Interview with Danny Schreiber of Silicon Prairie News(download video here or play it below on the page)

Silicon Prairie News Spotlights Midwest Innovators, Business, & Culture

In a couple of years we’ll look back and say Silicon Prairie News was one of the early benchmarks of new journalism. Its founders, Jeff Slobotski and Dusty Davidson, and Managing Editor Danny Schreiber have created a multimedia stage to tell stories of business, innovation and community about Omaha and the visionaries in the surrounding Midwestern states. As they have grown on the web, many new social celebrities on the coast have taken notice giving Silicon Prairie News a wildfire-like status that attracts the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk pouring for a SPN party at South by Southwest, and iconic CEOs including Tony Hsieh of Zappos and Dennis Crowley of Foursquare will be among the speakers at the Big Omaha conference produced by Silicon Prairie News.

Now, it’s still new and its collaborators still shaping its content and structure. It has the feel of a new venture with a wide open horizon to discover, much like the 360 degree view from it’s origin in Omaha, Nebraska. In my early career I worked in Nebraska as a broadcast journalist with 3/4 inch camera’s a tape deck editors, so I know that literal and figurative view very well. This is a media entity similar in boldness and feel to that of CNN when it first started in the early 1980s. Then local news reporters contributed to CNN’s success by submitting stories, it was a network of part time stringers, the culmination of which was rapid growth.

Silicon Prairie News with Danny Schreiber from Albert Maruggi on Vimeo.

I get the same feeling when I look at Silicon Prairie News, Tech Crunch, and Mashable, yes I put Silicon Prairie News among those new media giants without hesitation. The difference is, this generation of news gatherer is not bound by technology because they don’t need antennas, only the web. They are not fearful of competition because there is more synergy among entities participating in the same social space than animosity. They are not encumbered by bureaucracy but uplifted by the limitless potential of their ideas.

Danny Schreiber, Managing Editor of Silicon Prairie News and I chat in this video about how social media became something that was inevitable for him, the utility of Twitter and the need for improved filters for the social web to provide greater benefits, and his admiration for Princess Lasertron, (it’s a long story, Danny explains.)

Big Omaha

While flying to Omaha is not the easiest of connections, the Big Omaha conference is worth the lay over. It will be a intimate venue with big name players and a look at a part of the country most people fly over. For me, it’s a half day’s drive and a chance to hook up with old friends. Give the agenda a look and consider attending May 13-15.

Time 24:19

This podcast you’ll get the big picture of social media with Robert Scoble,the co-author of Naked Conversations along with Shel Israel and managing director of Fast Company TV. This conversation is useful for corporate marketers in discussing social media with their senior management as a company evaluates whether and how to participate.

Companies operate in a world with equal access to information (minus the occasional government obstacles like China and Iran) but for the most part it’s all good. It’s a world where distance and time matter little, and sincerity and participation matter a lot.

The downsides of such access are the horror stories of price comparisons and margin evaporation. Let’s face it information used to be power when a few people had it. Now it is more about how people use the information, with whom do they associate with as they exchange it, and how do those relationships add value.

Scoble and I had a great conversation with a few laughs and insights into how he avoids information overload with technologies including Twitter and Friend Feed. He is a prime example of how social media works, give of yourself, and watch others give back to many.

Comment below or call 206-426-1117 and we’ll field some of them on the next podcast.

This month’s book giveaway contest is Millennial Makeover, MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics, by Michael Hais and Morley Winograd. Enter drawing by emailing MarketingEdge AT providentpartners DOT net. Put Makeover in the subject line.

The future of news is both a fiscal and emotional issue. Newsrooms across the country are struggling with the economic realities across the spectrum from energy costs to the impact of the internet. On the emotional side, the press, vilified as it is by those whose agenda it suits, still remains a cornerstone of a free, democratic society.

Somewhere in the 1980s, the discussion of fairness of news organizations became a central part of the political and general discourse in American society. This debate chipped away at the credibility and integrity of journalism as an institution. The bickering, some real, some imagined combined with the explosion of blogs and citizen journalism created threads of 19th century yellow journalism which was woven into the once trusted resource of Cronkite and Murrow. The result is a crossroads for American journalism.

Despite the gloom of many newsrooms, it is an exciting time for American journalism. When accomplished reporters for the New York Times (and many other newspapers) are not constrained by one format and can tell their story with video on their newspapers website, that is exciting. It is exciting, when a television reporter can extend their piece, which before the web was a one time only production, to include conversations from viewers via a blog. It is an exciting time when the insights of citizens can be tapped to cover a topic that may only affect a small neighborhood, but nonetheless, makes that community grow closer.

The issue is in large part about the money and who will pay for this information. Economies of scale of the mass produce and consume 1900s no longer apply. Financial sustainability of the news media as we know it now requires innovation on the part of the news organization to develop new products, creativity on the part of business/advertisers to financially support communities and causes in which they believe, (without getting in the way of truthful reporting where appropriate), and citizens to become more involved with the news.

I see it this way. Before 2000, the news was a cookie sheet. A metal surface used to produce the same product on a regular basis. Today news is the cookie dough. Consumers of the news want to shape the information as they need it. They want to add to it from other sources, they want to share it with anyone and everyone, and they want to consume it wherever, whenever, and however it best suits them. Journalism will thrive when it figures out how to generate revenue with this new dough.

People like Chris O’Brien and the Next Generation Newsroom project are in the middle of these exciting times. The Project for Excellence in Journalism and Rick Edmonds of the Poynter Institute has done an wonderful evaluating the trends in news organizations and the way Americans are consuming information.

Today, Thursday, June 12 I’m participating in a panel on the changing face of the news media put on by the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce. Add your comments below, email them to me at amaruggi AT providentpartners DOT net or tweet them at www.twitter.com/AlbertMaruggi

Panel Discussion – Changing Face of Media/Alternative Media Sources/Credibility vs. Sensationalism.
Purpose: We are interested in exploring whether or not, how and why traditional media such as newspapers and television are being supplanted by internet resources and user generated media such as Youtube and Facebook. How are younger generations (Gen Y) using the new media and how they will gather news and information in the future.
Moderator:
Liz Bogut – Communications Director, Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce
Panelists:
Joel Kramer, Editor and CEO of MinnPost.com
Kristin Henning, Publisher, The Rake
Barbara Laskin, Media Relations Manager – Macalester College
Thom Fladung – Editor – Pioneer Press
Albert Maruggi – Founder and president of Provident Partners

A horse with Hooters, now that’s classy. It caught me off guard this morning when I read stories about Hooters joining on as a new co-sponsor for this year’s Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown, just in time for a likely triple crowning of the thoroughbred. I mean, this is a horse named after UPS, you know brown trucks, brown uniforms. According to an Associated Press article, “the horse was named in honor of UPS, a client of original owner Paul Pompa Jr’s trucking business.”

Well the big brown company, UPS should be turning a shade of red after they let one of the best marketing and PR opportunities for any company slip through their hands and into the bosom of Hooters. That’s right, they should have been exclusive sponsors of the horse, especially after winning the Kentucky Derby UPS should have locked up exclusive sponsorship to the thoroughbred. Big Brown is being compared to some of the best horses to have won those prestigious races. And what do winning horses have? Speed. And what do I like best about my shipping company? Speed hmmm, nice brand association ain’t it?

Was it not enough ROI to spend a comparative pittance for the Kentucky Derby sponsorship to get $1.5 million in advertising exposure? Was it not enough to be associated with a winner whose name is practically the subtitle of your company? (What can Brown do for you?)

This was a big customer with a horse running, and winning so far, in the three most important, nationally covered horse races in the country. What’s not to sponsor?!

Now, because of short-sightedness combined with a lack decisive management and then some, UPS marketers have looked a gift horse in the mouth. They will be sharing the sponsorship spotlight with Hooters, yup the place that makes you think of wings and breasts, not in that order, a co-sponsor of Big Brown for the third and final leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes.

Tell me, if there is a joint photo op, UPS delivery person in uniform on the left and Hooters spokeswoman in uniform on the right, – Get the picture brand managers?

OK enough UPS bashing let’s get after this ridiculous comment from Kelly Wietsma, president of Equisponse, the marketing agency that represents Big Brown’s owner IEAH Stables. Wiestsma has been quoted in BrandWeek, and other articles, on Big Brown’s marketing future, “We’re definitely going to mass market in a way that’s never been done in our industry. I want every kid in America to be able to walk into a Wal-Mart and buy a Big Brown shirt or a Big Brown Beanie Babie.”

One of us is out of touch with the American parent. I have three daughters ages, 10, 11 and 16. I grew up around horse racing and saw Secretariat win the Belmont Stakes. I am a big fan of the horse Big Brown. However, given the stupidity of this misalignment of brand sponsorship, I don’t believe Wiestsma will see Beanie Babies, perhaps in Hooters shirts, flying off Wal-Mart shelves.

This decision is a lack of being decisive at UPS and a ton of greed by Equisponse with little regard to what a brand really means.
Good luck Big Brown you’re a hell of a horse. To those entrusted with brand management on this one, see picture ——–>

Update to this blog on June 7 at 9:25pm CDT.

I read with great interest that the New York Racing Association (NYRA), who runs the Belmont Stakes and Belmont Park, rejected Hooters secondary sponsorship of Big Brown. The horse’s jockey Kent Desormeaux was threatened with a fine if a Hooters logo showed up on his silks.

NYRA attributed their decision to a conflict with an unnamed sponsor. Curious isn’t it? My guess is either UPS forked over more cash, or an even more complex plot, they got another entity to be a silent sponsor, to pay more money with the caveat that Hooters’ honeys can’t be part of the party.

Was this a distraction that could have been avoided? You bet.

I copied these 5 Rules for Successful Brands from a wonderful post at Gigacom http://gigaom.com/2007/10/26/5-simple-rules-of-branding/ The writer is Carleen Hawn

The rules are from John Quelch. Mr. Quelch is a non-executive director of WPP Group plc, the world’s second largest marketing services company, and of Pepsi Bottling Group. He served previously as a director of Reebok International. He writes an excellent blog on branding for Harvard Business Publishing.

Hawn’s article was originally posted on October 26, 2007. Quelch poses a clean, concise list of 5 major rules for branding that I have chosen to apply to the 2008 presidential Democrat ticket, specifically with the idea as some are advocating that an Obama/Clinton ticket is a smart choice.

Senator Obama, here is a perspective of what Clinton does for your brand.

Quelch’s 5 Rules for Successful (global) Brands: Quelch’s rules are numbered, my Obama/Clinton commentary for each rule follow.

1. The same positioning worldwide. (For F|R: this means in every market.) This provides a combination of functional product quality and innovation with emotional appeal. Think Coca-Cola.

For Obama this means selecting Clinton after her harsh words and the guaranteed soundbites that will be used in ads during the general election campaign are likely to undermine your position.

2. A focus on a single product category. Think Nokia and Intel.

For Obama this means you lose your Obama product category and take on a second product line, not good and will lead to product confusion. No one ever voted for the bottom of the ticket and don’t let them convince you it is going to start now.

3. The company name is the brand name. All marketing dollars are concentrated on that one brand. Think GE and IBM. (F|R: Hewlett-Packard learned this the hard way!)

For Obama this means diluting his message and potentially having an under current of a Co-presidency. That’s not a good idea for a strong brand. Yup, it might not be diplomatic, but when it comes to Presidential candidates, it’s either my way or the highway.

4. Access to the (global) village. Consuming the brand equals membership in a global club. Think IBM’s “solutions for a small planet.” (F|R says: replace “global club” with social network.)

For Obama this means you get a warm and comfortable feeling in Denver. That’s nice, but it is a dream if you think it will last. This dream ticket does not live in a vacuum. You are not in high school and you can’t break up and still be friends. This is called leadership and with it, there are leaders and followers, period. Oh and speaking of a global village how does Clinton reconcile the whole lunch with Ahmadinejād thing. Nope, Obama it’s your world view, stick with it.

5. Social responsibility. Consumers expect global brands to lead on corporate social responsibility, leveraging their technology to solve the world’s problems. Think Nestle and clean water. (Or F|R might say: think Google.)

For Obama this means you should expect Clinton to step aside at this time, not concede for opportunistic reasons. Clinton must understand that it is in the Obama brand’s best interest for a clean break, not take the approach of, “I won’t make this messy if I get what I want? Brands are better when they are clearly defined, even with the potential rough edge he may create if Obama does not choose Clinton as VP. In fact, I’d argue that decisive an edge will serve the Obama brand better in the long run.

A personal note here, this blog discusses marketing, communications, and social media issues. I try very hard not to express political views here. I use politics as an illustration of social media, messaging, and brands. However, I do not want to give the impression that I support Barack Obama. I do admire how his campaign has defined him and seek only to comment about him from a communications perspective.

On the Republican side, I believe John McCain’s brand is rich in leadership. An example would be a candidate for the republican nomination that is not afraid to have Joe Lieberman, officially listed as an Independent Democrat, at his side during his primary campaign. This, however, is a story for another time.

Time 15:19

The idea of a group of people sharing information can apply to hobbyists (like whitewater,try KayakMind, a product launch team, or a global force of loyal fans. One of my current favorites is Natasha Bedingfield Many companies struggle with whether such a beneficial collaboration is a technology question. There are plenty of platforms that exist for significant sharing of multimedia, and text along with other features like blogging, and forums.

Today we speak with Gina Bianchini, the co-founder and CEO of an exceptional platform for creating and growing social networks, Ning. Provident Partners has a private network for listeners of the Marketing Edge podcast and readers of this blog on the Ning platform. To receive an invitation just email marketingedge AT providentpartners.net and put Sandbox in the subject line.

Saturn cars inspires owners to exchange stories and ideas as well as company representatives to share what’s new and trendy in the car market. There’s plenty for movie lovers to enjoy on the Netflix pics site, and on the Provident Partners Social Media Sandbox you can ask questions, get answers, upload photos and video and form groups and forums for more detailed collaboration.

Bianchini said the Ning Creators social network, a network of thousands of Ning users, is an excellent place to develop new feature ideas, get feedback from users, and a central place to praise and vent.

It’s all about the interaction, the information, and the journey that the group goes on together. Jump on.

An excellent panel sponsored by the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association was convened last night, great crowd and questions. The central question of the night however, seemed to be elusive. The panel was billed as Who Controls Social Media in the Enterprise, and it didn’t seem to me that there was a clear answer. Wonderful anecdotes and ways to test social media internally and externally, but no clear answer to the central question, which for me also answers the question.

In general, the conversation about social media among these companies’ and their commentary on social media in the majority of larger companies led me to the following observations:

1) Social media is viewed at best as a tactic to be tested and at worse a side show.

2) Social media is about relationships and those take time, time large companies don’t have given our culture of immediate results. A supporting example of this are loyalty programs that provide a discount for customer, but only if they buy within a certain window. I see how that attempts to accomplish a minor win for the customer and a revenue increase before the end of the quarter for the company, but there is nothing social about that. A catch ‘em, clean ‘em, filet ‘em repeat approach.

3) Social media just doesn’t have the numbers for companies that play in the middle income bracket. Companies on modest and shrinking profit margins are not seeing enough dollars move through their coffers as a direct result of social media. Sure it’s nice to have raving fans embracing your brand, lots of balloons and cake for internal office recognition, but for most senior execs the $ needle isn’t moving far enough in those areas that are directly attributable to social media efforts.

4) Lastly, social media is not viewed as a comprehensive communications platform. So while a retailer may have thousands of loyal fans on Facebook in a program inspired by customer relations, that same understanding about social networks is not shared by say the PR department that dismisses a bloggers inquiry. There is a disconnect in either understanding or appreciation for social media across these large enterprises. When this happens, the cultural tendency is to dig your heels in about your current perspective and not open your mind up to a holistic vision of social media’s implementation throughout the enterprise. There will be more on this topic in a future Marketing Edge podcast with Robert Scoble to be posted June 2.

Panel Members

· Jim Cuene, Director, Interactive, General Mills 
· Brad Smith,  VP of eCommerce & Digital Marketing, Fingerhut Direct Marketing
· Gary Koelling, Creative Director, Social Technology, Best Buy
· Jason Kleckner, Manager, Information Architecture, Target Corporation
· Moderator: Michael Kraabel, Group Creative Director, Gage

Yes I copied this from the MIMA Events page. Thanks

Hat Tips

Gary Koelling – Most candid answers award, he is Twitter gold for any live writer

Jason Kleckner – Best answer of tough question with grace and insight award. Nice job

Here’s a podcast of the MIMA panel Who Controls Social Media in the Enterpriseevent – however, this was an abbreviated file when I downloaded. I’m going to leave the link up just in case it is fixed. Minor gripe here to the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association, why isn’t there an audio player on the page for this podcast? There must be a good reason, standing by. If you fix it, I’ll come back and amend this post.

Since marketing is about words and positioning, I’m going to remain neutral on this issue by saying that the advocates of global healthcare will use the term globalization and the opponents of global healthcare will use the term outsourcing. The issue outlines how the future of a US orthopedic surgeon (an other healthcare practitioners) may well follow that of the US assembly line worker in that both now have a larger pool of people who do what they do.

The world is getting smaller and social media is contributing to the elimination of boundaries of information. An eye-opening article from Fast Company: Why Americans Are Going Abroad for Health Care highlights how a world class Thailand hospital, Bumrungrad is a destination for patients around the world, more than 430,000 in 2006 for more than a tummy tuck. Global health care facilities are attracting Americans for everything thing from dentistry to transplants.

Whether your call it Medical Tourism
or just plain global health care, the roots for its recent growth are cost and quality of care. Look it’s not that much different than world leaders coming to the Mayo Clinic in good old Rochester, Minnesota. Only now it’s not Arab sheiks, but modest middle managers looking to save thousands on health care.

From Thailand or Tennessee, competition is seen as a means to drive costs down and quality up. Information is a necessary element of competition which is why social media is being embraced by many players of the healthcare equation.

Because healthcare choice is so important, consumers demand health care delivery information from a variety of sources, healthcare providers, patient experiences, mainstream media, government, and others are all available to the patient making a care choice.

Shopping for health care is not limited to global options like this site called Health Base, in Minnesota consumers can shop for local health care online using Carol.com. Carol it is turning heads in the healthcare delivery profession and so is a blog about patient health care experiences called the Health Care Scoop. The Health Care Scoop is produced by Consumer Aware which has a relationship with health care payer Blue Cross Blue Shield. It’s in everyone’s interest to have lower cost health care, right? Their mission, in their words is:

“We believe that consumers should have the information needed to make “best fit” choices. Healthcare shouldn’t be a mystery. Information about all aspects of healthcare should be easy to find, easy to understand, and easy to navigate. Healthcare information should be available to everyone, all the time, and at no cost. We’re going to do our best to help make that happen.”

Now if you really want to have some fun, have a cup of coffee and compare hospitals in your area. This is the once private, now public, hospital survey called the CAHPS produced by the Hospital Quality Alliance, with a great subtitle “Improving Care Through Information.” Well I might quibble about that subtitle, it’s improving the selection of health care with information to the patient, but I would enjoy a conversation about how this public knowledge will actually improve care?

The answer to that question and many others will be the focus of a panel called Social Media Bringing Change to Healthcare Marketing.

It is sponsored by the Health Care Special Interest Group of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Marketing Association. Representatives from Carol, The Health Care Scoop, and Health East, a healthcare provider in Saint Paul, MN will be on a panel. I am serving as a moderator to this great group of innovators in the healthcare space.

It is being held at the Pool and Yacht Club on Tuesday, May 20 from 4pm-7pm. The panel discussion begins at 4:00pm followed by a reception. Register for the social media in healthcare panel l. If you have questions, shoot me an email amaruggi AT providentpartners DOT net.

In surveys with readers of the San Jose Mercury News, Chris O’Brien, reporter and innovator on the issue of news in the US, presented four major findings about how people get information:

Google
Other people are a major resource of information
Choice
Conversations

There are 5 main theme of the Next generation of the newsroom a project to build the next generation newsroom being conducted at Duke University

1. Integrated – Newsrooms must be fully integrated across blogs and multimedia. It should embrace all platforms. Adapt a consumption model where readers can become so intrigued by the site that they lose track of time as they are immersed in the information.

2. Innovation – The newsroom must be a center for innovation; the 150 year old model was mostly static. We are now in an era of constant change.

3. Collaborative – there must be interactions with other groups outside of your own comfort zone. Cross pollination is a good thing in a new newsroom to expand knowledge and create areas where they will meet each other.

4. Adaptable – Allow for flexibility in assignments, even movable furniture that can be quickly reconfigured to meet a project need.

5. Transparency – Newsrooms need to be open to the community, creating the ability for a dialogue. Changing from a one way medium to a two way organ of information.

New jobs in journalism according to O’Brien

1. Programmer journalists
2. Media Conductors
3. Backpack Journalists
4. Cybrarian
5. Community Managers

This is a summary of a presentation given at the NewComm Forum produced by the Society for New Communications Research. I agree and submit that all media is now multimedia. That means companies and PR firms need to determine what other resources are appropriate for specific releases. For example, consider audio soundbites or videos of relevant visual elements that enhance the story. These can be set up on a news page at the company’s website or posted on a unique landing page, all trackable. This is a start toward what will be a new type of news release called the social media release. A topic for another post.

Time 18:34

Marketers can no longer hide in an ivory tower from the conversations that are taking place among consumers, investors, customers and all of the publics in which companies operate, according to author Joseph Jaffe, our guest on this episode of the Marketing Edge.

Jaffe is in Minnesota to speak at the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association meeting at the Fine Line tonight, Monday, April 14. This is part of the Conversations About the Future of Advertising series hosted by Tim Brunelle. (Tim set up a Twitter profile for Q&A for tonight’s event. Connect with CATFOA and send in your questions.)

We get into the issue of marketers creating a metrics hell. During Web 1.0 days, advertisers and marketers relied on the unprecedented metrics of click-thoughs, page views, time spent on site, and unique visitors. This gave them comfort and reduced the risk with senior management.

Building a relationship is much less predictable and measurable. Why? Because it’s a relationship; it’s an investment in the individual, not a neatly packaged recipe for making cookies.

Do you believe that the lack of predictable metrics and results are holding back marketers from adopting social media?

We touch on the advantages of American Airlines launching its blog, AAconversation.

We have a little fun with author Geoff Livingston for using Jaffe’s Twitter icon, but a tip of the hat to Livingston for donating to charity using Jaffe’s name, in a way. This started at Blogger Social last week.

Jaffe wrote “Join the Conversation” and “Life After the 30-second Spot”. His popular blog and podcast are Jaffe Juice and Across the Sound.

Joseph Jaffe and I will be among the speakers at the NewComm Forum, sponsored by the Society for New Communications Research, April 22-25 in Sonoma, CA. Marketing Edge listeners: E-mail me for your discount code before registering.

Time 13:37

I spoke on a panel last week at the Bulldog Reporter Media Relations Summit in San Francisco. This trip was a great exchange of ideas with many early adopters and PR and marketing practitioners. This podcast we’ll highlight two ah ha moments with two leaders in social media, Gina Bianchini, CEO and co-founder of Ning, and Robert Scoble world renown blogger and managing director of Fast Company TV.

During a keynote session at the conference with Robert Scoble, I realized how new social media is for the majority of communication professionals. He asked how many people are familiar with Twitter and about 20 percent of the room of 600 (that might be generous) raised their hand. Then, on the fly he connected to the web, and took the audience on a journey of relationship building and technology that demonstrated how time and distance simply no longer matter in how individuals communicate. He highlighted Twitter, Tweetscan,(if memory serves me right) FriendFeed, Twittervision, and QIK.

After his keynote and panel, Scoble and I spent time talking about information overload and how to avoid that overwhelmed feeling people get when they see Twitter for the first time. His response surprised me because it wasn’t a technology solution. He uses a tactic called attention management with attribution to Linda Stone This is clearly different than time management and Scoble in our interview takes it to a logical conclusion about focusing on what’s important to you.

Test One

I applied this logic to how companies should evaluate Twitter as a communication tool and determined that the first place to undertake that evaluation is not Twitter at all but Tweetscan. This “google-like” search engine for Twitter posts will give a snapshot of whether the keywords important to your company are also important to any of the million plus users of Twitter. My suggestion, do 10 separate searches of keywords that are relevant to you, your company, profession, or industry.

For example, a search for Kimberly Clark revealed several tweets among them a blog post about CIO Ramon Baez, a representative from Mom Central tweeted that she was meeting with Kimberly Clark marketing folks in Appleton Wisconsin, links to a news release about the Boys and Girls clubs of America and Kimberly Clark, a tweet about drug testing for an employee candidate, and last but not least, this post – Llega info del Programa “Comienzos Compartidos” que realizan Kimberly Clark Argentina y la Fundación Leer, en San Luis y Quilmes. Twitter has a million people around the world so the post in Spanish was made by this Twitter user http://twitter.com/rseonline – I don’t speak Spanish so the translation is up to you.

My point is, searching Tweetscan before you going into Twitter allows you to focus on what is important to you before jumping into the raging river of Twitter. Once you know what is in the water, it makes the ride more productive.
.

Test Two

I also traveled south from San Francisco to Palo Alto and the home of the social network company Ning. Ning is a web-based platform people, organizations, and companies use to build social networks that can be public (open to anyone on the web) or private (only accessible to those you invite). There I had a delightful conversation with CEO and co-founder Gina Bianchini about the value of a social network. This discussion was enlightening because Gina peeled away the current fashionable lexicon of “social media” and Web 2.0, to describe the core value of people communicating on a network.

In this case, the issue is creating a place, (specifically a Ning based website) where a group of people focused on, and responsible for, an objective can share ideas. It’s just a place to get things done and in most cases improve, which is the result of sharing ideas. Those ideas can come in the form of words, audio, video, images, dialogue, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. All of these formats can be shared on Ning.

As you’ll hear in Gina’s comments in this podcast, Ning found tremendous benefit in a forum called Ning Network Creators which is comprised of many customers using Ning’s platform to create sites that facilitate communication among group members. It’s kind of like communicators talking about how better to communicate, yeah that works for me. To get to these Ning based sites you’ll need to register with Ning in a simple form, well worth the tour of social networks. There are about 250,000 networks on Ning now and growing.

My observation here and in dealing with many company executives is that perhaps the word social, as in social network, throws off corporate executives as to the business value of such networks. I mean social may inadvertently imply to them not business. My suggestion, lose the term social, and build a quick “business communication website” for a focused project, say a sales meeting, product launch or customer feedback forum over a specific time period. Get a small group of team members to buy in to the concept and use the platform.

Using this space created at no cost on Ning will allow you to test the waters of social networking. If that is a bit too ambitious, then here’s the next best thing, explore this type of forum in the Provident Partners Sandbox. It is a private network, private meaning I have to invite you to join so that only listeners of the Marketing Edge podcast or readers of this blog are in the Sandbox. We created it as a place to ask any questions you like, upload videos, images, post blogs, just come on in and experiment. It will give you a first hand look at a business communication platform with little effort. Then your imagination will lead you to the ways this type of communication platform can be applied in your own world of business or “social” objectives. Just email me at marketingedge@providentpartners.net with Sandbox in the subject line.

Upcoming Events

Take a look at the NewComm Forum conference agenda. It’s a comprehensive three days where you can get detailed answers to our questions about all types of social media, as well as integrating into a mix of other marketing tactics. This conference covers a spectrum of uses in the corporate, profit, and government arenas.

Marketing Edge Book Drawing

The book we are giving away in May will be The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott. Send me an email to marketingedge@providentpartners.net with New Rules in the subject line.

Time 16:56

A major change for a company marketing today is the transformation from “messaging to the masses” to “valuing the individual.” This value can be shown by first understanding lifestyles, priorities and associations of a company’s buyers, rather than their age and income, then tailoring a personal approach that is relevant to their needs.

We discussed this issue with David Meerman Scott, author of the New Rules of Marketing and PR. In the podcast, we highlight the following:

–The need to move away from messaging to return to a more personal style of communicating. I would term it a function of transforming from the industrial age to the service age. Service is about the individual, and industrial is more about the masses.

–How companies can take advantage of the value web search engines place on relevant and fresh content. That means companies need to put greater emphasis on being a provider of valued content. For example, our client Technomic Asia doing the China Business Podcast to discuss issues related to – you guessed it – China business. Or Whirlpool, an example of a company that uses its podcast as a vehicle to discuss issues of concern to its audience, rather than discussing Whirlpool’s products. That podcast covers topics like juvenile diabetes, toddler safe play, and how to get organized — nothing to do with appliances but everything to do with what their audience values.

Scott has a bit of different perspective on the issue of “conversations as marketing.” He does make a distinction from these new marketing and PR rules and the conversation that is usually reflected in social media. He contends social media is a subset of the new rules of marketing. Some situations are more about being relevant for your buyer’s persona and they may not be looking for a dialogue. Companies that are unsure of whether they should blog can still implement tactics hat allow them to benefit from the new rules of marketing.

According to Scott, the new rules of marketing do not necessarily equal conversations. The first steps are about achieving a greater understanding of the individuals in the communities a company is attempting to serve and creating content that they value.

The Marketing Edge book drawing for April will be Scott’s book. Send an e-mail to marketingedge@providentpartners.net with the words “New Rules” in the subject line.

Also the NewComm Forum www.newcommforum.com is coming. As a listener and reader of the Marketing Edge podcast and blog, if you are interested in attending this conference, shoot me an email for a discount code you can use when registering. It has an excellent line up of speakers with focused conversations on strategies for business communications. I will be there and look forward to seeing you.

Time 11:40

The Kellogg Foundation describes itself with these words: Where Everyone with Ideas and Dreams for Helping Vulnerable Children is Welcome. Last year it distributed its largest amount of program dollars, $357 million. Communications were much different when it was founded by WK Kellogg in 1930. Today, Director of Public Affairs, Dianne Price realizes the need for an organization committed to helping communities, needs to become part of those communities online.

I was curious about her rationale for dedicating a full-time position, New Media Manager, for social media and looking to someone that is fairly experienced as you can see from the New Media Manager job qualifications and salary. (note this link will expire when Kellogg closes the selection process) In many cases, social media is something that gets dumped on the youngest member of a team and there it can smolder. The fact is social media not reserved for the young or even the techno-savvy. I believe the following qualities are necessary for successfully participating in social media;

• Patience to learn about community participants
• Thoughtfulness in respecting differing ideas in the community
• Persistence in giving of yourself, ideas, and time to the social network
• Creativity in using the right media, – print, video, and audio
• Innovation in trying a variety of technologies that allow for sharing ideas and dynamic commentary

The Kellogg Foundation also wants your ideas on how children become vulnerable and what can be done to help them. Visit and contribute your ideas to the Kellogg Online Forum on Vulnerable Children.
Good luck to those candidates for the Kellogg New Media Manager position. Dianne we wish you and the Kellogg Foundation well in your wonderful work.

Another great site for social media jobs is Jobs in Social Media, produced by Chris Russell and his assistant Hannah Hershey.

Spend time understanding the details of social media and getting great ideas from practitioners at the NewComm Forum sponsored by the Society for New Communications Research, April 22-25 in Sonoma CA.

Also the chance to win the book the Age of Engage by Denise Shiffman is the March book giveaway on the Marketing Edge. Send me an email at Marketingedge@providentpartners.net with Engage in the subject line.

Twitter is a social networking combination blogging site. It is where people can follow the quick thoughts of others throughout the day. Many people share ideas in a sentence or two then link to a long piece, video or audio file. You can even identify people that might be interesting to follow by using a search engine specifically designed for twitter, one of them is called www.tweetscan.com

My twitter follower @pchaney today tweeted (meaning wrote a message for others to see) Love to see a Top 10 Benefits to Using Social Networking with Your Business. You are my inspiration @pchaney, at least for this blog post.

For the purposes of answering @pchaney the definition of social networking I’ll use is, a group of like-minded individuals gathered digitally, in some cases you already know these people, in others they may not know anyone prior to meeting on the network. This may not be the Top 10, but they are ten and I’m sure readers will add more.

1. Expand knowledge of a topic – benefit: product improvement, market research
2. Extend your knowledge to others – benefit: increased web traffic or exposure to network
3. Efficient communications – benefit: speed to knowledge
4. Test ideas – benefit: reduce market research costs and time
5. Exponential reach – benefit: you’ll increase the chances of knowing what you don’t know and you never know the potential of that
6. Get new ideas – benefit: learning from others makes you innovative
7. Promote your stuff – benefit: drive traffic to your web or physical destinations
8. Create member style community, example employees – benefit: greater candid communications to improve organizational process, products, working environment yada yada yada.
9. Training and formalized learning – benefit: speed ways to fix problems or create more proficient customer reps, tech support, etc.
10. Monetize eyeballs – benefit: yes where there are people there is the potential for revenue

Oh yes, and there is the added benefit of using a social network for business of asking a question and getting a direct answer. Hope this helps? Probably the best place to learn about the variety and possibilities of social networking is to visit Ning. www.ning.com It’s the social network of social networks with thousands of communities using the technology platform.

Time 20:22

Tiki Bar TV is one of the most popular vidcasts. This wonderful comedy short-form with colorful characters and a winning drink recipe at the end of every show is an excellent example of great work in this new genre — one in which marketers can access a community of fans. The show, available wherever podcasts are distributed, also has a delightful Web site with excellent tie-ins to merchandise, drink recipes and plenty social media uses, including MySpace badges, a forum and live chat elements.

Tosca Musk of Musk Entertainment is the producer of Tiki Bar TV. Tosca says as a business, this form of art, vidcasting, is still finding its way. Tiki Bar is creative from the business side as well by having excellent main characters and adding other interchangeable characters to keep the show fresh.

As a marketer I look at the show and Web site as a package, with plenty of places to support the art form (as a sponsor/underwriter), contribute valued information (drink recipes, good combos and bad, Tiki Bar food recipes), co-branded merchandise…well, you get it: There’s plenty for a creative mind to play with.

We didn’t discuss this in the podcast, but could there be product character appearances, such as a cameo from Captain Morgan? We do touch on how this kind of package will allow innovative advertisers and businesses to create information (I purposefully did not use the word advertising) that is less disruptive and more constructive.

In the podcast we chat with Jeff Macpherson, the director of Tiki Bar. He believes this genre is also outstanding for actors to create unprecedented relationships with their audience members. Because of the Web platform, these characters seem so much more approachable, and as Jeff says, “We are more approachable!” They even invited me over for a drink.

And yes, as a special treat we even get a couple of questions in with the good Dr. Tiki himself. So sit back, get a drink and enjoy this episode of the Marketing Edge.

Tiki Bar does have a Wikipedia entry.

Lead characters:
–Jeff Macpherson as Dr. Tiki
–Kevin Gamble as Johnny Johnny
–Lara Doucette as Lala

If you are one of the first three people to e-mail me at marketingedge@providentpartners.net, I’ll get you a Charooba Tiki Bar Mug.

Here are some ways to get people to participate in a wiki. Quick definition of a wiki, for purists the Wikipedia definition is what you should fall back on. For those that just want to keep reading here, a wiki is a web-based place for individuals to contribute knowledge so that others may benefit.

At the Social Media Breakfast in Phoenix on March 14, 2008, I had a conversation with a colleague named Miles who provides tech support for computers at the retail stores of a major wireless company. Working with a team of developers, Miles is trying to increase participation in the company’s wiki, which will be used for tech support issues, essentially a knowledge base to expedite troubleshooting.

Here are some ideas for launching an internal wiki focused on, but not limited to
tech support.

1. Create dedicated contributors
2. Build an inventory of information that the site will have upon launch
3. Provide incentives for contributions in the first phase of the launch
4. Assemble targeted users and contributors to build Alpha version
5. Assemble different set of users for Beta site & bring groups together
6. Promote alpha and beta programs in anticipation of larger interest for the launch
7. Create recognition program for creative tech support solutions posted
8. Adopt wiki participation in the corporate or at least the departmental culture

Now for those of you that really like the details, here’s a thesis paper on Social Rewarding in Wiki Systems that will make you drool. After you go to this link paste in the following

World of Wikis is another good primer on wiki participation

Since there are just 8 ideas, we need two more for your typical ten of anything list, so please add a couple below.

I’ll be in Phoenix visiting clients and family, and I thought it would be good to have a Social Media Breakfast. It will be at:

Cafe Carumba
7303 E Indian School Rd
Scottsdale, AZ 85251

It’s a casual gathering of marketers, PR and corporate communication professionals sharing ideas about social media. I am also looking for examples that I may feature in presentations I’m giving to the NewComm Forum (sponsored by Society for New Communications Research) and the Media Relations Summit, or here on the Marketing Edge podcast.

If you are planning on attending, please RSVP on our Upcoming event site. I just need to make sure we have enough seats at the table.

Thank you to Valeria Maltoni, the Conversation Agent, for interviewing me on social media and journalism last week for her blog. The profession of journalism has changed considerably since my days in front of the camera and the mic. (early & mid 80s if you must know) Now, the web makes every medium – multimedia. One of the most compelling and brilliant video news packages was produced by the New York Times, with writer Manny Fernandez and videographer Brent McDonald . The piece was called Johnny’s Cave.

Even in these changing times, the venerable newspaper of the country’s largest city still carries these words on its masthead “All the news that’s fit to print.” The fact is, as the multimedia desk as grown from a small pilot to a full fledged news desk under the direction of Martin Nisenholtz, the Sr. V.P. of Digital Operations, the more appropriate maxim is all the stories that can be told.

The New York Times with its multimedia capability and blogs, are becoming the real-time diary of a city and a nation. They are giving life to video stories that are suffocated by the time constraints of television. Take a moment here to realize that a newspaper may now be in a better position to tell video stories, than standard television. On the other side of this medium divide, television stations are asserting their multimedia assets and driving traffic to their websites.

The financial prize is tapping into dollars non-existent prior to video the web, the Star-Tribune newspaper is taking ad dollars from television stations for video ads. More on this from radio and broadcast consultant Mel Taylor.

The application for companies in these changing times is to evaluate your stories for their strongest appeal. If you have a visual story, you can tell it to a monthly magazine and give them access to the visual elements. You can enhance a printed news release with audio or video components tied back to a website or if you are that daring, consider a full fledged social media release, but that is a topic for another post

Tomorrow I’ll address the issue of social media as more a movement and less a market, which was another theme the Conversation Agent got me going on and was commented on the Jump in the Pool

Time 23:15

Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall of a corporate meeting on social media? Many of the readers of this blog and listeners of the Marketing Edge podcast have been in those sessions where ideas are evaluated about whether to have a company blog, launch a podcast series or include bloggers in the media relations strategy.

Christopher Barger is a social media strategist and has been in the largest of corporations, IBM and GM, where those conversations and decisions take place. The beauty of Barger is his ability to see and articulate a legitimate objection from a personal management fear. Both are essential to understand and address in a corporate environment in order to make progress. It is part of the mutual respect in a team that allows that team to try new tactics, be innovative and, most importantly, learn.

In this podcast, Barger and I discuss his experience inside marketing and management groups deciding on social media tactics. He explains the difference and growth social media has had in General Motors product launches.

Some of GM’s efforts on the Web:

FastLane blog
GMnext

We highlight how marketing is changing from a predictable process to a participatory sport in which everyone becomes smarter. Yes, we even tackle the dreaded ROI of social media. Hmmmm, what’s the ROI of this blog post? Gee, will someone click on “Contact Us” and hire us and therefore I can say that the 2 hours I spent thinking through the conversation with Barger, recording it, editing it, and posting it will generate a dollar return?

Silly isn’t it? Right, it is, because as you’ll hear, the conversation was an enjoyable learning experience. It continues to build relationships, one with Barger and the other with Marketing Edge listeners, so the ROI is part of a much larger element of relationship and brand management.

To translate that to your company, it goes something like this: Who is this company? What type of people do they wish to associate with and how can the company, and its employees, add value to the lives of those with whom they associate?

As you hear in Barger’s description of working with specific communities in social media, such as parents and car enthusiasts, it’s all about being part of their passion and very little about selling them a car. The rewards to the company, however, are tangible. The value to the individual employees in GM that are participating is gratifying.

I’ll continue to say it, and the more I have conversations like this one with Barger, the more I believe it: Social media is a movement, not a market. This does not mean commerce is not supported by social media; it means that commerce is a result of adding value to the group, not meeting a quota tied to a logic that has no connection to that community.

We thank Chris for his insight and invite you to share your own thoughts below.

Time 18:33

There is a new medium to report about in this podcast, I’ll call the integrated channel. As the consumers of information fragment their consumption across a variety of media, so too has sophisticated media properties built new outlets for focused topics.

In this podcast we feature a website that illustrates an Integrated Channel, it is www.UnderstandingCancer.tv It is a production of Supportive Oncology Services and Multiplicity Media . What makes this different is it has a clear single focus (in this case cancer), it incorporates expert advice about a complex topic, it has multimedia formats of text, audio, and video, it includes a television channel for greater mainstream distribution (ION television network), and aspects of social media.

Understanding Cancer, the television show will debut on March 9th at 5:30 pm Eastern on the ION television network The website provides a holistic approach for the patient and their families who are facing cancer treatment. That spectrum of coverage also leads to more opportunities for marketers to embrace, not advertise to, but embrace those turning to this website for information and comfort.

In this podcast you’ll hear Liz Conway of Supportive Oncology Services the research entity which reviews the medical information on Understanding Cancer TV and Terry Merrill Wilcox, the producer whose outstanding video packages deliver the information and emotion about a subject many will agree is difficult to discuss.

You can see more about Understanding Cancer TV on MySpace

And Facebook I Support Understanding Cancer TV

More Healthcare and Social Media

Social media is coming to healthcare. Many hospitals and other healthcare providers have ducked the notion of social media, blogs or otherwise, while the rest of the healthcare system is pushing for consumer choice. This has lead to websites like www.healthcarescoop.com and www.carol.com which look more like people commenting on a hotel stay or buying a big screen TV.

A site like Understanding Cancer TV is a way to participate in social media in a non-invasive way. There is no doubt a number of events are making healthcare a more social purchase and experience. The issue for many providers will be how they handle their social presence on the web.

Social Media Conference Deep Dive

NewComm Forum – Society for New Communications Research conference, www.newcommforum.com/2008/ This is an excellent conference to get to the details of how social media and new communications will impact your profession and company or organization. Set in Sonoma County, CA April 22-25 at the The Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa, there will be lively panel exchanges, provocative presentations, and most importantly plenty of 1-on-1 opportunities to bring home concrete information upon which to make decisions on how to interpret social media.

Podcast Timeline

0:00 – 2:00 – Book giveaway with Paul Gillin The New Influencers and preview of Society for New Communications Research conference.

2:00 – 3:00 New book giveaway contest for March The Age of Engage by Denise Shiffman

3:00 – 6:00 Set up about Integrated Channel concept and a frame of reference for this podcast, while it covers Understanding Cancer, the concepts of the Integrated Channel can apply to many other topics beyond healthcare.

6:00 – 17:00 Interviews with Liz Conway and Terry Merrill Wilcox

If you are interested in attending and would like to save $100 send me an email at marketingedge@providentpartners.net for a listeners’ code.

This week I attended an interesting symposium at the University of Minnesota. The Chair of the symposium was Christine Greenhow, Learning Technologies, College of Education and Human Development. Panel conversations touch on some of the key issues that may be obstacles social networks among them, institutional cultures that limit sharing, and access to computers and the Internet by low income populations. One of the audience members also aptly raised the issue of access to the neighborhoods by those with hearing and sight disabilities.

The Symposium featured panelists of different disciplines in education and their work with social communities. It brought together educators from science, technology, history, languages, and many others. The end game from their symposium

Twitter Scan of the event with the symbol #NNinC. They also have a blog of the panels nice reading, I particularly enjoyed Darlyne Bailey, Dean of the College of Education and Human Development. Here are her highlights about multi-disciplinary teaching. Her approach is for two teachers from separate disciplines to work together “2 teachers stand in their own discipline, are open to the ideas of each other, and create a syllabus with the “fruits of” their relationship. Create something that has NEVER been created before. They stay open to the students’ influencing their syllabus” quoted from the highlights on the Networks in Cyberspace blog.

It’s a concept that to me sounds a lot like a structure way of organizing a twitter stream with two leaders with the objective being to focus on a specific topic and see what the group learns from each other. Bailey’s approach is two different disciplines = a new one

Greenhow also referenced the early observations of a survey of low income students. While it is still early in the analysis of this survey, Greenhow discusses her thoughts in an Utterz conversation I recorded on Monday, January 11 during a break in the symposium.

I will keep an eye on the University of Minnesota as they continue to carve a nice place among social media academia.

I am paraphrasing a quote attributed to former House Speaker Tip O’Neill who said “All politics is local.” Given how technology has collapsed time and space, it is accurate to say then that all politics is social, as in the social communities that have common interests shared on the web in many forms. With a couple of keystrokes these interests can be inspired, appeased, and heard. Their message can spread around the world in the format that most powerfully communicates their message. So it is with this foundation and a decade in politics and more than a decade in the private sector world of communications I’ve come to the following key elements of social media.

1. Social media is like grassroots organizations
2. Little issues can spread like wildfire if ignored
3. Political skills are required to understand the implications of social media on a corporation and its interested communities
4. Corporations should develop their own communities of interest that are active in social media beyond that of their own corporate site
5. Understanding social media requires openness within a corporate culture
6. Corporate functions such as customer relations, call centers, sales and service departments, research, and product development can potentially benefit from and contribute to social media, so coordination is critical.

These characteristics and situations are part of what goes on in political and public policy campaigns. This is why I believe experience in those areas is especially helpful to corporations seeking to understand and participate in social media.

This also gets into the issue a bit of who owns social media and a thread of that conversation is at Mitch Joel’s blog Twist Image.

Paul Dunay of Buzz Marketing for Technology has a post on the political war room angle of social media.

The Society of New Communications Research named its 2008 fellows today, and I’m lucky enough and honored to be one of them.

The SNCR fellows are a thoughtful group of men and women passionate about how societies communicate. A tremendous amount of research is being generated by the members of SNCR, which is helping business and political leaders grasp social media’s unique characteristics.

I look forward to working with my colleagues at SNCR as social media is used by more individuals for personal and professional reasons. I’m also looking forward to seeing many of you (SNCR colleagues, my blog readers and plenty of other smart people) at the 2008 New Comm Forum; I’m speaking in the “strategies for PR & corporate communications” track.

Dunkin’ Donuts already has plenty of NFL promotions, but try this one for the Super Bowl.
.

Dunkin’ Donuts slogan is America Runs on Dunkin’ – Yeah and I love, love, love, their coffee. They don’t have any stores in St. Paul, Minnesota where I live so when I visit cities that have Dunkin’, I binge drink, that’s right I’m a binge Dunkin Donuts coffee drinker. I hope my life insurer isn’t blog savvy, probably not so I’m not worried.

Anyway here’s the promotion. Boston and New York City are two of the largest markets for Dunkin’. They have run contests in these markets before. They should have a promotion of a free small cup of coffee in the city of the team that has the most rushing yards in the Super Bowl. It doesn’t matter if the team wins, just if they have the most rushing yards.

Sure you have details to work out like, where do you draw the line on participating stores, (New York/New Jersey metro area) and do you have it for just a small time period, say like 3 hours after the game ends, but it can be done. They can plug it into their contest site that exists now, have people register (as they have already on their site) and guess the winning yardage and team, then have a drawing in case of a tie, which there probably will be. They have done contests before with the NFL so this should be a slam dunk-in eh. Promote with Twitter, Facebook, and other social media.

Like anything there are probably plenty of reasons not to do it, but from a PR, marketing fun tactic it’s a great idea.

I know it’s early, but can you imagine a political convention without a known nominee going in? Hot damn, that’s the best reality TV that can be. So get this, the last convention that was somewhat in doubt was 32 years ago with Reagan and Ford, however most pundits say the last true brokered convention was 56 years ago. Let’s not quibble, the fact is this year both the Democratic and Republican conventions have a chance of being decided in real time. They resemble sporting events and not coronations.

They would be the first brokered convention with mini DV cameras, live blogging, Twitter, Utterz… yipes!

Obama, Clinton, Edwards for the Democrats and McCain, Romney neck and neck with one more heavy Giuliani still poised to win a couple of big states on the Republican side.

Look I just can’t get too excited thinking about it because the chances are still slim, but indulge me for just for a moment.

Delegates will become citizen journalists and spin doctors will all of a sudden wish they had a Twitter or Utterz account. (Twitter and Utterz training available here act now!).

Sure those folks are wired with text messages and crackberries, but they will need to reach out to people that may not be in their distribution lists. They may have to reach out to someone that was the opposition just 10 minutes earlier. They may want to try and drive web users to online polls or engage them to show which candidate can motivate outside the walls of the convention hall because that’s the ultimate victory. Eegadds!

Will journalists be plugged into twitter profiles for the candidates or the candidates’ spokespeople (that is a separate conversation whether to have surrogate profiles to float trial balloons)?

Yes social media friends, a brokered convention is one part crisis, two parts breaking news, and all of it adds up to an interesting scenario for microblogging platforms. Stay tuned.

Here is some background on the convention process and brokered conventions

Election 2008 Countdown and Delegate Count

Democratic Convention Watch

Power Line News

Republican National Committee

Democratic National Committee

Time 31:36

Creative marketing takes time to, well, create, and time to execute. So when I saw a case study about Hubspot’s inbound marketing system on Marketing Sherpa I was intrigued by their approach. Instead of a typical “we are greater than sliced bread” marketing, the Hubspot internet marketingcreated a unique website that invited businesses to use a small part of the Hubspot system. That part of the system is called website grader and businesses by the thousands visited www.websitegrader.com to enter their website. The website is then graded on a series of attributes that search engines look for in ranking sites on a scale of 100. We start this conversation at about the 4:00 mark in this podcast.

Provident Partners, thank God, first pulled an 85, however, still room for improvement. That’s why we have on this podcast Mike Volpe, Vice President of Marketing for Hubspot. We get into the 5 key areas essential to getting a passing grade and increasing the odds you’ll achieve your search ranking goals. And yes, we use the www.providentpartners.net site as the “patient” in this visit to the search engine doctor. Volpe starts this commentary at about the 19:00 mark in the podcast.

5 Key Areas to Improve your website’s rankings are

1) Title on all pages can change
2) Keywords and descriptions meta tags of page content for each page
3) Put blog on a company URL and integrate into your website
4) Domain renewal – sign up for as many years as you can afford
5) Permanent redirect for yourcompanydoman.com and the other for www.yourcompanydomain.com

This Example Can Apply to Other Businesses

Volpe is an excellent marketer who realized Hubspot needed a way to break out in a crowded field of marketing platforms. I believe the tactics used in this campaign can be replicated by other marketers for a variety of product launches, professions and industries. The keys are as follows:

1) Create a web presence that allows prospects to experience part of your product or service.
2) Product needs to have remarkable elements
3) Take the time to understand the interests of the bloggers that write about your space
4) Include was to invite comparison between the status quo and life with your product or service

Some readers might say, well this works for a web-based software product, but how can it apply to other areas. Ok, let me take that one on.

A business consultancy can create an assessment tool in their area of expertise. Technomic Asia a consultant group has an China Readiness assessment tool to measure a company’s ability to compete in the China market.

A winery can have a dinner selection with multiple choice of wines to select, your choice will be compared against what a famous Sommelier recommend with that same meal.

A furniture store, design, or organization consultant can allow users to help themselves using your website. For example Ikea has done a great job with their space planner portion of their website. They depict your space and you manipulate their furniture in it. This is slick and it worked for me two years ago when we redesigned the Provident Partners office space.

If you have other tips on getting good search rankings, we invite you to share them here with other readers.

January 2008 Book Drawing Giveaway

This month we are holding a drawing to win the book The New Influencers by Paul Gillin. Here’s my review of the book posted on Media Bulleye . To be in the drawing, email me at marketingedge@providentpartners.net Good luck. For every entry, comment, and completed survey Provident Partners will donate a food item to a St. Paul, MN food shelter.

I was sitting on this post for the right time, and today’s New York Times article about blogger stress is the perfect trigger.

2008 is the Casey Kasem era of social media. You know, American Top 40 (old schoolers can actually hear the jingle when they read this; amazing, the mind is a wasteful place for the terrible, or something senatorial like that).

In this era, we are a bit obsessed with quantity. More blogging to stir up more traffic, more commenting to stir up more numbers. It’s a cycle that gets reflected in Technorati, Tweeterboard and all the rest. It’s giving stress to bloggers, and why not? Some face the same business objectives as any major mainstream media outlet (Agh! God, no! Mainstream?!) does without any of the support infrastructure. Being on a list is a snapshot in time that translates into power, fame and perhaps money (directly or indirectly) — not that there’s anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld would say.

This era is driven by three factors:

1) skepticism about social media from marketers and business decision makers
2) technologies and algorithms (not to mention Al Gore rhythms) that can measure, or claim to measure, just about every nook and cranny of influence on the Web
3) 20th-century business models supported by tendencies of human nature

It becomes a daily churn of what song, blog post or tweet is rising up the charts like a bullet. This leads to discussions about “How you too can be in the Top 100 (“hundred hundred hundred…” echo added for effect). Those who are not in the top hundred or thousand — or whatever number we need to feel good about repeating to our peers — might suffer list envy. I say “we” because, even for me, it’s nice to be loved, and those lists are one way love is interpreted. However, this can create list envy. Envy causes spam. You know — size envy, mortgage rate envy, list envy. It’s all the same.

There are ways to achieve a quantitative goal of getting on the list. The problem with that is it can lead to blogging for the list and not blogging for the community. Yes, before someone jumps me, there are certain things like linking that provide both mutual growth of the community and potentially rising on the list — understood. Yeah and people need money, I have five kids so I know all about bills.

These kinds of envy set up situations in which people start to advise others about getting on “the list.” In some cases, the push for metrics and the drive to monetize has created a cottage industry of getting on the list. To me, that’s an old model exerting its muscle and temptation on the new world of social media. The temptation and the envy exist because for every A-list blogger (really, they are more like publishing companies) there are 1,000 others who want to be A-list. No one wants to hear, “…is slipping from our Top 40 list this week.”

Time 15:00

Put a taste of the Iowa caucus into your corporate communications. This will be an ongoing theme on the Marketing Edge during this election year. My premise is that social media is like oxygen to the embers of ideas. The networks and groups formed using social media resembles grassroots organizations and therefore companies need to take a page from political campaigns.

In this podcast we chat with David Almacy, VP of Digital Strategies for North America for Waggener Edstrom.

He also was at the White House for President Bush in 2005 – 2007 as the director of internet and e-communications. David was also recently recognized by PR Week in their 40 Under 40 issue.

We share some views on the Iowa Caucus about social media and mainstream media. There is also more on my perspective on this issue from Minn Post reporter Christine Capecchi in an article entitled Caucuses 2.0: Online efforts become instant political laboratories in Iowa

Having spent a decade in political communications, and a few years covering politics as a reporter, social media has the potential to help change society, because of the speed with which it can spreading ideas, and the ability to galvanize more people around an issue/brand faster.

Look, the civil rights movement didn’t need social media; but the same fundamental tactics for grassroots organization and communication skills are now necessary for companies who wish to participate in, not market with, social media. There is more of a movement in social media than a marketplace.

If I was to crystallize the general difference of perspective between political communications and corporate communications pre-social media into a bumper sticker, it would be this:

Brand champions may say this is the same as Lovemarks. I agree, and in the world of politics and on the battle field of ideas that shape a society, people have died for the brand they love.

In this discussion David and I touch on the use of social media, the fragmentation of information sources, and the mysterious mix of mainstream media quantity with social media passion.

Another interesting take on measuring social media in this presidential campaign is the Spartan Political Performance Index. Stay tuned as this election year, creative minds will tweek, shape, and test all forms of social media. The winners will be those observers in corporate marketers who can see applications for their brands.

Another Marketing Edge Book Drawing

We are holding a drawing for the book The New Influencers by Paul Gillin, he’s another thought provoking guy at the Society for New Communications Research. So if you want in on the drawing send me an email to marketingedge@providentpartners.net with the words New Influencers in the subject line.

Marketers, here is a social media recipe with some zing. You can build an opt-in network of followers for just about any objective you want: new product launch, latest bargains, thought leadership, consumer engagement. The ingredients are all here if used with healthy amounts of honesty, transparency, and interaction. Let’s take a comprehensive look at a handful of technologies that will make a succulent dish and we’ll use one of my favorite places to shop: the outdoor recreation retailer REI. Disclaimer: I’m also an REI member, but so are thousands of other people. I don’t own stock and they don’t pay me for anything. Here’s a recipe I’d love them to try:

1) Create a Twitter profile for REI Outlet and build a following. Dell Outlet did it (http://twitter.com/delloutlet) and received an award from the Society for Ne w Communications Research. REI can build a larger following in 2008 across its wide variety of constituents: campers, cyclists, kayakers and on and on.

2) The Twitter piece can tie into a microsite with a combination REI expert- and user-generated content for REI Adventure. Right now, www.rei.com has nice photos and text, but I’m at a loss as to why they are not taking advantage of a variety of media to embrace the visitor. Give us more: more personality, more views, more experience. REI is all about outdoors — take us there.

3) Then REI Adventures (their travel packages division) can use Utterz and Flicker to create instant posts of audio, video or pictures from hikers on its Zion National Park trip, with its unique hoodoos rock formations, or other campers photographing a grizzly in Denali National Park – from a safe distance of course. Bring the trip to life for customers’ family and friends, those researching on REI.com and those following REIcamping or REIcanoeing or REIhiking on Twitter, Utterz or any other site built for easy content creation. I bet some of REI Adventures customers have twittered from a trip already. Some have posted on YouTube like this REI Costa Rica cycling trip.

4) Then, enhance the Web and in-store experience by creating “buying guide” podcasts and/or vidcasts (with RSS feeds, of course) by area of the store. These could be downloaded to portable devices or played on the Web site. I realize the REI Web site is full of great information, but are you asking the customer to print stuff and bring it in? That’s not very green. Instead, post audio and video to download, which will add even more “green” to the REI marketing effort.

5) Lastly, bring all of these aspects of REI together with a social network, either on the REI site or another location like Facebook, Ning or MySpace. At the very least, by using blogs on the REI site, enthusiasts can share their experiences together under the REI banner.

As an REI enthusiast, I’d love to see part or all of this implemented. The interesting part of social media is that people can do this themselves without REI’s blessing, but I believe the store and brand are such a strong presence, that it is missing an opportunity by not participating in social media. Now what do you think about that?

Time 32:16

Plenty of attention is given to participating in blogs, join the conversation, be open, be authentic, yada yada yada. The early adopters have tested the social media space with ample case studies for dozens of new books and information for panel discussions.

The hidden winners in the blogosphere who get a fraction of the fanfare are market researchers. This podcast is dedicated to the corporate executives who are skeptics of joining the conversation, but as you’ll hear here, have considerable reason to at least listen to it, it being first the podcast and then the thousands of conversations taking place on the web daily.

Look at just one segment of commentary and social media, www.tripadvisor.com, they have more than 10 million reviews of hotels. Forrester research shows that 36 percent of travelers look at reviews and of them, 73 percent report the reviews affect their choices. More from an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer – It’s just the tip of the iceberg known as the blogosphere, but in reality is a bunch of people talking just like they do at parties, conference rooms, or ball games. The only difference is online, you can listen in on them.

This podcast is the second and concluding episode of a conversation with Umbria founder Howard Kaushansky. Umbria, at www.umbrialistens.com is one of a handful of companies that provide detailed insights into what people are taking about in blogs, and reviewers’ comments on the web and to a great extent who is saying it.

The bottom line is this

1) There are millions of comments being made on the web about nearly every industry or profession.
2) Even if your company has no intention of starting a blog, the comments that exist can provide significant insight into your company, your competitors, and your market.
3) Blogs and social media is not just a playground of the younger generation, middle age baby boomers use social media, blogs, and travel sites just as much as the 18 -24 year old set.

On another note, Marketing Edge listener Alison Coffey is the winner of the Join the Conversation book drawing. Our next book is Paul Gillin’s The New Influencers. To throw your name in the drawing send me an email at marketingedge@providentpartners.net with the words New Influencers in the subject line.

As you know social media is about sharing. Marketers are dying to figure out ways to match the ability to share with honest feedback. I think we figured this out in this video. Watch carefully how the first person, despite their inital reaction to the product encourages the next person to try it. I personally took on this project to see if Listerine would appeal to kids. These are first and second graders who just so happen to be getting ready for their first day of school. In the spirit of giving, I trust it gives you a smile.

The hollering in the background is mom making pancakes. Happy Holidays from everyone at Provident Partners. Remember every comment on this blog results in Provident Partners giving a food item to a St. Paul, Minneosta food shelter.

Time 16:00

Jeremiah Owyang, senior analyst for Forrester and author of the well-read Web Strategist blog, is our guest on the Marketing Edge. You know, as of this posting, he is at the top of the Tweeterboard, a ranking of influencers using the microblogging platform Twitter.

In this podcast, we touch upon his big three trends to look for in 2008 and the following items:

-Social media is like jazz: don’t ask, just listen. He explains it better than I can write about it.

-The corporate structure needs to become more flexible if social media is to gain greater status. Owyang believes 2008 will see a rise in the job function of community manager in large companies.

With more than 3,000 followers and friends on Twitter and Facebook, do you wonder how he juggles his day? First rule: Get up early.

We also get into one of my key themes about social media: It’s making companies incorporate some of the best practices of political and grassroots organizations. Listen, be responsive, be sensitive, seek consensus, build your base — those are just a few. Platforms like Twitter help facilitate the movement of people and opinions that give life to ideas. This is the essence of the political democratic process.

As corporations seek a greater understanding of social media, the social graph will play an important role. This is another Owyang prediction for 2008.

Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to invite all your friends to join you on some other social network? Owyang predicts the expansion of widget networks and with it the expansion of the use of social media in 2008.

Lastly, I promised Jeremiah I’d post a link to one of my favorite places in San Francisco, the Buena Vista, home of the Irish Coffee.

Share your comments on this post. For each comment posted, Provident Partners gives a food item to a St. Paul food shelter.

Last call for the drawing of the book “Join the Conversation” by Joseph Jaffe. Send an e-mail to marketingedge@providentpartners.net and we will include you in the drawing. The winner gets a copy of the book with my comments in the margins; it’s our way of continuing the conversation. Get your e-mail in by midnight on Dec. 19.

Time 12:27

Video use on the Web is much more than a two-minute case study or a talking head from a presentation. The numbers from an eMarketer report this summer show 86 percent of U.S. Internet users will consume online video by 2011, up from 62 percent last year — that’s 114 million people who watched video online in 2006.

Whether it’s purchasing video online from iTunes, consuming viral video from YouTube, or taking in the growing number of high-end video channels like Cigar Cinema, there are as many varieties of video technologies as there are videos on the ‘Net.

Brightcove has been a video player (and literally a player for videos) and hosting service that I have used for nearly two years. Its technology is elegant. Brightcove gave a little tremor to the user community a couple of weeks ago when it announced changes to its consumer accounts, which, as of Dec. 18, will no longer be accepting uploads to consumer or personal accounts. Instead, Brightcove is putting great emphasis on its network and platform accounts and its ad network.

In this podcast Adam Berrey, senior vice president of marketing and strategy for Brightcove, highlights how businesses can still use Brightcove’s sophisticated platform and Web-based production tools called Brightcove Console. Here’s the official Brightcove announcement.

What is striking to me is how many different ways video is being used on the Web; some technologies offer overlapping capabilities, and others are focused on a specific niche. Here are just a few examples:

Brightcove: video hosting platform with an excellent player. CBS News, the Wall Street Journal, Discovery Channel, GM and Dupont are just a few of the companies using Brightcove.

vSocial: video hosting platform used in many user-generated social media campaigns. In addition to large companies, vSocial has many options for small businesses. Examples: Amateur Golf, sponsored by Titleist, and Volleyball.com.

Blip.tv: a platform for a new kind of video show. These are a variety of comedy, drama, news and other genres that are gaining a new audience. It’s a proving ground that television can not provide. For the right company, it can be a place to explore the creative horizons of your brand.

Proclaim: a presentation platform that lets users have a presenter’s video in a portion of the screen while also showing video clips, images, PowerPoint slides and more. It can host live or recorded webcasts and is best-suited for business presentation-style videos. Here’s a sample of what it looks like. (FYI: We do communications consulting for this company and use this product regularly.)

Oovoo.com: a video conferencing platform with multiple screens that can be shared and viewed simultaneously

Seesmic.com: a tool designed for video conversations. Seesmic lets users quickly record or upload videos and reply to conversations others have started. The site is currently a “pre-alpha” release, so it’s very early in the development process, and the exclusive access has the blogging community a-buzz.

It’s a bit like me choosing ice cream: I have a few favorites, and some flavors are right for a certain mood, but most any ice cream is good to me.

Key resources for following the video streaming space include Dan Rayburn of StreamingMedia.com and a list of resources he points us to.

There are tons more video resources. Here is a longer list.

Videos on the Web are as common as Web sites, if you include all user-generated and professionally produced content. Test these leading technologies now. Evaluate which parts of your company’s message are be suited for video. Then: Lights, camera, action.

The marketing buzz word in 2007 is community. Marketers are trying to plug into, tap into or leverage these social network communities for their companies’ benefit. Not quite sure that’s the right approach here. Communities can’t be leveraged (one step away from manipulated in my dictionary) to your advantage, that’s old model selling in an environment that essentially rejects being sold to.

Chris Brogan makes a good point about power and the social media tools available for the individual to increase their personal power. http://chrisbrogan.com/social-media-as-personal-power/. I believe marketers should view the growth in these powers not as a function of tapping into, but as an environment to participate in. The verbs I used above, tap, plug, and leverage all involve in varying degrees to take from. It’s best to approach this as something to engage in, join, and contribute to. Subtle difference that will enhance the participation for any marketer evaluating what social media means to their company. I also commented to Brogan’s post.

Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester, Seth Godin author of Meatball Sundae, and Steve Mann head of social media for SAP doing a webcast at noon central today. http://tinyurl.com/yutq4b I’ll live blog it here. Just the highlights please, OK

Owyang outline to consider and approach social media POST = People, Objective, Strategy, and Technology. Bottom line point – think it through for the long term. Jeremiah’s blog is http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/

Mann – excellent point about the correllation between those who engage in the community or your discussion early will be more likely to convert as the sales cycle moves forward.

Godin – Classic Godin line, you can’t be like that brother-in-law life insurance salesman at parties who only goes to hit you up for insurance. Remember that this holiday season.

Owyang refers to Lego community to embrace customers to help build new products http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/community/default.asp – He is very clear that this is not about giving away product ideas, no it’s about getting product ideas. And the pay off for them is to be a part of an inside group that then become advocates. Passion is the result of asking for opinions (that last one is my line, so if you don’t like it don’t blame Jeremiah)

Mann makes excellent point again – not every conversation is going to be positive or rosey. However, there can be positive that comes from that, whether its improvement to the product or customer service. It is so refreshing to here someone like Steve who answers to a corporate structure speak like this. It is both a reflection on him as a leader and on the management of SAP.

Godin – Social media is not for every company. I have said this for awhile (listen to Great Blog Debate November 2006) The issue for me is that some companies need to evolve into social media as opposed to “Using Social Media to Grow Your Business” which is the title of this webcast.

You gotta love this one from Owyang – An eye opener ready?

So it used to be that sales managers would take a win/loss report and marketers would pull out the wins to put in their communications. Enter social media, and buyers are taking about the every same things that are in your win/loss reports in the open. Agh! imagine that. Now what?

Companies using social media correctly

http://www.ideastorm.com/

http://www.threadless.com/

Lastly the panel was asked in a couple of words what advice would you give to companies about considering social media (I paraphrasing here on the question) And they said

Owyang – Let Go

Mann – Evolution not revolution

Godin – Be remarkable

Anyone commenting on this post we’ll have a drawing for Seth’s new book Meatball Sundae, Those of you who don’t feel lucky can get it here http://www.squidoo.com/meatballsundae

This week I attended the Society for New Communications Research conference in Boston. It was inspiring to see how some companies are working within the parameters and cultures of social media. They are flexible enough to bend their business perspective to accommodate the participatory aspects of the specific social platform they chose.

For example, Dell Outlet was one of several featured case studies. They have a profile on the microblogging site Twitter where they send tweets (short, 140-character messages on Twitter) about Dell super promotions, which are constantly changing. There are 379 people following Dell Outlet, looking to capture their next big bargain.

Immediately upon hearing this, I got the idea for creating a profile on Twitter called Santa Cause. Santa Cause will share with holiday gift buyers links to retailers who also provide a portion of their revenues to charities. See, it’s a gift that gives twice.

The elves at Provident Partners — Kirsten, Mike and me — will be tweeting away till Dec. 24. We also invite your help in this spur of the moment social media experiment. So if you know of retailers that give a portion of their revenues to charities, put their link in the comment section on this post and one of the elves will get it to Santa Cause to tweet.

Or if you are on Twitter, send a direct message to Santa Cause with the link, and tweet your followers to keep an eye on Santa Cause.

Here is a quick sample of a few of the list items. You can find a running list of Santa Cause’s Twitter posts at Santa Cause Twitter HQ.

–”Buy a gorgeous, green glass paperweight and 50 cups of food will be donated http://tinyurl.com/2bdab6”

–”Buy your doggie some treats for the holidays, with the proceeds going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital http://tinyurl.com/ypn9yq ”

–”Oh Mama Cause I just found a good place to stuff my bag for the big ride. http://tinyurl.com/33c4bk It’s part of GreaterGood Network stores”

An observation from the Society for New Communications Reserch conference in Boston, Dec. 5 and 6: Social media is like having babies.

Why? As a father of five, I speak from experience:

1) There never really is a good time. You can wait till you have enough money, till you think you are in the right job or house, but really, the right time never comes. So if you want ‘em, get busy.

2) The first child is always nerve-racking. From the first ultrasound to the child’s first steps, everything is a big deal, full of uncertainty and doubt.

3) As things progress, and if you are fortunate enough, you may have another. The entire process is a bit easier but still intimidating, which leads to a greater appreciation for parenting — and your children.

Segue to the Coca-Cola and Mentos videos that entertain millions on the Web. It’s a fascination with seeing common things behave uncommonly. It is the quirky progression that draws you into these video vignettes created by eepybird productions. These guys are actors, not marketers. Their approach to life is to engage people in what they are doing. Hmmm — that’s a good thing.

Big companies with iconic brands like Coke are extremely protective, and rightly so. After all, getting involved in any form of social media is not child’s play. It can seem more like playing in traffic, and every parent is nervous about their kids crossing the street.

Luckily, there are rules. Last night at the Society for New Communications Research dinner, I had a conversation with a senior executive from the Coca-Cola Company. I came to these conclusions about entering social media for corporate marketers:

1) Social media is a playground of ideas, with plenty of ways to stay safe.
2) Observe the way consumers interact with your brand. The more fun they have with it, the greater the reason you should be a conduit for them to share it with others.
3) Creativity is the art of discovering where the playground ends and the street begins.

Stay tuned to Coke. They will be coming out with another element of the social media in their virtual world playground real soon.

Time 15:40

I know we like to talk about technology here on most days, but today we’re taking a different tact. Today we interviewed one of the deans of relationship building, Harvey Mackay, the author of Swim with The Sharks without Getting Eaten Alive and Beware the Naked Man who Offers You His Shirt.

Mackay has been on the New York Times best-seller list multiple times, and these two books are on the top 15 inspirational business books of all time, according to the New York Times.

Mackay built a failing envelope company into a $100 million business employing 600 people. He did it with relationships — caring relationships based on truly getting to know the other person. And so, as social media continues to take shape, I thought it important to seek the advice of those who understand a few things about relationships.

An example is the Mackay 66 , a guide to learning about each other, whether it’s as simple as making connections to the same college or favorite sports team or learning about whether the person is focused on the present or the future. Those who use Facebook, LinkedIn or any other social network can gain value from Mackay’s wealth of experience and advice on nurturing relationships.

Ten million copies of his books have sold and his column is syndicated in 52 newspapers across the country. Here are some of my favorite of Mackay’s words:

• “What every salesperson — and not enough entrepreneurs — know: The sweetest sound in the world to you, and to your customer, is the sound of your own name on someone else’s lips.”
• “Little things don’t mean a lot. They mean everything. In a business, there are 1,001 ways to screw up every day, and almost all of them can be avoided with a little more attention to detail or common courtesy.”
• “Challenge yourself to learn something new every chance you get.”
• “Business is a collaborative art, not an individual one.”

There is a webinar on the Mackay 66 on Dec. 3, 2007.

The technology dilemma: New technologies are developed quickly and less costly today than even 10 years ago. New technology implementation requires the precise work of three groups: path finders, bridge builders and commoditizers.

1) Path finders: They forge a wild river. They develop for the joy of a challenge and/or the dream of wealth. Many times they traverse to unknown places. They prudently cut a path with precision moving toward a desired destination. They may not know exactly where they are going, but they are learning and discovering with every step.

2) Bridge builders: These are the ones who help the masses on the populated side of the river come across. They painstakingly educate those fearful of going over the bridge and in some cases hope they don’t loose sight of the path finders.

3) Commoditizers come along with the masses and build different uses for technologies that have become common. They help drive the price down, expand usage and, with it, less risk in implementing that technology in a typical business.

The issue that Jeremiah Owyang of the Web Strategist Blog raises in his Utterz post from Nov. 29 is whether the technologists are moving too fast. In my parlance, are the path finders rushing ahead so fast that they are in danger of being alone in the wild?

The pace of what technologists can do is outracing how significant portions of the population can use it or can pay for it. The question technologists and consumers should answer jointly is: Can the new technologies be applied to provide sufficient value that it is worth changing from what we do now?

Social media and different issues than the 90s:

• A more fragmented market, which could mean less total revenue per technology
• Less costs, which potentially mean higher profits per technology
• Insanely short product life-cycles, putting all technologies in danger of being overtaken
• Potentially misunderstood brand power of technology, when the real asset is the communities

The Bar Syndrome

What would make me the most nervous as an investor? Understanding exactly what the asset is and how will that asset sustain itself and grow. I believe a good metaphor is that many of these social media technologies are like investing in a bar or restaurant. If that establishment can be replicated to attract enough people, then you’ve got a winning franchise. If, however, the people are fickle or a new bar opens down the street with better looking, livelier people, then what is left?

The accessories

We are to the point of application accessories; widgets is the accepted term. The issue is how these accessories are going to be paid for. An interesting question formed in the negative, just to make it more painful: What two technologies can you give up today?

A typical business with an abundance of meetings, limited budgets and cautious management needs time just to understand how these technologies are going to add value to the company. Patience is a virtue. Will the marketplace reward patience?

I worked at a venture capital firm in the 90s. There were companies working on 360-degree images of shopping malls, med-tech applications for desktop radiological reading, and video-on-the-Web capabilities. It was just a question of timing more than applications. Those ideas are well in place today and profitable.

History does help predict the future; we just need the patience for the future to catch up with us.

Time 12:56

The first stop for marketers who are attempting to determine how to approach social media is to listen to the conversations taking place on the web. Most executives are going to ask, what are people saying about our company or our industry? Who are they and does it matter to us?

While the numbers for social networking are mind boggling, an estimated 60 million users on Facebook alone, the perplexing issue for marketers that have must justify their spending is what is the impact to the company, will it grow sales, brand, influence? Or conversely, will not being there hurt us in some way?

In this podcast we highlight one company that can help answer those questions. Umbria, who can be found at www.umbrialistens.com. There tools search blogs, product review comments, and other social media sites looking for company mentions and more importantly context. For example, it is not good enough to learn that Starbucks was mentioned, but that a woman having a bad day found a moment of peace over an egg nog latte at Starbucks. Now that is listening. Umbria industry reports include healthcare, consumer electronics, and other industries

For those into the viral marketing concept, whether Umbria or a strategy that includes alerts and watches from Google, Technorati, Digg and others, the key is having a process that puts your ear to the ground – sorry had to use a cliché somewhere in this piece. Other tools include Sentiment Metrics and Cymfony, there are plenty of choices. Ths issue is with growing numbers of participants in social media, this tactic should be on your 2008 coporate marketing budget.

Do you have a strategy for listening to social media? What tactics do you find helpful?

Join the Conversation Giveaway

Joseph Jaffe’s book Join the Conversation is a good one. Well worth the read. We are giving away a copy with my comments included in the margins. It’s my way of joining the conversation – email me at marketingedge@providentpartners.net with Conversation in the subject line. We’ll have a drawing for the winner on December 19.

Giving Back

Every comment and email we get Provident Partners donates a food item to a St. Paul food shelter. Last month 24 items were donated. Thanks for sharing.

Here’s a classic case of social media run amok. There is a post today about the F-word being used in the Disney movie “Enchanted.”

It’s making it’s way up the Digg charts.

The problem? After listening to the clip posted on that site 10 times, I can’t hear it. I went to the movie on Thanksgiving and it wasn’t even a question. Never even thought about it. Why? ‘Cause the language is not there. There is nothing remotely that sounds like that.

So is this a case of blogosphere hysteria? Just cranking it up for the “link love,” as Web gurus are fond of saying?

The original post by Peter Sciretta claiming the profanity was made at 12:18 a.m. today, Nov. 26. In his comments, he posts the following:

Peter Sciretta says:

November 26th, 2007 at 2:21 am

Eric,

Just to clarify: The story was corrected two minutes after you posted your comment (the posting log says 12:18), this was long before Will read the story or posted his comment. The only thing I have added since Will’s posting was the bolded text telling people to read the rest of the story following the video. I felt that if Will missed it, than other people would as well.

However, I could not find any reference to a correction and why is the original post still up. The fact is, it is wrong. This is the kind of thing that must drive corporate marketers and PR folks mad.

Should Disney even respond? As of this posting, I was unable to find a response. Perhaps it doesn’t deserve one, but given the dollars still left in the Christmas movie-going season, I think it pays to call it like it is.

It’s a blogsphere prank, but nonetheless a real-world situation in the making. What would you do if you were Disney?

Time 18:45

The old maxim “you don’t argue with the guy who buys ink by the barrel” isn’t as accurate as it once was. The combination of blogs, new online publishers like TechCrunch and the Huffington Post, and social media sites are creating new opportunities for professional and unpaid journalism.

The key to social media’s success is voices. The dilemma for social media is finding and determining the valuable content of those voices for you. Helium.com is a Web site designed for long-form written content and has an interesting way of sorting out what’s valuable. The site attracts those who have a desire to write, and its 90,000 members rate the articles on the site, giving all readers some guidance on the quality of the content.

This community grading apparatus rewards objective, accurate articles and banishes self-promoters to the valley of propaganda. (There really is no such place on Helium.com. That was my editorial license to say that garbage articles are ranked at the bottom.)

It’s a combination social media community, wiki (kind of ), blog and content provider. There is also a way for other publishers of Web sites and print publications to post requests for articles. Writers then submit articles for that particular topic for the publisher to potentially purchase. It is like a job board that matches buyers of articles to providers of content. Hey, it might not be enough money to quit your day job, but it is a way to fulfill a passion, share knowledge, and build your expertise and writing portfolio.

Helium.com also allows for contributions to non-profit groups, including Teachers Without Borders and Collegiate Society of America, as articles are purchased. It’s the concept of giving back to the community for writers as well as tapping into those non-profits as sources of quality articles.

Communicators should review this site as another step in determining the social media strategy. These are the interesting attributes of Helium.com:

• Source for industry trends across tens of thousands of topics
• Venue for your ideas and passion
• Potential revenue if articles are purchased
• Establish greater credibility as a writer
• Give exposure to issues that are not being covered in the mainstream media
• Plant the seeds of debate that others nurture -– that, after all, is the essence of social media

Marketing Edge Holiday Giveaways: Yippeee!

1. Society of New Communications Research Symposium VIP (very impressive pricing) in Boston December 5 and 6: Give a look at the agenda at www.sncr.org/symposium and if you want to go, e-mail me at marketingedge@providentpartners.net and I’ll send you codes for a little dough off the top.

2. Join the Conversation book giveaway contest: Joseph Jaffe’s latest book is the talk of the Amazon charts, and we will give a copy away on Dec. 19, with an added bonus. In the spirit of joining the conversation, I have included written commentary in many of the chapters. It’s the ultimate form of keeping the conversation going. Send me an e-mail with “Conversation” in the subject line and you’ll be included in the random drawing.

3. Movie trivia in this podcast episode: Listen toward the end of the podcast for a sound clip from a movie. Tell me what movie you think it came from and we’ll give one person who provides the correct answer a $10 Subway gift card. Hint: It’s a classic! Either send me an e-mail or submit your answer in the comment section.

NOTE: Provident Partners donates a food item for every comment (on the blog or by e-mail) we get. Our monthly budget for this community program is $100/month.

A word about trust on in the blogosphere and social media in general:

There is considerable discussion about how businesses can tap into these conversations. Another angle is the practice of paying bloggers, which some say is no different than paying ghostwriters of a book.

All of the above will be tested during the next couple of years as society continues to use social networks and other sites that have “word of mouth”-like components. A key to figuring out how business can use social media is to understand why social media is different than any other media.

Social media is a movement. Social media is a people place, not a market place.

The blogosphere has had millions participate because of a need to be recognized, even by just one other person. Social media has taken hold in equal numbers because of the need to be a part of a group, the need to connect. These are basic human needs, not driven by economics.

There is also a cynicism in the U.S. that I believe has contributed to the rejection of most forms of advertising, a growing distrust of corporations and a political system viewed as destined to be at odds for the foreseeable future.

The major structures of our society — financial, legal, and political — have their roots deep in the last century of ridged, industrial growth and are not yet capable of appreciating or assimilating a more open discussion created by social media.

If you are a marketer, a business, and look at social media from the perspective of it being a movement, it will change the way you approach social media. You will be a participant rather than a party-crasher, a thoughtful listener rather than a loud bore, and a valuable contributor rather than a self-serving taker.

Blogs that contributed to my thinking on this were:

• PR-Squared
• Web Strategist
• Doc Searls on the intention economy (at Stowe Boyd’s /Message blog)

What’s your take? Make a choice: Is social media more movement or marketplace? Remember, every comment we get we will contribute a food item to a St. Paul food shelter.

Look, I like Scholastic just as much as any parent. We get some of their wonderful magazines and books. So please don’t get this post wrong. I just dislike getting something that says, Send this back in X days and write cancel and you won’t be billed. No, no — keep the book it’s free as our gift.

Agh!

Folks, I must look extremely well-organized, and I think after helping raise five children, two dogs and being married for 21 years (happy anniversary, honey), that I can keep the trains running pretty well. You’d think I can send back a reply card within 7 days. Unfortunately, I was on vacation for 10 days, then work, and oh yeah, Ellen’s Girl Scout camp and, well, you know.

Here’s the story:

Moving on to the “love”

Also we’d like to thank the Bootstrapper blog for listing the Marketing Edge among its Top 100 Entrepreneur podcasts. Please share with us your comments about the blog and podcast. Also, we’re interested in answering your questions, so share one with us in the comment section and we’ll do are best to get it answered.

Chris Heuer points out how an enterprise wiki building company, Social Text, has in its product plan that their product will be produced in conjunction with its customers. This is a change from business plans of old. Heuer is eye-opening in this presentation. Why? Because the net result of such a product development paradigm over the long term, is happier clients, a more innovative future, and products that are driven by demand.

I realize in the busy days of a corporate marketing exec, having been one, that you want a turn-key solution. But in this social media landscape, there is no template formula. There are tools that make the job of working within the social media space efficient, but there is no quick fix for engaging in conversation. That takes time.

Marshall Kirkpatrick talked about podcasting as being a medium that will continue to grow. “My dog loves podcasts,” he exclaims. No he doesn’t have smarter dogs that listen to them (or do you Marshall?). He just listens to podcasts while walking the dog.

Audio is the medium that gives you time to think and the convenience of being passive. It’s a beautiful thing for communicating in a variety of circumstances.

Paul Dunay, on the panel about how to integrate social media into your marketing mix, focused on wikis and has some keys to look for. I’m paraphrasing here; Paul, clarify in comments if you need to.

• It should be two-way dialogue
• Shared opinions are good things
• Wikis can help engage early adopters and encourage thought leadership
• Starting internally with a wiki can build a foundation for your external-facing social media tactics
• Bring in IT at the beginning of the project discussion to get their buy in and expertise

Maggie Fox, on the same panel as Dunay, highlighted Mozilla’s launch of Firefox. Mozilla leveraged its users, which exponentially expanded the marketing department by essentially creating a suggestion box that generated both good ideas and advocates for the product — a winning combination for Firefox. It went from 0 percent market share in 2004 to more than 35 percent market share in September 2007.

The panel also included Tom Gerace, CEO of Gather.com, and Andy Beal, contributor to the Marketing Pilgrim blog.

As I listened to this excellent panel, it struck me that there are several parallels between being a corporate marketer and the job of communications strategy for a political candidate or public policy initiative.

Social media, by definition, requires:

• Listening to constituents (or customers or prospects)
• Responding (or not) to critics
• Communicating and building supporters
• Taking into consideration the larger environment in which the company and its communications initiatives exist

I remember when I was in Washington, D.C., as press secretary for the Republican National Committee. The radar was always listening for critics, and the supply lines were always full of talking points to funnel the grassroots support network.

Today’s social media campaign should go through a similar process of thoughtful messaging and coalition (community) building, with an abundant portion of patience to listen, and sensitivity to provide timely and responsible responses.

After a few days to let things settle and let me think (and as the story now bubbles up to the New York Times), here are a few observations about Chris Anderson’s post about blocking a group of PR people from e-mailing him and the subsequent comments:

PR lessons

1. College communications and PR professors should make this post mandatory reading. Don’t send e-mail to a reporter if you haven’t read some of his work. Repeat this mantra throughout your school years and into the workforce, if in fact there is such a thing as “pitching reporters” five or so years from now.

2. CEOs of PR firms need to evaluate the structure of the process that allows such e-mail tactics. By that I mean revenue model, client demands, training, mid-level oversight, database compilation — everything in your firm. There are dozens of reasons for sloppy pitches. Uncover them.

3. Use Anderson’s comments to your advantage. Show your clients (particularly the most demanding ones) that if they can’t generate real news and you can’t package what they have in a way that is interesting to the audience of your specific outlets, that’s not something a longer or more “big-name filled” media list can fix. Period. It’s a product issue, not a PR issue.

We’ve been in situations where the client says, “Call Walt Mossberg and get in there.” The correct response is to point out what Walt Mossberg requires to even be considered, then work to make those qualities a reality for your client. Not until your client walks the walk can you expect someone like Mossberg and Anderson to talk your talk.

4. Media databases are fine as a starting point, but just like any list, they’re not perfect. Having said that, Chris Anderson’s pitching tips as listed in Cision’s MediaSource as of Nov. 5, 2007, clearly state that his preferred method of contact is snail mail, that he should not be sent pitches when there’s an appropriate editor on staff, and that news releases should be sent to the magazine’s general e-mail address.

Now, the main email address is listed as editpress@wiredmag.com. I trust that the main e-mail as listed in Bacon’s — Cision; hate the new name — is not going to Chris’ inbox. If it is, then that’s a problem, eh?

And it says mail, as in snail mail. That’s great. The guy says he doesn’t even want an e-mail. Why? I bet it’s because it’s too simple to send him crapola when using e-mail. Here’s an idea: Actually hand-write him a note. A technology editor pitched with a hand-written note — that’s rich. But the point is, he’s eventually going to “black-list” folks that way, too, by never opening his paper mail again. It’s the message that matters, not the medium.

5. The media are changing. PR folks, maybe you don’t need these publishers anyway. If you have a good story, tell it yourself. Tell it by being a part of the discussion on the Web, and if the publishers want to write about that content, then they will find you. I’ve seen this work first-hand: no pitches, no calls, no lists. Just follow up between reporter and client directly as a result of blogs or podcasts. Let whoever wants it come and get it. PR is dead. Long live PR.

6. There are great PR firms on this list: Weber Shandwick, Fleishman-Hillard, Edelman, Tunheim. I’m sure they have opportunities to break stories. Is Wired the only outlet? Of course not. Perhaps Fast Company will get the first call the next time one of these firms has an interesting story. In the old days, it was said that you shouldn’t argue with the guy who buys ink by the barrel.

Well, Times — I mean, times — have changed, and now lots of people buy bandwidth by the megabit. If you’re really upset about this public chastisement, there are plenty of ways to re-evalaute the media landscape. While I don’t necessarily recommend this option, it sure might give some people satisfaction.

7. A warning to those PR pros pounding their chests about not being on the list and condemning those that were: If it’s open season on any person and any e-mail, it can be you next week in some other blog. Yes, there is a lesson here and it may be this: Who needs PR firms if they are going to make a mistake that some intern inside a company trying to get free press would make?

8. On the other side of number 7 is this: Only use PR firms who have relationships. Really? You mean that even if your client has a garbage story, your buddy Chris is going to write about it? I mean, you have a relationship, don’t you?

Crazy, isn’t it? If it were only about relationships, then, as a result of Anderson’s post, PR rates should double for those firms who claim to have them.

On that issue, I found a disclosure on Chris Anderson’s blog that is noteworthy:

The list of my potential and real conflicts is impossibly long and I find it arbitrary to only list the conflicts that involve money (such as a paid speaking gig), since the friendships are much more likely to influence me. So for those of you who care about such things, be forewarned: I don’t follow (or believe in) j-school standards of impartiality. The only thing I will promise is that I have no financial stake in the future prospects of companies I write about, which means no investments of any kind in them. If I praise them it will be because I’m honestly impressed, not because I hope to share in their financial success.

Chris doesn’t follow (or believe in) j-school standards of impartiality and his friendships are much more likely to influence him. Hmmm — good to know.

One last note here: Chris Perkett, president of Perkett PR, outlines how one of her firm’s people ended up on the list in this comment on Chris’ original post. If the story is true, then including this person on the black-list is just not right. While being frustrated is understandable, including someone that has had an e-mail exchange with him in the past is wrong.

To Chris Perkett: Well said, though I don’t think it will do much good.

Time 7:58

Karen O’Brien, a partner with the Crimson Consulting Group constructs a new way for marketers to evaluate the customer landscape. O’Brien says the outdated description of acquiring customers is to acquire, retain and grow them. Web 2.0 technologies, social media and the abundance of conversations taking place on the Web about products and services have painted a new perspective of the market.

That perspective, according to O’Brien, is attract, engage and extend. Her work won the Marketing Thought Publishing contest sponsored by the Silicon Valley chapter of the American Marketing Association.

I agree with Karen — and with that change comes the uncomfortable reality for marketers, CEOs and sales people that they don’t have control of their brand, as was once thought. One can make the case that companies never controlled their brand. People talked about their negative and positive experiences just as much as they do now. The difference is the proverbial backyard fence is replaced the Web and today their opinions are received by more than the next door neighbor and Aunt Mildred. Nothing against Aunt Mildred.

In this podcast, we discuss the Forrester social media ladder and an excellent example of corporate blogging policy at Sun. O’Brien will be speaking at the Online Market World event at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on October 3.

Albert Maruggi, president of Provident Partners, will join the roster of communication professionals and other speakers at the Minnesota Health Strategy and Communications Network’s annual summer conference July 19 and 20.

Albert will give a presentation titled “Storytelling Using New Media,” in which he will discuss emerging trends in the use of social media like blogs, podcasts and online videos for telling stories. He’ll also show examples of new media uses from the health care organizations and recount interviews with people who have used some of these tactics.

Albert has a diverse background that includes work in corporate communications, broadcast journalism and politics at the national level. He’s also the host of the highest ranked marketing podcast on iTunes, the Marketing Edge, in which he offers advice and insight on marketing, public relations and business communications.

“Health care communicators face a lot of unique challenges: regulations, dealing with difficult subject matter, very diverse audiences,” he said. “At the same time, they have many opportunities to make an impact. The personal stories and the emotional elements lend themselves perfectly to using new media to tell stories effectively.”

MHSCN is a network designed to unite health care professionals into one multi-faceted organization for sharing strategies and proven techniques for marketing, public relations and communications in the health care industry. MHSCN’s summer conference is an opportunity for different organizations’ communicators to share their stories and to learn from each other on effectively communicating with a variety of audiences.

For more information about Maruggi and Provident Partners please visit www.providentpartners.net. To find out more about MHSCN and its summer conference visit www.mhscn.com.

Photo from Flickr courtesy of happysnappr

OK, YouTube is great for parties, vacation videos and has some utility for business, but is it the perfect platform for a company’s multimedia social engagement?

There are a few other video/social platforms that are better suited for an in integrated interaction with audiences. Enter vSocial, a dynamic platform that allows companies to post, share and build communities. As we uncover with vSocial CEO and co-founder Mark Sigal, other tools on the vSocial platform let you build microsites that can be filled with user-generated content.

Boston Acoustics and Denon Electronics currently have such integrated campaigns with vSocial. Denon has launched a site called the Makeshifters, where home theater enthusiasts can provide their own stories of building their home entertainment centers.

In addition to typical sharing of these personal reflections, the microsite informs users about new products, best practices, and acts as a host for other information in an entertaining way. The site was created by the interactive agency The Loomis Group.

Now take this interaction one step further because, after all, hearing is believing when it comes to audio. And the Makeshifters have an answer by tying in retail resellers like Circuit City. Now you have a comprehensive, interactive experience that entertains shares, informs and maybe even sells a few products, right at the finger tips of the users.

Sigal is also a visionary thinker on digital media applications in the social world of the Web. Other interesting items on his blog, called The Network Garden, include an article about creating a path of breadcrumbs and Sigal’s commentary on partnering with CBS Interactive.

SOCIAL MEDIA SEMINAR IN TWIN CITIES

I will be hosting a seminar on social media on Tuesday, June 26, at the Pool & Yacht Club in Lilydale, MN. My colleague Mike Keliher and I will provide an overview of the new changes in business communications while answering questions submitted by attendees at time of registration. Register at www.providentpartners.net/answers.

You know, questions are the first form of user-generated content. The seminar’s focus is to help business owners and professionals understand new media trends and how to effectively incorporate them into their business communications.

Coming from the broadcast journalism world, I find these tools amazing. We’ll tackle practical uses of these tools to help address daily challenges you face.

We invite you to comment on this posting or email us at marketingedge@providentpartners.net. Every comment generates a food item donated by Provident Partners to a local food shelter — So what’s on your mind will put food in someone’s stomach.

Video on the Internet is seen by 78 percent of male Web users and 66 percent of female Web users, according the research firm eMarketer. In this podcast, we’ll hear from the senior analyst on video on the ‘Net for eMarketer, David Hallerman, about how is video being used in both the B2C and B2B environments.

It’s not just about pre-roll advertising or viral funnies passed around on by the YouTube crowd. Video is being used as yet another information tool for all kinds of communication. Video case studies, equipment demonstrations, emotional story telling and more.

A B2B video example is below. This is a video case study for an enterprise software company, SoftBrands, whose technology helps run the operations at Tedia, a chemical manufacturer. While SoftBrands is an international player in the enterprise software industry and a key partner of software giant SAP, their story is best told through the experiences of their customers. You can show screenshots all day long and have the best software engineers to walk you through the product, but video used in this context provides a powerful connection to the real-life benefits of the product.

Also in this podcast, we are holding two giveaways. Here they are:

“The Dip” by Seth Godin

We are giving away another copy of Seth Godin’s latest book, called “The Dip.” It’s about successful business people who knew when to quit walking down dead-end paths and start taking the road to fulfilled dreams. Just e-mail us at marketingedge@providentpartners.net with the words “The Dip” in the subject line. If you’re the first, you win. If not, we’ll make a donation to a local food shelter on your behalf.

Business Smart Tools Conference

I’m speaking at the Business Smart Tools conference on May 15 in Stamford, Connecticut. This is a great day of sessions with wonderful panels of speakers, including new media executives from General Motors, Digitas and Xerox.

We are giving away three passes to this conference, one to each of the first three e-mails we get. Only one free registration per company, so don’t try to pile on. Just e-mail marketingedge@providentpartners.net with the words “Business Smart Tools” in the subject line. Hurry –- we’re only taking the first three, and of course, we’ll donate one food item per e-mail we receive regardless of who wins the giveaway.

Any questions? Contact me, Albert Maruggi, at amaruggi@providentpartners.net or call 651-695-0174. We’re on Skype, too: screen name providentpartners.

Podcast length: 9:17