The New Community Rules

The New Community Rules

by Tamar Weinberg
Released July 2009
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596156817

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Book description

Blogs, networking sites, and other examples of the social web provide businesses with a largely untapped marketing channel for products and services. But how do you take advantage of them? With The New Community Rules, you'll understand how social web technologies work, and learn the most practical and effective ways to reach people who frequent these sites.

Written by an expert in social media and viral marketing, this book cuts through the hype and jargon to give you intelligent advice and strategies for positioning your business on the social web, with case studies that show how other companies have used this approach.

The New Community Rules will help you:

  • Explore blogging and microblogging, and find out how to use applications such as Twitter to create brand awareness
  • Learn the art of conversation marketing, and how social media thrives on honesty and transparency
  • Manage and enhance your online reputation through the social web
  • Tap into the increasingly influential video and podcasting market
  • Discover which tactics work -- and which don't -- by learning about what other marketers have tried

Many consumers today use the Web as a voice. The New Community Rules demonstrates how you can join the conversation, contribute to the community, and bring people to your product or service.

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Table of contents

  1. The New Community Rules
  2. Dedication
  3. Foreword
  4. Preface
    1. Organization of the Material
    2. Questions and Comments
    3. Safari® Books Online
    4. Acknowledgments
  5. 1. An Introduction to Social Media Marketing
    1. Where We Are Now
    2. What Is Social Media Marketing?
      1. Bringing Traffic to Your Website
      2. Driving Relevant Links to Your Website
      3. Making Consumers Brand-Aware
      4. Driving Conversions
      5. Triggering Conversations
    3. What Makes “Social Media” Marketing Different?
      1. Social Media Marketing Is a Cheap Alternative to Traditional Marketing—with High Returns
        1. Where is my return on investment?
        2. Measuring success
    4. A Brief Introduction to Social Media Portals
      1. Social News Sites
      2. Social Bookmarking Sites
      3. Social Networks
      4. Everything Else
    5. The Web As a Means of Giving Consumers a Voice
    6. It’s Time to Join the Conversation
    7. Content Is Not King (Not by Itself, at Least)
    8. Are You Ready for Social Media Marketing?
      1. You Must Be Willing to Give Up Control of the Message
      2. You Must Be Willing to Dedicate Time and Energy to Achieve These Goals
    9. So What’s Next?
    10. Summary
  6. 2. Goal Setting in a Social Environment
    1. The Hurdle: Overcoming Fear About an Uncontrolled Message
      1. Transparency Is Critical
      2. Listening Is Required
    2. Asking the Right Questions: Setting Goals for Your Campaign
      1. Increased Traffic
        1. What does increased traffic do for you?
        2. There’s just one catch…
      2. Increased Brand Awareness
      3. Improved Search Engine Rankings
      4. Reputation Management
      5. Increased Sales in Your Product or Service
      6. Established Thought Leadership
      7. Social Media Marketing Scenarios
        1. Scenario: An online publication seeks additional page views and traffic
        2. Scenario: You have a product and want to get the word out
        3. Scenario: A search for your company name yields negative pages listed in the first four search results
        4. Scenario: You’re an expert on a particular subject and want to share your advice with the world
    3. Making Your Goals SMART
      1. Specific
      2. Measurable
      3. Attainable
      4. Realistic
      5. Timely
    4. Researching Your Social Media Community
      1. Who Is Likely to Buy My Product or Participate in My Service Offering?
      2. What Websites Are They Visiting Online?
      3. What Are People Saying About My Business and My Competitors?
      4. What Tools and Services Does My Target Audience Use on a Regular Basis?
      5. What Kind of Content Does My Audience Prefer to Read?
    5. Formulating Your Strategy
      1. Are You Ready to Handle Possible Negative Backlash?
      2. How Will My Employees Integrate Social Media Strategy into Their Day Jobs?
      3. Are You Willing to Take Risks and Experiment?
    6. When Should I Pursue Social Media Marketing?
    7. Summary
  7. 3. Achieving Social Media Mastery: Networking and Implementing Strategy
    1. When Is It Appropriate Not to Respond at All?
    2. How Do You Monitor the Conversation?
      1. Free Tools
      2. Paid Tools
      3. Other Channels
    3. You’re Listening—What Now?
      1. Make Sure You’re Being Real!
    4. Planning Your Social Media Strategy
      1. Determine Your Desired End Result
      2. Determine Your Resource Needs
      3. Brainstorm with Your Team
        1. Mind mapping
        2. Navigate the red tape
    5. Networking Within a Social Medium
    6. Understanding and Listening to Your Audience
      1. The Newcomer’s Parable
      2. Help Your Friends
    7. The Importance of Giving
    8. Community Managers
    9. Power Accounts
      1. Ten Commandments of Power Account Submitters
        1. #1: Thou shalt distinguish thyself with an avatar
        2. #2: Thou shalt be genuine
        3. #3: Thou shalt network
        4. #4: Thou shalt submit high-quality stories to the social sites
        5. #5: Thou shalt be fast
        6. #6: Thou shalt study the sources that have achieved greatness on social sites to understand what the community likes
        7. #7: Thou shalt dedicate time to the task
        8. #8: Thou shalt help thine friends
        9. #9: Thou shalt use consistent account names over all social networks
        10. #10: Thou shalt use other social networks for inspiration
      2. Should I Become a Power User?
    10. Summary
  8. 4. Participation Is Marketing: Getting into the Game
    1. The Cluetrain Manifesto: Markets Are Conversations
    2. The “Participation Is Marketing” Phenomenon
      1. Participation Is Marketing for Public Relations Professionals
    3. Graco Baby Case Study: “Participation Is Marketing” Translates to Brand Awareness and Exposure
    4. Tyson Foods Case Study: We Have a Blog and We’ll Use It for Good
    5. The Home Depot Case Study: Tapping into the Mindshare of Valued Customers
    6. Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse Case Study: The Steakhouse That Engages Online Everywhere
    7. Reputation Management
    8. Network Solutions Case Study: Reputation Management by Listening
    9. Reputation Management Monitoring: 12 Reputations You Should Monitor Online
    10. Considering a Reputation Management Strategy
    11. Summary
  9. 5. Using Blogs to Communicate, Influence, and Learn from Your Constituents
    1. A Short History of Blogging
    2. The History of Blogs, 1998–2009: Who Is Writing and Who Is Reading?
    3. Blogs As Online Influencers
    4. How Blogs Are Consumed
      1. Direct Hits
      2. RSS
      3. Blogs via Email
    5. A Beginner’s Guide to Blog Platforms
      1. Features and Functionality
      2. Blogging Platforms
      3. What Software Should You Use?
    6. Writing for Blog Audiences
      1. Crafting the Blog’s Voice
      2. Techniques and Tactics
        1. Use visual elements to capture attention
        2. Keep it clean and to the point
        3. Link to appropriate sources
        4. Write powerful headlines
        5. Provide reader-friendly lists
        6. Write informative how-to articles
        7. Use storytelling to your advantage
        8. Use interviews to encourage engagement credibility
        9. Write reviews of relevant products or services
        10. Use regular features to build a following
        11. Listen to your readers
        12. Don’t abandon your readers
      3. Content Strategies for Bloggers: How to Find Inspirational Content
        1. Google Alerts
        2. Other blogs
        3. Blog search
        4. Social bookmarking
        5. News stories
        6. Google Trends and Insights
      4. Blog Enhancements That Work
        1. Widgets
        2. Visuals
        3. Videos
        4. Comments
      5. Involve Your Audience
        1. Ask your readers
        2. Utilize contact forms
        3. Keep the comments open
        4. Hold regular contests
        5. Run polls and surveys
    7. How Blogs Are Discovered
      1. Blog Directories
      2. Blog Carnivals
      3. Memes
      4. Social Media
      5. Writing Projects
    8. What to Do If Your Corporate Policy Disallows Blogging
      1. Get Other Bloggers to Talk About You
      2. Develop a Corporate Social Media Strategy
        1. Corporate Social Media Strategy for Blogging
    9. Summary
  10. 6. Microblogging Magic: How Twitter Can Transform Your Business
    1. A History of Twitter
    2. Twitter for Business Is Born
    3. Using Twitter
    4. How to Achieve Business Goals Through Twitter
      1. Using Twitter to Generate Sales: The Big Guns
      2. Using Twitter to Generate Sales: The Smaller Companies
      3. Using Twitter for Customer Service
        1. The Comcast story
        2. The JetBlue story
      4. Using Twitter for Brand Awareness
        1. The Zappos story
      5. Using Twitter for Client Acquisition
        1. The Verizon story
      6. Using Twitter As an Official Communications Channel
    5. Other Business Uses of Twitter
      1. Build a Personal Brand and Establish Thought Leadership
      2. Get Feedback Instantly
      3. Network with Like-Minded Individuals
      4. Job-Hunt, Organize Events, and More!
    6. Tools of the Twitter Trade
      1. Twitter Clients
      2. URL Shorteners
      3. Twitter Trends
      4. Twitter Personal Statistics
      5. Searching for People to Follow
      6. Maintaining (or Scrapping) Friendships
      7. Twitter Search
      8. Mobile Applications
    7. Summary
  11. 7. Getting Social: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Other Social Networks
    1. Introduction to Social Networking Sites
    2. Facebook: The Digital You
      1. Profile Customization and Blog Posts
      2. The Facebook “Product” Page: Aligning with Your Favorite Brands
        1. Personalizing your Facebook Page
        2. Sharing your Facebook Page with your company
        3. Sharing your Facebook Page with the community
      3. Paid Advertising on Facebook
      4. Facebook Groups, User Profiles, or Fan Pages?
      5. Facebook Applications for Marketing
    3. MySpace: Personalized Connections
      1. Creating Your MySpace Profile
      2. Adding a Blog to Your Profile
      3. Networking and Broadcasting Your Profile to the World
      4. Don’t Be Forgotten!
      5. Is MySpace Marketing Worth It?
    4. Getting Professional with LinkedIn
      1. LinkedIn Answers: Showing Off Your Expertise
      2. Recommend Experts
      3. LinkedIn User Groups: Connecting Users Based on Interests and Associations
        1. Considerations when creating a LinkedIn group
        2. Communication within LinkedIn groups
      4. LinkedIn Company Groups
      5. LinkedIn Applications
      6. LinkedIn DirectAds
    5. The Big Social Networks Abroad
    6. Summary
  12. 8. Informing Your Public: The Informational Social Networks
    1. Human-Edited Social Search
      1. Wikipedia: The Living Encyclopedia
        1. Structure of a Wikipedia entry
          1. Article text
          2. Discussion
          3. History
          4. Other Wikipedia features
        2. Wikipedia social media optimization
        3. Use caution when editing Wikipedia
          1. Wikipedia is not an appropriate place to build links
          2. Avoid spamming on Wikipedia: You will get caught
          3. The contents of Wikipedia belong to the public
          4. Build relationships
      2. Mahalo: The Best of the Web
        1. The structure of Mahalo
        2. Contributing to Mahalo
        3. Mahalo Greenhouse: Curating a search page
        4. Mahalo Social: The community of contributors
        5. Mahalo Answers: Ask and ye shall find
    2. Choosing the Best Answers: Using Yahoo! Answers for Social Media Marketing
      1. Promote Your Business on Yahoo! Answers
      2. Give Back to the Community
      3. Find Questions to Answer
      4. Associate Yourself with Your Business
      5. You’re Encouraged to Self-Promote!
      6. Keep Abreast of the Latest Questions, and Answer Away
    3. Other Q&A Websites to Be Considered in a Social Media Marketing Strategy
    4. Knowledge Is Power
    5. Create Your Own Wiki
    6. Summary
  13. 9. Leaving Your Mark: How to Rock the Social Bookmarking Space
    1. A Timeline: The Past, Present, and Future
      1. The Past: Bookmarking Without the Help of Social Sites
      2. The Present: Socially Shared
      3. The Future: A Likely Integration into Search Results
    2. Using Social Bookmarking Sites
      1. StumbleUpon: A Content Discovery Engine with Bookmarking Features
        1. Signing up with StumbleUpon
        2. Using StumbleUpon: Toolbar basics
        3. Sharing your content with all your friends in one fell swoop
        4. Stumbling and reviewing content
        5. Understanding a StumbleUpon user page
        6. Interacting with tags
      2. delicious.com: One Social Bookmarking Site to Rule Them All
        1. How delicious.com aids in understanding your brand
        2. How delicious.com aids in content discovery
        3. Social media marketing and delicious.com: What you need to know
      3. Diigo: A Promising Contender for the Researcher
    3. Other Social Bookmarking Sites
      1. Mento: A Small but Promising Tool
      2. Twine: Interest-Based Information Discovery
      3. Mister Wong: Multilingual Social Bookmarking
    4. Summary
  14. 10. Social News Brings You Page Views
    1. The Wisdom of Crowds
      1. Social News Is “Social”
    2. What Is Social News?
    3. What Are Social News Websites?
      1. Factors That Influence Social News Front Page Promotion
        1. The user
        2. The diversity of voters
        3. The number of votes
        4. Speed of votes
        5. The story’s category
        6. The number of negative votes
        7. The number of comments received
        8. The time the story was submitted
      2. Winning on Social News Sites
        1. Build your power account
        2. Build the right content
        3. Can social news promotion really further my social media marketing goals?
    4. The Big Players in Social News
      1. General Social News Sites
        1. Digg
        2. reddit
        3. Mixx
        4. Shoutwire
        5. Propeller
        6. Fark
        7. Yahoo! Buzz
        8. socialmedian
      2. Topical Social News Sites
        1. kirtsy
        2. Tip’d
        3. Sphinn
        4. Slashdot
        5. Hacker News
        6. Small Business Brief
        7. WeHeartGossip
        8. DesignFloat
        9. Care2
      3. The Pros and Cons of Social Bookmarking and Social News
    5. Summary
  15. 11. New Media Tactics: Photography, Video, and Podcasting
    1. Using Your Pictures to Market Yourself
      1. Flickr: Your One-Stop Shop for Image Sharing
        1. Signing up for a Flickr account
        2. Flickr’s community features
        3. Creative Commons: Licensing your images for sharing
        4. The popularity of your pictures: Flickr’s statistics
        5. “Marketing” on Flickr
      2. Other Photo-Sharing Contenders
      3. Photoblogs and Galleries: Dedicated Portals for Images
        1. Pixelpost
        2. Gallery
        3. Coppermine
    2. Beyond Stationary: The Video Marketing Guide
      1. Marketing on YouTube
        1. Creating your video
        2. Tips to promote your video on YouTube
        3. Find out how your video is performing
      2. Other Video-Sharing Sites
      3. The Art of Videoblogging
    3. Evangelizing Content Producers Through Photos and Video
    4. The Emergence of Podcasting and the Podcast Today
      1. How Do I Start My Own Podcast?
      2. How Do I Promote My Podcast?
    5. Summary
  16. 12. Sealing the Deal: Putting It All Together
    1. Identification: Telling People Who You Are
    2. The Social Media Workflow
    3. Revisiting Return on Investment
      1. Reach
      2. Frequency and Traffic
      3. Influence
      4. Conversions and Transactions
      5. Sustainability
    4. Am I Done Yet?
      1. Committing Yourself for the Long Term
      2. Never Stop Listening
      3. Remember the Community
    5. Strategizing in Social Media Communities
      1. Your Blog Is Your Hub of Communication
      2. Build Your Brand on Other Social Properties
      3. Keep Your Options Diverse: Don’t Fixate on One Community
      4. Adopt a Social Media Mindset
      5. Build Those Strong Relationships
    6. Thinking Outside Social Media Communities: Face-to-Face Interactions
    7. Fostering Creativity Online
      1. Viral Strategy #1: Lists
      2. Viral Strategy #2: The Quiz or Questionnaire
      3. Viral Strategy #3: Participatory and Interactive Video or Games
      4. Viral Strategy #4: Tell a Story with Images
      5. Viral Strategy #5: Build a Tool
      6. Viral Strategy #6: Teach Your Users How to Do Something
    8. Encourage “Old-School” Tactics, Too
    9. The Bottom Line
    10. Summary
  17. A. The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook
    1. Facebook
    2. Twitter
    3. LinkedIn
    4. Social News—Digg, Sphinn, Mixx, Reddit, Tip’d (and a Whole Load of Related Sites)
    5. FriendFeed
    6. YouTube
    7. StumbleUpon
    8. Blogging and Commenting
    9. Other Social Sites
    10. Finally, a Word on Social Media Etiquette in General
    11. Conclusion
  18. B. Recommended Reading
    1. Recommended Books
    2. Blogroll
  19. Index
  20. About the Author
  21. Colophon
  22. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: The New Community Rules
  • Author(s): Tamar Weinberg
  • Release date: July 2009
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596156817