Open The Dialogue

Washington Post Cracks Down on Dissident Journalists

Reports have come in that the authorities at Washington Post have launched a severe crackdown on journalists’ use of social media after news broke that one of its editors, Raju Narisetti, used the popular microblogging website, Twitter, to send personal opinionated comments to the public.  The crackdown includes never before seen levels of censorship by shutting down Narisetti’s independent Twitter profile and new edicts outlawing similar uses by all WaPo writers.  These actions have been severely criticized by other member websites such as TechCrunch with limited discussion on the subject coming from within.  Narisetti’s conditions and whereabouts within the WaPo HQ are as yet unknown.

Brand Websites Under Attack by Google Sidewiki

Correspondent Steve Woodruff reports that brand websites are facing a critical threat to its image by the emergence of Google’s new tool called Sidewiki.  The wiki allows rogue agents to leave unflattering comments in direct contradiction to the careful messaging on the branded websites for all others to see.  Woodruff highlights the effects it is having on pharmaceutical blogs and websites.

Google Wave or a Google Tsunami?

Reports indicate that there are high levels of chatter surrounding Google Wave to be unleashed today.  Some are predicting it to be a Google Tsunami in its “potential to redefine the web and how we interact digitally.” Experts are still waiting to see what effect it will have for brands and social media strategy.

It’s not new for companies to ask for their customers’ feedback. Surveys, focus groups, online polls and questionnaires have been providing companies and markers valuable information for years. In recent years though, that practice has:

1. Become faster and easier – through social media monitoring platforms, companies can get this same data faster, cheaper and in real-time
2. Spread beyond this reactive product feedback (what do you think of our product?) to become something much more powerful (what do you think our product should be?).

We’ve seen the buzz generated from crowdsourced advertisements and the power of crowdsourced product feedback (Dell IdeastormIdeastorm, My Starbucks Idea). And recently, we’ve seen this take on another, potentially more valuable level – as companies tap into their customers and crowds to actually create new products and services.

Three examples below:

Netflix announced on Monday that a seven-man team was the winner of its three-year contest to improve its Web site’s movie recommendation system. Netflix gets a smarter, more accurate algorithm, the winner gets $1 million dollars, and according to the NY Times, even the losing teams are happy. This system is one to watch, as companies like Innocentive allow corporations to post prize-incentives for new innovation, replicating this approach on a much smaller scale.

VitaminWater has been getting buzz over the past few weeks for using it’s more than 925,000 Facebook fans to help decide the next flavor – pushing this idea beyond the Mountain Dew model (which is also back for another year), to include decisions about nutritional benefits, name, design and copy.

Food 52 is a new project from a tag team of food enthusiasts and professionals (@merrillstubbs and @amandahesser on Twitter), who have set out to create a completely crowdsourced cookbook. Each week they host a new recipe contest, in which community members submit recipes and vote on which one will make it into the book. At the end of the year, the book will be published by Harper Studio. Straight-forward idea, but smart community building, and a new, innovative approach from an industry that has been struggling recently.

Three smart approaches to involving communities in product and service development. What are some others?

Seth Godin is on the tip of everyone’s tongue’s today (as he probably planned to be).  Not only did he launch the Brands in Public project yesterday evening but I was able to be in attendance (thanks HarperStudio!) today while he gave a talk to the Digital Publishing Group addressing critical issues in today’s publishing landscape.  Before getting into the re-cap about the event, a bit more about Brands in Public:

Squidoo has built several hundred pages, each one about a major brand. (Here are some examples). More are on the way. We’ll keep going until we have thousands of important brands, each on its own page (and we’ll happily add one for you if you like). Each page collects tweets, blog posts, news stories, images, videos and comments about a brand. All of these feeds are algorithmic… the good and the bad show up, all collated and easy to find.

Of course, these comments and conversations are already going on, all over the web. What we’ve done is bring them together in one place. And then we’ve made it easy for the brand to chime in.

That last sentence is probably most important.  For this ease-of-use, Seth wants $400/month for a brand to use this page as a portal to interact with consumers on the web.  Is this the right thing to do?  Is it worth it?  Where is the value for consumers and the brand?  There has been significant debate surrounding this move and even Seth himself says “BIP” probably shouldn’t be the 1st option:

If you have the tools and wherewithal to build a page like this on your own site, you should consider that. The challenge is getting it done, regardless of where the page lives.

A big post from Jason Falls today debates this even further.  He wonders if BIPs are holding brands hostage:

At first glance, you just think, “So what? The brands can just participate in the conversations on the various social networks and they Brands in Public spider will pick up those conversations as well. Hopefully, Brands in Public isn’t doing anything shady by parsing out the brand participation and that theory will hold true. However, think for a moment of the power, reach and influence Godin has. If his idea takes hold (it probably will because on the surface it’s a good one) and he markets it the way he’s capable of, Brands in Public could be come THE place to go see the “unfiltered” conversation about brands everywhere.

If that scenario plays out, then the $400 or more fee Godin’s company plans to charge is, in a way, blackmail.

It’ll be important to watch how this develops over the coming weeks and months.  There is no denying that time time is now to engage with consumers, directly, online but is this the best way to do it?  How many “walls” should be between you and your audience?  Seth talked a lot about platforms and tribes in today’s #digpub event and a lot of what one sees in this BIP execution also was discussed today in regards to the publishing industry.

During today’s talk, Seth made strong analogies between the necessary innovation that must and is happening in the music industry to what has to happen in the publishing industry in 2009 (arguably, it should’ve started 10 years ago).

• Thinking less about the physical product.  Actual books as “dead trees” shouldn’t be the focus but more books should be the vehicle of great ideas which people will forever be attracted to.
• Applicable to marketing in all industries, he then ran though some solid strategy points -
  • Permission marketing – it’s about developing relationships, creating value and making marking (with permission) a two-way street
  • Scarcity – simply, if you have something of overwhelming value and cap access – it usually becomes more sought after
  • Selection related to risk – as a publisher, you want to be in a position to be finding writers for your readers instead of the other way around
  • Finally, it’s all about attention – if the tools and content you’re producing are creating overwhelming value for your audience, you’ll often hold their attention and, subsequently, their permission

Update:  Seth posted a change in direction for the Brands in Public project today.  In what I think is a smart move, if a brand wants to participate, it becomes opt-in and they must contact Squidoo directly.  All the pilot pages set-up for brands to adopt are now inactive.

Interview of How General Motor Handles Social Media

David Meerman Scott interviews Christopher Barger on how GM uses social media.  Barger discusses what tools they use, how they monitor and what their MO is on engaging in social media.  The video is definitely worth watching.

Why Companies are Still Scared of Social Media

BL Ochman discusses the six reasons why companies are still scared of social media.  Among them are: loss of control and employee productivity issues.  BL provides some very good reasons for each.

Alternative Ways of Encouraging PR Embargos

In light of TechCrunch’s refusal to accept embargoed releases, Robert Scoble provides some tips on how to get your message out at the proper time.  Release news at a press conference, on the company blog or even use donation to a charity as leverage in keeping the silence.

Microsoft to Launch Monitoring Service

Microsoft has announced a new platform dedicated to marrying social media monitoring to customer databases, work orders, customer-service centers and sales data. The Looking Glass will be able to send emails when Twitter or blog posts around your brand rapidly increase, allowing you to react accordingly.

Starbucks Launches New Mobile App

CNet’s Caroline McCarthy is wondering if Starbuck’s new app, Starbucks Card Mobile, could be a major step forward in mobile commerce.  The application is specifically designed to replace the Starbucks Gift Card and can only be used by a handful of stores right now but that number is sure to grow in the future.

84% of Social Media Programs Don’t Measure ROI

According to a recent survey by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education over 84% of respondents don’t measure their ROI of their social media investments. Considering 86% said they have adopted some form of social media, this number is staggering.

Did you watch the 61st Annual Emmy Awards on Sunday night? Or were you one of the 24.8 million people who turned on Week 2 on Sunday Night Football? I tuned into the game (I live with a Giants fan) but thanks to the power of social media I was easily able to follow along. But how effective was the social media integration for this year’s Emmys?

Pros:

• On the front page of Emmys.com was a live-updating widget that allowed me to read both tweets and Emmy related status updates. But the best part was easily the Celebrity twitter tab that allowed me to check out only tweets from different celebs around the room.
• Over on Facebook a lively amount of conversation was happening on the Emmy’s Fan Page. At the same time one person was live-tweeting results and performances on the Emmy Twitter feed.
• While there was no live video, it was nice to see Dr. Horrible’s “web video” interception.  It was a good laugh but watch it for yourself (below). Some of those jokes might become true…

Cons:

• No live video. Unlike the President’s Inauguration, this was meant to be a complement to the broadcast not a replacement.
• While I enjoyed the live action widget, I wish it lived on a separate page.  With the amount of things it was pulling in, it was a little hard to follow. Plus when I went to see it again, it was gone!  The Emmy’s threw away a wealth of reaction.
• The YouTube channel that Emmys.com links to didn’t have a whole lot to do with the broadcast.  Considering how much work goes into these productions, couldn’t some exclusive video be shared,

Judgement:

• The social media integration for this year’s Emmy’s may have won a supporting actor award but certainly not a lead.  While the ideas were in the right place, the extra effort didn’t seem to be there on any of their social media properties.  Still it was great to see events like this embrace social media and I hope they do even more with it next year.

What was your favorite part of the Emmy’s?  Did you participate online at all?

FCC To Unclog the Internet: Social Media to Act as Plunger

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski launched the website OpenInternet.gov to build support for legislation that maintains equal access to content over the net.  The use of social media channels on this site is impressive with the integration of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other platforms.  The goals are widely supported in the social media community with Mashable outlining why they support this measure.  Video of address is below:

MySpace and Twitter in Complete Harmony on Status Updates

According to RWW, MySpace announced that it will offer greater sync capability with Twitter.  It will keep MySpace more relevant in light of Facebook’s popularity. In addition, it will facilitate building branded assets on MySpace by allowing Twitter to send out messages across all platforms.

GEICO Hosts Fastest Growing Online Biker Community

By way of The Blog Council, GEICO’s MyGreatRides.com is a great example of creating an online community for your target publics.

Social Media Policy 101

Still trying to formulate your company’s social media policy? This list of over 80 policies from About.com to Yahoo gives a wide selection of possible guidelines. Of course, Serena Ehrlich shows how some guidelines (like ESPN’s) can be both good and bad.

Facebook Privacy Concerns Continue

Facebook Beacon has been shut down after two years of lawsuit problems and anti-privacy allegations. Of course, this announcement may be lost in the most recent instance of Facebook data mining, an experiment by MIT.

Can Ad Agency + Social Media= Success?

Can social media marketing and advertising co-exist in your marketing department? Here’s a look at a few problems that ad agencies need to overcome in order to make social media marketing work.

When I do research on a company’s social media presence, I keep coming across a common recurring problem: It is almost darned impossible to find out what some companies are doing in social media from their corporate websites.  This is especially true for websites of major multinationals and comes across as if they don’t want the consumer to find them in the medium.  Too often, social media activity is hidden away on a distant website or with a forgettable name resulting in loose links to the brand.

While it may help us PR folks in researching what a company is currently doing in social media, more importantly, it will help potential consumers connect with your brand on a daily basis by making it easier for them to find your social media assets quickly and easily. As such, these are my top three recommendations in making it so:

1. Have a clear section on your website that lists and links to your social media assets.

This is now about as important as the About, Contact or Products sections on the corporate website.  It simply befuddles me to know that a company is active in social media, but there is virtually no way of finding out what they are from their corporate website.  If the company is a multinational then they can be forgiven for not having this on their global website, but this is absolutely a necessity for their regional or national website for each country.

2. Keep your social media assets as closely branded as possible.

Facebook has a process of reclaiming branded pages if they are currently taken by someone.  Your corporate url and your Facebook page name should be as close to each other as possible.  Meaning, if your corporate URL is: www.yourcompany.com then your Facebook URL address should be http://www.facebook.com/yourcompany.  This goes for all the other platforms as well, so people can easily guess what your page may be if they want to connect to it directly.  Twitter profiles can be changed a little due to space constraints but it should still be as close to the original as possible.  If the consumer is not able to find your social media profiles directly, they should always have the option of going back to your website to look it up, as mention in number 1.  Too often, I have found myself typing in the most logical URL on Facebook for a company, only to be disappointed for not being clever enough to guess the page for their super awesome campaign that is temporarily going on at the moment.

3. Make your content shareable.

This all about doing what social media is all about.  Just today, I came across some great  photography tips by a professional on the website of a major camera company.  I really wanted to share the video but there was no way for me to do it.  The content was locked and the only way others could see it too was only if they were compelled to come to the website.  This was a missed opportunity for the company in turning a single consumer into their evangelist who could have reached tens if not thousands of others in his or her network.  Now repeat this for every other consumer who may have wanted to do the same and you can easily see the loss for having locked content.  So, make your content shareable and at the very least it will get you more exposure.

I am certain others have said this before but it bears repeating in the hopes that this becomes the M.O. for all companies using social media.

(Photo by Andy and Becky on flickr.)

For those of you that didn’t have time to watch the full video from OTD’s previous post this week, I wanted to highlight some of these amazing stats brought to you by Socialnomics:

• 96% of Gen Y has joined a social network
• Social media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web.
• 1 out of 8 couples married in the US last year met via social media.
• If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4^th largest after China, India and then the United States
• Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire population of Ireland, Norway and Panama.
• YouTube is the 2^nd largest search engine in the world.
• 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.
• If you were paid $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia, you were earn $156.23 per hour.
• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, only 14% trust advertisements.
• Hulu has grown from 63 million total streams in April 2008 to 373 million in April 2009.
• 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video on their phone and 35% of book sales on Amazon are for the Kindle.
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook, DAILY.

Clearly, social media is not the fad or the fun past-time that many thought it was at one point.  It has become a deeply embedded part of our lives, more than many of us might even realize, but the numbers don’t lie.