Social Media Marketing

6 Things: Time's a wastin'

Wednesday, August 18, 2010 by Doug Dimon

“6 Things” is a list of things I've come across that I find interesting, inspiring, adventurous, or just plain cool. I’ll be publishing these fairly regularly, so keep an eye out.

It's been a little while since my last "6 Things" post. It's not that I haven't had lots of cool stuff ooze through the interweb onto my screen, it's just that I wanted to get my CAT/Clio posts out. And besides, absence makes the heart grow fonder... or is that absinthe?

This list features 6 awesome time-sucking activities I've come across recently. They aren't all new, but if you haven't had the pleasure of using these to fill up your copious free time, then you are in for a treat. Actually, the real question is, "are these a waste of time?" If you are engaged and entertained, is that not a worthwhile activity? Who's to say, but if you get caught at work spending your time on these... you don't know me.

Most of these are tied to brands. Do they do anything for them? Much of marketing is building awareness, so in that sense, many of these are successful (but not all). Will they lead to better business? That's hard to say, but they probably aren't hurting it.

1. Who doesn't want a paper head?
Converse has posted an application on their blog that allows you to make a paper mask of yourself. Here's mine.

It took some time, but it wasn't difficult. You can print on 8 1/2 by 11 paper, but only if you are making a mask for your cat (it's very small). 11x17 will yield a nearly life-size mask (that's what I used). If you have access to a large format printer, a giant paper head would be awesome.

Does it do anything for Converse? Well, they are really a lifestyle brand, so I say yes. Their blog is all about be cool, hip, and funky... and this fits right in.

2. Rube Goldberg meets Jeopardy
To promote their Chrome browser, Google created a hybrid video/trivia game.

It uses a cool YouTube feature that lets you play multiple movies in a sequence and interleaves little trivia games between them. The object is to get through the course as quickly as possible.

It's fun, uses Google services (search and YouTube), and it gets the message out that chrome is fast (over and over, in fact). Will it make you download chrome? It might. They provide a handy download link right on the page.

3. Drink a fake beer, win a real prize.

To promote Strongbow beer, they poured a virtual pint and invited everyone to take a sip.

Every time you refresh your browser, a sip is registered. If you are lucky, your sip will reveal a prize. Better hurry, there are only about 400,000 sips and under 50 prizes left.

Does it make you want to try Strongbow? Not really, although if you are one of the lucky ones, you might win some. And it does raise awareness, but there's not a lot of information (or any, really). In fact, given the tiny "drinkaware.co.uk" link in the bottom left corner, I'm not sure it's even available in the states.

4. Do a little dance.

You, too, can be a video DJ, creating a seizure inducing video montage that you can send to all your friends.

Actually, this is pretty fun. You can choose beats and remix clips, and record your masterpiece for viewing and sharing. In the end, you are probably the only one who will be impressed with your mad cutting skills, but that's enough, isn't it?

This is meant to promote fashion photography and it does a good job at that. I felt compelled to click around just to see what the site was all about.

5. Cast you and your friends in a film trailer.

"Lost in Val Sinestra" is a horror film directed and starring you and your friends. Well, at least that's what the trailer says. If you have a Facebook account, create your own.

This is not the first Facebook connected "film" I've seen, but I think the integration in this one is awesome. The production value is great and they did an impressive job using the photos and names throughout.

It's actually a stunt to promote television services for Swisscom. But the only mention of that is a short cryptic message after the credits. There's no link. I only know about the connection because I read some blogs after mucking about looking for who was responsible. There's not even any mention of this on the Swisscom site. Experience: A+. Marketing: F-.

6. Foul mouthed cartoons are fun.

Sure Pixar is great, but have you thought that if Buzz Lightyear would just drop a few more F-bombs it would be high-larious. Well, now is your chance to script a 3D movie your way.

These are not new, but they are still fun to make and watch. Between the too-cute characters and the almost creepy vocalizations, it's hard not to love them. You can create free movies using a limited character set. "Premium" characters cost money (which I suppose is how they stay in business). But even if you only play around and never actually "publish" a movie, it can be hours of fun.

(warning: Most of these movies are rated M for mature... although clearly the people making them are not.)

Delta First to Sell Flights From Facebook

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 by Ashley Reed

Delta Airlines just launched their “Ticket Window” Facebook application, allowing users to find, book and share flights with friends without ever leaving Facebook. Powered by Alvenda, the application is the first to allow users to book a flight within Facebook without being directed to an outside site. Delta’s Ticket Window is located on Delta’s Facebook page under the “Book a Trip” tab, but Delta hopes to eventually expand it to banner ads.

Although Delta wasn’t an early adopter of social media like Southwest or JetBlue, it appears that they are beginning to realize the immense opportunities that social media presents.

Usage statistics from Delta’s Wi-Fi network show that Facebook is the most trafficked website in-flight. Through applications like the Ticket Window, Delta is hoping to take advantage of this large audience by making it easy for customers to transact and make travel adjustments in flight via Facebook.

We 'Like' this move. What do you think? Would you book a flight on Facebook?

Deep Thoughts From CLIO and CAT, Part Three: Let's Get Physical

Monday, July 19, 2010 by Doug Dimon

This is the final post of a series on my insights from two conferences I attended: The Clio Awards Conference and Creativity and Technology (CAT). If you haven't done so already, please read the first and second, or you'll completely lose the plot.

There's been a lot of talk about what will be the next big thing in the digital world: augmented reality, location-based services, geo-tagging, etc. All of these things were mentioned at the conferences with varying degrees of excitement. But what became clear is that these are all expressions of what is really going to be the big news over the next couple of years... merging the digital and the physical world.

I know a few people (a very few) who can legitimately claim not to have a digital life. They aren't part of any social network, they barely use email or text, and they would actually rather stand in a line to hand a teller a piece of paper than bank online (crazy, right?). Conversely, I know a some people who seem to only have a digital life. They do everything online, and their social activity is confined to Facebook, chat rooms, and MMORPGs. But most of us live comfortably in the middle, navigating on and off line between our digital and physical lives.

So it should come as no surprise that any technology or creative that breaks the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds is making a big splash. More mobile devices, GPS ubiquity, faster web access, and advances in graphics processing and display technology are all helping to push this wave.

Whether it is something as simple as being able to geo-tag your photos or as cool as having your message chalked on the Tour de France route,moving messages and

experiences beyond the digital is the hottest way to engage people. It moves the experience beyond the bits and bytes of the digital world and gives your messaging something tangible to which people can relate. Interestingly, most information in the digital sphere has a much greater longevity than it's physical counterparts and yet people put greater value on the physical. I believe this is because no matter how plugged in we are, we still live in the world and physical things seem more "real" to us and thus have greater value.

The exciting thing is that there are increasing opportunities to leverage the advantage of digital with the appeal of physical. Advances in mobile AR (e.g. Juniao and Layar), interactive projection maps, "controller-free" systems, or real-time effects... things that used to be seen only in sci-fi movies... are becoming possible. Decades ago, the promise was of virtual worlds we could escape into, but bringing the wonders of the digital realm into the everyday world is proving to be much more interesting.

How Brands Can Benefit from Pegshot

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 by Ashley Reed

You’ve probably heard about location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla, but have you tried Pegshot yet? Instead of answering the question “Where are you?”, Pegshot tells your friends “What’s happening where you are?” by enabling users to quickly share videos and photos with their social networks. The application allows users to “peg” a shot from their location and post it to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Digg and Posterous in real-time.

There are many ways in which brands can take advantage of Pegshot to increase awareness and engagement with their organization. Pegshot is especially well-suited for promoting events as it facilitates quick and easy sharing of photos and videos in real-time, allowing immediate visibility on the social web. This means your audience can interact with your events while they are happening even if they cannot be there.

Real-time sharing also increases pass along rates since, attendees are usually active on social networks at events and can quickly view your content and re-tweet it, “Like” or comment on it. Not only can content be published on your social media accounts, but Pegshot even allows you to post photos and videos directly to your company’s website. In most cases, companies allow only their employees to publish content to their website to ensure that all material is appropriate.

To take advantage of Pegshot at your next event, follow these easy steps:

1. Create your event.

Add your event by filling out the details of your event including the name, date, your Twitter hashtag, and location. Your event will appear on any user’s mobile device in the surrounding area.

2. Create a branded landing page for your event.

You can create a custom branded landing page for you event or choose your Twitter background.

3. Promote your event and add contributors.

Pegshot offers a custom registration page so you can collect as many contributors as possible. You can use this custom landing page to promote your event across social networks as well as your website, email and print marketing initiatives.

4. Capture your event as it’s happening.

Now you’re ready to begin pegging photos and videos of your event in real-time. Your contributors as well as any Pegshot users in the vicinity can share content of your event which will be displayed on your custom landing page in addition to social networks and your website (if permission is granted.)

PowerPoint Doesn’t Suck. You Do.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 by Paul Hernacki

I hear it said at least several times a week. I see it posted on Twitter pretty frequently. It’s the simple statement that’s become cool to utter: PowerPoint Sucks. And often in the same breath I hear people extol the wonders of Keynote or Prezi.

I’ll be the first person to admit that I have seen countless horrible PowerPoint presentations. I probably see at least one PowerPoint presentation per day that is a crime against humanity. I’ve seen more poorly laid out slides, absurd overuse of ridiculous transitions and animations, badly-utilized effects, slides with so much text that Tolstoy would complain, more bullets than Rambo can fire off in full-length movie, and more light-colored fonts on yellow backgrounds than should be legal.

But this is not the point. It’s a poor craftsman that blames his tools. Just because you produce your presentation on a MacBook Pro (and I’m typing this post on one right now) with Keynote it does not somehow imbue you with some sudden, instantaneous and deity-like powers to produce an amazing presentation. And using Prezi mostly just increases the likelihood of inducing motion sickness and nausea in your audience while reducing the reusability of your content and failing to add anything meaningful to your corporate knowledge base.

Here’s a news flash: a good presentation requires having a good story to tell and a good story teller. Period. The tools you might use are irrelevant, but if you do choose to use tools to add to your story you need to have a clue of how to use them and then use them in a manner that supports the telling of a great story. That’s it. A great story teller with a great story to tell doesn’t even need a series of slides popping up behind them. Great visuals, content and media that reinforce key messages and enhance the story can be tremendously helpful and effective when used properly. But they are still not the primary and most important element in a successful presentation that connects with the audience. You are.

Prezi and Keynote do not grant you mystical and magical powers. They do not make you smarter and better looking. They are not powered by Skynet and constructed on top of a positronic copy of the brains of Steve Jobs, Bill Buxton, Martin Luther King, and Zig Ziglar. They do not think for you. They do not know who your audience is, they do not know the purpose of your presentation, they do not know the message you are trying to convey, they do not know the desired outcome, they do not know how to connect with the people in the room. Neither does PowerPoint for that matter.

There are absolutely some minute feature details that can be argued about the different tools. I’ve used them all. Though if you actually take the time to learn them you find that for the most part each has their shortcomings and things they can’t do well, and each has capabilities the other doesn’t. But it still all comes back to you. Saying “PowerPoint Sucks” is quite simply a short-cut to thinking. It doesn’t suck. You do. Instead try focusing on coming up with a good story and learning how to tell it well.

And just to illustrate my point, here's this entire blog post re-done very poorly as a hack-job Prezi. It's a horrible presentation. Just makes you want to cry. Enjoy. http://prezi.com/4_muqjahha-g/powerpoint-doesnt-suck-you-do/

(Image Credit: Niall Kennedy)

Fan Nation: A Study of Natural Social Networks in Sports

Thursday, June 24, 2010 by Joni Lockridge

Part One: Professional Soccer

I admit. I’m riding shotgun on the World Cup bandwagon. And after several hours in a crowded sports bar here in Atlanta, it is clear I’m not the only one. I was welcomed into a community of individuals who actively sought information about the team, the sport, the players, even the South African culture. We shared stories, we spilled beer on our jerseys… and we Facebooked each other so we could meet up for the next weekend’s games. I’ve officially expanded into new social network.

What is it about sports that make “social networking” so natural, so effortless? More importantly, what can brands in other industries learn from sports as they spend marketing dollars to acquire digital fans? A recent attempt by Syncapse to estimate the value of a fan on Facebook has resulted in an average worth of $138 per fan. The study further states that:

On average, fans spend an additional $71.84 on products for which they are fans compared to those who are not fans
Fans are 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using the brand
Fans are 41% more likely than non-fans to recommend a fanned product to their friends

Given the demonstrated value, I sought out Casey Romany, an Account Executive for Soccer United Marketing (SUM) to uncover their ingredients for success. SUM holds all commercial rights to both Major League Soccer and the United States Soccer Federation, including the men’s and women’s national teams that are playing in the 2010 World Cup. In addition, they hold rights to Mexican National Team games played in the United States, the CONCACAF Gold Cup™, and InterLiga.™

SUM just launched the new MLSnet.com, which has been years in the making. Obviously, they are not ahead of the technology curve, but as Casey describes, perhaps it is because they have never needed to be.

Soccer fans are extremely loyal and craved a centralized location to read about the sport. They flocked to the new website where they can read about international matches, local MLS games, and their favorite players from all over the world.

“We needed to take control of the space. A fan would have to go to so many different leagues, teams, and national sport sites to access information about soccer,” said Casey. SUM then supported their investment by hiring some of the biggest soccer journalists, affectionately called “soccer heads,” to tell the sport’s stories. Genius.

By building one platform for all of soccer and capitalizing on its protagonists, its epic battles, and its gossip, SUM has pulled together a social network so powerful that other brands invest marketing dollars to gain access to the soccer fans that SUM has unified. When a multi-million dollar business model also includes a way to monetize your marketing and PR tactics, it’s clear your fans are worth more than $138 each.

The key takeaway: Soccer, and the rest of the sports industry, is in the business of telling stories. Strong, passionate, exciting, tales of victory, tragedy, and legends in the making. Shakespeare only wishes he had it this easy.

And by comparison, fan pages on Facebook are flat. Most connections are superficial—purely discount driven, and without true loyalty. Where are the stories? The passion? Brands forget that they are selling more than products, and they lose depth in the relationships when they set the expectation that being a fan means getting a price reduction. I’m not arguing that this method isn’t a great way to build numbers, but I am arguing that it is a fragile way to build loyalty.

In my opinion, here are a few brands that have succeeded:

Starbucks: Starbucks offers promotions, but more importantly, the page also connects to those fans that are socially and environmentally aware— a strong attribute of Facebook users within that 18-24 demographic segment. Maybe this is why a Syncapse report revealed that Starbucks fans are likely to spend $238.22, more than triple the $71.84 average. In addition, their photo albums tell vivid, engaging stories about the company, the products, and the leadership (Check out Howard Schultz’ trip to Rwanda).

Southwest Airlines: As over-the-top as the flight attendants can be, it is refreshing to witness personality in the airline industry. The persona is also displayed full force on the Southwest Airlines Facebook page, and fans eat this up (a relatively safe assumption given the number of times fans ask, “How do I work for Southwest?”). Another thing I like about the page is how they speak to checked bags like they are passengers, personifying a service they offer. I value my personal belongings on a trip, and everything on this page reminds me that Southwest Airlines does also.

Nike Football (Soccer): Admittedly chosen due to its soccer content, this site still exemplifies the art of storytelling. The videos instigate a real emotional connection, and the calls to action are extremely powerful. The Nike Red campaign is building the same momentum as the LiveStrong campaign did $47 million dollars ago. This page screams “Join the team, unite as a fan of the sport, rally behind the cause, and be loyal to the Nike brand.”

Soccer United Marketing has united fans in a way brands can emulate. If you are looking to build loyalty, why focus solely on the collection of fickle bargain hunters? Present your product information by telling the details about the hard work and research during development, or build stories around employees and spokespersons similar to fiery sports features on players and teams. Most importantly, let your fans know that you have a heart; you are human; and you are the hero, not the villain. Like.

Advice for BP, From BP

Friday, June 18, 2010 by Chris Wojda

Unfortunately, I can’t take credit for this observation as I lifted it off of a friend on facebook. And as a blogger, the image’s beautiful irony leaves me a bit speechless. Perhaps the lesson here is that in blogging, as in life, some things are better left unsaid.

Best Practices for Facebook Pages

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 by Ashley Reed

Major brands are increasingly turning to Facebook to reach consumers and engage them deeper. In order to get the most out of your Facebook presence, be sure to formulate a strategy. What do you hope to get out of your Facebook Page?

Facebook Pages can be used for:

Building brand awareness
Increasing consumer engagement with your brand
Generating leads
Qualifying fans and converting them to customers
Improving customer service
Establishing your company as a thought leader

Once you’ve defined your goals, keep in mind these Do’s and Don’ts for engagement:

Do:

“Listen” to what your fans are talking about on your page – do they have praise or complaints?Identify what interests them and customize your messages accordingly.
Post compelling content like pictures and videos that keep them coming back for more.
Share exclusive content that they can’t get anywhere else.
Utilize Facebook applications like surveys, quizzes and games that foster an interactive experience.
Use Facebook’s analytics tool to determine what tactics are working, and which one’s aren’t.
Promote your Fan Page everywhere: print, online and TV advertisements, email signatures, business cards and targeted Facebook ads

Don’t:

Automate your content – Facebook is about conversation!
Sound impersonal - use a casual and informal tone.
Sound like a press release.
Spam your fans – maintain a balance of promotional and conversational posts.
Neglect your Fan Page – make sure you are monitoring it on a daily basis to respond to fans and post new content

Have more tips to add? Leave a comment below!

Trendwatch: The Social Graph

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 by Jeremy Porter

What’s the biggest buzzword around social networking right now? If you guessed location-based services, it would be hard to argue with you. If we ask you again in six months, chances are good you’ll answer the social graph.

The social graph questions keep coming up in client and prospect meetings. What is the social graph? What do we need to know about the social graph? How can we use the social graph to deepen relationships with customers? So on and so forth...

While I can’t answer every question you have about the social graph, I can help to start framing the conversation for executives struggling to gain a deeper understanding of the impact social graphs will have on their business.

For starters, the social graph is just a fancy way of describing relationships or connections with people, places and things. It’s a map of your social connections and preferences – a visual data model if you will, with hubs and nodes. For you, your social graph could be the Connections you have on LinkedIn, the places you’ve checked in on FourSquare, or the brands you’ve ‘liked’ on Facebook.

For illustrative purposes, there a few dozen lacrosse fans who are my Friends on Facebook. How many of them are from upstate New York? Syracuse fans? Of those, how many also listened to a lot of grunge in college, now live in Atlanta and work in marketing for an integrated interactive agency?

Granted, there’s probably not another one of me – at least not that specific, but you can see the potential. You’ve never been able to slice and dice data with this level of precision before. It’s this unprecedented level of targeting that gets innovative marketers excited, while privacy advocates reach for their pitchforks and torches.

Of course, my example above only illustrates relationships between connections and doesn’t get into activity, preference or myriad other social graphs that can be linked to one another. For example, who likes the same things or has been the same places as me? Who’s reading this article at the same time you are? These are questions you will be able to answer as social graphs get more sophisticated.

Where Did The Social Graph Come From?

Social graph has been popularized by Facebook, the world’s largest social network and the company most likely to serve as the epicenter for social graphs. While Facebook has plans to be the only social graph, recent announcements like its “Open Graph” suggest the company is happy remaining the epicenter of all social activity online. Plus, it’s unrealistic that Facebook could sustain a monopoly over the social graph – we all want to use other stuff.

With offerings like “Open Graph”, any electronic asset online can be linked to an individual’s social graph. In the months to come, look for this to include every place you go, everything you do, and everything you buy.

While Facebook has a lot of influence, there are no rules to the social graph. Any piece of social data can be woven into your graph to provide a more accurate picture of the interdependencies between your relationships and preferences. Privacy concerns aside (a future post perhaps), this stuff is truly amazing.

In the first wave of the Web, we were excited to discover new websites via links to other sites or search results. Early social networks encouraged us to link to one another, which dramatically accelerated our discovery of mutual relationships and made networking (the human kind) much faster – and in many ways enjoyable. Now everything is getting out there.

What’s All This Mean for Business?

For starters, you’ll start to have a crystal clear view into who your potential and current customers are. In the short-term, this will provide you with tremendous targeting advantages over your competition. For the 1st time ever, you’ll be able to customize incentives for all the 32 year old homemaker motor cross fans that have purchased a tofu burger from you in the past year.

Keep in mind, the more accurate you can target customers, the more accurate customers can target you. It is yet to be determined how consumers will react to the knowledge that they are your best customer. How much longer will it be before Foursquare mayors start demanding more incentives for the role they play in your viral marketing? What happens when Blippy users start demanding special incentives for all the purchases they’ve made?
These are good problems to have. Smarter brands and smarter consumers always forces us to innovate and push the needle farther. And who doesn’t love a good challenge?

Bottom line? The social graph takes a lot of the fun out of the guessing game of life – learning about people and things over time. Only time will tell whether or not instant gratification is a good thing or not. As marketers, it’s hard not to get excited about the potential to target with the greatest accuracy, reliability and ease ever. Bring it on.

At the same time, let’s tread forward lightly. We don’t want to create such huge concerns over privacy that regulation and oversight come in to drain the life out of the creative process.

What do you think? Are social graphs a good thing or a bad thing? Do you want people to know what kind of ice cream you like or what kind of car you drive? How much sharing is too much?

15 Things Less Annoying Than Facebook's Abhorrent Privacy Practices

Wednesday, May 12, 2010 by Paul Hernacki

Almost every week I continue to be shocked at some aspect of how Facebook is treating the privacy of their users. While I think Facebook has done some amazing things to redefine the landscape of connection and community in the digital age, the way they auto-opt-in users to new policies and settings that unwittingly further expose them in a manner that is beyond confusing for almost everyone is driving me crazy.

It seems to be a total disregard for privacy that leverages "confuser interface design" tactics and misleading redesign functionality alterations to extend their dominance at the unknowing expense of most of their users. They actively seek to get you to enter as much personally defining data as possible. They make it incredibly complicated to manage your assorted privacy settings, then they go and make significant changes that auto-opt in users to new options like making all of your posts available to search engines or to share your personal data with applications and sites using FaceBook tools. All of this while presenting typical users with a perception of communicating and sharing with their "Friends." Maybe FaceBook is just working towards a Nobel Peace Prize by wanting everybody on the planet and every corporation to be Friends? Ummmm.... no.

Conversely, while not exempt from scrutiny, Twitter takes a much different approach. They begin by having an established perception that what you post is public, they have one very clear and simple blanket option to make your posts private, and the information they ask you to enter for registration is extremely limited.

I'm also driven crazy by the constant changes to FaceBook API's that make the lives of developers miserable as they struggle to work with this juggernaut of social media and the fact that they employed algorithms that began to selectively decide whose posts among my friends they thought I should see (and even excluded my wife's posts from my stream until I manually added her back in)... but that's a whole other couple of blog posts to write. The following is a short list of things I actually find less annoying than FaceBook's treatment of the concept of privacy:

15. SPAM e-mail

14. People who post their every Foursquare or Gowalla check-in to Twitter

13. The mere existence of Farmville and Mafia Wars

12. The first time I saw Clippy

11. Developers that hardcode and use auto-code generators out of laziness

10. Requirements documents for a web site or app that say: "should work in every browser"

9. Web sites that dramatically over-use Flash for everything they possibly can

8. People that show up for an interview and haven't read and reviewed your company's web site or have any ability to articulate what your company does

7. People that text or use mobile devices to tweet while driving (or drive while talking on their mobile phone without using a Bluetooth or hands-free device)

6. People that call themselves "Social Media Gurus" in their bios or otherwise

5. People in busy airports that obliviously stop walking out of the blue and then wonder why everyone crashes into them

4. Every scene on the Fox TV series 24 that ever involved Kim Bauer

3. Stupid people (as one of my friends is fond of saying as he quotes his old high school football coach, "Ya can't fix stupid.")

2. The continued existence of IE6

1. The constant deluge of Top <insert number here> Lists

I could probably learn to live with all of the above. But I'm on the verge of simply shutting down my FaceBook account instead of constantly fighting to control my own information and exposure. Of course... I don't think FaceBook makes it terribly easy to truly shut down an account, they'd probably just auto-opt me in to be reactivated in a couple of weeks.

(Image Credit: Privacy by alancleaver_2000)

Twitter for Media Relations

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 by Jeremy Porter

By now, Twitter should be an integral part of your media relations strategy. Twitter has become one of the most efficient tools PR professionals use to manage relationships with journalists and other influencers. Why is Twitter such a great channel for media relations? Here are a few reasons:

Fish where the fish are: most mainstream and amateur journalists and bloggers are on Twitter. There are many tools for finding journalists on Twitter, such as MediaOnTwitter, MuckRack or JournalistTweets.

Mix business with pleasure: Twitter provides the ultimate glimpse into a person’s world. You can learn a lot of about journalists and bloggers by following their tweets and getting involved in conversations. This will help you not only identify ways to approach the journalist better, but also to monitor and respond to journalists’ needs – positioning you as a trusted expert.

Get to the point: journalists are overwhelmed with pitches. The short message format of Twitter makes it easier for journalists to scan brief messages. The chances of your tweet being read may be better than with email – just make sure the journalist is cool with being pitched via Twitter before you tweet it.

Pass it on: a tweet (Twitter status update) mention of your company or product by an influential journalist can be just as effective as a mention in a print publication. In many instances, the tweet may drive more traffic to your site in a short period of time. If increasing qualified site visitors is a core objective of your PR plan, you may want to consider Twitter.

Track results: most of your activity can be tracked through Twitter. Whether you want to track the pace at which you’re gaining new followers, the number of times your tweets are re-tweeted (passed along to others), or how many people click on a link that you share (using trackable URL-shorteners like Bit.ly or Su.pr), it’s easy for you to keep tabs on the effectiveness of your social media impact.

Build relationships: Twitter is all about relationships. The longer you use Twitter – actively use Twitter – the more relationships you will form. I can honestly say that I’ve built more relationships with media in the past two years on Twitter than I had in the previous five using conventional methods.

So how can you use Twitter for media relations? I suggest you look at Twitter as a channel like you would any other outlet. Treat journalists and bloggers with the respect they deserve – you know, the way you would like to be treated. Listen and observe at least (if not more) as much as you talk or tweet, you’ll be surprised what you can learn from journalists and bloggers. If you follow the media on Twitter long enough, you’ll notice that most tell you exactly what it takes to score publicity opportunities with them step-by-step.

Here are some general tips for using Twitter as a media relations tool:

Follow journalists and bloggers relevant to your organization and read what they tweet about. If you see a tweet you really like, consider passing the tweet along or sharing your feedback with the person. This is a great way to build relationships, outside of just wanting coverage.

Use the Twitter Search function to search for keywords related to your business. This will make it easier to see which of the users you’re following are talking about relevant topics. You can also set up saved searches for keywords or hashtags (#journchat for example), so you don’t have to read every tweet that comes along.

Monitor Twitter users like @prsarahevans, @skydiver and @profnet to keep tabs on publicity opportunities issued through Twitter. You should follow each of these users if you’re not already.

When it’s time to pitch a story, you should know that the journalist or blogger is open to being pitched through Twitter. If you’ve followed the steps above, you’ll know the answer.

Finally, don’t make the mistake of thinking Twitter is just another social media fad. As someone with firsthand experience using Twitter for media relations, I can tell you that – for today, at least – it’s the easiest and most effective way to get the attention of today’s busy journalists. It’s also a great way to accelerate your learning around PR, with thousands of helpful PR professionals at your disposal for advice at any hour of the day.

(Image Credit: Twitter Badge by 7son75)

How to Leverage Online Video on Your Site

Monday, May 3, 2010 by Stephen Boyd

Over the past two years, and more specifically the last six months, more and more companies are understanding the need to have online video on their website. A good website should be a place where a person can come and get good solid information on a company, product, or service. A great website will tell an engaging story around the brand that will pull the customer in and make him or her want to get more information. Great video content can take your site to the next level.

But what makes great video content?

What is good video? Just like anything else subjective, that depends on the viewer. However, with the constant arrival of high quality production/camera equipment for both professionals and consumers, creating a good quality production video is not nearly as difficult as it used to be. From homemade videos and basic talking head videos to more professional e-commerce pieces and live action mixed with animation, online video has a wide array of uses. Now, more than ever, producers and users of online video really need to focus more on the message itself and make sure that is engaging.

Here are some examples of great video content I've seen used - hopefully this will spawn some ideas for how you can leverage online video on your website:

President Obama - Even using cameras installed on computers will work for the right message, as Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign showed. David Plouffe used a series of videos made in his office to keep Obama’s fans informed of what was going on in the campaign. While being just a very basic, low production video, Plouffe used PPT slides to emphasize certain points and utilized the fact that the information itself was interesting to viewers to make a more engaging video.

TED – A great website with an incredible array of videos of speakers on a variety of subjects, this is a fantastic example of the most basic video production can still be engaging and entertaining as long as the subject matter is worthwhile. Nothing more than a camera following a speaker around on stage (granted, some of the speakers are among the brightest people on Earth).

E-commerce – plenty of companies are trying to use video as part of their e-commerce strategy to get users to buy their products. Zappos has been leading the charge, creating not only their own youtube video but also asking consumers to create their own videos showing their experience with their shoes. Lots of great press and interest in this campaign has made for a very successful period for the company. Diesel has a great video on their site of video utilizing tagging and e-commerce within the video. For companies who feel they can engage customers with their products while being worn/used by others, this is another great example.

Viral videos – Everyone wants to have the next viral video ant there are some great examples of thses – from the homemade laughing baby video that has been viewed 115MM times, to the now famous music video for OK Go on treadmills, there are plenty of ways for companies to engage with consumers.

Many of the top brands have their own YouTube pages to let consumers immerse themselves in the brand experience. As we all know, YouTube is now the second most used search engine in the world behind Google – so use it. Create your own channel – post videos, link them to your Facebook page and tweet about them. See what happens.

Another great way to engage in viral is of course comedy. One of my favorite sites for this is Return of Terry Tate - Terry is a former NFL player who both creates his own viral videos (professionally done) and is also often used as a spokesperson in viral videos for brands. Check out his website - and if you have budget and want to do something hilarious, think about him. I have seen examples of both external and internal company videos featuring Terry.

So, companies hoping to use online video no longer have to worry about huge production budgets for these videos. Of course, the better the video looks, the more likely it is to be shared. But, as I mentioned before, if you can create a great story to tell, you don’t have to spend a million dollars to tell it.

Here are some other great online video sites that you may or may not have heard of:

Funny Or Die - www.funnyordie.com
DailyMotion - www.dailymotion.com
MyDamnChannel - www.mydamnchannel.com
NextNewNetworks - www.nextnewnetworks.com
Heavy - www.heavy.com

These are some of my favorites. Please feel free to share some of your favorite sites with me as well - I'd love to check them out.

Community = (Me + My Friends) x (You + Your Friends) x (Your Friends and Their Friends)

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 by Andy McCann

"We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race." -- Cicero

A friend recently asked me what all the sensation was around Foursquare and Gowalla. These location based services (LBS) now gaining serious traction in the social media space. This same friend had asked me the same question a little over two years ago when I started actively participating and raving about Twitter and Facebook.

The first time I was asked this question, I initially struggled to answer it in a way that would easily explain the excitement and draw of using an online service to tell other people what I was doing, where I was eating, or why I think that (so and so's latest article) was so interesting.

However, this time the answer came to me rather quickly. "It's all about our interaction with our communities. Mine and yours and how they overlap!" When I see a friend write that the Thai place down the street has some kickin' sushi, I give that more credence than the billboard I see driving to the office. When I see one of your friends talk passionately about their son's kung fu instructor, I take that as a more qualified reference than a yellow pages ad.

So what are we really seeking when we post our latest thoughts on Facebook and Twitter? Or when we check out where our friends are checking in on Foursquare or Gowalla? Are we just vain and think that what we are doing is SO important? Or are we just seeking a way to connect in an ever busy, ever moving, ever expanding world?

We have friends and family and colleagues and people we just admire with whom we go days, weeks or even years without actually laying eyes on each other. Or even more rare, actually sitting down and catching up on what has been going on in our lives, our careers, our family, friends, churches, baseball leagues … our communities.

Thanks to these online tools, I get to keep up with a larger number of people than ever possible before. And I learn more about their communities and the people and places in them. This in turn, expands my own known universe. It makes me bigger than I could be on my own. My boundaries are constantly expanded, and in a way that is relevant and meaningful to me and my friends (and your friends and their friends). Growth is good, is it not?

I live and work in Atlanta. I like to enjoy the occasional tasty local brew, listen to great live music and I also just so happen to really get geeky about the latest and greatest innovations in the .NET developer community. Wonder how many different ways those communities intersect and how they are related? Wouldn't be a cool thing if I could go somewhere and see my friends in these different circles talk about these things that are interesting to me and that we have in common. What if I can be the catalyst to help bring these different communities together in new and interesting ways?

One of the most interesting ways that new media tools have affected me and my community are when my online and offline worlds converge. Last November, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to host and moderate a panel for the TAG Consulting Society on "Marketing Your Practice to Build Loyalty and Brand Awareness". I was able to engage 2 panel members through my offline community and reached out to my online community to find the remaining two panel members.

Thanks to my network of friends, I was introduced to two extremely smart and engaging panelists who helped round out a wonderful panel. (Thanks again to @lisa_sherman77 and @johnreed3000). Another example of where my friends reach out to their friends who then become my friends who then can become your friends too.

I would like to extend this opportunity for us to become part of each other's community. Follow me on Twitter @andrewmccann or on Facebook or on LinkedIn. From there you can find me on Foursquare and Gowalla and whatever the next big thing is that allows me to connect with my friends and your friends and my friends with your friends.

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
-- Herman Melville

Social Media and Television

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 by Jasdeep Jaitla

I recently attended the NABshow in Las Vegas and was not only impressed with how amazing football looks on a 3D TV, but also the dominant theme of the importance of social media to growing audiences and creating new ways to interact with television.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have grown so quickly and unobtrusively that we often don't realize how big they really are. Becoming a part of Facebook is easy, and simple, even my mom did it without needing any help from me (for once). When we are looking at Facebook we see ourselves and our friends, and for the most part it feels like our own little community. The real eye opener is realizing there are over 400 Million other people feeling the same way.

The first step for the networks was integrating their website with their programming. NBC Universal did a great job integrating Heroes show themes with their website, and I've been impressed by that for some time. Their webisodes and tangential plotlines for Heroes was really well done, continuing alternative stories and keeping interest going.

Most of the networks are catching up and revitalizing their website presence so that it aligns with their programming. Recently HBO completely re-launched their website with an online community with forums. Simultaneously they are launching "minisodes" that are viewable online and on Sunday nights.

Every network is exploding onto social media since they realized how many people are actually participating online and how much more interesting this paradigm can be.

What about live commenting and interacting? This is the new theme within the television networks that has been growing over the last year or so, and that's integrating social media into programming live online. I remember the first time I saw Tosh.O on Comedy Central, highlighting the funniest and most random YouTube videos, and broadcasting the funniest tweet that people posted during his monologue. Oprah has live broadcasts with Facebook feeds running simultaneously so that people can contribute to the show. Look out for the new contest called Your Own Show, it's going to be a big one, with user submitted videos highlighting why they should be the next new TV Host promoted by Oprah.

Oxygen said they put an espisode of Bad Girls online, and paired it with Social Media, the result was a growth of their audience at 70% on the west coast and 90% on the east coast! That's tremendous!

Be on the lookout for a host of new ways of interacting with television networks, and the new shows that are going to result from all these ideas being submitted and shared!

Oprah Winfrey's President of Digital Media, Rob Tercek, really nailed it down succinctly when he quoted Oprah as saying, "Engagement is the new entertainment."

So what about you? Have you participated in Social Media and Television? What about checking out websites for your favorite shows? Which one do you like most?

Walmart at 11:45 PM

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 by Chris Wojda

Brands play an important role in helping people design their own personal image. In return, brands help the rest of us, however inappropriate or unfair, shape opinions of others. I remember as a child, my older sister would always crack jokes about another kid in our neighborhood who “bought her clothes at Kmart.” Her remarks, however childish, left me with a sour taste in my brain for both my sister’s rival and Kmart. And while much of Kmart’s image problem has been documented in case studies, in other words, it is rather deserved, I attribute most of my dislike of the brand to the few comments my sister made circa 1985.

Today, a similar situation exists for Walmart (only on a digital level), as sites such as People of Walmart and Wakeup Walmart, in much the same way my sister did, attack the megastore’s patrons as well as the brand/company itself. And while I know I’m not revealing anything new here, People of Walmart has already been spoofed by College Humor, called one of the Top 50 websites of 2009 by TIME and has over 20,000 fans on Facebook; considering my sister’s effectiveness of negatively branding Kmart for me, I can’t help but wonder what the long-term affects of such sites are going to be on the Walmart brand. What do you think?

As for this picture, I snapped it at 11:45 PM at the Walmart on Cobb Parkway in Acworth, GA last Saturday. I had just realized that we didn’t have any wine or beer and company was coming on Sunday (in Georgia, you can’t purchase alcohol on Sunday). I ran for some Heineken and Yellow Tail and left with brand experience that keeps me thinking. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone stuff a puppy down their bra like that before. The kid with the mohawk doesn’t hurt either.

What Do Marketers Really Want?

Monday, April 19, 2010 by Michael Kogon

What do you want? Those of you that are CMOs, Brand Managers, VPs of Advertising or Marketing, what do you really want?

Whenever and wherever this question is asked, the answer is always the same: Results! You want results and you want them now (it’s the same thing you wanted yesterday, and the same thing you’ll want tomorrow).

If you are in the agency business, you should never lose sight of this basic marketing need. If you are in-house and spend your money on advertising and marketing, I hope this helps you think about how to find people who can improve those results faster.

This topic has been on my mind since I got together with a group of marketing professionals earlier this month. We started off talking about how to produce ROI reports for their CFOs and finance counter parts. Ultimately, what everyone really wants to see is results.

How you define results and what value they deliver for your business may vary, but here are some sample measurements based on our discussion:

•   Brand health metrics
•   Units Sold
•   Leads Generated
•   Awareness and Recall levels
•   ROAS
•   E-mail marketing conversion
•   Increased Foot Traffic

How can agencies produce results more consistently when results are so varied by each client? Here are six suggestions for ways I think agencies can be prepared to provide a variety of results for a variety of clients and also for the same customer who has evolving needs over a long period of time.

1.   Understand your client's business. If you are not as much a management consultant as an ad person, then I think you will fail in the future. Today's marketing and advertising challenges, impact customer service, public relations, product develop & procurement as well as IT, finance and channel relations. Now, they always have, but now that the world is digitized and visibility is possible; the demand to work on more than just demand is higher.

2.   Understand customer behavior. One of the things I think Agency can do better than most client-side marketers is getting to know the end customer and the customers along the way. We can and should provide outsider insight into the purchase drivers that lead consumers or businesses to buy from clients. By being involved in the insight business, we can help our customers produce the results they need.

3.   Be more social. So much has been said about this over the last 18 months, so I'll share why I think agencies need to become more social. We are in the business of communications and in connecting companies and customers. The landscape has evolved where the cost of distributing messages is virtually zero and the demand for connection is 100%. When demand is this high and the cost is so low, there is an unlimited amount of success you can have for you and your customers if you tap into this skill set.

4.   Learn math and how to analyze data. I became a Speech Communications major because it had no math requirement. I bet a lot of people who are in our field did the same thing, I know it. Math has never been a problem for me, I just didn't care to do any more formulas or equations. Then I got into advertising, and as I did Nielsen store data, GRPs, category management, research, coupon redemption and media plans, it became clear that math was going to be a big part of my life. When I started our Integrated Interactive Agency in the 90s it become clear that math, engineering and analysis would be at the center of much of what we would do to help clients. A strong analytics capability and good math people, programmers, engineers and analysts are essential if you are serious about producing results and proving those results.

5.   Learn how to produce. Content, code, sounds, event. From branding to social, to broadcast to micro-cast. From visual to technical, and in-home to the 6th screen. A good partner doesn't outsource the doing to sub-contractors, it is no longer acceptable to do the boards, the concept, the design, the plan and then hand it off. In these days and times, buyers expect ongoing interactions and learned messaging overtime. The mediums must be an integrated seamless experience or you will lose sales and revenue for your clients. That is not the result they want.

6.   Ask your clients what they need to thrive. So I end with this, what do you need to thrive in your current marketing and advertising role? We are listening……….

Measuring Social Media ROI (Yes, It's Possible)

Monday, April 19, 2010 by Ashley Reed

The following is an abbreviated step-by-step guide to measuring social media ROI.

Step 1: Define Goals & Success Metrics
The first step of ROI measurement is defining your goals. What do you hope to accomplish by being active in the social space? One problem is that brands launch social campaigns without clearly identifying or understanding their goals, which makes measuring success difficult (if not impossible).

Here are a few examples of social media goals:
•   Expand brand or product awareness
•   Increase engagement with brand
•   Generate qualified leads
•   Drive sales
•   Build community
•   Create brand advocates
•   Qualify fans and convert them to customers
•   Improve customer satisfaction
•   Establish company as a thought leader
•   Attract talent

Once goals have been defined, the next step is determining the appropriate success metrics that align with these goals. For example, if a goal is to increase brand awareness, metrics might include the volume of online discussion or “buzz” about your brand, the level of audience engagement (re-tweets, comments, posts, video views), the number of fans, followers, etc. and the number of user impressions.

The following are examples of social media success metrics:
•   Volume of online “buzz” about a brand
•   Volume of positive sentiment
•   Number of fans, followers, readers (or number of high-quality/targeted fans)
•   Engagement (number of video views, duration of views, time spent on the company blog site, time spent playing a company’s branded game application, etc.)
•   Volume of user comments posted to company blog, profile or posted content
•   Retweet or peer-sharing statistics for related content and posts
•   Comment or retweet resonation (number of user comments multiplied by
   how many followers or friends each user has)
•   Media coverage
•   Media impressions (mentions on blogs or other media multiplied by the size
   of the audience)
•   Quantity of new or qualified sales leads (referred from social sites)
•   Website Referral Traffic (from social sites)
•   Advertising click-through rates
•   Volume of customer service issues handled

Step 2: Establish a Baseline
In order to effectively measure success, make sure to first establish a baseline by determining your current position within the social landscape. For instance, if your goal is to increase awareness and you will be tracking the amount of “buzz” or mentions about your brand, you must first know what the current levels are before taking actions to reach that goal. Without establishing this baseline, it’s difficult to accurately show ROI.

There are a variety of analytics tools available to help with social media measurement. I won’t go into too much detail here (there are dozens of options), but a few of these include Google Analytics, Social Mention, Viral Heat, Scout Labs, Radian6, and Listen Logic. These tools can be used to gather key social media metrics and help you identify strengths and weaknesses of your social presence.

Step 3: Measure and Track Success
After you launch your social media program, begin the measurement process to track success. Gather the success metrics from your analytics tools and start to see how (or if) they correlate to higher sales, increased customer satisfaction, website traffic, store traffic, etc. Try to identify trends where possible. Does positive consumer sentiment or an increase in chatter about your brand lead to higher website/store traffic, leads or sales? Recognizing these trends and identifying their point of origin is key in measuring social media ROI.

(Image Credit: "Basics of Social Media ROI," by Oliver Blanchard)

Location Based Services Are Here to Stay

Friday, April 16, 2010 by Gil Wolchock

While the race for ‘ownership’ of the LBS market (Location Based Services) rages on, and naysayers’ debate its viability, I am sold on the concept.

If you are not familiar, LBS are the latest craze in the ever growing social media marketing landscape. The general principle is that an end user uses their smart phone and its GPS abilities to ‘check in’ to their current location.

Like its social media older cousins Facebook and Twitter, there are many out there that think this is just a passing phenomena - a game if you will. Like Facebook and its now 400 million plus users, and Twitter and it’s large following I believe in the LBS strategy. Out of the pack has emerged two ‘major’ players in the field, FourSquare and Gowalla. Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and even Apple are also looking at entering the playing field but I believe they will have to make an acquisition to truly play.

Along with the hype of these types of services there is also a lot of criticism. Since I am a ‘fan’ and a user I might be a bit jaded but I think I can at least address the critics; here are the gripes I have heard, some legit, some just silly:

1. If you tell everyone where you are then you are leaving your house open to be robbed. I originally thought that this was a ‘non-issue’ I have to admit but after a conversation with people smarter than I over drinks I have amended my opinion. This is one that you DO have to pay attention to. Use common sense, if you are ‘checking in’ on vacation, turn off the setting that posts to Facebook and Twitter, so ONLY your friends on that LBS Tool of your choice get it. Second, and this goes whether you use and LBS or not, CHECK YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS IN FACEBOOK! Facebook has gone through a number of changes and many people have forgotten to go into their settings and make sure they have the level of privacy that they want. For me, I only want FRIENDS seeing information; others may have different standards and that’s cool, just make sure you are comfortable with yours. As for Twitter, you can ‘protect your tweets’ as well so only your followers can see them.

2. You can get stalked by a crazy ex and have to deal with all that. True, but is that really a concern? If it was, you wouldn’t be on FB, Twitter or LinkedIn. Can it be a problem? Sure. However, you don’t have to tell EVERYONE where you are. Your standard LBS lets you self select who the information goes to. Side note – crazy ex probably knows all your haunts and when you like to be there anyway…

3. Why would you want to be doing free marketing/advertising for a place or a brand? Are we seriously talking about this one in 2010? Look down at your feet people (go ahead, I’ll wait) --- is that a ‘swoosh’? Did NIKE pay you to wear their shoes or did you drop $100+? How about that laptop I carry around? You know the really sleek, chrome looking thing with the fruit in the middle very well lit? Let’s face it people, WE have become walking billboards! Take the silly Ed Hardy T-shirts (yes, I am just over 40 and don’t get it). You have people clamoring to be seen in an Ed Hardy, and what is besides some crazy print with the biggest part of it being his SIGNATURE!!! I’ll talk more about personal brands in another blog.So there are some of the negatives, which may be legitimate, but aren’t exactly deal breakers.

What are the positives you might ask?

1. It’s fun and it’s social. One of my favorite shows as a kid was CHEERS, the bar where everyone knows your name. Basically, with a tool like FourSquare you can become your own walking CHEERS. Check in at a friendly place and the bartender says, “Welcome, how about a beer Mr. Peterson”, OR how about you get to a place that is running an amazing special, you could take the time and call or your friends, or break your fingers and text them OR check in with an LBS, type in a comment, it automatically gets to everyone through whatever social tools you are using and who knows what can happen when everyone shows up. Simply put, in its most elemental form, it’s a way to extend the party.

2. As I have heard from Social Media Guru, Gary Vaynerchuck, “why would someone check in at a bar?” Give’em a free beer and watch them check in all day! What a cool way to earn stuff and allow a small business truly establish a win-win customer loyalty program. At one of the Whole Foods in Austin, TX you get a very valuable coupon on your 5th visit. What does this do? It drives loyalty, rewards it, makes it fun and even mysterious…what will I get on my 10th check in, etc…Not enough small businesses are using these tools to see a huge uptick here but I believe by this time next year it will be off the charts.

3. That last part of #2 is part of the biggest positive from a business application and it’s the direct corollary to the third criticism. I’m not sure when MARKETING became a four letter word but when it comes to LBS that is seems to be the #1 complaint and it goes something like this, “that stuff is just one big marketing ploy to get you to go somewhere or buy something”. My response is somewhere along the famous Socrates reply of “duh!” Isn’t that the whole reason for newspapers, magazines, TV shows, etc…sure they have their entertainment and news value BUT no one is shocked to know that advertisers are paying to place their content in front of your eyeballs to get you to buy stuff! Not sure why the uproar when it comes to LBS, it seems to me like a natural fit.

4. Last but not least and this is by far where I see the big win for LBS and that is creating partnerships to pull off some really cool stuff. I was discussing the value of FourSquare with an Executive at one of the major record labels. She is responsible for new acts and we were discussing the value of LBS for her and she said; give me one way it works in my world. So I said, do you have an all girl band you want to promote? The answer was yes. How about an in store ‘tour’ across America teamed with an outlet like Express? You have all the traditional ways to support it but now add an LBS layer for very little cost. It is also a completed integrated approach across all the social media tools; from Facebook, to Twitter, blogs, Flickr and a full activation using LBS. Her eyes lit up and she said, write it up and let’s take a look at it. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.So, mock it if you want. Five years ago you never thought you’d be on Facebook.

If you can remember back to 1991, if someone asked if you wanted to be accessible 24/7 via the phone, some new thing called email and a feature called text that in our old lexicon meant a book at school you would have said, “no freaking way”…and how many of you don’t have a cell phone today?

If You Already Know Everything About Digital Marketing, Don't Read This...

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 by Frank Radice

To make your business thrive you need to do more than just think new! Having a Twitter account and a Facebook page is good, but knowing what to do with them is better. Having an iPad and an iPhone app is good, but having ones that really fill a consumer need is better.

Traditional advertising has becoming increasingly inefficient, so how do you effectively reach your customers today without breaking the bank?

The Big Idea: Own Your Edge!
Case Studies in Music & Publishing

Forrester Research shows music industry sales have dropped 50% in the last decade, from 14.6B in 1999 to 6.3B in 2009. The Publishers Bureau reports that for the first quarter of this year, magazine ad pages fell 9.4% to 34,800 pages compared to the same quarter last year.

Clearly both industries are in a state of flux. These stats are stunning, but they pose a great up side for new technology, social media and digital marketing. So what will these two industries look like in five years and what can they learn from each other? Will publishers charge for on-line versions of their magazines? What can the music business do to stem the tide when their sales continue to decline?

Both industries have to contend with a world where people are more and more consuming on-line content for free. The iPad alone won't save magazines, but it's a start. There is no doubt that publishers need to harness the power of this new device immediately.

This is where publishing can learn a thing or two from the music business. The iPod and iTunes saved an industry on life-support. Apple clearly helped change the paradigm. Ever since Napster came into the lexicon the industry was slow to embrace it but Apple made it easier to buy music than to steal it, and that should help do the same for magazines.

Direct sale of content has always been the easiest way to determine the success or failure of any business, but now there's more!

Now is the time to foster B2B strategic relationships and grow your brand community if you want your business to really survive.

"Own your Edge" everywhere you can. Having the best product in the store isn't enough, you have to have the best communities online. Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook... everywhere!

Now, promotion and marketing is as monetizable as the product being marketed, and new technology and social media are the tools to success going forward.

Last week The Financial Times announced it is using Foursquare to target a new younger consumer, and the Warner Music Group has started-up an in-house social media team.

So it's clear some music and publishing businesses are going in the right direction, that is significant, and an understanding of what they are trying to do is sure to open up the door to the companies that have been reluctant to try something new.

Even if entrants into a space aren't paid subscribers, get subscribers wherever you can. Extend the brand, generate awareness through reach and frequency across all platforms, and the money will follow. Plus these new subscribers will be your best brand evangelists.

But everyone wants an immediate ROI and these tactics alone won't provide that.

The secret sauce then is to add a layer of strategic partnering to the mix. Create strategic B2B relationships and enhance the bottom line at the same time you are creating a base of engagement in the social sphere while better utilizing the new technologies.

It's all about creative thinking in the digital space. The Mantra should be "Think Better!"

And that's why flux in the marketplace is a good thing for digital marketers.

If you use the new tools effectively, create strategic partnerships while creating a loyal brand community, you will "Own your Edge."

The Power of Cross-Platform Engagement: A Day in the Life

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 by Susie Riordan

Jim wakes up to his alarm on his Blackberry at 7am – Dismiss or Snooze? Jim hits Snooze. He turns on the TV and starts watching “Mike and Mike” on ESPN. As he listens to the show while checking his email, he hears Golic read an email from a listener ranting about Tiger – “I just want to see him back on the green.” Immediately he emails “Mike and Mike” and states “sexual addition is a cop-out! He got busted.”

After 10 minutes, Jim’s alarm triggers again on his Blackberry – this time he gets up (but he is stalling wanting to hear if Golic reads his email on-air). After his shower his attention is grabbed by a commercial during a break – grill’s are on sale at a national home improvement retailer. While he is rushing out the door, he hears that you can engage in a sweepstakes to win a grill by texting “grill” to 56779. Sitting at a red light he enters the sweepstakes and text’s “grill” on his Blackberry with a smile on his face.

Jim recently bought a condo with a great deck including a gas line. As he listens to the radio, he hears another add about the sweepstakes, telling people to text or go online for more information. As he settles into work he check’s his text – “Thank you for entering the ‘I want a grill’ sweepstakes – please text us in 146 characters or less why you should win a grill.” Jim takes a minute to describe his new condo, gas line, etc…

Lunchtime arrives and Jim becomes cynical. There is no way he is going to win and he wanted a grill by this weekend. He posts a message on his Facebook asking is anyone can recommend a good grill. While online checking the website of the improvement retailer, he finds several on sale, but feels at a loss as to a decision. By the time he gets back to his Facebook, he has 10 new messages on his wall with comments from friends on the best grill to buy.

Jim goes to the retailer that evening with the intent of purchase – it has been on his mind all day. While in the store looking at grills, he sees next to product specifications a message that encourages him to text a keyword to a short code for a product review. He finishes reading the responses from the retailer, then goes on Facebook seeking more advice from his buddies.

Another text arrives from the retailer letting him know if he purchases grill “A” in the next 10 minutes he’ll receive 10% off. Jim grabs the tag on the grill and runs to the counter and purchases a grill (one that one of his buddies recommended), and he gets his 10% discount.
He won the sweepstakes four weeks later. He sold the grill on Facebook and made $200 extra dollars.

Moral of the story? The power of engagement and influence of a cross platform strategy is undeniable.

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