We're taking some much needed time off from our coverage of social media and online communities to celebrate the season with our loved ones. We want to sincerely thank you for your readership, your comments and your participation.
Here are our top posts from 2009:
Track Presentation: Southwest Airlines - Nuts About Online Communications
Enterprise Customer Communities: Hot Topics for 2009
Keynote: Traditional Corporate Communication is Dead
We'll be back in January with more coverage.
We wish you Happy Holidays!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Social Media Strategies & Community 2.0 Brochure Available
Welcome to Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies
Targeted advice for business managers seeking real-life stories of how to leverage social media for real results. Not just entertainment value, hype or buzz, but real-world examples of driving revenue, cutting costs, and energizing conversations around your brand.
For more information, visit the webpage here.
Download the brochure here.
Targeted advice for business managers seeking real-life stories of how to leverage social media for real results. Not just entertainment value, hype or buzz, but real-world examples of driving revenue, cutting costs, and energizing conversations around your brand.
For more information, visit the webpage here.
Download the brochure here.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Facebook Campaign Beats Cowell's New Singer
CNN.com reports that Rage Against the Machine has claimed the prestigious No. 1 spot on the British singles chart on the last Sunday before Christmas, marking the first time in five years the winner of Simon Cowell's "X-Factor" has not won.
Joe McElderry's "The Climb" came in second, beaten by a huge online swell of support for "Killing in the Name," backed by a Facebook group with nearly 1 million members.
It was the first time a group had ever won the top slot based on downloads alone, BBC's "The Chart Show" said.
It's reported that this upset is the product of a very savvy social media pair. Jon and Tracy Morter, who led the Facebook campaign for Rage Against the Machine have since turned down offers by Simon Cowell to "be in marketing or even running the company!' reports The Daily Mail.
Learn more:
Joe McElderry's "The Climb" came in second, beaten by a huge online swell of support for "Killing in the Name," backed by a Facebook group with nearly 1 million members.
It was the first time a group had ever won the top slot based on downloads alone, BBC's "The Chart Show" said.
It's reported that this upset is the product of a very savvy social media pair. Jon and Tracy Morter, who led the Facebook campaign for Rage Against the Machine have since turned down offers by Simon Cowell to "be in marketing or even running the company!' reports The Daily Mail.
Learn more:
Friday, December 18, 2009
Social Media Plans a Must for Businesses in '10
Vanessa DiMauro has a fascinating look at social media policies in her recent post on CustomerThink.com. DiMauro warns that a social media policy should be implemented across an organization as soon as possible. This will arm the organization with a set of procedures and policies that can keep everyone on the same page with regard to corporate communication. DiMauro offers a few tips on what to consider when formulating at social media plan.
Some questions to consider when formulating a plan:
What is your company culture like? Make sure that the social media policy reinforces company culture - an informal organization will have a different policy than, say, a government agency.
How do you want the employees to engage with clients and prospects? Take into account the in-person sales and marketing channel strategy and align the social media policy to those best practices.
What is considered confidential to your organization? Spell out what hind of information can and can't be shared publicly.
How should staff represent them selves to others? Standardize or provide guidelines so that there is an evenness to your online footprint. Should all sales staff, for example, use a similar moniker in their twitter name or is it up to the person to decide?
What does transparency mean to your company? Too often people confuse personal opinion with company-representation. Can a staff of your organization share displeasure with the company's product or services online without disclosing she work for your company?
For more information on creating a social media plan, we encourage you to check our DiMauro's post in its entirety.
Learn more: Why You Need A Social Media Policy in 2010
Some questions to consider when formulating a plan:
What is your company culture like? Make sure that the social media policy reinforces company culture - an informal organization will have a different policy than, say, a government agency.
How do you want the employees to engage with clients and prospects? Take into account the in-person sales and marketing channel strategy and align the social media policy to those best practices.
What is considered confidential to your organization? Spell out what hind of information can and can't be shared publicly.
How should staff represent them selves to others? Standardize or provide guidelines so that there is an evenness to your online footprint. Should all sales staff, for example, use a similar moniker in their twitter name or is it up to the person to decide?
What does transparency mean to your company? Too often people confuse personal opinion with company-representation. Can a staff of your organization share displeasure with the company's product or services online without disclosing she work for your company?
For more information on creating a social media plan, we encourage you to check our DiMauro's post in its entirety.
Learn more: Why You Need A Social Media Policy in 2010
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Twitter's Top Trending Topics of 2009
There are plenty of lists on the PCWorld website, click here.
News Events
1. #iranelection
2. Swine Flu
3. Gaza
4. Iran
5. Tehran
6. #swineflu
7. AIG
8. #uksnow
9. Earth Hour
10. #inaug09
Technology became a disruptive force in Iran this summer when protests broke out over the results of that country's presidential elections. Tech tools like twitter, cell phones, digital cameras, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook were all employed to get the word out and raise global awareness about the controversy. Since the protests, the actual impact of Twitter and other technologies on the protests have been called into question, but there's no doubt Iran was a hot topic online this year.
Technology
Google Wave was the hottest technology topic on Twitter for 2009. Google's collaborative work platform grabbed a large amount of interest when it was first announced, but since then enthusiasm for Wave has diminished. Apple and Microsoft got their fair share of tweets after launching the Snow Leopard and Windows 7 operating systems. And Palm's Pre was the only smartphone to make any of Twitter's top ten lists for 2009.
1. Google Wave
2. Snow Leopard
3. Tweetdeck
4. Windows 7
5. CES
6. Palm Pre
7. Google Latitude
8. #E3
9. #amazonfail
10. Macworld
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Meet the speakers of Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies: Ali McCourt, TurboTax Inner Circle
We’re pleased to announce d like to present you with the first of a series of speaker podcasts delivered by our outstanding Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies speaker faculty.
Our first conversation is with Ali McCourt, who is the leader of the TurboTax Inner Circle.
Subscribe Free
Add to my Page
Download the podcast here.
Download the transcription here.
Can you tell us about the TurboTax Community?
Ali: I manage a community called The TurboTax Inner Circle. And essentially what it is is a volunteer army, a group of about 25,000 customers, and they participate with us by raising their hand and telling us that they want to help build better products and services. We work with them throughout the year to get those insights. So the goal for our community is two fold. On the product and marketing site, it’s really to obtain quick customer insight to help us drive enhancements and changes. On the customer side, it’s really building loyalty among those who want to engage with us. So it’s really great because as a result of interacting with them, and getting quick iterations on our product, obviously we get those benefits in that we get to push those to our product. And then on the customer loyalty side, we get to build this engaged group of evangelists who help spread word of mouth. And then they’re also leveraged for immediate feedback year round. We have great participation rates within our community.
How has it helped build a relationship with your customers? Has there been a financial benefit from creating this community?
Ali: Absolutely. Any time you really listen to customers and take their feedback to heart, and put it into your products, you’re going to see the financial benefits, because these are the people who buy your products. But chances are that more specifically within this community, I’ll give you an example. We launched a feature about a year and a half ago and we saw an immediate lift in revenue by $6 million. And since it’s been implemented, we’ve seen a lift of over $19 million in the last two years and that’s just with one feature. We do this year round, there’s upwards of 30 or 40 interactions per year that we have with this group. So financial upside is kind of a no brainer when you consider the cost of what it takes to listen to your customers.
Now for the first question, how does this help with engagement? I think this really helps us humanize our brand. So, this group of 25,000 customers sees me as TurboTax Ali. So now there’s a face and a persona with the brand versus “Oh, it’s Intuit,” or “Oh, it’s TurboTax.” They really have this special relationship with me and they know that they can come to myself or the community to get help or give feedback, to really know that they’re listened in their feedback and their time is taken to heart. So for us, I think that’s the biggest benefit. And that’s why we keep doing this, and it kind of creates this virtuous cycle of engagement. We’re able to close the loop with them and tell them where their feedback has been enacted. Pointing to it actually gets them more excited to get participating and giving us more ideas. I think this is the best way we’ve worked to create engagement.
You won a Groundswell Award for your work on this online community. Can you tell us a little more about that?
Ali: The Groundswell Award we won last year was for Company Transformation. So I have to give credit to my colleagues, so it wasn’t just the Inner Circle that won the award. It was our whole company. So QuickBooks community, who is another business division of our company, has their own community. The Inner Circle was also part of that, and then our TurboTax Live Community, which is a live question and answer based support site. This leverages the power of community in order to answer those questions.
What I think it really goes back to is that social is in Intuit’s DNA. Our founder Scott Cook is a huge advocate of listening to customers and building our products around their feedback and what they think would be easy to do. I think it’s really a part of our brand since we’ve been around in the last 25, 26 yeas. We think of it in three components. We’ve got the social media side, which is more marketing through Twitter, Facebook, contests, etc. Then we have the technology, which is the platform you build the components on. If you wanted to leverage social data, that’s where it falls into place. And then we have our communities, which is the Inner Circle and the live community side of things. The way we’ve broken this down into the different components has defiantly shown in winning the Groundswell award. It’s not just one silo in our company, it’s transparent throughout. No matter who you talk to, everyone is excited to talk to customers, and I think that’s kind of why we’ve been so successful.
To find out more about Ali McCourt's presentation and the rest of the Social Media Strategies and Community 2.0 event, download the brochure here.
Our first conversation is with Ali McCourt, who is the leader of the TurboTax Inner Circle.
Subscribe Free
Add to my Page
Download the podcast here.
Download the transcription here.
Can you tell us about the TurboTax Community?
Ali: I manage a community called The TurboTax Inner Circle. And essentially what it is is a volunteer army, a group of about 25,000 customers, and they participate with us by raising their hand and telling us that they want to help build better products and services. We work with them throughout the year to get those insights. So the goal for our community is two fold. On the product and marketing site, it’s really to obtain quick customer insight to help us drive enhancements and changes. On the customer side, it’s really building loyalty among those who want to engage with us. So it’s really great because as a result of interacting with them, and getting quick iterations on our product, obviously we get those benefits in that we get to push those to our product. And then on the customer loyalty side, we get to build this engaged group of evangelists who help spread word of mouth. And then they’re also leveraged for immediate feedback year round. We have great participation rates within our community.
How has it helped build a relationship with your customers? Has there been a financial benefit from creating this community?
Ali: Absolutely. Any time you really listen to customers and take their feedback to heart, and put it into your products, you’re going to see the financial benefits, because these are the people who buy your products. But chances are that more specifically within this community, I’ll give you an example. We launched a feature about a year and a half ago and we saw an immediate lift in revenue by $6 million. And since it’s been implemented, we’ve seen a lift of over $19 million in the last two years and that’s just with one feature. We do this year round, there’s upwards of 30 or 40 interactions per year that we have with this group. So financial upside is kind of a no brainer when you consider the cost of what it takes to listen to your customers.
Now for the first question, how does this help with engagement? I think this really helps us humanize our brand. So, this group of 25,000 customers sees me as TurboTax Ali. So now there’s a face and a persona with the brand versus “Oh, it’s Intuit,” or “Oh, it’s TurboTax.” They really have this special relationship with me and they know that they can come to myself or the community to get help or give feedback, to really know that they’re listened in their feedback and their time is taken to heart. So for us, I think that’s the biggest benefit. And that’s why we keep doing this, and it kind of creates this virtuous cycle of engagement. We’re able to close the loop with them and tell them where their feedback has been enacted. Pointing to it actually gets them more excited to get participating and giving us more ideas. I think this is the best way we’ve worked to create engagement.
You won a Groundswell Award for your work on this online community. Can you tell us a little more about that?
Ali: The Groundswell Award we won last year was for Company Transformation. So I have to give credit to my colleagues, so it wasn’t just the Inner Circle that won the award. It was our whole company. So QuickBooks community, who is another business division of our company, has their own community. The Inner Circle was also part of that, and then our TurboTax Live Community, which is a live question and answer based support site. This leverages the power of community in order to answer those questions.
What I think it really goes back to is that social is in Intuit’s DNA. Our founder Scott Cook is a huge advocate of listening to customers and building our products around their feedback and what they think would be easy to do. I think it’s really a part of our brand since we’ve been around in the last 25, 26 yeas. We think of it in three components. We’ve got the social media side, which is more marketing through Twitter, Facebook, contests, etc. Then we have the technology, which is the platform you build the components on. If you wanted to leverage social data, that’s where it falls into place. And then we have our communities, which is the Inner Circle and the live community side of things. The way we’ve broken this down into the different components has defiantly shown in winning the Groundswell award. It’s not just one silo in our company, it’s transparent throughout. No matter who you talk to, everyone is excited to talk to customers, and I think that’s kind of why we’ve been so successful.
To find out more about Ali McCourt's presentation and the rest of the Social Media Strategies and Community 2.0 event, download the brochure here.
Monday, December 14, 2009
How can publishers use Twitter?
J. S. McDougall of the Huffington Post recently wrote a list of how book publishers can best use Twitter. The tips are publishing specific, but how can you twist them to best fit your industry?
Social Media Strategies and Community 2.0 has a panel called How Can I Unlock the Business Value of Twitter to Innovate, Interact, Inform?" which pulls from businesses currently using Twitter such as Sega, Planet Hollywood, Southwest, The Travel Channel and Whole Foods. For more on this panel, and the conference, download the brochure here.
1. [Tweet this tip!] Sign up for Twitter then cruise through WeFollow.com,TwitDir.com and the new Twitter Lists to find and follow folks in your niche.
2. [Tweet this tip!] Create several Twitter accounts based on the niches in which you publish.
3. [Tweet this tip!] Avoid the temptation to automate. It is important that you are on Twitter to respond to the community.
4. [Tweet this tip!] Sell books by adding substantive information from your books and authors to the conversation. No hard sales pitches, please.
5. [Tweet this tip!] Have fun. Invent new ... ways to engage your Twitter community--contests, polls, jokes, raffles, giveaways, etc.
6. [Tweet this tip!] Twitter accounts dedicated to a single book are hard to build and sustain. Stick with the larger niche.
7. [Tweet this tip!] If you are one of a few people running a single Twitter account, be open about it by signing your name ala: -Jesse
8. [Tweet this tip!] Create and use hashtags to start and follow conversations in your niche.
9. [Tweet this tip!] Join appropriate Twitter groups (twittgroups.com) and have honest interactions with the folks there.
10. [Tweet this tip!] Use tools to track your Twitter success: ChartBeat,HootSuite, Google Analytics.
Social Media Strategies and Community 2.0 has a panel called How Can I Unlock the Business Value of Twitter to Innovate, Interact, Inform?" which pulls from businesses currently using Twitter such as Sega, Planet Hollywood, Southwest, The Travel Channel and Whole Foods. For more on this panel, and the conference, download the brochure here.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Social Media Influencing Holiday Purchases
InformationWeek.com reports that a recent survey by comScore found that 28% of online shoppers were influenced by info on Facebook or Twitter in making holiday purchases.
In its latest poll, comScore found that consumer-generated product reviews were the most cited social media purchase influence in the period with 13% of the poll respondents citing that category. Another 11% said they were influenced by an expert product review; followed by a Facebook fan page, 7%; a Facebook friend's recommendation, 6%; company recommendations on Twitter, 5%; and "tweets" from a friend, 3%.
Do you think that the holiday shopping experience has gone entirely social?
Learn more: Social Media Influencing Holiday Purchases
In its latest poll, comScore found that consumer-generated product reviews were the most cited social media purchase influence in the period with 13% of the poll respondents citing that category. Another 11% said they were influenced by an expert product review; followed by a Facebook fan page, 7%; a Facebook friend's recommendation, 6%; company recommendations on Twitter, 5%; and "tweets" from a friend, 3%.
Do you think that the holiday shopping experience has gone entirely social?
Learn more: Social Media Influencing Holiday Purchases
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Social Media Today Web Seminar: Adding Value with Online Community: How to Leverage Community for Fun & Profit
Adding Value with Online Community: How to Leverage Community for Fun & Profit
Webinar December 18, 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT
Register now: http://bit.ly/7nM0AE
Maggie Fox (@maggiefox)
Rachel Happe (@rhappe)
Neil Beam
Francois Gossieaux
Webinar December 18, 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT
Register now: http://bit.ly/7nM0AE
In the last two years, the business discussion around online community has evolved from “whether” to “how” and “for what purpose.” No longer regarded as peripheral to communications and marketing strategy, it is seen as core to development of brand, product, and positive customer experience.
The issues arising around online community are now more specific, and reflect the tremendous growth in understanding of communities and the value derived from them. Companies and organizations are creating or sponsoring communities of purpose everywhere on the web. They can be long-lasting, or intended to convene only for a single specific purpose. They are built and exist on many platforms, offered by a growing variety of vendors.
The measures of success also vary, but there is also an evolving set of “best practices” honed by leading researchers like Beeline Labs in its work with Deloitte. Increasingly, marketers are beginning to establish compelling case studies demonstrating significant ROI around communities for reducing costs, generating leads, and plain-old product sales.
In cooperation with Social Media Group, the leading boutique advertising agency for social media, Social Media Today is proud to present a live interactive webcast to explore these developments, the third in its series of discussions about the real events in the world of social media.
This webinar is also an opportunity to introduce you to our new online community, The Social Customer, which is devoted to the discussion of this important topic and other aspects of customer service today. By registering for this webinar, you'll automatically become a member of The Social Customer community.
We plan on delving into the following issues, as well as responding live to audience questions:
- What are the various types of community and what are some of their reasons for being?
- What makes an online community work?
- How do you measure success? Operationally? Bottom-line?
- What are the ways that communities fail?
- What are the best platforms and technologies available?
- How should you budget for costs?
Maggie Fox (@maggiefox)
Rachel Happe (@rhappe)
Neil Beam
Francois Gossieaux
Media Sponsor
IIR USA's Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies
May 3-5, 2010 Boston World Trade Center and Seaport Hotel
Presenting Sponsors
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Recent Study Shows Phishing on Facebook has Increased
A recent study conducted by the internet security company Sophos has some shocking details as highlighted by this post on ReadWriteWeb. In the study Sophos created fake accounts to see how the majority of people acted towards friend requests and how much information is made publicly available by its users. Here are the results of Facebook users that gave "Freddi" (the fake account) access to their personal information.
- 72% of respondents divulged at least one email address
- 84% of respondents listed their full date of birth
- 87% of respondents provided details about their education or workplace
- 78% of respondents listed their current address or location
- 23% of respondents listed their current phone number
- 26% of respondents provided their IM screen name
Will Facebook up its phishing policy to put an end to fake accounts?
- 72% of respondents divulged at least one email address
- 84% of respondents listed their full date of birth
- 87% of respondents provided details about their education or workplace
- 78% of respondents listed their current address or location
- 23% of respondents listed their current phone number
- 26% of respondents provided their IM screen name
Will Facebook up its phishing policy to put an end to fake accounts?
Monday, December 7, 2009
Friendster's Facelift and Rumored Sale
Late last week there were rumors that the once wildly popular social network, Friendster, will soon be sold for a reported $100M. The social network, popular with 16-24 year olds in Southeast Asia has recently undergone a site transformation, perhaps prepping it for the big sale. SFGate.com reports, "We've responded to the needs and wants of our core user base, Asian youth," said Friendster spokesman Jeff Roberto. "Friendster is dominant among the youth sector in Asia, and today, Asia represents the largest and fastest growing Internet and mobile phone user populations in the world."
Roberto would not comment on a Reuters story that Friendster will be sold by the end of the year for more than $100 million to a firm based in Asia.
He said there were "inaccuracies'' in the story, but declined to comment further citing company policy. CEO Richard Kimber told The Chronicle in October that Friendster hoped to find a "strategic partner'' by the end of this year.
Learn more: Friendster undergoes "green" facelift, reported close to sale
Roberto would not comment on a Reuters story that Friendster will be sold by the end of the year for more than $100 million to a firm based in Asia.
He said there were "inaccuracies'' in the story, but declined to comment further citing company policy. CEO Richard Kimber told The Chronicle in October that Friendster hoped to find a "strategic partner'' by the end of this year.
Learn more: Friendster undergoes "green" facelift, reported close to sale
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Social Media and Movies Mix on Movieclips.com
Wednesday's launch of Movieclips.com by Zack James, 27 is an "unprecedented move" by the studios to allow free movie content.
Lauren A.E. Schucker of The Wall Street Journal writes, "Users of the site...can find clips from more than 1,200 films, ranging from classics like "The Wizard of Oz" to the latest "Twilight" sequel. The Movieclips site allows fans to rent or purchase films from retailers after browsing clips; it also offers ways to share clips on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook...In a rare move, all six major Hollywood studios, including Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., have agreed to license content to the site, perhaps hoping to boost DVD sales by sharing promotional content like clips."
Site Brings Movies to Social Media
Do you think Movieclips.com has the strength to compete with other video sharing sites?
Lauren A.E. Schucker of The Wall Street Journal writes, "Users of the site...can find clips from more than 1,200 films, ranging from classics like "The Wizard of Oz" to the latest "Twilight" sequel. The Movieclips site allows fans to rent or purchase films from retailers after browsing clips; it also offers ways to share clips on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook...In a rare move, all six major Hollywood studios, including Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., have agreed to license content to the site, perhaps hoping to boost DVD sales by sharing promotional content like clips."
Site Brings Movies to Social Media
Do you think Movieclips.com has the strength to compete with other video sharing sites?
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Facebook Integrates with Yahoo
This blog post in Search Engine Land highlights how Yahoo has announced that they will integrate many properties with Facebook Connect. Facebook will be integrated in Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Answers, and Yahoo Sports. Yahoo users will also be able to see Facebook friends' activities on their yahoo pages and even share content from Yahoo. This is very exciting news!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Twitter, Facebook, Google Go Red for World AIDS Day
Today is World Aids Day, and popular social networks have shown their support by going "red" in remembrance of the individuals lost to this deadly disease. Mashable writes, the Twitterhomepage has turned red, but you can also help out by adding the hashtag #red to the end of your tweets, which will make them turn (literally) red. It also works with the hashtag #laceupsavelives, which is a part of Nike’s campaign, promoting their new product: RED laces, designed to fight AIDS in Africa. Follow twitter.com/joinred/ to learn more and support the cause.
There’s also a campaign on Facebook over at www.facebook.com/joinred; share the (RED) video and make your profile picture (RED) if you’d like to raise awareness about this campaign.
Google has added a link to its homepage with information on how you can help and join the various campaigns related to the World AIDS day.
Twitter, Facebook, Google Go Red for World AIDS Day
Do you think that this social media response will help spur awareness of AIDS?
There’s also a campaign on Facebook over at www.facebook.com/joinred; share the (RED) video and make your profile picture (RED) if you’d like to raise awareness about this campaign.
Google has added a link to its homepage with information on how you can help and join the various campaigns related to the World AIDS day.
Twitter, Facebook, Google Go Red for World AIDS Day
Do you think that this social media response will help spur awareness of AIDS?