Social Study

Phrases Brands Should Avoid on Facebook: My Facebook Sh!t List

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:47:00 -0700

:: By Angela Yang, Word of Mouth Marketing Strategist

Brands say the darndest things! When brands get social and transition from a singular, anonymous voice to a living breathing person you can find on Google, it can be a tough transition. Here are a few of my favorite examples…with a little jazz-hand translation added by yours truly.

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience….please contact customer service….”
JAZZ HANDS: “So you can be completely neglected, ignored and forgotten. Facebook was the easier option when we decided to expand our call-center…”

“Buy One Get One Free! Hurry, because….”
JAZZ HANDS: “The direct mailer, newspaper ROP, e-mail newsletter and: 30 second spot didn’t get the point across to you and the rest of the world earlier”

Enjoy your holiday with (insert product)! How are you planning to celebrate ____?
JAZZ HANDS: We’ve taken the liberty of becoming experts in today’s religious, federal or cultural observance in order to plug our product and ask you the same burning question every other Facebook page is dying to know!

What’s your favorite thing about our New Ultra-Fortified Vitamin B Infused Dairy Product with Blueberry Sprinkle Flecks^TM ?
JAZZ HANDS: “What’s your favorite thing about the food product that you once thought was delicious before we butchered it by applying every seemingly important trademarked descriptor and nutritional component known to man within this Facebook post?“

“Like this post if you love the color green…”
JAZZ HANDS: “…because we haven’t reached our interaction goals this week and… we’re shameless.”

“Comment on this post and have a chance to win…”
JAZZ HANDS: “Absolutely nothing. We’ve been kicked off of Facebook. Promotional guidelines? What promotional guidelines?

When you use these phrases on Facebook, your customers hear you loud and clear.

Do you have phrases to add to this sh!t list? The more the merrier.

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FTC cracks down on disclosure guidelines

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 09:23:11 -0700

:: By Rachael Powell, Word of Mouth Marketing Associate

Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled with a teaching DVD company named Legacy Learning Systems Inc. for failing to follow the FTC’s disclosure guidelines requiring disclosure when any “material connection” with advertisers exists. Legacy Learning allegedly asked members of their affiliate program to post reviews of their products on Amazon. After selling more than $5 million worth of guitar lessons DVDs, the FTC said without disclosure that reviewers were receiving sales kickbacks, Legacy Learning was duping the average consumer. Legacy Learning’s punishment? A $250,000 penalty and ongoing monitoring of their affiliate marketers.

This is the first major move the FTC has taken to enforce the guidelines. After their late 2009 release, everyone from Mashable to The New York Times wondered how it would affect blogger relations and whether or not the FTC would actually be able to enforce them on marketers and advertisers. Until now, we’ve only seen the FTC govern the rule with a slap on the wrist for Ann Taylor LOFT’s work with fashion bloggers.

Disclosure is the right thing to do…

Our Word of Mouth Marketing team has always believed in and followed the WOMMA code of ethics in our work, but these guidelines make this practice even more important. It is now not just our duty to be ethical advertisers, but it’s also the law. But everyone knows this, right?

…but who else is doing it?

Well, maybe not. A study published by IZEA in September 2010 showed that 35 percent of PR, social media and marketing professionals had not heard of the guidelines and another 35 percent had heard of them but did not understand them. That means less than a third of marketers even have a hope of accurately follow the guidelines.

Just do it!

If you need more than ethical and legal reasons to encourage disclosure in your work with bloggers, here’s a more self-serving reason. A 2008 study found that disclosure of affiliation led to greater trustworthiness and goodwill. The same study also found that consumers were more likely to pass along a message when the source of the message disclosed an affiliation.

So if ensuring disclosure in your work with advocates will not only warm your heart and keep you out of jail, but also increase your word of mouth potential, what are you waiting for?

More About Rachael:
Twitter: @rachaelcpowell
LinkedIn: Rachael Powell

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Twitter Crisis: the dangers of not having a process in place

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 10:36:12 -0800

Chrysler is dealing with an issue of an errant tweet that was sent out over its official Twitter account.

The Consumerist has the details here. And it brings up the risk in accessing multiple Twitter accounts from a single Twitter app or platform like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite.

Process Makes Perfect

In a presentation this afternoon to the Cincinnati Chapter of The Public Relations Society of America and Cincinnati Social Media, Charlene Li detailed the need for having processes in place and not “just going on Twitter ad hoc.” She walks through similar advice in her latest book, Open Leadership.

It was great to get Charlene’s insight on disruptive trends and have her reinforce some of the things we’re already doing with our clients. The meeting was done over Skype and is a reminder that if the speaker can’t come to you, you can come to the speaker.

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867-5309 -- Facebook you've got my number

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 06:31:00 -0800

Tommy Tutone - "Jenny (867-5309)"

:: By Kevin Dugan, Marketing Director

With apologies to the classic song shown above: “I got it, I got it! I got your number on the Facebook wall!”

News that Facebook will make user phone numbers and addresses available to external sites is generating an understandable and expected outcry.

“The plan to open up users' address and phone numbers to third-party sites and services marks the latest frontier in Facebook's often controversy-fraught efforts to encourage users to be more liberal in sharing their data and online activity.” Via HuffPo

Facebook’s continual nips and tucks to its privacy policy are accompanied by the usual reactive approach to user awareness. We’ve seen this play out more than a few times during the six year old site’s existence. It’s consistent if nothing else.

Free Sites and User Entitlement
Users spending more time than they care to admit on sites like Facebook tend to develop a sense of entitlement. “I’m storing MY data on this site, Facebook owes ME.” And while I can understand this sentiment, I don’t agree with it. Facebook owns the site. Read their terms of service and learn what else they own. And with more than 600 million readers and display ad revenues that will eclipse Yahoo in the coming year, they’ve also got gravity.

Consumers need to take greater personal accountability for their personal privacy. I say this as a fellow consumer and not a marketer. As a marketer, I see an opportunity that has NOTHING to do with the user data Facebook is making available.

Proactive Privacy: Marketers stand to earn a lot of consumer trust if they sound the alarm on these changes. Facebook is not doing it. Legal would plotz if they thought I was trying to make a brand accountable for Facebook with their customer base. I’m not saying they should and need to think through this point. But as marketers create in depth customer profiles that include social data, we should understand the implications Facebook creates and identify opportunities to help our customers do the same.

What does privacy mean to YOUR consumer? This should guide your decisions on how much you should become involved in privacy issues and trends. At a minimum brands need to be aware of them.

Personally, I’m wondering if I don’t have a startup opportunity here. Consider a company that can help consumers easily centralize and note the various data they’ve shared with sites and, more importantly alert them to changes in the terms of service for those sites. A Google search may show me it’s been done, but there’s some value to a company that can help consumers become aware of the byzantine morass of privacy details and their implications.

More About Kevin:
Twitter: @prblog
LinkedIn: Kevin Dugan

Cross-posted to my personal blog.

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Media Convergence Tells a Transmedia Back Story

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 03:45:40 -0800

See the full gallery on Posterous

A flurry of examples comes to mind when looking at how traditional media is embracing the No Channels trend of media convergence.

Tumblr has attracted several media outlets, including The New York Times, Newsweek, Life (shown above), Rolling Stone (sand The Atlantic. The platform offers social media capabilities and an unassuming ability to tell a powerful back story -- connecting with readers through bonus content.

Turn the Page?
Magazine's second wind can be more directly attributed to the tablet. Print editors are tapping their creativity to take to take full advantage of audio, video and direct interaction with the user.

Print isn't dead. In fact, people are now reading more than ever thanks to social platforms, smart phones, tablets and e-readers.

Tommy Can You Hear Me Now?
My favorite example of traditional media tapping into transmedia storytelling comes from NPR. The public radio icon has expanded into social media in a big way, expanding beyond podcasts into full blown transmedia storytelling across its website, YouTube, Flickr and mobile apps in addition to the de rigueur Twitter and Facebook.

It's photo blog, The Picture Show, helps tell a rich back story the air waves cannot illustrate. More recently the media outlet has also been a steady contributer to Instagram, the upstart photography app with more than 1.5 million users in just a few short months.

NPRs mastery of blended media hit me as I parsed through some recent tweets on my iPhone (shown above). NPR's photo blog tweeted a request for content. It's seemingly innocuous.

But consider what the following statement would have looked just five years ago: "I read on my smart phone, via Twitter, that a radio outlet needs images." Keep in mind that Twitter was not launched publicly until July 2006. So five years ago this would not have made any sense at all.

This "sound example" helps us see just how much media has converged.

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Non-Ad Strategy In Super Bowl XLV

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:01:00 -0800

Why some advertisers are pulling from the Super Bowl

By:: Amanda Duncan

It’s not easy to come up with a Super Bowl ad that will be remembered for years to come. More or less most Super Bowl ads end up being one-hit wonders. Not every Super Bowl has ads like Apple’s “1984”, the famous Budweiser “buuuud, wiiiise, errrr” frog commercial, or Snickers’ “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” that re-launched Betty White’s career. Some advertisers are feeling the urge to pull from the Super Bowl ad line up. Last year Pepsi pulled its ads from the Super Bowl after 23 consecutive years and used the cost of Super Bowl advertising to form their “Pepsi Refresh Project”. Was it worth the gamble for Pepsi? Some say it was while others label the decision to not participate in the Super Bowl as a failure. Pepsi must have had a change of heart because this year they are back with ads for Super Bowl XLV. Nevertheless, the decision to not be in the Super Bowl in 2010 gave Pepsi a huge amount of media coverage. This year will be no exception.

This year Denny’s has made the decision to not be a part of Super Bowl XLV after having a Super Bowl advertisement for the past two years (2009 and 2010). When asked why Denny’s wouldn’t participate in this year’s Super Bowl, Frances Allen, Chief Marketing Officer at Denny’s said, “It is a very expensive exercise and I don't believe it's necessary for us to continue to put all our eggs in one basket.” She said that the decision to quit the Super Bowl train was a process based strategy and Denny’s will focus on continuity in 2011. However, the extra media coverage doesn’t hurt.

Despite the hype over Super Bowl advertisements, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more advertisers pull out from the Super Bowl in the future. By pulling from the Super Bowl, Denny’s saved an estimated $3 million dollars for a 30 second spot and made headlines for doing so. I mean come on be honest. Do you remember the Denny’s Super Bowl ads in 2009 and 2010? I’d be impressed if you did. I believe Denny’s made a wise choice this year.

More about Amanda:

LinkedIn: Amanda Duncan

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Tag You're It!

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:03:00 -0800

New Search Engine Improves Results

blekko: how to slash the web from blekko on Vimeo.

By:: Chris Blum, Search Marketing Strategist

A new way to search the web has been created through the use of slashtags. The Blekko search engine uses content “tagging” to help filter search results to give users more relevant content. According to an article by the Associated Press, “Tagging is used to organize photos on Yahoo Inc.’s Flickr, Web site bookmarks on Yahoo’s del.icio.us and video on Google Inc.’s YouTube,” and now your search results.

A slashtag is essentially a tool that is designed to filter through search results, and only serve users with specific sites related to their search. More importantly, slashtag search helps eliminate a large percentage of spam sites that are typically returned in normal search engines.

The Power of the Slash
All you need to do to create a slashtag is insert a “/” after your search query. For example, if I type in Marketing/Twitter into Blekko’s search it will give me by date, tweets that incorporate marketing. You can create your own set of slashtags that encompass your favorite sites, or use Blekko’s preset slashtags found here. Blekko even searches through Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, and Amazon for related search content.

Blekko’s search engine adds slashtags to search queries to better organize results into one of its seven preset categories: health, colleges, autos, personal finance, lyrics, recipes and hotels.

This is an interesting way to search, and it can help return better search results that are tailored to the user. With digital content expanding, filtering search results has become even more essential. It will be interesting to see if Blekko carves out a niche for itself alongside search giants like Google, YouTube, Yahoo and Bing.

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Beyond Wikileaks: The U.S. Military & Social Media

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:21:49 -0800

:: By Kevin Dugan, Marketing Director

A tweet linking to the U.S. Army's Social Media Handbook snowballed into this post. The handbook joins the U.S. Air Force's popular Rules of Engagement for Blogging as a mainstream example of the military's grasp of social media. This made me wonder about the Navy's, Marines' and even the Coast Guard's social media presence.

While Wikileaks might make some assume otherwise, the U.S. military has a forward approach to, and an extensive investment in, social media to help tell its story, connect troops with their families and even to mine military intelligence.

Social Storytelling
The Army's SlideShare presence may seem out of character -- until you examine all of this branch's social media efforts. The Department of Defense links to more than 1,100 individual Army accounts/pages across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr alone. The Army's online game has become a popular recruitment tool and it offers a variety of mobile apps and downloads.

Family Ties
Connecting soldiers to their families through social media is an obvious win. And consider that the armed forces have had a social media policy in place since World World II. While social media can't replace in-person contact, it can certainly help offset the impact of being away from family and friends.

Military Intelligence -- The Other Side of Wikileaks
According to The New York Times, the military uses "social networking skills to hunt insurgents." Threat surveillance and training are both aspects of social media that help inform and prepare the military.

According to Guy Hagen's Intel 3.0 blog: Just as the USDOD is conscious about having critical information leaked out through the blogs of U.S. military personnel, it sees opportunity for finding clues to future threats and terrorist activities in social media, particularly those relating to particular geographic regions or communities.

With the various social media uses, sites and assets the military claims, it's no surprise WIRED and Gartner point to the U.S. Defense's approach as the new standard -- eliminating its social media office and making it part of everyone's role.

Additional Resources
Click here for a curated list of related links.
For a Twitter list of Military, Government and Related Twitter Accounts, click here.

Cross-Posted to my personal blog, Strategic Public Relations.

More About Kevin:
Twitter: @prblog
LinkedIn: Kevin Dugan

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Google Hosts Online Science Fair

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:39:00 -0800

:: By Amanda Duncan, PR/Marketing Intern

Google is introducing its first ever online science fair. This makes me think back to my own science fair, all the tables set up in the gymnasium and each student displaying their project proudly. I remember my project; I chose the effects of different lighting on plants. Oh the memories.

What Google is doing is an interesting concept, to take an event so nostalgic and bring it to the online community. In fact, social media is essentially people using technology to emulate offline behaviors online. This is another example of how digital is integrating into our everyday lives. More and more society is using technology to create new childhood memories through online interaction. On the flip side, Yahoo points to a list of things that won’t be a part of childhood memories for anyone born this year.

Google will post the top 60 projects online and will award a People’s Choice Award to the student with the most online votes.

The competition is open to full-time students age 13 to 18. Prizes include a 10 day trip to the Galapagos Islands, a $50,000 scholarship, and a personalized color mosaic of each team member done by LEGO. Top 15 finalists will be flown to Google Headquarters to present their projects to a team of acclaimed scientists.

Through online integration Google is giving students around the world the opportunity to show their intelligence via online outlets to the entire world, creating a unique memory for each participant. To learn more about the Google science fair visit their website.

For more ways of how digital is impacting our lives visit www.nochannels.com.

More About Amanda:
LinkedIn: Amanda Duncan

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Paid, Owned and Earned Media Trends in 2011

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:58:00 -0800

:: By Kevin Dugan, Marketing Director

Paid, owned and earned media are blending thanks to digital technology. As digital technology threads through silos we once used to organize media, it is dissolving these silos.

Pete Blackshaw , calls this a disruptive trend for 2011. Several social media professionals, including Brian Solis and Jay Baer, point to 2011 as a year of convergence in one form or another.

It’s a topic we’ve been discussing for some time now and it’s going to be an interesting experience for consumers and brands.

Join the Conversation
We created No Channels to track the conversation and curate examples we’re seeing in the media (traditional and citizen-powered) of channels blending together. It’s armed with the video, infographic, Flickr Group and articles that underscore how digital technology is dissolving traditional media silos.

And we also want to hear from you.

So stop by the site and weigh in with your opinion.

More About Kevin:
Twitter: @prblog
LinkedIn: Kevin Dugan

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Foursquare's Fight for Relevancy

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 12:51:34 -0800

:: By Kevin Dugan, Marketing Director

We’ll continue to see geo-location grow in 2011 as its impact as a shopper marketing tool continues to emerge. Clearly geo-location, mobile and the in-store experience can be a potent mix for retail brands to create a strong link between their online and in-store presence.

Recent geo-location news shows how quickly the space is emerging -- and how Foursquare is fighting to maintain its relevancy.

Brightkite Checks Out, Gowalla Turns Tables
Brightkite is hoping small is the new big for social media by eliminating the ability to check-in and focusing on group texting instead. Brightkite joins the growing “anti-social trend” we’ve profiled in the past.

Gowalla tapped into the power of its competitor’s APIs for its latest upgrade. Gowalla now allows you to update multiple geo-location platforms from one handy interface. By integrating with its competitors platforms, According to Gowalla’s CEO, it aims to become a “socially-curated guidebook” instead of delivering promotional deals or using game mechanics to maintain user interest.

These might seem like obvious signs Foursquare can claim the geo-location crown. But Facebook has nearly 600 billion reasons you’d be wrong. While Facebook Places experience may be ham-fisted in comparison to Foursquare. It’s user base dwarfs Foursquare’s five million users and it creates an insurmountable delta between the two platforms. But Foursquare is iterating and innovating to stay relevant in the geo-location space.

Foursquare TV and Online Ad Integration
Foursquare has teamed with Bravo (the breakout brand for social TV in 2010) and other networks throughout the year to gain more awareness and income via partner badges. Recently Foursquare announced it’s working on a game show or other TV show to further engrain its service into mainstream media.

Working with brands like Gap, Foursquare is also focused on offering more utiity by integrating into ads. Incentivizing users to create a shopping list is a smart way to complement the online to instore experience. Both of these moves are smart and underscore how quickly Foursquare, Gowalla and Brightkite are iterating to maintain relevancy and user attention.

The Geo-Location Challenge in 2011
It will be interesting to see if the luster of game mechanics can be maintained in 2011. In Drive, Daniel Pink refers to stick and carrot management. Game mechanics are an extension of the stick and carrot strategy. And the Havard Business Review is already suggesting consumers won’t want to eat their vegetables in 2011.

More About Kevin:
Twitter: @prblog
LinkedIn: Kevin Dugan

Cross-Posted to my personal blog, Strategic Public Relations

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The Anti-Social Media Trend

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 03:39:00 -0800

:: By Kevin Dugan, Marketing Director
A group of new social media applications are focused on letting you share -- but with a closed circle of friends.

Apps like Path, GroupMe, Fast Society and ChattrSpace are focused on letting you share and communicate quickly and easily to a predefined group of people.

Surely one reason for the influx of these sites is practical in nature. It's tough to impossible to target across sites like Twitter and Facebook. But until these apps launched, "walled gardens" were considered a negative. Lightweight user actions like OAuth have evolved to make it simple for users to register at a site or risk not building a user base.

Private, I
But I think privacy is the bigger driving factor. Facebook is messy when it comes to professional and personal boundaries. Some folks are ok with these two worlds mixing. Others, understandably, are not.

I often tell people the best, if not only, way to keep something private is to keep it offline all together. Terms of service change. Privacy settings change. Users need to take personal accountability for their privacy. How many of us do? And even if someone rethinks something they've put online and pulls it down before Google sees it, sites like Lamebook are examples of the power and permanence of the screen grab.

Selective Sharing
These apps offer a helpful option for keeping parts of your online life compartmentalized. And they may signal a new trend of more selective sharing. Even niche geo-location apps offer selective sharing capabilities.

Face2Face differentiates itself by only sharing your information and location with friends in the general proximity you're in as opposed to all of your friends. And it won't pinpoint your location to these friends, noting you're on 5th and Vine instead of at Tazza Mia. Selective sharing gives you an added layer of targeting and choice that is achievable to a lesser degree on sites like Twitter and Facebook, these features are opposite of their primary goal.

These apps may seem anti-social in comparison to the sites we focus on today. But they're a necessary response to privacy concerns and they will surely help more users migrate to social media.

Internet vs Privacy - A Helpful Venn Diagram uploaded by Dave Makes
Cross-Posted to my personal blog, Strategic Public Relations

More About Kevin:
Twitter: @prblog
LinkedIn: Kevin Dugan

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You have the right to remain silent!

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:36:00 -0800

A social media legal series by Ashley Walters, Word of Mouth Marketing Manager

Chapter 5: Dipping your toes

If you’ve used the phrase “let’s dip our toes into the social space” raise your hand?

Everyone wants to dip their toes in first. It’s a common strategy when it comes to social media (or anything “new”). Makes sense, you don’t want to end up on the “Nine Worst Social Media Fails of the Year” list.

If you’ve recently embraced a toe-dipping strategy, here are five “legal” considerations you should know before jumping into the world of social media. In no particular order, of course:

1. You will lose some control over the message. Get comfortable with that! At its core, social media provides the masses a voice. Giving consumers the ability to post comments in a forum or create the next big television commercial for your company can be rewarding for the consumer and the company. But, obviously not all contributions will be positive and you might lose control of your trademarks and other intellectual property. In the offline world, this isn’t usually a problem, but that’s not the case in the online world. If you can’t get comfortable with that, work with your agency and/or legal team because there are strategies that can be employed to limit such uses, but keep in mind, none are fool proof.

2. All of the same promotional/advertising laws and regulations apply! If you can’t claim it in a TV ad, you can’t claim it on social media. Pretty straightforward.

3. Be aware of the rules on each social media platform. Many of the most popular social media platforms have rules which can restrict your promotional activities. For example, Facebook has guidelines relating to the operation of sweepstakes on its network. Before planning out specific activities, it’s better to take stock of the permissible activities and, perhaps more importantly, those things that you can't do.

4. Don't claim ownership over user generated content unless absolutely necessary. The natural tendency may be to claim ownership over content submitted by consumers, especially when the hope is to use the content in future promotional activities (e.g., product pictures submitted by consumers, consumer commercials, etc.). Resist the urge as this may eliminate some of the safe harbor protections that exist in the context of online activities (see #5 below on the DMCA and CDA). Plus, the right to later use the content can almost always be preserved via an irrevocable license from the consumer. While there may be compelling reasons to take ownership of user content, make sure you factor in the downsides before pulling the trigger.

5. Do what is necessary to take advantage of certain safe harbor protections under federal law. Online service providers (e.g., website operators, etc.) can avoid liability for copyright infringement, defamation and other causes of action based on content posted by consumers. For example, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) protects online service providers from copyright infringement claims provided certain steps are taken in advance (e.g., designating an agent to receive infringement notices, posting a copyright policy, etc.) and upon receipt of notice from a copyright holder that infringing material has been posted on the site. The Communications Decency Act (CDA) likewise provides protection from defamation and other non-intellectual property claims. Know what is needed to take advantage of these important and effective laws before entering the world of social media.

A final thought…Getting into social media can be a little scary but that shouldn’t prevent you from realizing the many benefits it can add to your marketing mix. If we can give you just one piece of advice to take away – remember Google never forgets. And if that’s not enough, watch what you say on Twitter because Congress saves all of your tweets!

That’s it for our social media legal series. We hope you enjoyed (and maybe learned something new)!

Just For Laughs… Check out these crazy social media law suits.

· Woman sued Google Maps over walking directions. Article

· A Chicago woman's Twitter post about her "moldy apartment" landed her with a $50,000 lawsuit from a local management company. Article

A special thanks to Nilesh (“Neal”) Patel at Frost Brown Todd (NPatel@fbtlaw.com) for all of the (free) legal information. Being the lawyer that he is, Neal advises that his advice and counsel in this area reflects his (hopefully, well thought out) opinions, not necessarily his firm’s, and that you should only consider the information as providing general information (not true legal counsel).

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Top 10 Lessons Learned at the PRSA International Conference

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 07:41:00 -0800

::By Ashley Walters, Word-of-Mouth Marketing Manager

Not only was I one of the lucky 3,000 people who had the chance to attend this year’s PRSA International Conference in D.C., but I was also one of only a few who received a backstage pass to interview the speakers. From World Food Programme’s Bettina Luescher and Kodak’s former CMO Jeffery Hayzlett to POLITICO founder Jim VandeHei and Groundswell author Charlene Li, the three-day conference didn’t disappoint. After nine sessions, five keynote speakers and four private interviews, here at the top 10 things I took away from the conference.

1.) Consider unique and different ways to use social media platforms. For example, social media can play a critical role with internal operations. Challenge yourself to think about how social media can impact or improve other areas of your business.

2.) Content first. Platform second. The days of “I want a Facebook page” are over (did they ever exist?). Always challenge yourself and your clients to first figure out what you want to communicate and then consider all of your platform options. If you jump on Facebook with nothing to say, you won’t stay there long.

3.) Build your “smart tissue.” Fail fast and fail smart. You build “smart tissue” when you embrace and learn from your mistakes. Even Google fails every now and then!

4.) Social networking = social niche-working. Brands need to focus on the people that matter most. It’s less important to count the people you reach, and more important to reach the people who count.

5.) Simplify EVERYTHING. Use the napkin gut check. If you can write your idea down on a napkin while at a bar, then your idea is probably simple enough. Distill your ideas down to the core.

6.) Treat your press release like a website. Press releases are not just for journalists anymore, they are for everyone. Press releases now appear in Google search results. Embed video, pictures, links and optimize your headline, for all audiences.

7.) Traditional and social must finding a meeting place. We are all in this ever-changing world together. We need to speak the same language. Powerful communication comes from strategic integration.

8.) If you don’t value relationships, you will never value social media. Enough said.

9.) Good ideas come from anywhere. Look around your organization from the receptionist to the CEO, talk to your sales force or put a call out to your social communities. You never know where a good idea will turn up from.

10.) Take risks. Jeffery Hayzlett said it matter-of-factly, “No one’s gonna die.” If you want to grow, you’re going to have to take risks.

Connect with Ashley on:

· Twitter: @Ashley_Walters

· LinkedIn: Ashley Walters

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Off The Grid Consumers

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 07:24:00 -0700

:: By Kevin Dugan, Social Marketing Director

SAY Media: Off The Grid - Marketing to the Next Generation Consumer

Is your consumer off the grid? More and more it's possible for consumers to sate their voracious appetite for media, including music, games, movies, TV and other entertainment, with just a smartphone and a laptop.

This term was first introduced to me (in this context) by Time Warner Cable. Just 18-24 months ago it's how they described their college market (or lack thereof). While cable companies like TWC can provide you with phone, cable and internet, college students more and more are not opting for this one stop shopping option. They go off TWCs grid for media consumption.

Digital Convergence
The above might make you assume I'm an "all digital, all the time" consumer. I'm far from it, I'm still firmly on the grid. But I do understand that digital is a technology. Digital is not a separate media format like online, print, TV, radio, out of home or otherwise. This is not semantics. It's an important distinction.

As digital threads itself through media, it's dissolving the silos in which we've placed them for years. This means we need to consider content as much more fluid. Content can morph, thanks to digital technology, to meet consumers' ever changing, ever expanding needs. Can your content morph?

Whether or not your consumer is off the grid, you need to create content they can consume on their terms.

Future of Media Consumption: Traditional & Media Are Morphing

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:46:00 -0700

:: By Taylor Wiegert, Word of Mouth Strategist and Social Media Specialist

There is a wealth of content out there from TV Shows and books to podcasts and blogs, and as I look back at my day I realize I consumed quite a bit of content through eight different devices. Not one of those devices was a television, newspaper, book or radio. It’s clear that I’m not the norm when it comes to these things, but my behavior resembles that of my peers and a fast growing proportion of consumers.

Content production will continue to be important to consumers because everyone loves to be entertained, but how they consume that content is changing very quickly. While all of this is happening, traditional media companies seem to be hoping this behavior will go away. It won’t.

Consumption Change Hits the Mainstream

For me, the time to completely cut myself off from traditional media has come. My news is online, my books are on my iPad and my music is on my hard drives to be shared across multiple devices. The only thing remaining is television.

I actually cancelled my cable subscription for nearly a year only to bring it back for football season (I couldn’t live without it). As for TV shows and movies, I have Netflix streaming and Hulu connected to my television. The only time the cable box is used is for sports.

I’ll be the first to admit that my behavior is niche, but three announcements over the past week made me stop and think that traditional media consumption through new media channels is about to take a big step forward:

Hulu heading to Roku, TiVo and Xbox LIVE
Xbox LIVE update bringing live ESPN sports to the video game console
Blogs have become mainstream

Why These Announcements Matter

Hulu: The massive Hulu library will be available this Fall on the Roku and TiVo set-top boxes. Hulu is already available on the PlayStation 3, and access is supposedly coming to Xbox LIVE as well.

Just like Netflix, Hulu is taking steps to integrate with nearly every device from iPads and iPhones to video game consoles and set-top boxes. With Hulu easily accessible through set-top boxes connected to televisions, consuming traditional TV shows through Hulu instead of a cable or satellite provider will be incredibly easy.

Xbox LIVE: Microsoft’s new Xbox LIVE update will be hitting consoles on November 4. Xbox LIVE already includes Netflix, LastFM and the Zune Marketplace, but the big addition will be ESPN.

ESPN integration will bring Xbox LIVE subscribers 3,500 sporting events per year in full HD with DVR capabilities. Not only does it replace watching sports on TV. It’s actually better with the ability to check scores of other sporting events without leaving the game currently being watched, the ability of users to predict the winners of games and compare themselves with other Xbox LIVE ESPN viewers and the addition of a voice chat feature to connect up to seven people to watch the game together remotely.

Live sports are no longer restricted to cable or satellite services, making the combination of Hulu, Netflix and ESPN a pretty solid television service replacement.

Blogs: eMarketer released a report last week that communicated something pretty important: blogs are mainstream. 51% of US Internet users read blogs monthly, and 12% actually keep blogs. Within four years 60% of Internet users will read blogs and 13.3% will be keeping blogs of their own.

Blogs are all over the Internet and in the mainstream media, especially as traditional media outlets (i.e., news sites) create blogs of their own and advertisers make blogs part of their marketing strategies.

Getting into blogging has become incredibly easy. Tools make creating a blog almost effortless and free, and simple RSS readers make reading and keeping up with blogs effortless.

Finally, blogs have become accepted forms of information. They are cited in the news and act as news outlets themselves, and consumers look to them for information and advice. They’re seamlessly integrated into other media. The New York Times has 50 blogs. Someone checking the news may not have any idea if and when he or she is actually reading a blog.

Blogs have ceased to be niche hobbies of the few and have instead become mainstream sources of information and content for the masses. Whether it’s the traditional bloggers who write, video bloggers or photo bloggers, they are now on the same level as traditional publishers.

Change Is Here. What Will You Do? Consumers are moving away from traditional media outlets. This isn’t happening in droves, but bit-by-bit consumer content consumption habits are changing.

Content distributors can try to stop it, and they have. Still, the power of the Internet and crowdsourcing of skills has allowed consumers to work around every barrier put in their path. Change is happening, and the only options are to embrace it or get left behind.

Why is this happening?
Consumer habits are changing for a variety of reasons, but some of them are based around the idea that new media makes content consumption more enjoyable.

They consume on their terms because they control when, where and how they consume content.
The entire experience from obtaining content and consuming it is on-demand.
Everything is custom to the individual.
Content consumption is remotely social. People can share the same experience (in some cases) no matter how far away they are from each other.

That said, the primary reason, I believe, is that new media gives consumers all of what they want and none of what they don’t. We now have the ability to consume media a la carté, meaning multiple pieces of content from multiple sources, and you only pay for what you get. Channel no longer matters. To the consumer, channels don’t matter; content does, and content is not beholden to the “channel borders.”

I know there are issues for content providers on an a la carté approach, but I also know that consumers simply don’t care about those issues. They will get what they want and how they want it.

What Needs to Be Done
If consumers are embracing something, it’s usually a good idea for companies to follow suit. The problem is that this new consumer behavior undercuts models that have been relied upon for quite some time. Sorry. I don’t have an easy answer.

There is a major need to adapt. Right now, companies are doing everything they can to resist consumer behavior, but if they embrace it, they can secure their place in the future. Things won’t look the way they do now. They’ll be different, but at least, the business will be around.

The first step is changing the approach to content and content dissemination:

Content should be easy to obtain and easy to share.
Access to content should not be restricted. Consumers will always find another way, and you won’t have a chance to benefit.
Allow content to be placed on multiple devices.
Change the approach to monetizing content. Old models of making money off of content won’t work, and the new models will vary by type of content.

Change is never easy, but technology and the consumers harnessing technology are demanding it. The only way to prevent potentially serious issues is to get ahead of them, and too many are moving too slowly.

More About Taylor:
Twitter: @TWiegert
LinkedIn: Taylor Wiegert

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Charlene Li: “Use Social Media to Create a Culture of Sharing”

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:56:00 -0700

:: By Ashley Walters, Word-of-Mouth Marketing Manager

“If you don’t value relationships, you will never value social media.”

That was the rallying cry of Charlene Li at the PRSA International Conference. After her highly-anticipated keynote address, which wrapped the three-day conference in D.C., I got to sit down with Li, co-author of the bestseller Groundswell, author of the new book Open Leadership, and Founder of Altimeter Group to discuss some of the hottest topics related to social media. Nothing was off limits!

VIDEO INTERVIEW: Up close and personal with Charlene Li

It can be kind of scary engaging with new technologies. What is your advice to marketers who are just getting started using social media? VIDEO
I’ve heard this phrase a million times, “I’m afraid to lose control of the message?” How do you respond to someone who considers social media a risky decision? VIDEO
We all understand the importance of creating a cohesive social media strategy, yet still; some marketers are quick to jump to, “I need a Facebook page.” What do you say to marketers who neglect to formalize their social media strategy? VIDEO
It seems that most push back around social media comes from the top. How do you get buy in from the C-suite? VIDEO
Using social media for internal operations is a new idea to most. What are some of the unique and different ways you’re seeing organizations leverage the social space internally? VIDEO
What can we expect to see in the next year related to the evolution of social networks? VIDEO
The world loved your first book, Groundswell. What can you tell us about your new book, Open Leadership? VIDEO

Connect with Ashley on:

Twitter: @Ashley_Walters
LinkedIn: Ashley Walters

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The Truth about Facebook-Part Two

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:42:56 -0700

What you may not know about the social networking site

::by Amanda Duncan, PR/Marketing Intern

Couldn’t get enough Facebook facts from our last blog post The Truth about Facebook-Part One? Here are five additional Facebook facts that may surprise you.

I “like”- The average Facebook user “likes” 9 pages a month. Check your likes and see if you’re a fan of the two most popular pages.

The most “liked” celebrity is Michael Jackson with 20,665,648 likes
Texas Hold’Em Poker is the most “liked” page with 24,238,401 likes

Think Before You Post- A study by Oxygen Media found that 89 percent of women agree that “you should never put anything on Facebook that you don’t want your parents to see.” However, 42 percent of those women said that it was okay to post photos of themselves visibly drunk on Facebook. Those women must have a different relationship with their mother than I do.

Friend Count- The average Facebook user has 130 friends. I’m a little taken aback by this considering my graduating class was about that size and I know I’m Facebook friends with all of them. Recently, Facebook has put a limit on how many friends you can have. You are restricted to 5,000 “friends”. Oh, and of course there is a Facebook petition group for that as well.

J’adore Facebook- Facebook is currently available in 70 translations. Through Facebook’s translation application more than 300,000 users helped with these translations. You can now view Facebook in Turkish or even in pirate.

Friend or Foe? - According to the same Oxygen Media study mentioned above, 58 percent of women use Facebook to keep up with their “frenemies”. Urban Dictionary.com defines a frenemy as “someone who is both friend and enemy, a relationship that is either mutually beneficial or dependent while being competitive, fraught with risk and mistrust.” Don’t lie to yourself; if you are on Facebook you’ve probably Facebook creeped on your frenemy at least once.

Whether you Facebook creep on your frenemy or join Facebook petitions, I’m sure you can relate to at least one of the above categories. However, I hope you learned something new about the social networking site, Facebook.

More about Amanda:

Twitter: @vivaamanda

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Defining Paid, Earned and Owned Media

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:15:37 -0700

:: By Kevin Dugan, Social Marketing Director

At SummitUp yesterday, I discussed integrating paid, owned, earned and, as a result, social media.

Media Mash Up: Integrating Chaos** -- became a fitting title for my presentation as I've realized how much change is threading through media. Classifying media types by silos, buckets or Venn diagrams is no longer possible. Even AdAge refers to it as "whatever it is that we're defining as media these days."

To integrate across media, marketers must be more flexible about how content, consumers and technology connect with a brand.

Serious karma found Pete Blackshaw laying groundwork for my presentation when he presented the following slide in his keynote presentation earlier that day. "His We Can No Longer Silo Media" slide details how a brand can drive earned media through paid or earned channels. This is something we've been discussing for awhile and it's interesting to see how it's evolved in just a year's time.

Clear as Mud
Social Media can be triggered by paid, earned or owned media. And social media can also be paid, earned or earned media. It's clear that social media is messy. It disrupts silos -- media silos as well as operational silos in a company. Social media is not linear. It is a paradox. Is it shared media? Yes. Spreadable media? Yes. But it's not something a PowerPoint slide can capture with some Smart Art. Not yet.

As consumers, content and technology continue to change, we need to spend more time studying our audience as well as their online and offline behaviors. Mapping this against the sales funnel makes it easier to consider how various media can connect with customers through this cycle.

Iteration or Irrelevancy?
To better integrate something seemingly amorphous, we must plan for ongoing change. We must set aside resources, time and talent that can test and learn from the shiny new. If something new impacts business goals, it gets further consideration. Otherwise we risk losing focus on sites and technology that are getting a lot of industry attention. Planning for a constant of change is not second nature. It's not easy. But it's also the going premium for irrelevancy insurance.

** I kicked off the presentation with a mash up of Aerosmith and Alicia Keys to underscore how content and technology are meshing together to create some emotional connections with consumers. And I ended the presentation giving out examples of the first mash up we experience growing up. Music and candy go a long way to impact your feedback forms

More About Kevin:
Twitter: @prblog
LinkedIn: Kevin Dugan

Cross-posted to my personal blog, Strategic Public Relations

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I Want Viral and I Want it Now!

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:08:22 -0700

:: By Ashley Walters, Word-of-Mouth Marketing Manager

That’s the dreaded phrase you never want to hear your clients say.

I attended a session at the PRSA International Conference called “Spin Gold not Cotton Candy: Buzz campaigns that drive business results" hosted by PainePR. Immediately they got my attention by throwing out terms like “buzzability,” “buzzed about” and many other words Webster’s dictionary won’t recognize. I have a natural affinity for word of mouth marketing, so this session really hit home for me. The panel shared what they believe to be the seven principles to creating a compelling word of mouth marketing campaign while relating the principles to recent, “buzz-worthy” campaigns.

1. Research and insights

All great campaigns start by asking the right questions. Who is target? Where and why are they engaging? What are their motivations? What are the competitors doing? What are you overlooking? Answer those questions and use the insights to inform your strategy.

2. Remarkable idea

Good ideas take many forms. They don’t always need to be funny but they should seek simplicity and resonance. Use the napkin gut check - if you can write it down on a napkin while at the bar, then it’s simple enough to catch on.

Case Study: Earth hour

The idea: turn off your lights for one hour on Earth day. More than 318 US cities participated, reaching 80 million people. The campaign garnered more than 280MM impressions, 3,800 news stories and was a Twitter trending topic for 48 hours.

What can we learn from this case study? Simple, easy ideas are sometimes the stickiest!

3. Innovative execution

Innovation is relative – know your organizational limits. You don’t always need to recreate the wheel. Consider extending existing programs, audit current assets you have on hand and amplify them.

4. Be channel agnostic

Channels are ubiquitous but your content must seamlessly travel across all of them. Focus on the interests of your target and encourage them to tell the story in different ways (this is usually the hardest part for agencies and brands, but we can’t/shouldn’t always control the message).

Case Study: Old Spice

The idea: make Old Space a household name among a younger demographic. Old Spice filmed 184 unique spots as part of the “Old Spice Guy” campaign (believe it or not, the copy was drafted on the fly). Seeding the campaign with influencers like Ellen helped Old Spice generate excitement through celebrity endorsements. Old Spice strategically launched the campaign after the Super Bowl because they had a small budget. However, the content was so compelling, consumers still tied the campaign to the Super Bowl (it was named “one of the best commercials of the Super Bowl”). As a result, the campaign generate 150MM YouTube impressions, 1.5 billion PR impressions, was named the biggest viral campaign by AdWeek, and at the end of the day, Old Spice established category leadership and now appeals to a much younger demographic.

What can we learn from this case study? Platforms and channels are tactics not strategies but you need to respect their unique nature. The best campaigns should enable cross-pollination between all channels, but you must ensure content for one works on others.

5. Seed excitement with influencers

Empower influencers to share and engage with your story and allow influencers/stakeholders to be part of the campaign. Let your influencers reach the masses for you. Give exclusive content to those with the most resonance and seek opportunities to elevate people relevant to your brand.

6. Work holistically

Start with a core idea shaped by insight, layer paid, consumer relations, digital, etc.

Case Study: Doritos

The idea: make Doritos number one during the 2009 Super Bowl. The “Crash the Super Bowl” campaign asked America to create a Super Bowl ad. Simple and bonus, it takes the heavy lifting off of the brand! As a result, Doritos generated 1.4 billion impressions, saw a 16 percent sales lift, and received $40MM in ad equivalency all with a $45k PR investment.

What can we learn from this case study? Good ideas come from anywhere. Keep outcomes in mind – don’t just stop at the idea.

7. Report and measure

Buzz building campaigns only succeed if they achieve goals. Measure, measure, measure. Once you find a formula that works, keep it going.

So, I think we’d all agree there isn’t a magical formula to “make it go viral” but if you follow these principles, it does increase your chances of spreading the word.