Originally posted on The Naked Pheasant.

Zynga, the fast-growing maker of Facebook games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars, has been called by the New York Times “the hottest start-up to emerge from Silicon Valley since Twitter and, before that, Facebook.” This week, its CEO, Mark Pincus, is profiled in the story, the second in two weeks, highlighting the company’s recent success (though not without its fair share of controversy). Among other things, the article profiles Pincus as a fearless entrepreneur and visionary aiming to build an online entertainment empire as important to the internet “as Google is to search.”

While Zynga will cite profits and player numbers as success criteria, it is another recent trend Zynga is pioneering that has caught my attention; advertising through social gaming. Zynga came under fire recently for allowing advertisements into its games. Some ads, for example, signed up players for subscriptions to costly text-messaging services. This caused a PR headache for the company with TechCrunch, the technology blog, calling the practice “ScamVille,” after some users filed a class-action lawsuit.

But with 211 million players every month, according to AppData.com, Zynga is perhaps well on its way to making social gaming as important to the internet as anything else thanks to a new partnership with an American food manufacturer, (also covered in the New York Times recently). Cascadian Farm, an organic farm in the U.S. and subsidiary of General Mills, is using one of Zynga’s more popular games, FarmVille, to reach a growing customer segment through advertising. Instead of your standard click-through ads a la GoogleAd Words however, the Cascadian Farms content will be integrated into the gaming experience.

In FarmVille, you participate, create, build and manage your own farm. You gain experience points by visiting your friends’ farms and lending a virtual hand. From next week, players in the U.S. will be able to purchase (using farm bucks) and plant, an organic blueberry crop from Cascadian Farm. In doing so, FarmVille users will learn about organic farming and green living through standard game play, and at the same time, earn additional points to grow fruits and vegetables or raise animals on their virtual farms. Cascadian Farm executives said in a New York Times article that they hope that the company can expand its food niche and make itself better known by increasing awareness among FarmVille’s audience – that’s 221 million players a month. Users will also be able to access a $1 off coupon.

It will be curious to see just how successful Cascadian Farm is on FarmVille. Will the strategy work to attract and educate potential customers through participation and content or will it backfire? While integration in game play gives the user unique exposure to content in an experiential manner, will users see through the stunt and reject it as advertising or is this campaign just clever enough to work?

Originally posted on Logic + Emotion.

While the current trend in all things social is demonstrating ROI (did Old Spice Increase sales etc?) There remains a lack of emphasis on actually executing well in social spaces with the assumption that this is simply where customers, consumers, employees etc. will go to seek information and interact. That’s why I think Altimeter’s recent report listing out 8 success criteria specific to marketing initiatives on Facebook is a breath of fresh air. I was fortunate to help inform the report as an ambassador for Edelman Digital, and was happy to see best practices featured from brands we work with such as AXE (client). That aside, the report is worth reviewing and digesting as it goes through the 8 criteria in depth backing it up with examples:

With the above criteria in place, Altimeter has drafted a simple framework for brands and organizations to keep in mind as they build out their digital embassies in the Facebook ecosystem. Using this criteria, Altimeter then selected a few brands to evaluate calling out specific best practices and areas for opportunity. Here’s how the brands fared when compared with each other:

At minimum the report offers a few choice insights and examples of brands to look at and learn from while you are developing your strategies and tactics for this space. Specifics such as being inconsistent or not addressing angry comments serve as early indicators to learn from as companies develop their rules of engagement for Facebook and other digital embassies. While other studies focus on devising formulas that assign dollar values to Facebook connections, reports such as this offer a few high level guidelines for how to best navigate through social systems such as Facebook. Have a read and chime in. What are your best practices?

My name is Albert and I paint on the train. I carry my brushes, canvas, colors, and all the paintings I’ve recently done. All in the palm of my hand. When I get to my stop I pack up and head out. There’s no easel, no sketchbook, no brushes or hassle. Just my finger, my phone, and the satisfaction of turning a basic sketch into a full-blown painting in the time it takes me to get from Grand Central to my stop.

I still carry a sketchbook around but it’s more out of habit than anything else. Now, when I’m on the move and an idea strikes, my first impulse is to grab my phone. Not my pencil. It has even worked its way into a few saves-the-day scenarios and, as a result, has become a major part of my Edelman career gear.

A few months back I was on a tight deadline and needed to come up with a couple of concepts for a client presentation by the morning. I headed home without ideas and nothing came to mind on my commute home or the rest of the night. The next morning on my train ride in with the clock counting down, my brain wakes up. Out comes the phone and I start working. By the time I hit my stop I’ve got two concepts.

My Creative Director loved the sketches so I exported them to my gallery and emailed them out to the team. They got dropped into the presentation, were sent off to the client. About a month later and after getting things tightened up the resulting ad was run in SPIN with several ads on SPIN.com as well.

This process has become part of my every day now. The ability to work and play anywhere and everywhere with ideas can’t be matched. Sorry, sketchbook, but I think our days are numbered.

Originally posted on PRNewser by Joe Ciarallo.

Edelman CEO Richard Edelman is a relatively new user of Twitter, so we reached out to him to conduct PRNewser’s first ever Twitter interview, which took place this morning.

When asked in the interview if there have been any serious offers to buy Edelman this year, the CEO responded, “The big holding companies know our story–the Pirate King–independent now and forever.”

Edelman also said that “social engagement” is a big factor for the agency when looking at potential new hires. “Beyond Facebook and Twitter too,” he said. “[We want them to have involvement in community by donating time and PR expertise.”

Originally posted on The Naked Pheasant.

How do you ensure that your limited time and resources is spent using social media effectively? The answer is not as many people often believe?

The current view is to try and engage purely with the superstars of the twittersphere in the hope that they will repeat your name/message and promote you. This is timely, expensive and rarely succeeds.

The other method I have seen used is to hit everyone who refers to a specific term. Having a search filter setup for key words and then conversing with anyone who mentions your key terms is a sure fire way to spend a great deal of time with people who have limited influence. In an ideal world, this would be great but many firms do not have the time to spend engaging with everyone. The cynical part of me believes that this approach is often used purely to hit metrics on report cards, I doubt that savvy people will allow this approach to go on for much longer.

Instead, my view is to focus on those people that are influentials. The people who create and share ideas as oppose to merely broadcast.

I presented on this topic a few weeks ago at BrightTalk – if you’d like to see my presentation you can do so above.

Originally posted on Campaign Asia.

For at least the last decade, the environment has taken center stage when it comes to issues in which consumers and employees think businesses need to take an active part. However, now it seems that the environment is not alone, and ‘health’ as an issue is just as important.

This is what we’ve found in Edelman’s second Health Engagement Barometer. Nearly three quarters (72 percent) of the 15,000 respondents to this survey said that they would trust a company more that is effectively engaged in health and two thirds (65 percent) would either recommend or buy products from these companies. While globally 65 percent say that sustainability is as much about the health of people as it is about the health of the planet, this figure was far higher in China (89 percent) and India (70 percent).

Now, I’ve planted my fair share of trees as part of a company’s environmental commitment over the years. Heck, I’ve organised these events myself. But I’m pleased, especially as we have a looming health crisis on our doorstep with an aging population and rise in chronic diseases, that the public is sending a clear message to business to get on board or pay the price.

Health Actionists

According to the study, which was conducted in 11 countries including China, India and Japan, respondents naturally cluster into various groups reflecting their own personal interests and involvement in health. The group that stood out in my mind was the group dubbed the Health Actionists. This group (roughly one sixth of respondents) is highly engaged and interested in health; and, unlike other segments, these people persuade others to take action. What’s more important for marketers to note is that 70 percent of this group is active in social media; 65 percent regularly use Google or other search engines; and almost half (49 percent) frequent consumer health web sites.

Marketing implications across Industries

Is this data only a message for the pharmaceutical industry and other healthcare companies? Well, no actually.

Sure, the pharmaceutical industry should sit up and listen – and for an industry typically shy of social media because of legal and regulatory issues, it’s refreshing to have a defined group of people who are proponents of spreading health information online. However, this research has a more far-reaching message that cuts across industries, but the expectations vary by industry.

So, what does this all really mean for marketers in the region?

For the food and beverage industry, people want to know the health risks of your products and services (51 percent) and they also think you have a role to play in educating the public on health topics related to your products and services (50 percent).

For the media and entertainment industry, you need to play a role in educating the public on health topics, as well as support the health of your local community.

The final question is: how are we doing? Well, not as well as you’d like to hope. A little over half (56 percent) said that in general, business is only doing a fair or poor job in this area, and only one third (36 percent) even trust business to fulfill its role in addressing health.

Hopefully companies will take lessons learnt from the environmental phenomenon and get on board early. Some clearly already have, but what surprises me is that many businesses have a market-by-market approach when it comes to health. However, consumers expect to see a consistent approach each time they interact with a company, and the respondents to the Health Engagement Barometer are saying that loud and clear.

Local social networks across the world are under pressure by the spread of Facebook. Smaller, local players seem to be no match for the worldwide network. The question arises: Will they survive? A European case shows they can.

The big turnaround kicked off when Facebook started publishing in multiple languages in 2007. Two years ago Skyrock still was the undisputed champion of social networking in France, with Tuenti holding the title in Spain. By now, the American network can pride itself in having twice the number of users in France as Skyrock and about 1.5 times as many as Tuenti in Spain.

‘Two years, no longer’

In Germany, the popular StudiVZ Group remains top of the chart for now but Facebook is closing in fast showing impressive growth numbers. It’s a matter of time before it will top StudiVZ as well. Björn Hasse (Director at Edelman Frankfurt, Germany) said it best when he stated: “Let’s give it two years, no longer. The globals will win.”

There is hope however for brave little local networking sites. Take a look at Hyves in the Netherlands. The Amsterdam-based organization is showing encouraging endurance. Its market share continues to grow and one in every five pages visited in the Netherlands is a Hyves page. In a country inhabited by sixteen million people, Hyves claims an impressive eight million unique visitors a month with Facebook lagging at a mere 2.5 million (source: ComScore).

Business case

Despite being founded in the internationally oriented Dutch market, Hyves retains its dominance against global player Facebook and provides other local networks with an interesting business case.

What sets Hyves apart is its talent for making the most out of local trends and current events such as elections, national holidays and sports highlights. It successfully engages users in discussions and co-creation initiatives on the platform. Offline, smart partnerships with key Dutch brands and organizations like national TV stations and the Dutch national football team ensure visibility and emphasize the local relevance of the network.

Worth coming back

According to the statistics, Hyves offers more than half the country a user experience worth coming back for – and with that, a wealth of segmented target audiences for advertisers and social media strategists. It’s therefore not surprising that the company has been profitable since 2006.

In short: local networks can co-exist with Facebook and will continue to do so. Skyrock, Tuenti and StudiVZ are all cooking up ways to differentiate themselves from Facebook – as Hyves has. Local online networks will remain a force to be reckoned with when developing social media strategies.

Image credit: Vincos

Originally posted on Wilder Voices.

When it comes to figuring a company’s social architecture around social — where a social media team should reside in a company, there are several options, such as:

• Centralize approach – One team manages all social media activities
• Decentralized / Silo’d – Each BU owns their own Social Media P&L
• Coordinated – One social media team tries to make sure everyone is aligned, but has no accountability
• Hub and Spoke model Centralized but consists of members from each BU — and each BU representative has a dotted line into BU and Social Media Team
• Hub and Spoke model without the dotted line reporting – Everyone sits in one group and reports to the lead Social Media person

My old company, Intuit handled it several different ways:

• In the early Web 2.0 days, only one group was really being social and that was the online community team
• In the mid Web 2.0 days, there was Hub and Spoke Model with dotted line reporting for each social media managers – reported to BU and to Social Media Lead
• And now, Social Media seems to have adopted a decentralized model with each BU owning activities on external social networks (this has led to duplication of programs, inconsistency in messaging, etc.) (Note: I am no longer with the company, so I might have my info wrong)

My recommendation for companies to is the ‘Hub and Spoke model’ with each BU having a Social Media Captain being dotted line into the lead Social Media person. Why the dotted line? This holds the business units accountable, gets them to provide resources, and it becomes part of their op mechs and it ensures that Social is part of every aspect of the group: Cusotmer Service, Product Development, Marketing, etc.

These Social Media Captains should:

• Coordinate all social media efforts within their own BU: Cust Serv., Product Management, Marketing, etc.
• Integrate social media metrics into their own BU’s dashboard

The main Social Media Team should drive:

• Guidelines for the company
• Policies, Training, metrics definitions, technology evaluations, best practice sharing
• Crisis Management (Preemptive and Responsive)
• Coordination with non-Bus Units (finance, legal, privacy, etc.)
• Primary social media dashboard: primary objectives and KPIs

Some requirements to make this Hub and Spoke dotted line approach successful include (based on my experience at Intuit):

• Top down support (CMO, etc.)
• BU Leader’s support
• Extensive information sharing with BU leaders
• Fully dedicated Social Media captain assigned to each BU
• Integrate Social Media learnings/results into BU dashboard
• Monthly reports – dashboard, successes/case studies, update on training, industry trends, etc.

It is important to note that a company’s culture should be an important factor in deciding which is the right model. Almost all the companies I have worked with have been very open to trying new org models out and have been very democratic in their approach. A few years ago, though, I worked with a company that was more top – down and where the business units wanted complete control of the marketing mix. So, it is important to think about how any of the above models would fit into your current environment.

BBC News has revealed that the British Government has spent, or proposed to spend, somewhere between £10,000 and £40,000 on developing phone applications. One of the apps, a job seeker’s tool, has been downloaded 50,000 times and a Motoring Masterclass application proposed by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency sounds genuinely unique and useful in that it calculates fuel efficiency, tracks the proximity of a highway rescue organisation, and can be used as an emergency hazard light – so what’s the fuss?

Well, the new Coalition Government has recently launched a public spending review, with spending on the digital propositions of many Government departments coming under the the microscope. There are, a review by the Central Office of Information has revealed, 820 Government websites which cost £94 million to design and build between 2009 and today and a further £32 million in staffing costs.

When asked by the Daily Telegraph for comment on the app spending disclosure, I pointed out that £10,000 to £40,000 seems a reasonable budget for the work, depending on the complexity of the app and resource required to implement it. I also warned that, where Government departments are planning such applications in future, they should ensure that they aren’t simply duplicating functionality that’s already available in free or paid for apps, and that there is a genuine need for such an app in the first place.

I also said, although it wasn’t included in the article, that Government departments would be wise to seek out, and make their data available, to partners who want to create applications that use that data. This way, rather than paying for design and development, useful applications would still come to market, but tax payer funding would be replaced by market economics – those who build and release the app being free to seek reward for their efforts by selling it.

The failure, if there is one, in the Government apps already created is that they don’t appear to be underpinned by a clear strategy that aligns business drivers with end user requirements. Third party application developers, driven by the chance to make a profit rather than a desire to simply do something “cutting edge”, seem more likely, in many instances, to create genuinely useful apps that make clever use of Government data. There’s no reason, by the way, that businesses and other organisations can’t benefit from freeing up some of their data for use by third parties – in the UK, Tesco (our largest retailer), The Guardian and the BBC are all experimenting with doing exactly that.

Image credit: Cristiano Betta

My colleague Steve Rubel and I wear many hats at Edelman. One of those hats is keeping an eye on the trends unfolding in real time and deriving meaning from them as they pertain to organizations and brands. Attached to this post is a slideshow where we identify what these trends are and at a high level how your organization needs to plan accordingly for them. They are:

1. Marketing in the age of streams

Your customers, consumers and employees are no longer only visiting static Web pages but participating in conversations which increasingly occur off domain in “streams” flowing from Facebook, Twitter and even apps. In order to catch them, you must be highly relevant in their streams.

2. The Googleization of media

Quality Content and potent social connections in addition to traditional keywords are influencing how visible you are to the search engines. Everyone is media.

3. The data decade

Data is increasingly becoming available to anyone and everyone. From it we can derive insights into behaviors. We must become “data junkies” to fully harness this trend.

4. Business becomes social

Moving from designated spokesperson to employee engagement at scale—business itself is beginning to look more social as organizations start to engage all stakeholders in open and mutually beneficial ways.

5. Location, location, location

Where you are is becoming the new what are you doing as multiple platforms begin to adopt the new geolocation status update generating new kinds of data.

6. Private becomes public

Despite privacy concerns, applications and behaviors which support social sharing are still going strong as what is considered private becomes re-defined as we continue engaging in networks.

We believe these trends are not future gazing but what’s happening at this very moment and that they will cause organizations to adapt to change, adopt new practices and innovate accordingly. For more industry insights, ideas and perspectives you can visit our newly created “branded channel” on Slideshare.