Dave’s Answer:

You are definitely not the first person to bump into this, and while it’s difficult when you’re a celebrity and find someone else has registered your name for a parody, satire, or even just to confuse the market, it’s even more frustrating when you have a registered trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The point of registering it, after all, is to reserve its legal use to you.

Turns out that Twitter has a specific trademark violation policy and even documents it on their site (though it’s not easy to find). Check it out: Twitter Trademark Policy.

Before I explain what’s involved, I’ll note that the issue of people stealing celebrity identities is the main reason behind a Verified Twitter account. I don’t have one, but fortunately I grabbed @DaveTaylor early enough that it wasn’t already in use. Then again, I’m also not a verified account so some other Dave Taylor online could be confusing the social media world by having them follow me instead of them.

Back to registered trademark violations, however.

It’s worth quoting Twitter’s policy on this before you get too enthused about regaining ownership of a contested account: “Using another’s trademark in a way that has nothing to do with the product or service for which the trademark was granted is not a violation of Twitter’s trademark policy… Twitter usernames are provided on a first-come, first-served basis”

If you do want to report a trademark violation, you’ll need your trademark registration number and registration office, along with a variety of other information. To get your registration number, search for your trademark at the USPTO.GOV or appropriate other trademark agency. For example, “Ask Dave Taylor” is a registered trademark and my registration number is 3601636.

Got all the info they need together? Great. Print out their Trademark Policy information page, follow the steps specified, then open up a problem ticket with their support team.

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When you perform a search on Google, a menu appears on the left side of the Google search menu. On the menu are links like Everything, Images, Videos, News, Shopping, and so on. These are various universal search options, for example, you can search only for blogs, images or videos depending on which link you click in that menu. There is also one link called Realtime, it may appear as updates in some areas.

Selecting the Realtime link, after you perform a search, lists you the latest news and information on the Internet which are usually from sources like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Friendfeed, Jaiku etc. This means, using the Realtime link, even people who have no Twitter account can see your links, news, offers etc., tweeted by you. With Google Realtime, all tweeters can get their tweets in the search engines. It is an easy way to get included in the search engines and almost instantly, regardless of a Twitter account’s age. An account a year or a minute old have no differences for search engines.

You just have to follow a few steps to ensure your tweet is included in Google Realtime results.

• Register/Sign up at Twitter or log in, if you are an existing user.
• Register/Sign up at Digg or log in, if you are an existing user.
• Now link your Twitter and Digg accounts via Digg.
• Post a link on Digg (try avoiding spam).
• Then elect (via Digg again) to post it to your Twitter account as well.

The first post might take some time before it appears in the Google Realtime results, but in future, they will appear almost immediately. For your posts to appear on their own, post quality content regularly and work on getting a good Twitter following with retweets and mentions.

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1) Use TweepML: TweepML is a great resource for finding lists of like-minded Twitter folk. It also makes it dead simple to follow a group of people. Be sure to create some of your own lists. By being included on TweepML lists, the site has generated more than 1,100 followers for me over time.

2) Be Current Eventful: We counsel clients to have a social media editorial calendar so they’re not stuck without relevant conversation starters. Another thing to consider is tapping into current events, popular TV shows or sporting events and participating in the discussion. It’s a great way to become part of the community and to truly connect more with folks on Twitter. Also consider Twitter Chats – these are live virtual events held on Twitter. There are chats held for just about any topic. Find one of interest to you or create your own – just be sure to use a tool like Tweetchat to make the event easier to follow and participate in.

3) Tap Into OneForty: OneForty’s goal is “to give you access to the very best tools that make Twitter valuable.” Their site provides an easy way to find tools and other sites that help you get even more from Twitter. You can rate the sites you find and also create your own toolkits to collect and share your favorite sites with other users.

4) Follow the Law of Thirds: Ever go to someone’s Twitter page and see that every tweet is almost identical and usually self-promotional? How likely are you to return to those profiles much less follow them? The Law of Thirds is a general guideline designed to help you provide a good mix of content. You’ll want to tweet value content, conversation as well as some self-promotional information. Value content includes POV thoughts, live tweets from a conference and/or links to things you think are cool and useful — but that have nothing to do with you. Mixing in some self-promotion can be done. Just try not to offer too much of it — or any of the other thirds for that matter.

5) Put Style in the Profile: Twitter is all about making personal connections. Filling our your profile with your personal information, adding a picture of yourself and even customizing your background goes a long way in giving your profile a personal feel. It shows people you’re serious about participating, helps them make a connection with you and encourages them to follow you. It’s understandable that some folks would rather protect their tweets or minimize the amount of information they provide in their profile. But their amount of followers will be impacted as a result.

Twitter is a lot like life in that you get out of it what you put into it. These sites and tips make it easier to work smart with Twitter and get even more out of it. They’ve definitely helped me appreciate the little blue bird more.

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#EngageorDie

Why is sociology and anthropology so important to understand for social media?

I believe that at the top level, all of social media is driven by anthropology and sociology – it’s just the nature of the network. I never formally studied social sciences in college, but was inspired to become versed in them because it’s clear that human nature and culture define social networks and therefore require insight, research, observation, and forethought. On an even deeper level though, social marketing and service professionals should also explore psychology to create experience-driven connections, interest graphs and ultimately contextual networks that are linked through meaningful and mutually beneficial communications and engagement. All of these things help weave everything together.

These fields of study earn greater importance today as technology and innovation evolve at an increasingly blurring pace and with it, the adaptation of human behavior and culture. In Social Media and in the real world, in order to become relevant, you have to earn relevance.

Hutch Carpenter from Spigit recently wrote a post in which he describes a two year lag that companies experience when looking to adopt web 2.0 technologies. How can companies deal with this apparent lag time and what’s the best course of action for them?

There definitely is a lag time between the introduction of innovative tools and their rate of adoption across the Diffusion of Innovations by Everett Rogers (also known as the technology adoption bell curve). What we need to remember though, is that adoption is driven and necessitated by the tasks and the objectives at hand. As you pointed out (Jacob), culture and behavior can never adopt and change as quickly as technology so companies need to stay agile and limber; I agree with this. What makes social media so interesting, especially for the enterprise, is that it’s among the first platforms to affect a business from the outside in and from the bottom up. The brief (compared to other business processes) history of technology is introduced and managed from the top down. New media, services such as Twitter and Facebook, are at their very core, social operating systems (OS), and as such, are introduced into the corporate culture through the individual. The Social OS is unique to the individual as their experiences are defined by the applications they use, how and why. Essentially, instead of IT coming to teams with new technologies, they’re now forced to examine the use of social networks from inside the fire wall and also how they connect to outside networks and how the social OS impacts and possibly benefits or harms the corporate ecology.

As champions, it’s not only our job to demonstrate the potential of social networks and services, it is necessary to become the IT of social technologies to our internal decision makers to prove their value to workflow and productivity inside and outside the organization.

Social media is now forcing the company culture to change and adapt based on these social operating systems. Actions and reactions are now more tangible, direct, and immediate.

With any new and pervasive technology, we as decision makers within the organization, are now responsible for defining guidance and education in order to improve their applications for both business and personal use. Just because it’s introduced from the personal side of the workforce doesn’t mean that users have mastered the potential of these networks nor identified their risks.

In order to support this radical transformation, it has become clear that governance, responsibility, and accountability is needed – not restraint.

There has also been a lot of discussion around Social CRM as these services also represent new opportunities for businesses to improve the bond between customers, prospects, and brands. This isn’t just new technology, it’s forcing decision makers to change methodologies around what this all means. This in turn, creates a lot of change within the enterprise and that change needs support to make sure it happens for the right reasons. Social CRM, at the very least, is propelled by engagement with purpose. And, when you think about it, in order to do so, genuinely, everything needs to change to support an outward focus and an inward process for adaption – otherwise, this is all lip service.

In order for organizational transformation to take shape, social architects are required to blueprint the grand design, but also the incremental steps defined by realistic milestones that encourage progress rather than disruption. You have to allow your company and its team to breathe in the process. It’s like drinking wine. You have to pour it, swirl it around the glass, smell it, and then drink it, slowly.

In my experience everything has to start with a pilot program that is intentional, well executed, with metrics that show advancement. Success begets additional pilots until dedicated budget is earned and continually justified. Taking this approach also encourages analysis and development by exploring and attempting to answer the following questions:

What are we trying to accomplish?

What is the change we’re seeking to enliven?

What is the action we’re hoping to spark?

At what levels?

Why?

What resources would it take to support it?

What does success look like at the end of the pilot?

How do these results compare to other programs currently in place?

This is why I’m forever a student of new media. The answers and the path to these answers is different within each organization – governed by the prevailing corporate culture and hierarchy.

Remember, technology, before and after social, changes quickly and as such, I encourage businesses to consider the development of a department or team responsible for identifying, evaluating and testing innovation. Good friend Deb Schultz of the Altimeter Group is leading work in this field and helps companies, such as Proctor and Gamble, determine where technology can benefit specific areas of business units. And for those that perform well, examine rollout strategies for other business units to improve processes through the constant integration of proven innovation.

What’s the difference between social media and Social CRM vs. SRM?

Social Media equals any tool or service that is used the web to facilitate conversations and networks. Social CRM, as discussed, is the socialization of CRM methodologies and processes. SRM recognizes that all people, no matter what system they use, are equal. It represents a wider scope of active listening and participation across the full spectrum of influence mapped to specific department representatives within the organization using various lenses for which to identify individuals where and how they interact. What it does not represent however, is yet another acronym. It’s simply a social object, intended to broaden the discussion for evolving sCRM.

The social Web is distributing influence beyond the customer landscape, allocating authority among stakeholders, prospects, advocates, decision-makers, and peers. SRM recognizes that whether someone recommended a product, purchased a product, or simply recognized it publicly, in the end, each makes an impact on behavior at varying levels. Therefore customers are now merely part of a larger equation that also balances vendors, experts, partners, and other authorities. In the realm of SRM, influence is distributed and it is recognized wherever and however it takes shape.

The last thing I’m trying to do here is introduce a new acronym. People are very very literal, so you have to be careful with what you say and how you define things. New media affects the decision of a “social” customer at every level. Why just build an infrastructure around customers when you need to build it around the entire decision cycle? Infrastructure decisions are expensive and require a lot of support, I want companies to think about the investment they make because it’s much bigger than they know now.

Is a large part of social media common sense? You have a quote from Business Week in your book that ends with “don’t be stupid” why do you think companies are having trouble following this?

If you tell someone not to be stupid you are evoking common sense. What people need to do is be specific. Common sense is not enough. You have to define what common sense is and provide guidelines, rules, and training around it. Why? Because the definition of common sense is different to everyone and the greatest example of how common sense fails is the assumption that individuals employ common sense in all that they do. If you take a look at what happened to Nestle and Green Peace and the conversational carnage that ensued, social media pundits and consumers alike, called for the head of the community manager responsible for fueling the attacks in Facebook. But, regardless of the behavior, working, and the absence of “common sense,” I’m willing to bet that this individual didn’t actually break any of Nestle’s rules per se. The community manager was most likely doing the job as instructed or perhaps, as assumed. This demonstrates a real life example of how the personal compass that guides each one of us points differently and what appears as common sense to one, is absolutely “un”common sense to another. Creating a foundation on common sense is no different than erecting buildings on marshland. As leaders, it’s our job to create guidelines, training, and management systems for social media engagement similar to the processes that establish the quality and significance of service training programs that present employees with various real world situations and desired outcomes where they are expected to excel. For example, “if you are greeted by someone who is challenging and hostile towards your brand in a public forum, here is what you need to do…”

Without understanding the processes, culture, and the “how’s” and “why’s” of Nestle, it’s not really possible to advise them and tell them what to do. But one can guess where it needs to start, and that’s a much bigger discussion.

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You run over to check your Twitter account. Then you dash to Facebook to see what’s going on there. Then Linkedin. Maybe your blog. All the while you’re feeling like you’re playing catch-up, that something awesome may have happened, and you missed it because you weren’t online. Sound familiar?

Sure, you can centralize some of your social media chores (great post by Chris Brogan), by using Tweetdeck or Seesmic. But that only helps if you’re online and “in the flow.”

For normal humans that check social media a couple times a day, NutshellMail may become your new favorite social companion. And it’s free.

Like RSS for your relationships

NutshellMail sends you a highly customizable email digest (from 1 to 24 times per day) of what’s happening in your social media spheres, so you can browse and get up to speed quickly, without having to visit several different destinations or fire up your iPhone’s social apps.

Twitter Without the Hassle

Want to know who has signed up to follow you on Twitter today? Who unfollowed you today? All the DMs and @ replies you received in the last three hours? NutshellMail batches it all up and sends it to you in a tidy email at the exact time of your choosing. You can even include Twitter searches in your feed, enabling you to use NutshellMail the same way you’d use TweetBeep, or an RSS feed of Twitter search results.

Handy Facebook Reminders

It’s pretty tough to find a credible excuse for missing people’s birthdays on Facebook. NutshellMail saves you from being labeled an ingrate by reminding you of all the birthdays of your Facebook friends this week. The email also can be configured to show you all new friend requests, status updates from pages that you’re a fan of, as well as photos, videos and links from your friends. Plus, event invites, and photos in which you’re tagged.

And More…

Although I’m not using it presently, you can also configure your NutshellMail to include Linkedin and MySpace content, as well as updates from the Ning groups of which you are a member.

Also, if you have several different email accounts, you can use NutshellMail to automatically combine the emails sent to your secondary and tertiary accounts and forward them together to your primary account.

All the content shown in each email is clickable. So, if you want to see more about a new Twitter follower, you can simply click the name or photo in the email, and instantly visit their bio. You can also manage your customization preferences by clicking links in the email, so visiting the NutshellMail Web site isn’t needed after initial sign-up.

Social Integration in an Instant

One of the outstanding new add-on features of NutshellMail is their Facebook app, which enables Facebook fan page managers to easily add an email newsletter tab to the page. Subscribers then receive a digest of all the content posted to the fan page. I’ve been talking a lot about the integration of email and social media, and this is another example of using cross-functional technology to build content creation and deployment synergies. Note that NutshellMail is funded in part by FBFund, Facebook’s venture capital arm.

Here’s a nice video demonstration of NutshellMail and how it can save you time and social media aggravation.

I’ve been using NutshellMail for a few weeks now, and find it indispensible. (Thanks to my friend Will Smith – the world’s second most popular Will Smith – for turning me on to it).

How can you make use of NutshellMail to simplify your social media chores?

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Now what if I said they’re all irrelevant? What if I said you don’t need sales to be successful? You’d probably say (fairly sarcastically), “Why not just hand my business over to my competitors while I’m at it?”. And you’d be right – if I were serious.

Of course PR, marketing, advertising and sales are relevant, and hugely important parts of your business. But they’re not the most important part.

“But they’re the ones that bring the customers and make money, and money equals profits!” you might say. And again, you’d be right. But take a look at that sentence again.

“Customers… make money and money equals profits.”

That’s both sets of customers, new and existing. So why are so many businesses concentrating on the new and forgetting about the existing? Is the mindset, “Well, they’ve stuck with us so far, they must be happy”? If it is, be prepared for a wake-up call.

Just because a customer has stuck with you doesn’t mean they’re satisfied. They may be tied into a contract or they may feel it’s too much effort at the minute to find a new vendor. But satisfied? Not necessarily.

Have you asked them lately how they’re feeling? Have you asked how you can improve your service (don’t fall into the trap that your service has reached its plateau – nobody’s that good)? You do have ways of asking these questions, don’t you? If you’re not sure, ask yourself the following:

• Do you have a customer feedback form on your website?
• Do you have a proactive approach at asking your customers what they’re thinking?
• Do you collect your customer details and use that information to personalize your relationship?
• Do you have some form of customer service performance in place?

If you can’t answer “Yes” to at least one of these questions, you might want to check and see how many of your customers have dropped off the radar in the last 3-6 months.

As important as your sales team is, or your marketing team, or your PR team or your advertising team – as important as all these elements are to your business’s success, they all cost money.

Your customers, on the other hand? A happy customer is your sales, PR, marketing and advertising teams rolled into one. Your most loyal employee. Your most vocal supporter – and they don’t take wages from you. So look after them.

Be Pro-Active

If you collect contact information, use it. Call your customer up and ask how they’re finding their time with you. Ask how you can improve and what you can do to make their lives easier when shopping with you.

Don’t collect information initially? Fine – have a feedback form on your site and have that (or a customer feedback phone number) printed on your receipt. Encourage interaction and communication.

Or, if you have a Twitter account, have “Don’t forget to tweet about us on Twitter” printed on your receipt and then monitor your mentions. And this works both ways – you can salvage a negative impression immediately or emphasize a positive one.

Start a forum on your website where customers can chat with each other about how you’re doing, and how you can improve. Involve your employees throughout the company on the forum, and talk to your customers like human beings instead of just sales figures. Sure, you can advise on what employee can say what, but at least offer the voice to open up to and converse with.

The key thing is, sales and marketing and the rest of the new business team is exactly that – new business. And you 100% need that. But you also need existing business to build on and let you have the means to go after the new. Your customers – and by association, your customer service – are the real profit makers.

Isn’t it about time you treated them accordingly?

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Cohen outlines three reasons why brands and Twitter can play nice together.

• Twitter is opt in-so technically anyone following your brand has an interest in what you have to say.  You’re not sending a mass email hoping 1% of the people care-if you’re engaging with your Twitter followers-they’re interested because they’ve chosen and continue to follow you.
• Twitter is the new phone company-Very true.  I can get help with my Dell or Zappos customer service questions much faster on Twitter than I ever did looking up a phone number and sitting on hold for awhile.  Not only that-I have something in writing that tells me what to do or how to resolve my problem.  The problem with customer service via telephone is the “he said she said” thing that happens when you escalate your call to the next level.
• Brands can have personalities too-I love Cohen’s comparison here-he says there are tweeple for every type of personality and he brings into play the Breakfast Club movie-the rebel, the social butterfly, the jock, the weirdo and the nerd.  All are well represented on Twitter and each persona finds its own followers.  Anyone who says 140 characters aren’t enough to give your brand a voice is wrong.

So here’s where I’m going to give the Anti-Tweeple their due.  Twitter is live-and as with anything online-once it’s said (or tweeted) it’s there for the world to see-and brands in any social media platform must be careful. 

• Think about the tone you’re using before you post every tweet
• Don’t start if you’re not going to continue-you’ll get skewered by the die hard Tweeple who expect you to be your brand’s voice online-and resolve issues when they’re brought to your attention in 140 character blasts.  Because this level of customer service takes time-you have to weigh the pros and cons of being involved.  If you don’t have the time or manpower-this might not be the medium for you.

Cohen also gives a few tips for being involved as a brand on Twitter

• Give value added content-don’t just feed your blog posts in and let it ride
• Talk about related topics-not just your brand’s base. It’s about engaging more than pimping
• You’re not only representing your brand-you’re representing your industry
• Don’t talk about your competitors-but do talk about why our customers choose your product or service.

All in all there are some great benefits to Twitter if you approach it with some realistic time and return expectations.  Read the article-claim your brand’s name and get to work.  Oh-and if you don’t have time to tweet right now, claim your brand’s name anyway-someday it might be a hot commodity.

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