I’m closing in on my one-year anniversary with Radian6. When we arrive on the job here we are introduced to the blogs and books of many of the social media industries biggest influencers. Inspired by our latest ebook, Winning Over Your Influencers, I pulled the books that helped me understand the concept of social media influence and it’s place in business and society.

Trust Agents: Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

In every discipline there are a series of books that take on the role of becoming “foundational reading” and Trust Agents was certainly one of those books for me. It was the first book I read upon starting at Radian6 and it provided me with a sense of just how different social media marketing was from anything I had experienced to date. The idea of the Trust Agent – that individual who looks to share their best insights freely, be present, helpful, and human in every interaction, and genuinely wants to cultivate a human relationship with everyone they connect with to advance their brands objectives – is so essential to the social media industry. For me, it helped shift what had become an established paradigm in my mind that the Internet was largely anonymous and that true social interaction outside of your immediate social circle that had followed you to Facebook was impossible. Brogan and Smith turned that paradigm on its ear for me.

Here Comes Everybody: Clay Shirky

Shirky’s book is about the power of networks and their ability to harness and magnify individual influence into group action. Shirky borrows a term from another author – Eric Raymond – who describes the active ingredient in successful group movements as being inspired by a “plausible promise” – a goal that is “big enough to inspire interest, yet achievable enough to inspire confidence.” Shirky explores three pillars of influence – sharing with others, collaboration, and collective action – to explain the philosophical foundations of the social web and its power to influence society and the business world. Published in 2009, the lessons within Shirky’s book influence the social media marketing strategies being employed by businesses around the world today.

Tactical Transparency: Shel Holtz and John C. Havens

This book by Holtz and Havens takes many of the theoretical threads about social media and puts them into real world and business sense. By drilling into the issue of transparency, the book takes on a major obstacle for wide spread adoption of social media within the business structure: fear. Consumers have come to expect increasing levels of transparency from the businesses they interact with and Tactical Transparency addresses that issue and offers valuable insights as to how to implement transparency in the business world. Specifically, it discusses how to accumulate trust and manage the good will with brand advocates and influencers.

No Bullsh*t Social Media: Jason Falls

I was lucky enough to meet Jason Falls at his book launch in Los Angeles in November last year. No Bullsh*t Social Media is a conceptual book but one that drills down to a simple truth: People often do NOT believe advertising but they WILL believe the reviews of total strangers. This is a point the strikes at the very heart of social media influence and underscores the importance of finding out where your clients are talking about your brand and your products and identifying those that have the power to influence people positively and negatively.

This was just a small list of some of the books I’ve read this past year that have dealt with the idea of social media influence. Have your say now. What books have you read on the topic of influence that shaped how you think about the topic? If you’re interested in following me on Pinterest you can check out the other books I’m reading!

Those are just some examples of the second-guessing we all do with social media. Here are 15 things that might be ruining any chance at social media success:

1. Your Twitter avatar is an egg
2. You bio is everything but a bio
3. You blast the same message across multiple platforms
4. You don’t tweet enough, or at all
5. You use Twitter solely to sell a product or service
6. You promote yourself more than others
7. Your contributions are thin or lack innovation
8. You retweet every mention of yourself
9. You use hashtags to express an internal thought, not to categorize a conversation
10. You focus on gaining followers instead of producing quality tweets
11. You haven’t cleaned up or reorganized your following list
12. You forgot your manners
13. You tweet for yourself not for your audience
14. You are overly negative
15. Your tweets are full of #madeuphashtags and not ones from your industry

Don’t be discouraged if you took part in one of these examples. Whether you do or you don’t, here are 6 simple steps to improve your twitter game:

1. Show you’re listening. Listen first and then engage. Quite often that will result in a courtesy follow.
2. Don’t be a stranger. Complete a full bio and let people know who you are and what you’ll likely be tweeting about.
3. Don’t push your agenda or dish out opinions that some might deem offensive. Etiquette is so important on social media.
4. Play into the demands of your following by tweeting something that’s beneficial to them.
5. If you aren’t sure what to tweet, here’s a tip: people follow others who are informative, funny, useful or exciting. If you don’t fall under one of those categories, try to gradually incorporate them into your repertoire to help distinguish yourself amongst the crowd. Social influence is generated by the quality of your contributions not the quantity.
6. Look to clean up your followers list every few weeks, seek out new influential people and broaden your network. The great thing about social media is that you have the ability to personalize your network and make it yours. Step outside your regular industry and meet new people.

Did I miss any? Share any tips you know that help increase Twitter following in the comment section below!

Use this little scenario as a mental check on your social media activities. Are your tactics meant to benefit your community — or to just manipulate them for your own ends?

So read your plan again with your customer’s eyes. Imagine how Nina would feel if she found out you were …

• erasing bad product reviews
• anonymously trashing your competitors
• artificially swelling your follower counts
• ghostwriting your CEO’s blog posts
• abusing customers’ Facebook data

If you’re doing slimy things like this, smarten up now — or wake up one horrible morning to read your company’s expose on The Consumerist.

Don’t just avoid ethical pitfalls. Your social media plan should fill your fans with anticipation of all the great ways you’re going to make their life more enjoyable this year. Here are some activities you should include in your social media plan:

• passing along helpful information
• publishing useful content
• providing superb customer service
• answering product questions promptly
• maintaining a friendly, human presence
• admitting when you screw up and making it right immediately
• rewarding and honoring your best fans
• delighting your fans in surprising ways
• guiding them to the products and services they actually need

If your social media plan is bursting with ways to serve your community, people like Nina will reward you with their business, their loyalty, and their advocacy. And you’ll never have to fear being exposed.

What social media tactics would make you angry? And which ones really delight your community? Let us know in the comments.

1. Discovering B2B Influencers with Social Media

In many B2B industries, the influencers are known and few, but if you are in a large industry, the discovery process begins with search. Look for people talking about industry keywords that are relevant to your business. Find the ones who have the most followings, but make sure you review how people respond to them and how they communicate with others. Keep in mind that you should focus on the platforms that are most important to your business. Don’t ignore the industries of your prospects and customers, either.

2. Engaging with B2B Influencers

Once you have identified the influencers, start reading and sharing their social media content, from your social media accounts and those of your company. This way when you reach out to them and introduce yourself, you are very familiar with what interests them. If they are in your industry, they may or may not already be familiar with your company. Since you are in the same industry, there should be plenty of common points of discussion. After establishing an online connection, look to further it in person at industry events. Once this relationship is established, ask them if they would do a webinar for your company or agree to be interviewed for your company blog. If you can create valuable content that they will share with their network, it will drive awareness of your company that can be converted to actions.

3. Developing Internal B2B Influencers

B2B companies have always had subject matter experts (SMEs) that functioned within the company walls. They talked to customers in a variety of settings, but it is now possible to scale their knowledge with social media. Encourage your company SMEs to blog on a weekly basis about industry trends, the latest statistics and other general industry information. As they create more and more thoughtful content, others in the industry begin to notice their presence. This building of thought leadership can turn into influence when people start following their advice of what’s next and where they should focus their energies moving forward. This reflects well on your B2B company, because they are your employee, and are creating this content on your site.

4. Measuring Action and Influence on B2B Social Media

Any marketing or social media campaign needs to be measured to determine success, and a B2B influencer campaign is no different. One of the best ways to start is to put some parameters around the campaign. Consider things like time or a specific event or piece of content. Set a goal for its success, based on past experience. For example, if your webinars usually have 250 registrants, your goal can be to double that by leveraging the influencer’s network. Be careful that you hold other actions constant so you can determine if the influencer drove the additional registration. You can also track whether those people eventually turned into sales. So in this example, you can understand how an industry influencer can drive both leads and sales. Connecting those dots together shows the value of your influencer social media outreach.

5. Applying Learnings to Future B2B Influencer Activities

By tracking everything you do along the way, and understanding their effect on your goals, you know where to focus your influencer efforts in the future. It is important to benchmark each campaign against the previous one, but as stated above, take into account anything that changes (amount of other promotions, degrees of influence, etc.) from one campaign to another.

How have you approached influencer outreach using social media for your B2B company? Learn more about working with social media influencers in our latest ebook, Win Over Your Industry’s Social Media Influencers.

1. Ask your influencers questions

2. Ask them to guest blog

3. Comment on your influencers’ blog posts

4. Share their content with your social networks

5. +1 and like influencer posts

6. Link to their content in your blog posts

7. Ask to cross-post influencer content on your corporate blog

8. Make introductions

9. Ask for introductions

10. Give your influencers a shout out on your social networks

11. Invite your influencers to a Tweetup

12. Invite them to participate in a Google+ hangout or webinar

13. Ask them to provide feedback on your brand or product

14. Make changes based on your influencer feedback

15. Provide feedback on influencer content

16. Reward them with exclusive content or offers

17. Host an event to show them your appreciation

18. Give them a sneak peak of a new product or service

19. Thank them

20. Connect with your influencers on other networks

21. Ask an influencer to be your brand’s spokesperson

22. Invite them to collaborate on campaigns

23. Offer to work together to author or co-author an ebook

24. Ask your influencers to host a Twitter Chat

25. Host an event panel and invite your influencers to participate

26. Do a blog or video interview with an influencer

27. Engage with your influencers as people, not prospects

28. Ask them for advice on brand or industry topics

29. Add your influencers to a Google+ circle and share it with your community

30. Create a Pinterest board with your favorite influencer content

These are a few ways to reach out to and engage with your influencers that can easily be incorporated into your existing social media strategy. Start with one or two and go from there to find the approach that fits best with your brand and your community.

How are you currently engaging with your social media influencers? What suggestions can you add to the above list? For more tips on engaging your influencers, be sure to check out chapter 3 of our latest ebook, Win Over Your Industry’s Social Media Influencers.

Note under Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines, any relationship where payment or other compensation is received for an endorsement or testimonial must be fully disclosed. You can read more about full disclosure and what it means here.

Let’s dig into the last week starting with our previous Travel Tuesday (January 31) to February 6, 2012!

Hashtags

I’ve shared previous posts on travel conversations on Twitter, but here’s a bit of a look at the most frequently used hashtags in ‘Travel + Social Media’ according to Insights.

• The big winner: #TTOT – This hashtag, which stands for Travel Talk on Twitter, seems to be #winning with over 17k mentions over the previous week.
• Runners up: #travel and #tni.
• Lesser volume, more niche: #vacation, #traveltips, #hiking just to name a few.

What does this mean, and why should you care? Great question! While there is a huge following of the #TTOT hashtag, and there are a great number of people conversing there your potential audience may also be greater when using this hashtag for your own content. You may want to consider also zeroing and identifying the topic of your content in an effort to gain attention of the people who it will most directly affect.

Filled with #history #art #culture the #European #castles surely have it all : ow.ly/8iXmn #ttot

— culture_jammer (@culture_jammer) February 5, 2012

Most retweeted and mentioned travel talkers on Twitter

Having a look at some of the most retweeted usernames and Twitter users who got mentioned the most in relation to our ‘Travel + Social Media’ profile, I uncovered a few fun people I was not already following. Consider this your #traveltuesday list of who to follow today:

• @TravelDudes is killing it! I think Melvin must be sharing content that matters to his followers, otherwise he wouldn’t be showing up as the number one guy retweeted and shared last week.
• @malloryontravel, @toniwonitravels and @nickhealy are three people who got lots of attention last week, too and they weren’t far behind @Traveldudes!
• @zipsetandrea, @hjortur, & @zipsetrachel are a few more tweet chat hosts who sure do talk travel lots!
• Don’t forget about @lonelyplanet and @msnbc. Their travel content gets shared lots by interested travel folks.

Some of the best of the best

It could hardly be a ’roundup’ if a few links weren’t tossed around and share, now would it? Here are a few highlights from what’s been shared widely (or wildly) over the last week:

• Why Social Media ROI Is Complicated For Hotels – This little gem is brought to us by @AreMorch. I liked what Are wrote regarding his social media strategy stages for hotels. He moves us through ‘reaction’ to ‘realization’ and challenges hoteliers to now jump on board building relationships.
• Kuoni reveals their ‘Travel Trends‘ report for 2012. It just intensifies my desire to trael to Thailand as soon as possible.
• Congratulations are in order for Quirky Travel Guy as he celebrated his one year travelblogiversary 
• And to end a round up with another one of sorts, Betsy A. Decillis thinks you should get to know these tourism peeps.

So there you have it. Whether you’re looking for relevant conversations,  someone new to follow in travel, or a bit of recent news, this is it. Of course, I’ve left a lot of cool stuff out. That’s where YOU the community come into play.

Please, tell us who you think we should pay attention to. Share with us your favorite recent link. Or even pimp yourself out as an awesome travel voice. See the comments section below? Now….. Go!

Jenn Seeley tweets, talks and blogs about Travel, Entertainment and Leisure. Follow her on Twitterand check out her most recent posts here.

I spoke this morning at the Social Commerce Summit in New York City, hosted by Business Insider. Here are the seven steps I shared.

1. Establish your goals in advance. If you don’t know what you want to do, you’re much more likely to fail. (As in life.)

2. Tie them to your existing business goals (leads, conversions, web traffic, customer satisfaction, sentiment, awareness, employee satisfaction, recruiting). It’s much easier to sell the C-suite on the idea of driving sales leads than getting more Facebook likes.

3. Understand that every department will have a different definition of ROI. A successful social media PR campaign will look different than a social media customer service initiative.

4. Decide in advance how you will measure success. What are the metrics that spell success for you?

5. Focus on campaigns. If someone asked you to define the ROI of your marketing activities as a whole, for instance, that would be a huge undertaking. It’s the same with social media. Break them down into manageable chunks: “We want to use Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to get more attendees to our next event.”

6. Make them trackable through your web analytics. You can create a unique landing page to drive your traffic; for instance, a landing page to register for the event. Create a unique URL for each social channel, and your web analytics will tell you how people came there.

7. Understand that, in the end, ROI is a formula and you need all the data to truly calculate it:

Gain – Cost / Cost

How much did the activity gain for you? If its a simple dollar amount like a sale, it’s not too hard. If it’s a new employee, what’s your average cost to recruit an employee through traditional means? And how much did you spend, including the cost of your time?

Any steps I’ve left out? Comment here or tweet us and include #socialcommerce.

	100 Uses of Social Media Monitoring Starting out in the world of monitoring social media can be challenging, so with these 100 uses, you now have a big list of options. Broken into ten categories, the list makes it easy to find your areas of interest. We also created a presentation out of it. And since this is not an exhaustive list, another 100 uses list may not be too far away. Read this post
	30 Ideas for your 2012 Social Media Plan As a synopsis to the corresponding ebook, this post highlights the 30 ideas in a easy-to-grasp list. It’s a checklist to scope out your current and upcoming social media plans. Plus it’s organized into sections to help you find the ideas that fit your needs. Read the post
	The Future of Analytics – Not Everyone is  Numbers Person There are many people who find it difficult to synthesize measurement. And that’s ok. If you’re one of those people, this post might inspire you as the future generation of statisticians and analysts. Or you may just prefer a bedtime story to a pie chart. Read the post
	Training your Company for Social Media This post introduces the ebook, Training Your Company for Social Media, and both guide you through a training outline that will help you prepare your employees, whatever the number, for social media. This includes why training is so important, the steps to take, a training course framework and ongoing education. Read this post
	20 Ways Social Media is Like Your Crazy Ex Both social media and your crazy ex had you enamored at first, and then you realized how much time and effort it was going to take to keep things going. Like any relationship, the ones you have cultivated through social networks and new media require nurturing in order to be successful and stand the test of time. This post pokes fun but reminds you that social business is no joke. Read this post
	The Future of Analytics This post introduces the ebook, The Future of Analytics, whichs dig into where measurement stands when it comes to social media. What is the future of social media analytics? Why is it so important, and how can you start making it an important part of your business objectives? This post answers these questions and more. Read this post
	Dare to Be Different: 3 Ways that Social Media Can Set Your Business Apart Gleaning strong insights about your competitors can help you make smarter and more nimble business decisions, especially thanks to the fast moving nature of social media. But success isn’t always about going head to head with louder marketing. Social media provides companies the opportunity to take a few considered, practical steps toward standing out amongst the pack and providing value for the customers and prospects they serve. Read this post
	Social Media University Dell ensures that each and every employee is a fully functioning and engaged member of their social media strategy. They created an innovative and company wide social media certification program. This post is an interview with Amy Fowler-Tennison, Dell’s SMaC University Program Lead. It includes some great tips on empowering your employees in social media, and why it’s so vital to your organization. Read this post
	Top Ten Enterprise Social Media Etiquette Fails A crowdsourced post, we share examples of the most egregious violations of social media etiquette perpetrated by companies. From not following back to being pushy, this post shares what not to do in an effort to give you some helpful tips about engaging in social media. Read this post
	10 Simple Ways Social Media and Traditional Media Work Together This blog covers a lot of social media content, but traditional media is just as important. After all, those Times Square Billboards aren’t going away anytime soon. This post discusses the different ways to blend the online and offline space. Read this post

We spanned the social media landscape from listening to analytics to crazy ex’s. What posts are helpful to you? What new posts would you like to see?

Here’s a few ways to find those who could influence for your brand and determine whether they hold that influence on the social side.

Top Consumers
Talk to your sales side and gain an understanding of who’s pushing the dollar figures for your product and industry. Engaging with key stakeholders within these organizations may be the right route to gain both influencers and advocates.

Industry Analysts
Though you may not wish to openly engage with industry analysts in the social space, understanding who’s listening to their social channels may give you a pool of people that are interested in understanding your industry more.

Industry Experts
Industry experts are people who have tons of experience in your industry. They might be the people your company has been trying to hire for a top-level position or whom your organization sees as thought leaders. They are likely strong, knowledgeable voices.

Industry Publications
Checking out journals, newspapers or magazines posting intelligent information about your industry can give you a list of authors and interviewers who understand your space and could be writing in a social sense as well.

Once you’ve complied your list of people influencing your business, hop on social media and see if their presence carries over. Connect with these people now. As your industry matures socially, you can gain from the benefits.

What other ways can you find influential people? How does your company currently connect with leaders in your industry?

Looking to learn more about finding influencers? Check out chapter 1 of this month’s ebook!

We dug through the over 6.6 Million social posts and pulled together an overview analysis. Have a look at the report below and let us know what you thought of the social results.

What made this Super Bowl especially social? Here are a few things we noticed.

Defined Hashtag Promoted Before the Game
Keeping it simple with #superbowl makes it easier for fans to engage.

Live Web Streaming
Live web streaming made it possible for anyone with an internet connection to see the game in real time. Plus it had add ons like the ability to select your own camera angles and use replay action.

Shazaam Campaign
Integrating their mobile brand in to most of the ad campaigns, Shazaam created an interactive experience and contest for viewers throughout the game.

Were you using social media for conversing during the Super Bowl? What made you join the conversation?