There is no question-social media has changed the way that we interact with our fellow human beings.   The potential for communicating with others, and finding groups of people with similar interests, no matter how obscure, has increased exponentially.  It has also affected the way we write.  (To my great consternation, students of mine will occasionally submit a paper that includes “text message English.”  In such cases I am not LOL.) It has also altered the way that we identify ourselves by giving use the ability to create a fresh persona in the communities in which we interact, as well as a new name. For example, I get my wine buying advice from a guy that goes by @garyvee, and I just read a blog post on marketing psychology by @psychodude.   

While I am steadfast in my belief that social media, in all its forms, is just an addition to the myriad of ways that we interact and sell to each other, I also believe that its terms and traditions have imbued themselves into our culture.  To support this hypothesis, I’d like to introduce you all to Survival of the Hippest.  They make custom jewelry with your Twitter handle or hashtag on it. This is to make it easier for people to put a tweet with a face when meeting in the real, non-virtual world.   As co-founder Phoebe Jonas told me:

“Survival of The Hippest began when my co-founder, Ashley, realized that many of her 7000+ followers on Twitter knew her as @pluckypea, and not as her proper name. What better way to signal her virtual self in the real-world at Tweetups and conferences than a piece of Twittername Jewelry! (as the front-woman and mastermind behind the critically acclaimed rock band for kids, the Jimmies, Ashley is out and about a LOT!)  As a social-media enthusiast with a fine-jewelry background and a hankering to Twitter, I was the perfect partner for our venture. Survival of The Hippest launched in Sept '09 --we're the original Twitter Jewelry company--and we've been adorning hundreds of Twitterfriends ever since.”

I speak about the importance of creating content as well as community when planning a social media presence.  When real and virtual communities begin to blend and symbolism is brought into that mix I am confident that we can declare social media an enduring cultural phenomenon.

Oh, by the way, I am not getting compensated by Survival of the Hippest in any way.  I found them while searching for best practices in social media/ word-of-mouth to write about, and I think they are cool.

You’re invited to join the Marketing Public Relations community and read this blog on the MPR Facebook fan page.  See you there.
 
 
This blog post by Lee Odden in his “Online Marketing Blog” is a great introduction to some great social media analytics.  It is worth a little exploration.

Also, I have posted a video of Lee talking about the use of social media and search by journalists to the MPR Facebook fan page.  Check that out.

Thanks Sally Falkow for introducing me to Lee’s work.
 
 
If I had a nickel (ok, maybe a quarter) for every time someone said to me, “Yeah, Twitter is interesting, but I don’t see the marketing value in it,” I would be quite well off.  Well, here I have an outstanding example of a business using Twitter to its benefit-Kogi Korean Barbeque.

This is a mobile restaurant based in southern California that announces its location by tweeting.   Yes, they deliver a good product, but they add to the mix by making the meal an adventure, because you have to find them.  This creates a type of scarcity, which we know from Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: Science and Practice that can make a product seem even more valuable to us.  In addition, they have used this new marketing format to drum up lots of MPR.  They have been featured on the Food Network, you can be one of their 50,000 plus followers on Twitter, read over 1200 overwhelmingly positive reviews on Yelp, and even read more about their next venture in the Wall Street Journal.

This, my friends, is Twitter done right.

(Become a fan of the MPR Facebook page.)
 
 
This is normally the sort of thing that I’d just re-tweet, but I want to have a record of this so you know where to find the link when you need it.  Thanks to Mark Flavin for this post.

You're Invited.  Join the MPR group on Facebook.
 
Crush It! 10/17/2009
 
It was late last year when I first heard about Crush It! (Harper Studio, 2009) I was interviewing author, Gary Vaynerchuk for my book.  The Crush It! may not have had its title at that point but he spoke with passion and enthusiasm about the value of authenticity, hustle, and following your DNA.  He really believes that someone can follow their passion and live the life of their dreams.  I am happy to say that the sharp wit, business savvy, and zeal that I experienced in my conversations with Gary come across in Crush It!

The book is both a motivational speech and a how-to manual for budding Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, and really anyone who wants to take charge of their lives by doing what they love.  Despite being a brief 142 pages, he makes his point strongly without wasting a lot of ink.  He discusses indentifying a personal passion, and using social media to build a personal brand that will, through hustle and patience, reward the entrepreneur with happiness and cash. (He stresses the former as the primary goal.)  Clearly, anyone new to the world of social media will find this book informative, instructive, and easy to read.  Those with more experience in the world of Web 2.0 will also find Crush It! worth a look.  I suppose I am a great example of the latter, I live the subject and have written a book, keep a successful blog, teach it at the college level, regularly speak to business and professional groups, and use these techniques every day and I have a page of notes that I made while reading this book.

If I have any criticism it is that Gary does not give much time to using traditional media ( I am talking about PR stuff, not advertising) to create the personal brand that stems from the entrepreneur’s DNA.  He mentions it briefly in Chapter 11, “Start Monetizing,” but doesn’t give us the depth he could have.  He is a master of the traditional media too.  He has been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, on the Today Show, and on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, just to mention a few of his traditional media appearances.

So, whether you’re just getting started or have already made a mark for yourself I will say that you will find a pretty strong return on investment for the $19.99 you spend on Crush It!
 
Ping! 10/16/2009
 
Ok, I know I may be a little late to the party on this one, but I just started using Ping.  I am finding it to me a great way to broadcast a status update to all of my social media platforms.  Yes, I know, you can do a lot of the same with Twitter, but this just seems more user-friendly to me.  Plus it updates LinkedIn easily.
 
Find the killer 10/14/2009
 
 Dexter takes interactive viral video one step beyond the "Elf Yourself" model.  I found this when one of my students, Heather Waber, sent me a link.  Pay attention to the evidence bag at the end of the clip.
 
 
There are things I wish I had included in the text, but just didn’t have the room for them.  The MPR campaigns executed by Diageo in support of their Captain Morgan brand rum and themed around the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections are an example.   They incorporated social media by having www.captainmorganforpresident.com link to a Facebook fan page, and they used traditional media by distributing some great press releases, albeit tongue-in-cheek to the mainstream press.  In 2008 the release they spelled out the “Captain’s” platform and posted a YouTube video.  In the 2004 release they promoted an event during the Republican convention giving rides to the Hamptons to people who wanted to get away from Manhattan and the bustle of the convention.   Really a great concept with strong execution.

Reflections:

What makes a great press release?  What elements of greatness does the 2004 Diageo release show?

What are the common threads that tie traditional media, social media, and event PR together?
 
 
Thanks to the most creative Creative Director I know, Bill Childs (Morning Call/Tribune) for sharing this.
 
 
So, in this month’s edition of Forbes, there is an article entitled “Blogola” about Ted Murphy and his company, Izea Entertainment. The article describes how Izea compensates bloggers to write reviews of its clients’ products.  Clients include some heavy hitters like HP and Sears.  Since it seems that the payment is made for favorable reviews, the watchdogs are baringtheir teeth.  Companies, however, seem to still be on board to some degree.  Consumers are standing in the middle of all this.

This poses an interesting question for marketers: Is this ethical?  If you’re like me, your first reaction is “no way.”  It is my belief that bloggers and other social media connectors are like journalists and their opinions should be their own unsullied ones, not veiled advertisements.

OK, with that out of the way, we do need to realize that bloggers are not exactly like journalists, and the blogosphere and other social media are still in their wild, wild west phase.  That is, some people just do whatever they want, and truth be told, there aren’t strict ethical standards woven into the fabric of social media like there are with traditional journalism.  So, let’s put this argument aside.

Here’s the real rub.  Despite the church and state wall that is supposed to exist between the editorial and advertising functions of traditional media, do you suppose that some stories get picked up to support an advertiser, or that some get squashed to protect an advertiser?  I’m not saying this is the rule, but the exception rears its head more often than the average consumer would think.

So marketers, what to do about this?  This is likely the marketing ethical dilemma of this decade, if not the century.  Bloggers and companies that walk this line well and keep their audiences in mind will be the winners in the race for the hearts and minds of consumers.