Happy Holidays from Community 2.0!

We're taking some time off from our coverage of online communities to celebrate the season with our loved ones. We want to sincerely thank you for your readership, your comments and your participation. We look forward to returning to the world of Community 2.0 in 2011!

Here are our top Community 2.0 posts from 2010:
VW's Social Media Campaign "Punch"
How Open Do I Need to Be REALLY? Charlene Li Responds
Walmarts Black Friday Ads Go Viral Early

We wish you Happy Holidays!

OPEN CALL FOR SPONSORSHIPS for Social Media & Community 2.0 2011

The Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies team is currently accepting proposals for event sponsorship. As a Sponsor/Partner you will have the exclusive opportunity to highlight your expertise and showcase your offerings, while securing your role as an "Industry Thought Leader".

Our goal is to provide a comprehensive environment that simulates a marketplace whereby the tools, technology and expertise are integrated into the philosophy and offerings of the event. Our goal is to ensure the solutions provided match the needs of our Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies audience.

If you have something new, unique, valuable or revolutionary to showcase then please read on.

Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies is doing an OPEN CALL FOR SPONSORSHIPS - providing you with the unparalleled opportunity to connect meaningfully with industry leaders. Past attending companies include: Tropicana Las Vegas, Southwest Air, SEGA of America, Travel Channel, Whole Foods, PepsiCo, General Mills, McDonald’s, Best Buy, Turner Broadcasting, Fidelity Investments & more.

To ensure our attendees are being exposed to the latest tools, solutions and technologies, we are now accepting submissions for a limited number of presentations, branded opportunities and exhibit spots. If you are selected you will be contacted with more information and pricing details for our sponsorship and exhibition packages, all of which can be customized based on your specific marketing goals and objectives.

Please submit a one-to three-page written profile outlining your company's innovative product, process, or solution addressing the following data points in the format outlined below. We will review and notify you of the status of your application once the review process in completed (approximately 1 week).

1. Name of the innovation/solution
2. Summary of the innovation/solution including:

• a. What problem does your innovative product/service solve?
• b. How is your product/solution unique?
• c. What is the significance and importance of this innovation to you
• d. What type of exposure are you looking to secure?
• e. How important is branding to your company?

Email your profiles to Sarene Yablonsky, Sales Manager of Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies at syablonsky@iirusa.com.

The 2011 Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies Conference

In a space that is evolving so quickly, social media is on the forefront of every business leaders mind. There is a need to stay connected on LinkedIn. Companies must understand and improve strategic efforts in the community space. It is no longer about having the right tools, but rather, about executing the right strategy, operations and results.

Join us this April 4-6, 2011 in Boston for Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies to hear real life stories on establishing new practices for social media strategies that promote business results. We are bringing together community experts with lines of business leaders who are effectively changing the ways in which we communicate and engage with our customers.

We are excited to announce this year's keynotes:
Marc Gobé, Chairman, EMOTIONAL BRANDING
Michael Tchong, Founder, UBERCOOL, Author, SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT MARKETING
James Fowler, Author, CONNECTED
Scott Stratten, President, UNMARKETING

Plus, we have over 35+ cross-industry speakers from companies! Visit the webpage to download the brochure for the full speaker list and session details:
http://bit.ly/esUTwQ

Be a part of the evolution and register today! As a reader of the Community 2.0 blog, you can receive an exclusive discount 15% off of the standard rates when you register using priority code SOCIAL11BLOG1.

Strategic Social Marketing for Communities

When options are abundant; and social media networks are available in many niches.... which websites do you think TOP the list for strategic social marketing? Here is a quick breakdown of the top 3 which I believe should be your starting point for researching & building a community around your brand or idea.

1) Facebook

According to Alexa rankings, Facebook is the second most popular place in the world today. With that type of reach it’s a no-brainer if you are looking to build a community around a niche, idea or a brand. Facebook is the right place develop relationships online and now boast over 500 million users online with a 50-60% of this user base returning every day. This offers community managers opportunities for social community building & marketing as long as you are willing to build relationships first.

Some best practices:
- Minimize the sales pitch
- Ask open ended questions
- Engage/Interact with your audience
- Offer promotions/Give-a-ways
- Build a FAN page over a GROUP
- Work the FBML or hire someone who can

2) Linkedin

Although Linkedin is number 21 according to Alexa rankings; it’s a huge source of relevant and targeted people which are decision makers and thought leaders. It is B2B unlike Facebook which leans more to C2C, but gaining interested users to your community will be possible by engaging with current groups or even starting your own.

Since there are thousands (if not more) of groups which range in size from 10 members to 100k or more you will be able to ask your peers questions about your community while engaging them on their levels of interest. If what you have to say is interesting to them or appeals to them they may very easily join your social community.

Use Q & A section of LinkedIn to build up your personal network and then tie the communication back to your goals; to build community either on Linkedin or off Linkedin.

Some best practices:
- Minimize the sales pitch
- Know your facts
- Ask open ended questions
- Ask for feedback
- Find collaborators

3) Twitter

Love it or hate it; the 140 character microblogging platform is here to stay. Your peers, business associates and top brands are all using Twitter.com these days. With this type of reach a 140 character message can travel the 7 continents in seconds with just a few retweets. Your community is there just waiting for you to give them the information they need and desire (as long as its 140 characters or less).

Search is your friend; the twitter search allows for a multitude of various regular expression searches. This alone should be where you spend your time finding your audience and determining how they communicate. Make a plan and use your knowledge of your space to speak to your potential audience and have a goal of ultimately re-directing them to your community.

Some best practices:
- Minimize the sales pitch
- Know your facts
- Always add followers who fit your community requirements
- Interact with your followers
- Search, Search, Search – do your market research!
- Make lists to organize your space


Now that you know where to start; or if you have already started and plateaued - it's time to think about next steps.

EVOLVE.

Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies is a unique event that focuses on the business value of social media for established brands, as well as entrepreneurial companies. It brings together community experts with lines of business leaders who are using social media strategically to drive their business.

From setting the strategy, to operationalizing it, to measuring the results – this event is a high-level overview of the Social Media & Community space.

Why Attend? Social Media is an evolving business that is reinventing how we interact. Learn about campaigns that have worked and ones that have failed.

What's New? Everyone has invested in Social Media, NOW find out how you can operationalize, measure and make money off of this investment

Walmarts Black Friday Ads Go Viral Early

Walmart (in a brilliant strategic move) "Black Friday" ads have been leaked ahead of time. Most major retailer wait for these Black Friday ads to be printed and distributed traditionally but this move (if Walmart did it on purpose) is very smart on a few bases:

1) People are getting the info far enough ahead to plan a trip to walmart and purchase specific black friday deals.

2) To VIEW the deals, all you have to do is search for retailer+black friday on google.com which *many* people are doing since they want deals. Plus they are spreading like wildfires on various coupon/deals sites.

Social media channels have allowed retailers to get their products and low prices infront of millions of eyeballs at a much lower cost then traditional methods. How does this apply to your social marketing efforts? Are you using social media channels to capture people at different touch points?

If we think about building a community; which TOOL or social media platform would you choose to get the word out or word of mouth campaign going?

Recently I have been looking more closely at Facebook and what advantages there are for B2B applications. The users are there; of course mostly for personal reasons but they are there.

Gettting users to FAN/Like a page is the 1st step in building the community around a brand, event or whatever your product may be. It seems more and more that incentivizing the "Fan/Like" is where the call to action comes into place and you can gain a stronger userbase around your brand.

In Walmart's case, each and everytime they lower a price, their fans are interested in knowing about these deals so "FANS/Likes" are much easier to get.

For B2B organizations it seems like the incentive has to be appropriate to the audience. Since we are not selling a Plasma TV we have to think about what our users would want within their work environment and appeal to those needs/wants.

Some ideas:
Product/Service Discounts
Starbucks Giftcards
Unique White Papers
Case Studies
Members Only Content
Ipads/Tech Gear

What does your company do to get FANS/Likes?

Will NetFlix take over the internet?

In a recent article at Slate, they reveal that when Netflix opened for streaming business in Canada, 10% of Canadians visited the webpage. In the United States, at peak internet usage hours, it accounts for 20% of traffic. It is not yet available yet to the rest of the world, but how will bandwidth hold up?

Netflix clearly found the sweet spot of their consumers. In addition to streaming much of their video collection, they made deals with major television and movie distributors to increase their offerings to consumers. What can your company learn from what Netflix has done? They found what their consumers wanted, and offered it to them. What can you do to increase the satisfaction of your customers?

Common objections to social media in large companies

Doug Lacombe at the Vancouver Sun recently spent some time working with companies to figure out why they weren't using social media, and what their objections were.

According to the article, many of the common objections to using social media are:
1. Our audience isn’t on social media

2. I don’t have time or resources to deal with social media

3. People will say mean things about us
4. IT says it’s a security risk

Have you heard these objections in your company? I firmly believe that stance #1, our audience isn't on social media, is false, and can be proved. After all, the fast growing segement using social media is older adults.

Apple publishes a band's guide to music social network, Ping

According to Mashable, Apple has released a guide for bands that explains how to use the new social networking tool, Ping. The guides creation came quickly after Apple realized that many bands and artists did not know how to use the iTunes-linked site. Reports Mashable, "Ping lacked a deep and wide network of artists, we found out that many artists were struggling to figure out how to create Ping profiles. Distribution services such as TuneCore and CDBaby have stepped in as third parties in this process, communicating with Apple and helping bands set up artist pages."

If Ping has proven to be difficult for those that it was intended for, do you think that Ping's functionality will halt further success?

"Forward Focus" - Future Trends 2010 Podcast Series Debuts with Stephen Gates

Stephen Gates
Starwood Hotels Interactive Creative Director


The social ties that bind us are wearing increasingly thin, according to Stephen Gates. As worldwide interactive creative director for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Gates has become an authority on social media and its impact on society and branding. Listen as we explore online networks as “Social Surrogates” and the implications for brand connections.

In this first installment of the Future Trends expert interview series, “Forward Focus,” Gates discusses how his ongoing professional quest to understand and optimize social media took a personal turn, and what it means for brands looking to forge meaningful relationships with consumers.

“Facebook has really almost become a social surrogate to real human interaction,” said Gates, who decided to test the strength of his own personal bonds by defriending anyone with whom he had not interacted offline in a meaningful way in the year prior.

The results of Gates’ “Inverse Facebook Experiment” may come as a surprise. In this interview, Gates provides insight to help marketers rethink the meaning of “interactivity” and how to apply it in a culture where it has become commonplace to establish and maintain relationships without speaking with or seeing other people.

Stephen Gates will also lead a symposium on the future of online branding at Future Trends 2010!
Click here to listen to the podcast

For more about Stephen Gates, please visit his blog at www.stephengates.com/blog

Future Trends

October 18-20, 2010

Eden Roc – Miami

Download the brochure

Time is running out to join us! Register today!

See you in Miami!

Cheers,
Future Trends

Making a profit from social media

Most of us don't have the ability to buy Twitter; however, we can responsibly invest in social media and see returns. Hilary Kramer of InvestorPlace.com writes that there are investing opportunities that can yield big investment gains from the social media networking world. Persons can invest in public companies that have bought some of these fast-growing social media pure plays and are building and investing themselves in related businesses and public companies that stand to benefit from the explosive rise in social media-driven traffic, ever increasing time spent online and changing online behaviors. Hilary offers 12 Social Media Stocks to ride this changing wave of consumer adoption of social media.

As more and more people not only invest their time but invest their money in social media, will we see a shift in the way social media is used? From sharing personal photos to targeted ads based on social media behavior - what's next?

Let us know what you think of investing in social media. What stocks or companies are particularly fascinating to you?

Twitter's new design provides users with a simplified experience

Rolling out over the next few weeks, Twitter users will have a much more dynamic and streamlined experience on the site. Much of the new features have some start-ups, who've built applications that work alongside with Twitter a little nervous. The New York Times reports that even though 78 percent of Twitter’s unique users gain access to the service through its Web site, the site has had some major flaws. Twitter has not been able to funnel resources into redesigning the site until now, Evan Williams, Co-Founder of Twitter said, because the company has had trouble keeping up with its growth, even struggling to keep its Web site from crashing. The New York Times report goes on to say that on the new Twitter Web site, people see two panes instead of a single timeline of posts. The timeline stays in the left pane. In the right pane, they can see more information about posts — like biographies of authors, photos and videos to which posts link — and conversations that spring from a particular post. This eliminates the need to click back and forth.

If you've had the opportunity to explore the new features that Twitter offers, do you think you'll abandon TweetDeck, Hootsuite or other services?

Learn more: At Twitter, a Web Site Is Revamped and Simplified

Harrisburg University's week without social media

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology provost Eric Darr is asking his students to do the unthinkable - go one week without social media. According to NPR, access to these popular social media tools will be blocked from campus computers through the week. This is not a disciplinary exercise, Darr says, but an academic one. At the end of the week, students will write reflective essays about their time in social media exile.

What do think think of Darr's seemingly extreme experiment? Is it simply a publicity stunt or a constructive way for students to think about the amount of time that they spend on social media?

Learn more: University Declares A Week Without Social Media

Apple to introduce guidelines for the apps

After two years of little guidance, Apple has announced that it will introduce guidelines for Applications in its App store, as reported by the Associated Press. There are are currently over 250,000 apps available. For the past two years, the developers of these programs would submit their applications with no structure during development, leaving some with Apps that were not approved. Also, they've lifted the ban on using third-party development tools that ''translate'' code written for another platform.

This blog is co-posted with the ePharma Summit.

Official Call for Presenters Now Open - Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies 2011

INDUSTRY ALERT: OFFICIAL CALL FOR PRESENTERS

The Institute for International Research (IIR) presents:
The 4th Annual Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies Conference
April 4-6, 2011

Due to the high volume of submissions, we suggest you submit your proposal early and no later than Wednesday, September 22, 2010 to Stacy Levyn Conference Producer at slevyn@iirusa.com or 646.895.7335.

About the Event
Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies is a unique event that focuses on the business value of social media for established brands, as well as entrepreneurial companies. It brings together community experts with lines of business leaders who are using social media strategically to drive their business.

The 2011 event will focus on the strategic, operational, organizational and measurement features of social media and the community space. It will showcase extraordinary case studies as well as introduce "what's next" and "the future of" sessions delivered conversationally through participatory formats and will focus on identifying next steps.

Event Focus & Key Themes:
• Building a Business Case for your Community
• Internal Struggles for a Community & Social Media Manager
• Creating a Brand Strategy
• Technical Execution: User Interactive Design for Core Community
• Finding & Embracing your Advocates: Loyalty Programs & Retention
• ROI & Measurement
• Operationalization of Social Media & Community
• Missed Potential
• Using Community as a Research Tool
• Legalities of Running an Online Social Network
• Building a Successful Online Strategy Overseas
• The Next Wave: Gaming, Mobile & Location

Past Speakers Include:
• Brandie Feuer, Director, Marketing & Innovation, Tropicana Las Vegas
• Christi Day, Social Media Specialist, Southwest Air
• Kellie Parker, Community Manager, SEGA of America
• Pete Dorogoff, Vice President, Digital Marketing, Travel Channel
• Winnie Hsia, Integrated Media Team, Social Media Specialist, Whole Foods
• Bonin Bough, Global Director, Digital & Social Media, PepsiCo
• David Witt, Brand Public Relations Manager, General Mills
• Heather Oldani, Director, US Communications, McDonald's
• Larry Blumenthal, Director, Social Media Strategy, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Rhonda Lowry, Vice President, Social Media Technologies, Turner Broadcasting
• Martha Hayward, Director, Online Strategy, Fidelity Investments

The Audience:
Community Managers and Social Media folks, as well as those who use social media as a strategy such as innovation, market research and consumer insights, CRM, marketing and product management/R&D.

Speakers receive FREE admission to the conference as well as any pre-conference activity such as workshops or symposium.

Sponsorship & Exhibition Opportunities:
If you are interested in sponsorship or exhibit opportunities please contact Stacy Levyn.

Interested in Becoming a Media Partner or Featured Event Blogger?
Contact Roger Jarman, Senior Marketing Manager.

Call for Presenters:
For consideration, please email slevyn@iirusa.com with the following information by Wednesday, September 22, 2010.
• Proposed speaker name(s), job title(s), and company name(s)
• Contact information including address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail
• Talk title
• The main theme you plan to address
• Summary of the presentation (3-5 sentences)
• Please indicate what is NEW about the presentation
• What the audience will gain from your presentation (please list 3-5 key “take-aways”)
• Previous conference experience
• Short bio

Due to the high volume of responses, we are unable to respond to each submission. All those selected to participate as speakers will be notified shortly after the deadline.

Thank you for your interest in the Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies Conference. Check for updates and discussion related to the event at www.iirusa.com/socialmedia. We look forward to receiving your proposal!

Stacy Levyn
Conference Producer
Marketing & Business Strategy Division
The Institute for International Research

Google's music service said to launch by Christmas

This Christmas you may be able to hear your favorite Holiday tunes by downloading them from Google. Mashable reports that the giant is said to be unveiling their music download service, which may be an iTunes challenger. The service would be deeply connected to the Android mobile operating system. According to Mashable's Jolie O'Dell, "Right now, the ever-more-popular swarm of Android phones have an integration with Amazon’s MP3 store, but it’s not the best-integrated solution. If Google can perfect a music downloading system and include some of the mobile-desktop syncing features we saw at Google I/O, they just might have a killer app on their hands — one that would continue to allow Android to successfully challenge Apple’s iPhone in the mobile market, too."

What do you think of Google's supposed service? Would you leave iTunes for Google?

Facebook rolls out "Subscribe" feature

You'll soon be able to follow, wait, subscribe to your friends on Facebook. The new feature will enable Facebook users to follow the friends that they already have on the network but receive separate alerts when the friends they subscribe to have updates. According to TechCrunch, Facebook had a secret project last year that involved testing how best to implement a Twitter-like follow feature on Facebook, multiple sources have confirmed to TechCrunch. The name of the project? Project Dance Party. The project, er "party," was scrapped and now Facebook has a subscribe feature. According to MG Siegler, Facebook already has a follow feature in place right now — it’s just that most people have no idea it exists, because Facebook doesn’t talk about it. Currently, if you request to be someone’s friend, and they keep you in their queue (meaning they never accept or reject you), you will see all of their public updates in your News Feed.

What do you think of the subscribe feature? Let us know @community20

Apple gets social with Ping launch

iTunes users who download the latest version of the software, released on Wednesday, will notice that their experience has become more social. Debuting Ping at the Apple press conference, Steve Jobs announced that users will be able to follow friends and see what music they have bought or enjoyed, what concerts they plan to attend and what music they have reviewed. They will also be able to follow bands and get updates on their new releases, concert tours and other events, reports The New York Times. Jobs said Ping would have simple privacy controls. Anyone will be able to follow bands and receive their updates, and users will be able to say whether they want to be followed by anyone or only by people they approve.

This news, some analysts say, is not an assault on Facebook but one on MySpace which has pushed to the forefront of its social network. It becomes another move by Apple to compete with Google who is quickly acquiring start-ups for its speculated social network launch.

If you have used Ping, we'd love to hear from you! DM us @community20 with your thoughts.

Learn more: From Apple, a Step Into Social Media for Music

On to the next one - Google acquires SocialDeck

The giant has acquired yet another social media start-up, SocialDeck. FierceMobileContent.com writes, Founded in 2008 by COO Anish Acharya and CTO Jeson Patel, SocialDeck creates Facebook, iPhone and BlackBerry titles enabling simultaneous play across multiple devices and social networks--the firm's platform technology also facilitates viral content discovery, distribution and monetization. Just this week Google acquired Angströ, a start-up dedicated to building applications that integrate with social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Wide speculation abounds that Google is set to roll out its own social network in the near future. PCWorld.com writes, Perhaps the acquisition of SocialDeck shows the direction in which Google wants to go with its rumored new gaming service--games that work seamlessly across multiple platforms and devices, that is. The WSJ reports that the companies in talks include Playdom Inc., EA's Playfish, and Zynga.

What do you think is next for Google? Will we see a social network soon?

Google fights spam with Priority Inbox launch

Gmail users rejoice! Thanks to the nifty roll-out of "Priority Inbox" by Gmail, fighting spam has never been easier. We know that Google has rolled out some pretty advanced spam filters; but they've never filtered out the bulk of newsletters, store promotions and Aunt Irma's forwards like they have today. With just a few simple tweaks, you'll be able to customize your inbox to suit whatever it is that's most important to you in Gmail.

Here is Google's how-to video about the service:



Where this news is pretty amazing; Farhad Manjoo at Slate offers a bit of a reality check.

Still, Priority Inbox is a work in progress—even after you train it for weeks to capture important messages, it's not going to be perfect. Technically, sussing out valuable mail is a very different kind of problem from fighting spam. Spam-hunting benefits greatly from crowdsourcing—when millions of Yahoo or Gmail users flag a message as spam, it (and messages like it) gets filtered out for everyone. But the crowd doesn't have much to say about what messages you are likely to find interesting; these are more personal decisions, and they'll require more creative approaches by software engineers. Gmail has made a great start in this effort, but I hope Priority Mail gets competition from Microsoft, Yahoo, and other e-mail companies. We're all going to keep getting more e-mail, and we're going to need all the help we can get.

Foursquare Checks In to Times Square

Even if you've been religiously checking in to Times Square, Foursquare has a gigantic reminder to do so. The social networking site squared off with other ads by displaying, "“Check in, find your friends, unlock your city,” which, according to TechCrunch is the largest digital billboard in Times Square. Will you be checking in soon?

The ad is up against a myriad of visual stimuli and it just may stand out. We wonder if tourists will take note and help spread Foursquare's presence back home? What do you think of the digital billboard?

Complimentary Webinar: CCOs Reveal Their Secret Killer Customer Strategies for Long-Term Profitability

Companies often sacrifice customers on the altar of short-term revenue and profit. Yet in competitive situations where your company’s advantages in product and price are not clearly evident, customer satisfaction and loyalty become the ultimate differentiators that give you the winning edge.

So how do you ensure customers remain the most valuable asset, carefully nurtured and developed for long-term profits? A growing number of companies are appointing a Chief Customer Officer (CCO) as a catalyst in becoming truly customer-centric to significantly improve revenue, profit, and competitive advantage.

Date: September 16, 2010
Time: 2-3PM EST

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/593492816

The speaker, Curtis N. Bingham, is the leading authority on CCOs, having worked with more than 70 CCOs over the last decade. Curtis shares some of the most profound strategies and tactics that these elite CCOs have used to attract, retain and grow profitable, long-term customer relationships also create a powerful competitive advantage for their organizations.

Lessons shared include:

• Winning executive support for loyalty initiatives
• Creating an unstoppable customer culture—so you aren’t the only customer advocate
• Letting data tell you which customers to keep happy, and which ones to let go
• Giving more to customers counter intuitively generates MORE revenue

Learn directly from experienced CCOs how you can drive both near- and long-term revenue -- without sacrificing customer loyalty. This is hands-on customer-centric insight you cannot gain anywhere else. Each of these lessons is of profound value and is responsible for millions of dollars in profits at some of the world’s leading companies.

About the speaker:
Curtis N. Bingham is widely recognized as the authority on Chief Customer Officers, and was the first to promote the CCO role as catalyst for customer centricity. Curtis is the Founder & Executive Director of the Chief Customer Officer Council™, the first peer-led advisory group for CCOs.

During the last decade Curtis has worked with more than 60 CCOs, and with the help of CCO Council members, he has created the “CCO Roadmap,” a groundbreaking work containing more than 100 prioritized, critical strategies essential for the success of customer-centric initiatives.

Curtis is a sought-after speaker and the author of the forthcoming book, “The Authoritative Guide to Customer Strategy: Lessons Learned from Renowned Chief Customer Officers,” which describes how the CCO can create a consistent and unified customer strategy to grow revenue, profit, and loyalty.

Could Millenials sharing habits benefit organizations?

Older members of the Millenial generation have been in the workforce for a few years now and their unique attitude toward work has caused both frustration and admiration from their Gen X and Baby Boomer co-workers. One tactic that Millenals use is the art of sharing their work and work progress via social networking outlets like Facebook and Twitter. This sort of practice is completely foreign to older generations who tend to privatize their work life. Andrew McAfee of the Harvard Business Review writes that this sharing can actually be a benefit for organizations. McAfee points us to a quote from Matt Gallivan, a senior research analyst for NPR, "there are too many benefits to living with a certain degree of openness for Digital Natives to 'grow out of it.' Job opportunities, new personal connections, professional collaboration, learning from others' experiences, etc., are all very powerful benefits to engaging openly with others online, and this is something that Gen Y understands intuitively."

McAfee writes that being open in work provides two benefits. First, people who narrate their work become helpful to the rest of the organization, because the digital trail they leave makes others more efficient. Second, by airing their questions and challenges work narrators open themselves up to good ideas and helpfulness from others, and so become more efficient themselves.

How have you see Millenials sharing positively affecting your organization? Are you wary of sharing your work status via social networks?


How Millennials' Sharing Habits Can Benefit Organizations

Win with social media by thinking small

Although its tempting to cast the widest net with social media, that may not always be the best practice for businesses looking to connect with their target audience. Gail Z. Martin of B2CMarketinginsider.com posts a few examples of "high-value" audiences that will help you in the right direction for your social media efforts.

• Present and past (inactive) clients plus screened high-potential prospects
• Your vendors and suppliers
• A small, highly-segmented niche audience
• Members of your industry/profession—especially if this is not a large group
• And extremely local or regional focus
  

But why focus on a smaller group when you have the opportunity to broadcast your business to the world using a plethora of social media outlets? Martin says that there are several reasons:

• You need to get frequent feedback and input
• No one else is providing content that meets a unique need within the group
• You want to create ongoing dialogue and education to help clients use a product better, get more out of their investment, extend the life of the product they purchased, or address bugs, little-known features or off-the-spec-sheet applications
• You want to add value post-purchase through education, discussion and the creation of a community
• You want to capitalize on the local/regional appeal of your product by emphasizing hometown news, personalities, events and special offers that are only of value to people within a very small geographic area

If you have utilized a smaller social media campaign, how effective has it been for you? Have you seen a difference in ROI between a larger and smaller campaign? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

Google buys virtual-currency start-up, Jambool

Cnet.com reports that Google has bought Jambool, a company that makes a platform for managing online payments for virtual goods sold on gaming and social networking sites. Launched in 2006, the start-up manufactures a product called Social Gold, which lets other sites build virtual-currency infrastructures. Google runs its own PayPal-like transaction platform, Google Checkout, and may have been looking for a virtual-currency system to complement it. What do you make of Google's acquisition?

Learn more: Google buys virtual-currency start-up
Google Buys Online Currency Management Company Jambool

Facebook Ad Sales to Hit $1.2 Billion This Year

Adage.com reports that Facebook will soon it $1.2 billion dollars in ad sales. A new estimate from eMarketer says the company will book $1.285 billion in global advertising alone this year, almost double the estimated $665 million the company took in last year. That figure doesn't include Facebook's so-called virtual currency trade, which would nonetheless account for a fraction of the company's overall business. Edmund Lee writes, even though many in the industry bandy about "social" as a wide-ranging category, Facebook is the only significant player in the space, and its clear supremacy has triggered more speculation over a potential IPO, once thought to be a possibility in 2010.

Any surprises here? Let us know!

Delta Launches First Airline Social Media 'Ticket Window'

In a press release statement, Delta Airlines has introduced the first social media "Ticket Window" that will allow passengers to book flights directly from Facebook and other social media channels.

Delta's Ticket Window allows any of Facebook's 500 million users to complete a full travel booking using a dedicated "tab" at facebook.com/delta without navigating to delta.com. Delta plans to expand its Ticket Window to other sites, including online banner ads to allow full booking capabilities within the airline's advertisements.

As a social media aficionado, would you consider using Facebook to book travel? DM us on Twitter @community20 with your answers!

Social media close behind 911 in US emergencies

In a recent study by The American Red Cross, responders said using social media outlets like Facebook would be a second choice if they faced an emergency. The CBC reports that nearly 70 per cent of those surveyed said emergency responders should be monitoring social media sites to send help quickly, and nearly half believed an agency is probably already responding to any urgent request posted. Of those surveyed, 74% said they expected help to come less than an hour after their tweet or Facebook post.

What do you make of the survey results? Have you or someone one you know asked for help through social networks?

Social media 2nd choice after 911 in crisis poll

I want my MTV (on Twitter) - MTV crowns 1st Twitter Jockey

In an effort to embrace social media and create a two-way conversation with their audience, MTV has announced its first TJ or Twitter Jockey. The Wall Street Journal reports that Gabi Gregg, a 23-year-old fashion blogger from Detroit, became the network's first ever personality dedicated to social media. Sean Moran, executive vice president of sales and integrated marketing for MTV, VH1 and LOGO said, "Gabi is really going to be the eyes and ears of our audience. She will be their voice."

What do you make of the move by MTV to create a post solely for Twitter? Do you think that this move will help to extend the life of Twitter? What does this mean for other social networks who compete for MTV's target demographic?

We'd like to hear your thoughts.

Mayo Clinic to launch center for social media

FierceBiotechit.com reports the Mayo Clinic will soon open a center for social media. According to the Social Media Center's website, the Social Media Center is a first-of-its-kind social media center focused on health care, builds on Mayo Clinic’s leadership among health care providers in adopting social media tools, which began with podcasting in 2005. Mayo Clinic has the most popular medical provider channel on YouTube and more than 60,000 “followers” on Twitter, as well as an active Facebook page with well over 20,000 connections. With its News Blog, Podcast Blog and Sharing Mayo Clinic, a blog that enables patients and employees to tell their Mayo Clinic stories, Mayo has been a pioneer in hospital blogging. According to Fiercehealthit.com, the center will be run by about eight people and will receive $800,000 in annual funding to start, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. While Mayo will charge other hospitals for consulting and giving out advice, the primary goal is to improve social media use within its own walls.

Read more:

Mayo Clinic aims to accelerate online presence with new social media center

Mayo Clinic to launch center for social media

Social media cost UK billions

British employment website, MyJobGroup.co.uk says that social network usage at the office could potentially be costing Britain up to 14 billion pounds ($22.16 billion). The Washington Post reports that the website polled 1,000 British workers and discovered that nearly 6% of them spent one hour or more during work on social networks like Facebook.

"Whilst we're certainly not kill-joys, people spending over an hour per day in work time on the likes of Facebook and Twitter are seriously hampering companies' efforts to boost productivity, which is more important than ever given the fragile state of our economy," Managing Director of Myjobgroup.co.uk Lee Fayer said in a statement.

How does your work day stack up with British workers? Are you browsing Facebook and Tweeting just a bit too much during your work day?

43% of brands on Twitter had never replied to a tweet

This is an excerpt from the Wildfire whitepaper, "Putting the 'Social' Into Social Media" which is available for download. The report examines the top 50 companies in the 2009 Deloitte Fast Tech; a list of the fastest growing technology companies in the UK. The list is a combination of small and large companies from all corners of the technology industry – both B2B and B2C - united by impressive growth figures in the last year.

43% of brands on Twitter had never replied to a tweet
But technology brands were generally not using Twitter to be social. The majority were either tweeting company news (46%) or industry insights (51%). Only 3% of the tweets were retweets, and replies represented just 12% of the total number of tweets. Underlining all of this, a shocking 43% of brands with a Twitter account had never replied to a tweet! Tech companies are using Twitter to broadcast messages, but they are not engaging with their stakeholders and are therefore missing an opportunity to build community and influence. Twitter itself makes no secret of its desire to help brands adopt the service, with the continued rumours of a Twitter Corporate service coming soon and the recent addition of the Sponsored Tweets advertising scheme.

Is this surprising to you? How many tech companies do you know that actually respond to Tweets from customers? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

"Vote or Die" Kenyans use social media to boost voters in election

Reuters reports that social media has helped to boost voter turnout and awareness during the Kenyan elections. Over 12.5M Kenyans have registered to vote in the elections, which will decide whether to adopt a new constitution. As a pioneer in mobile technology, nearly 50% of citizens have access to the web. According to Aly Khan Satchu, a prolific Twitter user with over 5,000 followers, "We have gone from being able to communicate amongst a few people ... to be able to reach thousands of people in one go on a democratic platform. It's revolutionary, I think. It is a trend in society where people can actually gather in scale and can respond ... going forward, it is going to be an important area for politics and the way the country engages." What can we learn from the Kenyan use of social media? Can we use this information to help other countries?

The real reasons behind the viral success of Old Spice

Nigel Hollis has an interesting breakdown of the Old Spice viral campaign success. He noted that the campaign, "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” was successful because of appropriate planning and execution; not just social media. Hollis writes, that the success of the ad gives us a clear road map to viral success:

• Identify an appealing and distinctive idea.
• Seed the campaign idea broadly to establish interest.
• Then engage people directly.

We encourage you to check out Hollis' article here. The real reasons behind the viral success of Old Spice

What do you think attributed to the success of the campaign? Let us know.

Amazon connects with Facebook - not with Beacon

PCMagazine.com reports that Amazon has rolled out a new application to help customers with purchase decisions based on their use of Facebook. According to the report, the match-up will also give Amazon shoppers a heads-up about a friend's upcoming birthday, in case they want to use Amazon to buy them a gift. For those who remember Facebook's ill-advised Beacon program, which shared your purchase activity on third-party sites in your Facebook news feed and was dumped in September 2009, rest assured that this link-up will not share your Amazon purchase history on Facebook. You can purchase a "Twilight" book or a Justin Bieber album without fear of mockery from your Facebook friends.

Will you connect with the new feature? How do you feel about about "social shopping" - would you be willing to try, or try it again?

Digital River gets serious about social media tracking

InternetRetailer.com reports that companies looking to streamline their social media reporting now have a new way to track and manage their social media reach. According to the report, Digital River is debuting is SocialStream technology that can send any product promotion or other announcements through their Facebook and Twitter accounts and receive reports on how much traffic and revenue they generated, conversion rates, and other metrics such as revenue per visitor, says Jim Wehmann, senior vice president of global marketing at Digital River. The company may add other social media sites, such as YouTube, to SocialStream in the future. Digital River would not reveal the cost of the tool and said it is based on negotiations with each client. Experts say this kind of tracking capability is likely to become a standard feature in e-commerce systems.

Although we don't know the costs involved - do you think its is a viable way to track and measure ROI on social media? Would you or your company consider investing in this service? Let us know @community20

Study: 0% of users would pay for Twitter

The popular micro-blogging network, Twitter is currently free for anyone to use - and users like it that way. According to the 2010 USC Annenberg Digital Future Study, 0% of respondents claimed that they would be willing to pay for the service.

From the report:

"Twitter has no plans to charge its users, but this result illustrates, beyond any doubt, the tremendous problem of transforming free users into paying users," said Cole. "Online providers face major challenges to get customers to pay for services they now receive for free."

The report goes on to stay that users are okay with web advertising in lieu of paying for the service.

Is this a shock to you?

The British Royal Family -now on Flickr!

The British Royal Family has released hundreds of candid and professional shots on the official Royal Flickr page. According to The Daily Mail, the online photograph album will provide a unique glimpse into the life and work of the modern Monarchy and will allow Flickr users to use the photographs in blogs and other social media.As well as recent photographs of the Royal Family at work and play, the site will include more historical material drawn from the Royal collections.

What do you think of the Royal's social media presence?

Facebook Hits 500M Users

Today is a huge milestone Facebook. Now at 500M users, Facebook is the largest social network, with the closest runner-up, Twitter only at 100M users. With 400M people separating the first and second social networks; is Facebook simply too big? Telegraph.co.uk has some interesting statistics on the site's usage:

People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on the site.

An average user has 130 friends.

There are over 900 million objects in total that Facebook users can interact with, such as community pages.

The average Facebook user is connected 80 pages, groups and events.

The average member creates 90 pieces of content each month.

More than 30 billion pieces of content, like photos, web links and news stories, are shared each month.

About 70 per cent of Facebook users are from outside of the US.

It took five months for Facebook to attract an extra 100 million users, from 400 million to 500 million.

Last January Facebook only had 150 million members.

So what's the secret? We'd like to hear what you think.

Free Webinar – These Insidious SEO Myths Are Costing You Money

Here’s an SEO webinar from one of our sister events Performance Marketing Expo that I thought our community 2.0 readers would be interested in. Stephan Spencer, VP, SEO Strategies for Covario and PME speaker, will be presenting an hour long web seminar on Thursday August, 5th from 2-3pm EDT.

Here’s a quick recap of what the webinar is all about:

Myths are prevalent in the SEO industry, in part because someone’s job or reputation is tied up with a myth that may have been at one point true. It’s time to squash these persistent pesky myths. The misinformation and disinformation are doing everyone and the industry as a whole a disservice. Join SEO expert Stephan Spencer as we crank through a collection of the most costly myths and put them to rest once-and-for-all. The mythology Stephan will address spans everything from SEO automation to meta tags, keyword density, Flash, forms, CSS, “free” traffic, and much more!

Register below for the webinar, hope to “see” you there!
http://bit.ly/9kl65h

Some doctors connecting to local community through Facebook

Last week in USA Today, Rita Rubin looked at how some doctors are using social media to connect with their patients. An OB/GYN in Texas has replaced their babies wall in the office with a Facebook Fan Page, where pictures of the babies are now displayed. These fanpages have also become places where people come to ask their questions and look for information. While many doctors choose to remain anonymous, others have found it as a way to connect with their patients. Rubin relates this to how doctors used to make house calls and join the community of the towns they served. Read the full article here.

What do you think? Should doctors be connecting with their patients via Facebook? What privacy risks can Facebook Pages bring?

This blog is co-posted with the ePharma Summit.

Are Women are "Addicted" to Facebook?

The Guardian reports that one third of women check Facebook when they first wake up. Other reports tout that 39% Of Young Women Are Facebook Addicts and Study: More Than One-Third Of Women 'Addicted' To Facebook. Is this surprising?

The reports go in detail to discuss how women use Facebook for not only relationship but as a way to find out news and information about products that they like. Mediapost.com reports that, according to a recent study from rich-media provider Unicast, women age 18-24 are more receptive to online advertising in various formats than the overall population -- and are particularly interested in localized information, surveys, social media formats and downloadable content.

ShinyShiny.tv asked it's audience if they are really "addicted" to Facebook like the news outlets claimed in their reports. The responses are still pouring in by the leading response is, "My Facebook consumption is moderate and nicely under control thank you."

Even if women are "addicted" to Facebook - is it such a bad thing? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

Call for Guest Bloggers & Newly Added Speakers From Family Dollar, Sam’s Club, Wendy’s and more

Earn a complimentary All-Access pass to the #1 recognized shopper-focused event in the world by serving as a guest-blogger. As a guest blogger, you’ll have access to the amazing visionaries, authors, academics PLUS retailers, manufacturers, industry authorities and explorers. With four track sessions, cocktails and even an All-Star baseball party – you’ll learn and have a great time and this premier event.

Responsibilities will include attending specifically assigned sessions and blogging live or same day. You must have industry experience within CPG, retail or consulting in those fields. In exchange for guest blogging, you will receive an all-access pass to the event $3,000+ value. Guest bloggers are responsible for their travel and lodging.

Apply today by sending your name, company, biography and links to your blog directly to Conference Director, Amanda Powers (apowers@iirusa.com). Deadline for submissions is Friday, July 2 at 12pm EST. Early submissions encouraged.

Shopper Insights in Action
July 11 -14, 2010
Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile

Learn more: http://bit.ly/SIA_Blog10
Brochure: http://bit.ly/SIA_Brochure10
Register: http://bit.ly/SIA_Reg10

Registration is still open for Shopper Insights in Action. The event is expected to sell-out, but we have a few spaces available. Don’t wait – register today with code SHOPLINK1 and receive 20% off the standard rate.

Two New Panels Added to the Program:

Kraft, Wendy’s and Turtle Wax Incorporate Customer Participation and Transform What it Means to Listen
Panelists:
*Daren Herbert, Director, Consumer Insights, Turtle Wax
*Jan Trent, Manager, Consumer Insights, Wendy’s
* Chris Hjorth, Scale Marketing, Kraft Foods
Moderated by Bill Alberti, Communispace

Common Ground for Shared Retailer & Manufacturer Growth
Panelists:
Cindy Casper, Sr. Director Insights & Research, Sam's Club
Katie Pollock, Divisional VP, Customer & New Growth, Family Dollar
Moderated by John Dranow, SmartRevenue

We hope to see you in Chicago!

Cheers,
CMSI Management
Shopper Insights in Action Event Team

Send Emergen-C to friends via social media

Yep, that's right. Gone are the days of giving virtual gifts on Facebook, now you can actually send your friend a sample pack of Emergen-C from Facebook to their mailbox. Mediapost.com reports that brand manager Megan Seider said, "After all, these days, people use social media for sharing how they feel on a moment-to-moment basis. And since we market Emergen-C as 'the fun way to take your vitamins,' we wanted the approach to be fun."

From a logistical standpoint, Emergen-C is a lightweight product so the company won't lose too much with shipping. Do you think other companies will start using this approach to get their free samples out to the public? Any issues that you see with this tactic?

Emergen-C Uses Social Media For (Real) Sampling

British government works to get more online users

In an effort to get more people, especially older generations, online the British government has set up Race 2012. From their website, Race Online 2012 aims to bring people and organizations together to improve the life chances of the 10 million people who have never been online, particularly the four million who are also socially and economically excluded. Race 2012 aims to get 100% of the British population online by the London Olympics 2012.

The YouTube sensation, The Internet Grandad has taken a special interest in the cause and is helping them with their mission. As an elderly widower living alone in England, he found the internet to be a wonderful tool to share his knowledge and to connect with a new set of people.

As social media professionals, we often look at what can be the next big thing, the biggest moneymaker, etc. What many fail to forget is how powerful social media can be to simply connect with one another and to be social. For so many the idea of being social can be daunting, what social media offers is a path out of loneliness.

What other organizations do you know of who are taking a keen interest in getting older generations to adopt the internet? Would you support an initiative like this in your country?

Social Media's impact on The World Cup

The social media landscape has changed drastically in the last four years. Now with more people joining the fray it's become a global phenomenon that can rival a much older phenomenon, The World Cup. Host of All Tech Considered, Omar Gallaga sat with Michele Norris to discuss how all of The World Cup chatter may stretch the limits of Twitter and Facebook. Listen to the broadcast here.

Below is an excerpt from their discussion:

NORRIS: Now, I wonder what this is doing to productivity in a lot of workplaces. What have the most popular sites done to prepare for this increase in traffic?

GALLAGA: Well, Twitter, in particular, had a lot of problems last week that were unrelated to the World Cup. They might've been kind of gearing up for it. But they warned their users that this kind of spike in traffic is probably going to cause problems. They're probably going to have some outages. Facebook has fared pretty well, but both sides are doing a lot to just get people talking.

Twitter introduced some hashtags, where if you type in World Cup, it will actually put a little soccer or a team flag on there. So they're definitely trying to get people talking. And Facebook is actually allowing people to comment with live video streams. So they're pairing up - kind of Facebook status updates with those live streams.

If you're a fan of The World Cup, have the outages or server errors kept you from discussing the sport?

Small businesses and social media - 5 ways to start now!

Mashable has a great article today on how small businesses can adopt the social media trends from younger generations to help their businesses. One main objection to social media is the lack of time; however, as David Stark points out "...people don’t realize how much time they’re wasting by sticking to the tools of the old guard. Think of how many e-mails you send out on a daily basis. How many phone calls you make. Well, social media can not only cut down on those time-sucks, but also help you connect to a wider group of people on a more personal level. Moreover, it’s a hell of a lot more fun to keep up a fan page complete with FAQs and videos than it is to answer 1,000 e-mails all related to the same issue." Good point.

Here are their top 5 trends to consider with social media:

• Listen to Gossip
• Share Content
• Have an Attitude
• Hang Out
• Play Nice with Others

To learn more about these trends in detail, visit the Mashable article.


5 Teen Social Media Trends that Can Be Applied to Small Business

What other trends do you see that can help small businesses grow?

Yahoo Expands Facebook Integration, Adds Privacy Controls

PCWorld.com, reports that Yahoo has expanded its integration with Facebook to a global audience. The company also unveiled a new "privacy dashboard," dubbed Yahoo Pulse.

"People who use Yahoo and Facebook can now link their accounts to view and share updates with friends across both networks," Yahoo wrote in a blog post. "This means you can see your Facebook News Feed from your Yahoo homepage, Yahoo Mail, and other favorite Yahoo sites and services."

Although this integration is still in its early stage, what benefits do you see for both Facebook and Yahoo? Will users quickly adapt to this exchange?

AP Stylebook adds 42 new guidelines for social media

ROTFL, G2G and POS are officially part of the updated AP Stylebook. CNN and Mashable report that the venerable resource for journalists (and those who just like to be annoyingly correct all the time) has added 42 new guidelines for social media communication. From the article, "among the more interesting changes -- at least from a grammar and style standpoint -- are separating out "smart phone" as two words, hyphenating "e-reader," and allowing fan, friend and follow to be used both as nouns and verbs."

Like to add your suggestions? The AP is taking tips from New Media and Social Media types for 2012. Click here for more information.

Check out the original article here: AP Stylebook adds 42 new guidelines for social media

Disney turns "likes" into purchases on Facebook

The venerable entertainment giant has lead the pack in it's newest initiative to drive sales to the release of their upcoming film, Toy Story 3. The New York Times reports that the application, called Disney Tickets Together, could transform how Hollywood sells movie tickets by combining purchases with the powerful forces of social networking. When you buy a ticket through Disney’s application, for instance, it alerts your Facebook friends and prompts you to invite them to buy tickets of their own.

For now, only Toy Story 3 tickets are available. But Oliver Luckett, senior vice president and general manager of DigiSynd, a Disney subsidiary that manages the entertainment giant’s social networking presence said other Disney movies would follow if the application is deemed a success.

If the application is a success, will we see online movie ticket sellers like Fandango and MovieTickets.com adding more social features to compete?

Learn more: Disney Puts Tickets on a Facebook Site

Social media boosts organ donor recruitment

The Chicago Tribune reports that social media is playing a hand in getting more people to sign-up to be organ donors. Individuals who are in need of a donor have begun to use Facebook to find a match. Though this may have legal ramifications and potential abuse among those working in the black markets for organ donors; overall, the use of social networks has been a helpful tool.

In Michigan, activists have tried to pass stronger laws to encourage more participation in the registry and are now using social networking to spread the word that 2,943 Michigan residents are currently waiting for organs.

To learn more about how social networking is playing a role in recruiting organ donors, we encourage you to check out the article mentioned here.

Social media efforts boost organ donors

BP facing social media backlash

The Globe and Mail reports that embattled oil company and environmental villain is set to experience a social media backlash. Virtually overnight, Facebook and Twitter lit up with former customers of the British company complaining and boycotting the providers services.

From The Globe and Mail report, the Boycott BP Facebook group is now hovering around 100 thousand fans. There are approximately a dozen albums of user-generated photos, showing everything from a pelican soaked in oil to images of a BP rig sitting on Planet Earth with a bloody sword, complete with the caption “How does it feel murdering your mother? British Punks!!!”

and

The backlash against BP is indicative of what has become commonplace in our hyper-connected society. If you mess up, your family might forgive you but the web world will not -- they will hold you accountable. While some companies are looking to social media as a way to clean up and promote their image, the online audience has a tendency (and the smarts) to sniff out the good from the bad (and put emphasis on the evil).

What do you think? Is this the continuation of a digital, global citizen's arrest?

Students creating decentralized social network

Four students from NYU have set out to create a social network where large hub servers do not host users information. They have promised a completely secure platform where a users information will remain private. The group decided to put a call out for funds on the internet, and received $23,676 in donations as of Tuesday of this week. According to Finn Brunton, a professor of the four students behind the project, they have a solid plan to extend the network beyond just technical users, but to the general public. Follow them at @joindisapora and visit their webpage here. Read the full article at the New York Times here.

Guest Post: Virtual meets IRL, again…Social Media 2.0 / #socialc20

Below is a special post from one of our 2010 attendees of Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies. For more information on the event, please click here.

From: kerbehr.wordpress.com

The presentations at this conference were, IMHO, fantastic. The presenters were all very frank and pretty open in terms of sharing experiences – both successful and the kind one learns from. Everything was discussed from blogging to Facebook to Twitter to Foursquare, and beyond.

This conference was also unique in that we had a “mingling”, almost “speed-dating” session with other conference attendees. The art of being social and responding in a stream-of-consciousness. It was during these conversations that I met the people I would end up speaking with most (even having dinner with!). Although, the use of the #socialc20 hashtag also linked me with some folks I would later meet IRL, as they know me as @kerbehr, and I knew them by their Twitter handles.

There was no shortage of interesting content and hearing from brands that we all know all too well: McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Sega, Intuit/Turbo Tax, NHL, Chicago Bulls, Scholastic Books, Washington Capitals, Pepsico, Wells Fargo…the list goes on! We also got sneak peaks into @charleneli’s new book “Open Leadership” and @jbernoff’s new book “Empowered”. I’m looking forward to reading both, Charlene’s comes out this month, and Josh’s sometime in September.

So, in the course of two days, I feel like I made some solid contacts, met some tremendous people, and hopefully, have some interesting things lined up for work. I also got to drink LOTS of bottled water (contaminated water situation in Boston) and was evacuated during a panel discussion Wednesday morning (I heard it was a broken pipe), so it wasn’t just the presentations that were interesting during this trip!

Some quotables (in no particular order):

“ If people get what they expect from your prod. they don’t talk. Your prod needs to exceed expectations.” - David Witt, Gen. Mills.

“No one social app is big enough to drive major sales, but they help us to engage.” – Bonin Bough, Pepsico

“‘Social networks will be like air” It’s everywhere. It’s a natural state of being. – Charlene Li

“We tend to overvalue what we can measure, and undervalue the things we cannot” – John Hayes, AmEx, via Charlene Li

“I love any application where you can make money & pay people with love” – Josh Bernoff

“Access creates content, content creates traffic” – Jeremy Thum, Chicago Bulls.

“If someone talks about you negatively, its probably better that they do it in your house.” - @stevealter.

“”If you don’t build it, they will come anyway. If you build it, but don’t know why, they will come once…and never come back again” – Steve Alter

“ The fastest way to not be a faceless corporation is to not be one. Put personality into your soc med efforts” – Kellie Parker

One FREE pass to the Youth & Family Marketing Mega Event next week!

One FREE pass to the Youth & Family Marketing Mega Event next week! If you would like to attend the event on us and can take copious notes – this opportunity could be for you. We are looking for someone with excellent writing skills to attend the event and publish a post conference wrap up highlighting key takeaways and lessons learned at the event. If you are interested and available to attend the conference May 11 and May 12 in Chicago, contact Conference Director, Krista Vazquez at kvazquez@iirusa.com.

More info about the event can be found at www.iirusa.com/family. This is a great opportunity for a marketing student or job seeker.

Social Media & Community 2.0 2010 Wrap-Up

Thank you to all who joined us and all who followed our coverage during this year's event. We surpassed our already high expectations for this year with the amazing keynotes, speakers, sponsors and attendees. We hope that you found our coverage useful as we work to continuously bring you information to spur conversation and discussion with your peers.

To continue the discussions well into 2010, we encourage everyone to join the Social Media and Community 2.0 Strategies LinkedIn Group. Join other brand community advocates, community pros and social media professionals in this exclusive group. For those of you already in the group, let's start discussing many of the topics featured at the conference and consider new ones as we enter this new decade.

Our ongoing coverage of industry news and professional posts from across the social media spectrum doesn't end with the conference. Keep up with the latest news by subscribing to daily updates right here on our blog.

If you are interested in being a guest blogger for Community 2.0 please contact Melissa Sundaram at msundaram@iirusa.com. We'd love to have your input!

Technology Isn't an Idea

It's late, and I just got home from a five hour plane ride, but I wanted to give a much-deserved shout out to Stephen Gates from Starwood Hotels & Resorts. He provided this gem this afternoon:

"Technology isn’t an idea--nobody cares if you have a Twitter feed if you have nothing to say. It’s a tool…..like a pencil; without anything to draw, it’s just a paperweight. Technology is not the leader of what we do. We create user experiences and communities driven by the core attributes and insights of our brands, not by technology. Look at the concept or what we want to do, then look at how we can accomplish it through various channels."

Now, that said, I'll meet you in the Sheraton's online Pillow Fight ad. How cool is that?

Bringing Your Online Community Offline

Matt Warburton (@betfair) offered session attendees some good advice and ideas for taking your online community offline. He suggested that offline participation can:

• Engage and recognize power users
• Offer education
• Collect feedback
• Communicate news
• Build loyalty and Word of Mouth
• Put a face on your brand

Matt offered some ideas for successful offline events:

• User Advisory Panels (fly them out in person; recruit people based on behavior; get a good mix of customer base; stay connected via phone calls; involve CEOs in the process; keep participants for 12 months to keep it fresh and avoid a sense of "entitlement")
  
• Meetups Parties (usually a little cheaper; most often a casual gathering; regional, mostly social; keep tied in to brand)
  
• Town Halls (regional events; use a cross-functional level of staff; usually held at a hotel banquet room with a meet and greet for an hour; open up mic for traditional Q&A)
  
• User Conferences (large scale user conferences education, networking, and social components; high level executive participation (examples: eBay Live; Microsoft MVP conference; users often pay their own way to the event)
  
• Official Member–Organized Events (appoint ambassadors to do the events for you; officially sanctioned member-organized events; guidelines are established to ensure standards; company provides collateral; no staff participation)

Matt offered council for judging or measuring the benefits of the offline events, as well as thoughts on how to stay connected with these users once the events were over. The key, it seems, is to make the events interactive, keep them on-brand, and then to follow up. "Real," "trust," and "engagement"can happen anywhere.

Pfizer Gives Two Stars to Amazon’s Five Stars

I had to LOL at Robin Spencer’s (#Pfizer) call out to the “Tambourine” people—folks who just want to connect everything because they can and because everyone else is doing it. Hopefully it’s been (in keeping with the musical theme) drummed into our heads by now that the primary goal of social media is always business problem solving. Yet, the biggest conundrum in social media, says Robin, is often confusion about goals.

Robin shared this Dirty Little Secret with the group: The simpler the task, the less representative the results. The example he used (after some blank stares, I imagine) was that of ratings on Amazon.com—the process whereby users click a star to indicate their level of satisfaction with a product. Have you noticed that a whole lot of products on Amazon.com have 4.5 stars? Users can “contribute to the community” with very little effort or thought. Obviously, then, the opposite of the dirty little secret is true, too: The harder the task, the more representative it is. This is where Chris Anderson’s Long Tail work comes in.

“Watch the tail,” Robin admonished. The people who answer one question each are often more important over the long run than those who answer repeatedly. Large-scale behavior is largely predictable; you’ll find that most of your contributions and value come from the occasional contributors. Don’t bias your system by quantity or reputation; you may exclude your best contributors.

Nice presentation, Robin, but I suppose five stars would be inappropriate…. :)

The Kenny Rogers Rule

Kellie Parker of SEGA (who we’ve heard from earlier) did a short and sweet presentation on managing multiple brands, and then turned the conversation to the audience. The great part about Kellie’s presentation fits into what we heard in this morning’s keynote: leadership is moving away from network model to cross-functional teams.

Here are a few of Kellie’s suggestions on how to bring order to chaos:

Specialization. Each team has a brand specialist—someone who deeply understands the brand and can instantly tell if something is going to work or not. Each team also has a specialist in terms of tools.

Automation and flow. Create a process to your flow of content. Sega uses the blog as the main source of information, and then links back to Facebook, etc. But only use the tools that work for you, and makes the most sense.

Kenny Rogers. Know when to hold ‘em/fold ‘em. Sega consolidated their many forums into into one with different channels. They found that members started clicking around in places that they wouldn’t have gone before.