Pepsi skips Superbowl ad in lieu of $20M social media campaign

In a seismic move for the advertising industry, one of the superbowl’s largest and most consistent advertisers (23 years straight!) won’t be making an appearance this year. Instead, Pepsi is running a campaign to see how they can better local communities.

[thanks to Mashable for posting a blog about this]

What does this mean for advertising? Well for one thing it indicates a huge shift in the way that money is being spent – companies big and small are embracing social media on an increasing scale. It will be interesting to see if this campaign works.

Another important thing to note is how advertising itself is changing. Whereas ads used to be focused on how one company differs from the other, now companies are trying harder and harder to be better than the other. Not just better at advertising, or creating a superior product, but also more socially aware and better for the community.

Pepsi’s social media campaign to better communities is far from the first campaign to do anything like this. Coca cola recently launched its Expedition 206 campaign through social media. Maybe Pepsi was a little jealous? And of course I can’t speak about charitable giving without mentioning Target, who has been giving $3 million per week since I can remember, and who ran a campaign on Facebook to let fans decide where the money went.

This underscores that the value of social media is not simply another medium for your message. It is a medium for a different message. It is a way to connect with your audience (but you better have a darn good reason to connect). If you are just spewing web content and re-hashed tv ads, you won’t get the attention and engagement that we marketing gurus so desperately desire. Give your audience what they want, and that doesn’t always mean deals and free products. In the age of information, give your audience…um…information! You are the expert in your industry, you are passionate about your product, so convey that through a discussion.

As I prepare for long periods of sitting in front of the TV and computer this holiday season, unable to move because I’m in a food coma, I will be noticing which companies use this holiday season to give something to their audiences, and engage them in a meaningful way. You can do the same, or you can just read our blog after the holidays and I’ll let you know what you missed. Happy holidays!

- Andrew

We Can See Right Through You

In social media (and pretty much any other type of business), transparency is pretty important. If you are a business that is trying to increase buzz or awareness of your products or services, being sneaky and shady definitely doesn’t help create a pretty picture. If you are open, it allows your consumers to give real feedback and engage in real conversations.

Take Tiger Woods as a real-life example. Yes, yes, we know that everyone everywhere is talking about him (hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em). When the scandal broke, Tiger remained hidden and unavailable. Had he responded immediately, even with a vague statement, media speculation would have not been as damaging or rampant. We do have to commend him though, because eventually he did release a statement. Most other celebs choose to just stay cooped up, waiting for the storm to blow over. Or they just go on an interview without ever actually talking to their fans. We may not respect Tiger Woods’ decisions, but at least he stepped up to the transparency plate.

On another, more social media oriented note, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook’s creator and golden boy) also recently practiced transparency. His recent letter, which first appeared on your Facebook home page and now on the Facebook blog, addressed changes that were being made on Facebook that would directly affect the users. He tells you exactly what you need to know: how these changes will be made, when, how, and why. And even though Facebook received some backlash for their changes in privacy settings, we commend Mr. Zuckerberg on his transparent letter in attempt to let everyone know what was up.

That being said, transparency helps. It just does. Having conversations on the web and engaging consumers is about having real, open discussions with people. You can’t have a meaningful conversation if you aren’t acting like a real person. Even more so, timing in your transparency goes a long way. The sooner, the better.

So take the time to make sure that you are being transparent. Reflect on the conversations you are having and make it a priority to be clear and fully open about who you are and what your purpose is.

How it should be

We thought we would take this opportunity to show you why we’re awesome (and modest too!). If you are engaging your audiences correctly, your “Entrance Sources” in Google Analytics should look something like this:

Why, you ask? Because if you are giving people valuable information on social networks (like how to read Google analytics, wink wink), they should naturally be clicking through to your website to find out more. In our case, social networks are responsible for 3 of our top 5 entrance sources. Yay!

So what do we do with this information (besides pull out the champagne)? In our case, Twitter and LinkedIn are the social networks giving us the most traffic, so we want to make sure and focus on those networks. We want to tailor our content to those audiences, and specifically engage in those arenas. We shouldn’t worry too much about Facebook, because that doesn’t seem to be where our target audience is interacting.

Make sense? If you have any questions about how to get Google Analytics set up, how to read your results, or how to engage your audiences, just let us know in the comments (or if you are more old-skool, you can always just throw us a line)

Notes from the 2009 Blog World Expo – B2B Social Media

Our Director of WOM, Andrew Krebs-Smith, recently went to the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas. Below are notes from a session on Social Media for Business to Business (B2B) clients.

Often B2B companies find it hard to enter the social media space, because they see it as a direct-to-consumer method of communication, which doesn’t help their corporate client audience. But social media has something for everyone, and this panel underlined the value of social media for B2B companies.

Most of all, social media is valuable for B2B companies because it is all about creating and strengthening relationships. As most salespeople in the B2B world will attest to, making a sale involves much more than just having a product that people want to buy. When B2B client relationships can involve multi-million dollar deals, and long-term relationships, the purchases/agreements are not made on a whim. Rather, they inv0lve creating a relationship, not just between companies, but between people.

So how can social media help? Teach your salesforce to leverage social networking tools (LinkedIn, Twitter to name a few) to create and maintain relationships with clients, prospects, and anyone in-between. This also lets all the salespeople within a company know what each person is up to, so efforts aren’t duplicated and networks are maximized. Make sure to track these efforts through your CRM tool so that you can assess return on invesment (ROI), cost-per-lead (CPL), and other key metrics.

So how do you get the ball rolling? Bring together interdepartmental team to hash out differences, get everyone on the same level, talk about situation, etc. Talk about best policies, talk about what is recommended, allowed, and how social media can help achieve your business objectives. You don’t want employees neglecting these powerful tools, but they need to have specific goals and training on how to use them so they aren’t spinning their wheels trying to figure everything out.

And please, PLEASE don’t just use these tools for blatant promotion. These tools can be harmful if you abuse them and see them as just another place for your corporate message. Someone on the panel had a great analogy: “[you] don’t walk into a cocktail party and say ‘hey! buy my book!” Instead, give your prospects value. Share your resources with customers. Use these tools to keep in touch with customers and give them support.

The question is no longer IF B2B companies should be using social media, but rather HOW, WHEN, and WHERE. Any questions? You know where to find us.

Speakers on this panel: Kipp Bodnar, David B. Thomas, Kyle Flaherty, Mica Viehamn

Uh Oh, It’s the FTC!

It looks like the time has come for the government to have their say in the phenomenon that is social media, and they are doing it in a big way.

The Federal Trade Commission brought the whip down! For the first time since 1980, they revised the “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” by requiring bloggers and other word of mouth advertisers to disclose when they are being paid to review products. And by “other word of mouth marketers”, they mean Facebook and Twitter, too. Not including disclosure means more than just a warning or a slap on the wrist; it can mean a nice $11,000 fine. Ouch.

Luckily for us, we have always put an emphasis on honest and openness, following the WOMMA Ethics Code. From the get-go, it has always been our policy to ask bloggers to disclose their relationship with our clients. But for others who many not have been quite squeaky clean, the WOMMA code is no longer just a mere suggestion; it must be obeyed.

These new rules seem like pretty serious stuff if you ask me. But to be honest, we couldn’t be happier about this. It means that companies are actually relying on bloggers and tweeters to promote their products. Even more so, it means that people are listening to what these social media participants have to say, and taking it seriously. 

Ultimately, FTC’s recognition of the power of word of mouth as a legitimate means of advertising and communication moves social media above being just “trendy”. This is the real deal, people! And we couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it.

Public Outbursts Make for An Interesting Week in WOM

I never pay too much attention to tennis, and I knew if anything noteworthy happened at the Video Music Awards, I’d hear about it for weeks following, so I missed both Serena William’s and Kanye West’s outbursts on National television. Thanks to my Twitter-addiction though, I knew about these celeb slip-ups within minutes of them happening.

At the US Open Tennis Semi-Finals, Serena Williams went a little overboard when confronting a line judge. Okay, she went WAY overboard, apparently saying “I swear to God I’m [expletive] going to take this [expletive] ball and shove it down your [expletive] throat, you hear that? I swear to God,” to the line judge.

Slapped with a $10,000 fine and tarnished reputation, the tennis star apologized today on her Web site.  Unfortunately for Serena, an apology  won’t undo the 869,160 views on YouTube and the influx of Twitter conversation about the attack.

Yesterday, one day after Serena’s tantrum, Kanye West made an even bigger scene at MTV’s Video Music Awards Show. Ripping the microphone from the hands of Taylor Swift, who just won an award for Best Female Video, Kanye told the crowd “I’m sorry, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.” While there’s speculation that Kanye and MTV did this a publicity stunt, Beyoncé’s shocked reaction and Swift’s hurt face show that maybe, just maybe this is real, unscripted television.

I haven’t counted the publicity-stunt idea out. After all, year-after-year the VMAs have given us something that makes for good conversation and goes viral. Kanye’s outburst got people talking since it happened, and actually generated nearly 300,000 Kanye tweets in the hour following.  If negative attention is what he wanted, Kanye sure is getting it. On Twitter I’ve seen a plethora of tweets having expressing hatred toward Kanye and/or showing support of Taylor Swift.

There must be something in the air this month that makes for some high-profile blow-ups. Or maybe Rep. Joe Wilson payed Kanye and Serena to take the spotlight away from his “You Lie” outburst in the middle of President Obama’s address to Congress last week.

Not ALL of America’s celebrities, politicians and athletes are acting out-of-line this month and generating unpleasant word-of-mouth for themselves. Beyoncé did the right thing and gave Swift the attention she deserved while giving her time on stage to make an acceptance speech.

And after his through-the-legs hit that took him to the US Open finals, Roger Federer doesn’t need to make an outburst to generate some word-of-mouth for himself.

The lesson we can learn from Serena, Kanye, Rep. Wilson, Beyoncé and Federer is: Whether you’re doing something good or doing something bad, social media doesn’t leave much room for hiding. The same goes for business, whether it’s a good deed, great tennis move or drunken outburst,  it only takes one move to make you the next trending topic.

Reflecting Through Social Media

Where were you on September 11, 2001?  I think we all remember where we were when we first found out about the tragedies of 9-11. I was in the lunch line at Franklin High School, a hour-and-a-half north of the field where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed. I spent most of my youthful years in the 90s, a rather peaceful time in America. It was hard to wrap my head around the idea of my country being attacked, and eight years later, it still is.

It’s amazing how much we’ve changed as a country since September 11, 2001. We’ve spent the time involved in multiple wars.  We’ve seen a Hurricane destroy a city. We’ve seen the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

We’ve also developed and advanced. How we communicate has changed dramatically.

I used a VHS tape to record news footage about September 11. Today, I would be getting all of my information from Twitter (which would likely be very slow because of the high volume of traffic). I would also be watching the news online–no time for commercials. And if I wanted something to show the grandkids in 50 years, I’d save a file to my computer.

Social media has enabled us to be more active participants in the news. We aren’t really watchers anymore. In this blog post by LA Weekly, Alexia Tsotsis analyzes how things would be different if the the tragedies of 9-11 happened today. Some of the things she lists include: an influx opinions and  myths, more video/texts/pics from the World Trade Centers and even video from within the planes. Eerie. Almost as eerie as some of the tweets we’re seeing today (I’ve gotten chills at least five times).

Today, the country is using social media to reflect upon the tragedies of September 11. With hashags, twitter users are reflecting upon the day, and the people who were killed in the attacks. They are sharing where they were when they found out about the attacks with the #whereiwas hashtag. Some are tweeting the names of people who were killed with the #neverforget hashtag. #Sept11 and #remember911 are also hashtags being used.

The Center for History and New Media hosts the  “September 11 Digital Archive.” The archive houses more than 150,000 digital items, including  more than 40,000 emails and other electronic communications. It invites site visitors to contribute their story, photo, documents and files. On YouTube, CBS and the Associated Press shared videos of today’s memorial services.

No matter how we have reflected today, or how we’ll reflect eight years from now, it’s important that we never forget September 11, 2001.

“Social Sun” Beams of Social Media Perfection

I came across The Baltimore Sun’s “Social Sun” page last week. At first, I assumed that it would be a page with links to the some of the newspaper’s blogs, a Twitter account and maybe a Facebook page…I learned that I need to stop making assumptions. The “Social Sun” page is a manifestation of an absolutely awesome social media hub.

What makes Social Sun so awesome?

1)Twitter links-I’m not talking links to a handful of the Sun’s editors Twitter profiles, but more like a huge representation of the staff, right down to the HR person.  The links are separated  into categories such as “money and spending,” “news,” “entertainment” and more. All the staffers’ updates are compiled into a feed on the top of the page. The Social Sun  even includes “featured locals” and “fun to follow” tweeters.

2) Covering all the bases-The Twitter directory is both interesting and helpful, but it’s not all that is included on the Social Sun page. There are links and updates from The Sun’s Facebook Fan Page and updates streamed from the Sun’s blogs. There are also links to digg articles submitted from baltimoresun.com. By submitting their links to digg, the Sun provides another outlet for users to comment on their articles, and increases the amount of exposure that each article gets.

3) Engaging the audience- The page features “Your photos” streaming from the Baltimore Sun’s Flickr group and it invites users to “Join the group.” The Sun also asks users for feedback through polls. The one that is currently on the page asks users: “What would you like to see us add to The Baltimore Sun site?” This does more than engage the audience. It provides the Sun with valuable feedback that will enable them to continually advance their page in a way that will keep people coming back.

With newspaper readership and ad revenue decreasing, 2009 has been coined “the year the newspaper died,” but the Baltimore Sun isn’t cowering in defeat. With The Baltimore Sun having such an impressive online presence, it’s a promising sign for the future of newspapers.

The Baltimore Sun is embracing new media and proving to all of us that “traditional” media companies don’t have to delivery the news traditionally. The crew at the Sun isn’t just sticking their toes in the water, they are diving right in. And if you ask me, they’re making a huge splash.