The Impact of Social Media On The World

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Aug 14th, 2009 | Comments

Our good friends over at Roost posted a powerful video we felt the need to share. This is a video showcasing the powerful impact of social media on the world. This video, posted on Youtube, then onto Facebook, then onto their blog came to me via a retweet, and now has over 12,000 views! The powerful networks and influences on these networks are based on relationships online and offline.

A perfect example of social web word of mouth!

ESPN Covers Twitter

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Aug 10th, 2009 | Comments

The Shawne Merriman Tweetup that our Managing Partner Kevin Spidel broadcast on USTream was covered on ESPN. Our Kevin makes an appearance at 1:25 of the clip:

SPAM-A-LOT: It’s going to get worse…

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Aug 6th, 2009 | Comments

… before it gets better. We are talking about social spam on Twitter.  Other social networks suffer from this problem as well, however recent changes to Twitter this last month has made the issue worse. We feel the worst is yet to come.

This last month, Twitter launched its new front page / logon screen. This gave us insight into their revenue model, which includes trending data and analytics. Many companies  understand that their brands need to be in this space, but they don’t understand how to use social networks.

The proven models are about volume and numbers, not about engagement or advocacy on the social web. Therefore are many semantic bots that have been created and are now spaming the Twitterverse with hashtags and links. Volume, not authenticity, is the focus.

Businesses understand Pay-Per-Clicks and numbers more than they understand brand equity, authentic fellowship and brand advocates on the social web. We at Activating Word of Mouth use a metric that measures a brand’s Social Web Impact. This measures how influential your following is and how authentic.

The reality is, that brands still focus on volume and not engagement. Thus, new strategies like pay-per-tweet and celebrity endorsements are moving forward. This type of marketing will inevitably trend high on the twitter feeds and consequently land on the front page.

Is this good? (more…)

Scottsdale Airpark News: Social Media Profiles: China Mist

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Aug 4th, 2009 | Comments

China Mist Pure
Kiley Biggins, China Mist Brands
Photos by Seymour & Brody Photography Studios

This year, we launched China Mist Pure Bottled Organic Teas, six varieties of pure natural flavors. We took the same great fresh-brewed tea you find in your favorite restaurants, resorts and upscale grocery stores and put it in a contemporary hourglass-shaped bottle.

This isn’t your average bottled tea, and we just couldn’t enlist average marketing avenues to promote it. We needed a new kind of plan, so we plunged into the social-marketing world with a Facebook page and Twitter account. To date, we have 250 fans on Facebook.com and 1,391 followers on Twitter.com.

When we decided to tackle social marketing, we knew we’d need professional assistance. To devise a strategy and execution plan, we enlisted the help of Kevin Spidel of Activating Word of Mouth.

Take It to the Tweeple
Kevin sat down with me and China Mist Brands Co-founder John S Martinson many times to teach us a whole new language. We learned about Twitter, tweeps, re-tweeting and all kinds of important Twitter-y words that helped us promote our product. Getting information out by word-of-mouth advertising is considered one of the most viable sources for product information.

The China Mist Brands Facebook page shares news about China Mist Pure. Posts include new locations where the bottles can be purchased, free sa mpling events, photos of the marketing materials for China Mist Pure in Dubai, links to online voting for the bottled teas and much more.

With these outlets, we took that word-of-mouth advertising and amplified it by allowing it to be read online and spread more rapidly. As tweeters (people who post messages on Twitter.com) would engage in communication about the organic teas, we found an entire network of people who are avid China Mist Pure fans. They post photos, or Twitpics, of places they are drinking the teas as well as stores where the bottled teas can be found. Some of the followers liked the bottles so much they found ways to reuse them. We saw a Twitpic from a follower who reused her bottles as flower vases, and one who created a beautiful wind chime from the glass bottles. (more…)