This is the equivalent of 2 people dominating the conversation at a dinner party – it’s mindnumbing for the rest of us.

If you find yourself engaging in a good conversation with just one other person, use the private message function. From there, you can exchange information to send emails or messages through an IM client.

Always know your audience, folks. Always know your audience!

Check the post about companies and their conversations here.

But it’s not what you think. This isn’t a post about how some companies aren’t transparent and how that’s a bad thing. Instead, this is a post about how the idea that any lack of transparency is automatic proof that someone or some organization has something bad to hide.

As an introvert, I know that I have a limit before I feel overexposed or even just physically tired from putting myself out there. So, in order for me to be personally successful in this field, I need to limit how much I divulge or give. And many times, those limits and boundaries seem to be tighter than others who are successful in the social media space.

But those limits don’t mean I have something to hide. Yet, when transparency is valued too highly, it can be perceived as such.

Another way individuals and organizations are hurt by the over-valuing of transparency is when they value such qualities as privacy and being discreet. It used to be that being discreet was something to be lauded.

But then we have a company like Enron, so the jump-to-conclusions mat gets pulled back out. We generalize the problems that go on with a few to be characteristic of all.

Now, transparency is valued above all. This is creating an expectation and actualization of certain folks letting it all hang out. But there’s a reason most of us don’t live in nudist colonies.

I suspect that this pendulum will keep swinging in the direction of excessive transparency. And just like Enron on the opposite side of the spectrum, something will happen. Excessiveness always overplays its hand.

I hope for the day when the momentum rests gently within a middle range.

Using IM or SMS you can track a word and it will send you any “Tweets” (Twitter messages) that Twitter users submit to the Twittersphere.

Let’s pretend you work in-house at a company that sells golfing products. You could set up a Twitter page for my company. Then you could set up to “track golf” on my Google Talk. Anytime I see that someone is talking about golf, you could find that user on “Twitter” and start following them.

Here are 10 Tweets that mentioned “golf” last week.

• (jrnoded): plan for afternoon: Lowes run for new screen, get golf balls, eat mexican food.
• (hollster): I think I’m going thru golf withdrawal…
• (imadridcv): LO 470.000 EUR -Luxury apartment on the golf course and with partial sea views(Mallorca)*foto: A near.. http://tinyurl.com/29x9ar
• (chalko): Lunch with Maria at the golf course.
• (zedomax): New blog post: What every golf widow needs http://tinyurl.com/yqo4oa
• (flowerdust): watching nongolfers try to play golf, and losing their golf balls in her back yard. suckas.
• (cnafrontpage): Golf: Ochoa, Creamer set the pace for LPGA final-round qualifiers: WEST PALM BEACH, Florida – World .. http://tinyurl.com/2gugpc
• (cmail_breaking): Duck cull sparks golf club ire: THE greens at a Sydney golf club have been vandalised over the cul.. http://tinyurl.com/2ba9s9
• (gfwchina): Golf Magazines for Women: Some of the departments that this magazine offers include: equipment, instruct.. http://tinyurl.com/259tf9
• (MrBusinessGolf): @RexDixon I’m sure there are business men and women out playing business golf right now who are making a deal for more than a $1million.

Now, not every one of those is a good prospect. Golf widows probably don’t want to hear from you. But MrBusinessGolf sounds promising. You check his profile. He’s a business golf mentor. This is definitely one to follow.

Anytime you “follow” (which is like becoming a friend on other social networks like MySpace, Facebook, or Digg), it sends a notification to that user. So, MrBusinessGolf might check out your profile because you’re now following him. If he’s interested, he’ll follow you back (for which you’ll receive a notification).

At this point, you can start having conversations with MrBusinessGolf. Start casual. Make acquaintances. Don’t just say “Check out our sale on customized recycled golf balls!” Instead, build a relationship.

But you can establish an expectation with your followers (no, Twitter is not a cult) that you will send out periodic news and specials. Use TinyURL to do this. If you mix this in with general news or pointing to golfing blogs outside your company, you’ll become a resource for people, establishing a valuable reason for golf-lovers to be following you.

You might want to put up a few Tweets before you start following people, so they can see your pattern in order to make the decision on whether to follow you back.

By the way, when you want to send or respond to one particular user, use the @ sign followed by their user name. This is because everyone who’s following you can see your messages. It’s not one-on-one IM. So, if I write something and you want to respond to me, you would write @wrtrgrl – you are the coolest girl in the world. And then I would think how smart you must be to make such a poignant observation.

Clear as mud? Good. It’s easier than it sounds. just get started. If you want to Twitter with me, follow me at Twitter.com/wrtrgrl. Feel free to pick my brain, network, offer me large sums of money, etc.

Have any Twitter tips? Leave a comment and strut your stuff!

[tags]twitter, social media, conversation marketing[/tags]

The fourth and final point of Writing in a Digital Age is response.

• Response

Writing used to flow in one direction. I wrote, you read. Sometimes, if you were incredibly motivated, you might respond: a letter to the editor, or a letter directly to the author. But the initial writing and the response weren’t linked together.

In a digital age, they are.

This is my favorite part about the digital age. It’s very empowering to consumers. And, initially, it can strike fear into the hearts of companies. But when companies embrace response, they can learn to build solid relationships with consumers. They can turn consumers into customers, customers into repeat buyers, and repeat buyers into brand evangelists. It’s all about relationships, which start with conversations. It’s give and take instead of a straight sales pull. Consumers love it and brands benefit from it (when they do it properly).

Response to the response – We’ve all been in forums and threads where the original topic is long gone. It’s now just these disembodied voices shouting at each other. If you’re the author of the original piece, how do you get control back? Are you even allowed to? Who owns the discussion?

Good forums have moderators, but I’d like to see conversation marketers to be experts in facilitation. Facilitators are able to help a group maintain focus while providing everyone (who wants it) with the opportunity to express themselves.

Companies need to establish ground rules for comments on their blogs and forums and then have dedicated facilitators to monitor the conversations. This isn’t unlike a “style guide” that is used for more traditional communications.

In order to become an authority, you have to participate. You have to offer your thoughtful opinion when appropriate, and you have to invite others’ responses. Remember: an expert is someone who knows something. An authority is someone with the reputation to back it up. You get that reputation from your peers. That’s why your professors publish articles in journals with peer-review.

The only caveat I would throw in is that you have to prioritize how important your peer’s opinion is. There is very little that is black and white. Even doctors will admit that medicine is part art and part science. As a thyroid cancer patient, I know many endocrinologists, surgeons, and nuclear medicine specialists who are authorities by August’s definition who also disagree with each other.

Still, participate in the community for which you are an authority. And remember that disagreements are not reason to flame another authority.

Your comments. Remember–they have your name on them, and once you’ve made them, you can’t take them
back. So make sure you’re going to be willing to stand by them a year from now. Or twenty years from now.

If you’ve been trying to maintain separate professional and personal identities on the web, I encourage you to begin the integration process. Anything you put on the internet has the potential to be seen by employers, partners, co-workers, family members and friends. Playing hooky is not fun when you get caught.

The last word goes to John August himself who summed up these new writing challenges in a most-insightful manner:

No matter what career you end up choosing, or what career is chosen for you by fate, you will be a writer for the rest of your life. As the digital age accelerates, I’m convinced that writing is going to get more important each year. It’s not a noun anymore. It’s not the term papers and the memos and the screenplays. Writing is a verb. It’s an action. It’s a crucial way in which we process the world around us.

A couple called to cancel their satellite service, and was informed they would be charged $300 for the loss of the dish. I’m guessing the company thinks they can cash in on the insurance money these victims will be receiving.

Nevermind that these families have to rebuild their homes and their lives. AT&T is only concerned about their business. They’re harming their relationships with consumers. They just don’t get it.

The third point in John August’s speech was Permanence. But what he really spoke to was the lack thereof.

If I’m sending you to read a story online, I can’t be certain you’ll read the same thing I read.

August recounted a story about how an article on Variety’s website was changed throughout the day. Earlier in the day, there was no quote from him. Later in the day, there was.

This isn’t just a concern for journalism. Imagine if corporate annual reports could be revised that transparently. That’s dangerous. Illegal. And inevitable.

I respectfully disagree with Mr. August here.

I think the digital age enhances the opportunity for accuracy. Print media takes too long to make corrections. From a reader noticing an error to the next time a publication is printed to corrections being buried within the content, print is far more subject to the concerns that Mr. August seems to be expressing.

Having corporate annual reports be transparent is a good thing. It empowers greater accountability. If there’s an error, it can be corrected for all to see. Though, I would encourage companies to let the corrections and old information be evident to the public.

The idea of transience is one of the most difficult concepts about the digital age for people to embrace. But the reality is that the permanence of traditional media as it relates to accuracy has been, at times, a myth.

[tags]writing, new media, conversation marketing[/tags]

“Please respond, Pasquale, but we owe him nothing as far as I’m concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He’s never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny.”

Ouch!

So, how does Spirit Airlines recover? It’s time for them to enter Social Media Rehab, and here are the 12 steps they need to follow:

1. Admit you have a problem
2. Apologize for being an a$$
3. Make up for the inconvenience you caused them… and then some
4. Develop a set of values which incorporate both the needs of customers and the business (including employees!)
5. Start tracking online conversations about your brand
6. Designate employees to speak/write for your brand
7. Provide them with training in conversation marketing
8. Engage in said conversations using said values
9. Create corporate blog
10. Enable comments, even the negative ones
11. Develop social networking site for your brand evangelists
12. Enjoy success!

The irony of it all (besides the company name being Spirit) is that it could have gone very differently. A good customer experience would have yielded positive word of mouth (FREE ADVERTISING!) and increased Spirit’s sales.

[tags]conversation marketing, social media, blogging[/tags]

However, a couple people have become trigger-happy and send out shout messages all the time. Some MyBlogLog-ers have the same problem with messages.

My message to you overachievers is this: Know your audience. Don’t throw out a wide net to a broad audience hoping some fish will be caught. It’s all about developing relationships more than it is just catching people. It’s give and take not bait and take.

Sure, you might get a ton of traffic from a Bigg Digg, but those peeps don’t stick around. Loyal customers grow your company, not random people who thought it was awesome that an anaconda is getting an ultrasound.

Happy Shouting!

[tags]digg, shouts, social media, conversation marketing[/tags]