Something about the Social Technographics profiles really resonated, so I created a quiz to help you discover your true Groundswell Social Technographics Profile.

How involved are you in the groundswell? Are you at the top of the social technographics food chain? Discover your social media savvy and find out whether you are a key influencer in just a few minutes! Take the quiz and wear your badge on your blog, a forum, or your MySpace or Facebook profile. It’s fun and also educational. Here’s mine:

According to Charlene [Check out socialTNT's video interview with Charlene Li from last fall] and Josh, different demographic groups participate in the conversation–or “groundswell” as they call it–through different means. Before launching a social media campaign, you want to make sure that your target audience interacts and engages through the technologies you’ve chosen for your outreach. If you can get the creators and critics talking, then the largest Social Technographic group, the spectators, will be exposed to your brand.

You can read more about this theory and others on the Groundswell blog, or pre-order the book on Amazon. Josh and Charlene have explained the hierarchy of influence of each Social Technographic group by illustrating it as a ladder, below. They’ve also included this very handy tool to determine your target groups’ Social Technographic profiles.

What do you think about the Social Technographics theory? Let us know in the comments. And take the quiz!

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For those of you not familiar with our regular Thursday feature, “3Q’s in 3 Min” follows in the spirit of citizen journalism by putting bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. In addition to helping PR peeps pitch these individuals more effectively, the videos are meant to encourage dialog between reporters, communications practitioners and marketers on the future of media.

Our first clip features Forrester Research Senior Analyst Charlene Li. Charlene researches social media/web 2.0 technology and relates its uses to the marketing professional. In this clip, Charlene explains that by interacting with a brand–on even the most minute level–the consumer starts to build a relationship with the brand. See the full post and 3 minute interview here.

At last month’s Web 2.0 Summit, socialTNT was lucky enough to meet with Business Week Media Columnist Jon Fine. In his column, Jon focuses on the convergence of media and advertising. Check out the clip below to hear Jon’s opinion about social media and PR. For the full post and 3 minute interview with Jon, click here.

Our final clip for the day features Silicon Valley Watcher’s Tom Foremski. Tom has played a crucial part in PR’s evolution by declaring “Die Press Release! Die! Die! Die!” Below, Tom shares his ideas on the future of PR and stresses the importance of change. To see the full post and 3 minute interview with Tom, click here.

That was just a sampling of a few of the great interviews we’ve had on socialTNT’s “3sday’s 3Q’s in 3 Min.” To see all of the interviews to date, please check out this page. We’ve got some great interviews lined up, so stick around.

Once again, thank you Charlene, Jon, Tom and all of our guests for sharing your insight.

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TGIT! You know what that means: it’s time for our regular Thursday feature, “3Q’s in 3 Min.” In the spirit of citizen journalism, SocialTNT puts bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. In addition to helping PR peeps pitch these individuals more effectively, the videos are meant to encourage dialog between reporters and communications practitioners on the future of media .

This week, SocialTNT caught up with Principal Analyst Charlene Li from Forrester Research. Charlene researches social media/web 2.0 technology and relates its uses to the marketing professional. In today’s “3Q’s in 3 Min,” Charlene talks about entering the conversation, letting go of control and the idea of “attention economy.”

More about Charlene and the video, after the jump…

As one of the analysts that “get it,” Charlene is a social media rockstar. If your client has anything to do with Web 2.0, you best book a briefing with her ASAP. Not only will she offer valuable insight to your client, she is one of the most quoted analysts at Forrester.

She also happens to give amazing presentations, like this one from this week’s Graphing Social Patterns conference. It was hard to follow such an amazing presentation, so I was a little nervous when it came time for the interview. On the way to find a suitable filming location, I felt like Charlene’s bodyguard; she was swarmed with fans and groupies intent on asking a question or two. Even though she was pressed for time, she remained personable, answering all their questions.

Some insight garnered from eavesdropping:

• user adaptation of social networking comes in waves–currently, “older” demographics are joining as their colleagues, organizations or reunion groups utilize social media
• there is a lack of Facebook applications intended for enterprise
• Salesforce has the membership to become a truly professional social network, and should not be overlooked

Facts about Charlene

• She is on Facebook and LinkedIn
• She is a member of the Twitterati
• Elements of her “Groundswell” blog will be adapted into a book on social technologies to be released in May
• She started out in media as a “citizen publisher” in 1996 with community newspapers before the technology was truly ready for it

As the next session was about to start, Charlene was finally clear of groupies. We headed out into the (HOT) San Jose sun to do a quick interview. Although coming from a marketing perspective, Charlene’s answers can provide some valuable lessons for setting up a social media campaign.

Take a look:

I know. I know. I broke format again with FOUR questions, but HEY, it’s not that often you get to have uninterrupted face time with an analyst. I could have chatted with her all day.

I’m really diggin this idea of “attention economy” that Charlene touches on. As PR–read “Public Relations” not “Press Relations”–it’s often important to remind our clients that slowly seeding discussion is often about raising awareness of the product, service or company. Any thoughts?

It’s also interesting that interest itself should be considered a form of low-level tagging. As some of you know, I’m nuts about tagging. To me, its easy utilization with Facebook photos gets mad props. As tagging becomes easier and is presented as valuable to the consumer, it will become an amazing resource in charting the “social graph.”

So, any thoughts on Charlene’s interview? Please feel free to discuss anything she touched on in the comments below.

Thanks so much for your interview, Charlene!

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Today, we continue reminding our PR, advertising and marketing friends how to have a conversation. I would like to build on the last two posts by listing what I consider the keys to launching a successful social media campaign.

Yesterday at the Graphing Social Patterns conference, Charlene Li at Forrester outlined her best practices to approaching a Facebook campaign. (If you weren’t able to make it, check out the slide show from her presentation.) Surprise! She stressed “Facebook marketing is about communicating, not advertising.” I couldn’t agree more. (Charlene will be my interviewee this week for Thursday’s “3 Q’s in 3 Min” segment.)

To me, as the web evolves, our online world becomes closer to mirroring the way we interact and communicate in the real world by making our online experience easier to manage and use. You wouldn’t go into a private party and start shouting at random people; that would get you beat up and thrown out. Likewise you shouldn’t approach a social media campaign in traditional one-sided manner. The key to planning your social media campaign all revolve around this concept. Hopefully these 6 tips can help you out.

1. It’s a Conversation, Stupid!

The number one thing to remember is that it’s a conversation. (I can’t stress this enough. I mean, it’s the title of the series. You see it on every post. Hopefully it’s getting drilled into your head!).

The nature of the medium creates a very private space. Yes, there is a lot of sharing. Yes, the pages may be open to anyone on the internet. But these are members not users and they are involved in a community. To them, it maybe like a bar, private party, support group or private journal. In all cases, you wouldn’t go in and start shouting your message.

2. Listening: The most important part of conversing

Imagine stumbling upon a heated discussion in a park. A lot of people are gathered around watching while a few people talk. Ideas are being exchanged–some agree, some disagree. Before you can say anything, you have to listen.

Look at this quote from Wikihow’s article on“How to Have a Great Conversation“

Listen. This is the most important part of any conversation. You might think a conversation is all about talking, but it will not go anywhere if the listener is too busy thinking of something to say next. Pay attention to what is being said. When you listen attentively to the other person, injecting a thought or two, they will often not realize that it was they who did most of the talking, and you get the credit for being a good conversationalist – which of course, you are!

While listening, you can learn a lot. What are they talking about? How do they use the media to communicate? What are they interested in? Maybe they’ve already started talking about your client. If so, what are they saying?

This isn’t market research and analytics. This is preparing to engage in a conversation.

3. Add to the conversation, thoughtfully

After you’ve gotten a feel for the conversation, then you can respond. Remember: It’s not a shouting match. You can’t come out swinging and you can’t just repeat messaging. Nobody likes the guy that’s always talking about himself. You have to offer some insight back to the community.

In Todd Defren’s hypothetical anti-depressant pharmaceutical campaign, he suggests the marketer not tweet commercials, but instead post things that “could change a sufferer’s life.” This is crucial. It helps make your brand or client a resource engaged in the community, not just another advertisement. You meet them in their venue, on their terms. They’ll respect that and gain loyalty.

4. “Why I oughta…”

Nobody likes the guy at the party that won’t budge and acknowledge he may be wrong, neither do consumers. If you come across some negative comments, you can’t ignore them and pretend nothing is wrong. You have to thoughtfully (and timely) engage with them. Look at this tip from conversationtalk.com on how to handle “unpleasant conversations”:

To have a good conversation you need to be flexible and
be ready to handle difficulties that crop up. The art of having
good conversation does not mean everything goes smoothly
at all times.

If you can remain calm and fairly pleasant during the tough
talks you will improve and acquire good conversation skills. You
will also earn a reputation as someone who can easily be talked
to.

Do you remember Jeff Jarvis’ “Dell Hell”? He had some problems with Dell and voiced them on his (high-trafficked) blog. Dell ignored the conversation as more bloggers continued dishing negative reviews of Dell’s products. When they finally did launch a blog, Dell blogged as if everything was ok. Finally, after it had gotten pretty out-of-hand, Dell’s blogger responded as a human to other humans, and it made a splash. It was a move that said: “Hey, maybe we’ve been out of touch, but now we are ready to listen.”

Consumers like to be taken seriously. If you think the negative comments will just disappear, think again. Remember the last post: Consumers can now share ideas at an alarmingly viral rate and people can search more effectively. When they google your client’s name and see a thoughtful response (whether on a company’s blog, response to someone else’s post or response in a user group) alongside the negative comments, it can significantly diffuse negative PR while also building loyatly.

5. It’s not all about you

Dale Carnegie, author of “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” said “It’s much easier to become interested in others than it is to convince them to be interested in you.”

If you open up to them, they will open up to you. Give them insight into the company, product, behind-the-scenes, etc. Make the content easily available and let consumers share this content. Let them use your logo, your mascot, your videos.

Don’t be afraid to let go of a little control. If your brand message changes in the process, maybe you were wrong about your audience. Nobody likes having a conversation with someone who controls the conversation. It’s boring and participants become easily disinterested. If you let your consumers participate, it builds trust.

6. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”

Transparency! Yes, everyone at the party is a private detective. Any one of them can pull off your mask and then no one at the party will want to talk to you.

Take note of Walmart’s flogs or Whole Foods and the “Rahodeb” incident? It all comes out, so don’t even think about not disclosing your affiliations!!

What do you think?

That may have been a lot to take in. I’d like to know what you think. Agree? Disagree?

In the next post, we’ll take a look at the tools that are currently available.

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