Lou Sagar, Social Strategist

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Social Profiling: How it Impacts You.

‘Social Profiling’ Defined, and the Technologies That Will Fuel It
What’s Social Profiling? Digital technologies that enable social data to easily be referenced in public by others using mobile, AR, or other technologies. New technologies are emerging that allow us to overlay digital content on top of the real world, called Augmented Reality, we’re expecting Google to launch their Google Goggles “Project Glass” this summer. Additionally, it’s expected that Apple’s next iPhone will have facial recognition featuresthat will enable us to identify people, and it’s assumed we’ll be able to quickly pull digital content about them.

Don’t Overly Rely on Social Scores –Understand True Influence
Logic tells us that new mobile applications will emerge that will allow digital content about us, in fact, we should expect apps to emerge that instantly allow us to tell one’s Twitter follower count, Klout score, and Facebook fans. But before we jump to conclusions on how this could help us identify ‘influencers’ take Altimeter’s guidance in understanding that these tools don’t fully tell the whole story. In fact, you should first read my colleague Brian Solis’ report on digital influence, which shows why social scores are not telling the full story, as well as see his presentation he gave on this topic.

Social Profiling Will Impact Society, Business, and You.
We should expect that social profiling technologies and techniques will impact us in at least three ways:

1) Digital ‘influence’ scores will emerge in the public real world –like it not. The social dynamics of determining who a dominant member of society could change. The largest male, the richest female, may now rival that of the most ‘influential’ person in the room –and everyone will know it quickly. As a result, a new pecking order in business could emerge that breaks corporate hierarchy, wealth, or attractiveness.

2) Marketers will use this to prioritize and reward influencers. Brands have been attracted to influencers for decades, and now they’ve new tools to segment. Hotels like the Palms are already prioritizing guests with high Klout scores to receive special treatment, this will now cascade to hospitality, retail, and more. Expect those with higher scores to be offered special treatment (here’s a breakdown of how it will happen), whether they take the offers or not.

3) New business models will emerge to offer ‘digital grooming”. Like personal grooming in the bathroom, we’ll now have to prepare for our own digital grooming as we venture into the real world. Expect a new form of digital consultant to emerge that will help professionals manage, prune, and improve their digital self, much how image consultants assist those who want to appear their best.

Get ready for this new world where our digital lives will now be easily displayed around us in the physical world, forever changing the social dynamic in which we play, work, and love.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Lou's Views:

Heading into 2014, the trends I expect to continue generating attention are the concern for the privacy of
one's personal data, evaporative image and message exchanges, the "shareable" economy, alternative currencies,
crowd-funding, and activism for positive social change and free expression.

Lets learn together.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Anatomy of A Social Network

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Simply put, you’ll be hard-pressed to bootstrap your site’s traffic via social media. People really don’t want to leave social media sites when they arrive. They’re there to be entertained and connect with friends. Unless your store deals in pure entertainment, you’ll have a hard time competing. You simply don’t have the pull to rip them away from social media’s powerful magnets.

The bottom line is that I’ve never heard of any store having positive ROI with a direct sales approach to advertising on social media.

So, how should you use social media?

Social media is the best platform for running a fan club. Social media should be used to engage with your most fervent fans. These are your best and most ardent repeat customers. These are the people who buy almost every time you send out an email. They’re the ones telling their friends about your site. These are your apex customers. Engage them in order to enjoy the multiplying network effects of word-of-mouth advertising.

You should only cater to your apex customers on social media. Your best customers have decided to follow you because they like your store, your policies, and your overall approach. You don’t need to sell them. They’re already sold! Instead, you need to peel back the curtain a bit and let them know even more about you, your philosophy, your employees, your culture, etc. These people are interested. So, give ‘em the goods!

Don’t just regurgitate everything that’s on your website. Your best customers already know your website. They’ve come to your social media presence to find out more. Give it to them! This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t announce new products, but that you should go above and beyond. Your social media presence shouldn’t simply be a facsimile of your website catalog.

Go ahead, post inside jokes! Again, this is a fan club. If visitors are here, they are fans and they should “get” the joke. If they don’t, even better. That means they’re new and eager to learn. It’ll be a mystery for them to solve.

Share special deals and coupons. Only your best fans are going to check out your social media pages, so you should reward them. Always remember that repeat customers are the lifeline of a small business. I think this is a far better policy than trying to sucker new customers with absurdly low deals. This simply trains them to only buy when there’s a special.

Get personal. The bottom line is that people buy from the person they like the most. All things being equal (price, service, etc.), you’re going to buy from the site you like best. You can’t like a site if you don’t know anything about them. Use social media to really put yourself out there. Be personable. Make it clear that there are really people running your business. Make connections with your fans. It’s called a social “network” for a reason.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

The world's greatest social media marketer possesses more meaningful skills.

1. The world's greatest social media marketer is a great listener.

You get this by now, right? Social media masters are in it to build relationships. What do you call someone you have a relationship with? A friend? And what do friends do for each other? They listen. They don't jump to conclusions. They ask more questions. And then they listen some more. Offline or online, you need to listen.

2. The world's greatest social media marketer doesn't try so hard to be a marketer.

A funny thing about social media is that it's social. Your marketing maven hasn't forgotten there are business reasons for doing what she does online, but she recognizes that the direct-response mentality of yesteryear is sure to backfire. So she refrains from allowing a lead generation agenda to drive her behavior. She's a nurturer and aims to be as helpful as she possibly can.

3. The world's greatest social media marketer loves to share.

Oh, sure, she has a mind of her own; and, when the time is right, ideas and opinions will spring from it. However, the world's greatest social media marketer is humble and generous. She not only recognizes the remarkable value industry influencers provide but also understands the value of recognizing their contributions. So one of the most significant contributions she makes is to share the best work of experts.

4. The world's greatest social media marketer is extremely responsive.

A great social media marketer mediates. She doesn't think of a social medium as a broadcast channel. She thinks of it as a channel for interacting. Clicking "Tweet" or any status update button isn't the end; it's the beginning. Whatever the content of the update might be, the goal is to engage. So she'll know (and appreciate) when a reader has a comment or question, and she'll quickly respond.

5. The world's greatest social media marketer has no pretenses.

The great ones don't use the Internet as a veil. They're as unpretentious as can be. Sincere. Genuine. Honest. They simply are themselves. You can pretend to be someone you're not, but not for long.

6. The world's greatest social media marketer doesn't just follow.

There's no wing in the social media hall of fame for those with the biggest number of followers. Having the most followers also doesn't factor like you might think it does. Your social media superstar is a leader. She's identified her niche and dedicated herself to it, and she acts like a leader by setting an agenda, empowering people, and building a tribe of professionals connected by a common goal.

7. The world's greatest social media marketer is patient.

No one likes the pushy socialite. Track down the social media marketer you hold in high regard and ask her how she scaled such heights. She may or may not tell you "by building one relationship at a time," but she definitely won't deny that the path to social media marketing success takes time.

8. The world's greatest social media marketer can write.

She recognizes (1) the social media space is a noisefest of the highest order and (2) hers is not the first or last word on any topic. But she manages to stand out and to connect with readers because she has a way with words. Her writing is concise, but provocative. She's bold and confident, but humble and open-minded. She takes what she does seriously, but she has a sense of humor.

9. The world's greatest social media marketer knows news.

Her content has a nice balance to it. She makes news when she can, but she also acts as a curator—that is, she redistributes worthwhile news. She presents the good and the bad. Sometimes, she's on top of a breaking story. Sometimes she goes back to basics. But she's always topical and never predictable.

10. The world's greatest social media marketer doesn't depend solely on social media.

She doesn't just troll websites. She understands that real relationships can't be based on little blue thumb-up icons. So she engages peers, partners, prospects, and customers (or anyone she can help), with old-fashioned tools such as the telephone, email, and real mail. She knows what networking meant before we had social media networks. So the world's greatest social media marketer won't claim you can really connect with someone by clicking. She'll explain that you click with someone when you make a true connection.