Aug 12 2008

Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire!

August 12, 2008 – 9:20 am

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The Viral Garden’s Mack Collier takes a deeper look at how companies use enthusiasts to promote their brands with a business blog. Highlighting Phil Mooney’s Coca-Cola Conversations blog, Mack explains what a good promotional blog does. He also explains why other companies may be interested in following Coca-Cola’s lead.

Companies should consider what type of company they are before diving into a social media campaign. Lisa Braziel suggests that companies must consider their product, their willingness to cross boundaries, accept change, and ability to give back more than they take from the community they’re engaging. Visit Ignite Social Media and read Lisa’s comprehensive suggestions.

Amit Agarwal offers some great statistics by ShareThis on which social services people are using to bookmark web pages. Amit writes that “Email continues to be the most favorite mode for sharing links on the Internet followed by Facebook and Digg though it’s a formidable lead.” Check out Amit’s post on Digital Inspiration and discover other trends in the “social bookmarking scene.”

Rohit Bhargava of the Influential Marketing Blog points out that, “Social media creators are not just creating content, they are becoming experts at connecting with one another.” The 080808 campaign is a great case study for how social content developers can connect at the Beijing Olympics. Rohit say, “…this campaign is already bringing together not just everyone here in Beijing who is creating social media content, but is also becoming a brilliant way to follow all these live voices of the Games in a real time stream.”

“There’s a big difference between the advertising model and the experience model in terms of making an authentic connection with your audience,” says David Polinchock of The Experience Economist. David writes an interesting post on what it really takes to succeed in business. David says that a quality product, over the long term, wins over advertising. And that, “If your advertising doesn’t match your experience, your audience walks.”

John Bell of Digital Influence Mapping Project is a writing a series of posts about the new skills that companies need in their PR professionals. John writes that PR professionals, in order to be ready for a leadership role, must be integrated, and clearly understand marketing and strategy. John says that “These are the building blocks towards strategy that includes research and insight into the people you are trying to engage, knowledge of the business and more

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Nelson | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (3)
Aug 11 2008

Hitchhiker’s Guide to Social Media: Internet Fame

August 11, 2008 – 5:23 am
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You may become Internet famous in social media. What does that mean, and why should a corporate marketer care? So you can become one of the cool kids, of course!

keithRichardsPirates3.jpgAnd who doesn’t want to be a rock star? Simply act like a wild, crazy, heroin-addicted drunken pirate, respond to everyone, and get lots of love online! Then you can have tons of social network friends, get asked to speak at lots of echo chamber conferences, and maybe even make a little scratch!

Not bad! Especially when the parasocial benefits start rolling in!

Of course, as an organizational communicator may want to hire someone to leverage their social media fame. And why not bring in someone else with online experiences for the company or non-profit? It saves time!

But communicators beware. While great at creating their own personal brands, a vast majority of these Internet rock stars — a.k.a. social media experts — have not been trained in core communications theory, nor do they have significant communications experience.

“Dude, you don’t know the rules! There is no market for messages.”

And while that profound Cluetrain statement is true, knowing the path’s dangers does not usually translate into branding or marketing expertise. These so called experts can tell you how to blog, execute a tactic or two, but can’t deliver the strategic goods. They don’t understand stakeholder groups, the need to execute in the media forms with concentrated pools of stakeholders, or building a tangential conversation (a.k.a. value proposition) on an organization’s and stakeholder group’s common interests. Popularity contests do not equal ROI.

But hey, the good news is you’ll likely receive a great conversation map or social graph or chart or thingie! That’ll keep the boss busy for a while (image by trumpetflickr)!

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Maybe it’s better to check to see if these famous consultants have done any prior work first.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Social Media is an ongoing series. The first entry was “Shiny Object Syndrome.“

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (8)
Aug 8 2008

Social Media Cannot Stand Alone

August 8, 2008 – 8:40 am

The acquisition by Social Media Group (SMG) has already brought a lot of good feedback from industry friends — and, of course, some backwards comments. The interesting criticism that I hear most frequently is that “well your theory only social media doesn’t work.” “Or, you can’t do social media stand alone, it has to be integrated!”

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Excuse me? Who said that (image by marek.wykowski)?

Just search the word “integrate” on this blog. If it wasn’t clear already, for the record, Social Media Cannot Stand Alone!

I thought we were done with this. As in the 90s with the whole integrated marketing communications movement. But I guess not. Or perhaps, it’s just pettiness trying to grasp at competitive positioning points.

In every outreach, SMG integrates right off the bat. We know social media represents a tool set that can be leveraged for a variety of communications strategies, whether its earned media, marketing, employee communications, workforce collaboration, investor relations, etc., etc.

Thus our first task is always to discover the business objective behind the effort, quickly followed by who are the stakeholders, and what other tools are being used to support the initiative. We then create our integrated social media strategy. This has been a hallmark of Livingston social media campaigns since our first efforts on the Huntington Flood and Godsmack Lead Singer Sully Erna’s book in 2006. It’s the same with Maggie’s teams in Toronto and Calgary.

Why do we integrate? Because, people read diverse media on and offline. They are intertwined, and thus compelling or influencing stakeholders requires intelligent use of traditional and new media.

We focus on practicing outreach using these tools because 1) they are unique and we’ve developed expertise 2) big pr firms — not individuals within those firms who are obviously savvy — but the actual organizations do not get it on a wholesale basis, and 3) as a result we keep hearing from large organizations that they cannot find an agency or consulting firm they trust for social media. Therefore, focusing on these tools as specialists provides a legitimate business opportunity.

I’m not sure why that’s so hard to understand. But whatever the reason, spare me the “you can’t practice social media alone” schtick.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (8)
Aug 7 2008

Network Solutions Changes Perceptions With New Actions

August 7, 2008 – 10:15 am

Cross-posted on Social Media Group.

slide0002_image011 Recently, Network Solutions engaged Livingston Communications (soon to be Social Media Group) to engage in a reputation monitoring and social PR. Phase one began on July 1, an effort to directly engage generators of negative commentary on blogs, Twitter and forums in a listen and respond conversation. Just one month into it, we’ve already seen some incredible conversations and results:

Consider the following commentary:

Maybe this Social Media Thing Works After All: “It takes a certain level of complete and utter dissatisfaction for someone (or at least me) to blog about it. It’s unfortunate that a blog entry (NOT our letter to customer service) caught the attention of the uppers at Network Solutions, but it’s smart of them to monitor the chatter. And it’s appreciated, as a person who had a situation that needed rectifying.”

Michael Arrington’s Network Solutions post clarification: “Network Solutions says I got at least part of the story wrong, since they’ve been talking about this issue for three years. My response: Then why engage in the practice? And will they now voluntarily stop?”

NetworkSolutions.Com Account Number Follow-Up: I am very happy to see a quick reaction to this and thank David for taking action.

And on Twitter, responses like these:

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At the heart of the reputation management program is a serious long term commitment from Network Solutions to identify, listen and attempt to promptly resolve problems. We believe just saying we care isn’t enough, and do everything we can to resolve problems, and use the Voice of the Customer as a catalyst to evolve Network Solutions offerings. In some cases, we can’t always provide the answer people want to hear, but they know we are engaged. And it’s clearly making an immediate difference.

Our end goal is to significantly decrease the company’s 58 percent negative commentary ratio (as of June 30) by more than 20 points, effectively positioning the company as more reputable solutions provider. This is very similar to the Dell reputation program, but in our case, we will try to catalyze a faster decrease in posts with Phase II: Social PR (Sorry, details are under wraps).

The reputation process was forged by Kami Huyse, Qui Diaz, Larissa Fair and myself from the Livingston team, and Network Solutions’ Susan Wade and Shashi Bellamkonda. In addition, the program is continuing to be refined by all of us as well as team Network Solutions team members Connie Bensen and Gerry Rosso.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing, PR Industry Trends | Comments (23)

Buzz Meter: Digsby

August 7, 2008 – 9:30 am

digsbylogo Do you belong to a substantial amount of social networks and want constant access and control of all of them at the same time? A couple of weeks ago I got pinged about a semi-new tool called Digsby. This tool can be described with the following equation: Digsby = IM + Email + Social Networks.

Digsby offers similar features to that of Yoono or Pidgin. With over seven different types of instant messaging tools including, AIM, Google Talk, Jabber and Facebook Chat, Digsby surpasses its competitors. Users also receive email notifications from the following accounts: Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, AOL/AIM Mail, POP Mail and IMAP Mail. You also access and update Facebook, Twitter and Myspace statuses. Having Myspace in their social networking circle also separates Digsby from the other aggregators.

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Buzz Meter Ranking: 4 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: Downloading Digsby took no effort at all. Digsby offers personalization of your chat box interface with complete emoticons – just like AIM. Users can easily update statuses just by clicking on the widgets in the task tray or the social networking icons on their Buddy List.

Negative: As much as I love the pop up updates on the left hand side of my screen, I sometimes it takes more than just one click for them to disappear.

Conclusion: Love = Digsby + Marinel. How’s that for an answer? I can get updated quickly just by scrolling over my screename on my Buddy List for any of my social networks. I also like Digsby’s ability to connect me directly to my email site or social networking site just by clicking on the widgets. And on Twitter, your picture shows up next to your friends’ tweets that you responded too and vice versa. Hands down, Digsby is awesome.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (1)
Aug 6 2008

The Importance of Teaching, Learning, and Listening

August 6, 2008 – 9:35 am

One of the great things about social media being new is the many opportunities to keep learning. Geoff asked what social media advice could be offered to a group of MBA students on Twitter Monday that got people buzzing. Some of the responses included:

  • AmberCadabra: @GeoffLiving Listen first to understand why/if social media is right for you. If it’s a good fit, start with one thing you can do well.
  • MattJMcD: @GeoffLiving take your time. there’s a lot going on and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. start w/ what you can handle, and grow from there
  • sonnygill: @GeoffLiving To TALK WITH ppl and not try to sell them on your brand/company through SM mediums. Build your network through conversation.
  • fieldsteven: @GeoffLiving: Never underestimate the value of listening. It is just as–if not more–important than talking.

The most important advice that came from that was the idea of LISTENING, and at the same time jumping in and continuing to explore and read about social media as much as possible. But the secondary part is to give back as much as you get.

twitterhw Giving back would imply teaching. Not as an elite “I get it and you don’t” type of lesson, but more of a “how can we do better?” lesson. ReadWriteWeb asks if new media can (and should) be taught in schools. “The world is changing, media education has probably always needed to change and this point in history offers some exciting opportunities for educators and students.”

(Picture Credit: Geek and Poke)

People are hungry for ways to teach new media to students, entrepreneurs and small business owners, and large corporations alike. Consider the wild success and viral effect of CommonCraft’s videos. These work because they are simple, non-threatening (as in not scary or overwhelming), and to the point.

We need to continue teaching, learning, and engaging others in social media for it to continue to grow. Collaboration is key to learning and teaching, how else can you share your thoughts and ideas? Reading and networking are very effective ways to get started, which is now made even easier with online tools and social media networks.

If you were going to teach a course on social media, what would the main subject be? Would it be a general skills and tools overview? Ethics? Professional vs. personal use? Collaboration and conversation?

We’ve moved way beyond blogs as a way to communicate with clients, competitors, and key stakeholders. So, what else needs to be taught to interested people so that they effectively use social media?

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Larissa Fair | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (5)
Aug 5 2008

We Are Media: Open Source Brains for Nonprofits & Social Media

August 5, 2008 – 9:46 am

Social media how-to’s and primers have a shelf life of a millisecond, roughly. These blogging tips and social network tricks, while thorough, are usually manufactured by the hands of one or two people.* Quickly outdated, this single-lens content is easily trumped by evergreen collaboration. The latter of which is the calling card of We Are Media.

We Are Media: working wikily for nonprofits

“Curated” by NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network) and Beth Kanter, We Are Media (formerly known as Be The Media) is a wiki-housed, group effort to develop a social media curriculum for nonprofits. It’s a work in progress: the community is tackling one module per week.

According to the site, We Are Media aims to “build this wiki and community into the “go-to place” for vetted resources about social media strategies and tools for nonprofits and/or individuals who work for or with nonprofits and need practical advice about getting started or to quickly access best practices, examples, or experience from other practitioners working in nonprofits.”

The team spirit approach has the potential to torch a time-honored tradition: stale silos of self-education across nonprofit learning. It’s also going to set the bar a little higher for corporate and government brethren, too.

This initiative matters.

  • It’s a “community of practice.” Learn as you teach; teach as you learn. There is no better way to learn how to move someone up the participation ladder than to dive face first into the environment yourself. Beth is compiling a series of posts on “working wikily,” a job not for the fly-by-night practitioner.
  • The focus is on smarter – not universal – use of Web 2.0. In other words, if the social media shoe doesn’t fit, don’t wear it. (Or it if does fit, what type, brand and supportive padding is worth it for your feet?)
  • Tagged content, the living, breathing, searchable beauty of it all.
  • Back up from a person committed to calling out patterns in discussion and content and figuring out where to throw more spaghetti. In the words of Michele Martin at The Bamboo Project, “As communities develop ever-evolving resources through tagging, blogging, adding to wikis, etc. there’s still a need for someone to comb through all that information and help make sense of it, particularly in terms of instructional design.” If only more online community managers possessed Beth’s innate ability to do so, we’d see less failures.

Keeping nonprofits from wipe out, from 365bunnieMajor kudos are due to Beth, Holly Ross (Executive Director of NTEN), and the dozens of We Are Media participants. The contributions made today will help ensure our nation’s hands and feet – the social sector – aren’t swept away with the tidal wave of Web 2.0.

Rather, they’ll have the appropriate gear (from swimmies to wet suits to surf boards) to manuver.

[ Image credit: Surf's up? By 356bunnies ]

*Updated: The How-to’s are great, too, so keep reading them! While yes, the ways of the digital world change overnight, you’ll find valuable insight to strategic and tactical plays in such resources. Learning comes from all sides.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Qui Diaz | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , | Comments (5)

Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire!

August 5, 2008 – 6:00 am

2008blogsoffire3Kicking and Screaming’s Carter Smith takes a look at a recent study conducted by Rapleaf. This fascinating study compares ladies and gents’ social networking skills. “They predict that this gender gap on social networks (and increasingly in all of social media) will only widen with the next wave of innovation.” Visit Kicking and Screaming, and see who is “holding down the [social networking] fort,” guys or gals?

Neville Hobson has written a great post for you bloggers – and your readers – on NevilleHobson.com. Find out how to format blog content for an iPhone or other mobile device. After reading this post, and heeding Neville’s advice, your blog will load with improved formatting and faster for all those browsing on the go.

Are you familiar with the Blog Council’s Disclosure Best Practices Toolkit? Valeria Maltoni writes a great post on Conversation Agent about how this recently released, and vary valuable, disclosure toolkit was developed. Valeria also provides readers with some insight into the Blog Council.

Aaron Uhrmacher of Disruptology has some follow-up questions from his Mashable post on social media’s ROI for business. Aaron asks, “Who should be tasked with developing standards for social media measurement? What organizations are already working on it? How do you measure social media success for your company?” Find out from Aaron what other social media measuring issues businesses face, and offer your take.  

As an eLearning specialist, Mark Chrisman of Bad Square shares his opinion about new media’s place school curriculum. As stated in a Read Write Web post by Marshal Kirkpatrick, curriculum will change and adapt with technology. Adding his own ideas, Mark suggests that the future school will use “blog and video-log learning journals and portfolios” and other social tools.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Nelson | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (1)
Aug 4 2008

Hitchhiker’s Guide to Social Media: Shiny Object Syndrome

August 4, 2008 – 6:26 am
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Ah, yes (image source: MacMonkies). Social media. Where to start for so many businesses. Perhaps the beginning shouldn’t even be strategy. It should be… “STOP! Don’t do it!”

Many businesses engaging in social media start with Shiny Object Syndrome. This strange disease that affects the mind causes companies and individuals to adapt the latest social communications tool based on peer pressure, buzz, or a strange desire to be one of the first.

Shiny Object Syndrome usually begins in the CxO suite where an often competent and brilliant executive who knows nothing about marketing or PR stops by a line manager’s office and says, “I read about Twitter today in the N.Y. Times. Why don’t we have an account, Jane? Are we going to lose out again like we did on blogs? By the way, did you see competition X just laid off 50 people. Bad times!”

Of course, Jane creates the Twitter account. Then when she shows it and her six followers to executive X, the response is, “Great, send them links and tell them about our web site!” One month later, Jane still has only six followers, and no new web site traffic. Hmmm, another victim of Shiny Object Syndrome.

Unfortunately, while in the short term placating a need to play with the newest communications toy, Shiny Object Syndrome can create terrific wastes of money. That in turn, can create terrible consequences for marketers and PR pros like Jane.

Getting beyond Shiny Object Syndrome requires the lead communicator to STOP! Then go back to the master communications plan. A healthy evaluation of social media tools should reveal whether or not stakeholders are even using these Shiny Objects. From there you can begin to evaluate whether social media really belongs in your plan.

But that is another chapter in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Social Media.

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (11)
Aug 1 2008

Become August

August 1, 2008 – 3:30 am

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August. It’s upon us (image by jurvetson)… The dead of summer, often known as the “Dog Days.”

Business slows down. Campaigns are put on hold. The world seems to take a deep breath, resting before the mad rush of business from Labor Day through Thanksgiving.

August can deliver more than that.

The word august finds its roots in the word augustus (you know, that emperor that followed Julius?), a word that means sacred or grand. In that vein, august means venerable or eminent.

Similarly, companies and bloggers that choose to ignore the smaller audiences during the August vacation period, and decide to proactively market have an opportunity to generate unusual traction. They can become august in their positioning by exploiting an unusual lack of marketplace noise.

Last summer many bloggers took a break. Other newer, hungrier bloggers like Valeria Maltoni and myself kept blogging through it. While traffic remained flat in August, if you consider the amount of people on vacation, it was actually increasing… And RSS subscribership proved it.

In other facets of marketing, similar results can be achieved. Influencer relations campaigns can leverage the relative lack of stories. In some cases, the stories may not reach full impact until September by the time the media finishes coverage. I’ve had several campaigns that were waged in August with outstanding coverage results in September.

Slow is a mindset, and while there may be vacations, there are also opportunities. So what’s it going to be: August or august?

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing, PR Industry Trends | Comments (5)