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.

China Mist Tea Tour TwitPics

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

Last week one of our clients, China Mist Brands, wanted to thank all of their Twitter followers by hosting a “tweetup” tour of their factory. We had about a dozen “influencers” on Twitter show up. The reality is, these are all fans of the brand who showed up to gain more knowledge of the brand that they love!

Of course various types of user generated content was produced during the tour. We want to show you some of the TwitPics from their fans. This is authentic engagement, real honest marketing that yields the best results:

@azneville—Alex Neville
•    http://img291.yfrog.com/i/vdjn.jpg
•    http://img145.yfrog.com/i/8h0.jpg

@wesleytech—Wes Novak
•    http://twitpic.com/8foxm
•    http://twitpic.com/8fiif
•    http://twitpic.com/8fhll
•    http://twitpic.com/8fi1e

@chrislee—Chris Lee
•    http://img141.yfrog.com/i/kbo.jpg
•    http://img291.yfrog.com/i/58761960.jpg/
•    http://img261.yfrog.com/i/f9b.jpg/
•    http://img146.yfrog.com/i/5g3.jpg/
•    http://brightkite.com/objects/15ce703461ef11de93ca003048c10834

@wonet—Warren Owen
•    http://twitpic.com/8fc50

@ChefVern—Vern Gill
•    http://twitpic.com/8fk5k
•    http://twitpic.com/8fe1f

@jen2281—Jennifer Kindred
•    http://twitpic.com/8fgfj

The Social Web: Companies that are Catching on in a BIG Way!

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

When we sit down with potential clients, many are still trying to grasp the world of social marketing. During out pitch, there tends to be a lot of education about what the social web is, and what makes us different than other marketing/PR firms. Many think that volume is the key strategy to the social web. We feel that there is a fine line between spam and volume on the social web. So today we decided to post about different approaches to the social web and how our strategies coincide with these successful engagement methods.

Our specific strategies start with social networks…evaluating a brand’s digital foot print, determining which networks work best for the brand, and executing a specific strategy for the brand.  Obviously we add our special sauce that provides analytic reports. Evaluation is key. Our Managing Partner has spent nearly 10 years in political campaigns.  His specific background is in “field.”  Field work is about breaking apart the trend data of voter files and marketing lists to target a voting base and then “activate” them. With the social web, the data is there!  Marketing lists and social interaction data is resting in the code of the tweets and the pings.

The following are examples of brand sponsored social marketing strategies. Companies are catching on in a big way!

Last week we had the privilege to partner up with Jennifer Van Grove, the Associate Editor for Mashable.com, for the #sdtweetup with Shawne Merriman.  ActivatingWOM was a big part of the event.  Her latest post:

“brand sponsored social media campaigns are everywhere. From SeaWorld, Starbucks, and Dunkin’ Donuts, to Cadbury, A&E, and even Universal, it’s officially the hot trend to replace or supplement traditional marketing campaigns with social media.”

SeaWorld has created a Facebook game application where you can challenge friends to get the most points; Starbucks challenged its network followers to be the first to post pictures of new Starbucks advertisement signs. Cadbury has taken a page out of Ford’s viral marketing campaign and created a contest for Cadbury fans to get as many social media views and points as possible while participating in “Operation Goo.”The winner gets £20,000 ($32,900).

The newest social media campaign is coming from Huggies in partnership with the social site, Circle of Moms. Huggies will be putting its content directly in the path of its primary consumer group…moms.  The “Huggies Zone” will be an interactive site with advice columns, baby photo sharing space, parenting polls, and of course diaper information.

As these examples demonstrate, companies are approaching the social web in a variety of ways…everything from Facebook applications, to photo contests, to large scale viral marketing, to an interactive page focused on a specific consumer group.  Companies can spend and do as much or as little as they want on the social web.

Here at Activating WOM we understand different social media strategies, implementation, analytics/tracking, and most of all reporting.  Companies need to know if their marketing strategies are effective.  We believe in authentic marketing, which is what creates a viral marketing campaign.

When taking the social web plunge, companies should be opened minded …as demonstrated above there is a whole new world of online communication.

Companies should see the social web as a cost effective way to talk about brands, engage consumers, and most importantly track their progress.

The social web is here…. are you ready?

Should My Brand Be on Twitter?

Posted by Kevin Spidel on Jun 3rd, 2009 | Comments

By Jennifer Kindred

Tweet, tweeps, tweeter, twead, tweetup…the list goes on.  The phenomenon called Twitter has taken on a language and life of its own.

So what is all the Twitter hype really about?  Community.   The most recent numbers from Nielsen taken in January 2009 indicate that Twitter grew 1,382% year-over-year, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US. Not only is that huge growth in one year, but in one month like in January, Twitter.com clocked 4.5 million unique visitors in the US, meaning the service grew by more than 50 percent month-over-month.  7 million people (just in the US) are using Twitter…who are these people?  Its like knowing that there are millions of Brittany Spears fans but yet you have never met one of them.

Twitter is simply a social network where people are allowed to post comments to their “followers” (people in their network).  The catch is that the posts can only be 140 characters; given these restraints I have seen some interesting uses of the English language.  But what is Twitter really about….just posting random thoughts under 140 characters, surely there is more?  I argue that yes, Twitter is much more than random posts.  It is where millions of people have gathered to start conversations.  What are these conversations about, are they meaningful, or spamiful?

The Harvard Business School recently published a study of 300,000 randomly selected Twitter users during the month of May 2009.  Study results showed that the top 10% of Twitter users are responsible for 90% of the tweeting.  More numbers…what does this mean, is Twitter just a vehicle for white noise and spam?  We at ActivatingWOM argue, NO.

This study actually legitimizes the Web3 semantic marketing approach.  The 10% of Twitter users that use their social networks to engage in authentic, meaningful conversation are the most active and will receive the most responses from their networks because they are not spamming their followers.  The spamming/dark side of Twitter does not receive real interaction with their networks, the socialites of Twitter will not interact with spambots and therefore, those profiles become idle. It is about influence of these conversations.

So what can Twitter do for you, your brand, your company?  Build.  Twitter can be a vehicle to build a community of brand advocates for you, a social network of people interested in what you are talking about, producing, or selling.  However, in order to build on Twitter you must engage the community in a smart, meaningful and most importantly authentic way.  This is word of mouth marketing.

Use Twitter wisely and a whole Community will be there to Build for you!

Authentic Word of Mouth is not a Campaign

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

David Berkowitz wrote an article yesterday discussing the fact that the one word you can not mention in a social media conference is “campaign.”

If you approach word of mouth advertising as a traditional media campaign, you will fail and do damage to your brand. Social networks are for social engagement, not for you to spam users. Don’t get confused by the technology, social networks are gatherings of individuals… much like a cocktail party. If you approach these networks as such you will succeed.

Here is a video about Whuffie and Tara Hunt. Take a moment and listen to her background at the end:

Our firm identifies authentic influencers on the social web and engage them with quality brands that are interesting to those individuals.

Again, thinking of the cocktail scenario, your impressions of various people at that cocktail party is defined by honesty, influence, your history with them, and their background. The same thing is true about social interaction on the web. These influencers have the same variables. Authentic word of mouth comes from these relationships and influencers; not a campaign, pure visibility, and traditional marketing strategies.

In Activating Word of Mouth we determine the influences for your brand and develop strong relationships with these individuals. Their mentions and marketing of your brand is authentic.

What is Social Capital?

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