Employee empowerment drives massive social media results for brand

Increasing social media reach by 1,000 percent might seem like an unattainable goal for any business.

Well, that’s exactly what Cisco’s Marketing Manager Alex Montuschi reports as a chief advantage of his company’s empowering employees to use social media to talk about Cisco.

He was speaking during a recent Brandwatch webinar called Social Monitoring & Gamification: Creating Employee Advocates at Cisco. (Also, the slides from the webinar are here.) 

The webinar was looking at what is turning out to be one of the hottest trends in social media in 2015: Employee empowerment.

In a nutshell employee empowerment (as it relates to social media) is a conscious move by a brand to empower/encourage employees to support the goals of a brand using content and social channels owned by the employees. 

Why do companies use employee empowerment?Among the reasons cited by Montuschi:

• Cisco employees have 10X the followers than the brand
• 90 percent of employees’ audience is new to Cisco
• An employee advocate is likely to score 2X on any measure of trust than the CEO
• Content shared by employees receives 8X more engagement that content shared by brand channels 

 According to Montuschi, whose particular piece of the Cisco pie is the area known as Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia (EMEAR), one of the most-effective tactics his company employed was creating a social leaderboard table that recognized the most-influential employees on social. 

These were not always those with the most followers or the most posts on channels such as Twitter and Facebook.

In addition to the massive increase in reach for Cisco message son social in the EMEAER region, Montuschi listed other benefits:

• Cisco employees’ social activities increased by over 140 percent in 6 months.
• Average number of tweets posted by employees increase by 5 percent.
• Some 232 employees are using the social leaderboard tables to measure their social impact.

Cisco also used the introduction of the leaderboards as an opportunity to offer 120 hours of social media training to 200 employees. The result of this, said Montuschi, was that those employees became better users of social media and more aware of their social impact.

So how do Cisco and others set up its employee empowerment program for social media? More on that in my next post.

Related posts
2015: The Year of SM #EmployeeEmpowerment and How to Create a Successful Program
Social Media Employee Empowerment - What Works

UPDATED: 12 Reasons To Not Follow Someone On Twitter

Social media, in some quarters, has this unwritten expectation: If I follow you, you should follow me back. But this ignores any number of common sense reasons to not connect on a social platform. 

For example, on Twitter I have roughly 12 reasons I won’t follow or follow back another Twitter account. (This is an updated list from one I blogged about in 2013.) I won’t follow you if … 

1. You don’t have a Twitter bio: There may be a good reason, but I can’t imagine what it is. It takes 30 seconds to say something about who you are. The same thing goes if you don’t have a geographic location. It does not need to be specific: city and state or city and country will do just fine. Of course, if you have something to hide … that too is reason enough not to follow you. 

2. You don’t have an avatar: The generic "egg" icon just tells the world you haven’t made the time to get a small picture or symbol out there … or, again, maybe you have something to hide. 

3. Your account is locked: You may have good reasons to lock your account (or, again, maybe you have something to hide), but how am I supposed to keep track of whose content I can retweet and whose I can’t? If you want to be that private why are you on Twitter? 

4. You have been on Twitter for less than a month: Unless there’s a history of activity I suspect all Twitter accounts to have a.) hidden agendas or b.) be the accounts of people not fully committed to being part of the Twitter community … yet. This might be hard on newbies, but I know of too many newbies who set up an account, tweet a few times and then go silent. 

5. You don’t tweet regularly: You don’t have to tweet every day, but if you’re only tweeting once or twice a week (or less) the chances are I will miss your tweets and we really won’t interact at all.  

6. You have nothing to say or share: We have all seen the accounts where people build large follower numbers and in three months on Twitter have only tweeted a few dozen times to let the world know "It’s raining here now" or "Just made a killer burger." Is this adding value for anyone? 

7. You follow way more people than follow you: You may just be desperate to build a large online following. You may have even purchased followers. Either way you concern me. 

8. Your profile and tweets reveal you are mostly on Twitter to sell: I get stuff pushed on me in plenty of other ways. I don’t need Twitter to feel like a selling channel. 

9. Your tweets are all about that one axe to grind: You may be passionate about your cause, but if it’s not something I feel strongly about don’t expect me to follow back. 

10. Your tweet history is full of self-promotional words or links: If your tweets are full of "I" statements and the things "you" want to sell or promote, then "you" clearly missed the memo that Twitter is supposed to be a social medium. "You" don’t need me to follow "you." All "you" really need is a mirror so you can admire the view. See Commandment No. 1 in 10 Commandments for Social Media. 

11. You are promoting porn, gambling or other vices: ‘Nuff said. If I want this stuff I’m pretty sure I can find it on my own. 

12. You are a business and only ever tweet about the business: As much as you love your business and think everybody else should too, I’m sorry I just don’t care. If your business doesn’t have a human face I’m outta here. Having said that, I will admit to connecting with social causes and the organizations that support them. That at least seems more in the spirit of social media. 

So, what do you think? Did I miss any reasons you have for not following or not following back on Twitter? 

Related posts: 
6 Reasons to Finally Join Twitter 
Twitter 101 Day 1: Why are you on Twitter? 
Twitter 101 Day 2: How will you use Twitter? 
Twitter 101 Day 3: Who will you be on Twitter?

5 Quick Ways to Decide on Twitter Follows

We’re all pressed for time so when someone follows you on Twitter or you see a Twitter account you think looks interesting how do you quickly decide if you should follow that account?

While there is no sure-fire way to make sure you only follow the right accounts any combination of the following is likely to increase the chances you’ll be happy with your choices.

5 Quick Ways to Decide on a Twitter Follow

1. Is the account real? Is it a person who really exists or a business that is real? Some tell-tale signs: Recent tweets that mention other Twitter users, retweeting of some posts with links and a URL in the bio that goes to another web site (preferably a personal page about the account owner).

2. Does the account have a reasonable Follower-to-Tweets ratio? If an account, for example has 1,000 Followers and 47,000 tweets that says the account is a "broadcaster" who tweets merrily away and does not get a lot of new followers based on what they share. And "0 Tweets" is a big warning …

3. Does the account have a reasonable Follower-to-Follows ratio? I know, I know not all things can be reduced to numbers: But if an account has a few hundred Followers and is at the Twitter-allowable-maximum of 2,000 Follows then it is likely the account owner is trying to too hard to just get Followers

4. Does the account show some personality? Admittedly this is a personal taste issue, but it becomes something that’s easy to see once you look for it. Does the account sometimes engage in an actual conversation with others on Twitter? Does it add value and/or comments when retweeting interesting material?

5. Is the account relevant to you for other reasons? Is it a person who lives near you? Or is it a business that provides a service or works in an industry that you care about? These things can be checked in the Twitter bio, following the URL in the bio (see No. 1 above) or a quick look at the recent tweets.

What do you think? Are there other things you take into account before deciding to follow or not follow? I'd love to hear them.

Related posts:
11 Reasons I Won’t Follow You on Twitter
6 Reasons to Finally Join Twitter
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness

11 Reasons I Won’t Follow You on Twitter

There are probably dozens if not hundreds of reasons some people on Twitter won’t follow others. Here are my Top 11 reasons. 

I won’t follow you if … 

1. You don’t have a Twitter bio: There may be a good reason, but I can’t imagine what it is. It takes 30 seconds to say something about who you are. The same thing goes if you don’t have a geographic location. It does not need to be specific: city and state or city and country will do just fine. Of course, if you have something to hide … that too is reason enough not to follow you. 

2. You don’t have an avatar: The generic "egg" icon just tells the world you haven’t made the time to get a small picture or symbol out there … or, again, maybe you have something to hide.

3. Your account is locked: You may have good reasons to lock your account (or, again, maybe you have something to hide), but how am I supposed to keep track of whose content I can retweet and whose I can’t? If you want to be that private I have to wonder why you’re on Twitter.

4. You have been on Twitter for less than a month: Unless there’s a history of activity I suspect all Twitter accounts to have a.) hidden agendas or b.) be the accounts of people not fully committed to being part of the Twitter community … yet. This might be hard on newbies, but I know of too many newbies who set up an account, tweet a few times and then go silent.

5. You don’t tweet regularly: You don’t have to tweet every day, but if you’re only tweeting once or twice a week (or less) the chances are I will miss your tweets and we really won’t interact at all. So why bother?

6. You have nothing to say or share: We have all seen the accounts where people build large follower numbers and in three months on Twitter have only tweeted a few dozen times to let the world know "It’s raining here now" or "Just made a killer burger." Really? Is this adding value for anyone?

7. You follow way more people than follow you: You may just be desperate to build a large online following. You may have even purchased followers. Either way you concern me.

8. Your profile and tweets reveal you are mostly on Twitter to sell: I get stuff pushed on me in plenty of other ways. I don’t need Twitter to feel like a selling channel.

9. Your tweet history is full of self-promotional words or links: If your tweets are full of "I" statements and the things "you" want to sell or promote, then "you" clearly missed the memo that Twitter is supposed to be a social medium. "You" don’t need me to follow "you." All "you" really need is a mirror so you can admire the view. See Commandment No. 1 in 10 Commandments for Social Media.

10. You are promoting porn, gambling or other vices: ‘Nuff said. If I wanted this stuff I’m pretty sure I could find it on my own.

11. You are a business and only ever tweet about the business: As much as you love your business and think everybody else should too, I’m sorry I just don’t care. If your business doesn’t have a human face I’m outta here. Having said that, I will admit to connecting with social causes and the organizations that support them. That at least seems more in the spirit of social media.

So, what do you think? Did I miss any reasons you have for not following or following back on Twitter?

Related posts:
6 Reasons to Finally Join Twitter
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness
The 7 Deadly Sins on Twitter

Social time off – what it teaches

 Note to blog followers: This is my first post is some time because a serious health issue with a family member meant I had to take some time to help them. This time off blogging and other social platforms inspired this post. 

In 6+ years of active participation in social media I’ve wondered, as I’m sure many do: Does all this social media stuff translate to my real and personal life? Recently I had a chance to find out. 

My Mum received a sudden and serious diagnosis. She needed immediate chemotherapy and might need help during this time. My good fortune is that I teach college and so the summer is a time I can easily (unlike my siblings) take time to help out. 

Off I went and for nearly six weeks my real life – and the prospect of someone I love perhaps losing theirs – dominated my time. My time on social media plummeted to almost nothing. Here’s what I learned from this time:

The good: 

Real people are genuine no matter the venue. Although I’m connected to more than 10,000 people across various social platforms there are just a few dozen who picked up on the various signs in social media and asked such things as "Is everything OK?" or "What’s going on?" And when I explained, were quick to offer help, both virtual and real, and support. 

Some people really are "better than advertized." Because I was traveling overseas I had mentioned to those who suggested that a meetup may be possible right before I returned to the United States. Because of the chemo schedule I was not sure of the exact date of departure and therefore a day to meet folks in real life. But at very short notice two people I had previously only known via Twitter and Facebook made room in their schedules to meet and one even introduced me to two other academics in my field of teaching, communication . Not only did I spend some time with these folks, but I came to appreciate them as truly exceptional humans. 

I feel a lot less connected with the world when social is not part of my daily routine. Yes, I read a newspaper or watched TV news or checked in on email when time permitted, but I did feel a lot less aware of the world at large without social media in the mix. This IS good, because I now know for sure that my time on social has this daily (and very important) payoff. 

The not-so-good: 

Shallow people really stand out on social media. A very few people, without asking why, decided I was "taking time off" from social and was committing a kind of "social media ranking suicide." One comment went something like this: "You do realize that an extended time of almost no activity on social media will KILL your Klout score." And if such things were life and death for me perhaps I would have been concerned, but they are not. (FYI: My Klout score dipped from 52 to 49, in case you’re wondering.) 

The vast majority of social connections are superficial. We all "know" this, but perhaps, nothing more starkly highlights it than being "gone" for an extended period and having the majority of your followers, fans, connections not notice. Does this mean the majority of social media is a waste of time? Not at all. (See Nos. 1, 2 and 3 above.) But it does help put it all in perspective. 

What do you think? Have you ever wondered what would happen in a personal crisis or enforced absence from social media? Has this happened to you? What did you notice? 

Further reading:
3 Great Ways to Take a Social Media Time-Out by Jorgen Sundberg.

TFF: The Twitter Follow Formula

After being in social media strategy for some time I’ve developed a formula to decide who I follow on Twitter. And although it is not as precise as say the formula for getting a rocket into outer space it works for me to determine the most relevant and useful Twitter accounts to follow.

So here is the Twitter Follow Formula (or TFF):

If the answer to all (or at least half) of the following questions is “Yes” then the account is a good fit and likely worth your time to follow:

The bio mentions key words relevant to your interests: Yes, some people put words in their bios just to fill them out, but if there is a bio (and if there isn’t I, for one, will not follow that account) it is the first stop on your checklist.

More than half of the most-recent 20 tweets look interesting: The number might vary for you, but if I see that a majority of tweets are about relevant and interesting stuff it helps me decide.

The Follower-Following ratio is not lopsided: The ratio you find “lopsided” will vary but for me if the account is following 20 percent or more accounts than it has followers it tells me one of three things: The account is a “Twitter newbie,” a “Twitter broadcaster” or a “Twitter incompetent.” Any may be a reason not to follow.

The Follower-Tweet ratio is not high: There is no real science here, but if someone has more than three or four tweets for each follower they likely are talking a lot (OK), on auto-tweet (not OK) or just on Twitter to broadcast sales or other messages (definitely not OK).

The account is run by a person: Yes, brands and companies can have Twitter accounts, but I’m just not that interested, usually, in talking to a faceless account. How can I tell? The avatar is a logo or product picture (or worse the “Twitter egg”). The types of tweets are also an indicator: Any account talking about its own products and services too much is there for one reason only.

The account is geographically relevant: In other words its based near you (great for meet-ups in real life) or is based somewhere else on the planet that you have a high interest in. Oh, and note to some: If you say your location is “the world” or “everywhere” I won’t believe you and I won’t follow you. Be genuine.

The hunch or everything just feels right: The least scientific part of the formula is just the sense I get that the account is “for real.” This is based on my belief that our intuition is our sub-conscious trying to tell us something based on all our previous experiences. If anything at all doesn’t seem quite right I stay away.

Because there are seven elements I consider it’s relatively easy to know that I have satisfied a majority of the points. Should the answer to all of them be “yes”? Of course, but on occasion I will follow an account that meets only five of these criteria because I have a sense that the person, for example, is a newbie but shows great promise as a useful member of the Twitter family.

So, when it comes to social media strategy on Twitter how does this list stack up to select people to follow? I’d love to have your input.

Possibly related posts:
Twitter 101 Day 1: Why are you on Twitter?
Twitter 101 Day 2: How will you use Twitter?
Twitter 101 Day 3: Who will you be on Twitter?
Twitter 101 Day 4: When will you be on Twitter?

9 Ways to Learn at Twitter University

A recent post by Jeff Bullas called Twitter Reveals 11 New Facts on its Traffic and Usage reminded me what it is that I love about Twitter: It’s one heck of a place to learn.

There are some great stats there. I think they reinforce what I believe is the greatest value of Twitter – it's just hands down the best ready source of information you didn't know you needed to know.

I call it the University of Twitter and my only regret is that I don' have three or four hours a day to devote to learning from it!

And I’m often surprised that more people don’t take advantage of this great resource for learning and sharing.

So how can you learn from this free “university”? Let me count the ways:

1. Follow people like you: Easy right? Not so fast Slick! You’re have more than a one dimension so be sure to follow people who tweet about ALL the things that interest you. You never know when the person you follow because they also like Siamese cats will tweet out a link to an interesting site on football great “Mean Joe” Greene.

2. Follow people who are nothing like you: Likewise find a few followers of people you follow who seem to be 180 degrees from anything you know or care about. Follow them for a while and you may be surprised what you learn. And remember, it’s Twitter, so if you change your mind you can always unfollow them.

3. Follow smart people: Some tweets just make you see things differently … they make you think. This is reason enough for me to check out the sender’s Tweetstream and if I like what I see I follow them.

4. Follow funny people: And for Pete’s sake have some fun. It’s as true on Twitter as it is anywhere: All work and no play can make you pretty dull. For example: You’ve likely heard of @shitmydadsays and @badbanana , but do you know @funnyoneliners and @CinderellaJoey?

5. Organize the people you track/follow: Use the Lists feature to keep track of a few different types of Twitterers without committing to following them. If you like what you learn then you can follow them.

6. Use search: Go to search.twitter.com and type in any word related to something you want to know about and voila you get tweets galore (many with useful links). This kind of search always yields material you likely would not have found any other way.

7. Track trends: The scrolling trending topics bar on the Twitter home page can sometimes also lead to interesting tweets. Although the continuing fascination with Justin Bieber escapes me.

8. Follow hashtags: Keep an eye out for interesting hashtags (the “#” before a word, for the uninitiated). Click on one and see what a bunch of folks are tweeting about. You may be surprised where following hashtags can take you but you’ll often find interesting tweets.

9. Try randomness: Sometimes you should follow links “just because.” The caution here: Beware of spammers and those who might be trying to spread computer viruses via tweets or Direct Messages. How can you be safe? Never click on DM links and before following a link in a regular tweet check out the sender’s tweetstream. A lot of duplicate or similar tweets indicates a spammer (at best) and a virus spreader (at worst).

Did I forget anything? Are there other ways to learn at the University of Twitter?

Possibly related post:

3 More Reasons I Won’t Follow You on Twitter

We all have our own reasons for not following back on Twitter. Recently a Twitter friend shared a link to Meg Guiseppi’s wonderful September 2009 blog post 14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter

This is a blog post that has been so popular that Meg very recently posted 14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter (Revisited)

And while I agree with all 14 reasons I would respectfully add three of my own:

Your tweets are all in a language other than English – it’s nothing personal but aside from some high-school French and a little college Spanish my knowledge of other languages is limited. That’s my bad, I know, but how will we communicate? What would we say?

You exclusively tweet links to the work of others and don’t give any credit or attribution. Should I trust someone who does not give credit where credit is due? How will I know if this is the fifth time I’ve read a tweet on Mashable’s take on the Edelman Trust Barometer ?

You spend too much time tweeting personal stuff – we’re all human, but your tweetstream is all about you. You’re the vainglorious guest at the party who is certainly social but only inasmuch as it gets you more attention. Yuck! Now, if we are extremely good friends I might consider this a minor character flaw. Otherwise: No thanks.

Meg Guiseppi blogs at Executive Resume Branding and if you want to see if she will follow you back on Twitter you might try connecting with her at @MegGuiseppi. But don’t try if you’re not “good people on Twitter” because she clearly is.

So are there other reasons to not follow someone on Twitter? I’m sure. What are some of yours?

Related posts:
Twetiquette: 10 basics for Twitter politeness
What Twitter isn’t