Kaleidico.com blogs

Social Media Monitoring for Fantasy Baseball

Nick Martini — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:43:10 +0000

This is the time of year when the sporting world is at it's best. First we have the NBA and NHL seasons winding down with playoffs around the corner, then we have March Madness which just has the whole country going crazy, and last our past time of watching our favorite MLB team is starting up! How could you not get excited right now?

Almost all of us would like to take the next month off and let's be serious once you start filling out those brackets and March Madness starts your production is going way down! That's not even counting the time you fantasy freaks like myself are spending managing your teams in the playoff runs and drafting for baseball. This year I'm putting my lifeline of winning my fantasy baseball to the RSS feed and my social media monitoring tool! In the fantasy sports world most drop out after football because of the long dreaded season of making roster changes, checking injuries, pitching statuses, and the everyday switches in the batting lineup.

My plan is simply to cut out the research time! Easier said then done, Right? By setting up my social media monitoring tool with keyword filters, folders to keep me organized, a river of RSS feeds I'll have stored up from ESPN to team blogs. That's what I would call a competitive advantage! The days of me looking at my bench player who had 2 home runs and 5 rbi's could be over or greatly improved. Yes, I'm going to have to come out the "dugout" of tweeting and my google reader once in awhile to make some switches but my strategy of staying on top of all the fantasy buzz and staying efficient in the long season will have my competition trying to catch me...Now I just need some draft luck!

Child's Play

Doug Van De Motter — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:27:07 +0000

A short while ago, Kaleidico launched an 'Entrepreneur of the Month' contest to spark our imaginations, and win some cold hard cash (OK, so it will be a check – you get the picture).

I began to strategize on the quickest way to spike web traffic – create a false controversy around a polarizing topic (Beck and Limbaugh have that sewn up), make a widget appealing to some base instinct (lots of farting and pooping apps out there do well), glom on to some hot social media meme (SMROI, SM Sales, SM yadda, yadda – yawn), or spit out a widget based on Twitter or Facebook (geez, seems all the good ideas are taken). So in the end I brought out the big guns – my kids.

What my girls came up with made me realize that chasing the web stats and the money were not really the point. The idea was to whip up some passion and creativity, learn something along the way, and most of all have fun. So my girls and I came up with 'Where the Threatened Things Are', a little app that locates endangered species on Google Maps and links to some details about them. It's still in it's infancy and has some know issues, but I think it's kind of cool. Hopefully you will too - or at least your kids will. Please Enjoy!

Wedding Crashers Guide to Social Media Marketing

Nick Martini — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:55:28 +0000

"It's Wedding Season!" Yes, its the kind of excitement and passion you need in your social media marketing. The kind that has Vince Vaughan screaming in his office in the classic movie Wedding Crashers. It may be juvenile, but it's his passion and he's dedicated to being the best. Building and clever, but most importantly winning strategy.

That's the kind of attitude you need to pull off BIG results in the Social Mediasphere! The kind of attitude, Social Media Rockstar Gary Vee demonstrated every minute of his very public days. If you haven't seen him attack social media to build his empire you need to read his book Crush It! or to really see his energy pop and feel inspired get it on Vook.

Whether its feeling compelled to pull off the ultimate crash or improving Social Media strategy it all comes down to having a winning formula.

The Wedding Crashers lived by strict rules that gave them proven advantages in pulling off the ultimate wedding crash. Developing these proven rules can give you the same advantage with your social media strategies and pulling off the ultimate campaigns. It's all social, so the rules aren't so different.

Rule #71 - Research, research, research the wedding party. And when you are done researching, research some more: The power of social media is the vast endless stream of information on any topic you could imagine. The best part about the growth of the web is that becoming knowledgeable on your passion is Free! Take advantage of the valuable content provided by the influencers and companies who have been through the ups and downs and came out on top with strong results. Build your google reader up full of RSS feeds from them and blogs relevant to your brand. Don't forget your Competitors! Use Twitter search, google search, Technorati search or any of the free search tools to gain insight on what you are trying to build.

Rule #80 - Stop, look, listen. At weddings. In life: This rule could be a pitch for Social Media Monitoring. Taking breaks from twitter and blogging once in awhile can prove to be the most valuable action you can live by. Looking for opportunities throughout the social network can feel overwhelming, and for that reason this industry is buzzing lately. Real-Time feeds are changing the opportunities companies have to capture sales or in the worst case can have your brand fighting for its reputation back. Listening to the chatter is crucial to staying on top of your competitors, saving your name from disaster, and potentially bringing in business. Using fee tools like keyword tracking on platforms like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite work great for twitter but can't on the bigger scale of the web. Paid tools will cover more space and keep you efficient. I find myself using keyword tracking on the free platforms to engage and Eavesdropper a competitive intelligence tool that scans all social networks to pick up any opportunities that can make a sale or save a negative situation from getting out of control.

Rule #29 - Always be a team player. Everyone needs a little help now and again. Part of Social Media is having as many communication channels on as possible. Sticking one person to cover your web presence is just not going to cut it and can lead to disaster, Ask Cisco. Small or big their is no reason why everyone on your trusted team should be on social networks. Building a successful Social Media campaign is a team game. You cant bring in business if no on can see or hear you. "Think EYEBALLS," as Gary Vee would say.

Rule #7 - Blend in by standing out: I think this crashers rule is something Seth Godin author of Purple Cow would stand by. If the ultimate goal of Social Media is to build brand awareness how can you possibly do that by looking like everyone else? It's not enough to go push out the same old. Be bold when tweeting and bring value. No one wants to follow someone who is tweeting the same old everyday with no passion and not engaging with their followers. If you are using decks like Hootsuite or tweetdeck keep a tab open for mentions and get excited about it!

Rule #67 - Mix it up a little. You can't always be the man with the haunted past: If your simply just out to tweet your message away, endless updates most likely no one cares about, or simply just out to self promote you have lost. Chris Brogan's twitter strategy is about engaging as much as possible. He recommends at least 10 @'s for every one tweet! Gary Vee crashes his Fans whenever he enjoys a comment on his Facebook page or just to say a simple thanks for the support. These kind of actions take seconds and shows your followers, fans , and customers they are important. Disqus is a great tool to help manage and track all your commenting. If you have multiple identities on Twitter, blogs , and Facebook you can control all those under one account, keeping you efficient!

Rule #74 - In case of emergency, refer to the rulebook: Some refer to Mashable as the Social Media bible. If you find you need to adjust strategy, pick up some new web tips, or gain insight on topics you lack knowledge, this is the spot. With some of the top writers on the social web you can always learn what is working and with Google and Facebook constantly changing it's nice to be informed of the new.

Rule #76 - No excuses. Play like a champion.

The Web 2.0 world is giving us countless possibilities to build buzz around our companies, brands, and message. The difference between crashing Social Media with success or getting caught is beating out the self indulged people, having substance that you can build buzz around, be funny, bring value, and most importantly be REAL!

Bob Dylan Twitter Pulse Monitor

Greg Cieslik — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:24:12 +0000

Since there have been "No More Jobs at Kaleidico" I've been tossing around a few ideas. Today I present to you a simple, customizable, embedable Twitter Widget: The 'Bob Dylan' Pulse Monitor (URLs open in new window - feel free to click:)

Social Media Software © Kaleidico

This widget is monitoring twitter for the term "Bob Dylan" (of whom I'm a big fan - if you are too be sure to check out The Never Ending Pool and Expecting Rain!) It's taking a look at the past 24 hours and is paying strict attention to drowning out irrelevent "twitter noise" - that is, comments about Bob Dylan that are "one offs" and can be found using a simple Twitter Search. Rather, this widget looks for the most referenced URLs on Twitter within a 24-hour time frame.

Reusable, Customizable

Even if you're not a Bob Dylan fan, the great thing about this widget is how easy it can be made to monitor any term you want. For example, there's a twitter movement for Cleveland folks known as happyinCLE. If I were blogging about Cleveland regularly, I would embed this widget and change the search term to 'happyinCLE.' Again, because the widget is drowing out the noise your results will be what most users are talking about (ie, RT a URL about an article.)

All you need is one line of code pasted onto your website:

<div style="background-color:#f7f7f7; border-top:1px solid #6AB6DD; margin:0; padding:2px 10px; font:9px Arial, sans-serif; width:300px; height:600px;">
<iframe src='http://revision.icosales.com/TodaysTwitterTrend/twitterMentionCount.php?term="happyinCLE"' width=100% height=100% frameborder=0 scrolling=auto></iframe>
<a style="text-decoration:none; color:#333;" href="http://www.kaleidico.com/">Social Media Software © Kaleidico</a></div>

You can use this iFrame anywhere, anysize you want. You can also easily adjust the search term just by changing the "term" variable at the end of the URL: creating a very easy and flexible widget for all of your webspaces. (My PHP script handles all character encoding.) This widget auto-updates every 5 minutes, scanning for any new references and reprioritizing items.

Future Iterations

This is just my first interation and there are a few things I'd like to change: mostly focusing on improved performance and layout. Ideally, I'd like to create a simple page allowing users to "skin" the widget and auto-generate the code to copy/past onto their website. I'm open to style suggestions - I'm not much of a graphics guy, heh.

However, I am pleased with this iteration because of the quality of the data. Looking only at the past 24 hours and picking out and prioritizing only the most referenced URLs on Twitter for your search term, I think this widget can show some pretty cool and ultimately more relevent information than a simple twitter search.

For example, you may notice at the time of this blog post my term is pulling in a good number of Japanese links: this is because Bob Dylan is currently in Japan on tour. So, rather than pulling in the latest mention of "Bob Dylan," the widget is prioritizing the Japanese links because those are being referenced most. Personally, I think it's interesting to see what his Japanese fans are sharing about him on Twitter before/after they attend his (amazing) concerts.

What do you think?

So - tell me what you think! Am I on an interesting path? Is this something you might add to a sidebar in your blog - or maybe this is something you'd like to see as a Google Gadget? What features would you want to get you using it today? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Finding Opportunities in Social Networks

keith burwell — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:05:10 +0000

Hello World!

Several weeks ago I wrote a post entitled “Destinations are the Problem in Social Media”. The idea being that there are thousands of platforms and sounding boards for people and businesses to shout from, but connectivity is still lagging behind. Individuals use these tools to indicate status, location, mood, level of satisfaction,and also likes and dislikes. Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and other social networks, at their base, are platforms to tell the world about “me”. The goal is to connect viscerally with our network of friends and family and to use technology to get closer.

Hello Potential Customers!

The more enterprising of us use these platforms to tell the world about “my business”. We create networks of connected and –er- almost connected, people from around the world and tell our network about our business venture, our blog, our information, or our products and services. The end game is to sell our wares. It is guerilla advertising/marketing. It is shouting in a megaphone and getting people to hear you and ultimately finding value in your offering.

Hello Steady Customer!

Larger businesses have learned quickly that “we MUST have a Facebook page and a Twitter account”. The idea here, for those savvy businesses that use it correctly, (correct at this point in the learning curve), are building a tribe mentality. How can Coke maintain a larger (and by default more loyal) tribe, thereby, customer base, than Pepsi? In order to maintain and enlarge this group, a company will do things to engage the tribe- coupons, giveaways, conversations, discussions, games, etc. The prevailing mindset in this case being “If we pull customers in, we can engage them, continue to advertise to them, and maintain their loyalty.”

Hello Problems!

The next stage on the curve are a handful of companies that have trained their customer service departments to work within these networks to fix problems. Whether it is reputation management, or truly a new conduit through which disaffected customers can contact the company, these businesses seem to be the avant garde of the social scene. They are thought of as innovators, as early adopters, and “grasping the power” of new media. But they are still only dealing with their “Tribe”.

Social media, taken to its least common denominator in all of these cases, is about saying “I’m here.” Whether that is a high school freshman writing a blog diary, a Gen X-er catching up with high school friends, a small business attempting to gain market share, or a Fortune 500 corporation maintaining its tribe on Facebook. They are all saying “I’m here.”

I’m Here vs. I Need

I believe the real power of social networks is to say “I need.” And then businesses having the capability to hear and to answer the need. We have effectively created these megaphone platforms for people to communicate but the listening part of social networks is a potential sea change. People expect their voice to be heard on Twitter when they talk about their day or their life. The change will come when people expect to be heard when they say “I need…”.

I Need Pizza

Let me go through a few examples. In this new reality, if I posted, tweeted, or blogged on a Tuesday night that I wanted pizza, the 20 or so pizza places around me should be vying for my business by sending me offers, coupons, or contacting me directly. Same with tires. Or a new car. Or insurance. or any number of products and services. If I raise my hand in some way, business should recognize they have an opportunity at selling. And they should have the listening tools to hear me say it and to contact me.

This is a much more efficient method than sending out direct mail and getting a 2% pull through rate, or cold calling and burning 5 hours of the work day. Isn’t this really the end goal of these methods anyway? Connecting a viable customer to my product or service? So isn’t it more efficient and cost effective for a company to have a social media monitor that triggers these opportunities than to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on direct mail campaigns?

Director of Social Media Opportunities

Creating a more seamless connection between consumer and business decreases cost, increases sales, increases profits, and creates relationships. In order to make this change, consumers have to rethink their position on social networks from “I’m here” to “I need”. And businesses have to begin listening for opportunities. I will coin the title of the next hottest job- Director of Social Media Opportunities. This role has the responsibility of finding the opportunities for sales on various social platforms and feeding them into the marketing department for distribution to the sales team.

Eavesdropper

Kaleidico is already making this person’s job easier in every company and country. With Eavesdropper, we are finding and tagging these opportunities for new sales. Check out a demo site here. Eavesdropper has the ability to pick out the topics you are interested in and point your business in the direction of opportunities on a daily basis. The question now becomes- how do we get people to realize the power they possess and moving them from an “I’m here” mentality to an “I need” reality?

I Used To Live Here!

keith burwell — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:54:20 +0000

I have a theory. If you lived in a house other than the one where you currently reside, you have thought about what it looks like now. You have wondered who is using your old bedroom. Did they ever find the Hot Wheel car you dropped down the furnace register? Is your name still carved underneath the basement stairs? Have they replaced the green shag carpet in the living room? You get the idea.

In a hyper connected world, we can find old friends, ancient (literally) relatives, up to the minute dinner plans of every person we know (or don’t), videos of their laughing baby, and the list goes on. But to get a glimpse inside the home we grew up in, our only option is to go there in person, knock on the door, explain you aren’t a serial killer, and ask to search the house as if you were Inspector Clousseau.

The last 100 years have seen so much change in every facet of life, we who are living it become immune. The houses we all lived in have probably changed their interior design 5 times since we were in them. Where are the records of these changes? Mostly sitting in picture albums, the backdrop to the “Christmas 1979”, or grandpa’s 85th birthday, or any other gatherings that show the horrid wood paneling that took days to tear down. We are so connected in so many ways, yet the architectural and historical records of 119 million homes in the U.S. alone, are bifurcated into individual memories. As they say, each home tells a story, but to whom? And where is it told?

Admittedly, we kiss the fence on some current technologies. Google Street View gives us an opportunity to view external images but it doesn’t allow for sharing, connecting, or going inside. You can’t very well knock on the virtual door in Street View. Sure, we can share photos on Flickr, but it’s more likely that they would be shared with our own circle of family and friends. Ancestry.com gives us a way to connect our family trees with people we don’t know, but it still doesn’t bind us together around the living space.

My Kaleidico Project proposal is a new website called “I Used to Live There!” Here is a mock-up.

This website would enable members to find their former (or current) homes, and upload relevant photos to the address record. It would also enable people to comment, connect, and explore. Imagine connecting with someone and finding out interesting bits about your home- “We built that wall because…” or “Did you find a cigar box in the attic with photos of…?”.

From a practical perspective, it creates another avenue of connectivity, it builds a shared historical record, it can even trigger relationships and/or memories.

Doesn’t it make sense to share and connect around one of the most integral American institutions we have- the house itself?

What say you? Would you visit such a site? Would you use it?

Have You Protected Your Social Media Namespace?

Bill Rice — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:48:50 +0000

I’m sure you have secured the relevant domain name for your company. In fact, considering the competitive state of the domain market, you probably named your company based on domain availability.

Now the gut wrenching question: Are you thinking about other critical namespaces?

The popularity and search indexing of social media namespaces could once again put your brands, products, and executives’ reputations at risk. If you have not considered social media namespaces in your strategic plan—stop and complete this checklist:

1. List critical brands and keywords identifiable with your company

Company name
Subsidiaries or affiliates
Unique property or locations
Executive officers and notable managers
Products, services, and brands

2. Acquire namespaces with significant market presence

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Flickr
Others that might make sense
- Delicious
- Slideshare.net

Why? Here’s the simple social media namespace business case:

Facebook is the number two destination on the Internet and the top referrer of Internet traffic. Twitter is the top syndication and distribution service on the Internet—highly trusted by consumers. YouTube is the number two search engine, behind Google and ahead of Yahoo! and Bing. Flickr seems to be emerging as the low-cost photo-journalist of online news—even the traditional media outlets. Oh, and it’s free (until you are trying to battle a name-squatter).

Best Advice on Name Squatting—Be there first!

Name-squatter resources:

There are No More Jobs at Kaleidico

Bill Rice — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:45:11 +0000

That’s right. We are getting rid of all the jobs at Kaleidico.

(Dramatic pause)

Now that we have given all our competitors a little time to do a goofy little victory dance—let me explain.

I have long been a fan of Seth Godin’s thinking, but as I read and reviewed Linchpin I knew I needed to go beyond being a fan and inject this thinking into my company, Kaleidico.

I have constantly preached it, forwarded his posts internally, given away his book to my employees, but this post—Everyone’s model of work is a job—got me up out of my chair to do something radical.

This is what I did. This morning I announced a contest to rout out the “jobs” and people that love their “job” at Kaleidico. We’re calling it the Entrepreneur of the Month contest and trying to closely simulate/emulate that ethos.

Here are the details:

Invent and “ship” a product (it can, but doesn't have to, relate to any existing Kaleidico product or service)
Create it and launch it to a unique Kaleidico.com URL (labs or blog)
Promotion is all on you. However, you can use any Kaleidico branded site (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) or friends and family.
Projects must be published to Kaleidico.com URL by 3/12
Web traffic, as measured by Google Analytics, will be the measurement to determine the "Entrepreneur of the Month"
The period of Web traffic measurement will be between 3/12-3/26
The winner will get a significant bonus in March
Like a "real" entrepreneur you have to get your "day job" done (maybe a little more efficiently) so you can make time to create your new idea and reach "escape velocity."

Stay tuned and support your favorites as they get launched and ask for your attention.

6 Truths About Social Media Monitoring

Bill Rice — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:28:55 +0000

Image by jypsygen via Flickr

Lately, social media monitoring software has been the darling. Everyone thinks they need to be monitoring their buzz, measuring their sentiment, analyzing every little tweet, post, and comment. But are we, in the social media monitoring business, missing the point?

Here’s what I’m coming to believe is the truth about social media monitoring, and the syndromes we are trying to avoid in the development of Eavesdropper.

1. Most Quickly Stop Paying Attention – The last thing most people need is one more bit of ~~software~~ distraction open on their computer—much less one that needs constant attention. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what many social media monitoring solutions deliver.

Flowing another river of information, simply adding more overload to your already crowded attention. The result is obvious—ignore.

2. Most Features are Novelties – Truth be told most features in these social media solutions are simply clever or interesting (like watching reality TV). Mention volume, share of voice, sentiment analysis, top influencers, and the like are buzz topics in social media, but what do they help you do?

Listen? Sure, but there are lots of free ways to listen.
Focus on the right things? Here, I’m more doubtful and this is probably your objective in finding social media monitoring software. There is going to be a lot of innovation in this area.
Report results and impact? In most (paid) software tools this is the first feature in and probably the least useful. The obvious reason is when you are buying something you have to prove it is adding value. Don’t believe me…look at all the free tools—many are useful, but few have (management) reports!

3. Most Confuse with a RSS Feed Reader – This is the biggest misconception on social monitoring tools: “It’s just another RSS reader.” If yours is, ditch it. If that’s the way you are using it change your behavior. The biggest different you should be spending more time monitoring discovery than tracking the known.

4. Most are Unsure What to Measure – It’s a problem. Probably even a distraction. For most of our clients (competitive intelligence and crisis management), it’s movement, personnel shifts, defined trigger events, and activity flares. This is probably one that you just have to sit down and noodle out. It will be different for each client and you don’t want your software defining or forcing this one for you.

5. The Rest Measure the Wrong Things – See Truth #4. This is always the inevitable peril of analytics. I have always found the best way to avoid this is to evaluate your outcomes. Are you yielding the results you want? Are you moving in the right direction? If not, I can guarantee you either aren’t measuring or you’re measuring the wrong things.

6. Few Use it for Actions or Decisions – I think this is the number one cause of Truth #1. Watching social media without engaging is a little crazy, but I think most social monitoring tools neglect this. Of course, when they do clients use the tools and say things like, “It seems like something is missing here…”

Are you evaluating or using social media monitoring software? What are some of the truths or frustrations you are running into? Where and for what do you find these tools the most useful?

###

If you want to learn more about using Kaleidico’s Eavesdropper in your social media strategy contact us at 866.667.5253 or send us an email at eavesdropper@kaleidico.com.

For regular updates on social media strategy and monitoring sign-up for our RSS feed, email alerts, or follow us on Twitter.

Do You Prefer Buffet or Sit-down?

Doug Van De Motter — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:15:02 +0000

In the real time web world, currently there are two main choices for feed consumers – RSSCloud and Pubsubhubbub (PuSH). You can liken RSSCloud to a buffet for feeds and PuSH to a sit-down dinner. The hubs processing the feeds are the waiters taking your order – “Do you prefer buffet or sit-down?”

At the RSSCloud buffet, the waiter will take your feed subscription order, and when the cook (the feed publisher) has an update ready the waiter will be notified. The waiter in turn will send you a simple ping alerting you of the update so you can go to the cook's buffet table and grab it. The waiter will also send a notice to all the other subscribers who will rush to the buffet table to get their updates, possibly crowding you out and making you wait. It's also possible that the publisher may not anticipate the demand for the update and the table is overwhelmed with impatient buffet patrons who overturn the table.

If you prefer the PuSH sit-down dinner, the waiter will take your feed subscription order, just like at the buffet, but when the cook's update is ready the complete order is delivered directly to you by the waiter using a fat ping, and you're ready to consume as you like.

Being basically lazy and preferring our pings with a lot of fat, we opted for the PuSH sit-down protocol which we integrated into our Eavesdropper product using Zend_Feed_Pubsubhubbub and Superfeedr. The Zend_Feed_Pubsuhubbub component is new to Zend Framework 1.10 and makes integrating the PuSH protocol into an app very easy. We chose the Superfeedr hub for it's standardization into Atom of any feed to which we want to subscribe, and because they handle the complexity of the alphabet soup of feed standards so we can just relax and enjoy our meal.

Eavesdropper is our real-time monitoring tool that can be used for reputation management, competitive intelligence, lead generation and crisis management, or many other uses depending on your needs. With the addition of PuSH, you can monitor any feed of interest – for example, you may come across a blog post through Eavesdropper where users are actively discussing your product or service, and if the comments are feed-enabled you can subscribe to them directly within Eavesdropper to follow the discussion as it happens.

So, as a hungry feed consumer, do you prefer buffet or sit-down?

Kaleidico.com blogs

Social Media Monitoring for Fantasy Baseball

Child's Play

Wedding Crashers Guide to Social Media Marketing

Bob Dylan Twitter Pulse Monitor

Reusable, Customizable

Future Iterations

What do you think?

Finding Opportunities in Social Networks

I Used To Live Here!

Have You Protected Your Social Media Namespace?

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There are No More Jobs at Kaleidico

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6 Truths About Social Media Monitoring

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Do You Prefer Buffet or Sit-down?