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The Spiderweb of Social Media

I love Facebook and Twitter as much as the next person, but it’s the buzzwords around these types of sites that we can do without.  25 social media buzzwords that make you feel cool if you say them.


You’ve probably seen tweets testifying to the “money-making” or “brand-building” power of social media marketing. As sites like Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook grow in popularity, it seems like the term “social media” is tossed around a lot as an instant solution to any internet problem. What does it really mean?


Social media is just a buzzword until you come up with a plan. Using a word is easy - coming up with an intergrated digital media and marketing plan past “register for this site” is not. 


Social Media is to online marketing what “Strong Leadership Skills” is to the resume. Neither really describes the value, and both deserve a series of follow up questions to get a real answer.
This isn’t to say that you should avoid using the term social media. On the contrary, you should feel free to use it as much as necessary to explain a plan.


The term only becomes a problem when used as an abstract answer to a concrete problem.
Let’s see an example of this. Suppose a client says they need to find a new way to survey customers.
How could you respond?
The Vague Answer: We’ll use social media. :)
The Concrete Answer: We can set up a polling contest across Facebook and Twitter. Fans and followers can respond to the survey. Once a week three people will be randomly selected and given the featured prize.


Even though the concrete solution isn’t the most innovative, you hopefully get the point. Instead of offering a psuedo-answer by way of buzzword, a tangible example is given. Notice how the term “social media” doesn’t even need to appear.


 What does good social media look like? Coke recently launched the Expedition 206 campaign. The expedition is a year-long promotion based around the world travels of three “Happiness Ambassadors”. Along the way, the ambassadors actively update Twitter, upload videos, and engage with the community following them.
This is innovative. The campaign takes everything social media has to offer, combines in one place, and does so with a purpose. Even though Coke might not get direct income out of it, (don't even get me started on the need for more direct ROI measurement) the promotion and hype around running such a cutting edge campaign is sure to build brand value. Is this the type of campaign that was pitched with buzzwords? Probably not.


"Hype is not a sustainable relationship."  -
(I'll start making that bumper sticker now for your Nissan LEAF)  In the long run, especially as people get more aware of these services, the term "social media"will become as useless as “using the internet”.
People will know it’s not that simple, and demand something real.


It’s better to lead the charge of tangibility now than wait until the first real “What do you mean by that?” client question that leaves you stumped for an answer.


Links:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi5hArhaWUY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mFPhRVLZPI


http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/lifestyle/25-social-media-buzzwordsexplained-part-i-of-ii/
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/seven_social_media_consultants.php



Multi-Generation Workplace 

      For this assignment I had the privilege of interviewing our two Gen-Y summer interns - Kacie, 22 and Melanie, 21 over lunch at our workplace cafe'.  Kacie, was born in 1989 and Melanie in 1990.  Both are attending college and are studying health sciences at north Texas colleges. 
Myself - I'm a Gen-X’er; born in 1967.  In 1989-1990 when our two Gen-Y interns were born, I had just finished a three-year Army commitment in an airborne unit, and was starting college "late"  at 23 years of age.  Needless to say, I was expecting some differences in our work outlook, motivations and life experiences due to our generation gap.
     Asked to prioritize which electronic and social media platforms our gen-Y'ers used most, their responses were identical: #1 was Facebook, # 2 email, # 3 school Blackboard activities for assignments.  My top three were slightly different: work email, Facebook, then banking and purchases. Each of our 20-something interns remembered always having a computer at home growing up, and that they were each accustomed to using the computer as learning and gaming resource even before entering grade school.
For me - to even type a paper for school in 1990, I had to access the school's computer lab, or borrow a friend’s typewriter; PCs had become a common tool for word processing in the office - but public internet had not yet arrived on the scene.  MySpace, the social media predecessor to Facebook, was readily used by both our Gen-Y'ers by the time they reached age 11! (2001). they have been part of an online community of friends for half their lives- and are very comfortable in this environment.
When we next discussed texting as a form of communication, both were adept at texting under their school desks- without even looking at the keyboard! - a GenX version of "home row" speed typing!
     Social media means different things to different generations in different ways.  Take my Early Boomer parents for example.  Both were born in 1944 - Very different opinions and usage patterns. Mom loves Facebook - checks it daily to keep up with family and friends.  (Our teenage family members taught her how to get started)   To Dad - different story -trust issues.  Signing up and registering for a social media platform, (or anything online for that matter), means opening yourself up to a barrage of marketing emails and calls. He's right - nothing is "free" anymore.  Our two interns however; have the answer to this . It seems, as part of their Gen-Y DNA, they have evolved; and each was born with an additional online appendage called a "junk email account" or fake account to use when navigating this new electronic environment.  Doing  business online with a 22 year old consumer called RubbaDucky@gmail is very common these days.  Note to self: evolve or die by asphyxiation from incoming marketing. 
     What is similar and agreed on by me and the Gen-Ys in my workplace is that social media is efficient, effective, and here to stay.  The challenge will be - to gain the trust of the online consumer - respecting their privacy, while at the same time delivering relevant opt-in messaging to them as to not break that trust.
I suspect that marketers out there will agree that data mining from a list of "rubber duckys" stems from a basic consumer trust issue that needs to be addressed.
    In summary, a specific social media platform may die or evolve through natural market selection (see MySpace), but it stands clear that people gathering and communicating across electronic media is a powerful and unifying thing.


Online-Offline Media Integration # 3   

Specific goals of groups.

The Charleston Parks Conservancy is a non-profit group of staff and community volunteers striving to preserve, sustain, and beautify their parks and greenspaces.   


Random Buzzers  is a Random House Publishing site for young readers and writers to gather and share their favorite books, chat with authors, win prizes, and share reviews.


Communication Overtones is a site for communication insiders to analyze, evaluate and share social media campain efforts and ROI for specific initiatives.  Profiled here was the San Antonio Sea World Journey to Atlantis rollercoster opening.  In the case study, The Sea World strategy was to treat coaster bloggers as a VIP audience and to create content to suit their needs.

How are they successful?

The Charleston Parks Conservancy
They garden, rennovate their spaces, and hold parties and fundraisers!  Have built an active community of advocates and volunteers called "Park Angerls" and even started sharing photos of their pets!


Random Buzzers 
This site really engages and builds community by encouraging their audience to participate in some way on the site including rating and reviewing books, sharing stories, writing poems, sharing photos, videos participating in polls and quizzes.

Communication Overtones
Awarenes and relationships were built with the coaster community that assisted in driving visitation to the park.  They created videos and a photo portfolio documenting the new rollercoster construction - pictures and videos help to tell the story.

Improve?

The Charleston Parks Conservancy
More engagement through invites and incentive to contribute to their community online.  Nobody is commenting on the blogs. Needs video content to help tell the story.

Random Buzzers  Appears to be more girls contributing out there.  Adjust content and appeal to draw more male audience. 

Communication Overtones  Nope - these guys are engaging, multi-platformed both internal/external, and they MEASURE their outcomes.

SM Platforms?

The Charleston Parks Conservancy - just blogging. pretty tame site - I suspect matches the audience

Random Buzzers - Facebook, Twitter


Communication Overtones
Media deployed through YouTube, Flickr and Veoh; and they could be easily repurposed by bloggers and viewed by others. Content also used on the SeaWorld multimedia site with social media networks. 


Effective?

 The Charleston Parks Conservancy - Zzzzzz.... they are napping in between bouts of gardening......

Random Buzzers - Waaay effective! these contributers are rabid raucous teenage girls! : )  I just wanna scream with excitement - can't wait for the next book from my favorite author (that I am stalking online!)


Communication Overtones  ROI was measured per impression for the social media campaign vs traditional media and found to be  $0.22 versus $1.00 for television. They also determined that the the online group represented more than $2.6 million in revenue.

A survey was conducted over two weekends by an outside marketing firmThe findings in the report were compared to 66 past “new attraction” surveys conducted for BEC between 1995 and 2005.
The other sources of awareness looked at were television commercials, word of mouth, park brochure or map, saw while in the park, TV or print news story, radio commercial, newspaper ad, passmember communication, Pepsi can promotion, and billboards.
By far, Internet outstripped all the others, except television commercials, which came in just under the figure for Internet, which was just under 40 percent of all visitors. - 'nuff said - we measure what we do here!

Specific elements in these campaigns that can be translated into other SM efforts?


Every element can be translated into EVERYTHING - this is SM here! - sky is the limit - just don't send the exact same content out on each platform.