©Pallino1021.com May 2010

CONNECTING IN SOCIALSCAPES

The adoption of non-traditional knowledge sources for driving a

people-centric business

©Pallino1021.com May 2010

Socialscapes (Social landscapes) provide the opportunity to engage and nurture lasting connections. As we have advanced from a single dimension of marketing into multi-dimensional

connections, the process of communication has transformed. Marketing messages have evolved into true conversations, and the best examples offer significant value to all.

The importance of authentic connections…Truly compelling dialogues can be developed when people pilot social connections and authenticity is inherent. A humble approach is needed; one that begins with listening, quantifying and only then responding to ensure relevance, and inspire sincere interaction.Common interests will bond like-minded people; they will be anxious to share ideas, seek inspiration and “LIKE” personalized content. How-ever, the natural evolution of these interactions cannot be disturbed. It is imperative to create a spontaneous atmosphere that provides multiple levels of sharing and applauds individuals—keen to drive conversations. Natural evolution of influencers can only be achieved, and their charac-teristics observed, when facilitators adopt a nurturing position. If mod-eration and strict facilitation remain, dialogues are likely to offer vastly different outcome.Socialscapes must:

Allow the ability to challenge and applaud Empower participants o Feel equally involved o People-guided use of products o People-driven service

Appreciation is essential. The added value of being heard will strengthen ties. Even the simplest manner of recognition will create emotional con-nections and seed content that will most certainly become shareable across adjacent social environments. For natural advocates, knowing that a representative of the brand took genuine interest in their ideas or offered a favorable comment is sincere engagement.Connectivity…The Grand Hotel understands the need for authenticity and has earned the trust and respect of followers via their digital media channels. Fol-lowers find real value in their connection with the hotel and seem to feel they are a real part of the Hotel’s charm.

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Warning: Avoid Intrusive Communication…Communications are extraordinarily relevant as the hotel avoids intru-sive sales-like dialogues, but rather, stimulates interest with images, ideas and news that is truly important to their audience. Memories are provoked, flooding socialscapes with devoted anecdotes and enduring emotional ties.

Text and Image Source: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=176795&id=93339856696&comments

The Grand Hotel is careful not to disrupt the natural process of communication or links/connections to likeminded individuals. This natural process of influence is a splendid learning opportunity and brings key variables of influence into view. Grand Hotel Last week Lynn suggested web cams in the hotel so that she

could see things going on when she can’t be here with us. We enjoy hearing your suggestions and they do not fall on deaf ears. So, tell us

what you are thinking. What would you like to see at Grand Hotel?

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The Grand Hotel ROA (Return on Authenticity) Almost complete view of a person’s personal style and behavior. Captivate the audience through personalized experiences. Inspire creativity with genuine perceptions. Visualize and refine themes as they emerge. Multiple points of participation.

Getting Content Right…We find that there is an enormous difference between original content and original branded content.Original branded content can be extremely engaging (click below), in fact it has to be. However, original content can be even more potent and when combined with direct authentic interest from the brand…a commanding emotional conductor.

Click image or paste: http://nike.jp/musicshoe/

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How lasting connections are established and where engagement begins…The Social graph defines strong connections based on content, interaction and a level of emotion.

FridgeNality on FacebookIn contrast, consider the level of emotional connection defined within original content. Emotion is built-in. Families love to showcase their achievements, and socialscapes offer a glimpse of the most coveted of spaces…an extension of the refrigerator door. Imagine the emotional connection if Toy Story “Liked” Jack-Jack’s picture of Buzz and Woody. His mother and her friends would then feel truly connected and strengthen their emotional attachment to Toy Story.Fans should be encouraged to upload personal images to a fan page. A great example, Coca-Cola has more than 5000 fan photos posted by some of their more than 5 million Facebook fans. Yes, an element of caution is necessary, but not to the extent that monitoring the space could not make a difference. Pictures posted by fans on their personal pages should also be noticed, once tagged, they offer digital media teams the heads up.

Source: Facebook

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Hints for rewarding productive and fruitful engagements…Community managers can derive higher value from, and truly define, the importance of influence by keeping a few things in mind. Applaud and bring original content into play. Ensure content and timing are non intrusive. Strength of the connections between friends. Recognize how and when to re-engage, respond and praise.Adaptability…The purpose of social connections is to understand how people perceive your offerings and the behavioral context defined within their connec-tions. Preparing a sustainable system of information sharing/extraction is challenging, but certain to become the source for serious business decisions and future strategies.Filters must be in place to measure and effectively use evolving levels of dialogues. In order to determine what is meaningful, you will need to plan for engagement. An agile approach is required to react in real-time and provide clever stimuli with adaptive content. Authentic characteristics and “living” context will introduce new ideas, while defining alternative agendas for the future. Set strategic priorities and design with a flexible model. Creative content seeded at the most appropriate time. Genuine responses are worth more. Stimuli – a conductor of sharing and a method of tracking viral success.Power-up your socialscape’s connectedness…Understand influencers; define their alluring characteristics and atti-tudes. Pay attention to insightful responses and the perception of influ-encers. When and how people respond will offer important behavioral clues.Disruptions… Don’t just sweep difficult subjects under the rug. Use them to illustrate commitment to advancements and allow disruptions to guide productive learning.Create smart connections…Identify useful combinations across fragmented environments. Consent to open solutions incorporating additional sources of information Ring your friends into Pandora and discover the music they’re experiencing. Purchase behavior via facebook credits.

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Analysis –an important part of early planning…Determine the way social content will be used and the role of people in the decision making process. For instance, if you plan to align with in-fluencers; what levels of information and behavioral attributes will be required? Creating high-level data cycles will present informative oppor-tunities. Refine topics and understanding. Create relevant stimuli and promote unique positioning. Insight can easily be fed back into social environments for further clarification.Design and measure for continual disruption…The ability to interact with people across digital platforms has become an important part of business. Investments in social intelligence often focus on listening platforms and tools for facilitation used by Community man-agers. Listening platforms gather enormous amounts of data. Community managers must champion social communications and ex-tract meaning from active dialogues. But, how often are these dialogues truly interactive and how real are the responses? Does the insight gained from listening take part in other dialogues?The value of true qualitative analysis must be considered. The inten-sity of dialogues and the level of original content must be viewed from a trained perspective to understand and uncover deeper meaning and di-rection. Filters must be in place and aligned with what people are saying. Unbiased reflection of rich context / personalized content. Integrate with other sources of information. Continuously refine the process.

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