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.

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?

Lobbyist and Politicians Embrace the Social Web as the AZ State Budget Crisis Erupts

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Jun 30th, 2009 | Comments

The Arizona State Legislature and the Governor have been going at it for months now in a back and forth budget battle. So much so that the Arizona Governor took the issue to the Supreme Court to force a vote by the Legislature. As the deadline grows nearer to a Government shutdown, members of the Legislature, Lobbyists on both sides and even activists have been flooding Facebook and Twitter.

John and Jennifer Loredo have been using Facebook status updates and notes to not only give updates to their followers, but also spur activism on the issues of education:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1534230179

and

Dana Kennedy is actually connecting activist and lobbyists to Jennifer’s note on Facebook to add to the viralocity of these updates:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1534230179#/note.php?note_id=122738646180&ref=mf

State Representative Kysten Sinema gives the blow by blow tweets from the House Floor:

http://twitter.com/kyrstensinema/status/2407305658

This is democracy in action. No walls, direct connection of movements to elected officials. Real time advocacy thanks to new media.

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