Tomorrow is a coming out party for Tourism Marketing Consulting which is a project that Jen Leo and I have been working on for a few months. We are kicking off this joint venture with a free webinar called “Social Media 101“.

Jen and I met at the speaker’s dinner last year at the Travel Blog Exchange conference in Chicago. We hit it off immediately and soon after Gary Arndt and I asked her to join us starting the This Week in Travel podcast. Jen confessed recently that she thought she was being asked to be on one episode and did not realize that she was being asked to be a regular host. That is probably just as well as she might have said “no” as her job as the lead travel blogger with the LA Times was keeping her pretty busy.

Jen has much more experience in travel than I do and seems to know all the other travel editors and travel writers. I have a bit more social media experience since I was building internet communities full time starting in 1996. She is a blogger and I am a podcaster. I am afraid to ask, but since she lives in southern California she might even be a Dodgers fan. Hopefully this is the start of a beautiful partnership. I hope you can join us tomorrow.

Running an online community is like throwing a party. That’s what Jenna Woodul LiveWorld’s Chief Community Officer told me sometime in the 1990s. I have always liked the analogy.

I attended my first meeting of a particular meetup group recently. I arrived with my artichoke dip and entered into a house full of strangers. I did not know whose house I was in. Even by the time I left, I still did not know who was the owner of the house. I did not know where to put my dip so I stood there for a few minutes like… well… a dip. I talked to some people but there were no name tags and no introductions. No one said “Chris, you are new here, I would like you to meet…”. The main presentation was by a husband and wife. It was interesting but the couple bickered the entire time. It is unlikely I will return to that group. Some changes to that meetup or to you community will increase the chance that people will return.

Whose house am I in?

Well run communities have context. When I come to your community I want to know whose community this is and what it stands for. Some of this sense of place should come from the branding even before I interact with anyone in the community.

Where do I put the dip?

How do things run here? Prompts, categories and seeded content help give me a sense of how this community works. A lot of communities put up a community standards in the registration process and think they are done. But why do I decide to register? Why should I join your merry band? Did you let your lawyers write your community standards? Do people read it?

Introductions

Think about a time or place on your community where people can introduce themselves. People like to be welcomed and acknowledged.

Who in your community is an official host or an unofficial one? If you are greeted when you join a community you will be more likely to see that as the way this community works.

Some people here are new

In a lot of communities that I have seen over the years the new person finds out what the expectations are by breaking them. Think I am exaggerating? How about this answer from a typical forum:

what camera is best.. really is stupid unanswerable question and
its time we starting saying so to the myriad of people that keep
asking it…

…and welcome to the community. When that kind of answer becomes tolerated or expected then the community will have a hard time attracting new users.

Bickering

It is very awkward to sit through a presentation where the presenters bicker with one another. Communities are the same way. As communities age sometimes cliques or factions can develop. I am not necessarily even talking about the big picture differences between people who arrived with different world views on politics, religion or the New York Yankees but people who have developed bad blood over time. Ever been to a family reunion or a family wedding like that? Even the best communities need ongoing hosting.

Values

People will imitate the behaviors they see you model, promote or tolerate on your community. Does your community reflect what your company or organization values?

recipe for artichoke dip

Google Buzz has been out for almost 3 months now and I think it is time to take another look. I find that I am not using Google Buzz and I think there are a few design decisions that have hampered its acceptance.

Privacy

Clearly Google biffed their original roll out with all sorts of bad privacy choices and defaults, but it seems that they have learned from their mistakes and have fixed most of the issues. That is at least better than one large social networking company (which rhymes with acebook) that keeps making bad decisions in the privacy area.

My Login is My Email

The one area of privacy that has not been addressed is that Google took a social network and made the public handle for me my email address. Every single update to Google Buzz is a message to the world what your email address is. Now I built and ran online communities since 1996 and we never had a customer who chose to make the email address the public user name for their community. As your email address is available publically it opens you up to more spam. Google Buzz only has that issue to the extent that your updates are public and can be scraped by bots. But, if you are not selective about who you add to your social graph then expect more spam.

I Don’t Follow Popular People

One thing I did not expect is that I have stopped following anyone who has a popular following. Google decided in Buzz that anytime someone replies to someone I follow that the reply belongs in my update feed. That means when I followed Robert Scoble or Chris Pirillo, to name two, my buzz feed was now just about them. Anyone less popular was lost in the noise. I don’t get that issue on twitter. Now communities and message boards have dealt with those issues for many years. Most message board systems provide different ways of filtering information. They usually show me just the threads in a discussion and let me know which ones have new replies and don’t require that I get all updates for every post. I think that Google could learn something from some of these older methods. Maybe I should only get updates after I have commented or maybe they can give me an option of telling them which discussions I want to follow. This is not a new problem. There are proven solutions.

Do You Want Community In My Email?

I am not a big gmail user so I don’t know the answer to the last question. Is my inbox the best place to put a social network? With so many people overwhelmed by keeping up with their email, is Google Buzz just the wrong place to be social?

I am reminded this morning how much I love teaching about Social Media. I had the opportunity to speak on the Google campus to a group of RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) alumni and guests on Social Media. Since I live in the social media echo chamber it is easy for me to forget that not everyone knows terms like RSS, podcast, and social network. I love getting a chance to explain what social media is and how it can actually help your business. Consistently when I have been speaking recently I am told that actually talking about business strategy and social media is not common. Why is that?

If you are interested, here is my slide deck, but my slides are not the kind where you sit in the room and read my presentation.

I don’t have the audio from this event but part of the talk on strategy is similar to what I talked about at a recent Social Media Breakfast presentation which was captured on For Immediate Release Speakers & Speaches series.

I will be speaking on the Google campus in March. This is for the alumni group from RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York) where I matriculated. You don’t have to be an RPI alumni to attend. If you would like to come and hear me speak either register or let me know and I can add you as a guest of my registration.

RPI Speakers Series — Social Media/Networking
Thursday, March 18, 6:30 p.m.
Google Headquarters, Mountain View, California

RCNC is pleased to announce the next RPI Speakers Series meeting for Thursday, March 18, 2010, to be held at the Google Facility in Mountain View.  Our speaker, Chris Christensen ‘83, ‘84G Computer & Systems Engineering, has been the Executive Vice President of Engineering and Operations for a company in Silicon Valley (LiveWorld) that runs online communities for companies like eBay, Marriott, American Express, Campbell’s, Kimberly Clark, A&E, and Mini Cooper.  Chris has recently established a consultancy to focus on podcasting and blogging including his popular Amateur Traveler podcast.

Chris will be covering some of the history of social media, the different types of social media and how your company’s business strategy can help determine how best to use social media.  Chris encourages attendees to bring your questions about LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

There is no charge for this event, but we ask that you register.

One of the great things about Social Media, I believe, is that it forces companies to be more transparent. It pressures them to create better products and provide better customer service since their missteps will be broadcast in the social media community. But, how will we feel when companies start treating their customers in the same way? If social media will help keep companies on their best behavior could it or even should it have the same effect on their customers?

Living in a World with Feedback – eBay

A world where every customer is rated on how good a customer they are might sound pretty far fetched but that world has been with us for years on eBay. eBay created a system where buyers and sellers rate each other at the end of a transaction. The ability of both the buyer and the seller to transact business in the future is influenced by how quickly they pay, how fast they ship, the quality of the product and the ease of the transaction. What they created was an electronic equivalent of the way markets have worked in the real worked for countless years. The butcher with the unfair scale gets a bad reputation and the rowdy customer gets shown the door. What will happen when companies realize that they can use social media in the same fashion?

What if Negative Behavior had Consequences?

A known issue with TripAdvisor and other hotel review sites is that some customers game the system. They demand additional service and threaten to leave a negative review. They are of the opinion that their negative and unfair behavior will have no negative consequences.  Markets don’t work that way. Markets have a way of evening things out. So what would happen if hotels started using that data? A hotel might not currently be able to deny you a room if your TripAdvisor reviews are always negative, but it might be in their best interest if they could. A positive review has value to a brand and a negative review hurts a brand. So could a hotel offer discounts to people who tend to give good reviews? I can see a day where if you offer to log into the hotel site using TripAdvisor, in much the same fashion that Facebook connect works today, they could reward happier guests. They would then be more likely to get positive reviews and perhaps they would have better morale with their staff if they had more appreciative guests.

What if We Rated Buyers?

What happens when rating buyers extends from eBay to airlines? What if your flight crew could rate you after a flight. You give up your seat to help a family sit together and your flight attendant gives you a great rating. You bitch about the service or are a very demanding customer and the flight attendant gives you a bad rating. If you could exclude the bad customers on future flights wouldn’t your flight crew and other customers be happier? So when customers go to book their next flight why doesn’t the company offer different discounts to good passengers or surcharges to jerks? Some people will protest no doubt, but this is not being prejudiced, it is not violating people’s civil rights. This is treating people as Dr King asked based on the “content of their character”.

Can we envision a day where your reputation becomes public knowledge? This will probably not happen any time soon because no company wants the law suits that would result, but I think this is the way that things are heading. Someday customers and not just companies will have their behavior exposed publicly. That day will be judgment day for jerks and, I think, a good day for the marketplace.

Come join me at the Social Media Breakfast East Bay on February 3rd. The breakfast will be held at the Buttercup Grill and Bar in Oakland, 1000 Colton Street in Oakland, just off 23rd Ave. and easily accessible from the 880. I will be speaking on social media strategies and how they need to be shaped by your brand strategy and you company strategy. We will look at some examples from my 13+ years building web communities.

It is a new year and many people are making resolutions and many bloggers are blogging about their resolutions. One effort that caught my attention is that Borders has added an area on their blog with the resolutions of 4 of their employees.

This is notable because no one mentions something obvious like “I will read more books”. Their resolutions instead are:

• I’m Going to Take the Presidential Fitness Test
• I’m going to eat only real food
• I’m Going to Give 29 Gifts
• I’m Going to Save $300 in 30 Days

Will they mention books? David, who is a book buyer, already mentioned that his resolution came from a book he read last Summer. I suspect a book or two will come up in the conversation as I suspect these 4 actually do like books and are avid readers.

Why is this significant?

Borders seems to get that a great strategy in social media is putting a face on the company. Here are 4 real people and 4 real goals. The idea is for me to identify with the people and therefore the company. Each blogger has only posted once so it is too early to predict the success of this campaign… but I will do it any way. I think this will be beneficial to Borders. I think the tone of this site is of a company that understands social media and I am interested to see what they will do next.

What is the minimum connectivity you would require from your company to keep you. Would you work for a company that did not allow you to read personal email? Would you work for a company that did not allow you to brows the web? According to a study coming out of Australia many in the younger generation would not work for a company that did not allow them to access their favorite social network.

Bosses who block access to MySpace and Facebook at work risk losing valuable staff to other companies, new research has found.

Almost half of those who use MySpace and Facebook during work hours say they would refuse a job where they were not allowed access to social networking sites, according to the study by Australian law firm Deacons.

This poses a dilemma for employers who fear the effects of social n etworking sites on productivity and privacy but need to retain staff in today’s tight jobs market.

Paul Colligan’s latest post “Would Somebody Please Let Me PAY For Service – Twitter, GrandCentral.Com, Ustream.Tv, Mogulus, Bueller, Anyone …” reminded me of an idea I had for Twitter. Twitter are you listening?

Like many people I love twitter but would love it even more if it worked on a consistent and predictable basis. My company runs large community sites and I understand how hard this can be but I also know we would be out of business… sorry, that’s a different post.

A popular business model that has been talked about for twitter is advertising mixed in with the feed. This leads many users to cringe. But it is clear that twitter has value so someone should be willing to pay for it. Who values twitter? Companies, bloggers, podcasters (like me), presidential candidates and Tv personalities all use twitter. They use twitter for:

• PR – getting or keeping their name in front of people
• Advertising – a twitter link to an audience who is interested in what you have to say is hundreds of times more efficient than an advertising campaign in my experience. A banner ad shown to thousands of strangers might get one click. A twitter post with a link to hundreds of followers can easily get a dozen click thrus because you are talking to people who already care about what you have to say.

The more followers I have the more valuable twitter is to my business or to my ego. So why not charge $1 per 100 followers per month or some similar charge. My monthly bill would be around $6 a month. Barack Obama’s would be between $400-500. If you don’t want to be charged, you could limit your followers.

Or what if it cost you something to put a link in a twitter post?

Alternatively, you could also have a charge for following more than a certain number of people per day or per week. Some people use following as a way to put their name in front of a group of people. They are not really following what all those people are saying, they are advertising. I think most people understand that advertising costs money. Maybe an interface that let companies at least be more honest about it. You would get an email that says “John Doe wants you to follow him”.

What are your ideas? What would you be willing to pay if it meant a more stable long term twitter?