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.

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.

Our WOM Director is Bound for Blog World Expo

While I’m sure he’s excited about the enormous buffets, casinos, shopping and millions of other things to do Vegas, our WOM Director, Andrew Krebs-Smith, may not have any time to do those things while he’s there October 15 – 17.  I’m not sure that he’s too upset about it either. He’ll be completely satisfied because he’ll be engrossed in social media the entire time, and learning from the industry’s biggest names at Blog World Expo.

Blog World Expo is a conference, trade show and media event for all new media. As the Word of Mouth Director, Andrew manages the strategic planning and implementation of our clients’ social media efforts. Seriously, Andrew is a guy who lives and breathes social media, so attending the Blog World Expo is like three days of Christmas morning to him. The best part about going to Blog World Expo? He won Mashable’s Comment Contest and will be going to the conference for free. (The picture on the left is Andrew before winning the tickets, and the picture below is Andrew finding out he won the tickets).

The Expo won’t be all about blogs. It’s covering all things new media from podcasts to online videos to gaming and online communities. With more than 50 seminars, panel discussions and keynotes, it’s the largest new media conference in the world. Andrew will have the opportunity to see presentations from tons of experts in the field. Last year, Steve Rubel, Guy Kawasaki and Tim Ferriss were speakers, so let’s just say everyone back at The Cyphers Agency is just a little jealous of our WOM Director.

Some of the sessions Andrew plans to attend include: Measuring and Building Online Influence, The Blog as a Community Springboard, Get Rich With the Niche: How to Leverage Niche Communities for Maximum Blog Growth, Crossing Boarders: Use Blogs to Reach a Multicultural Audience and How Twits Lay Golden Eggs–The Art of Social Engagement for Business.

Social media is ever-changing and complex, so it’s important that our team stay on the cutting edge of it. We’re excited for Andrew’s opportunity to attend Blog World Expo, and can’t wait to hear about everything that he learns while he’s there!

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.

Mayors and Celebs Use Status and Social Media to Inspire

Many celebrities and public officials use Twitter to communicate with their fans/constituents. While some celebs use it to simply promote themselves (ehhem, Britney Spears), others use it to inspire their millions of followers.

Last week, celebrity Twitter-user, Ashton Kutcher joined New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and many other celebrities and U.S. mayors in Times Square to talk about power of community service. They were meeting to unveil “I Participate,” an initiative that calls upon Americans to participate in community service.  I Participate was started by the Entertainment Industry Foundation, an organization that leverages the “power of the entertainment industry to advance charitable causes.”

Recruiting people for community service isn’t something new. Recruiting in a kick-a#s way…is.

I Participate is solid because it has celebrity endorsements. And it’s not just another “I do this, so you should too,” kind of endorsement. I Participate is leveraging  social media-using celebrities to get people to contribute to their communities. Ashton Kutcher has 3.5 million followers on Twitter. Through a series of  tweets last week, he invited his followers to meet him in Times Square, directed them to video streaming live from the unveil of I Participate and encouraged them to join-in the Twitter conversation. He also streamed video of a conversation with he and the Mayor of Newark, NJ, Cory Booker, who is also an avid Twitter user.

The I Particpate Twitter profile has accumulated more than 600 followers since the launch, the #iparticipate hastag has picked up some momentum, and the Facebook Fan Page has nearly 2,000 fans. Although it’s not a social media phenomenon, it still has some pretty impressive numbers.  (I did honestly expected more from something Ashton Kutcher and so many celebrities  endorsed). But, they’re trying to get people revved up about COMMUNITY SERVICE. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an awesome effort–but a really tough sell.

Although it may be hard to get people excited about doing community service, I Participate is going about it the right way. They are reaching their audience through a medium that enables them to watch and participate.They give their audience the tools to search for volunteer opportunities, post opportunities and  share the site with others. Kudos to everyone involved in the I Participation initiative.

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.

Putting Some Numbers to Social Media

In post after post, we’ve explained why social media is an important outlet for reaching key audiences. But if you’re a believer of “truth in numbers,”  you probably need some figures. So we’ve compiled some statistics to help you see how social media has grown and how it’s being used.

The number of Americans who are 18 and older using social media increased to 35 percent in 2008. This was an 8 percent growth from 2005 figures, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

A June Nielsen NetView report revealed that time spent on Twitter grew 3,712 percent from April 2008 to April 2009. In roughly three months, 50 million people joined Facebook, bringing the total number of Facebook users to more than 250 million. According to the same June Nielsen report,  13.9 million minutes were spent on Facebook, a growth of 700% since April 2008. And it’s not  college students logging all those minutes anymore. Facebook’s fastest growing demographic is those 35 and older.

You may be asking what all those people are doing on social networks. Well, they’re uploading photos, chatting, letting their twitter followers know what they ate for lunch, sharing funny videos and reconnecting with friends from the past.

But that’s not all they’re doing.

They’re  opting-in to receive information from the 300,000 businesses that have a presence on Facebook (one-third of those 300,000 are small businesses, according to this USA Today article). They’re getting customer service requests fulfilled. They are reading reviews by prominent bloggers and influential review sites. Recent research from Universal McCann revealed that 77 percent of internet users are reading blogs.

They’re also adding their own two cents about brands and companies. According to a July Neilsen’s report, “Trust Value and Engagement in Advertising,” peer recommendations are the most trusted channel of advertising, trusted “somewhat” or “completely” by nine out of 10 people in a survey of 25,000 online consumers.

If you’re a number person, there are the numbers…and several more reasons why brands can’t afford to not be on social networks.