This week we share top news and a short write-up on SFAMA‘s event with Charlene Li that took place at ING Direct Cafe in SF.
News that caught our eye this week:
- 5 Essential Spreadsheets for Social Media Analytics (Mashable). These spreadsheets are great. Specially if you are keeping tags on a number of pages. Bookmark! HINT: You must make a copy of the file to use it.
- Obama Shows Further Mastery of Social by Tweeting Spotify Campaign Playlist (Venture Beat) This made get a spofity account. Georgy Cohen mentioned in a webinar how a Tufts University Alumni had put together a playlist for incoming freshmen. Perhaps we should put one together for the Spring Study Tour?
- How visible are UK universities in social media terms? (LSE via @FHS-esociety)
And the top headline this week:
- HSG Embraces Social Media. We are so proud of HSG for such professional and successful launch. Can’t wait to see HSG make strides in social media!
In addition, we attended the SFAMA event with Charlene Li on the Future of Social Networks. Throughout this program, we have referenced Charlene’s work and thoughts related to the importance of social media for organizations. If you have not yet read her books Groundswell and Open Leadership, make sure to put them on your reading list.
Charlene first delved into the past to take stock of the speed of the developments that have taken place in the social media sphere. Some milestones to remember:
- January 2007: The iPhone debuted
- May 2007: Facebook opened its platform to outside developers
- January 2010, Android phones appear in the market
- April 2010: the Ipad is released
Now to the Future of Social Networks. Three main points:
- Social media wil be like air: It’s everywhere and hard to avoid. It will permeate all of our activities.
- People want to be known: Consumers will expect a better consumer experience when they shop. After all information from social media accounts provide merchants with the interests and likes. One interesting factoid caught my attention: check-ins constitute 40% of social media conversations for big retailers such as Safeway (grocery store)
- Connected employees will create a culture of sharing: Employees speak about your brand/organization so empower then via training but also provide them with social media guidelines.
- It’s time to get serious about social media: All of the above points to the importance of having a coherent plan, a triage, and response plan for social media. A quick show of hands at the event, still showed that very of us present have all of these in place.
I have been lucky to hear Charlene present three times so a lot of what she mentioned resonated with me and reminded me of the recommendations she made in her previous publications. After listening to her, my main conclusion is that there are some fundamentals that we all need to tackle: plan, plan, and prioritize!
NOTE: Of course, I wanted to find what’s HOT so I asked her about Pinterest and what makes it so special. “It shows a very emotional side of people that other networks can’t really show.” The real question is how can brands and organizations leverage it. I have seen some great examples (Oberlin College) that have inspired me to create an account for swissnex San Francisco. Check us out. on: http://pinterest.com/swissnexsf/.
Find below Charlene’s deck for more details: