Tag Archives: rss

How I use Google Reader without going insane

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It’s a never-ending refrain in the social media world: “There’s just so much content out there!” So many good blogs to read and think about. For a while my Google Reader was getting out of control as I continued to add RSS feeds.

I’ve tried various ways to get a handle on the many blogs I read, but my latest incarnation is to group all my social media/marketing blogs into folders, labeled by the frequency with which I want to read them:

Google Reader Organization

Blogs in my “Check Daily” folder are my top priority. These bloggers typically post regularly and it’s content that I continue to find valuable or thought-provoking. Currently blogs from folks like Amber Naslund, Olivier Blanchard, Dave Fleet and Todd Defren are in this folder.

Next is my “Check Weekly” folder. It consists of interesting blogs that either don’t post as frequently or that I’m not as religious about following. Their posts might not usually be as time-sensitive and I can wait until later in the week to catch up. Or they may tend to be bloggers who write longer posts that take me more than just a few-minute scan in the morning to digest. I try to rotate different bloggers into this folder every so often. Right now people like Tom Martin, Brian Solis, Jason Baer and Mack Collier live here.

My “Twitter Friends and Tweeted Posts” folder is where I put a lot of bloggers I’m friends with whose content I’m likely to see on Twitter long before I get around to checking my reader. Arik Hanson, Lauren Fernandez, David Mullen and Scott Hepburn are all in this folder. Usually I see tweets and retweets to their new posts throughout the day and so I really just use this folder to scan headlines and peek at any posts that I might have missed. For the most part, though, the posts that end up in this folder are ones that I’ve already seen.

The folder I call “Popular and Prolific” features blogs like Chris Brogan, Danny Brown, Copyblogger and HubSpot. These are “big name” blogs that post a lot of content. I don’t necessarily have time to read them every day, but I can count on their content being good and useful and I want it all in one place to go back and access later.

My last folder is the “Check Infrequently” folder. These are blogs that don’t update frequently or that I haven’t found a real connection with yet – but I still want to be alerted when new content is available. I find that I enjoy blogs that are less frequent but more thoughtful. Every once in a while I’ll check this folder to see if Lisa Hoffmann or Shonali Burke have anything new.

To see what posts I like and am sharing, you can check out my Google Reader public share page.

The result of this folder system: It’s still way too much content, but at least now I feel like I can take it in chunks and read a little at a time based on how I’ve prioritized the blogs I’ve subscribed to. Every few weeks I’ll look at the trends and analytics that Google Reader provides and see if there are blogs that I’m consistently reading or not reading and move them to a different folder (or unsubscribe) as a result.

What works for you in organizing your RSS feeds? Do you use a plug-in like Postrank to help you sort through content? Do you find yourself relying less on your feed reader to discover new content? I certainly see plenty of posts shared on Twitter, but I’m in no way ready to give up RSS because I feel like I’d miss too much.

Share your strategy for managing the beast that is your feed reader in the comments.

Local news station’s Twitter strategy: Tonight at 11

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I follow the Twitter streams of all five local news stations in my area. (Yes. Five. The Albany area has less than a million people but five local TV stations each with 5+ hours of news coverage a day. Really, not that much interesting stuff happens here. But that’s another post for another day.)

Three of the stations use Twitter solely to send out automated tweets with links to their news stories. Sure, these stations can say they are “on” Twitter, but I don’t think automation like that adds much value.

The two others stations are much more interesting. The local CBS affiliate allows its field reporters all to post to the account, so you often get a sense of how they go about tracking down stories based on watching the feed. They share lots of links but not all are to news stories; some are just interesting tidbits about the area.

RooneyThe NBC affiliate, WNYT, also does a good job of giving a human voice to its Twitter feed and not just automating the account. I met Chris Rooney, who manages the station’s Twitter account, at Social Media Breakfast Tech Valley and reached out to him to get a better sense of how they go about managing the social media strategy at the station. Here are some excerpts from my e-mail interview with him:

On getting started with Twitter

“Our experience with Twitter started in January, just before the big Twitter boom.  We sent Benita Zahn [6 p.m. anchor] to Washington, D.C. to cover the inauguration and wanted to her to post to our site from the road.  It seemed too cumbersome to expect her to lug around a laptop and login to our CMS in the field.

Our creative services director, Rob Madeo, and I had both dabbled a little with Twitter on our own at the point and we both thought it would be a good solution for Benita.  So I set up and account for her and she tweeted from the inauguration via text messages.

About six weeks later, we sent [sports reporter] Andrew Catalon to Ohio to cover the Siena Saints in the NCAA Tournament and decided we wanted him to tweet from to road too.  So we set up an account for him and likewise I encouraged him to continue tweeting upon his return. Rodger Wyland [sports anchor] appeared interested in all this.  So we gave him an account too.”

On moving away from the “glorified RSS feed” Twitter model

“Shortly after the inauguration, I set up a general WNYT account.  Initially it just regurgitated our local news RSS feed.  But early on we started to not only post original tweets, but to also retweet others and even pass along links to other news outlets, for example an interesting article from the New York Times.  This made our Twitter feed feel like it served more of a purpose than just being a glorified RSS reader.  It just seemed like the proper use for it.  After all, we’re in the information sharing business.”

On using Twitter to cover breaking news

“The Buffalo commuter plane crash and the Binghamton shootings really showed us the power of Twitter for a news outlet.  These were major breaking news events and we were able to quickly and easily pass along rapid updates as the stories developed.  We also passed along relevant links we had dug up, like Google Maps street views of the locations involved or sites were you could listen to police scanner transmissions.

Likewise, Twitter proved an effective way to keep people up to date in real time with the developments during the craziness in the NY State Senate this summer.”

WNYTsenate

On ditching what doesn’t work

“Early on, in addition to sending out news updates, we used our feed for promotions – telling people what was coming up on the 5 p.m. news or that there was a new episode of 30 Rock on tonight.  But we gave up on that pretty quickly.  I got the sense that our followers wanted to know what was happening right now, not a tease for what was going to happen later on.”

On managing the flow

“Right now I’m pretty much in charge of Twitter at our station with help from a few other people.  I post our tweets and follow numerous other feeds (I use Twhirl mostly) and quickly alert the newsroom when I see something interesting (we’ve picked up a few story tips this way).

I also encourage our reporters and photographers to take pictures in the field and send them to Twitpic.  We’re starting to do more of this, although I wish we were doing it even more often.

WNYTtwitpic

I’ve been a little reluctant to pass out our Twitter password to everyone in the newsroom.  That makes tweeting from the field difficult for our reporters.  But now that I’ve figured out how to get around that by using a TwitterMail account I hope to have everyone tweeting on the main WNYT account soon.  For a lot of our staff, it’s still something a little new and foreign to them, but hopefully that will change.”

On single vs. multiple Twitter accounts

“We’ve had an interesting internal debate over the value of individual accounts or having one central one.  For example, you’ll note that Rodger, Andrew and our back-up sports guy Mike Levin all have individual accounts (Mike set his up on his own).  We were going to do that for our weather guys too, but instead decided to create a single “First Warning” account for them all to share.

There are two schools of thought on this.  I guess the thinking is that it’s easier for people to only have to follow one feed and it reinforces the First Warning brand.  Personally, I prefer letting them have individual accounts.  I think it helps personalize our talent and gives people a chance to feel connected to them.  I guess you can make an argument either way.”

On using Facebook, too

“We also maintain a WNYT Facebook page.  I launched that not long before Facebook redesigned the public profiles.  When I created it, I wasn’t really sure what to do with it.  I was mainly just staking our claim in the Facebook world.  As with Twitter, I initially set it up to send a feed of all of our stories to the page.  I was never really pleased with how that worked and started picking and choosing stories to post by hand instead.

Even still though, I was posting a lot – maybe too much, especially when it came to the harder news stories.  It was my wife who actually pointed out to me that people mainly use Facebook for fun, to socialize and escape.  They don’t want to see news about the fatal fire showing up on their start page.  So with that in mind, I started being much more selective, posting the stories I think are mostly likely to spark a conversation or that people will find particularly interesting.

WNYTFB

Facebook has also proved helpful during severe weather events, giving people a place to share photos and videos of the hail storm or the flooding or whatever else Mother Nature is dumping on us this summer.  These photos always seem to generate a lot of “likes” and comments.”

Thanks, Chris, for taking the time to share how WNYT is learning and navigating the social media waters.

What are you seeing in your local markets? How are local TV news outlets engaging with you via social media in innovative ways?

(Update Aug. 14 — A few folks have pointed out to me via Twitter that Albany’s local ABC affiliate, WTEN, is also using Twitter beyond just an RSS feed. They post links to stories and also weather reports and updates from certain reporters. Thanks for clarifying).

Social Media Smackdown: Mountain Hardwear vs. The North Face

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It’s time for the second installment of Social Media Smackdown, and this time, I’m putting two Northern California-based purveyors of fine outdoor performance clothing to the test: Mountain Hardwear and The North Face. As an owner of several pieces of gear from these two brands, I can attest that I wouldn’t be as comfortable skiing or hiking without them. But how are they engaging with their fans online through social media? Let’s find out:

s_mhw-logothe_north_face_logo

Round 1: Twitter

It looks like both brands are just starting out on Twitter: @hardwear and @TheNorthFace. Each has a modest number of fans and not too many tweets. Here’s the breakdown:

Mountain Hardwear: Following 476, Followers 1,121, Tweets 72
Mountain Hardwear started Tweeting at the end of 2008. Even though the account doesn’t identify who is tweeting on behalf of the company, the account really seems to have a personal voice and it’s more than just pushing out product news. There’s a good mix of replies and retweets in the stream, and Mountain Hardwear does a good job of sharing a variety of content: links to gear reviews, videos and blog posts from outdoor/adventure bloggers. They also highlight awards and accolades not only for their products but also for their company (named one of America’s Best Places to Work). Mountain Hardwear also tried to start a Backcountry Cookbook and asked fans to DM them with recipes. However, since it doesn’t appear to be following back most of its fans, followers wouldn’t be able to send  a DM to the account. Mountain Hardwear’s stats from Twitter Friends show that Mountain Hardwear earns a CQ (conversation quotient) score of 50 percent and relatively high LQ (link quotient) and RQ (retweet quotient) scores of 16.4 percent and 44.4 percent, respectively. A new account, but one that shows good promise in actively and authentically engaging with fans, and it’s very focused on conversation and not necessarily marketing.

The North Face: Following 327, Followers 1,839, Tweets 91
The North Face has been on Twitter since October 2007, so the fact that they’ve only posted 91 tweets in that time immediately indicated to me that maybe the brand wasn’t too engaged with Twitter. It seems as though the account’s activity has picked up lately, however. And the tweetstream also has a personal voice to it. @replies to followers clarify differences between products, give instructions on how to return a product for repair, and even help a potential intern with where to send a resume. Tweets include alerts on new store openings and coupons, product announcements, and events. Overall, the marketing is kept minimal and a lot of time is spent replying to and engaging with followers. Twitter Friends shows a CQ of 58.9 percent, LQ of  46.4 percent, and no retweets.

Point: I’d say this one’s a draw. Both brands are doing a good job of being personable and accessible through Twitter and connecting with fans while not merely trying to push out their own content.

Round 2: Facebook

Mountain Hardwear’s Facebook page currently has more than 3,800 fans. They have 12 photo albums with some fantastic shots of “Mountain Hardwear Athletes in Action” but there are also photos of staffers at events at the company headquarters– really giving a personal feel to the company. The discussion area of the page shows good engagement from fans. Mountain Hardwear posts questions like, “What’s your favorite climb?” and “What’s your favorite recovery food?” They’ve integrated their blog’s RSS feed to post notes to their Facebook page and posted more than 100 links to climbing news, articles about outdoor adventure travel, and blog posts on conservation events. Fans are very engaged on the page, asking questions, posting product line suggestions, and uploading pictures of themselves in MHW gear.

The North Face has ten times as many fans, at 37,000+ (although The North Face is much more widely distributed and sells a greater variety of attire, including less-technical gear). Five photo albums on the page showcase The North Face-sponsored outdoor events and fans have uploaded close to 100 of their own pictures. Some sponsored events are posted, including an Endurance Challenge.They also have an RSS feed of their blog so that posts appear as notes on its fan page, and The North Face uses notes to push out sales promotions such as free gifts and discounts at its outlet stores exclusively for Facebook fans who print out the note and bring it to the store. Additionally, some of The North Face’s Outlet Stores have just started their own individual Facebook fan pages (The North Face Store Minneapolis, for example).

Point: Ever so slightly, The North Face gets the point here. Both brands have a solid Facebook presence, but The North Face’s innovative use of exclusive coupons and deals for its Facebook fans via the notes feature gives them the edge.

mhwRound 3: Web site

Both brands’ Web sites start with landing pages that ask you to select your country/language. Both sites are aesthetically pleasing. The major difference is that The North Face sells gear directly through its Web site, so it is set up as more of an eCommerce site. Mountain Hardwear’s products are sold through distribution and so there’s a prominent “Where to Buy” link at the top that directs customers to dealer Web sites.

The Mountain Hardwear site includes a link to “The Expedition Republic” social community, but the site takes an interminably long time to load. BUT, if you can hang with it, it’s a truly awesome landing page. It almost comes across looking like a 3D video game, where you can click different parts of a landscape to zoom in and get a glimpse into an online community of hikers, climbers and outdoor enthusiasts. Once you’re in the community (it’s built on the Ning platform), each member has a profile page and can post photos, videos, discussion questions, or join groups. There are currently more than 1,200 members.  Additionally, the Mountain Hard Wear site links to a company blog, Hardwear Sessions, which is more of an outdoor adventure blog than a company or product blog. It features posts from Adventure Journalists and information about rock climbing clinics, mixed in with a few product posts (“Mountain Hardwear Gear Featured on the Amazing Race”, e.g.).

The North Face site is designed to sell, and most of it is devoted to products. Customers can submit product reviews on the site. There’s a brief “Explore” menu with links to Expeditions, Videos, Downloads and Feeds. The North Face has several blogs and a podcast, and RSS feeds are available for all of them. One blog follows The North Face climbing team around the globe, another focuses on endurance challenges, a third dedicated to The North Face gear. Feeds to various “Expedition Dispatches” blogs follow specific athletes on their adventures. You can also sign-up for e-mail updates on the site. There are dozens of videos on The North Face site, grouped by type of activity. Overall, while there’s a lot of content, it is very dispersed and fractured. You have to leave the site to visit all of The North Face’s blogs–which are at different domains–and that’s if you can find the links to the blogs, which are buried on the site. There’s nothing on the site that engenders a sense of community among customers or fans, and there are no obvious links to find The North Face at their other online properties like Twitter or Facebook.

Point: This one goes to Mountain Hardwear, for building a focused blog and an incredible Ning community for its fans to connect and share – and making all of these features easily located from the home page.

Round 4: Other Social Sites (Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, etc.)

The North Face has a branded YouTube channel with 63 videos and the most viewed video has more than 9,000 hits. Mountain Hardwear also has a YouTube channel, with 26 videos (most-viewed has 5,000+ hits). The North Face didn’t have a Flickr page that I could find, but Mountain Hardwear had both a Flickr profile and group. They invite people to post pictures showing creative use of their gear to the group photo pool. More than 130 pictures are posted to the group, and over 1,100 images are on the company’s profile. I did not detect a Myspace presence for either company (and honestly, I don’t think that many in their target audience frequent that site).

Point: I’ll go with Mountain Hardwear here, although it’s close. The North Face essentially loses out due to their lack of presence on Flickr, where Mountain Hardwear has come up with some creative ways to get its customers/fans involved by photographing their use of MHW products.

The Final Verdict: It looks like the tally favors Mountain Hardwear, by a smidgen. Both brands are to be commended for embracing social media and engaging with fans on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and YouTube. The North Face has a more diverse customer base, while Mountain Hardwear caters to more technical and focused outdoor enthusiasts, so a dedicated Ning community devoted to mountaineering expeditions may work for them but not for The North Face. Regardless, these two brands aren’t afraid to use emerging social media tools to find and connect with fans.

I think I’ll throw on my Mountain Hardwear base layer and The North Face waterproof shell and head to… the grocery store. Sometimes everyday is not an adventure.

Previous Smackdown: Magic Hat vs. Bell’s Beer

Image via Flickr user Domingo Sandoval

Well hello there!

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Glad that you found me! After just a few months of blogging, I realized that the free WordPress.com platform just wasn’t giving me the flexibility or control I wanted over the look and feel of my site. I’ve now upgraded to self-hosted WordPress.org and I hope you like the changes! It’s a work in progress, so I’ll be playing with the design, pictures, plugins and features over the next couple of weeks. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you were one of the very generous people who subscribed to Mengel Musings at the old site, please grab the new feed here.

And if you happened to have any links to me on your sites or blogrolls, I would greatly appreciate it if you could point them to www.amymengel.com.

Welcome to my new home on the Web!

Social Media Smackdown: Magic Hat vs. Bell’s Beer

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I have a highly embarrassing confession to make: I drank a lot of Coors Light in college. I think the beer gods have mostly forgiven me at this point – I was young and stupid! But thankfully I’ve graduated to the world of craft beers and microbrews. I’m currently partial to Magic Hat, brewed in South Burlington, Vt., but my Midwestern pals on Twitter are continually singing the praises of Bell’s Beer out of Kalamazoo, Mich. I can’t find it in Upstate N.Y. and thus I have yet to try it. So since I can’t do a blind taste test, I’ve decided to pit these beers against each other and see how their social media strategies fare in a head-to-head (get it?) competition:

beercompare

Round 1: Twitter

Both beers are on Twitter: @magichat and @bellsbeer (along with more than 50 other craft beers, btw). So far, despite both acquiring legions of followers, neither brand is terribly engaged with its fans. Here’s the shakedown:

Magic Hat: Following 3,110; Followers 2,829; Tweets 71
@magichat’s first tweet was nearly 11 months ago and so with only 71 Tweets, it’s not a terribly active account. Tweets have included some coupons, a few twitpics of a recent promotional event, a couple of contests, and links to some videos of its brewery. There are some replies sprinkled throughout its Tweetstream, but not many. If you look at @magichat’s statistics from TwitterFriends, it earns a CQ (conversation quotient) score of 14.9 percent, versus a 41.8 percent average. Its LQ (link quotient) is 53.6 percent. Its Twitter rank is 3329 out of 56585.

Bell’s Beer: Following 1,469; Followers 1,509; Tweets 56
@bellsbeer started Tweeting in July of last year and with 56 updates, it’s also not terribly active. It ranks 9500 out of 56585 according to TwitterFriends, but its conversation quotient is much higher than @magichat’s, scoring a 33.3 percent. Its Tweets are primarily informational – where to find their beers, info about beer events they’re attending, answers to questions. But Bell’s Beer does seem to be more engaged with its fans – more replies and a more conversational tone. Its replies tend to be answers to people’s questions on everything from where to find the beer to nutritional information to how to find the date each beer was brewed.
Point: Bell’s gets the point for engaging with its customers via Twitter moreso than just pushing out information.

Round 2: Facebook

Each brand has a Facebook fan page. Magic Hat has 8,924 fans and the page is chock-a-block full of activity. A video post of a recent Mardi Gras parade it sponsored and 47 accompanying photos. An event announcement for Philadelphia Beer Week. An info center with graphics that link back to pages on the company’s web site (including its “Sip Code Locator” to find beer in your area). There are dozens of notes posted to the page that announce new beer variety packs, upcoming events, contests, and new distribution locations for its beer.

Bell’s Beer currently has 16,901 fans. Its wall includes 359 posts and there are three discussion boards. One is a forum for fans to discuss changes made to the variety of hops used in its Oberon brew. Bell’s hasn’t weighed in on the discussion at all. The photo section only includes images of each beer case design. There are 40 fan photos, many of them of a cycling team wearing Bell’s jerseys.

Despite the fact that the Bell’s Beer fan page has almost twice as many members, it doesn’t appear to be utilizing the space very well. Magic Hat is creating buzz about its beer and using Facebook as a platform to showcase its fans and customers using the product – pictures of people at Magic Hat events, for example. Its fan page makes you want to engage with the brand, while Bell’s Beer is pretty static.
Point: Magic Hat, hands-down

Round 3: Web site

Magic Hat’s Web site design is right in line with its trippy Vermont roots. If you click on the “People’s Place” blimp that floats across the screen, you’re taken to the “epicenter of all things Magic Hat.” There’s a blog (called a “glog”) that repackages some of the Facebook notes found on its fan page. You can create a login to become part of the community and see Magic Hat events in your area. The site includes polls, photos from both Magic Hat and the site’s users, an FAQ section, and an online press center. Badges on the left side of the page direct you to Magic Hat’s online presence on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and MySpace.

Bell’s site is a much cleaner and more traditional design. The beer itself is what dominates the site – just about the only images are of beer bottles! You can find during which season each of their varieties is available, purchase Bell’s shirts and products, and find a local distributor. But the site itself doesn’t lend itself to connecting with other Bell’s fans. There’s really no interactivity. You can sign up for an RSS feed of Bell’s Beer news items, but you can’t comment on them. The site doesn’t direct you to its Facebook fan page or its Twitter page. The design is nice, but in the end, it’s your basic static Web site. To beer fair, the home page claims that the site will be updated in the coming weeks.
Point: Magic Hat, for creating an online community that highlights its customers and allows them to connect in several different ways.

circus

Round 4: Other social sites (Flickr, YouTube, etc.)
I couldn’t find a YouTube channel for either beer. Magic Hat has a Flickr account with several albums. The images feature the brewery and several Magic Hat sponsored events. I couldn’t find any sort of official Bell’s Beer Flickr account. Magic Hat’s MySpace page counts 3,746 friends and includes links to its “glog” posts. As far as I could tell, Bell’s Beer does not have a MySpace presence.
Point: Magic Hat once again

The Final Verdict: Magic Hat is clearly outpacing Bell’s Beer in the adoption of social media platforms to reach out to and connect with its fans. Magic Hat’s brand image is quirky and funky and it probably skews younger than typical Bell’s Beer fans, so maybe social media was less of a stretch for the company. I’d love to see Magic Hat become a little more engaged on Twitter and really interact with its fans in that space, rather than using it more as a platform to push information. And it would be great if Bell’s Beer could tap into its rabid fan base on Facebook and create a more interactive and engaging site.

But whether you kick back with a Two-Hearted Ale or a Circus Boy, either one definitely beats a Coors Light– and there are apparently thousands of fans online who agree.

Image via Flickr user dnolan36