Archive for July 8, 2009
Just in: Cool new features on Facebook
One new feature allows admins of Fan Pages to embed new activity box on their own website, to keep website visitors updated on Facebook Fan page acitivity.
Check out the post over at Mashable…
Businesses are projected to spend $3.1 billion dollars on Social Media Marketing
According to Forrester Research, businesses will increase their budgets for social media marketing by 34% annually, where by 2014 businesses will have spent $3.1 billion dollars on social media marketing.
More and more businesses realize the benefits of social media marketing, especially since it’s cost effective. During our economic downturn, social media marketing can maximize every dollar, through target online advertising and cost efficient social media sites.
40 Top Twitter Brands and the Tweeters behind them
Mashable: The Social Media Guide: “We all know brands are using Twitter
— whether or not you want them around. Some of them don’t quite get the medium and just tweet self-serving links or marketing speak, but you won’t find any of those brands here. We’ve handpicked 40 of the best brands experimenting with the micro-blogging platform, and asked them a few short questions about how they’re using Twitter.”
Check out Mashable’s 40 Top Best Brands using rich, meaningful content on Twitter, and how they strengthen their brand in the process.
Ready for 10 questions?
10 Questions clients are asking marketing agencies about social media:
Social Media’s role in the United Kingdom’s ‘civil society’
“Civil societies are often populated by organizations such as registered charities, development non-governmental organizations, community groups, women’s organizations, faith-based organizations, professional associations, trade unions, self-help groups, social movements, business associations, coalitions and advocacy groups.”
Great article from across the pond in the UK, about social media’s positive role in civil society organizations( including charities, NGO’s, community groups, women groups, faith-based groups, professional associations, trade unions, etc.), so check it out (will include interesting excerpts). The article speaks to social media’s transforming power of various sectors of society, including the United Kingdom’s civil society associations. Writer Suw Charman-Anderson contends in her article “Why is social media important to civil society?” that social media sites are becoming the way to be active in civil society organizations, where members can answer problems collectively, feel connected, and empowered.
Charman-Anderson warns in her article, silence and resistance to social media will prove foolish and lead to “irrelevance,” if civil society organizations ignore the power of social media. The various organizations from charities to professional associations will have to catch-up to the rest of society, if they do not tap into social media. Civil society associations and groups will be assisted by social media sites by encouraging active participation and member retention, along with other profitable benefits. So, it seems Charman-Anderson is saying that social media is a powerful tool, its changed many sectors of society, as well as, changing civil society and the associations and groups that comprise that society!
Further, one sector that was changed by social media is the business sector, because businesses must shift to a more interactive approach, while being transparent and honest with the public. Check out more from the article:
“Social technology, (see box) are transforming many aspects of modern society, from the media to government, from education to business. The third sector is no different. Change is happening and the challenge is to understand not just the nature of the change, but how civil society can embrace and benefit from it.
The combination of a fragmented media and a decrease in trust suggest that the future may not be so rosy for civil society. Organisations will find it harder to:
* Move from broadcast model to a conversational model to form and maintain relationships with the audience.
* Become transparent about the way that the organisation works.
* Put participation at the centre of their web strategy.
For some civil society associations, this implies a profound shift in organisational culture. But the price of such a shift is a small one to pay compared to the risks of failing to engage with social technology. In a world where everyone else is talking, keeping quiet is the first step on the way to irrelevance. Publisher Tim O’Reilly once observed that, “Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy” [3]. For civil society associations, obscurity is a far greater threat than letting go of control.
The role of social technology in civil society
People have been congregating in online social spaces, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr for years. But these tools are not just being used for day-to-day socialising and content sharing, they are also being used as news filters, platforms for collaboration, and places to organise activism. Information and requests for action can ripple quickly through such networks as people forward on interesting or important messages to their peers.
Civil society associations, by using social tools, can extend the reach of their web presence and the strength of their network, and form direct relationships with the individuals in their constituency. Social tools can also provide website visitors with something immediate to do, even if it is a small action. Establishing these one-to-one relationships and facilitating immediate action both increase engagement, which in turn increases the likelihood that the member/supporter will become a more active and valuable participant in the community.”
Further:
Increasingly, people want direct involvement in civil society, rather than action by proxy, and social tools can help them experience that direct involvement. That may mean that they want to be a part of an active community, rather than a passive individual isolated from their fellow supporters. Civil society associations can use social tools to provide an environment for conversation, whether that’s on a blog or a social network or on Twitter, which will then allow a vibrant community to grow.
Social media allows individuals to easily come together to discuss and solve shared problems. Associations can either tap into that, facilitating self-organisation that benefits the association, or can ignore it. But if they do ignore the opportunity provided by the internet to engender collective action, they risk sidelining themselves as individuals bypass existing organisations and structures to achieve their goals.”
-Suw Charman-Anderson
Continued from earlier post: Facebook and Marketing
Earlier, we posted about Facebook as a powerful marketing tool; I found this awesome article outlining EVERYTHING a business needs to know about Facebook and its powerful potential in the field of marketing. Check it out:
“In the last couple of years, Facebook has gone from a college photo-sharing site to a burgeoning business- networking platform for self-promotion, advertising and multimedia interaction. With new apps and add-ons, Facebook users can send each other a virtual drink, create and host events, advertise their businesses through social ads, and more. When Charlie Gibson hosted the debate for the 2008 presidential candidates along with Facebook, the little networking site became a powerhouse in the online-marketing community.
If you’re thinking of tapping into the Facebook crowd for some high-profile advertising, take a look at this list of 100 tools and tips that will help you maximize all of the applications and opportunities that Facebook has to offer.”
Ford needs Fiesta, Buzz
After a daunting (at times depressing) year for the American automobile industry, Ford Motor Company is busting out of the recession depression (if that phrase is not coined or credited to someone… it’s mine) with buzz around a Fiesta. The 2011 Ford Fiesta that is…
Ford made the decision to build buzz around its 2011 Ford Fiesta by choosing 100 people from 4,000 applicants to take a Ford Fiesta around their state to market and build excitement for their new product. Each month the Fiesta drivers have to complete a specific mission (like driving until you run out of gas) and use social media sites, like: Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube to fan the flames of buzz and publicity around the new car.
However, Ford’s buzz builders understand the importance of authenticity and are out to give consumers honest and fair feedback, and to shy away from sounding like a salesperson. Plus, authenticity is fundamental to social media.
Here is an excerpt from the Denver Post:
“Their assignment: to become buzz masters for the Ford Fiesta 2011, which will debut in the United States next year.
Each received a European spec model to drive around town, and they’re documenting their experiences on social-media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube — which are now leveraged for all things marketing and mass communications.
Social-media advertising comes with unique challenges.
“You don’t want to fatigue people,” said Jeremy Tanner, 27, of Boulder. “You need to give people true feedback on the car, but you don’t want to become a shill or a walking commercial.”
Authenticity is the mantra of his generation, known as Millennials — those born between 1979 and 1995. They’re the target audience for this Fiesta and a powerful market force, with 11,000 reaching driving age each day, said Sam De La Garza, Ford’s small-car marketing manager.”
So how much traffic has manifest itself from the “buzz builders”?
“So far, the campaign has created more than 4.6 million posts on social-networking sites in the first few months, according to the company.
Breaking News: Lockheed Martin utilizes social media software
Some breaking news on the social media front:
The press release found on PR Newswire:
“GAITHERSBURG, Md., July 7 /PRNewswire/ — Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced today that it will release a proprietary social media tool under an open source software license. The announcement, made at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston, is the first of its kind for Lockheed Martin.
Lockheed Martin has been developing proprietary social media technology to facilitate interaction between employees to create and share secure content using blogs and wikis. As a result, Lockheed Martin has become a leader of this technology in the aerospace and defense industry.
“Lockheed Martin has placed an emphasis on social media adoption by finding innovative ways to integrate a social dimension into our existing process and tools while reducing total cost of ownership,” says Linda Gooden, Executive Vice President for Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Services business area. “We are excited to now share our investment back to the open source community to help other organizations meet their knowledge sharing challenges.”
The proprietary social media tool that will be released under an open source license enables employees to consume, share, and discuss information from internal and external sources.”
CEO: Social Media can Help or Harm
Businesses can be helped or harmed by social media; for social media to help businesses, they must have a comprehensive, competent social media marketing strategy that works for the business, rather than against it. Recently, Peter Shankman, CEO of New York marketing firm Geek Factory Inc. discussed social media and its ability to help or harm a business. I agree that companies slow to adjust to integrating social media marketing into their overall marketing plan will lose control over their message and may already have. If someone has a bad experience with a business, they take their experience to the megaphone social media sites and overnight businesses are fighting back against bad press or pr. However, if a business has a sustainable, strong presence online, it can monitor the online world and respond quickly to any bad news and divert a catastrophe.
Excerpt by Robert Evatt writing for the Tulsa World:
“Social media, which includes blogs, Twitter and networking sites like Facebook, can help or harm businesses, Shankman said.
Until the Internet came of age, if a traveler had a bad experience on an airline flight, the person generally would only complain to a few people, he said. But with social media, that same person can complain to dozens or hundreds simultaneously.
“For the first time, we’re being held more accountable than ever before,” Shankman said.
Social media allow companies to join the conversation, he said. That way, a company can respond to negative experiences and offer to make them right.
Many businesses are slow to adopt social media since it doesn’t allow them to control the message, but that’s hardly a new phenomenon, Shankman said.
“I tell them that they lost control of the message 30 years ago,” he said.”
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