Hands-on with Twitter Lists

FROM CNET:

When Twitter announced its new Lists feature late last month, I was excited. As someone who follows everyone who follows me, it does become difficult to see only those tweets from certain people. Lists promises to change that.
Twitter's Lists feature allows you to make a themed list of Twitter users. So, let's say you wanted to create a list of only CNET writers. After you add us all, you'll be able to view only the tweets from those you added to the list. It's a nice way to edit out the noise. It helps you see only what you want to see.

Twitter Lists is coming to Twitter.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

So when I saw that Twitter had given me access to Lists (which is in limited testing) on Wednesday, I jumped right in. And after using it for a while I've found that, aside from a few kinks, Twitter has developed a winner.
The basics
When you create a list, Twitter displays a dialog box, allowing you to name your list and decide if you want it to be public or private. By default, the list is set to public.

Creating a list in Twitter Lists.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Once you choose your settings, Twitter brings you to its user search page. Simply input the name or username of the person you want to add to your themed list. When you find the person you're looking for, you'll see a "lists" option lumped between the "follow" and "actions" options. Click that lists icon and you can choose which list you want to add the person to. You can also create a new list from the pane.
I created two lists--"tech" and "tech news"--allowing me to find tech updates quickly when I'm looking for story topics. So far, I have a handful of users in both lists, but I've already seen the value of it. It's now much easier for me to find out what different publications are writing about. I need only to click the list I want on my profile page and I'm all set.

You can see which lists you're following.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

I should note that you can also add yourself to lists you create. That said, Twitter makes it more difficult to do so than it should.
The whole point of Lists is to create themed groupings. Since I'm involved in tech news, it makes sense for me to add myself to my public tech-news list. Unfortunately, Twitter makes you jump through hoops to do it. As far as I can tell, you can only add yourself to a list by viewing your profile and clicking the "Lists" option. It won't even let you add yourself from the search field.
Considering Twitter's own description of the service includes creating timelines "consisting of friends, family, co-workers," wouldn't it only make sense for you to make it easy to add yourself to the list, so those folks can see what you're up to? Granted, you can add yourself. But it needs to be an option at the beginning of the list-creation process. You shouldn't need to search for it.

You can follow or unfollow Twitter Lists.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

When you set your list to public, users can follow them just as they would any other profile. If you're the list creator, you automatically follow the list. Conversely, any public list you find allows you to follow it. While that makes sense, Twitter has yet to make it easy to find lists. For now, the best way to find lists is to see which lists you're included in or to see what kind of lists other users are following by clicking on the new "listed" link on profile pages. It's rather annoying. A List search is in order.
Design changes
With the addition of lists, your personal Twitter home page has become a little more cluttered. The "tweets" tally has been moved to just below your username. It has been replaced with the number of lists following you. Quick links to lists you follow has been placed just below the search box, but above the "Trending Topics" list. It might get a little unruly when there are several lists you follow and you're looking for just one, but having quick access to them is a welcome design choice.

The new profile page on Twitter.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Bottom line
I'm quite happy with Twitter Lists. The service, still in a closed beta, has some design quirks that Twitter needs to work out, but having the ability to filter tweets is quite appealing.
There are some who might question the need for lists in Twitter. After using it, I don't. I think it's a great way to find users you might never have known about. It's also a nice way to find all the Twitter content that you actually care about.
Kudos, Twitter. The new Lists feature is a winner.

Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

NHL Set To Unveil Facebook Page

This fits in with our Facebook discussion last week:

  The National Hockey League plans to unveil an official Facebook page late Monday to provide fans with information on scores and updates for games and players.

The page will support virtual gifts, videos and more. The decision to have the site built and hosted by a third-party company removes any limitations that building dynamic content in the site on Facebook might present, according to Michael DiLorenzo, NHL's director of social media marketing and strategy. "The idea is to make it more fun to be an NHL fan," he says.

Making it more fun means providing access to virtual gifts, such as a team's jersey and discounts on merchandise. If one person gives another an Anaheim Ducks jersey, both receive a discount coupon code.

The viral concept allows the virtual gift to appear on both walls. "You can also give friends a two-minute penalty," DiLorenzo says. "If my friend blows me off for dinner some night, I can send him a two-minute penalty."

Friends also can give each other a "face wash," which happens sometimes in hockey when players come together and act if they are going to fight. One might put their glove in the other's face. DiLorenzo says virtual gifts on the site are consistent with how fans might "talk trash."

The NHL Facebook page will support sophisticated analysis on the back end. The analytics monitors clicks and time spent on the page, as well as when videos begin and end and how long they run.

NHL fans can also sign up for the newsletter or click to more information about the organization's mobile offerings, such as the exclusive videos served up through Verizon in the United States.
Down the left panel, the Facebook page will list game times and places, and provide easy access to NHL GameCenter Live, the organization's live streaming package for those interested in more information about a specific game.

The NHL has stepped up efforts to launch a consistent message across NHL.com and other media properties, as well as Facebook to Twitter. This year, the NHL combined forces to tweet under the NHL brand, rather than employees' names, to foster unity and send a consistent message.

Since launching @NHL in September and running several promotions, the group's Twitter site has gained nearly 78,000 followers as of Friday. And since all 30 NHL teams were scheduled to play during the weekend, DiLorenzo planned to run a Twitter marketing campaign asking followers to pick the winner of all 15 games.

Facebook Pages vs Groups: Which do I use?

 This article is perfect timing based on our last class.  I'm also going to link to this blog - Social Web School - looks like it could be very useful. 

by William Smith on October 23, 2009

Longtime Facebook users will remember a time when Groups were the only way to organize people with similar interests on Facebook. As time has passed, the Groups system has become more or less obsolete with the creation of the Facebook Pages system.

Groups now look more like pages

However, with recent updates made to Groups, it is worth revisiting the differences between Pages and Groups, and which you should use when promoting your business on Facebook.

Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups

Facebook has suggested that both Pages and Groups are a viable way to organize people with similar interests, with the following differences:

• Pages are the best way to broadcast messages to your fans if you are a business, organization, public figure or other entity.

• Groups are best for fostering member-to-member collaboration for short term projects or engagements, such as study groups, clubs, etc.

There are other differences between the two, however.

• Facebook Pages allow you to target advertising to your page using the Facebook Advertising platform. Groups do not.

• Facebook Pages allow for a greater level of customization, including the addition of applications and HTML/FBML content.

• Facebook Pages also provide options for connecting content on Facebook back to your own web site through the use of Facebook Connect (Fan Box, Live Stream Box).

• Facebook Groups show the names of the administrators of a Group Page publicly, Pages do not. If privacy is a consideration, Pages might be a better choice.
• Facebook Groups do not offer the useful Page Insights feature which lets you display usage analytics and demographic information on your fans.

Given the limitations of Groups it is hard to imagine a scenario where a business would opt for creating a Facebook Group instead of a Facebook Page. Business owners or marketers should choose a Facebook Page if they are creating a presence for themselves on Facebook.

Coca-Cola launches social media campaign to spread its Open Happiness message

Coca-Cola has launched social media activity as part of its Open Happiness campaign.

The Expedition 206 campaign will see three young people visit 206 countries where Coca-Cola is sold, documenting their journeys with videos, photos and blog posts on expedition206.com.

The activity kicks off with three teams battling it out for the chance to take part. The site showcases video and photo content from each team and asks visitors to vote for their favourite by connecting from their social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The winning team’s journey will be documented on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr as well as on Expedition 206. Throughout the journey, people visiting the site can influence what the teams do by suggesting places to visit in each country.

Voting ends on 6 November and the winning team will embark on their trip from Madrid on 1 January 2010, ending in Atlanta on 31 December 2010.

Adam Brown, director of the office of digital communications and social media at Coca-Cola, said, “This mash-up of social media with an amazing journey, enthusiastic travellers and a theme of happiness is a great way for us to connect with people around the world. The global adoption of social media has given us a way to deliver a year-long reality TV series without the TV.”

Friendster opens a virtual market, like everyone else

 From Social Times - a good article on 2 things: 1) the rise of Friendster(?) and 2) something our speaker at class last week pointed out - the VIRTUAL GOODS market is HUGE.

Mary Specht is an information architect in San Francisco. You can follow her on Twitter.

Where can you not buy a virtual teddy bear these days? Now Friendster’s hawking pixels, too. Friendster says selling virtual gifts, goods and games is a “proven” revenue model in Asia, where 90% of their audience lives. For China’s part, online gaming revenue grew nearly 40% in the second quarter of this year to $906 million, according to CNET. Recession? What recession?

If you think your special brand of virtual ice cream, squirrel, martini, or teddy bear topped with shiny crown and clutching bright red balloons — how’s that for value added? — would tempt users to open their “Friendster Wallets,” hang tight for their third party payments API.

Facebook, as Nick noted last night, may already have such a payments option for developers. Methods like “facebook.payments.getOrders” recently popped up in a PHP library. Nick suspects an official announcement is in the offing.

 

No wonder Friendster and Facebook are getting their virtual shops in order. The virtual goods market is a $1 billion pie, says a report from Inside Networks.

Friendster’s Wallet actually has two kinds of currency: one with real monetary value, and one without. “Friendster Coins” are made of real money. “Friendster Chips” are made of ether. They exist to help you get your feet wet with their payment system, provide incentives for special marketing promotions, and as a “loyalty program,” according to Friendster’s press release. And to convince you that, in the shiny new Friendster economy, you’re not quite as broke as you might be in real life.

Hey, showbiz folks: Check your contract before your next tweet

By Andrew Wallenstein and Matthew Belloni

Hollywood is coming down with the Twitter jitters. There’s a growing number of studio deals with new language aimed specifically at curbing usage of social-media outlets by actors, execs and other creatives. The goal: plugging leaks of disparaging or confidential information about productions via the likes of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.  

 A recent talent contract from Disney includes a new clause forbidding confidentiality breaches via “interactive media such as Facebook, Twitter, or any other interactive social network or personal blog." 

Over at DreamWorks, a writer’s deal cautions not to jump the gun on studio press releases via “a social networking site, blog or other Internet-type site.” An agent spotted a talent deal with a stricture that forbids bashing any element of a production with social media. 

The crackdown comes as creatives on both sides of the camera have taken to the Web to share candid thoughts, at times circumventing traditional studio PR voiceboxes. Paula Abdul surprised Fox executives by tweeting news of her parting ways with “American Idol.” Ryan Seacrest broke the news of Ben Silverman’s transition out of NBC on his Twitter feed. 


The Twitter jitters are hardly confined to Hollywood. From professional sports leagues like the NFL to news media outlets like the Washington Post, industries are openly struggling with how to make sure social media doesn’t expose the inner workings of their operations. 


While Hollywood recognizes the marketing value of social media, the backlash from business affairs execs is a testament to the leaks and potentially damaging misinformation these emerging technologies make possible — as well as the control studios like to maintain over their messaging to consumers. 


Two weeks ago, Fox had a mini crisis on its hands when Hart Hanson, executive producer for the Fox series “Bones,” tweeted, “First time in ‘Bones’ history we are shut down from production. Damn swine flu!” 

It was a joke that some news outlets misconstrued when a separate news item surfaced reporting “Bones” star David Boreanaz also had the flu. An hour later, Hanson returned to Twitter to clarify that neither Boreanaz nor anyone on set had anything but the standard flu. 

No wonder deal language has gone technophobe. 

“This is just the beginning,” says a top talent lawyer. “Hollywood has a long history of controlling what talent says in the media. This is just a new area of media that hasn’t been controlled yet.”

 

Keeping stars from blabbing what they shouldn’t remains just as much a problem today as it was in the ‘30s. But until relatively recently, getting an ill-advised word out to the wider public required a TV camera or a gossip columnist; social media eliminates the middleman and enables an actor to broadcast to millions in an instant. 

Most film and TV studios say their talent deals do not put any shackles on social media usage that doesn’t reveal confidential information. To the contrary, most studios, particularly in television, openly encourage the practice as a means of getting the buzz on current productions going. 

ABC, for instance, has started displaying tweets by its talent on the net’s Web site. But it also circulatated “guidelines” for the practice. “Twittering is of course not mandatory, but if you have a Twitter account we would like you to tweet regularly,” the guidelines read, before listing seven specific no-nos, including revealing spoilers or making disparaging remarks about the show. 

The Twitter backlash is reminiscent of the schizophrenic response YouTube generated from media companies a few years ago, where legal departments were wagging their finger at the site for distributing the very same videos the marketing departments were submitting. 

Some legal eagles believe the new Twitter-targeted contract language isn’t necessary as existing standard confidentiality clauses are written so broadly that they were assumed to cover social media.  But specifying Twitter and its ilk could come in handy when violations occur because studios can fire off breach of contract notices that zero in on the offending mode of communication. 

And the new rules don’t just apply to talent. An executive deal at Viacom requires strict confidentiality for a year after the deal ends and includes all platforms, including “emails, blogs, Internet sites, chat or news rooms, podcasts or any online forum.” 

Even studios that profess a laissez-faire approach to social media say they see drawbacks to unfettered usage. One studio exec said that while there is currently no new deal language in place, its business affairs department was studying the possibility. 

With little clarity as to what kind of messages could be deemed negative or confidential, the town’s talent lawyers see the contractual clampdown as merely a means of chilling Twitter-happy creatives. The moves are not meant to ban social media outright, but legal consequences could at least make Twitterers more mindful about what they tweet. 

“The real issue is, what are they gonna do?” asks one talent attorney. “They’re not going to fire you unless they already wanted to fire you. Practically, I’m not sure the language will make much of a difference.”

"How I Use Social Media to Promote My Blogs"

Good info from Pro Blogger on how to use social media tools to drive traffic to your blog/website.  This fits in with our class this week focused on driving traffic to your blog.  Translate the tips and sites he mentions to your industry:

Using hashtags on Twitter

Using hashtags on Twitter for many different reasons. This short twitter video will give you a better understanding of what hashtags are and how to use them.

5 Quick Social Media Tips

From the amazing Renee A Hamilton:

1. Engage all teams and filter concerns and suggestions prior to starting your Social Media efforts. This will reduce push back and allow you to think more strategically about how Social Media can be put to use for your organization.

 

2. Focus on 1 or 2 channels at first, just on those you will be able to pay attention to.  Don't open a store if you aren't going to be open for business!

3. Share the wealth; show your support for other like organizations (even your competitor) to build trust and respect as a true industry leader. This also gives you credibility with clients/customers/patients and shows you are not using these channels for sales and pr alone.

4. Engage outside help; don’t feel like you have to be the lone ranger in Social Media for your organization. Engage people who are natural to the medium such as volunteers, receptionists etc to handle day to day basic communication. This frees you up to do the creative strategy to use the channels to reach your desired goals.

5. THINK MOBILE! Mobile is the natural evolution of the personal computer; as you begin to embark on social media, include researching and incorporating mobile so that you are ahead of the curve!

Social-Media Con Game

Important information from the WSJ for our class:

Last summer, a Facebook page was launched in the name of MarkMonitor Inc., a company that specializes in helping businesses safeguard their reputations online. Only MarkMonitor didn't create the profile, making the company a victim of just the kind of fraud it helps clients stamp out. 

"The page basically said MarkMonitor was a marketing and advertising company in Nigeria," recalls Frederick Felman, chief marketing officer of the real MarkMonitor, which is based in San Francisco.

Thanks to its own technology for identifying impostors on social media, MarkMonitor learned about the bogus profile within 24 hours of its appearance and quickly had it removed.

On social-media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, cyber criminals and pranksters are confusing consumers by creating fake profiles in companies' names. They're also reposting blog entries that companies put up on social-media sites and replacing the links they contain with ones to sites where they hope to scam users, sell them something or promote a venture of their own. At the same time, discussion boards and other user-generated forums on company Web sites are being infiltrated with posts linking to malicious content. Now, many businesses are fighting back by using new technology designed to detect and deter such tactics.

It's unclear just how widespread the problem has become. But Stephanie Giammarco, a partner at BDO Consulting, a risk advisory firm based in New York, says social-media sites are a natural target for cyber criminals since they're highly populated and users tend to expose a lot of personal information about themselves.

What's more, many of the outlets that cyber criminals previously relied on to con victims, such as email and copycat Web sites, have been exposed. "The old is getting blocked and this new social-media avenue can still be exploited," she says.

Podcast: Fighting Back Against Facebook Fakes

Social networking profiles can be a great marketing tool for businesses, but if an imposter is creating that profile it can be a big hassle. Hear Wendy Seltzer, fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center at University of Colorado Law School and at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, discuss the problem with fake social networking profiles and what sort of recourse companies have.
http://podcast.mktw.net/wsj/audio/20091009/pod-wsjjrseltzer/pod-wsjjrseltzer.mp3

The Journal Report

Read the full Technology report .

Kenton Olson, digital-media manager for the National Football League's Seattle Seahawks and Major League Soccer's Seattle Sounders Football Club, says people often used to change the links within the teams' blog entries on Twitter and Facebook when reposting them. The entries otherwise looked identical and the teams typically were identified as the original source of the information. Some of the changed links went to Web sites selling nonlicensed sports merchandise; others pointed to fans' personal photo galleries. "They [were] trying to use our brand to promote their own initiatives," Mr. Olson says.

Uniqueness Helps

The Seattle teams were using one of several free services that assign short URLs to Web links so that the links fit more easily in brief Twitter messages and other places online where space is limited. But the URLs provided by the service all started the same way, so there was no way for a reader to tell whether a link had been generated by the teams or by anyone else using the same service.

So the teams last month began using customized short URLs provided by Ez.com, a new service from Live Oak 360 Inc., a software firm based in Austin, Texas. Now, consumers who click on links that start with shwks.com or sndrs.com can trust that they're from the Seahawks or Sounders, respectively. Mr. Olson says he's spreading the word on Twitter and Facebook to let fans know they should click on links associated with the teams only if they start with the unique URLs.

Live Oak also sells a similar service called BudURL.com. As a bonus, the links both these services create can be tracked. Chris James, a social-media strategist for Advanced Micro Devices Inc., says this is helpful for determining which social-media outlets drive the most traffic to the semiconductor company's Web site and what time of day people click on them the most. While AMD has never seen the content it posts to social-media sites reposted with the links altered, Mr. James says, the company decided to invest in BudURL.com to be proactive.

Live Oak charges between $99 and $499 a month for access to Ez.com, depending on the number of unique domains a customer wants to use and the number of employees with accounts for the service. The fee for BudURL.com is $1,000 a month because the technology behind it is more complex.

Spam Trap

For companies that allow consumers to post content on their Web sites, software programs like Defensio from Websense Inc. detect entries that contain links a company wouldn't want its visitors following. "As soon as you accept user-generated comments on your Web site, you will get a lot of spam," says Carl Mercier, director of software development for Websense.

Praized Media Inc. of Montreal has been using Defensio for about two years, says Sylvain Carle, chief technology officer. The company develops and manages networking platforms for more than 50 company Web sites and publishers of online directories. Defensio notifies Praized Media whenever someone tries to post a suspicious link on a client's Web site, which Mr. Carle says is a common occurrence. "It gets trapped before it even gets published," he says.

Defensio costs $99 a month for organizations with less than 500 employees and $499 a month for those with more than 1,000 employees.

Impersonations Every Day

MarkMonitor, the brand-protection firm, scans social-media sites throughout the Web on a daily basis for unauthorized profiles in its clients' names, including ones with common misspellings and abbreviations. Whenever an impostor is identified, the company notifies the victim and helps it get the fake account removed. "At least one case of impersonation of a client is found daily," says Mr. Felman.

MarkMonitor also offers to create accounts on social-media sites for its clients, even if the companies don't intend to use them, to prevent impostors from hijacking their names. The company added both options a little over a year ago to its mix of services, which include defending against malicious software attacks, traffic-diversion schemes and other online threats, says Mr. Felman. MarkMonitor charges between $25,000 and $1 million a year, depending on the number of brands a company wants to protect, he says. 

Companies also can search for unauthorized social-media accounts in their names on their own at no cost by going to KnowEm.com, a site owned by KnowEm LLC of Morristown, N.J. KnowEm also offers a range of paid services, including instructions for getting unauthorized accounts removed.

— Ms. Needleman is a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal's New York bureau. She can be reached at sarah.needleman@wsj.com .

Marketing on $700 a Year

From Brand Week 

Oct 10, 2009

- Noreen O'Leary

Last month, Intuit, the personal finance software firm that owns Quicken, paid $170 million in cash for Mint.com, a two-year-old personal finance site with 1.6 million users. That corporate embrace comes after much frustration on Intuit’s part. At one point the company wrote Mint a letter demanding “substantiation and evidence” of the rival site’s rapid-fire growth. Compounding the vexation was the cost of acquisition for those consumers, whose numbers are currently growing by more than 130,000 each month: virtually nothing.

Donna Wells, Mint’s CMO and a former exec at Intuit, is a veteran marketer used to the big media budgets she had in previous jobs at Charles Schwab and American Express. At Mint, however, she may well represent a new breed of CMO who is spending very little on brand building and bypassing advertising in the process. Thanks to new social media and communications technologies, partnered with adept PR strategies, Wells showed that building a so-called Web 2.5 brand doesn’t need to cost much these days—and the experience is liberating.

“We built this brand on the cheap. In two full years at Mint, I spent what I would have spent in two days at Expedia,” laughed Wells, who was previously svp-marketing at the travel site. “Mint was my fourth startup, and the tools that are available to me now, even since my last startup in 2000, offer amazing reach and adoption through places like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and iPhone apps. It’s a phenomenal time for a marketer.”

Mint’s start kicked off with a well-read, popular blog—launched in March before the site’s product launch in September 2007—and key exposure when Mint launched at TechCrunch 40 and won top honors. Wells created a Facebook page where Mint now has more than 36,000 fans and attracted a following of 19,000 on Twitter. Free applications like WordPress power Mint’s blog while another free tool, the user-friendly Google analytics, lets staffers track site traffic. Mint does pay for some other off-the-shelf services for its site, spending all of $700 a year.

Wells estimates the marketing costs at Mint over the past two years to be around $2 million. That amount primarily includes salaries for the marketing staff which now numbers five, including herself, and out-of-pocket expenses like hiring an outside PR agency. She also experimented with search initially, spending about $50,000.

“The idea that you need a huge amount in marketing and advertising dollars is simply not true,” said Laura Ries, president, Roswell, Ga., consultants Ries & Ries. “That was a major fallacy in the dot-com boom where companies went out and spent millions and got no benefit. Companies like eBay and Amazon did it by being first at something, by standing for something and having a credible strong idea that generated the PR and word of mouth necessary to get into the minds of consumers.”

As a free money management tool, Mint obviously has a compelling appeal in the current economic climate. But Ries also noted the site’s quirky name and compelling blog, which in a world of forgettable corporate blogs won the award for best blog at the Online Media Marketing and Advertising awards last month. That communiqué reinforces an identifiable voice with the brand that initially attracted 20 and 30-somethings, Ries said, particularly in contrast to the older-skewing Quicken, with a less-defined image given the number or products associated with the brand.
 
Wells admits she will modify her marketing strategies as Mint goes more mainstream under Intuit but, even with new financial resources, vows to keep using the cheap tools that launched the brand and keep nontraditional media at marketing core.  Read more here

Report Reveals:15 Best Practices of Social Media Implemented by the Top 100 Brands

 Read the whole article here 

15 Best Practices of Social Media Implemented by the Top 100 Brands

1. Deputize people throughout the organization.
2. Understand how each channel provides a different dimension of engagement
3. Centralize coordination
4. Find champions who can explain and mitigate risk.
5. Be in it for the long haul
6. Pick channels carefully.
7. Spread engagement to employees beyond the social media team.
8. Open the platform to anyone and everyone.Encourage employees to tap into social media to get work done
9. Engage in new channels where people already are
10. Support engagement as an extension of the company culture.Be conversational from the start.
11. Be conversational from the start.
12. Make social media part of the job, just like email
13. Modularize and synchronize content across channels
14. To scale engagement, make social media part of everyone’s job.
15. Emphasize quality, not just quantity.

What social media channels were examined in the Report?

• Blogs • Branded social network/community • Content distribution to other sites (e.g. Facebook Connect, ShareThis, etc) • Discussion forums • External social network presence (e.g. Facebook, MySpace) • Flickr / Photobucket • Innovation hubs (e.g. centralized customer community to create innovation) • Wikis • Ratings and reviews • Twitter • YouTube

I think what can taken from this report is “Doing it all” (in Social Media) may not be for you — but you must do something”… Start the Journey, even if it is just a Blog.

What is the significance of Twitter for the WNBA?

What great timing! Our last class was on Twitter AND we were visited by the LA Clippers Marketing team the week before!

by Q McCall on Oct 10, 2009 9:29 AM EDT in WNBA 0 comments

Among the many reasons that last night's decisive Game 5 of the 2009 WNBA Finals was a momentous occasion for women’s basketball, perhaps the most intriguing is that #WNBA was a trending topic on Twitter in the hours following the game.

Not too long after the Phoenix Mercury closed out the Indiana Fever for their second title in three years with a 94-86 victory, the WNBA experienced a flash flood of attention on Twitter for about a two hour time span, creeping up to fifth on the trending topics list and surpassing the sports goliath New York Yankees in the process.

A sequence of tweets from Seattle Times reporter @JaydaEvans – mainstream media’s best social media participant in women’s basketball, according to Hoopfeed.com – summarizes the initial reaction to seeing #WNBA rise to trending topic status on Twitter.

@JaydaEvans I know! Goes along with increased TV ratings RT @Stareagle don't ever think I've seen the #WNBA as trending topic on Twitter before tonight.

@JaydaEvans Yep! Hope next yr Kerr & Gentry won't have tix to buy RT @NancyLieberman @JaydaEvans one heck of series, huh! this is huge for wnba's growth

So is this the kind of tipping point WNBA president Donna Orender was alluding to, where the WNBA is suddenly significant enough to become one of the hottest topics on the web?

History tells us that the success on the court will not necessarily predict future success for the league in terms of attendance or overall revenue, though intuitively the increased media attention and quality of play has to have some effect on creating and sustaining new fans.

Yet history can tell us very little about what Twitter means for the success of the league. Twitter is a new phenomenon and as such it’s difficult to figure out exactly what Twitter success means to a professional sports franchise, especially when it trends as a topic on a Friday night that was the final night of the season.

As I was caught up in a wave of tweets that was moving too fast to actually catch up with most of what was said, I began to wonder, what exactly is the significance of Twitter for the league…especially when the league will have no primary content again until Summer 2010?

Over the course of the past year or so, many people have examined this question but it struck me as even more interesting after the WNBA became a trending topic last night.

Twitter marketing

In my search for insight to answer the question about becoming a trending topic on Twitter, I came across the introduction Steve Weber’s book, "Twitter Marketing: Promote Yourself and Your Business on Earth’s Hottest Social Network", which is a handy guide of how to link business to Twitter.

Twitter offers markerters an unprecedented opportunity for marketing because it enables your target market to find you instead of you finding them. No longer must markerts blast advertisements to people who aren’t paying attention.

Twitter already has turned traditional marketing on its head. Forget having to scrape together a huge pile of cash for a marketing campaign, then pray it works. Hundreds of thousands of business, large and small, are using Twitter to lure new customers – and talk directly with them – at no cost.

And unlike traditional advertising, Twitter can pay dividends for years to come because ti forges a strong link between you and customers, enabling your biggest fans to become evangelists for your business. When you’re successful, your loyal customers begin spreading the word for you, generating true word of mouth.

The notion that Twitter can pay dividends for years to come seems tenuous claim for sports leagues given that athletes and teams have really only jumped in during the past year. That claim notwithstanding, the low cost, word of mouth buzz seems to fit nicely with a grassroots marketing effort that might be most successful for the WNBA.

However, Weber also articulates a challenge for the WNBA in describing how Twitter is a double-edged sword.

If you earn the community’s respect, they’ll help spread the word about you better than a million-dollar ad campaign. But if you’re boring, you’ll be ignored.

Well, as of right now, the WNBA is transitioning into about eight to nine months of boredom -- no games and players scattered across the world. 

It’s great to end the season on a high note, but peaking and disappearing doesn’t quite seem like the easiest way to build a brand or sustain a brand’s momentum.

Capitalizing on the increased attention

Given the fleeting window of opportunity – and it would be interesting to know how many followers the WNBA, Indiana Fever, and Phoenix Mercury gained as a result of last night’s flood of tweets – the question becomes, how will the WNBA capitalize on all the attention?

It would seem that the answer is obvious – the WNBA should make every moment of its players off-season exploits abroad its primary business.

The games may not be televised and the players might not be quite as accessible, but the short-term investment of tracking its players more closely in order to hold onto some of this momentum seems to have long-term potential.

Then again, perhaps the lesson of the Twitter revolution is that the power of representation no longer sits solely with the league or mainstream journalists, but the average people who observe the game. Twitter is a big part of that, as described by Sarah Logar of Ohio University.

...while Twitter has helped some journalists, the new site seems to have created a sort of nervous energy among media professionals and journalism professors (Schuneman Symposium on Photojournalism and New Media, 2009). People are turning to Twitter in crisis situations, such as when a plane crash on the Hudson River in winter 2009 was initially made public through Twitter rather than traditional reporting methods (Miller, 2009). In the 2009 book, Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time, marketing professional Joel Comm began his work by explaining the magnitude of Twitter’s effect on the worldwide community.
Comm pointed to the way the Mumbai bombings of November 2008 were initially reported by those with Twitter accounts rather than journalism degrees. This same piece of literature explained that because Twitter gives people in-the-heat-of-the-moment sort of coverage, or story coverage that can happen in the wake of important occurrences, it does what a news crew cannot. According to Comm (2009), Twitter delivers a news service that obtains its content from real people living the story. Secondhand accounts by reporting professionals may not be able to compare (Comm, 2009).

If the strength of Twitter is first-hand accounts, perhaps an even more interesting constituency is the players themselves who are actually the ones living the stories as they develop, whereas as fans – like journalists – are only watching from afar. It’s not only an opportunity for the players to spread the word about their game, but also gain greater control of how they are represented as female athletes.

The challenge of relying on player representation

The potential downside of relying solely on player self-reports for league branding seems to be that there is obviously a wide range of quality (as evidenced by Hoopfeed.com’s aforementioned awards). Unfortunately, the Twitter platform unfortunately doesn’t support a means to coordinate tweets from around the world for the sake of promoting a singular brand, as Logar describes.

Con Frantzeskos, a professional who specializes in understanding media such as Twitter,explained in that same 2009 Stafford article that the way Twitter’s site is structured must be revamped. The article found that while it draws people in, the level of stickiness needed to maintain Twitterers may not be sufficient to upkeep success. Frantzeskos went on to argue that Twitter does not tailor to people’s needs and wants like other internet services (Stafford, 2009).


Frantzeskos explained, "The first thing Twitter would have to do is bring in prioritization of people you would want to follow. I’d suggest there’s a means to prioritize topics or people, and that is necessary for Twitter to help retention rates" (Stafford, 2009, para. 13).

It would be great to have all he players join Twitter, but if it's too decentralized, player tweets might not actually contribute to WNBA branding.

Certain teams do follow their players closely on their WNBA web pages. Petrel of the Pleasant Dreams blog

But again, how does any of this affect league branding? also does a remarkable job of keeping up with Atlanta Dream players (and by association, the WNBA players who play with them) in the off-season. Twitter will undoubtedly make their work of tracking athletes much easier.

What we have learned about trending topics on Twitter

For Twitter to work, there of course has to be demand for the information a business is putting out there. As with any business, they have to spend some time creating that demand by finding the angles that people are interested in.

That is certainly not easy to do for women's sports, which is consistently derided and dismissed.

I suppose the fact that Marge Simpson is the #1 trending topic on Twitter for gracing the cover of Playboy Magazine (also a trending topic) the morning after the WNBA reached #5, says quite a bit about the impact of Twitter.

It’s still driven the same norms we live by off-line and as a result can be just as arbitrary and trivial as it is significant depending on the mood of netizens at any given moment.

To harness the power of such a tool, women’s sports will have to do more than just throw itself in the fray.

Transition Points:

Extending Joel Comm’s point a bit, in an odd sort of way it would seem that Twitter is the technological realization of the final lines of Gil Scott Heron’s classic poem, "The Revolution Will Not be Televised":

The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

The key element of Heron’s poem for me has always been the idea that the revolution demands active participation rather than passive consumption.

Unfortunately for women’s sports, there is still more active participation in support of men’s sports instead of women’s sports, meaning the revolutionary potential to actually shift norms is lost for those that have been traditionally marginalized.

Ultimately, the trend on social media is that it is not necessarily drumming up interest in new things, but merely replicating and reinforcing old biases patterns of interest; that is after all, what makes the fact that the WNBA was trending at all so surprising – women’s sports has been marginalized even in the very sphere that some propose will help it.

Shell Looter Arrested via Photos from Flickr

Our guests last week talked about this incident and then forwarded this link to share with you:

By Eric Richardson
Published: Wednesday, September 30, 2009, at 10:28AM

tballw32 [Flickr] This photo of Michael Rivas helped LAPD arrest the 24-year-old on burglary and looting charges.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — NBA camps opened yesterday, and the Lakers are focused on pursuing a second championship. The Los Angeles Police Department, though, is still interested in the one the team won in June.

LAPD and Councilwoman Jan Perry held a press conference outside the Shell station at Olympic and Grand this morning to announce the arrest of Michael Rivas, a 24-year-old from Hawaiian Gardens who participating in looting at the gas station. Rivas was identified via a combination of old-fashioned detective work and new technology: photos and videos from Flickr and Youtube.

In the wake of the Lakers' 15th NBA Championship win on June 14, a small crowd of "knuckle-heads" -- to use Police Chief William Bratton's favorite term -- left a trail of vandalism across the neighborhood around Staples Center.

LAPD has identified 29 crimes committed that night, and in the months since has been pursuing information that would bring those responsible to justice.

Rivas was part of a group that looted the Shell station, helping themselves to free food and drink. He was recorded taking two trips into the store, carrying out cases of Rockstar energy drink.

"I'll tell you right now that Mr. Rivas is a rockstar," said LAPD Central Division Captain Blake Chow, "and he's going to be sitting in jail for a while and going through the court system while he thinks about how good that case of Rockstar tasted."

Rivas was arrested on Friday, September 25, while working as a security guard at a Whittier hospital. He was charged with burglary with a special enhancement for looting. Bail was set at $20,000.

LAPD officials emphasized that no one can stay anonymous in the age of social media. "It's nearly impossible to stay anonymous in this age of cell phones, video and social websites," said Lt. Paul Vernon, "and that's a good thing, if it holds more people accountable for their behavior."

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5 Things to Remember When Creating a Blog

 Perfect timing!  The class is creating blogs....here's some good tips from Site-Reference

When creating a blog you'll want to keep a few things in mind from the very beginning that will help you to properly direct your efforts. If you aspire to become one of the most popular blogs in your niche your focus will have to be on the blog reader. If you are blogging to make money then realize your income will be dependent upon the people who visit your site. These people will ultimately decide how popular your blog is or how successful your promotional efforts may be so don't lose sight of that. With that said, here are 5 areas you will not want to overlook or disregard especially if you are counting on your home business blog to earn you an income. 

Establish Transparency 

Allow your readers to get some insight into who you are and why you blog. By increasing their familiarity with you in this way you are gaining more trust from them. Don't be afraid to share your opinion or a little bit about your personal interests, family or anything else that would be relevant to your blog or the readers.

This is especially important if you intend to promote any type of products on your site. Trust will be needed if readers are expected to make any purchases on what essentially will be your home business blog.

Create a Network

When posting take advantage of great content you may have found elsewhere and credit the source on your blog. By linking to other sites in this manner you will eventually have these sites link back to you creating a flow of traffic from their site.

Leave Comments

Visit other blogs within your community/niche for ideas on content, design, or even to see what others are talking about. Participate and if possible leave ONLY helpful, insightful, or informative comments. You will be creating a greater awareness of both you and your blog by doing this.

Do Your Research

Before you post anything be sure it is accurate and helpful to your readers. Don't position yourself as an expert on something you know little or nothing about. Be willing to do the research if you are not already an expert and over time you will gain the recognition as an authority on the subject matter.

Show Gratitude

Remember what we spoke of earlier that your readers will be responsible for your ultimate success. With this in mind periodically extending your appreciation to them for their loyalty will only help to strengthen the bond between you and them. A simple thank you will suffice and an occasional 'free' report won't hurt either. Besides gratitude is always good for the soul!

When creating a blog it is always smart to keep your ultimate goal in mind. Your site was created for the blog reader and their enjoyment. By catering to the needs of the visitors to your site you will put yourself in the position to become one of the most popular blogs in your niche. If you are blogging to make money then this will be of obvious importance to you since it will directly impact your income. Your continual attention to the 5 areas above will likely result in the greater satisfaction of your readers which will lead to the desired results you are seeking for your blog.

TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina.

For additional Money Making Tips and a free guide that demonstrates how to find both profitable markets and products visit: http://blogbrawn.com/

How 4-year-old boy mastered 'Miracle' speech in YouTube hit

We talked in class about blogs and websites last week.  We also discussed how some companies are incorporating blogs as a part of the website.  That's what Yahoo! does with PuckDaddy, a sports blog that's part of the portal site. 

Some bloggers take interesting articles and re-post them to their blog with commentary (or not).  That's what I'm doing here.

I'm posting this for two reasons - 1) as a teaching tool and example of our class; 2) because this video is AWESOME!  Talk about 'going viral' - you'll love this. 

By Greg Wyshynski

Jim Sacco estimates that his son Josh has watched "Miracle," the film about the 1980 U.S. Olympic men's hockey team's legendary upset of Russia, nearly 150 times. Apparently, the movie has made quite an impression on the young fan.

Nicknamed "Rizzo" after the gold medal-winning team's captain Mike Eruzione, Josh sparked an Internet sensation this week when his hilarious, inspirational and eerily impeccable interpretation of actor Kurt Russell's locker room speech as Coach Herb Brooks went viral -- spreading everywhere from blogs to USA Today to the "Ellen" show.

No professional coaching. No fancy editing. No script, because Rizzo hasn't learned to read yet -- he was just 4 years old when his father filmed the speech earlier this year, making it all the more remarkable.

If you haven't seen this clip yet, you've not seen anything like it before:

"Tonight, we skate whiff'um! Tonight, we stay whiff'um! And we shut dem down because we CAN!"

Where did this instant classic YouTube clip come from? The story behind it is fascinating.

Where is this sudden sensation taking Josh Sacco? To perform the speech in an NHL locker room, for starters.

Jim and Josh Sacco, who turned 5 years old during the summer, live in Spring Hill, Tenn., just outside of Nashville. Jim grew up in Boston and is a die-hard Boston Bruins fan. He was 13 when Herb Brooks coached the U.S. men's ice hockey team to their historic upset of Russia and eventual gold medal victory over Finland at Lake Placid in 1980.

"We weren't supposed to win. It had a major impact on me, and it's had an even bigger impact on me now [as an adult]. I live it every day," said Sacco.

He's shared that impact with his son: Bringing him to Lake Placid to skate on the hallowed ice and sit on the bench where the late coach barked orders. They also bonded by watching "Miracle," the 2004 film that meticulously detailed the US Olympians' underdog triumph and featured Russell channeling Brooks in a memorable performance.

"We just started watching the movie. He plays hockey, and I love the movie. We'd get done watching it and he's just say 'play it again, play it again'. We must have watched it 150 times," said Sacco.

"So one day, he's upstairs shooting some 'pucks' in the bedroom -- a little net that he shoots tennis balls into -- and he starts calling out 'Hughes!' 'Ross!' 'Auge!'. I'm like, ‘Wait a minute, those are all the guys who initially made the cut at the beginning of the movie!'"

Sacco went back, checked and discovered that Josh had all 26 names from the sequence memorized -- in order. He started testing his son on other dialogue from the film, and found that Josh basically had "Miracle" committed to memory; not only the words, but the inflections.

"He loves Jack O'Callahan," said Sacco, "and you should hear his Boston accent. It's hilarious."

Eventually the two started trading lines on the "Great Moments Are Made" speech, which was made to the team before its game against Russia. When Sacco would flub a line, his then-four-year-old son would correct him.

Here's what Russell's speech sounded like in the film:

Sacco decided to document the speech on video, right down to the emphatic "screw'em!" Russell delivers near the end. He dressed Josh in an Easter suit that resembled the one Russell wore during the scene in "Miracle" to complete the effect.

"Besides," said Sacco, "he looks like a little man anyway."

Sacco filmed it for friends and family, and tossed it on YouTube rather than attempting to burn a dozen DVDs. Needless to say, more than friends and family have viewed the instant-classic viral video -- it's been featured on Sports Illustrated's Hot Clicks, on USA Today's site, on radio stations and, most famously, on the "Ellen" show.

Sacco said he's been contacted by the Minnesota Wild, the University of Minnesota and the Nashville Predators, who actually invited Josh to recreate the speech for a scoreboard video that's scheduled to debut at their home opener on Oct. 8. Instead of hockey players, Josh performed the speech to mascots.

After that ... well, 2010 is an Olympic year. The U.S. men's ice hockey team is once again facing very long odds against superpowers from Canada, Sweden and, yes, Russia.

Would Baby Brooks be willing to fire up the boys in a Vancouver locker room at the Winter Games?

"I know he would," said Sacco. "That would be hilarious if he did."