Tag Archives: Social Media

Types of Social Media

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Have you ever taken a brief moment to consider what the various types of social media are? Some tend to want to oversimplify and combine disparate definitions of social media into one. I, on the other hand, think that even small differences are relevant.

So here’s my swag at listing out the various types of social media, at least in my own opinion.

Social Networking

Social Networking gets the most attention overall, and for a good reason. This is the closest to a real world relationship we will likely ever be able to build in cyberspace. There are many types of social networking, but the main one is focused on setting up a profile and having discussions based on what one posts in the “stream”. Social Networking goes pretty far back, including sites like Friendster (the original), MySpace (who finally came to their senses and started branding themselves as “social entertainment” recently), and today’s darling, Facebook.

Blogging

Well, you’re reading a blog, so obviously you know what blogging is all about. At least the reading part of it. For individuals, blogging plays a similar yet more sophisticated role that enabled MySpace to flourish in its heyday. With a blog, you can create your space. Write what you want, design it how you want, interact how you want…you get the picture.

Of course, businesses and SEOs figured out how helpful blogs can be for driving traffic. So there’s that too. But don’t be fooled. Blogging is about putting your stamp on a piece of digital real estate. It’s about having a voice, and being yourself. Let the manipulators manipulate, and use it for what it was intended to be.

Microblogging

A lot of pundits claim that microblogging is a type of social media, and that’s hard to argue with. The issue I have is that it’s not really all that different from social networking. Sure, you can curate content, share links, and make commentary with only a certain number of characters. I’ll call it a type to be sure you know what it is when you see it. The most prevalent and well known example of this is Twitter.

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking has been around for a long time. Essentially, this is about finding and literally bookmarking a piece of content via the cloud. Some services show most popular (Digg), some include social networking pretty aggressively (reddit), and others use a simple “show and vote” structure (StumbleUpon). You can follow people with good taste and are likely to see material they bookmark that you like. This has also been proven to help get new content ranked faster than submitting to Google direclty, so if you aren’t social bookmarking, reconsider that now. I, personally, like the convenience of the StumbleUpon Toolbar for rapid content sharing.

Both Facebook and Google+ have incorporated features that are very similar to bookmarketing, the “Like” and “Plus One” buttons. WIth these, you bookmark/share content with your social network and welcome conversation afterward. It’s like reddit, only with all your actual friends instead of your equally cool yet far more geeky friends. That’s my take, anyway.

Social News

Some argue that services like Digg and reddit, which allow you to vote on news items that are shared, should actualy be called Social News. I’m including it to be thorough, but at the end of the day, it’s just another name for social bookmarking with a twist.

Media Sharing

This is where you share audio, video, or other media freely. Viewers can friend or follow you, like or dislike the content, and even comment a’la a blog. YouTube is the most well known example of this type of service, although there are literally hundreds of them to choose from. If you know of a great niche media sharing site, please share in the comments!

Social Gaming / Fantasy Sports

Social Gaming is still in flux in some ways. Basically, it’s about mutually playing a game online with real people. Fantasy Sports is the most popular and longest lived social gaming platform I’ve seen.

ColecoVisionThat said, Google Plus built social gaming right into the interface from the start. Other platforms have dabbled with it, and I think they all still have a ways to go. I’ll be watching with interest, to say the least. Have always been a gamer at heart, all the way back to the TRS-80, Atari, and ColecoVision days. (Yes, I’m that old. Pic to the right in case you’ve never seen one.)

Conclusion

If this list holds true, that would mean that we have seven types of social media in 2012. What did I miss?

Return On News: Week of February 27, 2012

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Last month I was talking to a friend of mine about the content that I curate and share on different social media sites, and he made an outstanding suggestion. Basically, if the content is good enough to move me and deserves being tweeted or liked, it makes sense to also share the best of the best here with brief commentary.

So today you are looking at the first edition of “Return On News”. My goal is to share a similar set of recommended articles and blog posts at least once monthly. If there is enough volume, I might even do it more often.

How to Remove Your Google Web History Before The New Privacy Policy Change

This article from Melanie Pinola of lifehacker goes beyond just how to remove your web history; it offers some great reasons why you want to do it in the first place.

Pinterest is profiting off your ‘pinspired’ purchases without a disclosure

Molly McHugh of Digital Trends reveals her findings regarding how social media upstart Pinterest pays their bills. We already know they include dofollow links back to the various websites where the images originated. But they have a full affiliate strategy going on in the background. It’s working, but is it deceptive? See for yourself.

Someday, Your Reputation May Be More Important Than Your Net Worth

Boonsri Dickinson of Business Insider speculates about a possible future where who you are and what you stand for could one day be more valuable than money or “stuff.” He makes a darn good case for it. You’ve likely seen all the detractors beating up on Klout, but this is a rare article that envisions a more rosy future for them or whomever it is that figures out the personal branding / online reputation game.

Unofficial SXSW 2012 Guide

It’s no secret that I live in Austin, so I had to share something about the festival. This page gives a nice overview of the parties to expect outside show hours. Fun is part of the festival, so save up some energy for the afterparties. And welcome to Austin! [Thanks to Melanie Wise, who originally shared this with me via Twitter.]

Block Advertisers From Your Google Search Results

Cris Crum of WebProNews reviews Google’s new offering that allows users to block Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertisements from entire domains. Fortunately for advertisers, they are allowing users to manage their own web search experience without saddling those same advertisers with any negative ranking or quality score repurcussions. At least for the time being.

Conclusion

That’s the list for this week. If you find something you think would be a great fit here, please share with me on Twitter: @tommy_landry!

 

Why SEO is Similar to Fantasy Baseball

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SEO and Fantasy Sports Tag Cloud, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Fantasy BaseballTwo of my biggest interests these days are search engine optimization and fantasy sports. You might be surprised to hear the responses I get when others hear that they are both so interesting to me. Seriously, I get everything from “What a geek!” to “Why the heck would you like either of those?”

If you are one of the people who doesn’t “get” either of the topics, that is perfectly fine. Let me share my rationale for why the two have parallels that seem to work well with the way I think and operate

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Reasons Why Search Engine Optimization is Similar to Fantasy Baseball

Data Intensive

Both SEO and Fantasy Baseball are extremely dependent on statistics and data analysis. They both require trending, deep dives into why things are happening, and deriving conclusions about what will happen in different possible future scenarios. Essentially, they both involve studying statistics, and studying an even deeper level of statistics than most people will both with. In baseball, there’s Sabermetrics and other similar analytical systems. In SEO, we have relevance, competition, and the like.

I’ll take your SEO competition score and Page Rank, and raise you a BABIP and a couple of FIPs.

Balances Analytical with Creative Thinking

Balance between analysis and creativity is another area where both disciplines (and yes, both are disciplines in their own way) mirror each other.In SEO, we find high leverage keywords with low competition, then gear our targeting and messaging around it. In Fantasy Baseball, we identify those players whose stats do not truly support their level of performance, and manage our team in a way that exchanges overperformers for underperformers. Essentially, it’s using numbers to come up with creative ways to extract value where no one else sees it yet.

Changes Daily

The rapid rate of change is possibly the biggest parallel between the two topic areas. In any sport, injuries are simply part of the game. Rotations / starting gigs change, players retire or get suspended, and in many cases players are added from the minor leagues or elsewhere mid season (or demoted back down). In business, the competitive landscape can change not only daily, but hourly! In both cases, the changes ripple through in many ways, and it’s up to you to figure out how to respond in the best way possible.

Social Media and Content Heavy

SEO and Fantasy Baseball are both very visible topics around the social media properties. Both are generating content on a daily basis and looking to share that content, then exchange opinions and ideas. There are fanatics in both camps, folks who will spend every waking hour thinking about new ways to win the game. Social is the best way to spread content and talk about it, and both groups have figured that out in short order.

Deep Level of Expertise Required

There are many times where someone finds out I’m into either or both of these topics, and my standard response is, “I’m a geek. I love this stuff.” And sadly, that’s 100% true! I’ve spent years reading every piece of analysis I could find, trying to work out how to apply it, and even generating my own creative ideas for handling the different challenges that crop up. To get really good at either practice, you need to have a depth of knowledge that is unrivaled by generalist types. And you have to absolutely LOVE collecting that information and using it.

Summary

There you have it, my take on why SEO and Fantasy Baseball aren’t really different. I brainstormed at least a dozen different angles on this spin, and the above are all that made the final cut. Are you into both topics? What commonalities do you see?

Google Plus: What Is It Really All About?

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Most of you have likely found your way onto Google’s latest experiment in social media, Google Plus / Google+. I have been a member since the second week it was available for sign up, but have held off on making commentary here on Return On Now until I could better evaluate it.

Now that we have had several weeks to use and discuss Google+, it’s time to get in on the conversation.

First Impressions of Google+

The thing that immediately jumped out to me, like most of you, was the interesting implementation of circles rather than following in a one- or two-way fashion (a’la Twitter or Facebook). The ability to target postings to a specific circle is a great feature in concept, although it can be a bit cumbersome to use if you are very active on the site. Either way, it’s nice to have the flexibility.

The site comes with a built in +1 button on all posts, comments, and links. That’s great, especially now that Google has built the feature into their algorithm. Now, the +1 works a lot like the Facebook Like button for both liking and sharing. It’s a good thing they caught up on that one quickly.Google Plus / Google + Screen Shot

The Hangout feature looks interesting, but I haven’t used it much due to a lack of time to play around online. It’s probably cool for some purposes, perhaps virtual meet ups or even a round table, so I still need to find time to play with it.

The Photos tab is an interesting view the first time you view it, but not something I find myself ever drawn to click again. And they’ll have to beef up the games section quite a bit. It might be a unique way to play games, but selections are limited at this point in time, mostly titles you can get on an iPhone.

Overall, it’s interesting, but I still struggle to find the motivation to use it, even after several weeks.

Google Plus as a Social Tool

The biggest issue with Google+ is that it comes across more as a “social tool” than as a social network. Google is a analytical company who provides technical products / tools / services for a variety of purposes. Since they felt they had to “be social”, they have been dipping toes in the water for some time now (e.g. the failed Google Buzz experiment). So they built a tool that incorporates a lot of what you see and like on the leading social networks. And they tried to add additional structure to what has been a bit unstructured elsewhere.

I question whether Google understands what a community is. This is a vastly different animal than something like AdWords or Google Docs. Their communication has been sparse, which is a major issue for those who have been singled out by the Real Names Only rule. The kicker is that they simply group Google Plus with all their other services, and if they kick you off for using a fake name, they kick you off everything!

With so many of us drinking the “cloud” Kool-Aid, moving to Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365, this is a massive error on Google’s part. After all, if this is just a “project” as they have been calling it, why would our other services suffer if we are deemed unworthy for their community? This has not affected me since I always use my real name, but others have been burned badly in this fiasco. Sorry Google, but this is a perfect example of the word FAIL.

Google Plus for SEO and website traffic

I would be remiss without considering how Google+ might impact Search Engine Optimization. After all, we are talking about Google and their 90% market share in search.

One thing they are getting right is the +1 button. By making it easier to share on Google Plus from anywhere online, they get the outstanding effect that the Facebook Like button offers. Even more importantly, it gives the public a chance to voice positive votes for content, even with social sites linking as “nofollow“. This is a huge change, and one that should add a lot of value in social search.

In reality, I’m torn between whether Google Plus is truly an attempt at creating a social network or more about figuring out how to meld social data into search. I actually hope it is at least in part about the latter.

Regardless of their motivations, the market for social networks is already saturated. We have invested too much time in the frontrunners, and I am not seeing the social graph of the masses looking to move. Sure, the social media crowd has jumped on full speed ahead, but even among that group, opinions of Google+ range widely.

Final Thoughts

It will be interesting to see if Google figures it out, or if this becomes just another failed social experiment. Or perhaps it offers some unforeseen value for social search. Some of this could already be built into their search algorithm, and all the refinements we’ve seen over the past 6 months very well may represent them still trying to get it right.

What do you think? Is this a real attempt at being social, or a short term experiment to figure out how to meld social activity into SERPs?

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Customer Intimacy: A Lesson In Worst Practices

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With all of the talk about social media, transparency, content relevance, and user-generated content, we most certainly have a grand vision in front of us. As marketers, we want to evolve with our customers, moving from a mindset of pushing our content out to large audiences to a mindset of collaboration and engagement.

What we truly want is the next iteration of Customer Intimacy, a term that originated over a decade ago, yet still applies well in today’s environment. The pinnacle of marketing and product success is to become not only a vendor, but a trusted partner. This can be delivered in a number of ways, from custom product delivery, to special support terms, to well-structured, data-driven marketing efforts that suggest the company truly cares about the customer.

To establish customer intimacy, we need to move past economies of scale and one-size-fits-all thinking. The qualities that matter most are flexibility, responsiveness, and engagement (sounds like social networking, doesn’t it?). And most of all, if you say you know me, you darn well better know me. Even if that’s just a mirage served up by advanced database marketing techniques.

Customer Intimacy: How to Do It Wrong

Earlier this week, I was sorting through a stack of junk mail when I came across an envelope from Domino’s Pizza. Even when sorting through junk, I take a moment to look at each piece for two reasons:

  1. To see if there are any deals of interest
  2. To review for any marketing takeaways or lessons I should take note of

Since I tend to eat more healthy, all-natural foods, I was not interested in whatever special coupon or deal the mailer included, but it caught my attention from a marketing perspective. Here is the mailer in question:

We Miss You Domino's Mailer

Okay, good start. I have in fact purchased Domino’s Pizza in the past. It’s just good database marketing to look at your customers to determine activity/inactivity over time, seasonal patterns, and other trends. It has been quite a while since we’ve ordered from them, so I naturally assumed they did their job and send a re-engagement plea.

Then I looked at how the envelope was addressed. See for yourself…

Addressed to Postal Customer

That’s right, they don’t even know my name (which I had to give to them when they took each and every order I’ve ever placed with them)! Even worse, I went ahead and opened the envelope to see if there were any other interesting gaffs, only to find a letter addressed to “Dear Domino’s Pizza Customer”.  Of course, they did explain that they noticed no activity on my part in 2011, but by the time I read that part, it was too late.

Small Errors, Big Impact

As you might guess, this mailer had exactly the opposite effect on me than they wanted. Should I get a craving for pizza, they’d be at the bottom of my wish list based on this campaign.

The lesson here is important – if you don’t have the data or the discipline to collect it, then don’t try to pretend you “know” me. Just send a generic message without all the hints that you did some analysis in it. If you can’t or won’t do it right, you simply can’t fake it. Not only will today’s consumers turn on you, but they could easily amplify their complaints online, perhaps via a blog or other outlet. Oh wait, that’s what I just did…

Got Any Examples Of Your Own?

I’d love to see any other amusing or simply awkward attempts at personalization and customer intimacy. If you have something good, share with us in the comments below!

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A Note on Authenticity and Social Media

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Last week at the #BASHH (Big Ass Social Happy Hour) event that helped kick off South By Southwest Interactive 2011, I had an interesting conversation with Wesley Faulkner about authenticity.

I’ve read Wesley’s blog for a while now, and he covers some rather interesting topics on there. He has done everything from commenting on new mobile technologies, to interviewing the leadership at Klout, to commenting on his personal interactions with folks he meets online.

One refreshing thing about Wesley is that he aspires to be authentic at all times, through all mediums including in-person. We chatted briefly about this very topic, and both agreed that authenticity is the most important thing you can do to establish and sustain trust online. You have to be yourself at all costs.

Unfortunately, not everyone you encounter online is truly who you would expect once you meet them IRL.

Zappos – Authentic or Not?

Give a read to his blog post that documents his experience at a Zappos event in October. Zappos CEO Tony Hseih himself was presenting, so Wesley was excited to get a chance to hear him first hand. What followed was disappointment.

Most apparently, Mr. Hseih was nowhere near the energetic enthusiast he appeared to be online. Of course, a book tour can take a lot out of you. So Wesley introduced himself and commented about a Twitter conversation he had had recently with Tony. He then met Tony’s “stand-in”, Mimi, and began to question the authenticity of the whole operation.

Tony Hseih of Zappo's

Why Authenticity Is So Critical

Wesley’s blog post is important, but not because it calls out Zappos or Tony Hseih.

This is important because it turns the equation around completely. It gives us the view from the other side – showing how it feels to meet someone who is nowhere near what you expect of them after seeing them online.

For a thought leader whose message relies on the concepts of pursuing happiness and engaging with customers, it is crucial to “walk the walk”. Be who you say you are, right? But it gets worse…especially when you learn that they don’t even manage their own Twitter account.

A Lesson in Authenticity

The problem with all of this jockeying is that is compromises the most important variable in the whole equation – trust.
It’s not just about whether we like you; it’s about whether we can count on you to be the same person when we read your book, follow your tweets, hire you to do a keynote speech, and come up to you in public to shake your hand.

How disappointing would it be to learn that one of your all time favorite books by one of your all time favorite thought leaders was actually written by a college intern or a freelance graduate student? That’s what it is like when you hire a ghost tweeter to “be authentic” for you, so you can focus on more important things.

Be who you are. All the time. You can’t hide behind a keyboard for the rest of your life, so get over yourself and be real.

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Who else has run into this problem? Let’s make this a group post! Add your own horror stories to the comments below. Feel free to sanitize the names and faces if you prefer, but share away!

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Privacy and Social Media: Something is Amiss

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Privacy has been a sizzling hot topic for social media users over the past couple of years. The various services and websites have all taken unique approaches to privacy, some catering more to the users, and others taking liberties to leave doors open for future business and revenue opportunities.

This week, two separate topics came to my attention, both related to privacy, and I absolutely felt it necessary to share and comment here on Return On Now.

Careful Who You “Friend”

Breaking news from Raw Story this week reported that the federal government has had “persona” software commissioned. This software is to be used for “classified social media activities.” Essentially, this software can allow a user / company / government to create small (or large) armies of “virtual personas”. To top it off, these virtual personas are not only generated, but built out with additional information like life/work/education history, and even faux geo-location information such as physical check-ins on location based services.

Now, I’m not one to throw stones before understanding the full story, but doesn’t this sound a bit concerning to you? Specific issues I have with this:

  1. This is an outright violation of privacy when used to collect information about social media users.
  2. Since social media is heavily influenced by activity, buzz, viral sharing, etc., this opens a door to manipulation of public opinion and even the very messages to which we are exposed.
  3. It’s just plain deceptive! [Y'know, the kind of stuff that would've resulted in detention in our school days.]

As concerning as this may be, we really have no way to respond except for using common sense. Don’t say anything on social media that you wouldn’t announce publicly. Exhibit control when reacting to emotional topics. And most importantly of all, only accept friend requests from people you actually know.

Facebook Friend Request from Barley Jang

Just this week, I got a friend request on Facebook from someone named Barley Jang. I’ve never heard of the name, they have no photo to show me who they are, and we have no friends in common…not a single one! In fact, after seeing the above article and receiving this request, Ms. Jang (or faux person extraordinaire, perhaps?) served as inspiration for this blog post. So at least there’s that.

But I’m still clicking “Not Now” on that one just to be safe. [Barley, if you are a real person, please reach out to me directly and I will happily eat my words.]

Petition to Google and Facebook

You may or may not be familiar with a group called Demand Progress, but you should most certainly be aware of their current hot button. Basically, Demand Progress runs online campaigns to raise awareness of what is going on in the “back room” of Congress, and helps the public get a voice in such activities.

Their current campaign is aimed at Google and Facebook. According to the website, both companies hand over personal data to the federal government for any legal request, but without ever even notifying the user of the request in the first place!

If you recall, Twitter stood firm about not revealing user information when the WikiLeaks fiasco came to a head. What did they do? After receiving the request, Twitter first contacted the users to notify them of it. Regardless of how the situation turns out, Julian Assange and the whole team at WikiLeaks had a fair chance to challenge the request before the data was handed over.

Don’t you want the same thing for your own personal data? It’s not about guilty or innocent, it’s about personal rights.

If you want to have your voice heard, sign the petition on the Demand Progress website today.

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10 Reasons to Give Thanks

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Thanks a million!2010 has been quite a year so far, with its fair share of good developments, curve balls, and surprises. I’ve been a bit spotty on updating Return On Now, primarily because of a couple of difficult curve balls that have come my way over the past 60 days. But as they say, put that behind you and move onward and upward, so let’s get ready for 2011.

But first, let’s take a moment to reflect on some of the good things, those things which have been both fortunate and welcomed, over the most recent months. It is far too easy to focus on the most pressing concerns, and we should all take time during this celebratory week to reflect on everything that is going RIGHT in our world.

In honor of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for…

  1. All of my friends and colleagues in Austin, TX, some of whom I’ve known for a long time, and others whom I’ve met in the past several years. Austin does a great job of balancing “small town” connectedness with a bigger metro mindset, and I’m proud to call it my home.
  2. The TRUE online marketing and social media experts, most of whom are humble enough to avoid adopting the narcissistic term “expert” or “guru”, for pushing the limits of what we know, striking out on new ground and sharing what they learn, and for keeping the faith as the space continues to be overrun by snake oil salesman.
  3. Every single one of us who understands that social media is not just a list of shiny new toys, but a true evolution of how we communicate in today’s technology-heavy world.
  4. The thought leaders who are finally espousing one of my key messages more widely – it’s time to stop bandying about terms like social media, social marketing, and a list of other overhyped phrases, and to start looking at them as simple tactics that must be considered within true business strategy.
  5. The fine folks who contribute to the WordPress platform, which has revolutionized web management and brought more control and capability to the masses.
  6. All of my online colleagues who are kind enough to help me make referrals to spread the good will among others, and who are kind enough to recommend me as a contact/friend/follow for others.
  7. The brave entrepreneurs who continue to churn out new ideas that interest, excite, and stimulate our imaginations with new tools, toys, and capabilities (hey, it’s not all about the tools, but at the end of the day, I love them as much as anyone!).
  8. The fantasy sports industry as a whole. In addition to providing me hours of enjoyment on a weekly basis, it inspired me to pursue my dreams of being a writer, to start a business and learn valuable insights about entrepreneurship, and to dive into social media more aggressively.
  9. My beautiful wife, precious children, and everyone in my close circle who takes the time to support me, exchange ideas, and generally participate in the daily growth and maturation that allows us to continually make progress toward becoming the best we can be.
  10. And finally, I give thanks for each and every one of you, the faithful readers of this blog. You provide me a platform to work out new concepts, to exchange ideas, to consider new and exciting viewpoints, and to generally express myself in a productive and enjoyable way.

Life is good, and I look forward to what it has in store for us in 2011. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to sharing more with you over the coming months.

Namaste,

Tommy Landry, Return On Now

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Social Media Success With Events

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Francisco Garcia IIIThis week I offer you the first of a series of guest posts, this one focused on using social media to drive successful events IRL. Thanks to my good friend Francisco Garcia (no, not the one who plays for the Sacramento Kings) for taking time to share his experiences here on the blog.

But don’t just read his work, chime in! Please share your own experiences in this capacity so we can all learn from each other!

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In the past, I’ve had the privilege of being asked to aid in the social media efforts of a few conferences, festivals and other events in Austin and the central Texas area. Naturally, it was important with each event to keep attendees informed and engaged, and while some tactics worked better than others, for the majority of the events mentioned herein it was the first time doing anything with social media. This post is meant to show what it was like doing live social media promotion with events and organizations new to the world of social networking.

Social Media for Music and Art Events

This October, I was asked by organizers of Art Outside to help them keep their Twitter account updated. With so much going on at the 3-day camping festival involving musical acts, performance artists, multiple stages, hundreds of volunteers and thousands of attendees, it’s understandable there would be a challenge to keeping up with the online community. There were plenty of people following @ArtOutside’s account and tweeting about what artists they planned to see when they got to the festival. While going through the #ArtOutside tweet stream, I knew I needed a way to keep the Twitter audience’s attention.

Enter CoTweet. Utilizing CoTweet’s tweet scheduling function was a great way to give followers a quick reminder about what kind of performer was going on (musical, painter, visual, performance, etc.), which stage that performer would be on, and what time the performance would occur. Tweets were scheduled for release 15-20 minutes before a performance, giving festival attendees plenty of time to get from their tent, another stage, or from any one point to another within the festival grounds at Apache Pass.

Of course, we took advantage of snapping pics of art installations and music acts whenever the opportunity presented itself. If ever there were a sudden change in schedule due to an artist gone MIA or the onset of unexpected technical problems, that was easily updated. Plus, it helped to be out in the middle of the woods [literally] and still have a great wifi connection.

But with Art Outside, your audience is a good mix of modern and traditional, so it’s important to take the same approach when promoting an event like this. An online platform is great for spreading the word, but having smaller events leading up to the big one is helpful for building that excitement. Giveaways for things such as promotional items or free passes to your event are always a nice way to keep attention.

Social Media for Nonprofit’s Annual Conference

Take the Texas Veterinary Medical Association’s Annual Conference. My former employer had me manage all the social media efforts for their 3-day conference in College Station during March of 2010. The conference is geared strictly toward TVMA members and focuses on opportunities in continuing education. Various members of the veterinary industry set up booths in the exhibit hall to display their products and services, and students from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine were also in attendance, acting as moderators for various speaking engagements.

Now, like many other industries, the veterinary profession in Texas hasn’t totally caught on to social media. There are a few tweeting veterinarians out there like @SnoopyDoc in Houston or @AllanDaleVet in Austin, but the majority of the Texas veterinary industry is still figuring out that tweeting has become more than just “for the birds”. (Sorry, I had to.)

So, before the TVMA annual conference, I had to think of a way to get attending TVMA members to realize @TVMA was on Twitter and Facebook in the first place. Once we had a steady following on these sites, I started with the giveaways. The most successful was a giveaway for 2 pairs of tickets to the conference’s Casino Night.

The rules were simple, be the first to complete this sentence: “A legacy of ___.” TVMA’s slogan is “A legacy of service,” so this was a quick and easy one to win. The incomplete phrase was posted on Twitter and Facebook and both received responses quickly. One TAMU veterinary student responded on Twitter in less than a minute from the original tweet, and another student responded on Facebook within five minutes of the status update. Each winner came to the TVMA booth at the conference to pick up their tickets and take a photo with the prize, which was to be posted on the social networking sites. The contest actually led to a steady rise in followers on Facebook and Twitter during the first few weeks after the conference. Also, members of the veterinary industry started to follow in the footsteps of TVMA.

Social Media for Industry Association Symposium

Finally, there is the Southwest Veterinary Symposium (SWVS), who hired me to do some social media work for their September 2010 event in Fort Worth. There, I monitored both of TVMA’s social networking accounts, since the association is a partner in the conference, with updates on times and room numbers to continuing education opportunities for members. I also updated SWVS’s Twitter account with information on the day’s scheduled events.

The biggest draw here was SWVS’s collaboration with Rumr Marketing. The Rumr reps wandered the exhibit hall at SWVS with t-shirts promoting SWVS’s social networking presence: http://twitpic.com/2risvu. There was a contest giving away a free shirt to attendees who followed SWVS on Facebook or Twitter after spotting the reps. Once again, the freebies are what drew the conference attendees to social media. That, and it helped a bit that a 50” plasma television was placed at my social media station to display real-time tweets and status updates.

When passers-by saw the screen with a Facebook page or Twitter stream, it was a chance to approach them and ask how familiar they were with social networking and how they thought it might help their business in the veterinary profession. Some admitted to hardly ever being active online, some only used Facebook, and very few were familiar with Twitter.  This all gave me and the people at Rumr Marketing a better understanding of who and what was working in terms of active online users.

Conclusion

Like the veterinary profession, there are plenty of industries out there that are trying to get a handle on how social media can benefit them. What challenges have you come across when doing social media marketing and promotion for a small business or event? How did you overcome those challenges? How might you handle working social media for an event or industry new to the platform?

Read more posts from Return On Now about Social Media.

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Public Relations: How It Works In A Social World

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This week, let’s take a moment to look at PR / Public Relations for a moment. PR has long been a primary way by which companies of all sizes influence public opinion, build brand awareness and familiarity, and create general goodwill toward a brand.

With the latest social media tools and networking capabilities, there has been a great deal of debate about how PR is changing. Some speculate that the discipline is due to become obsolete, others advocate a revamped approach, and still others merely see today’s PR environment as a small offshoot of how we have always done it.

Is PR on the brink of extinction?

Let’s start with the notion that public relations is rapidly working its way toward obsolescence. First, let’s set some parameters. One of the best definitions I’ve seen for the term appears on YourDictionary.com as follows:

Relations with the general public as through publicity; specif., those functions of a corporation, organization, etc. concerned with attempting to create favorable public opinion for itself.

If we look at PR holistically in this way, then social media or social networking is only another medium by which to reach out to constituents. It just allows us to reach more people individually, and in real-time.

Based on this definition, extinction is nowhere near the truth.

Is PR simply undergoing a small evolution?

It would be easy to brush aside the impact of social-based communications media as merely a knit in the grand scheme of public relations, but is that the right way to look at it?

One this is clear; the days of writing press releases and email spamming them out to massive lists of reporters and journalists are behind us. The funny part is that this is less a result of new social tools, and more of a motivating factor from journalists to take back control of their In-Boxes.

So the real question is how big of an evolution this represents. Because reporters and journalists themselves are looking for other ways to communicate and research information, calling it a small evolution is also a bit short-sighted.

It’s Time To Look at Public Relations Differently

Let’s just get the extremes out of the way altogether and accept the fact that PR is still PR, only it takes on a rather different look in the digital age. Here are areas where it has changed the most.

Outreach

Outreach is the area that is most affected by the digital age. The old way was to “dial for dollars” until you could get a journalist on the phone, and then hope you said something intriguing enough for them to care. Then spam out press releases when they go live and hope for a bite, and start dialing again to see if you can talk someone into picking it up. Heck, this sounds a lot like a business development job, only one that doesn’t pay nearly as well!

Today the whole thing changes. You can meet and build rapport with press and/or analysts immediately. With the right approach, you can maximize exposure while minimizing negative reactions, assuming you have tact, of course. All-in-all, your efforts to connect with those influencers who can help you the most take on an unprecedented amplification in this day and age.

Content Format

Hand-in-hand with new abilities to reach more influencers much more easily, you now have a much richer array of media by which to communicate your message.  Today, you can write a traditional press release, follow it up by a series of micro-releases via PitchEngine or another social PR site, add an audio podcast for those who don’t have time to read but might listen, and even do a complementary short video to help hammer the point home.

The most savvy of PR professionals are all over this. The whole concept of a viral video is exactly in line with this. We keep talking about how Old Spice did such an amazing social media campaign earlier in the summer, but is that what it really was? No! It was a well-constructed and targeted public relations campaign delivered via social media!

Direct Reach to End Customers

This is the area that can be the most powerful, but also the most scary to many of us. This presents a great opportunity, and a new challenge.

First, by reaching end customers directly, we remove the media filter that content might go through when written up for a traditional or online media outlet. You control the message, its delivery, and how you respond to feedback and comments in response. Sure, you have to find creative ways to get in front of those customers, but it’s a revelation that you don’t have to depend on someone else’s opinion of what is important anymore. We should all be rejoicing in the streets at this opportunity!

On the other hand, with opportunity comes increased risk of tripping over your own two feet. What you say, how you say it, and how you react to criticism and/or kudos goes a long way in establishing who you and your company are. If you’re even dabbling in social media, you probably realize that the conversation is happening with or without you, so you know you need to jump in to help influence the sentiment about your business. This is where transparency, honesty, and trust become paramount. At the first sign of shady dealings, the general public will rapidly and happily kick you in the shin.

Conclusion

Don’t listen to anyone who claims PR is obsolete or the “same old same old” in this amazing digital age we are enjoying. This is a rather significant shift, yet one that can provide more value back than ever before. Just be careful how you manage it, be up front and honest, and be sure what you have to say is relevant and interesting. From there, let the public influence each other, and be consistent enough to show that you truly are who you say you are.

What is your experience with PR and social media? Have you been using it in these ways, or are you still trying to figure out how to play in this new environment? Any tips to share that I missed? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

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