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THE NATION FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2012
Little known media tools for brands NEIL Patel, a renowned media tools expert offers these useful tips for brand and marketing professionals.
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OCIAL media is everywhere. It’s in our homes, places of worship, schools and, of course, our businesses. Everywhere you look, people are using social media and are talking about it. And it seems that every week a new type of social site pops up. And as the number of social networking sites grows, so does the number of services that are created to measure, track and monitor those services. What’s a marketing professional to do? To help you cut through the clutter, here are some must-use social media tools that can not only help you make sense of your social media efforts but make them more effective.
EditFlow EditFlow is a pluging from open source content management system, WordPress that allows you to manage your editorial team seamlessly. With it, you can get a snapshot of your monthto-month content with the calendar feature. It also offers improved content status beyond WordPress’ default draft and pending review. And user groups can help you keep your team of writers organized by department or function. Who should use it and why: Any business owner who manages a multi-author website should give EditFlow a look. This tool can keep all of the things that are important to a multiauthor blog in one spot so management is easy, clean and documented.
TweetReach This tool allows you to see how far your tweets travel. For example, with TweetReach I can search my blog and come up with these results. It breaks down how many people your messages reach and how many tweets it took to reach them. For instance, TweetReach can tell you how many times your tweets have been shared by retweets, replies and other standard tweets. Who should use it and why: From a social media manager to a small-business owner, basically anybody who is interested in finding out how effective his or her tweets are based upon the number of people they touch should consider using TweetReach. It can also useful from a metric standpoint in terms of justifying the results of your social media campaigns with senior management or partners.
ArgyleSocial This Durham, N.C.-based startup is a social media platform that aims to help marketers connect the business dots with the social media dots. ArgyleSocial offers a single dashboard to monitor Facebook and Twitter that allows you to delegate tasks to your team. It also offers easy reporting on the ROI of your social media efforts. If you’d like to be an affiliate, you can use ArgyleSocial’s white label brand and resell the social media platform to your clients. All of your accounts can be wrapped up into one bill and sent to you to distribute or absorb as an included service. Who should use it and why: From the social media manager to the one-person business that needs to prove to management, clients or themselves that their social media campaign is paying off.
HootSuite for iPad HootSuite users should be happy with this iPad application. It includes a stationary column in the sidebar that keeps track of all streams being tracked. Among the other things HootSuite says you can do with this iPad app include checking in using a Foursquare account, scheduling messages to send at a later time, examine clickthrough statistics, add geo-location coordinates to messages and shorten URLs with a built-in Ow.ly tool. Who should use it and why: HootSuite for iPad is for heavy iPad users who want to man-
age their social media content and engagement.
TweetLevel You might be thinking you don’t need another Tweet metric tool, but TweetLevel, allows you to specifically search for hashtags, which can lead you to insights on who to follow based upon conversation versus person. Once you’ve found someone you’d like to follow, you can use TweetLevel to help measure his or her social influence. You can also evaluate the buzz around a certain topic to determine if it’s a trend worth paying attention to. Then take a peek at related phrases around your topic to gauge the true scope of the trending idea. Who should use it and why: Public relations managers and social media marketing professionals who want to analyze a campaign should give TweetLevel a try. This tool can help you identify the Twitter conversation, where it’s going wrong and how to correct that mistake.
ReFollow When it comes to Twitter, numbers might not be as important as the people you follow and who follows you. ReFollow is an application that allows you to lock in those followers that you’ve connected with and make sure they continue to follow you. Other features include filtering a search on Twitter to uncover insights, such as what you have in common with certain followers. This can lead you to connecting with someone who maybe you’re Twitter conversation has been close to zero, but with a simple direct message to that person you can make a connection and build a business relationship. Who should use it and why: This can be the perfect tool for the person who wants to grow a list of highly-qualified, like-minded people. Consider using ReFollow if your concern is quality over quantity, which it should be.
TwitterSearch You’ve probably heard of TwitterSearch but, more than likely, you aren’t using it correctly. New media expert Thomas Baekdal offers a number of little-known tips for using TwitterSearch. For instance, to see what people are saying about your competitors, search with to:competitor or from:competitor. Replace “Competitor” with that company’s Twitter handle. To uncover top trending topics search that topic plus –rt filter:links. For example, “digital marketing-rt filter:links”. That code will remove all of the retweets from the search. Who should use it and why: Anyone who wants to use and search Twitter more effectively should brush up on his or her TwitterSearch skills. And knowing what’s trending on Twitter can be a useful way to generate ideas for your business blog. When you see trending topics, you can create a blog post with content relevant to that discussion.
Traackr One simple way to find and follow people who are influential in your space is to use Traackr. It allows you to identify the “authorities” in your industry who can mean the most to your business or your client’s. What’s also useful about Traackr is that you can watch how social media leaders are responding and contributing to content you are sharing. An ad agency, for example, can see who it should target to help social media campaigns get off the ground, build its engagement strategies based upon Traackr’s unique intelligence and then see results of those campaigns. Who should use it and why: Traackr can be a useful tool for either advertising agencies or brands that want to build social media campaigns that improve over time and show how they pay off in the end.
Thoughts on smart city
D
ESTINATION branding is a process, not a project. It is a journey, not a destination. Most countries from Dubai, South Africa and Kenya are neck deep in this process. Efforts are harnessed into ensuring these countries are attractive to foreigners on a consistently. Nigeria dabbled in to it, albeit, the wrong way. We placed the cart before the horse. The cart cannot move. The horse is confused. What was the result? Ask Dorothy. Huge fund and efforts was invested in the “great people, great nation” charade. After the initial euphoria, what happened? Ask Dorothy. Thanks. Anyway, destination branding is a big, big project and it requires lots of hard work with several sleepless nights in between. If you need a testimony on this, ask TJ. Who? Keep dreaming. Soon, you would understand that those who wait to observe the wind do not sow, and those who exercise a grain of doubt, do not reap. That is a story for another day. Today the world is searching for the killer app: that particular programme, that particular software, that particular drug, that particular design, that would take you to the outer space and back. Like iPad. Like Android phone. Like what? Fill the gap. Destination-branding strategy makes a powerful contribution to your city image, economic development marketing, and community well-being by setting the path for greater efficiency, seizing competitive advantage, uniting stakeholders and communicating the city’s vitality and attractiveness. As such, places of all sizes, whether cities, towns, downtowns or regions are getting more from their destination marketing budgets. None of these is the figment of one’s imagination. It is happening right now, right here, right in Cross River state, Calabar. For instance, think about Calabar. What comes to your mind? Serenity: the place is so calm, so soothing, you would think you were in Europe. The place did not happen overnight. The changes took place overtime. Destination branding in Calabar is based on a strategic approach to public relations, which played on the fact that image is an ongoing, holistic, interactive and wide-scale process, which required much more than a quick change of logo, colour palette or slogan. In other words, managing brand in the case of a destination does not merely consist of attaching new labels, but consolidates the essential characteristics of the individual identity into a brand core. As part of the process, the creation of a brand would set in motion social, economical and cultural issues, which can strengthen or correct other peoples’ perceptions. The routine development of mechanisms leading to a strong and consistent brand is highly important for place branding. To gravitate to this level, destination brand experts like TJ, would create customized strategies, designs, and educational programmes and tools to ensure that the destination brand has a ‘soft landing’ and it is well received, endorsed and adopted by key community partners. This is to ensure that you have a defined brand identity. The essence of this is to ensure transformation from a sleepy state to a more prosperous city, town, region or downtown.
However, development of this type does not merely promote a core message, a logo or a claim to the public but additionally communicates the place as a brand on a longterm basis using a consistent communication concept. Once this and other infrastructure such as good road network, transportation, health, security etc are in place, the next best thing is to switch, or aspire, to what has become a sing-song “smart city.” Do not ask what a smart city is. According to research, urban performance currently depends on not only the city’s endowment of hard infrastructure, but increasingly on the availability and quality of knowledge communication and social infrastructure such as intellectual and social capital. The latter form of capital is decisive for urban competitiveness. It is against this background that the concept of the smart city has been introduced as a strategic device to encompass modern urban production factors in a common framework and to highlight the growing importance of information and communication technologies (ICTs), social and environmental capital in profiling the competitiveness of cities. It is in the quest for a smart city that the Lagos state government has signed into law a bill, which would enable all Lagos residents, irrespective of state of origin, gender or religious affiliation, to be issued with electronic identification cards. What would this achieve in the centre of excellence? According to Governor Fashola, the e-card would enable the state to have a reliable database of all citizens under the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency (LASRRA) law. The governor said with the e-card residents will be able to access government services. Similar exercise is going on in Calabar under the Smartgov.CRSG Limited, a joint venture with Interswitch, to develop a statewide identity management and e-payment backbone, which has now positioned Calabar as the first smart city in Nigeria. According to report, Smartgov is aimed at making Cross River state the first smart state in Nigeria, and in turn make Calabar, the first smart city in Nigeria. Aside, the project will deliver to the citizens and residents of the state the benefits of a smart city, which include smart economy, mobility, living and government. That is what Fashola wants to deliver to the residents of Lagos state. Now that the other “infrastructure” such as BRT, gardens/parks, security, etc has come on stream in the state, the best next thing is,to slide into the smart city mode so that Lagos state would emerge as a well-rounded centre of excellence. Nevertheless, since success begets success, it is hoped that Lagos state and Interswitch could work together on the project in order to replicate in Lagos the high level of success achieved in Calabar. Lagos deserves more and, to ensure that LASRRA achieves its objective of identifying Lagos residents, overcome the challenges of payment for BRT buses, taxation, manage health and identity, provide access to government services through e-government, Lagos state government should collaborate with such a smart company as Interswitch to deliver the smartest “smart city” in the world. Two can do it better. With the two entities working in unison, the quest for a smart city would be over.
‘Destination-branding strategy makes a powerful contribution to your city image, economic development marketing, and community well-being by setting the path for greater efficiency, seizing competitive advantage, uniting stakeholders and communicating the city’s vitality and attractiveness’
*Editor - Wale Alabi *Consulting Editors - Rarzack Olaegbe, Sola Fanawopo * Correspondent-Jimi David * Business Development - Kenny Hussain * Legal Adviser - Olasupo Osewa & Co Brandweek is powered by Brandz Republic Consulting and published every Friday in THE NATION newspaper. All correspondence to the editor - 0808.247.7806, 0805.618.0040, , e-mail: korede2000@gmail.com © All rights reserved.