Social media has fundamentally changed the way that people discover products, services and content. It's no longer simply about the old method of product, price and placement, it's about relevance, value and virality. As the effectiveness of traditional online marketing continues to decline, how can you be sure that your message is not only absorbed, but embraced, passed along and viewed as valuable?
Maximizing Social Discovery Opportunities on the Social Web |
The Significance Streams |
I was inspired by Gregarious' post on the pervasiveness of streams. Streams to me represent another step towards the end of top-down broadcast and the beginning of a confluence of information and communication exchange patterns that function multi-dimensionally. At this point, anyone who is active with social platforms and social tools has streams of information revolving around them. Streams are pervasive, (as Gregarious points out) in that they persist in cyberspace long after we take the actions that add to our streams.
How to Twitter (the right way) on Behalf of Your Brand |
Ever heard of Twitter? If you hadn't, now you have and I'm willing to bet you'll be hearing it a lot more.
Twitter in a nutshell
Twitter is a messaging platform, also referred to as micro-blogging. Information is exchanged between users in the form of messages comprising 140 characters or less. Updates are sent and received via web, SMS or third party applications like Twhirl. The basic idea is you choose who's updates you want to follow, and others choose to follow your updates. Updates are fed into your feed where you can see what the people you follow are doing. Conversely, your updates are sent to your followers feeds.
Niche is pretty sweet |
I'm a big fan of niche marketing. I guess you could say niche is my niche. Normally, even when I work with a client who has a very broad audience, I'll start by breaking it down into smaller niche segments. Why? Niche audiences are passionate audiences. It's a bit more work up front, segmenting, analyzing, listening to the audience, taking the time to find out what each group is in to, where they spend their time, how they interact. The constant information stream generated by social networks, tools and technologies make locating, listening to and communicating with niche audiences possible on much more granular levels than ever before. If a brand can appeal to a niche audience, and authentically engage them with content that appeals to their affinities, that brand reaps the rewards and will realize a much higher ROI than traditional wide net tactics.
More on how brands can effectively harness social media - expanding on "participate, don't invade" |
When I think about all of the monster catastrophes that so many brands have brought upon themselves by conducting social media marketing incorrectly, a few commonalities start to surface:
1. Lack of or false transparency
2. Failure to engage
3. Invasion strategy
You would think by now these folks would get it, but it seems like many brands are still floundering. What seems to be happening is someone, either on the brand team, or at an agency, or many times both, says "hey, this social media thing is really heating up, let's do something quick to get in there." And then a bunch of people with no experience in the space come up with a plan using their traditional media backgrounds to make a big impact in a short period of time. NNNNT (score board buzzer), wrong.
Marketing, Media, Technology, Content and Conversation - Connecting the Dots |
I started my career 12 years ago as a programmer. I then transitioned into design, animation and interactive presentations, followed by a bit of video editing, then creative director. For the past seven years I have run an interactive marketing firm. I feel like my professional history, combined with my lingering passion for each page in that history, gives me a unique perspective.
Who are we? The blurry line between "real" and digital life. |
I don't know about my readers, but I spend a good 10 hours a day on my computer, and a good part of the balance on my Crackberry. I posit that the social web evolved as a result of our need for human interaction combined with our work keeping us tied to our computers. We can't interact physically as much as we would like to, so we find outlets online to live them digitally. And yet, by living "digitally," at least as far as I'm concerned, I feel that I've made so many more connections with people, had so many more interactions, than would ever be possible without the social web. The web is becoming more human. Humans are becoming more digital.
How Brands Can Effectively Harness the Power of Social Media Marketing |
When used correctly, social Media can be an extremely powerful way to form relationships with your audience and spread possitive word of mouth. When used incorrectly, it can really piss people off. We've all heard about failures like the Wal-Marting Across America fiasco, not to mention Target's faux pas, Rounders, oops!
So is there a secret formula for success in social media marketing? We know some things that don't work: lack of or false transparency, "invasion" of social networks, SPAM, rushing into SNs without understanding them and thereby breaking etiquette. When launching a social media campaign, there are different combinations of tactics and strategies that will work best for each combination of brand and audience.
Some tips:
What's Happening in the World of Interactive Marketing |
I just attended the OMMA conference in Hollywood. It inspired me to speculate on the future of online and interactive marketing; what's coming up in '08 and what's down the road. Several things strike me and inspire me. For instance, GM announced this week that it will dedicate half of it's $3 billion budget to digital and one-to-one marketing in the next three years. Wow. According to a recent survey by Prospero Technologies 90% of marketers who already use social media are planning to increase spending. Marketers say they are seeing their objectives reached or exceeded, even though they do not always have methodologies and metrics for measurement.
Wow, it's been a long time! |
Guess I've been busy, since JANUARY!!! No excuse for that. Big news, Heavybag Media now has an office in Los Angeles, in addition to our New Haven office, which is still fully staffed and humming along wonderfully.
We have been doing a lot of work with some of our clients in the social and professional networking space. It's really an interesting space to be in. Each online community has it's own set of rules, both official and unofficial, and there are new ones popping up all the time. I personally am now on Facebook, bebo, Ning, MySpace, YouTube, Mashable, Twitter, LinkedIn, plus I run this blog. Our company is represented on Ning, MySpace and soon to be Facebook. Though all of these sites are different in their own way, one common thread is the human factor.
