Just recently I was hoping to pitch for a small project consulting a company on their social media and online experiences as I had had dealings with them in the past on other initiatives. I was surprised to find that they were ahead of the game and had just hired an online community manager.

To my second surprise the skillsets of that individual seem to be lacking on the social media and community management side of things, but extremely well versed in the content matter of the community they are to manage. That lead me to wonder, who makes the better online community manager – the person experienced in building communities and leveraging social media, or the person who knows the community’s main point of topic inside out?

I believe that even with all the knowledge in the world, a content expert has little to no hope of making the most of social media if they are not inclined to find out more about how to use the tools at their disposal. I’ve seen it happen, where the knowledge expert creates the Twitter profile and starts up a Facebook Fan Page, but then what? And were those really the best avenues for them to use? The creativity, targeted solutions and ability to analyze and tweak campaigns is where the experience designer or social media expert comes into play.

On the other hand, I have seen content experts who have applied themselves and really engaged with their fan base, created awesome campaigns to grow their community and created added value experiences. But, be forewarned, its not everyone that can do this. Like any other part of your business, consider getting in expert help to create your strategy and help you implement it. You wouldn’t drudge along as your company accountant it if you knew you didn’t have the skills, it would negatively affect your business and take away from all the other good things that you can do in your business, would you? Same applies here. As long as the person responsible for your Social Media plan is committed to understanding and taking part in your company culture – this has the makings of a win-win relationship. You get to focus on the aspects of the business you are good at, and an expert gets to drive you business forward in an area they are good at.

Either way, as long as the experience is transparent and the audience knows who they are dealing with their can be wins if done correctly. Interested to hear your opinion – do you believe that a consultant can be your brand’s social media expert, or do you feel it is more logical to give a content expert the job even though they may not know how to use the tools?

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In order to create a successful online community, you have to give people what they want, and what they DON’T want is a hard sell. For this post, when I talk about an online community, I am referring to Blog followers/regular readers, Facebook fans, Twitter followers and set community groups such as those built on platforms like Ning.

People join a community to be part of something, not to be just another number in line, a code in a database or a bum on a seat. I have spent several years building up communities for our own online games and for other brands. The common thread in successful communities is the experience that is built into the community. An online community that is successful for both the business at the helm of it and the fans that are part of it, is a community that is engaging and offers above and beyond what the fans expect.

Here are a few examples of how you can create an experience that will make your fans even bigger fans, create new fans, and keep you top of mind in the marketplace.

• invite client feedback about products: make sure you have a community manager that can respond swiftly to negative comments. Even the most negative comment if dealt with correctly can put you in good stead with your fans.
• Don’t enforce too many rules on your community: Be ready to govern, but let nature take its course as well as you will no doubt have a few standout fans that will make the place even more interesting
• Make your fans part of your company culture, show them what you live: share photos from after work drinks, share special events dear to your staff i.e birth of the VPs first child (of course you’ll want to keep photos respectful, only those that invoke good vibes and won’t slander the company)
• Host online (and offline is a good idea too) events that compliment your business: webinars, twitter parties, anything that lets your community connect to each other

Remember, its about creating an experience that reminds your fans as to why they love you and enticing those on the outside into wanting to be on the inside to something great. What are you doing to make your online community a great experience?

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First Kanye West stormed the MTV VMA awards while Female Video artist of the year Taylor Swift was accepting her award. He thought it was his place to announce that Beyonce had in fact the best video of the year. Whaaaat?
If you haven’t yet seen the record breaking video, you can see it below. The outbusrt spawned parodies, Facebook quizzes, mashups and a flood of not so nice comments to Mr West on the interwebs.

The second occasion happened during a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game when a big time Phillies fan caught a foul ball and gave it right away to his 3 year old daughter to have a squizz…she proceeded to throw it back onto the field. Devastating for Dad, but he still managed to give the little girl a big hug. Can you say warm fuzzy?

This is where MTV and Major League Baseball (MLB) differed with how they dealt with these equally appealing moments caught on Video.

MTV who face it, could have received a lot of backlash for their inability to control Kanye on stage created a video with embed code to be shared around the web. The video has now broken MTV.com records, according to Mashable.com 2.7 million unique visitors hit MTV.com on Sunday – it’s highest VMA performance ever

5.5 million unique visitors hit MTV.com on Monday – the second best day in the site’s history

There were a total of 17.9 million video streams watched on the site Monday, the second highest stream total in the site’s history.

Meanwhile MLB decided to copyright any incidents on YouTube of the amazing catch and warm fuzzy hug moment. Instead opting for viewers to catch the clip only on their official website – stunting the possibility of the video going viral and leaving their fans to wonder why they just won’t get with the program – businesses need to get with social media. There is a level of protecting your brand that needs to be enforced to get your message out, then there is just not getting with the program. Your marketing needs a social media mix.

Ironic how a negative moment became a good thing for one company (MTV), while a funny and touching moment became a negative for another company (MLB).

How can you capture the market through your brand’s presence on the web – negative or positive?

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Well folks I’m taking this show on the road. Here’s the backstory….

A couple of months ago we were asked to go on a delegation to meet with some companies in Canada’s technology triangle. For many reasons not to be discussed here, we decided not to go. In the meantime though I started to pine for Canada, eh, my old stomping grounds. So we got back in touch with business contacts that we have in Waterloo, Toronto and Ottawa and decided that the trip was still worth making on our own steam. A few clicks through Expedia and bob’s your uncle – we are headed to North America for mixture of business, catching up with family and friends and, well…of course the sun!

How can I help you?

I will be blogging from both here and at girlstoys depending on what hat I am wearing along the way. Expect updates on the awesome possum people I meet up with along the way. A few twitter friends are already locked in for a meetup, a few are still left to be organised. Apart from planned meetings with biz contacts, I’m also looking to make connections with people I’ve met online in forums and other networks.

I’m willing to meet with people on others behalf, if its going to be at all interesting I’ll most likely squeeze it into the trip (within reason and if you let me know sooner rather than later).

How can you help me?

Have a look at my about page to get a better idea of who I am or the portfolio for info on what projects I’m up to. Then take a look at my Tripit plan – its a bit light at the mo’, but will fill up! If you know someone along the route that I could benefit from meeting, let me know. Here’s a few ideas of the kinds of people I’d like to meet.

• Fun types
• Twitter addicts
• Mother entrepeneurs
• Gaming addicts, developers or investors
• Social media enthusiasts
• Good people

Business as usual, but just thought I’d let you know. More info to follow as details unfold

Welcome to another installment in a regular Monday Series of posts called Buzz Tips. I will be answering questions mainly on Social Media, Twitter, and Wordpress blogging from the Girlstoys subscribers.  To those of you that know me around the twitterverse and on various forums, I answer alot of questions about the internet, internet marketing and Twitter among other social media and marketing topics so I figured, why not turn it into something regular.

To have your question answered all you have to do is join up to the newsletter by entering your email address and name in the form on the right sidebar – easy. Then send your question to ghada [at] girlstoys [dot] co [dot] nz

Todays’ question is:

Their are a handful of blogs that I try to read regularly, but I’m not sure the best way to do this. I know that RSS feeds can let me keep up to date with changes to a blog, but how do I use them and how do I read the feeds?

Google Reader is a great way to track all your RSS feeds in one place. All you have to do is locate the RSS button on the blog, normally they are in a pretty easy to find place in the header or the sidebar (Mine is under the “Stay in Touch” section of the sidebar – generally they are orange colored icons with a broadcast type symbol). Click on the RSS button and you will be taken to a page that will ask you if you want to subscribe to the feed. Choose “google” from the options. As long as you are logged into your google account, the feed will show up on your google reader page and will update automatically as the blog’s feed is updated. You can also choose to add RSS feeds manually by typing in the blog address after clicking on the “add a subscription” button on your Google Reader page.

The google reader interface is user friendly. If you already have a google account, and use gmail its all pretty similar. Just visit the Google reader page as often as you wish to check your RSS feeds in one place.

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Send your question to ghada [at] girlstoys [dot] co [dot] nz

Todays’ question is:

I have joined up to Twitter and am really starting to enjoy the interaction with people all around the world. Problem is, I have started following so many people and have such an information overload that I’m not sure how to keep track of everything! What is your best suggestion for managing my Twitter account?

I have been asked this question time and time again and I always answer with 2 simple words DOWNLOAD SEESMIC! To me this is the ultimate Twitter management tool. Not only is it easy on my Macbook’s memory, but the team at Seesmic are continually improving the app keeping Twitter enjoyable for anyone with just a handful of followers to a few thousand.

The latest addition to Seesmic is the integration of Facebook. What this means is that you can add Facebook status updates direct from Seesmic. All you have to do is setup your Facebook account details at the same time that you setup your Twitter details. You can check status updates for Twitter and Facebook all in one place – neat, eh? But it gets better, you can also update to Facebook from Seesmic, and I don’t mean sending ALL your Twitter updates to Seesmic – cause let’s face it, that’s annoying. What you want to do is send only a selection of your Twitter updates to FAcebook, and with Selective Twitter Status* you can do just that. It is an app that will install directly to your Facebook account – all you have to do is enter your Twitter username and whammo bammo its done! Then, whenever you make a Twitter update that you want to appear in Facebook as well, you tag it with #fb at the end. See what I mean, easy and helpful!

Other great features of Seesmic include:

• Saved searches: Use the search bar in the top right hand corner to search for terms of interest (great for both business and personal use) so that you have an ongoing stream of tweets in one column whenever someone mentions the search term. This can be a great way to monitor your brand (save a search with your company name) or a topic of interest (if you have a love for all things Mac, like me! Save the search term “mac” or “apple” or “iPhone” and engage with people who show up in the stream created from this search).
• Integrated picture and link sharing (soon will also have video support)
• Ability to create userlists stacked in colums alongside tweets from all the people you follow and all your @replies. People in the same time zone, friends and family, business contacts, whatever you want. The userlist columns can be docked, so save a few and open them up when needed. Creating userlists is the best way to minimize the information overload and keep track of who is talking directly with you.

Seesmic is very easy to setup. But if you are at a lost or get stuck, you can always follow these very helpful videos from John Haydon. He has 3 separate videos to take you through the setup and how to get more out of Seesmic’s various features. I’ve embedded the first video below to take you through the setup. To view the others, just go to John’s Viddler account.

BTW, I am not a paid employee of Seesmic’s. When I like something, I like talking about it. Simple.
Hope you have learnt something from this first installment and don’t forget to keep sending your questions in. If you thought this was helpful, why not tweet about it

* Props go to @andreawong_nz for the heads up on Selective Twitter Status

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