I am working with an out of town client who needs an intern to help roll out the strategy I am preparing. This person should know how to administer common social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube as well as experience and/or sound knowledge of community management. Great communications skills are a must as are reliability, professionalism, access to the internet, business understanding, creativity and of course time. If you know about video and mountaineering then even better! A student who has successfully completed COMP 113 with me in the past couple of years (or is a current student) is preferable. However, if the right person cannot be found from this group then the position will be opened up. The client is out of town but the work can be undertaken in Dunedin. In terms of payment options, this needs to be confirmed as do start and end dates. If you think this opportunity sounds interesting and right, tweet me or send an email stating your case. Add Comment Future of social media according to Mashable 16/11/2011
Here is Pete Cashmore, founder of Mashable espousing his social media predictions for 2012. Predicting the future accurately is tough and notoriously unreliable, however, it can be interesting to see an indicative opinion from someone who lives online media. Many thanks to Sarah for finding this. Social media bans are a bad idea 06/10/2011
In light of recent provocative tweets by Samoan rugby player Eliota Fuimaono Sapolu, the Samoan Rugby union is thinking about a social media (or in their words a "social networking") ban. This thinking is misguided. Prohibitive or draconian approaches to controlling social behaviour are doomed to failure (think alcohol prohibition in the '30s or the ongoing "war on drugs" as examples). Moreover, it creates an unnecessary and unfortunate adversarial relationship between groups of people who ought to be working towards a common goal. This same issue exists in business. People use social media daily - it is a part of their lives (for better or worse). In fact, many employees use social media to do their jobs. Consequently, prohibiting use of social media outright creates an artificial problem between management and employees that need not exist. Moreover, it suggests a lack of trust by management of employees. While it is true that leaking confidential internal information or "dissing" the boss is undesirable, there are other ways to handle these kinds of situations. Knowing that people will talk, gossip, bitch, whine, etc. (as they always have done) and recognising that people have new and highly-social channels to exploit is a good first step. In light of this, every business needs to prepare internal guidelines around social media usage. These guidelines need to be produced before any issues arise and ideally should involve employees as part of their development. Why involve employees? The end goal is to have sensible and even beneficial usage of social media as a part of everyday business practice by employees. For this to happen, there needs to be buy-in from employees so that they embrace and support the guidelines through advocacy and management of their own behaviour. A business also benefits from having clear, positive guidelines as they provide clarity around social media usage so that if issues do arise there is a place to start talking. In terms of the Samoan Rugby Union, the point is somewhat moot as their World Cup campaign is over. I just hope that next time they take a little time talking with the team about how social media might be best used. Wellington based social media services firm Catalyst90 track social media activity in New Zealand (in addition to providing a range of technology based social media solutions). This is useful because statistics on NZ usage and growth (specifically) of social media is difficult to come by. From the graphic below, some interesting numbers stick out. For instance:
Catalyst90 update these numbers weekly so if you like what you see, check their curiously named "Enigma" page for updated numbers. Nielsen has just released their Social Media Report for third quarter of 2011. The report provides visualisations of trends and consumption patterns across social media platforms (primarily the US but elsewhere as well). Some of the more interesting snapshops are shown below. For instance, Australian users spend the most time on social network sites and blogging. We might be able to guess at New Zealand's usage based on these Australian numbers. The Nielsen blog provides a slideshow, all-on-one-page, and a full download (need to register for this version). Click on the images to see bigger versions. History of social media (graphic) 30/08/2011
Here is a graphic made by TenthWave to illustrate key milestones in social media's historical development. Click the image for a larger version. A social media mission control centre 21/06/2010
The volume of information as well as methods of communicating this information are increasing exponentially thanks to the internet. Consequently, businesses and organisations trying to find out what people are saying about them is becoming more difficult. Responding to comments, opinion, feedback, discussion, etc. (good and bad!) is great for reputation and goodwill. This means efficient discovery through proactive monitoring is now a key aspect of social media strategy. By way of an example - here is a video of the worldwide sports drink brand "Gatorade" and their new social media mission control centre. They have custom built technology to track and respond rapidly to mentions of Gatorade in a variety of social media. Check out this Mashable post for more coverage of Gatorade. Measuring the benefits of social media 02/06/2010
Measuring the success or ROI of a social media intervention is difficult. Existing metrics (e.g., KPIs) do not transfer seamlessly to this new environment because of the differences in approach afforded by social media such as the lack of immediate benefits. In this presentation by Brandon Murphy below (which I found on the we are social website), a new approach to ROI is proposed. Have a look and let us know what you think. Social media is not a panacea 15/05/2010
Social media provides exciting and novel opportunities for organisations of all kinds. However, social media will not make up for poor service, products, pricing or any sloppy business practice. Social media is not a cure-all for your business' failings. Social media creates opportunities to enhance your organisation's reputation, deepen relationships with customers (or supporters if you are a NFP), attract new custom/interest, leverage serendipity, generate goodwill, plus many more known and yet to be known benefits. The caveat is that improvements in any of the areas outlined above will take time so set your expectations accordingly. Also, be prepared to put effort and commitment into managing your chosen social media without necessarily expecting an immediate return (although you could - which is another great thing about social media). Before engaging with social media in any significant way, ensure that your organisation's fundamentals are in shape. While social media may provide ways to remedy the occasional slip up, the very media used to interact with the wider community can also be used to publicise shortfalls in the basics. | The BlogCheck in here for news, social media insights and opinion. Subscribe by email or RSS feed for automatic updates.
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