A starting strategy for Social Media

     Using the six approaches above, here’s a quick rundown of your potential starting points to building out a social media project for your organization.

• Find the Customer - Assign two people in the organization to build listening queries, populate an RSS reader as a command center, and conduct regular reporting cycles on the fruits of listening.
• Be There Before the Sale - Create a quick, one page document to outline company guidelines for building employee profiles on social platforms like Facebook. Work with IT on firewall concerns. Work with management to lay out fair use policies during work hours (again, no more than a page). Work with sales/marketing/engineering on ideas for using the platforms.
• Be (or Empower) the Influencer - Have a one page blogging policy in place (usually no more strict than the email policy). Have policies on comments (including how to handle negative comments). Build strategy on types of posts, ideas for outreach, promotion, and finding similar blogs and people in the space.
• Shift Behavior - Demonstrate through case studies and pilot efforts how to empower employees to be helpful. Share examples and ideas on how these efforts can positively impact marketing/sales efforts.
• Warm Up the Funnel - Determine a method for internally annotating the social aspects of CRM, or build a way to report the multi-touch approach of using social tools to reach out and maintain relationships with prospects and customers.
• Measurement - Improve current reporting to include the social elements such as comments, inbound links, search term value, etc.

     Source: Fishing where the fish are: Mapping Social Media to the buying cycle (Chris Brogan) e-book

How micro-bloging works

     Micro-blogging is tool that combines elements of blogging with instant messaging and social networking.

     The clear leader in the micro-blogging field is Twitter with over 1 million users11. Other notable micro-blogging players include Pownce and Jaiku, which offer various different features, but for the purposes of this e-book it makes sense to focus on the Twitter format.

     Twitter users can send messages of up to 140 characters instantly to multiple platforms. 90% of Twitter interactions12 are not made via the Twitter website, but via mobile text message, Instant Messaging, or a desktop application such as Twitterific. Its flexibility is further enhanced by the ability to subscribe to updates via RSS.

     Uses of Twitter vary. It’s popular among homeworkers and freelancers, who use it in part as a ‘virtual watercooler’. Other people use it simply to stay in touch with a close network and share thoughts or start conversations.

     Its suitability as a vehicle for breaking news has encouraged the BBC and CNN to introduce Twitter feeds. Even candidates for the US Presidency have taken to Twitter (for example, Barack Obama).

     An important feature to note is that Twitter can be indexed via Google. As with so much on the web, it’s a public platform, so it’s worth remembering that as such your use of it may become part of your ‘permanent record’.

     Source: What is Social Media? (Antony Mayfield, iCrossing) e-book

Nothing is guaranteed to go viral

     There are people who will tell you that it is possible to create a viral campaign that will certainly be a hit, and there are agencies specializing in taking money and making promises.

     But I’ve noticed that when organizations (and their agencies) set out to go viral, the vast majority of their campaigns fail. It is virtually impossible to create a Web marketing program that is guaranteed to go viral; it requires a huge amount of luck and timing. That’s an important point to remember as you work on viral marketing ideas, because it’s unlike the old-rules, numbers-based marketing techniques you’re probably used to. Consider a direct mail campaign: You could always count on a direct mail piece to generate a known number of responses, say 2 percent. So if you needed to have 100 people respond, you sent out 5,000 mailers. Easy, right?

     Viral marketing is much different. You just can’t count on numbers in the same way. Many efforts fail miserably, and there are countless Web sites, e-books, and videos that only their creators’ mothers and bosses have seen. However, tomorrow those same marketers might get lucky and get a million people to view their content, driving tens of thousands of people’s interest in their products and services.

     However, this importance of timing and luck shouldn’t discourage you from using viral marketing techniques; you just need to learn how to turn the odds in your favor.

     Source: The New Rules of Viral Marketing (David Meerman Scott) e-book

Different types of blogs

     With millions of people around the world of different ages and backgrounds blogging about whatever they feel like, it is about as easy to generalise about ‘bloggers’ as it is to make sweeping statements about ‘human beings’.

     Here are some of the main kinds of blogs you will come across:

• Personal blogs: Many millions of people keep blogs about their everyday lives, much like public diaries. These sometimes become very popular indeed, especially those anonymous, slightly risqué ones. You know the sort: they get written about in the Sunday Times and become best-selling novels. One of the best-known personal blogs is Dooce.
• Political blogs: Especially in the US, but increasingly in the UK, blogs are being written about politics. Often perceived as a response to media bias (across the political spectrum) they tend to comment on the news, giving closer analysis of issues they feel have been misrepresented or glossed over by mainstream media. In America most if not all of the contenders for the presidency in 2008 already have bloggers on staff to advise on reaching political bloggers and their readers. We are not quite at that stage in the UK, but blogging has been playing a part in the resurgence of grassroots Conservative politics, and right-of-centre bloggers such as Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes have been making their presence in the UK mainstream media. Influential examples from the political left include MediaLens and Harry’s Place.
• Business blogs: Many professionals and businesses now have blogs. They can allow companies to communicate in a less formal style than has been traditional in newsletters, brochures and press releases, which can help to give a human face and voice to the organisation. For individuals in business a blog can become a very effective way of building a network of like-minded individuals and raising their own profiles. Blog Maverick is a good example.
• ‘Almost media’ blogs: Some blogs are unashamedly media businesses in their own right, taking advertising and employing a blogger or a group of bloggers full-time. Effectively, they are startups that are taking advantage of the new blogging technologies and opportunities to build communities of readers in new or niche subject areas. These are generally to be found covering news and opinion in the technology and media industries. Try Businesspundit.com or Hecklerspray.
• Mainstream media blogs: Most national newspapers in the UK – not to mention the BBC – now have blogs for some of their reporters and editors. These can provide useful insights into the news gathering and reporting process, but will also give vent to personal views that the journalist may otherwise have kept to themselves. For example, see BBC business editor Robert Peston’s blog. It’s worth noting that while many journalist blogs are hosted on newspaper sites themselves, a large number are independent, personal blogs with a major focus on their professional interests.

     Source: What is Social Media? (Antony Mayfield, iCrossing) e-book

Six Social Media approaches

• 1. Find the customer

     Frank Eliason from Comcast didn’t wait for his customers to approach him. He used Twitter to seek out people having service issues, and then he helped solve their problems.

     What if you blogged about the area your potential customers might come from, like DigitalNomads.com from Dell did? Social media lets you find your customers first.

• 2. Be there before the sale

     Long before you need a loan for your kid’s education, you should know about the Financial Aid Podast and Christopher S. Penn.

      Chris works hard to deliver trusted information to people without asking for your money. In fact, Chris does the opposite: he shows you have to save your money, day in and day out. By giving it all away, Chris ensures that you’ll think of him first when buying.

• 3. Be (or empower) the influencer

     Luis Suarez is a voice inside of IBM’s effort to power social computing. He shares his views, encourages others, and builds relationships that don’t immediately impact IBM, except that they do. We know Luis, and we form an opinion on IBM.

• 4. Shift Behavior

     Scott Monty has his job cut out for him. His role is to head social media for Ford. What does blogging and Twitter have to do with selling cars? Scott’s going to find out.

     One way Scott moved to shift behavior was to start offering bloggers rides in the Ford Flex. Will it work? Will we blog about the car? This is perhaps the hardest step.

• 5. Warm up the funnel

     Mike Dunn has lots of experience in making relationships. He is one of the top cool hunters at Hearst Interactive. He wouldn’t put it this way, but he probably has to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince in that realm.

     Social media offers lots of ways to create “multi-touch” contact with prospects and buyers.

• 6. Measure

     If there were a patron saint of measurement, it would be K.D. Paine. There’s a reason she speaks at all the hot conferences. K.D. is one of the few who can easily talk about how social media is measured. But there are ways to add gauges to what we propose when we talk about social media. They just take a bit more thinking than traditional methods.

     Source: Fishing where the fish are: Mapping Social Media to the buying cycle (Chris Brogan) e-book

Elements of your social media platform

     People are selling all kinds of technology for blogging. Even when there are plenty of free and open source platforms out there. Even simple hosted opportunities abound. Beyond that, there are some great new collaborative products, and TONS of content management software companies out there making all flavor of solution. So, instead of recommending any specific platform, I'll point out some things to consider:

• Operating environments vary: several content systems work on Linux platforms, using solely open source, and others are built for a Windows environment. If you're building the system in-house, consider what your IT team will be comfortable supporting. Or, bypass both camps entirely and build on a hosted environment out on the web, but this is a consideration.
• Related to the last point, the more arcane or unknown the system, the less likely it will be for you to find support, should the vendor and you fall out of love. Be wary of that.
• The content system should feature RSS feed support. This means that all the content can be exported via a specific protocol that allows people to view it in a reader or other application of their choice, and not just at the website as a destination. (For me, systems that don't support RSS are a show-stopper. You might have a different opinion).
• The ability to post in a simple visual manner (that would feel like using a tool like Microsoft Word) as well as the ability to post in HTML format is useful. I like writing in HTML, but others might prefer the comfort of the WYSIWYG tools.
• Media support is fairly standard these days, but should be considered. In a world where YouTube isn't just skateboarding dogs any more, the ability to embed Flash video, as well as the ability to post MP3 and MOV files (amongst other types) would be important.
• Video has lots of added challenges. I strongly recommend a 3rd party hosting platform, and then embedding a player instead of integrating to your platform. Yes, there are great platforms working inside the firewall, and there are some easy add-on video solutions, but if you're going to go heavy into video and aren't a production or media company, that's a part that's probably best outsourced.
• Is mobile a priority? There are applications like Utterz and Tumblr and more who allow for mobile posting. Integrating input from more than one source would thereby also be important and of interest. Pay attention to how easy it is to import feeds and post into your media platform. This is one limitation that can be somewhat vexing later on.
• Backing up, exporting, importing, and some administrative functions are important to consider, if you're going to put any serious data and effort into the platform. For example, I do full backups of the data every week, regardless of the fact that it's posted on a hosting system.
• Customization is important. If you can't make the platform look and feel like the rest of your presence, what's the point? Most systems accommodate for this rather well, permitting CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) support and other features, but make sure.

     Beyond this, there are lots of "your mileage may vary" opinions, but this should be a good start.

     Source: Social Media and Social Networking Starting Points (Chris Brogan) e-book

How social media works

     Now let’s take a look at each of the main types of social media, and how they work. These explanations are intentionally very general, because with social media every rule seems to have an exception.

     In fact, among the defining characteristics of social media are the blurring of definitions, rapid innovation, reinvention and mash-ups. If you want to really understand how social media works, there’s no better way than to take part in it.

     Mash-ups: the combination of two or more pieces of content (or software, or websites) is one of the phenomena in social media that make it at once so exciting, fast-moving and sometimes bewildering. Mash-ups are possible because of the openness of social media – many websites and software developers encourage people to play with their services and reinvent them.

     There are literally hundreds of mash-ups of the Google Earth service, where people have attached information to parts of the maps. For instance there is a UK rail service mash-up where you can track in real time where trains are on the map. Fans of the TV series 24 have mapped locations from the shows’ plotlines on to a Google Earth map.

     A popular type of mash-up cannibalises different pieces of content, typically videos and music. Popular videos on YouTube can spawn hundreds of imitations, homages and (frequently) comic reinterpretations. In communities like this, the number of mash-ups a piece of content spawns is often an indicator of its popularity.

     Some marketers have cottoned on to the power of this and encourage people to reinterpret their content.

     Source: What is Social Media? (Antony Mayfield, iCrossing) e-book

Other people's networks

     Here is one consideration for when to build your own social network and when to use existing social networks: whether you have an abundance of community around your organization already vs. if you are seeking to grow a community. If it's A, then build a social network. If you're looking to grow from nothing, consider starting in B (other people's social networks).

     I use both for my own interests. I think it's important to be part of the community at large, and so I participate on Twitter, to a lesser extent on Facebook, and then in a variety of other places. My personal method is to focus on the people, not the platform, meaning that I'm not on Facebook because it's Facebook. I'm there because some of my friends and business colleagues are there. That's a popular Eric Rice warning to social networks, too. He goes where his crowd is, not just to the new and shiny thing.

     For you, it's mostly a question of whether you have the community in place and are looking for a targeted place within your platform to offer them tools and resources to connect and cross-communicate. One of the current best-of-breed examples of this is FastCompany.com, who turned their online property into a social network around their magazine's points of business, instead of a rehash of their magazine. Points go to USAToday.com for their effort, too.

     Is there a hybrid model? I think so. You can perhaps build a network and understand that it might be slow to grow, and then grow your community by participating in "outpost" areas like Facebook or Twitter or the other two billion networks that are out there.

     Source: Social Media and Social Networking Starting Points (Chris Brogan) e-book

People are the core

     At the core of this are people. Everything that has come before this doesn't work a lick until you understand the people you intend to reach, the people you hope will contribute, and the people who will share their time with you on all angles. If, for instance, you start a blogging platform at work, and then complain that people are using it, they won't use it. If you build a social network dedicated to talking about how great your company or products are, that will get old really fast.

     Do you know humankind's greatest need? The need to feel wanted. If you consider the incentives behind most people's actions in a given day (especially mean people), what's at the core of it is to feel that they're doing something important, interesting, and worthwhile. That has to be at the center of your motivations and perspective if you're launching a project like this. Make it worth it for the people, and they will participate.

     Source: Social Media and Social Networking Starting Points (Chris Brogan) e-book

How blogs work

     At its simplest, a blog is an online journal where the entries are published with the most recent first. There are a number of features that make blogs noteworthy and different to other websites:
     Tone: blogs tend to be written in a personal, conversational style. They are usually the work of an identified author or group of authors.
     Topic: blogs tend to define what it is they are writing about. They can be as specific as a blog about a book in progress or as wide in scope as “my musings on life and stuff”.
     Links and trackbacks: the services people use to write blogs make it very easy for them to insert links to other websites, usually in reference to an article or blog post or to provide further information about the subject they are writing about.
     Comments: each blog post has a comments section, effectively a message board for that article. On blogs with large audiences the debates in these sections can run to hundreds of comments at a time.
     Subscription: blogs can be subscribed to, usually via RSS technology, making it easy to keep up with new content. Blogs are easy to set up using any of a number of services. One of the simplest is the free Blogger service from Google. Others such as Wordpress and TypePad offer more features, the latter for a fee.

     Source: What is Social Media? (Antony Mayfield, iCrossing) e-book

9 tips for using YouTube for viral marketing

     Ready to try out your production skills and post some hopefully buzz-generating content on YouTube? Here are some things to keep in mind:

• 1. Creating a video is easy, and posting on YouTube is free.

     Shoot the video using a digital video camera and copy it to your computer. You can then either upload the video to YouTube as is or edit it with software such as iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to add titles and special effects. You might shoot from different angles with one or more cameras and then piece together the footage to create a unified final product. But remember, less is usually more when it comes to special effects. When you’re ready to upload the video, you just need to create a free YouTube account and follow the directions to add the video.

• 2. Homemade is just fine.

     You don’t need to hire a professional. A homemade-quality video can work well and is sometimes preferable. We’re bombarded with overproduced TV commercials all the time—so often that we usually just turn off our minds when they come on. An authentic and interesting video (rather than a slick and polished one) in which your personality shines through

can make people notice. But plan ahead and shoot several takes to get it right.

• 3. Your video should be no longer than three minutes (preferably shorter).

     Think very short. When people watch video, they have extremely short attention spans. There are millions of videos on YouTube, and it’s very easy to click away from yours. Although YouTube will accept videos shorter than 10 minutes (smaller than 100 MB), try to make yours between thirty seconds and two minutes. If you have more to say, consider creating a series of videos rather than making one too long.

• 4. Make your description clear and specific.

     A critical component of your video will be its title—the name the world will associate with your work—so think carefully about it. Make it descriptive and unique. To best promote your video, create an accurate and interesting text blurb. Use descriptive keywords and language that people will use when they search for videos like yours. And use the correct categorizations on YouTube so people can find it.

• 5. Don’t attempt “stealth” fake customer insertions.

     Some companies attempt sneaky stealth insertions of corporate-sponsored videos made to appear consumer-generated. A typical case might feature happy twenty-somethings at a party having fun while using products of a certain brand. The YouTube community is remarkably skilled at ratting out inauthentic video, so this approach is likely to backfire and cause harm to a brand. Remember, if your video is worth watching, viewers won’t care that it was submitted by a company.

• 6. Consider inviting your customer communities to submit video.

     One of the most effective ways to use video to drive viral marketing is for companies to develop a contest in which users submit their own video, which then is made available for others to see. The best would-be directors are given prizes, and their videos are usually showcased on the company site. In some cases, the winning videos are also played on TV as “real” commercials. For example, more than 100 people submitted videos for a Mentos contest seeking the best customer-created videos of geysers made by combining the popular mints with Diet Coke.

• 7. Try a series of similar videos to build interest.

     Sometimes a series of videos, such as those from Blendtec, a small company that makes household blenders, works well. Blendtec created a huge hit with their series of YouTube videos called "Will It Blend?"

• 8. Tell everyone about your video!

     When you upload your first few videos, you are likely to hear a deafening silence. You’ll be waiting for comments, but none will come. You’ll check your video statistics and be disappointed by the tiny number of viewers. Don’t get discouraged—that’s normal! It takes time to build an audience. When you’re just getting started, make sure people know it’s there and can find it. Create links to your video from your home page, product pages, or online media room. Mention your video in your email or off-line newsletters, and create links to your video as part of your email signature and those of other people in your organization.

• 9. Make sure bloggers know about the video.

     Sending bloggers a link to the video or commenting on other people’s blogs (and including a link to your video) is a good way to build an audience. If you comment on blogs in the same space as yours, you might be surprised at how quickly you will get viewers to your video. However, when commenting on someone else’s blog real estate, make sure you’re on topic and genuinely contributing to the conversation in addition to linking to your video. Don’t just spam bloggers with your link without adding value.

     Above all, have fun! Don’t be afraid to go out there and experiment.

     Video content on the Web is still very new for marketers and communicators. But the potential to deliver information to buyers in new and surprising ways is greater when you use a new medium. And while your competition is still trying to figure out “that blogging thing,” you can tap into the world of video and leave the competition behind.

     Source: The New Rules of Viral Marketing (David Meerman Scott) e-book

How social networks work

     Social networks on the web are like contained versions the sprawling blog network. People joining a social network usually create a profile and then build a network by connecting to friends and contacts in the network, or by inviting real-world contacts and friends to join the social network.

These communities retain the interest of their members by being useful to them

and providing services that are entertaining or help them to expand their networks.

     MySpace, for instance, allows members to create vivid, chaotic home pages (they’ve been likened to the walls of a teenager’s bedroom) to which they can upload images, videos and music.

     MySpace has built a lot of its popularity around its music services. There are said to be over three million bands and musicians registered on it, trying to attract a fan base from the 200 million registered accounts. According to Hitwise, in September 2006 MySpace was the 8th largest referrer of traffic to HMV.co.uk, more even than the MSN search engine.

     In 2007, Facebook, a social network that originated in US colleges, became available for public use in the UK. Its popularity quickly rocketed.

     Part of Facebook’s success is its creators’ decision to ‘open up’ and allow anyone to develop applications and run them on Facebook - without charging them. This has seen Facebook users able to play each other at Scrabble and Chess, compare each others’ tastes and send ‘virtual gifts’, among any number of new ideas vying for attention.

     Bebo, which is popular among school-age children, actually has the most members, perhaps helped by the fact that it is grouped around schools and colleges.

     Crucially, the growth in the use of social networks by young people in recent years has come at the expense of their consumption of traditional media such as TV and magazines. This switch in behaviour was one of the drivers behind the biggest deal in social media to date, when Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace for US $580 million.

     Marketers have also increasingly begun to experiment with trying to reach the members of MySpace and other social networks. Bebo hosts pages for many children’s authors for instance, while MySpace has seen a rush of marketing efforts from Toyota to the US Army.

     Perhaps the most ‘grown-up’ of the popular networks is LinkedIn, which allows users build their business and professional contacts into an online network. It has been criticised for not being open enough and for charging for too many of its services – but next to Facebook it is still the most popular online social network among people aged 25 and over. The huge success of the ‘opening up’ of Facebook, as mentioned above, could be a challenge to LinkedIn’s ‘closed’ approach in the future.

     Source: What is Social Media? (Antony Mayfield, iCrossing) e-book

Loewe's viral marketing campaign: it couldn't be more up to date

     The viral marketing campaign that is triumphing right now in Spain is the Loewe’s 2012 collection. All the media is following the success of the new promotional video of the brand: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUWFWJ9fRoo, where modern young Spanish residents explain to the camera insignificant thoughts, some related with Loewe’s connotations.

     The cool and transgressor video is one of the most popular in YouTube, and it has caused a lot of controversy. One of the facts that has helped the rapid “infection” of the media and the Internet with this video and the brand’s name is the huge number of parodies that have been made based on the spot. That way, more people talk about the subject and become engaged in its distribution. The following link leads to one of the most seen parody: www.youtube.com/watch?v=a46aoGLIAs4.

     Although many people are making fun of Loewe’s spot, it has caused enormous enthusiasm; the important thing is that others talk about the brand. It is the end of the discretion that characterized Loewe in front of the desired popularity. 

Grade your Web site

     HubSpot, provider of an inbound marketing system that small businesses use to leverage search engines, get found by more prospects, and then convert a higher percentage of prospects into customers, created the nifty Website Grader as a free diagnostic tool to measure the marketing effectiveness of any Web site. The tool has spread through word-of-mouse to their target customers, including marketing professionals, Web designers, and business owners interested in improving their Internet marketing. These people see tremendous value in learning how successful their site is at attracting visitors.

     The free Website Grader tool helps identify companies in need of HubSpot’s paid services by drawing those companies to the HubSpot site. Plus, after using the tool, many users of Website Grader conclude on their own that they need help improving their Web marketing.

     “We wanted a tool that would both help us figure out if a company was a good fit for the product we sell…and hopefully would actually attract people to the tool to let them self-select by running a report on their own Web site,” says Dharmesh Shah, founder and chief software architect at HubSpot. “We thought that if we built a valuable enough tool it would generate a lot of viral traffic, helping us to generate lots of leads at a really low cost and grow our business.”

     To build buzz around Website Grader, Shah and his colleagues at HubSpot promoted the free tool on the popular HubSpot blog and then leveraged the blogosphere and social media to drive word-of-mouse. The team posted messages in discussion forums, submitted the site to social media Web sites like Delicious and StumbleUpon, and commented on other people’s blogs with a link recommending Website Grader as valuable tool people might like to try.

     The success of the Website Grader tool has been staggering. HubSpot launched Website Grader on February 23, 2007, and in only nine months over 150,000 unique URLs were submitted for grading. The tool was featured in a PC Magazine article as one of the Top 100 Undiscovered Websites, and “A-list” bloggers such as Guy Kawasaki have written about it.

     “We’ve captured over 35,000 opt-in email addresses from people who have used Website Grader and have produced over 1,000 sales leads,” says Shah. That’s a remarkable result for a tool that cost virtually nothing to create and to promote though viral marketing strategies. “Our salespeople use a Website Grader report in every deal they work on, as a diagnostic tool to review with the prospect. That [report] then shows how HubSpot software, our paid product, can help them with Internet marketing. Therefore, even when it is not the original lead source, it is a valuable tool for closing a lot of other business.”

     The real proof of the success of Website Grader comes from the amount of new business it has created. “We’ve closed deals with over thirty new customers to date as a result of the Website Grader viral marketing strategy,” Shah says. “That represents about $250,000 in customer lifetime value. We’ve also produced another sixty sales opportunities currently in our pipeline, with a potential customer lifetime value of $500,000 if we close them all.”

     Source: The New Rules of Viral Marketing (David Meerman Scott) e-book

Media Distribution

     Production, obviously, is only half of the story. What good is great content unless you can get it to people? Take blogs for instance. People have a limited amount of time to check websites regularly – few people are going to be bothered to check more than a couple of blogs every day.

     Now they don’t need to. The innovation that has increased the reach of blogs and podcasts and has given terrific impetus to social media’s evolution is a technology called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) which allows people to subscribe to a blog or website.

     RSS notifies a ‘newsreader’ or your personal homepage (on, say, Google or Windows Live) that there is new content available and sends it the text and images. You can then read these in your newsreader without having to visit the website itself.

     The importance of RSS, therefore, is that it makes it much easier for blogs and other social media to build or become part of communities. They may often be small communities, but to their users they may be highly relevant and valuable.

     The other method of distribution that is sometimes neglected in any discussion of social media is search engines. Because blogs are highly connected, in the eyes of Google the more established ones can become an authority on a niche topic.

     If, say, you have been blogging about cats for a good few months, and your posts have attracted links from other blogs, then a story about new government legislation on pet ownership on your blog may earn similar ranking for searches on that subject as the local newspaper or even national media.

     Source: What is Social Media? (Antony Mayfield, iCrossing) e-book

A formula for viral marketing success

     One of the coolest things about the Web is that when an idea takes off, it can propel a brand or company to seemingly instant fame and fortune. For free. Whatever you call it (viral, buzz, word-of-mouse, or word-of-blog marketing) having other people tell your story drives action. One person sends it to another, then that person sends it to yet another, and on and on.

     The challenge for marketers is to harness the amazing power of word-of-mouse. The formula for success includes a combination of some great—and free— Web content (a video, blog entry, interactive tool, or e-book) that provides valuable information (or is groundbreaking or amazing or hilarious or involves a celebrity), plus a network of people to light the fire and links that make your content very easy to share.

     Word-of-Mouse empowers you

     You and I are incredibly lucky. For decades, the only way to spread our ideas was to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to write (or broadcast) about our products and services. But now our organizations have a tremendous opportunity to publish great content online, content that people want to consume and that they are eager to share with their friends, family, and colleagues.

     Word-of-mouse is the single most empowering tool available to marketers today.

     Source: The New Rules of Viral Marketing (David Meerman Scott) e-book

Media production

     Rather than asking, “Are blogs a fad?” or “How much of this is hype?” it’s more useful to look at the fundamentals behind the phenomenal growth of social media.

     It used to be that the ability to create content and distribute it to an audience was limited to individuals and organisations that owned the production facilities and infrastructure to do so. In other words: ‘the media’.

     If you were in the video creation and distribution business you were called a TV station and employed thousands of highly skilled individuals to write, film, edit and broadcast your content through a relatively small number of channels to the public. Similarly, if you were a newspaper, you hired a team of reporters and editors, designers, typesetters, printers and delivery men, and had deals with a network of newsagents for them to sell your product to your audience.

     With the advent of digital technology and the internet it became a lot easier for people to create their own content, be it images, words, video or audio. But even five years ago, it was still beyond most people’s technical skills to create and maintain their own website.

     Today, the ever-lower costs of computers, digital cameras and high-speed internet access, combined with free or low-cost, easy-to-use editing software means that anyone can have a live blog website up and running within minutes of deciding to do so. With a little reading and fiddling they can upload video or sound too.

Source: What is Social Media? (Antony Mayfield, iCrossing) e-book

What viral marketing is not

     Viral marketing is a popular buzzword out there but is misunderstood by many. It’s also gotten a bad rap in some quarters. Why? Because there are a cadre of viral marketing “experts” who will happily take (large amounts of) your money to create a viral marketing “campaign” for you. However, these old-line agency approaches typically depend on some gimmicky game or contest that just feels forced and advertisement-like. Typically, advertising agency-developed viral campaigns involve buying access in the same old ways, such as purchasing an email list to spam people or launching the campaign with a pricey print or TV ad. Often these viral ideas dreamed up by agencies have absolutely nothing to do with your company or its products. Sure, an email subject line “Get Your Free iPod!” will drive viral buzz, because people want to take a chance on a free iPod. But unless your company has something to do with iPods, this bait-and-switch game is unlikely to educate people about your organization or drive sales.

     Worse, some companies (urged on by their unscrupulous agencies) set up fake viral campaigns where people who are employed or in some way compensated by the agency write about a product or create a video purported to be from a customer. The Web is hyper-efficient at collective investigative reporting and smoking out trickery, so these campaigns rarely succeed. And, in the worst case, your organizational reputation may suffer great harm.

     You must ignore the old rules. Viral marketing is not about coercion, and it is not about buying access.

     Don’t get sucked into gimmicks.

     In the old days, you either had to buy expensive advertising or beg the media to tell your story. Sadly, many organizations create viral marketing campaigns based on the old rules.

     The best word-of-mouse efforts promote your organization and its products and services by delivering great online content (video, an e-book, a great blog post, an interesting photo or graphic) that is directly tied to your products, services, and ideas. Successful viral marketing campaigns sell your ideas in a creative way that people want to share with their friends, colleagues, and family members.

     This isn’t the same old marketing and PR you’ve tried before:

• Don’t obsess about being “on message.”
• Don’t break the bank with expensive advertising.
• Don’t beg mainstream media to write about you.
• Do tell your story directly to an interested market.
• Do make it easy for people to share your content with their friends, colleagues, and family members.

     Source: The New Rules of Viral Marketing (David Meerman Scott) e-book

Media production

     Rather than asking, “Are blogs a fad?” or “How much of this is hype?” it’s more useful to look at the fundamentals behind the phenomenal growth of social media.

     It used to be that the ability to create content and distribute it to an audience was limited to individuals and organisations that owned the production facilities and infrastructure to do so. In other words: ‘the media’.

     If you were in the video creation and distribution business you were called a TV station and employed thousands of highly skilled individuals to write, film, edit and broadcast your content through a relatively small number of channels to the public. Similarly, if you were a newspaper, you hired a team of reporters and editors, designers, typesetters, printers and delivery men, and had deals with a network of newsagents for them to sell your product to your audience.

     With the advent of digital technology and the internet it became a lot easier for people to create their own content, be it images, words, video or audio. But even five years ago, it was still beyond most people’s technical skills to create and maintain their own website.

     Today, the ever-lower costs of computers, digital cameras and high-speed internet access, combined with free or low-cost, easy-to-use editing software means that anyone can have a live blog website up and running within minutes of deciding to do so. With a little reading and fiddling they can upload video or sound too.

     Source: What is Social Media? (Antony Mayfield, iCrossing) e-book

When 7 = 350000000

     Imagine you’re the head of marketing at a theme park, and you’re charged with announcing a major new attraction. What would you do?
     Well, the old rules of marketing suggest that you pull out your wallet. You’d probably spend millions to buy your way into people’s minds, interrupting them with TV spots, billboards by the side of the highway, and other “creative” Madison Avenue advertising techniques. You’d also hire a big PR agency, who would beg the media to write about your attraction. The traditional PR approach requires a self-congratulatory press release replete with company muckety-mucks claiming that the new attraction will bring about world peace by bringing families closer together.
     That’s not what Cindy Gordon, vice president of new media and marketing partnerships at Universal Orlando Resort, did when she launched The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Other large entertainment companies would have spent millions of dollars to interrupt everyone in the country with old-rules approaches: Super Bowl TV ads, blimps, direct mail, and magazine ads. Instead, Gordon told just seven people about the new attraction.
     And those seven people told tens of thousands.
     Then mainstream media listened to those tens of thousands and wrote about the news in their newspaper and magazine articles, in TV and radio reports, and in blog posts. Gordon estimates that 350 million people around the world heard the news that Universal Orlando Resort was creating The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park. All by telling just seven people.
     Recognizing that millions of fans around the world are passionate about all things Harry Potter, Gordon knew she could rely on word-of-mouse to spread her story. After all, Harry is a global phenomenon. The series of books by author J.K. Rowling has been translated into sixty-five languages and has sold more than 325 million copies in more than 200 territories around the world. The films, produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, have grossed $3.5 billion worldwide at the box office.
     Gordon and her counterpart at Warner Bros. chose to launch The Wizarding World of Harry Potter by first telling the exciting news to a very small group of rabid fans. Seven people at the top Harry Potter fan sites, such as Mugglenet , were hand-selected by Gordon’s team, with Warner Bros. and Rowling herself providing input about the choices. These seven (affectionately referred to by Gordon’s team as “the AP of the HP world”) were invited to participate in a top-secret Webcast held at midnight on May 31, 2007.
     The Webcast was hosted by Scott Trowbridge, vice president of Universal Creative, and featured Stuart Craig, the academy award-winning production designer for all the Harry Potter films. In the Webcast, live from the “Dumbledore’s Office” set at Leavesden Studios, Craig discussed how his team of twenty designers is bringing together The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park.
     “If we hadn’t gone to fans first, there could have been a backlash,” Gordon says. She imagined the disappointment dedicated Harry Potter fans might feel if they learned about Universal Orlando’s plans in, say, The New York Times rather than an insider fan site. 
     Soon after the Webcast, the team sent an e-announcement to their in-house, opt-in email list of park guests so they could hear the news directly too. Team members also sent the e-announcement to friends and family. During the secret Webcast, a Web micro-site went live to provide a place for bloggers and the media to link to for information on the theme park, which is slated to open in late 2009 or early 2010. Visitors to the site learned that the park will feature immersive rides and interactive attractions, as well as experiential shops and restaurants that will enable guests to sample fare from the wizarding world’s best known establishments.
     Because Gordon’s team launched The Wizarding World of Harry Potter through social media—putting fans first—they were able to run the entire promotion in-house, with a very small marketing budget (covering the Webcast infrastructure and the micro-site production) and a tiny development team. They did not hire an agency, and they did no widespread outbound media relations, no marketing stunts, no CEO conference call, and no expensive advertising.
     Of course, not all companies have Harry Potter on their team. But Gordon still accomplished a remarkable feat with an approach that most large organizations would not have taken. She told just seven people, and the power of word-of-mouse led to 350 million people hearing the news.

     Source: The New Rules of Viral Marketing (David Meerman Scott) e-book

Basic forms of social media

     At this time, there are basically six kinds of social media. Note, though, that innovation and change are rife.

• Social networks: these sites allow people to build personal web pages and then connect with friends to share content and communication. The biggest social networks are MySpace, Facebook and Bebo.
• Blogs: perhaps the best known form of social media, blogs are online journals, with entries appearing with the most recent first.
• Wikis: these websites allow people to add content to or edit the information on them, acting as a communal document or database. The best-known wiki is Wikipedia4, the online encyclopaedia which has over 2 million English language articles.
• Podcasts: audio and video files that are available by subscription, through services like Apple iTunes.
• Forums: areas for online discussion, often around specific topics and interests. Forums came about before the term “social media” and are a powerful and popular element of online communities.
• Content communities: communities which organise and share particular kinds of content. The most popular content communities tend to form around photos (Flickr), bookmarked links (del.icio.us) and videos (YouTube).
• Microblogging: social networking combined with bite-sized blogging, where small amounts of content (‘updates’) are distributed online and through the mobile phone network. Twitter is the clear leader in this field

     Source: What is Social Media? (Antony Mayfield, iCrossing) e-book

What is Social Media?

     Social media is best understood as a group of new kinds of online media, which share most or all of the following characteristics:

• Participation: social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between media and audience.
• Openness: most social media services are open to feedback and participation. They encourage voting, comments and the sharing of information. There are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of content – password-protected content is frowned on.
• Conversation: whereas traditional media is about “broadcast” (content transmitted or distributed to an audience) social media is better seen as a two-way conversation.
• Community: social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively. Communities share common interests, such as a love of photography, a political issue or a favourite TV show.
• Connectedness: Most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, making use of links to other sites, resources and people.

     Source: What is Social Media? (Antony Mayfield, iCrossing) e-book