The tricky part about promoting business through social media is avoiding dry content, but still sending a message. A recent Advertising Age article, “Don’t Confuse Social Networking with Social Media” detailed how many large corporations, like Coca-Cola, have failed to fully embrace social media by directly interacting with customers. The highlight of the article showcased how CNN’s crowdsourcing iReport site, which allows readers to write and film their own news segments, helped the news site explode with popularity.

The article recommends businesses put their social media friends to work through Crowdsourcing. AdAge claims letting others, like amateur reporters, do the heavy lifting also adds a sheen of street credibility. The problem is, how will this reflect on your business?

It will reflect poorly, according to a few sources. Forbes Magazine, in its article “The Myth of Crowdsourcing” points to Netflix’s recent million-dollar crowdsourcing experiment to invent an improved algorithm through user teamwork as an example of this skewed viewpoint. “The notion of crowds creating solutions appeals to our desire to believe that working together we can do anything, but in terms of innovation it is just ridiculous.” It goes on to state, “the crowd solves nothing, creates nothing.”

Another other ugly side of crowdsourcing by amateurs is that the results look, well, amateur. Wired’s coverage of this online phenomenon, “The Rise of Crowdsourcing,” points out how amateur stock photo sites are putting a seasoned, professional photographer out of business by charging pennies on the dollar for sub-par images. This mirrors the complaints of Wikepedia’s sometimes questionable accuracy, not to mention countless other interactive ventures.

The SSN Take: Crowdsourcing might sound like a great way to draw in new customers, but you must consider whether you are comfortable with less-than-professional results.

Patrick Roland, April 28, 2010

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In the article, “The Four Pillars of Building Instant Trust Online.”  ClickZ’s author speaks to this need of trust we human beings crave and how marketers can build trust online.

The four pillars he speaks to in the article title include Appearance, Transactional Assurances, Experts and Media, and Consensus of Peers. When you look closer at these pillars you find some tangent, applicable approaches to achieving instant online trust in your client relationships.

As our grandmother and career advisor have always reminded us – first impressions do matter. Books are judged by their cover just as we are by our outward appearance in a job interview. So why wouldn’t Web sites be judged with the same initial scrutiny? Research has indicated that people form an initial impression of your Web site within 50 milliseconds. This is 1/20^th of a second. In other words, we subliminally decide whether a more considered review of the page is warranted. In the immortalized words of Joey Russo from the 80’s sitcom, Blossom – “Whoa”. We can pause here for a deep breath if you like.

Don’t get discouraged. There are things you can address to dress up your appearance to make the most out of that 1/20^th of a second. The visual design should always be professional in design. Fonts, colors, and graphical elements must combine into a unified look. Neatness is critical. Remember white space can be your friend. And as always, less is more.

As far as transactional assurances, consumers need to know that their email address isn’t being sold off, they aren’t part of a spam scam, and that ultimately, their personal information is secure. Reassure them every step of the way.

Experts and media can build legitimacy. Your audience may not have heard of you before, but they are impressed by awards and recommendations from well known organizations and established brands. Be sure to place these above the “fold” to ensure they are noticed.

Consumers for the most part like being part of the “in” crowd and knowing that 200,000 other thirty-somethings have purchased this product can be what seals the deal for them. Check out the complete article for more tips on how to build trust in your online marketing relationships.

Melody K. Smith, April 26, 2010

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“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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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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This nine-season-old TV favorite may not be biblical in nature, but it is the closest to Moses coming down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments. It showed the way… in this case, to social media activism. “Dial 1-888- IDOL-008 to vote for Adam Lambert.” And millions did, time and time again, for Adam or their favorite.

As a people, we never did that before. Never had the means or the opportunity to be so easily heard. We had the right generation at the right time for the right reason, being counted by this new (at that time) form of expression.

A few years later, there was another kind of call… this time, the 2004 Christmastime tsunami in Indonesia, and we learned we could help in the same manner. But it was this year’s Haitian earthquake that really made the point.

Get this: When the Red Cross asked people to text “Haiti” to the number 90999, millions did within days and still do, for Haiti and then Chile a few months later. The call triggered an automatic $10 donation added to the phone bill, resulting in more than $32 million actually collected to date. And as an added bonus, the money got into use almost immediately with no check to write or pledges to cover. (Does any young person write checks anymore? Do you?)

We have learned the technique, and in a very short period of time, learned something even more important: Benevolence! More people–and notably more of our young–were moved by the tragedies, and their friends, busy texting back and forth, Facebooking and twittering about the suffering are doing what now comes naturally: letting their fingers do the talking.

Social networking taught a whole new generation something their parents, television, direct mail, newspaper headlines and emotional pleas could never do. It got them immediately and personally involved, just like that.

Social networking tools and the habits engrained in using them, have changed charitable fund raising dramatically. And that’s a positive thing. Said USA Today, “good causes are finding younger, first-time donors who are more likely to give via messaging or Facebook than by writing a check after opening a traditional solicitation delivered to a mailbox outside their door.” Well, duh. What’s a mailbox?

While donations from social media is still a lesser percentage of the overall, a survey of nonprofit organizations show online donations growing 28% in the last few years. In 2008, 10 groups have raised $25 million or more, thanks to Twitter, Facebook, texting and the like.

The future of charitable giving, say those whose success depends on it, is in social media. There is no world this growing and ever evolving trend will not touch… in one way or another.

Jerry Constantino, April 16, 2010

Jerry Constantino was President and Publisher of PJS Publications, a group of 20 special interest magazines owned by VS&A Venture Capital and later, Primedia. He now writes fiction and blogs irrelevantly at itsnutsoutthere.blogspot.com.

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“Deloitte is taking a multifaceted digital approach to recruiting by using a blend of social networking resources and multimedia elements. A versatile introduction to their company is available at the click of a button,” reports the T+D Blog in “Deloitte: The Future of Recruiting is Social Media.” Deloitte’s program integrates several interactive media outlets, including a micro-site, a Twitter feed, a Facebook page, a LinkedIn group and a YouTube channel.

The micro-site provides an in-depth look into the lives of the firm’s Gen Y workers through a series of profiles and short films. The Twitter feed, “Life at Deloitte,”features daily tweets designed to provide insight into the company’s different practice areas and the latest hot topics from a variety of business leaders. The “Your Future at Deloitte (U.S.)” Facebook page also has interactive message boards where potential job candidates can join the discussion. A campus-focused LinkedIn group helps connect college students with employees and recruiters.

Deloitte’s YouTube channel, “Your Future at Deloitte,” features video testimonies from employees about why they chose the company and what the work means to them.

Deloitte, which has about 169,000 employees worldwide, estimates it will hire about 4,800 full- and part-time employees during 2010.

Sodexo USA, the global food and facilities management services provider which was recently awarded ERE’s 2010 excellence in recruiting award, also makes use of a full social media arsenal. “Sodexo’s social media initiative is on the leading edge of best practices,” writes John Sullivan in “Best Practices in Recruiting” on ERE.net. “Its web presence effectively communicates Sodexo’s company culture, and opportunities across a Careers blog, Facebook page, LinkedIn group, YouTube channel, Twitter and Flickr.” The Society for New Communications Research has recognized Sodexo for its pioneering work in microblogging.

Employing a more one-dimensional social media recruiting campaign, Sears Holding Corp., recently posted 7,000 positions with TweetMyJOBS, a Twitter-based job board service. Writing for ReadWriteWeb , Sarah Perez says TweetMyJOBS president and founder Gary Zukowski claims the partnership makes Sears, which also includes the Kmart chain, one of the largest brands to embrace mobile recruiting. The service lets job seekers receive instant notification on their cell phones via Twitter when new jobs are posted online.

The partnership has a large potential to grow as Sears posted more than 500,000 job openings last year via traditional recruiting channels.

Another social media recruiting partnership features CareerBuilder.com and Facebook.

In “It’s time to update your Facebook status—recruitment strategies move toward social media in 2010” on examiner.com, Megan Munch notes that job postings from CareerBuilder now also post directly to Facebook. “The best matched candidates will be able to see the company’s job advertisement on the side of their Facebook page.”

Careerbuilder and Facebook also cooperate in helping the more than 700,000 local companies that have Facebook pages improve their image. CareerBuilder consultants work with clients, checking their Facebook pages weekly—blogging, posting updates, new hires and accomplishments—as well as monitoring site activity.

Munch offers one bit of advice to potential job seekers using social media, especially those fresh out of college. “I would advise taking down [photo] albums titled ‘The Hangover Album.’ Inappropriate behavior can and will affect job and internship opportunities.”

John Sniffen, April 14, 2010

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Two years later, those pundits are eating their words as political commercials are still walking around this election cycle, stronger than ever.  Those obituaries, like Read Write Web’s proclamation that “all political campaigns, especially at this level, will start ignoring social media trends at their own peril,” seem a little silly today. It’s not completely off the mark, but the new political landscape is less of a dramatic leap than we once imagined.

“Although social media can contribute to shaping the political mood of the country,” a media consultant from OVUM recently said in a New Media Age article, “TV will be More Important in Election, Says Analyst.” He continued, referring to television, “it’s clear the traditional channels of communication and engagement prevail.”

This surprised us at first, but it slowly began making sense. Social media is a force, but it only reaches certain demographics of voters: those with the money for computers and the time for Facebook and Twitter. While this is a huge population, it still doesn’t touch as many people as television. No matter how clever a Tweet, it will never have the personality of a televised image. Facebook groups are nice, but they can’t rally the troops like a strong sound bite on the evening news.

England seems to also be experiencing this trend and the Telegraph has an interesting perspective on television’s power. “Keen as everybody is to mention that Barak Obama used the internet so dexterously to raise money,” Brittan’s top paper reported. “Fewer are minded to observe that the vast sums donated were then in fact spent on television campaigns. So the mass medium is still, well, massive.”

Many people expected to see social media leap into the driver’s seat of political squawking, but this just proves our world doesn’t spin nearly as fast as we once thought. There are lessons here for anyone using social media for promotion. Clearly, like politicians, it is not a wise idea to put all your eggs into one basket. Because if you do, it might be you the media is burying in a grave next time.

The SSN Take: Pay close attention to how social media can help you, but don’t lose sight of all your promotional options.

Patrick Roland, April 6, 2010

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While some users react by feeling helpless against a savvy cybercrook, others relax because they’ve got the latest security software. However, in “Protect Yourself Against Social-Network Scams,” Harry McCracken from FOXNews.com points out that some of the best precautions come from common sense habits.

• He advises that you should always use the current version of your browser because it will have updated patches for security leaks.
• Another tip is to judge emails and messages very carefully.
• Be on the lookout for fishy or cryptic notes.
• On a similar note, be cautious about clicking on “short URLs,” which are pervasive on Twitter.
• Lastly, as technology goes increasingly mobile, take care not to let the whole world know you’re not home, when you really just wanted to tell your friends or family.

SSN Take: An essential component of your social media policy should be taking proper security measures. If one employee from your company is hacked, it can be dangerous for everyone.

David Hardt, April 5, 2010

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Matis’ music consistently communicates a message of peace and love to his listeners. So when the communicative strength of social media became clear, the New York rapper approached it with the same zeal that helped his unorthodox career soar. “First time I realized [social media’s] power is when my performance on Jimmy Kimmel, in ’04, went viral,” Matis told us in an email interview. “Things pretty much blew up for me overnight.”

Viral videos were just the beginning of his social media popularity storm. Matis has also earned over 100,000 Facebook friends thanks to unique events like his recent Facebook-only live concert.  However, Matisyahu’s biggest online draw is his Twitter feed. “I am now very hands on and use my Twitter on a daily basis.” The microblogging site lets fans have an amazing amount of contact with the musician and vice-versa. “[Twitter] allows me to kind of keep a running journal by sending out messages, pics, and video of where I am when I’m on the road and what I do,” Matis said. “It also lets me see what fans are saying and to interact by responding to their messages, all without a computer but just from my phone.”

It’s not hard to see that Matisyahu’s success stems not only from his muical skills, but also his approachability. Without social media, he realized that famous approachability would suffer.  “[Social media] gives you access to fans, without it you just wouldn’t have the time or energy to interact with nearly as many people.”

His use of Facebook and Twitter is certainly eye opening, but Matis’ most impressive social media leap came during his 2009 summer tour. For this trip around the country, he unveiled, Wheresmatis.at. The site funneled several different strains of social media into one powerful place and brought the artist closer to his fans than even a front row ticket could provide.

“The idea was to have a way to interact with fans on the road and play them sneak peeks of the new record,” Matis recalled. “I was traveling in an RV and just envisioned  meeting fans in a laid back way, no lines or people pushing them through, just come meet me on the RV and hang for a few.”

The result was a site featuring an up-to-the-minute GPS map showing where Matisyahu’s tour RV was. Alongside this map was his wheresmatis.at Twitter feed, informing fans of special opportunities along the 35 city route to hop on board for exclusive listening parties. In addition, interviews and impromptu acoustic shows were announced via the site. Fans were able to post their Flickr photos of hanging out with the musician on the site and watch videos from the events.

This closeness with fans has paid off in more ways than just with record sales and packed concerts. When asked about his favorite memory from the summer tour, Matisyahu recalled a stop in Colorado. “I was in Aspen and had some time to kill. It was a beautiful day and I was eyeing the curvy mountain roads, missing my Harley.” That day, his social media connections paid off big time. “So I tweeted and someone brought me their bike. I took off into the mountains for a few hours and gave him and his family tickets and passes to the show later that night.”

While Matisyahu is able to look back on his accomplishments in the studio and the Twitterverse with equal amounts of pride, the ambitious rapper doesn’t rest on his laurels. When asked how he could possibly top wheresmatis.at, he was already on to the next innovation. “We just did this contest with indaba music,” he said. “People could remix [his song “One Day”] themselves, and about 600 people went for it and everyone votes on the top 10. Then I choose my fav and will work on an original track with [the winner].”

Matisyahu’s career has been defined by his ability to connect with his audience and defy expectations. By constantly seeking fresh ways to meet his audience and feed their hunger for unique social media content, this rapper is in a class by himself. His talent for staying ahead of his peers in the social media sphere can serve as an example for anyone using this medium for publicity. Next time you are beating your head against a rock, looking for your business’ social media inspiration, just ask yourself, “where’s Matis at?”

Patrick Roland, April 4, 2010

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Has Facebook set its sights on the world of ecommerce and merchandising? Are auction sites next? PRNewsWire recently reported on a new application that allows online merchants to sell their wares using a Facebook platform in their article, “BigCommerce Introduces Online Shopping Application on Facebook(R) Platform.”

BigCommerce SocialShop, the leading provider of ecommerce software for small businesses, is the first application to offer this service. This could be quite the boom for small businesses as the application allows users to not only purchase the product, but share it with their friends and family – making them their unofficial marketing department. They tout research results showing 83% of online shoppers desire to share information about their purchases with people they know, while 74% are influenced by the opinions of others in their decision to buy the product. The research also reveals that word-of-mouth marketing such as that offered by BigCommerce SocialShop drives sales.

Online businesses realize that engaging with their customers to increase awareness, advance customer relationships and of course, attract new clientele runs in tandem with promoting their products. BigCommerce offers a large selection of built-in tools with the software to help drive customers to your site, including search engine optimization. By bringing the customer back to the customer’s BigCommerce’s website to handle the transaction, this also draws more traffic to the merchant’s main storefront.

This “skipping the middle man” approach has resulted in a 100% growth in the business since its launch in August 2009. Their client list continues to grow with some impressive names. The astounding success BigCommerce is experiencing is transforming the social media/online sales relationship.

The SSN Take: By focusing on the ease of use for both the consumer and the merchant, BigCommerce appears to have fulfilled a need.

Melody K. Smith, April 2, 2010

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