We’ve all been there. You are sitting in a stadium watching your favorite team (Go Blue!) and taking in the sights, sounds, and smells that originate from the 107,000 or so people invading your personal space. Then, either fueled by boredom or booze, somebody in your section gets the idea to start “the wave”. You either A) pretend you don’t notice and wait for the buzz to die down, or B) wait for the count of “three!” and throw your hands in the air and wave ‘em like you just don’t care.

What does this have to with Social Media? In both cases, a coordinated effort by a few proactive participants can set an amazingly powerful social force in motion simply by encouraging a small number of people around them to follow their lead. If done properly, the wave can make normally passive fans into active fans. A well-received social media campaign can accomplish the same for your brand or products.

Five Simple Steps to Social Media Success

I found an interesting guide on eHow.com that outlines how to start a wave at a sporting event.The article outlines five simple steps that are eerily similar to how I would go about starting a social media campaign (italicized comments are mine):

1. Make certain that there is pause in the action on the…court. The wave cheer will die out quickly if there is action on the court that fans will not want to miss. Is your target audience paying attention to you or are they distracted? Social media campaigns should add value to users’ online experiences, not distract them.
2. Ask others in the seating section to participate in wave cheer. The wave needs more than just a few people to start it to make sure it will have the appropriate impetus. Even a passionate person gains credibility with a few like-minded supporters.
3. Determine which direction the wave will go. The wave cheer can go either left or right. Some have tried to do the front to back wave but this cheer is not popular especially considering the configuration at a …game arena is suited for the left or right wave. Where a person is sitting in his or her section will determine the best direction for the wave. If a person is close to a large seating gap the wave cheer will work better going the other direction. Spend some time thinking about how to reach the most receptive audience that will also carry your message to their networks. Don’t bother aiming your message at empty space.
4. Notify the other wave participants that the wave cheer is about to start. Let the other people in section know a couple of minutes ahead of time so they can properly prepare others. Take advantage of your immediate network to help build momentum. People are more likely to participate when they perceive that others are already involved.
   
5. Start a countdown to the wave cheer at a…game. Usually just countdown from three or five and then yell wave as you stand and raises your arms. Do not be disheartened if the wave does not take off the first time. Just try to start the wave cheer later during the…game. Launch with a bang. Make yourself heard and do whatever it takes to “stand out from the crowd”, even if it means leaving your comfort zone or repeating yourself.
   

Online marketing professionals can learn a lot by understanding the crowd dynamics (herd mentality) that people exhibit online and offline. Pay attention to large groups of people and how they respond individually and as a group. You might be surprised how a little “seeding” can help launch your social media campaigns to a much more receptive audience.

Welcome to part three of my ongoing Online Reputation Management series. The first two installments covered how to monitor your company’s online reputation and how to respond to feedback in various online arenas. Today’s topic approaches online reputation management from an SEO and online marketing perspective.

If you are still concerned about the negative results that appear when somebody searches for your company, it may be possible to replace some of the unfavorable listings with more favorable results. Depending on who you wish to displace, you may be able to reclaim the first page of search results by creating and contributing content on other sites. When done correctly, this can reduce the risk of potential customers finding less-than-favorable reviews and feedback.

So how do you pull this off? Create valuable, useful content and distribute it to other online sites. Find reputable sites that allow submissions and spend some time developing high quality work to share. Make sure you don’t simply copy and paste content from your site or others, as this will likely just be filtered out by the search engines’ duplicate content filters.

Examples of effective content include:

• Write Op/Ed pieces for local and national newspaper sites.
• Publish articles, white papers, case studies, or unique research.
• Create user profiles on social media and social networking sites.
• Submit useful content and promote others’ content on the social media and social networking sites.
• Write and submit press releases to online media outlets and PR syndication sites.
• Provide social media sharing options on your site to allow your visitors to promote your content.
• Ensure all of your listings in online directories and internet yellow pages (IYP) sites are up-to-date and complete.

These are just a few examples of the places that accept user-generated content, and that tend to try to rank their content in the major search engines. Take advantage of their SEO savvy and let them help you replace the negative content in search results.

Of course, these are only band-aid solutions that won’t cover up a gaping wound in your operations, quality, or customer service. Make sure you addressing the root causes of the negative feedback and taking care of the spurned customers. Otherwise, no amount of SEO will be able to replace the backlash that is sure to follow.

Any other questions or comments? Leave a note below and I’ll make sure to follow up with more detailed information.

Welcome to Part 2 of our 3-part series on Online Reputation Management. Yesterday, I wrote about how to monitor your company’s online reputation. Today, we’ll cover the critical skills you’ll need to effectively respond to the feedback you encounter. Tomorrow, I will discuss various ways to proactively contribute to online communities to improve your reputation instead of just reacting when things flare up.

First off, it’s important to know when a response is appropriate and when it might be better to just let it go. There are a lot of variables that you should factor into this decision. Among the most important are:

• What is the nature of the feedback? If a customer is looking for information about your company, products or services, try to lend a helping hand by providing useful information without resorting to a sales pitch. If a customer is writing extremely negative things in a complaint site, read the tips below on how to respond. If the feedback is positive, either leave a quick thank you or just sit back and feel the love.
• Does the customer want to be contacted directly? If so, don’t respond on the website where you found the post. Do some research (either on the site itself or in your customer records) and figure out how to contact them via email, phone, or letter.
• Can you do anything to resolve or explain the issue? Again, look at this as an opportunity to improve your relationship with this customer rather than a pest that must be dealt with.

Depending on the type of site where you find the feedback, you will have different ways to respond if you choose to do so:

• Blog - Leave a comment for the author and/or post your response on your blog with a trackback to the original post
• Forum - If appropriate, register as a member and post your response. Don’t be “salesy” or try to hide your identity. Be sure to contribute useful, relevant info rather than marketing messages.
• Complaint Site or Review Site- Look for a business owner feedback mechanism. Many of these sites allow business owners to respond to reviews. Caution: Beware of scams, extortion attempts, and sites that try to bait you into a fight that you are never going to win! Do some research about the site and figure out if your response will be given fair consideration and equal shelf space. If you don’t feel comfortable posting on the site itself, find another site or use your blog to post your response.
• Social Media or Networking Site - Join the site and look for ways to contact the individual in other channels. Be respectful of his or her privacy as many of these sites are used for personal as well as business relationships.
• News Site - Contact the editor or journalist and ask for room to clarify your position or a follow-up article. Consider writing an op/ed piece as well.

Finally, some ground rules for your response:

• Always post as yourself, not as an anonymous or fake person.
• Provide actual contact information.
• Don’t ask others to post positive things about you and try to pass it off as unsolicited.
• Research the incident that resulted in the feedback before responding. Get details from your customer service team or any other employees that dealt with the customer.
• Create accurate, complete profiles on any sites that you register for.
• Provide links, phone or email addresses for your customer service team, or the appropriate executive that can handle the situation. You don’t necessarily have to post these publicly if you contact the person outside of the original site.
• Take conversations offline if possible to facilitate communication and maintain the integrity of the ongoing conversations.
• Explain how you plan to correct the situation and take care of the customer.
• Explain how you and your company are working to make sure that this problem does not affect anybody else.
• If a peaceful resolution is achieved, politely ask them to update their story or complaint with the outcome.

These tips should help you resolve and defuse many of the potential online reputation nightmares. Take care of your customers and they will take care of you.

[UPDATE] Added link to Online Reputation Management Part 3: Contribute [/UPDATE]

I’ve never recorded or been a part of a podcast before, but Derek and Ross from Ingenex Digital just posted a podcast (23 30 minutes) that covers social media, search engine optimization and online marketing. The focus was on educating traditionally-minded senior executives about the challenges and opportunities that await in the online world. Derek interviewed me about several topics that are timely and relevant to companies of all sizes as they size up the internet marketing challenge.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think. Thanks again to Ingenex Digital for starting a great podcast series and including me in one of the initial sessions. Leave them a comment as well and suggest future topics and experts that they can include.

Hi. My name is Andrew and I am a recovering Twitter user.

It’s been over a week since I last logged into Twitter from my laptop or cell phone. Call me a “Twitter quitter”, but my rationale was solid:

1. I have been spouting increasingly anti-Twitter rhetoric to my marketing peers to try to talk some sense into those that think Twitter is the next marketing revolution.
2. I spent a long weekend on a remote island off the coast of North Carolina for a wedding and didn’t want to be “that guy”. None of my friends knew what Twitter was, and if they did, I don’t think that it would even remotely interest them.

Of course there were a couple times I wanted to check up on the randomness of other people’s lives. But I resisted the temptation and instead enjoyed a few extra minutes of thought and contemplation rather than cramming even more information into a brain already clogged with “news” from around my social network.

One week later I’m still here. The world didn’t stop turning. As much as I would like them to, the lives of people I know (and some I don’t know) don’t revolve around me. I haven’t missed any meetings. All messages intended for me got to me through other channels. I might have missed out on an interesting conversation or two, but they are likely long forgotten by the participants anyway.

Bottom line, it IS possible to stay off of Twitter without missing out on life. I estimate that I actually re-gained about 2-3 hours of productive working time by not tweeting or trying to catch up on others’ messages during the day.

Hmmm…I wonder what else I can unsubscribe from or stay away from? TV? Probably. Facebook? Probably not. Blogs and forums? Not a chance. Books? Wouldn’t want to. The Internet? Not if I want a paycheck.