Social Media Top 5: Humanize Your Infographics with Analytics

Yeah, nobody’s reading this fresh because everybody’s at SXSW Interactive, right? Except those that aren’t.

“Humanize” – Rush to Publish Causes Confusion

The fact that publishing tools are plentiful and easy to use does not excuse mistakes made in the rush to publish- though it does cause them. On the other hand, the self-correcting nature of social media is another, more positive side effect- if people are willing to communicate. An example of this came this week when social media monitoring /analytics company Radian 6 published the eBook “Building Stronger Customer Relationships: How to Humanize Your Company with Social Media.”

The problem? A book with similar themes was published only a few months back. “Humanize,” by Maddie Grant (a friend) and Jamie Notter, is a good read, a worthy book, by the way- recommended.

Was there a trademark issue? I actually don’t know for sure. But with the book being current, confusion between the two publications was a real possibility. rather than public passive-aggressive putdowns (though some folks, including myself, did make references on Twitter), mutual acquaintances alerted Radian 6 to the issue, and within minutes (seemingly, it was probably an hour or two)- the title of the ebook was changed to “Building Stronger Customer Relationships: Making Your Brand More Personal with Social Media.” Crisis averted- or at least minimized- by simply talking to folks.

Humanize, indeed.

Is the Marketing World (Too) Facebook Centric?

Just a simple question that came to mind after being invited to a Facebook discussion group on social marketing. An overwhelming amount of the threads were about Facebook. There are several reasons this could be true:

• It is a Facebook group, so natural to discuss Facebook there (that could be true)
• Facebook IS dominant , silly, so that’s what we need to be talking about (I’m not so sure, but can agree to an extent)
• The group is filled with Facebook experts (true), who seem to be among the more active members
• We are being shortsighted by isolating ourselves to the current hottest platform

Community Manager vs Community Analyst?

Chuck Hemann (another friend) wrote an interesting article in the Spredfast blog: “Ditch the Community Manager, Hire the Community Analyst.” First off, after reading the article, I’ll add “Ditch the Headline Writer” too, as that is misleading. Chuck is not saying the Community Manager function should go away, but that the need for people who know data and analytics is more urgent than ever in social media marketing. As someone who crunches numbers and analyzes trends for clients, I would say the same thing. Whether or not that person is also the community manager is something to be answered by availability of people and the resources to hire them, but the pendulum of need, I agree, swings in that direction. I would caution against letting it swing too far, to the point that we don’t have community managers- or quality content producers- to fill that end of the social media process. Chuck is an analytics guy so take that into account, but I agree with the need.

An Infographic to Like – For Once 

I often complain about bad infographics in this blog, but with good reason. The idea that infographics should be pleasing to consume and convey actual information has been lost. I often tout the Boston Bruins’ Foxwoods bar tab as an example of a good infographic, but thanks to friends (thank you Amy Vernon) I have found a new one. It conveys info without making me scroll, there’s not too much into it so I can grasp it in one look, but yet it is still useful. An excellent example. I wish more people would do it this way, instead of the tiresome, unreadable graphics we are being subjected to.

Rain at SXSW

My word (phrase, rather) of the week is “Schadenfreudian slip,” as when I accidentally make references to the apocalyptic rain storms greeting SXSW Interactive arrivals this weekend. Someone should be able to get some good publicity handing out ponchos. Wonder if that happened?