Socialmedialand

Archive for November, 2008

It’s been a little over a week since Sitewire and I asked you all to help us with our social media experiment* to help us move Jay’s post on ParentsConnect.com to page 1 of Google Results.

And we did it! As promised here is the information we gathered during the experiment. To view the slideshow larger, click the full screen button in the bottom right hand corner. Or you can view our results on SlideShare.

Social Linking Experiment

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: is linking)

Hope you enjoyed the experiment – let me know your thoughts in the comments section!

*Disclaimer: Of course, if I were to recommend a social linking strategy for a client I would focus on creating quality content and making it easy for people to share and link to that content. The only reason we approached it this way in this case is because I wanted to see results quickly and be able to track them in a relatively controlled way.

So in the spirit of Christmas, I’d like to share this link with you. My coworker, Jay, posed the question, “Is Santa Real” on the Parent’s Connect forum. Since then we’ve been conducting a little social experiment to see how far we can move it up the Google rankings just by linking that phrase across the internets.

In a few days I’ll post the findings of this experiment – on Sitewire’s blog and here.

Personally I think there’s a little Santa in all of us – but what do you think? Is Santa Real?

Despite your (or my) personal political affiliation it’s commonly accepted that our current President’s approval rating has been pretty low over the last two terms. He’s made a lot of unpopular decisions, for better or for worse, both domestically and internationally. I think one of the most interesting results of that is watching/listening to Americans try to explain as patriotically as possible (especially to non-Americans) how our President doesn’t necessarily represent us (lowercase) as individuals or the US (uppercase) as a nation.

And I think that’s all about to change – and it’s going to change because the Social Media groundswell is integrating into politics.

[And here I hesitate - because talking about politics is such a hot topic and I don't want to open myself up to attack or the chance I might offend someone, so bear with me while I try to stay as close to center as humanly possible. I also want to be clear that I'm not attempting to make any value judgements - just simply talk about what is going on right now.]

But here goes – since the election on Nov. 4th I’ve seen a few people passing around a URL I hadn’t seen during the campaign – http://www.change.gov. I wanted to check it out and see what it was all about and I have to say that any politics aside it’s a very exciting site.

We were all very excited when social media came into play during the election campaigns – and I think it was generally accepted that Barack Obama had the most success using social. There was my.barackobama.com,  a Facebook page, a Twitter page, and viral videos galore. To give credit where credit is due, many of the other candidates also utilized these tools. But they were often late to the game and, most importantly, forgot to interact directly with the communities who formed there (or at least not to the extent that Obama’s staff did.) I think comparing Hilary’s Twitter to Obama’s sort of illustrates this (note how many people they are following back):

But at the same time I think we all questioned whether the responsiveness in these communities would decrease or end altogether after the election… Just like a lot of other campaigns where a candidate promises to listen to you and your needs and promptly forgets about you the day they step into office.

I won’t say that that question has been completely answered – it’s still to be seen what will happen over the next 4 years when Obama takes office in January. But Change.gov is a start, and it’s a promising start. There are places on the site for users to post their “visions” or ideas for the country and share their personal stories. There’s a blog that keeps people up to date with current news about Obama, including video in most cases. Part of the site is dedicated to an outlining of Obama’s agenda and there’s several links throughout the site that explain the transition and what the significance is of the major decisions being made right now.

This is a level of transparency that I would argue has never been seen in government before. IF the site follows through on its promise, meaning there is a sizable staff to pick through these ideas and bubble up the ones the reoccur the most often it could completely change the way Americans interact with government. Additionally, IF Obama actually carries through with the social mindset he claimed to have in his speech of listening to and sincerely considering any opposing opinions to his stated agenda he might be able to make the progress he’s been promising.

Quick side note: in the past any politician who made a decision or said anything different from their previous opinion is accused of “flip-flopping” on an issue. I’ve always been confused by this because don’t we want them to listen to us and follow our wants/needs rather than their own? But I think this will be a greater issue if Obama follows through with his site’s promise and changes his policies according to the feedback he gets – it’s what we’d want him to do but I wonder if it would actually end up hurting his reputation? Just a random thought…and now back to the technology…

It’s definitely not perfect – I would like to see more functionality to view and vote on what others have posted (this was also suggested on Groundswell’s blog post about Change.gov), and maybe add comments (although I see how that could lead to a logistical nightmare if the site gains popularity). Either way it’s certainly a giant step ahead of being ignored entirely like we had been in the past, that is unless it was an election year.

One more side note: This trend has applications beyond just Obama and the President’s office – social media has been making inroads into politics in other areas as well. My coworker, Dustin, wrote a post about city governments joining Twitter to start discussions about the economy and how that could easily expand to include other topics like traffic, saftey, and more. Maybe Change.gov is just a piece of a larger movement?

But just imagine what it would be like if you truly believed something you said had a chance of reaching the President’s ear and he was willing to listen to it. We’d all, in a sense, be part of the cabinet.

What would you say?

It might finally, truly, be a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

So what do you think about social media in politics? Let me know in the comments section! (Please, no discussion of specific policy, if electing Obama was right or wrong, etc. Let’s keep this to a discussion of how social media can/will affect politics. I reserve the right to remove inflammatory comments.)

Ok I know it sounds like a stretch at first, but stay with me on this one.

As social media continues to grow as our industry’s biggest buzz word I’ve seen an increasing number of client requests for blogs, twitter accounts, or facebook pages. Without fail the request goes something like this:

          “Please put together a strategy for client XYZ to have a Twitter account.”

          ”….?”

What will a Twitter account accomplish in a scenerio like that? What about all the unaswered questions? Like, “Why do you want a Twitter account in the first place?” ”What is your plan for handling customer concerns, suggestions and ideas internally once they’re brought up?”  And it’s not just Twitter. These questions need to be answered before a starting a blog, creating a network or joining a forum. No social media technology should be adopted lightly.

Just like you can’t adopt a puppy without thinking about it first. Sure it’s cute, sure everyone loves puppies. But you can’t just buy it and then forget about it. You have to feed it, you have to pet it, you have to walk it, you have to give it water, you have to have it groomed and taken to the vet for checkups, and you have to listen and respond to its complaints about your products. Ok maybe the last part is really only applicable to social media, but you get the idea.

The hardest thing to explain about social media is that it’s not a “thing” that you can just “have.” It’s a complete change in your business the same way a puppy is a complete change of lifestyle. You have to be prepared for the fundamental shift in the way you relate to your customers. Twitter isn’t just another platform for your advertising bursts, it should be the gateway to a deeper communication with the people who purchase your products. And a blog isn’t an island – it should be a traffic center where you put out information, bring in information and respond to it.

So do you still want a puppy? Think hard before you decide, because once you buy one it’s nearly impossible to go back. Think back to the last commercial you saw featuring the sad puppy dog eyes of the dogs at the humane society – can you handle how bad you would feel if you had to give your new puppy up to that fate? Same thing with social media – it might sound like all fun and games to start now but if it doesn’t go the way you expect you can’t just ditch the effort. Your customers will be twice as angry that you asked for their opinion and then ignored it when you didn’t like it. They’ll feel abandoned, just like that puppy. Social media is a commitment to your customers that you will take care of them for life, from here on out.

If you’re not ready for that relationship with your customer, then you’re not ready for social media in any form, no matter how trendy it is. Because trends come and go, today it’s Twitter, tomorrow it might be something new. If you understand the fundamentals of social media you can simply adapt to any new platform your customers adopt, you grow with them the same way pet owners switch dog food for different stages of their puppy’s life, if you don’t then you just have an irrelevant account on yesterday’s cool new site. And a sad puppy.

And so, social media is like a puppy. Agree? Disagree? Have another metaphor? Share in the comments section!

It’s finally here. Election Day 2008.

Many people have called this election the most historic of our generation (which I think is yet to be seen – I’m planning on being around for a few more…) But I will certainly agree that it’s the most historic to-date in my generation.

And it shows. Spend 5 minutes this morning perusing your favorite social network of choice and, if you’re kind of a nerd like me, you’ll get really excited about the way social media has been used to encourage people to participate in democracy and celebrate the freedom we enjoy in America. Here are a few examples of how social media is being used to “rock the vote:”

Facebook:

Get to the homepage of Facebook and you’re greeted with this reminder

You can RSVP to the Election Event and invite your friends, and visit the election page where Facebook will help you find your polling place, as well as the closest Ben & Jerry’s which will be handing out free ice cream to voters. (Starbucks will also give you a free tall coffee but I didn’t see that incorporated into any of the social sites I checked – anyone else find it somewhere?)

You can even “donate” your status to your favorite candidate.

YouTube:

YouTube has created an entire channel called “Video Your Vote” where you can video yourself and your voting experience (in states that allow it) and categorize is as Early Voting, Notable Voter, Voting Perspectives, Voter Intimidation, Polling Place Problems, or Registration Problems and then the videos pop up on interactive map.

Myspace:

Similar to Facebook, Myspace’s homepage features an election section. You can find polling places, see video messages from celebs, get an “I Voted” icon and see what impact Myspace users are having on the election.

Myspace features polls for users to weigh in about their election decisions and feelings.

Twitter:

Twitter has been offering live election feed coverage of Tweets that reference any of the election keywords over the course of campaigns.

And now on Election Day, you can use Twitter to alert election officials of any voting issues you are having in real time. (my coworker Dustin blogged about Twitter’s Election Protection yesterday on Sitewire’s blog) 

twitter election alerts

Digg & Current TV:

While major networks will definitely have 24 hour election coverage, Digg and Current have teamed up to put our top rated stories on TV at Current TV

StumbleUpon:

Their homepage reminds us to vote and links to election themed stories that have been Stumbled. If you click the red side of the button you get McCain stories, the blue side will show you Obama stories.

And here comes our old friend Google. It might be a stretch to call Google social media per se but it did feature an election themed home page with an easy to find link to find polling places via Google Maps.

I have to admit that watching the numbers climb on the Facebook vote counter over the past few hours this morning has given me a deep sense of pride. And I’m also happy to find sentiment like this floating around:

(Find more election themed cards to pass around at Someecards and encourage your friends to vote)

These are the main social initiatives I found this morning with relatively little effort spent looking…did anybody find anything else? Use the comments to share…and then get out and vote!

PodCampAZ was this weekend at the UAT Institute in Phoenix and I have to say I’d been looking forward to this event for weeks. As a newbie in the Phoenix/Arizona marketing scene I was really excited get out there and meet new people as well as learn whatever I could from the people who have more experience in this space than me.

Let’s just say things didn’t work out quite as I expected. First of all I had technical difficulties getting there Saturday morning. I night before I dyed my hair blue for Halloween, which I recognize now was a seriously bad choice. After several “rinse and repeat”s I was finally ready to leave. Until I remembered I’d taken a taxi home the night before to be safe and still had to find a way to pick up my car (cue foreshadowing music…)

After finally getting all these issues under control I made it in time for the last two sessions of day 1. The first one I attended was Chris Pirillo’s “Cultivating Community” discussion and I couldn’t have been more impressed. I was floored by his passion and obvious love for the subject matter and the things he said about community really resonated with me. He said that community is an internal connection we’re all born with, community is already everywhere, and blogs, forums, networks, etc are all just tools that further that sense of community – they’re not the communities themselves. He also reminds us that in a community the voice should be personal – and this is something I learned myself when I was working on a Twitter campaign for a fashion event. People responded much better to me when I used personal pronouns and talked in my own voice, and frankly, I enjoyed it better myself. He explained that people are like walking Venn diagrams (an image I especially like) and it’s very likely there are other people who exist in the intersection of our own various interests – and that leads to community. This was his example:

I really like this vision of the way people define themselves and figure out who belongs in a community, it makes a simple sort of sense.

After this session I met up with @austinmiles and he introduced me to a few of his friends, including @chuckreynolds – who I already follow on Twitter but had never actually met before, so that was cool.

The next session I attended was Aaron Post’s “Kids & Their New Networks.” I read the blurb in the schedule and was very interested in the topic of how social networking affects the way kinds are being conditioned to think and the implications that has to us as marketers. I also thought it might apply to a project I’m working on right now regarding children’s television. He had some very interesting data that talked about how kids now are growing up so used to using these technologies. They don’t need to be taught how to use a desktop or how a user interface works. They don’t see a division between their real self and their online persona. They are very transparent about themselves online and they expect the same from others. They are master multitaskers and can handle multiple messages at once.

All of this was really interesting to me and I would have liked to have more discussion about these things but I was disappointed when the conversation quickly disintegrated into personal theories about parenting styles in this setting and whether or not the internet is “good” for kids. There were a few times I was offended as I was lumped into the 18-25 age range of people who are “desensitized” by the internet and several people questioned how people raised in my generation would be able to function, (I contend that I’m able to function just fine but you can judge that for yourself at the end of this post.) This seemed to miss the point in my opinion but thinking back on it, it really comes full circle into my entire premise for this blog. We are all social media users as well as social media marketers and of course listening to this kind of information would cause any parents to get distracted into how this will affect their own child. At the time I was annoyed that things got “derailed” but now I think it was a natural progession. In addition - everything I learned by listening to these parents as users will help me when I’m thinking about how my client should position themselves. Still I’d love to revisit this topic at another conference and maybe stay more focused on the research and the information and less on the parenting skills part.

Side note: Shelley Rodrigo gave a talk titled “Resident Feminist: Alice in the Wonder of Web 2.0 Technologies” earlier in the day. I wish I’d been able to attend that as it comes so close to my own analogy for what social media feels like to me and is (if you can’t tell) the theme of my blog. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch her another time.

All in all it was a successful day.

I left pretty quickly after, I wanted to get home and get some things done and maybe see my friends that night and since I planned to be back the next morning I didn’t think much of it.

Anyways, after the conference I got in my car, drove up to the next light to make a u-turn and get back to the freeway. I was looking directly into the 5pm Arizona sun and as the light turned yellow I saw that all the cars appeared far enough back and I made the turn. Bad choice. This one truck had decided to speed up and get through the light and rammed into the front right side of my car, barely avoiding pushing me back into on-coming traffic. I’m fine except a bruised foot, sore neck and shoulders and a broken car. It looked like there were more people in the other car than seats or seatbelts so a few of them had bruises from hitting their head on the seat in front or hitting against the side of the car but thank God that no one sustained any major injuries. My thoughts and prayers are still with their family as a few of them opted into checking into the hospital to make sure there were no other complications. I’m also very thankful to everyone who stopped to help and all my friends and family for their concern and help.

Long story short I wasn’t able to make it to the second half of the conference today because I was wrapped up dealing with all the paperwork and things that come along with something like this.

Already looking forward to next year though…