The power of social media to bring brands as well as consumers together around the love of coffee is simply amazing. Being able to meet such incredible people like Jason @CoffeeCupNews and the awesome folks from @Bunn has been truly awesome!

I have learned a lot about coffee already from the distinguished George Howell . Who knew coffee was nearly as complex as the wine making process!!  Good stuff.

Highly suggest checking out the new Bunn Trifecta . Think french press, automated with the ability to modify the flavor and intensity of your brew based on settings. I got a great demo today, the day they launched the new device. This whole new way of brewing is expected to create a new category within the space called “Full Cup Coffee”. The innovative way the technology handles “french press-like” brewing is a completely new approach. Check it out!

Never ceases to amaze me how social media is so powerful at making connections, executing business and developing significant partner and client relationships.  Today is more proof of that!

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

In this post I want to help you get some focus on those conversations in order to be effective with your social media marketing. Conversations with your target market can be very powerful. Conversations for the sake of engagement can be a considerable waste of time. You need to make sure you are having the right conversations…

Lets put some clarification here before a few of you decide to go off in the comment section. I am in no way suggesting that you ignore anyone in your feeds. I am not suggesting that you randomly unfollow or unfriend non prospects. What I am suggesting is that you focus the majority of your time and conversations that build relationships with your target audience and influencers thereof.

Three keys to having the right social media conversations are:

1) Spend your time building relationships and having the majority of your conversations with your target market most likely to do business with you.

2) Don’t always make the conversations about what you do. Get to know your prospects on a human level. The business conversations will come naturally.

3) Don’t miss opportunities to get into conversations about what you do. If you are doing number one and two correctly, you will easily be able to find situations where your fans/followers are expressing a need, frustration or problem that you solve. Don’t over look those opportunities to engage about what you do.

A big mistake I see many social media agencies, consultants or virtual assistants making within social media is in this area. They spend the majority of their time engaging with their peers and competitors rather than effectively finding and building relationships with their target audience. I am not saying they shouldn’t with their peers, but I am saying it should be minimal and not where the majority of their time is spent.

If you are using social media for marketing, you need to have a strategy that covers all levels of the experience. From growing your target audience, content strategy as well as engagement. You need to ensure that the efforts you are making get results. Having the right social media conversations is imperative to achieving that goal.

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

The campaign allows fans of the show to create their own personal Glee fanpage.  Fans are able to select their favorite characters and build their own customized Social Stage micro site complete with images, video and more right within their own created fanpage on Facebook.

The shows popularity is not only clear by viewership, but also within social media. Fox’s Glee fanpage has over 18 million fans. No doubt that number will climb dramatically with the technology and marketing scheme they have deployed with this campaign!

Clearly the strategy of the campaign is to further engage with their target audience in new and unique ways. Giving their fans the ability to have their own custom fanpage using the Social Stage application will extend their reach by leaps and bounds. Furthermore, adding buzz, a flood of new content and conversation about the show will certainly not remove it from the top social and viewer rankings.

What I find very interesting about the campaign and truly unique is how the fan is empowered by the TV brand. They get to build their page and customize it the way they want it to look. The fan is involved in the process, yet has empowerment to make it what they want.

Added to the application on the main Glee page is a leader board, which tracks the various extension fanpages built by users and ranks them to show which fanpages are leading with likes, etc.  No doubt this functionality will go over big with the intended fan base, furthering the overall reach, adoption rate and engagement overall.

I asked Social Stage for some initial numbers on adoption rate and new pages created as well as some traffic numbers, but probably wisely, they declined to deliver that. Not sure I would either if my client was Fox Broadcasting. However, they did say that the customized application running the Glee site is a custom installation of their already available app suite. Their suite of micro website fanpage apps are easily modified to make single tabbed, multi-page landing pages that do not require programmers or designers to implement.

In my opinion, this campaign is an incredibly unique and effective way to take the social media brand/fan relationship to new levels. Anything a company can do that deepens the connection with their audience and empowers them to be “a part” of the brand itself, is a win-win endeavor!

How could your brand use this unique technology to get your fans involved?

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

We have seen social media solidifying its place within larger brands and now small and medium businesses are also adopting it at a fast pace. We have also seen how content sharing has become the center point of social activity, sparking the conversations and leading to deeper relationships.  Social media has given content “the” platform that enables it to be seen by far more people, shared and consumed more effectively than previously imagined.

The second wave of the content revolution is content creation. Now of course we have had content creation even before social media became what it is today, however I believe social media is migrating again to raise the level and the requirement of content creation to new heights. The next coming requirement for all brands, marketers and individuals using social media for marketing will have to develop an effective strategy of consistent, relevant and engaging content.

As more and more consumers join both mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter, as well as more specialized networks like Linkedin and Pinterest, more and more content is being consumed. The growing demand by consumers for more fresh, interesting and relevant content is only going to continue to scale. The ever increasing noise as a result of this growing volume is going to put more and more pressure on brands and marketers of all sizes to consistently put out fresh, unique content. When I say all sizes, I mean the local mom and pop restaurant, all the way through International brands.

Some larger brands have a significant advantage in some aspects in this next phase of social media content. With substantial budgets, numerous ad campaigns already in place and larger resources, they are going to best execute to this growing need. Small/Local businesses and/or their social media agencies will have to become experts in content creation or at least allocate financial resources to the endeavor if they are going to compete and win

What should you take from this post? Start shifting your planning toward content creation. If you are a social media agency, start putting consulting and creation options in place that help your clients move in this direction now, so they are leading in the space. Develop solutions that enable your firm to capture more revenue, while covering this aspect for your clients.

Very soon it will not just be about having a presence in the social graph and sharing relevant content, but also about consistently developing your own fresh, unique content that your audience will value and share. A commitment to doing it and then executing it is not cheap, but it is a lot less expensive than being left in the dust by your competition!

Must have consistent content creation types for ALL businesses will be:

1) Blog – Yes many have them now, but being consistent with frequency and a strategy that caters to your audience and not just your company information is required. Focus on what it is your audience wants. Give it to them in creative ways that keep them coming back for more.

2) Video Content – Not just a YouTube Channel of your company product videos, but relevant, fresh content surrounding your audiences interests. Entertaining, humorous, relevant.

3) Photo’s – Look for unique ways to bring photo’s and images into your content stream. The birth of Pinterest has once again highlighted the need for content creation that delivers value to your audience. Again, you need to be creative with your photo’s to make them relevant and interesting. Tell stories, moments with customers, humanize your brand and entertain in order to capture your audiences attention. Create graphics from regular photo’s to extend the reach.

Again, content creation is going to be a requirement for all brands, large or small to compete. Start planning now and lead in this revolution.

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

1) Anti-Automated Direct Message Folks – These folks are typically very passionate about social networking. They have very strong feelings about how it should be done. Their views are exclusive and either black or white, with little tolerance for anyone or anything outside of those beliefs. I find these are often the ones that attack and are extremely critical of others, both in and out of the social graph. Don’t try to please them, you never will.

Just posting that today’s blog would be about the topic spawned several opposition posts, like “Dislike those auto DMs. I usually unfollow folks who use them.” and “(It’s a BIG no no)”. These were from social media people too. Seriously? That’s like a professional singer not engaging with their potential fans/purchasers of their music because the fans don’t sing well… Shaking head!

2) Active Auto Direct Message Users – This group is the other side of the spectrum. They hammer out automated DM’s left and right. There are typically two world views within this group – 1) Direct marketers that don’t care about etiquette or relationships and only care about right now and revenue. 2) The newer social media marketer/consultant that just wants results and have seen others do it, so they are too.

The problem with Active Auto DM users, in the second category, is that they do not have the experience and understanding to make those auto DMs effective. They are doing what they have seen and assume it must work because others are doing it. So they set up automated DM messages about their client, their fanpage or product and hope for the best.

Me? I fall somewhere in between these two polarized camps. Rather than get into the details of each of the camps and their valid or often invalid views, I wanted to give you some insights on how to use Twitter DM’s effectively, both auto and manual.

There are two Twitter DM types to focus on:

1) Automated DM’s - Here is a secret… I use Auto DM’s on my personal account. But it’s HOW I use them that makes the difference. Why? I definitely want to thank everyone of my new followers and I can no longer do that manually since it averages about 150 per day. If you are going to use Auto DM’s here is what I suggest:

What I DON’T do – I do not pitch, send to my website or try to sell anything in my auto DM message.

What I always do – I thank in a unique, authentic way and give them an opportunity to connect with me in other ways.

Here is my Auto DM message:  Honored to connect with ya! Thanx for the follow. Here are all my connection points: http://ow.ly/6vl7s Socially yours, Robert

Be simple, inviting and never pitch. Social media marketing is about building relationships. You need to have a relationship before you pitch. Pitching at the very moment you connect hurts you, not helps you. I receive both DM replies and in feed comments about my DM frequently that are HIGHLY positive. The image in this post show’s one of those comments from @itgalnwn.

2) DM Opportunities – There are several business and relationship building opportunities within the Twitter Direct Message platform. I am shocked how often I speak to people that never take advantage of DM’s. Here are a few ways we use them effectively:

a) Responding to DM’s to spark conversation – Look for manual or auto DM’s that warrant a reply. I read every single DM that comes in and look for opportunities to connect, engage, start conversations and build relationships.

b) Taking a conversation out of news feed – When you have an interested prospect or follower, be open to taking the conversation into the Direct Messaging system. This can allow you to get into more detail without them fearing others knowing they are interested in what you do. It removes the magnifying glass of the social graph and becomes one on one. This often helps your prospect drop their walls and open up.

c) Making yourself more human and approachable – Many social media accounts ignore all DM’s. Being the account that always responds, automatically makes you more human and approachable. A great starting point for a relationship!

d) Setting appointments and demo’s with prospective customers – I often move conversations to DM to ask for an appointment and/or a demo call. Similarly to “c” above, this is a very effective way to get more personal and ask for the sale or appointment, without the pressure of the open feed on them.

The wrap up word:

All of what I have put in this post are things I do and have made effective without being annoying or intrusive. It is free advice and worth every penny. The focus is to help facilitate your thinking toward opening your mind and staying clear of hard line approaches to social media.

Unfollowing  a potential client that uses social media wrong or different than you is just plain poor business. You are hurting YOU, not them. Do you want to be right, or do you want to be rich? Get off your arrogant high horse and lead, help and build relationships with those that need you and your service. It’s not about YOU!

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

P.S. If you are a troll that just want to argue about DM’s, I respect your opinion, I just disagree. I will not get sucked into an argument. You are free to have your opinion, this is mine…

During our telephone call, we discussed all of the various elements that play into this evolution. Things like the positive and negative sides of social media, its effects on business, disaster management, geopolitics and revolutions, economics, etc…  We also batted around some of the forward-looking privacy, manipulation and third-party effects that might some day arise.

We decided to focus our prediction post on the core two elements of this powerful medium; social and media. Here’s what we came up with:

Social 

Here are some of the positives we identified:

• More effective trend identification for consumers.
• More effective trend identification by marketers.
• Life/Social Media line permeation - easier to manage transitions and at a better cost and higher quality.
• Shopping evolves to be less fragmented on fan pages and twitter accounts and more integrated into the entire overall experience.
• More power to the people; both in consumer and political space. This will become more organized and less fragmented.
• More personal,  even real marriage relationships – taking control of the process out of dating sites and into the hands of people. (This will remove more barriers and limit costs).

and some of the negatives:

• Increasing graying of the lines between reality and perception.
• Increased mob rules/anarchy mentality and focus.
• Crime/fraud & identity theft will continue to become a larger problem.
• Stalking and unwanted attention will continue to be challenge.
• Increase in bullying and intolerance.
• 15 minutes of fame will mostly come from negative elements.

Media

Some of the positives:

• Real customer life-long relationships – local and medium businesses will grow ability to compete and benefit.
• Increased collaboration and integration will blur the lines of traditional media.
• Increased value in knowledge sharing as aggregation leverages global knowledge and diversity.
• Powerful opportunity to build cheerleaders for charities, underprivileged, countries going through massive change.

and the negatives:

• Possible loss of respect for institutions as knowledge becomes more widely dispersed.
• More distortion and false messaging by individuals and organizations that have ulterior motives.
• Traditional sources of knowledge; brick and mortar libraries, schools, will receive less funding and fall into disrepair.

This is by no means a definitive work on the subject. Francois and I just thought it might be helpful to share the details of our discussion where others could jump in, take from it and think longer term. We all know that social media marketing is a game changer and it’s impacting the world and human dynamics in both positive and negative ways that were never imagined by their inventors. What are your thoughts on how social media will impact us in the future?

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

There are two things I love and look forward to everyday outside of my kids. Social media and coffee. I know this is probably a new revelation for my social media connections. Since I’m sure many of you didn’t know that, it is probably appropriate to include a graphic here from Klout. Topic = Coffee (show some +K love?)

I’m beginning to think that I may have a coffee problem. No, I take that back. The only problem with coffee I have is that sometimes I do not have enough of it around.

Let’s stop right here and answer the most frequent question I get every day within the social graph. “What is your favorite coffee?” My answer has always been the same… “Whatever happens to be in my cup at that particular moment.”

Coffee and social media people (the majority, but not all) are like peas in a pod, bread and butter or rain and the pacific northwest. They just seem to go together. It’s a well made partnership of fuel, community and relationship that join forces to create lightning speed engagement and effectiveness. Do you know what I mean?

Topic influence should be part of any social media strategy. If you know your target market extremely well, you know the topics of interest that your brand must influence. I know my target audience of social media agencies, strategists, internal brand departments and individual social media marketers well. We purposefully used my love of coffee, social media and family to establish a community we could provide value to, relate with and build effective relationships within. I call this the tripod of a social content strategy. It deeply understands the core target audience of a brand and focuses on the top three topics that drive it.

A tripod content strategy can achieve several extremely important things within a social media strategy:

1) Results in a large targeted audience

2) The audience is highly engaged

3) Make the person/brand very approachable

4) Result in a very loyal community

Here’s an example of how this strategy has recently impacted myself and our brand:

I was recently contacted by @CoffeeCon12 about the CoffeeCon 2012 event in Chicago. They invited me to come. Yes me! How cool is that? Now I get to learn a ton more about my favorite drink, meet a ton of cool people AND spend a few extra days meeting with Bundle Post clients and prospects. Effective? I think so! Where are my Chicago peeps?  Let’s get together at CoffeeCon12 when I am there.

How can your brand or social media agency deploy a tripod social media content strategy of improved community and results?

1) Know your target market. Determine the core content they are interested in and deliver that relevant content frequently.

2) Take it to the next level by understanding who your market is as people and an industry.

3) Identify the additional human aspects that drive your audience and include that content in the strategy.

4) Engage around these topics frequently.

So if you are in or around Chicago, let’s connect and get some coffee this month! If you can’t make it to the event, let’s connect anyway and get to know each other!

http://coffee-con.com/
Saturday, February 25th, 2012
9:00am-5:00pm
IBEW Local Union 701
28600 Bella Vista Parkway
Warrenville, IL 60555

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

We know, or at least we should know that social media is supposed to be social. I try to be patient about a lot of things within the social graph, understanding that everyone has different ideas, methods and approaches to their social media marketing tactics. However, one of the things that is just incredibly difficult for me to handle are the direct marketing pitches. Let me clarify…

You should be telling about your company, product and service in your streams. You should be getting into conversations about said with your fans and followers. You should be sharing interesting, relevant and valuable information about what you do in your streams. The end result is, that is why we are here. I am referring to the new follower, the new connection or the person that never engages with you at all. You know, posting on your wall. Inviting you to events. Mentioning you on Twitter with a pitch and a link.

This all too frequent fail in social media has caused me to be very sensitive to pitches in OUR social media strategy. Call me crazy, but the last thing I ever want is to be called out for doing something I write about and believe, then failing to act on what I say. I’d rather be shot! But the point is, I have swung way too far the other way.

An interesting recurring situation has happened to me over the last week and a half. In demo’s, telephone calls and face-to-face meetings, I received comments from folks I actually have built relationships with. People I know well, engage with frequently and have relationships with. The more than four comments were all something like this… “OMG, I had no idea this is what you do. This is amazing, I wish I would have known sooner. Where do I get it?”

I just have one word to say at this point. OUCH!

I have truly failed in our social media marketing strategy, tactics and methodology. I became so over sensitive on the media side of social media that I was failing to get our message across to even our most supportive audience. Even worse, those that know me well did not even know what we do as a company. Are you kidding?

Lessons:

• Although you should never be over eager to pitch your product or service, you must ensure that your brand value proposition and message is getting across to your audience. If it isn’t, either your message or your method is off. Or worse, both!
• For Pete sake, the people you have built relationships with should never be the LAST in your audience to understand what you do.
• Build relationships, help other people, but ensure that the value of your brand, product and messaging cuts through.

I have spent the last two days pondering where our messaging and methods are off that got us to this point. We are implementing some changes to some things internally and personally with my content and conversations to rectify this. When people that you know and like don’t know what you do, you may need a little bit more media in your social media. I am embarrassed, yet motivated to ensure the enormous value our technology delivers to the marketplace gets heard.

What changes to your social media strategy and engagement needs a little bit of media adjustment? Do your relationships know what you do? Is your value proposition coming across with your current strategy?

Evaluate, Adjust, Execute!

P.S. At the risk of swinging back the other way too far, I am going to ensure that I give an opportunity for you to know exactly what my company does for social media. You can scroll down below and get an overview graphic we had done by the talented @anyadowning

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

Here’s what we do:

Bundle Post, Social Content Management System

• social content aggregation
• repository of your company social posts
• merge content to schedules
• auto-hashtagging
• Follow Friday management
• integrates with Hootsuite
• 4 days of content in <20 minutes
• twitter, facebook, linkedin, fanpage support
• handle 80% more clients with ZERO additional resources
• improve social program results
• supports unlimited clients, content, posts

With the proper values in place, a social media agency can be extremely effective for clients, when they use their knowledge and experience within social media to make it valuable for their clients. This resource intensive process usually results in two business challenges:

1) Signing new clients is difficult due to the costs of entry
2) The agency is constantly trying to balance internal time and resources with the clients program effectiveness and results.

Knowing these two challenges exist, there are three things a social media agency must maximize in order to succeed.

1) Internal Efficiency

Your agency or internal social media department must be efficient. Evaluate the time, processes and procedures you are using internally to find opportunities to maximize efficiency. Determine if the tools you are using are what you really need and investigate other applications that can improve your teams use of time.

2) Internal Profitability

As a social media agency you are time and human heavy. These are typically the largest costs you will need to manage. Social media marketing requires the human element to work, so ensuring your have the right people doing the work for your clients is incredibly important. Getting more out of your existing staff has a direct impact in your net profits. Evaluate where in your process your team is spending most of their time on client programs and that is where to focus your efforts for point one above.

You are in business to make a profit. Items one and two above should be your main focus. Without a profitable social media agency, item number three below will not matter.

3) Client Effectiveness and ROI

When, and only when, you have the plates for one and two spinning effectively, you need to refocus your attention on management of client programs. Evaluate the following components to determine areas that can achieve improved results and the changes or additional activity required to do so.

• Community Growth
• Community Targeting
• Social Networks Being Used
• Content Strategy
• Engagement
• Relationship Building

Finally, you need to understand that the more you improve these three items within your social media agency, the more value you will be delivering to your clients, which results in opportunity for price increases and additional projects with them.

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post