Communication Overtones

Essay: Social Media Users Unpacked

2009-11-18T08:53:00.001-08:00

There is an old joke:

Only two kinds of businesses call their customers users…Tech companies and drug dealers…

With that in mind, I was reading a rather interesting report about a survey that showed how people are using social media to make purchases, and a thought hit me, maybe that old joke needs to be expanded as we head into the era of the social media user.

Apparently, this tweet resonated because I got all kinds of responses, from feigned innocence, to helpful, to incredulous, to snarky, and more. But probably the best response was from Aaron Long and Ben Gillin on the blog they share called Twetches. Take a look at this poster child for this dug dealer turned social media user. Aaron would have to explain exactly what he had in mind, but I was struck by the creative use of Twitter to spur creativity, rather than how most people “use” it as a way to avoid creativity. Twitter is most often a shortcut, but that is another post…

I found an old, but evergreen and humorous, post about the social media user from 2007. It reminded me of the supposed “old days” when we (meaning the online community) were just starting to use the term. Most of us jumped on the bandwagon because the term blog and blogger, derived from weblog, were so clearly created by tech geeks.

However, it seems we haven’t quite washed all the tech shampoo residue out of our hair. We still have a tendency to aim our efforts toward a nebulous audience of users, rather than a more targeted approach.

And perhaps that is just the nature of business, whose very survival depends on a wide adoption if its products and services. It is also human nature, which strives to categorize, classify and make sense of the incomprehensible.

This myopic focus on classification at the expense of connection concerns me, because human communication is so much more than the collection of tools that we call social media. No matter how powerful these tools might be, in the end the only way to motivate people to act on your behalf is to be compelling. I submit that relationships, honed over time, work best. It is the new customer loyalty.

That said, the fast-paced environment of Twitter, the threaded crowdsourcing and gaming in Facebook, the exclusivity of a Ning community, the viral potential of YouTube, the image-rich Flickr, the addictive play of Foursquare, and so on – all of these are addictive.

Add an iPhone, with all of its applications, on top of that and you might never look up to see who is having a conversation right in front of you. Its all-to-easy as a business (or individual) to end up with a collection of the most popular social media platforms and no strategy.

So, what is your social media drug of choice?

Facebook Covers Legal Risk for Giveaways; Maybe Opens a New Revenue Stream?

2009-11-11T13:30:00.001-08:00

The day is fast approaching for the current social networking darlings, Twitter especially but also Facebook, to continue their transformation into media properties. The name of the game is making money while keeping their user base largely happy and mitigating risk that would put the business in jeopardy.

Here are some of the recent changes which you should know about:

FACEBOOK SWEEPSTAKES

Facebook, while never being particularly friendly about sweepstakes and giveways, is now downright hostile. Last week Facebook published a set of rules outlining how sweepstakes, contest, competition or other similar offerings. This is probably mostly to mitigate the risk by Facebook from a myriad of rules governing these types of promotions across the states and around the world.

You cannot require:

Content: Make an entry in the competition contingent upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as making a post on a profile or Page, status comment or photo upload.
Fan: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.
Notification: Notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages.

You can use:

Third-party applications: These can also require the entrant to upload content. For example, you may administer a photo contest where a user is asked to upload a photo through a third-party application to enter. But you can only do this with PRIOR WRITTEN APPROVAL from Facebook.
Fan’s Only Tab: Only allow fans of your Page to access the tab that contains the third-party application for the promotion.
Collect an address or email: But only through the third-party application for the promotion in order to contact the winner by email or standard mail.

In addition, Facebook is requiring prior approval through an account representative (advertising sales) if you DO decide to run a promotion on a third-party application. I don’t think that they will require payment for this, but I suspect they hope upsell you on some ads? I am wondering if they see this as a future source of revenue?

While you can’t require people to sign up for a Facebook account to participate, you can send them to the third-party app, which effectively requires them to have a Facebook account. This is an interesting skirting around the law.

The rules also say that you do not need our prior written approval from Facebook if you are publicizing a promotion that is administered completely off of the site, like a blog, etc. You can read the new Facebook rules on giveaways, promotions, drawings and sweepstakes here and a great write-up about them on Inside Facebook, which also has a nice list of third-party vendors that can run promotions.

Lots of companies, individuals and brands have run these kinds of promotions in the past. Maybe the continuing restrictions from social networks will drive a revival of blogs and blogging? – how positively old fashioned.

What do you think? IS this a good move for Facebook? How do you think you will comply with the new rules and get the results that you need?

Fun Friday: The Problem With Tools

2009-10-09T19:13:00.001-07:00

Communication tools will always change, but people...not so much.

via Unlearning 101

Social Media Strategies to Find Awesome Talent or Find a Job

2009-09-23T15:02:00.001-07:00

Finding quality people is difficult. Even in this economic climate, where the advantage is certainly in the hands of those looking for talent, hiring managers still want to find the best fit.

Social media tools are being employed to find quality talent and the hiring managers who use them increasingly have an edge over those who don't.

I was asked to speak at HR Houston about social media strategy for the HR professional. I brought along my friend Natalie Gonzales from Clearpoint Creative, a talent agency that specializes in creative professionals.

Here were three touchpoints for HR professionals looking to break into social media.

1. NETWORK: for your own professional development and to find the right tools for the job. LinkedIn Answers is a good place to ask questions about tools and techniques. Twitter is a great place to build community. Steve Boech has put together a couple of lists of HR professionals on Twitter to get you started, and of course you should follow my co-presenter Natalie @natatclearpoint

2. SEARCH. You can search for keywords in LinkedIn, and you can also search LinkedIn from Google in the advanced search (one of the attendees uses this technique). Almost all of the professionals agreed that if you are a talent scout a $20/month paid account is essential.

3. BUILD. Look for where your potential hires generally hang out and start building your online presence there. For management professionals look to LinkedIn, marketing and PR like Twitter and women tend to hang out in Facebook in higher proportions than men.

There are a lot more tips and tactics in the Slideshare presentation.

If you are looking for a job check out Sarah Evan's Mashable post on Finding a Job in Twitter, one she wrote on MyFoxChicago about using social media to find a job, and also look at Twitter Job Search, a pretty cool tool for finding jobs posted on Twitter (recruiters can use this post jobs too).

Social Networking For HR Professionals

View more presentations from Kami Huyse.

The 5 Ws of Social Media Strategy

2009-09-17T13:26:00.001-07:00

One of the things that I find really difficult to overcome with clients is the tendency to focus in on tools. Some of the questions I often get:

Do you think we should have a Facebook page?
Can you walk us through some best practices for YouTube, Twitter, Ning, etc.?
Whatever happened to MySpace, will that happen to the hot tools of the moment?

Not that these questions aren't good ones but they miss the point. I recommend starting with these questions instead:

The 5 Ws of Social Media Strategy

WHO are you trying to reach?
WHAT are your objectives, what are you trying to accomplish?
WHERE do these people hang out online?
WHEN and HOW is the best time and way to reach them?
WHY will they care about what you have to say? What is the value that you bring to the table and the conversation?

What are some of the questions you think are important to start with when looking at formulating a social media strategy?

Strategic Social Media Management 2009

View more presentations from Kami Huyse.

This presentation was given as a PRSA teleseminar.

Case Study: Making Legislative Activism Fun? Live Earth Gives it a Try

2009-09-15T14:00:00.001-07:00

Having lived in Washington D.C. for thirteen years, eight of which I worked at a trade association, the one thing I learned about legislation is that it is a long, messy and serious business fraught with partisan land mines.

Any of you that have spent any time in these endeavors at the national or local levels know exactly what I mean.

Fun generally doesn't enter into the equation, unless you count a "Hill Reception" as fun (I don't).

Having Fun with Legislation

That is why when Geoff Livingston, a well-known blogger and author (and oftentimes a partner of mine), asked me to help out with a campaign to use humor, fun and creativity to encourage the Congress to pass climate legislation, I was all ears.

This year it will be exceedingly difficult to break through to legislators about climate change with health care consuming all of the time. It is up to the Senate to come up with a bill that can garner broad support. That sounds hard, not fun.

So, along with Live Earth, which is a an organization dedicated to using entertainment to solve environmental issues, Geoff and the team came up with the idea to imagine the world as it would be if all the environmental problems were solved and send a message to Congress. Here is a link to a video explaining the campaign. The campaign started yesterday and will continue through Friday September 25th. And there are also great prizes. LiveEarth asks that you contribute some kind of content and then sign up for the sweepstakes, which includes some pretty cool prizes.

What I like about the campaign is that it aims to be creative and fun, plus there are a number of ways to participate.

Facebook Message: Post a message on the Facebook page or link to one from your blog that is support of climate change - be creative
Voice Mail Message: Send a voicemail to 347-422-6392 or send one from our Facebook Tab
Share a Photo: Add your photo to the Love, The Climate group on Flickr, we already have a number of photos and they are stunning.
Submit a Video: You can supply a link or embed code, or upload a video at the LiveEarth website

Here is an example of the type of submission Live Earth is looking to get from TV and online host Shia Lazar. (This video really cracks me up). Of course it doesn't have to be this professional.

I am not sure yet what the outcome of this campaign will be, but I will be sure to update it here. If you have any ideas how we can punch up the campaign, leave them in the comments.

Live Earth is also participating in social media and building a community through their blog, in their Friends of Live Earth Ning page and also on their Twitter account @LiveEarth

Here is a pretty good explanation of what the climate bill entails and a post from Live Earth about the legislation.

Credts: The cool logo is by David Armano.

Beyond Personal Brand to Character

2009-09-14T13:43:00.001-07:00

I think that we might be losing our way.

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln's Own Stories
16th president of US (1809 - 1865)

Public relations and social media tools are powerful ways to communicate character. The character of a company or an individual. But it seems that more and more people are trying to use these tools to manipulate the shadows of brand and reputation.

Venn diagram by Steven Leckert

It is one of the reasons I am so uncomfortable with a focus on personal branding since it leads to an undue focus on the self rather than developing and communicating character.

It is sending the wrong message about what matters.

In a survey of 1,068 college students by SDSU Psychology Professor Jean Twenge and Youth Pulse 57 percent agreed that their generation are self-promoting, narcissistic, overconfident and attention-seeking and 40 percent agree that being so is helpful for "succeeding in a competitive world."

The youth of America are looking at each other and us and determining that the only way to get ahead is by navel gazing.

A better model is for the company (or individual) to develop strong values that they can live into and put all of their focus on that. Instead we seem to focus on our BRAND or REPUTATION -- which should instead be evident through living out our values.

I recently heard someone make the point that your values are what make you unique.

I couldn't agree more.

By authentically living these values "out loud" you can differentiate yourself in the marketplace.

We need to stop manipulating the shadows and start working on the tree.

How can we live our values out loud online? What does that look like to you?

(via Mashable)

Inside Out: Engaging External Audiences With Internal Culture

2009-09-04T13:49:00.001-07:00

I always find it interesting that so many companies have amazing internal cultures that somehow end at the firewall. In many cases there is amazing content and information just inside the company Intranet but outside that barrier communication suddenly becomes a bunch of legalese and marketing-speak.

Now if your internal communications tend to be as uninspired as the typical press room, then this post may not be for you. However, I have seen a few examples of companies that have some pretty entertaining and educational internal communication vehicles.

Some of this content could be used externally, or be modified, to give customers, and possible future employees, a sneak peak into what makes the company so great—it's people.

The big hurdle to overcome is usually management resistance to sharing. The major concerns often sound something like this:

It isn't targeted to customers, they will find it boring
It isn't targeted to customers, there is no "call to action" and thus no purpose to the communication
Our competitors will steal our ideas
It's never been done before
Add your favorite concern here....

All of these concerns, plus many more that I haven't listed, are legitimate but the risks can be mitigated. Even simply repurposing some of the better internal communications material can give your external communications more warmth and personality. It can also save you money to put together both internal and external communication at the same time. You can use the same video footage and just slightly tweak the message. You can write an article or blog post that both your internal and external stakeholders would find interesting, And as for competitors stealing your ideas, you obviously have to take care not to reveal things that would be illegal (insider trading for example) or that are truly proprietary.

Unfortunately, I think many businesses err on the side of extreme caution when determining what is proprietary. I have always thought that if you are sharing something, you better be on to figuring out the next big milestone or you will be obsolete—especially in today's fast-moving environment.

Here is the most recent version of WAVE-TV, an internal video program produced by SeaWorld San Antonio. Last year the park started to share this program on its You Tube channel in a WAVE-TV playlist (Disclaimer: client). They have served these out interspersed with other video that is more targeted, but often they are favorites with fans who are eager for a behind-the-scenes look at the park.

What are some other ways that internal communications can be repurposed for external communications?

Shel Israel is Coming to Houston on Twitterville Tour and to a City Near You?

2009-08-19T11:53:00.001-07:00

I am very excited to announce that Shel Israel will be coming to Houston October 20-21, 2009, as part of his book launch tour for Twitterville that will start this weekend in San Francisco with his Twitterville Bash (TBash) party.

This is not his first book. Shel co-authored Naked Conversations with Robert Scoble in 2006. Many of my clients still use the book as a primer for new blog team members. While the case studies might be getting a little dusty, and the book is blog-heavy, it gives an accurate feel for the culture of social media.

I am looking forward to reading Twitterville when it arrives in a few days and will give you all a more detailed review at that time. I have kept up with what is in it by reading Shel's blog Global Neighbourhoods and it is chock-full of amazing case studies.

In the meanwhile, I thought it would be a good idea to get him out to Texas (if you are from other places, you can check if he is coming to a city near you here). A few organizations stepped up to the plate to bring him here including the AAF Houston, Schipul: The Web Marketing Company, and the Social Media Club of Houston.

Book Signing - October 20

The newly minted Social Media Club of Houston will host him for a book signing on October 20, 2009, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the famous Coffee Groundz (@CoffeeGroundz), which is also featured in the book.

Luncheon Speaker - October 21

The next day he will speak at the AAF Houston's luncheon (October 21, 2009), which is sure to be sold out.

Other Appearances

If you don't live in Houston, or Texas (road trip), he will also be doing a five-city tour in in Canada in September with Joe Thornley.

And following his visit here in Houston, he will be headed to Washington D.C. to participate in Geoff Livingston's last Blog Potomac.

He is also coming to Chicago, Pennsylvania, Kansas City, the UK and Ireland, with more dates being added. You can check them out on his blog's Speaker tab.

Photo of the first signed copy of Shel's book by Jeremiah Owyang

Please Vote: A Smorgasbord of Learning for SxSW Interactive 2010

2009-08-17T16:14:00.001-07:00

I am really excited about the potential of the SxSW Interactive panels this year. If you have some time take a look at the many (over 2,200) panels on this year's program. The following four are panels which I am on. I hope you will take just a few minutes to vote for one or more of them. You can read all about them below.

Social Media ROI: Results that Measure Up

Description: When measuring social media, people are often tempted to replace the “I” in the ROI equation with terms like Involvement and Influence. Like it or not, the bean counters are looking for cold, hard cash. Learn to count what matters while still valuing human interaction and relationship-building in your community.

Panel Speakers:

Charlene Li, Alimeter and co-author of Groundswell
Katie Paine, KD Paine & Partners and author Measuring Public Relationships

Avinash Kaushik, Analytics blog, author of Web Analytics in an Hour a Day, analytics evangelist for Google and Co-Founder and Chief Education Officer for Market Motive

Finding a Social Media “Expert” Who Really is An Expert

Description: Social networking has exploded and so have those who claim to be “experts.” If you are a company, how do you know company you are hiring is worth their salt? If you are a consultant, how do you become a skilled practitioner of social media – minus the snake oil?

Panel Speakers:

Valeria Maltoni, Conversation Agent, will take the inside view on hiring consultants and agencies

Todd Defren, SHIFT Communications and PR Squared blog will take the agency point of view

Kami Huyse, My PR Pro and Communication Overtones will take the consultant point of view

All three of these speakers have proven track records of successful social media campaigns.

Social Media Ménage à Trois: Advertising-Marketing-PR

Description: Advertising is good at creative, public relations is good at relationships and marketing is good at sales. Hear representatives from each of these three worlds discuss how working together can yield much better social media campaigns than any one can accomplish on its own.

SxSw Top Ten List @Conversation Age

View more documents from Valeria Maltoni.

Speakers:

Valeria Maltoni, Conversation Agent

Olivier Blanchard, The Brand Builder fame

Kami Huyse, Overtone Communication Overtones

Building a Team That Embraces Social Technologies

Description:

This session will cover how brands successfully integrate internal and external teams to engage with customers using social technologies. Both agencies and companies will learn how to work together more effectively to serve the customer. It also covers what consultants can do and what is best left to the brand.

Speakers:

Bert DuMars, Newell Rubbermaid

Paull Young, Conversion

Jerimiah Owyang, Forrester Research

Kami Huyse, My PR Pro

Other Great Panels for Communicators

Here are some other panels that I voted for. If they sound good to you click the title and it will take you to their page on the panel picker. These are just the ones that I found as I was scrolling through, so I am sure there are some other ones I've missed that are great, too.

If your panel is aimed at communicators and isn't on this list, please feel free to add it in the comments and include the title, a short description and the link to the panel picker so we can check it out and vote (my comments section takes basic html re: TEXT so you don't have to add a long link or use a shortened one f you aren't comfortable with html)

Getting Social in Your 'Hood," Sandra Fernandez, Houston Public Library
Unleashing Employees Through Social Media, Lionel Menchaca, Dell Inc.
Kicking Recession Ass With A Killer Company Culture, Katie Laird, Schipul - The Web Marketing Company
You're a Twit, Managing Your Online Social Brand, Jason McElweenie, Schipul the Web Marketing Company
DON’T PANIC – The Geek’s Guide to the Next Big Crisis, Ed Schipul, Schipul - The Web Marketing Company
Open Leadership: The Upside Of Giving Up Control, Charlene Li, Altimeter Group
Managing a Crisis in a Hyper-Communicative World, Rob Le Gesse, Rackspace
Harvard Was Wrong: Profs’ Perspectives on Blackboards/Backchannels, Lauren Vargas, Radian6
Mom Blogging - Beyond Swag and Diaper Bags, Joanne Bamberger, PunditMom
How (Not) to Get Banned on Social Networks!, John Adams, Twitter
Can They Buy Your Voice? Blog Disclosure Ethics, Sheila Scarborough, Writer
Drawing the Line Between Free and Paid, Sheila Scarborough, Writer
My Mom Just Joined Facebook--Now What?, Bryan Person, LiveWorld

Who Owns the Social Media Play: Marketing, PR or Advertising?

2009-08-12T10:52:00.001-07:00

Let me start by saying that each of the communication disciplines of marketing, public relations and advertising have strengths and weaknesses. One is not necessarily better than the other, they just have their inherent place.

MARKETING is great at putting together communication that gets results
PUBLIC RELATIONS is great at building and maintaining relationships, as well as creating informational content
ADVERTISING is great at creating compelling and entertaining content that could go viral

Valeria Maltoni has a great post describing the differences between the disciplines that I recommend you take a look at to get more context.

So who should own social media communication play?

Working with larger enterprises, I have often been at the table as these battle lines are drawn and it rarely is pretty. I fall down on the side of Jason Falls who writes:

"I’ve long held the belief that public relations, as a discipline and department, should own the responsibility for social media across the spectrum of enterprise and corporations."

I agree completely with this thinking, and it turns out that a new Digital Readiness Report, completed by researcher Tom Smith, PRSA, iPressroom and Korn Ferry International, finds that this is playing out in the real world.

It turns out that organizations of all sizes are adopting social networking and that PR is leading the management function for most online tools, except for e-mail marketing and search engine optimization, which is led by marketing.

Social networking only comes second to e-mail marketing in the activities employed by organizations as a part of their web-based communications.

But why PR?

Social media is relationship-based and, as I mentioned before, of all the disciplines public relations is the best at this. The public relations department is also really good at creating content.

That said, I think that PR needs the other departments to succeed. The weaknesses of each are filled in nicely by the others and the weakness of PR is that we usually aren't particularly interesting or entertaining. Not to mention the fact that we are generally not all that great at driving the sale or measuring results.

According to the Ruder Finn Intent Index the top six reason people go online are as follows:

1. Pass Time	100%
2. Educate Self	96%
3. Connect	92%
4. Research	89%
5. Share	86%
6. Be Entertained	82%

At their best, Public Relations is great at education, connecting and sharing; Marketing excels at research and could easily share this with stakeholders; and Advertising is best at developing entertaining content that help people to pass the time.

Caveat: Note that I said "at their best." Let's put aside the fact that ALL of these disciplines have their tepid dark side with PR leading the way in being disingenuous, marketing being too pushy and advertising being too direct sales oriented.

What if these three disciplines could put aside their petty war to dominate the social media play and work together?

Would we have campaigns that were intelligent, fresh, entertaining and that connected well with the stakeholders.

Would these kinds of campaigns inspire people to donate, share, buy, etc.?

I suspect they would,

Notice that only 33% of people say that they go online specifically to purchase something, But clearly WHILE they are online they do purchase things, join organizations and otherwise close the sale.

The key is meeting their needs.

What do you think? Is there a opportunity for all these disciplines to be better together?

Fun Friday: Proof that PR Geeks Will Do Anything for a LIttle Attention

2009-07-31T08:54:00.001-07:00

It is certainly the case with @joePRguy.

Did he really do this video for @skydiver (Peter Shankman)? Nah! -- or to get a little attention for his upcoming venture? Absolutely!

JoePRGuy is planning to star in a reality TV show in the fall that has unemployed creative types living together in Pheonox in luxury (uh-huh) digs while taking on charities as clients.

What? No party planning?

In any case, this is a fun video. (I found it on PROpenMic)

Reality Check: Vote on Which Media Are Most Important to Your Business

2009-07-27T15:10:00.001-07:00

I was just wondering which media people are most interested in attracting at this point. There is a lot of talk about the death of media, but I suspect it is still pretty important to most businesses, PR practitioners and agencies.

Take this poll and let's see where the readers of this blog are hoping to get their news seen.

Online Surveys & Market Research

By the way, I created this poll with a handy tool called Visu. The cool thing about this tool is that you can drop your poll on multiple sites and the answers are aggregated together. Many thanks to Melissa Shea (@irondaisy) for turning me onto this tool.

Amazon + Zappos: Trust Us, Nothing Will Change

2009-07-24T06:48:00.001-07:00

"Some see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not." -George Bernard Shaw

via @Zappos (Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh) the day before the purchase of Zappos by Amazon was announced.

Photo provided by Shutterstock.com

10 Opportunity Costs and Risks of Ignoring Social Media

2009-07-22T09:17:00.001-07:00

I wrote a comprehensive post a few years ago about the risks of blogging. You could just rename it 10 Risks of Social Media because they are the same ones. But I missed one important risk.

Opportunity costs.

There is a steep downside to not participating and these factors should be weighed as seriously as the risks of participating. Given the quick adoption underway and subsequent maturation of social media networks, the costs become more pronounced with each month that passes.

If you are a company wondering if you should get involved, or an employee, consultant or agency trying to verbalize why a client or boss should consider social media, this list is for you.

10 Opportunity Costs of Ignoring Social Media

Competitive disadvantage: More companies are incorporating social media into their communications arsenal every day. If your competitor does this before you and does it well, they will enjoy a significant bump in perception.
Rumors and innuendo: Some of the most harmful attacks a company could encounter include out-of-control rumors and false information. Rumors are much easier to correct when caught early. Being in social networks is a quick way to set the record straight.
No platform to respond in crisis: When there is an outcry in social media channels, a pre-existing presence in social networks give you an advantage.
Employees talk: With 35% of people that use the Internet saying that they use social networking sites, it is a given that a large percentage of employees have one or more social profiles. Moreover, It is likely that they will occasionally talk about their job. By giving these employees guidelines, companies can harness positive word of mouth, avoid inappropriate comments and have reasonable consequences in place.
Opportunities missed: One of the unintended benefits for companies that participate in online social communities and blogs are the opportunities that unexpectedly present themselves. Just by participating, a company sets itself up to be recognized in a positive manner by the community. These are as important to consider as the downsides (negative comments, etc.).
Silence can equal guilt: By not being present in social networks, it would take an unacceptable period of time to respond appropriately, causing a company to seem silent when it simply is out of touch. In social networks, response must happen in hours vs. days.
Lost search benefit, search engine optimization: Regularly updated information, such as a blog or news site, would help to raise the profile of of a company in search engines. And as it has been said, Google is the new corporate homepage.
Defined by others: The issues important to a company– and which impact its overall reputation – will be defined by others if you don't take a leadership position.
No early warning: Monitoring social media channels often reveals potential problems that could break out into a broader media audience. By not being involved, companies are missing out on this early warning system.
No direct channel: Social media provides a means by which you can reach out directly to your stakeholders without having to rely on the media to deliver the message. It is an important part of modern communications planning.

What other opportunity costs that you can think of?

UPDATE: BlogTalk Radio interviewed me about this post. You can listen to the interview here.

Related Articles:

10 Risks for Corporate Blogs (and Social Media Efforts)
Beth Kanter, What's the opportunity cost when a nonprofit blocks employees from using social network sites during work hours?
Jeff Molander, Convincing the Boss to Invest in Social Media (interview with Sam Decker Bazaarvoice)
Katya Andresen, publisher of Getting to the Point, Guest Post: How to convince your skeptical boss social media has merit

I am Not Buying It! Why Twitter 'Media Value' Numbers are Rubbish

2009-07-20T10:39:00.001-07:00

Sometimes there are things that just deserve a little extra attention, especially when they take your breath away with their audacity.

Like this tweet by Bill Sledzik:

I being a measurement geek immediately followed the link and was met by the following headline on this Ad Age article:

Twitter Generates $48 Million of Media Coverage in a Month

Oh, really?

After I caught my breath, I tweeted that this was "bogus old media measurement applied to new media."

The article goes on to point out that there were 2.73 billion impressions which, as Bill rightly points out, would put the value of a mention at 1.75 cents on average.

The story then takes another detour and compares the "media value" (Advertising Value Equivalency) of these mentions of Twitter to the marketing spend by Microsoft on its new search engine, Bing.

One would think that Microsoft will get a much better determination about how well that marketing spend impacts traffic to Bing than some arbitrary value that is assigned to media coverage.

What WOULD be valuable is to align these appearances of Twitter in the news media with the number of new users of the service. That would be of immense value to potential investors, sponsors or advertisers -- once Twitter comes up with a revenue model.

Funny thing is that all of this data is available and the calculations could probably be done, but it is much easier and sensational to say that the coverage was worth some astronomical dollar amount that no one would have spent anyway.

But people insist on using these bogus Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) measures because they seem important and useful. Moreover, they are easy to do, require little thought and are hard to discredit; even though the math is clearly fuzzy (aside: was that an oxymoron?).

Of course, this "measurement" was done by VMS and while AVEs are their bailiwick; they do not tie mentions to business value. Maybe they should have just stuck to monitoring, but that wouldn't have made headlines.

What do you think?

What Makes a Video Go Viral?

2009-07-17T15:19:00.001-07:00

It's the holy grail. Just this week a client asked me, "What makes a video go viral?

Everyone wants to know the shortcut to a super-popular video.

Heck, I want to know myself.

One company that probably has a better idea than most is Visible Measures, a company whose business it is to measure viral video. They have a case study or two that you can read to give you a more scientific view of how stuff goes viral.

I think that the key is to be remarkable, emotional, or very funny. You have to move people to say, "Wow, I have to share this with my friends." Then you have to launch the video in such a way that is has a good chance of being seen. A popular blog is a great place for a video to take off, and don't forget links sent via e-mail.

A couple of years ago Dan Akerman wrote a compelling "how to launch a viral video" guide on TechCrunch that included some questionable practices, but he also peppered in some good ideas.

I picked three very different videos here, one is a commercial that is very funny and odd, which makes it fun; the second is a video put together by a patient at the Mayo Clinic that is both fun and heartwarming; and the third is a very lighthearted and funny video about how United destroyed one of its customer's guitars. What they all have in common is that they have that special mojo that sent them viral.

Let's hear from you, what do YOU think made these viral videos runaway hits?

Enjoy!

THE COMMERCIAL

Evian Rollerskating Babies - as of today, 5.9 million views

CAUGHT ON VIDEO

Mayo Clinic Couple, as of today, 4.1 million views

<="<" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" />

THE SPURNED CUSTOMER

United Breaks Guitars, as of today 3.2 million views

Missing The "Social" In Social Media

2009-06-25T21:15:00.001-07:00

Many organizations and companies that I work with are really great at creating content, which is such an important step for sharing info in social networking channels.

The problem is that they are missing taking the really powerful step of socializing that content. Many really don't know how, or are afraid of what that socializing will unleash on their organization.

Do they have the resources?
Will they be able to realistically meet the demand for direct communication?
How will they handle negative comments?
How will they prove the value of social media to their boss?
How will they make it fit into their already busy day?

It is these questions and many more that I start to answer in the following presentation that I put together for the College Sports Information Directors of America's Annual Conference today.

A few of the examples have a sports bent to meet the needs of that group. It also contains a reference to the B.E.E.S. Social Media Strategy post from earlier this week.

The "Social" In Social Media

View more documents from Kami Huyse.

Building Buzz with Social Media Using Swarming and BEES

2009-06-22T11:01:00.001-07:00

Many companies now have developed a number of social media properties. Even the skeptical seem to have at least a blogspot blog, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel (if they have anything even remotely visual) and of course the requisite Twitter account - though some are just reserved with no profile picture to ensure no one hijacks the name.

With the "land rush" last week for unique URLS on on Facebook, most of the pages have 1,001 fans, just enough to qualify them to get their name before someone squats on the best names.

If they are really cool cats they might even have a Flickr photosharing account and a FriendFeed. Perhaps they even have a Ning community with a handful of passionate people leading the way.

In other words, most are "dipping their toe" in social media but very few have figured out how to best manage these tools to encourage buzz and build community around a brand,

Swarming as a Strategy

I am not criticizing these companies, but am trying to help a number of them make sense of all of the opportunities.

One way to look at social media is as a beehive. The analogy has many hooks that work when you are looking at it from a communication perspective. European honeybees swarm when they are building a new nest or hive. In the same way, companies will need to learn how to swarm to build their social media presence. It has some components that I have fit into the mnemonic of B.E.E.S.

B

BUILD. This is the step most companies have taken, they have built a number of social media properties, but they aren't working together very well. Someone might broadcast their blog content through their Facebook or Twitter account but they aren't building in hooks that go beyond broadcasting. In a beehive nothing is wasted. Everyone has a role and lives that out. In the wild world of social media, you can't control what others do, but you can build out content that is interesting to others. This is the important building of a "hive" or a distributed place that your brand calls home across social media tools.

E

EAVESDROP. This goes far beyond merely listening, or monitoring, though these are a part of this step. This is listening with a purpose to determine what kinds of content are most resonant in each social media community. This is like the communication that bees instinctively use to build a functioning hive or nest and which can be brought to bear in social situations. Each community has a distinct culture, to be effective, one has to learn this culture and speak in its own language.

E

ECHO. Once you know what is resonating to the community then companies should provide content that fits, or echos, what the community finds interesting. This is often been pejoratively called the "echo chamber" by some, but this echoing (ie., Retweeting on Twitter, linkining on blogs, tagging or sharing in Facebook) is how things are virally shared in social networks. Also, echoing is important on all of your social networks. Companies should make sure all of their social properties echo each other. I don't mean that the same content should be on all of the pages, but instead that people can easily get from one property to another and that they support each other.

S

SOCIALIZE. Finally, the content must be socialized and not simply broadcast. Of all of the blogs and profiles I have looked at, my biggest concern is that there is a lack of great interaction. This is a difficult issues because true interaction takes time and energy. Things like auto Direct Messaging and automatically following on Twitter make it easy to pretend as if you are engaging, but it doesn't fool anyone. Additionally, services like Ping.fm can be abused. Companies that have made an investment and have hired or appointed someone to handle their social media outreach have done much better than those who are trying to wing it.

Together, these approaches allow the conditions or environment that can precipitate a swarm. or a buzz, around a brand or organization.

These are just my first thoughts pulled together in a useful mnemonic but I am very interested in hearing your thoughts. Everyone is figuring out this new shifting landscape, but it is clear to me that it's no longer enough just to get an account in one of the popular social media networks and "participate."

What do you think?

Photo from Shutterstock

Media Profile: Brian Bolter, Fox 5 News Washington, D.C.

2009-06-10T09:13:00.001-07:00

In true broadcast media form, Brian Bolter answered my Media Profile questions with a video. Bolter is the anchor of The Edge for WTTG Fox 5 in the Washington D.C. area.

As a former resident of Washington D.C., I follow a lot of people from the area on Twitter. Brian's reporting using Twitter. Brian's real-time incorporation of tweets into his newscast caught my attention a few months ago. He was on my short list to interview as I started this series.

My purpose for these interviews are twofold;

1) to take a look at how traditional media outlets are using social media tools to enhance their reporting and to investigate the idea that these new tools and work flows will revolutionize journalism]

2) to get tips for communicators interacting with journalists in these forums and formulate best practices.

Some highlights from Brian's interview:

Using Social Media in Broadcast Journalism

With time lacking, use social media as a way to get out in the public and get to know your viewers, make "appearances"
Twitter is the real-time web and allows for instant feedback from viewers, get a quick read on sentiment or opinion about a story
Use Twitter for crowd sourcing and eyewitness accounts, but back those up with reporting to independently verify events
Used for news gathering such as crime in progress, weather events, and story ideas
Brian goes for a very genuine feel to his news reporting on air and in social networks. The station doesn't just feed out news on the Twitter channel, they also respond

Best Practices for Working with Broadcast Journalists Online

The "faces" of the news are often not the right person to pitch, Brian prefers to talk with "real people"
Brian says that the people who take pitched at the station are still old school and still pick up the phone (see contact info below)
Don't pitch journalists on their personal Twitter and Facebook pages, but in the case of Brian, feel free to interact
Be a real person, be genuine, share versus pitching. Engage in genuine interaction
Do not send auto direct messages from Twitter
Do not come on too strong or expect coverage

That said, please do take the time to watch the video, there are some nuances that I didn't catch in the write up and what Brian says is very interesting. He posted his video on his Vimeo site, where he has a series of Me Right Now videos that give a flavor for how authentic Brian really is. He understands that his personal and professional life intersect as a public persona and he lets his fans in the door. He has really blended social and traditional media to create a news hybrid that is more weighty and personal.

Social Media Video Interview from Brian Bolter on Vimeo.

Contacting Brian and Fox5:

Facebook: MyFox5

Twitter: @Fox5NewsEdge

Telephone:

MAIN: 202.244.5151
NEWSROOM:202.895.3000
NEWSROOM FAX:202.895.3133

Cool Tools: BuzzStream is Contact Management for Social Media

2009-06-09T14:35:00.001-07:00

As a social media and public relations consultant, I spend a lot of time online researching various blogs and publications within vertical interest areas. One of the things that I have found frustrating is manually keeping multiple lists of contacts and notes about each contact.

There are some extremely expensive tools. like Salesforce, and other CRM programs like ACT, which are cheaper but don't really address the needs of people looking to build relationships over time rather than sell stuff. Vocus has a built-in CRM-type management, but that is more aimed at sending out messages to a list, and it's pricey. There are many others as well, but BuzzStream seems different.

The Austin-based company was started by Paul May and Jeremy Bencken. Paul serves and the CEO and is a start-up junkie, with most of the last fifteen years either starting or working on early stage startups. Jeremy Bencken serves as chairman and is a software engineer, product manager and entrepreneur.

I asked Jeremy what the inspiration for BuzzStream was:

The inspiration for this came from the pain I had as an entrepreneur doing my own PR...What I realized after a while was that the key to success was doing very targeted, personalized outreach. However, I couldn’t find any tools that helped me manage my growing list of influencer relationships. The tools on the market were very expensive, but worse, they were all about spray-and-pray pitching, which was a big problem for me… My approach to finding journalists and bloggers was to monitor the news, find people writing about my area, and then reach out and start building a relationship. Then, when I had something newsworthy to talk about, I could just build on my existing relationship.

Bingo! This is exactly the way that I approach public relations, and the fact that the BuzzStream is geared toward this is very interesting to me.

Some of BuzzStream's Features I Like

Bookmarklets to capture data on the fly, in seconds
Auto Scan of blog/page to look for contact info and auto populate a new contact, then you add what only human eyes can see
Built-in Twitter search captures your conversations with contacts
Ability to add tags and sort your contact list by tag
Ability to import and export data (upcoming)
Metrics recorded for each media outlet or blog are PageRank, Compete Traffic, Technorati Rank, Yahoo Inbound Links and Site Age.
By putting a BuzzStream e-mail into your BCC field, the system will add the content of the email to your contact

Jeremy says they plan to add a number of other "mind blowing" features in the near term.

Certainly what I have seen so far is intriguing. Enough so that I started right away to think of features I would love to see. When I start doing this I know that I am falling in love with an application. Here are just a few of my ideas and thoughts:

Features I Would Like to See

Ability to add more than one Twitter account. I would like to be able to track conversations between myself and contacts, as well as between members of the team and these same contacts. Also, the ability to add more than one Twitter account per contact. Some have more than one Twitter account.

Ability to Group Backlinks by Client or Project. You can add as many Web sites as you would like (don't know if their is an upward limit) but they are all in one place, would be nice to group by client.

Ability to Delete Notes. Some of my contacts are also friends and may send me unrelated Tweets. It would be ideal to be able to delete notes, where Tweets are stored, on a case-by-case basis.

Ability to Send Tweets from Software. I think sending Tweets from the program would be helpful for workflow. The fact that you can send a tweet from anywhere you normally would and it gets picked up is cool, but when you are in the program looking up contacts, it would be very good if you could send directly then pick up responses in your tool of choice.

Link Building Pet Peeve. I realize some people go out to make agreements to trade links but as someone who is interested in earned media I find this practice abhorrent. BuzzStream allows you to organize these contacts as well, complete with a drop down menu that includes "link agreement" as a status. To each his own. I would call it something like, "agreed to publish." But this is nitpicky.

What It Will Cost

But what does it cost, you might ask? I asked too and here is what Jeremy said:

Our pricing is yet to be determined, but we priced the Link Building product at free, $50/mo for personal edition, $250/mo for company edition, and agency edition is individually tailored. One of my goals was to create a product that I myself would have been able to afford as a bootstrap entrepreneur, so that’s our general orientation.

For now you can try it for free and BuzzStream was so kind as to supply Communication Ovetones with 75 BuzzStream Beta invites to check out the new application. If you DO sign up, please let me know what your thoughts are on the new offering her or on Twitter @kamichat.

Mashable did a great job of showing you some screen captures, so be sure to go and take a look at them.

Don't Worry: How to Solve Any Problem

2009-06-03T11:58:00.001-07:00

If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying? If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying? - Shantideva

One of the things I have learned in life is that worry never solves a problem and only serves to keep you up at night.

While I KNOW this, I often have to remind myself. Just last night I woke up around 3 a.m. and started to worry about a business problem. I had to tell myself to stop worrying. I quickly generated a few ideas about how to solve the problem and then easily fell back to sleep.

One of my old bosses did me a favor when he told me to never come to him with a problem unless I had a proposed solution. It was a great lesson.

Instead of worrying, why not spend that time generating alternatives? When you start to worry about something professional or personal, take out a notepad and start writing down possible solutions, even seemingly crazy ones.

Even if most of your ideas won't work, one of them might be the solution to your problem - or lead you to a solution.

Also, make a list of people with whom you can share your problem and then call, e-mail or "tweet" them and ask for their ideas about how to solve your problem.

Recently, a friend of mine who was reviewing the next steps for her career asked me to do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis about her job performance. What a great idea!

Ask your friends to do the same for you and you might be surprised with what they offer.

Use adversity as a way to grow and in a few years you will look back and see it as a pivotal turning point.

How does this have anything to do with PR and communication, you might ask? It has EVERYTHING to do with it. What is communication if not a series of problems to be solved with innovative ideas?

How do you stop worrying? Would love to hear your story.

Photo provided by Shutterstock

5 Best Practices to Maximize Your Participation in a Twitter Chat

2009-05-27T14:22:00.001-07:00

It seems that there is a Twitter chat for everything these days. The problem, of course, is that the Twitter platform is terrible for having a coherent exchange of ideas. However, once you get used to it, you often get a lot out of the chats. If nothing else you meet some great new contacts on Twitter. But you still may be wondering how to participate in a Twitter chat. (If you are a pro skip to the 5 Best Practices).

In order to participate you need a Twitter account and some kind of search program to keep up with the action. I usually add a search column in my TweetDeck program with the hashtag to keep up. You can also use the Twitter Search function - just enter the hashtag as a search term.

What is a hashtag you ask? A hashtag is some text that is preceded by the pound sigh (#hashtag) appended onto the end of the Twitter message that allows a group of people, who aren’t necessarily following each other, to engage in a conversation.

A nifty service called “What the Hashtag” has definitions of many of the hashtags that are in common use. You can also check out a recap and transcript of the most recent chat about SEO and blogs as an example of what goes on in these things.

Here are some of my favorite chats:

BLOGCHAT: On Sunday nights at 8-9 CT there is #blogchat with @MackCollier, author of the Viral Garden blog

HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION: or if you are into health care you can chat with #hcsm with @danamlewis also on Sunday nights from 8-9 CT

JOURNCHAT: Monday nights is #journchat from 8-10CT with @PRsarahevans, author of a blog by the same name, PRSarahEvans

PR 2.0 CHAT: On Wednesday nights is #pr20chat with @BethHarte from 7-8 CT, she is author of the Harte of Marketing blog

5 Twitter Chat Best Practices

Relevance: Only use the hashtag on posts that directly pertain to the topic set out by the moderator. If you start a side conversation with someone in the chat drop the hashtag
Spam Free: Do not flog thy wares or ask people to support you in a competition during the chat, this is bad form
Links: Feel free to share links to your own posts if they directly pertain to the topic at hand, but be judicious in how many you give
More Links: Link to other’s work and make recommendations to others in the chat to follow people that have expertise in the area being discussed, they might even show up to participate if you call them out
Retweet Sparingly: Only Retweet, or resend posts that would be of broad interest to your followers. Be sure to add enough context to these Retweets so as not to be confusing to those not participating in the chat

Share Your Best Practices and Tools

Now it is your turn, share your tips for participating in a chat. Here are some questions to get started.

· What tools and techniques do you use when you participate in a chat?

· What are your favorite chats?

· What would you add or change about the Twitter Best Practices?

Image provided by Shutterstock.com

Remembrance: Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-24T17:50:00.001-07:00

Communication Overtones

Essay: Social Media Users Unpacked

Facebook Covers Legal Risk for Giveaways; Maybe Opens a New Revenue Stream?

FACEBOOK SWEEPSTAKES

You cannot require:

You can use:

Fun Friday: The Problem With Tools

Sponsored Conversations: FTC Guidelines Impact Companies and Bloggers

The Problem At Hand

The New Rules of Sponsored Conversation

What To Do In the Real World?

Social Media Strategies to Find Awesome Talent or Find a Job

The 5 Ws of Social Media Strategy

The 5 Ws of Social Media Strategy

Case Study: Making Legislative Activism Fun? Live Earth Gives it a Try

Having Fun with Legislation

Beyond Personal Brand to Character

Inside Out: Engaging External Audiences With Internal Culture

What are some other ways that internal communications can be repurposed for external communications?

Shel Israel is Coming to Houston on Twitterville Tour and to a City Near You?

Please Vote: A Smorgasbord of Learning for SxSW Interactive 2010

Social Media ROI: Results that Measure Up

Finding a Social Media “Expert” Who Really is An Expert

Social Media Ménage à Trois: Advertising-Marketing-PR

Building a Team That Embraces Social Technologies

Who Owns the Social Media Play: Marketing, PR or Advertising?

Fun Friday: Proof that PR Geeks Will Do Anything for a LIttle Attention

Reality Check: Vote on Which Media Are Most Important to Your Business

Amazon + Zappos: Trust Us, Nothing Will Change

"Some see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not." -George Bernard Shaw

10 Opportunity Costs and Risks of Ignoring Social Media

10 Opportunity Costs of Ignoring Social Media

I am Not Buying It! Why Twitter 'Media Value' Numbers are Rubbish

Twitter Generates $48 Million of Media Coverage in a Month

What Makes a Video Go Viral?

Let's hear from you, what do YOU think made these viral videos runaway hits?

Missing The "Social" In Social Media

Building Buzz with Social Media Using Swarming and BEES

Swarming as a Strategy

B

E

E

S

Media Profile: Brian Bolter, Fox 5 News Washington, D.C.

Cool Tools: BuzzStream is Contact Management for Social Media

Some of BuzzStream's Features I Like

Features I Would Like to See

What It Will Cost

Don't Worry: How to Solve Any Problem

5 Best Practices to Maximize Your Participation in a Twitter Chat

5 Twitter Chat Best Practices

Remembrance: Memorial Day 2009