Wednesday, December 31, 2008

For Fun: Logos After the Financial Crisis

New Apple Logo 3 M new logo citigroup new logo

new chrysler logo dell new logo ferrari new logo cisco new logo ford new logo goodyear new logo lg new logo nike new logo nokia new logo best buy new logo yahoo new logo mcdonalds new logo renault new logo

Internet Tops Newspapers As News Source

We talked about how consumers are obtaining their news in class this fall. I also participated in a Twitter chat with PR folks (#journchat) on Monday. Part of the conversation included a question about how PR professionals get their news - hardcopy vs online, or both.

Part of the question is answered today in this MediaPost article:

The Internet is now the most popular source of news after TV, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which released its year-end roundup of news media consumption last week. While TV is still king of the hill, its steady decline in the face of Internet competition bodes ill in the long term.

In 2008, 40% of the respondents said they got most of their national and international news from the Internet, versus 35% for newspapers in 2008. The Internet's share is up from 24% in 2007, while newspapers also increased slightly, from 34%. The long-term trend is even clearer: the Internet's share has more than tripled from 13% in 2001, while newspapers fell by almost a quarter--from 45% in those six years.

(The figures add up to more than 100% because Pew accepted multiple responses to account for ambiguity in its survey of 1,489 adults from Dec. 3-7. Although Pew did not explain this ambiguity, it might include respondents citing online newspapers or TV news Web sites alongside the traditional medium itself).

Although print newspapers--especially big metro dailies--appear to be locked in an irreversible long-term decline, newspaper Web sites have had big increases in audiences. In October 2008, the last month for which data is available, newspaper Web sites attracted a total of 68.97 million unique visitors--up 64% from 41.96 million in October 2004. The October 2008 figure represents 42% of the American adult Internet-using population--up from 28% in October 2004.

TV still takes first place as a news source, claiming a 70% share in 2008--but that's down from 74% in 2007, and a peak of 82% in 2002. Significantly, the percentage is lower among adults under the age of 30, who have taken to Internet news enthusiastically. Fifty-nine percent of respondents in this age bracket said TV news was their primary source, while an identical percentage tapped the Internet. That's a big change from 2007, when 68% of people under the age of 30 chose TV, versus just 34% for the Internet.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

2009 - The Year of Going Social

Businesses Join the Social Media Conversation
By: Beverly W. Macy and Troy A. Peterson

It’s almost 2009, and for years, marketers have talked about ‘listening’ to the consumer. At the same time, Web 2.0 tools have been springing up that enable conversations to take place AMONG consumers. That conversation has evolved into video, picture, text, audio files… that can be shared and passed on. Blogs, podcasts, YouTube, Twitter, Wikis, and social networks are the tools used to engage in this conversation with one another. Clearly, a fundamental shift in the way we communicate has occurred.

The bad news for business? You’re late. The good news? You're not too late. It’s true that many of the innovators and early adopters out there are screaming that you're going to be out of business in three months if you don't hop on the social media bandwagon today. Not true. more here

Israeli consulate uses social networking service as part of Gaza op PR campaign

NY consulate counts on Twitter

Ynetnews

Published:

12.30.08, 07:06 / Israel News

Between 1-3 pm (EST) Tuesday, the Consulate General of Israel in New York will hold a live Citizen "Press" Conference on Twitter in order to directly answer the public's questions regarding the current situation in Israel and Gaza in wake of the IDF's operation in the Strip.

Twitter is a fast-growing social networking service, and the consulate's intiative is the first time that a government is holding such a conference via the service

"We are constantly getting questions from the public regarding the situation in Israel and Gaza," David Saranga, Consul for Media and Public Affairs, said. "We are answering the public's call and holding a Citizen Press Conference on the social networking site, Twitter, to answer these questions directly."

Twitter users can take part in the Citizen "Press" Conference by going to: http://www.twitter.com/IsraelConsulate and directing their messages to @israelconsulate and including the tag #AskIsrael.

Questions will be answered on Twitter, with a link to IsraelPolitik if the answer exceeds Twitter’s maximum length of 140 characters.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Top 10 Reputation Tracking Tools Worth Paying For

We talked about corporations starting their foray into social media with a 'listening strategy'. This fits nicely under the reputation management umbrella.

From Mashable's Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.

Reputation management is essential to both individuals and companies. The more popular your brand is, the more critical it will be to keep tabs on it and the more time it will consume out of your day. If you work at a startup and no one has heard of your brand, or if you’re an individual who has just started blogging, these tools are still useful to you.

If, on the other hand, you’re brand new to social media and aren’t known by many people, then these free tools might be a better place to start.

You should consider paid services if you are unable to manage and keep your pulse on your online reputation. Also, paid services help you analyze and understand the magnitude and sentiment of conversations around your brand, which would take you even longer if you did it manually. Services start out at a minimal price of $1 for individual bloggers and shoot up over $100,000 for large enterprises. If you are considering using a paid service, select the one that best matches your current situation and scale up as your requirements grow. more

Benefits of Using Social Media Marketing

Interesting data point from class participant Uday on the benefits of SMM. Clearly, customer engagement is the key factor...and we'll continue to watch in 2009 how brands calculate ROI from "engagement".

Looking to make the case for why your organization or clients should be using social media marketing? A survey last month, highlighted today in eMarketer, outlines the benefits that marketing executives cite as reasons to embrace the medium:

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Blogging Is Dead.

This topic continues to be debated...is blogging dead? I mentioned it in my interview with Danny Brown social media pr:

Do you feel that social media is being used to its maximum effect?

Not yet. I saw an article proclaiming that “blogs are dead”. Are they? Or are they evolving into blog 2.0 or 3.0? In 2005, most people didn’t know what blogs were. Who remembers Friendster? Is Facebook just Friendster 2.0? And where will Twitter be one year from now? The cycle time is incredibly fast and seems to be getting faster. The great news is that social media and social media tools are designed to keep pace with the increased cycle time. So we’ll see tools come and go and we’ll see new uses. As an educator I can say that business people - and even educators - are just beginning to “get it”.

So when I saw this tweet from @armano and clicked on the link - I LOVED IT!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

"25 Traits Of Twitter Folks..."

Saw this on Twitter from @mayhemstudios and I like the link: From Successful Blog- check it out and comment or tweet on your thoughts....

I’ve listed 25 traits of Twitter Folks I admire.

These social media folks …

don’t seek to be the center of any universe.
find great conversations and get to know the people there.
realize that every venue has it’s own culture and rules.
do their own talking and their own listening.
talk mostly about the accomplishments of others.
ask intriguing questions that invite others to join the conversation.
don’t worry when folks don’t respond to something they say.
have time for new friends, talk to them, listen to them, read their sites and bios, ask them questions — avoid assumptions.
have a different conversation with every individual and every business.
take embarrassing or private conversations offline.
are inclusive and encourage folks who exclude people to exclude themselves.
shout out good news, help in emergencies, and celebrate with everyone.
say please, thank you, and you’re welcome, and mean them.
are incredibly curious about what works, what doesn’t work, seek feedback often, and look to improve what they do.
study the industry and trends, watch how things occur, share information about those freely, but never break a trust.
offer advice when people ask. Help whenever they can.
aren’t “shameless.” Ask for help in ways that folks are proud to pitch in.
are constantly connecting people and ideas in business conversations that are helpful, not hypeful.
get paid to strategize business, build tactical plans, but won’t “monetize” relationships.
ignore the trolls.
keep their promises.
can be transparent without being naked … most of us look and behave best in public with our clothes ON.
listen to the hive mind, but think their own thoughts.
send back channel “hellos” to friends when there’s no time to talk.
understand that the Internet is public and has no eraser.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Paramount Pulls Campaign On Artsy Social Network

Social Media is still hard for some big companies to understand. Below is an article from MediaPost on why Paramount Pictures pulled it's contest.

I agree with what a commenter said:
"Not a smart move by Paramount. They just lost a lot in potential viral social networking. Sometimes large companies just don't get it: you can't control all aspects of a social networking or viral campaign, and that's not always a bad thing. Unforunately, the artists are the ones that will really lose out here."

What do you think?

Paramount Pictures pulled a contest scheduled to run this week aimed at promoting the January release of DreamWorks's "The Uninvited" after the press got wind of the agreement and the studio lost control of marketing plans, according to sources close to the deal. Paramount acknowledged the partnership, but did not return calls to confirm whether the contest was delayed or killed.

DeviantART has a community of 8 million contributing artists who submit 100,000 works daily. The Los Angeles-based site has built a database of 70 million works of art since 2000. Topics span 2,400 genres.

Many of the member artists have supported successful viral campaigns and contests for PepsiCo, Sony, Scion and gaming site Three Rings through their artwork. The works become viral by sharing the embed code through widgets on other social media sites and profiles. Some, sold as prints, as well as reproductions on t-shirts and apparel, would have included pieces by artists to promote the movie "The Uninvited."

There have been many successful campaigns. In PepsiCo's campaign the artists designed bottle wraps for Mountain Dew. In Three Rings' "Design Your Whirled" campaign, artists designed rooms for the gaming site and a change to win a MacBook Pro, Wacom Cintiq 12WX or Wacom Intuos3 6X11 tablet. There were 754 entries; 2,361 comments and 98,834 page views on the Whirled campaign.

Three Rings CEO Daniel James said the company took a gamble on deviantART for the first time by running a promotion from Oct. 23 through Nov. 14. "It could have been a big bust, but we're satisfied with the results," he said. "It costs tens of thousands of dollars to run the promotion" and in return Three Rings got "truckloads of impressions on the contest page from click-throughs, and banner and boxy ads."

James said Three Rings, San Francisco, will likely do other promotions with deviantART in the future because it prompted a jump in subscribers. In the first few days of the campaign the video game site experienced 25,000 new registrations.

Ironically, deviantART once hired a public relations firm between 2002 and 2005 to keep the social network site out of the press to head off incidents such as the one with Paramount. The company would only agree to interviews if the articles focused on a member of the online community. Despite the lack of formal publicity, page views have catapulted to 1.5 billion page views and 25 million unique visitors monthly.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

The Buzzwords of 2008

From the NYT:

WASHINGTON — Politics without buzzwords is like sports without clichés, math without numbers or Blago without bleeps. Tough to imagine, in other words, especially in such a game-changer of a campaign year in which buzzwords were flying like shoes.

Buzzwords are what political wiseguys use to sound all important and knowing in a profession whose prime currency is the illusion of being both. They are like secret passwords for the chattering class, the verbal equivalent of a terrorist fist jab.

Picking out political buzzwords from 2008 is like shooting moose in a pigpen. The fundamentals were so dizzyingly strong, it could be tough to keep them all straight. Before you knew it “The One” had become “That One” and the “team of mavericks” were going rogue on each other. You mixed up Client 9 and Candidate 5 at the holiday party and tried to change the subject.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Social Media Job Wire

This is very cool, check it out.

Social Media Job Wire

12.18.08 - Our Mission

Our mission is simple, we want to help you find a job in Social Media, Blogging or I.T.To help you, we have assembled a listing of all the most current positions in the field.Your challenge is simple, take a look at our job wire, find a job that interests you and apply. We can’t guarantee you a job, but we can feed you the best collections of leads you can find anywhere on the web.

That and wish you good luck.

Twitter Finally Adds People Search - Other Search Options Still Needed

Great News! Posted on ReadWriteWeb

Written by Marshall Kirkpatrick / December 23, 2008 12:54 PM / 4 Comments

« Prior Post Next Post »

Twitter CEO Evan Williams just announced (on Twitter) that the service has finally launched a belated people search function. It doesn't work perfectly but logged in users will now have a much easier time finding other users by searching the name field for peoples' real names. It's quite handy.

It's pretty crazy to think that this service has become as high profile (if not popular) as it has without the ability to search for users by their names. Now that it's here there are other search functions we still find more useful, though.

Unfortunately the search sometimes misses people - at first test at least it was unable to find Marshall Kirkpatrick, though it was able to find marshallk.

MG Seigler complains on Venturebeat that basic search of messages still isn't integrated into the main site yet, moths after the acquisition of Twitter search engine Summize. That doesn't bother us at all - we've just visited a Twitter search results page for "marshallk OR RRW OR marshalk OR RWW OR ReadWriteWeb OR marshalk OR Jobwire OR sarahintampa" so many times that's the first place our browsers go when we type "s" into the address bar.

Likewise, the most useful Twitter search experience is often a 3rd party site, Twellow, which searches user description fields and categorizes users by occupation and interests! That's a great way to get involved with Twitter fast - something many people could use help with; an estimated half milloin Twitter users still aren't following anyone at all.

You can test out the new Twitter people search for yourself here.

Why Twitter Hasn’t Failed: The Power Of Audience

This article was posted on Twitter just now by StevieKnight. The article was on TechCrunch by Gregor Hochmuth back on August 10, 2008. Good stuff

...What explains the Twitter phenomenon then? What produces the positive feeling and the strong attachment among those who tweet? And moreover: How can other systems learn from this?

The answer lies in understanding Audience.
Twitter has a simple premise: You tweet & the message is pushed to your friends. The actual mechanics are slightly different (messages go to everyone who follows you, whether they’re your “friends” or not, assuming your stream is public) — but from a user’s perspective, the circle of receivers consists only of the people they know. Everyone else is part of a faceless crowd that’s hidden behind the follower count.

This simple premise holds the key to Twitter’s success: messages go to a well-defined audience.

The 140-Character Resume

This concept was talked about in a Business Week article in May 2008 and again here in Pocket Change. In a recent post on getting back to basics, I suggested the crazy notion of writing your resume in 140 characters (characters, not words). That’s the maximum Tweet allowed on Twitter. What? Forget that for now. What’s important is that forced brevity sharpens the mind and quickens the soul.

I just started a hashtag on twitter to deposit your 140-char resume #140resume. Should we do a contest?

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR BUSINESS - FEBRUARY 25, 2009

Untitled document

Register Now

DATE: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 9:00 – 4:30

REGISTRATION: FULL DAY, INCLUDES LUNCH: Standard Price $349, Early Bird Price $279

LOCATION: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES: UCLA Faculty Center, California Room.

EVENT FOCUS: What do big brands like Dell, Sprint, Southwest, Comcast, H&R Block, Zappos.com and others know about Social Media that you don't? Social Media is a fast, efficient, and relatively low-cost way to get your message directly to an audience. Over 100 million-plus videos are downloaded from YouTube each day. There are millions of blogs and millions of profiles on social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. Is this just hype or has marketing, advertising and corporate communication changed forever.

These new tools - blogs, wikis, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, online video and social networks - all present intriguing opportunities for customer engagement, but can be intimidating.

Join top social media experts Beverly Macy and Rodney Rumford for a full day of information, case studies, special guest speakers,and networking. In this classroom-like setting, you will learn how to establish strategic objectives and ROI targets for successful social media campaigns. You will leave knowing how to get started in the Social Media world and move in the right direction to meet your business objectives.

Attendees will walk away with:

* Best Practices
* Action Items
* Unique Insights
* Case Studies
* Unique Trends Data
* Clearly Defined Objectives
* Access to a Peer Network
* Opportunity to Gain Knowledge with a Private Marketing Mastermind Group

Register Now

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Top Ten Reasons Why You're not a Leading Brand

Good stuff from Conversation Agent, via Scott Monty/Ford:

As we continue to talk about social media and leading brands; we continue to see that marketers are enamored with shiny objects; free has become a vehicle to do more of the same; and we are fast approaching the end of the year, I wanted to share with you the top ten reason why you're not a leading brand:

(1) you don't listen aggressively

Some thoughts: are you making the customer in front of you the most important person at that moment? Do you maintain confidentiality? Do you hold off on reacting to negative feedback and instead communicate an action plan to address it?

(2) you don't communicate purpose and meaning

In much of my research, I am finding that these should be the underpinnings of a valuable strategy both with employees and with customers. Who cares when you start a blog, or join Twitter, if you don't have a plan on purpose and meaning? This will also help with building a community and letting people make a difference. Drop the fluff, go for the real stuff.

(3) you don't lead by example

Ask yourself: do you set the tone for the industry? Do you demonstrate commitment and enthusiasm? Are you doing everything you are asking your customers and employees to do? We demonstrate our truest colors and values in difficult times. Your actions will follow you long after the troubles are gone.

(4) you don't take calculated risks

It's no secret that we become even more conservative in difficult times. You should capitalize on the lack of resources to become more focused and efficient, yes, but also by experimenting a little. Times of chaos are ripe with opportunities for creativity and innovation. Prepare for when things pick up.

(5) you don't look for results, just go for the power play

Instead, work in the opposite direction. Use your power to highlight others and become more open to new ideas, regardless of where they come from. With the movements in mobility, open content and portability, why should we stay stuck with hierarchies? The growth seems to be horizontal, especially with social media.

(6) you don't create a climate of trust

If employees and customers are constantly looking over their shoulder, well... so do the right thing for your people and for the organization. Be consistent. It's tempting to want to change everything, because it was "not invented here". That is really bad for continuing to deliver on consistency in experience.

(7) you're overly critical of others

It's good to be skeptical, to require the official story to explain itself. However, in all that negativity as you compete, you may be missing your own story. What makes you different, reliable, interesting, worth buying - you pick an adjective.

(8) you don't rally around a common goal

Do you help increase contacts between employees, for example? Too many companies are still very much organized in silos internally and continue to project that split externally. Unity is important, and so is holding everyone to the same high standards.

(9) you don't improve people's lives

Connection with purpose is important. You can be a brilliant blogger with dozens of fast comments and discussions wherever you go - what have you done to improve someone's life today? I think it's time to put away those measuring sticks for a moment and develop different, private metrics. What do you think?

(10) you don't have a sense of humor

I throw this in for good measure. You should not take yourself too seriously. Laughing is good for your health and helps with the human side of things. Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.

The marketplace is flooded with "me, me, me" brands who don't lead because leadership is not about talking, it's about doing. It requires commitment and hard work to stay the course - just like blogging and social media do.

Hard economic times call for focused boldness and kind leadership. Can your brand do it?

Friday, December 19, 2008

Discussing Social Media with… Beverly Macy

Many thanks to Danny Brown, Social Media PR, for the interview opportunity.

A little while back, I sent out a request via Twitter asking if anyone would be interested in being interviewed for a discussion on social media. With the medium meaning so many different things to so many people, as well as how it can be used, I was interested to hear the views of the people I connect with.

Sharing her views today is Beverly Macy, a Managing Partner at Y&M Partners LLC, a strategic advisory firm in Beverly Hills. She also teaches Social Media Marketing at UCLA and is a lecturer at USC. My sincere thanks to Beverly for taking the time to reply and share her views. To connect with Beverly, or find out more about her, please visit her Y&M Partners blog.

If someone was to ask you for your definition of social media, what would it be?

Social media is a set of online tools that enable community, sharing, connectivity, and conversation among people.

For years, marketers have talked about ‘listening’ to the consumer. At the same time, Web 2.0 began to enable conversations to take place AMONG consumers. That conversation has evolved into video, picture, text, audio file… and it can be shared and passed on.

Blogs, podcasts, YouTube, Twitter, Wikis, Second Life, social networks, etc. are the tools we use to engage in this conversation with one another. Clearly, a fundamental shirt in the way we communicate has occurred.

What is your reason for using social media?

I use social media as a way to connect and share with clients, students, and business associates. I’m also beginning to use it as a personal branding tool. I wrote the course syllabus for the new Social Media Marketing course for the Executive Marketing Program at the UCLA Extension that launched this Fall, so social media has been a good way to communicate with students and demonstrate the power and immediacy of social media.

Do you feel that social media is being used to its maximum effect?

My classes and seminars are full. We had to limit class size this semester and I’m running a 1 day Social Media for Business seminar in February on campus to help meet the need. I received an email from an editor and publisher of a widely read magazine who attended the Social Media Marketing class at UCLA this fall. She asked me to give her “Private Twitter Lessons” after the class is over. Clearly, we’re just scratching the surface of social media for most online users. As they come up to speed - and as mainstream brands get in the game - we’ll see new uses for social media evolve.

What social media tools or applications do you use? Why these ones in particular?

I am an avid Twitter user - that’s my favorite right now. Twitter is proving to be incredibly useful - immediate, to the point, and provides a broad reach. I started a blog for the UCLA Class for teaching purposes that is getting wider attention beyond the class. Facebook is useful for some things but I find it a bit annoying. I have contributed to podcasts and wikis. I have a Linked-In profile but don’t keep it up as I should.

Where do you see the future of social media, both in general and for you?

Teaching a class in social media and working with corporate clients has put me in the catbird seat as far as trend watching. I’m working with clients in pharma, healthcare, energy and entertainment who are beginning to think differently about the conversations they want to have with their customers. At the very least, these marketing professionals see a place for social media in reputation monitoring as a starting point.

I recently heard that hands-free Twitter may become part of Ford’s Sync offering. I’m seeing a rise in popularity and use of platforms like Ning, Pringo, Kick Apps, for white-labeling social networks around all types of groups. This will continue to grow. Associations, industry groups, sports teams, Girl Scouts, non-profits, mommy-bloggers, daddy-bloggers, teens, pre-teens, kids, baby boomers - anyone can start a network, and will. I’m also intrigued by iPhone and other mobile apps and believe there are terrific opportunities for business with branded apps.

Are businesses effectively using social media? If not, what can they do to improve?

I’d say that most businesses haven’t even thought about social media as a viable part of their marketing mix yet. The adoption curve reminds me of websites in 1999. Early adopters had sites back then and were well down the path of using the Internet for business. But most businesses didn’t have sites - or useful sites - until 2001/2002. That’s what we’re seeing with Social Media. It hasn’t hit a tipping point in business yet.

During this semester the Motrin controversy erupted. The mommy bloggers were highly insulted by Motrin’s ad about back aches associated with baby slings. It created an outpouring of negative response. Motrin apologized. We talked about how Motrin may have missed a great opportunity to communicate with those angry moms. Here was a whole group of very vocal consumers who could have become advocates, or a focus group, or Motrin could have launched a contest to create a better ad, etc. Missed opportunity

This semester we looked at a whole host of brands using social media as case studies. I also do this for my clients as they begin to consider social media tools. What’s interesting is establishing metrics for measuring the ROI, and not just from a financial returns standpoint. Brand awareness, conversation, customer engagement, reputation monitoring, are all measurements to judge the effectiveness of social media campaigns. We also looked at where social media fits in with a total Integrated Marketing Plan for a brand and/or company.

But Social Media practioners would be surprised at how far behind these business folks are, though. They’re worried about policy, privacy, lack of control. They are puzzled by the openness and the transparency. Most of them don’t even know what RSS feeds or bookmarking are, let alone blogs or Twitter.

We gave them an assignment to start a blog. That’s been a very enlightening experience both for them and for me. People had trouble with the concept, the idea that somebody would have to maintain a blog, even what ‘linking’ is and why it’s important. On the flip side, we had a full class this semester and had to turn some folks away to keep the class size manageable, so the business community is clearly hungry for the information and tools.

What do you feel are the best and worst features/uses of social media?

I’m loving Twitter right now. It’s a great connector, it’s good for business development, and it forces folks to be short and to the point. I think we’ll see new uses for Twitter continue to pop up.

The biggest complaint I hear is it’s hard to keep up with everything. And to maintain multiple profiles. Someone’s going to figure this out, but right now, it can seem like a time-sink.

You can find more “Discussing Social Media with…” interviews here.

100+ Wordpress Video Tutorials

Thought this might help the Fall 08 SMMUCLA students who want to continue with blogging - some of you had questions about platforms...here's a good guide to Wordpress. Hope it's a useful link...let me know.

All of these tutorials range from basic learning for the beginner, to advanced for the expert who wants to learn new techniques. Basically everyone can take something from these tuts.

Online rules of engagement are changing. Old school business approaches and methods are getting left behind for dynamic new mediums that offer more interaction and less broadcasting. Businesses and industries are realizing it’s no longer possible to simply say what you do - you need to say what you can do as well.

This is the dawn of social media as a true business outlet and there’s never been a better time to get in on the inside. Look online at tools and applications like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Delicious and more and you’ll see both major and minor brands with a presence. With the amount of businesses taking a more active role in social media, it’s a fairly good guess that some of them will be your competitors.

So how do you keep up and make sure you’re not the one left in the social media wastepaper bin? How about getting to the HEART of social media?

Hear what’s being said.

There’s a lot of conversations taking place that you won’t even be aware of until it’s potentially too late. Perhaps it’s the amount of conversations taking place that’s kept you away from social media in the first place - too much to take in with too little time. But is it really too much to take in if you filter out the conversations that affect you? And that small amount of time now could mean the extension of successful time for your business. Hear what’s being said and react accordingly - the benefits will be worth it.

Engage the conversation.

Once you’ve filtered the conversation to look after your brand, it’s easier to then engage the conversationalists. Listen to what’s being said and involve yourself - whether it’s in support of a positive comment or in defense of a negative one. Show empathy over exclamation - get to understand what the problem is and work with the audience to resolve. A negative experience turned into a positive one is worth more than any PR or advertising blitz.

Acclimatize to your new surroundings.

The single biggest “mistake” that most businesses make when taking their first steps into social media is rushing in headfirst and using old business methods to try and establish themselves. This might work in certain settings - old school still has a little sway left - but for the majority of social media use, it’ll just come across as too much too soon. Look at what’s happening around you and maneuver your strategy around what’s working. See who’s being successful, use their guidance and always be open to new practices.

Reach outside your core audience.

Think about your business and the reasons why it’s successful - I’m guessing one of them is because you reached out to new markets and targeted them with your products or services. After all, without growth comes stagnation. This is one of the old practices that should be encouraged when using social media. While staying within your key demographic will certainly find you fans of your product, look for other audiences to talk to.

Just because they don’t use your brand isn’t to say their friend doesn’t - wouldn’t it be great to get a new customer because their friend told them you were on Twitter, Facebook or other social media sites and networks? Keep thinking one step ahead to grow your userbase.

Transparency is key.

You know the old saying, “Honesty is the best policy”? Take that with you into the social media arena and you’ll learn more and gain more than if you try being something you’re not. Your biggest fans are probably that because of how you’ve conducted yourself business-wise so far - why should you want to change that? Be open, be clear, and be honest. False views have a way of coming back to haunt you when you least need or expect them to - truth and transparency are the perfect foils to any and every misquote. Keep it simple and keep it honest and you’ll find the respect of your audience, targeted and otherwise.

Most happy endings come from following your heart - why should it be any different for social media?

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Breaking Up In 140 Characters

From class participant Annie:

We’ve seen technology facilitate the beginning of relationships (and even marriage proposals) many times before. Francis Anderson points us to a curious example of a couple breaking up in real time over Twitter. Their status updates very publicly detail the breakdown and back and forth they go through as the situation spirals downward.

Anderson explains: “Last night I had the strangely compelling but deeply awkward experience of watching someone liveblogging the end of his relationship via twitter. You can watch the action from the bottom in the screengrab below… I find the progression, the unfolding to be very striking… as well, of course, as the fact that he did it on twitter. Not sure what I think about it (also not sure they’re going to stay broken up, being a romantic and an optimist) and I won’t muddle the experience with my own commentary, but it felt worth sharing.” Francis Anderson: “Breaking Up On Twitter“

MarKyr Media presents at SMMUCLA

byMarjorie Kase
on December 15, 2008

MarKyr Co-Founders Marjorie Kase and Kyra Reed had the pleasure of presenting their Roxy Theatre case study with Roxy owner, Nic Adler at UCLA’s Social Media Marketing class last week. The team focused on the Roxy’s reputation transformation - both online and off - due entirely to their Social Media efforts. We had a terrific Q&A session afterwards where members of the class asked several throught-provoking questions regarding blog SEO, tools such as Twitter and Lijit, and time management skills. Special thanks to instructors Beverly Macy and Karl Kaska for making this happen.

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Ten Favorite Videos of 2008

This semester is over. Awesome class. Projects really blew us away. Next up: Karl teaches New Media in Winter 09; I teach Global Marketing and Strategy Spring 09; Karl and I are both teaching SMM again in May 09.

Rodney Rumford and I will host a 1-day Business Semininar called Social Media for Marketing Mangers. It will be held on campus and feature corporate case studies, special guest speakers, great networking, food and fun. That's February 25 at UCLA. Leave a comment or twitter if you want to be on the list. Seating is VERY limited.

We talked a bunch about the role of video in social media. Here's a fun review from ValleyWag of their ten favorite videos of 2008. Enjoy!

y Richard, 12:10 PM on Wed Dec 17 2008, 20,438 views

Our video guru Richard Blakeley and intern Josh Rachford have sifted through all the videos that have popped up on Gawker's radar in 2008 and picked the ten very best.

There are all of our 2008 friends! New York news anchor Sue Simmons saying 'fuck'! Our president-to-be Barack Obama schooling 60 Minutes! Nelson Muntz from The Simpsons "ha ha"ing in the sad face of the dying newspaper industry! Our favorite, though, for its pure nutty bliss (who doesn't need that these days?), is the number one choice. Oh that laugh. That wonderful laugh. Enjoy!

10. Jim Cramer Begs America to Abandon Hope
9. Little Girl Runs Away from President Bush
8. Barack Obama: I'm Not Stupid
7. WNBC Anchor: What the Fuck Are You Doing?
6. The Death of Print, On The Simpsons
5. Stupid Australian Hipster
4. Crazy Tom Cruise
3. Sarah Palin Gets Tackled
2. Bill O'Reilly's Scary Meltdown
1. Pretty Much Everywhere, It's Gonna Be Hot

From Beverly...

Thanks for visiting Teaching Social Media at UCLA!

I have been teaching Marketing classes for the UCLA Extension since 2001. I love sharing the knowledge and passion I have for Marketing and Technology with the business community. I want to thank Karl Kasca, who's been my co-instructor since 2003, for the marketing and research expertise he brings to the classes as well. In addition to co-teaching Social Media, Karl teaches New Media and I teach Global Marketing for the Extension as well.

In addition to teaching, I am Host of Social Media Radio; the co-author of The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing; and a contributor to The Huffington Post.I also speak on industry panels, keynote for professional organizations, and am an accredited business writer.

You can follow Karl and I on Twitter at www.twitter.com/beverlymacy ; www.twitter.com/karlkasca

OR you can email us here:
beverlymacy@gmail.com
karl@increaseonlineprofits.com