Today I’m privileged to feature a wonderful social web success story from my friend Imad Naffa.  He recently told me about being re-tweeted by Queen Rania of Jordan and how he increased his business by 25 percent in six months through Twitter alone.  I hope you enjoy learning from Imad as much as I have:

Imad, first tell us about your famous tweet and how it was picked up by the queen.

I left Jordan to come to the US in 1980. I headed straight to Fresno State in California, and enrolled in the Civil Engineering program. I was 17, so I was old enough to have a lot of memories of growing up in Amman (the capital of Jordan).   During those years I met one of Amman’s cultural icons, the “Peanut Man” and I posted my experience on my Blog.

I knew Queen Rania of Jordan was active on social media and had numerous followers. I wrote her via Twitter to let her know of my blog post about the “Peanut Man.”  Since the Jordan Times, a local Jordanian Newspaper, wrote about him, I figured the Queen would be interested in the post I added. Sure enough, she re-tweeted my post.  In a follow up post, she noted that she met him, was sad of his passing away, and added a picture of her and the Peanut Man in downtown Amman. The picture appears in my blog post (and above).

You told me your tweet went crazy.   How did you know it went viral?

Queen Rania has about 1.2 million Twitter followers. Once she re-tweeted my blog post, I noticed dozens of re-tweets of her post. Obviously, her followers picked up on the story and wanted to share with their followers. Most of the people that re-tweeted the Queen’s post were new visitors to my account.

Did the Queen follow you back?

Queen Rania is not following me at this time.  We communicated via @messages. I post on technical topics, social media and world affairs. I’m afraid I post too much and will overwhelm the Queen’s account if she was to follow me. She only follows 56 people!

You have a large and loyal following, Imad.  How did you build your Twitter audience?

The key for me was that I already had a passion for the Internet and providing resources for building code and construction topics. I’ve developed web sites and software over the last 20 years. Twitter allowed me to broadcast these offerings and I found there was a great need for such information globally.

But I learned that technical information would not do it alone. Once I branched out by posting on other topics I was interested in, there was a great increase in the followers.  Once I started providing information on a myriad of topics like the economy, sustainable energy, culture, and social media, my number of followers increased dramatically and rapidly.

How do you use Twitter for your business and how do you assess its effectiveness?

Twitter has allowed me access international professionals in my field that I would not have met otherwise. Now I’m collaborating with engineers and architects in the UK, Africa and the Middle East on topics relating to their  building codes and construction projects.

In addition, I am now able to broadcast to a large international audience the many technical offerings that I developed over the years and are a must-have tools for architects, engineers, developers and code enforcement officials. The number of subscribers to my web-based engineering offerings have increased by at least 25 percent in the last six months alone due to Twitter. I can track where the users are coming from, and that’s how I’m able to assess the increase in traffic to my web sites and online offerings.

Imad Naffa is Founder, President and Sr. Engineer, NAFFA International, Fresno, CA. Follow him at @imadnaffa.

I had two very contrasting social web experiences in the past 24 hours that I wanted to share.

The first came from one of my students, who is urgently trying to learn how the social web can benefit her business.  Yesterday, she had exciting news to share: “We just had out first re-tweet!  I couldn’t wait to tell my boss.  We are so excited!  Now … what do I do?”

We talked about the importance of community-building and connections and how RT’s on Twitter are a nice way to compliment and reach-out to people.

The second episode came from a blog post I read from a Twitter personality who as far as I can see does nothing but re-tweet other people’s links all day long. His post was about how he had now received more re-tweets than the Huffington Post and was one of the top-10 re-tweeted people on Twitter.   Who actually measures these things?  He made no connection between his RT’s and personal relationships or any benefits other than he is on somebody’s list. There were about a dozen comments on the post … none of them from him. There was no engagement, no community, no sharing.  For him, the ridiculous notion of re-tweet count was simply a mythical badge of honor.

These two stories illustrate the best and the worst of the social web.

If you authentically cherish and appreciate those who are connecting with you, you will ultimately succeed in creating personal and business benefits.  Can you hold on to the excitement you felt when you saw your first re-tweet, or the first comment on your blog?

If you approach this as a numbers game to validate your own self-esteem, people will easily see through your veneer and in the long-term you’ll have a lot of meaningless followers trying to sell you a spot on the Trump Network.

Where are you on your social media journey?  Are you creating meaningful connections?

Illustration: www.zazzle.com

Place, product, price and promotion.

We all learned these basic marketing principles in college and they still stand up today. But the social web is a true shift in the way we communicate and go to market.  For the first time, mankind has access to real-time, free, instantaneous, two-way, global communication — and the good old marketing mantra needs a little updating.  Here are my thoughts on the NEW Four P’s of social media marketing — People, Presence, Pervasiveness and Publishing.

People

The social web is the first true PEOPLE-driven communication channel.  Everybody’s a video star, a rock star, a broadcaster, an author. Everybody creates, reviews, publishes, and bitches.  Publicly.  Permanently.  We have the opportunity to listen intimately and often. We can tune in to laugh and cry with our customers, wherever they are in the world. The consumer-driven web is the biggest marketing revolution since radio.

Presence

This is different from the old concept of “place.”  The old marketing “place” to sell, market or distribute was a tangible location like a grocery store. We knew where our consumers were … and they’ve probably been there for decades.   Where are they getting their information today?  From a video game?  From a link on a tweet?   From their phone?  From a coupon on their phone automatically sent to them by an RFID/GPS system while they are standing next to your product in the grocery store?

To make it even more complicated, a customer’s source of information may be constantly shifting.  Think of the implications if you choose incorrectly or your competitor moves into an emerging platform more rapidly. Kind of makes you want to go back to newspapers, huh? That’s why you need to develop a presence that can adapt and adjust to wherever consumer attention drags you. It will be fascinating to watch the big brands create a unified and compelling presence across so many platforms.

Pervasiveness

Let’s take a lesson from Twitter to illustrate this key concept. For years, Twitter hasn’t focused on making money. It has focused on DOMINATING  and pervading a consumer space. Why? They know that consumers will have the bandwidth for just one micro-blogging site. Once they devote their emotional equity to one platform it will be extremely difficult to get them to switch. Perhaps impossible. And that’s what Twitter is counting on.

So it might be easy to get folks to taste a new brand of cookie or soft drink, but it will be much more difficult to get them to switch to an unfamiliar communication or marketing channel.  Brand marketers jockeying for precious consumer online attention will have to develop ideas and entertainment concepts that are pervasive and with high emotional switching costs.  Not cheap. Not easy.

Publishing

Five years ago, would you consider a shoe company to be a significant publisher?  Yet Zappos has more than a dozen blogs. I contend the biggest challenge to any marketer may be the publishing of consistently engaging, meaningful content. And increasingly that means cutting through the clutter with entertaining content like puzzles, games, contests and videos. The implications of sustaining an organization’s publishing presence is daunting!

So what’s your take on this?  How are you adjusting to the new P’s?  How are you integrating them with the old ones?

In all of the posts I’ve read about social media measurement, very few address the possible role of qualitative research — measuring when you don’t have data — so let’s take a look at that today, shall we?  This will not be boring, I promise.

To make sure we’re all on a level playing field, let me quickly review the difference between QUANTITATIVE and QUALITATIVE data.

Quantitative marketing research is descriptive and conclusive.  It addresses research objectives through numerical measurement and statistical analysis.  In the social media world, this means data you can easily collect and measure like tweets, page views, comments, and perhaps even sales.  These are the facts and figures that get all the headlines. 

Qualitative Research is more, well …  touchy-feely.  It uses small samples and may involve focus groups, interviews, and behavioral observation.  Although it does not lend itself to statistical analysis* it can still be a quick and effective way to tell a story.

Because of all the free and voluminous data available through the social web, most of the attention is on the sexy quantitative side, but it might not be the best way to show value or tell your story.

Story time

Let me give an example from my own experience …

In addition to marketing and management, I also have a background in organizational development.  On one of my projects, I was delivering a training program to help correct dysfunctional management-union dynamics in a large company.  The people who went through the program raved about its effectiveness and had concrete examples of how it was dramatically improving the workplace.  The company’s top managers — who would not go through the program — were very skeptical about any progress and, lacking measurable results, were leaning toward cancelling it.  Like most managers, they demanded quantitative measurement … and I didn’t have it.  Sound familiar?

At the next employee training session, I mentioned that the program was probably going to be cancelled. The result was an out-pouring of outrage by both union and management participants. I had a video camera nearby for a training exercise and said, “Excuse me, but would you mind if I just turn this thing on to record your views?”

The group proceeded to tell story after story about the benefits of the training and also scolded upper management for not attending.  I edited the video to conform to the 5-minute executive attention span and played it during their next meeting. The managers sat dumbfounded and impressed as their employees passionately talked about the tangible benefits of the training. By the end of the meeting they all committed to attending the training themselves and expanding the program — without one pie chart!

Apply this to the social web

I use this example because like PR, marketing, or social media programs, training is very hard to quantify on a nice, neat spreadsheet.   This situation was a perfect time to use stories — qualitative data — to define value in a very different, yet compelling, way.

When you’re struggling to measure the value of social media marketing in your company don’t overlook the possibility of using qualitative stories from customers, employees and other stakeholders.  They might be showing up every day in comments, reviews, and customer meetings.

The technology of the social web offers unprecedented ways to capture and display this qualitative output.  And you know, sometimes all it takes is ONE story to provide more new insight than a dozen graphs!

What are your ideas?  What are some of the ways we can use stories to demonstrate the value of marketing through the social web?

*Michelle Chmielewski wrote in a {grow} comment that values can indeed be assigned to qualitative data to create numerical analysis. In effect this is how sentiment analysis is conducted. However, I was just trying to keep it simple today! : )

There is an argument around the blogosphere that is DRIVING ME CRAZY.

When it turns to the topic of measurement and social media marketing, many “authorities” flippantly rely on the “double standard” argument — If you’re trying to measure the value of SM, you might as well measure the value of a cell phone, the company car and the receptionist.    One popular blogger and author recently said if your manager asks for the ROI of your social media initiative, you should ask him for the ROI of his pants.  Their point is that you just need to accept the social web as something ubiquitous and necessary, so why worry about it?

This is lunacy.  Here are three reasons why this “no need to measure” view is an irresponsible position:

1) Never get caught with your stats down

Let’s examine the argument that you don’t measure the value of a company car, or email so insisting that we measure social media is a double standard.

Even if you don’t directly account for the on-going value of these items on a spreadsheet, there is an implied economic value to cars and cell phones and all this everyday stuff.

It’s going to be 66 degrees and sunny in Tennessee today. Discuss.  : )

An article in the Harvard Business Review caught my eye.  It provided some evidence that allowing at least some social media employee freedom is good for the workplace

We all know by now that most organizations limit or frown upon the use of social media in the workplace. Leaders have nightmarish visions of their employees wasting hours on Facebook and Twitter. But this article states that reasonable employee use of social media has actually been shown to benefit companies. Here are three reasons to let your employees get connected:

1. More attractive workplace. Many people, especially younger generations, see social media as a staple of work life and seek out employers who understand and acknowledge the critical role these new technologies play in our world.
2. Improved productivity. Research has shown that employees who take breaks to surf the Internet for fun are ultimately more productive than their surf-adverse colleagues.
3. More engaged workforce.  Employees not only appreciate companies that allow them to check Facebook at work, but they also use social media to connect with colleagues, improve communication, and speed up decision making processes — all of which helps them engage with their work and the organization.

 Obviously this is a two-edged sword.  This topic came up during the Q&A session after a speech I gave last week and a riot almost broke out. Many employers have EXTREMELY strong, negative views on this issue. 

This battle is going to become even more heated with the ubiquity of mobile applications.

What’s going on in your workplace?  What are your views?

One of our local news anchors, Tearsa Smith, has done a masterful job using the social web to connect to viewers in a personable, accessible manner. She’s a best practice — bringing her news, her news station, and her life to her fans with energy, enthusiasm and humor.  Tearsa can be found journaling through Twitter and Facebook at all hours it seems, especially if there is breaking news. In a world of arms-length celebrity, she is refreshing and unique.

Here is an interview with Tearsa covering her personal social media strategy:

Tearsa, how did you get involved in the social web? Was it an initiative from your news station, a personal decision, or both?

I’ve always been a fan of social media starting with MySpace and then moving on to Facebook. After connecting with every person I have ever encountered (I have more than 1,100 “friends” on my personal Facebook account) I was a bit against my news director’s push to get the newsroom involved with Twitter. A girl can only spend so many hours online. While reluctant, I now find Twitter to be the most engaging of the social media sites. It’s been very interesting talking with viewers about their take on stories, questions they have and just about life in general.  

As you think about how you show up on the social web, is it connected to any personal or professional goals?

I don’t think I went into this with any “goals.” I am awful about calling friends and family and social media has been a great vehicle to stay connected and still juggle the million other things I have going on daily in my life.

The more I am engaged online I do start to see how online media can help anyone professionally. The goal is to be smart and not say everything you might be thinking – unless that is your goal. I have 1,500+ followers and you never know through networking if a potential future employer is waiting in the wings and “following” me. Do I want to come across as smart, likable, witty and well rounded or bitter, disgruntled and unapproachable? Anyone with a skill or interest in a particular industry has the opportunity to “show-off” without seeming pushy or desperate for a job.  

Can you point to any ways your participation in Twitter and Facebook has benefited you professionally?

I have two separate lives in the social media world. I have two separate accounts for Facebook – one is public and the other is private. On Twitter I merge the two a bit more. Personally it has been so interesting to catch up with people from my past and family members. On a professional note I LOVE interacting with viewers daily. They remind me daily that we aren’t just reporting stories but that what we report affects real people and their lives for the good or bad.

A lot of fellow journalists don’t see the benefits of social media but I think it is a great tool to connect. I have had really good story ideas pitched to me via Twitter/Facebook because people feel like they know me or they can trust me.  As journalists we miss the mark if we just spit out news headlines throughout the day – that’s what the official TV station/newspaper’s Twitter/Facebook/MySpace account is for. It’s my job to ask people what they think and if they have any follow ups to enhance the story.    

About how much time do you spend on Twitter/Facebook each day?  Is it difficult to keep up with fan requests?

You don’t even want to know.  Actually I don’t even want to know. I am on from 4 am-11:30am while I’m at work. I am on after work hours on my Blackberry throughout the day and of course I pop online before bed on my laptop. You do the math! It’s not hard keeping up with fan/viewer requests as long as they request information from public pages.  All of this while balancing work, a household, husband and 1 year old daughter.

How do you handle the inevitable invasiveness that occurs when a TV personality opens up for public display?

I am very guarded about what I say and how I say it. It is very rare that I disclose where I am until I have left the location. Exceptions are made for work sponsored events where I am not alone. I think this is a good idea for anyone, especially women looking at their safety. For example if I am out shopping I don’t say where I am but I will still give any observations that I think are funny or interesting at the time. Over time, you will get people who feel especially close to you and it’s up to me to draw that fine line between engaging and overstepping boundaries. Usually I can wiggle out of invasiveness with a little humor.

What are my chances I can follow in your footsteps as a popular news anchor?  Be honest, Tearsa.

Honestly, Mark … you just don’t have the hair for it … Sorry.

A brand new study from the University of Massachusetts Center for Marketing Research  compares adoption of social media over three years (2007-2009) by the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies.  

In 2007, the Center’s first study of this group was released and revealed that the Inc. 500 was outpacing the Fortune 500 companies in their use of social media. For example, 8 percent of the Fortune 500 companies were blogging compared to 19 percent of the Inc. 500. This difference accelerated in 2008 with 16 percent of the Fortune 500 blogging vs. 39 percent of the Inc. 500. And in 2009, it was 45 percent versus 22 percent fo the Big Boys.  

This research shows that social media has penetrated this part of the business world with tremendous speed: 

Not just for customers and employees – As the graph above depicts, many companies are using the social platforms to connect to other stakeholders such as vendors and business partners. This was a new question for 2009 and the first time I have seen this kind of data. Interesting! 

Social media marketing has been “successful” – When asked if the use of social media has been successful for their business, the overwhelming response is that it has. Twitter users report an 82% success rate while every other tool studied enjoys at least an 87% success level. Measuring success was investigated and most respondents report using hits, comments, leads or sales as primary indicators. 

Policy use still low –  61 percent of the respondents did NOT have a corporate social media policy 

Importance and adoption — When queried on the importance of social media, 44% of respondents felt that social media is “very important” to their business and marketing strategy, up from 26 percent.  And a walloping 91 percent of the Inc. 500 is using at least one social media tool in 2009 (up from 77 percent in 2008). 

Monitoring gains –  68 percent of the companies formally monitor company and brand information on the social web.  That number is up from 60% in 2008 and 50% just two years ago. 

Further immersion –  The companies clearly intend to continue immersing themselves in these tools.  44 percent of those without corporate blogs intend to have one. 27 percent of respondents who do not currently have a business presence on Twitter plan to move into that space. 

Social networking leads –  The technology that continues to be the most familiar to the Inc. 500 is social networking with 75 percent of respondents in 2009 claiming to be “very familiar with it” (compared to 57 percent in 2008). Another noteworthy statistic around familiarity is Twitter’s amazing “share of mind” with 62 percent of executives reported being familiar with the new microblogging and social networking platform. 

Adoption curves for social media technologies vary –  Interestingly, while social networking and blogging have enjoyed growth in actual adoption, the use of message boards, online video, wikis and podcasting has leveled off or even declined. The addition of Twitter for the first time in the latest study shows that an amazing 52 percent of the Inc. 500 companies are already using this tool for business. 

What stands out for you in this research? Any big surprises? Or is it ALL a surprise? : ) 

Many thanks to the authors of this study, Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes,  and Eric Mattson.

In my recent post on the time-sucking dragon known as the social web, Jody Pirello offered some comments on how she keeps up with the latest trends. I think this is a critical career skill these days and I encouraged her to flesh it out into a post. It is our great fortune that she did — a MUST READ!  Here’s Jody:

I evolved into eMarketing differently than many of you probably did.  I started my career as a programmer.   As a developer I had to learn how to stay current, keep abreast of upcoming changes, and learn how to separate the here-to-stay from the gone-tomorrow. Those skills help me today, too.

Here are a few of the ways I do it (or at least, try to do it)

1. Use downtime wisely - I’m amazed at all the little bits of time I have available – waiting for a conference call to start, waiting on late team members, or even standing in line at the post office.  My iPhone gets a workout during these times!
2. Learn, always -  I work professional development into my every day life.  I watch video presentations while eating lunch, listen to podcasts during my  commute, and intentionally blur the line between professional and personal.  I’ll frequently have a conversation over drinks at the bar on a Friday night that translates into something I use Monday on the job.
3. Cultivate a learning ecosystem - No matter how committed I am I just can’t do it all.  I rely on a set of friends and colleagues to broaden my knowledge.  I have a friend who knows all things mobile, a colleague who’s a whiz at CPG , and another friend who has a thing for twitter apps.  And hopefully I contribute to the mix with my web development and project management knowledge.
4. Be selective - I can’t keep up with everything so I choose a set of problems, verticals and technologies to focus on.  This goes hand-in-hand with my learning ecosystem.
5. Work portably - I’d be nowhere without tools and services that allow me to work effectively on my terms.  Two of my favorites are delicious and Google docs.  They’re hardly earth-shattering but they have a big impact on my productivity.  If I come across an article that I’m interested in but don’t have the time to read it right now, I add it to delicious.  Same thing goes if I’m at home and want to use a site while at work.  Google docs is great for enabling me to do my work wherever I may be.  I write most of my blog posts in google docs too, and its one-click sharing allows me to get input and feedback without needing to merge comments.
6. Use my Google Foo - Knowing how to use search engines effectively is a must-have skill.  If you want to extend your Google knowledge or even just do a little brush up, take a look at Google’s search tips.   Don’t discount the less popular engines either – occasionally you can discover real gems by broadening to one of the others.
7. Prioritize blog reading - I have “must read” and “daily read” categories in my RSS reader.  I’ve made it a rule to never do the dreaded “mark all read” to these folders.  I may not read them everyday (yep, sometimes I even get behind on the “daily read” folder) but I do make sure I read them all – usually by the end of the weekend.

I’ve outlined what works well for me – my working and learning styles.  The key has been to find tools and processes that I could adapt into my regular life without effort.  If I had to try too hard to make them work they’d be among the first to go when I was busy or tired or just feeling a bit lazy.

What works well for you?

Jody Pirrello is a web technologist specializing in project management methodologies, business analysis, and web analytics. She’s the VP of Technology at NetPlus Marketing in suburban Philadelphia and one half of the SocialCloudNow http://socialcloudnow.com/team.  Follow her on Twitter @jpirrello.