Running on empty

It has been a tough first month of training to blow away the Christmas cobwebs and shed the love handles. It started so well with some new year enthusiasm but then it snowed. And it got cold, really cold. And my feet started to hurt. And I added Sky Sports to my Virgin Media package. The schoolboy error is haunting my every move.

However, through wind, rain, snow, hale and sheer laziness I've kicked myself into action and hit the road. At the start of Jan I struggled with pace and was managing 6.5 miles at around 8.15 minute mile pace. Having given myself the target to complete a half marathon at 7 minute mile pace, I was a bit gutted.

As Jan progressed, I've gradually upped my distance to 10 miles and comfortably doing this at 8 minute mile pace. However, the killer blow was a recurrence of my old ATB injury that has meant everytime I try to increase the pace, my leg falls apart and I spend days in pain. So after much soul searching, i've made the sensible (for once) decision to stop obsessing about times and focus on being able to complete my races and keep going.

I have to admit, after the initial sulk I'm now really happy that I've made the decision to focus on distance and enjoyment rather than the illusory time. I'm regularly knocking out 10 mile runs and this weekend (Sat 30th) will be the first 12 miler.

I've also being playing regular 5 a-side football on Monday evenings down in Putney and this has helped my core aerobic fitness massively. It is also more fun than running around the freezing roads of Ealing.

So all in all, a positive first month of training and now only 3 weeks to go before my first competitive race, the Portsmouth Coastal Half Marathon on Sunday 21st Feb. If you fancy helping me reach my fundraising target of £1,000 then please visit my justgiving.com webpage.

Raising £1,000 for The Rosemary Foundation

The last month has been a manic time moving into freelance world. My current Client projects and other commitments such as guest blogging for Econsultancy, I'm not gettting the time to dedicate to my personal blog to write content worth reading. As I don't want this blog to descend into the pits of content for content's sake, I'm changing its purpose.

Charity is something close to my heart. In 2009 i've not done any direct fundraising myself, having supported others instead. 2010 is the year I get back to fundraising and i've chosen the wonderful Rosemary Foundation (previously the Sue Ryder Home) to contribute to. This is a Charity close to my heart. At the end of 2008 my Grandad was diagnosed with lung cancer at the ripe age of 87. In Feb 2009 the doctors told us it had spread to his brain. The brain cancer brought a quick end to his life, in a matter of weeks. The Rosemary Foundation gave my Grandad and family incredible and selfless support during that time, helping care for him so he could bid us au revoir with dignity from the comfort of his own home, the home he had shared with my Nan for so many years. I can't thank them enough for the care and consideration they showed my Grandad and I know that he will be eternally grateful.

As with many local Charities, they are not-for profit and self-funded. Every penny counts and helps the wonderful nurses support families like mine. I've set myself the target of raising £1,000 by the end of 2010 and will be running several organises races to achieve this....more to follow.

I will be using my blog to keep tabs on progress and write about the events I enter and the joys of training through Winter.

I appreciate that there are many amazing Charities and solicitations for financial support are frequent. However, I would not be a serious fundraiser if I didn't ask for support so I would welcome any contributions, either donations (via my JustGiving website) or spreading the word to your connections and across your networks.

To find out more about the Rosemary Foundation please visit their website.

If you have any questions or suggestions for how I can hit my £1,000 target please drop by and say hello.

In the meantime, happy Christmas!

thanks

james

http://www.justgiving.com/rosemaryfoundation

What is social media marketing?

The term "social media marketing" is now the buzz word du jour, with social networking taking a temporary back seat. But what exactly is social media marketing and what can you do with it?

My abbreviated definition is this:

"The integration of social media channels into your marketing and customer communication mix"

Yep I know that sounds very marketing lovey but it makes sense if you take it bit by bit. Social media provide a channel to market, another communication option for you to talk to and with customers. The culture of marketing is changing thanks to the community aspect of social media - dialogue and engagement take precedent over push marketing (i.e. broadcasting messages without interaction). This offers an excellent communication channel. Therefore, I see social media marketing as the creation of, participation in and nurture of communication, wherever that communication takes place.

The wonderful thing (in my humble opinion) about social media marketing is that the impact, whilst you can influence via intelligent planning and execution, is in the hands of the community. They either like it or they don't - the word of mouth element is determined by influencers who can help spread your message like wild fire or send it to an early grave. The difference from other online marketing like email is that the global reach is far greater and the share of information quicker - and the expectation for engagement is higher.

For me, social media marketing requires an understanding of the new rules of engagement, an appreciation of netiquette (the etiquette of social networks). It goes beyond selling something to someone. It relies on building relationships and helping people to find the information they need, quickly. If done well, it builds brand loyalty and reputation. If poorly managed, it will lose your potential customers and damage your brand.

There is a good article from Jay Deragon on the impact of social media on marketing communication. I like it not for what it teaches me but for the way it is expressed - social media marketing involves people and, therefore, emotion.

In summary, social media marketing:

• Integrates social media into your marketing mix
• Provides a platform for customer engagement
• Supports offline and online marketing programs
• Enables brand and reputation monitoring
• Supports your customer service framework

What is your definition of social media marketing?

Wiggly Wigglers gets social networking

Nielsen Online research shows that blogs and social social networks are more popular than personal email and that the audience is spanning the age groups. Facebook has fast become one of the most influential social networks globally - according to Mark Zuckerberg, if it were a country, it would be the 8th most populated in the world.

So, with such a large audience and fan pages/groups to take advantage of, surely every business can reap the rewards of Facebook presence? Wrong. There are Facebook fan pages going to seed because the owners are passive and expecting their potential audience to do the work for them. That is not social media, that is lazy marketing. Ebuyer is the perfect example - their discussion board has not been updated since 30th Jan 2009 - what is the point?

However, amongst the chaff there are some good people building fun communities whilst adding commercial value via networking.

Wiggly Wigglers is a great example of a brand that understands the culture of social networking and the need to build engagement with its customers. Its social presence is driven by the owner, Heather Gorringe, who adds a personal touch to all communication. This is why I think Heather and the Wiggly team have got the mix between strategy and passion spot on:

• Heather's personal brand drives the social networking activity
• Their Facebook presence is integrated with other channels including blogs, podcasts, Twitter and main website
• The tone is relaxed, informal and open - it is not a corporate PR stunt
• There is a genuine warmth and passion for the audience
• There is interaction - comments are listened to and replies made, promptly
• Heather sends a regular (almost weekly) newsletter just to her Facebook fans
• The content in fresh, fun and engaging
• There are frequent personal touches that give you a glimpse into the people behind the company - I love that they've named their choc Labradors Toast & Jam!

And guess what, it's on-brand and incredibly effective and making you want to visit the website and tell your friends about it. I know, I have.

Please share your thoughts on Wiggly Wiggler's social networking presence.

Social search and the information bubble

Google and Bing used the Web 2.0 Summit to lay down their social search markers. A long anticipated move, the search engines have been pushing hard to improve their real-time search capabilities. In a nutshell, Bing is doing some nice tag clouding of trending Twitter topics (US only currently) as well as including Facebook content whilst Google announced an agreement with Twitter and the altogether more intriguing Google Social Search. I’m not going to evaluate the two offerings here, this blog asks the question: “How will real-time and social search impact SEO?”

A brief history of SEO

Algorithms change. Frequently. Experienced website optimisers monitor these changes and decide what the next stage will be in the optimisation of the website(s) they manager. Most recently, Google Webmaster Central has announced the demise of meta keywords, once the obsession of optimisers, and raised the question about the long-term future of page rank.

Google has long been the market leader with a devout focus on the relevance of SERPs to drive user experience. They have market domination in the UK because their focus has always been on search results, not content. Google changes its algorithm to keep pace with the way in which consumers search for, access and share content online. Yes, they exploit their position for commercial gain. However, they do so by ensuring the search engine works for online searchers. Integrating social media into the SERPs was the next logical step.

Why is social and real-time search relevant?

People are consuming, moving and commenting on content at a micro-level. Look at how Jan Moir’s article on Stephen Gately’s death hit the headlines through social networking.

It is logical that search engines want to find a way to index and display user-generated content so that search results mirror the real world. If there is a trending Twitter topic yet a traditional search results page shows none of this content, browsers will turn away to an alternative information provider.

Real-time social media owners like Twitter were never realistically going to topple Google for all our search demands. However, integrating social search with the power of the major engines’ algorithms provides an enhanced service to consumers. In the future, when we search Bing or Google we will have the content of private and commercial web owners as well as conversations taking place on social networks. We can begin to build up a contemporary view of individual topics and not just rely on historical commentary. If you add in blog updates and mobile to the mix, you can see a 360 degree information bubble emerging.

Imagine the education potential? Want to teach children about the impact of politics? Get them monitoring the Twitter conversation using search engines and correlate this with historical evidence. A great example would be the social coverage of the Iran Election (and the subsequent backlash against Habitat for breaking the etiquette).

SEOs need to adapt and increase their capacity for social media optimisation

Switched on SEOs are already planning social media optimisation (social network conversation management) as part of their overall website optimisation strategy. However, the importance this element now plays has increased as the major search engines place more value on social conversation. SEOs need to focus on:

• The value of personal and commercial blogs
• Registering the brand across social networks
• Brand reputation monitoring and management
• Generating relevant content via social profiles
• Managing conversations effectively using cost-effective tools (such as Hootsuite)
• Responding with a human voice to comments, questions, queries
• Producing relevant and valuable content
• Integrating social media planning with other marketing channels
• Engaging with thought leaders, influencers and advocates

This list in not exhaustive but covers the key elements of social media optimisation. What do you think? Are you committed to the value of social media in your website optimisation? Do you think there are other areas that I have not covered above?

Please share your comments.

Social media and presentations - the speaker backchannel

Earlier this year I attended an event at which one speaker used Twitter to gather audience questions and then answer key themes at the end. He did not allow this to interrupt the presentation but it was made clear that questions would not be a 'hands up' affair. More and more speakers are now aware of and monitoring their presentation 'backchannel' (a new marketing buzz word for the bingo card).

Yesterday, I read an interesting article from Jeremiah Owyang outlining how speakers should integrate social into their presentation. Whilst I don’t agree with all of Jeremiah’s points (I will elaborate), I think speakers need to be aware that the penetration of social apps on mobile devices is making real-time commentary increasingly relevant.

What is the presentation backchannel?

The backchannel is the discussion about you or your presentation that takes places in other media, whether that is online or offline. The most direct channel where this is happening is on social networks like Twitter.

This backchannel is real-time. Social media has expanded event dissection from the general hubbub of physical event networking spaces into online communities.

I have direct experience of this. At Internet World, when I was not on the exhibition stand or attending seminars, I tweeted live from the event. I talked about the organisation of the event as well as the content of presentations. Included was constructive criticism of issues that made the event experience less than ideal. So, is this backchannel part of the future of presenting or is it a passing obsession of the attention deficit nation?

To read more on my thoughts about the relevance of the speaker backchannel and what you can do, please join in the debate on my blog on the Econsultancy website.

I would be interested to read your comments.

Do websites need a social media landing page?

Social media is all the rage. Everyone and their dog is on Twitter, even if over 50% of profiles are ghost towns. The older generation is growing on Facebook more rapidly than the teens and content sharing has become a la mode. If you're not bookmarking (AddThis, Stumbleupon, Digg etc) then you're so last year.

However, it is dangerous to assume that just because your website now has a social media angle, your customers will flock to it and engage like never before. Wrong. Why would they? Just because they use Facebook doesn't mean they automatically want to join your fan page. The world is crammed with stuff to do, networks to join, content to read, links to follow. If you want yours to get to the surface, you need to give your customers a compelling reason to join in.

With this in mind, I started thinking about how landing page optimisation could benefit social media activity. I don't mean the main page of your community section or your Twitter account background, I mean a page on your main website that communicates your social media presence and explains how customers can interact.

The logic is clear - social media is marketing, so to drive conversion (Twitter follow, Facebook fan page sign-up, YouTube views etc) you need to target customers with a relevant landing page. That landing page then needs to be optimised over time to drive click through and conversion. If you want the benefits of social media then be serious about marketing it to your customers.

What content do I think sits on this page?

• Explanation of what you are doing and why - convey your passion
• List of benefits to customers e.g. If you have a customer service query, use our Twitter account to get a faster reply
• Bio of each social media profile you manage - what, where, why, how, who etc
• Links to each profile
• Integrated into your analytics package - track links and page performance to enable benchmarking & optimisation
• Main navigation back into core pages of your main website - keep consistency

Take away thoughts:

• Get your customers excited about following you via social media
• Clearly communicate the benefits
• Ask for feedback
• Encourage people to get involved and share their thoughts/ideas/content
• Enable people to bookmark your pages and share your content easily
• Look at the stats - how does the page perform?
• Test different ways to improve the page and keep asking your customers' advice

What do you think? Is landing page optimisation missing from social media presence? Do you know a company doing this well?

Please share your comments. Thanks.