Browsing Month October, 2008

It is time to answer, or at least attempt to answer, a tough question I have received.  Joel Postman, yes the Joel Postman who has a book coming out called SocialCorp; Social Media Goes Corporate, asked me if I think “Large companies should block employees from using Social Networking Sites At Work?” Wow, Joel does not throw softball questions at all.

So, my answer to the question?  Yes, they should allow their employees to have access to the Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Bebo, sites of the world.  The benefits out way the negative claims of loss of productivity. Also, some employees wont work at places that block SocialNetworks.

Since I am for allowing employees to access these sites, I think it would be a good idea to put my reasons why down in list form. People like lists.

-SocialNetworks are a great way for online marketing. Your employees have the name of the place they work right there for the world to see on their Myspace profile. Its free online advertising.

-Imagine  the brain trust. Heave a problem at work? Stuck on something? Ask the question on a social network.  That’s how this blog post came about. I asked my SocialNetwork for blog post ideas

-Think of the business networking. Your employee is on Linkedin and able to network with their peers and customers. Going to the Q & A area of Linkedin can get people thinking. It can get the brain juices flowing.

-Increased customer relationships. Employees will end up adding customers to their SocialNetworks. This will increase the bonds with your clients. “Oh, Mike I saw the cute pictures of your new baby, how cute”. Your employees will get to know their customers better and on a whole new level.

- Lets say your an accountant. There must be a SocialNetwork out there for accounts. Its probably got a forums area where accountants share ideas, thoughts and give/get help. I would want my employees to be part of that.

-Social networking sites are where over 100 million people are worldwide. I would want my company and employees to be there and not my competition. I would want to own that social networking space. Have people go, “Wow that company gets it.”

-If you do not give the employees access, they will find away to get on the sites. I have a friend who works at Visa which does not allow access to sites like twitter. This person has already found a work around to get to twitter on the first day it was blocked.

-Using it can increase your sales and brand recognition.  Look at Zappos. They encourage their employees to be on networks. 

-It will help increase company communication. Serna uses Facebook as their internet.

I think the simple answer here its the way things are going. SocialNetworks are becoming part of everyday routines. Just like reading the news online is common instead of getting a newspaper delivered. Companies need to open up these channels of communication to their employees, while at the same time educating their employees on proper use.  As in everything education is key.

Now before you post comments saying, “My company will lose productivity, I dont know what my employees are doing, etc ” Think about how you can make the SocialNetworks work for you and your company. These are amazing tools that all companies should be using..before their competion does.

…”In this corner we  have the defending self replicating champ Viral Marketing. In the other corner we have the word of mouth up and coming challenger Social Media Marketing”….

Viral Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing, whats there to fight about? They are the same thing right?

Wrong! (ding ding ding)

Well, to be fair they seem like the same thing and find themselves in that  “grey area” of marketing. I am just saying it really easy to get the two of them confused, I can easily see how it can happen. So what is the difference between the two? Lets break it down in list form, people like lists.

Viral Marketing

-Simply relies on the audience to distribute the objective

-Uses social networks like Facebook, MySpace,  Linkedin, Twitter to help achieve an objective…i.e sales, brand awareness, etc

- This objective is obtained by a “Viral Action”. This action is people passing  on the content such as video, picture, an application, banner, heck even just word of mouth.

-Sometimes people don’t even realize they are passing on a viral marketing message. I did it earlier this year with this video, I did not know it was from Gatorade. I totally fell for it did you?   Here lies the big difference between Viral and Social Media Marketing,  Viral is sneaky and sometimes you don’t even know your passing on a marketing message.

Bottom Line:Viral relies on the audience to spread the message with little or no interaction. Its a one time interaction.

Social Media Marketing

- SM Marketing relies on the audience to distribute and engage in the dialogue and sometimes the creation of additional content.

-Its about engaging,communicating via a dialogue and interacting with people. More so customers.

-Increasing traffic to a site by links, brand awareness and well attention.

-You pay attention to what your customer/user wants and needs! You do this by listening, interacting, chatting.

- One does this by having a presence on social networking sites and channels. We are talking about Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogs, Podcasts, Digg and others.  The brand interacts and engages with the community, customer or even potential customer.

Bottom Line: SM Marketing uses good content to start a conversation with the goal of the relationship to grow, get deeper and keep it going

Both Viral Marketing and Social Media Marketing have the same goal, getting the word out about a brand. Yes, we are talking Word Of Mouth Marketing, which is passing information on.

Thanks to John Avilla for letting me bounce ideas of him for this post and helping me break it down.

The last few days I have been hurting for ideas for blog posts. I was not feeling it. Maybe I have writers block. I’m just not sure.

Well about 2:00 today I thought “How can I get an idea for a blog post?”

Where the heck can a social media, online community advocate type get an idea for a blog post… hmmmm

Oh wait! I can ask my community! I preach to companies all the time to “Ask Their Community” go back to their community. I did not practice what I preach.  Maybe the writers block has grown into “Social Media Block” or something.

So i went to my community and asked for  ideas for a blog post. Within 10 minutes I  had..count em.. 7 ideas that were kick ass. Just like that! I have been banging my head trying to come up with something and I got them with one post to my networks. One single post got my 7 amazing responses.  So there you have it, the power of having online networks.

So thank you all who responded like Scott Place, Meghan Rodberg, Joel Postman, The Diva, Netvalar, indieradiochatt, and DylanFan.  I will do my best to blog about each of your questions in the next few days!

I’m a New Media Strategist!! Good enough answer?

Lets just stop right there shall we?

I am very excited to share with you all that I have been hired as the New Media Strategist for<a href=”http://www.lsfinteractive.com/”> LSF Interactive.</a>

So now your saying “Great! Congrats! What the heck is a New Media Strategist?” I am so glad you asked! Well a New Media Strategist provides planning and execution of public relations strategies that will help increase a company’s image, community stature as well as brand awareness.

Yes, that is a mouth full isn’t it?

Lets break it down into its parts. How about a list? People like lists! The areas all be handling and advising on are:

-Blogs

-Social Networking Sites i.e Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Plurk,(always have to work the word Plurk in)

-Podcasts

-Outreach/Advocacy

-Relationship management

-Webcasting/Lifecasting

-Tradeshows/Industry Conferences

-Viral Campaigns

-Public Relations

So there you go. The Cliff Notes version.

This is a repost from my older blog peckpack.com

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“Will this video go viral?”

“How soon till this video goes viral?”

” His video went viral, what about mine?”

If I got a nickel for everytime someone contacts me asking, “What do I have to do to make this video  go viral?” Its  got to be one of those classic lines social media folks get. Right up there with, “How do I measure social media results and what is twitter?” (these questions will be answered in upcoming posts).

So the answer to this question? Let us keep in mind that this answer is not limited to video. It can be a blog post, podcast, (insert media type here).

Well lets start with there is no simple answer. Its about timing, community, the message, oh and….Content. That maybe the simplest and best answer. …Content.

Content is King.

If your putting something out there that is amazing, well done and grabs people, then you have a better chance of going viral.

If your putting something that is just Blah, well then that’s what your going to get back.

My friend Tim Street, who is the brains behind French Maid TV, shared with me a simple secret to help increase the odds of a video going viral. He says ” A video must make you feel at least two emotions to go viral.” Be it sadness, happiness, anger, love, etc, etc. I think he is dead on with that. So my tips for things you should do to help a video go viral? Let me share them in list form, people like lists:

-Feel at least two emotions (thank you Tim.)

-Its got to be simple to share. So have  the sharing tools already embedded and available for the person. A simple tool like ShareThis will do it all.

-Its got to be simple. Something Straight and to the point. Do not make people think to hard.

-If they share it what is in it for them? Maybe making their friends laugh? Could it be helping a cause they believe in? Are they maybe getting linklove?(Wait for upcoming blog post to explain linklove)

-Timing. I believe the time of day and day of the week play into the release of a video too. If you do it at night people may be sleeping, but they check webpages in the morning and forward things on. Then you need to factor in other countries too. Remember we need to think global, not local sometimes.

Again, I use videos as the example but it about content in general.

Video.. its a powerful tool. I thought I would share with you a video LSF Interactive is directly involved with. Its a video about why you should vote. This 1:42 video sends a powerful message. Here take a look:

This video should make you want to take action. Make you to want to get involved. Make you well…want to vote. I think it does all these things. This is a great example of social media being used with a specific purpose and a specific message.  The hope here is that you will take action and of course forward and share the video.

What do you think? Is this a great way to send a message? Does it make you want to take action?