RickyCadden.com

Churches Going Social

// November 13th, 2011 // 1 Comment » // communication, Social Networks

I wrote previously about my church using SMS to add to the sermon experience, so I wasn’t too surprised to see this added to the information card that’s part of our bulletin:

In addition to the regular information that you’re invited to share, our church now has fields for you to fill in your Facebook or Twitter username, which is quite interesting. I immediately wondered how they would use this for outreach, which led me to wonder if our church has a Facebook or Twitter profile. Turns out, they have both Twitter and Facebook. (Personal note: I need to find out who manages these). Interestingly enough, there is no mention of these accounts in the bulletin, nor is there a link from the church’s website (http://www.mckinneychurch.com). It could be that they’re in ‘soft-launch’ mode, but still interesting.

So, back to the original thought: What would I expect to ‘get’ from the church by sharing my Facebook/Twitter username on this form? If I had thought more about it during service, I would have put my usernames down to see if they would follow. I’m interested to find out how they use this info. If YOU had put your information down, what would YOU expect to get from the church?

And, back to the second thought, what would I expect to see on the social profiles of my church? Reading through, it looks like they just share reminders about various events, prayer requests (when appropriate to share), and some teasers to get me in the door on Sunday. Good stuff, but a bit light.

How does your church use social media?

Engadget Suggests You Follow Me On Twitter

// June 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // blogging, cool

Although I resisted at first, preferring the now-basically-defunct Jaiku, Twitter has become an awesome tool for many purposes. Most of my ‘normal’ friends think it’s silly, but pretty much all of my techie friends are on there, and we all use Twitter for different things. I actually run two separate Twitter accounts – a personal one and a more professional one – both of which were listed in Engadget’s recent ‘Who Should I Follow’ cellphone edition post, listing the best Twitter accounts to follow if you’re a cellphone enthusiast.

@Rcadden is my personal Twitter account, where I talk about anything and everything that I want, normally about cellphones and mobile technology, as well as social media and my own personal life. It’s a great honor to have my personal account listed, and I’m glad to know that other respect my views on various things. Beware – I also use my personal Twitter account as a lifestream, which means anything I can pull into it – Foursquare, photos, videos, last.fm, etc – is pulled in, so it can get a bit noisy at times.

@SymbianGuru is my professional account, the official twitter account for Symbian-Guru.com, the site I created and run (with TONS of help from @khouryrt, @wampyre, and @schawlaf) covering everything you need to know about Symbian. There are hundreds of Symbian fansites out there, and it’s really awesome to know that we’ve built Symbian-Guru.com into one of the top places to go if you want to know more about what’s happening in the Symbian ecosystem. The twitter feed is manned by both me and @khouryrt, so it may seem to offer differing points of view at times, but we’re both passionate about Symbian, and you’ll also get updates from the site, as well as other commentary there, too. If you’re interested in Symbian, you should definitely follow us. @SymbianGuru is one of two dedicated Symbian sites listed by Engadget, (the other being the awesome AllAboutSymbian) and that’s definitely a huge honor.

If we’re not friends on Twitter, yet, pick an account (or friend me on both) to keep in touch. What do you use Twitter for?

Buying A Car – A Social Media Experiment

// May 13th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Social Networks

As you know, I’m quite into using Social Media for various things – it’s an awesome way to connect with both people and companies. Mrs. Guru and I were recently in the car market – we’ve been borrowing a truck from my dad for several months (while we bought CasaGuru), and have paid a few things off, so we were ready to purchase her a car (so I can have my own truck back!). To see just how well social media works for local business, I posted on both Twitter and Facebook that I was looking to make a purchase, to see how well local businesses use those mediums to connect with me.

It actually didn’t started out so well – I purchased my truck from Jerry’s Weatherford 4 years ago, so I hopped onto their website, and was pleased to see a Twitter icon in the header – I tweeted an @reply to them, to see how well they engaged, but discovered that the twitter account is no longer even there! I can’t help but wonder what happened, and whether they’re looking for a new social media guy….

As I have over 1k followers on my personal account, many of which are in the DFW area, I went ahead and tweeted this (and also cross-posted it to Facebook):

By Thursday (5 days later) and I had yet to get a response on either Twitter or Facebook to either post. It’s fascinating that in this market, with auto sales so competitive, not a single dealership in the Dallas/Fort Worth market apparently has anyone monitoring Twitter to find people who are shopping for cars. I saw another friend on Facebook post that she’s shopping for a car, as well – I wonder if she got any responses from people who could actually help her do so?

After an entire week, I hadn’t received a single response from either Twitter or Facebook. We ended up doing it the old-fashioned way – drove to a couple of dealerships and let my wife wander around till she found something she liked. We test drove a few models, then settled on one.

So, how could area dealerships have made use of Social Media tools like Twitter and Facebook to generate actual, measurable foot traffic to their stores and let their salespeople convert those to sales? Here are a few ways:

1. Have the Internet Sales Manager or Marketing Manager setup the proper accounts – it wouldn’t take much to put together a nice, informative background and Twitter account, as well as a Facebook page for the dealership. Simply having the accounts setup and properly designed is a huge step so that someone searching either Facebook or Twitter would see that the dealership is out there (in addition to boosting search engine results, as more and more search engines look at social networks for ‘real time’ results). Perhaps even hiring a specific person to monitor the dealership’s online brand on a few popular social media sites.

2. Tweet a few ‘hot deals’ each week – you would want to be careful that this doesn’t get spammy, but it wouldn’t hurt to post a Twitter update/Facebook status of the hottest car you have in the lot – might be an awesome price, rare vehicle, or whatever. Anything that might catch someone’s eye. It’s the same thing that dealerships already do with their TV and print ads, only more real-time.

3. Monitor searches – apps such as Tweetdeck, Seesmic, etc are great for updating these accounts and also monitoring search keywords – in my case, if they were searching ‘dfw car dealerships’, they might have found that I’m local and ready to make a purchase – 2 key obstacles for an auto salesperson to overcome. A simple @reply or email would have let me know that they’re out there and willing to help me find what I’m looking for.

That’s just three simple things that any car dealership – large or small – could do to instantly generate more interest and awareness of the used vehicles they have. It’s a shame that none of them are doing this, as it’s such an easy way to increase sales and build those ever-important relationships with consumers.

Back On The Hunt

// September 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Social Networks

After a few consulting projects here and there, I’m back on the hunt for exciting opportunities to use my skills. I’m really looking for companies who need my help in setting up an online presence using Social Media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and others. I would also love to join with companies who are already utilizing some of these tools, to help them explore how they can improve the relationships that they are already building.

The most exciting thing about using Social Media tools, in my opinion, is that they actually free you up from being stuck in front of a computer all day. Any cell phone on the market today can access Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or nearly any other social media tool that you’re using, so that you can interact on the go. It’s a fantastic example of technology enriching and enabling our real lives.

Twitter is, by far, one of the most popular tools that companies are using to interact with current and potential customers. Major companies such as Dell and AT&T are employing teams of people to simply monitor Twitter, and directly interact with consumers who are expressing issues with Dell computers or AT&T’s service. These Twitter Teams are able to quickly act to resolve situations, and it seems to be paying off.

I’ve also noticed other companies who simply reach out to say thanks. In the past few months, I’ve tweeted about great experiences with OpenTable.com, Discount Tires, and more, only to quickly receive a ‘thanks’ via Twitter. It’s not much, but it feels great to know that these companies are listening, and more importantly, talking back.

If your company is trying to make sense of all this social media mumbo-jumbo, or if you know someone who is, please do let me know (or point them here). I’d love to chat with them, to see how I can help them work smarter to better engage directly with their current and potential customers.

Big (D)esign Conference 2009 Recap

// June 1st, 2009 // 4 Comments » // marketing

If you follow me on Twitter , you know that this weekend I attended the Big (D)esign Conference in Dallas. I actually volunteered for a few hours in exchange for free admittance, which was well worth it. I showed up a bit early and got to help the Microsoft guys unload their Surface demo, which was *way* cool, and also spent some time ‘building’ the cool little notepads, part of the swag that attendees received. I was able to attend several sessions, each of which taught me something different, all of which I’ll be able to apply towards managing the Symbian-Guru community.

The opening keynote featured Norm Cox, who helped design the original Xerox ‘Star’ user interface, years before Apple or Microsoft had their GUIs. It was fascinating listening to the history of these interfaces that are so commonplace today. One thing that stuck out was a story about the icons they developed. At one point, Norm said they asked someone to draw an icon to show a new message had arrived. The first submission was an actual scene with an envelope – compete with arms, legs, and a face – bursting in through a door. Not quite what they’d wanted. Similarly, when they created the first printer icon, what seemed so obvious to his team was misconstrued by others as a Kleenex box. It reminded me that imagery is powerful, and not always crystal-clear.

The next session was Dr. Susan Weinschenk, who wrote ‘Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click ‘. Susan has done quite a bit of research into people’s behaviours, and the things that influence our actions. It was really fascinating, as she did an awesome job of tying the research into case studies. Translating this into community management is easy, as the goal is to get people to get more involved. Things like user choice are influenced not only by the number of choices presented, but also what order those choices are in, and whether the choice is made individually, or within a group.

Next up was Giovanni Galluci, self-proclaimed Social Media Ninja , discussing how to unleash the power of social marketing. Giovanni had some great tips on how to use various tools for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media sites to optimize your SEO and increase your business. One of the key points in Giovanni’s presentation was ‘Don’t get wrapped up in technology – get wrapped up in treating people well.’ This is really key for any community manager, as your core job is to build the community. You simply cannot have a community without people in it, and they won’t stay or come back if you don’t treat them right.

Erica O’Grady was up next, and I’ll confess, I really only attended her session because she had Van Wilder in the title. however, it turned out to be an excellent decision. Dubbed ‘Van Wilder’s Guide To Social Media’, Erica presented a number of great tips on using Social Media responsibly. One of the best tips that I pulled out was to make people important. It’s habitual in Social Media to focus on ‘influencers’, wihch can be good, but there are a ton of others that could be bigger advocates for you, and you don’t want to leave them aside.

Finally, Robert Wiseman’s presentation on ‘Future Proof Designs + Presentations for THIS Generation’ was awesome. I think the nugget that I picked up there was aimed towards developers, but it still applies. Robert gave an example of landscape designers who sometimes will purposefully not pave a path from the sidewalk to the building. Instead, they’ll wait to see the track that gets created as people make their own paths, and then pave over that. It’s key to sometimes let your users dictate how you should approach a situation or implement a new feature.

All in all, the Big (D)esign Conference was completely worth getting up super-early on a Saturday and spending all day in Dallas. I met a ton of cool, local people, and learned so much that I wasn’t able to share here. It was a smashing success, and something I will certainly attend next year, without question. Great job to the team who put things together.

5 Ways To Use Twitter To Increase Traffic

// May 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // marketing, Social Networks

Twitter is a powerful tool, but you can waste quite a bit of time there, as well. I’ve been using Twitter to drive traffic to Symbian-Guru.com for several months now, and thought I would share a few of the things that are working well. It’s important to note that simply having a large number of followers does not guarantee your brand will be successful on Twitter. You have to use the tool properly if you want to be able to get a solid return on the investment of time and resources.

Below are five tips that have helped increase traffic from Twitter to Symbian-Guru.com:

1. Build your profile. Just like your site’s homepage is where you make a first impression, your Twitter profile is often a deciding factor when someone is considering clicking on that ‘Follow’ button. Fill it out completely.

2. Feed your blog. There are a number of tools to automate this, but it’s helpful to have your site’s RSS feed coming into your Twitter feed. Readers can more easily get to your site that way, and good posts often get retweeted by your readers, which means more potential visitors.

3. ENGAGE. Set aside a bit of time every day to interact with people on Twitter. Do a few keyword searches, and find people who are asking questions that you can answer. Helping others is one of the best ways to build respect and authority in your field, and will increase the likelihood that they will visit your site to see what else you know.

4. Retweet others in your niche. This is similar to linking to them from your blog – it builds your rapport, and increases the likelihood that they’ll return the favor eventually.

5. Help your readers use Twitter. If you’re on Twitter, that likely means that you think your readers are, too. Regardless of your niche, do a few posts on how they can better use Twitter. If you blog about mobile, show how to use Twitter on their mobiles. If you blog about quilting circles, share how Twitter can help organize the next meet, or get answers to tricky quilting questions. If your readers aren’t using Twitter, then why are you?

While this is clearly not a complete guide, it should get you started. Using these tips and more, traffic from Twitter.com to Symbian-Guru.com has grown 27% over the past 30 days, and ranks in the top 10 sources of traffic for the site. Social media tools such as Twitter can be extremely valuable, if you know how to use them properly. They can also easily be abused, alienating your current or potential customers.

Ricky Cadden is available to help you use Social Media tools such as Twitter to grow your brand by authentically engaging with your current and potential customers as the experience your brand. You can read more about Ricky’s skills here, or contact him at Ricky(at)RickyCadden(dot)com.

I’m Currently Seeking Opportunities

// May 5th, 2009 // 6 Comments » // marketing

I’m currently seeking opportunities. After nearly 5 years of advertising, sales, online marketing, blogging, and social media, mainly for myself, I’ve realized that it’s high time I share my wealth of knowledge and experience with other companies. I know for a fact that I need to be in either a mobile- or internet-related position. Regardless of my personal passions, I’m firmly convinced that these industries are the way forward, and that these venues provide some fascinating possibilities to the companies that can appropriately and effectively harness the power that lies therein. I have been an avid mobile web user since WAP v1.0, and firmly believe that people who don’t see the value of mobile internet access simply haven’t been shown the appropriate reason yet.

So, what can I do? I’ve gained quite a good working knowledge of WordPress, vBulletin, and various aspects that surround setting up and managing an online community, and have done quite well with Symbian-Guru.com, boosting it into one of the top 5 resources within the Symbian community.

I’ve also been working to improve my existing skills with various ways to use Twitter and other social media tools to build and maintain a brand. This pairs nicely with my B.B.A. in Marketing and Management from Abilene Christian University. I spent 2 years at Time Warner Cable Media Sales, learning and gaining valuable experience in how major companies can use (and misuse) cable television to communicate with customers, and realized then that cable advertising misses one of the key factors of success in marketing – being able to actually *interact* with consumers, rather than just yell at them louder than the previous advertisement they encountered.

I believe I would do exceptionally well at building and maintaining a brand’s online reputation, by using my marketing expertise and social media know-how to build relationships with current and potential customers through geniune interaction. I would also do a fantastic job consulting with companies who may already have a community manager, but need to know where to go from there. I’ve built or helped build several blogs, and would love to help companies do the same – using my best practices to quickly get things up and running, and help to make ‘blogging’ an easy thing to understand. Along these lines, I would also like to share my knowledge and skills surrounding social media, and how to effectively use tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and others, without breaking your budget.

If you or someone you know is looking for assistance in these areas, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email (Ricky(a)RickyCadden.com). You can find out more about me here, as well, including my full resume.