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The social

Media stage
JANUARY, 2011
Setting the stage
Have you been open to the idea of social media for some time now, but are still unsure

whether you’re ready to go all the way? Frankly, you are not alone. The conflicting reports

are numerous, arguing both for and against “letting go” of control. Unfortunately, the “con”

arguments often read as “what were they thinking” stories. Some folks are diving in without

a keen understanding of what they’re doing, how they’re doing it and why they need to

do it in the first place. All the while, marketers are offering Web 2.0 services without truly

understanding what the term actually means.

Tweetworthy:
“When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch.”

When a new communication platform emerges, it’s hard not to be attracted by its promise of

quick fixes to old communication problems. Social media is no different.

In order to establish useful, long-term communications with a solid ROI, a social media

stage has been established to ensure that new ideas generated are filtered through a set of

criteria to ensure:

a) the success of the program

b) that the suggested program observes the organizational mandate and group priorities
as a whole.

If the suggested program does not pass the filter test, further discussion on the validity of

the program in general is needed, or another communication avenue would better serve the

objective.

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The Sporadic State
We all know that social media can be successful in the “one offs”. The problem is, a

sporadic state leads to scale issues, inconsistent measurements, lost insights and unclear

ROI.
marketing
& advertising public
retail
partners relations boutiques
digital, events,
& suppliers
internal grassroots, WOM
licensing
communications

er
influenc tion wiki! widget!
a
podcast! identificive!
initiat blog! facebook pa
ge!
digital
reputation
program!
“Let’s do a... !” consu
generamer
te
media d
eo! social network!
viral vid influencer
contes
t!
app! outreach social media press
release!
event!

microsite

Lost insights Unclear ROI


Inconsistent measurements

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The Social Media Stage
At its heart, the social media stage is a flexible model to help brands determine what they

will and will not stand for in this space. Ideas can come from anywhere and they should! The

social media stage for brands encourages ideation from any source: digital, creative and

public relations agencies, suppliers, partners, associates - anyone.

Passing these ideas through these basic brand standards and filters will help you decide if it

meets the requirements befitting your brand in the social space.

retail internal brand advocates

marketing & advertising events


partners & suppliers

digital
licensing ideas!
from all sources word-of-mouth
etc.

grass roots boutiques


public relations

Influencer Risks &


Reporting Community
Engagement Realities
& Metric Management
Protocol Assessment
Digital Calibration Standards
Detractor
Community Engagement
Guidelines transparency flexibility Protocol
reporting process quality standards
tone of voice
scalability ethical standards

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Ideas
Ideas come from many places: internally, suppliers, partners, agencies, even the public

can provide an idea. Innovation comes from ideation, so encouraging ideation is always

advisable. Ideas are seemingly ubiquitous, so the challenge is to develop a useful framework

that will allow you to capture the great ideas and filter them from the not-so-great ideas. This

saves time, money and keeps the brand focused on its goals.

Filters
When you are considering a social media program, consider the following questions to

determine the merit of the proposal before you begin.

Will This Program...


be on brand? be representative of world-class branding?

relate to brand or product in a promote rich interactions and encourage


relevant way? advocacy and participation?

provide subject matter that the set an ethical standard worthy of the brand?
brand has a right to speak on?
allow relationships to be naturally
provide the opportunity to start the cultivated? Or are you trying to “buy” your
conversation, or should you join an way in?
established one?
further the goal of truly being a voice of
be transparent? authenticity and trust?

be clear that the brand will be the be scalable if/when the idea “goes viral” or
driving force behind the idea? is re-applied in other markets? If successful,
can it grow into a larger program?
be flexible?
offer a consistent tone of voice?
allow you to evolve the program
even after it has launched to the allow the brand to continue in a way that’s
public? consistent with ongoing communication
efforts, digital and otherwise?
offer quality?

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Influencer/Detractor Response Protocol
What if they say something bad? Count on it.

Say a comment has been found in the social space of your market regarding your brand,

one of its products or programs. The following protocol will help you determine if you should

respond and in the case that a response is necessary, how you should respond.

But remember…

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1 Assess
Social Comment
2 Evaluate
A social comment has been
3 Respond discovered about your brand/program.
4 Final Evaluation Is is a positive posting?
5 Considerations
YES NO

Assess Influence Let Post Stand


Initial guage of platform audience will determine
whether any action is necessary.
NO No response is necessary.

Does post merit attention? Continue to monitor.

YES

Assess Content
Does this post contain errors or misrepresentation
of the organization’s messages and/or position?

NO YES

“Trolls”
Is this a site dedicated to bashing
Concurrence and degrading others?
A factual and well cited response, which Monitor Only
may agree or disagree with the post, Avoid responding to specific posts.
yet is not negative. NO YES
Monitor the site for relevant
You can concur with the post, let stand
or provide a positive review. information and comments.
Do you want to respond?
“Rager”
Is the posting a rant, rage, joke,
ridicule or satirical in nature?

YES NO

Assess Against Objectives “Misguided” Fix the Facts


Is the post relevent NO Are there any errors YES Respond with factual,
to the program? in the posting? informative comment.

NO

Let Post Stand “Unhappy Customer” Restoration


No response is necessary. Is the posting a result of a negative YES Rectify the situation. Respond and
experience from one of our stakeholders? act upon a resonable solution.
Continue to monitor.

YES NO

Final Evaluation Let Post Stand


Based on review of all options, advocate or
NO No response is necessary.
detractor influence and issue prominence.
Will you respond? Continue to monitor.

YES

Response Considerations
If after a final evaluation you decide to respond, ensure you take these considerations into account:

Transparency Sourcing Timeliness Tone & Manner Influence


Fully disclose your Cite your sources by Ensure responses are Maintain professional Focus on the most
affiliation with including links, video, made quickly from a brand tone yet match the influential blogs related
the organization images or other references few hours to a day post/platform manner. to your organization

Adapted from U.S. Air Force Public Affairs, Emerging Technology Division http://airforcelive.blogspot.com

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Influencer Engagement Protocol
Online influencers are different than traditional publications, but they are all interested in

publishing useful stories or offering insights. That’s why your pitch should be in a format

that makes it easy for authors/bloggers to digest. Avoid ostentatious claims and use natural

sounding language like you were talking with a friend. Avoid extraneous techno-babble that

clouds your story.

Best Practices
for online influencer engagement:

X Mandatory: Add their name, the name of their blog and the relevance your pitch is to
them. It’s no different than calling someone by name in a regular conversation, it grabs
their attention and helps let them know this is not spam.

Who? Who is the news about (include a link to your company backgrounder and
website blog or SMPR, especially if the blogger isn’t aware of who you are).

What? What is the news you’re pitching - no marketing fluff. Give it to them straight.

Where? Not always relevant in the electronic age, but if it is, state it.

When? Give dates and times.

Why? This is the important part. Your pitch should be no more than three sentences and
it should be compelling. (Easier said than done.)

Add contact information, title and employer.

Do not attach press releases, however if one is available, post it on the web and send a link.

Online influencers can be contacted by email, mail, phone, etc. Some of them have

information on their preferred method of communication listed on their blog. Take the time

to see and follow their requests. It will both increase the likelihood of a post and secure a

trusting relationship with the influencer for future correspondence.

Tweetworthy:
“Keep your friends close and all influencers even closer.”

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Post Creation & Engagement Protocol
You have new content that you would like to post to the social space. Perhaps it is a video

on YouTube or an update to your brand’s Facebook fan page. This protocol will help you

determine 3 things: if you should post; how you should post; and what to do after you post.

1 Approve
New Content
2 Schedule
New content has been identified for posting
3 Assess on a brand social media platform.
4 Post Is the content currently on
5 Track the Social Media Calendar?

YES NO

Approval
Has this content been approved
for posting?

YES NO

Schedule Assess Priority


Is there room to post this content NO Does this content take priority over NO
within platform message currently scheduled content?
frequency guidelines?

YES YES

Evaluate Seek Priority Approval


Submit content for approval.
Does the content meet the technical
NO Update all content stakeholders.
and editorial guidelines of the
requested social media platform? Has content and post schedule
been approved?

YES NO NO

Proof Reject
Proofread the content, and adapt
Identify requirement gap with
tone appropriately to platform. NO
content stakeholder.
Does the content meet the editorial Request re-submission to Calendar.
standards of the brand?

YES

Final Evaluation
Double check against protocol to confirm
it meets all requirements. NO
Does the content meet
all requirements?

YES

Post Considerations
If after a final evaluation, you decide to respond, ensure you take these considerations into account:

Transparency Moderation Timeliness Measurement Cross Promote


Fully disclose your Ensure you are prepared Ensure responses are Confirm program will Seek opportunities to cross
affiliation with to frequently moderate made quickly from a capture results and promote and redistribute
the organization. consumer response. few hours to a day adapt where necessary. in other Social Platforms.

Adapted from U.S. Air Force Public Affairs, Emerging Technology Division http://airforcelive.blogspot.com

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Recommendations
for Social Media
Governance
Protecting yourself, your agency, brand or organization is just good legal common sense.

It is good practice to ensure that you have reviewed the community guidelines and terms &

conditions of the social platforms you are posting to and have these documents prepared

and posted for communities that you are hosting.

Community Guidelines,
Terms & Conditions
3rd Party Community Guidelines
When considering involvement with a 3rd party

platform (Flickr, YouTube, etc), an exploratory

review of the platform’s community guidelines

is a necessary step to ensure that your brand

is welcome and invited to participate in that

platform’s space. These guidelines can often be

found in the footer links of most social media

platform websites. Please make sure you review

them before you engage, and review them again

before starting new programs to ensure that they

have not changed.

Reference Links:
Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines
Yahoo Answers - http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines

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Branded Community Terms and Conditions
Terms and conditions are the “laws” of the community. As such, you need to draft all the

legal restrictions, copyright, liability etc. in a tone and manner befitting a court of law (legal

protection). Terms and Conditions protect you legally, so refer to them when challenged

over legal issues, claim disputes etc. As a preventative measure, make sure a link to them is

present on every page possible.

Reference Link:
Social Media Governance. A list of over 138 Social Media Policies including Coca-
Cola, Dell, Microsoft, Walmart - http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php

Community Guidelines
Consumers using your platforms will generally not read the Terms and

Conditions, as the content is generally not easily digestible to the average

person. It is best practice to draft a set of “behaviors” expected of

consumers on brand related social platforms. The tone and manner must

be direct, but comprehensible for the average layperson to understand. It

is wise to cover your back and cross link the terms and conditions for

that extra legal security.

Community guidelines help you moderate the content by offering simple

rules for posting. If the community member breaks those rules, you can refer

to them when deleting or moderating. It is important that you enforce community

guidelines on an ongoing basis to protect the integrity of the community and the brand.

Reference Links:
Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne
WorldVision’s community guidelines for Facebook Fan Page
- http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=108970206976&topic=10468

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HR Social Media Guidelines
Whether or not employees and agents are active in the social space, it is wise to ensure

you have an official guideline for them to understand what it is they are allowed to do and

say in this infinitely scalable public forum. If your employees and agents are not using

Social Marketing in their job, this helps empower them to get started. Once this is in place,

you should encourage employees to adopt Social Influence Marketing – whether they are

personally on Twitter, running their own work blog, posting comments on someone else’s
blog, or otherwise participating in the world of social media.

When employees live the social values, the brand exercises

leadership and becomes more experienced. There should be no

attempt here to stifle their social voice. Rather, the intent is just the

opposite – encourage them to embrace the social media world by

providing some guidelines.

Tweetworthy:
“The voice of many exceeds the voice of one.”

Community Management Standards


It doesn’t matter if you built the community, or if you’re simply

participating in other communities such as Facebook or Flickr – you

must respect the members of your community. The following DOs and

DON’Ts illustrate how to act with that respect in mind.

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DOs & DON’Ts of Community Management

DOs
➔ Follow and enforce community guidelines
➔ Be honest and fair
➔ When possible, offer members a chance to remove their
own offending content before you do
➔ Be direct
➔ Encourage discussion
➔ Consider adding a “Report Abuse” form to areas where
user-generated content lives - most healthy communities
are excellent at self-policing

DON’Ts
➔ Do not “hog the floor”
➔ Do not push content. Instead, leave it in places to be
discovered.
➔ Do not be indecisive. State clearly your comment with
intent and resolve.
➔ Do not “shut somebody down” if they disagree with your
point of view
➔ Do not be a bully

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Community Manager
A Community Manager position is a broad encompassing role. And it really should be!

They’re the voice of the company externally and the voice of the customers internally. The

value lies in the Community Manager serving as a hub and having the ability to personally

connect with the customers, thereby humanizing the brand. They play a valuable role in

providing insightful feedback to many internal departments including development, PR,

marketing, customer service, and tech support among others.

The community manager is a busy role. Their day-to-day work will include influencer

identification, content gathering/creating and posting, reputation monitoring, community

growth, technology evolutions, community moderator management and outreach and public

interactions. It’s due to all these interactions that a successful Community Manager must

commit to the rules outlined in a Community Manager’s Oath (see appendix).

Typical Community Manager Responsibilities

• Conduct influencer identification, tracking • Accountable for project goals and business
and reporting objectives
• Relationship management • Create and manage response protocol
• Outreach • Build community through relevance
• Total Engagement • Reputation management
• Issue Identification • Maintain identity and public persona by
• “Official Responder” for all issue and being an official representative, not hidden
category questions behind a logo, i.e. richard@dell

• Responsible for generating insights and


executive summary from program reports
• Measurement

Public Persona? Really?


Yes, people are allowed to make mistakes - brands are not. (The lawyers love this.)

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Risks and Realities
Social media is a strange place that can cause anxiety when thinking about what people

might be saying about your brand. Often the first risk identified is, “what if they say

something bad”. The reality is, they probably already have. There are so many places online

to publicly discuss brands - they don’t need you or your web properties to communicate

what they have to say. Consider participating as a member of the various social media

platforms and be there to guide the perception of complaints that may or may not be out
there.

Whenever assessing risk and reality in social media, be sure to look at it from all points of

view. Sometimes risk can be the biggest opportunity you have - the opportunity to engage

and guide perception.

Tweetworthy:
“The fear of taking action is often more dangerous than the action itself.”

Risks and Realities Worksheet


Use the following worksheet to predetermine messages you know you are going

to face by engaging in conversation. Remain flexible and ready to consider new

issues that you have not captured, and be sure to run the same exercise a few

times. Most importantly: do not post anything issue-based without legal input/

consideration.

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Risks and Realities
Assessments
When considering a new social program, ensure you have a good understanding of the risks and
realities before engaging. The following worksheet will help you determine how you will respond to
situations before they become an issue.

Key Issues and Barriers


List 5 issues sourced from social media listening that could negatively impact the brand/program.
(Use another sheet if you have identified more)

1. Resolvable? (y) (n)


2. Resolvable? (y) (n)
3. Resolvable? (y) (n)
4. Resolvable? (y) (n)
5. Resolvable? (y) (n)
(example: Consumers repeatedly leave comments that our product is too expensive)

How will you respond?


List the response that has been approved by legal/PR for each issue. Also list places where you will
post the comment and/or links to the official statement.
Complete the section below for each issue.

(draft: Submit to legal electronically.)

Where will you post this response? Circle all that apply.
Website PR Resource Centre Twitter Facebook Youtube

other (list)

Evaluate reactions to official position.


If consumers are still not responding, can you take a different approach to establish a

position? Can you take a different position?

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Measurement
Social Media may actually be the most measurable form of mass media that has ever

existed. The types of measurement have left most analysts with a problem of abundance.

What do you measure? And what does it mean? Do these questions sound familiar?

How many friends should we have on Twitter?

How many Tweets should we make per week?

How many updates to the Facebook page do we need?

How many people should ‘Like’ our Facebook page?

How many video views on YouTube mean success?

So What?
The problem is, none of these metrics lead to any sort of business objective. No objective,

no measurement will ever be relevant. This makes the planning of a campaign all the more

important. Understanding what you want to get out of it will help you understand what to

measure.

Primary Media Measurements


The following is a list of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that will help you get started in

this space.

Volume Score
Measures relevance by volume of peer-to-peer, peer-to-brand conversation.

Number of Number of Number of Number of Number of Number of


Fans Followers @mentions Retweets Views Embeds

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Notice that the volume of brand-to-consumer mentions is not a KPI? Although it can and

should be tracked, brands pushing content should be measured against the impact it has

had in consumer reaction and peer-to-peer conversation. This is the world where trust and

credibility is earned.

Sentiment Score
Measures consumer attitude in peer-to-peer, peer-to-brand

conversation. By using a typical scoring system (example right), +2 points


for a positive mention.

then adding these up and dividing by the volume, you will get

a calibrated number that you can benchmark over time, and

against future campaigns. +1 point


for a neutral mention.

Again, brand-to-peer is not mentioned in the sentiment score.

Of course you are going to be positive about your brand, so the -1 point
for a negative mention.

impact of your posts against this metric will skew the results.

Reach Score
Measures consumer reach in peer-to-peer, peer-to-brand conversation. How far did your

message get? When determining this score, we measure Advocate Generated Impressions

(AGIs). These are impressions created by non-brand reps in the digital space. This is a key

metric in determining the success of the campaign as a whole.

Establish a measurement program…


(That has defined benchmarks with measureable goals)

…against business objectives…


(like more customers buying more often)

…via key media metrics…


(engagement, sentiment and advocacy)

…to find ROI.

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Proximity Alerts
Proximity Alerts is a measuring and reporting system for campaigns and always-on digital

media programs.

Scale
Proximity Alerts is customized to clients’ needs and sellable to clients’ programs.

Process, Not Technology


There is no single piece of technology that can produce all of the

numbers required to get a holistic listening and measuring program.

Proximity Alerts is a process, not a technology. Various pieces of

technology can be used in order to gather the numbers. If clients have

established social listening platforms, no problem! This system will

allow you to plug them right in.

ROI
ROI is determined based on business objective

– NOT media consumption. This must be

considered.

Benchmarking
Benchmarking has been well established

for purchased and owned media. There are

currently no industry standards for earned digital

media. It is important to build benchmarking into your

plan and evolve/react over time to the results.

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EARNED PAID OWNED

Volume Reach Frequency


KPI

Sentiment Engagement Engagement


Reach Conversion Conversion
MEDIA METRICS

Peer to Peer Brand to Peer


Who

Brand to Peer
Peer to Brand Peer to Brand

Blog, Twitter, YouTube Click Through Visits, Frequency


Metric (eg.)

Posts, Social Interactions Impressions Path to Purchase


Comments, Likes, Shares Interactions Demographic Info
Views, Embeds, Time Spent Interactions
ReTweets, Social Shares Time Spent
Interactions Demographics Conversions

Sysomos, Radian 6,
How (eg.)
TOOLS

Alterian, BackType, Google Analytics


Media Program Reports
ComScore, Facebook Facebook Insights
Server Reports
Insights, Google/YouTube Server Analytics
Insights
REPORTS
What

Customized reports to program needs and frequency.


Includes: Executive summary, KPIs, insights, raw data, trend analysis,
benchmark achievements recommendations, watch outs, raw data.

21 download @ http://bit.ly/eMauVB
Conclusion
Social media is a state of mind, not another channel. If you approach it with the right

attitude, prepared for the best and the worst case scenarios, you will find that your brand

can be both socially relevant and successful. If you are measuring against objectives and

remain flexible to the changing landscape, you will discover that your new-found social

relevance is actually making an impact on your bottom line. And you will be set up to repeat

your success into the future. Set up your social media today.

About the Author


Collin Douma is the VP Global Digital Planning Director at Proximity

Canada and BBDO New York. He has been working in the digital space for

over 16 years. He blogs at http://www.radicaltrust.ca Tweets at Twitter.com/

collindouma and can be reached by email at collin.douma@proximity.ca

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Appendix
Free Social Media Listening
& Monitoring Tools
Brand Monitoring Tools
HowSociable?  http://www.howsociable.com/

A simple, free tool that can measure the visibility of your brand on the web across
22 metrics.

Addict-o-matic  http://addictomatic.com/

A nice search engine that aggregates rss feeds, allowing you to quickly see the areas where a brand is
lacking in presence.

Socialmention  http://www.socialmention.com/

A social media search engine offering searches across individual platforms (eg blogs, microblogs) or all,
together with a ‘social rank’ score.

TECHNORATI Search  http://technorati.com/search

Technorati’s new search interface. Use it to find top blogs based upon inbound links only.

TECHNORATI Advanced  http://technorati.com/search?advanced

Technorati’s advanced search page allows you to search for blogs (rather than posts) based on tags.

Google Blog Search  http://blogsearch.google.com/

Google’s index of blog posts. The advanced search tab allows you to search based on additional criteria.
Very good for searching between specific dates.

IceRocket  http://www.icerocket.com/

Blog search tool that also graph-ifies!

BlogPulse  http://www.blogpulse.com/

Search for blog posts by keyword. Developed by Nielsen Buzz Metrics.

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Buzz Tracking
Google Trends  http://www.google.com/trends

Shows amount of searches and google news stories.

Trendpedia  http://www.trendpedia.com/

Create charts showing the volume of discussion around multiple topics. Generates cool graphs with
competitive analysis opportunity.

BlogPulse Trends  http://www.blogpulse.com/trend

Compare the mentions of specific keywords and phrases in blog posts. (LEFT vs. RIGHT)

Omgili Charts  http://omgili.com/graphs.html

Omgili Buzz Graphs let you measure and compare the Buzz of any term. Mostly from review sites/forums.

eKstreme  http://ekstreme.com/buzz

Blog data is obtained from Technorati and the social bookmarks come from del.icio.us.

Message Board Tools


BoardTracker  http://www.boardtracker.com/

Tracks words in forums.

BoardReader  http://boardreader.com/

Search multiple message boards and forums.

Google Groups  http://groups.google.com/

Searches Google usenet groups.

Yahoo! Groups  http://groups.yahoo.com/

Searches all Yahoo! Groups.

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Twitter Search Tools
Twitter Search  http://search.twitter.com/

Search keywords on Twitter which self-refreshes. See what’s happening — ‘right now’.

TweetScan  http://search.twitter.com/

Search for words on Twitter.

Twit(url)y  http://twitturly.com/

See what people are talking about on Twitter.

Hashtags  http://hashtags.org/

Realtime Tracking of Twitter Hashtags.

TweetBeep  http://tweetbeep.com/

Track mentions of your brand on Twitter in real time.

Twitrratr  http://twitrratr.com/

Rates mentions of your search term on Twitter as positive/neutral/negative.

TweetMeme  http://tweetmeme.com/

View the most popular Twitter threads occurring now.

TwitScoop  http://www.twitscoop.com/

Through an automated algorithm, twitscoop crawls hundreds of tweets every minute and extracts the words
which are mentioned more often than usual and creates a tag cloud.

Twilert  http://www.twilert.com/

Twitter application sends regular email updates of tweets containing your brand, product or service.

Search Data
Google Insights for search  http://www.google.com/insights/search/

Compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, and time frames.

Google Keyword Tool  https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternalS

Generate keyword ideas for related keywords and search volumes.

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Website Traffic
Compete  http://compete.com/

Competitor site traffic reports. Estimates only of monthly visitor data. Best used on large high-traffic Web
sites.

Quantcast  http://www.quantcast.com/

Use this on large high-traffic websites. It allows you to compare multiple websites in one handy chart.
Estimates only of monthly visitor data.

Alexa  http://www.alexa.com/

Comparative site traffic reports. Includes estimated reach, rank and page views.

Multimedia Search
YouTube  http://www.youtube.com/

Search for videos and channels by keyword.

MetaCafe  http://www.metacafe.com/

High-traffic video search engine.

Google Advanced Video Search  http://video.google.com/videoadvancedsearch

Search for videos, what else?

Compfight  http://compfight.com/

Search Flickr for photos, groups or people/users.

Truveo  http://www.truveo.com/

Aggregate video search engine. Search videos from YouTube, MySpace, and AOL.

Viral Video Chart  http://viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com/

Displays top 20 most-viewed videos (1, 7, 365 days). Includes view counts and charting.

Guardian’s Viral Video Chart  http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/series/viralvideochart

Weekly roundup of what’s excellent on the web.

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The Oath Adapted from the “Blogger Code of Ethics”

Accuracy  Disclosure  Privacy 


I will post as accurate only I will disclose whenever/wherever I will not pass on gossip about
information that I know to be I am participating that I am a private individuals nor report on
accurate. Whenever possible, I representative of said brand. embarrassing facts about others. I
will provide sources and links. If will not link to or report information
accuracy may be in doubt, I will that is accidentally leaked.
convey this to the reader. Do No Harm 
I will not attack, embarrass,
humiliate, or make others fear for
Respect 
Attribution  their safety. I will certainly not do I will respect my readers, critics,
I will not plagiarize material, nor so and then accuse my victims of and subjects of my posts. I will
quote without attribution. being overly sensitive or needing discuss and answer all people
to have thicker skin. with respect - regardless of age,
sex, race, religion, nationality,
Comments  ability, attractiveness, and social or
I will delete comments only
Editing  economic status. I will not respond
when they violate the rules of I will try to ensure that my posts with rudeness to rudeness. I will
my platform, such as needlessly are edited for spelling, grammar apologize when appropriate and
inflammatory, racist, or spam and clarity - and that all links are stand on principle only when
comments. correct. absolutely necessary.

Completeness  Fairness  Responsibility 


I will try to ensure that what I post I will always provide all I will affirm what are my own words
is not only accurate but presents a facts relevant to an opinion and posts, and not claim credit
complete picture, I won’t post only when criticizing. I will always for others, or deny responsibility
part of a story or an argument. assume possible confusion or for my own. I will clearly separate
misunderstanding before labeling what are my own words from
something or someone as others.
Confidentiality  fraudulent. In this case, I will first
I will not reveal details that have try to work things out privately,
and, if not satisfied, let the facts
Safety 
been given to me in confidence. I
won’t publish private emails unless speak for themselves in as I will not post anything that could
explicitly permitted to do so. I unbiased a manner as possible. endanger others’ safety, including
won’t publish names or details identifying information about
when asked not to do so. minors or vulnerable individuals.
Originality 
I will try to provide original material End Note About Humorous Posts
Copyright  of interest to my readership. I will I may occasionally post something that appears to
I will respect other people’s not simply quote or link to other violate one of these codes if it is clear that my post is
copyrights and not post without blogs. meant to be humorous or satirical. For instance, I may
the copyright holder’s permission. pretend that someone said something that he or she
didn’t for comic effect. Any post of this sort will be
obviously intended as humor and I will ensure that it
cannot be misconstrued otherwise.

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