Many of our clients have expressed an interest in learning more about social media. So we’ve compiled a recommended reading list.
· Books – ranked by number of Amazon reviews
o The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly – David Meerman Scott (178 reviews)
o Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, Revised Edition by Andy Sernovitz, Guy Kawasaki, and Seth Godin (132 Reviews)
o Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies – Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff (94 reviews)
o Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time – Joel Comm (91 reviews
o Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust – Chris Brogan and Julien Smith (42 reviews)
o Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone – Mitch Joel (27 reviews)
o Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business! – Paul Gillen (23 reviews)
o Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms The Way We Live and Do Business – Erik Qualman (23 reviews)
o Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World – Kelly Mooney and Nita Rollins (18 reviews)
o Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR – Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge (15 reviews)
Blogs, etc.
o Brian Solis – briansolis.com, twitter.com/briansolis
Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley. Solis blogs at PR2.0, bub.blicio.us, and regularly contributes marketing & tech insight to industry publications.
o Chris Brogan – chrisbrogan.com, twitter.com/chrisbrogan
Chris Brogan is President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency, and co-author of “Trust Agents.” He works with large and mid-sized companies to improve online business communications like marketing and PR through the use of social software, community platforms, and other emerging web and mobile technologies.
o Charlene Li – twitter.com/charleneli, altimetergroup.com/blog
Charlene Li is the Founder of Altimeter Group and co-author of the business bestseller, “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies,” published by Harvard Business Press in May 2008.
o Joseph Jaffe – jaffejuice.com/jaffejuicetv/, www.crayonville.com/
One of the most sought-after consultants, speakers and thought leaders on new marketing, Joseph Jaffe is President and Chief Interruptor of crayon, a conversational marketing company, specializing in community, dialogue and partnership.
o Guy Kawasaki – blog.guykawasaki.com, twitter.com/guykawasaki
He was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing the Macintosh in 1984. He is currently a Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, and has been involved in the rumor reporting site, Truemors, and an RSS aggregator, Alltop. He is also a well-known blogger.
o Groundswell – blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/
Presents ongoing insights from Josh Bernoff and other analysts involved with the ongoing Forrester’s Social Technographics® study.
o Jeremiah Owyang – web-strategist.com/blog/, twitter.com/jowyang
Jeremiah Owyang is a Partner focused on customer strategy at Altimeter Group and author of the popular blog “Web Strategy,” which focuses on how corporations connect with their customers using web technologies.
o MediaPost Social Media Insider http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Archives.showArchive&art_type=66
Social media news from the media, marketing and advertising professional’s leading resource for complete news coverage, engaging events, a focused social network, and comprehensive industry jobs, directories and research.
o SmartBrief on Social Media – smartbrief.com/socialmedia/
SmartBrief on Social Media delivers the best news and insights on the business of social media. The editors become your personal research assistants, handpicking and distilling the most useful information about new and established social networks, user-generated content, blogging, wikis, media sharing, and more.
o Advertising Age DigitalNEXT – adage.com/digitalnext/
The Ad Age DigitalNext blog is a collection of news and opinions on the emerging media and technology space and its opportunities and impact on marketers. The group’s esteemed (and opinionated) contributors run agencies, startups, and creative departments and hail from all sorts of disciplines, including design and user interface, social networking and community, mobile, gaming and virtual worlds.
Articles, posts, whitepapers
o Top 10 Social Media Tools for Entrepreneurs – mashable.com/2009/10/26/social-media-entrepreneurs/
o Social Networking for Businesses & Associations by Cerado – www.cerado.com/…/Cerado-Haystack-Executive-Briefing-Social-Networking-for-Businesses-and-Associations.pdf
o Four Ways Social Networking Can Build Business – bnet.com/2403-13070_23-219914.html
o How to Get Started With LinkedIn – bnet.com/2403-13070_23-219860.html
o Metrics for Social Applications in a Downturn – courses.washington.edu/com529/page2/page7/files/page7_1.pdf
o 50 Ways to use Social Media, listed by Objective – web-strategist.com/blog/2008/07/15/50-ways-to-use-social-media-listed-by-objective/
o A Draft Social Media Metrics Model – webwalker.ca/2008/05/19/a-draft-social-media-metrics-model/
o Social Media Marketing Campaigns: How to Set Goals and Define Your Target Market – http://www.doshdosh.com/social-media-marketing-campaigns-setting-goals-defining-prospects/
o How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business – mashable.com/2009/10/27/social-media-roi/
o 19 sites that can make Twitter soar for you – networkedinc.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/19-sites-that-can-make-twitter-soar-for-you/
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Google Labs is working on more personalized search. It allows the user to more easily find relevant blogs, reviews and other public content from their on-line social circle.
When you sign in to Google and do a search, relevant web content written by people in your social circle will automatically show up at the bottom of your search results under a section called “Results from people in your social circle.” So you can see the opinions and ideas of people you know about what you’re searching for.
What is your social circle? It’s a combination of your Gmail chat buddies, your Gmail contacts friends, family and co-worker groups, and people you’re publicly connected to on other social sites (such as Twitter and FriendFeed). Check it out and let us know what you think. Learn more about social search.
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Search,
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Healthcare is just one of the segments where we have pretty amazing expertise. We’ve done work for Blue Cross, UM Health, IHA, The American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, various doctors’ groups, and more. So we’re truly gratified and pleased to have been named agency of record for HealthPlus of Michigan, one of the most respected health insurers in the country.
We’re excited about this opportunity, and happy to be partners with such a fine company.
And now - to work!
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agency of record,
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new business
On September 23rd, Google released Sidewiki – a plug-in available for the Google toolbar in Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 2 and higher. It creates a sidebar, contained within your browser window, next to the page content where any Google user can make comments about that page. Google describes Sidewiki as a tool to “contribute helpful information to any web page.”
The idea is to have one easy place to gather information, opinions and background for any site on the Internet, and deliver it to you while you are on that site, without ever having to leave to go to another forum or blog. Unfortunately for site owners and brand managers alike, there is no ability to control what is posted or where it will rank in order. Google has developed an algorithm to help determine which comments are more “relevant” and moves them to the top of the feed. How this is calculated we will probably never know.
Although this has failed in the past (see: Third Voice and Mosaic 1.2’s group annotation function), three things make this a more likely success:
1- The existing server capabilities are far superior than they were in the past.
2- This is a child of Google, so automatically it’s cool, and legitimate.
3 - It is very easy to share via existing social networks. When you expand the comment to read the entire post, the “Share” link at the bottom allows readers to share through Facebook, Twitter, Email or Link. You can also rate it “yes” or “no” if you found the information useful.
To post, you must have a Google account, which can be created for free with any name. A user has the option to comment on the page overall, or highlight text and comment specifically on that text. As you hover over their comment, the area that they are commenting specifically on will be highlighted in yellow on the page.
As a company owner or manager, monitoring these comments is important to creating a better customer experience. Unfortunately, if you take proactive steps and respond to the negative post, there is no way to link your answer directly with their complaint. It will display just like any other comments. In the case of spam or inappropriate content, there is a link to “Report Abuse” next to their comment.
You can block Sidewiki from your page, but this could easily create the impression that you don’t want other people to read what your customers have to say. Just like with independent blogs and forums, the information exists out there. What’s scarier to companies about this is that it’s shown in conjunction with your website. As Sidewiki is in its infancy, there is no reason to panic yet. Download the plug-in for your browser and watch if anyone posts. Better yet, post some positive comments or behind the scenes information yourself. Sidewiki has the potential to become a very powerful tool – so for now, monitor it and watch for it to take off.
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istock announced the other day that it would be selling logos. Forums are now overloaded with outraged designers shouting to boycott istock and crowdsourcing, not without good reason. As a graphic designer, I believe an offering like this diminishes the value that designers offer when creating identities.
In creating an identity, designers go through a 3-step process:
1. Research. It’s only through research and collaboration with a client that the designer begins to gain an understanding of a business and its goals. This is the most important stage of a logo design. Who do they want to be? How would they like to be perceived? How do they differ in the marketplace?
2. Design. The designer begins to assess what type solution is appropriate, explore relevant imagery, stylistic approach and color choices. All of these are calculated choices to express something about the company. They come together for the design phase.
3. Refine. Through client feedback, the logo may evolve through illustration, color exploration and font selection.
The istock offer eliminates the research and refine stage, and therefore, the unique personality of the company. Eliminating 2/3 of the work that goes into an identity explains the bargain price. istock is not the first to offer logos at basement prices and they won’t be the last. So go ahead… Upload your logos for “company x” and carve out their unique position in “marketplace y”.
We’ll be here working on step 1. See above.
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brand,
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personality
The brains behind the team that developed President Obama’s official iPhone application for his presidential campaign – Raven Zachary – is at the top of an industry that never existed up until two years ago. Zachary will travel to Ann Arbor in September, to inspire Michigan residents to reinvent and innovate. Ann Arbor Ad Club, in coordination with University of Michigan American Advertising Federation Student Chapter, is honored to introduce this luminary on Thursday, September 17 from 7-9 p.m., at the Michigan League. Active networking, refreshments and cash bar are available. Raven spoke at Advertising Age’s Creativity and Technology Conference in New York where tickets where $395/person. Entry into this event is free for members, $35 for the public, and $10 for students. Register at www.a2ac.org.
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It seems like every day something new and exciting is coming out. A lot of companies are are trying to always stay up with the new “it thing”. But jumping on the newest thing is sometimes not the best thing.
Before you decide to dive into a social media venture make sure it is the right thing for you and your business. Find out as much as you can about the medium or approach. Most importantly, find out if it’s the right thing for your customers.
For example, facebook tends to skew female, under 34, and slightly affluent. YouTube reaches more teenage guys than anyone else. Twitter tends toward the female, college grad types. And LinkedIn’s biggest users are middle-aged men with graduate degrees. There are many tools online to help you decide which new media are right to reach the people you want to reach – use them.
Once you’ve decided to use a new medium make sure you do it well. Participate and become an active member in the community and have a consistent presence. If you decide to join Twitter, tweet a couple times a day. If you create a blog, post something new at least once a week. In the end, how well you do on the web is up to you.
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No gimmicks, no pandering, no innuendo, no thinly veiled half-truths. Could this possibly be the marketing of the future? The answer is yes, and it should be.
Consumers are incredibly savvy about marketing techniques, and this world of one-to-one-to-millions has changed the dynamic of marketing in ways that a lot of companies still don’t understand. As one of our more insightful prospective clients said, “People don’t trust companies, but they still trust people.”
So, what’s a company to do? Let people do your talking. Give them truth, and let them run with it. Give them forums, and they’ll populate them. They’ll tweet, reply to tweets, answer emails, comment on comments. And you? You need to become responsible for your products, responsive to both good words and to bad and respectful of what people tell you.
If there was ever a time for transparency, it’s now. Because, after all, if you’re not open, people see right through you anyway.
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one-to-one,
social marketing,
transparency
Keeping family members in their homes as they age just makes sense to me. But as a working person, I need information, help and direction to make that happen. So I reach out for those things, through the internet, local resources and friends.
And here’s the catch: the plethora of providers do almost nothing to distinguish themselves. I was having a conversation with a friend about several home care providers I had researched, and their brand names were so similar I couldn’t keep them straight. Their visual images did little to help me out either, and the messaging was so “me, too” I had nothing to grab on to. I think they all use the the same royalty-free mom pictures in their marketing, and when they don’t, their imagery is so corny or of such low quality, I’d be afraid - or at least embarrassed - to leave a loved one there.
I wish all care providers would convey the client experience in a meaningful, engaging way. One that would truly set their service apart and imbed it in my memory. Is that really too much to ask?
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healthcare Tags:
care,
health,
healthcare,
home,
home health care,
in-home care,
mom,
senior,
senior care
As easy as riding a bike!
Welcome annarbor.com! As the media agent for the new local on-line news media, annarbor.com, re:group reached out to the local audience where they work and play. We wrapped buses, spread the news on the sidewalk with chalk messages, took over the local mall, hired a plane to fly a banner over the largest U.S. art fair and engaged pedestrians as our bike ads were cycled through Ann Arbor. For annarbor.com, we’re takin’ it to the streets!
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