Erik Qualman's Blog, page 664

Social Media Swirls during Dallas Tornadoes

[image error]As Mother Nature unleashed her fury on the greater Dallas area April 3, a number of social media sites were lighting up.

The news of the violent weather was streaking across Twitter, Facebook and other social media venues, as folks tried to alert loved ones and strangers at the same time of the dangers. Twitter, especially, once again became a news center for those in the greater Dallas area and those across the nation and world for that matter, concerned with what was going on.

I remember in my "younger days" back in the 1980s when I was living on the East Coast and Hurricane Gloria paid us a visit. We didn't have the Internet or 24 hours news for that matter to keep us posted on the latest developments. No, it was listening to radio reports and the breaking news segments on the local television channels to stay abreast of the deadly storm.

Flash forward some three decades later and storms such as this past Tuesday's that hit Dallas and surrounding areas are monitored not only by weather officials, but also by the public via social media.

As news reports indicated, people were tweeting and sharing from their homes, stores, schools, the airport and more.

At the Grapevine Mall in Mesquite, a young woman shared in a Facebook post that she and approximately 1,000 shoppers were taken into the facility's basement as a precaution with the tornado passing overhead.

Many individuals tweeted and shared their concerns for people in the greater Dallas area, noting that they were reaching out to such individuals to make sure they were taking shelter.

Back on the ground, others living or working in the Dallas area used social media venues to send out pictures and even videos as the storm passed overhead.

At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, travelers and workers were sharing news with the world as the storm passed by. Passengers were ushered away from windows as a precaution, and all takeoffs and landings ground to a halt.

In all, weather officials reported the possibly a dozen tornadoes rolled through the Metroplex Tuesday, in the process squashing homes and sending cars and big-rig trucks flying through the air. As of Wednesday morning (April 4), no serious injuries or fatalities had been reported.

According to one meteorologist, "It's one of the worst tornado outbreaks we've seen in a longtime here in North Texas."

While individuals and businesses turned to social media to spread the word, the Dallas Fort Worth Red Cross used Twitter to alert followers to make sure they were adhering to the warnings officials had put out. The agency also used the social media venue to provide tips on taking shelters, and then continued tweeting with information on where the storms were headed.

Even though social media sites can at times get a bad rap for being fodder for killing time during one's day, the Dallas storms proved once again how social media can help prevent even more death and destruction.

Photo credit: thecount.com

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How to Use Memes to Create Social Media Engagement

 

With the rapid proliferation of social media and social media channels, there's been an equally as rapid growth in the creation of memes. While memes — highly viral niche content with fast burnout rates — have existed for some time, they are currently the internet's favorite phenomena. A meme is, by definition, a cultural element passed from person to person. These can be viral videos, animated gifs, trending catchphrases, mash-ups of content like the Angelina Jolie leg-bomb from the Oscars or interrupting Kanye West (after the 2009 Grammys), and more. There are even resources like Know Your Meme if you need to catch up on today's hottest memes.

 

While memes tend to be light-hearted, when done well, they can pack a serious marketing punch. Memes are a form of engaging social marketing content that you can use to get noticed and increase audience engagement. If content is king in social media, then social marketers should not ignore this tool in their arsenal. Below, we share some of our favorite examples before sharing tips on how to use memes to create social media engagement to help ensure your content gets RickRolled. (For even more tips on creating engaging content, check out our free whitepaper 11 Strategies to Increase Engagement.)

 

Some of our favorite memes include:

Smirnoff Ice's Tea Partay

When Smirnoff introduced 'Raw Tea' in 2007, they chose to highlight the East Coast's 'Tea Culture'. Facing a limited budget for advertising, they produced a hilarious music video spoof featuring three preppy 'Gangsta Rappers' that went viral. It has over 6 million views.

 

Wonderful Pistachios: Get Crackin' with Honey Badger

The pistachio company, Wonderful Pistachio, teamed up with meme-maker Randall from The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger to develop a new commercial. Randall hilariously narrated a video of a honey badger, a tough animal that fights cobras, in a very animated way. It rocketed to viral video success with over 40 million views on YouTube.

 

 

An oldie but goodie: You may remember this dancing baby meme from the 90s that appeared in the sitcom Ally McBeal as a recurring hallucination, proving memes aren't new nor are they solely-Internet based.

 

Meme Best Practices

Well-executed memes have several common elements:

Speak to their audience: Marketers always need to know their audience, but it's particularly true for this genre. Know your audience's tastes, language (or keywords) and sense of humor.
Are highly relevant: Related to tip #1, memes must resonate with their intended audience. Memes are a great example of the 'It's so funny because it's true' humor style.
3.     Are memorable & highly viral: Good memes beg to be shared. You share it because you know the piece of content (be it video, still frame, animated gif or otherwise) made you react, and your friend will have a similar reaction.  
4.     Often have a short-self life. Memes are only a component of marketing. It's an additional resource in your arsenal, and should be used sparingly. Memes aren't for everyone. They grow tiresome quickly. Don't over-rely on them for marketing success.
5.     Take off on one platform. While memes should be seeded on multiple platforms, they often see success in one particular platform.
6.     Are easily re-imagined: Part of the fun of memes is the re-imaginings applied with various lenses. The 'Sh*t girls say' video is a great example of this; it spurred an incredibly wide array of new treatments, everything from 'Sh*t Nobody Says' to 'Sh*t People Say about Sh*t People Say Videos.'
7.     Rarely have an overt marketing message. Memes catch people's interest and spread quickly, but rarely seem like traditional marketing.

 

What's your favorite meme? Share your favorite memes in the comment section, on Twitter: Facebook at Awareness, Inc., Social Media Marketing Best Practices and Social Media Marketing Mavens pages, and in our LinkedIn Social Media Marketing Mavens Group. For even more strategies to create engaging content, download our whitepaper Social Engagement: How to Crack the Code of Social Interaction.

 

Mike Lewis

@bostonmike

 

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The economics of March Madness

With March Madness culminating in the Final Four this weekend we thought this March Madness infographic would be ideal for you hoop junkies and data nerds.

Created by: Online Colleges Resource

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Moving Beyond the Social Customer into the Era of Customer Engagement

We recently connected with Paul Greenberg, one of the most respected minds in marketing, technology and CRM (albeit for a short catch-up). His seminal book CRM at the Speed of Light not only helped define the thinking of marketers and business leaders around the globe for years to come, it was among the first to bring to light the need for integrating social in all aspects of our thinking.  As we enter 2012 and look toward major developments that will shape our industry, we reviewed Paul's musings and share what we thought was right on the money – why we agree with Paul that we are moving beyond the social customer and entering the era of social engagement.

 

Staring at the Social Customer Is Over

Paul was among the early advocates of the social customer, defined by him in one of his recent posts on ZDNet as "a technology savvy, peer trusting, highly demanding, relatively affluent customer who leverages the web for conversations that can impact business." Why is the social customer so important and disruptive for businesses across the globe? As Paul points out, the social customer, "stood out and forced businesses to start to respond to the new forms and channels of communication that the customers were engaging in." 10 years later we are looking at a drastically different business landscape – where the social customer has propelled a new, socially-conscious thinking within the enterprise, one that has pushed our industry to move from traditional methods and supporting infrastructure to setups that incorporates social approaches across the organization (think CRM now being replaced by Social CRM).

 

Social Channel Strategy Now Part of Multichannel Strategy

In that same ZDNet blogpost, Paul shares that, more than anything, what defines the Era of Customer Engagement is that the "so-called social channel strategy is now a normal part of multichannel strategy for the company." There are a number of reasons why social is now a standard practices for businesses, which are actively integrating social into DNA. For example, social customers are now forming as a growing group that can be reached and engaged with in a scalable way. Couple that with that fact that CEOs see as their most important imperative for the next five years (based on the results from IBM's Institute for Business Value 2010 CEO study) being close to the customer.

 

Being Closer to the Customer = Empowering Self Selection

Paul would be the first to tell you that customer engagement means that "customers are part of the company's collaborative value chain," where they choose how they want to interact with your business, products or services. Customer engagement should not be confused with intimacy or loyalty, he continues. It is defined by the ongoing involvement between your business and your customer, driven by the customer's specific reasons.  Customer engagement can be purely transactional or aspirational.  Engagement comes in different shapes and forms, and as along as businesses have a good understanding of what's driving it, they should know how to empower this continuous process of self-selection. There is a level of customer engagement, however, that can be really powerful…and that is called Customer Advocacy.

 

Customer Advocacy in the Era of Customer Engagement

Customer Advocacy is key to the success of any customer strategy – as long as you are focused on the right metrics.  Paul is not a big believer in the Net Promoter Score (NPS) because he thinks that what companies really need to measure is Customer Referral Value (CRV) (for more information Paul points to Dr. V Kumar's work and his article On Word of Mouth published in HBR). CRV gets at the core of what true influence is all about – the ability and desire of a customer to spread the word about your company to other people like him/her.

 

To follow Paul's thinking on this shift toward the Era of Customer Engagement, sign up for his updates on his own blog or on ZDNet.  You can also read his CRM 2012 Forecast – The Era of Customer Engagement Part 2 and follow him on Twitter.

 

Let us know what you think – are you ready for the Era of Customer Engagement?  Do you consider yourself a social marketing leader or a novice? Catch some more free resources, e-books, webinars and chapter downloads on our Pinterest page.

 

Mike Lewis

(@BostonMike)

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Who's winning the social media race – Obama or Republicans?

 



Brought to you by HowToMBA.com with Online MBA info

 

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5 Companies Who Show Social Media Who's Boss

Social Media…a not so new concept, yet one which can still allude many brands if they do not strategize their content appropriately for each channel in regards to how it fits their brand. But we're not here to criticize, we're here to learn from the ones who take advantage of social media and elevate their brand to another level.

Facebook

Victoria's Secret converted to the new Timeline ahead of the curve and wow does that timeline grab your attention. With over 18 million fans and over 200 thousand people talking about the brand…you have to take a second glance (not just for the pictures). The brand took advantage of the picturesque platform, made it interactive for fans to engage with the contact, offer coupons, notify consumers of real-time sales, and more. It captivates not only the female audience but the male audience to imagine, dream, and bring to reality what could be. The story has been unfolded, and the brand fully utilized Facebook Timeline to do so.

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Social Media Case Study: Victoria Secret was ahead of the curve with Facebook's timeline

Twitter

Zappos may be an obvious win here…but perhaps it's because they really do take their brand marketing to heart. The brand has been humanized by their CEO, Tony Hsieh, who lets his own personality shine through the brand name. How many CEOs do you know who take the time to do such, especially through social media?

YouTube

Blendtec, demonstrates with 190 million views and 400 thousand subscribers, that even a blender can be entertaining. Who knew?! The brand took a brave yet awesome take with social content…they leveraged humor and experimentation to make their videos fun to watch and create a viral effect. I am impressed by their leverage of humor, as it is way easier said than done. Would you blend your iPhone? Watch them do it instead!

Early adopters

Burberry, a brand known for evoking desire and lust for fashion, transcends their fashion leadership to the social sphere. They adopt early, and adopt well. While doing research a while back for the Google Plus brand pages, I saw that Burberry was one of the first to take advantage of the channel and demonstrate it could bring style and allure even to a channel that was too new to be adopted by most at that time. My favorite part? The GIFs used for the images…catches your eye before you even get to the heart of the content.

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Keeping it local

Four seasons known for its luxury and decadence, takes a simple and relaxed approach to its social endeavor. The brand chose to simplify and localize its Twitter and Facebook channels. There is a fan page and twitter account dedicated to individual hotel locations in order to optimize the care needed for local guests and the language in each region/city. Luxury care simplified for local effort.

Takeaway

It's about a few things:

1. Listen for the latest greatest 'shiny toys'

2. Don't just jump in to all of the social channels; Gauge which channels are going to best fit your overall content strategy and help to amplify it

3. Use social media to augment your marketing efforts in a real-time, community driven effort

4. Humanize the brand

5. Show your consumers you are there for what they need; not what you need

6. Make it fun; see: Blendtec example

 

Additional Information:

http://mashable.com/2009/02/06/social-media-smartest-brands/

http://mashable.com/2009/01/21/best-twitter-brands/

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/9-companies-doing-social-media-right-and-why/

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/03/20/luxury-brands-using-social/

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/07/04/meet-the-top-20-brands-on-facebook/

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How to Use Twitter Trends to Help Generate Blog Topics

When it comes to business, social media has typically been used as a way to promote and connect. However, many writers are catching onto the fact that Twitter is a great place to get ideas for a blog. Many companies see this as secondary to using Twitter as a way to increase visibility, but the truth is the subject of a blog article is extremely important. In many cases articles on a company blog are ranked higher than many of the companies own webpages. The blog is a place the draws in all sorts of people looking to find information on a particular topic as opposed to your particular website. If you think about it, where do you think you will find more traffic—people who are searching for "Calvin Klein Underwear Retailer" or people who are searching for "men's designer clothing?"

You want your blog to be relevant and a place that users come to interact. This is where you will gain your most loyal traffic; thus helping you increase your PageRank and draw more advertisers to your site. Fortunately, creating blog posts that will draw in readers can be made much easier through Twitter trending topics.

How to Find Twitter Trending Topics for Your Blog

The easiest way to find a topic that is trending is to look at the Twitter hashtags that were used. Twitter hashtags were designed specifically to helps a user categorize their tweets so that they can fall into a trending topic. Twitter has a built-in functionality that allows you to see what topics are trending at any given time. You can find this on the right side of your Twitter profile page where it says "trends" (imagine that). Below is an example of the topics currently trending on Twitter:

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I am currently following the trends of the United States, but all you have to do is click "change" to follow the trends in your area. You can be as targeted as you'd like and follow only your town if you think that will help you generate ideas that are more targeted to your audience.

You can also click these trending topics to get more information. This will give you a better idea about what was said about the trending topic. If people had questions about the topic, you will see those show up. You then have a great idea for your next blog post. Below is what it looks like if I were to click "#ThatDoesNOTMakeYouCool:"

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By looking at these trending topic tweets, there are a few topic ideas that come to mind. For example, I could write about what it means to have a verified account and whether or not it's important to have a verified account in the world of fashion. Do people really care if you're not a celebrity? How do you go through the steps to become a verified account? This is something that could potentially interest people.

To really use the trending topic to create a blog post, you could write about things that don't make you cool in fashion. People seem to love wearing huge sunglasses, but maybe that doesn't make you cool (okay, just my opinion). The point is this: Topics are trending for a reason. With 119 million Twitter accounts, a trending topic is bound to catch your interest eventually.

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4th Grader's First Ski Jump – Amazing Video

What does the below video have to do with social media? We often talk here at Socialnomics about failing fast, failing forward, failing better when it comes to Social Media. So many individuals and companies are only concerned about the downside of a fully open world that they fail to embrace the opportunity. We should learn from this young girl's courage (4th grader) and realize if we just do it – what an exhilarating ride it is! Are you smarter than a 4th grader?

In a modern world where we all create digital footprints and digital shadows each day, don't we want our digital shadow to be arms raised in triumph (like the girl in the photo below) because we tried our best?

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"Little Girl Ski Jump Video" went viral because of her fear of falling and when she didn't fall she raised her arms in triumph. Isn't this a great digital shadow!? Shouldn't we all face our fears - digital or otherwise?

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Facebook Serious About User Privacy

[image error]As more and more cases of privacy issues involving social media accounts come to light, the world's biggest social media player is becoming more vocal about its view on the situation.

Facebook has said that lawsuits may be an option should employers or others invade the privacy of its users. This warning comes as the media has reported on more employees having issues with employers over their accounts and job applicants oftentimes being asked to provide their social media habits to potential employers.

In comments March 23 on Facebook's Privacy Page, Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan noted "This practice undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user's friends. It also potentially exposes the employer who seeks this access to unanticipated legal liability.

"(W)e don't think it's the right thing to do," Egan continued. "But it also may cause problems for the employers that they are not anticipating. For example, if an employer sees on Facebook that someone is a member of a protected group (e.g. over a certain age, etc.) that employer may open themselves up to claims of discrimination if they don't hire that person."

For those unfamiliar with the process, reports show more and more individuals are being asked for their Facebook passwords or told they need to "friend" managers at the time they apply for a position.

Egan went on to state that the social media giant takes its users' privacy seriously. "We'll take action to protect the privacy and security of our users, whether by engaging policymakers or, where appropriate, by initiating legal action, including by shutting down applications that abuse their privileges."

As Facebook's user agreement states when one signs up for an account, "You will not share your password, (or in the case of developers, your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything else that might jeopardize the security of your account."

Along with Facebook, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has also given its two cents on the matter.

In a post on the ACLU Web site, attorney Catherine Crump remarked, "It's an invasion of privacy for private employers to insist on looking at people's private Facebook pages as a condition of employment or consideration in an application process.  People are entitled to their private lives. You'd be appalled if your employer insisted on opening up your postal mail to see if there was anything of interest inside. It's equally out of bounds for an employer to go on a fishing expedition through a person's private social media account."

Given the scrutiny that some job applicants have been placed under with their social media accounts, several states have proposed legislation to prohibit employers from seeking access to an applicant's social profiles, including Maryland and Illinois.

So, would you be comfortable giving up your Facebook log-in information if a current or potential employer sought it?

If the answer is yes, would you be okay with an employer or one you might work for reading your regular mail that comes from the post office?

If the answer to that question is no, then what's the difference between reading of online and offline mail?

Photo credit: socialexcerpts.com

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Top 10 Social Media Sites with Highest Brand Value

Top 10 social media sites with the highest brand value according to . I believe they have way undervalued LinkedIn.

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