Tod Maffin2013-05-19T13:23:12-04:00Tod Maffinhttp://www.huffingtonpost.ca/author/index.php?author=tod-maffinCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Tod MaffinGood old fashioned elbow grease.Six Secret Nerd Tips to Get the Most Out of the Internettag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.32829632013-05-16T12:05:34-04:002013-05-16T12:05:42-04:00Tod Maffinhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/tod-maffin/Mailchimp, Hootsuite, and Buffer. But I use a bunch of amazing tools and sites that it seems nobody's heard of. Here are my secret weapons:
People mention your brand all the time on Twitter, and if you're responsible for tracking it, you may have your hands full. RowFeeder does one thing very well -- it simply logs every tweet mentioning your brand to a Google Spreadsheet. Once you set it up, it does all the work for you. You don't need to do anything else! Just log in and view your stats.
It also logs the person's location (as reported by their bio), the number of followers they have, and the number of people they follow. For a one-time fee, they'll add the user's Klout score to the spreadsheet.
You get a limited number of mentions logged per month but can pay for a premium account to get more.
FACEBOOK MARKETING: Edgerank Checker and PostAcumen
These are amazing tools for people who manage Facebook pages for their organization. Facebook's Insights lets you download a massive spreadsheet full of raw datapoints about likes and engagement. But you'll spend a day crunching those numbers to make any sense of it. These two tools do that heavy-lifting for you and help your brand's Facebook posts make it to the coveted News Feed of your fans. This is a paid tool, but you can discover your Pages' Edgerank score for free, track it over time, and get tips on how to improve visibility.
Boomerang is incredible. This one tool alone saves me about 20 hours per month. I am not exaggerating.
Used to be when I was emailing someone and wanted to make sure they got back to me, I made a little note for myself in my company's CRM system then manually entered a task in my to-do list. Then on that day, I'd have to load up the email thread and see if there's been a response.
Boomerang does that for me. Before I hit Send, I just click "If nobody replies, return this to me in ____ days." It works flawlessly. You can even schedule recurring email returns, track when people open your emails, and much more.
PEOPLE NETWORKING: Job Change Notifier
One of the great things about LinkedIn is that, if you add your colleagues, business partners, clients, and suppliers as connections, you can track when they move jobs, get promoted, and so on. But to do that, you've got to log into LinkedIn manually (or use Nimble CRM) to check. Job Change Notifier is a completely free service that will email you once a week with a list of people you're connected to who have changed jobs or got promoted. It's a great way to reach out to past clients or colleagues and keep in touch. Simple but awesome.
I do a lot of travelling for business. And maybe I'm just paranoid but I don't trust cab drivers. I've been taken for a ride -- literally -- more than a few times. I'll ask to go to the airport and I'll get there, but by an unnecessarily long and expensive route.
Now, when I get into a cab, I launch GPS Pal. It tracks and logs the route the cabbie is taking me in real time, using satellite tracking. I can watch it as we go (so that if it's clear we're taking a weird route, I can ask them what's going on) plus it will log the route the driver takes so that I've got proof to complain to the cab company if I've been ripped off. For the data nerds, it'll also log your average speed, total distance, time the trip took, and elevation.
This should be a mandatory app for all business travellers.
VOICEMAIL: Phonetag
I really, really hate voicemail. I hate seeing the little "You have a voicemail" light on the phone. I hate logging in. I hate listening to them. The world would be a better place if everyone just sent me an email. With Phonetag, you can get the best of both worlds. You tell your phone to forward all unanswered or out-of-range calls to a special number that Phonetag gives you, and when people land there it sounds like a regular voicemail. They leave a message for you and that's where the magic begins. Phonetag sends that message to an actual human being who transcribes the voicemail and emails you the text. This is far better than services like Google Voice which relies on automated (and usually flaky) transcription. You can pay by the message (35 cents each) or a monthly plan.
Google Alerts used to be a great way to track web and blog mentions of your company name (or anything you want, like your credit card number, your kids' names, etc.). But Google Alerts has been pretty much useless for the last month. It's clear that Google has let it grow mould.
Luckily, Mention has stepped up and provides a better service anyway. With Mention, you can track text online but you can also tell it to ignore certain sites (some sites give lots of false positive), get smartphone notifications, and add users to your account. You get a couple of hundred of hits from a month but can get more by referring friends or paying them.
This should be in the toolset of everyone who manages a brand. Or wants to check up on what your kids are saying online.
Want 24 More Nerd Tips? -- See the full presentation at http://www.todmaffin.com/30nerdtips]]>Why Bono and I Are, Basically, the Same Persontag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.30009302013-04-03T17:07:33-04:002013-04-03T17:35:43-04:00Tod Maffinhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/tod-maffin/
I know, it's really hard to tell. OK, so there might be some differences, but you can clearly see the similarity -- the orange glasses. Bono wears them because of a sensitivity to light. You should wear them too, but for an entirely different reason.
I'm Sure You've Heard the Advice.
They say if you want to get to sleep at night easier, you need to stop using your iPad or watching TV at least two hours before bed. The light, they say, keeps you awake.
I've found that to be true but, come on...give up reading my iPad at night? Stop watching Bait Car at midnight? Get real. That's just not going to happen.
The Science Behind Sleep vs. Technology
Here's why your phone, tablet, or television keeps you from sleeping: Exposure to daylight-coloured light (the kind that beams out of your digital devices) "causes the pineal gland to reduce production of melatonin." Melatonin is a hormone that makes you sleepy and lowers your body temperature.
In other words, use any digital device that beams light at you and you'll have trouble getting to sleep. (This, incidentally, is why e-ink Kindles are usually recommended for night-readers. They don't produce any light on their own.)
If you could block out these daylight colours (mostly blue colours), your body would produce melatonin like it should and you'll fall asleep easier. There's even research behind this.
Enter, Bono's Orange Glasses
This is exactly what orange glasses do. (I'm not talking about regular glasses with a slight orange tint -- I mean glasses that are very orange.) They block 95 per cent of blue- and daylight-coloured light from your eyes.
I've been wearing them for a while now and I can tell you it actually works. I wear them starting about two hours before I go to sleep, then I use my iPad lots, watch TV, etc. And I end up falling asleep way easier and faster than ever before.
And, more importantly, it makes me and Bono nearly indistinguishable from each other. As you can clearly see.
]]>Why My Mom Is a Better Community Manager Than Youtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.27610992013-02-26T17:42:38-05:002013-04-28T05:12:01-04:00Tod Maffinhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/tod-maffin/My firm manages the social media presences for a number of clients, helping build their fan base, drive higher engagement, and grow the community.
I was pretty proud of our track record and rightly so -- after four months of managing one of our clients' Facebook presence, their fans jumped 70 per cent, we more than doubled our reach, and quadrupled the number of viral shares.
And then I looked at my mom's little upstart hobby page. And I was immediately humbled.
My mom (@soulistry on Twitter), a retired Anglican priest, runs art-and-spirituality workshops out of her home studio. They're very popular on Vancouver Island (where she lives) and beyond. She's even had a book published carrying the Soulistry concept beyond the workshops and retreats.
Three years ago, I mentioned she should start a Facebook page to try to sell more books. She did -- facebook.com/soulistry. And in that time, she has developed a following of about 700 fans.
But, like most things in social media, it's not the fan-count that matters, it's how engaged the audience is.
My mom's engagement levels are off the chart. (When I say off the chart, I mean it. Of the 15 or so Facebook pages my firm manages, my mom's Page engagement rate was more than double that of our best Page -- which, for the record, was a major urban shopping centre.)
So I asked her a few questions.
The Interview:
First, congratulations on your success. Now knock it off. You're making me look bad.
Sorry, no can do. ;-)
What is your Page about?
The Soulistry (neologism for soul-artistry) Facebook page has a three-fold mission:
Encourage people to encounter the soul-essence of life in new ways and to connect spirituality & creativity
Quote-Collectors: People on a spiritual journey/interested in spirituality
What kind of content do you find generates the most engagement?
Three types: Content that is encouraging / spiritually nourishing / thought-provoking. Then, images. And then questions ('Soul-Questions') that connect content and image.
Have you ever posted something that people really hated?
I don't just post for the sake of posting. Each post intentionally focuses on one of the three parts of Soulistry's mission. Besides, I wouldn't post anything I wouldn't read or anything that I wouldn't find spiritually-nurturing or challenging, so, nope.
If you were starting out brand new today, what one thing would you do differently?
I'm in the process of launching a new Facebook page ("Celebrating Women Writers") and have been asking myself that very question. What I'm doing differently this time is simply a matter of wanting to make "something good, even better."
When I created the Soulistry page, I didn't do any of these at the beginning. I just let the page evolve. Now, I am intentional about following these steps with Soulistry and am focused on doing them with the Celebrating Women Writers FB page.
Hopefully, by doing so, the Celebrating Women Writers page will find an audience and have an equally-good (or even better) response than Soulistry is experiencing. And eventually the goal is that the page will lead to the creation of a linked-website (domain is already purchased and goals for the website are in place).
Here are six things I'm doing this time with the birth "Celebrating Women Writers" FB page that I didn't do at the launch of the Soulistry Facebook Page:
Think "kairos" not "chronos"; go slowly & let the reputation evolve.
Have an end goal or least some objectives in place before launching the FB page
Be proactive: continually tell new FB friends about the page and encourage the sharing of your posts by FB friends
Share (cross-post) when and where appropriate.
Close the post with a question for fans to consider.
Incorporate a photo with each post
An aside... I was including photos and questions from time to time, but not with any sense of intentionality. When I went to one of your workshops, I learned how vital they are in the development of a FB page so, questions are more frequent in each post and every post has an accompanying photo.
Lessons Learned: Audiences, Goals, and Time
The two most important takeaways, I think, are that she is laser-focused on working toward her three primary goals (inspire people, sell more books, promote her web site) and understands her audiences in sharply defined segments. Rather than just saying "My audience is writers," she defines the specific kinds of authors she wants to reach. She's not just going after "creative people," she's defining the kind of creative outlets those people like best.
And, perhaps the most important lesson she's learned -- these things take time. You can't just put up a page and expect results immediately. Revel in steady, consistent growth.
]]>Brand Engagement: Three Ways to Stay Ahead of the Curvetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.20362302012-10-30T12:45:44-04:002012-12-30T05:12:01-05:00Tod Maffinhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/tod-maffin/
But what will brand engagement look like in the future, and how do you stay a step ahead of trends?
1. Pay Close Attention to What "the Kids" Are Into
Young adults and teens are the tastemakers, citizens and customers of tomorrow -- and, depending on your market, your customers already. Take the time to understand what they're interested in, why it matters, and how that shapes their world view and influences their decisions. You don't need to run out and start listening to Justin Bieber but you do need to pay attention to overarching trends in order to help understand and predict future behaviour. If you can't keep up with young people now, you certainly will not be able to connect with them in 10 years.
2. Get App Happy
It's easy to stick to what we know; after all, we already know it, it's comfortable. With all sorts of different apps out there, how does one discern what's relevant and what's not? It all seems like a lot of work. Start experimenting with different apps and learn which ones your business can leverage to increase engagement and sales. It will help you stay up to date with how mobile trends are shaping customer experience and provide you with firsthand experience of how the apps work and what they can do. It's hard to explain why your company needs to start doing something if you don't have direct experience and understand the nuances of the technology.
3. Trust Your Sources
You don't need to subscribe to every single technology and social media resource out there but find a few that you like and stick to them. In order to see where things are going, it's important to have a grasp on what's happening now and you might be surprised at the ideas you come up with once you're inspired by what's happening. We like The Next Web, SocialFresh and TechCrunch. You may not become a tech genius overnight, but you'll definitely impress your colleagues with your latest knowledge of must-know trends in digital, not to mention an increased understanding of how they might affect your business down the road.
While there's no surefire way to know what the future has in store, there are definitely some ways to get a better feel for it, and they're not always traditional. Don't be afraid to use your imagination! Experiment with different things. One thing's for certain: the integration of technology into home and work continues to evolve and brands need to find new ways to fit into this convergence in a way that matters to audiences.
And if you're still a bit intimidated by how quickly things move, know that you're not alone, and the best way to feel in control is to keep learning.]]>Can a Loyalty Concierge Help Brands?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19596212012-10-15T12:22:34-04:002012-12-15T05:12:01-05:00Tod Maffinhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/tod-maffin/The worst part is the supermarket manager won't even see it coming.
A shopper will saunter over to the kitchen appliances section, whip out their smartphone, scan the UPC symbol on a food processor, and walk out.
What just happened? Their phone just looked up that processor and told the shopper where they can get it within a three-minute walk.
Welcome to the terrifying new world of retail and declining brand loyalty. (This, incidentally, is happening today. Amazon's "Price Check" app does exactly that and more are on the way.)
Maintaining customer loyalty has already become a huge issue in the digital economy and it'll become worse. Retailers will be forced to find new ways to connect with their customers to create lasting, sustainable relationships that can withstand a cheaper price around the block.
It won't be long before we begin seeing entirely new types of jobs dedicated to protecting your brand and fostering customer loyalty in the digital age. One such job we may soon start to see is that of a Loyalty Concierge. We all know the difference a human touch makes -- it's the difference between a mass-text and a personal call, someone answering the phone as opposed to an automated system, a meal prepared at home with someone you love as opposed to fast food from a chain restaurant. The concept of a Loyalty Concierge will be no different. Their job? To identify "loyalty sniping" and counteract it with a deal your customer simply can't resist.
BLAME THE CASINOS
Think about a big Las Vegas casino. Powering those hidden cameras is a huge artificial intelligence software engine; its only job is to identify deceptive patterns in people. A regular, non-deceptive guest might walk in, hover over a blackjack table, play a few rounds, then walk over to the food court. The software might recognize that as matching "Normal Pattern #287" in its database. Now take someone up to no good, who walks in a little faster than everyone else, immediately plays a single large-bet round in Roulette, cashes out, then walks quickly toward the exit -- "Deceptive Pattern #98." A security person would be directed to grab the bad guy. This exists today.
I think in the future, we'll have Loyalty Concierges whose job will be like that software -- to look for cues that a customer is considering making their purchase elsewhere by browsing deals on their smartphone.
Impeccable customer service will be the only way to get the ball back into your court.
Loss Prevention Officers will now be trained to spot people using loyalty sniping apps as much as they're on the hunt for shoplifters. And if they spot a potential sniping in play, they can offer items on the spot -- a coupon for future purchase, a gift, free delivery, free installation for large electronics -- anything that would convince someone to buy there rather than the place down the street who has it a little cheaper.
THE FUTURE OF THE NON-OPTIONAL DATABASE
Worse, for the retailer, this product/price-matching app is a database they must be in if they want to compete. Like today's business/location databases (owned by Yelp, Google, Foursquare, and others), if you're not in the app, you're losing customers. These apps, though, come with positives, including the ability to run extremely time-limited offers ("Get 20% off at the till if you buy within the next 15 minutes.") To say these will be game-changers is an understatement.
Regardless of how this plays out, one thing is clear -- maintaining a good connection between your brand and your customer won't be enough any more. You'll continually have to be strengthening it.
Brands that don't take that seriously may already be on their way to extinction.
Tod Maffin is president of engageQ digital in Toronto and Vancouver. His keynote presentation "One Click Away: Protecting Brand Loyalty in the Digital-Consumer Economy" covers this topic across a variety of industries.]]>How I Abandoned My Goals and Became Happiertag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19436982012-10-05T16:05:39-04:002012-12-05T05:12:01-05:00Tod Maffinhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/tod-maffin/
Here is how each of my weekdays unfolds: I sleep in. I feed my cats. I open my email and deal with it. Then, I start on whatever work is next on my to-do list.
Other than keeping a simple flat list of tasks and commitments I've made to my clients, I don't have any big plans, long-term goals, or great desires. I don't even have priorities or an order to my list of tasks. I do whatever is next on the list. Life is simpler that way.
And that -- in this age of extreme productivity -- freaks out many, many people.
Goals Are For Suckers
Of course, I want the same things as everyone -- financial stability, good health, and everlasting love. But I'm amazed at how many books, applications, podcasts, and blogs there are that all say essentially the same thing: You should first map out your entire life then work toward each goal in a series of well-planned steps.
Well, here's the harsh truth for you: Life sucks and Murphy's in charge. Have all the goals you want; they'll always get derailed. Life isn't about avoiding the potholes; life is about dealing with them the best you can.
Instead, I Have Fallbacks
I used to program computer code. In all well-written software, there exists a series of fallbacks. In simplified form, the code looks like this:
IF TASK 1 FAILS, GO TO FALLBACK 1
FALLBACK 1 = CHANGE DIRECTION
IF FALLBACK 1 FAILS, GO TO FALLBACK 2
So instead of goals, I keep a small mental list of computer-code fallbacks -- things I could do if everything falls to pieces. If my speaking career dies out suddenly, what would I do for an income? What jobs would I like to do? Who do I know that could help me get them? I revisit this list in my head every couple of months, then feel completely at ease. I know that if everything goes to hell, I'll be okay. Then, I don't need to worry about marching steadily toward a set list of prioritized tasks -- I just take each day as it comes.
Story continues after the slideshow...
Some days I work really well and am super-productive (like this week) and other days I can't get started to save my life. On those days, I stop working, make popcorn, curl up with my cats, and watch bad reality TV. And try again tomorrow.
It is incredibly freeing and I've never been happier.
Negative is the New Positive
People have told me that focusing on "negative" fallbacks (how to respond when something bad happens) will bring negative energy into my life. Nonsense. There is no such thing as positive or negative energy (or homeopathy, for that matter, but that's another blog post).
There is only life. Life is nothing but falling and getting up. Each fallback is a chance for me to get back up -- and each time I do that I get stronger.
So one day -- just one day this month -- drop your to-do list and follow your curiosity. Surf link to link to sites you find interesting. Play. Dream.
The work will still be there when you get back. And so will you -- even stronger than you were before.
Tod Maffin is president of engageQ digital, a digital marketing agency in Toronto and Vancouver.]]>
