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Barack Obama is Following ME on Twitter?! - A Dance with Social Media

Signed on to follow the Obama Twitter account when I noticed they were starting to become active again (post inauguration) in order to drive traffic to the newly launched White House discussion board, still in beta. I also noticed he was being followed by more people than he was following. So, it seemed to me they were actually reading tweet content and filtering out a few spammy tweeters. A good model for twittering.

So I have continued my mission to write positive, helpful industry tweets, not post too frequently and not embed too many links, study the technology and see how I could apply it to some client work.

Starting this project was simply with the intention of making an easy-to-update business news feed for my website. Unfortunately, I have now been bitten by the celebrity bug -- I admit, I have a secret longing to be a Twitter Celeb, have 500,000 followers like Shaq, and upgrade from TweetDeck to paying for an EasyTweets subscription. Then -- after I get my taxes and all of my current client work done -- to fully redesign our simplistic old-fashioned website to be worthy of celeb status. Shallow of me, I know, but if I can't be skinny and Britney-esque, maybe I can be followed by some astute and powerful literary types.

It's not even about ROI. Smart is the new cool, right?

When I received the notice that Obama (or his ghost writers) were going to follow my tweets when I simply innocently initiated following them, I have to admit, that my idealistic, poli sci geek self did giggle slightly. I mean seriously -- this meant I mattered!? Whoa!

But then Nancy Giles said on CBS Sunday morning last week that we were "twits" for Twittering. In reference to bad "tweople" breaching confidentiality while on jury duty, she said that we were all nothing more than a bunch of fussy first graders that couldn't sit still in church. Yes, Nancy, I was one of those kids, but at least I quietly drew pictures on the church bulletin, supported by a hymnal, perched awkwardly on my chubby legs. I was, unfortunately, a perfectionist child (happily, now reformed) and I could both draw and listen to the sermon at the same time. Twittering and blogging have consumed some extra time, require some skill at multi-tasking, but I'm celebrating that it is forcing me to micro-journal.

After years of keeping a journal in college and overseas, I had wanted to get back to a journal for quite awhile to document behind the scenes successes of our nonprofit work without breaching client confidentiality. This at least seemed an easy way to dabble back in it and keeping me more serious about my writing. Micro -blogging is also forcing my introverted self to meet some very interesting characters and consultants on the web from here to Australia that I never would have met with just working on our static website.

As I got deeper into Twittering, I saw the debate going on within the Cincy media community about authentic vs. ghost twittering and the internet marketers drowning Twitter with frivolous sales posts. My hopes dashed, I wondered whether my social media dance the last few weeks had been all worth it. It also became a challenge to see if I could detect real vs. ghost tweets.

So were Obama's handlers twittering for him? I checked Jane Fonda's tweets -- she's all over it telling Tomlin after the theatre party that she's going home to twitter. But I'm really having a hard time buying that she actually is direct messaging 50 Cent on a regular basis. I admire her, but is this keyword stuffing because 50 Cent is popular now? Seriously, do we buy this? (read more)

I've never had a problem with ghost writers -- honestly, for some people, business writing is a total chore. But I'm firmly now in the camp in regard to Twitter (after a month of exploration) that if you are declaring you are yourself twittering, then you really need to jump in, learn the technology and be the one tweeting. If you are declaring that these are organizational tweets (or feeds) then by all means, share the password with your group and let all comers in your org post cool stuff and help each other learn the technology.

Admittedly, we're still struggling with the excessive RT's (short for "retweet") and just don't yet get that aspect of Twitter....that is where it gets too SEM, spammy or too texty "millenial" for me. There are also a few Tweeters I want to bop on the head and remind them that it's really about being truly social, not being cliquish or exclusive by using code words, and creating original, authentic content. Original, people, original! Would you actually say some of this at a cocktail party? Doubtful.

Please, no more Successories on the Facebook walls or on Twitter. Now back to dancing. And yes, I’m writing all of my own tweets.

- Posted April 5, 2009

Copyright ©2009 Aranelle Consulting, LLC www.aranelle.com
All Rights Reserved.

We tweet here: twitter.com/aranelleconsult

10 Tips to Avoid Social Media Mistakes in Fundraising & Marketing– a Local Case Study

About 8:30 last night, I received a strange email from the Cincinnati Museum Center’s email blast list with Exact Target and signed by their CEO, Doug McDonald. It didn’t seem like spam, so I checked the headers and pretty much determined it was a legitimate appeal. I like to look at fundraiser appeal letters for content ideas for clients, so I usually do skim them when they come in. Once I saw the article in today’s newspaper about the P&G social media experiment, (P&G Tries Out Social Networks) I knew this email was a result of that event, and that I had been made, unwittingly, into a social media / reality show guinea pig.

After I finished internally ranting and firing off a “remove me” email – and since I was madly prepping to coach an entrepreneur on using his Facebook Fan page for business the next day - I decided to look at “why” I felt this email blast was so wrong, why it stood out from the 100 other pieces of spam I received that day, and make it a teaching moment for myself and some other clients. So, first, judge for yourself and let me know your thoughts. The link to the actual Exact Target letter is here – the text follows below:

From: Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal

March 11, 2007

Dear :

Tonight I have been gratiously (sic) included in a Procter and Gamble social media event. This event is teaching me new ways to promote our museum to others throughout our community and the country. It is exciting to be in this group, learning what they use all across the country.

I think there are things we can learn from our friends about communiction (sic), media and reaching out to others.

This excercise (sic) tonight is a contest. Does that surprise us about P&G?

The contest is to sell Tide T-shirts. The Museum Centers periodically supports worthy charitable causes. As part of this effort, we have a unique charity event going on tonight till 9 pm.

If you would like to support disaster victims, please go to www/tide2.com and buy vintage Tide T-shirts. 100% of the proceeds go to charities supporting disaster victims. Buy 2 shirts or more and you get free shipping.

I hope you are tolerant of this slight intrusion of your "personal space." And, if you are into this social media thing.....and you want to follow me, go to www.twitter.com/Doug4Cincy

If you can buy in bulk, then it will really help!!!!

Please act immediately, as this charity event ends at 9 pm.

www.tide2.com

Sincerely, Doug McDonald President & CEO Cincinnati Museum Center

******************************************

My takeaways….feel free to send me your own comments.....

1. Don’t spam and don’t be intrusive. I don’t care how excited you are about what you are doing or what you are selling, Mr. McDonald and I are technically not colleagues. We're not “Facebook Friends” or even “Linked ” or connected on Twitter. Don’t demand in an email that your “distant” stakeholders do something after business hours – especially something this frivolous. If a tsunami was headed down the Ohio River, I might understand, or there was shooting in the streets of Newport and people were sending me tweets to “duck and cover” as they did in India, I would understand, but this did not warrant the evening urgency. This was spam from the public square, pure and simple.

2. Always proofread. Never, ever communicate with your stakeholders without careful planning and proofreading – the date was wrong on the letter (2007), there were three misspellings, and there was no programming of the salutation field in the Exact Target list manager. It was a misuse of his technology and he or his tech team probably did it huddled over the laptop without much review. Yes, we all make typos, but this was substandard correspondence.

3. Always choose formality over informality. I’ve never received correspondence before from this entity and was addressed as “Dear colon.” Simply sloppy, hurried and unprofessional. If you are a nonprofit, do not send out correspondence this way – ever, for any reason, even due to technical ignorance in changing the salutation field in your list mailer or otherwise.

4. Stick to YOUR cause, your mission, your vision. The letter mentions "worthy" charitable disaster causes - what disaster causes – why? What is CMC’s vision for the future for participating in this and how would that help CMC’s mission ? Even if his entire board is made up of P&G’ers, Mr. McDonald hasn’t connected the dots for the rest of his community stakeholders. If he was just doing this because it sounded like a cool and trendy thing to do after a little networking dinner, he made an enormous error in communication judgment with his broader audience of potential stakeholders and potential donors.

5. Make sure you really “need” what you are asking for. Pushing me to do something for other “worthy” disaster charities yet to be named muddies why I might have been connected with CMC in the first place. I like to “know” who I’m going to be aligned with – some disaster charities are better than others. And if he can afford to push us to give to these other mysterious entities, than does he really need my pitiful donation later in the year?

6. Think before you sell out. Be careful picking the entities you will collaborate with in regard to your mailing list. The over-the-top deference to P&G within the letter was a transparent sell-out of his donor / email list and it showed in the tone of the message. I have on occasion done joint mailings with other orgs, but both orgs were clearly represented, it was a clear, gentle marketing approach where I knew all of us would benefit, and the reason we were doing it would be very clear and obvious of a community-oriented, public service benefit to the recipient. Mr. McDonald’s apparent purpose was primarily mentioned as digital experimentation. The community benefit was suspect and secondary. Not my interest. He missed his target.

7. Do your research. When I “opted out” of his mailing list, I saw my contact info on the Exact Target profile page, it was name, email address. That’s it. All of the other fields were blank. Mr. McDonald did not flesh out his prospect list, research his appeal list or do any polling of his constituents prior to sending this appeal….probably not even calling his board before pulling the trigger. If this was a way to draw in “Millenials” as donors or participants, he should have made sure that everyone he was email blasting or tweeting was indeed Gen Y. Did Mr. McDonald even realize I was female? Many females of modest means think Tide is overpriced in the marketplace, switched brands long ago, and that P&G is overexposed in Cincinnati. Frankly many of us are just not interested in more P&G PR, especially in our inboxes when we didn’t opt in.

8. Social media is social. So be polite, invite everyone to the party. And yes, times have changed and it IS all about me. I do digital work and wasn’t thought worthy to be invited to this digital soiree – not sour grapes, just reality. So how was this Executive Director / CEO prepared to connect to the “disenfranchised” – me? Using an email blast gloating about all the fun he was having at an event to which I wasn't invited, hitting me up for money for a Tide t-shirt and asking for apologies for intruding on my inbox was simply just not polite. And it wasn't about "Me" -- a marketing miscalculation.

9. Social media does not let you take marketing shortcuts. You still have to be relevant and authentic in all of your chosen marketing and fundraising mediums.

10. Protect privacy. Mailing lists are sacred and should be treated respectfully no matter the business application. Where did Mr. McDonald get my email address – what list am I on with CMC ? I think I attended a meeting there, paid for parking, but I’ve never donated directly. If they got my address from another entity (and I have my suspicions), they are going to have some ‘splaining to do. And what have they done with my email address subsequently? Does P&G now have my addy and I’m going to get endless plugs for more Tide t-shirts?

Yes, we are all working 24/7 these days, but I’m not keen on getting 8:30pm appeal letters when I’m getting ready to unwind for the evening (it's the same approach as telemarketers at dinner) – so to anyone out there wanting to replicate this social media fundraising approach, think carefully before you hit that “send” button or be prepared to send out an apology blast. You may be offending more stakeholders than you realize.

March 12, 2009

Leigh Drake, President/CEO
© Aranelle Consulting, LLC
www.aranelle.com

Site Map Clean Up Heaven

I bought a utility for my December 31st tax deductible software blow out that has helped me quite a bit with fixing site map and page link errors before I launch a site I've edited or changed drastically. I've never really liked how Dreamweaver handles site maps, and I have to admit that I get bored looking at code on some days and would rather look at "visuals" with pretty colors than a standard xml site map or a tee tiny file tree. This new software fits the bill. I can look at the site in file view to see the dead links, or in xml to upload to the site or with a push of a button switch the layout to colorful boxes or a 3-D chart.

Over the weekend, I finally had a chance to install my new mapping software and test it out on several large and small sites to check performance. It was efficient and helpful. I bought this primarily so I could generate an unbranded site map for projects with unlimited link depth scanning instead of using the commonly known generator website www.xml-sitemaps.com which limits the number of pages you can crawl.

I had a large site that I'm still struggling with exporting the layout to fit comfortably on a human sitemap page, but it is starting to be a nice tool. If anything it gives me an easy-to-read starting point for drawing one and will be great for face to face website consultations and content discussions.

A New Era of Responsibility

I found it rather charming that today's paper was all about "where were you during the inauguration..." It hasn't even been 24 hours yet....boy, are we speeding up history.

Hard to change my ways as an "eldest child" -- I'm always responsibly working. A bad habit and I guess I was inadvertently taking Obama's admonishment to heart now that we have entered "a new era of responsibility" - so, yes, I was meeting with a client in a technical training session, rather than goofing off and watching endless inauguration day coverage. Tempting, yes, but too much work on the desk to ignore.

I caught the recap late last night on Hulu - it was just enough coverage for me and I loved being able to fast forward through everything. Seeing the sea of people on the mall was pretty amazing. Fashionista bloggers raging about Michelle's yellow dress, very uncool. But I have to agree, Jill's boots--I know it was bitterly cold--probably a little too Britney for DC.

A colleague expressed frustration that he had been waiting for a vendor to show up yesterday -- he finally did, 4 hours late, the guy saying he was watching the inauguration. I found it ironic since this same vendor had also recently been kvetching that his business was so slow. Aren't we in a recession? Don't people need sales and income? I'm delighted for all of this new change, new times, new ideas. We have had our collective, cathartic, spiritual moment and big party. Now, would everyone just please get back to work?!! We've been told that it is a new era for responsibility and accountability. I can't wait for that to start.

I hope sincerely we can begin to mend our ways and get down to business again....it is time for a season of true work for all of us. Lots of things need mending. Lots of small businesses need income and work to do -- so many talented people are laid off right now. Banks and speculators need to buck up and pay for their greedy errors at their own expense....not at the expense of pulling notes on ordinary people with good credit as it makes for a terrible domino effect on all of us.

It will be so refreshing to begin accomplishing bold projects anew and implementing true change.

- Posted January 21, 2009

Beveling Tools Keywords Ranking Well in Google

One of our long time clients that we have been helping with content management coaching and web PR has been working on improving their rankings in Google. We collaborate with Purple Trout, LLC for large SEO project work which this was (60+ web pages) We happily discoved this month that on the keyword “beveling tools” their website is ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in Google with 1.5 million search results for that term. One of this client's competitors couldn't beat us on our collaborative organic SEO work and had to resort to some expensive adword purchases.

- Posted January 16, 2009

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