My Blog

How YouTube Can Get You Regular Stream Of Job Applicants

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:21:00 GMT

Recruiting skilled workers is a tedious & expensive yet necessary business activity. Your organisation`s survival depends on the performance and commitment of its number one asset: People

However, stiff competition to grab the best talent coupled with the rising costs of traditional means of recruitment such as online & offline advertising & hiring of recruitment agencies, has forced businesses to look for better and more cost-effective ways to fill in vacant job positions.

Business organizations, whether large or small, can make use of various Social Media tools to save on recruitment advertising costs.

More importantly, these tools when used and managed properly can deliver far more superior results compared to the traditional means of recruitment.

How Can Videos Help Your Organisation Gain Qualified Staff?

Among the powerful weapons every business should have in its recruitment arsenal are videos.

Video sharing sites such as Youtube, the largest video sharing site in the world and also the second biggest search engine is the main place to use, but don`t restrict yourself just to YouTube.

There are 30 other video sharing sites available, all with different types of audiences.

Video`s don’t just deliver your message they also engage and convert viewers into participants of the entire conversation. This is a situation a written job advert and recruitment post can never accomplish.

Instead of just describing in words and pictures how cool the work place is, videos can show the actual office and other team members in action.

This creates a mental and emotional connection between the recruit and the company.

What’s more videos can show your prospective recruits:

The audio & visual description of the job

*What is it like to be a part of a team / of the organisation

*Testimonials and feedback from customers and employee

*The benefit & perks enjoyed by employees

*The company’s corporate philosophy (Mission, vision & corporate values)

*How the company’s products & services work

Videos For Recruitment Are Being Used Today Extensively

Are You Taking Advantage Of The Opportunity?

Given the enormous benefits businesses can get from using videos to recruit skilled workers and build their brand, it is no wonder that many of the top companies and government agencies such as Google, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are using extensively, videos to achieve their human resource goals.

Creating compelling online recruitment videos is just one part of the equation. The other critical component is to get your target audience to notice and watch your audio-visual messages.

Circulation of your videos is what gets your recruitment applications to start rolling in. To achieve this, it’s important that your content is distributed through the use of video sharing sites.

Getting started with your recruitment video marketing is easy but to be successful, like many parts of business, you need to be armed with the right information and strategy

Here is an example of a recruitment video where those apply are volunteers.

Healthcare Marketing Strategies

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 05:49:00 GMT

The healthcare industry has always had a prominent stand in the marketplace. It has always appeared to be evergreen & crisis proof with continuous job creation, but the health professionals increasing presence on the internet reveals that things are not the same anymore.

The economic downturn hasn’t ignored the healthcare industry from taking its toll. Recession is grinding the industry on both ends.

That is evident from facts like:

Rounds of massive job cuts & benefit cuts in hospitals, practices & pharmaceutical companies

Hospitals & healthcare providers cutting deals

Number of hospital closings

Financially pressured, low profit margin health plans

Doctors’ uncertainty about health reforms & new legislation, etc.

On the other hand recession has forced patients to prioritize basic necessities, i.e., bread butter, groceries and gas, over non emergency medical care and elective procedures. The result is marked drop in patient visits to health care providers.

Physicians are concerned, anxious and fearful about their future income.

Social Media - The Cure To Ailing Practices

Since the vast majority of people look for information on doctors and hospitals online, more and more physicians are turning towards using social media and blogs each and every day, to mark their online presence and define their online reputation.

Free social mediums like

Facebook

Twitter

Blog

are commonly being used by doctors, physicians & healthcare facilities & hospitals to have online presence and provoke discussions with patients.

According to a recent study from Manhatten RESEARCH, “Doctors are also catching the social media fever.”

“…the average physician now spends a full work day (eight hours) per week using the internet for professional reasons.”

Social Media’s leading physicians like Dr Kevin Po whose blog, KevinMD.com, averages 310,000 page views per month, making him a superstar in the physician bloggers community.

He is actively and passionately engaged in promoting their practices by using social media including blogs, videos, podcasts, radio shows, TV shows and free social mediums (Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc).

Social Media Being Used As Educational Tool

Since people look for information online, more and more doctors are getting into using social media as an educational and marketing tool.

According to Dr. Kevin Pho, “We needed a way for physicians to offer commentary quickly for patients to know how medical news affects them,” Pho told HemOnc Today. “Whenever a drug is recalled or there are changes in cancer screening recommendations, for example, I can provide that context on my blog, which can be dynamically updated at the speed of news break.”

Physicians’ presence on Facebook, Twitter & other social media tools makes them plugged into the way everybody communicates and seals patients’ decision to pick them as their doctors.

Social media is casting its magic not only on doctors and physicians, but hospitals and practices as well. The CEOs of hundreds of hospitals are communicating with consumers through tools like Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. to promote themselves.

MacArthur OB/GYN Practice in Texas is a leading example of doctors-patients communication and practice promotion via social media.

Their patients can post photos on their Facebook page, where the doctors post news about their practice and the medical world at large. Their Twitter account has more than 800 fans at large. Their Twitter account has about 1600 followers.

Make Social Media Your Top Business Promoter

Recession is a phase that will pass sooner or later. The bigger challenge is learning and adapting to latest trends to interact and socialize with patients to promote business practice’

Dr. Kevin Pho says his KevinMD blog gets 250,000 page views a month, and he has more than 22,000 followers on Twitter. "You need to have a diverse array of ways to reach patients," he said in an interview. "Patients are on Facebook. Patients are on Twitter. Patients are on blogs."

Let’s not wait to be under the social media spotlight.

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PR Crisis Management: Making Social Media Your Best Ally

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:53:00 GMT

As more & more consumers turn to the web and social media to express their satisfaction or displeasure over a product or service, more than ever now is the time for businesses to radically change the way they engage & respond to customer complaints.

Why Traditional PR Practices Alone Won’t Work Anymore

Gone are the days when companies just hired a public relations agency with traditional media connections such as television, print and radio to neutralize whatever negative publicity that was directed at their products, services and brand.

Social media, as a user created content-driven channel, has practically turned everyone into a publisher and media outlet at the same time which means the old way of controlling information that could damage the company’s image is now obsolete.

Everyone with access to social media tools such as blogs, social networking or video sharing sites can now share to the whole world their experience if your company’s service or products doesn’t meet their expectations.

The Real PR Crisis: No Social Media Strategy

It even gets worse.

Not only will people tweet, blog or create videos about your products or services if they don’t like them, anyone who reads and consume that content will certainly pass it on to their friends and followers.

This has the capacity to snowball into a serious public relations crisis that’s going to cost you money and may irreparably damage your brand’s image and reputation which you have painstakingly built.

Without a corporate social media strategy & presence in place, you cannot cope with the onslaught negative news that’s going to cost you ultimately your entire business.

Why Social Media Is Your Best Ally

The good news is that social media works both ways.

If consumers can spread unflattering viral videos, tweets or blog articles about your product or service, they can also circulate positive reviews and comments about your brand.

If social media has given customers the voice and power to express their feelings and thoughts about the products and services they purchased, businesses too can leverage social media as the means to inform, explain and engage the public.

Social Media can be your company’s best ally once you have the proper mindset, strategy and management skills in place to use the tools effectively.

Turn A PR Crisis To An Opportunity With Social Media

You can give your side of the story without any space and editorial restrictions that traditional media such as television, radio and print may impose anytime, anywhere without any limits.

Suppose one of your customers is unhappy with your service or product, your company can easily post a blog message, video or tweet explaining why it happened and what steps your company has taken to rectify the situation.

You can easily counter nasty rumors or half truths spread around the internet by clarifying everything in an open and honest manner through various social media and your own web assets.

It even gets better.

By telling your story in a transparent and honest manner, you will unleash the real power of social media as customers spread the word to their followers and friends generating you positive reviews and brand recognition that no amount of paid adverts could ever accomplish.

Protecting your brand and reputation requires work but with the right social media strategy, customer satisfaction management tools to monitor your online reputation and expert advice on how to use these tools, there is no reason why you shouldn’t embrace social media as a means to protect and enhance your brand’s image.

Unleash Your Website’s Power To Recruit Top Talent (And Boost Your Profits Too)

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:15:00 GMT

While most businesses design & use their websites to meet sales and marketing goals, many companies miss the opportunity to utilize their web presence to meet their human resources recruitment objectives.

Are You Wasting Money Recruiting Online?

As competition to attract & grab skilled workers heats up, companies are spending more money online to ensure they get ahead of their rivals.

From job ads, boards and recruitment agencies, businesses all over the world recognize the value of tapping the best talent available and are paying top dollar to get them.

And while paid services do deliver results, over reliance on these methods can be very expensive raising costs per recruit and eventually affect the profitability of any enterprise, quite ironic as recruiting top talent is supposed to increase profits, not reduce them.

As your company’s 24/7 portal to the world, your corporate website is attracting not only prospective customers and clients but also potential recruits who are searching for career opportunities.

Doesn’t it make more sense to maximize your organization’s existing website to attract talented workers instead of just depending solely on external services to get you a consistent flow of qualified job applicants?

Why Talented People Would Like To Join You

Success always attracts more success. Talented people will always want to work for successful organizations and be a part of something they can be proud of.

If your brand reputation is well-regarded in your industry, then chances are many skilled workers would be attracted to the idea of working for you.

For most people, their work is an extension of their personalities and no one wants to be associated with an organization with an unsavory reputation. This is the reason why practically all job seekers check out a company’s website to investigate and see if there are job opportunities that would interest them.

Is Your Website Actively Recruiting For You?

Your business maybe a dream workplace for employees but unless skilled workers searching for a job find your website, you won’t be able to exploit your own web presence to get ahead of the competition.

Worse, if the potential recruits cannot find you online, they will eventually end up working for your rivals, a situation you must definitely avoid.

To get your recruitment message out, you need to optimize your recruitment web pages and not just the products and services you are normally offering so that search engines can easily index them, making it easier for skilled recruits to find your recruitment information and other important details.

Use a variety of social media tools to spread your site’s recruitment message.

Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and LinkedIn should be a part of your overall hr recruitment strategy. Social media is an excellent channel to get noticed by top talent who are not actively seeking work but would like to grab the chance to join your company.

Make Your Website Your Top Recruiter

It’s not enough to just get prospective recruits to visit your site. You need to get them comfortable and engaged so they will take the next step which is to make contact either by email, phone or even submit their resumes online.

In order to turn your visitors into prospective recruits, you need to:

* Provide valuable employment information that will answer their questions and clarify all doubts.

* Engage and make them feel comfortable using your website’s navigation tools.

* Reinforce the idea that your company aside from making great products & giving exceptional services, is also an awesome place to work too

* Show real work situations and conditions so prospective recruits can see what it’s like to actually work for your organization

How Your Competitors Spy On You: The Secrets Revealed

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:55:00 GMT

If your company has a website and extensive internet presence, chances are your business rivals are observing your every move and gathering competitive intelligence.

Industrial espionage is a fact of life in business.

Whether it’s looking at a competitor’s price sheet in one of their outlets or website, using a mystery shopper to test buy a product or service online, making an email inquiry or even liking a Facebook page, companies all over are gathering competitive intelligence in order to survive.

Expanding and enhancing your business`s online presence is a double-edged sword: you spy on them, they spy on you too. The million dollar question is:

Who is doing a better job of gathering and denying information to the competition, you or your rivals?

Why You Need To Protect Your Information

As you create and distribute more information about your company, its products and services all over the web, your competitors get to easily pick up and monitor your activities online.

Just like in real life warfare, if your competitors know much about your activities and plans, they can try to make competing offers and other counter moves to neutralize, at the very least, the effects of your offline & online campaigns.

Imagine all the hard work, time and money wasted to develop a product and campaign only to get mediocre results because your competitor was able to outsmart and outmaneuver you in the market place.

Business Counter Intelligence strategy

Given these challenges what strategies should companies adopt so they can minimize giving vital business information to competitors but still give prospects everything they need to make a purchase decision?

Before considering any business counterintelligence strategy, there should be a top to bottom awareness of the need to protect vital company information that’s openly available as well as confidential ones.

Awareness includes identifying which information is to be protected & which ones can be released to the public.

Management and distribution of content is another critical area that needs to be addressed. This includes choosing which information can be posted in the company’s website as well as in various Social Media assets and which ones are considered for internal consumption.

You may also want to conduct a review of your website and see if its properly optimised as well as checking the content itself to see if it’s sharing unnecessary company, product & service information that creates little or no value to your clients.

And then, there is the creation of the content itself.

What medium should you chose to deliver your message?

What about filters to ensure your video, article or web page don’t give away any of your secrets and competitive advantages to your competitors without coming across as too ‘distant’ and stiff to your clients and customers at the same time?

Those are some of the challenges you will be encountering as your business gets more and more immersed with the online ecosystem.

Fortunately, just like everything else, these bumpy roads can be overcome with the right tools, information and mindset.

It also pays to have experts who have the experience & expertise to help you with these types of business development issues at your side.

How about you? Are you worried about being spied upon by your rivals?

How do you feel about competitors gathering information on your business?

Please share with us your experiences and thoughts by posting a comment.

Social Media Stories - A Collection

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:04:00 GMT

Blogs can not only speak your mind they can also help build the reputation for your organisation.

Sun Microsystem's CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s blog received around 400,000 hits a month in 2006.

Its not the number of visitors that makes his blog a Social Media success but the candidness of his blog posts that makes it stand apart.

He approves comments that are both positive and negative which sometimes includes the inanest of the comments.

Transparency in blogs from someone who holds the highest position in the company increases trust from the consumers apart from projecting a positive outlook for the company to the outside world.

Lesson:Social Media when used with complete transparency and integrity especially from key decision makers in an organisation not only promotes their brand on its own but also increases trust in consumers for their products and services.

Zappos on Twitter

We all know that Twitter is a great Social Media tool that speaks your mind to your followers.All most all Fortune 500 companies Tweet on their products.

One of the most obvious of companies to make Twitter work is Zappos,an online retailer that showed other corporates the 'real Twitter use'.

The idea of using Twitter as a means of exceptional Customer Service is ingrained in the Corporate culture ever since Twitter began its services in 2006.

Most Zappos employees have an active Twitter account and the Zappos website has a page that aggregates all the streams from Twitter.

The reason Zappos is a hit on Twitter is mainly because of its ability to bring the company to life.Zappos CEO has lent his personality to the company brand, a personality that is very friendly,helpful,funny and more importantly trustworthy.

They use Twitter to highlight interesting facts, and to talk to their consumers.Talking to Zappos is like talking to a friend that happens to sell shoes.

Lesson: Ingraining Social Media into the culture of a corporation means that every consumer interaction is personal.

Ford and Social Media PR

Ford uses Twitter not only to promote their vehicles but they also used it to avert a what would have been a public relations disaster online using Social Media.

There was an internal gaffe when Ford’s legal department sent out cease and desist letters to forum owners using Ford trademarks.

Obviously the story was twisted and changed, and in the end people were outraged.

What makes this internal gaffe a Social Media success story is the way, Scott Monty ,Ford’s community manager who was quick to spot what had happened and let the world know what exactly led to this blunder and told everyone the true story using Social Media.

But the way in which each and every step of the recovery process ,such as things being fixed and compromise being arrived at where informed to the public using Social Media.

Lesson: Social media can also be used to inform consumers in real-time of how a corporation is reacting to events that affect the customers.

When Criminals Go Social, So Do The Good Guys

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:51:00 GMT

As more and more people use various social media channels to communicate with friends, family, customers and clients, criminals and other lawless groups are also taking advantage of the convenience & anonymity of the internet to expand their nefarious activities.

Fortunately, authorities in various countries are working hard to be in step with the times and are now actively using social media to protect law-abiding citizens from people who threaten their life, liberty and property.

One interesting case is how the Philippine police successfully used social networking sites to hunt down and stop a fiery gang leader named Ivan Padilla.

Criminal Tweets

At age 23, Ivan at first glance, would look like any young man you would bump into in any of the affluent districts in Manila.

He wears the latest outfits, hangs out with friends in the trendiest bars & clubs, drives expensive cars, likes high tech gadgets and dates a lot of pretty women.

There's just one major detail that sets Ivan from the rest though: Ivan is also the leader of one of the most vicious and notorious carjacking gangs in operating Metropolitan Manila & its suburbs.

His group (mostly in their late teens and early 20s) includes pretty & curvaceous young women whose job is to befriend and identify target victims.

They extensively use Facebook and Twitter to coordinate criminal activities using coded messages.

According to the police, Ivan's group has successfully stole or robbed at gunpoint dozens of luxury cars including one owned by the Philippine Foreign Minister.

The gang was also involved with several robberies in some of the more posh residential areas in Manila.

Facebook And Twitter To The Rescue

However, the gang's use of social networks also proved to be their undoing.

With the arrest of a key gang member who readily gave the police access to his Facebook & Twitter accounts, authorities were able to identify other syndicate members, track down their past and present movements and learn more about their 'modus operandi'.

They also uncovered coded Tweets to other gang members on areas they were planning to strike in the future.

The long arm of the law finally caught up with gang leader Ivan Padilla when information from Twitter told authorities his whereabouts.

After a brief hollywood style car chase and shoot out with the police operatives, the young gang leader died on the way to the hospital after sustaining a gunshot wound on the head.

Police are still hunting down the rest of the gang members including their good looking lady cohorts at this time.

Law Enforcement And Social Media

All over the world, law enforcement officials are taking advantage of the benefits of social media not just to stop criminals but also to reach out to the community and help out in other emergency cases. Here's a few of them:

In Australia, the NSW State Police has it's own Twitter, Facebook and even Youtube accounts to help facilitate interaction between the public and the police force.

The Philippine National Police has a dedicated 24-hour hot line and officer monitoring their Twitter, SMS, Facebook and Instant Messaging accounts for any information that would help in any of its criminal investigations.

In the USA, the Boston police monitors tweets so they can be more proactive when it comes to emergencies. It's more of a early warning system they have in place to protect the community.

In Canada, the Toronto police has been very proactive in communicating its messages to the public as well as asking their help to solve crimes using Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.

In India, the Mumbai's Traffic Police has maintains a Facebook page to encourage citizens to help out in reporting traffic jams and snarls around the city.

The list goes on and as more and more people make social networking sites and other forms of social media a part of their daily lives, law enforcers need to be there to in order to fulfill its duty to serve and protect.

At the end of the day, social media is NOT about sites and tools. It's really about communities.

While there have been questions on whether law enforcement officials should be monitoring their online information, it would be fool hardy for any government not to have any social media presence for the simple yet compelling reason:it is where people are hanging out.

If government agencies and traditional organizations such as the police have recognized the importance of social media to get in touch with the community, how much more for businesses and professionals?

The Army Doesn't Fear Social Media, So Why Should You?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:44:00 GMT

One the reasons why many businesses are still hesitant to embrace social media as part of their overall operations is their fear of losing control over sensitive company information.

Many executives and business owners are quite nervous over what employees and officers may tweet or post in their blogs and other social networks.

We cannot blame business owners for these worries.

After all, industrial espionage and online reputation sabotage is a real menace and companies all over the world do spend a small fortune to secure classified and even mundane information ( From delivery schedules to the latest production and even details on the latest corporate meetings) lest it falls on "enemy" ears and hands.

Banning Isn't The Answer

However, totally banning the use of social media tools and sites from the work place isn't a very realistic solution.

All employees do have a life outside the office and whether employers accept it or not, they WILL talk about work whether the location is inside a pub or over the dinner table in their own homes.

What's is not sure however, is if the topic of conversation is flattering to your business or not.

This where executives & businessmen can actually learn a thing or two from a most unlikely organization: the military.

The Military Embraces Social Media

In a recent report, the Telegraph reported that a British army battalion commander will start tweeting during his six month tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Lieutenant Colonel Dougie Graham commanding officer of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, a force of about 450 soldiers, plans to tweet regular updates on his unit so that families back home can get in touch with them constantly.

It is also a way to get messages of support from the home front to the men.

Lt. Colonel Graham also said that he and the British Defence Ministry are in discussions on the content to be posted and other issues before going live very soon.

He added that opening a Twitter account is the natural thing to do since all of his friends and that of his men communicate regularly via social media such as Facebook, Myspace and of course, Twitter.

Now, if there's one organization that should be understandably paranoid on social media, that should be the military.

After all, it's all about life and death.

Ever heard of the saying: 'Loose lips, sink ships'? That's how serious the Defence establishment is with regards to information security and management but now the ministry is very open to such initiatives, with some caveats of course.

It is not only the British armed services that has opened its doors and minds to the use of social media.

Even the United States military has recently reversed a total ban on the use of social media among its soldiers.

Of course, there were some guidelines and other rules in place to ensure security is not compromised but on the whole and as a general rule, soldiers can communicate freely with friends and family using social media tools.

Social Media Strategy & Policy Is The Key

Given these very welcome developments, shouldn't businesses shed off its fear of social media and start using it to grow their business?

Based on the examples shown by the US and British military, companies need to have a social media strategy and policy to ensure everyone is in the same the page and understands the risks and benefits involved.

For sure, the Defence establishment has realized the enormous benefits to both morale and public relations if they loosen up their social media policy while businesses should realize that their employees' personal social network can contribute to the over all growth of their operations.

That is an untapped network of prospective customers who already trust a member of their organization, a source for new & talented employees and 24/7 channels that exposes and enhances your company's brand image.

In summary, you cannot stop your employees from talking about your business.

However, businesses can influence the messages your own people will be relaying to their own personal social networks and make it work positively for the company.

Small Business Social Media Success Stories - Blendec

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:07:00 GMT

Will It Blend series on YouTube (YouTube reviews) which is one of the most popular series on the site was made out of a very small budget but was an instant hit on Youtube.

George Write,Marketing Director of Blendtec who created the video came up with a simple yet brilliant idea for the video where Tom Dickson,CEO of Blendtec attempts to blend objects in their blender.

This simple idea lead to a five-fold increase in sales for Blendtec.The secret behind the huge success of this video was Blendtec leveraging Youtube's subscriber base and trying something fun and original.The video is 'on a roll' and continues to entertain and sell till date.

Lesson: Social Media need not necessarily cost a lot of money. Creating funny,original videos apart from leveraging an existing large user base can lead to a dramatic increase in sales.

British Elections: Social Media, The Ultimate Winner

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:46:00 GMT

Social Media played a key role in deciding the outcome of 2010 British General elections. According to a study by Reuters Institute of Journalism, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter played a major role in getting the youth actively participate in the election

This election would be very much known for the way the political candidates garnered support for their campaign through Social Media and web-based applications rather than conventional, traditional media such as Posters and Newspapers.

From viral adverts to sentiment tracking, internet polling,slap meters and pretty much everything else, technology appeared to offer political parties powerful, new, innovative ways to engage voters and audiences.

Facebook launched a Voter Registration page in a partnership with the country’s Electoral Commission.

This led to 14,000 extra voter registration forms downloaded via Facebook and a huge increase in visits to “About My Vote” following a large awareness raising campaign to the UK’s 23 million Facebook users.

A website, where initially one could only socialise, share photos and chat with each other. Facebook became a platform for people in the 2010 general elections to discuss the various contesting parties policies and agendas which was vital for political campaigns.

Similar social networking sites such as Flickr, Twitter and You Tube became sources of communication with Twitter being cited as a "core communication tool" in political and media circles.

According to a study by Nick Newman, the 2010 elections did mark another significant milestone in the onward march of the internet.

The study revolves around interviews with 30 journalists, political advisors and Social Media experts who were directly involved with coverage or strategies for the campaign.

Newman believes that this study is indeed a good news for both the elections and the media.

He goes on to add,"This research shows how the internet enabled the election to come alive and engage, particularly the younger electorate.

This study (also) shows that far from becoming disengaged from the political process, as some had feared would happen, young voters tweeted, blogged, and used online chat-rooms to discuss the last election."

It was the successful Obama Internet Marketing campaign throughout 2007 and 2008 which inspired the political parties in the UK to follow a similar strategy.

As former presidential contender Howard Dean’s advisor Joe Trippi aptly says, “There is only one tool, one platform, one medium that allows the American people to take their government back, and that’s the internet.”

The future for Social Media and networking sites unlike television and newspapers is quite bright as far as the UK is concerned.

Newman goes on to add “More UK citizens will be online and they will be more confident in using tools like Twitter and Facebook to create, debate and share content and ideas.”

Perhaps these elections are the first step for social media and its there for taking for anyone in the UK who wishes to promote their messages.

Newman concludes, “Technology will remain central to making elections more efficient. It will also continue to put more tools in the hands of audiences to make politicians and the media more accountable.

In the next elections there will not be any speculations on the use of Social Media in the election campaigns, in fact, Social Media will not be even be discussed as an election campaign tool instead it will be THE PRIMARY election campaign tool that the politicians will be looking towards.

Also, the strategies of political parties and mainstream media organisations will be more focused than ever on the need to build meaningful two-way relationships with voters and audiences of the future.

There are lots of positive outcomes in the use of Social Media for British elections 2010. It has made the youth aware about their government and by communicating with them through their own desired means.

The use of Social Media tools by journalists and mainstream news sites, such as live blogs and digital correspondents, has further amplified the impact of social media even further.

Hence, one can conclude that with posters, television and newspapers not even being looked at by political candidates as a means for gaining support, internet age has progressed immensely and social media is here to stay.

Australia’s First ‘‘twitterised’’ Campaign

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:09:00 GMT

After announcing her first election campaign as Prime Minister, Julia Gillard sent her trademark pledge ‘‘to move Australia forward’’ to her Twitter followers numbering more than 23,000 yesterday.

She also filmed a short video on the Labor Party website, posted on YouTube, wearing the same white outfit and pearls shown on national television, speaking again of ‘‘moving forward’’.

Labor party has a dedicated team to campaigning on Social Networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The party has its own interactive 'social network space' where voters may list events, create discussion groups or contribute to policy debates.

Michael Allen of Campaigns and Communications Group whose team designed Labor party's web portal says ‘‘ The rise of social media as a political communication tool is on par with the advent of television and telephone’’.

Barrack Obama’s online strategy in the 2008 Presidential election campaign has been a huge source of motivation to the Labor Party, the way Social Media was used to raise money and recruit volunteers.

Labor party's website has a downloadable Campaign literature apart from links to contacting traditional media, such as newspapers and talkback radio stations.

According to Labor Party's National Secretary Karl Bitar ,‘‘It’s (Social Media) really lowering the barriers of engaging people’’.

He also added Ms Gillard will also be among the bloggers on the Labor Party's connect site, when he released Labor party's first campaign TV advertisement by tweeting the link to the video on YouTube.

The Liberal party said it would also upload a new campaign ad on YouTube. According to Ross Monaghan, a social media researcher at Deakin University ‘‘The site shows quite clearly political parties are being much more sophisticated in their use of social media,’’

He also added ‘‘They are using the power of social media to gather support for particular issues and to motivate members to get out there and work for the party.’’

Mr Monaghan also said this campaign could be Australia’s first federal ‘‘Twitter debate’’.

Voters are also likely to use sites such as Facebook to encourage their own social networks to support particular causes or parties, he said.

The leaders of both parties picked up hundreds of new Twitter followers yesterday — Ms Gillard’s following grew around by 2000. Whereas, Tony Abbott added 800 more to his followers.

In one of his Tweets yesterday Mr Abbott told us he had ‘‘dropped by the Channel Ten studios this evening’’, complete with a link to a photo of him smiling with the crew.

On Friday night, he re-launched Liberal Party’s revamped website, which has an interactive section where supporters can post comments about party policies.

The website also has links to YouTube ads and Flickr photographs. Julie Posetti, a social media expert at the University of Canberra, argues this will be Australia’s first ‘‘twitterised’’ campaign.

‘‘We will see a ‘Twitter electorate’, a body of technologically and democratically engaged public [that] will demand attention,’’ she says.

‘‘I think social media has moved on from being a novelty to something more mainstream ... What impact that has electorally is yet to be determined,’’ she added.

According to a study on the British general election, social media helped political parties organize volunteers more efficiently, with parties reporting three times more face-to-face contacts through tools such as virtual phone banks and online social networks.

Australian Elections 2010 - A Social Media Analysis

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:10:00 GMT

The Australian Elections 2010 is going to make a very interesting reading from a Social media analysis perspective.

For the very first time we will come to know if Social media has an impact on how people vote.

On the 18th July, Twitter was the 'voice of Campaign' for both the parties.78% of conversations on Twitter revolved around Labor party or Julia Gillard and 22% was for Liberal party or Tony Abbott.

Liberal & Labor Social Media Efforts - An Analysis

Both parties have their own Social Media channels but they were not used to the full extent, just like television advertisements, they were used to broadcast messages and did not make use of the integrated applications that would propagate their campaign messages to higher number of audience.

To make things worse, neither party were responding to the huge volume of discussions that
took place in Social Networks.

Social Media breakdowns for both the parties:

Twitter

Julia Gillard tweeted every few hours.

9,389 following 20,752 followers.

Tweets include political stance, Campaign promises and Charity.

She used Twitter to respond to concerns from the electorate.

Link: http://twitter.com/AustralianLabor

Tony Abbott does have a Twitter handle.

20 Following 10,950 Followers

Tony Abbott had not Tweeted since July 17th.

Tony Abbott did not use hashtags in his tweets.

Link: http://twitter.com/LiberalAus/

YouTube

Labor Party

The Labor Party has a dedicated YouTube channel.

It displays Campaign advertisements.

Gillard’s Personal videos on the election campaigns were also shown.

Subscribers 1504

72 Videos

Channel Views: 185,685

Total Upload Views: 765,591

http://www.youtube.com/user/australianlabor

Liberal Party

The Liberal Party has a dedicated YouTube channel.

There was room for improvement for personalising the content.

New uploads to the site were rare.

74 Videos

Subscribers: 6

Channel Views: 20,985

Total Upload Views: 230,283

Joined: September 28, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/liberalpartytv

Facebook

Julia Gillard had 55,870 likes on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julia-Gillard/161674172327

Australian Labor Party

1,620 likes on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/LaborConnect

Tony Abbott has 7,920 Likes on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tony-Abbott/216342268645

Liberal Party

6,751 Likes on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/LiberalPartyAustralia

Summary

Neither party made full use of the Social networks (Some did better than others as we will discover), they mainly used them to broadcast messages and left it to the community to moderate it for themselves.

One positive outcome is that, they got their political messages into the Social spaces where the voting public spends majority of their time online.

How A Shirtless Guy Spiced Up An Old Brand

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:12:00 GMT

It's probably the most talked about product campaign of the year and based on the response from fans, customers and even (shock and horror!) the company accountants, it could also be the most successful online-offline communication operations of the decade too.

We are referring of course to the highly successful Old Spice campaign that featured the now iconic, Old Spice Man / Guy played by actor Isaiah Mustafa. If you haven't seen their first TV commerical, here it is:

Conceptualized and managed by ad agency, Wieden + Kennedy for Proctor & Gamble, the campaign has become as Mashable put it, the archetype of a successful social media campaign because it was able to seamlessly combine both traditional advertising mediums with online social media with stunning results.

For an after shave, body scent & wash product line that's closely identified with a much older generation (think late 50s to 70s era, that old!), repositioning and reaching out towards the younger and more active age groups through the use of all available channels is nothing short of a marketing coup.

So strong was the following and effect of this ad, it was even awarded an Emmy for Best Commercial just recently.

The Campaign Strategy: Target The 'Influencers'

The entire campaign kicked off with the television commercial 'The Man Your Man Could Smell Like' which introduced the Old Spice Guy NOT to their targeted users, the Gen X & Y (early 20s to early 40s) market, but to the ladies (girlfriends, wives, etc.) instead.

This proved to be a very smart move because, how could any red blooded female ignore this very confident & good looking man talking to them with all abs ablazing? Plus, all the over the top effects...from the yacht, the tickets which turned into diamonds and ending up riding a horse.

Old Spice later released additional television commercials emphasizing their main proposition (smell like a man, man.) but the first and the second ad still featuring the Old Spice Guy really scored a real knock out as people began to talk about it everywhere: in the office, on the streets, cafes, parties and of course --- online.

Which brings us to the second and actually the real groundbreaking part of the entire campaign...

Social Media Conversations: Making It Real & Personal

With the television advertisements generating a lot of online and offline buzz, Old Spice took the entire campaign to a much higher level through the use social media.

And we are not just talking about creating a social network accounts and gathering fans and followers.

In a move that surprised and eventually delighted everyone, the Old Spice Guy churned out more than 84 well made and personalized Youtube video responses to all sorts of questions posed by ordinary & celebrity fans, bloggers, followers & friends in Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Answers & Reddit whether it's a personal one or not.

The conversations plus the humor, antics and quality of the response given by the Old Spice Guy endeared him more not just to the person he answered to but everyone else who viewed the videos which resulted to --- you guessed it, the video and brand getting blogged, twitted, shared and talked about in half the internet world.

To give you an idea on what kind of engagement was involved with these videos, check out the following samples:

Here, the Old Spice Guy responds to a tweet by George Stephanopoulos, a well-known political columnist, who asked him how President Obama can woo back female voters.

In this second clip, the Old Spice Guy gamely accepted the request by a non celebrity Twitter follower if he can propose marriage to his girlfriend. Now, who wouldn't get excited & feel touched by this gesture?

As you can see, this brilliantly executed social media strategy worked so well that it encouraged more and more people to share the videos and talk about it more and more.

Keeping Score: Performance And Results

So, just how successful is the Old Spice campaign? Are these all just hype with no substance and real money coming in?

Let's take a look at the numbers as compiled by social media site Mashable and online video research company visiblemeasures.com:

No. of Videos Made: 180+
No. of Views on Old Spice Commercial On Youtube: 19 Million
No. of Views on Response Videos: 120 Million (combined)

Ok, those are awesome figures but here's the crux: what about sales?

According the Nielsen, Old Spice product sales have risen significantly since the campaign was launched in February from 49% and up to 107% depending on the product. Nielsen attributed these sales as marketing driven and it goes to show the impact of the combined traditional tri-media & online social media to Procter & Gamble's bottom line.

Lessons For Small Businesses

The story of Old Spice gives significant lessons for small businesses who may not have the budgets of Procter & Gamble or even the Old Spice Guy's looks and physique.

Social media presents all businesses, large or start ups, the opportunity to go back to basics ---- treating the customer as a partner and a friend.

Customers today do not want to be seen as a market, statistic or a niche. They want to be treated as people, individuals and in turn they want to buy from real people as well for the simple reason that people trust other people, not an organization of nameless individuals.

With the power of social media and the internet, your customers can make public anytime and anywhere what displeases them and what satisfies them.

It's no longer like the old days when people just keep to themselves any bad service or product they have experience or used. In the same way, your customers are also passionate when they are very happy and would like spread it around to their friends, family and colleagues because it's human nature to share good will and things that could help.

We can certainly learn a lot from the Old Spice Guy himself:: anything is possible if you can maintain an open mind to change by talking and engaging the very people who can make or break your business.Once your customers learn to treat you as one of them, you are on your way to a lot of success.

Federal Election Social Media Campaign. Faulty Strategy?

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:53:00 GMT

Just few weeks before the polls opened, new media observers had the Labor Party's Julia Gillard having the edge over her rival, Tony Abbott in their online social media battle.

Only last week, Nielsen McKinsey unit NMIncite.com scored 3 rounds for Gillard and a shutout for Abbott after the company examined the key performance indicators in 3 leading social media sites:

You tube, Twitter and Facebook.

The company reported that the lady PM had more and timely relevant tweets, more engaging videos (and views of course) and her Facebook friends outnumber her rival almost 5 to 1

As for Tony Abbott's social media campaigns, it was quite discouraging. His Youtube and Twitter accounts have not been updated since June.

Worse, there more people who viewed his video parodies than his official youtube videos and there more people liking anti-Abbott Facebook pages than his own official Facebook page.

However, looking at this week's election results, with the vote tally tied at 72-72 for the Liberals and Labor, one would be prompted to ask...does social media really work for political campaigns?

If it does, what possibly could have gone wrong with the Labor party's social media campaign when all pre-election online indicators point to a Gillard victory and not a tie?

The exact answers may not be readily available as it's been barely a week after the election but what we can do is take a look at what has happened so far and try to offer insights.

Social Media Works If Managed Properly

While online social media victories doesn't automatically translate to an actual election victory for a candidate as there are many other critical factors that would determine electoral victory (a last minute resurgence of the Labor coalition, unanswered campaign issues thrown at Labor, among others), neglecting social media and failing to incorporate it to the entire campaign strategy is a surefire way to lose an election.

Whether social media is a vital tool to win an election is no longer an issue. U.S. President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign is proof enough of that.

Obama's vastly superior internet strategy gave him not just additional media channels and publicity opportunities, his adept use of social media gave him a 24/7 hotline to his 13 Million supporters across America and a steady flow of donations that raised more than $ 200 Million for his campaign, funds which his party wisely used to buy more ads in the offline world: TV, radio, television and live events.

Global Tools, Local Execution

Looking at the Australian federal elections, it may seem that the contending parties have looked at the Obama campaign as a model for their own social media operations which is very good however, there seems to be no obvious effort to adopt the Obama model to Australia's own political traditions. This is a critical issue and here's are two reasons why:

1. Social Media Campaigns And Parliamentary Systems

Australia's system of government is parliamentary, where the Prime Minister is chosen by members of the majority party, with at least 76 seats or votes, in the House of Representatives and not by direct vote by the electorate.

Unlike the U.S. Presidential system where popular or direct votes matter even if the actual votes that determine the election of a president come from the American Electoral College (the members of which promise to vote for the candidate who wins the popular vote in a state), an Australian political party only needs to get 76 of their party mates elected in their own respective local seats in order to capture the position of PM..

In short, winning the local seats is the key to victory in the national level.

Given this fact, shouldn't a party's online campaign and social media operations in particular, focus on getting ALL of their local candidates the needed publicity, tools and online presence?

Naturally, it should be so but then looking at the actual social media execution by both Labor, Liberal and even the Greens...most of the content were about the leading personalities and contenders for the PM position such as Abbott, Gillard and Brown.

There was hardly any material and content on their party mates based in other parts of Australia.

While it is also important to give strong support to the party's 'public face', the thousands of fans, supporters in the social networking sites won't be directly be voting for any of the PM contenders.

They will be voting for their local House of Representatives candidates on election day. Doesn't it make sense for the party to give their local candidates be given a lot of exposure online and be a part of the social media conversation?

After all, a voter may like for instance Julia Gillard & the Labor Party but he doesn't like their local candidates stand on local issues. Left unattended to, this voter may decide not to vote Labor and instead go for the Greens as an example come election day.

2. Voting Turnout And Practices

Election turnout has been quite a problem in the past U.S. elections, something that is unheard of in modern Australian politics since voting is compulsory (it's required by Australian law) and any registered voter who cannot give a good reason why he or she hasn't voted is slapped, though modest, a fine.

Obama's 2008 campaign devoted a lot of energy to get specific groups to register and vote. These large chunks of traditionally non voting people were crucial in delivering to the Democrats key states that were identified early on as Republican.

To accomplish this mission, Obama skillfully communicated to his millions of supporters via social networking sites and Youtube the need to go out and get their friends, family and strangers who have not registered to do so.

Obama's strategy was a stroke of genius. Instead of trying to fight for a bigger share of a small pie or cake, he simply baked a new one by getting non participants to register and vote for him.

Lessons For Businesses

The Obama campaign and the recent Australian elections offers a lot of valuable lessons for business. As discussed so far, the most important lesson here is that there's an absolute need to really know the market, the customers and their cultures (and sub cultures).

A successful business model (such as Obama's) can only continue its winning streak if it's properly planned and executed after taking into account the local market conditions (form of government) as well as populace's habits, traditions and cultural niceties.