2008 October

Archive | October, 2008

Tags: community, social capital

The True Value of Social Media Consultants

Posted on 22 October 2008 by miss rogue

The other day, I was in a meeting with a group of very smart people and we were talking about how to discern a ‘great’ social media consultant from a ‘mediocre’ social media consultant. I’ve never really considered myself a social media consultant, though. I’ve always thought of myself in a more integrated way, since I’ve spent my marketing career working online AND offline and being part of product development as much as promotional campaigns. Even the term ‘community marketing’ that I usually use to describe my practice falls short.

Even so, I believe the job of Social Media Consultant entails using the online social media tools available to spread the word – much like PR does for traditional media – to pick up steam for the brands they represent. This, of course, is a very smart business to get into, especially during these turbulent economic times. Social media tools are inexpensive and are quite easy to measure impact for. I particularly like tools like HubSpot and Google Analytics for measuring impact of social media campaigns, as well as tracking word of mouth through Twitter’s search and Google Blogsearch. There are many other tools available, as outlined here by my colleague, Jeremiah. This makes a Social Media Consultant a sound investment as an adjunct to any other form of marketing you are embarking on. It’s also a safe bet when budgets get cut back as it is more cost effective than many other types of marketing.

Still, how does one know who is a ‘good’ consultant and a ‘mediocre’ one? I think it all comes down to Whuffie.

Much like a PR person worth her weight in gold has many contacts and a good reputation in the traditional media circles, a social media consultant (SMC) worth her weight in gold has many contacts and a good reputation in online communities. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the SMC has the MOST contacts, either. It’s how people talk about her, how she interacts and how the things she posts are spread around. A good SMC will have high Whuffie on the web. People will trust her opinion. Other influential people will value her expertise. The reason that quality is as important as quantity is that her Whuffie will rub off on her clients. If she is trusted for what she talks about, her connections will be more likely to check out who she is representing.

Anyone can be a SMC, really. There are millions of people of all ages using the online tools and hundreds of thousands of them use them effectively. But to be a kickass SMC, you need to be an influencer yourself. This isn’t much different from PR. And, in both cases, it matters who you represent.

Social media, just like any other type of marketing, is only as good as the response you get from customers. A good SMC knows her stuff and understands what the market will respond to. She will be honest with you in early meetings if she knows your product needs work to delight potential customers. You deserve that. You don’t want to spend a bunch of money and energy on a campaign that goes nowhere. You should be spending that time and money on building a really awesome product. And, a good marketing professional, social media or not can help you in that realm as well. I’ve actually spent more of my career working on product development and innovation than I have on the promotion of it. The truth is, great products need less promotion and ’stick’ when you do promote.

Lastly, an SMC you want to hire practices ethical marketing. Much related to the point about having influence in a community, ethical marketing practices maintain and build integrity within communities. Anything that smacks of lying or tricking people will be found out and both your company and your SMC will pay the price Whuffie-wise. Future campaigns will be looked upon as suspect and time and money spent will be for naught.

I take great care in working with clients – who I’m working with and how I’m promoting them. I make sure that what I’m delivering is of value and that my connections won’t feel spammed or get tired of the type of media that I’m sharing with them. If my own quality slips, the interest from my connections slips and I become less useful to current and future clients who deserve the positive word of mouth. There are clients I have taken on who have potential, but were not ready for promotion – so we focused on product and getting to the point where we could both be proud of what we were sharing with our connections. Other potential clients who wanted the promotion, but wouldn’t do the work to make sure people I introduced to their products would be delighted, had to be passed over. In today’s competitive landscape, I was sorry to see them pass up the opportunity.

Thus, if you want to have your SM campaigns go further, assess your SMC on these three measurements:

How much influence does he/she have in online communities?
Does he/she understand market trends? What kind of feedback does he/she give on your product? Are there good ideas in there?
Does he/she practice ethical marketing? If he/she suggests that you can pay people to digg up an item, probably not.

Other than that list, an SMC has to understand how to use the tools, know how to measure impact and how to get creative to get through the noise that is the thousands of campaigns already inundating people in online communities. But it isn’t necessarily getting through that counts. It is how that message is received on the other side. That outcome is going to mean results or rejection.

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This Week’s Links on Ma.gnolia

Posted on 18 October 2008 by miss rogue

Some stuff I’m reading this week…

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret

Sometimes I send messages I shouldn’t send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can’t always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we’re launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help.

What is Responsible Business, Really? Perspectives from Stonyfield Farms and Clif Bar Founders ( Gary+Erickson, Gary+Hirshberg, Kit+Crawford, Clif+Bar, Stonyfield+Farms, Good+Business+Network, CSR, Corporate, Social, Responsibility, Kellie, McElhaney, Haa

Hirshberg’s company (stonyfield yogurt), too, pays it employees to volunteer and “that kind of stuff” but philanthropy can’t dilute the focus of a truly great business, he argued. He compared check-writing and volunteering to cutting the leaves and branches off a tree, where the heart of the business and its ability to impact the world positively is the tree itself.

The Social Capital Divide in MySpace | Dr Shock MD PhD

Researchers found evidence for a social capital divide on My Space based on age. They did a study of user profiles among teenagers and older users of MySpace. MySpace is one of many online social networking site, but one of the largest.

Zazengo – Welcome to Zazengo

Actions speak louder than words
Turn awareness into action around causes that matter to you. Record your social impact and watch it grow across your community.

Delancey Street Foundation – Home

At our site we hope to show you a little about our model, our successes and our struggles. We’re considered the country’s leading residential self-help organization for substance abusers, ex-convicts, homeless and others who have hit bottom. Our average resident has been a hard-core drug addict for sixteen years, abusing alcohol and multiple drugs and has dropped out of school at the 7th grade and has been institutionalized several times. Many have been gang members; most have been trapped in poverty for several generations. Rather than hire experts to help the people with problems, we decided to run Delancey Street with no staff and no funding. Like a large family, our residents must learn to develop their strengths and help each other. It’s an approach to changing lives that is “against all odds”.

Analyst: Half of ’social media campaigns’ will flop | The Social – CNET News

There’s obviously no universal solution to social-media advertising and marketing, because every company is different. But Sarner offered a preliminary tip: to make sure that there’s a clear reason why such a campaign is instituted, and “get people talking” isn’t enough. “Are you discovering what’s going to be the new black next season?” he suggested as an example of a trendspotting-focused strategy.

Wall Decals: Toronto Transit Series | Walloper

A collection of decals featuring the iconic modernist design and typography of the Toronto Subway system. Wall decals are easy to apply and remove so you can reimagine your space as often as you like

25 Ways to Build Your Community | chrisbrogan.com

Good tips from The Broganmeister.

Superstruct: The world’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game – Massively

Forget what you typically expect from your average client-based MMO. In fact, the title you’re going to read about here differs markedly from the type of game we normally cover at Massively, but that makes it no less interesting. Superstruct is truly something different

Scroll Magazine | Scroll Number 1

Welcome to Scroll Number 1: | virtual…physical | . You’ve journeyed between worlds to be here today. How was your trip? It’s one we take for granted as we

50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing | chrisbrogan.com

Social media isn’t always the right tool for the job. Not every company needs a blog. YouTube worked for BlendTec, but it might not work for your company. And yet, there’s something to this. Over the last three days, I’ve spoken to four HUGE brands in America that are considering social media for one project or another, and there are many more out there working on how these tools might integrate into their business needs. Here’s a list of 50 ideas (in no particular order) to help move the conversation along. Note: I mix PR and Marketing. They should get back together again.

globeandmail.com: The class of 2012: Mr. Google’s children

The class of 2012: Mr. Google’s children
They’ve been called shallow, over-entitled, self-absorbed social-network addicts. A few experts predict instead that they’ll be the next ‘hero generation.’ But what do they say for themselves?

Influential Marketing Blog: The Softer Side Of Measuring Social Media

Social media measurements – qualitatively

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This Week’s Links on Ma.gnolia

Posted on 04 October 2008 by miss rogue

Some stuff I’m reading this week…

twittergram

Send your Flickr pix to Twitter and show people what you’re up to. To disable posting simply enter your flickr username, select the disable checkbox below it and click Submit.

Your flickr feed is checked about every 10 minutes and only the most recent post within the hour is sent to Twitter.

Disaster Capitalism, State of Extortion

As the planet is rocked by multiple shocks, here’s a look at how disaster capitalists are reaping the benefits–leveraging the Iraq War, the push for arctic drilling and the global food crisis.

Silicon Valley Rocks

Great idea for an event. Funds raised go to a school music program. Lotso fun!

The Banality of Heroism

The banality of heroism concept suggests that we are all potential heroes waiting for a moment in life to perform a heroic deed. The decision to act heroically is a choice that many of us will be called upon to make at some point in time. By conceiving of heroism as a universal attribute of human nature, not as a rare feature of the few “heroic elect,” heroism becomes something that seems in the range of possibilities for every person, perhaps inspiring more of us to answer that call.

Robert Reich’s Blog: What Wall Street Should Be Required to Do, to Get A Blank Check From Taxpayers

Wall Street’s request for a blank check comes at the same time most of the public is worried about their jobs and declining wages, and having enough money to pay for gas and food and health insurance, meet their car payments and mortgage payments, and save for their retirement and childrens’ college education. And so the public is asking: Why should Wall Street get bailed out by me when I’m getting screwed?

FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right

Totally awesome geeky stats on elections.

Americans text more than they talk | News – Wireless – CNET News

For the second quarter of 2008, U.S. mobile subscribers sent and received on average 357 text messages per month, compared with making and receiving 204 phone calls a month, according to Nielsen. The new statistic is a clear indication that Americans have jumped onto the SMS text bandwagon.

Pew Internet: Teens, Video Games and Civics

Game playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day. Game playing experiences are diverse, with the most popular games falling into the racing, puzzle, sports, action and adventure categories.
Game playing is also social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time and can incorporate many aspects of civic and political life.

Educational Publishing Summit

I’ve been in talks with this group about presenting our HeroCamp findings next summer.

Study: Most Americans want to see companies on social sites – Daily Business Update – The Boston Globe

According to the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, 93 percent of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present, but also interact with its consumers via social media. In fact, 56 percent of American consumers feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.

Heilemann: Obama Passes Presidential Test; McCain Fails Manners — Daily Intel — New York News Blog — New York Magazine

As we’ve seen over and over since the general election started, when the campaign is at equilibrium, Obama runs ahead of McCain by somewhere between 3 and 7 points — which is why McCain and his people are constantly, and somewhat desperately, trying to unsettle that equilibrium with gimmicks, shocks, and stunts. The selection of Palin. The “suspension” of McCain’s campaign. The transparently bogus threat of bailing out of the first debate unless a bailout plan for the financial system was agreed to on Capitol Hill. The problem with these gambits is diminishing returns: each one has less effect than the last.

Political Affairs Magazine – Naomi Klein on “Disaster Capitalism”

…the ruling class is using disasters, both natural and those brought about by their polices, to ram through social structural changes in their interests that they never could have brought about using the democratic process. Getting rid of public housing for the poor in New Orleans, for example.

Now is the Time to Resist Wall Street’s Shock Doctrine | Naomi Klein

It would be a grave mistake to underestimate the right’s ability to use this crisis — created by deregulation and privatization — to demand more of the same. Don’t forget that Newt Gingrich’s 527 organization, American Solutions for Winning the Future, is still riding the wave of success from its offshore drilling campaign, “Drill Here, Drill Now!” Just four months ago, offshore drilling was not even on the political radar and now the U.S. House of Representatives has passed supportive legislation. Gingrich is holding an event this Saturday, September 27 that will be broadcast on satellite television to shore up public support for these controversial policies.

Ten First Steps Toward Lighter Living | Lighter Footstep

Every journey begins with a single step. At Lighter Footstep, we’ve rounded-up the ten easiest ways for you to start moving toward a lighter lifestyle. Some cost nothing at all. Others provide a lot bang for your eco-dollar. In every case, these ideas will save you money, cut energy use, and help balance your household’s greenhouse gas budget — the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere to produce goods or electrical power.

So pick a few, and give them a try. Before long, you’ll establish the habits we all need to develop as we face the challenges of a resource-hungry planet.

The Corporation Film: Welcome

This is one of the documentaries that totally changed my perspective. It’s a brilliant look at how corporations have all of the rights of a citizen with none of the responsibilities and how totally frightening that is.

PR 2.0: The State of Social Media 2008

no matter how grand an expert one purports to be, the truth is that we’re all still trying to figure this out as it continually changes – together. I’m not talking about what to do or how, but what must be done in order to ensure that this global renaissance paves the way for permanent residence in every media property and business through value, education, and reform.

SmallWorlds

SmallWorlds is a 3D virtual world that runs inside your web browser. It enables you to build your own room, house, or even your own world, and fill it with a wide variety of items and fun activities.

How to Break the Bubble Cycle

To be sure, bailouts can hit CEOs, top management, and institutional shareholders hard, above all through loss of employment and loss of bonuses. But bailouts have economic and social costs that are not covered by the assets. And bailouts raise the question of moral hazard—the problem that people behave recklessly if they are not responsible for the consequences of their actions. Indeed, banks are allowed to fail whereas other financial institutions are rescued. Who decides on that and on what grounds?

Storytelling Alice

In contrast to the large number of people who use computers and computer programs in their daily lives, relatively few learn to create their own computer programs. Storytelling Alice is a programming environment designed to motivate a broad spectrum of middle school students (particularly girls) to learn to program computers through creating short 3D animated movies.