It's not stalking, it's research!

I spent more than the usual amount of time online today stalking other people. Of course, in my case it's called research.

I have had 3 meetings in the last few days which might result in new strategy clients. So, step one for me is to have a look at what my potential client has been doing, who they are following and engaging with, who is talking to or about them. Then I step back and try to decide who they want to be talking with.

Right now, it's a lot of data analysis and a lot of numbers. I like that part. I like to dive in and really figure out what is going on. The best part of that, is finding the places where something can be changed.

My Tool Belt - HootSuite

Who doesn't love the owl?

Many people know that Twitter is my favourite social network. I've been active on Twitter since 2008 and made many friends and business connections there. Not only that, I've been able to speak directly to authors, actors, musicians, chefs, and film makers I respect.

But I don't use Twitter. I use HootSuite.

HootSuite is a tool called a social dashboard. It is an in-browser tool when on a computer, and an app when on a mobile device.

With HootSuite I am able to post to Twitter, my personal Facebook profile, my business Facebook page, my Google+ profile, LinkedIn, as well as all the other Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and Google+ pages I manage for my clients.

I never need to log out of my own account and log back in as someone else. If I see something on my personal Twitter feed that I think I'd like to RT from a different Twitter account I simply click a button and select the account.

Until recently I only used the official Twitter page for two reasons - for advanced search and for lists. But now HootSuite supports those as well!

In fact, using the geocode feature in HootSuite when I'm trying to filter search terms in tweets works way better than entering a city in the location section of Twitter's advanced search.

Lately I've been experimenting with the HootSuite auto-scheduler. In the past I would either choose random times, or take a look at my Facebook Insights and see when more people were online. HootSuite has now integrated a scheduler that it claims automatically posts things at optimal times. I know how much data HootSuite gives me with it's analytics package, so it might very well know better times than I do.

Speaking of the analytics package I love that feature! I use the HootSuite link shortener to share all of my links so I can see how often they are clicked. It always amazes me to see which one gets the most visitors, but helps me know what my friends and fans are interested in.

I'm also really impressed with the ability to create teams in HootSuite and assign responses to people. In larger companies or organizations there might be a few people working together on an account. They might even be from different parts of the company, like marketing or technical support or customer service. If a tweet or facebook message comes in that can't be answered by whoever is online right then they can send it a team member and ask them to answer it.

And lastly, I love how many other social networks HootSuite has apps for so that I can do almost everything in my dashboard. I can check my Instagram feed, I can watch YouTube videos from all of the people I follow, I can scroll through Reddit and Tumblr. I can have one tab open and do almost everything on the internet!

If you haven't played with HootSuite yet, if you only check Twitter on the official page, or god forbid still use TweetDeck, you should open an account and have a look at how easy it is to use.

One more reason I love HootSuite - look at all the fun Owly characters they have! Here are a few of my favourites.

What I'm listening to - Mitch Joel

My love of Mitch Joel and his podcast Six Pixels of Separation can't be stressed enough. Not a single episode goes by that I don't become smarter.

I was in heaven getting to meet Mitch and hear him speak at Tweetstock last spring.

Mitch is a very data driven marketer. Sure, he works in digital, which people (and even some other digital marketers) claim can not be measured, but Mitch disagrees.

I was going to talk about Mitch Joel and his podcast because it was his interview with Gary Vaynerchuk that actually made me want to read Gary's new book. I just wrote about Gary's book yesterday and thought it would make sense to share the reason I chose to read it. And while I stand by the fact that of all the media interviews GaryVee was doing for his new book, this one with Mitch Joel is the only one that actually made me want to read the book.

However, I think I'd rather go back and re-listen to a couple of older episodes. In the spring Mitch did two episodes, one right after the other, that dealt with data and making marketing and business decisions based on data. It's a couple of fascinating conversations because they delve into data vs humanity, what is the correct decision for the bottom line and what is the correct decision for the interest of your brand in a human world.

You might need to be bit more on the nerd side of things to really appreciate it. You might have to be one of those kids who was fascinated by Data from Star Trek and spent hours thinking about the singularity.

But if you aren't that type of person, you might simply find it interesting to know that there are some people who believe there are ethics to the science of collecting and using your personal data. It might make you challenge your ideas of privacy versus personalization.

In case you are wondering, I am 100% for personalization with my own data and digital experiences. But I understand that many people are not.

Is online media part of marketing?

I just finished reading Social Media is Bullshit by B.J. Mendelson. Despite the controversial title, and a Part One that probably made him no friends in the marketing industry, his message isn't that different than mine is. Numbers mean nothing. You might have thousands of followers on twitter, thousands of Facebook fans, hundreds of contacts through LinkedIn, you might even have high website visits, but none of that means anything if you aren't getting business from it.

Sometimes I notice themes happening in the podcasts I listen to, the books I read and the seminars I attend. And lately the theme I've been noticing is people putting the basic practices of marketing into using online media. And that makes me really happy.

Just last week I was at Tweetstock 8. This last event brought together big name authors like C.C Chapman, Dave Delaney, John Morgan and, the one I squeed over, Mitch Joel. Not only that, the director of social media from Chevrolet was there as well.

What I heard over and over at Tweetstock is that using online tools is part of business. It needs to be approached with business principles, with expectations, goals and measurable results.

Results. Return on Investment. Metrics. These are words people didn't want to use concerning social media for a really long time. Mostly because people looked for a direct line from tweet to sale which is not the way it works. It's not the  way any other lead is measured!

In every sales job it is expected that a certain number of calls needs to be made to get one lead, and that a certain number of leads needs to be made to get one sale, and a certain number of sales needs to be made to get one referral. A lot of businesses have this system down, they know their numbers. But when it comes to posting something online they expect a phone call, or an online order, or a customer walking through the door the next second. And if they don't see that they say it's something that can't be measured.

And that's not true. They just haven't applied the same thought to understanding how many followers they need to get a lead, or how many video views they need to get a phone call.

These aren't easy things to figure out. They take lots of attention to detail. Yuck! Nobody wants to do that! And that's why we had years of people saying you couldn't measure using online media. And why a book like "Social Media is Bullshit" is written.

In the last part, when Mendelson takes some time to teach people how to use online media in a more responsible way, he shares a story of a cross-country trip he took as a fundraiser and how despite hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter he received almost no donations from them and no visits at pit stops. And he got frustrated since he was told lots of followers equalled success. But that is just not true.

The idea that lots of followers equals success is the reason the snake oil salesmen are out there selling us tools to increase our numbers. And it's also the reason that lots of followers does not equal success! It's a snake eating it's own tail. The more we rely on vanity metrics like the number of followers the more we try to increase that instead of increasing the engagement with the ones who really do like us.

"Increasing engagement" is one of those over used terms that means nothing in the online media world anymore. To put it into business terms think about when growing your business. Sure you can bring in more customers, but you know that is going to cost lots of money in advertising to get in front of more people so the growth will be minimal. Instead it's easier to increase the sales to your current customer.

Think of your current fans and followers on social media, on your website or blog, in your email list, as your current customer and work on increasing sales to them. All of your "engagement" online is making your product and your business indispensable to your current customers. What do they want? Give them that.

Here's a hint: They don't want an ad from you.