Twitter Declared Most Popular English Word of 2009

Mashable reports that the word, "Twitter" has been declared the most popular English word of 2009. The Global Language Monitor, which tracks language trends, has once again compiled and released its yearly list of the most popular words and phrases within the English language. In 2008, the #1 most popular word was “change” (referring to the mantra of the top name of 2008, Barack Obama). However, Obama has been supplanted this year by the 140 character sensation that is Twitter.

Twitter Declared Most Popular English Word of 2009

Woot.com Launches Deal Crowdsourcing Site

The venerable spot for deal-seekers just went social. Woot.com has introduced Deals.Woot.com, an attempt to turn its rabid fans into a crowd-sourced deal finding-and-evaluating machine that finds dozens of bargains worthy of a “w00t, w00t!”says Wired writer, Ryan Singel.

Singel continues, While Woot isn’t the first to try this, Woot has already grown a fanatically loyal user community around its sites. Already the deal site is attracting more votes per item than any previous such attempts ever seemed to.

What do you think about this move by Woot? Will we see more deal websites trying to compete in the social/crowd-sourcing arena?

Woot.com Launches Deal Crowdsourcing Site

Social Media is a Team Effort

I came across this post from Chris Brogan's blog in which he compares social media to a recent football game he was watching. What he was trying to get across in the post is that just like how football games can not be won solely by the quarterback or head coach, people will have trouble convincing companies to adopt social media if the industry is filled with solo players. To make things work in social media, every part of an internal + external team should be assigned a task. Instead, companies are assigning all these tasks simply to one person in the company, and this does nothing to help communication within these channels. There needs to be a more integrated approach. Do you agree with Chris?

Gamers get social media as Facebook comes to PS3

PS3 addicts can now access Facebook through their systems. Brandrepublic.com writes, Sony is promising more integration with Facebook to come, but in the meantime PlayStation owners will be able to check updates and those of their friends on Facebook and Twitter as well as other social media sites through the PS3's built-in browser.

Most importantly with Facebook on the Xbox gamers will be able to find out which of their Facebook friends are also on Xbox Live. Other features include the ability to browse photos and update their status.

For more on the Facebook's presence on PS3, please click here.

What can social media do for your business?

The MetroWest Daily News' Jeff Adair recently spoke with Bob Cargill, the Direct Marketer of the Year for 2009, recently commented on what social media can do for a business, from building more connections between the brand and customers to what the most effective social media tool is. Cargill believes social media is here to stay and not a fad, as it is on track to become more used than any other electronic communication.

Cargill also added this about how it enhances your in-person encounters with your customers:
"Yes, absolutely. Social media shouldn’t replace face-to-face meetings. Ideally, it should lead to even more physical encounters. It should help you make connections online with people who ultimately become customers and friends offline. There’s even a word for meetings between two or more people who have met on Twitter. It’s called a Tweetup. "

Read the full article here.

Blogging Innovation: Five Steps to a Successful B2B Social Media Strategy

Matt Heinz of Blogging Innovation discusses today about how social media professionals can effectively manage B2B communication. Heinz offers five key ways to strategize your b2b efforts.

They are as follows:

1. Strategize
2. Publish
3. Follow
4. Engage
5. Convert & Measure

We encourage you to check out Heinz's post for his run-down of each element. Any that you'd like to add?


Five Steps to a Successful B2B Social Media Strategy

How to Build Brand Awareness of Facebook

This recent article in SearchEnglineLand.com discusses how a company can create brand awareness on Facebook. Kevin Gibbons give the example of Aleksandr Orlov, the founder of Compare the Meerkat. His status updates are sporadic and written in the way he talks, so it doesn't sound salesy. Not only that, but the online persona is not closely associated with the online website, and so it makes it ok to become a fan without all of the marketing that goes along with it.

Armed Forces Day is an example of an organization that has a lot of fans without any real marketing behind it. The reasoning behind this is because of the brilliance of what the organization stands for. Dunkin Donuts is another Facebook Fan favorite. Dunkin embraced a campaign that allowed its Facebook users to post pictures of themselves with any Coolatta drink. Involving your fans in the community is a sure way to get hundreds of fans.

What are some other examples of companies building brand awareness on Facebook?

As a social media professional, what should you be reading?

What books are you currently reading to learn more about social media? Mashable just published a list with what they believe are the top five books. What would you add?

Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt
Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel
Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuck
The New Community Rules by Tamar Weinberg

For commentary on the books, read the full article at Mashable.

NYTimes: How to Market Your Business With Facebook

New York Times reporter Kermit Pattison writes today that small business owners may want to re-think their relationship with Facebook. As we've covered on this blog before, Facebook can be a powerful tool for small business owners. Utilizing the fan page and group functions, your product/service's reach can extend far beyond your target market. Here's what Pattison has to say, Businesses can easily create a Web presence with Facebook, even if they don’t have their own Web site (most companies still should maintain a Web site to reach people who don’t use Facebook or whose employers block access to the site). Businesses can claim a vanity address so that their Facebook address reflects the business name, like www.facebook.com/Starbucks. Facebook pages can link to the company’s Web site or direct sales to e-commerce sites like Ticketmaster or Amazon.

Read more of Pattison's claims for Facebook and let us know your thoughts.

Free Web Seminar Next Thursday - Unlock a Better Business Strategy with Text Analytics

Start Date/Time: Thu, Nov 19, 2009 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EST

With SPSS text analytics, you can read documents, blogs, wikis, tweets, e-mails, call center notes, surveys and other free form text – and turn the insight you gain into a true strategic asset. We’ll show you how to use text analytics with social media and other Web 2.0 sites to understand trends, and what your customers want, and how they’ll behave. We’ll demonstrate using text analytics in modeling to make your models better, and how to use automatic translation from more than 30 languages to make sense of your global customer base.

Your customers are talking about you, and you can gain a genuine advantage by knowing what they are saying. Attend this webinar and learn how you can “listen in” – and act on the information to gain a competitive edge.

This webinar will show how to:
- Use text analytics to make sense of any text, including Web 2.0 sources such as social networking sites
- Use the information to get a better understanding of your customers, your products, and your competitors.
- Make sense of free-form text resources, and act on the insight you gain
- Unlock predictive secrets from text sources, and combine that information with structured data to build powerful predictive
models that can inform decision making.

Featured Speaker
Jane Hendricks, Product Marketing Manager, SPSS, an IBM Company

Mention priority code MWS0026BLOG when registering:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/646359377

Burberry Banks on Social Media Love for their Iconic Trench Coat

Reuters reports this morning that the luxury goods brand, Burberry is introducing its nearly 100 year old Trench coat to social media. The Web site, artofthetrench.com, will allow members connected via Facebook to submit images and stories about Burberry trench coats and share them with one other...The Web site, artofthetrench.com, will allow members connected via Facebook to submit images and stories about Burberry trench coats and share them with one other.

What do you think of stalwart retailers using the social space for their goods? Will they see a benefit?

NACCM 2009: I Want To Tweet You Up

Here's another post from the Customers 1st blog which highlights a session called "I Want To Tweet You Up" from Michael Tchong at the NACCM Conference that just took place. Enjoy!

I Want To Tweet You Up: What Emerging Customer Trends Mean for Your Business
Michael Tchong, Trend Analyst & Founder, Ubercool

We should begin by discriminating trends from fads. Trends are consumer value changes. The best way to predict consumer behavior

Ubertrend – major movement, pattern or wave, emerging in the consumer lifestyle

Digital lifestyle – marriage between man and machine
The Compression – the acceleration of life
Unwired – The unhooked generation

Captin Sully’s situation reporting coverage was changed by Twitter. The first image was from Janis Krums from Sarasota, Florida from an iPhone. Comedians are the ones who best observe trends. The youths are on the front of this trend. The majority of Twitter users are abroad. Twendz lets you see Twitter trends as they are cascading down. Michael Tchong said Twitter will make or break swine flu.

Multitasking too much makes it harder for humans to remember things. The Wii now responds people to rehabilitate faster. Have you gone to “Wii”hab yet?

Tchong looks to microwaves for introducing Americans to instant gratification. Our state of mind has become a state of time. Culture has created a fast society, because we have a fear of being left behind.

Everyone is looking for innovation. In 1999, 95% of people stated that they wanted to be a leader. This is up from 37% in 1991.



We’re all facing the GPS Generation. We can get anywhere like a native, and leaving maps behind. Same can be said for speed dial and remembering phone numbers. Sit or Squat to find the restroom.

Time Compression. Food, photos, instant energy, etc. We are all trigger happy. Epic fail – Frequently used term in the video game community that means you really messed up and/or something/someone is an utter failure. This is video game culture seeping into life.

Digital lifestyle: We’ve gotten an unknown president into office. Twilight and New Moon made a mom from Phoenix a multimillionaire.

Download free Uberternds map at ubercool.com.

Millennial Moms -- The Most Connected and Tech-Toy Dependent Population

According to a free whitepaper by Mr. Youth, Millennial Moms, those born between 1977 and 1996, are quickly becoming the biggest users of the online space. The report documents this segment of the population's ability to multi-task, utilize multiple devices and over share on popular social networks. Another interesting point is that this generation utilizes communities, or even creates communities when they are dealing with important life changes.

We can see this with the gads of "Mommy Bloggers," who cover everything from child-rearing to household finance.

We encourage you to check out this whitepaper and to think about how you can connect and share with this population.

The Most Connected and Tech-Toy Dependent Population... Millennial Moms...Mr. Youth Study

NACCM 2009: Answering the Social Phone – Listening, Measuring, and Engaging in Social Media.

We're live this week in sunny Phoenix for the NACCM: Customer 1st 2009 conference. Our guest-blogger, Norma Huibregtse covered a session yesterday on social media and customer service. Follow along with us via our Customer 1st Blog as we continue our coverage from this year's event.

Below is her entry.


NACCM 2009: Answering the Social Phone – Listening, Measuring, and Engaging in Social Media.

Your social media phone is ringing. But are you answering it? Do the right thing by listening and engaging with your customers says David Alston, VP of Marketing & Community for Radian6.

What should we be listening for? Alston says that he listens for ideas, compliments, memes, crisis, complaints, competition, crowds, campaign buzz, and needs. Treat the conversations as if you are at a cocktail party. Don’t just jump in but look for the point of need from a customer. Listening first and then engage has been the common theme throughout many of the NACCM presentations today.

Alston shared the 5 C’s for engaging in social media. They include:

Content – give content because people don’t want your promotions.
Community – you want to create a place where your fans, customers and even critics can live together.
Conversation – they build the relationships that build your business.
Collaboration – because the consumer is more and more in control, it’s best to collaborate with your community than try to control it.
Connections – you can’t be a hermit. You must actively and consistently connect with your community.

What do you do if there are no conversations about you? Find people who share your passion and join their conversations. Eventually these relationships will evolve and bring you more exposure. The ultimate is to have customers share their positive testimonials about your business using tools like Twitter. Alston shared how he files positive tweets about Radian6 as “favorites” which he calls “twestimonials”.

Alston listed several reasons why some companies hold back from using social media to engage customers. They include restrictive policies, culture, bureaucracy, lack of momentum, concerns over window dressing, lack of top level support and lack of resources. When it comes to your culture, Alston says “if you suck in real life, you will suck on social media.” Make sure it’s right first.

In his Social Media Maturity Model, Alton talks about the various levels of engagement. We all should begin at the bottom and work our way up. That way you build credibility with each step.

Contributing - Contributing value through content and helping customers achieve goals
Sharing - Tell your own story. Share your brand’s passion & personality
Participating - Adding on and sharing your knowledge
Responding - Answering the “social phone”
Listening - Monitoring and analysis

For those still hesitant about getting engaged in social media, Alston says “find your path, and get started NOW!” Consumers want to connect with your brand. You’ll make mistakes but you will survive. Alston’s advice is to “have fun”. With over 11,000 followers on Twitter, you can bet that he is having tons of fun!

Creating a Customer-Centric Social Media Strategy that Works

Here's a guest post from Norma Huibregtse on the Customers 1st blog that I thought might be of interest to our community readers. NACCM is currently taking place so make sure to subscribe to the NACCM blog for live updates from the event. Check the post out below.


Business owners want to jump on the social media bandwagon but just don’t know where to begin. Becky Carroll, founder of Customers Rock!, believes you must have a strategy to engage in social media today. In her presentation today, "Putting Together a Customer-Centric Social Media Strategy that Works: Deciphering the Hype from Reality", she discusses how to put together a customer centeric social media strategy that works.

Why consider social media? Carroll says because your customers want it or management wants it. She reminds us that 60% of Americans are using social media, 93% believe a company should have a presence in social media and 85% believe a company should interact via social media. Using social media helps to remove the “faceless veil” so that customers can get to know you on a personal level says Carroll.

According to Carroll, hitting the Social media sweet spot allows us to:
– build trust with customers
– build community
– WOM maximizer
– two-way conversations

Based on the book Groundswell, Carroll shares several reasons to use social media: to listen, talk, energize, help and embrace your customers. Ask your customers which social media venues work best for them.

How do you create a social media strategy? Carroll says you should participate by first listening, deciding what you want to do with your customers and choose the right tools. Establish social media goals. What do you want to do? Share your expertise, build relationships, create a conversation, customer service, or be more human?

Carroll shared several company examples which are successfully using social media. She mentioned the top three brands with the deepest brand engagement using social media Starbucks, Dell and Ebay. Other examples include Coca Cola, JetBlue and Cisco. Coca Cola’s Fan Page was developed by two loyal customers. JetBlue Airways uses Twitter for customer service and has over 1.4 million followers. Cisco CEO John Chambers was captured on video in his office doing duck calls. The video was posted on their blog and allowed customers to see his human side.

The key to social media is in the planning. Decide who is in charge of social media. Many are outsourcing to marketing companies and PR firms. Carroll believes you should not outsource this to someone outside of the company. Find someone in your organization who would love the opportunity to create conversations about your company. Everyone needs to be involved in strategy: marketing, customer service, R&D, C-level, and employees.

Decide which metrics are the most critical. Start with small, focused pilots. Remember, you must be consistent as it is a relationship-building activity for the long term according to Carroll. Ask for customer feedback and revise your strategy as needed.

You can engage in social media in a planned way. Set up the plan and get your organization involved. According to Carroll, it takes a little nurture and care. Little things like “thank you” matter to your customers. Begin by listening is Carroll’s strongest advice.

8% Growth in Social Media -- Thanks to Aging Facebook Users

The Guardian reports today that social media has seen an 8% growth in popularity, largely thanks to the growing number of older persons on Facebook. Writer Mercedes Bunz says, the use of social media is still growing: a survey has revealed that 19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or see updates about others.

Bunz also reports that Facebook users are getting a lot older. Its median age is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008, while the average Twitterer is still 31, a figure that has remained stable over the past year. By comparison, MySpace users' median age is 26, down from 27 in May 2008, while LinkedIn is 39, down from 40.

With 8% growth, social media still on the rise - as Facebook users get older