The social media services company Vitrue recently released their list of the most social brands of 2008. Social brands were defined as those with the most mentions in social networking, blogging and microblogging sites. They used a “social media index” to track these mentions but did not differentiate between positive and negative conversations. The purpose of the index is to capture a brand’s share of voice on the web. The top 10 brands/branded products were the iPhone, CNN, Apple, Disney, Xbox, Starbucks, iPod, MTV, Sony and Dell. View the full list here.
There are three lessons associations can take from these big brands/products to help generate more mentions in social media venues for their groups:
And don’t forget to measure your success. Keep an eye on your analytics to see the effects of your efforts so you can constantly tweak your strategy. If you have questions about social media marketing or want to learn more about how Hammock can help you develop your online community, contact us .
Organizations like yours are likely extraordinary at a couple of things: providing a service, manufacturing a product, building advocacy or creating value in any number of ways. Is publishing and managing media one of those things that you do better than anyone else?
It’s not just a matter of identifying your core competency. It’s a matter of cost.
Here are five ways working with a custom media company will save you money:
Here’s a book publishing news-note that is refreshingly appropriate.
A new book from the the O’Reilly “Missing Manual” series called “Wikipedia: The Missing Manual” is today being published simultaneously in print and is being posted in the Help section of Wikipedia.
In other words, in addition to publishing a $30 version of the book in print, O’Reilly is open-sourcing a free version of the book’s contents in a way that can keep its contents up-to-date — indefinitely.
The drive to post “Wikipedia: The Missing Manual” to Wikipedia was spearheaded by author John Broughton, a registered editor at Wikipedia since 2005 with more than 20,000 edits.
My observation: I have a print version of a similar book sitting on my desk — O’Reilly’s MediaWiki, by Daniel J. Barrett — and I can see how having this new book’s contents online will help promote book sales, rather than cannibalize them. A book that serves as a manual has a certain functionality in print that, despite the belief of many, is unique when working in an environment that is new and complex. My copy is dog-eared and sitting there, just where I want it when I’m trying to figure out a nuanced hack. It’s like another monitor, dedicated to some esoteric stuff.
Having a resource that is simultaneously online and in print adds to the functionality and productivity-enhancing roles of both.
Better still would be also having a video-enhanced version.
[Cross posted on Rex Hammock’s RexBlog.]
“Are you here for the exclusive, online-only content? Right this way. Hey, by the way, how did you find out about us? Oh, the magazine directed you here? Wow, that’s great! It worked!”
30 minutes later: “Wow, you’re still here! You’re right, there is so much information on this site. Well, thanks for coming. Don’t be a stranger. Come back, we’ll have new content tomorrow!”
At least, that’s how I envision a conversation I’d have with a MyBusiness reader who I bumped into online.
With MyBusiness, the magazine we publish for the National Federation of Independent Business, the way we drive readers online is to offer them additional information about a topic that appeared in the magazine.
We’ve shared with you five social media resolutions for this year, and now here are three follow-up questions every association executive should consider, whether your association is new to social media or you’re a Web 2.0 veteran:
1. How will you incorporate social media into association events?
Events provide associations a perfect opportunity to leverage the power and excitement of social media. There are so many ways an association can engage its members before, during and after an event with social media tools.
We recently received an award for the event work we did for our client the National Federation of Independent Business on their 2008 National Small Business Summit website. We used tools like Flickr, YouTube and Twitter to engage the Summit attendees and non-attendees through the creation of a dynamic site. We took unique advantage of social media and also provided a central place for all event-related content.
2. How will you measure the effectiveness of the association’s social media marketing efforts?
It’s great your association is experimenting with social media, but how will you know if your efforts are successful or what tweaks you need to make? Are members participating? Are there certain member groups that are more receptive to social media than others? Are you providing incentives? Are you connecting with potential member groups?
Just like your other marketing and communication campaign, an association’s social media efforts must be measureable. If you haven’t already established metrics, set some now. If you need help, contact us.
3. Should you partner with an outside media company to help meet your association’s social media goals for the year?
The economic environment we are in presents many associations with numerous challenges. Some of you are struggling with limited internal resources, tight budgets and employees without social media expertise. Meanwhile, your association has lofty communication and social media goals for the year. To solve these problems, many businesses and other associations are looking to partners like Hammock who can help you meet your goals for 2009.
Why outsourcing makes sense in today’s economy.
Reaching, connecting and communicating with your target audience in today’s environment is harder than ever. You’re probably facing lots of challenges — limited internal resources, a small staff, a lack of social media expertise and management, a reduced budget — but at the same time lots of expectations from within your association.
Previously, I provided a practical way for retailers to use Twitter as a means to broadcast a text-message to customers. Another thing you can do with Twitter is tracking messages posted on the service by a specific group of people or on a specific topic.
To track people, you simply set up an account and “follow” the specific people’s Twitter accounts.
To follow a topic, you go to Twitter’s Search page and do a keyword search. After you land on the results page, you will have the URL to a page that will provide continuous updates to any message posted on that topic. But what if you want to track several terms, or want to narrow your search? Twitter Search allows you to use what are called “search operators” to accomplish that. Here is a page that explains how to use search operators like the one I used to set up a Twitter search with several terms about the Tennessee Titans that looked like this: titans OR “tennessee titans” OR “jeff fisher” OR “vince young” OR “LP Field” OR #titans.
You can make links to those two pages — the one where you are following a certain group of people and the one with results to the keywords search and be done with it.
Or, with a little bit of simple, simple work that any semi-geek (I can do it, so there) can accomplish, you can take the content from those two pages and display it on your own website or blog. (As these posts are intended to be “simple things,” I suggest you may want to enlist the help of someone who is familiar with how to use RSS feeds or the “API” of Twitter. You, personally, don’t need to know anything other than how to ask the question, “Can you help me hack the Twitter API to display something on my blog?” In this case, “hack” is something good.)
Here’s a great example of what I mean:
The group Sunlight Foundation has used the Twitter API to create a service called “Capitol Tweets” that collects and displays every new Twitter message shared by any member of Congress who uses Twitter.
So here’s an idea for you: Do you follow a specific group of lawmakers or public officials — say ones from a specific state or region? You can easily develop a version of what the Starlight Foundation is doing.
You can even develop a widget that allows other people to display what you’re doing on their sites — like the one above that is shared by the Sunlight Foundation, but that’s another post for another day.
[Also posted on RexBlog.com]
[via: Read Write Web]
[cross-posted at RexBlog]
On Tuesday, amidst my live-blogging of the Future of Business Media Conference in the New York, I took a shot at CNBC for covering the economy in the way the Weather Channel and CNN cover hurricanes: with breathless alarm and Anderson Cooper dressed in rain-gear while panting in a way that makes every puff of wind seem like proof that, yes, this could be the Category 5 we’ve all feared.
At the conference, I heard business-side and news-side people from Dow-Jones, CNBC, Fox Business News, The Economist, BusinessWeek, Forbes.com and Fortune (to name a few) say something to the effect: This is a really difficult time, but this is the story of a lifetime and, well, it’s been good for our ratings (or newsstand sales).
So I guess I should not be surprised that since the business media is covering the “financial crisis” as if it is a weather event, business executives are using a term most associated with weather to describe how they are responding to the “crisis” that is leading to what our experts in the Economy Tracking Center in Miami are believing will be a Category 3, 4 or maybe even 5 recession. Or better yet, a nuclear winter:
Hunker down.
Look at a Google news search for recent uses of the term “hunker down.” This morning, you’ll see it is not only the go-to cliche for covering bad weather (the snows in the northeast) and natural disasters (the earthquake in Pakistan), but it is now the must-use term to describe anything related to how businesses and individuals are reacting to the “bad economy.”
As a business person, I understand the need to be mindful of the context and conditions you face. Certainly, if your customers are sitting on their wallets, you can’t pretend they are about to purchase your wares. Being flexible and prepared for whatever situation you face is the only way to run a business. But by focusing on the hunker down metaphor — especially the “we’re afraid” aspects of the term, there is a strong possibility that the “hunker down” activities are no more than duck-and-cover exercises.
Isn’t hunkering down the panic reaction to a situation that a calm, rational person might discover contains some opportunity? What if you’re in a business that suddenly finds all of its competitors re-trenching and pulling back and hiding in caves — if you hunker down, aren’t missing a unique opportunity to gain market share?
The term hunker down means two things: One is related to preparation for some type of pressure you’re anticipating. The other relates to hiding.
I fear that a lot of business planners are confusing the first type of hunkering down — anticipating and preparing for an economic downturn — with the second type of hunkering down: hiding.
If you’re a company or organization that wants to elevate its awareness — and brand — in the market you serve, the worst thing you can do — in good times or bad — is hunker down — as in, hide. The evidence is overwhelming that companies who market wisely and aggressively while others are hunkering down are the winners during — and after — a recession. For example, according to research conducted at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business during the last recession, “firms entering a recession with a pre-established strategic emphasis on marketing; an entrepreneurial culture; and a sufficient reserve of under-utilized workers, cash, and spare production capacity are best positioned to approach recessions as opportunities to strengthen their competitive advantage.”
Rather than use the hunker down metaphor, winner companies followed another metaphor — one from athletic competition:
“Athletes often choose times of stress to mount attacks: strong runners and bicycle racers may increase their pace on hills or under other challenging conditions,” the authors write. “In a similar vein, proactive marketing includes both the sensing of the existence of the opportunity (a tough hill and fatigued opponents) and an aggressive response (possessing the necessary strength or nerve) to the opportunity.”
A warning, however: The research indicates that it is only when companies are prepared for recessions (like cyclists who train for hills) who benefit. Thus, Apple with its pre-existing marketing and advertising savvy and a mountain of cash, is likely to benefit during this recession, as it has in previous ones, rather than another company whose marketing is inept, even in less challenging times.
Bottomline: Hunkering down is not the metaphor you want to be your guide when planning your marketing efforts for the coming months — especially if your marketing has been working and your competitor seems to be huffing and puffing already. Hunker down wherever you can — say, executive compensation — but use a recession to raise your visibility, not hide.
Hammock partner Susan Weiss of the national advertising sales firm the James G. Elliott Company shares some perspective on the value of advertising in today’s environment in the latest issue of their company newsletter Ads & Ideas:
It’s a question that marketers struggle with during periods of economic unrest: cut costs by reducing or eliminating the advertising budget, or else maintain or increase the brand’s advertising exposure?
Today’s b-to-b marketing decision makers have learned the lessons taught during past economic upheavals. Meeting a recessionary climate with aggressive advertising is, historically, a way to grow business during a recession and maintain continued growth after the recessionary period ends. A study conducted by BtoB magazine earlier this year finds that most business-to-business marketers are determined to hold or increase their marketing budgets during 2008.
The kids are back in school. Halloween candy is stocked on store shelves. And before we know it, the ball will drop on the new year. Have you done everything that you wanted to this year: on your website, in your publications, with your money? If not, now is the time to get busy. Here are six things to do before 2008 is history: