Socialmedialand

Archive for June, 2009

The FTC has released a set of proposed new guidelines for endorsements. These are particularly relevant in their application to social media. Several admendments were made that directly refer to new media and the application of these rules in this sphere.

The report is fairly long so I read through it to summarize the main points that are relevant to its application in social media campaigns. If you blog, or are involved in blogger outreach, you should begin following these new guidelines, that way if they are enacted you won’t have to worry.

1. If you present an opinion and recommendation to use a product that is an endorsement. Even if you use your own words and present your own views (not use exact messaging from the company) it is still an endorsement.
2. Liability for advertisers
   1. You are liable for false statements made by an endorser (such as a blogger you asked to review a product) so you should be clear on the product details and make sure to convey all the information you have to them. In addition you should check their post for any false or unsubstantiated comments.
   2. You have to provide full disclosure. The blogger must clearly indicate if there is any material connection (payment or allowing them to keep the product.)
3. Liability for endorsers
   1. As the endorser you’re also liable for your statements. If you write something false or make claims about the product that can’t be proven you’ll be responsible for them as well as the advertiser.
4. You must disclose any material connection between the advertiser and the endorser. This responsibility falls on both parties.

This quote from the document sums up the changes related to new media.

New Examples 7, 8, and 9 apply the general principle that material connections between the endorser and the advertiser should be disclosed to several new forms of marketing – blogs, discussion boards, and “street teams.” The Commission specifically seeks comment on these examples, with particular focus on the expectations held by consumers as to the relationships that exist between advertisers and endorsers in these new marketing contexts. The Commission notes in this regard that WOMMA, a trade association whose members are engaged in word-of-mouth and other new types of marketing, stated in its comment that the relationship between endorsers and advertisers should not be concealed, and that the principles of transparency that form the basis of its code of ethics require, among other things, that endorsers not misrepresent their opinions or their identities (for example, by creating artificial entities to endorse products).103 The Commission has long believed that industry self-regulatory codes play an important role in consumer protection, and that the development of ethical standards emphasizing transparency for marketers who engage in new forms of marketing is an important step to this end.

I believe transparency in social media marketing is a key principle to success, and the key point in this quote is just that. From this point on, disclosing all material connections between advertisers and endorsers will be critical. Make it easy on yourself and start now. My thoughts on authentic blogger outreach campaigns are that they should be based on this kind of transparency. You shouldn’t misrepresent paid employees as a consumer and have them recommending (via blogs, comments, forums, Facebook or wherever) people to try your product based on their fake review and experiences. This amendment from the FTC has come about to protect consumers from companies who’ve been practicing these deceptive tactics.

The FTC report includes this example which may help you understand the changes better:

Example 5: A skin care products advertiser participates in a blog advertising service. The service matches up advertisers with bloggers who will promote the advertiser’s products on their personal blogs. The advertiser requests that a blogger try a new body lotion and write a review of the product on her blog. Although the advertiser does not
make any specific claims about the lotion’s ability to cure skin conditions and the blogger does not ask the advertiser whether there is substantiation for the claim, in her review the blogger writes that the lotion cures eczema and recommends the product to her blog readers who suffer from this condition. The advertiser is subject to liability for false or unsubstantiated statements made through the blogger’s endorsement. The blogger also is subject to liability for representations made in the course of her endorsement. The blogger is also liable if she fails to disclose clearly and conspicuously that she is being paid for her services.

For a while new media has been relatively self-policed. However, its adaption by a larger segment of the population added to the borderline deceptive advertising practices that have been utilized in the past have led the FTC to feel the need to step in and regulate our communication here. I firmly support the FTC’s proposed amendments, but I’m concerned on how effectively they’ll be able to enforce them. What do you think? Necessary? Or over regulation? Let’s discuss in the comments.

Photo credit: dbking [Flickr]

If you don’t follow @DanZarella you should. He does some really interesting research on Twitter. The latest thing he’s come out with is a tool that will give you a psychological profile based on the content of your tweets. It says it works better if you have over 1,000 updates and are conversational (not always promoting something) but I tried it anyways with my meager 600+ updates and these are the results I got:

Cognitive Content

1. Present tense
2. Tentative
3. Similes – I do love a good metaphor, simile or analogy…
4. Self reference - ouch…but I guess that’s partly the nature of Twitter…right?
5. Positive emotions - I like to stay on the sunny side..
6. Cognitive processes - I think, therefore I am
7. Sexual references - didn’t expect that one, don’t even know what it’s referring to!
8. Occupation & work
9. Senses
10. Insight – Nice!
11. Sad – ??
12. Media, entertainment & celebrities - #pop_tart
13. Future tense

Primordial, Conceptual and Emotional Content

1. Social behavior – Definitely me!
2. Abstract thought - I think this is a compliment?
3. Constructive behaviors - Yay for being constructive!
4. Affection –
5. Cold sensations
6. Moral imperative - Definitely see that…
7. Glory – !!
8. Positive affect - More positiveness, I like it.
9. Anxiety - ?? Hmmm…
10. Taste Sensations
11. Audio sensations – I’m apparently into all kinds of sensations
12. Order – I’m bossy…haha just kidding. I think this comes from things like “Check it out..” or “Read this..”

So there’s a glimpse into my Twitter psychology. Some of them I totally get and completely agree with, others are a little more questionable. I’m going to try it again when I get to 1,000 and see how it changes. Go to TweetPsych yourself and see what yours is (there I go being bossy again…) then leave me a comment with results so we can compare!

I know that there are already tons of reviews on the new Palm Pre out there but

1. I stood in line for 2 hours to get one on the first day so I feel like that entitles me to my own review

2. This review is from the perspective of a normal user, not someone completely versed in geek speak (I can understand a little but I’m not completely fluent…)

3. Did I mention the line I stood in?

I’ll keep it short and sweet, I promise.

What I love:

The OS: Palm’s new WebOS is the major attraction. This is how an OS should be built. It  integrates my digital life into conveniently packaged segments. This phone thinks about my life the way I do. For example, I don’t think about each message from a person as one message, I think of it as a conversation. I don’t think of each calendar appointment as an individual thing – I think about everything I have to do today regardless of whether it’s at work or home.

The Inbox is a true inbox – it imports all my various email accounts into one place where I can view messages all together or sorted by inbox and folder.

Same with the calendar, every type of calendar I have just layers into one interface, but then I can control if I’d like to look at one specifically or exclude another.

Contacts are awesome – I imported my Facebook and it automatically linked them to the phone numbers I had in my phone (note: I used first and last names in my phone which made this easier, if you don’t you might have to spend some time linking accounts together.) I also imported my AIM and linked the screen names to my friends names. Now when I talk to them, via text or AIM or a combo of the two, all the messages appear in one threaded conversation.

The Apps: Ok so the apps really aren’t anything new – a lot of stuff that’s already available on iPhone and Blackberry has been adapted to the Pre. What’s cool about it is that I can have up to 15 open at once (the store rep told me after 8 it starts to slow down but still…that’s 7 more than other phones…) So I can bring up my email, bring up my FlightView app, copy and paste my flight number in, add that to my calendar, and done. (FlightView is also cool because you can actually watch flights’ progress in real time!) I can have several internet windows running at once as well which can make things a lot easier to navigate.

Copy/Paste: Speaking of copy/paste - I’m really glad I have that function. Makes life a TON easier.

The Look/Keyboard: I know there have been complaints about the keyboard but honestly – I can’t stand on screen keyboards so I’m glad it has one. I wish it had been done horizontal rather than vertical and I miss my Treo’s buttons compared to these gummies but all things considered I like it. Also, the phone itself was smaller than I expected it to be and I really like the shape of it.

What I don’t love so much:

Power/Battery: The battery life isn’t so great. I’m comparing it to the Treo and not the other “hot” phones that are out there so I don’t know how it stacks up to those. But my Treo could go 2 days or more on a charge and the Pre really needs to be plugged in every night at minimum. I do use the Pre more because it’s so fun so maybe that will pass, but I still think the battery life could be better.

Speaking of plugging it in, someone told me that Palm says they make the only chargers for it – not sure if that’s a true statement from Palm or not but I do know that iGo makes a tip for the Pre that works like a charm. I say they make “a tip” because their chargers are universal and you just switch the tip out for whatever device you’re charging. I know this one works on the Pre because they gave me a charger to test. You’ll notice on the site that the tip number doesn’t list the Pre as a device yet (they’re still testing it in their own lab) but it will soon – and for a lot cheaper than Palm chargers. The touchstone looks pretty cool, a magnetized stand that you just stick your phone on and it charges it, it’s just pretty spendy so I haven’t got my hands on one yet.

One last note about power. I was talking to a good friend who I hadn’t heard from in a while, and my phone was running out of battery, I plugged it in and we talked for another hour. Being plugged in and in-use caused it to heat up pretty bad. Then right after we got off the phone my boyfriend called and about 20 minutes into our conversation the phone just gave up. I can’t explain it any better than that. It wouldn’t place calls, it wouldn’t accept calls, it just sat there. It’s only happened the one time but it was pretty frustrating. Short battery life coupled with the inability to have extended conversations while it’s plugged in could be a real issue for me. Since then I’ve just tried to manage the battery better so hopefully it won’t happen again.

Email set up: Without getting too technical, if you have Microsoft Outlook Exchange and you want to set up an EAS account you have to have a third party certificate. If you have a self signed certificate you have to go through this whole circus of a process to make it work and sometimes, that’s still not enough. You can’t ignore the error and there’s no way around it. I created a work around by syncing my Outlook calendar with Gmail but that only works for the calendar. I just saw an app appear in the store called “Pocket Mirror” that claims to sync your Pre with Outlook via the WiFi, so you sync it when you’re in the office and then I’m assuming you can’t do much but view your items when you’re away. I haven’t tried it yet but that’s my next step. It’s frustrating because a lot of people seem to be having this problem, even back in the testing and beta periods, and there’s still no actual fix from Palm. You can choose from third party work arounds or nothing.

Slider: When I slide the phone open and closed it always feels a little precarious to me, like it would be super easy to break.

Final Conclusion:

I absolutely love it. The pros outweigh the cons no contest. The pros are really about the integral functioning of the device, while the cons are minor gripes and things that can be expected with a new release and may evolve as the WebOS is replicated on new devices in the future.

Any one else get one? Want to share your thoughts? Leave me a comment!

Tonight is the night (at 9:01pm). We can all finally pick out a Facebook profile name to make an easy to remember URL. Oh the joy – we can finally print it on business cards, put it in our email signature lines and more!

Amidst all the excitement and pledges to logon at 9:01 exactly to get the most sought after common names first, Facebook issued a warning to be careful what name you pick because – you’re stuck with it FOREVER.

When I first saw that; I dismissed it. My name really isn’t that common. I found one other Katie Van Domelen on Myspace back in high school, so I guess it’s a race between me and her. Then I started to think about it a little harder. I plan to get married one day; will I then wish I’d picked a different name? And what about my friend Lacey? She’s currently engaged and I wonder if she’ll pick her maiden name or her soon-to-be married name? Is that bad luck? What if someone is married now and they use that last name in their URL but then they get divorced- could become a pretty big thorn in their side. On the other hand, who’s going to insist on using a maiden name in case they get divorced? That has to be bad luck.

The more I thought about this the more it bothered me. I won’t pretend to understand all the technical issues that go into this and I definitely realize that making it permanent might make it easier to keep things straight (Myspace’s URLs are permanent as well.) But I know other networks have found a way to make change possible. LinkedIn, Google Profiles, Twitter, and Friendfeed all let you easily update your name/username and URL. Some even include a space for a maiden name to make searching easy.

Am I being overly sensitive to think that a social network should take into consideration that roughly 50% of the population will experience at least one name change in their life? Or is this another one of those things that we, as women, will just have to adjust ourselves to?

I’ll probably follow in the footsteps I’ve seen other women take on Facebook – keeping their maiden name on their profile  in addition to their taken name (i.e: Jane Smith Brown) or simply using their maiden name for social networking purposes. So I plan to sign up for katie.vandomelen to create my Facebook URL (no one take it!) what will you do?

After the success of Tuesday’s seminar on How to Market Your Business Through Social Media, @agencyside’s #180series is going to continue with hands on events and conferences in Scottsdale and Tucson. “Give us 180 minutes and we’ll give you a 180-degree change in your marketing results.” Can’t beat that, huh?

I’m normally behind schedule on letting everyone know about these events – but this time I’m giving you all the schedule well in advance. In fact there’s an early bird special! You can get $10 off any June event if you sign up before 6.12 and $10 off any July event if you sign up before 6.29. See the schedule of events I’ll be speaking at below. Register today to get your early bird special!

At #180series yesterday the audience asked our panel an interesting question (via our Uservoice forum):

What are some popular examples of social media gone wrong?

I guess there are some very famous examples of social media snafus – Dominos, MotrinMoms, etc. All classic stories of big brands ignoring the online community until too late and then scrambling to do damage control. But the question got me thinking about social media gone wrong from the other side – small brands trying to use social media to increase awareness and buzz around their products and failing to do so.

“Authentic” Blogger Outreach

A little while back a coworker brought me a proposal [edit: I misrepresented this situation in my original post] that an agency (The Agency) had sent to us as a bid to work on one of our current clients. It was a blogger outreach plan complete with an example of previous work The Agency had done for a client that sold organic juice for children (Juice Client.)

In this case, I’m using the term “blogger outreach” in a very broad sense. The basic premise of the campaign was that The Agency had hired 5-7 people to impersonate blogger personas. These people were very close to the personality type they were taking on, but they were not the actual person. For example, one persona was a “daddy blogger” father of two who was very concerned about diet, organic food and nutrition for his kids (Daddy O.) The person playing Daddy O was also a father and may have cared about diet but was not actually Daddy O. In order to fulfill the “authentic” part of the plan, Daddy O created a fake Facebook account and a few other traces of his personality across the web in case anyone searched for him. Personally, I don’t think that’s very authentic at all.

The process was that Daddy O would search for forums and blogs about health and kids and write some sort of response. He would work in how he bought Juice Client product for his kids and they loved it and since it was also good for them, he was happy. Then he would include a link of course. I clicked on some of the links to his responses that were included in the case study to see examples of this in action. In the ones where his post was still there, it was the first and only post that was ever made under that screen name. When people responded to him he didn’t return and continue the conversation, and when you looked at his profile it was basically a short description of his persona and a link to Juice Client. In the other ones it was clear his post had been deleted.

The one question I keep repeating in my mind as I’m reading and looking through all this is: WHY? Why did you have to make up people? There are so many legitimate (actually authentic) daddy bloggers, mommy bloggers, parent communities, etc that you could have reached out to and gotten real people’s honest opinions on this. And that kind of campaign would have been way more beneficial. Because those people are real, and talk about this stuff all the time, if you’d gotten them hooked on your product they would still be singing its praises right now, whereas the fake bloggers you created are only going to do it on the clock and stop as soon as you quit paying them. No wonder it never took off.

There’s an easy way and a hard way to do things. Taking the time to contact bloggers, send them samples of your juice, ask them to post honest opinions on what they thought about it and disclose that they were sent free juice – That’s the hard way. It takes time, some money, and patience. The easy way gets you links right away, quick results that you can show the client and then end your engagement before they realize that won’t last.

Sometimes the hardest thing is the right thing (pretty sure I stole that from some song somewhere – just can’t place it…) and in this case it really is. Social media is sometimes put forward as an easy, quick thing to do when in reality it’s not. It’s a long term commitment where the pay off isn’t always immediate. We, as agencies, consultants, PR professionals, social media experts (or amateurs), or whatever you call yourself, need to prepare the client for that. It’s our job to explain to them how this works and why they need to take the time to do it right rather than go for the easy, quick win. Let’s all take that responsibility a little more seriously.

Thoughts? Think I’m being too hard on The Agency? Share your opinions in the comments!