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Friday, April 29, 2011

Flashback Friday: Measure Up Podcast Series

Flashback Friday: Measure Up Podcast Series
In a new addition to our Flashback Friday series we are highlighting content from the 2010 Measure Up event to gear up for Measure Up 2011. Measure Up 2011, June 6-8 in Boston, MA will focus on return on investment (ROI) as it relates to online activities; specifically, Social Media.

Looking back at Measure Up 2010, we revisit our Measure Up Speaker Spotlight: Alicia Rankin, Head of Research and Fan Insights, NFL.

Over the next few weeks, in preparation for the Measure Up Marketing conference we'll be highlighting conversations focusing on marketing measurement best practices. Our first speaker is Alicia Rankin, Head of Research and Fan Insights, NFL.

Listen to the conversation:Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io



Download Alicia's podcast here.
Download a transcript of the podcast here.

Interested in hearing more from quality speakers like this? Register for Measure Up 2011, June 6-8 2011 in Boston, MA here.

To stay up to date on Social ROI and marketing analytics news, follow Measure Up on Twitter at @MeasureUpIIR or connect on LinkedIn.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Measure Up Podcast Series: Duncan Houldsworth of Time Warner Cable

Over the next few weeks, in preparation for the Measure Up conference, we'll be highlighting conversations focusing on marketing measurement best practices in a Measure Up podcast series. In today’s edition, Measure Up conference chair Guy Powell and Steven Groves, co-author of the recently launched book ROI of Social Media, interviewed Duncan Houldsworth of Time Warner Cable.

For a sneak peek at Duncan Houldsworth’s keynote session “In The Face of Fierce Competition; How Competitive Insight Can Drive Performance in a Multi-Channel World,” listen to the podcast here.

To learn more about Measure Up, visit the event webpage. Plus, follow us on twitter for continued updates @MeasureUpIIR.

We hope to see you at the conference this June – Register here!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Top Reasons to Attend Measure Up

At this year's #SocialC20 conference there was a lot of discussion on measurement and ROI. If you're looking to delve further into these topics, consider joining us for Measure Up 2011, June 6-8 in Boston, MA. Measure Up is the world's most comprehensive cross-dimensional view of marketing measurement best practices and this year the event will focus on return on investment (ROI) as it relates to online activities; exclusively, Social Media.

Preview Your Experience, View Pictures From Last Year's Measure Up Event:


We've pulled together some of the top reasons to attend Measure Up, read on to learn more:

1. Stellar Speakers. With seven keynotes (including Sean Bruich, Measurement & Insights Research, Monetization Analytics at Facebook) and 30+ other speakers from across the marketing measurement and analytics space, we have packed our agenda with luminaries who live in the trenches of understanding the ROI of marketing campaigns.

2. Latest case studies, trends and insights. Industry leaders sharing their first-hand experiences include: SABMiller PLC, Verizon, TiVo, Shell, Johnson & Johnson, Allstate Insurance, U.S. Army, United Federal Credit Union, Time Warner Cable and more.

3. Probing Pre-con. Most Measure Up attendees also attend our pre-conference, which gives them an opportunity to dig deep into specifics of a single topic or issue. This year we explore B2B Social Media Metrics and New Generation Marketing Mix Modeling.

4. General Session Agenda. A brand new format allows you to attend every session you’ve signed up for so you don’t miss anything on the program.

5. Network with Your Peers. Listen, collaborate and learn from your peers. Find out how they’re measuring marketing in their organization and how you can improve your measurement process.

6. Event Executive Summary. Measure Up is the only collaborative event that offers a event debrief with real-time practical insights for you to take back to your company and share.

7. New speakers to join our roster! Stay tuned for program and speaker updates.

Interested in joining us? Register today.
Learn more, follow Measure Up on twitter @MeasureUpIIR

Friday, April 22, 2011

Flashback Friday: Measure Up Podcast Series

In a new addition to our Flashback Friday series we are highlighting content from the 2010 Measure Up event to gear up for Measure Up 2011. Measure Up 2011, June 6-8 in Boston, MA will focus on return on investment (ROI) as it relates to online activities; exclusively, Social Media.

Looking back at Measure Up 2010, we revisit our Measure Up Speaker Spotlight: Aneta Hall, Pitney Bowes

Over the next few weeks, in preparation for the Measure Up Marketing conference we'll be highlighting conversations focusing on marketing measurement best practices. Our first speaker is Aneta Hall, Pitney Bowes.


Read Aneta's Podcast Transcript here.


This blog post is co-posted with StevenGroves.com.
Social media in the enterprise is creating a huge shift in many companies, but what happens when a 90 year old company decides to invest in a process of listening to their customers and actually letting them talk to one another?

As part of the series around the ROI of Social Media, and leading up to the 2010 MeasureUp Conference in Chicago next month, we interview Aneta Hall, the Emerging Media Manager at Pitney Bowes. She is a presenter at the 2010 MeasureUp Conference in Chicago, where her topic is “From Fear to Trust – Employee Engagement in Social Media”.

Aneta introduces us to the processes Pitney Bowes (PB), as a 90 year old company, has adopted using social media to connect with prospects, customers, employees and stakeholders around their mail and information needs. The changes have driven real change in the various business units, particularly as in the last 10 years they have acquired a variety of businesses. PB now provides a broad range of solutions to the market, not only in mail instruments and document management, but also location intelligence, traffic pattern analysis, predictive intelligence, and relationship marketing. Aneta shares how sees social media technology supporting the ability to tell the PB story to the market.

The role of the Emerging Media Manger at Pitney Bowes is to help the organization understand and constantly analyze the evolving landscape of social media. In her role, Aneta teaches other how to use the technology and she often presents the model outlined in Chris Brogans’ awesome book, ‘Trust Agents’. She also maintains the strategic roadmap for PB and is often glued to the PB Radian6 console, because of the value she places on listening to the conversation in social media versus trying to use social media as just another channel to broadcast the same messages used in traditional media.

Pitney Bowes is using the information Aneta manages for several of their business units. As you might expect, some are more advanced than others in their use, but most are looking to up their social media investment in 2010 and take advantage of what social media can provide.

The major topic she finds herself discussing with business unit leaders is in the sustainability of the social media effort. Aneta sees covering this issue as a key component of her work and that means the units find they need to invest in training, guidelines, tools and tactics that support users, and providing a ‘loose governance’ structure that does not stifle the conversation between PB and it’s audience.


Interested in hearing more from quality speakers like this? Register for Measure Up 2011, June 6-8 2011 in Boston, MA here. To stay up to date on Social ROI and marketing analytics news, follow Measure Up on Twitter at @MeasureUpIIR or connect on LinkedIn.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

#SocialC20 Blog Round-up

If content was king at this year's Social Media and Communities 2.0 conference, then we would be remiss to not give a hat tip to some of the great content producers out there sharing about their experiences.

Cindy Meltzer presented her Top 5 Takeaways.

Christine Perkett talked about the definition of "Trust."

Chris Neal of CMB discussed planning, focus and accountability.

The Project Management Bistro liveblogged several sessions.

Rachel Luxemburg shared her slide deck here.

Did you blog about the event? Take photos or video? Share with us in the comments, we'd love to hear your thoughts.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Put Social At the Core of Your B2B Business: Process, Operations, Analysis

In association with Marketo's Revenue Masters Webinar Series, The Institute for International Research invites you to join us for a complimentary web seminar.

The Social Business AGENDA:
Tackling the Top 2011 Trends for Competitiveness
Sandy Carter, Vice President,
IBM Social Businesses and Collaboration Solution Sales and Evangelism, IBM

Thursday, April 28th, 2011 1:00 - 1:45 PM EDT

Reserve your Webinar seat now, register here.


Social Media has come a long way from the early days of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. With over 574 million people worldwide on Facebook, 106 million with Twitter accounts, and over 2 billion YouTube videos, how do you leverage this power and stay ahead of your competition?

You need to create a bold social media AGENDA for your business.

Hear from Sandy Carter, Vice President, IBM Social Businesses and Collaboration Solution Sales and Evangelism, on how to create a Social Business AGENDA. Using many case study examples, Ms. Carter will show how to build an AGENDA that aligns organizational goals while driving experiences and engagements through your business processes, utilizing crowdsourcing, communities, disaster recovery and analytics to leverage Social Business for greater results in 2011.

Learn how to:
A - Align Organizational Goals & Culture
G - Gain "Friends" Through Social Trust
E - Engage through Experiences
N - Network Your Business Processes
D - Design for Reputation and Risk Management
A - Analyze Your Data

Plus, attend for a chance to win 1 of 2 copies of Sandy Carter's acclaimed book, The New Language of Marketing 2.0: How to Use ANGELS to Energize Your Market

This web seminar is sponsored by:





Title: The Social Business AGENDA: Tackling the Top 2011 Trends for Competitiveness
Date: Thursday, April 28th, 2011
Time: 1:00 - 1:45 PM EDT

Register Now. After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

#social20: What Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies was really about

On the way to the airport after Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies, a few of us challenged ourselves to reduce the event to one word.

Happily, we all came up with the same word, but more on that later.

The event was so awesome (considering I personally took more than 10,000 words worth of notes – which may actually be an understatement); I was inspired to try to summarize the event in different ways.

I took a few stabs at it, but my favorite summary is the visualization you’ll find over on the Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies event website.

For me it works because I’m able to share it with colleagues who did not attend the event and they instantly see the focus of the sessions. If you find yourself in a similar situation feel free to use our social media tag cloud as a starting point.

And now it’s your turn… how have you been sharing the key points of the conference with your colleagues?

Please share with us, and, before I forget – what’s the one word you would use to summarize Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies?

My word is “content.”
-Stacy Levyn, Conference Producer Social Media & Community 2.0 Strategies Conference

Monday, April 11, 2011

Why Should You Attend Measure Up? ($200 Off Code Inside)

When asked about last year's Measure Up Conference, Aneta Hall, Emerging Media, Corporate Marketing, Pitney Bowes, said:
"This is THE event for one-on-one conversation and knowledge sharing in the field of marketing measurement."

So, why haven't you registered for Measure Up 2011 yet?


Discover how to successfully integrate all of the pieces of marketing measurement, traditional and non-traditional, into a winning business framework.

Measure Up covers it all:
High-quality content delivered by high-caliber, industry leading speakers,
keynotes include:
  • Jean Paul Isson, Vice President Global BI and Predictive Analytics, Monster Worldwide
  • Kanishka Das, Associate Director, Consumer and Market Knowledge, Procter & Gamble
  • Sean Bruich, Measurement & Insights Research, Monetization Analytics, Facebook, Inc.
  • Lise Brende, Director of Marketing Analytics, Bing & MSN
  • And more, click here to see the full keynote roster.

    Hear best practices in marketing and social media measurement analytics from: Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, SABmiller, Shell, TiVo, U.S. Army, Verizon and more!

    Improve your social media analytics and drive higher revenue, profit and brand share.

    Return to the office with a better understanding of how measurement, analytics and optimized resource allocation can drive marketing strategies and tactics.

    Click here to view the full speaking roster and session descriptions.

    Join us in Boston this June and find out why Measure Up is the event for marketing measurement knowledge exchange. It's a collaborative meeting of the minds to explore the new world of marketing analytics.

    Register by this Friday, April 15 & Save $200 off the standard rates to attend! 

    Mention code TWEETMEASUREPB when registering.

    Wednesday, April 6, 2011

    #Socialc20 Live: Are You OK With Being in My Measurement?

    In one of the last session of the last day of the conference, Christine Perkett, asks how do you treat your customers like a deal or like a partner in a relationship?

    You have a social contract with your public, you choose your part in it and your level of connection and engagement.

    Start with a plan.

    Step back and think and focus on your business goals and what relationships to develop then create a strategy.

    Look at negative vs. good comments and strategize your plan.

    Don't just broadcast your great reviews.

    Make sure you train your social media staff - no place for wallflowers in social media nor knee-jerk reactions.

    Great social media addresses the good and bad - look @Zappos.

    Trust your consumers and build a relationship on that trust.

    Tread carefully and with respect, you can track social media but you should be transparent and value your relationship. Don't abuse the priviledge and don't neglect your responsibility to your users.

    #SocialC20 Live: Cristine Cea, Unilever

    Does it take six or seven times for a message to sink in? Cristine Cea of Unilever hoped so as she topped off the Strategy track at the Social Media and Communities 2.0 conference. Luckily Cea had new content to add to the conversation in addition to confirming earlier messages.

    She shared 10 Best Practices:

    1. Assess your social journey
    Call it evolution or anything else, your company will need to make a journey through novice stages through operationalizing social media. Decide where you want to go and how to get there.

    2. Clearly define roles and responsibilities
    The whole is greater then the sum of its parts, but make clear who is in charge of which task. Find team members with the capability and experience to take charge of their tasks.

    3. Think "always on"
    Don't dip in and out in "campaign mode," your community engagement should never turn off if you want to build loyalty.

    4. Create an issues management protocol
    As we've heard over the past two days, being prepared and thinking before you leap can set your team up for success. If you need it, get legal approval before an issue arises. Speed can save the day if something negative happens

    5. Listen and define rules of engagement
    Address misconceptions and let correct information speak for itself. You may not be able to please everyone, but you can provide clear and correct information and let the fans use it.

    6. Deliver currency and relevancy
    Balance pre-arranged conversation or content calendars with ongoing engagement. Adjust accordingly.

    7. Set objectives and strategies
    If a piece of your social media strategy doesn't fit your marketing strategy, where does it sit? Leverage your assets to deliver on business goals.

    8. Identify key opinion formers and influencers
    Use listening dashboards or other tools to find your influencers and build social relationships with them where appropriate.

    9. Think holistically: integrate assets and channels into activation.

    10. Experiment, Learn, Adapt, Repeat
    Prepare for possibilities and plan to sustain throughout the experimental process.

    #SocialC20 Live: Flip the Funnel: Why Customer Retention is the New Acquisition

    Joseph Jaffe, spoke about how to Flip the Funnel and Why Customer Retention is the New Acquisition this afternoon.

    Customers and users are humans, corporations are sterile: keep it real in order to engage.

    Revolution is not about uprising but rather 360 degrees, going back to the begining. Social media is based on principles that are not new, only the platform is new.

    Customer experience and customer service are going to be the only value add that matters to users.

    Companies must Flip the Funnel:

    At Zappos, 75% of their profits come from returning customers.
    Their mission is to know that 75% (know everything about them) and activate their advocacy.


    Community is the new demographic.

    Funnel ambassadors, evangelists, and consumers into one community.

    "Like" should be relevant and utilitarian.

    Customer service is the new marketing/PR/Crisis communication.

    New Rules for Customer Service:
    1.Customer service doesn't stop at 5pm on a Friday.
    2.From "everything" to "everyone" communicates
    3.All customers are equal (some more than others)
    4.Customer service is not only about solving problems.
    5.Customer service lives "in the now"
    6.Customer service can be a revenue generator
    7.Customer service lives in the public domain.
    8.Customer service is an ongoing commitment
    9.Customer service can be proactive & anticipatory
    10.Customer service is alive

    The real role of social media is RETENTION.

    Empower your human beings (social media employees) to do their jobs, and help them help you help your customers: funding, training, tools, and technology.

    Flipping the funnel will allow us to go from campaigns to commitments to ecosystems.

    #SocialC20 Live: Traditional Audience vs. Fan Culture: How Social Media Research Connects Communities

    In this session, led by Warren Sukernek from ALTERIAN he talked about how they did a virtual ethnography for the folks at Peeps.

    What they found is that there were a lot of strong (good/bad-43%) opinions about Peeps.

    Comments by young mothers/young parents on forums, which was surprising because of where even on pregnancy websites.

    Now fans, on the other hand, had a real affinity for Peeps and wanted to be involved, steady volume versus higher volume of conversation than traditional audience mentioned above. It was much more media heavy too - Facebook, photos, art, etc. expressions of their passion rather than opinions.

    Peepshi Phenomenon - Peeps made to look like sushi - Topic on Seriouseats.com

    Happy Easter!


    People also like to see Peeps explode in a microwave.

    Lots of opportunities for Peeps brand to extend by catering to both fans (year round) and traditional audience (seasonally).

    Learn more about the Peeps/Alterian virtual ethnography here.

    #SocialC20 Live: Gina Debogovich on Harnessing the Power of Employees

    Be Smart, Be Human, and Be Respectful

    That's the heart of the Best Buy social media policy. Gina Debogovich shared with us in the strategy track this afternoon and continued with the "be human" message that has resonated throughout the conference.

    Best Buy created a uniquely empowering environment that allows local employees from any store to create a social media presence and represent the brand. In this way the social media strategy has gone from Gina herself responding to all online complaints or questions to a all-volunteer employee "Twelp Force" of around 3,000 employees. Employees can join forums and represent best buy in a transparent manner, or help twitter users with questions such as "Should I buy a mac or a pc" (or maybe, what's the future of the laptop?)

    You can read the entirety of the Best Buy social media policy here.

    #SocialC20 Live: Using Social Media Learning's For Overall Brand Strategy

    Michelle Spellerberg of Careerbuilder spoke in the strategy track this afternoon and joined the refrain of "it's all about content."

    There are reasons not to be on social media, but there are more reasons to be there. So now that you've jumped in it's important to:

    1. Have fun, don't be bland
    Respond directly to consumers, don't just respond to questions or complaints. Instead get to know your users and interact with their lives.

    2. Be empowering
    More than just being engaging, empower your users to participate. Let them know where to go, and encourage. Have an emergency preparedness plan rather then a policy. Careerbuilder's Community Promise provides clear guidelines on how to act and cuts down on internal questions.

    3. Be infinite

    Yuknuminc.com, a joke website tie in for the ad campaign above, was a failure for Careerbuilder.com because it didn't expand beyond the site. Users weren't sharing, but the "Monkey" campaign in general was a success. Now they have launched Monk-E-mail, which has a 25% pass-along rate and Monk-e-Maker. These campaigns have "infinite" use beyond the campaign, users share them and use them personally due to their engaging nature.

    Follow Michelle Spellerberg on twitter here.

    #SocialC20 Live: How American Family Insurance Became the Most Connected Brand on Facebook

    Presented by Troy Janisch, Digital Marketing Manager @socialmeteor at AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE

    How do you get people engaged in a (boring) regulated industry?

    Social Media is like herding cats.



    Do customers care? Older employees/agents v. younger staff.

    Challenge: Social is not selling.

    Agents are ultimately salespeople.

    Herd cats by offering milk:

    use social media as digital prospecting and to drive customer outreach by building relationships.

    Landscape of SM:

    Facebook -Largest (build friendships)
    Twitter - Loudest (listening)
    Linkedin - Powerful (B2B)

    Create a social media mission statement - should be complimentary to company's overall mission but less salesy.

    They were the first to achieve widespread Facebook adoption.
    No corporate approval structure.
    Less than a year later 1800 agent Facebook pages, 70,000 agent Facebook fans.

    Negative comments create opportunities for proactive customer service.
    Amplify positive comments
    Create referral and quoting opportunities
    Recognize "standout agents"

    Instant feedback - in real time.

    This was only possible becuase they were allowed (and funded) by upper management to take risks.

    #SocialC20 Live: Late Night Comedy Meets Corporate Social Media

    Tim Washer of Cisco started off the afternoon in the strategy track with an important note, "There's nothing more human than humor"



    When you're talking about humanizing a brand, creating humorous content can be an excellent way to reach influencers at a low cost. But how can you get buy-in from within your company?

    Some tips:
    Begin with marketing strategy, find out marketing goals and tell marketing how this supports the larger goal. Set expectations and create a portfolio.

    Build trust. Find key influencers, listen and share with them.

    Continue to try. (Even if you have a few failures).

    Production quality is secondary. It's not about money or production budget, it's about having a good story.

    Don't burden the project with ROI conversations, find room to experiment.

    Will you be going home and doing your comedy writing homework? If so, be sure to come back and share the videos with us.

    Find Tim Washer on twitter and facebook.

    #SocialC20 Live: Social Currency Scott Stratten, UnMarketing

    In the final keynote of the morning, Scott Stratten, author of UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging, told us "Marketing Is Not a Task." In a world where consumers are increasingly online, every interaction with any faucet of a brand can increase or decrease your brand.

    Since Statten claims to "speak in tweets," let us share with you some of the most-shared tweets from the session:

    "We are passive in person and aggressive online." @

    @cflanagan: Consumers are passive in person and aggressive online. Most honest, raw exchange online. Tap into it.

    bcarroll7: To be great at customer service, you only have to be average because everyone else sucks. @unmarketing

    @mspellerberg: Mission statements don't matter - actions do @unmarketing

    @VirtualMR: People do business with brands they Know, Like, & Trust via @unmarketing

    @WhatsUpGuru: "People spread awesome" - Scott Stratten @unmarketing

    : "Too many people are writing content for Google and not for their readers"http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

    @Cassaundrams: You cannot ignore what you hate.

    @natanyap: "No one ever read your blog post and said 'This is boring but your title is really keyword rich' so let's share it."

    For more about the "ROI of being awesome."
    follow Scott Stratten at UnMarketing or visit www.un-marketing.com.

    #SocialC20 Live: Michael Tchong, UBERCOOL

    From "$#*! My Dad Says" to the revolution in Egypt, Social Media is changing the world. Michael Tchong explored the trends of social media in a lively session this morning and his conclusion is:

    "The Nerds Have Won"
    Changing language (LOL, OMG and WTF joining the OED), changing the idea of transparency and changing the very way we conduct major life changes (be it posting relationship status on Facebook, or live tweeting birth) social media is changing the world.

    Facebook's like button is becoming the "universal judgement of the world" and social sharing affects the way we work, play and interact.

    Mobile integration now allows the world to remain always in touch, however simultaneously the fragmentation of attention created by the multitude of media leaves users with less attention span, present and yet absent.

    Tchong introduced the following social trends today:
    Trend 1: Acceleration of time
    Response: According to Google, if your webpage takes longer than 400 milliseconds to to load, you'll lose 1% of search traffic. In a fast moving world, keep things simple.

    Trend 2: Unwired
    Response: We live in a highly mobile, independent society that wants to be in control and in ruled by the value of "freedom." Give consumers the control panel they desire.

    Trend 3: Digital Lifestyle
    Response: We are living in an age of increasing integration with robots. Rewrite the rules of social engagement, rethink how to interact with a new generation of digitally integrated people.

    For more social trendspotting,follow Michael Tchong on twitter at Ubercool.

    #SocialC20 Live: Panel, Return on Community

    This morning's panel discussion featured moderator Sherri Dorfman of Stepping Stone Partners, along with Stacey Gutman of American Express, Becky Carroll of Verizon and Nestor Portillo of Microsoft.

    Each of these panelists is involved in a different sort of branded community that they leverage to see a return:
    Open Forum at American Express connects small business owners to three things, information, education, and each other. Inspired by offline speed-networking events, this community helps members share and make connections that can lead to off-line experiences.

    Microsoft identifies influencers, independent experts, and invites them to a MVP community where they serve three purposes: magnify the voice of the customer, catalyze conversations and provide feedback on products. Members are segmented based on their activity into connectors, critics, creators and collectors. MVPs have been involved in developing applications, writing brand-related books and other activities that drive connections between Microsoft and the community.

    Verizon community forums started as a peer-to-peer support community and has grown into a branded engagement community. The community serves as a communication channel for technical FAQs and blogs, an idea exchange for innovation suggestions and more. The "Room to Learn" site provides users with education that enables them to live a better digital lifestyle. Product sales are not pushed here, rather it is content about digital technology that anyone can learn from (not just Verizon customers). In this way members may share about Verizon in other, non-branded communities, and become evangelists for the brand.

    #SocialC20 Live: Is There an App for That? Should There Be? Jeffrey Smith, SMULE

    According to Jeffrey Smith of Sonic Mule, building apps is the modern goldrush, but smartphone software is no fad. Smule has been making waves with a variety of music-based apps, and this presentation focused on the evolution from software as service to the web to mobile.

    Says Smith, "Mobile may only be a temporary word, because there's a good chance that soon we'll always be connected."

    So, should there be an app for what you do?
    Can you provide something unique? Make your app an experience. An app is more than a facebook page or a webpage on a mobile phone.

    Can there be a gaming element to your app? Can you use movement? Current mobile devices have more in common with a Nintendo PSP then a first generation mobile phone. Make use of the technological tools within mobile phones such as accelerometers and multi-touch screens.

    Learn from your users: continue to develop based on feedback from what your current users are doing, how they come in to contact with your service, and how they interact with it. The biggest driver of app use is word of mouth.

    Is your app providing a service? The future of mobile will be providing on-demand services or content. Make this your goal and you will engage your users.

    #SocialC20 Live: Day Three and The Return of The Wall of Awesome

    The third and final day of the Social Media and Communities 2.0 conference kicked off with a welcome by Dawn Lacallade of Comblu, followed by a refrain of Kellie Parker of Sega's presentation, "Pull Up a Stool: Meet Sega's Community Expert"

    As we learned yesterday during the Scottrade and Tasti-D-Lite presentations, people love free stuff. Sega leverages this by giving away promotional items, and promoting the program with video, blogs and twitter. Fans are not required to share content (such as retweets), but original content and engagement is rewarded with highlights on the blog or prizes. Inspiring fans with fun original content and encouraging the production of fan content through praise and sharing goes a long way towards building engagement. In this manner, Sega is able to get high-quality user generated content like this:



    Find additional coverage of Kellie's presentation here.

    Key takeaways:
    Humanize the brand
    Differentiate yourself
    Be personal, and don't be afraid of letting personality show
    Do something amazing

    Tuesday, April 5, 2011

    #SocialC20 Live: Today's Top Tweets


    The #SocialC20 twitter stream has been going strong. As we wrap up our second day of the Social Media and Communities 2.0 conference, let's look back at some of the most influential tweets of the day.

    @cflanagan Numbers and measurements are great. But give anecdotal to show emotional connection/results with brand #socialc20

    @rhappe
    The best hires for cmty team at Dell are not social media experts but people that love customer support @rishiatdell #socialc20


    @40deuce "Social media isn't about pushing, it's about talking" - Marc Gobe #socialC20

    @kristiewells: Important lesson: Avoid knee-jerk reactions. Respond to the community in a timely manner, just know the internet never forgets. #socialc20

    @40deuce: "The holy grail of marketing is hitting the right person with the right message at the right time" #socialc20

    What tweets caught your eye today? Is there anything we missed?

    #SocialC20 Live: Online Community as an Insight Tool for Usability Testing and Product Innovation, Natalie Dunbar, AT&T INTERACTIVE

    So you have an online community, now what?

    Natalie Dunbar, Online Community Manager, AT&T Interactive, discussed using your online community as a tool for usability testing using the new yp.com as an example.

    yp.com is a good example of using a closed community for product testing. In addition, the community fosters continued engagement and 39% of participants indicated they referred a friend to yp.com for their local search needs after becoming a member.

    Occasionally rewards such as a gift-card giveaway would be used for participation, but generally a "Featured Member" feature is the only reward. Users were willing to help with usability testing, and in fact shared positive sentiment just for being asked. Natalie added "People are happy just to know that their opinion made a difference."

    Some key take-aways learned from the yp.com development:
    • If you ask, users will answer
    • Community can help shape the product development experience
    • Community can help build brand advocacy from the inside out into the marketplace
    • "Test early and test often." The earlier the community is involved in the product research process, the better the results and takeaways for product innovation and development.
    • Share findings: coordinate usability research efforts with marketing research and share findings at both ends of the development cycle.
    By using the usability community and usability lab, yp.com was able to learn from their users and integrate services such as opentable.com for users who visit looking to make restaurant reservations.

    #SocialC20 Live: Get the Business Value of Social Media

    Presented by Jamie Pappas, from the AMP Agency, an award winning digital marketing agency.

    Social Media and a Social Media strategy must be integrated fully in order to be successful.

    Social Media content needs to be all be interlinked to your content otherwise it’s a dead end.

    What are your social media goals, if you don’t have goals you are just shouting at people.

    No two goal sets are going to be a like, they have to resonate to your company/stakeholders.

    Once you have goals, you can create a strategy.

    Monitor real time - be there - be present.
    And, measure over time - more traditional ROI.

    Formula for success:

    clear goals
    strategy supporting goals
    engage and join conversation
    monitor over real time
    measure long term

    #SocialC20 Live: Using Social Technologies to Reward Brand Loyalty BJ Emerson, Tasti-D-Lite

    BJ Emerson of Tasti-D-Lite walked the strategy track through Tasti-D-Lite's evolving brand loyalty strategies this afternoon at Social Media and Communities 2.0.

    From punch cards to twitter and foursquare coupons, Tasti-D-Lite has been a early adopter of brand loyalty programs, evolving a pre-existing audience like this one into a socially-savvy users of mytasti.com

    The MyTasti.com loyalty program rewards users with points that build toward free product. Additionally, users check-ins automatically feed through into platforms like Foursquare and Twitter, turning an active check-in into a passive check-in. Users become evangelists to their personal networks. Tasti-D-Lite has even built in custom messages for the system to add a personal touch (and avoid generating spam).

    Follow BJ Emerson on twitter here.

    #Socialc20: Connecting a Massive Online Audience via Off-line Events

    Presented by Esmee Williams, and Jennifer Miller, from @AllRecipes & @AllrecipesJen

    Allrecipes.com has a huge amazing community, 21 countries, 70% women, - with very different personas from foodie to novice.

    A vibrant community drives ownership and loyalty.

    Community cannot be exist without brands/partners - eccomerce, ads, promotions.

    Cookies across America = community + partners

    Branded the campaign - creating evergreen content, merchandising, and logos.

    Created a landing page, banners, accross allrecipes.com platforms, live webcast, facebook and twitter sweepstakes -- user submitted recipes/photos cobranded, posted tips , PR and media events, hosted two charity events for bloggers and employees.

    When their 6-hr webcast was split into several separate segments, they were consumed at a higher rate. Over 7,000 viewers watched they webcast live.

    Focus was always on the community.

    Lessons Learned:
    Allot more planning time - start earlier
    Work with other in-house teams
    Go for greater blogger reach
    Rebroadcast the webcast
    Save the date - set a specific date.

    #SocialC20 Live: Marketing Strategy: Building a Private Community vs. Open Platform

    After a brief networking break the strategy track welcomed Bill Johnston of Dell, Mark Studness of Verizon, Adam Petrick of Puma and Caroline Dangson of The Dachis Group. This panel convened to discuss open versus closed communities. Some notable take-aways from the panel included:

    Determining factors for building a private or public community include the purpose of the group and the content. Groups looking to do research or receive feed back on products might trend private, but groups looking to engage as much as possible or provide support might wish to be more open.

    Debating the idea of building a branded community vs existing in public communities like Facebook?
    Communities such as Facebook are like leased apartments - you can only make so many changes within the structure. Branded communities can be built to fit your needs.
    The panel noted that communities that grew out of support forums can exist alongside twitter, Facebook and other properties-and each can serve a purpose towards driving sales or engagement.
    Having different content plans for different platforms helps to keep users engaged across multiple touch-points. This strategy can include driving users back to a branded community.

    Opportunities to integrate:
    Social logins such as facebook connect, and sharing buttons can be a starting point for integration. Credit or tangible rewards for participation on open or closed communities can also get or keep users engaged. Have a strategy for each community, and integrate as well.

    Has your company built a branded community? What is your strategy?

    Creating Exceptional Customer Relationships

    Creating Exceptional Customer Relationships, Lessons learned from Kellie Parker of Sega,
    By Dawn Lacallade, Conference Chair, Social Media and Community 2.0 Strategies Conference

    I often find myself trying to explain the importance of Community Management and relationship building as a cornerstone of Community Strategy. Those of us that have been doing this for years, can cite examples and practices that demonstrate what it looks like when this is done right. It is absolutely inspiring when you find an outstanding example.

    Yesterday, Kellie Parker gave an inspired presentation on how the Sega team does exactly that. What started with an overflowing Marketing closet, became the “free stuff Friday”. While this is a great engagement technique, this is not the remarkable part. The beauty in her example was the execution. They choose several items to give away each week. They video tape the items early in the week. They use video to personalize the community management team. They begin videotaping as the team sets up in hope of catching a moment worthy of including in their blooper reel. The focus on these team members as ambassadors and going on that next step to personalize them with the bloopers… that is the art of community management.

    These same community managers, that are aligned by product vs tool, do all of the community management. They are the face of Sega to their customers. They are gamers. They are genuine. People connect with them. Kellie and her team look at it as their job to not only help the customers be loyal to Sega, but to help the employees be loyal to the customers. To do this, the team has erected a “Wall of Awesome”. The Wall of Awesome is a display of comments, art, fan letters, and funny stories that are intended to remind employees that the customers are the reason we are all here.

    Kellie also gave great examples of how they had a great UGC video creation contest and an equally impressive viral hit. But central to the success of all of these endeavors was these same Community Managers. Way to go Julian, Aaron, David, Laurie and Craig. Thanks for being a great example of exceptional!

    #Socialc20: Topix - All Politics is Local

    Presented by Jonathan Ward, from TOPIX

    Topix started off as a news aggregator and recently has developed more locally based forums.

    For 2010 midterm election cycle, they set out to provide coverage on an unprecedented scale.

    Gathered as much data as they could with 6-person staff.

    They asked users to submit data.

    Created forum views, thread widgets, elections page created unprecedented traffic around election days from all 50 states. A quarter of a million pageviews, majority of engagement came from small, rural towns.

    In hindsight, they would have gathered the data earlier and expanded the entire campaign before Election Day.

    #Socialc20 live: Case Study on Adobe Community Mapping & Influencer Outreach

    Presented by Dominique Lahaix, from
    ECAIRN INC.


    What is a tribe? Large groups of highly passionate, highly interconnected.

    Social media is not just one thing. People are interconnected, faceted in multiple ways

    Marketers ala Seth Godin: Choose the the tribe you lead.

    Dive into the tribe, understand them, characterize and gather insights - analyze your results.

    Then distinguish the high and medium influencers from the low level ones.

    For more information on how eCairn’s unique technology maps virtual social communities , read:

    “Adobe uses eCairn to discover key influencers.”

    #SocialC20 Live: Strengthen Customer Contact Through Engagement

    Nina Card of Scottrade joined the Strategy track this afternoon to share insight about Scotttrade's Online Community (as well as some of the challenges of faced by social media practitioners in the Financial Services sector).

    Launched in 2008, Scotttrade's Online Community (or STOC) now has 49000+ members and fetaures group discussions, blogs, video, file sharing, education activities and more. A customer who is in the community is statistically 28% more valuable then peers who are not community members.

    The challenge was, how to engage within the community. The STOC approach to engagement has five steps. Despite the specificity of the industry, STOC's solution is applicable to many business sectors as a guide to engagement.

    Steps to Engagement:
    1. Welcome
    - A welcome email
    - A quick start guide
    - Personal welcome message
    - Invites to specific discussions

    2. Watch
    - For uploaded content (photo, etc.)
    - For blog posts, interaction

    3. Engage
    - Learn more about users
    - Start a conversation that appeals to them
    - Lead them to hot or controversial topics
    - Make introductions to like-minded members
    - Look for VIPs, give them homework, special tasks

    4. Encourage
    - Validate and encourage new comers

    5. Celebrate
    - Celebrate the 1st post, and the 1,000th post
    - Have a recognition program
    - Let them know they're an important part of the community
    - Tangible rewards

    SocialC20 Attendees can download Nina's slides from crowdvine here.

    #Socialc20 Live:Measuring ROI & Social for TV and Movies Panel

    Panel: SPREDFAST • NBC UNIVERSAL • ABC • DISNEY • Mark Drosos, LODESTONE SOCIAL MEDIA

    Focus areas: Which are more relevant to your company? They all must hold a place in your strategy.

    Measuring
    Management
    Internal education
    Tools and technologies
    Resources
    Monitoring/moderation
    Policies and procedures

    Measurement ROI goals for 2011 referenced, located here.

    What do you measure and how?

    90 percent of the time for WGBH, social engagement leading up to a new show will predict how many people will actually watch the show. High levels of engagement early on directly ties to consumption. They have adapted to use their social community to gauge interests in new shows.

    Time and effect on ROI exponentally increases

    Paid Media ->
    brand owned media ---->
    earned media ---------------->


    To download the white paper on Social ROI, visit SocialEye, because you can track social media, right down to sales, leads, etc. It just has to be gathered differently and perceived through various attributions.

    #SocialC20 Live: Optimizing Marketing Communication through Social Listening Heddy Parker, KRAFT

    In the first session of the afternoon here in the Strategy track at Social Media and Communities 2.0, Heddy Parker of Kraft walked us through the Ritz "Open For Fun" campaign from inception to the present day.

    In 2008 Ritz knew their consumers as carefree, snack lovers with busy social lifestyles. However, Ritz faced a marketing challenge: consumers were viewing Ritz as predictable.

    Thus rose a communication goal: surprise the consumer with Ritz. Make Ritz the champion of fun.

    In order to understand and connect with the consumers on a much deeper and more meaningful level, Ritz combined traditional research with social listening (via an online anthropological study) to find the "principals for fun."

    First the traditional ethnographic research found that Ritz consumers have a core set of values. Have fun is a separate distinct value that leads to emotional benefits. Fun was associated with community gatherings, family togetherness, and time with friends. Next, Ritz worked with Motivequest to identify peaks and valleys, motivations and activities and come up with recommendations. Motivequest measured Talk Value, or volume of conversation to find that fun for consumers centers around hope, happiness, love, anticipation. Fun provides an opportunity to be relevant throughout the year.

    In 2010, Ritz partnered with sports and media personalities, summer blockbusters and other forms of entertainment to spread the message of fun and continue to engage throughout the year.

    #SocialC20 Live: C-level Point of View: Embracing Social Media Via Bravo Media

    Ellen Stone, at BRAVO MEDIAnotes brands must define cultural conversations - social media is critical at Bravo.

    Partnering allows a like-minded brand to help extend the reach of promotion to a shared audience

    First to partner with foursquare.

    Don’t use tools in a vacuum, use multiple distribution channels.

    Think headlines/soundbites:

    Content becomes succinct and sweet, and very shareable via twitter and Facebook.

    Innovate in a relevant and meaningful way - maybe a new spin on a traditional element. Like a virtual viewing event becomes a Bravo Talk Bubble: Facebook, twitter and viewers watch together and chat online. A Twitter aggregators - all Bravo celebrities.

    Measure buzz, print, blogs, tweets, engagement level is critical, audience’s social circles - how influential are they?


    Case study: #justdessertsday won two marketing awards - used multiple web tools to promote a launch of a new show, generated 1.6 Million viewers for Top Chef Just Desserts and resulted in 8,000 truffles sold in the span of two hours for their partners at Godiva.

    #SocialC20 Live: A Conversation with James Fowler: The Power of Social Networks Pt. 2

    Or... "Don't Dump Your Fat Friends"

    James Fowler, author of CONNECTED notes social networks are not new. We have always had closed communities of friends, and friends’ friends’ friends.

    We live within a huge social network, and have incredible impact on one another and people beyond our own network. Lots of our actions are motivated by social actions even when we don’t see the connection. Exponential numbers means one interaction can leads to 100 more.

    Findings of scientific study discussed in his book, Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives -- How Your Friends' Friends' Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think, and Do, reveal the “profound influence on one another's tastes, health, wealth, happiness, beliefs, even weight, and how social networks form and how they operate.”

    Causes of similiraties and clustering
    influence
    homophily - common type
    context

    Your behavior is magnified by other people and also amplified as it spreads.

    Interestingly enough, women are stronger influencers (on their circle by three degrees) than men, demonstrated through study on drinking and social pressure.

    And it’s not influence as perceived by social media metrics, lots of followers on Twitter, but yet the influence between true and trusted friends - your true social circle.

    Facebook clusters: identity, shared interests (bands, movies), and behavior. Mobilize people online by getting their friends involved.

    Weigh in on your social network on our social network here.

    #SocialC20 Live: Marc Gobé on EMOTIONAL BRANDING

    The first session this morning began with Marc Gobé on EMOTIONAL BRANDING showing us a short video that depicted Sao Paolo as an example of the way advertising will be viewed in the future (traditional ads were banned) so having a social emotional brand is critical to your marketing now and in the future. Zappos, hulu, Twitter, are corporations changing the world, therefore ambassador of brands are needed, faceless corporations are not cared for anymore. People own brands, brands need to about people. Social media changes the world, it empowers people to do things they werent able to do before. On Passion and spontaneity - over 400 photos from revolt in Tunisia created organic emotional branding in real time. Placing people first, understanding what they want, what they represent, those are the keys to emotional branding. Moving from excessive to the inspirational, how do you sell products people don't need? sell the idea that this product will make you feel good. Emotional pull is the basis of modern advertising. Social media revolt can and will happen to brands when people stop believing in them. Brands are defined by social networks, that’s where your reputation is made. Dogmatic brands struggle to humanize their message and reach people, while social brands listen to what their consumers need and want and engage them through their needs. Marketing has been redefined, traditional marketing skills are no longer enough. The culture is the voice of the brand. A social voice helps promote cultural events though content, engage through entertainment. Brands as moviemakers,brands as publishers... How to find your Social Voice - critical to Emtional Branding: Start internally and then go outward 1. empower the people 2. introduce and liberate the brand's social voice 3. boost emotional branding and social acumen 4 engage and explore 5 development of branded culture What is your social purpose?

    Monday, April 4, 2011

    #SocialC20 Live: Social Media 101

    Social Media & Its Many Forms
    Beth Uyenco, MICROSOFT ADVERTISING

    Internet usage can be bucketed into:
    Information, communication, creation, transaction, entertainment, and surfing.

    Communication counts for 1/3 of the communication on the internet. Email is still the most used type of social media. People who have web phones tend to communicate more on the internet. Behavior on the internet is very routine. Most internet activity in the US is in the morning, and communication is a large portion of this. Even if you aren’t involved in social media personally, you should at least be listening.

    How can marketing conversations involve a way for people to co-create?
    Need owned and paid media to generate owned media.

    Amp Up Your Social Media Strategy Today
    Raj Misra, WUNDERMAN

    What should you think of when you are beginning your social media campaign?
    • -Who is talking about your product?
    • -How is social marketing delivering a robust ROI?
    • -Are you optimizing your campaigns?
    • -Can you do it better?

    Office 2010 Launch
    Office generates over $11 billion in revenue for Microsoft. They look at social media through three different platforms: bought, owned, and earned. With “Earned,” they have fans they can mobilize to become customers. From there, they have individuals talk about their products and bring them into new New Media channels. With Microsoft, many communities already exist. They assess the pre-existing communities and use those to connect with their customers.
    • • Social media is a mature marketing channel. There are a lot of silent participants. Build strategies that acknowledge both vocal participants and the observers.
    • • If you have an existing community, don’t try to build a new one. If people are already talking about your brand, look there first and see if you can translate it to an active community.
    • • Timing is important
    • • Not all audiences are the same
    • • Since social media is visual, you can measure and optimize things

    The State of Media Democracy
    Alma Derricks, DELOITTE CONSULTING LLP

    Stepping back and looking at the overall media picture will help us embrace social media more.

    Television it’s still a very strong medium. It’s the strongest at 71%. When people are conversing on other platforms, they’re talking about television. Advertising from this medium is also very influential.

    SmartPhones: It’s one of the top three most valued products. They are catching on in the millennial consumer group. Many consumers use their SmartPhones instead of laptops when they’re traveling.

    Print Magazines: All print isn’t the same. The newspaper is on the decline but magazine subscriptions remain strong across the past five years and over all demographics groups.

    Social Media Strategy Essentials
    Holly Zoba, SIGNATURE WORLDWIDE

    Seven steps to a strategic plan:
    1) Identify objectives – customer retention, employee satisfaction, etc?
    2) Ask (and listen) to all parties involved (surveys, meetings, tweet deck)
    3) Create your voice & teams (how, when and why are your consumers using social media?)
    4) Assign social media tools to your leaders
    5) Hold a problem solving/brain storming session
    6) Create an action plan
    7) Execute, evaluate progress, measure results and begin again

    Capitalize on the Platform That Fits Your Practice
    Megan Smith, OVATION

    When defining your social media strategy, define how you wan to use your “Big 3”. Ideas from Ovation for the Big 3 – humanizing the corporate brand, marketing b-to-c, marketing b-to-b, and customer support.

    Smith prefers to use the native platforms when monitoring and working with social media across Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media tools. Engagement is best done with your customers are you know what goals you have in terms of social media.

    #SMC20 Live: What Every CEO Needs to Know About Social Media

    Sasha Strauss, INNOVATION PROTOCOL @sashastrauss

    Who are you trying to engage online? By nature, humans are seekers, we’re constantly looking for information? Social media was built for seekers. We also are nosy, and love to watch peoples lives unfold. We like to think that we’re insiders. Everyone wants to be a part of a club. We love to commune around common topics. Your community can serve as the ego, and social media is the venue to connect with the users and community members. Technology has finally caught up to the human desires. Three was to succeed:
    • -Understand a network
    • -The power of reference influence
    • -Trust equity
    If you get the power of the network, you develop a certain equity. Social media is mass media. Why? It’s already touching politics, faith, culture, and science. The Social media spectrum according to Strauss (listening and speaking): RSS feeds, Blogger, Twitter, YouTube, Ning, Facebook, radian6, reddit Examples: Will It Blend? Is a perfect example of how companies can conversation with their watchers. Creating content where discourse is enabled – this is what YouTube does best. Rules of engagement:
    1. 1. Give your listeners 10x more than you expect back
    2. 2. Use social media platforms as a learning environment
    3. 3. Celebrate who your audience is
    4. 4. Ask questions
    5. 5. Learn from your market and make sure you’re paying attention
    6. 6. Develop a Social Media Plan

    • a. Analysis of opportunity
    • b. Content Strategy
    • c. Media Channel Strategy
    • d. Timeline and resource planning
    • e. Take Action
    • f. Evaluate and refine
    • g. Relate to your audience
    • h. Keeping content fresh