With help from footage from Pemberton Music Festival in BC, Derek Sivers explains how movements really get started. (Hint: it takes two). We talk a lot about influencer engagement but to make a movement, the first followers are as important as the influencer.
Dealing with detractors is perhaps one of the biggest pain points for companies just starting and even well entrenched in social media marketing. Jason Falls points to Forrester’s classification of detractors and offers some advice.
On Facebook everyone gets lumped into one big bucket called your friends. In real life, you have multiple independent groups of friends that form around life stages (school friends, work friends, camp friends, neighbourhood friends, hockey friends). Furthermore, within each group you have strong ties, weak ties, and temporary ties).
Sobleman’s has been a staple in Milwaukee for the last 12 years building a steady customer base through word-of-mouth. AJ Bombers also built it’s brand through word-of-mouth, but in a considerably shorter time. Social media was the accelerator. And AJ’s owner doesn’t measure ROI. “This is a restaurant built by social media. This is the only way we know it. We can’t say what it would be like without it.”
Jason Dojc Edelman Digital, Toronto Follow on Twitter @jdojc
While the social media world is a great place to forge connections with people. Eventually, you want to meet up with them IRL (in real life). Enter the meetup, an event geared to get to know your friends, likers, and followers in person. Mashable offers a how-to post.
Now there’s a reason to check-in (while others start gaming the system). Starbucks (client) introduced its first-ever national “mayor special” with Foursquare that rewards store mayors with dollar discounts on Frappucinos. In the U.K., Domino’s has a Foursquare promotion running that offers free pizzas and discounts to Foursquare users who check in at its locations.
“Neuroeconomist” Paul Zak has discovered, for the first time, that social networking triggers the release of the generosity-trust chemical, oxytocin, in our brains. And that should be a wake-up call for every company. Professor Zak recently visited Edelman’s New York office and his findings mesh well with Edelman’s trust barometer.
Web measurement guru, Avinash Kaushik, preaches with evangelical fervor on the need for businesses to compute the economic value of their web presences. Web interactions should be bucketed into price, cost, market share or market size which have a clear line of sight to net income. If you can’t find that line of sight then maybe it’s not a very important metric.
Fake PR cases seem to be on the rise.The most notable of course have been the following: the fake BP Global PR Twitter account, the General Mills press release hoax, and now, the fake PR account for AT&T.
Jason Dojc Edelman Digital, Toronto Follow on Twitter @jdojc
Bargain hounds on Twitter are now able to follow the official @EarlyBird handle for relevant, timely offers and deals from Twitter’s advertisers. Twitter will partner with select advertisers to give followers of the account the inside scoop on limited-time or –quantity offers. It remains to be seen whether branded accounts that rely on offering last-minute deals (like JetBlue’s Cheeps, for instance) will be affected, since offering deals not available elsewhere is a key component of many branded Twitter strategies.
As Google and Yahoo launch their social television platforms (Google TV and Yahoo Connected TV, respectively) designed to connect your TV to your friends’ Facebook and Twitter are shoring up resources to tap into the social TV ad market. The two social media giants are vying to be the leader in key areas of the new technology, including “socially-targeted TV advertising, pay-TV content recommendation, TV show marketing, next-generation EPGs and interactive viewing.” Perhaps the most interesting point to ponder is the assertion that the dominant position will go to the platform that “is able to establish themselves as the primary way to connect with friends and exchange information” because those are two very distinct strengths, and one could argue that Facebook excels at the former while Twitter dominates the latter.
In an effort to harness some of the tremendous buzz around the free agency of hoops superstar LeBron James, the National Basketball Association took advantage of Twitter’s new promoted trends to bump the topic “LeBron James” to onto the list of trending topics. While it may seem like James’ name might already be a trending topic, the NBA hopes that sponsoring the term will drive users the league’s website instead of outside news sites. James also joined Twitter this week (@kingjames), gaining more than 150,000 followers in his first seven hours as a member.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone announced at the Aspen Ideas Festival this week that Twitter Search is handling 800 million queries per day, up from the 600 million per day he reported at the Chirp developers’ conference in April. While Twitter’s growth in user base is a major contributing factor, the value of the Search function’s ability to give insight into conversation trends and real-time information is driving major traffic for Twitter. This will likely have a huge impact on the site’s ability to generate revenue through its new ad platform.
Renowned film directors Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald are partnering with YouTube to create a wholly user-generated documentary film about life on all over the world over the course of one day. Participants are being asked to film part of their day on July 24, 2010 for possible inclusion in the doc, which will debut at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The project is interesting because it’s an extremely high-profile example of crowd sourcing content for repurposing as mainstream entertainment. Though this has been done numerous times (and with varying degrees of success) by brands in the past, YouTube’s project relies not on a prize or reward but on the public’s desire to share the intimate, mundane details of their personal lives. Sounds a bit like social media in general, doesn’t it?
Lizz Kannenberg Edelman Digital, Chicago Follow on Twitter @lizzkannenberg
I was a little reluctant to write this post because much of the Twitter community is fixated with follower count. I see many tweets, even in my own stream, of certain people announcing that they reached 500, 1,000, 5,000 Twitter followers as if it’s some sort of huge achievement like receiving a Grammy Award or something. Read more…
On any given day there are 750 tweets per second on Twitter for a total of 65 million tweets per day. With an overload of tweets daily it can be difficult to grasp what is really trending at any given moment. Use the tools below to quickly find current Twitter trends and trending conversations. Read more…
Seeing is believing and visuals are powerful. I’ve collected a few visualization tools for Facebook, news feeds, and Twitter to let you view networks and conversations at a glance. Read more…
Even if the job market is booming, post-college internships are still important. Internships are a great way to learn more about a company or industry and help identify what you want to do as a career. Just like shoe shopping, it’s all about the right fit, and internships are a valuable way to find your fit. Read more…
What’s in badge? Many Foursquare users have been wondering whether or not acquiring all of those colorful circles would ever translate into something tangible, and Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley arrived at the Mashable Media Summit Tuesday armed with an answer Read more…
Mashable’s Social Media Day, a day to “celebrate the revolution of media becoming social”, brought social media addicts together in meetups around the globe. How did they compensate for the time zone differences? By using Ustream to broadcast several of the meetups as they happened. Unfortunately, Chicago wasn’t one of the streams offered. What’s up, Mashable?
An important study done by eMarketer that shows moms care about more than getting discounts. They want to read relevant, useful information that they can retweet. Here’s a highlight:
A new round of social networks is trying to connect users with similar tastes in entertainment. The most popular, GetGlue, allows users to “check-in” to certain activities, such as reading a book, watching a TV program, or drinking a bottle of wine. The aim is to share a history of your offline activities in the hopes of connecting online. These kinds of sites are still growing, but I expect interest from brands to be just around the corner.
In my favorite news of the week, a fascinating study proves that the same chemical is released in the brain when connecting socially online as when falling in love: oxytocin (the “cuddle chemical”). If there was ever a biological reason for companies to enter the social space, here it is.
Posterous is making a bold move to get more users from other services. A few days ago, it announced on its blog that it was going to spend 15 days making it easy to switch from 15 different “dying” platforms. Obviously this didn’t sit well with its competitors, some of which went so far as to announce legal action against it.
In honor of the World Cup, Nike has launched the largest LED screen in Johannesburg to display fan-submitted messages from Facebook, Mixit, QQ, and Twitter in support of their favorite players. As NOTCOT reports, The messages will appear across the LED screen which triggers an animation of the player mentioned. The user is then pinged back with a photo of their headline on the Life Center”.
500 million friends may not be enough, it seems. In an interview with Ad Age editor Abbey Klaassen, Zuckerberg expressed his interest in bringing in one billion global users. To do so, Facebook will need to step up its efforts in China, Japan, Korea and Russia. Currently, Russia is doubling sign-ups ever six months but it will take considerable effort to make this goal feasible. While Facebook has not shared specific strategies to user acquisition in Asia, we believe Facebook will need to consider providing locally-relevant adjustments to its platform to address the unique digital culture in each region. Additionally, the potential for Facebook to manage the data of over one billion web users will only further scrutiny of its privacy standards.
As Facebook moves toward its goal of connecting one billion web users around the world, it will become an even more important source for search. To-date, search functionality has been rather limited but now, Open Graph will allow sites like TripAdvisor to optimize content for Facebook search results. This presents an enormous opportunity for brands to reach its growing userbase.
As Paul Bennun Somethin’ Else says, “With iPhone in hand and ear phones plugged into your lugs you can dive into this 90-minute psychological zombie thriller set in Papa Sangre’s evil mysterious palace, with the objective of saving the soul of the person you love. The game is set in complete darkness and the player has only sound to navigate through the story, aided by vibrations and movements. It’ll be different for every player, too; the pictures in your mind will be different from everyone else’s because audio can stimulate the imagination instead of replacing it”.
As eMarketer reports, 78.2% of teens online are active users of social media and no more than one-fifth of teens like having their parents in their network. 58% of younger teens “hate it” while older teens were more receptive to the idea of hanging out with their parents in their networks. If they happen to co-exist in the same community online, about one third of teens completely restrict access to their content. It’s important to consider this dynamic when planning a program targeted toward both parents and teens. They are still figuring out what they’re cool sharing with each other on their personal profiles and navigating a brand program that speaks to both of them may be a total turn-off for teens. Personally, my dad is still in my friend requests queue awaiting approval… We’ve talked about it. He’s cool with it. Oh, and he definitely has more friends than me on MySpace.
Ever wonder where folks are when they tweet? With Twitter Places, now you can. At first blush, it will be interesting to see where everyone physically is when tweeting the phrase, ‘I’m at the gym’. Imagine creating a graphic highlighting the various parts of the country’s tweeters who are currently partaking in some healthy activity. Marketers can use this data to provide real-time solutions to their consumers. Example: A large group of Chicagoans in Daley Plaza are tweeting about their much needed 2 pm coffee craving. Within minutes, Starbucks (a client) could appear and provide everyone with their mid afternoon caffeine fix.
I’m sure you’ve been there: you set up a Facebook page for a friend, client non-profit organization, etc., but no longer manage the activity on that page. Enter Facebook’s new solution of old admin removal. Today, anyone assigned as an Admin on a Facebook page can be removed. This slight enhancement should encourage all Facebook admins to ensure that their pages are current.
The yearly recipients of the Knight Foundation’s Knight News Challenge were announced this week. The Challenge awards recipients with funds to enhance local information. Of the 10 recipients, Windy City Citizen founder, Brad Flora, was rewarded $250,000 to create a real-time local ad network. By using the Facebook status messages and tweets from business owners, Nowspots aims to provide ad revenue to news sites, while providing timely and relevant information to the site’s visitor.
The World Cup is in full force, as are the traditional horns used by soccer fans around the world. As you watch any World Cup match, don’t be surprised to see Vuvuzela chatter in your Twitter stream or Facebook Newsfeed. From broadcasters looking to muffle the sound to broadcasts to how-tos for removing the sound from one’s personal viewing experience, the Vuvuzela has become a meme. Should you like to continue with the trend, you can have your own Vuvuzela in your pocket or you can Vuvuzela any site on the web.
This week there were updates to both Google and Bing’s search platforms. Google announced their new search index called “Caffeine” which provides 50% fresher results for web search and it’s the largest collection of web content they’ve offered. This means your searches will produce more relevant content than ever before. Bing (client) released their social search which showcases trends, Twitter updates, and Facebook results all in one search. The results from Facebook will include status updates and shared links.
While 66% of US Internet users currently watch a least one video online per month eMarketer is estimating that by 2014 this number will rise to 77%. Within this study it is estimated that 18-24 year-olds watch the most video online and the 65+ age segment currently ranks last as a viewer group. As online video becomes more accessible via tablets, phones, laptops, and streaming devices I wonder if we will surpass the estimate eMarketer has in place?
Twitter announced earlier this week that they will soon be rolling out an official URL shortener for all links shared on Twitter. Once this feature launches, all links shared via third-party clients or from Twitter web clients will be wrapped in the URL t.co/xxxx. Twitter has hinted that the new URL shortener will also tie in analytics.
A new report by AARP indicates that more than a quarter of Americans age 50+ use social networks. The most popular network is Facebook, followed by MySpace, LinkedIn, and finally Twitter. Another statistic from the study found that 49% of 50-64 year olds consider themselves extremely comfortable or very comfortable using the Internet. This research should be kept in mind when planning future social media programs.
Suzanne Marlatt Edelman Digital, Chicago Follow on Twitter @edelmandigital
M-commerce saw a boost in consumer activity during the first third of 2010, with 35% of U.S. mobile users saying they participated in some form of mobile shopping. That’s up from 17% last year, but actually purchasing still lags. Only 13% of U.S. mobile users are actually making purchases on their devices, possibly because four out of five multichannel retailers do not have m-commerce capabilities. The key takeaway is that the desire to shop m-commerce is present but most brands and retailers are not providing users with the option to buy on the go.
With the popularity of location-based mobile games like Foursquare and Gowalla growing exponentially over the last year, the market was wide open for an app that helped businesses capitalize on the trend. Loopt Star combines the competitive aspect of the aforementioned applications while allowing businesses to easily reward or offer deals to all frequent customers, not just the “mayor” (Loopt Star does allow the most frequent patron to earn the title of “Boss”). Perhaps the most important distinction between Loopt Star and Foursquare/Gowalla is that the new kid on the block uses Facebook Connect, so new users can get started immediately and share the deals they earn with their existing Facebook network.
WordPress bloggers can now “Like” and reblog other WordPress users’ posts easily with QuickPress, a simpler, one-step interface alternative to the original WordPress publishing platform. Given that liking and reblogging are cornerstones of short-form blogging services like Tumblr and Posterous, making these features available to the massive WordPress community brings social blogging to a whole new, more mainstream audience.
Latino social networking platform Quepasa has reach more than 14 million users on the strength of 9.6 million unique visits, a 55% increase over April. The company cites the addition of rich media content, social tools and interactive games as primary factors in the bump in traffic and membership. In the context of marketing to millennials, it will be interesting to watch the growth of a Hispanic-targeted social network with a heavy flirting/dating angle that appeals to that demographic.
Lizz Kannenberg Edelman Digital, Chicago Follow on Twitter @lizzkannenberg
I’m normally an optimistic person and maybe I should have titled this “5 Tips to Make Your Social Media Strategy Succeed,” but sometimes pointing out the negative side of an issue is more effective. Nonetheless, here are five ways brands go wrong when creating social media strategies for their businesses: Read more…
Seeing is believing and visuals are powerful. I’ve collected a few visualization tools for Facebook, news feeds, and Twitter to let you view networks and conversations at a glance. Read more…
You may or may not have seen the post today by Liz Gumbinner of Mom-101 regarding mom bloggers working for free. If you haven’t already read it, I’d encourage you to do so. Liz makes some fantastic points about an emerging theme in the parenting blogger community: marketers don’t respect us enough to pay us for our time. Read more…
My colleague Mitzi Emrich recently caused a micro-stir on Twitter during a DC meeting of the Social Media Club. Among the things that came up during the discussion: Edelman’s “Belt System” for social media training and certification. Read more…
Social CRM is a very interesting topic but since the “space” is still relatively undefined, it can be somewhat of a challenge to address. The goal of this post is to keep things simple and high level so please keep that in mind and hopefully we can dive into more in depth in the future. Read more…
The Middle East is always a hot media topic across the world but, for the most up-to date news and reliable sources, UAE’s Digital Account Manager, Wissam Akily has this week’s Friday Five. So if you want to know what’s going on in the Middle East, these five portals are your go-to sites.
We live in a world that gets more and more casual by the emoticon. The prevalence of popular shorthand has made professional writing in largely personal spaces murky waters. Here are five suggestions curated by the Friday Five team and inspired by Edelman’s own Edit and Proofreading Q-Tips.
