I read a postPost reviews at Social Media Optimization that made me think about what is it that a “valuable brand” means nowadays; and I look forward to hearing your opinion on this one.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, valuable means:

1 a: having monetary value b: worth a good price
2 a: having desirable or esteemed characteristics or qualities <valuable friendships> b: of great use or service <valuable advice>

In today’s ever-changing cultural landscape, I have to go with 2b. SM (social media) isn’t about cluttering every possible medium with your colors, your brands, your products; but rather an opportunity to create an environment of support and/or service, selecting specific channels to reach your audience. Therefore, I find it unnecessary to categorize brands by “most valuable” and/or “mavens, selectives, butterflies and wallflowers,” according to their SM activity (find the study here). The concept of a valuable brand is so subjective, making it impossible to determine whether any of those brands within the top-ten are more valuable than the Corner Store Down The Road is to its community. A few days ago, the NYtimes published an article on the results one of the many social networks has had on its users, and to save you the time to read it; it pretty much draws a picture in which all brands can be as valuable to their specific niche.

As an industry, we need to stop making such specific categorization causing marketers to believe that being “mavens” is the only way to succeed in SM; when it is not true. These sorts of categorizations tell us that one can’t be “selective” and expect the same results, when the idea of SM is exactly that: to be selective. To find your niche and create an environment of support that -if done right- will bring your brand the monetary value you’re looking for: ROI. Just because a valuable brand within the top-ten has thousands and thousands of followers and friends, doesn’t mean that it is more valuable than the Corner Shop in a community of twenty thousand people and four thousand followers and friends (20%).

This is a new way of communicating, people, and there is no room for such specific categories and lists in a world in which we (as consumers) have the freedom to jump from niche to niche as we please.

You can be anything you want; maven, selective, butterfly or wallflower, so comparing yourself to such specific brands is no longer an option to measure your success. You are unique, so your value is the one given by your specific community; while we -as an industry- need to start thinking smaller and smaller… on terms of execution.

Aroldo Nery

Social Media Brand Director @ The Re Agency

When you think of social networks and social media in general you don’t quite conjure up an image of Albert Einstein and Sir Issac Newton gushing laughter and tweeting away about their uber productive days. The image tends to create itself in a (let’s say) less advanced light.

However the days of social networking are evolving, in the least likeliest of places.

A recent endeavor funded in part by the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) could be the beginning of something that will benefit and connect the greatest minds of the 21st century.

Known as myExperiment; the new forum will essentially be a social networking site where scientists can share information and make connections with other scientists.  The site was developed in a joint venture by  Professor David De Roure and Professor Carole Goble and their goal is simple, to facilitate and aggregate information in a digital community.

‘We are introducing new approaches to make research more reproducible, reusable and reliable…‘Research Objects are self-contained pieces of reproducible research which we will share in the future in the way that papers are shared today.’ as said by Professor De Roure.

myExperiment will be synced with other established e-science sites already in use; Eprints which is a research repository in Southampton University and the new e-Scholar institutional repository from Manchester University.

Although it may seem a bit strange at first, it’s not surprising that the worlds most brilliant minds are using the new mediums of communications to possibly save the world.. and do that other amazing stuff they do that I can’t even wrap my mind around without having a stage 5 panic attack i.e. space time continuums, black holes, and such.

Transmitted via Southampton School of Electronics and Computer Science

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The Re Agency

When it comes to Social Media, here at RE, we don’t just refer to the physical (well, virtual) space in which these conversations take place. We analyze the overall spectrum of the Internet as an independent world with a culture of its own.

If you’re managing a brand, I’m sure you are aware of the importance of understanding the ever-changing cultural landscape in which we (and your brand) live in. Just to give you an example (and to keep it simple), throughout the last year or so, many people have noticed changes in their reading habits, mainly influenced by their “addiction” to the internet, and started wondering if Google is making us stupid.

Now, I’m not here to tell you what to think about that, but I will tell you however, that no matter what our opinion is on the subject matter, there is no way of pulling the breaks on this express train.
Although I can personally relate to Paul Davis on the importance of finding time to “slow-read” a book away from the distractions of the numerous browsers we’re constantly dealing with, I agree with blogger Lethe Basher with the idea that we’re experiencing a shift from a Readerly Culture (paid journalists) to a Writerly one (online community), in which more and more people are writing about what they are reading and watching.

I believe an active, writerly culture is far more intelligent than a passive, readerly one, Basher says, and I agree. We like to write, and I’m not talking about essays, blogs, etc. I’m talking about writing as a way of “instant” communicating with each other. As a culture, we’ve learned to choose writing (SMS, Facebook Facebookmessages, TwitterTwitter, e-mails, etc); over lets say, face-to-face conversation, telephone, even SkypeSkype; because it gives us the freedom to think our response. It gives us the opportunity to sound smarter, funnier, cooler. It gives us time to react appropriately to certain arguments. Even if the time it takes for you to respond to a text message is three minutes, you have those 180 seconds to think what you’re going to say. I mean, you can’t leave someone on the other side of a phone conversation waiting for three minutes while you think about what you’re going to say, can you?

Are we getting dumber? I doubt it. As a society we’ve done it over and over again: adapting to new forms of communication and using it to our advantage, from Gutenberg’s introduction of the printing press to Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and beyond. Nicolas Carr writes in his Is Google making us stupid article:

“Sometime in 1882 Friedrich Nietzsche bought a typewriter…One of Nietzsche’s friends, a composer, noticed a change in the style of his writing. His already terse prose had become even tighter, more telegraphic…’You are right,’ Nietzsche replied, ‘our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.”

We’re evolving, changing; so is it dumb to prefer text message to talk to a girl, over let’s say, a phone call? After last night, I’d say it’s smarter (one more evidence that we’re using these advances to our favor). Why? Last night, my friend was constantly on the phone, texting back and forth with this girl, so I asked him why he didn’t just call her. He looked at me as if I was crazy and asked me: “why would I?… Do you know how many of the last six messages I’ve replied have been with your help?” Indeed. He’d asked my opinion and would choose words carefully, crafting his ideas, type and re-type, receiving smiley faces from the girl, lolLOL reviewss and “u r so cute” type of answers -crafting his plot- that would eventually lead him to his final goal: to go out with her.

Seriously, how can one blow out a date over text message, if you’re given the time to react, to think? In the Internet world a lot of time means minutes, seconds; but time nonetheless. So for you brands out there, you have the time to respond to what this “writerly culture” is saying about you, and only a well-crafted message can get you a date with your target audience.

Aroldo Nery

Social Media Brand Director @ The Re Agency

Since we’re all about helping brands and companies connect with their consumers in new and innovative ways, we’ve created a visual guide of how social networks can help you do just that..

So for those of you who need to get up to speed and simply want to learn how social media builds links to consumers. This breakdown’s for you:

Enjoy!

The buzz is heard all around, top news channels are reporting it, hundreds of thousands of blogs are blogging about it, newspapers are writing feverishly about its effects, and seemingly every major international media source is throwing the phrase “social media” around. Everyone’s concerned and everyone’s engaging.

And now after 5 years of hearing about the benefits of engaging in social media we’re finally starting to see positive numbers indicating what we’ve all been waiting for, the solid proof that social media strategies can bring (more) financial success.

So, for the few skeptics that are left out there, a not so surprising report has just been released by a joint venture between Altimeter and Wetpaint. The report details the depth of engagement by top brands in social media and the ROI they’ve seen since integrating. Quoting the Altimeter Blog

“But even more interesting is that we also looked at the financial performance of the brands, grouping the companies with the greatest depth and breadth into a group called “Social Media Mavens”. These Mavens on average grew 18% in revenues over the last 12 months, compared to the least engaged companies who on average saw a decline of 6% in revenue during the same period. The same holds true for two other financial metrics, gross margin and net profit.”

And they took their research a step further observing in detail the “engagement best practices of four companies: Starbucks, Dell, SAP, and Toyota. Some of the key findings include:

• Emphasize quality, not just quantity. Engagement is more than just setting up a blog and letting viewers post comments; it’s more than just having a Facebook profile and having others write on your wall. It’s also about keeping your blog content fresh and replying to comments; it’s building your friends network and updating your profile status. Don’t just check the box; engage with your customer audience.
• To scale engagement, make social media part of everyone’s job.The best practice interviews have a common theme — social media is no longer the responsibility of a few people in the organization. Instead, it’s important for everyone across the organization to engage with customers in the channels that make sense — a few minutes each day spent by every employee adds up to a wealth of customer touch points.
• Doing it all may not be for you — but you must do something.The optimal social media marketing strategy will depend on a variety of factors, including your industry. If your most valuable customers do not depend on or trust social media as a communication medium, or if your organization is resistant to engagement in some channels, you will have to start smaller and slower. But start you must, or risk falling far behind other brands, not only in your industry, but across your customers’ general online experience.
• Find your sweet spot. Engagement can’t be skin-deep, nor is it a campaign that can be turned on and off. True engagement means full engagement in the channels where you choose to invest. Thus, choose carefully and advocate strongly to acquire the resources and support you will need to succeed. If you are resource-constrained, it is better to be consistent and participate in fewer channels than to spread yourself too thin.”

So there you have it, the first breaths of proven success from in-depth integration into social media, now I’m not the type to rejoice in others errors, but quite frankly…

We Told You So.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The Re Agency

Arising from smoke, ash, and fire, Daniel Tumiwa had to tell someone about what had just happened to him, terrified and confused, he did the first thing that came to his mind after witnessing several bombs go off in Indonesia yesterday.. he tweeted.

According to ABC News (Australia) TwitterTwitter was the first to report news of the deadly Jakarta bombings yesterday and altogether it doesn’t come as a surprise to many of that us that have seen current events issues published throughout the entire known web space, with Twitter being the culprit behind the viral spread. The Hudson River plane crash, the controversy behind the Iranian elections, and Michael Jackson’s death where some of the few outstanding occurrences Twitter has documented before anyone else. And this tragic event further reiterates the possibilities of the viral effect the Internet undoubtedly has..

According to ABC News the events occured as follows:

“He quickly followed up with more details.

“2 boms go off at marriot hotel ad ritz carlton jakarta.”

“2 boms go off inside Ritz Carlton and Marriott coffee shops! Not kidding. Am here.”

“Left location. Shocked. Lots of blood. Breakfast meetings at coffee shops while bombs went off.”

“Thanks for all the concern. Back home. Safe. Shocked. Blood…smoke…glass…everywhere…prayers to the victims….” ”

As tends to happen the news hopped around from Twitterer to Twitterer, every social network picked up on the news, until eventually it reached the actual press and the major publications began the in depth reports.

In another part of the story The Marriott Hotels Group is spreading their message of condolences and empathy for the victims and the loved ones of their victims through Twitter, and their blog.

Their use of online PR is notably one the best examples of corporate social media usage seen to date, their message is humane, and they’ve made it a priority to inform travelers of their efforts to enforce security. They covered their bases and have tried their best to come out of this event strong. I especially think that the kindness expressed through social media can be transcendent and particularly necessary and positive at this time. Even Bill marriot blogged about the event, and honestly to see a CEO write a public blog post about his feelings and concerns about any event, was pretty much unheard of in the PR world, until today, today now, today social media existed.

Our deepest condolences to those who suffered in any way, shape, or form in this event. May you somehow find peace at this time.

Sheila

Social Media Specialist @ The Re Agency

The social network is a delicate place.

A place where humanity displays all those relevant traits we studied in psychology and sociology. For better or for worse.

A place riddled with landmines, where one must know where it’s safe to tread, and where it’s not. Every company takes a different approach to integrating themselves into the “social craze”, some succeed and some fail.

Essentially, social media is us.

Some marketing departments are simply unprepared, and don’t expect such brash truth and anger from the consumers they only knew as graphs and statistics for so many years. It can be quite a shock when that 25% of seemingly harmless unsatisfied customers is calling you any number of obscenities and holding you personally responsible for every bad customer service experience they’ve ever had.

Of course they may be right, the service the company is providing may be shoddy, they may be price gouged, they may be taken advantage of by “The ManShe’s the Man reviews” and feel powerless to do anything about it. So they’re entitled to take their concerns to the streets and riot.

When dealing with a riot, its important to remember to always keep calm, and find a way to soothe the situation. Do not fuel the fire by defending your actions and refusing to see your flaws, rather help put it out, by listening, remaining flexible and offering constructive solutions.

Either that, or watch everything burn.

Case in point, I’ve been following AT&T’s Facebook for a few days now and I’ve watched as their attempts at putting out fires only seems to start more trouble. The recent iPhone 3GS issue has begun a series of uncontrollable events that have led to FacebookFacebook upheaval. AT&T has done some things right and they’ve done somethings wrong. I think there are simple rules to adhere to when you’re making the move into social media, especially if you’re a large corporation experiencing some.. technical difficulties.

First of all, it’s to remember that social network users do not want to speak to a corporation, rather they’re seeking out new media channels to do the opposite. To relate to a real person, representing their beloved, or not so beloved brand.  The whole point of social networking is too humanize companies so that they can emanate the traits of a brand that can be loved and befriended. AT&T commits the mistake of overwhelming their Facebookers with company policy, corporate rhetoric, and PDF documentation that really doesn’t say anything but “Here’s our corporate explanation, see, it’s a fact, this is what it is.”

Although these efforts work well when covering yourself legally, it doesn’t leave followers satisfied, rather it makes them feel like they’re being talked at and not talked to. It’s the equivalent of having your mother say “no, you can’t do that” and when asked “why not?” she simply says “because, I said so.” This behavior does not produce a positive reaction but rather stirs more fury into those people who are already at their wits end. A better approach is to accept that social media is about change and true interaction. Waving documents and saying “that’s the way it is, look, you see!?”, sending an automated message, and giving some ”please visit one of stores” jargon are not effective social media strategies. Offering real solutions and genuinely showing concern will shift the conversation in your favor. Provide responses to issues that require your attention, these issues if ignored can grow to very large proportions and can instigate even stronger reactions that will be uncontrollable if avoided. By dealing with problems head on and admitting fault you’re putting your best face forward, which is a very positive strategy in social media.

Another faux pas corporations seem to be making, is missing strong structured communication with their employees regarding social media initiatives. As happened with AT&T, where an employee posed as a customer standing up for the company, which of course he was outed by a saavy Facebook follower on the page, this no doubt caused a major backlash and huge embaressment for the company on their own facebook site. Now, since social media is a relatively new form of marketing but has become necessary a addition to any successful marketing and adveritsing campiagn, it’s understandable that holes might exist in certain cases. Learning from these cases provides us with more of  the knowledge needed to eventually create flawless campaigns. So making sure that your employees know not to fake being regular customers when they have an 8 year record with the company, is great example of something that is MEMO worthy. Bearing in mind that it’s perfectly acceptable to have them state opinions, as long as they clear the fact that they are speaking as employees. “Transperancy is best” as stated by AT&T, who dealt with this issue really well and accepted fault in another post from the same person who caught the employee.

It’s simple, don’t involve yourself in social media if you’re not prepared for negativity and have a solid plan of action to redirect the conversation. Social media users are intelligent individuals who’s fellowship you can benefit from, their feedback is genuine well though-out (most times) and can provide your company with a starting point for policy revision and change. Offering real solutions may not be a an easy approach, but it’s an intelligent one that followers will appreaciate. If your consumers reach out to you in large quantities about displeasure, change your options around, or I can assure you that they will.

And you’ll probably be on the negative end of that change.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The RE Agency

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* Please note that all names and images have been erased for the purpose of protecting Facebook users privacy. All media is accesible at http://www.facebook.com/ATT.