Digital World,Digital look!!

Slightly off theme for the Digital Lookout but this is pretty amazing. Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry present their version of the future of digital technology and communication tools. Forget the space taking, power sapping, Microsoft Surface, you dont need it when you can have all the same functionality on any flat wall. Minority Report here we come!

Asset Managers – focus on the ’social’ aspects of your email marketing for excellent ROI

2009-08-28T13:20:00.000+04:30

from:http://www.stevepnewman.com

Regular visitors to my blog have noted that much of my recent comment has revolved around social media and how it could be utilised by financial services companies. Comments such as these make me reflect on why I cover certain topics in such details. With hindsight, I think it is fair to say that I, like much of the other media out there, (and no I don’t consider myself the next Woodward or Bernstein by a VERY long way), have to a certain extent been caught up in the ongoing hype around social media. Having said that as I have commented in the past, I review my blog analytics regularly and would say in my defence that these posts have been extremely popular with Asset Managers, Banks, Publishers and Agencies alike.

My recommendation however, particularly to Asset Managers, is that they should first of all focus on their email marketing strategies. I say this with a degree of justification from my perspective as much of the email marketing work I see in the Asset Management space both here in Europe and the US could be improved in many ways.

Of course working with my own clients, this is something I am always working with them towards and, rather bizarrely, I have been able to scratch the social media itch for many of them through simply analysing the results of their mailings.

To explain, one of the areas I pay particular attention to is the extent to which messages are seemingly opened and clicked on by individuals. As a general rule of thumb, I say that if an email recipient has clicked on a link on more than five occasions the email has likely been forwarded on to their team or colleague for review. In some instances this ‘peer’ endorsement (they have after all judged it worthy of forwarding on) can be integral in the communication going viral – sometimes to such an extent that clients are simply astounded at the reach into the marketplace they are able to achieve.

To quantify this, I did some long term campaign analysis for a client recently and out of the 10,000+ clicks their campaigns had received over the last 3 months, 12% could be attributed to one individual email address. Simply put, should this person unsubscribe or move companies, this particular Asset Managers email marketing efforts would be significantly damaged. Needless to say this particular individual is now receiving V.I.P treatment from the Asset Management Sales Manager in question.

Careful management of your email marketing particularly those of you involved in the B2B adviser space can prove extremely lucrative for your businesses. Indeed, I have written about this in detail previously and have included links to relevant articles below:

AIM Awards 2009

2009-08-27T16:51:00.000+04:30

A great night was had by all at the 3rd All Ireland Marketing Awards(AIMs) which took place in The Burlington last night. Lots of Cybercom clients were shortlisted including Diageo (Carlsberg, Guinness and Bushmills), Coca Cola (Sprite & Powerade), Ulster Bank, Vodafone and Guinness Storehouse. Diageo took home the main digital gong of the evening with the eMarketing Award going to The Bushmills Trek. The campaign was a pleasure to work on in collaboration with Wilson Hartnell PR and it was wonderful to receive such an accolade. It was one of four nominations Cybercom clients received in this category.

Our heartiest congratulations to all the winners last night, especially our own clients who won awards. These include Ulster Bank in the Sponsorship Management category, The Guinness Storehouse in the Tourism Marketing category, Coca Cola Ireland for Sprite (JD Quench) in the Advertising Campaign category and Coca-Cola Bottlers in the Corporate Social Responsibility category. The AIMs are rapidly becoming the Oscars of the Irish Marketing world and congratulations to the Marketing Institude for organising the highlight of the awards season.

Social Media Marketing Tops Digital Marketing Tactics for 2009

2009-08-27T16:06:00.003+04:30

With concerns over the recession and its impact on marketing, we decided to run a TopRank Reader Poll to discover reader (and their networks) preferences fordigital marketing tactics in 2009. Companies world-wide are cutting costs as well as looking for creative, high impact and accountable marketing. Our amazing readers both on Online Marketing Blog and followers at @leeodden helped uncover the top tactics.
Over the past 11 days 532 readers have cast 1559 votes for their 3 top digital marketing tactics for 2009 with Blogging, Twitter and Search Engine Optimization topping the list. Equally interesting was that out of the top 10 tactics, 6 fall into the category of Social Media Marketing. See the full list below along with other statistics about where voters came from as well as info about the readership of Online Marketing Blog.
The question we asked was, “What 3 digital marketing channels & tactics will you emphasize in 2009?” Here are the top ten tactics selected:
Blogging (34%)
Microblogging (Twitter) (29%)
Search engine optimization (28%)
Social network participation (Facebook, LinkedIn) (26%)
Email marketing (17%)
Social media monitoring & outreach (17%)
Pay per click (14%)
Blogger relations (12%)
Video marketing (10%)
Social media advertising (7%)
See results for the full poll of 45 different digital marketing tactics here.
Other stats and observations about this poll:
All 45 tactics received at least one vote, even “no holds barred spam”. Email marketing rated higher than PPC which is surprising given the budgets spent on PPC vs email. Some tactics are much easier to implement than others, or less expensive, which may explain a few of the top choices, such as Twitter.
Corporate web sites don’t rate in the top ten tactics. Does this mean the death of company web sites? At least in their current form it does. Some companies are succumbing to the social media perspective to extremes, like the Skittlessite which has been simplified to a page of search results from Twitter on the Skittles name. Others are adding social features to their company sites to compliment existing messaging and functionality. I suggest somewhere in the middle is where many companies will end up by 3rd or 4th quarter this year.
For promotion on Twitter, we generated a unique URL through Cli.gs, which offers some handy statistics as well as URL shortening. See the image on the right for the traffic to the Cli.gs URL, promoted exclusively on Twitter and the countries that traffic came from.
Overall, there were 36,144 visits to the Poll blog post over 11 days. Visitors came primarily from: United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia and spent an average of 2 minutes and 27 seconds on the poll.
The breakdown of traffic sources for the poll include (stats from Clicky):
Direct 13,010
Search 12,198
Links 5,335
Social Media 4,654
RSS Reader 652
Email 295
Ads 3
The large number of visitors compared to the number of respondents resulted in about a 1% response rate. For a one question poll, that’s low and undoubtedly, the large number of options (45 digital marketing tactics) may have been overwhelming.
Feedback on the poll ranged from (”3 tactics is not enough” to “There are way too many options to choose from” to suggestions for additional tactics including providing APIs and livestreaming content.
By now, most companies (we hope) have their 2009 online marketing plans in place. Does this ranked order of tactics mean you should change up your online marketing mix? The answer is that digital marketing tactics should match the needs of the situation, company resources, the target market and end consumer preferences. The proper tactical mix for an digital marketing program could be anything from the 45 tactics listed in the poll and still be successful as long as they support a valid strategy.
Some companies are prepared for digital and social media marketing programs and many are not. To get “ready”, companies need to develop strategic plans and get up to speed on both best and worst practices. This TopRank Reader Poll on Digital Marketing Tactics indicates a strong interest in social media marketing. Whether those methods of reaching and communicating with customers reconciles with existing marketing plans or not, companies would do well to allocate resources to some level of ongoing education, testing and development of expertise in the social media space.
Were the results surprising to you? Right on? We’d love to read your feedback and discussion. While future versions of this poll will actually be a multi-question survey, we’d love to get your feedback on making it a better tool for you.

2009-08-18T15:02:00.001+04:30

Post Digital Marketing 2009

View more documents from IN2marcom .com.

Social Media in Plain English

2009-08-06T23:42:00.002+04:30

2009-08-06T20:08:00.001+04:30

Facebook Social Media

View more presentations from D. scott Miller.

2009-08-06T20:06:00.001+04:30

Fortune 100 CEOs and Social Media

View more documents from Sharon Barclay.

Very Important Massage (must read)

2009-08-04T13:28:00.009+04:30

I appreciate All blogs or sites that use the its contents in this blog,and apologize about don,t mentioned its resource name .I must mention the source.

Next to this I would do it.This blog is as a collection useful content.

success go with you.

Amir

Google Adds More Options To Image Search

2009-08-03T14:44:00.000+04:30

by Erick Schonfeld on July 31, 2009

Image search is an area of intense competition between Google, Yahoo, and now Bing. Today,Google Images added some search options to make it easier to filter a search by color, type (face, photo, clip art, line drawing), and file size.

Most of these filters were available before in advanced search, but now they are available in the left-hand column. (A similar option column was introduced to the main search page in May, 2009). You can choose more than one option to automatically narrow down your search. Another option Google could add is sorting by images with a Creative Commons license. Italready does this in its advanced search options, but it is hidden there.

Yahoo and Bing have similar filtering options, Although Google’s color filter is the most advanced. It allows you to sort by 12 different colors, wheras Bing and Yahoo only let you sort by color or black-and-white images. Bing, however, does a better job with related searches, something Google is experimenting with in a slightly different way by actually trying to find And Yahoo has its own set of novel features in image search which Google doesn’t. You can compare the three with a search for “fruit” on Google Images, Yahoo Images, and Bing Images.

Digital strategy, a methodology

2009-08-03T14:25:00.001+04:30

Ah yes, digital strategy. It's one of those ambiguous terms with lots of promise attached to it. But what exactly does a digital strategist do? The answer will most likely vary depending on who you ask. I, for one, believe that it's not simply sitting around "thinking." Rather, developing an actionable digital strategy--one that helps an organization meet its business goals--requires some clear actions to fully understand the challenges and opportunities at hand.

I approach digital strategy projects by looking at four key elements on a needs/opportunity continuum: brand, business, market and user. (Note that this is not a new process, in fact many types of strategists use it. It works for digital and social media only when coupled with a deep understanding of this domain).

1. Brand

Why it matters: Understanding a brand's core attributes is key to developing a digital and social media strategy that syncs with an organization's character and essence. The user experience should convey a brand's attributes. Getting clear on what they are is essential to developing that experience. For example, if "daring" is a brand attribute then the interaction design and creative should embody that attribute. In many cases, brand attributes aren't communicated clearly online, or maybe the brand is evolving. In both cases, digital can help.

How to get there: The easiest and most effective way to understand the brand is to work with your planner or brand strategist as well as take a good read through the company's Annual Report, if available. I also like asking key stakeholders a series of brand related questions during Stakeholder Interviews. In addition, an audit of current digital properties against brand goals is useful input.

2. Business

Why it matters: As much as I love twitter, twitter for twitter's sake doesn't cut it. Real creativity is required when it comes to defining a features and functionality set and interaction dynamic that can help an organization meet its goals. This input also plays a key role in defining the project's success metrics.

How to get there: The key here is Stakeholder Interviews, and the more the better. I've found that 20 to 30 60-minute interviews done on a one-on-one basis provide a great foundation for understanding an organization's needs. The goal is to listen and document what each stakeholder knows about the brand, the organization's challenges, as well as to clearly understand what goals they will personally be measured on. Stakeholder Interviews also help identify what organizational challenges exist, both from philosophical and resource standpoints. Finally, findings from this phase can help key stakeholders (who often differ on important matters) align.

3. Market

Why it matters: An industry understanding of best practices is key to developing a strategy that is differentiated. Especially with social media, a relatively new space, it is important to understand what others have tried and what has succeeded, or failed, and why. (This is in addition to general digital best practices, which are vital to getting a project right. Digital Strategists, in my opinion, should have experience with user experience concepts).

How to get there: I like to complete a Competitive Audit as well as a literary review from services such as Forrester, eMarketer and any industry publications.

4. User

Why it matters: In the digital space, the end user or consumer is especially important because they are directly involved in the conversation. Understanding who the user is and what activities they have a propensity for, as well as what interaction models they will best respond to, is necessary to developing a feature set which will be embraced. Also of interest is how key users find information, what they feel is credible online and who they trust.

How to get there: Primary user research is vital to a solid digital strategy, especially because each target segment within each industry can differ. Primary research does not just include focus groups but may take the form of one-on-one interviews, photo studies, shadowing, etc. In addition to primary research, secondary research in the form of industry analysis and web site metrics are important. Understanding how current users use an organization's website and their behavior in relation to that site can be powerful.

This is a high level look at what I would consider comprises a digital strategy. The entire process is more detailed and complex, in my experience. Thoughts and feedback, as always, are welcome.

Facebook to accept OpenID, now the real fun begins

2009-08-03T14:23:00.000+04:30

I'm so excited by last week's announcement from Facebook that they will soon accept OpenID.

For those of you unfamiliar with OpenID, it is, essentially an open-source single sign on for the Web. It allows you, the user, to have one name and one password that works across many sites, as long as those sites accept OpenID.

Obviously, for OpenID to be significant, many sites need to accept it. To date, more than 30,000 do just that, including highly trafficked sites such as Yahoo!.

So Facebook accepting OpenID is a very big deal. In fact, I'd suggest that Facebook will be to OpenID what Oprah was to Twitter, for a number of reasons:

1. Facebook will take OpenID mainstream
Facebook, more than any other site out there to date, has achieved acceptability among the mainstream U.S. population. With more than 200 million members ranging from your boss to your nanny to every one of your former college classmates, Facebook is present everywhere, which means that OpenID could be too.

2. Facebook users pay attention
Facebook, like it or not, has a user base that pays attention to changes in both interface and policy. Hopefully they will notice this change and embrace it.

3. People sign into Facebook more often than they brush their teeth
What's the saying ... it takes 20 days of daily use to form a new habit, or something like that? Facebook's users visit daily, which means that they may become accustomed to signing in via OpenID, which will mean their propensity to use it will increase (as well as other sites' willingness to consider it).

Once OpenID becomes accepted by the Internet population, as well as the majority of substantial websites requiring sign-in, we are well on our way to a single sign-on for the entire Interweb.

What would that look like? I'm not completely sure, but I do know that it is a building block to the next iteration of wherever it is we are going.

Brave new advertising: experience the experience

2009-08-03T14:21:00.000+04:30

Have you heard the story about the woman who trimmed the ends of her pot roast before she put it in the pan?

One day, her older sister was watched her do this, and asked, "Why do you trim the ends of your pot roast before putting it in the pan?" "Because that's how mom did it," the sister responded.

"True," the older sister said, "but mom's pan was too small."

The advertising industry is in exactly this position right now. We do things because "that's the way we've always done them." We have a process and a vocabulary which served us well in a different time. We talk of "Big Ideas" and "Creatives" and "Mass Mediums." Advertising, as we knew it, was certainly the best we could do with the tools we had at the time.

But what happens when the big idea is a small one, the experience is just as important as the message the channels are many and distributed? Today we can create true interactive experiences and dialogs. It's a far better way to engage with people than shouting at them and hoping they'll listen.

So why, I wonder, do we hold onto antiquated processes and vocabularies when we have so much more to work with?

My best guess is two fold. First, change is hard. And second, we can't see the opportunity. But let's for a moment, assume that change is possible. How would we do things better? Here are three simple suggestions to get started:

1. Expand your vocabulary

If you talk in terms of the "big idea" and "creative briefs," think about learning a few new words. For example: experience brief, semantic web, interaction design, wire frames, user experience, meta-data. Do you know what those mean? If not, you should. These word are your future.

2. Be collaborative

Let go of the idea that the creatives own creative. (In fact let go of the idea of creative, see point 3). The digital medium, by nature, is more collaborative, and the process should be too. Who’s in your brainstorms? If it’s just art directors and copywriters think about inviting a diversity of team members to the table. The process needs to change for the output to change.

3. Embrace the experience

The consumer experience must go beyond the traditional messaging strategy. How do you create experiences? Start by hiring a team of sharp information architects, content strategists and analysts, and integrate them well. Add to that designers and copywriters. Voila, you have an Experience Group. Creative is simply a subset of experience, albeit a vital one.

I just joined a great advertising agency in Seattle called WONGDOODY. While they are rooted in traditional, they are smart, open-minded and collaborative, and because of that, we are making phenomenal strides in the digital space. I'll keep you updated on our work.

In the mean time, be well, ask questions, and push the status quo. We all can do so much better. We just need to be open to the possibilities.

Think global, tweet local

2009-08-03T14:18:00.000+04:30

The Internet is a great activator. Here's just one, small, local story that I'd like to share.

About 40 minutes ago, our local news station King 5 (@King5Seattle on twitter) tweeted that the Cherry Street food bank was about to run out of baby food. Here's a photo from @chrisdaniels5 of all the food that is left.

They also encouraged people to re-tweet, and posted a few more updates, one with a link to the food bank and how to donate.

About 15 minutes ago, two local business, Boom Noodle and Blue C Sushi (@boomnoodle and @bluecsushi) responded that they would be at the food bank within the hour with food.

For those interested in helping, here is a map and a link toNorthwest Harvest.

Thank you twitter. Thank you King 5, Boom Noodle, Blue C Sushi and Seattle. You are awesome.

I'll update as I learn more, or get on Twitter and follow the story yourself. And keep retweeting!

A second look at virtual worlds

2009-08-03T13:50:00.001+04:30

I admit it. I was a Second Life naysayer a few years ago. But I am beginning to change my ways. I just read some very compelling numbers that show the strong growth of virtual worlds.

For example, membership of virtual worlds grew by 39 percent in the second quarter of 2009 to an estimated 579 million, according to virtual worlds consultancy K Zero and reported by The Guardian. What's more, 39 percent of that growth came from children. And according to eMarketer, 54 percent of children will use virtual worlds by 2013. Numerous virtual worlds for kids, such as Poptropica, Neopets and Club Penguin, already have memberships in the millions, according to the report.

Then there's the marketplace. From a virtual goods standpoint, roughly 12 percent of Americans have bought a virtual item at some point in the last 12 months, according toFrank N. Magid Associates and reported by Gigaom. The research also predicts that the virtual goods and currency market is estimated to reach $1.8 billion this year, with 15 percent of young males purchasing virtual items—but also 15 percent women between the ages of 35-44.

While these numbers are compelling, I'm not suggesting that we all run out and create a presence in virtual worlds. I do think the same rules apply here as they do with other social media. Identifying business needs and your user behaviors should dictate where you build a presence.

What I am suggesting, is that we pay a bit more attention to virtual worlds. As core users get older and as technical capabilities grow (for example when users can move from one virtual world to another) we should all be ready to embrace this emerging media as a worthwhile connection point.

Personal Branding - Beyond Your Resume

2009-08-03T12:43:00.002+04:30

I recently found an article that someone sent me back in 1997. I don't know who gave it to me but I saved the article because while the concept was strange to me the idea intrigued me. It wasTom Peters' - the brand called you. As the fates would have ..soon after reading it I was down-sized from my job with the Georgia Lottery Company. Thoughts that a company would want to hire "more than a resume" were radical 12 years ago.

Who am I anyway? Am I my resume? That is a picture of a person I don't know. What does he want from me? What should I try to be? So many faces all around, and here we go. I need this job, oh God, I need this show. I CAN DO THAT - A Chorus Line - I Hope I Get It

Girlfriend, there was more - Peters said we should manage our personal brand. What did that mean? I should be wearing Jimmy Choos instead of Gucci or investing in a Mont Blanc instead of Bic pens? Did that extend to non business aspect of my life too? In one of my first resumes I included creative cooking. I was told it wasn't "professional" and took it out. Should I add it back it .. was that part of my brand called me?

But as confusing as it was to figure out how to navigate this new way of presenting myself in 1997, it no way reaches the complexities that the Internet and social media have in impacting the brand called you. A few weeks ago I was talking with my favorite niece about the photos on her Facebook page. Last year Jessica Robyn went from college student to career girl. She's more aware of her online presence, especially after the Facebook debacle of content ownership, these days.

Jessica might error on the more liberal side but what about the people in the Boomer generation who are being "down sized" or thought they were retired and now must enter the job market again? They are learning that their resumes must extend beyond paper (or digital) to LinkedIn, sometimes Facebook and if they are adventurous to Twitter. Finding the right balance is a new tight-rope act for many.

With Diva Marketing I guess I'm getting it right because someone who does understand personal branding, Dan Schawbel, publisher of Personal Branding Magazine, highlighted me in his May issue - titled Female Power Brands. Thanks to Dan and Justin Levy for the interview.

"In this issue, we’ve interviewed some of the brightest and most talented female brands on the planet .."

I am honored to join divas Sarah Austin, Natalie Gulbis, Laura Ries Valeria Maltoni and Anita Campbell who were also profiled in this edition. In addition, there are articles written by fabulous women: Ann Smarty, Christine B. Whittemore, Cece Salomon-Lee, Nisha Chittal, Judy Martin, Thursday Bram, Maria Reyes-McDavis, Becky Carroll, Pamela Slim, Camille Watson, Natalie MacNeil, and Angela Natividad.

For your reading pleasure .. one of the the answers from my Female Power Brands interview. Sort of like saying that .. Female Power Brands. (I'm thinking of turning the pink boa into a super diva cape! What do you think Connie Reece andMutha Mae?)

Personal Branding: What role do you think online personal branding will play in getting hired over the next few years?

Toby/Diva Marketing: Looking at how a personal brand fits into an organization's brand, I can't help think of enterprises that have opened social media to their employees. Those companies seem to have a strong sense of "self" e.g., their corporate brand and are secure enough to let their employees' brands complement the enterprise brand.

Personal branding done well extends business into more of a "personal" world. It's a way of taking what is on the inside and courageously letting people see it on the outside. Perhaps (some) women struggle with not being perfect 24-7 especially in the world of business. However, on the flip side it's a way of connecting with people and women do that so well.

As we speak Human Resources is online searching for information about their latest candidates. The perception that someone takes away after reading your posts or tweets or LinkedIn profile is an additional element that will be incorporated into a hiring decision. Ready or not .. you inevitably are creating a personal brand. Why not step back and be a little more strategic? ###

The Internet and social media have changed the personal brand game. We no longer have the luxury of only building our image, which does impact our credibility, based on a choice between designer shoes or flip flops. How do you maintain your authentic self online when Google has become HR's best friend?

What does personal branding in the 21st century mean when the whole world knows not only your name but your favorite toys, games, wine, beer, friends, dating status, doctors and opinions on life in general? Maybe when Dan and Jessica are in charge of running corporations it won't matter much but in 2009 it's a factor.

Kisses to our moms in the stars

2009-08-03T12:32:00.000+04:30

05/01/2009

"Social media" combined with Web 2.0 technology offers new ways to communicate with each other and in doing so we are reminded that "we are not alone." That someone hears us. That we share experiences. That we matter. Some smart marketers, who are responsible for brands, are beginning to understand that this form of communication can be a powerful "strategy."

Popping into Facebook this afternoon I saw Christine Lacombe's wall post and it resonated with me.

"Mom, you are no longer with me on the physical plane, but I carry your heart forever in my heart. I love you, Mommy."

Then I saw JessicaRobyn's tweet -

going to visit my mummy soon =(

The very heart of social media (or the tools that have been developed) was never meant for marketers to bring our brands to market. They were created for people to engage with people - from Twitter to Facebook to blogs and more.They are one more way in the early 21st century that people can emotionally touch & connect with each other across miles and cultures.

Christine's wall post added one more thread to our virtual relationship tapestry. Jessica's tweet is my heart - (Tears to Smiles for Susan) Today is Mother's Day. A day that celebrates the women who are special in our lives. Christine reminded us that today should also be about the women who were special in our lives .. and will always be so.

This post sends kisses to the stars where my mummy and Jessica's & Scott's, Christine's, Polli's, Marianne's, Bobbi's. Kaye Ellen's, C.K.'s, Sybill's, Kate's, Hilleratte's, Chris', Arline's, Auntie Barbara's and perhaps yours or someone you might hold dear is dancing and smiling.

Marketers as you explore using social media to bring your products and services to the marketplace keep in mind that you're not just creating an advertisement or a crafting a media release. If you are authentic, transparent and genuine you are demonstrating that your customers matter. How powerful is that?

The Marine General "Gets" Social Media

2009-08-03T12:24:00.000+04:30

06/24/2009

The best quote from the aima (Atlanta Interactive Marketing Assoc) June meeting last night was from Carl Warner, JWT/Atlanta who told us what a Marinegeneral had to say about social media.

"Web 2.0 is undisciplined theater."

Seems the agency had briefed the General (the Marines are a client) on social media. My sense is that Carl was a little disappointed in the General's response. Not me! I would have jumped up and hugged the General (Is it against protocol to hug a Marine general?) and said, "Yes! Sir, that was brilliant! You get it. Social media is undisciplined. It is messy. It is coloring outside of the lines."

I would have then expanded our discussion to what are "social media conversations." We'd probably talk about in social media conversations, as in any conversation, there are the people who initiate the discussion and those who respond. Conversations (including videos, photos and podcasts) that are started by civilians might not be nice and neat. In fact they may even be passionate. Who knows who will say what or when or how .. yes, General - very undisciplined. But when you think about it most conversations with friends are spontaneous and don't follow predetermined rules (except perhaps a few rules of etiquette).

Then I'd ask the General to look at social media conversations from the view of an organization or a brand or in this case the Marines. I'm betting he'd be pleased to know there can be .. should be .. some structure to participating in the conversation. That means planning. Strategy is something that I'm sure the good General understands well.

We'd go on to talk about the conversations that take place in the public "parks and spaces" of the internet say on Twitter or Facebook or MySpace versus those that happen in his digital home .. say a blog or community built by the Marines. Although house rules can't be imposed in public gathering places, just as you have expectations for guests visiting your home or office, it is acceptable to have a few guidelines for your online visitors. I'd point him to this post where he could see some great examples of corporate blogging/social media guidelines.

Along the way I'm sure we'd discuss how a strategic direction for his Marines who participate in online conversations would begin with some guidelines. We'd talk about the "brand values" and the love that the Marines have for the Marines. We'd talk about how even in a world that appears to be chaotic there can be some structure and at the same time authenticity. We'd talk about why the Marines would even want to be part of this untamed world.

I'm betting we'd come to the same conclusions that many business owner, CMOs, brand managers have when it comes to social media. At the end of the post or tweet or podcast or vlog or social network it's about the relationships we build and nurture with our customers which leads to achieving the purpose of the business or non profit or the Marines. To bring that full circle .. that can not be done without knowing where you are going. Yes, General the social world is indeed undisciplined but if you use social media as a marketing strategy that becomes more manageable with a strategic overlay.

10 Ways To Jump Start Your Social Media Thinking

2009-08-03T12:19:00.000+04:30

posted by Jason Falls in July 22nd, 2009

in Social Media

Jason Falls

My house is an easy, 20-minute, rush hour commute from my office via the Interstate. Unless it’s raining or there’s an accident somewhere along the way, I can zip into work on a fairly predictable path.

Tuesday was one of those accident days, so I took the back way, along River Road, a beautiful, almost tree-covered path along the Ohio River to downtown Louisville. The drive reminded me that our path to finding the right social media solution for our clients or organizations can also become routine, stayed and predictable. Every now and then we need to veer off the beaten path to ensure we’re seeing the forest as well as the trees … and the birds, the chipmunks and the kids waiting for the bus.

Regardless of your individual approach to finding the right solution for your communications problems using social media, most people will, at some point in the process, consider blogs, Facebook andTwitter. And those three tools may be the right solutions for your needs. Hopefully, you think beyond the easy landing places and find other channels that make sense for your goals. Still, we tend to follow the same path to determining what’s right or wrong for our clients or organizations. Perhaps we think our “proprietary process” or methodology covers every base. Perhaps it’s the only process we know. Regardless, we wind up on the same Interstate, taking the same exit, stopping at the same intersections and parking in the same lot every time.

So to take your strategic thinking off the beaten path and ensure that the ideas, plans and tactics you’re recommending to achieve your social media or communications goals don’t become stayed and predictable, here are some quick ideas to expand your thinking. This isn’t to say you should include this thinking in your final recommendations or action plans, especially if they do not help you achieve your communications goals. But putting yourself through the motions of these processes will give you bigger and better ideas to better round out your strategy:

Design a plan that does NOT include Facebook, Twitter or a corporate blog.
Look at your Facebook strategy. Apply it to MySpace and fix what won’t work there.
Assume your most passionate consumers are only engaged on forums and message boards. Develop five tactics to reach them.
Imagine your target audience is blind or deaf and find methods and tools to communicate with them successfully.
Write a Wikipedia entry about your product, service or campaign. Now re-write it without the B.S. as a consumer would.
Take 10 pictures that, without captions, visualize what you’re trying to communicate. Upload them to Flickr as a set and look at them every day.
Write a news report about the success of your campaign, starting with the headline that you achieved your goal and write the success story in reverse chronological order, imagining the blueprint for your success.
Go find a random, niche social network outside the realm of your target’s footprint and find a meaningful way to reach that audience with your message.
Ask yourself, “What would make the boring, old clerk at the corner store tell me about this?” Find a way to weave that in to your strategy.
Have the “What Are We Missing” brainstorming session outside, sitting on the grass while having a picnic.

Those are just my random thoughts after driving the pretty path to work. What do you do to stand on the desk and change your perspective? Let the comments me our collection of idea-starting ideas.

Social Media Idea Management: An intellectual capital hustle?

2009-08-03T12:10:00.000+04:30

07/16/2009

Imagine this scene - You've invited me to your home to discuss my ideas that may help you .. fill in the blank .. do your job better/make a better product/write a job description, etc. You also invite lots of other people. We find our way to your house. Instead of drinks together in your living room or coffee around your kitchen table you show us to separate rooms.

Then you walk away. However, naive that we are, we assume you are listening, care about us, that we matter to you. So we happily share our creative ideas. Although our thoughts echo in our empty rooms we smile pleased to be of service to you. Every once in awhile some one wanders by and chats briefly. But rarely if ever is it you. Not even to say "thank you."

Where are you? You're sitting behind an online dashboard gathering our intellectual capital as if it were digital diamonds. No girlfriend, it's not a focus group. Or maybe it is. Maybe this is the social media version of a focus group but with less honesty and less transparency. It's called IdeaXYZ or IdeaFireStorm or My(your brand) or ShareYourIdeas ... But don't expect anything back other than the satisfaction you derive in a bit of ego boosting on a brand site with some people who might vote you up or vote you down.

Are The Brands exploiting customers in the name of "engagement?" Are we so excited that The Brands have given us a way to directly and easily express our opinions that we clamor to give mega brands our creative ideas without even expecting a "thank you" in return?

Or is this simply the way that Brands approach the interaction of social media. Is it the way they view their role in the "conversation" of social media? Is it naivety or is it digital social media ineptness on how they perceive what is appropriate to build and nurture relationships?

Social media has two aspects. The first is digital research. That simply means reading posts and tweets of your customers to better understand who they are, what they care about and what they say about your brand. I think of it as raw, informal, qualitative, real time or what should be the "first listening post" in your marketing research strategy.

The second aspect is something that is unique to social media. Other than trade shows, there are no business initiatives that I know of where marketers can hang out with their customers. Like any person-to-person exchange it's rarely structured. It can get messy and to make it work there has to be genuine interest on both sides.

Establishing an authentic presence in social media is where many marketers fall down. "Most brands aren't doing it successfully." Shiv Singh, vice president/global social media lead Razorfish (study)

Then there is a new kid on the block - Digital Idea Managementor Viralsourcing - which seems to me a mash-up of these two concepts. Although based on the user group experience this has a stronger social media overlay. Customers are invited into a special company-based website to talk about what would make a better computer or latte or retail experience.

It's highly social since comments are open, often voting of each idea is encouraged and of course every post comes with the opportunity to be Dugg, Tweeted, Facebooked (new word) etc. One would naturally assume that the people who are on The Brand side would pop in to offer encouragement, provide feedback, say thank you. In other words to join in the conversation or as Shiv Singh says, "Establish an authentic presence." Rarely happens.

If I were a bettin' diva I would say that Digital Ideology sites will become more prevalent across industries and sectors. Maybe even to engage in real exchanges. For now it seems that companies are using it in a traditional media/marketing way.

Dell is exploring this model and sharing learnings. Thispresentation from Dell details their Idea Management strategy behind IdeaStorm. On slide 12 Dell outlines customer expectations as positive experience, action taken on ideas and recognition. With tactics on How To Address including: timely feedback, clear status updates, thank you mechanisms.

Happy to help you out dear brands but I expect you to join in t

he conversation with me and at least say

Social Media Hybrid Marketing

2009-08-03T12:06:00.000+04:30

07/22/2009

The more I read about social media campaigns without conversations .. The more I watch companies expand marketing departments to include social media positions that put a premium on tech skills versus marketing experience .. The more I see social media consultants focus on old/traditional messaging wrapped in new/social media Web 2.0 ..

The more I wonder .. I wonder if along the way marketers created a hybrid which isn't social media in the traditionalsense of building and nurturing relationships or providing added value to the customer. Let's call this - Social Media Hybrid Marketing.

In interviews I've asked many, many people what social media means to them and the over riding response was two words:people and relationships. In the world of Social Media Hybrid Marketing people and relationships seem take second or third place. The emphasis is on driving traffic, creating buzz, sending the message further into the virtual world where if the digital goddess is kind it will go viral. Consider the following in terms of this new model ..

4 Social Media Hybrid Marketing Tactics

1. Videos - It's leveraging technology to send messages likeHow Stuff Works YouTube video - that by the way pairs up with TV spots. Or FedEx's series also on YouTube. Sure there may be a social element like YouTube's comments .. however, the emphasis not to develop or build relationships with the customer and the people behind the brand.

2. Blogger Relations/Sponsored Conversations - It's using the relationships/influence of others who are active in social media (bloggers, tweets, vloggers, podcasters, etc.) to serve as the messenger for your products or services. Pulse of the Industry Blogger Relations Series explores the expectations from the point of view of bloggers, brand managers and agency folks. The brand manager often forfeits the customer relationship since the social media content provider is the gatekeeper to her community.

3. Contests - It's contests that capitalize on technology using platforms like Second Life where Coca Cola asked people to design a Virtual Thirst Machine. Or rent.com's video contestwhere the best voted promotional video won $10k. Similar to video messages the media many have social components but they are rarely utilized by those on the brand side of the equation to chat with customers.

4. Digital Idea Management or Viralsourcing - It's when acompany solicits customer suggestions on a platform designed to capture intellectual concepts to improve its products/service or company. Frequently there are social aspects from comments to voting that digg it up or down. Dell, Starbucks, Best Buy have incorporated this approach. Some companies seem to be challenged with how to talk to their customers even to the extend of saying "thanks" for your ideas.

Where does that leave us? Are these simply old marketing programs with technology twists and turns? Or additional ways to view social media? Or is social media changing to where the people/relationship side is not the heart of social media but a nice to have on the way to counting the number of views or clicks?

8 tips to make your YouTube video go viral

2009-07-27T12:43:00.000+04:30

Have you seen Will It Blend? It's a crazy series of videos by Blendtec, a small blender manufacturer. The series has been seen by millions of people. My favorite is Will It Blend? – iPhone. If you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and take a minute to watch. This YouTube video has been seen 1.6 million times.

Recently I appeared on MSNBC Your Business with JJ Ramberg to discuss how to make your YouTube video go viral. Viral marketing is the phenomenon of other people passing along your ideas to friends via email or blogs or other online means…for free! You can watch my appearance here. My 14-year-old daughter said that they should have taken away the swivel chair! (You’ll see what she means if you watch).

Here are some tips to make video go viral. Creating a video is easy and it is free to post onto YouTube. All you need is a simple $300 digital video camera and a YouTube account.

Most importantly: Your video needs to be funny or amazing or remarkable or have some fascinating information or be controversial. Basically the video needs a reason for people to pass it on. If you can find pass along value connected to your organization and its products, great. I'm not a fan of stupid contests or celebrity endorsements unrelated to a company and its products.

Tip # 1 – Homemade is just fine

You don’t need to hire a professional. A homemade quality video can work great. But plan ahead and shoot several takes to get it right.

Tip #2 –Your video should be no longer then 2 minutes (preferably less)

Think very short. Although YouTube will accept a video that is less than 10 minutes, smaller than 100MB try to make the video between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.

Tip #3 -- Make your description clear and specific.

To best promote your video, you'll want its text description on YouTube to be accurate and interesting. Use descriptive keywords and language that people will find when they search for videos like yours. And use the correct categorizations on YouTube so people will find it.

Tip # 4 -- Don't attempt "stealth" fake customer insertions to YouTube.

Some companies try to sneak corporate-sponsored video onto YouTube in a way that makes it seem like it is consumer-generated. The YouTube community is remarkably skilled at ratting out inauthentic video, so this approach is fraught with danger.

Tip #5 – Try a series of similar videos to build interest

Sometimes a series of videos works great. The Blendtec Will it Blend? videos are a perfect example. The even sell t-shirts now!

Tip #6 – Tell everyone about your video!

When upload your first few videos, you are likely to hear a deafening silence. You'll be waiting for comments, but none will come. You'll check your video statistics and be disappointed by the tiny number of viewers. Don’t get discouraged. It takes time to build an audience. Make sure people know it is there and can find it. Create links to your video from your home page, product pages, or online media room. Mention your video in your e-mail or offline newsletters, and create links to your video as part of your e-mail signature and those of other people in your organization.

Tip # 7 – make sure bloggers know about the video

Sending a link to the video to bloggers or commenting on other people's blogs (and including a link to your video) is a good way to build an audience. If you comment on blogs in the same space as yours, you might be surprised at how quickly you will get viewers to your video.

Tip #8 – Experiment a lot to find something that hits

While I think it is difficult to purposely create viral marketing buzz, it is certainly possible. Create a number of campaigns and see what hits, then nurture the winners along. Think like a venture capitalist or movie studio and try a number of things in order to get that elusive hit.

Good luck. And if you do create a cool video, let me know.

Media Execs Predict End Of Free Internet Content

2009-07-27T11:53:00.002+04:30

Posted on: Sunday, 26 July 2009, 07:32 CDT
IAC/InteractiveCorp chairman and CEO Barry Diller said the era of free Internet content is coming to an end.Speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm conference in Pasadena, California, Diller challenged traditional Internet business models in which consumers pay for Internet access while content is provided free of charge.
In the future, he said revenue will be generated from advertising, subscriptions and transactions.
“It is not free, and is not going to be,” said Diller, adding that Web users will have to pay for the content they watch and use.
The transition will not be smooth, he said, and the years ahead will not be easy for content providers.
"We are transitioning from an old form to a new form and those things are always bloody," said the media and technology executive, who also serves as chairman of Expedia Inc. and Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc.
The Internet is still in its infancy, and while content was initially provided at no charge to the user, the goal was always to find a way in time to generate revenue, he said.
Diller’s comments echo those of other media moguls, such as Liberty Media Corp.’s John Malone and Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger, who say that Web users will have to pay for the content they watch and use.
Diller, 67, whose IAC/Interactive runs the Ask.com search engine and the Match.com dating service, called the view of the Internet as a system of free communications a “mythology”.
He said his own news Web site, “The Daily Beast”, has "done a very good early job" creating compelling content.
The site is not difficult to finance, but "it's going to have to earn its way,” he said.
Burbank, California-based Disney is working on a subscription-based Internet product that the company believes will expand its opportunities in Web sales, Iger said. The product will allow improvements in online advertising by allowing marketers to target consumers by tracking their activities and interests.
“We have ample evidence both in traditional and new media that people are willing to pay for quality, to pay for choice and to pay for convenience,” said Iger, speaking at the conference on July 22.
“And they are willing to pay for what they perceive as value.”
News Corp., publisher of the Wall Street Journal and owner of the Fox TV and film studios, is also looking to generate revenue through its Internet businesses by charging customers for news and entertainment, according to a Bloomberg report citing remarks from Jonathan Miller, chief executive officer of News Corp.’s Digital Media Group and News Corp.’s chief digital officer.
The Wall Street Journal already charges customers for online subscriptions.
In the future, some companies will offer content that users are willing to pay for, while others won’t, said Miller, and online journalism will increasingly transition to a “paid model”.
News Corp.’s interactive revenue fell 11 percent to $187 million during the first quarter of this year, led by a 16 percent drop in advertising at sites such as MySpace.

People Still Selling Sex On Craigslist

2009-07-27T11:20:00.001+04:30

Posted on: Sunday, 26 July 2009, 07:10 CDT

Millions of people peruse Craigslist everyday for everything from clothes to cars, but recently it has gotten a lot of attention for prostitutes using it to sell their services as well.

Despite promises to eradicate all sexual services being advertised on the site, officials insist that Craigslist is still unable to rid itself of advertisements placed by prostitutes.

Craigslist, often referred to as an online garage sale, is also a centralized networking community for people to find jobs, housing, items for sale, and services, etc.

"It makes me wonder, do they really think I'm sort of stupid, some bobble-head who will think they changed it?" said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who sued the San Francisco-based company earlier this year, accusing it of being the largest source of prostitution. "They seem to insist on being cute and playing games (and) it's getting old."

Sheriff Dart shows no indication that he has any intention of letting up on the issue. He has engaged in a relentless battle with the company along with an attorney general who believes that he could intensify the pressure on the company to really put an end to online prostitution.

They admit that when Craigslist re-categorized the section from “erotic services” to “adult services”, it eliminated the majority of the graphic images, but there is no denying that Craigslist remains a popular way to advertise sex.

Now that the site is under so much scrutiny, the advertisements have become creatively covert. Many ads offer vague services by women in suggestive poses with statements reading “Just imagine what we could do” or “Your wife or girlfriend won’t do this for you, but we will”. They also list prices that depend on time required for the service.

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said in an email that he considered the lawsuit to be nothing more than a publicity stunt.

"The citizens of Cook County would arguably be better served if their sheriff spent his time addressing actual crime, rather than using the courts to generate personal publicity," he wrote.

With the enormous amount of criticism and pressure to do something - especially after a man from Boston was accused of killing a woman who had placed an ad on the site - Craigslist announced its changes in May.

Craigslist promised not only to get rid of the “erotic services” category, but also to pre-screen all submissions to the new section and even charge a fee.

The Craigslist attorney suggested to Dart’s attorney that the lawsuit be dropped, saying that it would be unnecessary with the changes.

However, questions arose about the new category and how the company would manage its content. According to the attorney general, similar promises made to oversee erotic ads were not kept in the past.

"They are so thinly disguised, the real question is how they are permitted to be there if, in fact, the site is doing the screening and policing that they said they will do," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

Dart's attorney Dan Gallagher said that it is impossible to read certain ads and not notice that they are solicitations for prostitution. He noted a particular ad by a woman offering escort services that last as little as 15 minutes.

"They (Craigslist) go to great lengths to say this is just a site so that people can meet one another to fulfill their romantic aspirations," he said. "I don't think having an escort for 15 minutes is a fulfillment of romantic aspirations."

On top of that, Gallagher says the ads are becoming increasingly obvious in their intent than they were under the category of “erotic services”.

According to him, even code phrases for payments such as "150 roses" or "200 diamonds" that detectives once saw are being replaced with the actual price.

Requests for information regarding the Craigslist monitors, such as how many there are, their qualifications and what type of ads they refuse to post, have yet to be given to officials.

"It's painfully obvious they're just blowing me off, humoring me,' said Dart.

Blumenthal said that Craigslist has responded to his requests, but that he is still awaiting answers to many of the same questions asked by Dart.

"At the very least what we want to know what is the list of prohibited terms, what are their criteria and procedures," he said. "If they need it, we will give them a list of terms."

An alliance of 40 attorneys general deliberating and would be able to announce its next move by next week, according to Blumenthal.

The sheriff and his detectives are conducting sting operations and making arrests.

---

Number Of Chinese Web Users Greater Than US Population

2009-07-27T11:04:00.003+04:30

Chinese state media said on Sunday that after rising to 338 million by the end of June, the number of Internet users in China is now greater than the entire population of the United States, AFP reported.

The official Xinhua news agency cited a report by the China Internet Network Information Center that the entire country’s online population grew by 40 million in the first six months of 2009.

The report said that in the first half of the year the number of broadband Internet connections rose by 10 million to 93.5 million.

Official data showed that about 95 percent of townships were connected to broadband by early June and 92.5 percent of villages had telephone lines that could be used for Internet access, Xinhua said.

China Mobile vice president Lu Xiangdong was quoted last week as saying that when the country's three telecoms operators, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom invest $40 billion in a national 3G network over the next year, rural coverage is expected to improve even more.

The Internet has become a forum for China's fast-growing online population to express their opinions in a way rarely seen in the traditional, strictly government-controlled media.

The government has even increased its control over Internet usage in recent years as the growing strength and influence of the web population has prompted concern in Beijing about potential social unrest.

In one of the largest known Internet blackouts in China, the government cut off online access to most of the northwest Xinjiang region after rioting in the capital earlier this month.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a range of other sites used for networking and sharing content were also blocked from being used.

2009-07-27T10:49:00.001+04:30

Good Research Tells A Story

View more presentations from KellyMcG.

2009-07-26T16:24:00.001+04:30

Blogging, Social Networking Social Link Building - The Web Nirvana Package

View more documents from Patrick Seifried.

2009-07-26T16:23:00.002+04:30

The Green Workplace

View more documents from Earthsite Team.

2009-07-26T16:14:00.001+04:30

Wave 4 "power to the people"

View more documents from Julius Trujillo.

2009-07-26T15:43:00.001+04:30

Cucumber Ru09 Web

View more documents from Joseph Wilk.

Zappos Personalization: Making Sure the Shoes Fit - eMarketer

2009-07-26T09:35:00.002+04:30

Zappos Personalization: Making Sure the Shoes Fit - eMarketer

Innovate Or Die

2009-07-26T00:12:00.005+04:30

View more documents from North Venture partners.

Digital environments?

2009-07-25T23:27:00.001+04:30

Since the late 1980s it has become accepted wisdom that we are living in a 'digital environment', one that embodies a 'law of code' (a law founded on US libertarian values regarding free speech and private enterprise) that will bring nations - and individuals - together in a global market featuring ubiquitous access to information via electronic media. That environment is supposedly both unprecedented and inevitable, although delayed in parts of the world such as Kazakhstan or Zimbabwe that have not inhaled the zeitgeist.

This guide, and by extension the caslon.com.au site, question some of the digital pieties.

The following pages suggest that it is more useful to speak of a range of digital environments, in which culture is often as important as the availability of infrastructure or hegemonies regarding markets, the state, individual autonomy and community.

Few of the digital environments are unprecedented: many of the laments about digital woes (or merely the discontents of modernity) look distinctly traditional and rhetoric about the evils (or wonders) of the net could have come from writing about television, the telegraph or the printing press. Eschatological visions of the Telecosm, the Noosphere or what Nicholas Negroponte acclaimed as 'Being Digital' (sort of 'cool' without taxes or inconveniences such as governments and the distressingly un-hip lower classes) are also misplaced.

Like any description of an environment it is necessarily patchy. We have highlighted online and offline writing about work, gender, the arts, morals, communities and the state