Enter the Social Media Funnel.

This social media funnel shows graphically how a user can most likely find your brand, become aware of your product or service, and eventually become a customer themselves.

This social media funnel shows graphically how a user can most likely find your brand, become aware of your product or service, and eventually become a customer themselves.

Twitter – The “Introduction” Platform

Of the mainstream social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube) the channel that has the lowest barrier of entry would be Twitter. Twitter is simple to set up, easy to manage, and most importantly, it is probably the easiest platform for those who aren’t familiar with your brand to find you.  If you were to search a broad term such as “engineering” in Twitter’s search box, Twitter does a fairly good job at showing you twitter handles related to that subject.  Also, users can come across your company either by Twitter’s suggested follows or by looking through someone else’s “following” list.

YouTube – The “Show Me More” Platform

Next in the social media funnel is YouTube because, like Twitter, it is fairly easy for any one user to find you or your company if their searching for the right topic.  I have YouTube below Twitter, however, because in this instance, I am focusing on getting a user to subscribe to your channel.  When you post videos to YouTube, make sure they are relevant to your brand, interesting, and helpful.  It’s a great way to start positioning yourself in your company’s industry and help others solve their problems (after all, the most searched term in YouTube is “How to”).  If a user has subscribed to your youtube channel, it probably means that 1) they’ve seen your videos, 2) thought your content was useful and relevant to them, and 3) they want to see more.

Facebook – The “Let’s Be Friends” Platform

Once our John Doe user has found you on Twitter and/or YouTube, it’s probable that they will seek your company out on Facebook and “like” your page.  The reason I have Facebook this far down the social media funnel is because there is no good way to browse or explore general topics or subjects on Facebook like there is on Twitter and YouTube; Facebook’s search box is mostly useful if you are trying to find a specific person or company. So, when someone likes your page, this means that they are most likely already aware of who you are and what you do, and they would like to continue getting glimpses into your company with photos, videos, status updates, and interesting articles.

LinkedIn – The “Let’s Do Business” Platform

LinkedIn is very similar to Facebook, but it differs in the sense that LinkedIn is definitely more formal and has more of a business-type setting.  If a user connects with your company page on LinkedIn, you can assume that if they haven’t done business with you already, they are ready and willing to do so.  This is generally why LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook and Twitter.

Company Blog – The “Keep Me Updated” Platform

Every company should have a blog, and unfortunately, most do not.  A blog is a great way to keep your customers updated, position yourself as a thought-leader in your industry, and drive traffic to your website.  When a user is a reader of your blog (or even better, a subscriber to it), chances are that they’ve done business with you and are an evangelist of your brand.  They love your product, love what you have to say, and want to stay updated on what’s new.

–Lance Brown

As a community manager, I am often posed with the age-old social media question, “How do I get more followers on Twitter?”  While there are various ways to do so, I have found that the simplest way to gain more Twitter followers is to begin “virtually introducing” yourself to others on twitter.

What is a Virtual Introduction?

In order to introduce yourself on Twitter, you need to be pro-active and follow them first

Last year I wrote the blog post How To Properly Mingle In The World’s Largest Cocktail Party Called Twitter which draws some of the parallelisms between Twitter and a very large cocktail party (if you haven’t read it, it might be worth doing so as it will probably help you understand what I’m trying to say here).  Like I explained in that post, you have to treat Twitter as a real-life social function, and if you want to network with people at a party, you cannot sit in your solitary corner and expect to make the connections that you desire.  You must take the initiative, get your hands dirty, and start introducing yourself to others. On Twitter, that virtual introduction is the follow button.

When you create your Twitter account, whether it be for business or personal use, you cannot expect that if you just create your profile (show up to the party), people will come flocking to follow you; this isn’t the Field of Dreams, you need to do more than just build it. You must go on Twitter and, like a cocktail party, start finding your friends & others that you want following you and make the “virtual introduction”, which is following them first.

Without a virtual introduction, it is easy to get lost in the millions of people on Twitter.  When you follow someone, they are notified that they have a new follower either by email, their “followers” list, or maybe a social tool like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite.  Once they see that they have a new follower, they will hopefully like what you have to say and follow you back.

Introduce Yourself to the Masses

Once you understand the concept and value of the virtual introduction, it’s time to go fishing for followers.  Firstly, identify someone on twitter that you want to imitate, or in other words, someone who has the same segment of followers that you would like to have (i.e. possibly a competitor or a strong voice/presence within your industry). Once you have identified those people, go into their “followers” list and start “virtually introducing” yourself to them.

If you do this correctly, you should have a pretty nice uptick in followers. If you haven’t (i.e. you’re an sports company and you just went and followed a bunch of people who follow Cosmopolitan Magazine), you’re doing it wrong.  From all of the times I have done this I have seen that approximately 25%-33% of the people that you follow will follow you back.  Twitter lets you only follow 1,000 people per 24 hours, so if you were to do that every day for a week, theoretically you could expect to gain 1,500 to 2,000 followers.

**Note** Make sure have a good number of tweets before you start introducing yourself to people so that they can see what type of tweets they should expect to see from you.

Keep a Good “Following to Followers” Ratio

The easiest way to spot a spammer on Twitter is to check out their "Following to Followers" ratio

No one likes to follow spammers, and the easiest way to identify one is by checking their “following to followers” ratio.  A spammer is generally following more people than they have followers, and that is because they went fishing for followers, but didn’t throw back the undesirables.

Once you have gone on your “following” binge (and on a side note, i would only follow about 1,000 people per week), wait a couple of days for those followers to trickle in.  You can keep on eye on who is following you back by watching your “followers” list, and if you end up not wanting to see what recent follower John Doe has to say, go ahead and unfollow them.  I justify this because when you made the introduction, they followed you back because they like your tweets.  When I first followed them, it didn’t necessarily mean that I wanted to see their tweets, I just wanted to make the introduction.

Once the large influx of followers has slowed down, I like to use ManageFlitter to manage my “following” to “followers” ratio.  It is a free, online tool that allows you to see who is not following you back and mass unfollow them in the matter of seconds (a whole lot quicker than clicking “unfollow” one by one on your Twitter page).

Once you have cleaned out those who didn’t follow you back, rinse and repeat.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know by either commenting or tweeting at me @WTWH_SocialGuru

Winners of second annual Strategic Video Awards set standards in exploding communication medium. 

Phoenix—Video is the hottest communication medium, and the Strategic Video Awards is the fastest-growing communication awards program. In its second year, the only awards program dedicated to strategic video communication doubled its entries.

The winners provided stellar examples of why video is increasingly becoming a top tactic for corporate communicators. Revealed today, the 16 winners and 10 honorable mention-winning videos showcase the increasingly varied and unique ways organizations can use video to communicate with stakeholders.

Strategic Video Awards include 35 categories in every area of external and internal communication and one Grand Award, which was won by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. The entries were judged by 13 communication industry experts, and some of the winning entries can be viewed on the YouTube channel. Entries ranged from Flip Cam-produced internal videos to studio-production level corporate videos, and their strategic purposes included marketing, sales, employee communication and training, public service, investor relations and recruitment. Entrants included Monsanto, Nationwide Insurance, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Peabody Energy and the American Bar Association.

“The number of entries we received proves what we already know: Organizations of all kinds are turning to video as a compelling way to communicate,” says David Murray, awards program director. “But more importantly, the quality of the entries shows that they’re doing a better job across the board.”

Click here to see the entries for yourself.

The awards program is sponsored by McMurry, one of the largest marketing communications firms in the U.S.

Our ideal candidate will have an electrical engineering degree and good writing skills. S/he should be comfortable on camera and meeting with industry contacts in person. The position requires using online tools, including posting to WordPress, recording videos and podcasts, reporting news, developing commentary on issues and generating feature stories and tutorials.

This senior editor position will ideally be based in our offices on the West Bank of the Flats in downtown Cleveland, Ohio—although we are open to a remote location for the right candidate. We are looking for someone who is motivated, and who will work as part of a team of talented writers and editors.

Roles and responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Write and edit one feature article and one department per monthly print issue
• Incorporate author/reviewer revisions
• Proactively generate content within industry vertical sites
• Post content on a variety of vertical and horizontal websites
• Engage with readers across multiple social media venues
• Help develop and star in videos/podcasts/webinars of interest to core audience
• Travel to industry shows and meetings as needed

Resumes with a writing sample and salary requirements will be considered. Full benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401(k). Please send materials to Paul J. Heney, Editorial Director, pheney@wtwhmedia.com.

You can read the FOLIO article about Lance regarding his recognition and accomplishments by following this link:

FOLIO 13 Under 30: Lance Brown, Community Manager, WTWH Media LLC, 26-years-old

A bit about Lance…

Lance Brown, the Community Manager for WTWH Media, has a BA in Marketing with a dual-minor in International Business & Portuguese from Utah State University. Brown started with WTWH Media in the fall of 2009 as an intern and eventually joined the staff as a full-time employee one year later.  As Community Manager, Brown manages all social media and most new media channels for WTWH Media’s publications as well as social media outlets for other companies in the engineering industry.  Brown has done a tremendous job at not only growing all of these channels, but also teaching his fellow co-workers social media best practices and helping them grow their presence in the social media realm.

Brown lives in Parma, Ohio, with his wife of two years.

Connect with Lance:

Email: lbrown@wtwhmedia.com

Twitter: @WTWH_SocialGuru

(If you’re not sure what a tweet chat is, you can read the blog post #Tweetchatting For Beginners and learn more)

To participate, just include #DesignWorld in your tweets on Twitter that day, from 3 p.m. through 4 p.m. Eastern time. You can comment, respond to other tweets, even ask questions. Or, to just watch the action, simply go VISIT THIS PAGE, where we’ll have a special Tweet Chat widget, showing the latest on the conversation.

You can read more on the subject on the Engineering Exchange at The Internet & Deep Thinking.

See you on Twitter.

Think that Twitter is just for spamming?  You’re wrong.

Think that Twitter is not for the average Joe? You may be surprised.

Florida Governor Rick Scott recently hosted a town hall meeting using Twitter

Florida Governor Rick Scott recently held a town hall meeting in his bedroom with over 5,000 people.  Using Twitter, Gov. Scott entertained questions from Florida residents by having them send him a twitter message @FLGovScott followed by the hashtag #Flgov.

Twitter is not just a place where someone tells the world what they’re having for dinner. It’s a venue where people can share an interesting article or picture they just found, or connect with like-minded people, all in just 140 characters or less.  People are finding a new ways to utilize Twitter for meaningful conversation in a new form of communication called a “tweetchat”.

A Twitter “tweetchat” or “tweetchatting” is a pre-arranged chat that happens on Twitter through the use of Twitter updates (called tweets) that include a predefined hashtag  (symbol: #) to link those tweets together in a virtual conversation.  Tweets using the predefined hashtag can be found using Twitter’s search bar and hence, can be seen grouped together in the form of  a conversation.

Participants use the assigned hashtag (say, #sbbuzz) for their tweets during the discussion.  Here’s a message containing a hashtag to identify the tweet as a part of the tweetchat:

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Use of the hashtag code is how other participants follow the discussion.  Here’s how one person responded to the above question, using the same hashtag:

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Formal Twitter tweetchats are generally arranged in advance and occur at a specific time.  Like Gov. Scott’s tweetchat, they may include a formal agenda with a specific leader or “speaker”; conversely they could facilitate a free-flowing discussion between all participants.

So how does tweetchatting help with one’s business?  They can help you connect with others who have similar interests and participating in tweetchats will most likely increase one’s Twitter followers.  Additionally, while hosting a tweetchat, companies can and should use this time to listen and learn.  Listen to what customers and others have to say as well as what they want, and learn from what they are telling you.

Businesses should be careful, however, about how often they use tweetchats as well as how long they run.  Don’t forget, during a tweetchat you are still tweeting, and these tweets will show up in the news feeds of all of your followers.  Most Twitter-users will agree that too many tweets from one person can get really annoying, really quick which may result in a decrease of followers.  Businesses should ‘alert’ their followers that they are going to be engaged in a tweetchat during such-and-such time and will be tweeting often during those x-number of minutes.  But, you shouldn’t have negative tone and just apologize for the number of forthcoming tweets, seize the moment and turn it into an opportunity to invite your followers to the conversation. For example, you could use something like “Going to be tweeting a lot [for the next 30 minutes, this afternoon, tomorrow, etc.]  about _____________, feel free to join in the conversation using hashtag #_____________” versus “We apologize for all the tweets that are about to come through your feed, it will only be for [time frame]”

Twitter is ushering in a new age in marketing.  Guy Kawasaki, the venture capitalist and founder of Alltop.com, is reported in the Wall Street Journal as saying Twitter is “the most powerful marketing tool that I’ve seen since probably television.”

I tend to agree.

Feel free to share your experiences using a tweetchat or questions regarding tweetchatting below; better yet, chat with me via twitter at @wtwh_lbrown

Lance Brown

Link to video landing page >>

So whether its connecting on Facebook, Twitter or engaging in print media or viewing content and video via a mobile device or on an iPad, WTWH can deliver the highest ROI and the most engaged audience for wind energy professionals.

Did I mention we do the same via Design World? Alright- enough shameless promotion, but we’re also launching Solar Power World in October if you have not heard, where we’ll continue to develop online resources, tools and content to keep engaging and developing an audience – on their terms.

With Windpower Engineering & Development and now Solar Power World launching in October we aim to surpass our accomplishments by continuing to adhere to our core principles. We want to lead not bleed with technology, highly engage with our audience and participate, reduce risk for our customers and recognize content is much more than just editorial copy.

So a big shout out to everyone for making this happen and with everyone’s support keep the momentum going!

Link here to WTWH listing on Inc website>>

Glenn J. Hansen, BPA Worldwide President, praised Windpower Engineering & Development for voluntarily opening its records to independent verification and documentation of its circulation data.

Hansen pointed out that the audit facilitates the buying and selling of advertising space.  A BPA Worldwide report provides advertisers and agencies with assurance that what they choose to invest in does, in fact, reach target audiences for specific ads.  The BPA Worldwide audit also helps media companies by documenting the quality of their audiences.

Copies of the initial BPA Worldwide audit report for Windpower Engineering & Development are available from BPA Worldwide or the publisher.

Windpower Engineering & Development will be issuing semi-annual circulation statements in the standard BPA Worldwide format.

BPA Worldwide conducts its circulation audits on an annual basis following accepted auditing procedures.  In addition to verifying exact counts of recipients.  BPA Worldwide also documents that they are qualified in the markets served by the publication.

BPA Worldwide
www.bpaww.com 

BPA Statement found here on the site>>