Strategic Social Networking - Archive

Using Social Media to Create Real-World Action

April 23rd, 2010 | Posted by John Sniffen in marketing | networking | News - (0 Comments)

Social media use is not just about selling products; it can and should be about moving people to action.

In “6 Ways Brands are Using Social Media for Real-World Action” on Mashable, digital marketing expert Daniel Stein looks at new ways companies can “mobilize [their] social media audiences to take action in the real world.”

For instance, he cites Nike’s Livestrong campaign for the Tour de France as “a nice example of a brand blending the digital and physical worlds and enabling its audiences to take part in a real-time event.” Nike made it possible for people around the world to have their inspirational sayings chalked along the Tour route by way of WearYellow.com, Tweet or SMS. The users then received links to see where their message was chalked. Nike “was able to cleverly connect user to a real world event using social media as the conduit,” says Stein.

Businesses should aim to empower, excite, inspire and enable consumers “to engage with [their] brand in a relevant, new and useful way that adds to their real-world experience,” he concludes.

The SSN Take: Good examples of how some companies/organizations are utilizing social media to its fuller capabilities and expanding the possible rewards as a result.

John Sniffen, April 23, 2010

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Social Media Platform Providing Academic Feedback

April 23rd, 2010 | Posted by Samuel Hartman in Facebook | Features | networking | Twitter - (1 Comments)

At the University of Liecester, Senior Lecturer Dr. Alan Cann uses social media to provide a forum for “discussion and feedback” from his students.

“Social networking utilised by academic to improve student satisfaction” discusses the positive response his students have given to the system, powered by the social aggregator site FriendFeed. Because FriendFeed allows a personalized homepage, it can act as a virtual portfolio, “storing all of their posts, forming reflection on what they are doing and explanations of what they do not understand.” Cann adds that it differs from the interaction that the students have on Facebook – the students are extremely social but “very professional.”

Even microblogging social sites have their place in academia. Chris Kobayashi, an English teacher at the University of Northern Colorado, decided to fully integrate Twitter into this curriculum by having his students tweet their progress on an upcoming research paper. “Social media sites like Twitter are finding new fans in academia” describes an entire class run through Twitter, with Kobayashi having students respond his Twitter questions via the site. When his e-mail account crashed one day, he used Twitter to communicate with the students.

Much like Facebook and Twitter’s use in the marketing world, the social media platform allows for a dialogue between a source of information (in this case, a teacher or lesson plan) and a group of users (students). This open discussion can now be fostered outside of the classroom in a medium that many college students are already quite familiar with.

Dr. Cann, using the ‘feed forward’ model, is making academics more accessible and allowing students to give easy and direct feedback through social networks. Kobayashi, too is harnessing the power of real-time interaction. Will we see a revolution in how changes, both academic and administrative, come about? Through social media it is quite possible.

The SSN Take: Integrating a social platform can go beyond the marketing and business realm.

Samuel Hartman, April 23, 2010

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Facebook Continues to Trample, Kills Bebo

April 22nd, 2010 | Posted by Samuel Hartman in Facebook | News - (0 Comments)

Back in 2008, AOL’s $850 million purchase of the social networking site Bebo seemed like a good idea – it was huge in Britain and Australia, and part of AOL’s plan to gain “new users and advertisers.”

“AOL Plans to Sell or Shut Bebo Social Networking Site” cites May 31 as the date that AOL will decide whether to shut down or sell the site. In today’s market, AOL must continue to revise its business strategy – gone are the days of selling expensive internet plans – and social media seems to be the best option. But Bebo “has not been able to retain an audience” said a social media researcher in the article, with a 45% dip in February traffic compared to 2009. Facebook, on the other hand, had 68% more visitors. Competition like that makes the choice pretty clear for AOL.

The SSN Take: AOL should still investigate social media, but ditch Bebo.

Samuel Hartman, April 22, 2010

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Marketers Don’t Know How to Count Social Media Costs

Sure, social media marketing doesn’t cost as much as a minute of Super Bowl advertising, but marketers appear to be vastly underestimating its expense.

Econstituency vice president Rebecca Lieb says 32 percent of marketers who responded to the e-commerce advisory firm’s recent survey said they spend nothing on social media, according to “Live from SES NY: Marketers Claim Social Media Doesn’t Cost a Dime” by Tim Parry on Multichannel Merchant. Lieb theorizes that respondents consider dollar figures to equal the amount of money spent, and are not accounting for resources such as the manpower that go into having a social media presence.

And they are using social media. More than four-fifths – or 86 percent – report marketing on Facebook, while 77 percent are tweeting and 58 percent are using LinkedIn, says Leib.

The SSN take: Either the accounting departments have not caught up with the marketers, or someone is really trying to make social media use look cost efficient. Neither is good business.

John Sniffen, April 22, 2010

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Health Marketers Cautious About a Social Media Operation

April 22nd, 2010 | Posted by David Hardt in News - (0 Comments)

The upheaval over health care reform has led to a surge in online health-related communities, blogs and social media, but marketers in this area are not rushing in.

One of the greatest attractions of health communities on the web is that patients can share their medical experiences and seek advice from other patients. In a recent clickz.com article, “Health Marketers Drag Feet as Patients Flock to Social Media,” Joan Voight reportst that it’s not just patients that are flocking to this DIY style health education, doctors are also gravitating toward these websites. However, credibility and liability remain two of the biggest deterrents for marketers when it comes to social media and the online health and wellness field.

The SSN Take: Participating in online discussions and sponsoring them could prove to be a risky move for health marketers, but the payoff could be enormous. Click the link to Voight’s article to read what Dove plans to gain by sponsoring Sharecare, the latest health exchange website.

David Hardt, April 22, 2010

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If It Seems Too Good to Be True…

April 21st, 2010 | Posted by John Sniffen in Lists | News | security | Uncategorized - (0 Comments)

Fake gift card scams are blossoming like spring flowers on Facebook.

In the latest internet con game, tens of thousands of users have been tricked into joining Facebook fan pages that claim to be giving away gift cards of up to a $1,000 for big-name companies, Robert McMillan of IDG News Service reports on SFGate in “Facebook Takes Steps to Deal with Gift Card Scams.”

The bogus pages feature fake posts from other users suggesting that the giveaway offers are real, but the sites typically lead to affiliate marketing websites that try to collect data and generate Web traffic for advertisers, according to Simon Axten, a Facebook spokesman. He advises users to be suspicious of any online activity that “feels strange” — unfamiliar links in messages from long-silent friends or a promise of financial reward if you invite friends to join a group.

Such gift-card scams have been around via email for years, says, McMillan, but are fairly new to Facebook, which says it removes the pages as they are found. But “because anyone can set up a fan page for virtually anything — and many pages do contain legitimate gift-card offers — it’s a thorny problem for Facebook to solve,” he adds.

The SSN take: As long as new ways to scam people come on the scene, there will people taking advantage of others greed or gullibility.

John Sniffen, April 21, 2010

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Tweeting Huffington

April 21st, 2010 | Posted by John Sniffen in marketing | News | Twitter - (0 Comments)

Like living organisms adapting to their environment, news, marketing and other websites are evolving from their original forms.

For instance, David Kaplan in “HuffPo Launches Separate ‘Twitter Edition’; More Focus on Real-Time News” on paidContent.org, says that the new edition’s main purpose is “to harness the social networking aspects of the site to create a real-time news service” for each of website’s sections. It will be “an entirely separate edition” but “with the same kind of content we always have provided—but super-charged, if you will, for Twitter users,” he quotes HuffPo chairman Ken Lerer.

The tweets won’t just come from HuffPo regulars, says CEO Eric Hippeau. “This is our way of doing breaking news, using real-time Twitter feeds of people that we have followed, people who have a certain authority on the news we cover. … We’re one part social network, one part news content site. So for us, the question has always been how to use Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools and our content and integrate it with our advertisers.” Yes, they will seek to raise money from the Twitter edition, but they were not ready to say how or when.

The SSN take: Most websites are becoming amalgams of social media and other communication tools on the Internet.

John Sniffen, April 21, 2010

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A Social Media Lesson From the Fall of Bebo

April 21st, 2010 | Posted by David Hardt in News - (0 Comments)

In 2008, AOL bought the hot social networking site Bebo for a cool $850 million, just two years later, it’s going under or will be sold for a pittance of its original value.

Bebo was the “United Kingdom’s biggest social network in 2007,” according to comScore. So how did a titan in the social media world turn out to be a dud? In a recent cnn.com article, “How To Create an $850M Fad, Like Bebo Did, Pete Cashmore points out that Bebo’s Achilles’ heel was not responding to users’ demands and failing to innovate–much like MySpace. Both Bebo and MySpace failed to make technical innovation the guiding light of their mission. Twitter on the other hand, had the vision to open up its problems to its community, which included outside developers. Meanwhile, Facebook is enjoying success through innovations like leveraging its Facebook Connect log-in platform.

The SSN Take: While innovation for Twitter and Facebook will slow eventually, a business should keep abreast of the groundbreaking initiatives currently under way. You can start by checking out Chirp, the website for The Official Twitter Developer Conference.

David Hardt, April 21, 2010

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Are There Unspoken Social Media Marketing Protocols?

April 20th, 2010 | Posted by Melody K. Smith in branding | Features | marketing - (3 Comments)

Allowing a smaller golf party to “play through” and politely allowing the bowler in the lane next to you to finish before you approach are examples of unspoken protocols or rules in these fields of sports. Though they may actually be printed somewhere, it is just one of those things any seasoned player knows. So, in the field of social media, have seasoned users established these same types of playground rules?

In his article, “Does Money Belong in Social Media?”, the self-titled author of Augie Ray’s Blog For Interactive Marketing Professionals takes issue with Domino’s recent consumer marketing campaign on the basis of what appears to be unspoken rules of conduct. Because they are offering consumers monetary rewards for hits on a promotional badge they can place on their website or blog, he feels the social word of mouth has been tarnished. We’re not talking about a lot of money here folks. The reward is 0.5% the value of a placed order stemming from their page. This equals a dime for every $20.00 order. Just a dime.

Any consumer that uses the widget will be able to promote products or services within a framework of designated brand guidelines. Consumers who participate in Domino’s new campaign will be able to track the sales generated through their web page on a dashboard.

Marketing Week recently spoke to Dan Clays, managing director of BLM Quantum, the creator of the dashboard program. He believes

“Brands benefit by aligning with sites run by fans who are more likely to drive a sale, while site owners can generate revenues from their Facebook page or blog.”

By adding more content for social search engines to peruse, this also allows for additional research data to be gathered. This online marketing campaign will be supported by an online media campaign later this spring.

The SSN Take: Key-word promotional blogging has become more and more popular in the past few years with the explosion of bloggers out there looking to make a few dollars while journaling. This seems to be a natural progression of the social media marketing movement.

Melody K. Smith, April 20, 2010

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Outside Developers Chirping as Twitter Takes Apps In-house

April 20th, 2010 | Posted by David Hardt in News - (0 Comments)

Twitter’s openness led to a flood of 70,000 applications that helped propel the the microblogging service to unfathomable success, but now that sea of opportunity appears to be drying up quickly.

It’s a fear that has probably crossed the mind of every application developer outside Twitter: what if the company decides to to build the same features in house? In her recent nytimes.com article, “Tensions Rise for Twitter and App Developers,” Claire Cain Miller discusses Twitter’s new gameplan. Although Twitter’s official direction may be unconfirmed, the writing is on the wall. Recently, they acquired Atebits, maker of Tweetie for the iPhone. In addition, they stated that they will be working with Research In Motion to cover the BlackBerry market. If that weren’t enough to give developers a scare, Evan Williams, Twitter’s co-founder, said recently, “When we launched, Twitter was incomplete, so developers rushed to fill those holes, but eventually we’re going to have to build a lot of features in because they should be there.”

The SSN Take: Watch closely as Twitter unveils new applications, which you can expect to deliver advantages that outside developers can’t.

David Hardt, April 20, 2010

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