#twitterbirth - the birth of a social media baby

contractions have already started (5:15 CST). #twitterbirth

With that post I began the process of updating the twitterverse on the pending arrival of Torry and my new son, Logan. In addition to keeping a running journal on twitter of short updates I continually updated my Facebook status for our friends and family.

Why did I do this? I am not really sure.

It helped calm my nervous tension - it helped connect so many people to one of the biggest moments of our lives - it gave us something else to focus on - it gave me a personal log of how I was feeling at any given time during the 23 hour process - and there is a lot of downtime in that 23 hour process.

But in truth, to me the biggest point was the connectivity. I was able to push out messages and emotional status and I had many people (mostly on Facebook) thanking me for the updates - I am sure there were just as many wanting me to shut up, but the great thing about social media is that you don't have to act on a conversation unless you want to.

I first became aware of the #twitterbirth hashtag on August 7 in a post from @icelander as he and his wife were preparing for the birth of their child. I thought it was a cool idea so I decided to give it a try - if it seemed odd or intrusive I would have stopped - but it didn't, it was actually pretty fun.

In the process I also read about other people in the twitter world having babies at the same time, some examples were @kellytirman and the birth in the first family of twitter @ev and @sara.

There are so many uses for social media, but in the end it is about connecting people and sharing what is important or valuable to you - to me, the birth or #twitterbirth of Logan is as important as it gets.

Welcome to the world Logan, you have a great big brother in Bailey and the worlds greatest mother. I am already in love.

The Danger of rushing in to Social Media

As an advocate of how social media can be effective when incorporated into a corporation’s larger marketing program, it is painful for me to see when companies do it wrong.

A recent example of this was Marsh supermarkets and its Facebook Coupon. Marsh sent a $10 coupon to their Facebook Fans thinking that they would forward it to a few people – the result, mass produced coupons and some being sold for individual profit… Question here, what is the going rate for a $10 coupon?

As a result Marsh has decided not to honor the coupons resulting in an expected backlash. A Marsh statement reveals that this is one of the company’s initial initiatives to use social media as marketing.

This should serve as a lesson to any corporation jumping into social media (be it Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) – make sure you have a solid plan in place, and like all marketing initiatives think through the campaign completely before launching it to the public. Something KFC hopefully learned from the Oprah debacle.

Social Media is hot, and it is smart for corporations to get in on it now… but only after you have decided what your desired outcomes will be. I think the Marsh coupon idea was a smart idea, but in my opinion they should have limited it to the actual Fans.

I don’t think Marsh should suspend future Social Media plans, but I think they need to realize the power of viral before launching the next campaign. I also think this should serve as a lesson for any other company wanting to jump the gun without having a plan in place.

Brand Bombing on Twitter

This past Friday I came across an interesting question on LinkedIn posted by Emily Luiz - The question was: Calling attention to negative review of competitor product via Twitter: Cool or not cool?

The post in question was tweeted by Red Mango and said the following: "OMG - The New Worst Drink in America Cold Stone Creamery PB&C Shake, with 2,010 calories + 131 grams of fat!!!!" The tweet linked to this article in Men's Health.

I will admit that I have never heard of Red Mango prior to this, so in a way it did a good job by raising awareness, heck, they are getting a blog post by me out of it - but, the question Emily posted is a very good one, is this a cool strategy or not?

A look at the answers to the questions shows that people view this as a bad move and in poor taste. But is it any worse than when Subway calls out Burger King and McDonalds in their ads, and on their napkins - spelling out that Subway is the much healthier choice and if you chose the other options you are basically a cow?

For the most part we accept this tactic when it is used in traditional advertising, of course Subway never starts and ad with OMG or calls a Big Mac the Worst Sandwich in America (that would be a straight out lie, at least to this dough boy.)

But is social media different? Is a move like this a poor attempt at a brand bomb? And in a case like this are you actually doing more harm to your brand than that of your rival?

Social media, twitter in this specific example, has become a place for brands to interact directly with consumers and prospects - it has changed advertising from interruption based to an actual dialogue where the end user has a voice - The brand takes on a living breathing role, there is a person running these accounts and it is no longer just a pushed message from the faceless corporation - that is why this specific brand bomb resonates.

I am sure the folks at Red Mango had to love the fact that a rival got called out, a few high fives at corporate were probably had - but to post the link to twitter, from your account, directly tied to your brand? That does hit a little low - because it is no longer the cold faceless corporation and an ad agency - it is your social persona, and your persona just came off as kind of a dick.

In reality, is a move like this any worse than what Horizon Group did when they sued a tenant over a tweet? To me they both are poor examples of how to participate in the message community, one example happened to get picked up by the MSM, the other just kind of passed through the Twitter silo.

I think this does give an opportunity to open the dialogue on what should be expected out of brands as they migrate to social media. Let me know what you think - was this brand bomb laid out by Red Mango a smart move? Or is it in poor taste and an example not to be followed?

Social Media and the #IranElection

In a world where our nightly news gives us stories about the love affairs of Jon and Kate and the trivial goings on of Heidi and Spencer it was hardly shocking that when news of protests came out of Iran main stream media was not leading the story. The protests, based on the controversial election results, came through the blogosphere via social media, and only now, days later, main stream media is trying to catch up on news that has become common knowledge to those who actively utilize social media.

Twitter has become the main source of information where a handful of trusted people are tweeting out of Iran, and at a high risk to their personal safety. The tweets are carrying messages about what is happening on the streets, warning people of dangers and countering the messages being put out by the state run media. Even more impactful are the images and videos being captured on cell phones and uploaded to photo sharing sites and youtube. The images are sometimes graphic and show a firsthand look at an uprising in the making. These images are not the ones that are typically screened and edited before making their way to the nightly news here in the US.

Another site, not really a social media site, is news aggregator Fark. This site has been an incredible source of information and conversation about what is happening real time, specifically from a regular poster that posts under the name Tatsuma.

What we are witnessing is not only a potential revolution in Iran, it is a revolution on how we consume news and information. Personally, as someone who is a consumer of social media I appreciate being one of the first in the know - however, as someone who frequents social media I know how fast misinformation can spread. This is a time where the world is starving for information from trusted sources, has this "revolution" shown us the irrelevance of traditional media? I hope not.

Little Green Truth?

When I decided to start this blog my focus was to discuss things that were important to me and also to share the marketing knowledge and tips I have acquired though the years. Even with my experience in social media I never expected to get so personally involved in a story that was buzzing in the twitter world. But that is exactly what happened when I recently wrote about how Seventh Generation was handling a public relations issue via twitter.

Even more than that, I never thought that I would be so publicly involved in a story about the environmental impact of diapers, but sometimes stuff happens. Full disclosure, my wife and I are planning on using cloth diapers when our second child is born this summer. I joke that it is because we are hippies, but there really is a lot more to it than that. Part of the reason we decided to go the cloth route is because we do try, as a family, to do all that we can to help the planet - but we also looked at the economic benefits of cloth diapers and that is what finally pushed us to go the cloth route.

We did consider using Seventh Generation's chlorine free diapers since (more disclosure) we do use a variety of their cleaning products. But in reality the final decision was strictly one of cost (since we thought either way we were doing the right thing for the planet.) The website diaperdecision.com breaks out the total expected cost of multiple cloth options versus standard disposable diapers. The site finds that a parent will spend roughly $900-$1,200 more for disposable diapers over the time their child will be in diapers. So we thought hey, we are doing something good for the environment and saving money in the process, it is a no lose situation.

But then a funny thing happened...Earth Day. It all started with the  premier of the Fine Living Networks "Big Green Lies." The show was created by Jeffrey Hollender, the Chief Protagonist" & CEO of Seventh Generation. In the show they discussed both sides of the argument of cloth vs disposable and in the video it appeared to many in twitterverse that BGL downplays the impact disposable diapers have in increasing waste in landfills but puts added emphasis on the fact that cloth diapers use more water in their lifetime. Thus, the show concludes the result is a tie and everyone should feel good about whichever path they chose.

I agree, nobody should be made to feel guilty about their choice, but is it fair for Jeffrey Hollender to be leading this public discourse as the show basically could act as a commercial for his products (as many people pointed out on Twitter.) Wouldn't this be akin to the CEO of a fast food chain creating a show explaining that you should not feel guilty about eating a double cheeseburger and large fries daily because he has data to prove that it isn't as bad as it seems?

So this is where my little blog comes into play. My wife is on twitter and follows multiple manufacturers and sellers of cloth diapers, she told me about a trending conversation regarding people being upset about BGL and the content on the show. So, I decided to follow the conversation and to look at Seventh Generations twitter feed to see how they were reacting - and they were reacting and doing, what I called, damage control. To be honest, I thought it was good that they were responding - they had their talking points in order and put the replies out there. I did mention that I wished the PR team luck, since as someone in the industry you never want to deal with negative PR, especially when it is coming from people who are buying your products.

Well, my article picked up some steam and was retweeted a few times (which I am thankful for, by the way.) It eventually found it's way to the people at Seventh Generation and this morning Meghan contacted me asking for a conversation. I gladly accepted Meghan's offer and we exchanged email information, so I am currently waiting for a conversation with her, or someone at Seventh Generation, to get their full side of the story and to get their answers to some questions about the cloth versus disposable debate.

In the meantime I have been doing some research, and have contacted some people on the other side of the issue and I am learning even more than I ever thought I would about diapers. I also learned about a really cool project being done by Sloomb called one diaper-one treetm. I personally found out more about this company by following their replies on twitter. 

Sloomb, was one of the more active twitterers, along with bum genius and Babyworks when diapergate hit. These companies were using the power of social media to push their issue to the forefront, and it is obviously working. 

This is why I love social media, and also why it can be scary for people who protect brands. We are able to have instant feedback on issues that impact so many and no longer can we assume that there are walls to hide behind. Hopefully I will have the follow up to this in the coming days where I can share some of the great information I have already obtained, and combine that with the information I get from Seventh Generation. I hope, in the end, that I can help clear up any confusion and can share a collection of data from all points of view so everyone can feel comfortable in the fact that they were given some Little Green Truth.

Moving Beyond Twitter

So, you finally figured out twitter, set Tweedeck up on your desktop to manage your feed and monitor chatter. You have begun using analytics to measure traffic and have figured out how to best utilize landing pages to capture leads or sell your products. You have figured out who to follow and have begun adding your twitter link on your email signatures, your corporate site and blogs. 

But what happens if twitter becomes Friendster, Myspace or even Classmates? Tools that were once thought to be sure ways to speak directly  to your audience that were quickly eclipsed by the next big thing, facebook. That does not mean that facebook is going to go away or even twitter for that matter, but you would be best served to see where else your audience might be.

If you have figured out twitter you should also look at Plurk or identi.ca? These two micro blogs also utilize 140 character messaging. Plurk uses a timeline which is a nice feature to easily go back and find old messages if you remember when they were posted, however this same feature can seem kind of annoying and cumbersome to people that are familiar to the twitter feed. Identi.ca allows people to join or create groups that let  you find and talk to others with similar interests. While I find this to be a cool function for identi.ca, the web interface is a lot more cluttered than twitter and there are not enough applications created at this point to effectively utilize this like twitter.

But moving beyond twitter means moving your social media strategy beyond mini blogging too. Creating a full corporate blog that can be linked through twitter, creating landing pages on your site that can be linked, linking to content on your site like white papers or newsletter articles... these are only scratching the surface. You need to evaluate all the tools available to you.

Do you have videos that you want to share with the public, then create a YouTube channel. Creating a channel offers another venue for you to craft specific messages to share with your audience. But YouTube is not the only game in town. If you have videos you will also want to look at 12seconds for short video updates, DailyMotion, Seesmic, and Vimeo. Another place you can post your video is facebook.

Facebook has risen to the top versus Myspace and the creation of fan pages has allowed corporations a spot on the powerful networking tool. Facebook allows you to post videos and other content to your page. You can promote events and webinars on your page and you can send messages directly to everyone that has opted in as a fan on your page. It allows you another source to link your twitter, Plurk and identi.ca feeds too.

Another piece of the pie is social bookmarking and news feeds. If you have content on your blogs or your corporate site that you want to drive additional traffic too then make sure you have it linked on some of the most popular sites, including: digg, reddit, delicious, diigo, Mister Wong, StumbleUpon and Twine.

The last thing I want to focus on is FriendFeed. If you are not familiar with FriendFeed then you should make yourself familiar. FF is a tool that aggregates all of your individual social media tools (including all of the ones I have listed in this piece) and allows you to gather all of your feeds in one place. A great feature for marketers includes the ability to create rooms. These rooms are basically a place where people of a shared interests come together to share content and comments. It is a good place for marketers to either create a group based on their product or service, or something aligned to their field. It also is a place to find users of the other social media tools who have opted in to a room that natters to your organization. It also aggregates all of your feeds for your friends to see in one place. If you post something to reddit its here, same thing for YouTube, twitter or any of the other feeds you add to your page.

As you can see, social media is more and deeper than just facebook, LinkedIn and twitter - the safe havens for those trying to push campaigns in the office. What I ask you to do is look deeper, explore the other tools available. You never know when you might be a trailblazer, and you never know when the tool you base your campaign around has become obsolete.

Is this really my job?

Today I was sitting at my desk and realised how much my life is comparable to the average 12-year-old girl. I regularly check my facebook updates, send out tweets, view of the stats on my YouTube channel, go to Digg and promote articles I find relevant and monitor networking groups on LinkedIn - and I call this my job. If I started listening to the Jonas Brothers I would have to begin questioning what exactly has happened to my life.

It is crazy to think about how my role as a marketer has changed in just the last decade. In my first job I was excited to have email and now I operate almost exclusively in a virtual world. I simply can not imagine myself still being in this field if my sole focus was making brochures and writing white papers (not that I still don't do these things, but you know what I mean.) The thing that is most exciting is figuring out what is coming next. 

Social networking is here to stay and is an effective marketing tool, but only if you use it appropriately and too it's fullest. Having your CEO blog about the new color of his office is not utilizing technology properly. If you are thinking you don't know if social network marketing is for you, know certain aspects may not be - but don't rule out the entire communication vehicle as a whole. As the economy continues to seize and budgets get tighter you need to at least look at everything the net has to offer... I am looking at you B2B companies.

Just because you are not marketing a soft drink to a group of teenagers does not mean that social networking is not for you, it can be. Take a poll of your staff, find out how many people utilize these tools in there everyday lives. As the workforce gets younger these numbers are only going to rise - so it only makes sense to be where your audience lives. 

Despite everything going on in the news - this is still an exciting time to be alive and an exciting time to be a marketer. Marketing is and should be fun - embrace it. Explore the world of blogs and tweets and maybe flip over to ITunes and give the new Jonas Brothers single a listen - it can't be that bad... can it?

Adding to the Noise

Earlier today I decided to start a blog - I threw something up quickly on LiveJournal - and played around a little with the page - but my god that site is cluttered. So after one post I have officially moved my blog here to blogger. I like the clean interface (Google just has a way with these things.)

My dilemma now is this - am I just adding to the noise and clutter of the web - and if so, do I care? As someone who has dedicated years to marketing I absolutely love the direction our industry is going - so much flexibility and creativity is in play now, it is an exciting time to be a marketer. Even in this tight economy it is just fun to be a part of this technology boom.

From twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube - the rise in web 2.0 has presented a new world to marketers. It is amazing how inexpensive and vast these new vehicles are (but oh what a double edged sword that can be, especially if you are not authentic.)

So, this a redo of post one for me - time to add to the noise