We could not be more pleased to share that we have officially joined Seattle-based Banyan Branch! This is an exciting time for both companies – with Nology’s focus on content and community services, and Banyan Branch’s analytics and interactive groups, together we look forward to bringing an even greater level of service to our clients.

It is important for us to ensure our existing clients the continued expectation of service, accountability and work quality that you have come to expect from Nology Media since our inception in 2010. To that end, our team will stay intact, Nology will remain a brand under the Banyan Branch umbrella, and CEO Leigh Fatzinger will continue to play a role as a member of the Banyan Branch Advisory Board, contributing to creative and operational strategy.

The impact on our day-to-day interaction with you will be minimal. In fact, we expect that you will experience an even higher level of service and an expanded breadth of services to enhance your social media and marketing programs.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us over the past two years. We hope you’ll join us in looking forward to continued success from our new offices!

Have questions? Please contact Megan Montplaisir at meganm@nologymedia.com.

We’re so excited for Jamie, and are constantly inspired by his accomplishments and the dedication he and his wife Karen have to their philanthropic work. In an interview with CBS News, Moyer had this to say about his return to Major League Baseball:

Give me an opportunity. Allow me to work. Allow me to grow. Allow me to get better. And you just never know what can happen.

After the game, the crowd went wild – both at the stadium and on social media – with supportive words and excitement over this history-making win. We tracked mentions on Twitter of Jamie Moyer and The Moyer Foundation over the last few weeks. In both graphs, you can see spikes in mentions when Jamie earned a spot in the Rockies starting rotation, and during his first two starts with the team. Following the win, Jamie Moyer was trending nationally on Twitter. By this morning, Jamie Moyer had received nearly 20,000 mentions on Twitter alone. Take a look at the stats:

Congrats Jamie! Want to learn more about The Moyer Foundation and how you can help support their mission of helping children in distress? Visit their website, or check them out on Facebook and Twitter!

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Today, 500 million users,140 million of which are considered to be “active users,” publish an average of 340 million tweets everyday. Twitter, the self-termed “information network,” has changed the way people consume news, communicate with each other, even live their daily lives.

Twitter has provided a brand new channel of communication to the world. Whether between two people who have never met or between a brand and one of millions of fans, Twitter supplies the means for conversation, collaboration and sharing.

Brands, who in the past, were only able to spread messaging to consumers through a one-way broadcast of advertisements and marketing material, now have a voice in the form of 140 characters or less. It has opened up the opportunity for consumers to share feedback, enter discussion, ask questions, make suggestions, and ultimately, build meaningful relationships.

This system has amplified the power of word of mouth. A single idea can gain new life on Twitter — for better or for worse. So, thank you Twitter for helping usher in a new age of communication… and Happy Birthday!

And now, for a few fun facts:

• Twitter was decided as the name due to the definition of the word as “a short burst of inconsequential information” and “chirps from birds.”
• The Twitter bird is named “Larry the Bird” after Larry Bird, of Boston Celtics fame.
• Twitter employs over 900 people today – up from about 400 last year.
• The first unassisted off-Earth Tweet came from NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer on the International Space Station on January 22, 2010.
• The top trending topic of all of 2011 was #JustinBieber, thanks to the launch of two very successful albums.

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It’s Social Media Week! From the February 13-17, cities all over the world will be celebrating and reflecting on the global impact of social media. The theme this year is “Empowering Change Through Collaboration” with a focus on changing business and governments around the world. Over 1,000 events take place in 12 cities including New York, Miami, DC, Paris, Hamburg, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Toronto and San Francisco. Nology CEO Leigh Fatzinger, is attending events in New York and we hope to share updates from him over the next few days.

As promotional partners, we are attending the local IN-NW Conference, on Wednesday, which is promised to be your “not-so-traditional” social media conference. Presented by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and 206Inc, we’re looking forward to discussing the current and future landscape of social engagement.

For Social Media Week coverage including realtime infographics, Twitter feed with trending hashtags and handles, live foursquare checkins and daily polls, check out the Social Media Week website. You can also watch many events in real time.

Are you attending any Social Media Week events around Seattle? Let us know in the comments!

Pssst…. The “Future Hipsters” launch video for Social Media Week has gone viral! If you still haven’t seen it, watch it NOW.

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We were thrilled to hear the official news that Timeline for brand Pages has finally arrived! This enhanced version encourages brands to “express [their] identity and tell [their] stories” by providing new and improved ways for a brand to engage their Facebook audience.

You can update your Page right now so go check it out if you haven’t yet! For those of you not ready to dive right in, the old version of brand Pages will be available until March 31, when Timeline will roll out for all brands.

While you’re browsing around, you may notice a few new things. The way content is viewed and shared has been shifted dramatically, with a big new cover photo, and the focus on multimedia content. Here are some other new features we’re excited about:

• The Welcome Tab has gone, signaling a shift in focus back to published content and user engagement on that content.
• The Tabs directory has shifted to the top of the Page, displayed along with a customizable thumbnail image, under the cover photo. The top four Tabs (as chosen by the brand) will be presented to users.
• Brands can now choose to extend the lifetime of one piece of priority or high engagement content with the new Highlighted posts feature. Brands are already starting to use this feature in really clever ways…we can’t wait to explore it.
• Users can now send private messages to the brands they Like, creating even more ways for brands to interact with their customers.
• Users will also be presented with their Friends’ interactions with a brand directly on the brand’s Timeline, indicating continued focus on network-based sharing and discovery of content.

So, what do we think? We like! Actually, we love! We expect the change will make for more engaging brand Pages, creating a richer experience and deeper business-to-customer relationship through the Facebook platform. Nology has already upgraded to Timeline – check it out!

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Facebook’s Marketing Conference next week is expected to mark some exciting announcements from the social media giant, and we – along with the social media community at large – are speculating what they will throw our way next. The web has been abuzz in anticipation of the roll out of Timeline for brand Pages, and rumors are going around about a new enhanced Facebook advertising platform with content at the core.

What Do These Changes Mean?

If Timeline for our personal profiles was intended to share “the story of your life,” then it’s safe to assume that Timeline will do the same for brand Pages.

We think Timeline for personal profiles has been one of the best updates by Facebook so far. To put it simply, it’s just prettier. With a new look, comes a new strategy. Less status updates, more story telling. Some brands might have more to share than others, but each Page can customize the experience for their visitors, and make the most of it in their own way.

The cover photo becomes as important as a company’s storefront. The 849 x 312 pixel image spanning the top of the Page takes up major real estate and chances are, brands are already thinking about how they can make the most of this billboard for their messaging.

The driving concept behind Timeline is to highlight multimedia content like videos and photos, and afford easier access to all published content. This will certainly encourage brands to publish more multimedia content, likely drive more Page views (rather than content views within the stream) and will definitely create a more interactive user experience. Ease of access to historical content and higher Page views could also create an environment where each piece of content has a longer lifespan.

Content Driven Enhanced Advertising

According to circulating rumors, Facebook also has plans to roll out an enhanced premium advertising program. The new focus of advertising? Content. Photos, videos, questions, status updates, events, and links.

New ads will highlight posts published by the brand and incorporating social functionality – users will see which of their friends have already interacted with this content, and will be able to engage with it themselves.
An article in Fast Company states:

Ads based on content, rather than messaging, have a better chance of hitting home, and that ads involving tacit endorsements from the people you know have a better chance of capturing your attention.

We couldn’t agree more. The possibilities for this new ad structure are wide open, and we are interested to see Facebook continue to steer the platform toward more sharing and more engagement.

So what do you think? Are you ready?

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Yesterday, I attended the IN-NW conference – the event was a great success! Their goal was to invoke, instigate, inform and inspire. I’d say, mission accomplished.

The Seattle Chamber of Commerce and 206inc produced a great range of speaking topics including sessions on New + Emerging Tools, Social Engagement, The Power of the Internet to Bring About Change, Crisis Management, Getting Your Story Heard by New Media, Social Media for Social Good, Twitter for Marketing, and last, but certainly not least, the highly anticipated Music + Social with celebrity appearances by Sir Mix-a-Lot and John Roderick of the Long Winters.

Alexandra Wheeler from Starbucks demonstrated how networked brands will gain higher levels of brand trust, engagement and marketing efficiency and shared their current digital campaign, Everylove, which celebrates stories about all types of relationships. I know I wasn’t the only one who was touched by Dan Dewey’s inspiring story.

Other highlights included Monte Lutz from Edelmen who spoke about how a moment of crisis can also be opportunity to show how well you deal; Ben Huh from Cheezburger Inc on the power of the internet and how we take it for granted; and the folks on the New Media Panel who discussed how the personal connection to news is what really resonates with people.

The Twitterverse was buzzing with live input and comments from the attendees and by late morning, #innw was already trending in Seattle. When Robert Pietsch from Twitter challenged us to trend across the whole U.S., it wasn’t long before the busy fingers of the social media minded audience had succeeded. It was pretty thrilling to see how much rich content there was to tweet about, and how much people were enjoying themselves.

Overall, I thought the event was quite well done. Many planning hours by Nikki Balcerak and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce went into this day, and it showed. The variety of speakers and topics left something new for everyone to learn. The Showbox SoDo was a perfect venue. The Twitter wall at lunch time had everyone chiming in about the deliciousness the food trucks were serving up outside. The afternoon candy table was a delightful surprise. The “charging station” for everyone’s drained laptops and iPhones was well-used and much appreciated.

So bravo, SeattleChamber and 206inc! We’ll see you next year!

Were you there? What was your favorite part? Did you join in the live tweeting and help make #innw trend?

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Growing up, did your mom ever tell you there is no such thing as a free lunch? Well, as an Economics major, I can confidently confirm that statement…sorry for the disappointment. I always giggle to myself when people say that social media is free, because it’s not. Yes the social channels are open and free for anyone to use them, but the time that goes into the content curation, creation, publishing and audience engagement comes at a cost. Whether it is the price of an internal person spending their time managing your social channels or having it outsourced to a third party social media agency, being on social media is certainly not free.

While we cannot control the costs of the human capital that makes up a strong social media program, we can have a say in the tools we use to manage our efforts and communities. Like many other social media agencies around the country we used CoTweet to schedule, publish, engage and monitor tweets for FREE – and we’ve LOVED it! We’ve used a lot of social media management platforms and paid a lot of money for some of them, but we always went back to CoTweet for free. Why… because the user interface was super easy navigate, the scheduling functionality was very reliable and accurate, and it was convenient to share client accounts within a team.

However… tomorrow is a sad day… free CoTweet will be dead and Social Engage will be taking its place. Our Community Management team recently received a demo of Social Engage and it looks awesome because it integrates both Facebook and Twitter into one social media management platform, however that ‘awesomeness’ comes at a cost.

No use crying over spilled milk, as they say. On to the next generation of great Free Tools! We came up with a list of free social media management tools that will hopefully help you find an affordable CoTweet replacement.

Great Free Social Media Management Tools

• Hootsuite – Most compatible CoTweet competitor with feature offerings and capabilities. Able to customize content stream in organized columns and tabs. There are limits to the number of social profiles you can add to the account, and you are not able to share social profiles across team members for free. Hootsuite Pro is an affordable alternative to the free version with a grocery list of features you can add or omit to customize your social media management needs.
• TweetDeck: Another social media management platform that’s been around a while and favorite in the office. TweetDeck allows you to manage multiple accounts and publish to a wide variety of social channels. This software is a desktop application, not a web application, which can be both good and bad. Desktop applications don’t clutter your browser, but it also makes it hard to access your account remotely.
• Market Me Suite: If you are coming from CoTweet, the layout is very similar, so it would be an easy and intuitive transition. You are able to add an unlimited number of team members which is great for sharing and collaboration. The application allows you to save messages as ‘macros’ which is great for saving a targeted message for a later time. Unfortunately, the platform will only allow you to add up to three social media accounts because they start charging, their archive of social media messages only goes back 2 days and analytics only go back 7 days.

Each free social media management tool has pros and cons, and you have to make your decision based on your own priorities. I would recommend making a list of all the features and capabilities that are important to you and your brand, then making your decision from there. One of two things is likely to happen in the next year:

1. All social media management platforms will start charging for their use and the sooner you get used to it, the better. So find one you LOVE!

2. The market for social media management tools will become so saturated that the price will be reduced to a very minimal amount, and companies will have to start thinking of unique value adds for their product to sustain their business.

I hope for option two, but will prepare for option one. What’s your favorite social media management tool?

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Last night, the Nology crew headed out to Ballard to attend GiG Network’s fundraising event at the BalMar. For $10, attendees could purchase wristbands to enjoy happy hour prices on food and drinks all night. 100% of the proceeds from wristband sales were donated to The Moyer Foundation.

For those of you unfamiliar with GiG (Get Into Giving) Network, it was created by The Moyer Foundation to offer social networking, professional development and volunteer opportunities to young professionals. It’s a great opportunity for folks just like us to get together, network, chat and raise money for a great cause.

We had a great time and were excited to see such a good turnout, including both new and familiar faces! Once we got there, we were instructed to write a personal goal of ours for 2012 on our name tags – what a great conversation starter! There was even someone else there with the same goal as me: go hiking. Who knew I wasn’t the only one needing some more motivation to get outdoors?!

By the end of the night, GiG Network gained 3 new members and raised a lot of money to support The Moyer Foundation and their mission of helping children in distress.

As always, Nology Media is happy to attend these GiG events in support of The Moyer Foundation. If you’re not yet involved with The Moyer Foundation in some capacity, we highly suggest you look into it. We’re continually impressed by all they do for kids right here in our community – and across the country.

We look forward to being a part of more events in 2012 and hope you’ll join us!

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The biggest portion of our donated time and resources go to The Moyer Foundation, a Seattle-based nonprofit organization founded by MLB all-star pitcher Jamie Moyer and his wife, Karen. The Foundation’s mission is to provide comfort and support to children enduring a time of profound physical, emotional or financial distress. Megan Montplaisir, Nology Media’s Director of Social Media, estimates our contribution at approximately $66,000 for 2011, including daily social media management, event support, and reporting. We are extremely proud of our partnership with the Moyer Foundation and the impact social media has had on their awareness and fundraising efforts.

Other organizations that recieved services and/or donations from Nology Media over the course of 2011 include:

• American Heart Association
• United Way Day of Caring
• Move It Online
• Rainmakers
• The Arthritis Foundation
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
• Seattle Children’s Hospital
• Special Olympics Washington
• Women’s Funding Alliance
• Healthy Child Healthy World
• King County Sexual Assault Resource Center

We also supported the following events through attendance or in-kind sponsorship:

• Seattle Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis
• The Moyer Foundation’s Annual Giving Luncheon
• Brotherton Cadillac’s Celebrity Steakout
• The Northwest Center Luncheon
• National Wear Red Day Tweetup
• Brotherton Cadillac’s Race for a Ride

“From Nology Media’s first month of operation, we felt it was important to establish the mission for Nology Gives, and we’ve had the unique opportunity to give both our social media expertise and time to help out good causes,” said Megan Montplaisir, Nology Media’s Director of Social Media. “We had a very fulfilling 2011 and we are dedicated to making our contributions to non-profits even better in 2012,” she said.

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