Monthly Archives: April 2009

Social media for change

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In my previous blog post, I wrote about Twitter…particularly about its growth rate and how it competes with Facebook. That was not very long ago and, yet, so much has happened since. Oprah endorses the micro-blogging site; Ashton Kutcher is the first to exceed one million followers; and the Rochester community prepares to host its first local Twestival (or “Twitter + Festival”) this evening to support Foodlink.

By leveraging Twitter and other social media, organizers of the Rochester Twestival 4 Foodlink were able to coordinate the event within a short time span, as well as bring to light the hunger crisis within our own community. Tonight’s event has been organized by the same core group of volunteers, who rallied the community’s participation in the global Twestival event back in February.

This was the first event of its kind that united communities worldwide on the same day, using social media to raise money and awareness for the global water crisis. Rochester ranked 18th in overall fundraising out of the more than 200 participating communities, with $2,690 raised for the benefitting non-profit, Charity: Water.

The overarching concept behind the Twestival is “social media for change.” Twitter is not only showing explosive growth in connecting people, but is also becoming a premier technological platform to pay it forward.

Add This!

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lg-addthis-enMy new must-have website feature? “Add/Share this” button. You know what I’m talking about… you get to the end of a really good article or funny video, and you think, “I have got to pass that along!” Click one little button, and bingo – it either embeds in your Facebook page, goes to your del.icio.us page, emails it… etc. Your choice.

So, on a personal level it’s great. But on a professional level it’s especially worth taking note. First, and most obvious, we’re talking about free content. No matter what your business, there’s some kind of credentialed content out there that adds variety and depth to your site if you can include it. For example, one of my clients, Embria Health Sciences, manufactures an immune health ingredient. They have plenty of good content on the site to explain why the product is effective, but do we believe it? A couple of months ago, they decided to embed a blog that is devoted to issues around immune health (and happens condone their product). Free product endorsement AND supporting content.

Sharing content is also a great way to increase site traffic. If a few avid readers post your content on their own sites to share with friends, you’ve now gained free doorways back to your site. And by the way, all of this linking does great things for organic search rankings.

Check out the video tour of this service on Add This site:
Add This Tour

The Barbarian Group’s Adventure

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“Holy crap! I’m really glad someone is working on that!.” That’s the response The Barbarian Group (TBG) hopes to elicit from visitors to the GE adventure blog . It details behind the scenes action at client General Electric. Works like this: TBG goes on field trips to discover cool things GE is up to, and posts the experience. A simple premise that offers lessons for our industry:

1) Territory shmerritory – TBG is a digital agency. But here’s a partial list of other organizations that could have credibly proposed and delivered the idea: GE’s employee communication team, PR agencies, ad agencies, media agencies, a motivated summer intern. If you recognized that GE had cool things in the hopper and you could tell stories, it was your idea to pitch. Oh, and you’d have to know how to open a WordPress account.

2) Git ‘er done – I love that they started this without knowing precisely where it might take them (according to recent coverage). If the basic premise is sound, get started and learn on the go. To paraphrase General Patton, a good plan executed now is better than the perfect plan next week. He actually said “violently executed”, but I’d leave that out of the strategy brief.

3) Don’t wait to make an impact – By blogging this way, TBG is doing the research they would have done anyway to create a larger campaign. The campaign is still coming. They’re just making the “discovery” process public, and maybe getting more ideas from readers along the way.

One criticism. Better yet, let’s call it a question: Is the blog’s impact on the reader lessened by having an outside company telling the stories? I might rather hear from proud GE employees directly. You can tell me if I’m nitpicking.

Matt Jones

Social media duke it out

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Twitter and Facebook are seasoned veterans of the social media scene. Yet, there continues to be considerable discussion around these two behemoths of late—particularly when it comes to their mind-boggling growth rates.

Twitter is a phenomenon in its own right. With a 1,382% annual growth rate, it’s hard to disagree. There’s even talk about Google acquiring the micro-blogging site (which would warrant its own blog post if and when that happens).

Though I regret to admit I’ve been slacking on my own tweets, it seems I personally have been surrounded by all-things Twitter over the past two months. Our agency supported the Rochester Twestival—the first event of its kind that united 200+ local communities worldwide on the same day, using Twitter to raise money and awareness for a good cause. While watching NCAA basketball, commentators were glogging via Twitter to capture the action as it unfolded. Oh, and RAF requested to follow me too!

Now, what about Facebook and its robust 200% growth rate? Is it really taking over our lives? I was surprised to learn that Facebook’s fastest growing demographic is women 55 and over—up 175% since September 2008. Also, for the first time, I saw a commercial that included VitaminWater’s Facebook page—instead of the company’s website.

These are all solid examples of how both Twitter and Facebook have already transformed the way people communicate in general, as well as how businesses have adapted to reach their customers in new ways. It will be interesting to see how these two evolve, and what results from the competition between them. Will the companies continue to one-up each other? Will they remain private entities, or eventually be acquired? Ultimately, is their growth sustainable?

I want a young man with a good income

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Ok, I personally don’t.

What I mean is that many companies want to—and have always wanted to—reach relatively affluent young men. It’s the golden demographic. Guys with disposable income that they readily spend on beer, gadgets, and shower gel that they hope will have hordes of women chasing them down the street like something out of A Hard Day’s Night.

(Maybe that isn’t the best example. These young guys probably don’t understand the phenomenon of women chasing Ringo down the street…On second thought, do any of us understand women chasing Ringo down the street?)

And where do you find all of these guys? In front of their computers on that productivity-killing Thursday and Friday in March, watching basketball. Pretending to work.

It’s likely that as viewing continues to move from TV to every other conceivable mobile device, more and more advertising will follow. And perhaps the first two days of March Madness, where men everywhere watch games online, will eventually replace the Super Bowl as the ultimate advertising event.

“Marketing Madness” if you will.

If it does, with the personalization made possible for the Internet, a guy goofing off in Rochester will see ads for Genesee, while a guy wasting his boss’s money in Philadelphia will see them for Yuengling.

But some things never change. No doubt we’ll all still have to watch Bud Light commercials that aren’t really funny.

Jacek Utko designs a better newspaper

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The daily newspaper model is dying. Readers moved to the web, where it’s hard to earn adequate subscription or ad dollars. The other revenue stream, classifieds, was upended by craigslist.

Smart people are trying to create a model to save not the medium (print) but the institution (journalism). I-tune like micropayments for stories is one. But no silver bullet yet.

Jacek Utko has a different idea. He thinks better design can make a difference. His inspiring presentation from a recent TED conference is below. It includes striking examples and might change how you think of the printed newspaper’s potential.

Be warned, he takes away any excuse you (I) might rely on. As he says, you can work in the boring branch of a small company with no record of achievement. With guts and perseverance, you can still make an impact.

Can the D & C can pull this off?

Matt Jones

Stop! My ears are bleeding

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Ad Age reported on March 16th that a California state rep introduced has H.R. 6209. It is also pleasantly known as the “Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act”. What do they want? Softer commercials. When do they want it? During their favorite television shows.

While I get the concept that louder commercials will cut through the clutter and viewers will pay attention, I don’t know that I believe it. If people need to keep their remotes at the ready in order to lower commercial volumes, that can’t be good for anybody. Once that remote is itching in the hand it is so much easier to start clicking around. We all lose then. The advertiser, the station and the viewer who might not make it back.

What do you think? Is being loud a necessary evil to get people’s attention or is it more important to potentially keep that remote on the couch?

— Susan Cregan

Post with Purpose

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National Acrobats of China

National Acrobats of China

My kids recently went to see Nazareth College’s National Acrobats of China performance; absolutely loved it. I had seen a small ad in the paper a while back, but frankly forgot about it. So what prompted me to buy those tickets? Facebook.

My friend Rachel DeGuzman, marketing director at Nazareth College Arts Center, is using Facebook the way organizations should. She not only posts interesting and relevant information (to share with her well-cultivated friends list), she makes it actionable. So, because Rachel posted the acrobats performance it was now “in my face,” where I not only noticed it but could take the follow next steps:

  1. Link to a page where I could buy tickets
  2. Export the event to my calendar
  3. Share the event with other friends

Rachel also kept this post interesting by adding reviews as they appeared in local media. There are plenty of additional next steps you can give your friends for your events: RSVP, share with more friends, comment/vote, etc. This is a truly interactive way to engage.

I’ve used Facebook events for both personal and professional events. The key is to post with purpose: notify your friends about the event, but make sure you give them those next steps to seal the deal.

— Andrea Zuegel