Your mama’s so phat, she’s bigger than Twitter.

By now, we hope you’ve taken the leap and started becoming active in social media. We also hope that you’ve caught on to the very simple jargon and stopped using phrases like “so-and-so Twittered” and “I was Twittering today, and so-and-so @-ed me.” Mom, for the last time, the verb is “tweet.”

But, because TWEETING is so much fun, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and lose sight of the purpose. We start challenging ourselves to get ONE MILLION followers and we get greedy, using Twitter and Facebook as a platform for quick advertising and mass messaging. Instead of asking yourself how much stuff you can sell, focus on how you can strengthen your relationships and bring your followers into your community.

Which takes a little more strategy. We’ve put together a few tips for how you can not only maximize the quantity of your network, but the quality.

1. Find the people who matter, and follow them. What are you trying to accomplish and who are you trying to reach? Most likely it’s not a cat in Arizona or a scantily clad woman. Search for keywords that relate to your industry or make sense for your customer base. Explore the site WeFollow to find leaders in your field and people in your city who are relevant.

2. Get rid of the people who don’t matter. Not every follower is a good follower. Unless they are providing valuable content, you don’t need to return the favor. And if they’re not following you, then you shouldn’t feel compelled to let them clutter your stream (although there are exceptions). Use the tool FriendorFollow to weed out the junk, and do so on a regular basis.

3. Have conversations. Have you ever been on a date where the other person would not stop talking about him or herself? It’s annoying, right? So don’t act that way on social media. Make sure you’re asking questions and answering them thoughtfully, and focus on two-way interaction. If you’re not doing that, you’re wasting your time and everyone else’s.

4. Cross-promote. If you have a large collection of quality friends of Facebook, use that network to find people on Twitter or to add to your fan page. Encourage those people to check out your blog and website. Provide intelligent comments on other blogs, and start LinkedIn groups. Offer every valuable contact in your giant network to explore your different platforms, and reward them for doing so by presenting unique content accordingly.

5. Track your results. Wondering if you’re doing a good job? It doesn’t have to be a mystery. Record your blog comments, site visits, blog subscribers, social media profile engagement and tweet replies. You can even use Klout or the controversial Twifficiency to receive a score based on the quality of your conversation. While these types of programs are a good measuring stick, keep in mind that the results are based on algorithms and stats that aren’t necessarily indicative of your actual influence on Twitter. Still, you should monitor these metrics consistently to make sure you’ve been staying on track and adjust as needed.

Keep these suggestions in mind as you grow and evolve your social media network. This phenomenon is a 24/7/365 machine that never quits, so it’s important that you don’t either. Successful users will constantly build, weed, refine and refocus to stay targeted and dominant. You don’t have to go crazy – just hold your online community to the same standards as those in your offline one and become the best “neighbor” you can be. Social media networks are dynamic, so you can’t become complacent in your efforts to grow or stagnant in your content.

And mom, feel free to stop forwarding me email chain letters and pictures of animals in costumes while you’re at it. 

Think Responsibly

Back in the day, businesses were only concerned with one thing: profit. In recent years, these same businesses have realized both the benefit to their company and their community when they get involved. Sponsorships, food and donation drives and fun runs are all great examples of such opportunities, and we would never discourage taking that approach.

But, with the advent of the social media craze and the wide-spread acceptance and support of altruistic endeavors, helping out is suddenly one of the best ways to showcase your creativity and make a significant difference. Some really amazing concepts led by large and small organizations across the nation exemplify this new mentality, and while they’re all unique in their own right, they also share a common strategy which has made them so successful.

Chipotle wants your junk
Premise: As part of Chipotle’s “Food with Integrity” campaign, they are claiming there’s no junk in their food. They also believe there shouldn’t be junk in school food, and they’re asking customers to get rid of their junk as well… that is, junk mail. Participants can forward their junk mail to nojunk@chipotlejunk.com, and for every 100,000 emails received, they’ll donate $10,000 to The Lunch Box, a NPO with an aligned cause.
Consumer feel-good factor: Consumers get to help the cause in an active, non-monetary way (you’ll notice this is incredibly important in increasing participation). They can feel like they’re contributing to the greater good without busting their budget or taking a lot of time.
Consumer me-me factor: Clean email boxes make this cause a quadruple win for Chipotle, The Lunch Box, kids’ health AND the folks at home who want to increase the size of their “special parts” and get cheap drugs from China.
Easy factor: You can do this without thinking or getting out of your chair, and that means you might actually peel your eyes away from “work.”
New and exciting factor: We’ve never seen this clever concept, and we bet you haven’t either. Donating junk mail? It’s genius.

Pepsi Refresh Project
Premise: This on-going, monthly project allows participants to submit their ideas (they take 1,000/month) for making the world a better place, and then anyone can go to their website and vote. There are several categories – health, arts & culture, neighborhoods, etc. – and different grant sizes depending on the idea-givers’ resources. Winners receive grants ranging from $5K-$25K.
Consumer feel-good factor: Tons of people have ideas about the types of changes they want to make… if only they had the money. Now there’s a chance! And for the people who don’t want to take all that on, hey, just vote! Again, active participation in a non-monetary way.
Consumer me-me factor: Non-profits, schools, businesses and regular people have their names attached to the idea, and anyone that visits the website will see… aka free publicity on a pretty big platform. And of course, if they win, they get to start their own project!
Easy factor: Submitting an idea and voting takes seconds. Literally, seconds.
New and exciting factor: Each month the game changes, and every day new votes are counted. Plus, the concept is just pure good.

Shade of Hope
Premise: This one’s local. The dynamic duo of the Houston Furniture Bank and Blinds.com is hosting a community arts fair to raise money, awareness and support for The Furniture Bank, an organization that turns houses into homes for the less-fortunate.
Consumer feel-good factor: Being at the event shows your support for the community, The Furniture Bank and the local art scene.
Consumer me-me factor: Participants get to hang out, view amazing art and listen to live music. FOR FREE.
Easy factor: Show up. All you have to do is show up.
New and exciting factor: First of all, we didn’t even know furniture banks existed, so that’s super cool. Secondly, it’s an EVENT. Filling up our calendars with hip, artsy stuff is always exciting. And, if you check out their website you’ll see there are some pretty interesting activities happening that day (artists are painting shades!)

Naturally, Black Sheep is a big fan of these creative causes. Heck, we’ve even had some success with our own. Keep in mind the factors we mentioned (feel-good, me-me, easy and new and exciting), and you too could be on your way to generating a positive impact… and showing off your innovative excellence too!

Twitter, je t’aime

You know how you’re totally addicted to social media? And how we always say it’s essential to a marketing plan because of the connections you can make with your customers on an emotional level? Now, thanks to this really fascinating article in Fast Company it all makes sense.

This article discusses the correlation between levels of oxytocin (affectionately referred to as the “cuddle hormone”) in your bloodstream, its effects on your emotions and why, as a result we can’t get enough.

Allow us to nerd out for a minute. Oxytocin is responsible for love, trust and empathy, and for the longest time, scientists thought it was primarily responsible for the reason mothers bond immediately with their babies. Now, thanks to some hefty research involving voles (basically fancy rodents), we know that oxytocin affects little receptors in our brain that give us that warm, fuzzy feeling and long-term attachment… you know, love. Furthermore, we know that this feeling is totally addictive (yes, Robert Palmer was right). The parts of the brain affected by love and this hormone are not the same as other emotions like anger, jealousy or even friendship. In reality, your response to oxytocin is more like your response to COCAINE.

Kind of cute, aren't they?

So that’s fine and good, but what Dr. Zak from the Fast Company article has discovered (albeit he needs a little more statistical evidence), is that oxytocin can do more than just make us fall head over heels. After giving a group of college students oxytocin or a placebo and then asking them to watch various PSAs, those that received the hormone were nearly 50% more likely to donate to the charity. It stands to reason– with elevated levels we are more inclined to trust and empathize.

But here’s the kicker. In another test, a before and after blood test of someone conversing on Twitter for 10 minutes showed an elevation of oxytocin levels rise as much as 13%! This is comparable to a similar test of a couple on their wedding day. Again, we need more conclusive research, but IF this turns out to be commonplace, its implications could be huge, essentially suggesting that companies interacting with people on social media are not only connecting on a higher level, but connecting at the moment when trust and empathy are at their peak.

Earlier in June a New York Times article documented a family whose addiction to technology was indicative of a much larger trend in our society - the need to be tuned-in, available and communicating as much as possible, sometimes to the detriment of our mental state. To us, it seems like this can further be explained by Dr. Zak’s findings and the addictive nature of oxytocin and consequently social media. Who among us hasn’t been a little distracted at the onset of a new relationship? When love takes over, we do crazy things, and just think – social media might have the same degree of influence.

So to everyone who questions the quality of social media relationships and worries about the decline of communication and real conversation, take note. These platforms could be even more powerful than we think, and the opportunities for capitalizing on this huge forum are endless. And, props to the voles (switch the letters and it spells “loves”!) for taking one for the team… you know we can’t support animal testing, even if it is for the sake of marketing.