I’ll admit that it took me awhile to really like the application.  But after a few months (and a high-energy fight for Mayorship of my local Target with other bloggers in the area) I began to really see Foursquare’s value. While I will agree with Jon that not everyone needs to know when I’m bra shopping, I do find it interesting to see other people’s patterns: where they like to shop and eat on a regular basis, and where they have gone so many times that they are mayor. Putting on the marketing hat, I also think it’s a great way to promote establishments and offer deals and specials to friends, clients and customers in your immediate area.

Recently, I had an appointment at my hair salon, and while I was waiting for my stylist, I checked-in via Foursquare. Being a proponent of supporting local businesses in my area, my main goal was to give my salon a virtual “shout out.” After checking-in, I received a sponsored coupon from a small, local establishment down the street; they were offering a half-off deal for people checking in. Having seen these specials before from larger corporations such as Starbucks and Chili’s, I was really excited to see a local bar embracing this form of marketing. Thinking of the positive aspects of Foursquare, I started mentally writing this blog post in my head.

Then about half-way through my appointment, I received an email from an address I didn’t recognize saying they were just one town north and asking if they could “come down and see my hair.” Since this was to my personal email, I asked if this person was someone I knew. It wasn’t, and the proposition that followed made me realize that this person knew more about me than I was comfortable with. And worse – this person knew my exact location at that moment.

Cyber-stalking isn’t new, but the tools have changed. With Facebook about to roll out its geo-tagging service, and Twitter and Yelp also offering “check-in” abilities, one has to wonder how this will compromise people’s privacy – and even safety – in the future. The Daily Beast posted an article recently about a story similar to mine, but this time the “stalker” called the restaurant the user had checked in to and harassed her verbally over the phone. Quoted in the article, Foursquare counters that the service is meant to alert your friends about your location and that broadcasting the information over Twitter is just an option. And while that is true, keeping it a closed network isn’t the intent or desire of these technologies since the monetization of their services is based on the broad, open reach that “check-ins” can offer.

I’m torn. As a PR professional, we want people to use these tools to tell the world that they are at an event that we organized, or are shopping or eating at a client’s establishment. There is a distinct value of users broadcasting that they are thrilled to be trying out a new restaurant or that a particular store has a fabulous sale going on. But as a user, now concerned over her and her family’s personal safety, I will definitely think twice before checking in.

What do you think? Do you have any ideas about how to use these tools for marketing to a large audience yet still be safe to the individual user?

As a new initiative for LACMA, the series is overseen by artist, Steve Fagin.  Wilson is among the list of writers, fashion designers, artists and critics all scheduled through September 6 to mix things up on Twitter.  Though Wilson’s specific series was titled “I Hate LACMA” and his tweets offered a list of reasons to never go to LACMA, he happens to be a member of the Museum and has spoken highly of the institution.  He also happens to be a major player in the Twittersphere, with almost 2 million followers on his own account.  While I can respect an institution that doesn’t take itself too seriously, I’m still a bit baffled at how his tweets would lead to foot traffic. I suppose if anything, Fagin must have been optimistic about a new set of eyes and followers carrying over from Wilson’s to LACMA’s account.

If I were to plan a Twitter hijacking for one of my clients, here are the items I’d check before approving:

1)  Audience: who are my donors, supporters and greatest demographic? Will an initiative such as this lead to quality content my current followers will appreciate?

2)  Sample tweets from appointed “guest” tweeters: There needs to be some control over the content and the director should probably be aware of what to expect, both from the guest tweeting and the reaction of the brand’s current followers. Art writer for the popular blog Modern Art Notes, Tyler Green, put this stunt on the worst idea of the weekend, saying LACMA should have pulled the plug early on.

3)  Goals for an initiative such as a Twitter Hijacking: Is LACMA looking to stir things up and create controversy to gain publicity? Are they trying to drive foot traffic and sales? As noted in any other social media guides we’ve provided, always have a clear idea of your goals and objectives.

Do you think LACMA’s onto something allowing guest tweeters to take over their account? Or do you think, even with an increase in followers and interactions, that this may hurt the institution’s reputation over time?

While it may seem we’re going to back to basics, this list of to-dos can also be applied when you feel that your current social media strategy is getting stale.  I also believe that it should be integrated into your social media plan to reevaluate every six months to ensure that you’re best utilizing your social media budget.

1)  Right off the bat, when beginning a new campaign or revamping, you’re going to want to spend some time listening – where are people talking about your brand?  What platforms are they using?  What types of feedback are you getting – good or bad?  What confuses people and where can you implement customer service to streamline the process?

There are numerous tools to use to measure and evaluate your brand mentions.  Social Mention, Google Buzz and Vocus have all incorporated a tool where you can either log in or have an email sent listing all the platforms that are mentioning your brand (by keyword).  You may find right off the bat that the all-encompassing Facebook strategy you’ve been working on isn’t actually where all the chatter is about your brand.  Perhaps your customers are still using forums to talk about you.

2)  Now that you know where people are discussing your brand, what’s the chatter surrounding your competitors.  What’s interesting is organizations that you may consider your greatest competitors may have no social presence whatsoever – this makes for an even greater opportunity for your brand to capitalize on.    You also may find there are organizations that you had no idea were competitors.  If their campaign is successful, there’s no harm in incorporating some of their successes into your own campaign – just make sure to make it your own.

3)  Once you’ve done your research, it should be clear what platforms you should be using to speak to your current customer base and if it makes sense to join additional networks.  While numerous companies will only focus on Twitter and Facebook, think of what your brand offers.  If it’s a consumer product or service that you find customers don’t know how to use, perhaps YouTube is a platform you use for tutorials.  Are most of your mentions coming from FriendFeed or a particular blog or forum?  Perhaps start there and once you’ve established a presence there, let your customers know that you’re also on Facebook and Twitter and have your own blog.  If you’re looking for foot traffic, create a social loyalty program with FourSquare.

4)  While you may want to dive right in and begin making updates and tweeting to your loyal customers, you should first create a six-month plan and outline goals you have for social media: Do you wish to increase sales on-site?  Do you wish to increase website traffic?  Or are you hoping that you can give your customer service phone line a break?

Once these goals are outlined, the rest of your plan should be fairly simple to fill in.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to have quality content on your pages.  If you insist on having a presence, make it a strong one.  Before you begin interacting or creating your own Facebook tab with FBML, bullet out what initiatives you have monthly, and always check back to remind yourself of your overall goals.

5)  Measure, analyze and report your findings, both successes and failures, to learn what works and what doesn’t within the realm of your brand’s offerings.  Gather screen grabs from fans and followers raving about your social media campaign, or a conversation you had online convincing an individual to visit your venue.  When your client asks for the value of social media (which they will), these will be key in demonstrating the power and value in a successful social media campaign.

Do you think there are any other basics companies should remember when creating or revamping their social media plans?

New functionality for users:

1. Find out what is “Trending Now.” By simply looking at the “Places” around you, you can see where the people are. These don’t have to be your linked “friends.” For example, I just saw that Hash House is trending. There must be something great going on there today, maybe I should check it out…
2. You can now see who is “Staff” at any given venue. If you are a marketer, and you manage a venue, you can mark yourself as staff and therefore users know the venue is being managed by someone and that the company is engaged in social media strategy.
3. The “History” section got an update. You can now easily add a category to a venue and see which of your friends checked in at the same venue.
4. The sign-up page was re-designed, making it even easier to sign-up and to see who of your Twitter followers and Facebook friends are using the platform. The ease of this new sign-up form is likely part of the reason Foursquare has seen such a huge growth in users, recently hitting the 2 million user mark.
5. Users now have the ability to opt-out of being a part of the business dashboard. For those who want to keep their check-ins private to business owners, they have that option. However selecting this would be a detriment to many users as they  may be unable to capitalize on special offers/promotions.
6. When you check a venue on the site, you can no longer see the profiles of those who have recently checked in. Now Foursqaure only reports a number, a move that is in no doubt meant to have users feel like their privacy is being protected.

So what do all these changes mean for marketers?

Trending now, accessibly to staff members, improved history, easy signups and upgraded privacy, all make for a better user experience, and are all part of the reason the platform ms growing so exponentially. It’s important for us as marketers to be aware of these changes and adjust our strategy. (Hint, you can no longer tweet at just anyone who checks into your location.)

Foursquare Check-In Here Window Cling, courtesy Foursquare

It is also more important than ever to claim your location with the Foursquare team, so that you’ll have access to the additional analytics provided by the business dashboard.

Finally, from a fulfillment stand-point, it is good for marketers using Foursquare specials to keep an eye on the growth of the platform to ensure they are still able to fulfill their offer. As Foursquare becomes more and more popular, special promos may have to be adjusted or simplified.

And last but not least, some Foursquare don’ts:

As the platform continues to grow and evolve, we’ll see more and more newbies jumping on board. If you are just getting started, here are a few of my Foursquare Don’ts.

• Don’t use your home address to check in. Let’s avoid crazies and stalkers.
• Don’t cheat. Only check-in somewhere if you are really there.
• Don’t auto-sync with Twitter. Don’t clog your Twitter stream with where  you checked-in. Leave this feature as a manual selection so that you can Tweet something about your check-in when it is appropriate.
• Don’t auto-sync with Facebook for the same reasons as above.

So first off- What is Klout?

Simply put, Klout measures your level of influence on Twitter. The scores range from 0-100 and a higher Klout score represents a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout takes into account 25 variables (the details of which are kept a secret) in assessing a Twitter handle’s ability to drive people to action (e.g. reply, retweet or click-through). It aims to show how effective a person or company is at engaging their audience and how big of an impact their messages have.

But Klout does more than just give you a score. It also tells you who you are influenced by and who is influenced by you, the topics you are most influential on, and what percentile you are in compared to other Twitter users. For those using the tool to report Twitter success for clients, it charts your growth and shows your top RT’s and links.

Best of all, Klout is pretty darn reliable. To test the tool’s accuracy I ran our teams’ and clients’ handles through the program to see if my perception of people’s/companies’ influence would roughly align with Klout’s. For the most part, it did. I was impressed

And so, Klout became a part of my life. And as I’ve used it more and more, I’ve discovered there are three distinct ways to use Klout.

How to use Klout

1. Personal brand strategy – Sometimes we spend so much time working on our company’s Twitter handles or our clients’ handles that we let our own personal handles take a major backseat. However, we are missing a big opportunity here. How helpful is a RT of your company’s handle if no one is paying attention to you? Look at each section of the Klout report and make changes accordingly. Hint: If your score hasn’t changed in a while, scroll down to the bottom of the page to refresh your score every once in a while.

2. Social media metrics – Include Klout into your social media metrics reporting for your company or your clients. Personally, I’d feel comfortable allowing it to take the place of counting the numbers of RT’s, @ replies, bit.ly click-throughs, lists etc. All of those aim to show growth in Twitter influence and all of those are included in Klout’s calculations. Using this tool could save you bundles of reporting time. Note: even if you aren’t ready to use it as a replacement, it is an easy addition.

3. Identifying and rewarding influencers - a couple of early companies have already figured this out and created programs based off incentivizing influencers with high Klout scores. Virgin Air was one of the first to launch a program like this when they gave away free flights to select people with high Klout scores. I expect we’ll be seeing more of this as the tool continues to evolve.

So how about all of you? Anyone using Klout regularly or planning to launch a Klout rewards program sometime soon?

Introduced to us by the knowledgeable Jay Baer of Convince and Convert, TweetReach takes the obnoxious time suck out of Twitter reporting with the click of a button.  You simply type in the key words or phrases you wish to report on, then click “Go.”  Here is what your report will include:

I love how TweetReach creates a very clean, simple and direct view of who’s talking about your brand.  Also, I’ve found that they capture more mentions than both Twitter and Seesmic.

While I do find great value in TweetReach, there are a few changes I’d make to the tool to make it even better.  Currently here are my issues:

• Limited amount of tweets – TweetReach only offers the most recent 50 tweets (for free).  This means you have to be VERY specific with the keywords you’re searching.   You can purchase a downloadable PDF of up to 500 tweets for $20.  I’m currently considering trying this for a future opportunity.
• Can’t remove tweets that aren’t relevant to your brand.  For example my client, The San Diego Museum of Art recently appointed a new Executive Director, Roxana Velásquez.  Instead of searching the handle @SDMA, I wanted a more focused scope of mentions specifically to this news, making my search “Roxana Velásquez.”  Because the report I ran was timely (same day news broke), most of the tweets captured by TweetReach were relevant to the report.  However, there were a few strays that had nothing to with the Museum or the story I was working to report on.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t remove those mentions from the report compiled by TweetReach.
• Being a reporting system based on timeliness, you need use this tool weekly to acquire a relevant idea of who’s talking about your brand or keywords.  This is why I’d recommend this as a resource for gathering data on news vs. an overall look at a brand.

While this report may not be the focus point of your strategy, it does offer great insight and a reminder to your client as to why they are on and should stay involved in social media.

Are there any other social media reporting tools that you’d like to add to Callan’s and my research project?

While waiting to find out if the manager would remedy the situation, I of course tweeted my discontent. I did not receive a response from the restaurant. The restaurant missed this opportunity to fix the situation online as my Twitter followers were not at the restaurant to see the manager remedy the situation. All they knew was that the restaurant was unclean. This disconnect between online and offline customer service could easily have been corrected with an online response.

A company’s management style and customer service should be reflected both on and offline. Public perception of a brand can be seen through a social media personality and in on-site staff. It is equally concerning when a company has a great online presence and then the on-site customer service is sub-par.

An example of a company with great online and offline customer service is Pizza Fusion. The San Diego branch Twitter account is consistently active and responds to Bailey Gardiner staff tweets on a regular basis. In the event a follower tweets a complaint, @PizzaFusionSD is quick to address the concern in a personable manner. To demonstrate this, today I asked @PizzaFusionSD if they recommend any new menu items and in about an hour I received a response telling me about the gluten-free crust. They complement this online presence by having great in-store staff. Their team has even recognized the BG crew when we come by all our tweets about Free Pizza Fridays. This mix of online and offline customer service encourages us to frequent the restaurant more often. After all, good customer service often turns into customer loyalty.

Are your company’s customer service objectives aligned both online and in person? How does your company hold the online and in-store objectives together?

A couple of months ago, our client, gaytravel.com came to us looking to increase awareness of its newly launched website – with an idea already in mind – to integrate social media into a larger strategy to find America’s First Gay Travel Guru. Specializing in providing the LGBT community with expert recommendations on gay-friendly destinations, gaytravel.com is hoping to enlist the help of a Social media-savvy, culture-seeking Rock Star to travel the U.S. for six months sharing photos, videos, blogs and tweets.

So what does a job search through social media look like?

From April 30 – August 1, gaytravel.com will conduct a search for a travel enthusiast to city-hop, mingle, and report on the hottest gay destinations in North America.  Interested applicants will write travel reviews, post photos, videos, tweets, and use word-of-mouth to demonstrate why they are the perfect candidate for the job.  gaytravel.com will also use its own social community, Meet; public voting; and a questionnaire and job application to select its Gay Travel Guru.

What does this lucky Gay Travel Guru do once they get the job?

• Spend six months traveling across North America
• Share his/her experiences through blog posts, video, photos, tweets, and updates to Facebook and gaytravel.com

And what are the benefits aside from the job itself?

• $30,000 salary during 6-month employment period
• $200 stipend per trip
• Full compensation for hotel stay, transportation, and airfare

For full details on how to apply, check out gaytravel.com/guru.  And you can expect a full case study upon completion of the job search.

1)  Murphy Goode’s “Really Goode Job”: The company posted job listings on all kinds of sites (everything from Craigslist to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Wine Blog,  The Cellarist) looking for a social media wine enthusiast capable of convincing the masses to sip, savor and tweet about the product.  To enter, contestants were tasked with creating and submitting a video explaining why they should be given the job.  Once submitted, the videos were uploaded to Murphy Goode’s YouTube and voted on by the public.

Positive: Excitement about the six-month job opportunity, and good PR,  led to over 2,000 entries and a ton of media buzz regarding the winery.

Negative: While the contest was described as social and social networks were used in judging, there was a grey area as to whether or not public/social voting really had anything to do with final selection.  Like many other contests, there was backlash because other contestants and voters felt the social voting aspect wasn’t weighted as high as it should have been.  Moral of the story: Brands should be extremely clear about how they’ll select their winners.

2) Coca Cola’s Happiness Ambassadors: Expedition 206 is currently underway as the top three “happiness ambassadors” chosen via social media travel the world (well, at least the 206 countries where Coca Cola is available).  As noted in Ad Age’s interview with Clyde Tuggle, senior VP-global public affairs and communications at Coca Cola, final candidates were not left up to chance.  After reaching out to multiple experienced marketing firms, Coca Cola acquired their top 60 candidates from around the world (based on social media experience and knowledge).  Of those 60, 18 were interviewed in the U.S. and the final nine individuals were then FINALLY presented to the public as three teams of three for social media voting.

Positive: Coca Cola knew the caliber of contestants they were seeking, and instead of hoping the public would find them on their own, they narrowed the playing field to keep the brand happy and allow the public to make their final selections.  Having done their research, it is expected that the content, along with public interest will both be a high success.

Negative: Now that the three ambassadors have been chosen, the public is also in charge of recommending sites and activities for the ambassadors to carry out.  However, I have to wonder if people will lose interest if the ambassadors don’t choose a recommended activity.  And, with most marketing plans, we like to have a decent idea of the outcome.  As for this campaign, Ad Age’s Natalie Zmuda said it best: “In the case of Expedition 206, there’s not yet any clear sense of how the program will deliver or what brand awareness it will generate.”

3) Groupon’s “Live Off Groupon for a Year” Contest: If you aren’t yet familiar with Groupon, they are an amazing organization offering city-specific hospitality coupons.  The increasingly popular company is going to pay $100,000 to an individual that can live off of Groupon deals for one full year.  (Think 50 percent off sushi, or $25 dollars off teeth cleaning).

Positive: While only brave apply, Groupon has done an excellent job at describing who should not apply.  Their rules and description of the contest are written so there really isn’t any confusion about how this may inconvenience the “winner.” With constant curiosity as to whether or not this Groupon lifestyle is really livable, I predict this social media campaign will continue to bring new and returning readers to check on our “chosen one.”

Negative: The selected individual will only win the $100,000 if she successfully survives with nothing but a laptop, cellphone, and an unlimited supply of Groupons.  What if the individual fails?  Does the campaign just end if and when he slips up and uses his own cash to buy McDonald’s without a Groupon?  I guess that’s the excitement of this whole campaign.  We’ll have to wait and watch…

What do you think are some other brand ambassador programs that have demonstrated the power of social media?  Are there any brands that you’d like to be the brand ambassador for?  Please share your opinions in the comments.

Jay noted that when  a woman calls a company to reach customer service, she almost expects to basically get no where.  When she emails, she may expect a response within a few days.  But, when an individual hops on Twitter and Facebook and posts to a brand that has so openly requested her to interact, she wants a response/solution to her issues RIGHT NOW.

Below are some simple strategies to implement customer service into your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Using Social Media for Customer Service

1)  Monitor your social media accounts daily.  Engaging posts are important, but know that you can’t always plan for what a fan/follower may post.

2)  When a fan complains about your product, don’t delete the post.  Let it be an open dialogue where you assure your fan that the problem is going to be addressed.

3)  Respond to questions, concerns, and even positive feedback immediately.  And by immediately, I mean within an hour!  If you don’t generate a response quickly enough, that may be a lost follower forever.

4)  If the issue requires tech support or help from a separate department within your company, respond within the hour to tell them that you are sorry for the frustration, the issue is being addressed and you will respond with an answer/solution within the next three hours.  (And follow up with that guarantee.)

It’s probably a good idea to have some simple responses to questions that tend to pop up regularly on your fan pages and Twitter feeds, but know that you can’t plan the day to day.  Just be confident in your brand and remember that these fans/followers trust your social media involvement as a part of your customer service initiatives.

What brands do you think utilize social media for customer service best?