Implementing a social media campaign needs thought and much planning to ensure the end outcome is the desired one:

Initial research: Find out what people are saying about your brand on the most popular social networks for your country as well as general business information. Track and monitor what is said and check out competition, find out what they are doing and record anything interesting (search results, feedback etc), which you may be able to implement at a later stage in the process.

Goals: What goals are already set in your business? What is it you want to achieve? Have you achieved it yet? How can social networking and a social campaign help/assist you to achieve your goals?
Research how you will achieve your goals and how you will track each step you have made in order to achieve a positive outcome or to tailor it to work better. Ensure the goals you set out to achieve are monitored closely so you can make the most impact on your campaign.

Tools: Try out the range of different tools on the web, discover which tools best suit the needs for your reporting and meet the needs of your goals, use several if that suits the needs of helping you to achieve your goal – creating a mix gives the best of every world – always research for new innovative tools on a regular basis as there are APIs being created all the time!

Performance measuring: There are many ways in which you can measure your performance – using tools on the web which will track your social media campaigns or develop your own in-house tools, monitor this on a regular basis so you can adapt your strategy to achieve your goals – remember – the results may not be what you’d hoped they would be.

Reporting: Create your own reports using the data you have gathered along the way, ALWAYS include positive and negative remarks as they provide a basis for development or help choose which direction needs to be tailored, the positive will show where you have got the direction right to help achieve your set goal and strategy.

An important factor is to remember that a social media strategy is not set in stone, it can be changed! Once you start your social campaign it is very difficult to go backwards if you have a sudden change of mind or direction. Make sure your research is thorough and you are confident with all you have set out to do – there is always plenty of help to be found so don’t be afraid to seek it out!

On this blog in August 2009, I wrote about how tweeting can get your own way and how the power of Twitter is unbelievable, which is very true and I think people forget this all too often!

The latest article I found was relating to how people forget about social networks being as powerful as they are – a Vodafone employee wrote an offensive and obscene message on a Vodafone customer complaints Twitter account. The Twitter account in question had over 8,000 followers at the time and Vodafone had to apologise to each and everyone who was following them.

Another instance of lack of awareness of how powerful social networks are was just after New Year, when a so called ‘joke’ on micro blogging site Twitter ended up with a Doncaster man being arrested under the terrorism act!

“Robin Hood airport is closed, You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!” (Source: The Independent Online)

Another story appeared around a similar time about a questionable picture (a baby with a cigarette in his mouth) on Facebook by a teenage mother, who was subsequently arrested and had social services checking around to ensure the baby was not subjected to any harm.

I think there are some very important lessons to be learnt here;
Think before you speak/act/type!
What enters the web stays on web, search engines index everything!

Recently the first official “Twisitor Centre” was launched in the US by Travel Portland, where travellers can connect to the Twisitor Centre to find out holiday / travel information, just like a walk in visitor centre, which relies on Twitter technology, so travellers can plan holidays to the city etc etc.

The use of codes to transfer the “tweets” to the Twisitor Centre is essential to get the correct feedback, visit Travel Mole who reported on the tweeting city.

Twitter and other micro blogging / social networking sites are great to find out local information, like places you are visiting on holiday etc, keeping your Twitter, Facebook, Myspace etc profile public may be risky if you declare too much information, however if you are following people from all over the world, information will be far more accessible, just remember to be careful!!

His holidays, his friends, his job…The newspaper “Le Tigre” has published all the possible information that he published himself online.

The very first concept was really simple – create the newspaper portrait of a random internet user thanks to the information that he found on the online social media platforms (Copains d’avant, Facebook, Flickr…)

And this is how the journalist Raphael Meltz starts his article, straight to the point: “You are the unlucky one to be the first Google portrait from “the Tigre” experience”.

In this long article (that you can find on the Le Tigre website – only in French unfortunately but will probably think of translating it), one learns that “Marc L” (this is how he is called on all his networks) is an architect, where he has been on holiday (Bombay, Montreal..), who are his last lovers (Laura, Sandy) and his passions.  There are even some notes about the place where he works (the big boss is not going to be happy!).  In short, we know almost everything about his private life – or shall I just say public life.

Marc L detailed how devastated he was by the article. He claimed:  “I can’t sleep anymore. I am really annoyed with the journalists. All the information that I published online was for the people who surround me. I’m really feeling bad and have a lot of troubles sleeping. Besides being myself concerned by the story, I feel also really annoyed for all the people who are part of my contacts and whose the identities have also been revealed – mostly with regards to my personal love life…”

Pretty natural, as we learnt from the article that Marc loves women with “small boobs, short hair and nice long legs”…

Nevertheless, Marc L recognised himself the mistake of having created his own Big Brother space through the web and will surely keep an eye now on what personal information he will be sharing on the web.  Probably the most positive side of the story is that more people are informed now of the danger of exposing too much their lives.

He added however having this big regret: “I would rather not have been the one picked.” …Obviously!!! Who would like this happening to them?

That is just leading me to think twice again about the phenomenon of social networks, for which we are all the specimens in the laboratory…

Millions of people around the globe use these tools everyday without realising that someone is probably following your every move and could actually – and as this article proves – destroy your life!

Don’t smile – you could be the next victim!

Risks of confusion between public and private life on the web?  Le Tigre has underlined the seriousness of this issue.

However, while writing the article in the form of a friendly letter (“Hey Marc, you’re all right? You don’t know me it is true, but me I know you really well!”), the journalist exposes in a provocative way how any user can be the target of cyber-criminals that can easy find out where you leave, with who you go out…etc. and use that information to commit crimes.

I will end with a simple question: When will the internet be controlled and measures will be taken to protect the privacy of individuals?

·         “My unplugged printer just came to life..spooky”

·         “Love spring. Hate allergies. This sucks”

·         “I have a ghost in my database”

·         “I think the IT guy might kill someone, this is great. His job really isn’t that stressful”

·         “Might cry. Or kill someone”

·         “What’s this smell”

What are the benefits to know that some stranger will probably kill someone by the end of the day or someone is going to the toilets in a minute or…

Well, I should probably let you watch this video on Youtube untitled “Twitter Madness” that sums up really nicely and artistically the whole addiction around it…

Twitter Madness Video

Well well, so far, I keep thinking positively and try to consider twitter as the new way to let off steam in everyone’s daily routine or as Jason Lee Miller describes it incredibly well “as a weird Twitter nirvana” where the crowd’s thoughts are simply indefinable!

Please share your thoughts about the twitter Madness!