© iStockphoto.com/JulNichols

Huh? I’m not crazy. I’ve heard that alot. A client wants to add Twitter or Facebook… or whatever social network to their site but they aren’t interested in doing any work. The reasons vary but honestly why bother. It’s like asking someone on a date and then not talking for the entire time.

Why would you care to see them again? You wouldn’t…unless you had lost your mind.

Throw a link to Facebook on the site. Why?

What are you planning to DO once you have a fan page? Does your business really need one? Or rather are you going to do anything useful with it other than talk at your customers.

Or someone gets excited and says “Oh let’s get a Twitter account!”. Again…to what end? I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve been in where it was obvious that a) the person speaking had never used Twitter b) had no idea what they were talking about and c) had no valid reason other than it sounded cool. On what planet…is something cool if it doesn’t make sense for your business and no one is going to take ownership of it. Waste of time and money.

Some people don’t want to give customers a platform to complain. Well… get real… consumers complain all the time. But people who love you write more good things than bad. Besides if you had a lousy product wouldn’t you want to improve it. When did we get so afraid of criticism? Not everyone is going to like your product or service.

Just a thought.

By not giving your loyal happy customers a place to talk and share their stories you are missing out. Word of mouth is your friend…not your enemy.

Promoting your products or service all day long is not a relationship building activity.

Go have a conversation already…social media is about building relationships, which you cannot do without engagement just being on the network isn’t enough.

© iStockPhoto/DNY59

Here’s a list of what Jonathan Richman – who writes about pharma and healthcare believes should be the basics of a social media program for pharma companies.

1. Get rid of your brand site
2. Add ratings and reviews to your brand site
3. Create a game for Wii Fit that actually helps patients to manage their disease. Establish an exercise and fitness regimen
4. Install Google Friend Connect
5. Give patients the ability to share their history with Google Health or Microsoft HealthVault
6. Features on your site that allow patients to track their condition and compare them with others
7. Hire community managers to help fix your online reputation
8. Create a portal that lets physicians have access to all available clinical information that is related to your product plus indication information all in one place.
9. Kick people out of your CRM program
10. Implement OpenID on your website for the registration process on your site

I’ve worked on a lot of pharma sites in the last couple of months and I’ve talked to patients and healthcare providers. Very few of them visit pharma sites because frankly most don’t add any value to their lives. I don’t think a balance has been struck yet between the goals of the business and the needs of the patient or healthcare provider. There is work to be done since there will always be regulatory realities to deal with.

Some of Jonathan’s ideas are worth exploring. However, there are still too many people working in pharma that don’t understand the medium. Make it social isn’t a strategy.

1. We were in the right place at the right time
2. We know where you go online…
3. ….and we hope you don’t mind being tracked offline, too
4. Your account isn’t exactly secure
5. If it feels addictive, it probably is
6. We give brands fans – and the occasional headache
7. Get ready for some awkward moments
8. Apps can be tough to police
9. We aren’t the only game in town
10. You’ll have to wait to get a piece of us

Item 4 isn’t exactly news since privacy issues have plagued the social network for quite some time. And anyone who is waiting on the Facebook IPO is going to have to wait. Rumors of a 2011 IPO offering are just that…rumors.

Regarding item 8 Facebook claims to be trying to do a better job of policing the apps that run on its platform. So far they aren’t doing that great of a job. Apps have access to a user’s data once the user has granted access. Facebook needs to do a better job of making sure app developers don’t violate user rights and use the data collected for something other than it’s original purpose.

You can read the full story on the online version of the article at Smart Money.

Self promotion is a conversation.

It is not about someone tell anyone in earshot how great you are but never listening to the other person. My favorite forms of self promotion are teaching, blogging & microblogging, email newsletters and the occasional networking event.

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1. With Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust you’ll learn everything you need to know about how to be successful in social media. Considering how hot social media became this year even if it’s just to get a better understanding of what’s going on this book is a must read.
2. Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. is another great book about social media with tools and tips on how to get the most out of this emerging space
3. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future lets us know why right brain thinkers are the best thing since sliced bread. We need to be ready when right brain thinking becomes the way of the future and this book outlines it in easy to read manner. We follow the author as he takes tests and talks about what he learns about how the brain works and why it matters in today’s business world.
4. Unclutter Your Life in One Week is a step by step guide to de-clutter your life. What a better way to begin 2010 than to get rid of all the crap you don’t need. This book outlines how to go about doing just that in an easy to follow way. There is even a website Unclutterer.com if you need more tips.

I hope these recommendations make finding a present easier or maybe you could decide to get one of these books for yourself. Happy Holidays!

I subscribe to over 1000 blogs on Google Reader. My favorite blogs I subscribe to via email. I have an Alltop page where I keep track of blogs that I don’t read as often but that I like to keep up with.

I know it sounds complicated but to me it makes total sense. I see patterns in information. So having everything in one place would probably be boring.

So what do I do with all that information? I archive it in Evernote or Diigo (if I need to take notes) or Delicious. I share posts I find interesting on Twitter, too.

I just love to learn new things and reading blogs allows me the opportunity to be a part of a community that shares ideas and connects on a wide variety of topics. And I don’t have to pay for most of it. I even get ideas for blog posts. I got the idea for this post from reading Chris Brogan’s blog. Thanks dude! :)

Designers have an essential social responsibility because design is at the core of the world’s largest challenges…and solutions

The tools that are currently widely available allows the average person to apply their design skills. Aviary, a startup in New York, has a suite of tools that gives people just that opportunity. So the excuse that price is a barrier to entry is no longer the case. There are also a lot of open source tools such as InkScape and Gimp to name a few.

If you want to design for fun or work you can ill afford not to think about the impact your work has on yourself and the world. What do you want to say and how loudly you want to say it are all key. You don’t have to reach a million people to make a difference. You just have to influence the behavior of one individual. A big noise might get noticed but doesn’t necessarily have a lasting impact on an individual.

Making a design that’s easier to use or making someone smile with one of my drawings is my small way of changing the world. What’s yours?

© Microsoft Advertising

I got this flyer on the third day of Advertising Week, September 23 and I think it perfectly illustrates where social media is right now. Enjoy!

I’m glad that I choose to attend though. I might not try to attend as many events next time though!

The last seminar I attended was on Wednesday. Social Networking 2.0: Brands Get in the Game presented by Robin Domeniconi, Vice President-US Advertising Sales, Publishing and Marketing, Microsoft discussed Microsoft’s social branding strategies, how it is working with agencies to harness social media and also showcased a project code named “Looking Glass”. “Looking Glass” is a social-media aggregator and monitoring tool Microsoft hopes will allow marketers to better monitor what is going on across media channels.

Advertising Age features a story about “Looking Glass” titled Microsoft Wants to Help Marketers Manage Messy Social Media. Based on the comments about the article quite a few people see the benefit of this tool but are not happy that Microsoft is pushing another one of it’s products to do it. “Looking Glass” is built on top of SharePoint, so that it can utilize the features of that platform i.e emailing items within the system. However, SharePoint is a product that has several problems in the past. How smart is it for Microsoft to build this tool with that technology?

It’s definitely a much needed tool as more and more business is done using social media. Marketing is truly two way these days and customers are no longer interested in having media pushed at them without being able to respond. A company that can listen and ACT is sure to be in a better position than a company that just ignores social media in hopes that it is just a fad.

All in all Advertising Week was a great opportunity to learn and experience new technologies.

Forrester’s Social Technographics® classifies consumers into six overlapping levels of participation

The six participant types are the following:

• Creators – responsible for generating content on the web. They blog, tweet and create YouTube videos
• Critics – respond to what others post. They review products and services.
• Collectors – organizers of content for themselves and others. They might use sites like digg.com, RSS, tags, etc.
• Joiners – have profiles on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.
• Spectators – don’t actively participate in the conversation but read blogs. Listen to podcasts. Read product reviews.
• Inactives – ignore it all! online interaction just isn’t their thing.

These profiles are important to note to make sure your message is getting heard. If the clients I wanted to serve for example didn’t actively use Facebook then setting up a Facebook fan page would not be a good strategy for my business. An email newsletter would probably be better to get my message to the right people.

Check out the tool below to create a consumer profile and to see if your strategy aligns with the research.