashable.com rather than magazines
• People will choose to conform than be wrong – I am not sure about this one….
• With devices think about the social implications of them, not just how you personally use them, but how they will be shared and therefore the content on them shared
• He has developed an interesting website called Blind Search basically he wanted to see if people are using search engines based on brand, eg Google, or if they are using them based on the best results, so on here you can search for something and get the results from bing, Google and Yahoo and then see which you prefer… FYI Google is still ranking top with 39%

Marc Lehmann from Saasu.com

• The data lives on the web
• Getting relevance right gives you attention
• Try to identify why people spend time in different websites, eg gaming sites and try to replicate that on your site to engage them

Karen Ganschow from Telstra

• The internet is word of mouth on steroids
• Consumers want brands that reflect their values and ethics
• Social media in a large organisation is all about setting the guidelines, training your team and trusting them to do a good job

Nick Holmes a Court from Buzz Numbers

• 2.3 million Australians have created a blog, but only 1.6 million update it
• Taronga Zoo measures their performance by the number of photo’s uploaded online of people’s visits to the zoo
• Ford uses social media to measure demand, so if a lot of people in one area start talking about a particular model they will check stock levels!
• Look at where people are talking about your and your business to understand where you should be

Darren Sharp from Darren Sharp Consulting

• Influence your audience through – story telling, rites of passage
• Give members recognition for achievements in the group
• Social media is self directed, ie you the consumer decide where you go and what you are going to do/read/comment on etc.

As you can see from the notes above there was a lot going on, hopefully this will give you a tiny insight, tell me what your thoughts are below or on the Social Rabbit Facebook Page.

Mental Monday: If you don’t have big breasts put ribbons on your pigtails by Barbara Corcoran

Good Morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

It’s Mental Monday again, today’s book is “If you don’t have big breasts, put ribbons on your pigtails & other lessons I learned from my mom” by Barbara Corcoran with Bruce Littlefield.  This book is not just for women, so guys don’t switch off yet.

This book is written by a New York Real Estate Queen in 2004, so yes it is a few years old, but it was just given to me recently, so it shot to the top of the reading pile.  You may wonder what this has to do with social media or with your business, but believe me there are a lot of great ideas in here that you can use.  The book is a super easy read, with each chapter covering a slightly different topic, but it is full of ideas from Barbara’s experiences.  The idea behind the title is that you have to make the best of what you’ve got, not worry about what you don’t have –  however it may be a little fluffy for some people.  Here are my favourites (all direct quotes):

• Perception creates reality: What you decide to put out there is what others will believe.  With social media you can give the perception of being a massive company while operating from your spare room, it’s all about what you say and how you say it.  Yes, be honest and transparent, but you don’t need to say you are writing from your bed!
• Good salesmanship is nothing more than maximising the positive and minimizing the negative.  Although your competition might offer something you can’t match, that doesn’t matter.  What matters is that you identify and play up what you’ve got:  Look at why someone should become a liker of your page, or why they should follow you on Twitter, instead of why they shouldn’t.  What have you got to offer readers/viewers?  How can you differentiate your business?  Is it the personal service?  The quick turnaround time? Your knowledge?  What are you doing differently?  If you value it others will.
• Finding opportunity is a matter of believing it’s there: This of course is true, but you first need to do your homework.  But this is all about passion, be passionate about your product/service/business and others will get infected with that passion and excited.
• Good systems make plans happen: Make sure you know how new leads are coming to you so you can measure the effectiveness of your social networking.  Before you start a campaign plan it, so that you make the most of all the opportunities it is going to present.
• It’s your game, make up your own rules: So true, who says that  you can’t be called The Chief Rabbit and wear rabbit ears in your online videos?  You decide what is going to work for you, you don’t need to be the same as everyone else, often it is that quirky thing that makes you stand out
• If you want to be a better Cheerleader, you better know the cheers:  Whatever business you are in, you need to understand what is required in that industry, so if you are trying to pitch for business you are ready with the answers to what they want to know.  In social media this is the same, if you are trying to position your cafe as the best for homemade food on Facebook but have no pics of the food you are missing out.
• fretting about what the other guy thinks often stops you from trying in the first place: Don’t worry that Starbucks UK has 342k likers on Facebook, instead worry about what you are doing to attract people to your page to interact with your business
• I find that every big success happens after I think I’ve exhausted 100% of my options.  For me, success only happened after I gave another 10%: Don’t give up, there are always options, ask friends in a different industry what they are doing to get so many followers on Twitter, search on the net for articles to give you inspiration, ask Social Rabbit or ask your followers what interests you?  If it interests them it will probably interest others.
• When there are 10 buyers and 3 puppies, every dog is the pick of the litter:  The more people who want what you have and the fewer you have the higher demand will be for your business/product/service.  Entice people with offers to follow you/like your page by making it the place to be… run offers for likers only, or entice new followers in with free ebooks but only to the first x number or today only, or before the end of the month.

Yes this book, was rather fluffy and generic, but it also had some good reminders about what you should be doing, which often I find we forget in the day to day rush to post, comment, like pages and tweet.

Next week I will be reviewing a harder hitting book – The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott, which will probably have so many ideas that I better start the blog now!

If there is a book you’d like The Chief Rabbit to read (to see if it’s worth a read) let me know in the comments or on our Facebook Page.

Before your start on Social Media

Good Evening, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today’s blog will be filled with furry words of advice to help you have a fantastic social media campaign.  It’s all very much common sense, but often (this Bunny included) we get carried away with the excitement and addictiveness of Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Foursquare etc that we forget to start at the beginning.  DON”T WORRY!  It’s not to late.

You want to use a social network for business, your business, it might be a hair salon, real estate office, coffee shop, accounting firm, clothes store, product or whatever, the rules are the same for EVERYONE.  So you have decided which social networking tool or tools you want to use, now follow these steps;

1. What is the purpose of what you are doing? For your Facebook page what is the purpose?  Why are you setting it up (because it’s fun doesn’t count), I want real reasons, eg to build a relationship with my audience, to use it to find out more about them, to get my product awareness out to a wider audience etc – get the picture?  This is the same if you are choosing Twitter or LinkedIn you NEED a purpose, if you don’t have one, well it just won’t work as well, and you will find it harder to maintain.
2. What are your goals? Eg for your Facebook page you want to get 500 likers in the first month and increase the click throughs to your website by x%.  For Twitter it maybe that you want to be retweeted x number of times and gain x number of followers in the first month.  Whatever you decide that your goals are these are something that you can go back to and see how you are tracking and decide if it’s working.
3. What have you got to offer?  OR What value are you adding?  OR Why should people follow you/connect with you or like you? This is the old “what’s in it for me”.  This should interlink with your purpose, so if your purpose is to “be seen as an expert in social media” the value you add could be in unravelling the mysteries behind social media, helping people to understand it and use it to grow their business.
4. What are you going to promise? I have said this before that your followers etc have memories like elephants – they never forget.  So if you entice them to your Facebook page with the offer of free ebooks or the chance to win prizes or a daily tip, when they don’t get it they WILL rebel.  Rebelling in the social networking world means de-friending/unfollowing/disconnecting, which when you have worked SO hard to get them is not what you want.

The idea behind following these steps is that when you get stuck and think “oh no what shall I blog about, post, tweet etc.” you know what your purpose, values and goals are so it makes it easier for you to deliver.  PLUS it helps with the consistency of your message, if people know you as a social media expert, then you suddenly start rambling on about how to make apple tart, it’s kinda confusing…  They won’t know what’s happening, they will lose a bit of trust and faith, who is this flaky person that yesterday was telling us how to get more likers on Facebook and now is talking about how to get the pastry just right on an apple tart…..

If you already have your social networking set up, it is NEVER too late to go back and revisit what you are doing and why, and don’t think you have to stay with what you decide forever.  However don’t change your mind daily, but often it can take a while to find your niche that both you and your readers are comfortable with, so by all means try out a few things, but let them know.  For example, when I decided to start Mental Monday’s on this blog to review books, I said that I would see how it goes, but I am not doing it daily, only once a week.  So if say 50% of you guys don’t like it I guess you don’t tune in on Monday’s, but no one has complained yet!  But if you want to make a comment do, I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVE comments positive and negative.

Tell me below what you think or on the Social Rabbit Facebook Page.

Social media monitoring, 4 free ways

Good Afternoon, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today I want to look at how you can monitor what you are up to on your social networks, plus what other people are saying about you.  To me this seems to be a job that grows daily as another network starts up, so how do I keep track of all the wonderful things that are being said about me? 🙂

Option 1:

Visit each network daily and do a search…. = way way too time consuming

Option 2:

Use Google Alerts to get sent an update daily of what is being said, however I have found that this doesn’t give you all social media, usually I just get my blog post sent back to me!

Option 3:

Try using Social Mention.  This is a FREE social media real-time monitoring website where not only does it monitor in real-time, but it also trails through over 100 social media sites for you, including all the biggies!  I think I’m in love!  You can also get the alerts sent to you (email or RSS) and they can be downloaded as a CSV file.  You can see if what people are saying is positive or negative, when the last time you were mentioned was, the top key words, the top mentioners, the top hash tags and the top sources.

Option 4:

Addict-o-matic is another free social media monitoring site, however although it looks pretty you can’t download the results, or set up an alert.  It seems to be very basic, good if you are a visual person, and it splits up the results by social media, but negative/positive comments aren’t monitored nor does it say which sites it does monitor, I don’t know who mentioned me without clicking through or where was the top place.  Nice images, but to me Social Mention gets the prize.

What should you be monitoring?

It depends on your business, how big it is, what the competition is like in your segment and what you want to achieve from the monitoring.  If you just want to see who is talking about you personally then just have an alert on your name, and then wait for all the lovely comments to flood in and make you feel good.  I suspect that is not the reason that most people want to use it, most people want to monitor what is being said about their business or their brand.  The reason for this is so that they can talk to any unhappy customers and make them happy again, see if there are fans that they could be engaging with or just see how a specific campaign has been passed on virally.  You may also be interested in seeing what your competitors are up to,  so that you can see how you compare to them and who is talking about them – could they be talking about you?  There are more high-tech paid versions of social media monitoring, but using a site like Social Mention is a good place to start.

I’m now off to check out exactly what people think of the Social Rabbit brand, so far I know that there are 7 positive comments to a negative one, which sounds good to me, but I wonder how it compares with others?  That’s for another blog post.  If you want to tell me what you think of Social Rabbit (to save me waiting for you to tweet it, or post it on Facebook) please put a comment below 🙂

Mental Monday:Tribes by Seth Godin

Good Evening, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today being Mental Monday it’s time to review a book related to social media, today my choice is Tribes by Seth Godin.  Now I should let you know that I am a HUGE Seth Godin fan, and regularly read his blogs, but a close friend of mine had read this book and said it was nothing new, so I was a bit reluctant to read it.  But readers I committed to you to read a book a week, so here I am.  I know you may think, but this isn’t on social media, well you’d be WRONG.  Why?  Tribes is all about leadership, Seth defines it as “a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea”.  This reader is what social networking is ALL about.

Your Facebook page is all about an idea, you are the leader, on Twitter you tweet out ideas and thoughts as the leader and you have followers – see what I mean?

So for me this book is one that instead of talking about Facebook etc, gets right down the grass-roots and talks about leadership, what it is and what it takes.  If you want to create a community then you are a leader, this book is one that stands out for me in terms of defining what a leader should be doing, and how ANYONE can be a leader it just takes faith.  My favourite bits from the book are (these are all direct quotes):

• Leadership is about creating change that you believe in
• Marketing is the act of telling stories about the things we make – stories that sell and stories that spread
• Leaders make a ruckus
• Great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate
• It only takes two things to turn a group of people into a tribe: 1) a shared interest, 2) a way to communicate
• Leadership is a choice.  It’s the choice not to do nothing.
• Showing up isn’t sufficient
• Through your actions as a leader you attract a tribe that wants to follow you
• Great leaders don’t try to please everyone
• The lesson is that one person with a persistent vision can make change happen, whether climbing rocks or delivering services
• Changing things – pushing the envelope and creating a future that doesn’t exist yet (at the same time you’re criticised by everyone else) – requires bravery
• Tribes are the most effective media channels ever, but they’re not for sale or for rent.  Tribes don’t do what you want; they do what they want
• The challenge for the leader is to help your tribe sing, whatever form that song takes
• Caring is the key emotion at the centre of the tribe
• Part of leadership (a big part of it, actually) is the ability to stick with the dream for a long time
• There’s a small price for being too early, but a huge penalty for being too late

But beware… “you can’t have a tribe without a leader – and you can’t be a leader without a tribe”.

Seth also talks about creating a Micromovement (this is one thing that you as the leader believe in) and gives 5 things to do and 6 key principles:

Things to do:

1. Publish a manifesto
2. Make it easy for followers to connect with you
3. Make it easy for your followers to connect with one another
4. Realise that money is not the point of the movement
5. Track your progress

Key Principles

1. Transparency is really your only option
2. Your movement needs to be bigger than you
3. Movements that grow, thrive
4. Movements are made most clear when compared to the status quo or to movements that work to push the other direction
5. Exclude outsiders
6. Tearing others down is never helpful to a movement as building your followers up

So everyone out there with a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, a YouTube channel etc you are all being a leader and creating a following/tribe.  Have you noticed how the same points are raised again and again in regards to social media, eg the transparency, the caring and that it takes time?  In the rush to get x number of followers we often forget this.  So if you want to learn more check out Tribes, and consider your leadership of your tribe….

Got comments?  Please tell me below or on the Facebook Page.  F.Y.I. Just to confirm I was NOT paid to write this, it is a completely honest opinion.

Facebook Friday: Learning with Magnatts

Good Morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today is Facebook Friday once again, where I review a Facebook page, today’s page is Learning with Magnatts.

 So what are they doing that is working and what could use a bit of help?

This is working

• I am pleased to see that they have their unique URL
• They have over 600 people who like the page
• A nice touch wishing their likers happy birthday, that kind of thing stands up and gets noticed by people as has happened here
• Good use of the discussion board, although prehaps use it to talk about people’s purchases, eg which is your favourite magnet that you bought, or have shopping dilemma’s such as which magnet is best for a girl aged 13 who is into ponies
• Great initiative to add a review tab, but rather than leave it empty why not get at least 1 or 2 reviews up from friends, or incentivise people to write them by offering vouchers
• Regular posting is good.
• Love the post on April 29 giving an example of how to use the magnets, there should be more of this happening,

Improvements:

• Get a landing tab people – I landed on the wall, and I have no idea what the page is all about, it’s very very cheap to get a tab (we are talking under $100), and you can even do it yourself!
• Add in the http:// before the web address in the box under the picture so that the address hyperlinks
• The logo is really small and doesn’t make use of the full 200 by 600 pixel space that can be used, this could be used to display products in
• The post put up on May 3rd had an image that went to another tab on Facebook – the post was promoting free shipping – this image should have been of a product and should have gone directly to the website, I am guessing that’s where you can buy…
• They could add a store to their Facebook page using a free app such as Vendor shopping cart giving people more options to buy will improve sales
• The info tab contains nothing about the company, this needs to be filled in.  Look up keywords on Google and use them when writing the sentences on this tab, it helps with SEO massively.
• They could do a lot more with their photos tab, why not create an album for each range and showcase the products
• Try to engage customers in the posts, eg ask which design do you prefer this or this?  include images
• Why not include a picture of children actually using the magnets, there is nothing to give visitors an idea of perspective in terms of size of the magnets
• When mentioning the website in ANY post always put http:// so it hyper links, people are lazy/busy and don’t have time or can’t be bothered to copy and paste, make life easy for them!
• There is quite a bit of repetition on the page in terms of very similar/exact posts on the same day, try to reduce the repetition as it may turn people off
• Why not use the notes tab to suggest the best magnet for different children, eg by age, sex or interest, people can then subscribe to them and use it as a learning resource, plus in notes you can include photos in the note.  This would showcase the product as well as help your customers, and potentially encourage them to buy more as it would give them ideas on who to buy for

The Chief Rabbit can do this for your page – with more depth, it is now a service we offer for only A$250 (per page) with a written report of actions and suggestions, email Lara@SocialRabbit.net for more info or visit our Facebook Page.

Why do people think social media = free?

Good Morning, Social rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today this Rabbit is ranting…  As you may know I am involved with a fantastic Facebook Shopping Cart app called Vendor, yesterday we posted a survey asking about what improvements people would like to see and how much they would be willing to pay for improvements.  The idea is that there will always be a free version, but we will later on introduce a paid version with more features.  This sparked off a number of comments from users about how it shouldn’t cost anything and that it was bad enough that PayPal took commission.  This is a common theme running throughout social networking sites that people expect EVERYTHING to be FREE!

My question to those people is how do the people who make the applications and keep them bug free live?  On fresh air?  It frustrates me beyond belief that people are so self-absorbed that they don’t think about others, they think that time is free.  I am sure that you all know or have met these kinds of people, and I have blogged about this before.

I know that the reason people expect app’s etc to be free is that because that is how they have started, you know how when you first got TV the channels were free (still is, unless you live in the UK), and then cable came in, now with cable you get more features and benefits but it costs money, but people pay because they can see the value in it. 

Much of the attitude around wanting app’s for free is that people just do not understand how much time and effort has gone into building it, if they did would they value it more?  I think the answer is yes, a lot of the time we assume that if an expert is doing it it takes them 5 seconds…. well as one expert to another I can tell you this is not always the case.  Or prehaps they don’t think.  If at the bottom of everything that was provided for free people put: FYI This took me x hours, would it make a difference?

I know that we are not talking about everyone here, but just maybe some people should stop to think “how are they making money doing this?”  rather than “how can I get everything I need to make money for free”.  We all love getting freebees, but I think when free becomes paid, we have to learn not to moan, and to say “thanks for giving it to me free for so long!”

Well I think that is enough ranting for today, tomorrow you will be treated to a Facebook Page review.  If you have any issues that really bug you tell me in the comments, so I don’t feel alone 😦  Plus if you would like to donate to the “keeping this rabbit in carrots fund” please email me….. I’m joking 🙂

What to post on your Facebook Page

Good Afternoon, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today we are going back to basics on what to post on your Facebook page…  But first there are some basic do’s.

DO

• Give news ideas a try, one dodgy post is not going to kill off all your readers
• Spell words correctly
• Post regularly (once a week, once a day or whatever works for you)
• If someone comments on your post then post a comment back
• Post more than just words – use photos, videos, podcasts, links
• Ask questions
• Encourage feedback
• Use symbols like 🙂 or ❤ (heart) (if relevant)
• Make it relevant
• Encourage visitors to check out other tabs on your page

Post examples for you to use:

• Check out the new x, if you like it click “like” (attach a picture)
• This is a great article for help on x (to find articles that you can use go to www.ezinearticles.com)
• Have you heard about the latest x, what do you think? (then link to an article)
• Who do you admire more Richard Branson or Donald Trump? (make this relevant to your audience)
• Would you rather be stuck in an elevator with George Clooney or Justin Bieber? (again make this relevant to your audience)
• If you need help on your Facebook page, this video gives you lots of tips (attach the video, you can search on www.youtube.com for videos to attach, you don’t need to make one)
• Welcome to all our new visitors, if you have any questions on x post them in the comments 🙂
• Did you know 27% of people check their social networking account if they wake up in the night… is this you? (use Google to find stats you can use)
• We would love to see photos of you with xxx please post them
• What would you like to see on our website? (link to your website)
• What new designs/products/services would you like us to bring out?
• We are running a competition on our website to win x click to enter (link to your website)
• How long can you moo? (we have used this on the Mocks Facebook page, and although it is very silly, it’s fun and our audience loves it)
• Has anyone here ever been bullied? We think that you are all beautiful on the inside and out! We say “No” to bullying with our ‘I delete Bullies’ Mocks (again from the Mocks page, incorporate what you are doing with your business with relevant topics in the media)
• Want to get glammed up for the Oscars tonight, why not try…. (relate it to your products/services)
• How about posting about Mother’s Day on your page this weekend (give your readers ideas)
• Did you know it’s only 252 shopping days until to Christmas… better rush out now! (help your readers out, by reminding them of events)
• The best post I’ve seen on a page is…….. (leave it blank like this to encourage people to fill it in)

Remember it isn’t about selling your products to your audience, it is about engaging them, giving them reasons to talk to you, finding out about them, having a conversation and building a relationship.  When your audience trust you, like you and are interested you can start to promote your products and they will be open to it.

Until then readers let me know if you have any awesome posts that really work for you in the comments or on the Social Rabbit Facebook Page.  Plus if you would like the Chief Rabbit to review your page and give you ideas check out the store tab on the Facebook Page to book in.

9MX2MYDGGKGZ

Mental Monday: Socialnomics by Erik Qualman

Good Afternoon, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today I am starting a new post slot called Mental Monday’s, the idea being that each week I will review a book/whitepaper related to social media.  My reasons for this are that I want to read more and just am not holding myself accountable, so I thought my readers could hold me accountable instead.  I welcome suggestions on which books you would like reviewed.  I would like to point out that I don’t get given the books to review, nor do I own a book store & I will always say what I think!

Today’s book is Socialnomics: how social media transforms the way we live and do business by Erik Qualman.  You might recognise this name, he is the guy who bought us the YouTube video called the Social Media Revolution – a must watch for everyone if you haven’t seen it.

So back to the book, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it is a very easy read with lots of case studies to bring it to life, it is very open and honest, and tells it exactly how it is.  It contains eight chapters on different social media topic such as word of mouth, social media = preventative behaviour, Obama’s success with social media, winners & losers in 140 character world and more.  At the end of each chapter Erik has a 1 page list of key point that you can take away.  Below I have listed my favourite key points (please note that these are all direct quotes):

• Spending time on social media makes you more productive.  Social media is the mechanism that allows users to avoid “information indigestion”.
• Business models need to shift.  Simply digitizing old business models doesn’t work; businesses need to fully transform to properly address the impact and demands of social media
• Not all great marketing ideas need to originate in the marketing department.
• What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube.
• Social media enables frustrated customers to instantly post their unbridled frustrations
• Effective companies and people relish critical feedback via social media.
• Social media allows individuals to take real-time inventories of their lives and helps answer the age old question “what am I doing with my life?”
• Reality TV has been replaced by reality social media
• Consumers want to take ownership of your brand and brag about your product; let them!
• Socialommerce is a referral program on steroids [refering to social media ecommerce]
• The old adage that you can only have two of these – cheap, quick or quality – doesn’t hold true within social media.  It is possible to have all three
• Consumers are looking to peers for recommendations on products, services, health issues, and more via social media.  Only companies that produce great products and services will be part of these conversations; mediocrity will quickly be eliminated.
• The transparency and speed of information exchanged within social media mitigates casual schizophrenic behaviour.  Having a “work” personality and having a “party” personality will soon become extinct.  People and companies will need to have one essence and be true to that essence.
• No person or company is perfect, so you are best to admit your faults and the public will respect you for it.
• It’s better to live a social media life making mistake than living a social media life doing nothing.
• Don’t build your “Field of Nightmares” [refering to the Field of Dreams quote build it and they will come] by building or replicating a social network for your company.  If you build it they will most likely not come.  You are better connecting to the best in class social media tools that exist.  You aren’t a social media company so don’t attempt to parade as one.
• The younger generation’s interpersonal communication skills are starting to suffer as a result of overdependence on nonverbal and non-face-to-face interactions

Just from these snippets of information you can see that he talks about where social media is and where he thinks it is going.  This book made me think about what I am doing, and how I can do it better, the case studies are great for new ideas and can be applied to any business.

I would recommend this book, not only for newbies to social media but also those who have been around the tracks a few times, it will make you think about what you are doing and how you are doing it.

Was this useful?  Tell me yes or no in the comments, do you want me to keep doing reviews?

I love the new Facebook Interaction

Good Morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Very very very excited today.  With the news on Thursday (22nd April 2010) of the new sharing of Facebook with other websites I didn’t really know what the implications would be for me as a user and brands.  But today I experienced it first hand while shopping at www.dvf.com, below are the screen shots of my experience…

 Shopping on DVF.com, liked this dress and I could share it using Facebook, so I clicked to share

Next after I’d agreed to share with the app I got this, which has a picture of the dress & a space to comment and I can add it to my wall

Now it’s on my Facebook wall 🙂

I’ve rated the dress for other visitors to see

Ok so why do I love it as a Facebook user?

• I can ask my friends opinions on products/services before I buy
• On the DVF website I can see if any of my other friends have liked it, and if they have I can check with them if they bought it (I don’t want the same dress as a friend if we live in the same town)
• I feel I am really interacting with the brand
• I feel that the brand knows me – that I like to ask my friends their opinion on my potential purchases
• I feel that my brand is trendy and with it because they are using social media and making my life easy

Why I love it as a marketer..

• Brand awareness – big time!  Now additional people (my customer’s friends) have seen the brand and the products which increases brand awareness and potentially sales
• Gives quick stats on the website as to what designs/products people like, so it will help with forecasting demand and when trying to sell into retailers
• I am helping my customers, in that they can easily ask their friends opinions of products
• I am helping my customers as they can see what others have rated the item
• It gives me feedback on designs in a type of crowdsourcing way that I can use for future collections
• It gives the perception that my brand is up with social media trends

Well now I’m off to see who else has this on their sites, if you find one you love, please share it in the comments.  I am sure over the next few weeks we will see more and more websites add the social widgets that allow sharing and rating of products.  It’s an exciting week for consumers and brands alike.

P.S.  If anyone at www.dvf.com is reading this happy to have free dresses 🙂