As I read Sheila’s previous postPost reviews, I started thinking (and couldn’t remember) when was the last time I walked into a room in which an ongoing conversation/discussion was going on, and I just interrupted it with a random thought. Nor do I remember when was the last time I walked into a meeting and blurted out my opinion without, at least, acknowledging what they were talking about… I hope you’re already getting the sense of where I’m coming from with these thoughts.

I find it quite disappointing that us, as professionals in the Social Media field, want to make everyone believe that this Social Media stuff is “a great way to establish a genuine communication… that will relate your brand directly with your consumers… that it is an ongoing conversation…” and on and on, without actually doing it ourselves. Yeah, it all sounds nice and interesting, but it seems that we’re spending so much time trying to humanize brands/businesses/services that we’ve forgotten we’re humans ourselves and, like Sheila, I wonder where has all the social gone!?

You know, there are hundreds of posts out there outlining the best Twitter “etiquette” rules, and to be honest with you, I don’t understand people that actually have to read them in order to know how to behave in public. That’s pretty much what all this Social Media is about, right? One big public conversation.

If you’re following someone, it is because, I hope, you’re interested on what they have to say a.k.a tweet, I assume. And when someone talks to you when you walk into a room, you don’t just ignore him/her, right?

So here’s what I propose: from now on, when you log on to Twitter for the very first time each day, you’re going to acknowledge the Tweet at the very top of your page (the latest one on your timeline, and assuming it has a link - not just the lame/typical “good morning Twitter peeps” - I can understand if you ignore those…) and one way or another engage with that follower of yours in relationship to that link he/she is sharing - at least check it out, and if you like it and/or find it interesting, then retweet it, comment or do whatever you feel like doing; after you, at least, took a look at it. To that specific tweet (your first of the day), I encourage you to write the hashtag #my1st. This way you walk into the room and not just interrupt the ongoing conversation we’re all telling our clients about.

Are we ready to make this a place where sociable people interact with decency?

Aroldo Nery
Strategist/Brand Director @ The Re Agency

This morning I read a recent post that Google’s Communication Manager in Brazil uploaded to his blog, which talks about a survey they conducted on what Brazilians think are the key users of social networks and what they do once they are there. The survey, which was conducted to a thousand users and is specifically focused on Orkut, serves as a good kick-start point for companies to expand to international markets when building their social media initiatives.

Since the post was in Spanish, I decided to take out the best and most relevant data and translate it into Chaucer’s language. Hope you enjoy the facts!

Emails and search engines remain among the dominant uses of the internet, but people love variety.

• 90% of respondents use email, almost at the same rate as search engines. These are their top daily choices.

• Orkut is Brazil’s favorite social network.

• Size: 37 million members.

• Activity: 1.3 million daily visitors.

Social networks are used… for socializing.

• 90% believe that the greatest benefit of social networks is for those that want to keep in touch with old friends.

• 89% use them to get in touch with family and friends.

• 78% use them to expand their social circle.

• Interesting fact: 83% joined a social network because family or friends were already using them.

Social networks are meant for personal use, not business… Although some business is welcome.

• 41% use Orkut for personal reasons

• Only 3% prioritize business over personal use.

• 71% of Orkut users in Brazil would not mind seeing ads like online coupons of their favorite brands.

Ear to Ground Analysis:

• Brazilians are going beyond the simple use of social networks. They are incorporating the social networks as part of their daily life activities and sharing their lives with the people they care about.

• Businesses have an outstanding opportunity to connect with users in the different social networks, as long as they don’t invade users’ privacy while adding real value to their audiences.

The key to utilizing these facts comes with the understanding that these international markets are active and growing at a rapid rate and integrating into these networks now, before anyone else even comes near them through social networks can come with a lot of profitable success. So while your competitors are struggling with traditional methods of advertising, you can simply log in and talk directly to your consumers.

Are you in?

Source: Google Latin America

Federico Rodriguez-Gasquet

Social Media Manager @ Re Agency

We’re introducing a new category of Blog topics called Wise Bytes, simply put they are short, objective, intelligent observations proposed as humbly as possible from us to you (whomever you might be), below is the first installment.

Lately you can’t open a single industry website without the words social media, digital marketing, social marketing, interactive media, or any other combination of words meaning the same thing: consumer engagement. Expert upon expert is available through twitter, facebook, blogs, Internet communities, or any other medium you can imagine to tell you exactly what you need to know to create a successful social media anything. These “experts” drill you with information that reads like it’s been recycled and regurgitated several times before finally reaching your curious eyes.

My question is simple. Amidst this social media information frenzy; WHERE’S THE SOCIAL?

I challenge you to open your Twitter account and review your tweets along with those of fellow tweeters, what percentage of those tweets is an actual interaction and how much of it is shameless promotion? Now before you all pipe up about “what’s wrong with shameless promotion??”, my response: absolutely nothing but there’s more to it than that. Obviously twitter is excellent for distributing useful information about your brand, organization, or corporation (In addition to linking to your blogs, news releases, company bytes and what not). But where are you engaging in overflowing social networking pages with mundane link after mundane link? Is that not the equivalent of a piece of direct mail? Is that really what social media is about?

How can you expect a consumer, colleague, or other possibly interested member of the social media community to take interest in the professional aspect of your company, if you can’t display one sign of human life from your end. A “good morning” and a ”good night” are a great start but that’s not sharing much of anything you wouldn’t share in an email. I’m talking about substance: anecdotes, jokes, inquiries, responses, likes, dislikes, COMMUNICATION.

Every day I see beginners,gurus, experts, mavens, and the very top of the social media social ladder commit this obvious faux pas. Twitterers who exert no personally, no actual social engagement but are indeed the first in trying to create a “viral spread” of either their own content or their cronies content. Correct me if I’m mistaken but that’s not a community, that’s a non-community (which, in case you missed it, is a word I just made up)

The point of my post?

1.Know your roots: it’s easy to get caught up in the hype and forget what social media is really about (which just a reminder..) it’s about socializing.

2. Practice what you preach: You’re selling engagement, relationship management, customer service, and online social interaction. Go ahead and try your own product from time to time.

It’s that simple.

Federico Rodriguez-Gasquet

Social Media Manager @ Re Agency

Late last-night, on my way back home on an empty seven train (NYC), I overheard an argument (well not really the whole discussion… just what she responded to what he had said. Which I don’t know what it was) that made me think, once again, how much brands are -or at least should behave- like humans. Well, at least, apparently like this man being yelled at by his girlfriend.

“…You know, the thing is that you never have time just for me. You give me all this bs of wanting to look after others well-being and this and that, but all you want is the recognition from those around you… you’re not going to admit it, but I see how you get when you get all those e-mails congratulating you, or when we go to dinner they all tell you how much they like what you’re doing…”

Ok, I don’t know exactly what she was referring to but I do know, however, that it sucks that looking “after others well-being” had become such spectacle within the network one interacts with, to the point of undermining one’s initiative (whatever it may be that benefits others) by concentrating the attention on him/her, rather than on those being helped. The reason why this has become so, is because we’ve been living in a world in which looking “after others well-being” is so rare, that if someone does it, everyone goes crazy admiring the nice idea/initiative, running down a message that may have been genuine. Or some others flat out say, he/she (or it) is just doing that for the attention…

So my point is that we’ve lost some of the innocence that make us humans believe that there are people (or brands) that could be, genuinely, driven to benefit others; so if we all, as a group, start heading in the same direction, looking for others well being, that idea will become a common denominator of us all and it would be normal to want to make our communities a better place to live; and shift the attention to those ripping the benefits (the audience/market) rather than on the messenger, the “benefit creator”, the brand.

Brands in Social Media must understand that it is not longer about them, but about their followers; and the more brands think about this, the easier it will become for everyone, the more legit your message will seem and our society can evolve with a sense of innocence that it is always nice to, legitimately, believe someone is doing something positive for the sake of doing it and not just for the attention… well, if sales, profits and/or positive brand recognition come with it all, so be it.

Aroldo Nery
Strategist/Brand Director @ The Re Agency

In my research for interesting and useful statistics I came across this video originally posted by Buzzshift, I liked it so much I had to share it with all of you. Pay close attention to the facts, particularly the rates at which traditional media grew versus social media. It makes us feel proud at Re that we’re part of this media revolution.

 In other news we’d like to extend our appreciation to AllTop for incorporating us into their AllTop Social Media category. If you’re looking for the latest and greatest news in social media blogging, technology, or really anything you can wrap your mind around. AllTop’s got it.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist  @ The Re Agency

As I traveled around Latin America during the last two weeks, and stopped in Colombia, I noticed a refreshing attitude on the streets and it made me think about the way society in Latin America interacts with one another and its relationship with Social Media. If you were here, and walked up and down the streets, you’d notice the desire of the masses to engage, interact and be part of a social/cultural evolution. People on the streets are willing to help one another and come up with ways to give a hand in order to just get a few Pesos in return. Driving down from Monserrate, on a traffic-jammed street in the outsides of Bogota, I noticed men and boys running up and down the bumper-to-bumper lines of buses at the traffic lights. They’d run by the bus drivers’ window, shout a number, listen to what the driver had to say and write it on a scribbled notebook as they collected the few coins the drivers handed to them. The point of this running-up-and-down at traffic lights is to give bus drivers the times/frequency in which the previous buses, covering their same routes, go by this specific area in the city. It helps the bus drivers keep a distance (time-wise) from the bus ahead of them, so there is enough time for more people to gather at the bus stops for them to have a worthy day at work, which is equal to enough passengers in their buses. Seems complicated but it is rather simple and resourceful from people with lack of technology managing to come up with a way to help, interact and make some Pesos in return.

Now, if this is the nature of our people, of our culture; why is it that corporations, brands, businesses and/or services haven’t had a stronger initiative to find ways to connect with the other half of the country/region that do have access to technology and are practically early adopters of this Social Media type-way-of communication? Catalina Ruiz-Navarro is just one influencer in a community of almost 20 million internet users in Colombia, with an overall growth (internet users) of approximately 40% annually - and similar numbers throughout the region. I don’t want to dwell on the Common Sense approach to Social Media Communications but as I mentioned on a previous post, “the idea of Social Media is to be spontaneous, genuine, personal…” and it is a great opportunity  for businesses to figure out a genuine, non-intrusive message to establish a relationship with a genuinely-formed community that would be willing to be part of your community if you have something to contribute.

Aroldo Nery

Strategist/Brand Director @ The Re Agency

LOL,

Indeed, I am laughing out loud at my own cleverness for title selection. And now that I’ve lured you here, I should probably tell you what this equation is all about..

It’s like this: DiggDigg the online community/news publishing site, which has proven to be succesful and very useful for those with great content and little resources for spreading said content online, has announced that in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal, (elite meets underground..in case you missed it) they have created an interview for Secretary of Treasury of the United States, Mr. Timothy Geithner.

See, I told you it would add up.

Although Digg has parterned up with The Wall Street Journal on this, they’ve kept true to their roots of social communication and have allotted users to suggest questions, of which users can “digg” or vote upon, those questions that are “dugg” the most will go on the questionnaire for the interview adding a 2.0 spin to a mainly mainstream and usually elitist journalistic endeavor.

So why has the Wall Street journal undertaken in this shift all of a sudden?  ”The Journal is partnering with Digg as part of the Web site’s Digg Dialogg series.” These initiatives by Digg, who according to Compete is 40 million unique users strong, are focused upon putting the power back in people’s hands as to what they deem as important and relevant. Essentially giving decisive power to the masses. So, perhaps The Journal is making steps to create a community of the sorts and thinks Digg is a great place to start. We can’t be sure of their intentions, all we know is that this is an intelligent move for both parties involved.

If the success of this joint venture can be traced then I have a feeling this will be a model that most major newscasters and print medias are going to adopt in the future.

So, watch your mic’s press, the people are coming to take over. Atleast for one interview.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The Re Agency