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34 posts categorized "Social Strategy"
My Twitter Story
As you have probably noticed, I have not blogged in months. I know, shame on me. But good news is I'm back and ready to share my little heart out about all things digital and social. Although somewhat random, I decided my first post back would take you through my personal experience and thoughts on Twitter. I've been thinking a lot about the future lately and in doing so my mind always wanders to the past, how it all started and where it lead me to.
Click, Follow, Click, Follow
I joined Twitter 2007 and for quite some time it was my only digital presence, and because of that it really shaped my approach to all the networks from that point forward. I was a power networker and adamant about following back those that followed me (with the exception of spammers and shameless promoters) and chatted, shared and supported anyone and everyone who crossed my Twitter path. My philosophy was simple - if someone found me interesting enough to follow, I should open the door and extend the same thing back. This was the early stages of Twitter, when it was small yet growing, and so following back just seemed like the right social thing to do. It was easy to manage then, and we were all trying to learn from each other. Following was the thing to do, and I embraced it fully without hesitation.
Click, follow, click, follow, click, follow. As the site grew so did the follower requests, which required hours of click, follow, click, follow every day just to keep up, not even including time spent actually engaging and interacting with those new followers. I was willing to put in the time though because I was a passionate user and believer in where this whole Twitter thing was going. Today, I'm often asked "how did you get so many followers?" and always think back to the days of click, follow, click, follow and say "for a good part of a year I spent almost all my free time on Twitter following, @ing, DMing and interacting with total strangers, who introduced me to more strangers, whom eventually became friends and my biggest online supporters."
What a Long Strange Trip It's Been
Those early days seem so far away to me now, and it's probably because the voyage through the ever changing and evolving space we call social media has been a journey of trial and error, big success and utter failure. My work and the people who followed, listened to and supported me have shaped and reshaped the person I am and the vision i have for myself in the future. I feel so fortunate to have connected with so many people, many of which I have never met but nonetheless are important to my life.
With that said, there was a time (a little over a year ago) where I just about gave up on Twitter. It just became too unmanageable, time consuming and just plain noisy. The new followers were so hard to sift through because of the influx of crafty spammers, marketers and brands. For those who were watching, I was getting popular and gaining influence, but it seemed so false to me, because more followers didn't mean better relationships or experiences. [CONTINUED...]
Bom Dia Brazil
A Brazilian journalist interning in NYC for the largest TV network in Latin America, GloboTV, reached out to me unexpectedly last week and asked if I would be interested in discussing my experiences with Twitter and Foursquare as it relates to establishing virtual, and real life friends. The best part of the whole thing is that my the interview is translated into Portuguese, and I can't help but how awesome it is. The segment aired yesterday on GloboTV's Bom Dia Brazil morning TV show, but you can watch the video below (my part is 1:35seconds in) and read the accompanying article in either Portuguese or translated into English. I bet you can guess how I found out yesterday that the segment had run earlier that morning in Brazil. Yup, a rare Brazilian tweetie bird flew all the way from Latin America to NYC to give me the good news. ;)
When we discuss social networking and its ability to drive more real life networking, it's important to remember that the synergy between online and offline interaction is an essential component of what this whole social networking thing is ultimately about. You have to get out there and give quality face time to make your digital relationships stronger. Meet more people and solidify your digital relationships into something more tangible and memorable.
Luxury Brands and Social Media
Lately there has been quite a bit of discussion around luxury brands and how they must adapt and innovate in this challenging economy by embracing the new media landscape. Up until now, luxury brands and their relationship with consumers has been built solely around highly controlled communication and interaction through the store, PR and advertising efforts. But today with the high end market sector facing an economic downturn, evolving luxury consumer landscape, and suffering traditional media outlets, luxury brands must embrace social media as a new way to reach consumers or risk continued falling sales.
The Situation
The reality is in this economic climate, obsessing over “living the life of luxury” is becoming less and less relevant to people’s lives and there are fewer people willing to use credit to pretend they can afford it. And for those that can actually afford it, they’re also feeling the effects of the economic downturn, at least enough for them to question some of their unnecessary purchase decisions. Luxury and high end brands are being forced to come up with new strategies that make both the upper and middle class desire their exclusive and elite offerings.
This is combined with the fact that there are more and more affluent, active internet users than ever and their shopping habits are changing because of the internet. Welcome to the digital shopping revolution where high end shoppers have shifted online out of convenience and are looking to digital channels to shape how they are inspired by brands. Nowadays, you don’t have to buy a magazine or tune into a trendy TV show to find out what is new and hot right now. People can go straight to the internet to get information on the latest in trends, style, technology, and fashion, and they can share their opinions and taste with their online network. Brands have to change their consumer approach by reinventing the shopping experience and their relationship with consumers through innovative uses of technology, communication, and entertainment.The Future of Economic Growth is Social
I work with brands to help them develop their social presence online and – although I truly and wholeheartedly believe in the relevance of my work – I do sometimes ask myself if a brand's digital and social interaction efforts actually affects their ROI (Return on Investment) in a significant way. I believe this to be a tough question because for brands such as Dell the answer is clearly yes, but for others, where the connection between online engagement and sales is less direct, the immediate financial gains are unclear (and often difficult to measure).
However, when thinking about the ROI of having an online social presence, I have cornered myself in the traditional and narrow-minded approach of determining economic benefits. After reading Stan Stalnaker's post in the Harvard Business Now blog titled A New Approach to Economics, it's clear that linear transactions are no longer the sole form of currency online. According to Stalnaker, in the social web:
"The value resides with relationships, not transactions. Maybe, instead of buying and selling more and more in a mad race for grabbing the most growth, the future will be about a collaborative, community-oriented regenerative growth model.
Eventually, in a regenerative economy, we learn to focus on kaizen--constant improvements, as opposed to an ever expanding volume of low-quality transactions and markets. Call it the co-op economy. It's the kind of economic system we always say we want but can't bring ourselves to build."
By coincidence, when I was later browsing videos on the TED Talks website, I stumbled across Joseph Pine's presentation from 2004 on What Consumers Want. I found the slide he referenced below to be particularly relevant, showing the progression of economic value over time. Would it be wrong to assert the next progression of economic value to be a Collaborative representation of the customization and commoditization of Experiences?
I am very much interested in this topic, and would much love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Media Diet
I was browsing my feed reader when I came across FlowingData's reposting of Wired's "Balance Your Media Diet." My media diet consists of much more Twitter and social networking than is shown here for sure. What does your media diet look like? Does this chart represent your consumption accurately?
When you add it all up, the average American spends roughly nine hours a day glued to some kind of screen, and like your diet, quality is as important as quantity. Here are Wired's suggested servings for optimal media health.
The BlogHer Blogger Backlash
(Disclosure: PepsiCo is a client of Undercurrent where I am currently employed)
I had a great time at BlogHer '09 in Chicago this past weekend, working and mingling with some of the most inspiring and passionate women on the web. I attended the event on behalf of PepsiCo, who had a significantly large sponsorship presence throughout the conference this year. I was there to assist several of PepsiCo's brand teams including Propel and Frito-Lay by helping to connect with and engage attendee's as they perused the trade show floor and came across our various sample booths and displays. I must admit, the trade show floor shocked and amazed me the first time I walked through it; packed with every brand category you could think of from Microsoft to Playskool to Motorola to Hanes to Disney to Orbitz to HP... well, you get the point.
Attending on behalf of PepsiCo meant I spent most of my time on the trade floor experiencing the frenzy of freebies over and over again throughout the two days I was there. It was impossible for anyone to take a loop of the trade show floor without ending up with a shopping bag full of products, half of which were likely items you didn't need or really want. The overwhelming inundation of free product this year was embraced and appreciated by some and clearly resented by others.
There’s been a lot of chatter about what really went wrong at BlogHer this year and whether it was compromised by the infiltration of marketers or by the attitude attendees showed by disregarding the larger purpose of the conference – to meet, greet, learn, and teach each other in a stimulating real life and open environment. The Me, me, me atmosphere was not entirely the fault of the companies and brands who were offering products and prizes. Having worked very hard at the conference on behalf of a major sponsor, I was incredibly relieved to read this statement made by Mom-101 in her blog post titled "The Year that Shame Died:"
I couldn't have been more impressed with how the marketers interacted with the attendees. They were respectful, they were enthusiastic, they were so engaged that they attended panels. It was a tribute to the efforts of Jory and the rest of BlogHer, who clearly worked tirelessly to make sure brands Got It Right. And by God they did. After three years of working to convince marketers that bloggers are an important force, conference sponsors like Pepsi, Suave, Nikon, GM, Clorox Greenworks, Tide, Ann Taylor and especially smaller brands like Blue Avocado were stellar evidence of the fact that indeed, women bloggers are an important force. (Yes we are!)
I’ll digress and talk about the larger issue at hand, which is currently a hot debate within the BlogHer community as a result of this year's conference, but is also causing serious conflict between bloggers who are also debating about the ethics, or lack thereof, when receiving products from companies or agencies in return for a blog review, which can be argued, are more often than not, overwhelmingly positive.
The truth of the matter is, as marketing and advertising budgets continue to get smaller, it is both beneficial and economical for brands to offer up products to bloggers in exchange for reviews posted to their site or a tweet posted to their Twitter profile. Really, when you think about it, seeding free product to consumers with the goal of generating conversations and awareness is not a new practice, it is called buzz and word-of-mouth marketing and has been used by agencies and brands alike for some time now. Today, social marketing agencies and brands are taking this strategy and adapting it to work within the web space, by targeting some of the most active online consumers and conversation starters– know bloggers and their loyal readers.
Why? These campaigns are dead simple and inexpensive to execute (compared to alternative marketing tactics), and the success of an online buzz campaign can be measured pretty easily by calculating and aggregating important blog statistics such as: average blog visitors, blog authority relative to others in same category, number of comments on post, number of times the post was reblogged by other sites, and additional stats like number of tweets posted to Twitter referencing the campaign. What is wrong about these blogger buzz marketing campaigns? What is good or benefit comes from them? We the internet, and the blogging public need to decide what kind of advertising and marketing tactics we are okay with into our blogosphere. Right now the FCC is working on new guidelines to help make this decision for us with rules that will dictate how and under what circumstances bloggers can particiapte in unpaid, buzz and word-of-mouth advertising campaigns on their own blogs.
I should note, I myself have taken part in two "sponsored conversation" campaigns this year on behalf of Kmart and Armani Exchange via IZEA, where (in both cases) I was given a $500 gift card to spend in their store and was required to blog about my experience and talk about what I specifically bought with my $500 gift card. I am drawn into these campaigns for the obvious shopping opportunity but even more so, because I love the opportunity to give away a $500 gift card to one of my beloved readers. As part of the sponsorship, I am required to clearly disclose at the beginning and at the end of my post that I am being sponsored by X company I am blogging about in this post, but that all the opinions expressed within the post are mine, and mine alone.
Ironically, my thoughts on this subject are situated between two posts in which I received products in exchange for review. The first being a “sponsored” account of my experience at Armani Exchange thanks in part to IZEA and the upcoming second, a review of a business card scanner I received from The Neat Company after they came across this picture I posted to Flickr.
It’s seemingly horribly apparent that I have been riding this 'product in exchange for review' wave for some time now by accepting tshirts, gift cards, scanners, and more from companies who are, in exchange interested in me talking about their product to my friends, readers and followers. So, whaddaya say - Should I jump off my board and swim to shore? Or should I continue to fearlessly face the risk of being pulled into the undertow?
Paramount Star Trek Outreach FAIL
I have been mulling over whether or not I should blog about a disappointing experience I had with Paramount a few weeks back. But I think there is a lesson to be learned here about the right and wrong way to conduct social outreach, so I am going to lay out what happened.
Here's the story. Below is an email I received the evening of May 4th from interns at Paramount Field Marketing and Promotions department:
So I of course get REALLY REALLY FREAKIN' EXCITED and email everyone at the Undercurrent office, close friends and start Tweeting like crazy. Then I get a follow up email the next day:
To say the least, I was so disappointed as were the friends and digerati's I contacted to go with me. Paramount's half-assed efforts to do something special for Twitter and Facebook-ers is best classified as a "Social Media" Outreach FAIL.
DonkeyTs
Like other bloggers, I get pitched by websites/companies/brands all the time, however – most of the time – what they are pitching me is either not relevant to my interests, or just plain uninteresting. But then there are those times when someone outreaches you and they really stand out and grab your attention, because they've gone above and beyond to make what they do relevant to you. That happened to me today.
On Tuesday I got an unexpected package in the mail and when I opened it up there were two tshirts that made me say OMG! out loud. The shirts were perfect for me – but there wasn't a note, message, or anything indicating who they were sent from. For the next two days I wore the shirts, posted pictures on my Flickr (#1, #2) and of course Twittered demanding Tweets saying that whoever sent me the tshirts should fess up so I can thank them for my two new favorite shirts!
On day two of pleading on Twitter and Flickr that the person who sent me the shirts should reveal themselves, I saw this tweet from @donkeyts.
I never suspected it was the tshirt company, because I assume if a company sends me something they'd include some sort of pitch letter or something but DonkeyTs didn't, which turned out to be genius. When I got to chatting with Tiffani (@tiffa_fisha) at DonkeyTs, I found out something even more amazing... they had made the shirt specifically for me! In an email Tiffani told me:
I actually custom made the FTW shirt for you. We have a WTF design, so I cut the letters, rearranged them, and wallah! But don't worry, today we made a legit design that is on our website now!
OMFG! That my friends, is how you get a blogger, Twitterer, Flickerer, YouTuber's attention. Do something special for them and create a bit of mystery and/or excitement around it. Don't cut, copy and paste your marketing, but rather re-create, re-mixx and reinvent the way you market your brand to your intended audience. Impress them with how much you really know them and show them that you truely understand what their interests are. Get 'em excited to talk about you :)
Well played Tiffani at DonkeyTs, well played.
(Click Images to See their Comments on Flickr)
