This October Girl Geek Dinners Melbourne will be holding a panel discussion on the topic of Crowdsourcing: Wisdom of the Crowds. This is a very exciting topic and one that is increasingly prevalent in tech articles and University experiments.
We are interested to engage to any Melbourne-based women working in tech or sciences that apply the principals of crowdsourcing to their work. This doesn't need to be on a grand scale- the basic prinicipal of crowdsourcing is that solicits tasks performed by a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call.
Essentially surveys are a form of crowdsourcing. The facinating impact of current social software technology is that it is even easier to connect people to a cause or task.
If you are interested to be a part of our panel discussion and are located in the Melbourne area, please contact me: jessica.lowry@gmail.com
Facebook Tips for Brand Managers
I just came accross this on Facebook's Marketing Fan Page. It is one of several reference papers published by Facebook to help marketers and business owners use Facebook effectively.
Check it out:
Using Facebook to move your business forward
Find Facebook on Scribd
How to get started in Social Media Marketing: Start Listening
The following is a list of activities I've learned from personal experience, as well as, reading books such as Web Marketing for Dummies
Unlike other forms of advertising and promotions, social media marketing is not interruption based, but permission based. We have been social creatures since the days of cavemen and one of our earliest inventions was language development. Knowing how to effectively communicate begins with active listening.
In order for your strategy to make an impact it needs to follow trends, know where your target audience spends their time online, and how to communicate about your products and services without spamming people or getting blocked from networking platforms.
Step 1: Become open-minded.
Understand that assumptions are not facts. Most businesses end up speaking to their existing partners and co-workers online. This is great if your goal is peer-building, but it’s not going to increase your online presence. Do not use offline data to market your brand online. Do not assume that everyone is like you. Do not treat your online activities as a waste of time or insignificant. (Most people can pick up on negative or passive-aggressive attitudes and it is not a good first impression.)
Begin your research understanding that you know nothing- that way your current opinions can’t cloud your judgement and lead you down the wrong path.
Step 2: Put your ear to the ground.
The easiest way to start listening is to create a listening desktop. I recommend that you use iGoogle to manage all of the blogs and RSS feeds you follow in relation to your company and category. If you don’t have a gmail account it’s easy and free to set one up. Once you’ve logged into your iGoogle homepage you can start adding blogs and RSS feeds to keep track of on a daily basis. You can also add keyword searches to iGoogle.
Other examples include: competitor names, individuals in your company, product names, etc.
Other things to track include:
Using Excel, create a worksheet that tracks audience data and social media sites where your brand and category is being discussed or commented on.
Audience data:
What kind of people are in your audience?
Keyword data:
adCenter Labs http://adlab.msn.com
Quantcast www.quantcast.com
Other resources for paid research:
Nielsen Online www.nielsen-online.com
Hitwise www.hitwise.com
Compete http://compete.com
Comscore www.comscore.com
Forester www.forrester.com
Step 4: Start asking questions
There are many free tools to help you ask questions. Yahoo Answers allows anyone to ask and answer, but they don’t necessarily reflect your target audience. LinkedIn allows you to specify the category of your question and narrow down whom you’d like answers from within the LinkedIn community.
Another great resource for creating a free online survey is Google documents. If you’d prefer to have a more professional service conduct a survey on your behalf is to use something like www.surveymonkey.com.
Step 5: Review Google Analytics
Look at how visitors are behaving on your site. Note which pages are popular and visitors spend time on. Begin to think about how the topics of these pages can be incorporated into your social media marketing plan.
Step 6: Compile findings
Take all of the data and research collected and decide how to start engaging in social media to extend your brand presence online.
Step 7: Design a Digital Social Media Policy
Your social media policy serves, in its simplest form, as a guide to how a business, its employees, and anyone else speaking on behalf of the business should share opinions, beliefs, and recommendations with customers online. It is important to have this in place before you engage your staff to represent your brand. Learn more from WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association).
Unlike other forms of advertising and promotions, social media marketing is not interruption based, but permission based. We have been social creatures since the days of cavemen and one of our earliest inventions was language development. Knowing how to effectively communicate begins with active listening.
In order for your strategy to make an impact it needs to follow trends, know where your target audience spends their time online, and how to communicate about your products and services without spamming people or getting blocked from networking platforms.
Step 1: Become open-minded.
Understand that assumptions are not facts. Most businesses end up speaking to their existing partners and co-workers online. This is great if your goal is peer-building, but it’s not going to increase your online presence. Do not use offline data to market your brand online. Do not assume that everyone is like you. Do not treat your online activities as a waste of time or insignificant. (Most people can pick up on negative or passive-aggressive attitudes and it is not a good first impression.)
Begin your research understanding that you know nothing- that way your current opinions can’t cloud your judgement and lead you down the wrong path.
Step 2: Put your ear to the ground.
The easiest way to start listening is to create a listening desktop. I recommend that you use iGoogle to manage all of the blogs and RSS feeds you follow in relation to your company and category. If you don’t have a gmail account it’s easy and free to set one up. Once you’ve logged into your iGoogle homepage you can start adding blogs and RSS feeds to keep track of on a daily basis. You can also add keyword searches to iGoogle.
Other examples include: competitor names, individuals in your company, product names, etc.
Other things to track include:
- Twitter feeds or search results
- News search results
- YouTube
- Flickr
- Yahoo Answers
Using Excel, create a worksheet that tracks audience data and social media sites where your brand and category is being discussed or commented on.
Audience data:
What kind of people are in your audience?
- Age
- Gender
- Income
- Children
- Regions
- Ethnicity
Keyword data:
- Phrase
- Age
- Male/Female
- Google Groups
- Yahoo Groups
- Digg
- Blogger
- Wordpress
adCenter Labs http://adlab.msn.com
Quantcast www.quantcast.com
Other resources for paid research:
Nielsen Online www.nielsen-online.com
Hitwise www.hitwise.com
Compete http://compete.com
Comscore www.comscore.com
Forester www.forrester.com
Step 4: Start asking questions
There are many free tools to help you ask questions. Yahoo Answers allows anyone to ask and answer, but they don’t necessarily reflect your target audience. LinkedIn allows you to specify the category of your question and narrow down whom you’d like answers from within the LinkedIn community.
Another great resource for creating a free online survey is Google documents. If you’d prefer to have a more professional service conduct a survey on your behalf is to use something like www.surveymonkey.com.
Step 5: Review Google Analytics
Look at how visitors are behaving on your site. Note which pages are popular and visitors spend time on. Begin to think about how the topics of these pages can be incorporated into your social media marketing plan.
Step 6: Compile findings
Take all of the data and research collected and decide how to start engaging in social media to extend your brand presence online.
Step 7: Design a Digital Social Media Policy
Your social media policy serves, in its simplest form, as a guide to how a business, its employees, and anyone else speaking on behalf of the business should share opinions, beliefs, and recommendations with customers online. It is important to have this in place before you engage your staff to represent your brand. Learn more from WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association).
Girl Geek Dinners Melbourne
I'm a HUGE fan of Girl Geek Dinners- for those who haven't heard of the group before it started in London. The original founder of the London Girl Gee
k Dinners and Girl Geek Dinners concept was Sarah Blow and she ran the events in London up until August 2009 where she handed over the events to the team that run them today. The reason for the handover was due to the increasing demand for Girl Geek Dinners globally and this needed central co-ordination. Sarah, not being based in London decided it was about time to hand over the events to the Londoners!
Nearly every city around the globe has their own chapter and I'm really excited to be involved with the group here in Melbourne.
All our events are run as not for profit and any funds left over are ploughed back into the group to provide the website, labels etc and sponsorship covers the cost of food and drinks as well as the venue hire where applicable. We are always happy to hear from potential new sponsors and you can contact me
jessica.lowry@gmail.com
k Dinners and Girl Geek Dinners concept was Sarah Blow and she ran the events in London up until August 2009 where she handed over the events to the team that run them today. The reason for the handover was due to the increasing demand for Girl Geek Dinners globally and this needed central co-ordination. Sarah, not being based in London decided it was about time to hand over the events to the Londoners!Nearly every city around the globe has their own chapter and I'm really excited to be involved with the group here in Melbourne.
All our events are run as not for profit and any funds left over are ploughed back into the group to provide the website, labels etc and sponsorship covers the cost of food and drinks as well as the venue hire where applicable. We are always happy to hear from potential new sponsors and you can contact me
jessica.lowry@gmail.com
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