Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

AMA Ferris State Regional Conference: The Future of Social ROI

Friday, October 26th, 2012

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to present at the 2012 AMA Ferris State Regional Conference, which brings together college students from various universities across the Midwest. Stemming from the interactive content and emerging media theme of the conference, I elected to take an analytical and predictive approach to social media.

Today, social in the complex environment of marketing communications has become an accepted and arguably mandatory means of engaging consumers and extracting consumer data. Even with the presence of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and Tumblr, social is still projected to grow by 19.5 percent in the next five years (Duke University 2012).

With this social expansion, the challenge for marketers to provide a means of quantifying this mass amount of data becomes ever more crucial when making business decisions. Marketing professionals of the future will need to extract valuable insights from this data to drive brand strategy and to provide measureable results, thus defining social ROI.

Although there are many fantastic cases of brands pushing the envelope of social ROI, digital marketers have yet to bridge the gap from online discussion to offline results. However, in leveraging realistic applications of social analysis such as consumer voice (e.g. Klout), technological resources, customer point of sale (POS) data, and open application programming interface (API) content as Chevrolet, IBM, and Target have employed, marketers can begin to fine tune social ROI practices to reach future business objectives.

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Posted in Digital and Social Media, Insights Creation and Measurement, Midwest News, PR Industry, Technology | No Comments »

Facebook Access: The Private Side to our Public Persona

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

Last month, the Associated Press created a bit of mayhem when it reported a recent surge in employers seeking access to employees’ Facebook profiles. The story was broadcast on countless news outlets and posted all over social media sites.

In one case, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services asked job applicants to submit their social network username and password in order to conduct a background check. The American Civil Liberties Union complained about this incident, so now the Department only requests that applicants log in “voluntarily” during the interview.

This issue has stirred so much controversy that it prompted a few congressmen to craft an amendment that would ban companies from asking current or potential employees for social media passwords. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal insisted that this practice is an unreasonable invasion of privacy; however, the amendment was ultimately defeated on March 28.

Facebook officials immediately responded to the news by saying that this type of action is an invasion of privacy and threatened to take legal action against companies that ask for an applicant’s or employee’s password. “We’ve made it a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to share or solicit a Facebook password,” stated Erin Egan, Facebook’s chief privacy officer.

How would you respond if your current or future employer asked for your Facebook password? Would you hand over your login information, or would you turn down the position to keep your privacy?

Personally, I feel that asking for my username and password would be a violation of privacy. I wouldn’t mind logging in and allowing a perspective employer to view my profile, however, I would be uncomfortable sharing my login information. Many social network users, as do I, believe that there is a private side to our public persona, and we are entitled to adjust the privacy settings however we desire. Users should have the choice as to whether or not their employers, among others, have access to their content.

Asking for, as opposed to demanding, social media passwords can still create a sticky situation. What happens if an employer asks but the applicant or employee refuses to give out the information? In the case of Kimberly Hester, she was fired. After rumors of having posted a humorous picture, a school administrator asked the teacher’s aid for her password and she refused. The school decided to suspend and eventually fire her for the refusal.

Since social media acts as an extension of our identity, it has always been important for us to use discretion when posting statuses, comment and photos. Now that some employers are requesting access to our virtual identity, we must closely monitor our profiles and potentially be ready to hand over login information at any given time.

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Posted in PR Careers, PR Industry, Social Media, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Instagram? More Like Insta-Cash

Monday, April 9th, 2012

Just recently moving out of Twitter’s former digs and into its own space in San Francisco’s South Park district, many thought photo-sharing and filter app Instagram would be taking their freshly minted million user addition, courtesy of their new Android app, and plunge neck-deep into another influx of venture capital.

Instead, Facebook, potential IPO cash burning a hole in its pocket, decided to double-up the previous valuation, acquiring Instagram for about $1 billion in cash and stock. The announcement took place (where else?) on the Facebook feed of CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this afternoon.

The feed, which has more than 12 million Facebook subscribers, focused on assuring the masses the Instagram brand would remain independent of the social networking juggernaut, keeping the app’s cross-platform functionality intact.

Facebook has made several acquisitions since 2005, though the majority of its M&A history has been with smaller companies – below $100 million.

The Instagram community, along with half-sibling Hipstamatic and distant-cousins Pinterest and Tumblr, have seen their influence rise with content marketers as brands move at a snail’s pace towards visual-heavy mediums for consumer engagement purposes.

Even prior to the Facebook acquisition, the magical twin-terms of “monetization” and “ROI” surrounded Instagram, adding fuel to the fire between social marketers specializing in the content creation/user engagement and the data-focused offspring of paid display advertising.

Perhaps it begs the question, but can any community balance the central dogmas of these two camps? While the transaction is expected to close later this quarter, app developers, community managers and brand marketers will be monitoring for changes in Instagram’s performance closely. Between the Instagram team staying on to continue app development and a working, if rather plain, integration into Facebook’s open-graph and Timeline updates, will be subject to increased scrutiny – mostly based on consumer feedback.

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Posted in Digital and Social Media, PR Industry, Social Media | No Comments »

Breathing Life into a Brand Story: Making Conversation and Content King

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

In the past 30 years, consumers have become largely numb to traditional forms of brand storytelling and messaging. In fact, a study by The Relational Capital Group, estimates that with the onset of digital marketing, the average consumer is now exposed to 30,000 messages per day compared to 500 messages, 40 years ago.

Consumers today are no longer phased by the big splash concepts or stunts, and are rather seeking ongoing, two-way conversations about their interests and lives in and outside of their favorite brands. However, amidst all of the noise, how do brands today tap into these not so easily impressed consumers?

The answer is in owning the conversation and the content. PR then has the advantage of already owning the conversation, as the strategic thinkers behind traditional brand messaging. Thus, content generation is a natural progression of the traditional PR process to elevate brand storytelling across varied media-rich platforms. Here are a few content staples to shuffle into your content mix:

Video. As discussed at the March PRSA Chicago luncheon, video has become a highly interactive platform for breathing life into a brand story. Thanks to the invention of iMovie, Animoto, and HD video via the iPhone and Flipcam, brands can bypass the hefty production costs of a full-fledged video crew, and film and produce their own videos instead without having to compromise on quality. Given that YouTube is now the second most popular search engine, video has become a vital tool for driving online dialogue.

Photos. As they say, a picture’s worth 1,000 words. With applications like Instagram, brands and consumers can edit and share photos of events and happenings on the go, and upload them simultaneously to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other social media vehicles where the brand conversations are ignited.

Infographics. Consumers love surveys, research and trends; however, they are crunched for time, and reading a 20-page research report is simply not on their priority list. Infographics, however, offer an opportunity for brands to boil technical information down into a digestible graphic that can easily be shared.

Polls. Consumers don’t have 15 minutes to bust out a Survey Monkey questionnaire regardless of the survey’s incentives or prizes. However, a quick Facebook or LinkedIn poll is a great mechanism for engaging consumers and then propelling them into conversation surrounding your poll topic.

Audio. In most offices it has become quite kosher for employees to listen to their favorite iTunes playlists. An audio webinar or podcast can serve as a very accessible and engaging medium for the busy worker bee.

Experiential. Sometimes the most effective means of breaking through the clutter is to plant consumers into a physical, branded event where they cannot simply “X” out of a desktop window. Not to mention, a strong brand experience often propels consumers into brand engagement online and offline beyond the experience itself.

It is important that these content mechanisms are not a replacement for content as copy, but alternative means for diversifying content, sparking conversations and breathing life into your brand stories. The content mix is constantly evolving and not every one of these ideas above may be appropriate for your brand, however as PR professionals, you have the benefit of having a firm grasp on the conversation already. PR simply needs to take the reigns of the content generation piece, and make engagement (i.e. conversation and content) king.

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Posted in Digital and Social Media, PR Industry, Social Media, Video | No Comments »

SXSW: Trends to Know From a PR Perspective

Monday, March 26th, 2012

I’m still recovering from SXSW Interactive. The sheer volume of the conference can overwhelm, and I find it a bit daunting to distill the number of ideas, perspectives, panels, and conversations into something cohesive and, more importantly, actionable.

Why SXSW?

Let’s start with the numbers. This alone should serve as a great reason for anyone who has only considered attending to actually do so next year. (And yes, I do think that you should attend next year.)

Austin360.com reports: “Tuesday evening, the festival said its official paid attendance count for 2012 was 24,569, up from 19,364 in 2011, a change of nearly 27 percent. From 2010 to 2011, the fest grew from 14,251 to 19,364.”

The panels were spread across fifteen locations throughout downtown Austin, ranging from technical sessions about web and interface design, wireless innovation, and business operations to more philosophical discussions about online marketing, social networks, and our relationship to new technologies.

When I say “panels,” I mean not only actual panel conversations but also keynote addresses, solo presentations, interviews, and core conversations.  Most sessions are one hour in length, though the numerous “Future 15″ talks run only fifteen minutes. Toss in book readings, signings, workshops, the Start-Up Village, and the many evening events, and suddenly you’re in the middle of a very busy hive of activity.

The content followed fourteen tracks — Design + Development, Better Tomorrow, Convergence, Health + Education, Government + Global, Culture, Science + Play, Start Up, Emerging, New Business, Branding + Marketing, Social Networks, Journalism + Content, Featured Sessions, and Keynotes — and was further categorized as Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced. Each track offered at least two options during every time slot, and there were five time slots each day. That added up to more than 1,050 different panels over the five days of the festival.

I’ve spent time over the last few days distilling my thoughts and notes into what I hope are valuable takeaways.  I was looking for ideas, tools, technologies, and tactics that I can use for my clients, not macro trends, but it’s impossible not to begin to see patterns emerge or gaps appear.

New Technologies

Although technologies launched at SX in the past have gained acclaim and wide adoption (Twitter, Foursquare), I didn’t encounter any of those this year. There were several new apps with lots of buzz (Highlight, EchoEcho, Sonar) that seemed to concentrate on finding people in the crowds, narrowing one’s focus as opposed to widening it. I eagerly used both Highlight and EchoEcho and was pleased with the ability to find someone from my social network attending a specific panel, although actually locating them in the capacity crowds remained a challenge.

These apps enable you to narrow your social circles instead of widening them, whether by filtering people within your broader network by location alone (EchoEcho, Sonar) or by location and interest (Highlight). They offer a fascinating perspective on the social graph as they categorize your connections by interest and location while simultaneously exposing those connections to friends of friends in a relevant and intimate manner. I’m experimenting with using these tools in a non-conference setting and am eager to see if they maintain the same value.

Trans Media and Shared Screens

Trans media  (content amplifed through shared screens, like tweeting the American Idol results while watching TV for example) and the multi-screen experience was everywhere. I’m fascinated by this convergence and attended as many panels on the topics as I could. Interestingly, while I expected to be impressed by content or technology, what I actually took away from these panels was more the idea of the interest graph, although the impact and challenges of contextual content gave me much food for thought.

Shared-screen experiences are a natural application for the evolution of dynamic communities, as they seamlessly integrate people into a wide network rooted in a common interest.  The interest graph creates new opportunities for brands to present products, services or content based on a user’s interests, and also offers brands new ways to engage, learn from, and access new audiences.

Interest-Based Networks

The significance of the rise of the interest graph was underscored in a panel on consumer intent. Pinterest, Fancy, Tumblr, and Spring Pad are all examples of tools or networks that allow people to connect not (only) with other people that they know or are otherwise linked to, but with people who like or are interested in similar products, services, artists, or activities.

Brands that chose to engage with new and future audiences within the interest graph must think about the goals, tactics and management of those relationships in different ways than they currently do with their current Facebook and Twitter followers. The connection, the interactions, and the opportunities are all different. We’ve already seen some brands use Pinterest in exciting ways, creating real-time ad-hoc communities of people who all are interested in what the brand is offering, regardless of location, demographic, or social connectivity. Understanding and using this new lens on community and interaction to leverage its power and value remains a challenge, but is certainly an exciting one!

Extracting Relevant Data

Much to my delight, I was able to attend several panels focused on data.  I learned more about creating infographics, using data to inform content development, data as narrative, and the continued growth of interest in personal data, and I saw demos of several analytics tools and platforms. I’m excited to see this attention continue to grow, but there was also a critical and very important shift in this year’s data panels that I’ve been eagerly awaiting.  The conversation isn’t solely about data capture, monitoring, tracking and reporting anymore. It has shifted now to data as the input — data as critical information that helps to shape strategy, drive tactics, show relevance, and prove value. I had many conversations about the skill sets necessary to extract relevant data from data sets, how to identify the right metrics, and how to approach analysis and recommendations so that data can inform ongoing execution. This is an area where I’m certain we’ll continue to see growth and change over the next few years, and I couldn’t be happier about it. As technology gets smarter and smarter moving into the second half of the year (HTML5 and CSS3 anyone?), identifying what data to track and how to use it will become more important and powerful.

2012 is already moving fast, and if SXSW was any indication I’m buckling my seat belt tightly, hydrating, and getting ready for what promises to be an exhilarating ride!

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Posted in Digital and Social Media, Experiential Marketing, Influencer Marketing, PR Industry, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Video | No Comments »

New Facebook Update Potentially Replaces Need for Multiple Pages for a Single Brand

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

First reported last week by Brian Honigman of Mashable, Facebook now features functionality for Page admins to better target posts for specific subsets of fans.

… in other words, only certain fans will see particular updates on the Page’s wall or on their own news feed.

… in other-other words, no longer will a brand need to have separate Pages for each campaign or geographic region (at least in theory).

Many brands have an international audience, some with language other than English, and accordingly, brands will split up their total audience to avoid peppering their fans with unusable or irrelevant information.

After all, one of the main rules of Fight Club… err, marketing (sometimes I get the two confused, true story) is relevant content to the right audience, and this has never been more true in the age of Like/+1s.

VS.

Fan Pages by language or location meet that a particular audience’s needs makes audiences very happy – though it requires an immense amount of coordination and time (which equals money no matter what industry you are in) to execute– and execute well.

With the enhanced post-targeting allowing Page admins to post geo- specifically to countries, states, provinces and cities, the need for multiple Pages could reduce so that a smaller amount of community managers can efficiently manage the same volume of updating.

Just off the cuff, the aggregate audience for posts regarding contests, competitions, sweepstakes and promotions – even couponing and grassroots initiatives and local events can now be housed under a single brand page instead of across multiple networks, cutting down on repeat work and increasing the ability to draw more data from fans.

… in theory.

On paper this makes sense on the brand side – the Social Habit 2011 report by Edison Research and Arbitron estimates social Media now reaches the majority of Americans 12+ , with Facebook profiles accounting for over half (51 percent) the total profiles- but how does this impact the agencies who manage a piece, but not all of a brand’s social media presence?

Central piece to the puzzle may be less about the agency’s willingness to manage the social media presence and more about the brand – do they see value in the decreased duplication of efforts managing multiple Pages when the net-net is that multiple agencies or organizations have to play nice in the same sandbox?

The nerd POV (we prefer “data-driven,” thank you very much) offers a secondary concern – what does this mean for the data that comes through these pages? Most of Facebook’s user data is not available to the multitude of third-party tools the way Twitter does, so will Facebook Insights keep up to speed in their ability to dissect an individual’s impact on traffic, engagement, etc.?

Facebook already allows individual pieces to splinter off based on the old-Tab-new-sidebar, so hopes are that the geographic-specific pieces can be housed here, thus be measured individually AND ladder up to the whole of the platform… but these big questions don’t matter unless functionality and buy-in meet up along the way.

… I believe an academic would call such an advance a function of innovation due to demand, so here’s hoping someone along the way calls for it, assuming Facebook hasn’t already thought of this prior to rolling it out.

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Posted in Brand Recognition, Digital and Social Media, Social Media | No Comments »

Facebook + Skype = Efficiency

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Don’t follow where the path may lead, instead go where there is no path and leave a trail.”  These are also the lines that read under my high school yearbook photo.  To me, this relates most to my passion for travel.  There is something about the thrill of going to an unfamiliar place, tasting a different culture, and getting out of my comfort zone that delights me more than anything else.  I’m always on the search for the next globetrotting adventure. 

The most beautiful part of the journey, in my opinion, is meeting a new place’s people.  We learn how different, and yet how similar we all are.  I am so grateful that there are social mediums in place where I can keep in contact and uphold the relationships I’ve met through my travels with employment, school, and play.  To me, advances in social media are more than just the latest buzz.  Advances in social media help make it easier to network and keep in touch.  Via my Facebook and Skype accounts alone, I can keep my precious relationships with my good friend studying reef conservation in Cambodia, my old Aussie mates from studying abroad, and my cousins in Poland.  It allows me to see and communicate with ease and efficiency everyday if I wanted to.  The rumored merger of Skype and Facebook will help us all to connect our web with even more efficiency.

One in every fourteen people in the world use Facebook, and 50 percent of people log into Facebook everyday.  In the first half of 2010, Skype users made 88.4 billion minutes of Skype-to-Skype calls.  In most purposes, Skype and Facebook serve similar functions, that being, staying connected.  Therefore, it is only logical that these forces join together.  In my opinion, it’s yet another brilliant move for Facebook, and equally as advantageous for Skype.  Tech24.org states that “Global markets for Skype and Facebook are expected to improve since Skype is much more popular outside the U.S.”  These two social network powerhouses will achieve Facebook’s goal for the merger “To mesh communications and community more tightly together and add more tools to allow users to do so.”

The new feature will offer SMS, voice chat and “Facebook Connect.”  The feature will allow you to call your Facebook friends from Skype.  Called “Skype 5,” the new version is currently in Beta testing and should be announced and integrated in a few weeks.         

There’s no doubt in my mind that the rumors are true.  I’m excited for when “there’s an app for that!”

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Posted in Digital and Social Media, Social Media | No Comments »

Word of Mouth Powering the Food Truck Craze

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

DANNY MOLOSHOK / Reuters

Pop quiz: What recent phenomenon combines convenience, community, spontaneity, digital savvy and delicious cuisine? I’m talking about food trucks—gourmet, inventive, upscale, quality and often organic eats that roam the streets and require you to follow them, via social media, to find out where they’ll stop next. 

Back when I lived in L.A., I frequently tracked where Kogi BBQ, The Green Truck or Coolhaus would show up next.  Whether it was 2 a.m. or 4 p.m., buzz on the various trucks’ locations quickly grew via twitter feeds and word of mouth. It seemed like every few weeks, both the number and originality of the trucks grew exponentially.  After settling back in the Midwest, I often wondered why, when cities like San Francisco, NYC, Seattle and Portland were bringing their unique treats to the streets, Chicago wouldn’t take part in the trend.

It would seem I’m not the only one wondering. Professional chefs and eaters across the city are rallying to bring food on wheels to Chicago. Chicago All Fired Up is one truck that has managed to get through the red tape. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been so easy for others, as Chicago’s law that mobile food vendors can’t cook food on-site, along with several other issues, is causing a food revolution unrealized in the Windy City. Despite the setbacks, supportive websites, new Twitter feeds and grassroots campaigns are popping up every day. Entrepreneurs and chefs are coming up with several new concepts and ways to affect change.

Local chefs Philip Foss and Matt Maroni have been working to get our city’s mobile food vendor licenses amended and started chicagofoodtrucks.com, creating both a Twitter feed and Facebook page to provide a forum for discussion and creative solutions. Local Top Chef Master, Rick Bayless, has offered his support via his Twitter feed, and Time Out Chicago recently launched Street Food Now to “speak out on Chicago’s right to eat meals that come on wheels.”  Can you imagine being able to step outside during lunch for fresh macaroni and cheese, meatballs or even flatbread from a parked truck? These are real ideas in the works.

The good news is that you won’t have to wait long for a preview–  another business appears to have the go-ahead beginning May 10. You’ll have to follow Flirty on Twitter or Facebook to find out where you can get sugary goodness like the CBFF (chocolate w/ Nutella ganache) handed to you from a mobile cupcake shop. I assume they bypassed the restrictions because cupcakes don’t require on-site preparation. Hopefully Flirty is one of the many in a long line of Chicago vendors that can successfully join this literal bandwagon. I’m interested to see what happens next– what will supporters do differently or next to persuade lawmakers to change their mind? How big of a role will social media continue to play?

So, what do you do if you’re game for tacos on wheels? Speak up. Time Out Chicago offers a quick tutorial on who to contact and what to say. Do you want Chicago to be the next city to hop on the food truck trend?

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Posted in Digital and Social Media, Food and Beverage, Mobile Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized | No Comments »

All Media is Social Media

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

It’s week two for me here at MS&L’s Chicago office as the VP, Director of Digital and I have to say I’m loving it.   I’ve been doing the digital thing for over twelve years, from content to media – there’s not much I haven’t had my hands in.   But I wanted to focus on what I feel is the most transformative revolution in marketing since the 30 second TV spot was invented; social media.

Reading Jeff Bodzewski’s previous post “Social Media is Dying” got me excited to be here among like-minds. I love a bold statement like that, even if it is just designed to get a reaction.   But beyond that – there was more than a grain of truth to it. 

Pretty soon, social media is going to fade into the background and simply become plumbing; surrounding us but rarely thought about.  All media will be social.   The recent evolution of Facebook Connect into Open Graph gives a glimpse of how the world will begin to look in a few years. Facebook Connect allowed sites to pull in Facebook data, and do rudimentary status updates but Open Graph takes that even further and allows for true 3rd party integration.

By placing a “like” button on content across the web, Open Graph extends the reach of Facebook beyond the confines of its site.  Now users can be away from Facebook, but still update their profile with places they’ve been, music they like, food they’ve eaten and more.  And the like button is just the first small step -  people are capable of much more sophisticated interactions beyond “like” and so is the Facebook platform.

Now, consider that all media is quickly gaining a social component.  TV, music and movies have always been the fodder for chatter – in other words, the social currency that fuels our conversations.  Soon (now?), our entertainment devices will allow us to not just get ammo for the water cooler, but facilitate our sharing, rating, manipulation and interactions.

Televisions are getting socialized through Yahoo! TV, Hulu and products like Boxee, music services like Pandora, iMeem (rolled into MySpace), Grooveshark , and Last.fm have long allowed these types of interactions.   Even out of home advertising is getting into the game with digital out of home activations that incorporate user interactions and feedback.

With a bit of technological wizardry, we can expect our entertainment to become aware of what we like based not only our own behavior but the behavior of our social networks.  Even better, our own preferences will be incorporated into the programming itself.  This could end the dominance of search engines for delivering digital content and yield new formats where users at home play along in Jeopardy, dictate the story arches of sitcoms and get custom product placements in their shows (Remeber the iPad in Modern Family?). 

As with many new technologies, there’s a lot of trepidation.  In the long run, I believe we’ll come to love our media “knowing” more about us, what we like and what our social graph likes.  I often think of how much I appreciate Tivo making recommendations for programs that I would like to watch.  It’s surprising how well it knows me – and it doesn’t have the benefit of knowing what my friends are watching too.

Like a conversation with a friend – content will be personal, it will be recommended to me rather than me searching for it, it won’t interrupt me and will become integrated with the natural rhythms of my life… in theory.

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Posted in Digital and Social Media, Mobile Marketing, Social Media, Video | 1 Comment »