Archive for May, 2009
Mashlanta, Where The Players Play
Big thanks to Mashable and Regator for a great Social Media event last week in Atlanta.
Wayne Sutton and Jeff Cohen put together a great set of interviews of some of characters who attended the 400 person event. I love events like these for this very reason, the people. It was no SXSW, but it was a great who’s who of Social Media in the southeast – a fast growing crowd.
Check out Wayne’s interview of me below and the rest of them over at TalkSocialNews. Not sure how my hair got so out of control. Rest assured, a haircut has taken care of that mop sense then.
Some of my favorite people from the event
@WayneSutton - Hardest working man in Social Media
@dgtlpapercuts - Photo man, co-founder of SocialMediaB2B.com
@Tessa - Atlanta liaison for the NC folks that traveled in, big thanks
@AndSheSpeaks - best Twitter handle at the event
@DaveDelaney - the inside scoop on all the latest Griffin iPhone tech
@Regator - blog aggregation central, cohost of the night
@AshevilleAllie - Do-gooder, recent NC resident
@Corvida - Blogger extraordinaire, style hooligan
@dejon97 - fellow idea guy and entrepreneur
@adambloom - Helped launch original WebMD
NASCAR meets Social Media
For those of you who are fans of Twitter and NASCAR, the NASCAR Tweetup was built for you (aka Ultimate Race Day). It is at Whiskey River this weekend and is free, go RSVP right now. Not convinced? Read on…
Twitter and NASCAR are not the most natural of friends at first glance, but if nothing else, they are two of the fastest forms of entertainment. Sporting events all over the country are embracing Twitter. In the past month in North Carolina alone, we have seen our NHL, NBA, and PGA event all embrace Twitter in big ways. It is great to see, but the real money in Charlotte sports is racing. Don’t worry, there is plenty of racing folks finally embracing the microblogging format, even the (still under construction) NASCAR Hall of Fame is sending out tweets.
We are in the middle of Speed Week in Charlotte (actually two weeks long), which means a few hundred thousand race fans are in town embracing their love of all things stock car. They shut down Uptown Charlotte for a few days for a street festival called Speed Street. See Speed Street/Twitter giveaway.
Now I am not sure how many people on Twitter are NASCAR fans or vice versa. But this weekend, the first NASCAR Tweetup is happening at Dale Jr’s very Whishkey River Bar. I am not a huge race fan, but I would not miss the opportunity to network at such a unique get together. The event is being put together by Stephanie Agresta, who also cofounded TechSet, a social media and technology event series.
Come out and enjoy the NASCAR Tweetup, meet some cool people, and embrace your inner Race Fan.
PR, Social Media Skills
Guest post by Christine Perkett, named “PR Executive of the Year” by the American Business Award in 2008. President & Founder of PerkettPR, Christine speaks regularly on the crossroads of PR, marketing and social media and has been featured in numerous books and publications such as BusinessWeek’s Social Media Report 2009.
What Social Media Marketers Need to Know About Public Relations
With the rise of social media and its use for marketing purposes (some of which haven’t gone so well and others which are really fantastic), there has been increasing demand for a class of professionals who dedicate themselves to communicating brand values through these unique new channels. Traditionally, PR professionals have used a variety of communications methods to reach the public, and the good ones see social media as a wonderful new tool in the PR or marketer’s overall arsenal. This overlap of domain expertise can lead to more success if the two functions understand each other and work together, or it can lead to frustration and friction if relations are allowed to become a turf battle over who owns what.
Understanding and coordinating with PR is a sure way to make sure your client engagements run smoother and produce the best results. PR is about communication and engaging a variety of public audiences and therefore, social media marketers that understand the need for creating messages that resonate with each of those audiences will gain the benefit of this expertise and make sure social media-based conversations feed into and enhance the brand’s overall value.
To learn some basics on PR, read this great article from AdAge. To get a bit more specific on how it relates to social media marketing, here are my thoughts:
1. The difference between social media and PR
Social media is a method of communication. Public relations is focused on reputation awareness and management – the practice of communicating with and influencing a variety of publics that matter to a company or an individual. Social media is one of the tools used to establish, raise and maintain such awareness.
2. Why thoughtful positioning and messaging matter
Social media marketers need to understand the messages that a PR or marketing department want to share with a company’s publics and why. Yes, social media is about transparency and authenticity – – so is good public relations. Dishonesty is bad, regardless of the channel. But “spin” doesn’t always have to mean dishonesty – “spin” is a word largely used by those that don’t understand the value of “positioning.” Everyone positions in one way or another. When you write your social media bio you are positioning. When you pitch a customer you are positioning. Positioning is about wisely choosing the way you communicate when attention is at a premium. Does that sound familiar?
PR executives help companies and individuals to position or deliver messages in a favorable way – one that can, and should be, open and transparent as well. Despite some bad apples, PR teams are not in the business of hiding things. But they are in the business of positioning communications in such a way that is memorable. Social media marketers need to respect the public relations team and their expertise here – taking the time to understand the messages that the PR and marketing team have determined will work best to reach each of a company’s publics – and incorporate these messages into their social media marketing campaigns. Haphazard messages – in the spirit of being “social” – that aren’t well-coordinated will defeat the marketer’s purpose – consistent, persistent messages help publics to remember and recall a brand/individual/company better. Whether the messages are delivered in a social media community or in a written press release, they need to be thoughtful and consistent.
3. PR is much more than media relations
This is perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about PR. I’ve heard more than one “social media expert” tell companies that they can also do the marketing and PR because “they know bloggers.” While blogger and media relationships are an important element to the overall PR campaign, this is just one part of what a PR executive deals with on a daily basis. Because it’s the most visible part of a PR executive’s job, many relate it to the profession as a whole. But in fact, PR executives spend a great deal of time working on the best and most memorable communications methods for a variety of constituents: industry analysts, investors, tradeshow coordinators, customers, prospects, partners, employees, recruits and more. Not all of these constituents are created equal – they don’t have the same wants or needs. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all social media campaign – or one that will get great media coverage because of its innovative digital content will not appropriately impact every audience that a company or individual entrepreneur wants to reach. A fun video that might attract customers to a retail website will not necessarily communicate the more serious messages needed to attract investors, for example. A slick-looking microsite with bad messaging might get good press pick up for the concept, but could confuse prospects, hurt sales or worse, lead to customer attrition.
Overall, social media marketing is a great new method for engaging directly with the public to share a brand or company’s core messages, values, culture and news. Social media marketers often know where to reach key audiences and how to create exciting digital content. But the PR team should have a hand in what messages are in that content for maximum impact and the greatest ROI. Working together, social media marketers and the PR department can create compelling messages and information and deliver them in exciting new ways that let a company’s public audiences interact, engage and most importantly – remember the brand.
SERIES Social Media Skills — Advertising, SEO, PR, Graphic Design, Copywriting, and more…
SEO, Social Media Skills
Guest post by SEO Professional Corey Creed. Corey blogs at The Jungle Map and teaches Internet Marketing Classes. Find him on Twitter at @CoreyCreed
To start with, thank you to Jason for letting me do a post on his site about Search Engine Marketing (SEM). I appreciate the opportunity and always enjoy our conversations, Jason. I hope everyone will take a moment to read Jason’s post on my site as well.
Below are a few points that I think Social Media professionals need to know about Search Engine Marketing.
1. Search Engines are for finding things
Sounds obvious, right? But it is a huge difference between social media and search engines. The reason we use search is to find. In other words, we are looking for something. People do not want to be on Google. They use Google to get to where they really want to be.
If you are into social media, you need to realize the difference. The attention you attract to a business or website in social is like talking with your friend about a product. Search is more like walking into a store and asking a store clerk about a product. There is a different intent.
2. Search Engines are all about Keyword phrases
If you work with social media, you likely have your own blog. (See the next point.) If you are writing, don’t sabotage yourself. You’re already writing. Why not use the keywords you want to be found for in Google? To be even more specific, do yourself a favor and use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and figure out which phrases get typed into Google. Then use them from time to time, especially in the titles.
3. Search Engine love blogs too
Many of my friends that are into social media will all say that the blog is the center of it all. This doesn’t mean you need a blog to use social media effectively. But most do feel that a good blog is an extremely important and central pivot point to effective use of social media.
You use social media (facebook, twitter, etc) to draw attention to your blog, right? Let Google do the same thing.
How? Use the keyword phrases we talked about above. Use them in the title, and in the copy in a way that makes sense. It does not guarantee rankings, but it does improve your chances dramatically.
PS: Don’t forget to check out Jason’s post about Social Media for SEO professionals on my blog, too!
SERIES Social Media Skills — Advertising, SEO, PR, Graphic Design, Copywriting, and more…
Advertising, Social Media Skills
Guest post by Edward Boches, Chief Creative Officer at Mullen. Find him on Twitter at @edwardboches
Can social media professionals learn
anything from the world of advertising?
When Jason asked me to answer this question, my first reaction was he had it backwards. Shouldn’t the question be, “What can advertising professionals learn from the world of social media?” I mean consider that the consumer has become the medium, the distribution channel, and in some cases (think Don Draper on Twitter or Coke’s fan page) the content creator. Isn’t it the ad practitioner who needs to learn about social media, to understand how conversation has become the new marketing? What can outdated ad guys possibly teach social media types?
But as I thought about it, it’s obvious that both disciplines (I actually predict they’ll soon be one and the same) can learn from each other. Ad agencies and advertisers can learn new ways to listen, engage and take advantage of emerging tools and platforms for the distribution of their content. At the same time, perhaps social media types can take advantage of what advertising professionals know.
So here are three things that every social media person might want to learn from advertising folks.
1. Good advertising tells you what a product does and why you should buy it. Great advertising expresses what a brand stands for an invites you to share in its beliefs.
The best advertisers and agencies know that consumers buy into a brand’s values as much or maybe even more than the individual products. Nike advertising doesn’t push shoes; it encourages, inspires and promises individual achievement. Monster.com doesn’t tell you how easy it is to explore job options; it reinforces your right to a fulfilling career. Coca Cola doesn’t talk about what’s inside the bottle, it brings to life what’s outside the bottle: joy and happiness. You can see this over and over again in the best advertising.
What’s the lesson for social media? Don’t push a product. Don’t generate content that’s limited to offers or coupons (like some retailers do on Twitter). Instead, demonstrate what you stand for through the content and utility you offer and the community you nurture and inspire. Think Zappos, which stands for customer service and practices it using Twitter. Emulate Whole Foods, which expresses its belief in health, nutrition and the enjoyment of good food, evident on Facebook and Twitter. Model your approach on WalMart, a retailer proving its commitment to value by aggregating and generating useful content through it’s Mom blogger program. These are brands that aren’t saying what they stand for, they’re living it in a way that invites participation.
2. Elevate your creative before you increase your budget
The great agencies and the best advertisers all know this. A big creative idea is the ultimate competitive advantage. You can always buy presence, but you can’t pay for memorable. Think of ideas you’ve seen that you’ll never forget: Absolut Vodka’s bottle art, Budweiser’s Wassup, E-Trade’s Chimp, Monster.com’s When I Grow Up, The Milk Board’s Got Milk? These are all campaigns from years gone by. But chances are if you saw them just once you remember them always.
Or consider more recent efforts. Cadbury’s drum banging gorilla. Or even my own agency’s recent campaign for the Boston Bruins. The latter two had virtually no media dollars behind them at all. But they had the creative power to attract attention, become viral, and worm their way into the current culture.
The fact is it’s only a matter of time before every brand has a Facebook fan page, a presence on Twitter, and a YouTube channel. Simply being there won’t be enough. What will separate one brand from another will be the quality and creativity of the content, the program, and the experience. Consumers will want experiences that aren’t just relevant, but interesting, entertaining and inspirational.
3. Recessions are the best time to make a move
It’s been proven definitively that companies willing to spend on new programs, acquisition and advertising during recessions far outpace companies that make big cuts. Kellogg’s Rice Krispies raced past Post Cereal in the early 1930s by doubling its ad budget. According to McKinsey, companies that took equally aggressive approaches during the slowdowns of 1981-82 and 1990-91 enjoyed similar results. Why? For the simple reason that when advertising is scarcer, the brands that do advertise benefit from a greater share of voice and visibility. Yet despite all the evidence, most brands fail to take advantage of this time-tested approach. Perhaps it’s because it’s hard to think about building an addition when the house is burning down.
But there’s a huge lesson here for social media. This new approach to marketing is still in its infancy. The first ones to get out there will grab a much larger share of attention in relationship to their effort than they will in another two or three years, when the social media environment is far more cluttered and consumers will have even more content to sift through and communities to choose from. It’s a chance to do what Kellogg did. Establish yourself when there’s less competition.
So there you have it. The value of shared beliefs. The power of creativity. An understanding that timing is everything. Maybe there is something you can learn from the world of advertising. Can you think of anything else?
SERIES Social Media Skills — Advertising, SEO, PR, Graphic Design, Copywriting, and more…
