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:

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.

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?

Network Growing Pains…Don’t Let Them Cripple Your Authenticity

Posted by Jennifer Kindred on Jul 3rd, 2009 | Comments

Lately, I keep coming across services such as PMS Social Suite and Tweeterfollowers, which claim to grow your Twitter network to thousands of followers within 30 days. Who are these followers? Are they spam bots? People who have similar interests as you? Are they even people?

I am from Illinois and lived in Chicago for sometime. The City’s reputation for wind, beautiful lake paths, horrid winters, and corrupt politics are all right on. Growing up I recall hearing jokes and comments about dead people voting in Chicago…as a child I would try to picture a deceased person rising from their resting place and voting, then wondered how a cremated person could vote (yes I was a strange kid). Now I understand that dead people of course did not actually vote but their propensity to vote straight ticket Democrat preceded them into death thanks to Chicago party politics.

What does this diatribe have to do with Twitter and social networks? My anecdote poses a very important question, are these services akin to having dead people following you on Twitter?

There is an internal debate among the social web community regarding numbers v. authenticity, which is more important? Are they mutually exclusive? We argue that when numbers and authenticity coexist a very powerful network is born. For those that are entering the social web world for marketing purposes, we assert that the “magic sauce” exists in the strategy in which you engage your network. Meaning, if you opt to use a follower aggregator service, you must put extra time in auditing your network to ensure that your numbers reflect real authentic followers.

I think of “fake followers” as inflation, just because your numbers are bigger does not mean you can buy more influence as the influence price will also become higher. So 30,000 followers may seem like a lot but really you only have 2,000 engaged followers. Further, when you follow other artificial networks, your perceived influence becomes almost impossible to gauge. At the end of the day if you are using Twitter for marketing purposes, you must be able to measure your influence and potential ROI. Inflationary numbers will distort your true influences, just as it does in the monetary economy.

If you choose to use a service that automize your network growth there are several strategies you can take to also authenticate your network:

1. Review your new followers everyday.
2. Take out any spam bots or other fake profiles.
3. Go to new follower profile and look through Twitter feeds to see if they are interested in your brand/topic.
4. ENGAGE new followers through authentic conversation and mention of your brand/topic.

Follow these steps and not only will you have a large following but one that is engaged in your topic area. Activating WOM works with clients to develop network engagement strategy and produce marketing analytics to track your network’s influence in terms of sales, brand discussion, and network interaction.

Don’t let your network become dead, white noise…unlike Chicago politics, where a vote is a vote, in the social web world, an authentic follow is much more valuable than fake followers.

Viralocity Friend or Foe

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Jul 2nd, 2009 | Comments

You can trend your brand on Twitter fairly easy. But with that comes accountability. Two latest campaigns have showcased this well.

Brands on Twitter follow “hashtags” and topics that are trended in an attempt to be apart of the Tweeting action. Hashtags are # signs combined with terms that denote a conversation. Example, conferences use #BWE09 or #140conf to tag conversations about their conferences. #BWE09 = BlogWorld 2009 in Las Vegas and #140conf = the 140 Conference in New York City.

Hashtags create a vehicle to track and trend conversations about specific subjects. When the Iran Election protest blew up on twitter a hashtag became a trend using #iranelections. Brands use hastags for their own campaigns. Recently two similar companies (one US based the other UK based) have created and trended their own hashtags. One was a big fail in the Twitter universe and the other has hit in the community to the pont that the viral buzz around it has caught the eyes of main stream media.

SquareSpace and Moonfruit are “turn key” web development platforms for any type of user who wants to create a web presence. From the pro-webdeveloper to the novice, both these companies offer tools and packages to help build your website.

A few weeks back SquareSpace launched a campaign where they offered 30 new iPhones to 30 twitter users within a one month period. The only catch was that the Twitter user must use the hashtag #squarespace in their tweets. Our good friends over at Mashable wrote about the campaign here: http://mashable.com/2009/06/10/iphone-squarespace/

Folks began Tweeting #squarespace left and right. Congrats… it becomes a rapidly growing trending topic for the $6,000 campaign, but it became more. When people started asking about this hashtag they discovered the fine print and began tweeting about borderline false advertising using SquareSpace’s hashtag. Misleading and deceptive accusations were tweeted about the giveaway using the exact same brand vehicle that was associated with SquareSpace’s campaign.  All of this twittering began to trigger spam filters on Twitter. So now negative and positive tweets began to spread like wire fire. In the social web, it is very hard to recover, if even possible, to such a negative wild fire. Further, when your brand vehicle, in this case #squarespace, becomes a spam phrase on Twitter, you have just spent $6k to opt out of the fastest growing social network on the web. Wise?

The difference is, be clear and honest with the campaign. Moonfruit’s $15,000 week long campaign has successfully lead to nearly all positive tweets associated with this brand vehicle. Sure, the campaign is more expensive, but they also are getting great user generated content outside of the Twitter universe.

The most amazing thing about this is that the trend is about how real and honest the campaign is; most twitteres do not have brand loyalty or even really know about Moonfruit.  However, Moonfruit has created marketers who are saying positive things about your it brand by being honest about the campaign specifics.  Who knows these people might actually take the time to click on Moonfruit’s website.

Simply put, honesty and integrity results in respect and the ability to create marketers for you on the social web.

This is a word of mouth win.