Category Archives: Create a Following

Social Media Draws a Crowd

Social Media Draws a Crowd

Start-Ups and Established Agencies Look to Carve a Niche in Online Action

By Suzanne Vranica

From Wall Street Journal

As more and more advertising dollars flow into social media, some Madison Avenue firms are seeking to grab a piece of the action. But it will be a tough fight as the space is overrun with companies seeking to own the segment, from start-ups to public-relations firms.

Universal McCann, the media-buying firm owned by Interpublic Group of Cos., is bolstering its social-media offering by launching a practice this week called Rally. The division will help marketers develop campaigns, track online chatter about their brands and measure how those campaigns perform. Headed by Heidi Browning, a former MySpace executive, Rally will house several new social-media hires. MySpace, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp.

Publicis Groupe‘s digital umbrella organization, Vivaki, says it also will open a social-media consulting practice by the end of the year. The new group will pool Publicis’ social-media tools and experts and use them to beef up the social-media practices that many of Publicis’ agencies have already established. Rishad Tobaccowala, chief strategy officer at Vivaki, says he is willing to use his mergers-and-acquisitions budget to bolster the practice if needed.

The push to form a more formidable presence in social-media advertising is being fueled by the increasing number of marketers who are eager to figure out how they can use sites such as Facebook Inc., which has almost 500 million users, and Twitter, with more than 120 million registered users, as a marketing weapon.

“Social media is now part of all our clients’ plans; we can’t not be in this space,” says Matt Seiler, chief executive of Universal McCann.

Ad spending on social networks world-wide is expected to rise 14% this year to $2.5 billion, according to research firm eMarketer. Although social media represents only a fraction of the $55 billion online-ad market, it is one of the fastest-growing segments.

Some corporations have taken a hands-on role in crafting their efforts: PepsiCo Inc.’s Gatorade, for example, recently created its “Mission Control Center,” which is set up like a broadcast-television control room and is charged with monitoring the sports drink around the clock across social-media networks.

But as marketers look to make bigger commitments, they are increasingly seeking experts to navigate the burgeoning space.

Earlier this year, Chrysler Group LLC tapped New Media Strategies, a unit of publisher MeredithCorp., to handle its social-media tasks. In March Kraft Foods Inc. hired 360i, a digital ad agency owned by Japan’s largest ad company, Dentsu Inc. The agency has been tasked with monitoring the social-media sites for some of its brands such as Oreo and Jell-O. It also develops campaigns. The agency recently created the “World’s Fan of the Week” promotion that appears on Oreo’s Facebook page.

Microsoft Corp. is currently searching for a social-media firm to handle duties for its Xbox videogame system, work that is now handled by several of Xbox’s agencies, according to people familiar with the matter. Asset-management firm State Street Corp. also has begun looking at firms. A spokeswoman for Microsoft declined to comment.

“We have talked to some PR firms that appear to have established valid expertise over the years, and we are also interested in the new social-media firms that are bubbling up,” says Hannah Grove, State Street’s head of global marketing.

Creative ad agencies, digital ad firms, social-media boutiques, public-relations outfits and publishing companies are all clambering to offer advice, all claiming to be best suited to handle the task.

“You can’t walk out your house without bumping into a social-media expert today, says Sean Corcoran, an analyst at Forrester Research. “The reality is the space is still very much a Wild West.”

Analysts say many marketers are more interested in hiring smaller firms that have expertise in the field. Last year Domino’s Pizza Inc. hired New Media Strategies, a word-of-mouth marketing firm, as its agency of record for social media.

“A lot of companies right now that specialize in PR or advertising are trying to do this on the side and the thing we liked in NMS is they specialize in social media,” said Chris Brandon, a spokesman for the pizza chain.

Analysts and ad executives say the space won’t be dominated by small competitors for long because advertising holding companies and bigger public-relations firms will likely ramp up acquiring the smaller boutique firms, much like they have done with other digital areas such as search advertising.

“I do think this is the year for consolidation in social media,” says Ms. Browning, president of Universal McCann’s Rally unit.

Write to Suzanne Vranica at [email protected]

Google aims to make app creation easy

Google aims to make app creation easy

By John D. Sutter

From CNN.com


(CNN) — It’s not uncommon these days for people to know how to build websites and create blogs. That’s largely because sites like WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr have simplified the process, so you don’t have to be a code wonk to publish.

Now, Google is trying to make smartphone app creation easy, too.

On Monday, the company announced a program called App Inventor, which claims to make app development easy enough for schoolkids.

“App Inventor requires NO programming knowledge,” Google says on its new website for the program. “This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app’s behavior.”

News sites have compared App Inventor to building with Lego blocks.

Google says it tested the program with kids.

“For the past year, we’ve been testing App Inventor in classrooms around the United States, and we’ve found that it opens up the world of computer programming to students in new and powerful ways,” the company says on its official blog.

The program is an extension of research and product development done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten Group created a building-blocks version of code programming for kids called Scratch, which Google says was one inspiration for its new app creator. The school’sScheller Teacher Education Program also gave Google some code to make the project possible.

Eric Klopfer, an associate professor at MIT and director of that program, said he hopes App Inventor gets young people — particularly those in middle school and high school — more interested in how phones and computers operate.

“It’s not as easy as using a word processor, which is pretty close to what blogs have gotten to. It’s not as easy as that,” he said of App Inventor, “but it’s a big leap forward.”

The new program is an apparent attempt by Google to both democratize app development and increase the number of apps that are available for smartphones that run Google’s Android operating system.

The number of Android apps has been growing in recent months, but there are only about half as many apps available for download on the Android Market as there are from Apple’s popular App Store, which services the iPhone and iPad.

Fortune: The coming Android app explosion

Some tech bloggers criticized Google on Monday for looking to up the number of Android apps instead of improving their quality. Others questioned whether non-techie developers could create apps that are worth using.

“They have to hope it doesn’t backfire and simply flood the Android Market with more junk apps than already exist,” writes MG Siegler on the blog TechCrunch.

On the blog Mashable, which is a CNN Tech partner site, Pete Cashmore writes that App Inventor may lead to a number of “cookie cutter” apps that are fairly useless, but it also may have long-term positive effects for Google.

“If App Inventor is so simple that schoolchildren can make apps, some of those same children will soon become coders themselves … and perhaps choose to develop Android apps rather than iPhone,” Cashmore writes.

The blog The Next Web says app quality may suffer, but that won’t hurt the overall usefulness of Google’s Android Market for apps.

“Will it negatively impact the Android Market? It’s not likely,” writes Brad McCarty. “Let’s face it, even though we’re approaching 100,000 applications in the Market, the good ones rise to the top very quickly. There are literally thousands of useless, trash-directed applications, but they tend to get buried in a hurry.”

Google is not the first company to try to make app development simple. Nokia tried a similar program this year, according to Engadget, but Google may be the first company that is big enough to popularize the idea.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

To learn more about the program, go to Google’s App Inventorinformation page. To download the program, you have to fill out a form telling Google why you would like access to it.

Watch a video preview of the program

Popularity, Ego, and Influence – What Is the Influence Project?

Popularity, Ego, and Influence – What Is the Influence Project?

By Mark Borden

From Fast Company Magazine Online

Influence Project

In roughly 24 hours, nearly 6,000 people have registered to participate in an experiment we started called The Influence Project. It’s been written about by TechCrunchThe Huffington PostThe New York Times, and a score of personal blogs. While it hasn’t taken off the way as quickly as the David After Dentist or Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Rainbow videos, it’s off to a good enough start to bust our servers (briefly). But like anything that gains traction on the Web, the reactions have been mixed, ranging from the vitriolic to the pretty damn amusing.

One side effect of instant popularity is that most people are unaware of the evolution of this idea, and how the thing actually works. The Influence Project is a byproduct of a story I wrote in the May issue of Fast Company about the ad and marketing shop Mekanism. Mekanism told me they could make just about anything go viral. So I asked them to create a viral marketing campaign for Fast Company (they were not paid for this, but did it because it sounded like fun). In return, I would document the process and see if they could deliver. Mekanism came back with pitches ranging from a Twittering Business Jesus who responds to prayers from companies in distress, to a jingoistic campaign titled Fuck China (we passed on both, but you can still see the full brief). Instead, we settled on an idea called The Cover Project—so named because everyone who participates would get their photo in a story that might hit the cover of a fall Fast Company issue. We’ve changed the name since then, because the editorial story I wanted to pursue, the story that is constantly evolving and morphing, is the story of influence and influencers and how they are employed to both spread or kill ideas on the Internet. And voila—The Influence Project.

We’ve created a platform where anyone can see what happens to his or her social network when people are asked to take an action. The scoring is based partly on how many people click on the link to your profile, and partly on a bonus awarded to people who get others inside their network to sign up and take part. (Someone with 100,000 followers who only gets 100 people to join the project is less influential than someone with 150 followers who gets 100 people to join.) We didn’t give guidance on how people should pursue their influence goals. Some people may engage in deception to get others to click on their link (hello 4Chan), some may use tactics that feel like spam to boost their results (hello, SEO consultants). Some may want to use charity as a lever to push engagement–go ahead, we won’t stop you. Is that inappropriate? Is that unfair? Is that a popularity contest? Maybe. But it’s also reflective of behavior that happens on the Internet every day.

The project is an experiment, one that should inform us and be enjoyable for participants. It is not being paid for by a sponsor–although we’d be thrilled to have one. Your email address will not be sold to anyone. It is an editorial investigation.

Yes, we hope to be able to name the most influential person online in our November issue. But that issue will do much more, looking at influence from all kinds of different perspectives. And along the way, I’ll be writing daily on the subject of influence–occasionally focusing on the project, but mostly writing about interesting people I learn about along the way, and how they create and wield their own online influence. Which brings me back to the main point of our project: It’s a wild, unwieldy, imperfect, and hopefully fun way to take a look at the wild, unwieldy, imperfect and certainly fun world of social media.

The Definitive Case for B2B Social Media Marketing

The Definitive Case for B2B Social Media Marketing

How Kinaxis, a supply chain management solutions provider based in Ottawa, is achieving extraordinary results via social media marketing.

By Drew Neisser

From Fast Company Magazine Online

While most B2B marketers are scratching the surface, Kirsten Watson and her team at Kinaxis are digging deep into the rich veins of social media and finding gold. And while my metaphor may be tired, the 2009 versus 2008 results are anything but:

  • 2.7 times increase in website traffic
  • 3.2 times increase in conversion
  • 5.3 times increase in blog traffic
  • 6.0 times increase in registration of community members

How Kinaxis did all this and more is both instructive and inspiring especially given the extraordinary humility with which Watson shared her story. After I reassured her that Kinaxis was way ahead of the pack, Watson noted, “When you’re in the trenches, head down at the desk, you always feel like you’re playing catch up.” From my perspective, the only catching up to do here is for my readers, who I hope will see this as the definitive case for B2B social media marketing.

1. Innovation Rolls Down Hill

Perhaps the theme I hear most often is the importance of the CEO in inspiring marketing innovation.  Well guess what?  It’s true for our Canadian neighbors too. “It started in late 2007, when our CEO Doug Colbeth came to us,” noted Watson, adding, “He is the visionary type and was noticing all the social media stuff on the rise and wanted to know if there was an opportunity there for us.”  Thinking that social media was mainly Facebook and not seeing a fit, Watson and her team started reading all they could including Groundswell, the seminal book that according to Watson, “Sets the stage for what all the social media stuff really means.”

2. Experts are Worth the Investment

Knowing what you don’t know is tough and knowing when to pay for outside expertise is even tougher.  Noted Watson on the decision to spend $70,000 with Forrester on research, “Our company isn’t big enough, so we needed outside help and engaged Forrester to help us understand our audience.”  Added Watson, “if we don’t understand the audience we’re trying to reach, how in the world could we build an infrastructure to engage them?” Forrester’s recommendation to build a community was unexpected but the data was quite strong. Offered Watson, “So we executed on all of their recommendations, the biggest being the community.”

3. Patience is Rewarded Especially When it Comes to Blogging

Our blog is a huge part of our social media strategy but that’s been going on since 2005,” noted Watson, who added “We were banging our heads against the wall, questioning if it was worth the investment of time.”  That is no longer the case, noted Watson, “Our blog today is one of the industry’s leading blogs; we get a lot of leadership points off our blog because we’re quite careful about the quality of the content.”  This sensitivity to their readers provided a strong foundation for their newer social media activities, added Watson, “We’re never trying to be over-promotional and we’re always talking about real issues.”

4.  SEO is More than a Side Benefit of Social Media

“The biggest thing for us has been about finding ‘religion’ in SEO,” noted Watson when explaining her top lessons learned.  “Start with really understanding the keywords that are important to your marketplace and then build your campaign in as integrated way as possible,” she added.  Kinaxis has an editorial calendar based on key industry topics, writes a monthly whitepaper and then extends that content to Slideshare (PowerPoint presentations), YouTube (videos of the author), blogs, LinkedIn groups and newsletters. Offered Watson, “We understand things like keyword density, interlinking, back-linking,” thus helping to turn social media content into gold.

5. Building Community Means Letting the People Speak

In July 2009, Kinaxis launched a community for supply chain management enthusiasts with a hope and a prayer.  The hope was that they would get a few hundred members and a prayer that it would attract new customers as well as their current.  One year later, the community now has over 2760 members, 75% of whom are not current Kinaxis customers. Watson advised avoiding any kind of corporate messaging in the community, “When you understand the social media revolution; it’s owned by the people and not us. “ She added, “You have to be open, be honest, encompass all ideas and let people communicate how they like.”

6. Holy Hockey Player Batman; Even Supply Chain Experts are People Too

All too often, B2B marketing efforts are restrained by a deadly seriousness that simply ignores the humanity of the target.  Not so for Kinaxis.  Comedy content has been a long-standing component of their web efforts and it became an important part of the community when it launched. “Comedy has been a great draw, since at the end of the day, it gets back to the whole notion that people are people,” she chuckled. “Our business world and personal world do intersect,” noted Watson. “I don’t think there’s anything but good things that come from a company showing its personality and that it has a sense of humor,” concluded Watson.

7. Keep it Fresh by Taking Calculated Risks

In early 2010, Kinaxis opened its blog up to outside bloggers, a calculated risk that has already paid off.  5 leading industry experts are now posting content along with 18 Kinaxis employees, helping to drive site traffic and improve organic search performance.  “These bloggers can even go on and post a contrary view to the way we see things which adds more credibility to the blog,” noted Watson, who also added, “None of our posts are preapproved—it’s all or nothing.”  Understanding the need for experimentation, Watson acknowledged, “We don’t expect to get it right every time and there’s still so much learning to do,” revealing the refreshing humility I mentioned upfront.

8.  Track Everything and Revel in the Love of Your Sales Force

Though measurement is still considered a work in progress, how Kinaxis monitors its social media progress is first rate.  Noted Watson, “We’re tracking all of the traditional stuff like keyword searches, website hits and conversions but its hard to track what created what.” Taking things a step further, Kinaxis uses a scoring system to monitor qualified leads against a number of criteria including industry, revenue range and title.   She added that leads, “Hit a threshold value of points that then tells us this is a market qualified lead; they’re all tracked by SalesForce, so we can look back and see where our best qualified leads came from,” thus generating the on-going love and appreciation of the Kinaxis sales force.

Final note: While Kinaxis is far from a household name, if you are in the Supply Chain Management business there is a pretty good chance you’ve heard of them, laughed with them or even given them a piece of your mind. And if you haven’t, they just added a “community manager” to increase the odds that you will soon and that this fast-growing privately-held Canadian company will continue to lead the way in social media marketing.

5 Ways to attract a following on Twitter

Over the past year I have essentially submerged myself in online activity and absorbed as much as I can. Social media, ezine marketing, widgets, blogs, video marketing, podcasts, ebooks! While Twittering one night I realized never before had I spent so much time learning something that was so much fun. After literally hours spent on Twitter I can still honestly say I still love it! It fascinates me and yet overwhelms my already overactive ADD mind. Yet, I just keep going back for more.
 
As many have said that do NOT yet understand and embrace its relationship building possibilities I have to wonder how many times those same words came from critics of our past and yet were proven abundantly wrong. I mean, who understood the value of the telephone or automobile or email at the time it was in gestation? Very Few!

I can literally remember answering machines becoming increasingly popular in the 80’s and certain voices around me admonishing its existence by calling it a fad. Funny how so many of us jump on the bandwagon with innovation when young and yet after a certain age retreat back into the minds of our Grandparents without even realizing its happening.

Just the other day I was riding along in a car listening with painful anguish as fellow passengers threw around the idea that Twitter and other social media venues were just ‘fads’ and that some radio show host had told them that very idea just the day before. The four agreed in unison that Twitter was something they didn’t understand nor were they ever going to take part in.
 
The sad part was that these were Real Estate professionals and were in the business of marketing for their clients. They made their money selling houses and marketing properly. And they were going to throw in the towel when it came to advancing their clients exposure online.

One of the reasons for this is the learning curve. Technology can be frustrating. Believe me, I get frustrated faster than anyone. I will say though that if we were to apply 5 simple concepts we already know about relationships to Twitter we wouldn’t find it so frustrating to learn. So, I have listed below a very simple and effective list of 5 things to do while tackling the Twitter learning curve. They work and just may put things into perspective for you.

1. People want to see a face. Not a logo. Ever consider walking into a cocktail party or networking meeting with a bag over your head? How do you think that would work for you? Logos are important but NOT when building relationships on Twitter. Think of Twitter as a networking event or cocktail party and put on your best smile. Upload those pearly whites onto that Twitter profile and do it today! Consider a professional photo even. It really is the best way to come across your best. If you don’t have a professional head shot, make an appointment next week to get one with a photographer.

2. Upload a URL into your profile. Whether it is a website, blog site or landing page, you need to put that in your profile. Consider this the door to your business. Would you put up an open sign on your business door and then lock your customers out? Get it up there immediately and if you don’t have a website you can get a blog site up literally in minutes. Go to Blogger.com, or WordPress.com and get that URL up and running.

3. Go get followers. Followers are your fans. The quickest way to get followers is basically the same concept we learned in school early on when making friends. Acknowledge others (retweet), connect with your followers, seem interested in them, be positive, say thank- you, and always, always mind your manners. See, it’s really not all that difficult so stop making it out to be. Remember, the fastest way to turn people off is to seem self-absorbed. Don’t talk about yourself too much. Make it about them. Oh, and follow lots of interesting people.

4. Allow people to see your personality. Don’t be afraid to be your genuine self. People really do like nice, approachable and genuine personalities. This is the fastest way to attract followers.
People like positive attitudes too, so quotes are very popular. If you want retweets and followers, post some of your favorite quotes several times a day. It works.

5.  Find content and fresh news at popurls.com. Unfortunately people won’t care too much about what YOU are doing if you post every mundane task you take part in all day. It may be difficult to hear but people really want good ‘stuff’. So give it to them. It is all over the web and easy to find and post it using tinyurl.com. because 140 characters forces you to get creative. You get what you give in life. Consider this when you start tweeting and you will see the difference right away. Be a giver first. Attract what you ultimately want.

Happy tweeting!

Tracking hashtags on Twitter

Tracking hashtags on Twitter

by Nathan T. Wright in Web Strategy
May 20, 2009

Twitter Hashtags in Google ReaderImage by Search Engine People Blog via Flickr

If you’re new to Twitter, you may be wondering what all those strange words are preceded by the # symbol. These are called hashtags – basically, it is a method for adding context to your Twitter updates. Similar, in concept, to tagging videos on YouTube or photos on Flickr.

On the right-hand side of your Twitter screen, you’ll notice an area called trending topics. These change every day and can reflect upswings in stories being covered in the media, or even Twitter-specific events, such as the popular #followfriday meme.

Every Friday, certain Twitter users will give shout-outs to some of their favorite “tweeps,” making it easier for their followers to discover other interesting people on the social network. They tag these updates with the #followfriday hashtag.
The # symbol makes all the data easier to aggregate and track. There are even Web properties solely devoted to tracking and defining hashtags, such as Des Moines’ own WTHashtag.com. This site is built upon wiki technology, making it easy for visitors to create their own definition entries for certain hashtags.
Here’s one I created: #CarpeDM – use this hashtag any time you’re sharing news about something cool, new or innovative happening here in the Des Moines metro area.
So, why would a business be interested in any of this? Let’s say that your organization has an entrenched interest in food production and safety, and you want to listen for what’s being said on Twitter about the swine flu outbreak. You can easily review real-time chatter by searching for #swineflu on search.twitter.com, or pull trending graphs from services like WTHashtag or Twist.
Listening leads to business intelligence, competitive advantage and new opportunities, so remember to fine-tune your radar to include Twitter hashtags.

Social networking users aren’t as young as you might think

Social networking users aren’t as young as you might think

by Nathan T. Wright in Web Strategy
June 2, 2009

Twitter_icons_256 In Twitter’s infancy, the micro-sharing social network was largely perceived as a gathering place for hyper-connected, digitally-inclined twentysomethings. Sure, Twitter’s early adopters were comprised of the younger “tech elite,” but recent months have proven that the network is now more mainstream that you might think.

A couple of facts have recently jumped out at me:
  1. According to Nielsen Online, the largest age population on Twitter is 35-49, making up almost 42 percent of the site’s audience.
  2. A new survey from Pace University and the Participatory Media Network says that 99 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have profiles on social networks, but only 22 percent are on Twitter.
  3. Switching gears to Facebook: The fastest growing demographic is females 55 and older.

So what does this tell us? A couple of things: Youth culture has not yet gravitated to Twitter. There could be many reasons for this – one being that the 18-24 age demographic grew up within Facebook’s walls, and simply don’t have the need or want to migrate to another social network. Also, the Baby Boomers have finally arrived.

Marketers love to put their targets into age and gender buckets, but meanwhile I’m reminded of something Mike Sansone once said: Adoption of social networks is attitudinal, not generational.
We’ve moved past the age where social networking is a world occupied only by Millenials. Social networks are ubiquitous, utilitarian, mainstream – they are all around us and they are diverse. There will always be a small population that resists social networking, but they’ll be less and less defined by age.
Before the end of the year, your parents will be on Facebook (if they aren’t already). We’re getting closer to the day that the term social media goes away forever, and all this stuff just blends into everyday life.