Engage With You Online Network…Offline

Posted by Jennifer Kindred on Jul 29th, 2009 | Comments

Online communities are a fantastic way to meet new people…geography knows no bounds on the Internet.  We may talk about meeting new people from another continent on Facebook or Twitter but ironically we often gravitate to local peeps…even on the Internet.  I love finding people who live in my community to talk to online, we swap stories about the weather, restaurants, and events.

Not surprisingly, online connections end up meeting offline.  Ever heard of a Tweetup?  They are happening all around you, where Twitter folks from the same city meet up (usually at a bar), have a few drinks and converse in more than 140 characters.  In Phoenix, we have Tweetups all over the Valley on Friday nights and then converge on a central location to enjoy Phoenix Friday Nights.

For companies and organizations, creating online communities is the first step to developing a reliable fan base.  Sponsoring offline events such as Tweetups, is a great way to give back to your online fans and encourage them to continue talking about your cause or brand.  For example, Activating WOM assisted in organizing China Mist Tea’s first Tweetup here in Scottsdale, AZ.  The Tweetup was at China Mist’s office, which includes their factory.  Tea tastings, factory tour, great swag, and fabulous company were the highlights of this Tweetup.

The key to a successful offline event is having….fun!  Offline events need to be more than getting people in a room but be creative, socialable and diverse.  Tweetups are great but should be mixed up with other offline activities.  Activating WOM is working with China Mist Tea, Bashas, and Arizona Diamondbacks to organize a Tweet-Hunt.  Similar to a scavenger hunt, the objective of Tweet-Hunt is for participants to create video and/or pictures while performing each offline task.  The first person to successfully post media of all tasks onto Twitter wins the prize.  The winner of China Mist’s Tweet-Hunt will get a pair of club house tickets to an Arizona Diamond Backs game.

Whether you are an individual looking to meet Twitter peeps in your area or a business/organization that wants to interact and give back to your fans; offline engagement is a great way to interact with your network. We are always excited to hear what our readers think…have you attended a Tweetup event?  What kind of event?  Did you have fun?  What was the most creative offline meetup/event that you have participated in?

Meeting people online is a great way to begin a conversation…continue the interaction offline in a fun, socialble, safe environment!

China Mist and Twitter

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Jul 28th, 2009 | Comments

China Mist was one of our first clients. We are proud to be working with them as they engage their consumers.

AWOM Weekly Tip: Measuring Influence

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Jul 22nd, 2009 | Comments

In the coming weeks we will be releasing details behind our measurments tools. Until then, here are some tips and tools to assist you in measuring  your network’s influence.

People engage the social web for many different reasons, but mainly to connect with others.  There are so many social engagement levels, measuring your network’s engagement with you is difficult.

There are several third party applications that measure parts of your network’s engagement level. If you are looking for basic evaluations of your impact, here are a few great sites we recommend. If you are looking for specifics, well… of course, come see us ; )

How much influence  does your brand have on the Blogosphere and Twitterverse? (more…)

Advertisers Kill Tradition

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Jul 20th, 2009 | Comments

Tonight in a Tweet, I realized how true this statement really is; advertisers who approach the social web as a communication vehicle, kill cultural norms within a given space. Case in point…Twitter. Twitter is not just a vehicle to communicate. It is not a tool. It is a culture.

Here at Activating Word of Mouth we focus on authentic word of mouth. This begins with relationships, not spam. We take the advertising out of marketing. Other marketing firms approach social networks as a new vehicle to get their products/services out in volume. They are about noise. Last night I noticed a new trending topic “Chris Brown.” My first thought was, did I miss the news? Did he do something to Rhianna again? I clicked on the search for “Chris Brown” in Twitter and saw this: (more…)

La Frontera Times Training

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Jul 20th, 2009 | Comments

Last week we did a training for La Frontera Times readers. Many asked for the slide show to be emailed after the event. We posted it here for your viewing:

It Comes Down to Numbers

Posted by Jennifer Kindred on Jul 17th, 2009 | Comments

Any marketer knows that messaging is about numbers.  Where you message and how you get that message out takes strategy.  The “where” part of the marketing equation depends on several factors such as geography, product, and consumer demographics.  The “how” is all about what medium you use to get that message out to consumers.  We focus on social web marketing but understand that, like other mediums, this may not be ideal for all companies and products.  However, companies and organizations who do not consider social media in their marketing tool box are making a grave mistake. 

Activating WOM is 100% about marketing on the social web…why?  Because we know that the social web is growing and that where consumers congregate to carry out conversation is where companies and organizations need to be!  Twitter and Facebook are growing at ridiculously fast rates.  According to Nielsen and reported by Mashable, Twitter grew a massive 1,928 percent in the US from June ’08 to June ’09, now reaching a total of 21 million monthly unique visitors.  While Facebook leads all social networking sites with 87.3 million unique visitors in June.

What does this mean?  Well it all comes down to numbers. You can not lightly glance over those numbers above. If you are a company and not thinking about social media as an addition to your marketing plan then you are living under a rock.  If you are an advocacy group and not strategizing about how to get your message out through the social web then you are missing out on your biggest megaphone.

We all know that people use the Internet to communicate and find information, the social web is just another part of this communication.  Denial, fear, and ignorance of these tools will do nothing but allow your business or organization to lose a competitive edge.  At Activating WOM we understand that social media is new to lots of people and want to help businesses and organizations figure out how to integrate the social web into their marketing strategies.

A recession is no time to embrace fear but a time to think creatively and get your message out to a large audiences for the least amount of capital.  Social media can do this and so much more…don’t wait to get on board, engage the social web today.

Respect Culture Within the Social Web

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Jul 16th, 2009 | Comments

In the offline world, respecting cultures is just common sense. Different ethnicities, different geographic locations, heritages, traditions, etc. are all around us.  People come from different backgrounds; in my opinion, cultural diversity is what makes the human race a beautiful thing.

Similarly, the online world is full of different cultures; however most assume online cultures consist of the same  factors that define culture offline. Sure social web users have diverse backgrounds that include religion, traditions, regional understandings, etc., but beyond these distinguishing elements lie cultures of each social network.

What does that mean?

People interact and consume information within a specific social network differently then they would others.  For example, if you are on Twitter and link your Facebook status to your Tweets, do you often get people within Facebook telling you to stop spamming their feed with all your status updates?  They might not even be involved with the same social networks as you and not understand that Twitter is about microblogging short posts.

In the case of Twitter and Facebook, these are two very different worlds. Facebook’s main landing page is a social stream of your network. Where folks can see photos, links, comments, events, etc from friends, family, and colleagues. This tends to be a more intimate interaction as posts are not limited to 140 characters like Twitter.

The point being, if one evolved within a given social network, they understand many social norms within that space that might not carry over to another space. If you tweet a lot, and carry that over to Facebook status updates, some might consider that spam. Or at the very least, see it as a social faux pas with that social space.

Social networks develop social norms within their space; be mindful and respect the given culture within that space.

Many large corporations hire anthropologists to understand the business etiquette of various nations in order to minimize the cultural gap.  Here at Activating Word of Mouth, consider us your cultural consultant to the online world.

There are many spaces that have different cultures. Make sure you don’t take that fact for granted.

Mobilizing Your Social Web

Posted by Jennifer Kindred on Jul 13th, 2009 | Comments

By: Jennifer Kindred

For legal geeks and political junkies today is an exciting day as it is the first day of Nomination hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayer. She is the first Hispanic woman to be nominated to the US Supreme Court, she is qualified, experienced, and controversial…and her nomination is undoubtedly a shoe-in. I was going through my online reading regime this morning that includes the Washington Post and came across an excellent article, Social Web Mobilizes For-and Against Sotomayer.

The article discusses how social media was used to “define” Judge Sotomayer immediately after she was nominated, side stepping traditional media spin.  For example, District resident Mike Panetta created a fan page in support of Sotomayor the day Obama introduced her, a page which now has 24,100 fans. More importantly the page has a Take Action tab to allow Sotomayor’s supporters to send an e-mail urging “a quick ‘up-or-down’ vote … BEFORE the August recess” to their U.S. Senators directly from Facebook by filling out a form.

This is an excellent example of how advocacy causes and groups can rally online followings to advocate their positions using traditional offline persuasion methods.  Brands, companies, celebrities, non profits, activists all have voices online and followings that listen to their messages.  Here at Activating WOM we emphasize the importance of building authentic networks that engage with your comments, videos, and pictures.  So why put the extra effort in engaging with your networks???  Simple, they engage back with you.

This short blog is meant to demonstrate another benefit from building strong social networks…mobilizing those people behind your cause.

What do you advocate about online?

Social Media Marketing Reality Check

Posted by Jennifer Kindred on Jul 8th, 2009 | Comments

By: Jennifer Kindred

For those interested in social media marketing…its here and growing fast.  However, a majority of society has not opted into online socialization, so it is understandably difficult for those people to get why social media marketing would be effective.  I often get questions about social media such as, “why would someone want to know what I am doing all day?” or “Twitter people are crazy status updaters…who cares?”  This blog entry will attempt to demonstrate some truths about social media and social media marketing.

What is it about blogging that makes people want to blog?  The writing aspect, putting your ideas out onto the web, or receiving responses from others who read your blog?  For me its a combination of all three (although not too much into the writing part), but what I really enjoy is getting responses and comments about my blog.  I suspect that most people get a happy, excited feeling when someone takes the time to read and comment on their writings…particularly if the comments are positive.

This is not a shameless shout out for people to read and comment on my blogs but an example of social web interaction.  As demonstrated above its not about just flinging information out onto the social web…people update their status, post information and content so that others will respond!

A survey last month, highlighted today in eMarketer and reported by Adam Ostrow at Mashable outlines the benefits that marketing executives cite as reasons to embrace the medium (see chart).  Customer engagement ranks highest at 85.4% of respondents citing it as a benefit of using social media marketing.   Social media engagement is a simple and effective way to engage with consumers and fans of  you or your product.  Activating WOM assists clients in developing strategies to maximize client’s social media presence and transmit social media momentum to offline marketing campaigns.  One of my recent blogs discusses creative ways that companies have maximized their social media marketing strategies offline.

So what does all of this mean?  What is the real world impact of social media marketing?  Is it really being used by companies and is this the time to start developing strategy?  Yes, yes, and yes!  Forrester Research just came out with their Interactive Marketing Forecast for the next five years, and estimates that social media marketing will grow at an annual rate of 34%.  This is faster than any other form of online marketing and double the average growth rate of 17% for all online mediums.  Forrester estimates that $716 million will be spent on the medium this year, growing to $3.1 billion in 2014. At that point, social media will be a bigger marketing channel than both email and mobile.

If you are a company interested in social media marketing but don’t see where in your budget it fits, here are a couple of ways to think about making a splash in the social media world:

1. What percentage of my marketing budget do I currently spend on online advertising?
2. How much of that budget am I willing to divert to a social media marketing campaign?
3. What kind of social media marketing campaign do I want to execute and for how long?
4. What consumer engagement goals do I want to achieve with my social media marketing campaign?

These questions may require that your company consult a firm, such as Activating WOM to aid in development and execution of a social media marketing strategy.  Your firm may already have an idea of what it would like to achieve through its social media marketing strategy but may not be knowledgeable enough on all of the tools to successfully achieve its goals.  Again, consulting firms such as Activating WOM is oftentimes necessary to realize the full potential  of social media; similar to engaging traditional media, social media is its own animal with hundreds of methods, tools, and communities to interact with and use.

If you are reading this blog and are thinking about how social media fits into you marketing campaigns, give us a call or leave a comment.  As I have written before, social media is here…communities are built…when are you going to decide to engage?

In Order to Succeed You Must Get Out of the Bubble

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Jul 7th, 2009 | Comments

Many businesses look to other businesses in their market and/or geographic area for ideas. In social media we find this is a double edged sword. We recently wrote about the Perils and Rewards of Being First in the market. This was in response to many conversations with prospective clients wanting to understand more about social media but not really wanting to make that dive into resourcing out part of their marketing budget toward Word of Mouth marketing on the social web.

We at ActivatingWOM have been traveling a lot. We are still amazed that geographic markets drive the decision to jump into the social web. When we are talking to clients in the Bay area, where social media applications, networks, etc are born every day, the dialogue is about new analytics and how to maximize new networks before the main stream takes advantage of these tools. In LA it is about how to define your social presence as it relates to fans of various talents and how engagement is measured. In DC it is about identifying policy trends in conversations and identify influencers of various policy discussions.

In Arizona, people are will watching and learning. Few companies are willing to jump out of their bubble and take the social media plunge. Even the various markets mentioned above are still in a bubble. They rarely look at how practices in these various markets can help with their web presence.

I come from an extensive political background. I saw the “bubble effect” often. In various campaigns you tend to surround yourself with like minded individuals who further strengthen your ideals but tend to disconnect you with others outside your bubble. I often challenged organizations and candidates to get out of their bubble. Washington tends to be so deep in the beltway bubble that they hire pollsters after pollsters to get the pulse of the American public.

On the social web, everything is available. Case study after case study is available. What relevance does it have to your industry? No one else in your industry is really resourcing out this work you say? It is time to get out of your bubble. In a previous post we demonstrated various companies’ success on the social web.

If you are a company that has never used Twitter or often laugh at discussions around social media, I have a test for you. Go to http://search.twitter.com and type in a few words related to your product and or services. I guarantee you that there are conversations happening around your services and or products. From Tea to Athletes we manage a wide range of clients who at one time thought the social web was not for them. This simple tests showcases that there are potential customers and/or fans out there. If they are already talking about you, why are you not engaging?

It is time to get out of the bubble, and make the jump. Don’t let bubble vision keep you from success.