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Apr 30 2009

Buzz Meter: ensembli

April 30, 2009 – 12:00 pm

images Early adopters and the Web 2.0 savvy have fully embraced their RSS feeds through their Google Reader, Bloglines or other services. Yet, RSS is not as widespread and mainstream as it potentially could and should be. ensembli, a ‘smart’ RSS tool, takes a different approach than some of the prominent RSS feeds with the goal of enhancing the everyday citizens’ online experience.

ensembli indexes RSS feeds and filters them through “relevance engine” based on a peer review, multi-agent software system (MAS). ensembli’s real power is in understanding what type of content individual users are interested in. Similar to how Pandora provides a relevant stream of music based on preferences, the more someone uses ensembli — reading, discarding and ignoring content – the more relevant the content ensembli delivers.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 4 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive:

ensembli provides more relevant, useful and current social content than other standard browsers. It is also beneficial in that it delivers top content from across the web, rather than the finite number of blogs in an RSS reader. Additionally, a problem with RSS feeds is the amount of content that builds up over time. ensembli eliminates this by providing only top relevant content on a particular interest/search terms. Another wonderful feature is that as your interests change – say from the presidential election to a new found focus on environmental issues – ensembli will quickly adapt with you. Ensembli also has useful built in features such as the ability to tweet stories, and – like standard RSS feeds – the ability to read stories directly on ensembli, or click-though to the original post. Stories are also organized based on interest and prioritized by personal relevance.

Negative:

Many bloggers share thoughts about a broad variety of topics. For example, a sports blog will not focus only on soccer, but will also cover baseball, hockey, etc. As a result, RSS readers often receive stories that individuals would find interesting, but would likely not search for directly. This ability to receive trusted information from divers sources is one of the great benefits of RSS feeds, and, because searches are based on predetermined topics, is something that ensembli is unable to provide.

Conclusion:

Many people are unable to give their RSS feeds the attention they’d like to during the workweek. Moreover, many people are not familiar with the benefits or feel intimidated by RSS feeds. ensembli is great for current, relevant information for those short on time, or for those less Web 2.0 savvy. This service, in combination with a traditional RSS feed for blogs deserving consistent reads, offers a great way to stay informed on the latest news.


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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Nelson | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

A Priest, a Minister and a Rabbi Walk Into a Bar

April 30, 2009 – 7:40 am


A Priest, a Minister and a Rabbi walk into a bar from CRT/tanaka on Vimeo.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)
Apr 29 2009

Fear and Loathing in Personal Brand Land

April 29, 2009 – 12:25 am

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Attending and participating in many conferences, I find myself dubbed a great personal brander (above, KD Paine’s picture shows me “forced” to bow my head with one of the greatest personal branders, Chris Brogan).  People always ask me how I do it, and I always decline to talk about it because of my stance on this matter. Ironically, this energy has only increased since the acquisition of Livingston Communications was announced.

Further if I tweet something even somewhat quirky or edgy – a by product of being Geoff –  it creates waves of DMs to the mentioned conversationalist about what I said.  Drama vis a vis public and private messaging ensues. Finally, there’s the light contact stalking, which has gotten to the point that I feel uncomfortable Tweeting on the weekends due to strange references that leak out in conversations.

No matter how hard I strategically avoid this movement, the Livingston personal brand has become inescapable.  And that scares the living daylights out of me.  You may be asking, “Why?”

Because I know how human I am. And I fear that my personality while clearly me and not contrived, will in some way eclipse, or worse, harm a client or my company.  Because, yeah, I do screw up just like everyone else. Further, to me the principle of communications is making my clients successful or achieving something online, not nano-fame.

In many ways my efforts to dodge the personal brand conversation really has to do with what is meaningful to my daily life. Let me list my top priorities:

  • Providing strategies to successfully adapt organizational social media for the long-term
  • Change the world, particularly through social cause activism
  • Provide intelligent conversation and challenge the communications industry to evolve and become better
  • Teaching individuals in my life how to execute social media rather than doing it for them
  • Serve and market my employer through karmic efforts

Once again, I am reminded of Charles Barkley’s Role Model diatribes from the 90s. And I identify.

The personal brand is a Scarlet Letter, an unwanted, unintentional consequence of marketing my or a client’s organization, and wanting to have fantastic conversations about how online media can change the way communications works. If anything, I’ve intentionally tried to sabotage or minimize my personal brand, and yet here I am.

So, yes, maybe I really have a personal brand, but I do not find it admirable as an achievement.  Further, I don’t think it’s a good thing for a long-term enterprise social media strategy UNLESS I am committed to playing team ball. That means sacrifice. And personally I find it to be an encumbering burden that prevents me from feeling free online.

I imagine that I will continue online while the above objectives exist.  At the same time, there will always be this omnipresent level of discomfort.

A Word About Chris Brogan

I’ve given Chris a lot of grief and hazing about personal branding over the past few months.  I want to state that I think Chris Brogan is a good man who wants to do the world and the industry right. He does a lot of great things for people.

For me the conversation has been about enterprise marketing. Chris has some ideas I like and some less so, but there is more than one way to skin a cat. I want to pay respects to Chris and thank him for allowing me to have these conversations with him.

Further, he demonstrates that the personal brand does work for individual consultants.  His recent hires also show scale. It will be interesting to see how he does, and I suspect with the right help and strong back-end comms strategy and results, Chris will grow a strong boutique offering.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , | Comments (14)
Apr 28 2009

Multichannel Efforts Needed

April 28, 2009 – 3:20 pm

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One of the biggest challenges in 2009 is executing strategic approaches towards community conversation versus publishing content mechanisms.  Specifically, many communicators feel the need to sell a Facebook application, a Twitter account (though you should own the organization’s brand name), publish a YouTube channel, create a blog, etc.  The end result creates social network litter, leaving companies with failed or semi-dormant properties across the Internet (original image by kikisdad).

Instead, the right strategic approach remains the community.  By closely following the actual people, the folks who are driving the and participating in the relevant online conversation, enterprises and organizations can build an intelligent strategy.

Real activism and marketing occurs when there is a compelling conversation and intelligent calls to action that encourage further engagement.  Really understanding a community and becoming a populist is essential.  That engagement can range from petitioning and purchase to intangibles that you could never expect, all of which creates tangible by-product called ROI.

The tools used to get there often include several channels, from Facebook and Twitter to YouTube and Flickr, as well as relevant blogs, subject specific social networks, and bulletin boards.  But the tools adhere to that higher community strategy, otherwise organizations are simply single track publishing, a dangerous proposition that can lead to social media litter.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire!

April 28, 2009 – 9:00 am

Government 2.0 is a popular subject this year. Lauren Vargas of Communicators Anonymous shares her experience at Government 2.0 Camp. Lauren says, “I think it is important to stress that government does not need social media for greater transparency…what we need is re-evaluation of policy hindering transparency (who, what when, where, why – How do we collaborate and share internally? Think Enterprise 2.0) then use the tools to spread the word and further collaborate externally.” Visit Lauren’s blog to read more about her experience and to view mind-map she created for the camp.

“Why are high education consultants given more credibility than full time staff who say the same exact thing?” This was the question Karlyn Morissette asked her Twitter network. In conversation with 40 of her followers via Twitter, Karlyn deduced four points revolving around money, employee bias, consultants’ views and whether the questions was posed incorrectly. Go to KarlynMorissete.com to read the full discussion and add your two cents.

Do you have trouble deciding who to be friends with on Facebook or any other social network? New Media Mavens Blog’s Alison Woo provides reasons and tips on who to befriend online. She discusses how online networks give you the ability to network and for business people, even generate possible leads. For those that are weary about personal and professional clashing, Alison reminds us to use private settings. What’s your criterion for befriending or accepting friends/followers on social networks?

Nick Gonzalez lists social media myths that “irk” him. The five misconceptions he discusses include: “social media isn’t media, social media is one product, social media buys need to be done apart from traditional digital buys, social media is an uncontrolled conversation and social media doesn’t have an ROI.” Share the misconceptions you hear about social media on socialmedia.com.

Alan Weinkrantz of Alan Weinkrantz PR Weblog shares his presentation “PR Really Matters – And Works with Social Media.” Alan presented this at the InteractiveAustin 2009. View the 22 slide presentation to see why Alan believes PR and Social Media work together.

Lee Odden provides “25 Must Read Social Media Marketing Tips” from some of the top social media marketers including Charlene Li, Ford’s Scott Monty and Dell’s Senior Manager Richard Binhammer. These contributors share “distinct competitive advantages for both individual and businesses from a better understanding of the social web.”Read more about what these marketers say about their social media experience and some of their tips at Online Marketing Blog.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (5)
Apr 27 2009

One Ning to Rule Them All

April 27, 2009 – 3:01 am

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Somewhere amidst all of the Twitter hype a really big statistic was achieved, the creation of Ning’s one millionth social network. In a world where follower counts are lauded or decried for sheer girth, where it’s cool to just to be seen using the tool even from space, communities are bubbling to the fore.

One million subject matter specific communities, one million places where specific discussions related to some sort of common interest are occurring. Six million visits a month demonstrate recent features and additions are making their impact felt.

Sure, I know some of them are dormant, but traffic (pictured above) keeps increasing, demonstrating 6,000,000 unique visitors a month to Ning communities. Not too shabby for a social network oft criticized for serving the niche instead of the many, for being too small to be relevant. heck, there’s even a Ning for Dummies book now.

What’s relevant about Ning’s rise is that smaller groups of people are congregating to actively discuss the issues that matter to them. While mass-Twittering matters in the hype engine, the actual development of communities is accelerating.

Because we are so accustomed towards communicating with big channels, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are now the apple of our echo chamber’s eye. Yet online conversations are not about the wide swaths of tens of thousands of people, rather hundreds that actually interact with each other (see Valeria Maltoni’s breakdown of communities and Dunbar’s number). Social media has always offered the counter specialized content to the big mass market channel. And so it is only natural to see further splintering and the movement towards smaller, specialized communities even in the face of Ashton Kutcher.

Blog post title crowdsourced at #NTC09 – Lois de la fuente

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (6)
Apr 23 2009

Reputation Management Means Embracing Your Errors

April 23, 2009 – 10:46 am

Issues happen. Mistakes are made.  Reputations become tarnished.  This is the way of the world, particularly when an error occurs after a company brand achieves leadership or a human being becomes famous. Sometimes gaffes or human nature takes precedence, and depending on how a company or person handles it, brands and reputations lag.

As we’ve seen time and time again, like any crisis situation, when the problem is avoided the blemish becomes more pronounced. But when it’s embraced reputation damage can be stopped, and in some cases, even improved. 

Social media can be a great delivery mechanism in these situations, from blogs to videos.  It can help reputation management with search, and defuse angry customers or perturbed fans.

Perhaps the most storied example of this is Dell’s magnificent use of its blog when laptop batteries were blowing up.  By embracing the issue, Dell went a long way to resolving the matter and diffused a lot of anger pointed at the brand.  In 2007, Steve Jobs accomplished a similar diffusion of brand angst when he acknowledged the iPhone price drop may have been an error with an open letter.

More recently, have you seen the now almost passe Lindsay Lohan video yet?  A perfect example of someone whose reputation became tarnished and is now being rehabilitated through a humorous embracing of public mishaps.  Lohan will never recover the sheen of her early stardom, but she can have an evolved reputation that takes her rough edges and wears them smooth with this kind of dialogue. Robert Downey, Jr. and MC Hammer are a great example of stars who recovered their reputations post crash.

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

Buzz Meter: Ping.fm

April 23, 2009 – 10:35 am
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Ping.fm is a straightforward service, allowing users to post to multiple social networks from a single dashboard. The service provides users with multiple ways to post updates and URLs, and advanced customization that allows users to pinpoint exactly which social network a message is delivered.

This service supports over 30 social networking sites including Flickr, Twitter, Plurk, Linkedin, FriendFeed, WordPress, Diigo and Facebook. Users can update their social networking profiles using mobile phones, SMS, MMS, Instant Messaging, email, and third party applications such as iGoogle, Facebook and Twhirl with one submission.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 2 out of 4 Buzz Bees

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Positive: The Ping.fm’s user experience and functionality is great, and the ability to update from virtually any device to any social network makes pinging your friends mobile and fast. Additionally, Ping.fm stays up to date with the latest social platforms, allowing users to grow their social presence across multiple social networks quickly. The customization options are also useful, as often times different social networks are associated with different audiences. For example, a person’s Yammer and Facebook networks will likely receive quite different messaging.

Negative: In order to act as a single social posting hub across multiple platforms, Ping.fm removes users from the social network, thus, making the experience less social. Unlike TV, the power of social media is in its ability to create a two way conversation. To engage in conversation, share ideas, and have a dialogue, not blanket the web with one directional status updates. Ping.fm is not a strong listening social platform.

Conclusion: Given the importance people and organizations place on having a broad social presence – and the time it takes to keep these multiple social networks alive and rich with updated information – Ping.fm’s service is occasionally valuable. However, engagement in conversations is vital, and therefore Ping.fm may be limited to those instances when social media can become a one directional plateform: For example, upon return from a trip and posting photos, or during busy periods when time does not permit full dialogue but providing status update are important.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Nelson | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , | Comments (2)
Apr 22 2009

Events Liven Up Social Media

April 22, 2009 – 9:23 am

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One of the best ways to deliver meaningful results in social media is to tie your effort to an event. Whether it was Twestival or after parties at SxSW, smart organizations move from conversation to more meaningful activities where people can congregate or receive significantly more value.

This is something we encourage our clients to do in their efforts. For example, Networks Solutions has hosted or sponsored numerous online and offline events over the past year to foster more meaningful relationships beyond its current online social media efforts, which include blogging, publishing and discussing valuable research for small business owners, responding to general complaints on the Internet, and conversing with customers via its Twitter account.

Right now Network Solutions is backing up its Small Business Success Index research with a webinar featuring top entrepreneurs discussing what it takes to succeed in the new economy. The GrowSmartBusiness Webinar is ideal in that — combined with the research and an integrated communications campaign — it delivers real valuable content for Network Solutions’ core stakeholder, the small business owner or entrepreneur. It will allow hundreds of people to view the event publicy, participate and converse live. This goes way beyond a blog post or Tweet to generate more powerful conversations, relationships and customer actions.

Social media is a great place to begin relationships, but to deliver more meaningful marketing results real valubale calls to action need to be delivered. Events really help because they allow people to foster deeper relationships. When we communicate online a lot of the natural, intangible conversation axioms are lost — body language, tone, eye contact, etc. Further the types of social conversation vehicles don’t necessarily provide depth, so even an online event can dramatically evolve a relationship.

I see events as part of multichannel social media and traditional communication programs. Multichannel campaigns that go beyond a singular tool — Twitter, blogs, etc. — and involve integrate communications often develop stronger results. They also tend to feed each other.

Consider how many times you’ve seen an event trend on Twitter or photos from said event on Facebook or blog posts developed from the content? It’s just a natural way to develop more momentum.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)
Apr 21 2009

Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire!

April 21, 2009 – 9:15 am

Digital Labz discusses the importance of successful marketing using a “quality link building campaign. The blog shares a list of 70 social media sites “that allow do follow links; which should have the potential to contribute to the search rank of the page being linked.” Check the list out and offer your suggestions.

Bob Gilbreath provides a step-by-step model on how to strategically use social media rather than jump on the bandwagon. He hopes that people will see how “a strong business objective and insight can help understand the opportunities for social media.” Visit Marketing with Meaning to read his four step model.

Buzzoodle Blog’s Ron McDaniel asks, “Are you a sales gardener or a sales hunter?” Ron uses a sales gardener as an example for a marketer stating, “A successful sales gardener is someone that uses Inbound Lead Generation effectively to more easily close leads that come to them…A sales hunter will go out and produce generate leads quickly.” So which one are you? Figure it out by visiting Buzzoolde’s Blog.

Do you know what social marketing is? Alex Rampy differentiates between social marketing and social marketing in terms of Web 2.0. She states three themes she “finds consistent between the two applications: freedom vs. control, mission vs. mantra, and voice vs. message.” Do you agree with Alex? “How can social media marketing and social marketing learn from each other?” Share your thoughts and join the discussion on SocialButterfly.

Shailesh Ghimire shares a tip that he believes every business should know about setting up a business presence on Facebook: the difference between a page and profile. Through the latest design, “Faceboook has made a clear distinction between profiles and pages”: profiles = individuals and pages = businesses. Continue reading the other changes Facebook made in order to accommodate businesses on Social Media Wiz.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Marinel Mones | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (5)