Chris Hadfield and the amazing world of technology

Despite spending most of my days immersed in using and learning about new technologies, there are some days when I am in complete awe at what technology has made possible. 

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is currently on a five month mission leading Expedition 35 on the International Space Station.

While spending his time in space, Hadfield is doing something a bit differently than others who have gone before him - he’s sharing his experience with the world on a daily basis with social media.

Using Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, he regularly shares what he’s seeing and what he’s learning. Not only that, he’s doing it in a fun and entertaining way. I am blown away not only by the fact that the technology for him to do this now exists, but also at his willingness to share so much (and how good he is at it).

He has run Reddit Q&As

He has done live feed events with University students and also with elementary school students

He produces fun videos on life in space

He tweets very regularly, sharing beautiful images from space

He updates his Facebook page

He tweets with Captain Kirk! (my favourite part about this story is that George Takei, Leonard Nimoy and Will Wheaton all got in on those tweets too :)

He writes music and then sings it with the Barenaked Ladies and a choir back on earth!

Ten years ago, “social media” didn’t exist.  Today Chris Hadfield is sharing his adventures in space with 44,000 Facebook fans and 420,000 Twitter followers. Because of that, people like me know more about what is happening in space than we ever would have thought to learn before.  

18,000 miles an hour - that’s how fast the space station is moving!! It orbits the earth 15 times a day! Just blows my mind!

Have you been following Chris Hadfield?  What are your favourite new space facts? :)

It's all about them: Scott Sigler

In my second post highlighting people and brands who put their audience first, I’m talking about Scott Sigler, another one of the speakers I saw at New Media Expo.

Scott Sigler

photo by Amy Davis Roth

Scott Sigler is a New York Times best-selling novelist. He is the author of Nocturnal, Ancestor, Infected and Contagious.  He is also co-founder of Dark Øverlord Media.

Before he was published, Scott built a large online following by giving away his work in podcasts. His fanbase grew and grew and eventually helped him get a book deal. This is the point in the story where, without ever having read or heard any of Scott’s work, I became a fan.

His fans are his priority

When it came time to sign a contract with a publisher, Scott insisted that it be written into the contract that he be able to continue podcasting his books for free. Why?

“My father had a phrase, “you dance with the one that brought ya.”

His fans got him popular by listening to his free podcasts.  Penalizing them for helping him get to where he is now didn’t feel right to him. That’s pure awesome.

It’s about relationships

There are a lot of other great reasons he continues to give away content for free.  Ones that fall so in line with “it’s all about them”.  Provide great content for free and people will come because it’s free.  The opportunity to connect with them, to grow them into loyal fans who then WANT to help you and support you is so much more valuable than someone who paid $15 once and never came back to your work again.

This is how you build a relationship with your audience that can be sustained. Appreciating and rewarding the people who helped you get where you are.

It really does pay off

Scott sometimes includes some of his fans’ names in his books. It’s exciting for the fans and they get to show off that they’re in the book.  And then things like this can happen:

Can you even imagine what this kind of exposure is worth?

Make what you do about your audience.  Where would you be without them?

Do you know of any great examples of this? Leave a comment and let me know so I can check them out!  And if you liked this post, please share! :)

Brands had a big win on Twitter when the lights went out at the Superbowl

I don’t watch football. The only reason I paid any attention to the fact that it was Superbowl Sunday was because I love the commercials so I was online watching for those. After the halftime show with Beyonce, the power went out in the Superdome. The power was out for about 30 minutes and during that time Twitter was bursting with hilarious one liners. Twitter was the perfect distraction for many from the stalling commentators on TV.

These 3 words got 2000 RTs during the Superbowl blackout

There is huge opportunity in responding in real time and during those 30 minutes brands got in on the action with some memorable and fun tweets.

Television

Downton Abbey vs Superbowl?House of Cards (a show on Netflix) had a Twitter contest!

Supplies

Walgreens has candles AND lights!

Need a generator - Lowe’s can help!Just fun (these are my favourite of the night)

Retweeted over 12,000 times in one hourMy hat goes off to some great social media folks tonight - I didn’t even want to track down any more of the real ads after the fun I had on Twitter!

It's all about them: Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

Karen and I recently went to Las Vegas and attended New Media Expo.  

One of the themes that came up over and over again was that it’s really all about your customer, not about you.  By providing value to your audience, they are going to value you. Customers who truly value you spead your word for you. 

I’ve been noticing a lot of great examples of people, businesses and bands who have been doing a great job of this.  I want to highlight a bit about who they are what they’ve been doing as a series to demonstrate the power and beauty of putting your audience first.

Dana White - UFC

Dana White is the President of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).  He and his partners bought the dying business in the early 2000s and in the last ten + years have turned it into a success beyond imagining.

At the core of their success is their belief that they couldn’t be where they are without the fans. Dana White, as president, always makes sure the fans are well taken care of - and a lot of the time, he takes care of them personally!

Twitter

White takes the time to talk to his fans directly on Twitter, with no apologies for his opinions or language.  (Granted, given his industry, there is certainly something to be said for the fact that his audience would accept this a lot more than many others would.)  But either way, what he does that is so important is that he is consistently authentic with his audience. 

Not only can you see that @danawhite is a regular user of twitter, you can see he engages with the fans on a regular basis.  He is known for giving away tickets and prizes on twitter, and always having a team in place to monitor what is being said on Twitter, especially during a fight.

There were two especially notable examples of the kind of above and beyond that he exemplies. 

Oops!

What happens if you accidentally tweet out your cell phone number? If you’re Dana White, you own the mistake and you ANSWER THE PHONE.  

What could have been an incredible blunder ended up being really great publicity because White was willing to take the time to talk to the fans.  He took calls and answered questions and the popularity of that actually caused him to do it again, though not with his actual personal cell phone number again. :)

What happens if unhappy fans are tweeting about their seats at a fight? If you’re Dana White and you realize a group of seats ended up blocked by equipment giving the fans a really bad view of the fight - you immediately send people to move that entire group of people to new seats.  Better seats.

Creating the best online experience for fans possible

UFC livestreams fights from their Facebook page, they let (encourage!) the fighters to be on Twitter engaging with the fans and Dana White vlogs, giving his fans a great view into behind the scenes of UFC.  They are willing to go above and beyond to stay on top of new technologies and give their fans the best experience they can. There are apps, there’s an online community - they are everywhere they can be.

I may not be a fighting fan, but I’m a huge fan of how they operate! Check out a bit of what they do and leave me a comment telling me what you think, and if you know of any businesses that go above and beyond to build relationships with their fans the way that UFC does.

What if they say something bad about my business? (Part 1)

Lara and I have built a business on helping business owners keep social media simple so they can manage their web presence without feeling overwhelmed.

• We love it when our clients have lots of questions (even when they stump us).
• We are happy to take steps backward whenever it’s required to help clients understand a tool or concept.
• We welcome enthusiasm even if it leads to choices/actions that may not be quite optimal.
• We genuinely, sincerely want to help business owners succeed.

When talking to business owners about getting started with social media, one of the most common barriers to entry for a business is the fear of negative feedback.

Fear is typically irrational in that we fear unlikely events. Fear of negative feedback is justified for even the most loved businesses out there, because no business is perfect

If the fear of negative feedback is justifiable, how can a business justify the risk?

Business owners got negative feedback and attention for centuries before the Internet ever existed. People aren’t afraid to express their displeasure. Negative attention on social media can - and occasionally does - spread like wildfire. With the right strategy and monitoring, negative feedback can be a great opportunity to salvage customer relationships and show prospective customers that you care about providing great service. (We’ll talk about dealing with negative feedback more in a follow-up post.)

On the other hand, negative feedback isn’t the only feedback businesses get!

What if they say something really good about my business?

This story, which I first read over on Social Fresh is why I’m writing this post.

Full disclosure: Publix is my favourite grocery store ever and not because of this post. I grew up in a house that was and is loyal to Publix. See that? I don’t live anywhere near one and I’m talking about how much I have always liked it.

If Publix wasn’t on Facebook, it’s still possible that their customer would have posted this to her personal profile. That’s a fantastic endorsement of their customer service…to her friends. 

A business that uses the fear of negative feedback as the primary justification not to participate means they’re also throwing out opportunities for positive interactions too. And as long as businesses turn a deaf ear toward social media cannot address and resolve customer complaints, nor will they experience the thrill of hearing about a job well done.

What are some other compelling reasons for businesses to jump into the conversation?