Fine Print

You can rely on the excellent, cynical, snarky and sometimes antagonistic The Drama 2.0 Show blog to delve into the underbelly of social media and ask those tough questions. Today’s theme is the ulterior motive of companies using social media to engage their customers.

To quote TD2.0S: “Words like ‘listening,’ ‘feedback,’ ‘community,’ ‘engagement’ and, of course, ‘conversation’ all mask the fact that somebody is trying to sell something. It may not be a product or service, but users are being sold. On a perception. On a corporate ideal. On a brand … The reality is that individuals don’t have ‘conversations’ with companies. Companies provide products and services. They provide support. Yes, many will ‘listen’ to your feedback and some do thrive on becoming a part of your lifestyle but make no mistake about it: a brand like Proctor & Gamble is not your ‘friend.’”

Sobering stuff. I love social media, think it works extremely well and see it as the future of PR — and business in general. Maybe I have my rose-coloured glasses on and hear birds tweeting over my shoulder? Rex Hammock is already talking about “expecting a major ‘bust’ in the prefix ’social-’ in a couple of years.”

More from TD2.0S: “Under law, it may be that a corporation shares many of the same rights as human beings but it is not a human being. It’s not going to buy you a beer. It’s not going to go be your wingman at a nightclub. It’s not going to be the best man at your wedding. It’s not going to hug you when you have a bad day. Social media proponents would have marketers believe just the opposite. They want marketers to become corporate Nosy Nellies, listening to every ‘conversation’ individuals have online in hopes that it can be turned into ‘an opportunity’ to have a ‘conversation’ (read: sell you something or influence your perception of them).”

Now, that puts me — and other social media advocates who work in PR — in a tricky situation. Part of my job is to help clients grasp the concept of social media, embrace it (only if it is right for them, sometimes it’s not) and, yes, listen to what people are saying about them. Let’s not beat around the bush … that is one of the goals. Monitor their reputation and brand perception online, wherever it may be. Money changes hands for that service.

But, if you can get past the “it’s not personal, it’s business” position that TD2.0S is taking and bear in mind that, yes, brands do want to make some money at the end of the day, isn’t it better for them to be listening and engaging with their customers at least a little, if not a lot? It’s a great step in the right direction.

Consumers are not stupid; they are seasoned receptors of marketing messages way before social media came on the scene. They’re used to it and can spot insincerity a mile off. Our role is to make the connection and initiate the latest way for “sellers” and “buyers” to talk to each other.

Then the rest is up to them.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada (Twitter: johncarson)

Did you know that Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler filed suit against anonymous Blogspot bloggers who allegedy impersonated him and girlfriend Erin Brady? Me neither. But thanks to John Cass, I now have a fascinating resource of lawsuits involving blogs, a situation that will surely become a lucrative niche practice area as social media becomes more mainstream. There is also a database of cases related to social media.

I’m not interested in matters of law, per se, but am interested in seeing what people think they can get away with online, using social media and other tools, so this looks like an interesting reference point to get an overview of the legal aspect of all the 24/7 interactions swirling around us.

Cybersquatting (registering a domain name — usually linked to a company name — in the hopes of selling it at a profit) has been the subject of some contentious court battles in past years. How does that translate to Twitter and other social networks? I grabbed johncarson early, but now that more companies are embracing social media and setting up brand profiles, what’s to stop someone grabbing Coke, Pepsi and so on? (Haven’t checked, sure they’re already taken by legitimate company representatives.)

I could grab johnatcoke or johnatpepsi and pretend to tweet on behalf of that company. Social media “veterans” (of the last 12 months or so) would spot that in a heartbeat and set off the scam radar, but others might be duped. How many variations of misrepresentation are happening, or just around the corner? How far can we trust these identities?

This is a comment on a blog post this morning that puts some stuff in perspective: “Here in India many companies, let alone senior employees, have yet to establish an Internet presence. For small companies it’s understandable, but these are big multi-store organizations with no online presence at all (not even a page with phone numbers) so if you want info then you have to actually go to the store.” Source.

So, once all those organizations start to get online and establish their websites, blogs and Twitter accounts for branding purposes, there might be slim pickings. I remember someone tried (and then changed their mind) selling their Twitter account and all its followers a while back, citing it as a mini-business ready for the highest bidder. I think Twitter is too personal to be commoditized in this way.

Someone is holding socialmedialawyer.com at the moment; could be a good investment …

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada (Twitter: johncarson)

[I have no affiliation with LinkedIn.]

LinkedIn (LI) has always had a staid reputation since it launched in 2003, the year I joined it. Working for a tech publication back then, it was necessary to check out as many new start-ups as possible for story ideas and the people behind them. It was cool to see what was coming around the corner. “Social media” was just a very valuable domain name back then.

I remember critics saying LI was “boring” — after all, who wanted to join a site full of desperate people posting their resumes and looking for a job? That wasn’t the point. The success of LI stems from the accessibility factor; how else can you get “face time” with some top CEOs, gurus and other specialists, for free?

Here’s seven ways to increase your LI presence and use the service to its fullest:

1) Be an open networker. It’s great to link with people you know or have worked with, but if that’s the only reason you use LI then it just becomes a giant contact book. Request links from people in your field that you’d like to know. Do some research, source their e-mail and don’t forget to …

2) … write a personal invite note saying the reason you want to link to them. Don’t be lazy and use the default LI invite template. It shows a lack of respect: if you can’t be bothered to offer a mutually beneficial reason to be connected to that person in the 10 minutes it takes to write a personal note, what does that say about any future relationship? First impressions DO last.

3) Don’t lie about your work history, credentials or achievements. By the very nature of LI, it takes minutes to check those out with the network by asking for referrals and recommendations.

4) Make full use of the Question & Answer section, a very undervalued part of the site in my opinion. You can spend hundreds of dollars organizing focus groups or attending executive seminars. Ask a pertinent question on LI, seed it to your network (or open it up for general consumption) and you’d be amazed at the free advice that comes back, from top-notch people, usually in hours, or even minutes if it’s a hot topic. That’s a gold mine of expertise just waiting to be tapped into. And, it goes without saying, if you see a question that you can offer some specific insight into, then jump right in. You aren’t “giving away stuff for free” … on the contrary, eventually you might become a “Top Expert” or, at the very least, others will request connections with you based on your answers and request more info = instant professional relationship or new business.

5) Update your status on a regular basis. Similar to Facebook / Twitter, you can write a short sentence on what you’re up to. There were limited options at the start like “is working on …” or “is reading …” but now it’s more flexible and you can type in what you want. I have personally got some very useful approaches from adding updates such as “researching Canadian mompreneurs” or “sourcing experts in discount brokers” as part of my PR work.

6) Ask for recommendations. [Today’s post was actually inspired by this one, just wanted to elaborate a little on other LI tips.] No matter what people say, no matter how humble they are — everyone has an ego. It’s good to be praised for doing great work, hearing a “thank you” or seeing a client’s brand become successful because of what you did to help them. It validates your professional skills and justifies the fee you charge for that work. So, why is it taboo to ask for a recommendation? A few words from a client or former colleague is huge, leads to more business and establishes your credibility. LI is perfect for that, so use it!

7) Join a Group, or better still, start one and manage it. The great aspect of LI is that you can congregate with professionals with similar interests, businesses, skills and so on. The greater aspect is that you can also join Groups with people who have nothing in common with you, but whose alternate views or ways of doing business can open your eyes to ideas you would never think of. There’s a lot of social media groups I joined, one I manage and others — such as tech start-ups in Israel, for example — that offer a whole new perspective on business from another part of the world. (It is up to the discretion of the Group manager whether they accept your application or not. Again, write a personal note requesting membership, and state what you can bring to the table, it goes a long way.)

Follow those seven steps, respect your connections and LI will be an invaluable part of your social media strategy, without costing a penny.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada (Twitter: johncarson)

What a cool job title if it was real! (And maybe — unofficially — it was for Toshihiro Nishikado, circa 1978, the lucky developer of the game at Taito. Must have been great going to work on the world’s most popular video game at the time.)

So, job titles in this social media day and age. Chief Engagement Officer? Not new, but has a nice ring to it. Social Media Manager? Hmmm, not so good — no one in social media wants to feel like the conversation is being “managed” or “guided,” however subtle.

More specialists are being sought in this field as companies feel the urge to jump on board, listen to their communities and get involved. What is an apt title though? Social media will be here for a while, but if not, and there’s a new fad on the scene next year, who wants a job title that might be out of date in 12 months? Is it better to be specific when calling yourself a Social Media Specialist to ensure you are relevant for the here and now, or do you play safe and plan ahead, go a bit more generic, say Digital Media Specialist? [My current title was picked for me, full disclosure.]

In the past, everyone knew what the CEO, President, Vice President and intern did — the titles were in daily use, and everyone got used to the hierarchy. But now, there are more Conversation Analysts, Community Managers and Social Media Strategists around. Can people pick and choose their own, or will the market level out and we all agree on titles?

Be realistic, choose wisely … or you could be yesterday’s Senior Vice President of Space Invaders.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada (Twitter: johncarson)

I’ve got to know Christie Adams pretty well since she was an attendee at Interactive Ontario’s last lunch event. She writes regular blog posts for PR in Canada, a lot of them about social media. Her latest one brings up the issue of how to represent a brand on Twitter, a question I coincidentally posed a short while before. People are dabbling, but as far as I can tell, there’s no general consensus either way.

There’s two ways of looking at this tricky subject:

(1) Use your personal Twitter account, but stress in each tweet that you are representing the brand. Also put some info in your bio about that aspect too. Pros: You have a group of people already following you who may be able to help you with the branding, if they feel inclined to do so. You won’t have to start from scratch building up that network. Cons: Your followers may feel used, or get confused as to whether there’s a hidden agenda behind your tweets.

(2) Set up a new averagejoeATcompany Twitter account solely for that purpose. Pros: You are blatantly and transparently stating that you work for/represent that brand, so can feel free to keep the tweets very focused on achieving that aim, without worrying that your followers will misrepresent your tweets. Also, if people pay attention to your Twitter name before following you, then it should be obvious who you tweet on behalf of, so followers — although there may be fewer — will be advocates, fans, clients, customers who love you and customers who hate you who want to vent. Cons: It takes time to build up a good, solid network to get some branding love, so if the client wants immediate results … then they should possibly not be looking at social media as an option. [Which is actually a pro, as those kinds of clients then won’t muddle it for people who do get it.]

So, which side of the fence am I on? Still deciding, but leaning towards the “keep your own account and be transparent” option. Who knows? Tomorrow is another day. This kind of debate changes all the time.

As an aside, I did get an interesting response by e-mail from someone who I greatly respect, but will keep anon: “Tricky one. Hmmm. I guess it depends who you are. If you’ve already got 5,000 followers, probably stay you. Remember, your ID in Twitter is how people find you, so if you built up JohnATBrand and then quit, you’re JohnATstartingoverkindascrewed. : )”

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

These words just sent a chill up my spine: “You allow us to twitter in your name.” Arggghhhh! Begone ye abomination back to whence ye came!

OK, Halloween-themed dramatics over, but it’s still a scary thought. A company using my Twitter name to send out ads to anyone who follows me? Brrrrr! It’s obviously an opt-in situation, and people are looking for ways to monetize Twitter, but this seems like an intrusive way of doing it. Almost … unpolite? Thanks for following me, and by the way, there’s an ad for you inserted by someone on my behalf.

One day YOUR tweets could look like this:

1) just attending the @chrisbrogan webinar 2) thx for the referral, retweeting 3) nice link to top 10 social media fallacies 4) social media expert in Alabama, buy one social media network get one free! 5) @jowyang leaving the stage to great applause, nice conference

So, did you notice 4) slipped in there? Magpie — the company offering the service — says that “You’ll only get magpie-tweets that match the topics you’re twittering about.” I’m assuming they have an algorithm of some kind similar to Google AdWords that tracks certain words and matches the ads?

Referring to your followers, Magpie says: “If they’re annoyed by the magpie-tweets, they might unfollow you and you might earn less.” I am going to monitor what’s being said about all this. [At the time of writing, it seems pretty favourable actually.]

Horses for courses, as they say, but my followers won’t be getting ads from me.

[Update: Here’s Jan Schulz-Hofen’s website if you have questions about Magpie.]

[Update #2: I asked Schulz-Hofen’s thoughts about the ethics of pushing ads — his comments are below.]

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Once back across the ocean, a study on how best to get your feet wet.

In a past life, I was working and living in the United Kingdom, and before that, Brussels, Belgium. During my tenure there, I had developed significant relationships with members of the European press, and through those relationships, I had excelled at getting great coverage for my respective clients. Many of these contacts became colleagues, and these colleagues became friends that I still correspond with as often as I can.

When I decided I was going to make the permanent move back across the pond, I knew how daunting an undertaking creating new relationships in the “New World” could be.

I continue to attend as many networking functions as my time allows and I make it a point to reach out to media here at every given opportunity, appreciating the value of the phrase, “By way of introduction …”

By way of introduction: It’s now that I ask myself, “How many other ‘ways of introduction’ can I utilize to reach out to potential colleagues?”

I latched onto LinkedIn, and was amazed and eerily proud at how much my dear Facebook had grown up. Through LinkedIn, one can professionally network without fear of it being mistaken as a social greeting. LinkedIn is a professional service more so than a place to post vacation pictures, and has a unique method of utilizing the function of ‘mutual friends.’ When adding a newfound contact, there appear two boxes — one to introduce yourself, and another, to have a mutual LinkedIn colleague introduce you. This is not only an instant icebreaker, but an essential tool in social and digital media.

By way of a colleague (Fine Print’s own John Carson), I have since been able to reach out to freelancers I would otherwise have never been able to find — certain reporters defy even the mighty Google. Through social and digital networking and through his own professional experience, John has developed a multitude of relationships with Canadian and international media, and has been gracious enough to extend a hand via LinkedIn introductions. It is clear that from there, the onus is on me to build on that introduction, and prove my value. It’s a challenge I’m more than ready for.

Through my continued work, I have initiated and indeed begun to develop relationships with a wide variety of Canadian media, knowing the importance of solidifying a trust in that business relationship, and will henceforth move forward honing digital and social media to better my clients, and indeed, myself.

Please consider this a case study in making those introductions; not shying away from “mutual friend” opportunities, and engaging new contacts through every social media outlet available. Truly one of the easiest and yet most efficient ways to get your name out there is by, well, getting it out there. A cold call is essential but disappears with a dial tone. An online presence is … ongoing.

~ Sam Amsterdam, Account Coordinator, GCI Canada

Are you a hierophant? Specifically, the third definition.

Anyone who likes to blog, or comment on other people’s blogs, can be considered a hierophant. People who tweet can be added to that category too. Ahhh, social media. Making money from it yet? (Friday Fun Fact #46: “A Social Dime” is an anagram.)

Companies are still striving to monetize their Return On Engagement and work out how listening to their customers can impact their bottom line. It seems that everyone is talking about listening. Time to jump in and talk too! There’s no point in sitting on the sidelines and monitoring what is being said, if you don’t have the autonomy to make a comment yourself. Upper management needs to loosen the reigns a little, trust their staff and let them get in there and chat to those commentators.

Guess what? Those gripes and moans posted by “del_boy65″ and “lucy_in_ohio” are not just tags. They are people about to start adding to Google’s billions of lines of code stored on servers, searchable forever, with commentary such as “Waited on the phone for an hour! Their customer service sux!” or “Fifth time it’s crashed — anyone know where I can get the correct graphics driver?” etc.

Instant solution: “Hi, I’m Tim from customer support. Sorry to hear you’re not happy / need help / have a question. I will try and help you now, or get back to you within 24 hours if need be.” For anyone new to this, use your own name and not Tim’s. [That’s a joke BTW.]

So, then the customer is surprised that corporation X has actually — gasp! — taken the time to personally address them, almost immediately, with an offer to help [read: keep them as a customer and future advocate and word of mouth specialist to all their friends and family.]

That’s where Social Media can be turned into A Social Dime.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Just read about this, it’s disappointing news. As a former journalist, I used to read Press Gazette in the U.K. and considered Masthead its Canadian equivalent as keeping tabs on the journalism industry and who’s moving where.

Snip: “North Island Publishing Ltd. announces today that it will cease publication of Masthead magazine after 21 years of operation. The November/December 2008 edition currently in production will be the last issue produced by North Island. The company will also cease publication of MastheadOnline.com at a date to be announced.

“We are very proud of the service Masthead has provided the magazine industry over the years,” says North Island president Alexander Donald. “But the magazine has not been financially viable for several years now and structural changes in the market have created even more challenges. We’ve taken a decision to focus our company’s resources on other projects in our other markets.”

Full story.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

I’ve been meaning to blog on this subject since “Joe the Plumber” found fame and — once the sponsorship deals come in — possible fortune. The AdAge article prompted me.

Seems like Nick Ragone is a smart guy. After John McCain mentioned Joe the Plumber for the fifth time in the latest TV presidential debate, he was communicating with his team the best way to use that instant buzz phrase to the best advantage of one of his clients. (I’m also sure he checked out this and this too, but alas, already taken in 2007. Good for that plumber’s page views, and probable spike in business.)

The PR manager for Ragone’s client ultimately turned down the suggested strategy, which I think was a smart move. He said: “As soon as that thing hit, we got media requests from around the country to see if there was a Joe the Plumber in their town. I got media requests from New York, Seattle, Denver and Hawaii.” The plumbing industry was hot for a brief while, and how many times can you say that? It was the fallout from a very prominent figure, mentioning the name of someone who could be one of us regular Joes [the Plumber].

I’m all over keeping an eye on what’s hot and trying to get some mileage out of it, but will anyone remember Joe the Plumber in a few months, or even do a search for it? Doubtful.

And even if a client does want to jump in, they have to move fast to greenlight it with their PR reps, or, allow them to act on their behalf and trust their insight and initiative. Be the heroes or the zeros.

It’s probably more lucrative in the long run (and, social analysts, correct me if this is totally wrong) to keep an eye on the media, try to see what’s coming down the line, and then do some speculation on potential desirable URLs. It’s worth a gamble of around $20 on GoDaddy [no affiliation] and I’ve banked a few myself that I won’t mention here for obvious reasons.

So, if you decide to snap up a few, here’s a very handy tool that claims to be the fastest domain-checker out there: domize.com/

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Social media + measurement + tool? My interest was piqued when this request popped up in my LinkedIn network. So, in the spirit of good karma, throwing it out there for some feedback on behalf of Michael Strutton, Director Product Management, Vitrue. (It’s not a closed beta.) The tool is here if you want to test it out: vitrue.com/smi/

I was curious about this part from their description: “Based on our patent-pending technology, index scores are comprised of various online conversations from text-dense micro-blogs to multi-dimensional video sites. The Vitrue SMI score provides a snapshot in time to help make sense of the overwhelming amount of measurable data.”

I’m sure most of these services track the same sources, so asked Strutton what facet of social media his tool includes. He replied: “We look up data in real time, from varying sources. The index number presented is associated to that date. The e-mail function at the bottom will send you a unique URL to retrieve that historical report in the future. Handy, if you want to see change over time.
 
“While it’s possible to see the Vitrue SMI scores change in the middle of the day, we don’t feel that level of granularity is necessary. So, we cache results per day. In other words if you search for Starbucks (278) today the number will remain the same until it’s queried tomorrow.
 
“The data, the technology, and algorithm is patent pending, so I’m not at liberty to describe in great detail. However the tool currently looks at sample data from popular sources in the following categories:
 
“Social Networking - general sharing
Video Sharing - high engagement of viewing time and authenticity of dimension
Micro-Blogs - key influencers who chatter and actively push content
Photo Sharing - social meta data
Blogs - general blogosphere, commentary mentions”

So, no concrete examples there, but at least there are more tracking and measurement services of this type appearing now, which can’t be a bad thing.

You can read an interview with Vitrue at Forbes.com.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

The author of Tribes — Seth Godin — is involved in a conference call October 21 @ 2 p.m. EDT, and it’s free.

Snip: “We’ll discuss how the Internet has enabled everyone to lead a tribe and create movements with customers, employees or neighbours.”

Register. Hat tip.

[Update: Unfortunately I missed this due to some last-minute blog research work, so any insight from people who listened would be great!]

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

On behalf of [GCI Canada’s client] Dell Canada, we’d like to invite you to a free computer recycling drop-off day at the Dell Canada headquarters in Toronto. In line with its commitment to become the greenest technology company on the planet, Dell Canada has joined hands with Purolator and GEEP for the initiative.

No RSVP is necessary – just turn up! (Or please mention it in your blog if you have one.)

For more information, contact Savio Tavares at savio_tavares@dell.com or 416-758-2365.

What: Free computer recycling drop-off day at the Dell Canada headquarters in Toronto where residents of the Greater Toronto Area can drop off any make or model of computers, laptops, monitors, printers as well as peripheral devices including computer speakers and mice to be recycled free-of-charge. Only computer-related equipment will be collected at this event. This is a safe and secure way to recycle electronics.

When: Saturday, October 18, 2008
10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Where: 155 Gordon Baker Road (Highway 404 and Finch), North York, ON. M2H 3N5

Examples of materials we will accept: Computers, CPUs, computer parts – cables, hard drives, memory keys, computer peripherals – keyboards, mice, monitors, laptop computers, printers, fax machines, servers and ink/toner cartridges.

Examples of materials we cannot accept: Wood console televisions, video games, game controllers, DVDs, CDs or VHS/BETA video tapes, DVD & VHS Players, CD Players or stereo equipment, cash registers and adding machines.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Over at the excellent ReadWriteWeb (RRW) they’ve been asking the top bloggers and social media gurus what they earn. Might be a rude question, but the answers are anonymous, and it makes for an interesting survey — especially with the current financial climate looming large.

So … for bloggers, it ranged from $10 to $80 for a single blog post. RRW reckons that some of the full-time bloggers are pulling in six figures, which is probably true if you check out TechCrunch, Mashable and the Gawker Media Network. All very successful, opinionated and influential.

And the big $$$? “Social media consultants, expert practitioners with multiple years of success in the kinds of positions discussed above and in some cases in traditional marketing jobs, are the ones making the most money. No one we surveyed named an hourly consulting rate below $150 per hour. $300 per hour was the most common rate named.”

I am guessing all the survey respondents were from the U.S. Curious, too, as to how they pitch their services? Do they quote one fee for the advice they offer, and hope the client is happy with the results? Or — braver still in social media — guarantee certain elements of success for their fee, and collect on proven results?

Along with coverage in the dailies and a breakfast television slot, does the PR checklist now have “50 blog mentions” and “25 new Twitter followers” on it’s to-do list as a successful campaign?

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

First, please read this article by CNET’s Caroline McCarthy, then, discuss …

Gartner analyst Adam Sarner projects that 50 per cent of social media campaigns will flop. Picking out a few choice quotes from the article, here’s some personal thoughts:

” … over 75 per cent of Fortune 1000 companies with websites will have undertaken some kind of online social networking initiative for marketing or customer relations purposes.”
That “75 per cent” stat sounds pretty high. Maybe 55-60 per cent may be closer?

“‘(Businesses) will rush to the community and try to connect, but essentially they won’t have a mutual purpose, and they’ll fail,’ Sarner said. By a ‘mutual purpose,’ he means a way to serve both the company putting out the campaign and the audience interacting with it: finding that balance is not easy. The quirkiest and most addictive campaigns often provide little value for the company and turn out to be fads, whereas marketing efforts on the Web often don’t go over as well with the public.”
I believe that if your purpose is to serve the community that the campaign is aimed at, then the company will ultimately be served down the line. [A company being ’served’ doesn’t sound appropriate; maybe ‘respected’ is a better word?] If the most addictive campaigns are the ones picked up on by the customers, then how can that provide “little value” for the company too?

“The social network is ‘more for the community than it is for the bottom line’ …”
Agree with Sarner on that one.

“‘Are you discovering what’s going to be the new black next season?’ he suggested as an example of a trendspotting-focused strategy.”
If anyone reading this knows what will happen [re. social media] in 12 months, please tell us so we can all jump in get involved.

“When asked whether the faltering economy will mean that businesses are cutting back on this largely unproven field of social media for marketing or customer relations, Sarner said he didn’t think so, and that many businesses will turn to the Web to stay in touch with consumers during a difficult financial climate.”
Sarner seems to be in agreement with the stats that Mitch Joel picked out a few days ago.

In summary, my take from the sentiments expressed is that, yes, companies do want to get into social media strategies, but are looking for ways that will benefit themselves and their customers in equal measure. I can still sense the reluctance — a little — to let go.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Mitch Joel crunched some numbers from a survey and reported that (Joel bolded it, and that’s good enough for me): 65% of Chief Marketing Officers and marketing executives said that because of the troubled economy more of their money will go toward digital/interactive marketing than before.

More stats from the same survey (PDF):

- Social computing (including word of mouth, social networking sites, viral advertising, etc.) was the most popular emerging channel with 42% of marketing executives expressing interest in adding it to their marketing mix;
- Blogs were the second-most-popular emerging channel, with 35% of marketers expressing desire to use them and 19% already using them;
- Almost one-third of CMOs mentioned podcasting as an area of interest, with 31% interested in adding it to their marketing mix and 18% already having done so;
- 29% are interested in Mobile Devices (phones/PDAs) and 22% have added them to their marketing mix.

[Italics are mine.]

The declarations of “interest” and “desire” are great, to a point, but it would be preferable to see some “planned” or “commitment” sprinkled in there too. Makes me wary that the CMOs are willing to experiment a bit with social media, because their hand has been forced by the economic climate, rather than the fact they believe it’s a firm strategy.

If they do decide to move ahead, here’s a handy tool to see if their brand name has already been taken on all the major social media hangouts.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Hectic day today — been on the phone with the media to fill the last seats for this event we’re sponsoring: http://www.interactiveontario.com/events/ilunch7. The response has been very enthusiastic; people really want to know where Canada’s digital media industry is heading. [Press — please contact me if you’d like to attend, or click the link above.]

There wasn’t a long lead time for this … in fact, we started inviting yesterday. I think these days people are so busy they make a snap decision as to whether they’re going to attend an event or not. Sure, there’s cool things happening in 2009 that we’ve all bookmarked, but the digital media workplace is in the “here and now,” the RSS ping, the tweet — the immediacy of the technology turns us (well, me anyway) into a voracious user of information that needs a fix.

OK, back to the phone. Have a great weekend.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

[This is a cool event being held by Interactive Ontario and sponsored by GCI Canada.] 

Canada’s Interactive Industry: The Knowledge-Based Economy Of Tomorrow?

Do you work in — or report on — Canada’s digital media industry? With the Canada New Media Fund being eliminated, do you wonder which parties will invest in Canadian new media? Can Canada make the leap from making car engines to making game engines? Join us for a complimentary lunch and panel discussion on October 7, 2008 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto to debate where Canada’s digital media industry is heading.
 
The theme for iLunch 7.01 is: Financing the Future: Raising Capital in Uncertain Times and we’ll examine the current financial crisis, private vs. public investment opportunities and the rapid growth of the interactive digital media sector. iLunch is a highly interactive discussion where attendees will be given the opportunity to plug into the conversation, ask questions and speak their minds — journalists, bloggers and broadcasters are all welcome!

Bring your laptops as there’s free Wi-Fi so you can tweet or blog live from the event.
 
Schedule:
 
11:30 Registration and Networking
12:00 Lunch
12:15 Introductory remarks
12:20 Case Study
12:35 Panel discussion: Charles Zamaria, Mark Bishop, Jody Shapiro (to be confirmed) and Trevor Fencott
13:30 Question and answer period for audience
13:55 Final remarks and post-event networking
14:00 One-on-one meetings with panelists (by appointment)

** Please click here to register and see bios of the speakers — space is limited for this event. **

Hope to meet a few of you there in person!

[Update: Just checked this Friday morning and it’s already at full capacity, that didn’t take long.]

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Mark Cregar has listed what he believes is the top five digital marketing cliches. He cites them as The Social Network Page, The Second Life Storefront, The Online Ad Contest, The Social Network and The Online Branded Entertainment Series.

In that case, I’m sure 99% of PR firms in social media have used a cliche, as the list runs the gamut of what a lot of companies are implementing in their campaigns. What’s new these days? When does something become so popular that it achieves cliche status?

To be fair, Cregar does offer alternative angles to his top five that you may want to consider. It’s a good read.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Todd Defren posts about a practice that is just plain wrong: commenting on people’s blogs under a false name, with the intention of driving “traffic” back to a client’s own blog or website. I put the word traffic in “” because it can’t really be called that. It can be called a stream of pi**ed off people being deceived into visiting a brand, the reputation of which they will associate with these sleazy, cheap tactics.

Not smart.

So, the “SEO” guys get called out, and lo and behold, come back with this recommendation: “Instead of the blog spam, we could have our employees post anonymously on blogs about needing a service similar to your offering … and then return a day later, posing as a customer who’s been happy with your services.”

Shudder.

Three words that a social media campaign does not make: spam, anonymously and posing.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

[*Just Americans? More I expect, but it is a survey from an American strategy and communications agency.]

Still, it’s encouraging news: “According to the survey, 93 per cent of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 per cent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media. In fact, 56 per cent of American consumers feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.”

This part got me all a Twitter: “… of younger, hard-to-reach consumers (ages 18-34), one-third believe companies should actively market to them via social networks …”

So, is this the green light for PR companies to recommend building Facebook widgets, niche social networks and dedicated blogs on behalf of their clients to push their brands to the masses? I think it is, in the right circumstances. But don’t do it just because you can. Make sure it’s the right strategy for the right brand at the right time. Don’t set up a Facebook group or blog just because it’s the flavour of the month, and then watch it die a slow death. Someone has to manage it, engage people to use and interact with it, monitor what people are saying and respond to them in a timely manner. It needs a lot of effort and commitment if those 18-34ers are going to be receptive. Don’t use them to justify the budget, and then discard them. They’ll remember!

[Update to my thoughts above: Alex Hillman thinks along the same lines, although I’d disagree with him on the “Joining the conversation means you’re adding more noise …” statement. It’s about talking to each other.]

And if things don’t work out, it might be time to tweak your profile on LinkedIn. They seem to be doing well from the curent credit crunch landscape. [Hat tip: Jemima Kiss.]

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Our GCI Canada business cards are very nice, always get a good response when handing them over. But you know the deal, right? You go to a lot of conferences, pitches, business meetings etc… and don’t want to carry a ton of cards to hand out.

Try Dropcard. It’s a very simple system. You simply text 41411 with a command like: “drop jcarson@gcicanada.com” and the recipient gets an e-mail with all your contact info and social networks. Sweet.

I like the founders’ philosophy too: “We’re three students who didn’t want to enter the business world armed with tools that were centuries old.  Not to mention the number of trees we’re saving by preventing the production of physical business cards.”

[Update. I asked co-founder Anton Bernstein about what happens to all the e-mails being sent by text: “We don’t harvest e-mails, nor do we sell e-mail addresses for marketing or anything like that. We make our money by selling premium versions of the basic free service. The only partners we work with are Textmarks (every SMS is processed through them and they don’t store any SMS content) and authSMTP, which processes our e-mails so that they don’t get stuck in spam. Otherwise, you can rest assured that we would never, ever give or sell our database of e-mail addresses to any entities outside of Dropcard.”]

Hat tip: Web Worker Daily.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

E-newsletters are still a great way to digest what’s going on out there if you need more info than just 140 characters.

An article by Rebecca Lieb (Vice-President & Editor-in-Chief, The ClickZ Network) popped into my inbox this morning, jostling for space among Google Alerts, Radian6 reports and other client-monitoring tools. Lieb talks about young bucks in the publishing industry moving into management positions, and quite rightly asking for digital tools they need to move the business forward, only to be met with a “Huh?” from the older guys. (I can say “older guys” by the way. I’m in my ’30s, yeah.)

Here’s a succinct quote from the article: “Clinging to Luddism and deliberate blindness in the face of the digital revolution (no understatement there!) may have been cute 10 years ago. Today, it’s inexcusable.”

It seems that the PR world has leapfrogged publishing. Traditional press releases are soooo 2007. The digital editors and reporters of Today 2008 need to be pitched more directly, thoughtfully and in a timely manner. They don’t want to be scooped by a competitor who happened to check their Twitter followers five minutes sooner.

End quote from Lieb: “Because friends can no longer allow friends to remain digitally illiterate.” Yes! It’s not a competition. Encourage your colleagues, contacts, sources, and online network to dip their toe into the digital world. It’s very cool, makes the job a whole lot easier and will move the media industry forward in big ways.

[Update: Just ran across this quote. Very interesting. “Of course there’s no doubt that our generation is taking advantage of the Web 2.0 craze — with countless social networks, start-ups, application developments and a million other projects that are making young little geeks rich quick. However as savvy as we may be, it is the chronologically advanced who are especially successful at solving the problems we increasing — and desperately — need solved. In other words, the high tech future may belong to the over 30-set.” Source.]

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

It’s Canadian National Digital Media Day in Canada, and there’s a lot of cool things happening around the country for those who work in the digital space.

Details here.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

I’m a big advocate of being judged on results, and not by the amount of time it took to achieve those results. Some days it takes longer, and you stay late, other times it’s accomplished faster than you planned, so then you can go off to the bar — err — stay late and start something else.

My busy little RSS reader introduced me to ROWE today. That stands for Results-Only Work Environment, which in my mind, is a pretty cool concept. From the Personal Branding Blog: “Why work 9-5, when you can achieve the same results working when you want to work? All that really matters in business is that you get the job done on time. Successful employees will get the job done before the due date and at a higher quality.”

This concept is obviously much easier to follow if you are not employed full time, as you can’t stroll in to the office at 11 a.m. and leave around 3 p.m. just because you finished a project. ROWE is a boon for teleworkers though, and those who like to work odd hours — especially if they deal with varying time zones.

More from the blog: “Technology has advanced to the point where we don’t, by any means, need to be sitting in a cubicle or in an office building to get our work done. It comes down to this: Your company is providing you with a paycheck and possibly other benefits. They’re giving you a job and, in some cases, a path to a career. For that you absolutely, positively owe them hard work, focus, and dedication. More important, you owe them real, measurable results.”

Agree on all that; a job is a relationship between you providing your knowledge and skills to better a company, and them for paying you for that personal commodity.

“You owe them your work; you do not owe them your time. You do not owe them your life.”

Agree on that too. As long as both parties know where the boundaries are, and what needs to be achieved, who for, and when by, then everyone should come out of the relationship feeling content.

It’s quite a long blog post I refer to, but well worth the read. I am a Generation X member adapting to working in a Generation Y environment and social space, especially in the online world. It’s cool because everyone can speak the same language.

That’s a nice segue into a shout out to my colleagues in the London, U.K. office and whether any of them are attending the Harvest Twestival tomorrow? (These days it’s cool to start social media stuff with a “tw” or rhyme it with Twitter.)

And to finish, this ad is for anyone who wants to see YouTube destroyed. Very clever.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Been following these guys for a while — especially StartupNorth.ca — so thought I’d give a mention to their latest venture, StartupNation. Being an entrepreneur at heart, it’s great to see these type of conferences come along in Canada.

Here’s the deets.

[There’s no social media point to this post, but today’s startup could be tomorrow’s Twitter. (So, well, there is a social media point I suppose.)]

[Update: Rebranding.]

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Great question, David Cushman, who asked it via LinkedIn today, and is now inviting answers.

“ROI can’t come down to increased traffic. Traffic is just eyeballs — it’s just the page impression number. ROI has to get closer to and be more comfortable with the smaller, but more important numbers, of engagement,” he writes. Nearly a perfect answer.

In my opinion … some companies do want increased traffic. To them, a page impression is a successful ROI for their purposes. I don’t understand why; it just means they pay more for hosting costs, but if that’s their measure of success, then good for them.

So, how do you convince the disconnected that they need to engage, not just look at the bottom line? You have to scare them a little. Spend an hour — that’s all it takes — to do some monitoring. Find 10 disgruntled customers who are criticizing their products or customer service. Who feel unheard. Do a trackback search to those posts, and see who is linking to those 10 non-advocates. Find out who those people are, and who their audience is. Repeat until the client gets depressed.

But! All is not lost! Ask for their trust … go in on their behalf, contact those original 10 people as fast as you can, and ask if you can help them with their problem. In probably 60% of those cases, it may be too late. Mr. Disgruntled has already made his mind up and is off to spend his $$$ elsewhere. So, by simple math, that leaves the other 40% who do appreciate the feedback. Shocked even that Corporation X has bothered to take the time away from the boardroom, and is actually talking to them, the customer, the person that has put $$$ into Corporation X’s piggy bank.

Those 40% are now, with the right engagement, happy that their problem has been solved — maybe with some tech advice, a free coupon, a personal e-mail out of the blue — and will possibly blog about their positive experience.

Maybe social media will do away with the cold term ROI, and it will become ROE — return on engagement?

[These people get it.]

[A quick and dirty way to track a lot of stuff at the same time.]

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

Chris Brogan is hosting a free webinar today; see you there!

- How some of the world’s leading organizations are successfully leveraging social media for their marketing programs.
- Case studies and real life examples of successful social media programs.
- The strategies and tactics behind social media initiatives.
- How to implement a solid social media strategy in your company.
- 5 ways you can begin using social media in your company tomorrow!

Register here.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada

BusinessWeek had a story last Saturday about how companies are using Twitter to monitor themselves online, find out who is tweeting about them, and then jumping into the conversation to address those (usually negative) issues. “Is this a creepy trend?” asks the article.

No! Is my resounding answer. It’s about time companies started listening to their customers for a change instead of selling to them. The ROI will come in time; people like to be respected.

The story mentions Jonathan Fields’ experience of spotting William Shatner waiting to board a JetBlue flight. Fields wrote about it on Twitter, and within 10 seconds (I find that part hard to believe, it’s an ultra-fast response!) was being “followed” by JetBlue.

[cut] “It totally startled