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Aug 26

Is Your Company’s Social Media Campaign Merely Gilded?

August 26, 2009 • 4 Comments • Social Media and Society

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When we think of the poster child for social media, we think of Zappos. The online department store (yes, it’s beyond shoes) puts all of their employees on Twitter and openly shows off its culture online. Apparently it paid off, because it caught the attention of Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who bought Zappos for $928 million.

I’m not a Zappos customer, but I do applaud them for putting their employees on Twitter. Why? Because if I buy something from them, I know I’m not supporting a dysfunctional company that has one person who actually bothers with Facebook and Twitter and 100 people who are miserable because their boss doesn’t respect them.

While I would actually handle their campaign a bit differently by actually accentuating the fun of buying new clothes and shoes and hiring people who understand this, there is no argument: it is easy to wrap your head around what kind of company Zappos is. When we enter a business and see a bunch of miserable teenagers who don’t care to answer our questions, we assume the owner has no pride in his or her business. When we walk in and see a bunch of people who are passionate about what they do, it tends to rub off on us. We focus on the quality of goods and services versus just the price.

The online space is no different. When we see a company Twitter page, we assume they went to some social media seminar or saw it on CNN and decided to give it a whirl. We don’t assume that a company is ethical or actually has good products. When we see that other employees happily use their Twitter feeds and associates their online identity with the company, we can get a clearer picture about how that company works.

Mark my words: the companies that see the greatest ROI by using social media will be the ones who focus on providing the best service instead of getting the most followers or being seen standing next to Jeremiah Owyang. We don’t care if you are social media famous– we care if we get value by using your goods and services. By listening and valuing our customers whether it’s via social media, the phone, or in person, we can foster sustainable brands that will always survive in the future.

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Apr 17

Why Old Media IS NOT in the Grave

April 17, 2009 • 8 Comments • Social Media and Society

Yesterday I went to an Austin Social Media Club meeting entitled “Old Media Rises from the Grave”. While I must admit that the vast expense of print and TV production will inevitably push them to a web-based platform, this hasn’t happened yet. TV still pummels online content in terms of sheer influence. Don’t believe me? Here are stats:

1.) Often it feels like online time eats into our TV time. Not so. According to a Nielsen Research report, online consumption AND TV time have gone up. From Q3’07 to Q3’08, TV consumption went up 4.1% for TV and internet consumption went up 5.7%. Only among internet early adopters did TV consumption go down. At what expense? As sad as this is, it is at the expense of our families and our waistlines.

2.) In a McPheters and Company study, eye tracking studies showed that 63% of internet ads weren’t even seen by respondents. Magazines had ad recall almost three times that of Internet banner ads. To top it off, net recall of TV ads was almost twice that of magazine ads. So basically, although they are cheaper, internet ads are just about entirely forgotten by the majority of people.

3.) In terms of sheer volume, old media has new media beat. If I advertise on one episode of American Idol, my ad has the potential of going out to over 24,000,000 people. That’s 24 MILLION active viewers, and the chances of them actually retaining the benefits of my product are much higher. Consider shameless product placement like Ford and Coca-Cola, and the net exposure is even bigger.

If I ask Ashton Kutcher to plug my product in his million person Twitter feed, 1.) I’d probably have to pay him and 2.) those are subscribers, not active viewers. So I wouldn’t have to pay as much, but I wouldn’t get nearly the bang I would get from American Idol. Traditional media just has numbers on its side…for now.

Although new media allows for a much more personable approach to marketing, you have to consider the here and now. And the here and now is saying that people still like shows, news, and everything new media people say is “dead’. Good content drives traffic, no matter it’s source. Right now, the silent majority of people are still watching TV (including myself) and are still looking at passive forms of media. This means my CPM can be lower than it is with online media because although my costs are higher, my impressions are as well.

The two biggest questions marketers must ask are 1.) Where are the people who would benefit from my product and 2.) Where are the influencers that would help promote my product, whether professionally or as consumers? If I’m promoting software for developers, 99.9% of TV shows are stupid avenues. For the majority products however, it is naive and even dangerous to think that old media is completely “dead”. Just because you are an early adopter, it doesn’t mean that the people who pay your paycheck are as well.

8 Comments
Jul 02

Help Spread the Word about the Austin Blood Drive Tweetup Today

July 2, 2008 • Leave a Comment • Events I've Attended

I wrote this press release for TakesAllTypes.org. They are all about the Blood Drive Tweetup. If you want to spread the news about the Blood Drive Tweetup, feel free to use it in a blog, for a newspaper, or whatever form of communication you can use to spread the word about it or about Blood Drive Tweetups in general:

Social Media for Social Good–Austin Arranges the First Ever Blood Drive Tweetup

Word of mouth – in this case social networking – is still the best form of advertising

AUSTIN, TX–July 3, 2008– The Austin Twitter community has taken it upon itself to overcome the holiday blood shortage in the Austin area.

The group used the microblogging service Twitter to round up blood donors to meet the holiday need for blood at the Austin Blood and Tissue Center. They called companies around Austin who ponied up free movie tickets, computer stickers, pint glasses, a six foot sandwich “sammichometer” and restaurant gift cards. They wrote blog posts and called TV stations. Over 50 people within the Austin Twitter community offered to donate blood, many of whom have never donated before.

All of this was coordinated in a matter of three days.

The Austin Social Media Club and the 501Tech Club are sponsoring the event to raise awareness for both social media and the local need for blood. They are encouraging all participants to sign up for Takes All Types, a service that notifies donors of local blood shortages via SMS, social networks, and even fax.

David J. Neff and Michelle Greer helped coordinate the push to help the Austin Blood and Tissue Center. “Social media tools like Twitter and blogs are powerful mobilizers of people. We recognized that and knew the Austin community cared enough to make something like this happen. We are truly surrounded by incredible people,” said David.

All people in the Austin area, Twitter users or “non-Twitterers” are welcome to join in for the first ever Blood Drive Tweetup from 10 am-4 pm at the Blood and Tissue Center at 4300 North Lamar. There will be food, prizes, a birthday cake, custom stickers for the event, live streaming online and plenty of people wanting to make a difference for the Austin community.

If you are not able to make it, the livestream of the event as well as the code to embed the livestream in your site will be available at David J. Neff’s blog.

Takes All Types is deploying social applications on sites like Facebook and MySpace and a dedicated website at www.TakesAllTypes.org to enable people to sign up to donate blood or to volunteer at a blood drive or collection center. This more precise and efficient approach promotes and facilitates blood donation in a very direct and personal manner, and when an urgent need arises, provides a novel means to mobilize local donors for immediate action.

For more information, go to www.twitter.com and message @michellegreer or @daveiam. You can also leave any questions as comments at www.michellesblog.net or http://www.fispace.org.

Please mark any tweets regarding the Austin Blood Drive Tweetup with the hashtag #abdt. You can track tweets from Twitter users by going to http://www.hashtags.org/tag/abdt

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Jun 02

Showing the Internet to a Burmese Refugee Who’d Never Seen it Before

June 2, 2008 • 8 Comments • Social Media and Society

Yesterday I went to Elaine Allan’s house to buy a couple of computer cords for the machines I’m giving to Burmese refugees. A lady named MuMu was over there. MuMu is a Burmese refugee who currently watches children for other Burmese people here in town. She speaks a little English, but is far from fluent. She has never used a computer in her life.

MuMu and other refugees like her are very interested in what has happened to Burma. MuMu didn’t know where her only sister was even before the cyclone due to the oppressive nature of the government. She’d heard about the storm from Elaine, but didn’t know the details.

I sat at a computer and showed her Google. I explained that this was a resource greater than all of the libraries she could imagine. There was a wealth of information at her fingertips, and she like anyone else could publish her story and connect with others.

She had seen a computer, but she had never in her life truly recognized the internet.

In seconds, I pulled up Google news and typed in “Burma cyclone”. I showed her pictures. Elaine and I explained headlines. She looked in amazement and a certain quiet sadness. I cannot imagine what was going on in her heart at that moment.

I messaged my friend in California and explained that this person was over 1000 miles away and could instantly communicate with me. I sent out a message of what we were doing to over 300 people on Twitter. All of this was new to MuMu. All of this could help her get better employment, educate herself and her children, or bring assistance to her family back home. None of it is at her disposal.

Social media is power. Believe it.

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Apr 21

Be a Superhero (even without having sixpack abs)

April 21, 2008 • 6 Comments • Social Media for Social Good


You had the action figures. You watched the cartoons. You even had (or even still have?) superhero underoos. When you were four, being a superhero was the obvious career path for you. You never understood why adults like your parents somehow chose NOT to be superheroes.

Sigh. After a not-too-successful stint as the invisible man and a failed attempt to fly off the roof, you’ve conceded that your image will never be powerful enough to grace the underwear of little boys everywhere.

Not to worry. Here are a few projects you can tackle that do not require you to have superhuman physical strength or x-ray vision:

1.) Trish Forant started a campaign that allows civilians to stay in contact with a member of the armed services at emailourmilitary.com. Currently, if you sign up to start emailing a service member, you have to print a form and mail it to Trish. She is interested in having an online form put on this site. This would require some form of payment processor and SSL as there is a $2 registration fee. If you would like to help with this, please contact Trish here.

If you are technologically inept and/or lazy like me, you can still help by signing up keep in touch with a service member by filling out a form on Trish’s website. There are a host of other great projects on this site to help support our troops.

2.) I am helping collect computers and other items for Burmese refugees currently living in town. These people have suffered greatly at the expense of a ruthless and unjust military regime. They did not get a choice in where they lived and came to the United States with nothing. Here is a list of what they need:
* jobs that offer a decent wage
* English tutors, especially for the ones who can’t get out
* computers (kids know how to use them, but can’t use the school ones before or after school because they ride the bus)
* calculators for the older kids
* telephones & phone cards (MOST DO NOT HAVE PHONES)
* shoes — tennis shoes & sturdy work shoes
* diapers
* ricecookers
* non-perishable foods
* Wal-Mart, H-E-B, etc. gift cards

Since you cannot break out a can of whoopass and single handedly fly over to Burma to defeat the military regime, you can email Elaine at borntohelp(at)earthlink.net if you’d like to offer any assistance to these new Austinites.

You will indeed be defeating evil by helping out in these projects. I wouldn’t count on your image being immortalized as a tiny figurine wrapped in plastic and 100 twist ties though.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Which Superhero are You? If you can’t decide, feel free to take this super old Superhero quiz to find out.

6 Comments