I normally don’t talk about apps and other toys that we all play with on a daily basis, but I couldn’t resist not talking about Sirius XM’s recently released iPhone app. The anticipated release of their app has certainly dissipated as iPhoners and subscribers are realizing that though it’s a free app, there is an additional $3/month fee to access their ‘premium’ online radio content.
Wait, what?
For those, like myself, who already subscribe to their service, we’re scratching our heads as to why Sirius XM is actually making customers who want to use the iPhone app pay an additional fee on top of their monthly costs. In my eyes, they totally missed the mark - not only with their pricing strategy but also in respect to their customers. Don’t take my word for it, take a look at the 2-stars given by 35,752 ratings and some of the 3,936 customer reviews: (more…)
If you weren’t around Twitter Friday afternoon, you might’ve missed that Bryan Person and I launched a new chat, #CmtyChat. Sure, there are a lot of great chats out like the original, #JournChat, but we felt the increasing need to talk about the growing business of online communities and how community managers are building, managing, and measuring those communities.
We were lucky enough to have Jim Storer as our guest for the inaugural #CmtyChat and had a great conversation centered around questions from the community:
Q1 - What are the biggest day-to-day challenges for community managers?
Q2 - Finding “allies” is a key issue for community managers. How can CMs find that support?
Q3 - Driving culture change is crucial to gaining internal support for communities. Best tips for bringing about that change?
Q4 - @RHappe just mentioned the importance of the “aha! moment” for evangelizing. What has been your aha! moment as a CM?
Q5 - @JamiePappas suggests profiling members as a way to build support/momentum for the community. Any others finding success with that?
Even better was the subsequent conversation to these questions, so I’m sure you want to get the meat of it. Lucky for us, the cool people over at WTHashtag have a great statistical overview of our chat - but more importantly, a transcript.
#CmtyChat runs every Friday from 1-2pm ET, and can follow the coversation from the hashtag and @CmtyChat, but that doesn’t mean the conversation has to stop there. I still want to hear from you. Share your thoughts and ideas to the above questions and add to the conversation.
Businesses have specific goals set (we hope) and daily practices to achieve them. They’ve built and taught a company culture that’s embedded into their employee’s heads. Their sales process, customer service, and marketing/communications have each been built around, well, the company. But what happened to molding your brand around your customers and their experience? What happened to the thinking of (as cliché as it may sound), customer first?
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Listening is a basic tenet in community building and communication. Ears open right? Not so much in Twitter’s case this evening. They made a ‘small change‘ to their reply settings by changing the replies tab from showing all @replies to only showing those from people that you’re following. Reading their explanation sounds very condescending as it is - who said the replies option (hence the word option) was ‘undesirable’ or ‘confusing’? Twitter obviously doesn’t listen to the community to know what we find beneficial & functional in our everyday use.
As discussed a lot already tonight (check the #FIXIT and #fixreplies hashtags), many of us found new conversations through this option, as we were able to connect with people that were talking about us who we weren’t already following. Now, they’ve taken that ‘undesirable’ option away and hindered a big part of how we were able to build connections.
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Mack Collier, as usual, put out a helpful post today on how to write great blog comments and rightfully so, I wrote a comment (hopefully a great one) – but after submitting my thoughts and reading again, I began thinking; the focal point of this post is not only on how to leave great comments, but to really read and understand what the author is writing about. Doing so helps you understand and provide further value in your own thoughts. But, what if, the problem lies there, with the readers. Not those who read the entire post but those who are…
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For those immersed in Twitter, there’s usually a weekly hot topic that has the community abuzz and last week was no different. Ashton Kutcher threw down a challenge to CNN to see who can hit 1 million followers first. This seemed to not only be the crowning moment for Ashton, as he won the ‘race’, but for Twitter and it’s increased mainstream popularity.
The following day, Ashton was on the Oprah show (via Skype) and talked Twitter, along with guest Evan Williams (Twitter CEO). That episode, along with Oprah’s joining and promotion of Twitter, has skyrocketed Twitter’s name. It may seem like a great time to be on Twitter but there has definitely been mixed emotions about this mainstream recognition.
Ultimately, I see people on two sides of this debate - the Optimists and the Detractors. (more…)
We utilize these social media tools on a daily basis. For what? To build and grow our networks and relationships within. To showcase our abilities on blogs and to bring that value into conversations with other people looking to grow from our knowledge. We look to learn ourselves, from people we connect with and the content we read. Hell, some of us want our egos stroked a bit in the process. But sometimes, just sometimes - there’s something we experience that isn’t really expected: (more…)
Simple thing, really. Hi. How are you? I’m a marketing nerd that loves basketball, the gym and Twitter. Wanna exchange numbers? Let’s hang out! OK, that may be the dumbed down version but you get the point. We’re introduced to new people almost every day, in personal or more formal situations. We hope there’s an initial connection and then build off of that with two-way conversations. (more…)
How to Tweet You Way Out of a Job - it’s been going around Twitter all day so if you haven’t seen it, take a quick read. I’ll wait.
Ok - so, basically what happened was a fortunate job hunter, @theconnor, landed a job at Cisco and apparently felt the need to blurt out some rather interesting comments about the position/company - sadly (ironically) a Cisco employee saw the tweet and responded accordingly. It’s pretty easy to get caught up in Twitter and feel like you’re talking to your college buds over a beer but transparency isn’t really at question here, its common sense.
If you’re using these tools, realize that as much research that we do when finding out information about a company or hiring manager, the company is doing just the same, if not more. This even goes for roles you don’t land and openly badmouth the company for not hiring you. That can have the same backlash, as a potential employer could see that and be completely turned off from even wanting to talk to you.
Some quick thoughts but just remember to be wary of your surroundings and realize that in social media, whatever you tweet out or write about is for ALL eyes to see and the damage isn’t easily reversed.
Just ask yourself, would you say it to the face of your potential/current employer? No? Ok, good.
If you’re rolling around on Twitter every Friday, you’ve probably noticed a trend that started a couple months ago - #followfriday. People recommend favorite Twitterers to their community, thus creating a chain and viral effect on Fridays. It’s a great way to meet new fun folks and has even gone a step further with people creating starter packs for new users. One thing that’s missing, being 140 characters, is that there isn’t always depth on why you should follow those people.
So, what I decided to do was start a little weekly series of Follow Fridays but with a little twist - I’m going to juice it up a bit and suggest great folks to follow, not just for their value on Twitter, but for what they bring to their respective blogging communities. Here you have this Friday the 13th’s Follow Fridays: (more…)
