Atypical Virgo in Recovery ~ The Importance of Social Network Lists

Over the years, I’ve built some pretty large communities in social media, both for myself and for some clients. As those communities were built, my HAED (hyper-active-entrepreneurial-disorder) brain neglected a necessary task. Categorizing connections into lists and taking notes on their attributes (friends, careers, interests and relationships).

Now, today, I have a problem. It’s simply overwhelming to pay attention to key relationships, when their social networking is scattered amongst everyone’s activity. I miss stuff that I know is key and relevant, as a result.

Over the last couple months, I’ve been slowly recovering a better footing, making sure to list new folks and spending a bit of time going back and doing this with older connections. My favorite list is Met In Real Life; thanks to @RickBakas for that great suggestion.

I’ve developed broad categories mostly related to professions and interests. I look at connection’s profiles to determine where they fit.

What does putting people into lists allow me to do? How is it better for me? With lists, I can go to a category and catchup with what others are up too. It streamlines my “reading of the news” from others. For clients, it’s a great way to categorize current customers, potential customers and other areas of interest.

Are you using lists in your social networking? What works for you to manage all the incoming content?

Tradeshow Social Media: One-third-way through the #NRAShow – Twitter Analysis

The National Restaurant Show, happening in Chicago this weekend, is by far the dominant restaurant/foodservice tradeshow in North America. The National Restaurant Association website states that this show draws, on annual average, 50,000 attendees internationally over four days. This year, they state there are over 1800 exhibitors.

The Assumption

Tradeshows provide a unique opportunity to bring together industries. They offer community-building in centralized real-time, provide buyers with connective opportunities to meet sellers, provide industry specific educational opportunities and.. most importantly, have the potential to leverage all of this to broad-path long-tail effectiveness via the social web. Leverage through the social web:

• provides exhibitors and attendees greater contact time – before, during and after
• deepens the educational experience for attendees, both in products/services and in seminars
• creates a broad path of micro data points, all search engine optimized, for both the tradeshow and exhibitors (and attendees, for that matter)
• deepens the connective fabric of the industry

We’ve been following the Twitter hashtag for this event #NRAShow, since the beginning and have made some initial observations of engagement by Show attendees and exhibitors.

Before sharing these, a shout-out must go to Paul Barron, for providing a hashtag metric analysis site we could observe. Paul purchased a hashtag tracking service which can be found here for the NRA Show:  http://bit.ly/jOU8JB

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592  –  Number of Contributors to Hashtag

86  –  Number of Exhibitor Twitter Accounts Using Hashtag

506  –  Number of Non-Exhibitor Twitter Accounts Using Hashtag

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14.5%  –  Percentage of Exhibitor Twitter Accounts to Total Tweeters on Hashtag

1019  –  Average # of Followers – Exhibitors Using Hashtag

9 – Average # of Tweets During Show – Exhibitors Using Hashtag

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85.5%  –  Percentage of Non-Exhibitors to Total Tweeters on Hashtag

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4.7%  –  Percentage of Hashtag Tweeting Exhibitors to Estimated # of Show Exhibitors

1%  –  Percentage of Hashtag Tweeting Non-Exhibitors to Estimated # of Show Attendees

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Chalkboarder’s Opinions

Exhibitor adoption, as evidenced by the hashtag traffic, is still in its infancy.

Attendees are not using social media to interact with the Show.

Attendees interacting with Show exhibit hashtag useage rate six times that of exhibitors.

Show management could do a better job of marketing the social web interaction to both exhibitors and attendees.

Exhibitors could develop strategies using traditional marketing that drive potential attendees into the social web before, during and after the Show.

The National Restaurant Show has a clear opportunity to exponentially increase exhibitor exposure (sales opportunities) to attendees using the social web in future shows. Effective deployment of a comprehensive strategy should include:

• Year round social web engagement by Show management with exhibitors and existing/potential attendees.
• Provide exhibitors with social web tools to increase engagement between exhibitors and attendees before, during and after the Show. Such tools might include:
• Traditional marketing “pushes” to the social web connectivity with exhibitors
• Marketing promotions to attendees by exhibitors to connect in social media, via traditional and social web strategies
• Provide an online database, searchable by product/service category, for visitors to the Show website to find exhibitor social web accounts – significantly prior to the Show

Wrap-up

Nothing beats getting face-to-face at a tradeshow. Social media, conducted well, considerably leverages the opportunity to bring exhibitors and attendees together during a Show. Exhibitors and attendees who have connected and conversed prior to actually meeting at Show time, make the most efficient use of their time, leading to other potentialities to present to both attendees and exhibitors.

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Notes on Data

1. List of Identified Exhibitors Using the Hashtag

Top and bottom four not used in calculations.

Twitter Account            # Followers  # Following  # Tweets

nutrilabeling                  0                  0                   67

jamesoneida                 5                  16                 12

epicuredigital                6                  5                   73

hubertco                       7                  0                   0

99apps                         25                 0                   24

vinnyoneida                  25                 85                 28

chicagobuffets             27                 87                 80

pepsicofoodserv          36                 259               24

compelcart                   41                 91                 296

winecrusader                 43                 37                 283

manualsolution              54                 103               29

adstonature                  58                 138               64

getpunchh                    65                 76                 148

mccormick4chefs          76                 80                 103

olo                               80                 63                 70

tlpriest                          85                 121               97

magictradeshows          99                 200               211

smrestaurants               130               218               188

culinitweets                   132               138               94

merchantware                136               302               110

expion                          137               41                 292

vollrathco                     151               101               221

finelinesetting               156               421               503

bungemoe                    169               222               269

hennypenny                  174               217               585

scotsmanice                 210               249               312

wineshowcasemag        233               755               4

squirrelsystems             236               455               156

grecian_delight             240               256               505

nrnjobplate                   241               153               1124

usfoodservicesf            257               516               439

ifanca                           258               300               351

cobblestoneoven          263               1172             98

capitolcups                   267               420               823

hospitalitypads             281               1003             33

intlspices                      295               950               80

chefbigshake                320               199               186

wineshield                     323               761               209

idahoanfoods               358               733               328

hobartcorp                    366               190               617

digitalmenubox             374               1012             440

fishbowljoe                   376               482               594

back2scratch                392               313               1289

thermapen                    428               477               480

heartlandhpy                 433               398               673

peoplematterceo           466               362               1029

tsbrass                         467               471               530

turtletransit                    471               942               91

wasserstrom                 480               676               871

oneida_ltd                    507               273               162

gpprofessional             508               678               960

monkeydish                  538               502               741

ssproducts                   540               1999             397

shomack12                   562               746               2980

rewardsnetwork             675               426               792

loveandquiches             691               1042             1048

socialgrub                    755               1263             163

dietzandwatson             758               996               667

openmenu                    786               1469             2237

fohbohgal                     877               488               4488

laudividni                      879               455               861

anchorhocking              881               885               2003

hospitalitysoc               937               1999             47

hospitalityrew                951               2000             30

graciousgourmet           1068             2003             1320

rubbermaidcomm          1186             325               190

fastcasual                     1307             389               1132

safeeggs                      1344             1676             1620

wileycooks                   1405             921               822

calphalon                      1561             1230             250

nrnmarketing                 1796             697               503

flatoutbread                  1926             1848             4778

viennabeef                    2315             1023             2170

eatsauca                       2343             113               75

fishbowlinc                   2514             1892             364

fohboh                         2721             1392             2767

herbalwater                   3563             3290             1644

activeion                       3653             3190             1144

communitycoffee          5626             2741             1539

wheresauca                   7278             90                 2736

elischeesecake             8404             8549             5598

emmaemail                   8709             1516             2342

googleplaces                28159           26                 924

yelp                              43375           98                 1847

livingsocial                   49668           3611             8958

pepsi                            68496           42227            3190

 2. Identifying Exhibitors that were using the hashtag was conducted by reading the tweetstream. A few of the accounts were not “official” exhibitor accounts, but either identify themselves in their Twitter handle, bio or by tweeting that they were exhibiting for a company they work for and gave a booth number.

It Takes Two

It Takes Two

It takes two to tango is an idiomatic and well-worn expression in the United States. Often spoken when describing personal relationships, it is also used to describe peer or business relationships. As brands have jumped on the social web express, how many have signed contracts with or hired web community managers and assumed that these individuals or outsourced providers can take the ball and run with it, without support?

We’ve learned at Chalkboarder that some clients are a “bear” to fully collaborate with. It seems no matter how many times a week we seek raw content from these clients, it’s damn difficult to get collaboration. The reasons are varied, of course. Some clients are simply so busy managing day-to-day operations that social community management and content production is a big after-thought.

Other clients have assumed that, since they have a community manager, that’s all they need.

I’ve spoken with other social web managers who’ve experienced this as well. One, a mentor and friend, recently told me one of her clients cut short the relationship, stating that they were going to do it on their own. My friend described to me how the former client had, in her estimation, only used her minimally, despite repeated requests for raw content and collaboration.

If you’ve hired a web community manager, are you giving them all the tools and ingredients they need to do outstanding work for you? Take a look at this – don’t assume that just because you hired a manager that the social media show is a wrap. Hiring a web community manager without providing collaboration and raw content is a lot like a restaurant hiring a talented chef into a well equipped kitchen, but then not supplying food ingredients for them to work with.

If you truly desire to take advantage of the social web, you have to provide good quality raw content to your community manager. Better yet – flood them with good raw content. They’ll generate wildly distinctive and effective dialogues, build communities and drive sales if you do.

I’m curious how many other web community managers struggle with this?