Kohort – my first impressions

Last Friday I received an email from Kohort.  They told me that the site was now live.   I signed up to get a username to the long-awaited social platform several months ago, but to be completely honest, I forgot about it.  I love social media and I enjoy playing around on new platforms, so what the hell.  I created my account and gave it a shot.

Last April I saw this article on Mashable about Kohort and its impending launch…sometime soon.  But no one knew what it was.  Whatever, if it’s featured on Mashable it must be the biggest, greatest social media platform ever created, right?

Back to this last Friday…

My first impressions of the new social platform:

  • It’s clean.  There isn’t a bunch of “crap” along the sides or any of the riff-raff we see on many other social networks.  This could be what they’re going for, but it also could just be because it hasn’t been monetized yet with advertising.
  • It’s easy to navigate.  The links are clear, and the flow of what you should be doing on the site is obvious to the user.
  •  It’s simple.  The idea and goal of it is right there.  They specialize in groups.  I never felt confused or overwhelmed.  It’s all very clear which is great.
  • Almost no one I knew jumped aboard.  I interact with a lot of very social-savvy folks in and out of my industry, and just about no one flocked to Kohort on launch day.  I thought that was interesting.  Maybe they didn’t know about it.  Maybe they didn’t care?  Maybe they knew something I didn’t?
  • It reminded me of Google+.  Well, sort of.  I’m not saying that it actually as a whole reminds me of Google+.  However, the entire “group” concept immediately made me think of G+ Circles.  Posts that you share on Kohort can be filtered to which group should see them, or if they’re public – exactly like circles.  And we all know how active people are (or aren’t) on there.  And, this doesn’t have the power of Google behind it.
  • Facebook groups, too? Not much to say about this one, but Facebook has simplified and improved their groups quite a bit in the last several months, and on a platform that pretty much everyone is already on.  Just sayin’…
  • Is the group concept really that original?  This was more of just a random, rhetorical thought.  But, we all wondered what Kohort was, expecting something super original.  And, it’s a network for groups.  I guess they’re trying to do it “better.”  Did they succeed?  We’ll see.
  • On launch day, the groups created, well, sucked.  I searched and searched throughout the day, waiting to see what cool groups were being created, who was out there, etc.  As I filtered by “most active, “most popular,” and “newest,” I was very disappointed to find literally nothing I wanted to join.  I completely understand this was day 1, so I’m not trying to be too harsh on this point.  However, I just thought more people would’ve been active on there creating really interesting groups and content, especially after the anticipation of the launch.
  • My group might collect dust.  I wanted to created a new group to try it out.  Being that it was launch day I figured I could probably claim something that people might actually want to join.  Why not?  Let’s see what happens.  So, I created a Kohort group for Ski Industry Marketing.  I connect with a bunch of people involved in this world on other platforms and thought that just maybe, some might join up and play around as well, maybe even start a discussion on Kohort.  Nope.  I broadcasted about the group on both Twitter and Facebook.  Crickets.  And I refuse to send an email to my contacts.  I’m not going to personally spam you about something like this.  So, as I write this 3 days later….still no one.
  • Mobile? I personally have a Samsung Galaxy S III so I use Android, and there was definitely no app on Friday.  iPhone?  I wouldn’t know.

I think the site has potential, as it’s WAY to early to ever rule out any new social platform until we get a chance to see what the people think.  At this point, it’s very new, but people don’t seem to be racing to join it, to create cool groups, or interact.  My two followers both work for Kohort.  The jury will be out for a while.  Maybe they have something else planned to give it a boost?  Some cool digital marketing campaign?  Some earned media online write ups to give it some exposure?  Not sure.  But if it’s released to the wild and this is what it is for good, we might not be seeing it in a year.

Good luck to the Kohort team.  I hope to interact with better groups and more people soon.  Otherwise I might have to start cracking Google+-esque jokes about it.  And I don’t want to do that.  I wish them success.

a tweet chat with my CEO

Last week I got the very cool opportunity to host a tweet chat with Vail Resorts’ CEO, Rob Katz (@RickysRidge).  Not something you see every day – an open, public discussion with someone so highly ranked in such a big company.  It was a very cool experience.  Many other folks jumped in as well, adding questions to the conversation.  Rob answered every single one, and added in some jokes, too.

The main topic was social media.

Rob offered some great opinions and thoughts, and he did it all within the 140 character limit, including the chat hashtag (#VRSS12)!

This is just another testament to how important social media/business has become, and also how committed Vail Resorts is to being a leader in the socialsphere.  I want to give major props to Rob for being so willing to jump on a tweet chat.

I hope to see more of this from other companies and industries.  Social-savvy CEOs are the future.  Other leaders out there who haven’t quite taken a liking to social media, or haven’t quite jumped in yet; take the lead from Mr. Katz.  That’s how you do it.

 

 

enhanced facebook page post targeting is huge

Today Facebook announced that they will be doing something that I’ve wanted for a long time now.  If you guessed that they will now be allowing brand pages to target posts based on fans’ Likes, gender, age and other demographics – then you are correct.  Yes, that is exactly what they are doing.  For now, of course, the new functionality is only available to a few extra-special partners.  In the coming weeks it should apparently roll out to everyone.

This is huge.

Previously we could only geo-target or language-target.  That’s good when you need to talk to one specific geographic location, but then you still run into spewing content about one subject to tons of people who could not care less.  Content is the key nowadays to a successful social presence, especially on Facebook, so the ability to now spew content to people that actually like that content is very powerful stuff.

For example, you have fans that “liked” your Facebook page for multiple reasons.  And these people themselves have other “likes.”  And they are made up of different age groups.  When you post about a wine event involving painting and what not, you realize that the younger crowd that follows you would rather chew glass.  Now, you will be able to target that  content specifically to your older fan base – whatever you deem “older.”   And if you want to get even deeper, you could target folks that specifically are interested in wine, or painting, or both.  The younger crowd that enjoys a trusty Keystone Light doesn’t have to know the post would’ve ever existed.

This should help with engagement on certain topics that otherwise just fell into a black hole.

One question from me would be regarding that engagement piece.  We know that a typical post sent to everyone that follows you gets seen on average by 18% of your fans.  Now, will it still be around that percentage within the interest or age targeted group?  Or will it be better?

This could make Facebook ads’ future quite interesting, since the specific targeting is one element that made ads so powerful.

We can be sure there will be post booster promotions available.  Gotta make money on this somehow.  Gotta make those shareholders happy.  Is that possible right now?

UPDATE as of 8/1: I learned today that apparently you won’t yet be able to target based on LIKES.  Not yet, at least.  Bummer.  However, the new demographic targeting will be huge.

my Twitter geek-out moment of the week

Every once in a while, we in social media have geek-out moments.  OK, actually probably much more than every once in a while.  This happens quite a bit.  Whether it is a new gadget, app or platform – we who “do” social media for a living are passionate about this stuff.

I had a geek-out moment last night.

I tweeted a photo that I took at the Denver Broncos training camp that day.  Simple enough, right?  I had already done some fancy editing to it in Instagram to make me think I’m a really good/cool photographer.  I wanted to share this image with the official @Denver_Broncos Twitter handle, since, you know, every once in a while big name Twitter handles spread the love.  I really thought the picture was pretty sweet.

I didn’t want to share my actual Instagram link with the Broncos community manager, as I figured that has much less chance of being re-shared to some extent.  That is more along the lines of self promoting my Instagram handle by way of my Twitter handle, and asking a big-name Twitter account to do that for me.  Too many steps and gateways.  They just want to a share a picture right there.  They have 165,000 followers and always appear to be pretty selective with what they RT and post.  Slim chance.

So, I just took the Instagram-edited photo from my phone’s memory card and shared that on Twitpic as a free-standing image.  No tie-in to Instagram.

Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, the Broncos official Twitter handle Re-Tweeted my original tweet to their large follower-base.  Granted, many of which did not see the post, but it’s still cool.   They replied to my tweet and kept my handle in their post.  This is when I geeked out.  About 10 minutes later the tweet had been RT by others 83 times and ‘favorited’ by another 34.  My Twitter handle was mentioned each time.  OMG!!!

I know, this really shouldn’t be that exciting.  Behind even the Broncos’ account is a community manager (who was totally on it after 9 PM by the way), or social manager of some kind.  A human.  Doing a similar job that I do.  However, for some reason it’s still exciting to see your Twitter handle out there mentioned by a “big deal.”  I geeked out.  I know, beat it nerd.

As of this afternoon the tweet has 126 RT, 49 Favorites, 9 other mentions and my Twitpic has been viewed over 1,200 times.

Without the Broncos boost, I guarantee I probably would have 1, maybe 2 RTs and potentially 100 views.

So with a few clicks and one post, boom.  Another quick example of the the power of social media.

And I’m a geek.

my next move – a personal update

As many of you know, I am leaving my post as the marketing and social media manager at Keystone Resort.  My wife landed a dandy of a new job back down the mountain and we decided to go for it.  It’s a great situation for our family and would allow me to fulfill my lifelong dream of being a trophy husband.

Or so I thought.   It’s good news.

I am delighted to announce that I will now be moving to the corporate office for Vail Resorts, in Broomfield, and will be the new Manager of Social Media for corporate.  Ironically, my wife’s job is in the exact same business park.  Our buildings can be seen from one another.  Funny, since we started our careers working two buildings apart, on the same campus for ConAgra Foods in Omaha, NE several years ago.

It’s an interesting situation when your mind is starting to get comfortable with the thought of being home every day with your one and a half year old son, with each day as a new adventure.  All of that sounds amazing, right?  Yes, well, I apparently am one of those people that also really cares about my career and where it goes.  Max will be fine, really.  In fact, he’ll be better off come college time if Mom and Dad both work.  Looking for a nanny as we speak.

I want it to keep going, keep growing.  I want my career to be with social media for the indefinite future.  I want to stay in the ski industry.  This opportunity allows me to not only stay with the same company and industry, but to now also touch all of Vail’s resorts and properties.  It’s a bigger picture role and one that I am thrilled to be jumping into.  There’s so much opportunity.  Social is still so young.  It will be quite fun.

The team Vail Resorts has in place and all of the resort social/online managers are second to none.  I am so excited to work closer with these folks and continue to help lead VR into the future as the leader in the social/digital space in this industry and beyond for years to come.

More to come in the weeks and months ahead.  I can’t wait to take this one on…

should your brand be social?

The answer to this question has been forever changing over the last several years.  Brands are fickle.  Some hop on social media right away and ride it out for a while and then get darn right sick of it.  Some think they aren’t seeing any ROI so they peace out.  Some have no idea what ROI means with social media so they pretty much have no strategy, fail, and peace out.  Some partake in social media simply because they think that’s what you are supposed to do in 2012.  Other brands love social media and are locked in for sticking it out.  The latter are typically the brands that know what they’re doing, or, have a community manager that knows what they’re doing.

So, should your brand be social?

This is kind of a trick question because I believe that any brand can utilize social media to their benefit in some way, shape, or form.  So, the answer is yes.

There are a few things brands need to remember when building out a social strategy to make sure this works for their brand:

  • What platform(s) make the most sense? Brands don’t need to be on 14 different social media channels simply because they think that makes them look cooler or more “with it” or whatever their reasoning might be.  Different platforms have different fan-bases, tools, resources, conversations, and methods for connecting with fans.  Some are all visual, some are information-based, some do several different things.  Take a look at the socialsphere and determine that for your brand, with who you are trying to talk to and connect with, what are the best ways to do this?
  • What is your goal for social media? Over the last few years the main version of ROI has always been “how much revenue are you producing through your social channels?”  Not anymore.  That is still definitely a component to some social ROI strategies, but it’s not the only one by any means.  Maybe you are really going after connecting with new demographics and fan-bases, or you just want to build brand awareness.  Or, the engagement piece driven through conversations is #1 on your list.  Figure out by prioritizing – what are your goals?  Revenue?  Engagement?  Brand awareness?  Put your pieces in order and build out from there.
  • What kind of content will you be putting out there? Have an idea in place for what kind of awesome stuff you want your fans to see.  And make sure these aren’t the same across all social platforms.  Again, different platforms have different fans, conversations and uses – don’t be lazy and auto post from one account to all of your accounts.  That is the opposite of social media.  That is robot media.  Do you have great photos to put out there?  Funny videos making your brand and products look more human?  Will you do some contests or sweepstakes?  Embrace your community and you’ll gradually find out what they like as you go.
  • Know your voice. This is an element that perfects over time.  You don’t just kick off a new social media presence and have an amazing voice that everyone loves, however, you can know certain elements.  Short and sweet?  Witty but friendly?  Robotic and sales-pitchy (hope not!)? Helpful and approachable?  Quick to respond?  And probably the most important: human.  You’ll get a feel for how to respond, how to deal with negative posts, and how to put new content out there as you go.  Voice can be tricky, but finding it and sticking to it is huge.  Fans will come to expect the voice you land on, they’ll get to know it, and this will become and extension of your brand and public relations arm.

These four items above are  key components and very important when building out a social strategy, however, they are the tip of the iceberg.  Social community management and strategy can get very, very deep.  Anything beyond what I say above needs to be discussed over beers, however.

so happy about Facebook comment editing

Facebook announced that now you can edit your comments.  This is great news for those of us responding to people via fat-fingered phones, hard-to-type on tablets, or just from our grammatically challenged selves.  And perhaps most importantly, as a business page we can respond to people and feel confident that if we screwed up we can go fix it.

I’ve seen comments on photos and other types of content be editable by brand pages for a few months now.  I’m not sure why or what it was, but certain outgoing posts wouldn’t allow for edited comments.  Hopefully, now, it will all be able to be manipulated.

Let’s face it – sometimes you quickly respond with something that you regret 10 seconds later, or really wish you could just tweak, without completely removing it.

Where brand pages used to get called out for deleting comments in the past, will we now get called out for editing comments?

Probably.

The change is very welcome.