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I bet I can find 10,000 people who want peace in the middle east
Posted on June 5th, 2009 No commentsSocial media helped Obama win the presidency, and now his administration is hoping it can also help ‘win’ the Middle East.
Before Obama’s Cairo address on June 4th, publicity was geared towards asking people to sign up for text messages of the speech in Arabic, Urdu, Persian and English. Which was nice research, given the growing prevalence of cell phone usage in the middle east (over 44% penetration, ‘08 eMarketer). And what about the home team? US cell phone couldn’t subscribe, due to laws prohibiting State Dept. funding to reach a domestic audience, but anyone could receive the frequent updates via twitter & facebook.
Salon.com comments that over 2,000 people gave a virtual thumbs-up/likes this! to the speech’s closing lines - and also on the video “Muslim Americans Serving in the US Government” that joined the White House YouTube channel and website posting the same day.
- Sarah
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No, Social media isn’t TV. And you think that’s a bad thing why?
Posted on May 21st, 2009 No comments‘Marketers’ still have some thinking to do about our future. And for all that we tend to prattle on about the customers coming first and respecting our ‘targets’ as people first, purchase-prone message-victims second, I suspect that deep in the collective marketing psyche we’d be happier if they’d just follow the rules we learned in grad school and respond appropriately to reach and frequency. Buy what we tell you, because we told you to. And we have research to back that up. So what’s your problem, Mr. Customer? (Who am I kidding; in CPG land that would be ‘Ms./Mrs. Customer’. Viva la (gendered) purchaser.)
As you may gather from my tone, I am not a fan of this approach. And I’m struck by the paradox inherent in MediaPost’s article relating the findings of the new Knowledge Networks report (Check out the link to the mediapost article here: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=106445) that ’social media is ineffective re: advertising’. For ‘advertising’ as we old reach-n-frequency folks have known it, I’m sure that’s true. But the Knowledge Report study finds that good ole’ Word of Mouth is still the #1 promotional force in consumerland. What’s word of mouth? People talking. TRUSTED people talking to each other. And what’s social media? The same bloody thing. Advertisers, to be sure, will not be the main thrust of those many, many conversations, and some who try too hard to insert themselves into organic conversations come across as either boorish or clueless. That’s the reach and frequency game. Conversations - real ones - are different. But I challenge the notion that social media isn’t an effective playground for smart marketers. Word of mouth has always been trickier - and more demanding of actual human understanding, goals and motivations - than the broadcast model. Why was anyone expecting social media to be different? Don’t write off the medium because you expected it to function like a TV set. Rather, start looking at your customers are people. They’re not always buying your product, but they are always being themselves. How can you be relevant to them? Actually relevant, rather than ‘relevancy powered by quantitative research points’?
Isn’t that the beginning of any good conversation?
- Sarah
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Social media marketing: What’s legal and what’s not?
Posted on May 14th, 2009 No commentsWith all the hubbub surrounding social media marketing, it’s easy to check your ethics at the door. Remember when Wal-Mart got caught astroturfing - that is, setting up a a corporate blog that masqueraded as grassroots buzz? The blog, Working Families for Wal-Mart, earned Edelman - the public relations firm responsible for it - a suspension from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.
Underhanded tactics like astroturfing aren’t just unethical, however. In some cases, they are illegal.
There are numerous FTC regulations surrounding social media practices, including buying links, giving bloggers freebies in exchange for writeups, and viral content. In addition, Google has its own standards on what’s ok and what’s not.Of course, these regulations are notoriously difficult to enforce. But, before you begin any social media initiative on behalf of your product or company, it’s worth it to understand what’s truly illegal, what’s simply underhanded, and how you can embrace social media without abandoning your ethics.
Read the full article, “Is Social Media Marketing Illegal?“, at SEOMoz.
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Measuring the success or failure of a social media engagement
Posted on March 26th, 2009 No commentsLast night I had the honor of presenting at a Web Analytics Wednesday event here in San Diego.
I discussed strategies for the often frustrating task of measuring the effects of a social media engagement. My advice? Nail down concrete KPIs before you begin your foray into social media; use reliable proxies to measure nebulous concepts like engagement; look at the campaign holistically; and stay focused on what really matters - whether it’s awareness, sales or customer retention. Lastly, do projections to help manage expectations and understand what you need to do to break even.
My co-presenter, social media guru Brian Watkins of Omniture, spoke about Omniture’s work on integrating social media cues like Twitter posts, so stakeholders can get all the information they need from their analytics suite.
View my slides on Slideshare to get a taste of the presentation.
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Facebook Firing: will they become commonplace?
Posted on March 11th, 2009 2 commentsESPN reported this Monday that a Philadelphia Eagles employee was recently fired after posting a negative Facebook status message about his employer. Ranting about how the Eagles let Brian Dawkins sign with the Denver Broncos, the post included several expletives directed at the Eagles franchise.
I see two sides to this situation. On the one hand, I am sure worse sentiments were shared by fellow Eagles fans on their own Facebook pages, but at the same time, employers should not stand for libel or slander against their company (especially when dolled out by their own). Is it realistic for companies to expect constant decorum from their employees on their personal time and personal social profiles?
The 6-year employee of the Philadelphia Eagles is not the only instance where someone faced severe consequences after letting their emotions fly on a social media outlet. Geary’s Organic Media Manager Andrew Rodrigues says this situation is a great example of how companies need to institute a corporate policy about social media because this is not an isolated case.
Do employees have the right to post comments about their employers on their personal profiles? Is a Facebook post any different from criticizing your job to friends at a bar or restaurant?
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