social graph

A THOUSAND TRUE FANS as derived VIA KEY INFLUENCERS: A POSSIBILE PROCESS FOR DISCOVERING YOUR PERFECT AUDIENCE

Discussing A Thousand True Fans with Eleftherios Hatziioannou in Athens, Greece. May 25, 2011.

A Thousand True Fans essay by Kevin Kelly:
http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php

First, organize 1,000 by Seth Godin: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/12/first-organize-1000.html

A DEFINITION:
“A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.” ~Kevin Kelly, The Technium

…………………

“In the entertainment area, there are members of the hardcore fan base.
The equivalent of the guys who will camp outside of an Apple store to get the new iPhone.

On the innovation curve, these are the fanatics.
The more interesting group is the one immediately to the right of the fanatics.
The ones who move you across the chasm and into the mainstream world of the “early majority”

These are the ones who need to be identified.
Because these are the real influencers.

Fanatics are important in the entertainment world.
Is this equally so for other industries?

The fanatics are important …. but the “visionaries” are crucial.” ~Peter Economides, FelixBNI

…………………

“For example, let’s say you launch a Facebook campaign to get 1,000 “likes” for your brand page. You make your goal of 1,000, but what’s to say those people will attend your event or even visit the page at a later date? You have to offer them something of value in order to create a social consumer. That social consumer might then provide feedback on the event and even influence peers to attend. Figure out what your audience wants, and give it to them — over and over. You have to give them a reason to both connect and come back.” ~Brian Solis, Altimeter Group

……………………….

How does influence translate into dollars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztUOVVZAxvU

……………………….

A PROCESS: A THOUSAND TRUE FANS as derived VIA KEY INFLUENCERS

1. TWITTER SET-UP AND BRANDING: Set up a non-branded Twitter account for market research purposes related to specific customers (ie. – Tourism, Hotel, Restaurants, Art, Fashion). Value: This will be our “window” into the Interest Graph.

2. KEY INFLUENCER IDENTIFICATION & FOLLOW: Identify 1000 Key Influencers using Listorious (http://www.listorious.com) AND Research.ly (http://research.ly). Follow these 1000 influencers in the non-branded Twitter account. Value: Know the Social Influencers related to your vertical market, customers and competitors. Connect to them for realization of sales goals, event opportunities and growing awareness in regions/communities you may not have penetrated. Grow the network around the customer for the purposes of connection, sales and marketing.

3. CSV FROM TWITTER (with 3rd Party Tool): Download a CSV from Twitter (with a 3rd Party Twitter Export tool like Export.ly – http://export.ly).

4. CSV TO FLIPTOP (or other tool): Upload CSV of Twitter account to Fliptop or another tool to discover influencers’ locations ACROSS The World Wide Mind (http://www.theworldwidemind.com). Value: (a) I get to see where my influencers are in other social properties AND (b) I get to hear and see what they are messaging about.

Discussing The World Wide Mind with Eleftherios Hatziioannou in Athens, Greece. May 25, 2011.

5. FOLLOW THE INFLUENCERS IN FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN AND OTHER SOCIAL PROPERTIES: We will translate our findings into actual friends in the social networks and begin the process of connecting with these friends. Value: Influential friends in the Social Graph that we have discovered via the Interest Graph.

6. TWEET CREATION/COPYWRITING: Turn entire corporate site, blogposts and other collateral into tweets. The goal here is to get around 150 tweets for scheduled posting. Also, derive and mash-up content BASED UPON current and trending conversations WITHIN The World Wide Mind. Value: Influencers who follow you will become aware of what you offer and interact with you on this. Note: for a non-branded research account, we can copy-write industry and niche-related tweets.

7. TWEET SCHEDULING: Schedule these tweets in Social Oomph – (http://www.socialoomph.com). Value: This will be pre-scheduled so you do not have to keep tweeting (the tweeting will be automatic).

8. KEY INFLUENCER CONTENT SUMMATION: Summarize what the 30-50 top influencers are saying in the Twitter accounts. This would be “culled” from their latest 100 tweets. Value: This is a very powerful option, that will give branding teams insight into what top influencers are talking about.

9. KEY INFLUENCER ENGAGEMENT: Engage and nurture relationship with Key Influencers. Results sought: (a) Getting the Key Influencer to follow you back (b) Getting the Key Influencer to re-tweet, share or post a message originating from you (c) forming a business partnership with the Key Influencer for mutual benefit and the benefit of the customer (customer-centric business).

RESOURCES:

THE WORLD WIDE MIND: http://www.theworldwidemind.com

A THOUSAND TRUE FANS: http://www.a-thousand-true-fans.com

THE LONG TAIL DEBATE: Long Tail Debate: http://bit.ly/long_tail_debate + Long Tail Keywords http://bit.ly/long_tail_keywords

Social Intelligence reveals the Heart of a Business

The heart and the mind are the true lenses of the camera. ~Yousuf Karsh

Business Intelligence consists of data, insights and strategic recommendations related to customers, competitors and markets. Such intelligence is derived by teams using best-practice research methodologies and technologies – it is both art and science. Exemplary business intelligence ALSO peers into shadow (what is unknown about one’s own self, one’s own business), into the heart of the matter (the essential nature of the business identity), and can deliver business initiatives related to these insights.

Intelligence projects should not only serve the stated company mission BUT speak to (and reveal potential within) the human situation at the company headquarters and branches. Satisfying insight into the human situations BEHIND a business facilitates fantastic evolution and progress. Depth of insight and revelation of the volume of conversation around these “hidden heart-landscapes” is the gas pedal of social revolutions and community growth.

theunconscious

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE DELIVERABLES:

(a) a report that reveals the past, current and rising top influencers within social networks in chosen verticals,
(b) a graph of connections between these visible social influencers to decision-makers not active in social networks,
(c) insights on the past, current and future activities of BOTH entities. As an example, blending Interest-Graph discovery via Research.ly WITH findings in Recorded Future will yield excellent insights.

WHAT LANDSCAPE DO WE SURVEY: We survey properties identified to be relevant to the brand or entity in the social universe.

SOLUTIONS USED TO SURVEY THIS LANDSCAPE: We blend research using these tools and these tools.

HEART INTELLIGENCE: True heart-intelligence gives us a story. We start with spreadsheets and end with punchy tales that act as guides. The essential deliverable of Heart-Intelligence Projects consists of telling stories BASED UPON past, current and future content. Future content is discoverable using tools like Recorded Future. Past and current content is discoverable through a multitude of very efficient social monitoring solutions.

theunconscious

SOCIAL STORIES: The social objects/signals (tweets, status updates, apps, content) that our customer and competitor (object of study) has uploaded provide the content for story-telling. And these stories dictate who we pick up the phone to call, who we send an email to, and what we decide to sell or publish. The power of story for businesses is both compass and vessel. We see our customer and competitor AND we create the craft into sales with content derived from our research.

Spreading the news of your offering to the World

A BEST-PRACTICE PROCESS in SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING is the following:

1. IDENTIFY your customer by doing a writing/drawing/brainstorming project wherein you describe 5 DIFFERENT members of that audience.

2. CREATE THE SOCIAL GRAPH: Generate keywords from those descriptions and use the Google External Keyword Search + any number of paid/free social monitoring tools to create an initial social graph of where these 5 members locate. Buy these posters, laminate them and put them on your wall as MAPS of INFLUENCE in the social web! http://www.theconversationprism.com/

3. OBSERVE and STUDY: Go to the locations on these maps and study the behaviors and likes of YOUR AUDIENCE there!

4. DESIGN: Design your offering in a way that matches OR exceeds what ATTRACTS those individuals. CREATE CONTENT THAT WILL FIT IN THE CONTEXT OF YOUR AUDIENCE!

5. GO LIVE: Take the microsite (blog) and social footprint live. Use WordPress, Posterous, Blogger or Drupal as the platform for your microsite (each has their benefit depending on your technical skill level and time available). In terms of social properties, set up in Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr and Slideshare. Add to these from your research project above and through studying the maps from The Conversation Prism, basing your decision upon contexts populated by YOUR key influencers, customers and community.

6. SOCIALIZE: Use the following sequence as a model for populating the microsite AND social footprint WITH content: http://bit.ly/the_cycle_of_social_spread

7. GET INTIMATE AND GIVE POWER AWAY TO YOUR AUDIENCE! BRING THEM ONSTAGE: Respond to all comments AND build content from your feedback. Create a virtuous cycle by LISTENING and then creating content from what you hear…crowdsourcing a percentage of your content WILL reap HUGE rewards in terms of buzz because your audience wants to get up on stage WITH you! Imagine one man on stage at the outset and then see more and more people JOINING you on stage. This is an image of how crowdsourcing works. Find a great resource on current crowdsourcing examples here: http://bit.ly/THE_crowdsourcing_LIST

IN A NUTSHELL:

LISTENING, STRATEGY, ACTION

LEARN MORE by following this trail meme on social media monitoring and brand creation: http://trailmeme.com/trails/social_media_monitoring or use this Rollyo Targeted Search Window that focuses solely on social media monitoring. Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes to Help Us Find Ourselves and Transform Our World is an EXCELLENT book on Archetypes and very helpful in terms of identifying HOW your key influencers may accelerate your audience’s awareness of your offering to the extent that a REAL contribution is made to the world.

Latest Facebook facts from Tom Chisolm, Midwest Director of Ad Sales for Facebook

Howard Brown of Circle Builders attended a presentation last evening from the Midwest director of ad-sales for Facbook – Tom Chisholm

He covers 5 Midwest states and accounts for advertising like 3 autos, PG, Kellogg’s, Compuware, Quicken Loans

Social graph (you at center then family, college, work) of connection, sharing and conversations:

•92% of ALL college students have a FB account
•1 million new registered user a DAY (1/3 US / 2/3rds International)
•74 languages (more native tongues on the way
•324 million total users up 100m this year (1/3 US / 2/3rds International) (intense infrastructure to handle this never been done before bandwidth, storage, processing power…)
•70 million photos posted a day (largest photo sharing site in the world – all others combined do not equal FB)
•4 times the amount of events than evite
•Avg stay time (stickiness) 19.6 minutes
•Analytics – 200 data points per user profile (data is Trojan horse to revenue with advertisers)
•40% of all user profiles public ally list cell phone #
•FB connect has been a game changer
•Best advertisers – Virgin, Addidas, Starbucks
•No plans to charge users – FB will monetize by acting as ad agency:

national accounts
regional / small biz
online

FB considers:
Web 1.0 = static
Web 2.0 = interactive
Web 3.0 = sharing

Just became cash flow positive last month

FB is content to become the worlds largest monopoly / utility