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HootSuite: Canada’s Biggest Web Success Story?

By Mark Evans in Uncategorized No Comments Tags: , ,

HootsuiteYou know what’s strange about Hootsuite’s success? It’s how muted the enthusiasm has been in Canada.

Sure, a lot of people recognize that Hootsuite is a leading service to use Twitter and other social media services but it’s not like people are falling over themselves to thrust the Vancouver-based company into the spotlight.

Maybe that will change after Hootsuite said earlier this week that it now has two million users, many of them people happy to pay a monthly subscription fee. Even more impressive is the number of Hootsuite users has doubled in the past few months.

Hootsuite’s modest profile – and I know some people will push back against this description – may have to do with the fact it hasn’t loudly blown its own horn. Instead, the company has steadily continued to move forward by adding new features and, of course, introducing a freemium business model that has been embraced by many users.

Hootsuite also “suffers” from the fact it has a group of low-key investors as opposed to high-profile VCs looking to show how savvy they were in their startup financing activities.

In a way, it is refreshing to see a company enjoying so much success seem to take it all in stride. I’m sure the company could be a lot more aggressive and self-promotional but that doesn’t appear to be its style.

For more on Hootsuite’s success, check out The Next Web.

Hootsuite

Some People Should Be Twitter-Free

By Mark Evans in Social Media, Uncategorized 5 Comments Tags: , , ,

No twitterJust because Twitter has more than 200 million users doesn’t mean it’s a tool for everyone.

In fact, there are some people who just shouldn’t use Twitter because it gets them in hot water more than it helps them build a personal brand, promote a business, or provide valuable or interesting content.

A case in point is Toronto councillor John Parker, who seems to think Twitter is a platform to opine about “hot chicks”. Not that there is anything wrong with hot chicks or using Twitter to talk about hot chicks but not when you’re an elected official with a high profile.

Parker’s stumbles and bumbles on Twitter may be light-hearted but it clearly shows he has no clue about the inappropriateness of “hot chicks” tweets or the downside of Twitter given what gets said on Twitter goes way beyond Twitter.

Parker joins a long list of politicians, athletes and celebrities who should be told “Sorry, no Twitter for you”. It’s like giving the car keys to a teenager who proceeds to drive recklessly. At some point, you have to ask for the keys back.

The problem with Twitter it requires little or no thought to tweet. It plays right into our multi-tasking, impulse-purchase world. You think or do something, you instantly tweet it – damn the consequences, implications or fallout.

It explains why most tweets are value-less, inane or digital flotsam that would be left untweeted. I suggest there be a tweet-meter that measures the goofiness of tweets. If tweets fall before a certain level, you’re on probation. If the bad behaviour contents, you’re banned from Twitter.

Some people should stay away or walk away from Twitter to save themselves and protect the rest of us from their digital noise.

Are Paywalls Really Catching On?

By Mark Evans in Uncategorized 4 Comments Tags: ,

Round pegFor the past decade, a growing number of publishers have valiantly attempted to make paywalls work to generate revenue from sources other than advertising. Unfortunately, it’s been like trying to pound a round peg into a square hole.

The problem is consumers have too many content choices so if they are forced to pay for even quality content, many of them will opt for something that’s free. At the same time, consumers have grown accustomed to not paying for anything online.

But is this resistance changing? A Bloomberg story suggests paywalls are slowly gaining traction, illustrated by the New York Times having 100,000 subscribers while Rupert Murdoch’s Times of London has more than 80,000.

“The mood is changing,” Charlie Beckett, the director of the Polis media research unit at the London School of Economics told Bloomberg. “Murdoch and the New York Times have taken the leap, and that encourages people. It’s still a leap”.

For publishers, they are desperately hoping the mood is, in fact, changing because they’re still scrambling to determine how to convert pageviews into revenue. Despite a decade of experimenting, they have yet to come up with a winning formula.

Leading the paywall charge this time around is Murdoch, who is intent on making paywalls stick even if inflicts terrible pain in the short-term. To give payrolls a shot of working, someone needs to be the sacrificial lamb, a role that Murdoch seems to have embraced.

If Murdoch is willing to stay the course, it might – and this is a huge might – encourage more publishers to introduce paywalls. If enough of them take the plunge, it could shrink the number of high-profile free sources to point where more consumers may – and this a big may – be willing to pay for content.

Of course, there will always be free content that will compete with paid content for attention. At the same time, many consumers will be happy to pay for good enough if it’s free rather than pay for high-quality content.

This isn’t to suggest paywalls are doomed or will enjoy only a modicum of success but anyone who suggests paywalls on are a major roll toward a lucrative future are probably fooling themselves.

The mood may be changing but it’s not changing fast enough and I suspect it won’t change enough to fix all the woes of online publishers.

Creating a Better, Smarter Social Media Strategy

By Mark Evans in Social Media, Uncategorized 1 Comment Tags: ,

I’ve been doing social media strategy for the past two years but a recent project gave me some new and valuable perspective on how strategic plans should happen.

The biggest lesson is how tightly-integrated social media strategy needs to be with a company’s communications, sales and marketing activities. It seems like a straightforward/no-brainer approach but one of the dangers of creating social media strategy is treating it as a standalone activity as opposed to something that is baked into a company’s operations and corporate DNA.

StrategyMany social media strategic plans pay far more attention to tactics and how different services and tools can be operated on a daily basis. I think a this focus happens because tactics are difficult to implement compared with strategy. Tactics involve time, grunt work and a savviness about the tools and best practices. On the other hand, strategy is more subtle and complex because it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution in which you simply do A, B and C on a regular basis.

When I completed the recent social media strategic report, it came after spending a lot of time with the client and its employees – both senior executives and marketing and communications people. In the process, I learned a lot about the organization, how it operates, the culture, the politics and the approach to marketing and sales. Some of the questions I asked about social media prompted the company to take a look at its overall approach to marketing and sales. This made my assignment more complicated but it was a positive thing for the company.

With in-depth knowledge the company, its people and operations, my report featured not only strategic recommendations but valuable nuances and details that could only have happened by investing a lot of time with people. At the end of the day, the strategic report was more comprehensive, more valuable and, frankly, a better piece or work.

Here are some of the key lessons that I picked up:

1. Learn as much as you can about a client’s operations, culture and current approach to communications, sales and marketing. It can mean spending a good chunk of time in meetings but it’s a good investment, and the only way to really learn what the client needs.

2. Don’t be afraid to ask a company why they want to do social media and what they hope to get out of it. They sound like simple questions but the answers are often more interesting and revealing that you’d expect. You may discover that parts of the organization are keen about social media while other parts are less keen or reluctant to jump on the bandwagon. Learning more about both groups can generate great insight to create a plan that takes into account everyone’s needs and motivations.

3. Focus on strategy first; then look at tactics. The strategic goals and considerations have a major impact on tactics so knowing why a company wants to do social media, what they want to get out of it and how they are going to measure success will provide lots of directions for tactical implementation.

4. Be prepared to offer a short-term plan and a long-term roadmap. In many cases, companies will discover that social media is more complex and involves more resources (time and people) than they expected. Rather than scare them away by delivering a plan that involves a lot of work, it’s easier for them to digest a plan that involves different phases.

For more on how to create a social media strategy, check out Pam Moore’s recent post.

What Startups Should Not Do When Approaching Bloggers & Reporters

By Mark Evans in Social Media, Uncategorized 1 Comment Tags: , ,

SpotlightWhen you’re a start-up, there’s a hunger to capture the spotlight. When a start-up is scrambling for users, the chance to be get some coverage from bloggers or reporters seems like nirvana. To paraphrase “If we build it, they will come”, start-ups enthusiastically buy into the belief “If we get covered, users will come”.

While trying to attract attention is obviously a good thing, it’s difficult to make it happen because there is so much noise and competition. A blogger with even a modest amount of traffic is probably inundated by start-ups and PR agencies, while reporters are swamped.

In a previous post, I offered eight tips on how to get bloggers and reporters to give you the time of day. Today, I want to look at what start-ups should avoid when they approach bloggers or reporters. This post was inspired by a start-up that sent me an e-mail recently that suggested “We’d appreciate your support by introducing us to the world on your blog.”

While I give the start-up credit for reaching out and using my name to personalize the e-mail, the biggest problem is the message was all about them rather than being about me. They provided a nice overview of their service but it was missing insight into why I should be interested and how it would be relevant to my blog or readers.

In an ideal world, there would have been some information that would illustrate why their service would fit into my editorial focus or interests. The personalization would be included a statement linking the problem the start-up is solving with how the service would make my life easier, more productive or convenient.

Now, it may sound selfish to force start-ups to cater to my needs but it’s a competitive landscape with many start-ups battling for a piece of the attention “pie”. Unless you’re doing something extraordinary, a start-up needs to nail its pitch to bloggers and reporters.

It means start-ups really need to think through what they are pitching and, as important, who they are targeting. It could mean investing their time going after a small target group rather than using the shot-gun approach in which you hope and pray that a few of your blasts get picked up.

It’s not good enough to do an average job when you pitch bloggers and reporters because there are too many other companies playing the same game.

It can be a major challenge for start-ups because telling their stories effectively is often not part of their core competency. Even if they spend the time to tackle it properly, their skills may lie elsewhere. This is where using a third-party could make a lot of sense.

The other consideration is balancing the need to capture the spotlight with the need to make sure your service or product is kick-ass. At the end of the day, great stories and pitch need to sit on a rock-solid foundation of a service or product that delights or solves a problem.

Calgary, Here We Come!

By Mark Evans in Social Media, Uncategorized No Comments Tags: , ,

Screen shot 2011 06 07 at 8 23 00 AMFive years ago, five guys walked into a bar….

It may sound like the beginning of a good joke but the punchline is the five guys decided to create a conference so people could talk about all the exciting things happening on the Web. The conference, mesh, has become a lot bigger, and we’ve branched out by adding more events (meshmarketing and meshU) but the core of what we set out to do in 2006 still holds true today.

As much as mesh has turned into a business, what motivates the five of us is being able to feed off our enthusiasm about new trends, development, start-ups and interesting people to put on conferences. These events are a lot of work but terribly satisfying.

We always thought about mesh as being something for Canada, even though none of us imagined holding events in other cities. After all, we were five guys with no conference experience. Tomorrow, however, mesh takes a big step forward with the launch of meshwest in Calgary. It’s a one-day event that we hope will help us establish a presence in Western Canada and, as important, make mesh truly national.

In some ways, it feels daunting to being adding more events given we all have full-time jobs. On the other hand, it’s exciting to watch something grow and evolve into something you never imagined.

We’ve got a great line-up of speakers at meshwest, headed by a keynote conversation with Shopify.com co-founder Tobias Lutke. What’s nice about meshwest is there’s a good balance of speakers coming in from out of town, along with local talent such as Greg Hounslow, Doug Lacombe, Tony Rino, Allyson Simpson and William Bakker.

We’re looking forward to a great day of conversations and new connections tomorrow. If you’d like to join us, tickets can be purchased here.

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