Sighting: Promoted Tweets

I saw this the other day when I logged in to Twitter: a promoted trending topic. I knew that Twitter had rolled out a promoted tweet platform, but didn’t expect it to come in this form. I grabbed a screenshot and tucked the occurrence in my mind for deep thought.

More than anything, I think I was surprised to see a promoted tweet as a trending topic. Will companies be able to purchase trending topics? How did that work? As an agency who works with a variety of clients, purchasing “ads” on Twitter would seem like a great option.

But I had to ask myself… What are the bigger implications of promoted tweets? Does it take the power away from the voice that Twitter users have?  Does it change the dynamic of the unique online community? Does it disable companies from having real conversations with their customers? If a topic is promoted, is it really “trending”?

I’m curious to see how promoted tweets or trending topics become integrated in the overall system. But I’m also curious to see how it going to affect the community. What do you think?

Cut the Crap – No More Lofty Social Media Terms

So we’ve been just as guilty as the next for using those lofty and abstract social media terms that drive everyone mad: transparency, engagement, content generation, conversation monitoring, blah blah blah. I think it is time we all shut up.

I don’t mean that we stop talking about social media or social influence marketing. I just think we need to re-evaluate the way we speak about it. We (as marketing professionals) need to move from the general to the specific and actionable. We need to move from “motivational speaker” to “business coach.”

Step back for a moment.

While we’ve got more and more people jumping at social media, we’ve also got some seriously bad lingo that follows. Let’s look away from jargon and look to stimulating specific, strategic social media dialogue. Saying that each client is different doesn’t cut it anymore. Let’s take these lofty ideas and break them down.

There are countless more ways to impact your audience: Need a flashmob? Don’t know how to pitch bloggers? Want to see how geo-location features can help your business? Need some social media resources? We try to give you resources to see how social media really works, and if you can’t do it yourself, well, that is what we are here for.

Setting Proper Expectations & Follow Your Plan

As an agency, its important to take a look at what is on our plate and strategize. Who is the client? What do they need? Are we working with a Business to Business (B2B) client? We can use social media tactics to locate key influencers in that company. Working with a Business to Consumer (B2C) client? We can locate their audience online by doing an in depth online audience scan and find their consumers, whether it be on blogs, forums, or Facebook, and leverage that community.

So can we please stop talking about lofty, abstract social media terms? Let’s cut to the chase and get working.

The Wave of the Future: Geo-Networking Services (and thus local advertising opportunities)

In the marketing and advertising world, we must admit that we are always looking ahead for the next big thing. A few years ago, it was text marketing. Now, it is social media and mobile marketing. Emerging slowly, but with some force, is the use of geo-location services to reach and reward our audiences in new and unique ways.

Geo-networking Platforms

The combination of location based services and social networking are now represented on platforms such as FourSquare and Gowalla. And according to an article in the May 10 edition of Advertising Age, Facebook is setting up its very own location based capabilities. And with a platform as large as Facebook, which adds millions of users each day, location based marketing might take off on an entirely new level.

McDonald’s is said to be one of the first to sign up, allowing users to “check-in” at restaurants and share their food choices with their networks. This function will be going live shortly after Facebook releases its location based functionality.

Benefits

While location based marketing is still in the experimental phase, it brings great advantages to marketers. It gives you the power to communicate with an audience on an entirely different level. You can reward them for “checking in” with promotions, offers, or coupons at your store location (a la foursquare). You can also give them the ability to share what they love about your brand, service, or product with their friends, while they are at your brick-and-mortar locations. This helps your customers pass the word on even faster (beware: even if it’s negative!). Geo-location services are turning physical places into virtual avenues of communication.

Location based services are great for local businesses, too, allowing small business chains to reward their most loyal customers. They offer special promotions and offers to those that come into their store or restaurant the most often. It is a brilliant idea for driving foot traffic into the store, and making that experience an interactive one.

Concerns

While Facebook’s upcoming implementation of location based functionality might mean big things for marketers and consumers, there are some serious privacy concerns for users. With the overwhelming amount of negative feedback that Facebook received for their default privacy settings and Open Graph idea, we can conclude that users might not like the capability of letting their entire network know where they are and what they are doing. But hopefully, Facebook will allow share options once the location functionality goes live.

The Future

In most cases, location functionality is opening the door for further communication between marketers and an audience. More so, it attempts to bridge the physical gap between a company and its consumers. With the increasing interest in platforms like FourSquare, and the soon-to-be released Facebook location features, we may be looking at a new marketing phenomenon that will become part of the communication norm.

Changing the World, Web 2.0 Style

It is pretty easy to say that the Internet is becoming a portal for a different kind of life: new communication, networking, news and journalism, shopping, you name it. And after the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti, the web became a haven for cause: donating money to help, reading stories of miraculous heroism and survival, and sharing opinions of how we as a people could help.

Noting the response and power to utilize and leverage social networks and Web 2.0 to help make change, Facebook’s co-founder Chris Hughes had an idea. He founded Jumo, a web site intent on in bringing people together for a common good: to change the world. Jumo looks to “connect people to the issues, organizations, and individuals relevant to them to foster lasting relationships and meaningful action.”

I don’t know if I am brave enough to call it “Facebook for Social Good,” but its a close call. From everything I’ve read about it, Jumo’s intent is really to open discussion about helping, doing it in a way that is relatable to people who “live” in the web 2.0 world. And while it won’t be fully up and running until Fall 2010, Jumo will give its’ users the ability to take part in change that is meaningful, yet comfortable to them; an tailored or individualized giving effort, if you will.

What do you think? Would you help try to change the world if you could do so from your computer? Is charity more appealing if the opportunities are individually tailored to you?

The Reach of Social Media: From Runway to Twitter

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending a little known thing called New York Fashion Week, which started last Friday and runs throughout this week. Because of some amazing friends and once in a life time opportunities, I attended the Christian Siriano Fall 2010 Collection, as well as Naomi Campbell’s Fashion Show for Haiti Relief. But aside from shoes and dresses, everyone seemed to be armed with something that, until now, was unrelated to fashion: tools for social media.

Once inside the tents, I was amazed to see how much the fashion industry has grasped the digital era. Forget digital cameras: girls in stilettos snapped pictures on their iPhones, instantly uploading to Twitter. Members of the press were interviewing fashion celebs, recording  questions and answers on their cell phones instead of tape recorders, shooting emails to their editors simultaneously. I had a friend Google a celebrity’s name to see his picture, to ensure she was taking a picture of the right guy. There was even a section dedicated to fashion techy gurus, sitting on benches with their Mac books open, balanced on their thighs. Above them, a screen displayed a real time feed of tweets featuring the New York Fashion Week hashtag (#nyfw), constantly updating and changing.

But the fashion industry goes beyond just the diffusion of fashion week news through social media. This was the first year that typically industry exclusive shows like Marc Jacobs or Rodarte were being shown digitally, bringing access to anyone with a computer. Even more than that, designers are embracing social media on an entirely different level. As mentioned in this recent Mashable article, the industry has begun to accept “outsiders” by inviting them in, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, or the blogosphere. They’ve become more open, tapping an a huge audience that had, until recently, been completely ignored and unheard.

Like in all other industries, some have chosen not to adopt social media as a new and influential practice. And just like in all other industries, they are going to be left behind. Those that adapt will stay relevant, and ultimately, in front of consumers.

Social Media Measurement

Tim Trefren recently wrote one of the best blogs I’ve ever read in regards to social media tracking (although that’s not necessarily saying much, because people seem to write vaguely about the issue).

I wanted to commend him on his “3 new ways to measure the social web” even though none of them are new. We’ve been using them to track social media and online interaction for several years now. I might sound a little cynical (I am) and I might be using a lot of parenthesis (it’s just my style), but I sincerely thank him for getting the word out about conversion tracking, engagement tracking, and repeat visitor tracking. For some of us in the industry, this stuff isn’t new at all, but many businesses refuse to acknowledge the extreme trackability of social media, and how to use that data to make informed marketing decisions.

I’m not going to take the time to outline our tracking system here because I already wrote a blog post about it several months ago. Some of our metrics change depending on the client, but our philosophy hasn’t changed: social media is as trackable as you want it to be.

What does that mean for us as marketers? I’ll lay it out, plain and simple for you:

- More data = more information = better market research.

- More data = more accurate ROI = better informed marketing decisions

- More data = more targetability = more effective advertising

And these points say nothing about the other obvious benefits of increased communication, positioning, search engine optimization, promotions, etc. Hopefully social media tracking doesn’t seem as daunting as it once was.

If you have any questions, give us a call (410-280-5451) or send us an email. We love to teach companies how to measure their social media efforts!

Oh, 2009, You Were Good To Us…

Well, 2009, we bid you adieu. This past year has been many things for us as an agency. We’ve survived a recession, gained some new clients, and celebrated our 20^th anniversary as a force in the industry. We’ve also continued to think outside of the box, living and breathing creativity.

Now that this hectic year is over, we’re taking a moment of reflection, thinking about the things we learned (or re-learned) in 2009 and applying them to our future in 2010, which we welcome with open arms. So now that 2010 is officially here, we wanted to countdown 5 of the most essential lessons that our clients learned this year. (OK, so maybe we learned a couple things too)

5. Interaction and Participation: Actually Do It.

Both interaction and participation are important for social media to really work. It doesn’t help just to sign up for a Facebook account. Yeah, that may mean that you are technically using on social media, but it doesn’t mean you are using it the right way. To gain all the benefits of social media, you’ve got to be ready to participate, plug in, and converse with others. That is just the way it is. You’ve got to give to get.

Comcast is a great example. They have taken the time to embrace social media, allowing it to help their company connect with its consumers

4. Tools & Strategy that Work.

Lately, we have noticed a lot of social media obsession. Basically, we have experienced a lot of this: “I want a Facebook!” or “Can you create a Twitter page for me?” We call it Facebook-itis and Twitter-itis, and it is a serious, serious affliction.

You know that saying “there is a time and place for everything”? Well, this rings true here. Yes, Twitter and Facebook are powerful tools and can work, but they aren’t always the right option for our clients. We have developed our ability to assess clients individually, giving them the social media tools that match their specific strengths and that they need to achieve their goals. Sometimes this will include Facebook and Twitter, sometimes it won’t. Either way, we have learned to remain focused on tailoring social media strategy that is specific to each of our clients.

3. Campaign Integration

In 2009, we learned a lot about integration. Social media tools are great, but rarely stand on their own. We knew this was important, but after taking a look at some pretty integrated campaigns (like this one), we came to appreciate integration in that it must go across all platforms, whether that be between social media tools or fully integrated strategies, from creative to marketing to social media. In 2010, we are sure to see more campaign integration, which makes us happy.

2. Relationships = End All, Be All

Social media is about listening to people. Conversation monitoring and participation is at the center of this emerging industry, and we have really learned to listen this year. We now have a tool that allows us to gather discussions from all social media based on the keywords and parameters that we set. That means our clients can gather and sort through larger amounts of relevant conversations, and use them to expand their footprint and find their target audiences.

Take the Comcast example (again). You have a problem with them? Router not working? Tweeting about it will help get your problem solved. They may even tweet step-by-step directions at you. We call that strategic tweeting; fielding and solving consumer complaints has gotten the Comcast brand name pretty far in the minds of consumers on Twitter.

1. Social Media is Legit: It’s the Real Deal, Folks!

We wouldn’t say it’s something we learned, because we knew it all along. But we are thrilled that some of the largest companies are embracing and verifying it; social media is more than a trend and a hot topic. It has officially arrived as a moveable force in the advertising industry. New technologies, like Google Wave, have been created to take advantage of social media. Big time companies like Starbucks or Wachovia are embracing it as part of their marketing strategy. Even the government has acknowledged its influence. Take Obama’s Twitter page or his recent public address on YouTube as an example of this. The FTC also took a part by creating laws and consequences for misuse, which talked about here.

So overall, we feel great. We love what we do and are excited for a very social 2010. Happy New Year!

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.